With the NHL Awards for the 2024-25 season set to be announced this coming week, one Vancouver Canuck returns to a familiar spot as a finalist for an award.
There really wasn’t a debate as to who the three finalists were going to be. Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, and Zach Werenski have been a step above the rest of the defencemen in the league all season, and it only makes sense that the trio is up for the trophy that recognizes the best defenceman in the NHL. As the defending Norris winner, Hughes put together another great season despite Vancouver’s struggles. But did he do enough to retain his crown?
Let’s take a look at the counting stats.
In 2023-24, Hughes recorded 17 goals, 75 assists for 92 points in all 82 games. That was enough to make him the top-scoring defenceman in the league, just edging out Makar’s 90-point tally. In 2024-25, though, Hughes was hampered by injury, only playing in 68 contests. But still, he managed to record 16 goals, 60 assists for 76 points, just barely missing his 1.121 PPG in 2023-24 with a 1.117 PPG this year. Those 76 points still made Hughes the third-best point-getter amongst defenders this past year, even with the 14 missed games, but also ranked him behind Makar’s 92 points and Werenski’s 82 points.
Comparing Hughes to Makar directly, there’s no questioning that the Canadian defender outdid the numbers that Hughes put up. But, it’s also important to consider just who they were playing with.
Cale Makar played a total of 938:54 minutes with Nathan MacKinnon this past season, during which the advanced stats were elite. A 61.59 CF% and 61.83 xGF% with a 60.15 HDCF% meant that the Avs were bossing around any of their opponents while both Makar and MacKinnon were on the ice. However, Makar only played 516:46 TOI away from MacKinnon this year, and the results were not as good. His lines cratered to 45.38 CF%, 41.99 xGF%, and 40.61 HDCF%.
Essentially, Makar’s contributions cratered when playing away from one of the best players in the league. Of course, that should be expected given how good MacKinnon is. But at the same time, if Makar were a truly game-breaking elite defenceman, he should at least be able to break even with a lot of these metrics.
Let’s take a look at Hughes’ numbers with the Canucks’ “1C” in Elias Pettersson (who is not in the same echelon of player as MacKinnon).
The pair only saw the ice for 331:55 minutes together this season and recorded a 54.92 CF%, 54.43 xGF%, and 50.45 HDCF%. Not game-changing, but decent enough, considering how poorly Pettersson played in the 2024-25 season. What does stand out are the 1031:28 minutes Hughes played away from Pettersson. His numbers didn’t change much at all, in fact improving slightly at 55.96 CF%, 54.16 xGF%, and 52.38 HDCF%.
It bears mentioning that both Makar and Hughes had a similar percentage of points coming from power play opportunities, with the defencemen hovering around 38%. But when factoring in the difference in personnel and how much time each of them spent playing with the “top talents” of their teams, the picture rapidly becomes clear as to who was contributing what when on the ice together.
Taking a quick look at Werenski with Columbus’ top centre in Sean Monahan, the defenceman’s numbers went from 56.29 CF%, 58.55 xGF%, and 57.74 HDCF% with the forward in 412:22 TOI to 51.20 CF%, 51.99 xGF%, and 52.28 HDCF% in 1291:07 TOI away from Monahan. Again, while Monahan is by no means as good as either MacKinnon or Pettersson, it’s important to note that Werenski’s metrics still dropped when playing away from his top forward line.
In fact, Hughes’ contributions often had him as the sole offensive generator that this team had to offer. A play driver from the back end, Vancouver’s systems looked hopelessly dull, stifled, and uncreative whenever Hughes wasn’t on the ice. The differences were extreme throughout the year, with the Canucks lost in the best of cases offensively and getting caved in defensively at their worst.
There’s no questioning that Hughes was incredibly important to the Canucks in 2024-25. He was a big reason why they didn’t drop out of the playoff race earlier. And it’s clear from the numbers that Hughes was also contributing more than the likes of Makar and Werenski to his team’s overall success. Vancouver’s performance didn’t dip when Hughes was playing with the bottom six. In fact, the defender was probably one of the only reasons why they looked competitive in the first place.
To put it simply, there’s probably not another defenceman in the league that had the impact that Hughes had on the Canucks in the 2024-25 season. Arguably, there’s only a handful of players in the entire league who change the game for their teams like the way Hughes does for Vancouver. If we’re talking about all-around players on the back end, there’s no questioning that Hughes did more than enough to capture another Norris.
The unfortunate part of this is that Hughes probably won’t win the Norris again. With how 2023-24 set the benchmark, how Makar’s counting stats were better, how there was 14 missed games with injury, how the Avs saw more team success and how the Canucks basically imploded down the stretch, meant that for Hughes to repeat as the 2024-25 Norris winner, he would need to have put in an all-time great season.
The narrative has already been set into place going into the year, and only by outdoing the 2023-24 season, not just as an individual, but as a team, could Hughes overcome the voter fatigue. It’s a reality, even as the metrics back up the impact the captain had for this group, far greater than the other finalists.
Knowing Hughes, this won’t be the last time that he’s on a Norris finalist ballot.
