Canucks' Hughes on pace to join exclusive club only Orr and Coffey belong to
Quinn Hughes has been playing at a different level since being named captain of the Vancouver Canucks.
Despite it being deep into November, the 24-year-old currently leads the NHL in points and is scoring at an unfathomable rate. His 30 points through 19 games means that he’s on pace to finish with 129 points, a feat that would put his name alongside some of the game’s all-time greats.
NHL legends Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey are the only two defencemen who have ever recorded more than 103 points in a single season. If Hughes can keep up this pace, he will join them and his year would slot in as the fourth-most productive by a defenceman ever.
NHL.com
While the sample size is still relatively small, we have now completed more than one-fifth of the NHL season. Even if he cools off considerably, Hughes is still a threat to break the 100-point mark, a feat that virtually earned Erik Karlsson the Norris Trophy last year.
Besides Karlsson, the only other defenceman to have broken the 90-point mark since 2000 is Roman Josi. Hughes needs just 60 points from his remaining 63 games to reach that number. That means he can average 0.95 points per game from this point forward, a number well below the 1.58 he has achieved thus far.
Another record in Hughes’ sight is the mark for most points in a season by an American-born defenceman. Brian Leetch has the current record with 102 points, a number that Hughes is on pace to break by 27.
Hughes’ incredible offensive production has not taken away from his focus on the defensive side of the game. He leads all Canucks defencemen in on-ice scoring chances allowed per 60 minutes at five-on-five.
The American-born player is playing like the best player in the world at the moment. The hockey world has been waiting to see when he will slow down, but he hasn’t shown any signs of doing so. As we get further into the schedule, it’s looking increasingly likely he will join Coffey and Orr in their exclusive club.