There has been some frustration with Luke Hughes this season. While he’s been asked to take a larger role on defense thanks to injuries to Johnny Kovacevic and Brett Pesce, including taking a more prominent role on the penalty kill, he’s also made more mistakes than in the past.
Luke Hughes is always going to make mistakes. You take those mistakes if he makes up for it twofold on the offensive side of things. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened this season.
Hughes has only one goal in 24 games this season. That’s not nearly enough for a guy who was given $9 million per season on a seven-year deal on October 1st. He does have 13 assists, but the goal numbers need to catch up.
Most will point out to Luke Hughes’s pretty unreliable shot as a reason he’s not scoring much. It seems like his shot from the point is pretty weak. The visuals of a defense going at it like it’s someone throwing a duck aren’t great, but it’s not exactly what’s happening.
It’s not that Hughes’s shot is weak. It’s not particularly hard, but his hardest shot this season is 91.68 miles per hour according to NHL Edge statistics. That’s in the 70th percentile. It’s not what we like to see, but it is what it is. He’s had harder shots in previous seasons, so we know he’s capable of getting up to 93-94 MPH.
The issue is where he’s taking the shots.
Hughes’s most consistent shot location is right down Broadway. He has taken 14 shots from the center of the ice near the blue line. His only goal came in a similar location but much closer to the net. He’s 0/14 from this shot location. Meanwhile, he’s only taken seven shots from the corner, where defensemen more often take their shots.
This is probably why Hughes is having so much trouble getting his shot through. Skating to the middle of the ice leaves predictable angles for the puck to move. It’s easier to get the puck blocked into the corner, and more importantly for Hughes, blocked right back to center ice.
Hughes has the ability to get to dirty areas, but he isn’t doing it with confidence. Just look at what Simon Nemec is doing. If he wants to get somewhere, he just goes. Obviously, with Hughes and Nemec together, they can’t both be doing this, but they are together because Hughes isn’t being aggressive enough. We can’t have Brenden Dillon being the offensively aggressive one on his pairing.
Hughes is shooting less than 2% on the season. He’s taking his shots, but according to MoneyPuck, he’s not expected to have a shooting percentage higher than 3%. That just shows he’s not taking shots from high-danger areas.
We think Hughes will figure this out. He’s clearly holding his stick a little too tightly, and it’s impacting his shot selection. This isn’t too far of a fix for Sheldon Keefe, but he has bigger fish to fry. Hughes can work with Brad Shaw to find the right shot to make, but as long as they are getting offense from the other defensemen on the roster (even Dillon scored on Friday), then they don’t have to worry too much.