Luke Hughes is Turning into a Perennial Norris Candidate

The youngest Hughes brother has been dominant for most of the 2024-25 season, so let's dig in to his astonishing toolkit.

Feb 21, 2025

Things have generally been a slog for the Devils since the calendar flipped to 2025, and Luke Hughes’ play is no exception to this rule. He’s largely struggled on both ends of the ice, fighting it in every sense. Still, prior to the break, he was looking like a legitimate world-beater and there’s still a lot to like about his game in 2025. I found myself watching the Four Nations championship game thinking that Team USA could have used a lot more of what he brings to the table. I firmly anticipate he’ll be a member of the American Olympic team in 2026 despite how stacked that blue line is.

Without further ado, let’s get into what makes Luke such a dominant defenseman and dig into why he’s going to turn into a yearly competitor to his brother for the Norris Trophy.

Luke is One of the League’s Best Playmakers

Despite his impressive point total in his rookie season — 47 points in 82 games — Luke’s offensive microstats were actually pretty bad. This year, though, things have taken a complete 180 and he sports some of the best playmaking chops in the entire NHL.

He doesn’t shoot a ton, but that’s to be expected from a defenseman whose slapshot leaves a bit to be desired. Instead, his offensive instincts lean more into his passing abilities. By all measures, he’s been one of the top dogs in providing chances for his team.

There is exactly one (1) defenseman providing more primary shot assists per hour in the league than Luke, and it’s Adam Fox. In terms of scoring chances (not visualized in the above chart), there is one (1) defenseman generating more scoring chances of his own — Cale Makar — and zero (0) defensemen generating more scoring chance assists. Three (3) defensemen are providing their team with more high-danger passes.

One thing that has also been noticeable is Luke’s forward-like mentality of getting into open space on the cycle. He’s quick to identify gaps in defense and jump into the slot when the opportunity warrants. As a result, he’s fourth-best among defensemen in terms of shots off of high-danger passes into the slot.

The root of Luke’s playmaking abilities stem from 1) his speed and 2) his hockey sense. He’s a Hughes, so of course his brain operates faster than 99% of NHLers. He’s able to slow the game down regardless of how fast he is moving, spotting passing opportunities that few others in the league would. His speed obviously opens up a lot of chances that also wouldn’t otherwise be there, with his ability to shake off pressure and turn a 5v5 into a temporary 5v4 being second to none.

Luke is a dual threat in terms of how he can generate offense from both off the rush and in the cycle, again, both of which stem from his skating abilities. He prefers to be in on an odd-man rush himself rather than generating it through a stretch pass. As mentioned above, he uses his explosiveness and shiftiness to shake off pressure whilst in the cycle. He’s also able to pinch more often because of his recovery speed, which also contributes heavily to the Devils’ innate ability to maintain puck possession with Luke on the ice.

I would like to see him use his shot more often, which is so good that he probably deserves double or more the amount of goals he has produced this year. His wrister is blisteringly quick, with a deceptive release and pinpoint accuracy that can beat goaltenders from even the sharpest of angles.

Transitional Play is Dominant

There’s no surprise that Luke is a force in transition simply because of his speed. According to NHL Edge, he ranks in the 98th percentile for top skating speed among defensemen this season (23.58 mph) and in the 97th percentile for speed bursts of at least 20 mph (85 vs. the average of 21.5). There is no argument against him being the fastest and best-skating defenseman in the NHL.

This obviously makes him a boon in transition. He uses his explosiveness and top-end to simply rocket past defenders sometimes, and other times is able to identify that defenders respect his skating so much that the better option is to pass it along the blue line to a now-open forward.

His speed allows him to generate chances out of thin air, turning seemingly innocuous neutral zone plays into goals and odd-man rushes. This goal is a prime example of what he is able to do with his skating alone:

I know that’s a goal from last season, but I don’t think anyone would argue about his speed or transitional aptitude from then either. There is no other defenseman in the league that can do that.

I’d honestly like to see him carry the puck over the blue line more. On a per-hour basis, he doesn’t do it all that much — he’s still well above average here, but you get my point. I understand that there are other transitional demons on the team (Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, etc.) but I’m a huge fan of what he brings to the table speed-wise that no one else does.

