No, the New Jersey Devils didn’t land the wrong Hughes brother

It’s either sophomore slump or comeback of the year for New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hughes in 2020-21.

In 2019-20, New Jersey Devils center Jack Hughes recorded maybe the worst rookie season of any ex-first round pick in NHL history.

His production – seven goals and 14 assists in 61 games – was bad, and his +/- (-26 ) was worse. Though he did show flashes of being the player many assumed could anchor a top-line for the next decade-plus, most notably in a one goal, two-assist performance versus the Arizona Coyotes back in October, for the most part, Hughes’ age 18 season was one for the record books for all of the wrong reasons.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, he had to suffer through those rookie growing pains in the shadow of another former first-round pick from Orlando, Florida, who was taking the league by storm: Quinn Hughes.

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Huh, another former first-round pick out of Orlando with the last name Hughes? What are the chances of… oh.

That’s right, for those somehow living under a rock, Jack’s older brother Quinn was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks seventh overall in the 2018 NHL Draft. Though he was given a bit more time to develop his game without being thrust into action as a rookie, appearing in only five games in 2018-19 for the Cannucks, Hughes played about as well as any 21-year-old defenseman could be expected in 2019-20 – recording 53 points in 68 games along with 46 blocks and 35 takeaways.

Fun fact: There is actually a third Hughes brother, Luke, who is a 17-year-old defenseman currently playing for the U.S. National Development Team. As things presently stand, Luke is already committed to the University of Michigan, but he’s widely considered one of the top available players in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. Who knows, if the 2020-21 season takes another bad turn, maybe he’ll be in play for the Devils’ first-round pick next year?

To make matters worse, the oldest Hughes boy was named a finalist for the Calder Memorial Trophy, a finalist for the James Norris Memorial Trophy, finished 10th in All-Star voting, and set a rookie playoff record recording 13 assists in 15 games.

Boy, sum it all up, and I bet Devils fans the world over wish they could swap out one left-handed Hughes brother for another, right?

Eh, not necessarily.

Yes, Quinn is certainly better than Jack right now. He’s also two years older with far more experience playing against professional hockey players. Had Jack been afforded the same courtesy of slowly working through his game, maybe even with the Binghamton Devils before being thrown onto the ice at the tender age of 18 years and 143 days old, maybe he too would have looked a bit more polished as a rookie.

Outside of training camp, Jack’s first legitimate game against adults came in the Devils’ 4-5 loss to the Winnipeg Jets in the Devils’ 2019 home opener.

Does that totally write off the chances of Hughes becoming a straight-up bust? Most definitely not, but it certainly puts his growing pains into perspective.

With Jack reportedly spending his offseason getting stronger, committing himself to eating very big meals and pumping very big weights to further fill out his 168-pound frame, there’s plenty of reasons to be hopeful that 2021 could mark the second straight season where a Hughes boy makes waves in expanded action. While it may take him a few more years to get into the 200-pound range, Hughes said it best himself, telling media in a postseason zoom session, “I’ve worked out hard my whole life, but I’ll never get a period like this where the offseason is six or seven months.”

Could this all be conjecture? Maybe so, but after being considered a golden boy by even his most hardened supporters for the majority of his athletic career, how the 19-year-old adjusts to his first taste of widespread adversity could define the next decade of his hockey-playing career. Is this the year Hughes challenges the Devis’ best player, Nico Hischier, for the team’s top-line starting spot? Or does his progress fail to materialize, and fans suddenly have to start wondering if the Devils would be better off reuniting Jack with Quinn in Vancouver while his value could still garner a small fortune in draft capital? Either way, the forthcoming season is going to be fascinating.

As crazy as it would have sounded on draft night 2019, Jack Hughes is one of the NHL’s biggest wildcards heading into the 2020-21 season. Though he’s still a supremely talented player and would likely still go first overall if the New Jersey Devils were given a second chance to make the pick, another slow season with a point every three or so games will only further his mounting chorus of haters. With seven months off to get bigger, badder, and all-around better, Hughes just might remind the hockey world why he was so highly regarded since before his brother went seventh overall in the 2018 NHL Draft. His ceiling is higher than Nico Hischier’s, after all.