Luke Hughes Selected by New Jersey with Fourth Pick I DRAFT

With the fourth-overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, the New Jersey Devils selected
defenseman Luke Hughes from the USA
National Team Development Program.
The Devils needed to add to their organizational depth at defense: Luke Hughes. The Devils needed a blue-chip two-way defender that can skate well: Luke Hughes. The Devils will make one of their franchise cornerstones, Jack Hughes, happy by
reuniting him with his brother
, Luke.

He has great size at 6-foot-2, 176 pounds. And being the youngest member of the class, has much more room to grow. He stands out amongst the Hughes brothers - Jack and Vancouver's Quinn - as the tallest, but you can still see much of the Hughes family staples in his skating. His stride is clean and effortless, he works his edges and he can reach top speed quickly. Hughes can backpedal with ease and is shifty in any direction. Hughes can really work the blue line with the puck. His mobility, composure under pressure at the blue line and hard shot makes him an ideal candidate to quarterback a power play in the future.

As good as Hughes is offensively, he's actually stronger in the defensive zone. Much of that acumen comes from his hockey intelligence. He anticipates the play really well, which allows him to take proper gaps and is always in the right spot, rarely missing an assignment.
But it's the intangibles that separate Hughes from the rest of the pack, mainly the bloodline. He comes from a hockey family (with three top-10 picks) and has been around the pro game a lot. He's seen the amount of work that his brothers had to put in to be successful and he's absorbed a lot of what it takes to be a good pro through observation.