This in from Adam Herman, NHL writer for Bleacher Report, his take that Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils is quite possibly the third best player in the National Hockey League today.
“Assuming full health, I think Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon are the only NHL players I am 100% sure are better than Jack Hughes. And I don’t think there’s a reasonable argument for having him any lower than 5th.”
My take
1. Don’t you love these debates, especially early in the NHL season when some players are strangely quiet and others are miraculously playing like the star of all superstars?
Jack Hughes is a helluva player, and he’s got six goals in six games, including two spectacular ones against the Oilers. But as the Edmonton Journal’s Jim Matheson responded to Herman’s on-line comment: “Better than Draisaitl? A four-time 50 goal scorer, scoring champ and Hart winner. Put that Jersey Devils jersey back in closet.”
2. I’ll still take Draisaitl to have a better season than Jack Hughes, even as Draisaitl and McDavid are off to their worst start on an individual level in years. Their offence dried up on the Oil’s recent five game road swing, which saw the team with two wins and three losses.
3. Draisaitl averaged 6.8 major contributions to Grade A shots on the team last year, the most he’s ever averaged. This year he’s average just 4.3 per game.
He’s got just six points in seven games after 106 points in 71 games last year.
McDavid is average just 5.1 major contributions to Grade A shots per game after hitting 6.4 last year and 6.8 the year before.
GrA per game 7 games
4. McDavid was on fire in the first two games of the 2025-26 season, making major contributions to 23 Grade A shots.
That’s 11.5 per game, well above his usual magnificent average of about 6.5 major contributions to Grade A shots per game in recent years.
In the last five games, however, all of them on the road, McDavid has made major contributions to just 2.6 Grade A shots per game.
5. The McDavid and Draisaitl duo has been teamed up five-on-five as much this year as at any time in Oilers history, save for when Ken Hitchcock coached the team in 2018-19. But they haven’t had such terrible scoring numbers at even strength since McDavid was a rookie. They’re averaging just 1.54 goals for per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 play. Over the years when on the same line they’ve averaged 4.1 goals per 60.
mcd
6. While McDavid and Draisaitl have not been scoring, they’ve been playing solid enough defensive hockey. The opposition has scored just once when they’ve been on the ice together. I’m good with them together because I think McDavid is a solid defensive centre and that Draisaitl is a solid defensive winger. I think their best chance of winning the Cup is now with these two players on the same line.
7. As for their scoring, NHL insider Brian Lawton said on Oilers Now he’s not worried about it, as both are coming off a long playoff grind for the second year in a row. It’s also worth noting Draisaitl got married this summer, which can also be distracting.
“I don’t have any concern that Leon Draisatil or Connor McDavid have forgotten how to play hockey,” Lawton told Bob Stauffer. “I just think there’s a lot of wear and tear. I think you’re trying to do everything when you’re managing a club to get these guys to rest along the journey. And it can take them a little longer to get going. And traditionally for the Oilers, you know, they have gone as their star players have gone. And quite frankly, that’s why they get paid the majority of the money, but they shoulder a majority of the responsibility to lead the club. ”
Lawton added: You can’t get too high, you can’t get too low. They’ll be there in the way that certainly the organization is used to seeing both these players.”
Asked if such star players like to play together, Lawton said, “All the time, they want to play together. That’s just the reality of it.”
He added: “When you’re not winning, then it’s automatically human nature that, ‘Hey, put us back together again, we’ll get this thing started.’ Especially Leon and Connor, in my opinion, because they’re two of the best in the league at taking responsibility for the wins and losses… Those guys wanna play together and they wanna get this team going in the right direction. And they’re not afraid, especially Leon. Leon is one of the most transparent players in the National Hockey League. And he is basically, he doesn’t get the credit of it, but he’s basically a Mark Messier type leader, in my opinion.”
8. That’s high praise from Lawton about Draisaitl’s leadership ability. I have no reason to doubt it. That said, Messier was a hot-and-cold defensive player, just like Draisaitl. When they’re into it, they can stop anybody anywhere on the ice. Over time, however, I’ve come to like Drai more as a wing defender, where he can focus on the attack, and his gambling to steal pucks is less consequential if it goes wrong.
Through the history of the NHL, most often the top attackers on a team player together. Given that McDavid is an intense and responsible defender, and that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has so amped up his defensive game that he’s now a strong #2 centre, I’m good with McDavid and Draisaitl on the same line.
Lawton is right. They’ll figure it out. The goals will come. Plenty of them.
7. As for Herman’s claim, well, Jack Hughes is splendid attacker but to win in the NHL I’ll go with players like McDavid, MacKinnon, Makar, Eichel, Draisaitl, and Barkov, which would put Hughes out of my own Top 5.