2. Shot speed<\/p>\n
Thompson, who\u2019s 6-foot-6, is a towering, skilled forward with one of the hardest shots in the entire NHL. Per NHL EDGE stats, Thompson leads all forwards in 90-plus mph shot attempts (29) this season and has the fifth-hardest shot at his position (97.94 mph). He also ranks in the 97th percentile among forwards in average shot speed (64.59 mph).<\/p>\n
Last season, Thompson recorded the hardest shot attempt of the NHL\u2019s puck and player tracking era (since 2021-22), reaching 106.00 mph for the Sabres on Dec. 31, 2024.<\/p>\n
Hughes, meanwhile, ranks highly among defensemen in hardest shot (95.04 mph; 81st percentile). In terms of shot attempts between 70-80 mph, Hughes ranks in the 98th percentile among defensemen (117).<\/p>\n
3. Skating speed<\/p>\n
Hughes, an elite playmaker who leads the entire NHL in average ice time (27:52 per game), and Thompson, an extremely skilled puck-handler for a forward of his size, have both been fast skaters at their respective positions in the NHL this season.<\/p>\n
Per NHL EDGE stats, Hughes ranks sixth among defensemen in 20-plus mph speed bursts (113; 98th percentile at position) this season. Hughes also ranks highly among defensemen in max skating speed (22.51 mph; 86th percentile), while Thompson ranks highly among forwards in that category (22.85 mph; 82nd percentile).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2. Shot speed Thompson, who\u2019s 6-foot-6, is a towering, skilled forward with one of the hardest shots in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-465544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}