Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes has seemingly accomplished an incredibly difficult task throughout the early part of this season.
The 25-year-old has taken another jump and improved on an incredible 2023-24 season, where he was named the NHL’s best defenceman. It’s nearly impossible to take a significant step forward on a season like the one Hughes had last year, but the early numbers don’t lie.
While his counting stats are strong, he has 14 points in 12 games as a blueliner, the analytics are where Hughes shines. The captain is breaking the charts with his performance thus far.
There are 133 NHL skaters with at least 200 five-on-five minutes so far this season. Hughes ranks first among them in expected goals share (68.8%), second in goals share behind partner Filip Hronek (78.95%), and first in Corsi (64.71%).
The Canucks are outscoring opponents 15-4 with Hughes on the ice at five-on-five. They’re being outscored 19-14 when he’s not on the ice.
Popular hockey analytics X account @JFreshHockey shared a post comparing Hughes’ performance last year to a larger sample that includes the start of this season. While the blueliner already ranked above the 90th percentile in most categories, he has now jumped above the 95th percentile for most.
Coming soon… pic.twitter.com/a35ELCU04C
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) November 8, 2024
Analytics website HockeyStatCards publishes an all-in-one metric called game score for every skater after each game. It takes into account stats like goals and assists, as well as on-ice metrics like penalty differential and Corsi differential, to come up with one final number.
Hughes is leading the entire league in average game score at 2.87. That’s far ahead of the second-place Aleksander Barkov at 2.54.
HockeyStatCards.com
When the numbers are published postgame, it’s not uncommon to see the graph stretched way to the right to fit Hughes’ massive score. Some of them, like the one below from an early season 6-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, look almost comical, with the captain doubling almost all his teammates.
#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Vancouver Canucks on 2024-10-22:#Canucks pic.twitter.com/BMqkspzZty
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) October 23, 2024
If Hughes keeps up this level of play, he will not only have a second Norris Trophy in his sights but also be a leading candidate for the Hart Trophy. He’s playing at an incredibly high level that has rarely been reached across Canucks franchise history and establishing himself as one of the best players to ever wear the sweater.