Shortly following the first round of the 2018 NHL Draft, Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman got together to record their 31 Thoughts podcast about what they had just seen unfold. At one point in the podcast, the conversation pivoted towards the Vancouver Canucks’ decision to draft Quinn Hughes at No. 7 over some of the other talented defensemen on the board, all of whom are bigger than the 5’10”, 175-pound Hughes is but aren’t quite as fast or smooth of a skater as him.
This turned into a discussion of how the NHL is by and large becoming a league that is first and foremost about skating.