The Devils ROBBED the NHL...

The Devils robbed the NHL when they signed Luke Hughes to a contract extension two years ago. And sure, you can say the brother thing plays a factor because it definitely does. When you look at the on-ice impact of play as well as another outside factor, this is perfect. Welcome in, Devil fans. Glad to have you guys here today. Always love and appreciate when you guys decide to hit the subscribe button, like button, and stick around and talk some more Devils hockey. It helps out the channel a ton. so last night the devils won big seven to one over the new york rangers you know what let's make that a little bit bigger look you saw this game last night and you can see that these two teams are on vastly different timelines look the devils are scoring seven the rangers are pulling their goaltender five minutes in the second period this game was six to nothing at one point and for Devils fans and the Devils in general there was a lot to like last night you score seven goals you beat your rival and one thing that really stuck out and stood out was Luke Hughes look you look at Luke Hughes's numbers from last night uh he scores twice he plays three minutes more than any other defenseman on the team last night and he looked like a number one defenseman I mean this is what we're getting out of Luke Hughes tonight I mean you think about what the Devils wanted when they drafted Luke Hughes fourth overall clearly you want a number one defenseman and last night well it's clear he can play the minutes of a number one defenseman it's clear with two goals he can make an impact as a number one defenseman and it's clear he's the Devils number one defenseman look let's look at Luke Hughes's season so far this year some of the numbers that he's putting up well you can see when he's on the ice new jersey does pretty good i mean it's 67 percent Corsi they are creating offense they are creating opportunity and that's where you could feel you know you saw the first couple of games devils were struggling to score and you knew that was going to turn around because their expected goals and their Corsi were all high, they're all top five in the NHL and Luke Hughes right now sporting a 67 percent Corsi, well yeah that works those are number one defenseman numbers, look at his on ice expected goals 61, his actual on ice goals percentage 58, I mean these guys putting up number one defenseman numbers, he looks like what they wanted when they drafted him fourth overall, I mean I know they had Jack Hughes, he was their number one overall pick and people are going, oh well you know what they just drafted him because they have his brother and they want to keep his brother happy he was arguably the number one prospect that year, he scored 18 goals at Michigan, I mean this wasn't just a player who was just drafted because his brother wants him, look he was a top five pick in fourth overall, you don't just go well you know what let's keep his brother happy, okay that's not what's going on and we can see from looking at this that he's getting better, he's looking like a number one defenseman, remember he was only drafted in 2021, we can see that you know what maybe some down stuff, maybe a tough second half of last year, maybe a tough sophomore year we can say those type of things but right now we're seeing a number one defenseman and I know you can go in and say well you know what he looks good when he's on the ice and like i said they get scoring opportunities when he's on the ice but oh well why is his relative expected goals negative why is it worse tactically when you look at the other players on on the ice well it's a little bit jammed up okay it's not like luke hughes is you know necessarily not as good when these other players on the ice they're number one dougie hamilton 3.9 it's not like there's an outlier here it's not like somebody else is you know creating all the offense or luke hughes is creating a lot less offense no this team just is good this team just is good offensively they can score defense can support the offense I mean that's what we're getting out of here and that's the best thing when you have multiple defensemen contributing on your offense that's great and that's what we're seeing I mean Dougie Hamilton 64% Corsi Declan Chisholm new guy 59% you want to know why they took Brendan Dillon out of the lineup instead of Declan Chisholm it's right there Brendan Dillon, you know, out of the lineup right now. Brett Pesce, 66. You know, oftentimes playing with Luke Hughes. Wonder where those numbers are coming from. And that's not saying that Luke Hughes is carrying Brett Pesce. I'm probably as big a Brett Pesce fan as you can be. I would have been totally cool if they signed him 7x7 when he became a free agent. But you're looking at how this defense works. They're creating offense. And that's the most important thing in today's NHL. it's not a you know just a coincidence the defensemen are scoring more no they're being taught to score more you have to have your off your defense initiated into your offense they have to become a factor and right now Sonny Menna from what we've seen is looking that way Declan Chisholm creating offense Luke Hughes so far creating offense gonna continue Dougie Hamilton you know trade rumors around him that's okay we'll keep him we'll figure this out Dougie Hamilton much better than he did last year so all these things look better now i said earlier that there was another outside factor to it that you know the brother thing yeah plays a role into bringing Quinn Hughes over here you know having the other two there was another outside factor here and when we hired him i was really excited because of things like this this is brad shaw's resume since 2006 now you go in and look at some of the teams Bradshaw has been a part of well St. Louis 2006-2016 who are some of the defensemen that came from St. Louis well let me think Alex Petrangelo okay yeah no he was pretty good Kevin Shattenkirk yeah he was pretty good you can see these defensemen that came through Bradshaw's system all wound up to be pretty good I mean you think about Kevin Shattenkirk Kevin Shattenkirk i think he's a pretty good example because kevin Shattenkirk with brad shaw got top defense and money when he became a free agent what happened after he left Brad Shaw well his hometown team they took a discount for waived him so you think about what Brad Shaw did in St Louis okay well he made a number one defenseman Alex Petrangelo he made a number one defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and i you know what i shouldn't say made work together to develop a number one defenseman in Kevin Shattenkirk and now it's Petrangelo then he goes over to Columbus and who was there in 2016 to 2021 oh guys like Zach Werenski Seth Jones you know Seth Jones another fourth overall pick who you know Nashville that was a real hockey trade you know change but it felt like Seth Jones might have needed to change his scenery Nashville needed another forward they needed a center Columbus well young defenseman that we have a guy who's produced guys like Kevin Shattenkirk Alex Petrangelo okay that works um and then he goes over to Columbus and i mean how many defensemen in the league can you name that are better than Zach Werenski today during Zach Werenski's younger years when he was just drafted who was the guy Columbus had him work with Brad Shaw Seth Jones think about him you know I know there's a little bit two sides of the coin here you know the U.S. Olympic team wanted him on the team for a reason Florida Sonny Mettu part of that team traded for him for a reason what did Florida go on to do all they want a Stanley Cup U.S. Olympic team they won the gold medal yeah he wasn't part of it he was supposed to be so all of these things show that yeah Bradshaw can develop defensemen Bradshaw was very good about it and i know that the penalty kill right now you know it's struggling who cares you know i i say that kind of you know somewhat of jokingly but if you're telling me a penalty kill is going to suffer for a little bit when i can produce and develop Luke Hughes into a number one defenseman sign me up i mean sign me up if you can keep continue to help these players develop bringing back Dougie Hamilton's game it might suffer for a little bit um turning around eventually I mean it's clear from this guy's track record he can coach he can coach a defense it will turn around but if I have to go through you know some weeks of it not being good to start the season I'm okay with it Luke Hughes looks great uh let me know I think down in your thoughts down in the comments below uh let me know luke hughes i mean look he's showing he's the devil's number one defenseman that's what you wanted that's why you drafted him fourth overall that's what you're getting let me know in the comments thanks for tuning in tonight big win last night 7-1 i don't know how many more times i can say it without getting bored i don't know if i ever will get bored it's just fun to say 7-1 over the New York Rangers Luke Hughes looks great thanks for tuning in today and i'll see you guys all really soon