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Defensive Stalwartness

I will simply never understand the notion perpetuated by both the Devils fanbase and angry fans elsewhere that Luke Hughes is a bad defender. I would assume the latter half of that is just blissful ignorance and a lack of actually watching the games, but I’m honestly not sure what is going on with the Devils’ half there. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen something pertaining to Luke being a “defensive liability” from a Devils fan on Twitter.

Last year? Sure, I guess, though it wasn’t nearly as bad as many people would lead you to believe. It was his first full season and he was 20 years old — of course there were growing pains. In 2024-25, though? No way.

It was clear that one motivation behind the Brett Pesce signing was to staple him to Luke in hopes that his defensive awareness would rub off on the youngster. Sure enough, Luke has taken the best parts of Pesce’s game and elevated them to a whole new level.

Between the two, Luke is much more active at touching the puck in the defensive zone. He reps a pretty long stick, which he uses actively to poke the puck out of board battles before using his explosive speed to recover the puck quicker than the forechecker can react to it. He then, of course, uses that speed to take the puck out of the defensive zone and/or make a pass to a breakout forward — he’s one of the very best in the league at zone exits which completely matches with the eye test.

Luke has also acquired Pesce’s zone entry defense aptitude. I spoke in-depth about the latter of the two in this regard yesterday, but Luke is on another planet here. He’s hyper-aggressive because he has the speed to react if things go awry, but he’s so controlled with his stick that he usually doesn’t need to recover from a bad pressure. As a result, teams are just outright avoiding entering the zone against him.

In fact, there are only five players who are avoided more per hour in the entire NHL. Luke has turned into a true master of the art of tasteful aggression at the blue line while defending the rush. He usually neutralizes these opportunities before they even materialize into legitimate chances.

Luke has become the epitome of an aggressive defender, and it has paid off dividends. He has a 21.7% entry denial rate, with the only two blueliners in the NHL having a better number in that regard being Daniil Miromanov (22.2%) and Derek Forbort (27.8%). He also has the lowest carry against percentage in the league at just 37%.

By every sense of the term, Luke has remodeled his defensive game and turned into a legitimate stalwart defenseman. His aggression paired with his stick-checking abilities, recovery speed, and defensive awareness have combined to turn him into one of the league’s best at keeping his goaltender from seeing chances. It’s time to stop the narrative that he isn’t capable in his own end.

Comparing Luke’s Micros to the League’s Best

You might find yourself reading this and wondering how his genuinely elite microstatistical profile compares to the current Norris candidate crop. Worry not, I’ve made a series of Google Drawings:

vs. Quinn Hughes:

vs. Cale Makar:

vs. Zach Werenski:

vs. Adam Fox:

I included this year’s clear top-three in Norris candidacy plus Adam Fox, who is always in the running (except this season) and is always great.

He stacks up pretty damn well, eh?

Luke’s On-Ice Impacts

Last season, the little things didn’t necessarily add up to Luke’s under-the-hood underlying impacts. His expected goals for per 60 minutes (xGF/60) was 2.95, which is better than this season’s 2.81, but the offensive microstats were generally pretty rough outside of his zone entry work.

Luke’s newfound defensive excellence, though, has been extremely encouraging. In his first full season last year, the Devils allowed 2.68 expected goals against per hour (xGA/60). This season, it’s much lower, at 2.42, giving him an expected goal share (xGF%) of 53.81%.

How Soon Will He Be a Norris Candidate?

Simply put, there’s just no way for Luke to become a perennial Norris Trophy candidate despite how good he is elsewhere until he takes over the first power play unit and puts up a ton of points there. Considering Hamilton’s otherworldliness on the man advantage, I don’t think he’ll be taking it over for a while. Dougie is one of the best shooters in the league from a slapshot perspective, and because he presents a shooting threat like no other in the league (besides Edmonton’s Evan Bouchard, maybe), I don’t see him moving off of PP1 unless the Devils acquire the third Hughes brother (which would take Luke off PP2), Hamilton completely falls off (which I find unlikely considering his skillset), or he gets bought out (which I also find unlikely because he is elite).

He has the skills to quarterback a first-unit power play, though. He can manipulate defenders like few in the league by proxy of his speed, edgework, and stickhandling, and has a dangerous wrist shot with pinpoint accuracy that he can use through traffic. If Dougie ever goes down with an injury, Luke can jump right in and prove that he has the chops to produce points with the rest of the Norris candidates.

He’s already dominating everywhere else.