Quintin Hughes' effortless skating game and puck-handling skills have seen him develop into an explosive end-to-end creator and upper echelon draft prospect.
A Florida-born defender, Hughes produced 29 points (5+24) in 37 games as a freshman with the University of Michigan, including an impressive finishing kick with 15 in his final 15 games, to out-produce recent U.S. National Team Development Program products Noah Hanifin, Charlie McAvoy and Zach Werenski as rearguards who played as collegiate freshmen in their draft years.
On top of it all, Hughes co-led the Wolverines by being on the ice for 46 of the team's 136 goals scored.
In whole, Hughes confirmed what scouts have already known for a while now that he has the feet to competently defend, and the offensive instincts to control the pace of the game - a package that led to him being named to the Big Ten Hockey All-Rookie and Second All-Star Teams.
What makes him special isn't just his vision and ability to stickhandle through the neutral zone, but it's his extreme passing accuracy and unselfish play to help the forwards. He can zip a crisp stretch pass on the tape to spring a winger or creatively flip a high area pass like a quarterback to allow a teammate to skate into it for a scoring chance.
With that said, Hughes will still do much of the heavy lifting himself as a one-man zone entry specialist, and that can sometimes get him into trouble as he can make one too many moves and lose the puck deep, creating an odd-man rush going back the other way. It's not a major flaw, but something his coaches will gladly deal with, and a detail his linemates will need to be mindful of as he is constantly looking to create with his foot on the gas pedal.
Hughes, who amidst his freshman season produced three assists for the U.S. at the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship, saw his effort rewarded with a roster spot at the World Championship in May, where he collected two assists and connected on over 70 per cent of his passes in the American's 10-game march to the bronze medal.
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For more on all the youngsters in the Sabres pipeline, check out Kris Baker's website, SabresProspects.com. You can also follow him on Twitter (@SabresProspects).
