State Your Case: Bedard, Luke Hughes' impressive goals

Two of the leading candidates for the Calder Trophy as the League's best rookie added to their resumes with highlight-reel goals on Wednesday.

Forward Connor Bedard, the favorite to win the award, scored with a length-of-the ice dash in overtime to give the Chicago Blackhawks a 2-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets at United Center. 

It was his second goal of the game and extended his point streak to five games (three goals, five assists). With it, Bedard (18 years, 163 days) became the third-youngest player in NHL history to score an overtime goal in the regular season. Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby was 18 years, 101 days when he did it in 2005 and Pittsburgh forward Jordan Staal was 18 years, 153 days when he did it in 2007.

New Jersey Devils defenseman Luke Hughes, 20, tied the game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at 3-3 with 1:25 remaining in regulation at Prudential Center after taking a pass from his brother, Jack, and moving past all five Blue Jackets skaters on the ice before scoring with a wrist shot. The Devils won in overtime on a goal by Timo Meier.

Dougie Hamilton is the only Devils defenseman who has scored a later game-tying goal in the past 10 years, scoring at 58:50 on Jan. 24, 2023.

So, which precocious rookie had the more exciting goal on Wednesday?

That's the question before NHL.com senior director of editorial Shawn P. Roarke and staff writer Tracey Myers in this installment of State Your Case.

Roarke: There are very few things that Bedard gets one-upped at this season. He is skating laps around the rest of the rookie class so far in 2023-24. But Hughes did it on Wednesday night. His score is a candidate for Goal of the Year and it pulled the fans at Prudential Center right out of their seats. With the goalie pulled, Luke Hughes took a drop pass from his brother at the defensive face-off circle and turned on the afterburners, shrugging off a stick check from Dmitri Voronkov and splitting the defensemen pairing of Ivan Provorov and Erik Gudbranson before going high and to the short side past Elvis Merzlikins to set off a wild celebration by his teammates, who understood how special the moment was.  

Myers: That's a sweet goal by Hughes, no doubt. I could say Bedard's lacrosse-style goal against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday would be Goal of the Year, but that's a different State Your Case. Anyway, back to Bedard's winner, which was stellar and sorry, Luke, no one-upping this one. It was a classic Bedard wrister (yes, you can say that when the kid's been hyped for that shot since he was 13). It wasn't end-to-end but it was pretty close. Once Bedard took the pass from defenseman Alex Vlasic deep in Chicago's zone, he skated up ice, entered the Jets zone and fired that patented wrist shot between Winnipeg's Josh Morrissey and Nino Niederreiter. It beat Connor Hellebuyck, one of the best goaltenders in the League, so bonus points for that. And you want a crowd jumping to its feet? Check out the reaction of the United Center fans, who haven't had much to cheer about for a bit. Beautiful, slick, stellar and most of all, a game-winner. Advantage, Bedard.

Roarke: "Are you kidding me?" Those are the words Devils TV analyst Ken Daneyko uttered as Hughes peeled away to celebrate with teammates. Daneyko spent much of his playing career partnered with Scott Niedermayer, who scored some pretty sweet goals of his own. If it left Mr. Devil speechless, it had to have some merit. Everything about this goal was priceless: the confidence, the speed, the edgework and the shot. My gosh, the shot! Go back and watch the highlight again. The hole he picked was so small and so surprised Merzlikins that he reacted after the puck was in the net. And, let's talk timing. The Devils were down 3-2 to the last-place team in the Metropolitan Division and were about to squander two must-have points. It was not the way the Devils wanted to come out of the NHL holiday break. Thanks to Luke Hughes, they didn't.

Myers: Yep, watched it again and all due respect to Mr. Devil, I think he would've had the same reaction, if not more awestruck, if he had been calling Bedard's goal. If Darren Pang had been on the broadcast on Wednesday, you would've heard more than one "Holy Jumpin'!" To borrow your argument Shawn, it's that shot, man, that shot! Bedard's wrist shots are like snowflakes: no two seem to be alike. Each has its own spin, its own flair, its own spot where it goes past the opposing goaltender. The shot on Wednesday was its own thing of beauty and there are plenty more where that came from.