<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Considering only one National Hockey League defenceman has crested 100 points in the past 30 years, the notion of Quinn Hughes reaching triple digits this season seems like a long shot. Then again, it’s important to note that we’re talking about the reigning Norris Trophy winner who finished with 92 last season on a Vancouver Canucks team that sputtered offensively over the final couple of months of the season.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is not a prediction that Hughes will reach the 100-point mark. But it’s also a recognition that the hockey world should have learned by now not to bet against the Canucks captain.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hughes set the Canucks franchise record for points by a blueliner with 68 two seasons ago and has since rewritten the record book twice following up with 76 and 92 point totals. </span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Canucks Win 4-3! </p>
<p>Quinn Hughes scores the overtime winner! What a game! <a href="https://t.co/kHgpac2UJ3">pic.twitter.com/kHgpac2UJ3</a></p>
<p>&mdash; CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) <a href="https://twitter.com/CanucksArmy/status/1725032698396463315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2023</a></p></blockquote>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Many things will have to break favourably for Hughes to get to 100 this season, however it’s not out of the question. Here are five keys to Hughes joining Erik Karlsson whose 101 points in San Jose in 2022-23 set him apart from all other defencemen in the league over the past three decades.</span></p>
<h1><span style="font-weight: 400;">Knowing it’s possible</span></h1>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Quinn Hughes has had a taste and that’s half the battle. Hughes was on a 100-point pace with 51 points through the team’s first 41 games last season. He knows it’s a legitimate possibility to get to 100 points. If he’d finished with 75 last season, it would seem like an unreasonable proposition to expect him to find 25 additional points. But he finished with 92. He wasn’t far off 100 and if the Canucks had three additional games on their schedule, Hughes likely would have reached the hundred point mark. Eight points is an average week for the soon to be 25-year-old. So he has the context to work with knowing what it will take to generate the added offence necessary to be a 100-point scorer.</span></p>
<h1><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Power Play</span></h1>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While it’s true that Hughes had more power play points in the second half of the season (21) than he did in the first half (17), overall the team encountered power play struggles after the All Star break. From the start of February on, the Canucks power play operated at 18.8% and ranked 24th in the league over that stretch. With personnel and coaching changes in the off-season, the Canucks will surely aim to find more consistency with the man advantage and Hughes should play a massive role in that. While JT Miller is likely to continue to run the power play off the left half wall, the puck is still going to find its way back to Hughes at the top of the umbrella. As such, he’ll still get plenty of puck touches. If Hughes had picked up just one additional power play point per week after the All Star break, he would have easily gained the eight points needed to get to 100 for the season.</span></p>
<h1><span style="font-weight: 400;">Scoring off the rush</span></h1>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rick Tocchet has made it abundantly clear that the Canucks need to generate more offence this coming season. And that should play into Quinn Hughes’ hands. Too often in the playoffs it seemed the Canucks waited for the perfect play to present itself before taking their chances. That resulted in a lack of shots, limited opportunities and ultimately struggles to produce scoring plays. An injection of speed through the line-up over the off-season should lead to increased rush chances for the Canucks and nobody keys the transition more than Quinn Hughes. This doesn’t mean the Canucks will be reckless in their pursuit of scoring opportunities and Hughes has shown he doesn’t need to cheat positionally to lead the attack. It’s just a slight tweak to the overall organizational mindset that should help the Canucks improve their transition game and ultimately do a little more to test opposing netminders. Converting on a few additional rush opportunities should help boost the team’s offensive totals and as a result Quinn Hughes should benefit from that.</span></p>
<h1><span style="font-weight: 400;">Increased shot total</span></h1>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If Quinn Hughes is going to get to 100 points, he likely needs to score 20 goals. In Karlsson’s 101 point season, he scored 25 times and added 76 assists. Last season, Hughes scored a career-best 17 times but found the back of the net just five times over the team’s final 35 games. While he led all NHL defencemen in scoring last season, he was ninth among his peers with 199 shots on goal. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And like his goal total, his shot production dropped considerably in the second half of the season. Hughes has taken steps to increase his shot velocity since breaking into the league. But his bigger weapon is the way he changes the angle of attack and showed on several occasions last season an ability to shoot in stride to beat defenders and help fool goaltenders. He will need to continue to hone that part of his game to boost his goal total. But like reaching 100 points, hitting the 20-goal mark seems like a reasonable target for a player as talented as Hughes who has the puck on his stick as much as he does.</span></p>
<h1><span style="font-weight: 400;">Bounce back performances from those around him</span></h1>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While this is an article focussing on Quinn Hughes, his point totals are certainly impacted by others on the team. A return to star form for Elias Pettersson would surely aid Hughes in his pursuit of 100 points. Whether at even strength or on the power play, if Pettersson can get back to being the player he has been throughout most of his career, everyone around him will reap the benefits. And a fully healthy Filip Hronek returning to the form he held in the first half of the season would also be a help to Hughes. Whether it&#8217;s moving the puck smartly to his partner to facilitate the breakout or shooting the puck the way he’s capable, Hronek has more to give than he showed down the stretch and through the playoffs. If he and Hughes are once again paired together, they have shown they have the ability to tilt the ice in the Canucks’ favour. It’s in those minutes that the Canucks have to pounce on opponents. If they do that, it stands to reason that Quinn Hughes will rack up the points.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Quinn Hughes showed last season that he doesn’t need to get to 100 points to be deemed the best defenceman in the NHL. But he’s also demonstrated through his time in the league that he’s up to almost every challenge placed in front of him. Motivated to prove that last season wasn’t any kind of outlier, look for Hughes to return this coming season and try to raise the bar for himself and his hockey club. If he plays to his potential, a 100-point season isn’t out of the question at all.</span></p>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Considering only one National Hockey League defenceman has crested 100 points in the past 30 years, the notion of Quinn Hughes reaching triple digits this season seems like a long shot. Then again, it’s important to note that we’re talking about the reigning Norris Trophy winner who finished with 92 last season on a Vancouver Canucks team that sputtered offensively over the final couple of months of the season.</span>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">This is not a prediction that Hughes will reach the 100-point mark. But it’s also a recognition that the hockey world should have learned by now not to bet against the Canucks captain.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Hughes set the Canucks franchise record for points by a blueliner with 68 two seasons ago and has since rewritten the record book twice following up with 76 and 92 point totals. </span>

