It feels wrong to write this after Luke Hughes scored his second goal of the season, and if we told you Luke Hughes had 16 points in 31 games, most would think that’s at least acceptable. However, for anyone who has watched the Devils on the ice this season know that Luke Hughes is a big reason why this season is going in the wrong direction.
At the time of this writing, the Devils are losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-3. It started off with Jacob Markstrom letting up three absolutely terrible goals, keeping the theme of his season intact. Jake Allen came in relief, and it didn’t go much better.
Allen’s goals weren’t like Markstrom’s goals because they were legitimately insane chances. Often, they were uncovered players in front of the net. Guys were out of position, and Allen had to be perfect to stop them. At least three of the goals came with guys all alone inches from Allen.
As much as we want to blame Markstrom, and he deserves his share of the blame, there’s a complete failure of defensemen this season. Dougie Hamilton has looked like a shell of himself. Jonas Siegenthaler is the antithesis of what he was last season. However, it’s the youngest Hughes brother who seems to be the biggest culprit of the team’s defensive issues.
They’ve been there all season, but Luke Hughes's mistakes have been much worse since Brett Pesce got hurt on October 26th.
Through nine games, Luke Hughes was on the ice for 171 chances, which led the team. Meanwhile, three defensemen on the Devils were on for most chances against in those games. It wasn’t converting, as the Devils only scored five goals on those chances at 5v5 according to Natural Stat Trick.
Since Pesce has been out, Hughes is once again on for the most chances, but he’s actually seen more chances against him. When it comes to high-danger chances against, Hughes by far leads the team since Pesce’s injury, with 100 against. He’s allowing a high-danger chance every four minutes of ice time.
No amount of offense is going to help with that, but he’s not even providing that. Hughes has only been on the ice for 68 high-danger chances in the past 21 games. (Note, these numbers may change once the stats update with the Lightning game.)
This is a guy who signed a seven-year deal paying him $9 million per season. If he had a different last name, he probably gets demolished in the media. Instead, we’re all talking about the possibility of Quinn Hughes being traded there.
We’re not worried about Hughes long-term. He seems like something is off, especially when he’s in his own zone. He gets beaten to pucks, loses his position far too often, and he’s directly responsible for goals against almost on a nightly basis. He’s been on the ice for 24 goals against over the last 22 games.
Since Pesce got hurt, Hughes has allowed the most high-danger chances. It’s him and Ben Chiarot. That’s not good company in 2025.
It’s been rough, but Hughes can turn it around. The main issue is that he has to really put the effort in. The whole team has been seen giving less effort when the goalies fail them. Luke Hughes might be at the top of the list for culprits. That can’t happen. The Devils need to be comeback merchants. Hughes has shown he has the skills to score on his own. He needs to do more of the good tonight and eliminate everything that’s bad tonight.