Objectifying Hockey Heartthrobs
Are the hottie hockey players we all know and love even good at their jobs? Big names like Jack Hughes, Trevor Zegras, and Mat Barzal are all known to be cute, but are they hockey superstars?
Let’s start with what we know, Jack Hughes was drafted 1st overall in the 2019 draft, Trevor Zegras was drafted 9th overall in the 2019 draft, and Mat Barzal was drafted 16th overall in the 2015 draft. Zegras and Hughes won the gold medal in the World Junior Championship in 2021 for team USA, while Barzal won the silver medal in his 2017 World Junior Championship for Team Canada. Now these are all team stats, let’s get into individual accomplishments.
Zegras is currently in his rookie year in the race for the calder, but Barzal and Hughes are already in their 6th and 3rd seasons, respectively, although Barzal only played two games in the first season, so his rookie season was the next year. During Hughes’ rookie season in his 61 games played, he only registered 7 goals, 14 assists and a total of 21 points. During Barzal’s rookie season, contrastingly, he registered 22 goals, 63 assists, and had a total of 85 points, in his 82 games played. For Zegras, in his current 28 games played this year, he has had 6 goals and 16 assists for a total of 22 points, already better than Hughes’ 21 point season.
As a rookie, Barzal won the Calder Trophy and has led his team, the Islanders, in points each season since. This year Barzal has registered 5 goals and 12 assists with a total of 17 points in his 23 games played, keeping in mind the Islanders COVID struggle and his inability to play with a full team for many of those games. This year Hughes has also been through some struggles with a shoulder injury limiting him to only 9 games this season so far, in which he had 4 goals and 3 assists.
So where does this leave us? Jack Hughes just signed a $8 million AAV deal for 8 years on the Devils. Looking at his stats compared to other players who famously could be used as the team image based on their popularity and looks he is not close to the way these other guys are playing. The New Jersey Devils love Hughes as their face, as they know content of him attracts the most popularity within the fans but is it worth it? Mat Barzal is currently under a 7 million AAV deal for only three years, earning less than Hughes while putting up much better numbers and having the same affect on the fans. Zegras, who is now gaining popularity for his dazzling assist on December 7, is going to be due for a contract soon, so will his looks get him the deal like Hughes or his skills like Barzal? Only time will tell.