It’s time to compare two former fourth-overall draft picks. These two players were drafted 10 years apart, play the same position, are similar in height and were selected by the same franchise. We’re of course talking about defensemen Adam Larsson and Luke Hughes. The New Jersey Devils drafted Larsson fourth overall in 2011 and then took Hughes fourth overall in 2021. Hughes is currently in his second NHL season – both with the Devils – while Larsson is playing in his 14th, his fourth as a member of the Seattle Kraken.
Friday night, December 6, 2024, represented the third meeting between Hughes and Larsson as the Devils hosted the Seattle Kraken at Prudential Center. The result of the game was a 3-2 victory for the Devils that gave them four straight wins against The Kraken.
In the previous two matchups between Larsson and Hughes, neither defenseman found the scoresheet. Larsson held the edge in ice time as he played over 25 minutes in each contest. Meanwhile, Hughes saw a tad over 20 and 22 minutes, respectively, in each game. Plus/Minus is a flawed stat, but Hughes had the edge in their first two meetings as he had a collective rating of 0, while Larsson was a -2.
That changed on Friday. Luke Hughes scored the Devils’ first goal of the game, tying the score 1-1 at 12:27 of the first period. Jesper Bratt, playing in his 500th career game, got the puck over to Jack Hughes. Jack danced around at the top of Seattle’s zone before finding Luke going down the left side. The youngest Hughes brother received the puck, skated a few steps and fired a snapshot past Philipp Grubauer from the bottom of the face-off circle for his first goal of the year.
“I’ve been really impressed with Luke’s game,” Head Coach Sheldon Keefe said. “He probably wants to defend that first goal a little bit differently. (He had) better response (with that) big goal to get us back even. So those are really encouraging things and he’s been so solid defensively.”
All told, Luke Hughes ended the night with one point, a 0 plus/minus rating and four shots on goal in 17:46 of ice time. He also made a very nice play moments after scoring his goal to help keep the game tied. Meanwhile, Larsson finished the night with a -1 rating in 18:04 of ice time.
Before we dive into the rest of the game, we have some more comparing and contrasting to do for Larsson and Hughes.
Going into Larsson’s draft year, he was regarded as an offensive type of defenseman, who could drive play up the ice, but was also big enough size-wise to be a strong defender. That’s how one Devils and Prospects Expert remembers it. According to that same expert, after the draft, the Devils wanted Larsson to really focus on developing his defensive game; that was the role they wanted him to fill. Had they left him in Sweden for a year or two, he might have found that development easier than doing so at The NHL level, but the team had him come to The National Hockey League right away; so he learned on the fly.
If any of that sounds familiar, it’s because it should. Going into Hughes’ draft year, he was regarded as an offensive type of defenseman, who could drive play up the ice. He didn’t (and still doesn’t) have the size that Larsson did (and still does), so there were always questions about how strong of a defender Hughes would be at the game’s highest level. But unlike with Larsson, the Devils did not rush Hughes to The NHL, even though there were certainly some who were pushing for him to make the jump immediately.
During Larsson’s rookie year – 2011-12 – the right-shot defenseman saw a decent allotment of minutes, as he averaged 20:37 of ice time per game; in 65 games. During Hughes’ rookie season – 2023-24 (he did play in two games in 2022-23) – the left-shot defenseman saw his fair share of minutes – sometimes too many – and averaged 21:28 of ice time over 82 games.
Now, in 2024-25, after returning from an injury that cost him the whole pre-season as well as the first few weeks of the regular season, Hughes has displayed a much stronger defensive game, while still finding a way to chip in some offense; going into Friday’s game he was sitting on eight assists and no goals in 19 games played. That puts Hughes on pace to finish the season with over 40 points for the second straight year; a plateau Larsson has never reached at The NHL level.
“It’s just my attack mentality. I think, over the last 10, 12 games, I’ve been attacking a lot more,” Luke Hughes told the media after the game. “I’ve also gotta keep going and growing my defensive game.”
If Hughes can continue to develop his defensive game, without sacrificing his natural offensive abilities, he should have no problem fulfilling the promise the Devils saw in him that led them to draft him fourth overall.
10 years apart, two fourth-overall draft picks by the Devils, both defensemen, one is on his third team and the other is continuing to prove that New Jersey got it right by selecting him when they did.
As for the rest of what transpired between the Devils and Kraken on Friday night, Jesper Bratt celebrated playing in his 500th career game in style as he recorded a goal and an assist. Dougie Hamilton played in his 800th career game. Jack Hughes added two more assists to his tally and Jacob Markstrom was solid in making 17 saves on 19 shots faced.
New Jersey gave up the first goal of the game on a blast from Andre Burakovsky 10:16 into the game. Luke Hughes tied the game 2:11 later. Then, in the second period, Shane Wright put the Kraken up 2-1 with a power-play goal at the 3:41 mark of the frame. Bratt, who had a secondary assist on Luke Hughes’ first period goal, tied the game 2-2 with a goal off a bouncing puck less than five minutes after Wright’s tally. Lastly, 53 seconds into the third period, Timo Meier cleaned up the loose puck and deposited his 200th career goal past Grubauer for the 3-2 Devils’ lead. New Jersey held onto that lead throughout the third period and won for the third time in their last four games.