https://twitter.com/CanucksArmy/status/1725032698396463315

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Many things will have to break favourably for Hughes to get to 100 this season, however it’s not out of the question. Here are five keys to Hughes joining Erik Karlsson whose 101 points in San Jose in 2022-23 set him apart from all other defencemen in the league over the past three decades.</span>
<h1><span style="font-weight: 400;">Knowing it’s possible</span></h1>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Quinn Hughes has had a taste and that’s half the battle. Hughes was on a 100-point pace with 51 points through the team’s first 41 games last season. He knows it’s a legitimate possibility to get to 100 points. If he’d finished with 75 last season, it would seem like an unreasonable proposition to expect him to find 25 additional points. But he finished with 92. He wasn’t far off 100 and if the Canucks had three additional games on their schedule, Hughes likely would have reached the hundred point mark. Eight points is an average week for the soon to be 25-year-old. So he has the context to work with knowing what it will take to generate the added offence necessary to be a 100-point scorer.</span>
<h1><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Power Play</span></h1>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">While it’s true that Hughes had more power play points in the second half of the season (21) than he did in the first half (17), overall the team encountered power play struggles after the All Star break. From the start of February on, the Canucks power play operated at 18.8% and ranked 24th in the league over that stretch. With personnel and coaching changes in the off-season, the Canucks will surely aim to find more consistency with the man advantage and Hughes should play a massive role in that. While JT Miller is likely to continue to run the power play off the left half wall, the puck is still going to find its way back to Hughes at the top of the umbrella. As such, he’ll still get plenty of puck touches. If Hughes had picked up just one additional power play point per week after the All Star break, he would have easily gained the eight points needed to get to 100 for the season.</span>
<h1><span style="font-weight: 400;">Scoring off the rush</span></h1>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Rick Tocchet has made it abundantly clear that the Canucks need to generate more offence this coming season. And that should play into Quinn Hughes’ hands. Too often in the playoffs it seemed the Canucks waited for the perfect play to present itself before taking their chances. That resulted in a lack of shots, limited opportunities and ultimately struggles to produce scoring plays. An injection of speed through the line-up over the off-season should lead to increased rush chances for the Canucks and nobody keys the transition more than Quinn Hughes. This doesn’t mean the Canucks will be reckless in their pursuit of scoring opportunities and Hughes has shown he doesn’t need to cheat positionally to lead the attack. It’s just a slight tweak to the overall organizational mindset that should help the Canucks improve their transition game and ultimately do a little more to test opposing netminders. Converting on a few additional rush opportunities should help boost the team’s offensive totals and as a result Quinn Hughes should benefit from that.</span>
<h1><span style="font-weight: 400;">Increased shot total</span></h1>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">If Quinn Hughes is going to get to 100 points, he likely needs to score 20 goals. In Karlsson’s 101 point season, he scored 25 times and added 76 assists. Last season, Hughes scored a career-best 17 times but found the back of the net just five times over the team’s final 35 games. While he led all NHL defencemen in scoring last season, he was ninth among his peers with 199 shots on goal. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">And like his goal total, his shot production dropped considerably in the second half of the season. Hughes has taken steps to increase his shot velocity since breaking into the league. But his bigger weapon is the way he changes the angle of attack and showed on several occasions last season an ability to shoot in stride to beat defenders and help fool goaltenders. He will need to continue to hone that part of his game to boost his goal total. But like reaching 100 points, hitting the 20-goal mark seems like a reasonable target for a player as talented as Hughes who has the puck on his stick as much as he does.</span>
<h1><span style="font-weight: 400;">Bounce back performances from those around him</span></h1>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">While this is an article focussing on Quinn Hughes, his point totals are certainly impacted by others on the team. A return to star form for Elias Pettersson would surely aid Hughes in his pursuit of 100 points. Whether at even strength or on the power play, if Pettersson can get back to being the player he has been throughout most of his career, everyone around him will reap the benefits. And a fully healthy Filip Hronek returning to the form he held in the first half of the season would also be a help to Hughes. Whether it's moving the puck smartly to his partner to facilitate the breakout or shooting the puck the way he’s capable, Hronek has more to give than he showed down the stretch and through the playoffs. If he and Hughes are once again paired together, they have shown they have the ability to tilt the ice in the Canucks’ favour. It’s in those minutes that the Canucks have to pounce on opponents. If they do that, it stands to reason that Quinn Hughes will rack up the points.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Quinn Hughes showed last season that he doesn’t need to get to 100 points to be deemed the best defenceman in the NHL. But he’s also demonstrated through his time in the league that he’s up to almost every challenge placed in front of him. Motivated to prove that last season wasn’t any kind of outlier, look for Hughes to return this coming season and try to raise the bar for himself and his hockey club. If he plays to his potential, a 100-point season isn’t out of the question at all.</span>

<strong>Sponsored by bet365</strong>
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