New Jersey Devils: 5 Defensemen Worth Trading Fourth-Overall Pick

Quinn Hughes

Speaking of counterintuitive, imagine trading the pick that the Devils could use to take Luke Hughes to take his brother Quinn off his worst season (albeit in a very short career). Quinn Hughes is still a very promising young defenseman. He was the runner up to the Calder Trophy just one season ago. He showed real ability to play on the top line for a playoff team. Plus, he’s able to shoulder the load for a very, very flawed defensive unit.

Hughes actually took a bigger role this past season. He played just under 22 minutes per game in his rookie season, which is a lot for a 20-year-old defenseman. Last season, Hughes jumped to 22:48 per game. This came as the Vancouver Canucks were putting up some terrible stats. Hughes might be the victim of a terrible team bringing down a good defenseman. We mentioned Karlsson earlier. The San Jose Sharks are a mess, and that’s making Karlsson look bad. However, that doesn’t make Karlsson bad.

The pandemic might have cratered Hughes’ value, but trading one draft pick for a defender who can absolutely play on the top line tomorrow and stay there for a decade is absolutely worth a fourth-overall pick. Hughes has a much higher floor than his brother, Edvinsson, and Clarke. He has an NHL pedigree.

This is on top of the whole “Jack and Quinn Hughes” brother marketing situation. The two Hughes brothers have seen some success at the next level, but neither has seen real success. The same 31 Thoughts article that inspired this piece also said the Canucks are expected to start negotiating with Hughes and Elias Pettersson soon. That negotiation might turn into a trade request if the two sides can’t agree.