EP Rinkside Mailbag: Dallas' big decision and how Luke Hughes stacks up

It must be getting close to March, because I’m starting to get more college hockey and awards questions than anything else. We can just get right to it. No need to mess around.

Let’s get to it:

Manny asks: “How impressive is Luke Hughes' freshman season at Michigan compared to past top D prospects? If he were born a week later he'd be in this year's draft, in that scenario based on his year at Michigan where do you think he would go?”

People are gonna hate this, but It’s not as impressive as a few others in the past few years.

Yes, scoring 16 goals is impressive, but he’s shooting north of 20 percent and I haven’t been all that impressed by his defensive play. Yes, the Wolverines have outscored opponents 42-25 in all situations when he’s on the ice (62.7 percent), according to InStat, and averages about 4.8 shot attempts per game. 

However, the underlying numbers aren’t even close to that impressive for Michigan. And maybe you say, “Well, that’s Michigan’s talent level coming into play,” but shouldn’t that talent level also result in better on-ice percentages apart from goals?