Devils' Luke Hughes Deserving of Calder Nomination

Luke Hughes' rookie season had its ups and downs, but he was certainly deserving of being named a Calder Trophy finalist.

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Luke Hughes had a solid rookie season, something that was solidified yesterday when he was named one of three finalists for the Calder Trophy, awarded to the NHL's top rookie. 

There were some ups and downs for the younger Hughes, as there are for almost any 20-year-old rookie in the NHL. But his first year as an NHLer went about as well as it could have, especially considering the New Jersey Devils' circumstances. 

Hughes’ Strong Close Helped Secured Nomination

Hughes' rookie season got off to a solid start. Former coach Lindy Ruff had kept him sheltered to begin the season, which positively impacted Hughes' play. He consistently finished with Game Scores above water, but injuries began affecting his play. 

Nor were those injuries to Hughes. He played in all 82 games. Instead, it was injuries to the rest of the blue line, namely Jonas Siegenthaler and Dougie Hamilton. Once Siegenthaler came out of the lineup in early January, Ruff had no choice but to change Hughes' usage. 

After playing softer minutes through the end of the calendar year 2023, Hughes was suddenly playing top-four minutes and sometimes in tough assignments alongside John Marino. When looking at his rolling 10-game average for Game Score, there's a noticeable dip in Hughes' play right around the time of Siegenthaler's injury in early January:

Via Hockey Stat Cards

Hughes did rebound before bottoming out in late February for his worst stretch of hockey this season. Every rookie usually hits the infamous rookie wall at some point, but there was a bit more going on here, in my opinion. Ruff was misusing Hughes by giving him difficult minutes, and it affected his play. 

I've had my fair share of criticisms of interim coach Travis Green, but the one thing he did very well was flip Hughes' usage and put him back in a heavily sheltered offensive role. As we saw in the chart above, Hughes' Game Score skyrocketed to the moon under Green, making for his best stretch of hockey to close 2023-24. 

Not only was Hughes' Game Score shooting to the moon, but he finished with 16 points across the Devils' last 21 games to end the season with 47 points in 82 games. That broke the franchise record for points by a rookie defenseman set by Will Butcher in 2017-18.