It might not have been the best start to the season for Quinn Hughes, but the Vancouver Canucks captain has more than carried the load for his team over the last few games.

The 26-year-old defenceman is currently riding a six-game point streak, totalling 13 points over the span. That includes a three-game stretch against the Winnipeg Jets, Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers (he was out against the Carolina Hurricanes), where Hughes has 10 assists. Before this point streak, Hughes sat in a tie for 24th in defensive scoring with seven points through 10 games. But to this point in the point streak, Hughes has jumped all the way to second, behind only Cale Makar.

To put that in perspective, Hughes has been in on 10 of the Canucks’ 14 goals (71.4%) over his last three games. Those are some staggering numbers. And during Monday night’s game against the Panthers, The Athletic’s Harman Dayal shared some even more eye-opening Hughes stats:

This got us thinking. We all know how elite Quinn Hughes is, and we all know how important Quinn Hughes is to this Canucks team. That’s obvious anytime you watch a Canucks game. But let’s put some numbers behind the eye test and see the impact Hughes is making on the Canucks at 5v5, and compare it to how his peers around the National Hockey League are doing.

For this exercise, we will be looking at 10 other defencemen, ordered in points scored this season, and further elaborate on Dayal’s shots on goal numbers with and without said defenceman on the ice over that same time frame:

The Canucks see a 16.42% boost to their shot share at 5v5 when Hughes is on the ice, compared to when he’s off. Whereas the Avalanche are seeing nearly 7% more shots when Makar is on the bench.

Now, of course, matchups matter, and score effects certainly come into play with a stat like this. Makar’s Colorado Avalanche are 13-1-5 at the time of this writing, and he plays over 25 minutes per game. So teams are more often than not pushing late in games to try and claw their way back with Makar on the ice. Compare that to Hughes’ 9-10-2 Canucks, usually trying to will their way back into the fight with Hughes leading the way.

The Avalanche are not having trouble producing offence without Makar, but the Canucks’ offence, quite honestly, just goes as far as Hughes takes them.

And let’s also keep in mind deployment splits between these defencemen.