The accolades continue to pile up for Vancouver Canucks defenceman Quinn Hughes during the 2023-2024 season.
First, Hughes was honoured by being named the 15th captain in franchise history. Then, he had a strong season, finishing atop National Hockey League defenceman with 92 points, leading to the Canucks first Pacific Division title in the club’s history.
While it wasn’t the end of the season Hughes was hoping for; his efforts were honoured at the NHL awards when he took home the James Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenceman of the year. The exciting offseason doesn’t stop there. Hughes and his brothers Jake and Luke made history as the first trio of brothers to be named cover athletes for the upcoming EA Sports NHL 25.
And now, NHL Network released their top 20 defencemen right now list, and Hughes was ranked second best among his peers around the league.
The one and only player ranked above Hughes on this list is Cale Makar.
Here they are!
What do you think of our Top 20 Defensemen Right Now list? #NHLTopPlayers pic.twitter.com/dh8W4JkLN9
— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) August 28, 2024
The 18 defencemen ranked behind Hughes goes as follows: Victor Hedman (3), Roman Josi (4), Miro Heiskanen (5), Gustav Forsling (6), Charlie McAvoy (7), Adam Fox (8), Evan Bouchard (9), Devon Toews (10), Rasmus Dahlin (11), Josh Morrissey (12), Jaccob Slavin (13), Zach Werenski (14), Noah Dobson (15), Mattias Ekholm (16), Drew Doughty (17), Noah Hanifin (18), Dougie Hamilton (19), Moritz Seider (20).
This isn’t the first time Hughes has graced this list, earning the 10th spot one season ago.
Hughes earns the bump after a 16-point increase from the following season, as well as reaching career highs in goals (17), assists (75), points (92) and plus-minus (+38).
There are seven debutants on this year’s edition of the list, with Gustav Forsling, Evan Bouchard, Zach Werenski, Noah Dobson, Mattias Ekholm, Noah Hanifin and Moritz Seider replacing Erik Karlsson, Alex Pietrangelo, Hampus Lindholm, Brent Burns, Mikhail Sergachev, Brandon Montour and Shea Theodore.
Former Canucks draft pick, Forsling makes his debut on this list after a breakout season, being ranked as the sixth top defenceman.
What do you think Canucks fans? Are you happy with Hughes’ rank of x? If not, what would you change?
