TORONTO — The next Connor McDavid — or is it the next Patrick Kane or Johnny Gaudreau or Mitch Marner? — has the puck once again. And, once again, all eyes are on Jack Hughes.

That includes the many scouts from the Ontario Hockey League and the U.S. National Team Development Program who are here at the OHL Cup this week searching for the Next One, as well as agents, parents and, of course, the on-ice opponents who are trying their darnedest to prevent the 15-year-old Toronto Marlboros centre from taking over the game.

But as anyone who is familiar with Hughes has learned by now, that’s a difficult task. Hughes, who skates and handles the puck as though he is playing with cheat codes, darts up the ice and turns a defender inside-out before beating the goalie with a casual backhand deke. By the end of the 6-3 blowout win against the Eastern Ontario Wild on Thursday, Hughes had scored two goals and added two assists.

A day later, he picked up a pair of assists in a 4-2 win over the Thunder Bay Kings.

“He’s a special player,” said Barrie Colts head coach Dale Hawerchuk, whose team plans on taking Hughes with the No. 1 pick in this year’s OHL draft. “He’s so fast and a such a great skater. But he’s also got great instincts. He thinks the game on another level.”

As Mark Seidel of North American Central Scouting observed, “I see a little bit of McDavid and Marner in him. He’s got the puck skills of Marner but he has a McDavid burst. He’s going to sell a lot of tickets (in the OHL).”

Some think Hughes could have been selling tickets already.

This is his second year of minor midget. A year ago, after he scored 100-110 points in 75-80 games with the Mississauga Rebels — official stats in the Greater Toronto Hockey League are difficult to come — he applied for the same exceptional status that McDavid, Aaron Ekblad and John Tavares were granted to play in the OHL as 15-year-olds.

Hughes, who was born in Orlando, has played a year or more above his age group since he was six and has put up McDavid-like numbers. He scores with such ease and such regularity that the odd time he is held in check tends to stay with him like a bad dream.

“There was an Ottawa tournament one time where the night before I had zero points,” he said, shaking his head at the memory. “I went to bed so angry. The next morning I went out and had four goals and six assists for 10 points.”

“You’ve had two like that in the playoffs this year,” added Marlboros coach Steve Devine.

Still, the OHL denied the request.

It’s possible the league was gun-shy after Sean Day was granted status in 2013 but drafted fourth overall in the OHL and slipped to the third round of last year’s NHL entry draft.

There were more obvious reasons than that: At this time last year, Hughes was 5-foot-7 and 135 pounds. Today, he’s not a whole lot bigger.

“Even if we got in, we didn’t know if we would actually take it,” said Hughes, who has not yet decided if he will play in the OHL next season or follow his older brother, Quinton, in the U.S. National Team Development Program. “It might not have been good for me to jump in the league amongst a bunch of 19-year-olds.”

According to Hughes’ father Jim, who up until two years ago was the Toronto Maple Leafs’ director of player development, the OHL’s decision was “a blessing.”

Hughes, who has 153 points in 68 games this season, might have looked bored at times this season. But he has used the extra year of minor midget to work on his faceoff skills and become more of a two-way forward.

“I’ve seen so many players where the well dries up, the scoring dries up, and you go from a skilled guy to all of a sudden a third-line player,” said his father. “From my perspective, (Jack) had the ability to enhance his skill-set this year and develop his scoring. You can never get enough of that.”

The extra year has allowed Hughes to let the rest of his body catch up to his feet and hands. He’s bigger than he’s ever been, having grown a couple of inches. Still, he’s far from being one of the biggest kids in minor midget. But because he’s so dangerous with the puck, he wears one of the biggest targets on his back.

“This playoff run, it’s been, ‘How can we try to physically take Jack out of the game?’” Devine said of opponents. “They’re not even worrying about the puck. It’s been really ruthless.”

Hughes, who from a young age learned “to use my brain more than my physical attributes,” is Gaudreau-like greasy when it comes to evading contact.

But he can’t avoid it completely. In a recent playoff game against Vaughan, he got tagged with a hard hit and had to miss a game. When he returned, that bulls-eye on his back seemed to loom even larger. If Hughes was scared, he didn’t show it.

“We were down with two minutes to go and he assisted on the tying goal and then he scored the winner, and then he came to the bench and tossed his cookies,” said Devine, laughing. “I think that just speaks to Jack’s character. It’s been very tough for him and he’s still gone out there and done the job.”

The stoicism comes from being raised in a pro sports lifestyle. A perk of father’s previous job — aside from having William Nylander and others temporarily live at the house — was providing the kids with a crystal ball into why certain players make it to the NHL and others flame out.

“He was saying the same things to me as the Leafs guys who were drafted,” said Hughes, who already has Auston Matthews’ agent, Pat Brisson, as an advisor and works with the same trainers who train McDavid.

“Jack has had a very similar development curve as Connor,” said Beyond The Next Level sport performance coach Dan Ninkovich, who worked with McDavid when he was the same age. “What separates them is that they can think the game fast and a few steps in advance. When I play Jack with junior and pro players in the summer, he brings his game up a whole other level.”

As for the pipe dream comparisons or being called the Next One, Hughes laughs them off.

It’s nice, he said. But it’s also a bit premature considering he’s two years away from his NHL draft year and not even playing in the OHL.

For now, he’s just trying to have fun.

“Sometimes it’s a little overwhelming to me,” he said. “(McDavid’s) the best player in the league or one of them. It’s pretty cool, but it doesn’t really mean anything. It’s just people saying things. I love watching him and trying to emulate him.

“Hopefully I can be as good as him one day.”

mtraikos@postmedia.com

Jack Hughes isn’t the only future top prospect garnering Next One status.

While Brandon Wheat Kings forward Nolan Patrick is expected to be the first-overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, it’s the next two years that has most scouts excited.

Here’s a look at what’s coming:

Rasmus Dahlin, 2018 draft eligible

Dahlin, who has been compared to Erik Karlsson, was the youngest player at the world juniors this year. He is already playing in the highest men’s league in Sweden, where he became the second-youngest player to score a goal.

Andrei Svechnikov, 2018 draft eligible

The 6-foot-2 winger was born in Russian but is playing in North America. He set a tournament record at the World Junior A Challenge in December with eight goals in four games. He leads USHL rookies with 48 points in 42 games.

Joe Veleno, 2018 draft eligible

The Saint John Sea Dogs forward was the first player from Quebec to be granted “exceptional status” but Veleno hasn’t exactly wowed scouts like McDavid did in his first two junior seasons. But there’s potential there. He scored 43 points in 62 games as a 15-year-old and has followed it up with 36 points in 43 games this year.

Peyton Krebs, 2019 draft eligible

The 5-foot-11 winger out of Okotoks, Alta., was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 WHL bantam draft. And for good reason. Krebs scored six points in six games for the Kootenay Ice, before returning to minor midget this year, where he has 40 points in 29 games.

Massimo Rizzo, 2019 draft eligible

A first-round pick of the Kamloops Blazers who is also being recruited by the University of Wisconsin, Rizzo possesses tantalizing skill. The 5-foot-10 forward from B.C. has scored 18 goals and 78 points in 43 games this year for Burnaby’s prep team.