This is the first in a six-part series where Mitch Brown will use video analysis to take a deep dive into what makes some NHL prospects so special.



Jack Hughes | Kaapo Kakko | Adam Boqvist | Filip Zadina | Vitali Kravtsov | Kirill Kaprizov



Jack Hughes hasn’t played a single NHL game, but it feels like he’s been hockey royalty for years. Whispers of the dynamic scorer began popping up at least five years ago while he torched the Greater Toronto Area minor hockey system. Even years out, it felt like Hughes was the inevitable first overall selection in the 2019 NHL Draft.



Hughes is unlike any other prospect in the world. Yes, he can make all the great plays — the cross-slot passes, the slot cuts and the dashes through traffic — that one would expect from a soon-to-be NHLer. But those plays aren’t what makes him the special prospect that he is. Rather, it’s the sheer volume of those chances that Hughes creates that...