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I’ve officially had it with the Jack Hughes experiment. I could completely understand trying him out on wing for a couple games to provide a) better linemates and/or; b) more minutes. Those are generally helpful things used to jump start a player in a rut.
That said, it hasn’t worked – at all! – and yet here we are ~a month later with Hughes still playing wing. It’s borderline indefensible at this point.
Hughes has looked like a fish out of water on the left side. He’s not remotely comfortable there and the cut in responsibility (and touches) is not helping him one bit.
He doesn’t have much torque in his shot to accept a pass down the wing and score from a distance. He also doesn’t have the power to bull-rush to the net. And he doesn't have the knowledge, and familiarity, from regularly playing the position to compensate for that (like Jesper Bratt, for example).
What Hughes does have is the speed and agility to effortlessly carry the puck through the neutral zone, then make a cut to create space for himself. He can also change angles and use access that comes with playing in the middle to find an open teammate on the flanks. He can’t really do that right now, essentially neutering his ability to contribute *anything* offensively.
That’s why it isn’t even surprising to see Hughes has not recorded a single 5v5 point in 12 games since being placed out of position. Mirco Mueller is the only regular who can say the same.
Forget about points. Hughes isn’t generating shots, either. Travis Zajac and John Hayden are the only forwards in the lineup on a nightly basis with fewer attempts over the last 12.
It’s not just the individual numbers that look bleak. Hughes’ on-ice results have been horrifyingly poor.
The Devils have controlled only 39.71% of the shot attempts and 41.09% of the expected goals with Hughes out there. That’s converted into a minus-6 goal differential (one for, seven against).
Regardless of which metric(s) you look at, Hughes has fared significantly worse on the wing than he did playing center. Some of the differentials are eye-popping.
As much as we want to pretend the Devils have even a remote chance of making the playoffs, reality is they have no shot. None. It’s not happening.
These games should be about developing kids and finding recipes for success that can be used moving forward. Playing Jack Hughes at wing clearly isn’t one of them.
In terms of the big picture, Hughes is one of the two or three most important pieces in the organization. Putting him in a spot where he’s constantly failing and letting his confidence rot hardly seems like the right thing to do.
Pavel Zacha has played well at times between Jesper Bratt and Nikita Gusev. He’s not a top-6 forward, though, and he probably never will be. If you have to break that line up to find Hughes a good spot, so be it.
If Travis Zajac has to drop down the lineup in order to stay at center, so be it. Hughes is the important piece here. You put him in a position to succeed and move guys up and down around him. You don’t give Zacha and Zajac the cushy situations and make Hughes adjust.
Hughes at wing is clearly not working, and it’s about time the Devils stop using him there.
numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com
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