The title contains no typos.
Jack Hughes leads the National Hockey League in scoring and has already accumulated 20 points before even playing 10 games.
In nine games, the New Jersey Devils genius has collected five goals and 15 assists. He’ll obviously have a lot of work to do to maintain his 182 point pace over a full season.
But if he succeeded, he would have the best season since Mario Lemieux in 1988-1989. The Magnificent had collected 199 points (85 goals, 114 assists) in 76 games.
Hughes nearly reached 100 points last season, totaling 99 in 78 games (43 goals, 56 assists).
Hughes, the first overall pick in the 2019 draft, had a poor start to his National Hockey League career. The former sidekick of Cole Caufield, who moved straight from the American Junior (USHL) to the NHL at the age of 18, did not have the required physical maturity in his debut and had to be content with 21 points, including just seven goals, in 61 games.
It wasn’t until 2021-2022 that he started on the Bettman scene with 56 points, including 26 goals, in 49 games.
The Devils made a big deal by signing him for eight years and just $8 million per year before his emergence, on November 30, 2021.
For comparison, Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche has a contract worth $12.6 million per year. We’re talking about a difference of $4.6 million to Hughes.