Hughes is the offensive guy... Smith the more 2 way d man. I would be happy to have either of them in the pipeline but I think I almost want Smith more.
I've watched both players quite a bit over the last couple of years. Hughes more than Smith but I've made it a point to watch more of Smith recently. The big difference is Quinn has that special quality and confidence to him when he gets going and he knows it, which could start to get him in trouble as he starts playing against pro level competition. Although, it's that same quality that generally makes guys special. Same quality McAvoy has and he's transitioned pretty well. Whoever ends up drafting him, it might be a good idea to let him stay at Michigan another year, and let him join their AHL affiliate or NHL club for the 19' playoff. Let him mature another year physically and add more to his arsenal. If the Oilers are sitting at 4-5, they'd be insane to pass him up.
Smith is a seasoned player already. Does everything right, but some scouts might say nothing special. The things he does right though, he does with authority and great confidence. He doesnt need that extra second or two that a Bouchard needs for example. Just a really good player who has 10-12 year NHL player written all over him. He's Brian Rafalski 8 years before Rafalski worked hard to become Rafalski. lol.. Unfortunately for him, as the draft approaches teams start falling in love with other players because someone's elite at a certain quality or a guy like Bouchard or Dobson is 6'2" and players like Smith end up dropping a bit. The other thing he has going against him, he's been so solid, so long, scouts start picking his game apart more than concentrating on what he does well. Much like they did to Chychrun a couple years back.
That said, to me Ty Smith is being underrated in most mock drafts I've seen and is going to be a solid addition to any team taking him. Probably sooner than most people think. It's funny, I actually found this site because I seen they had him rated higher than most others and I wanted to see what people here were saying about him compared to other sites. For Smith, hopefully a team in the top 10 has the guts to take the guaranteed pick even though there might be a player flying up the draft boards because he's the flavor of the month. If this is last year's draft he's a guaranteed top 10 pick. In my opinion he should still be.
Overall I think Hughes goes top 4-6 and Smith goes anywhere from 5-15, even though I still think he'll end up in the top 10. In my opinion he's a better prospect than Bouchard or Dobson. Both of whom have things to work on just to play in the league. I've probably watched Bouchard more than any other defensive prospect and he's missing that natural decision making trait he'll need to play at higher, faster levels. Much like Griffin Reinhart. Something that just comes natural to Smith and Hughes. Both of whom are always three moves ahead of what's happening on the ice. For instance, Smith reads what other players are going to do before they know what they're going to do, as well as anyone. A player like Bouchard read the ice very well, but he needs a second or two to do it. Something that is going to bite him at higher levels.
Someone's going to be sitting at 8, 9, or 10 and a ten year NHL defenseman is going to be sitting there for them. A Detroit, Montreal, Rangers, or Oilers are going to grab him knowing he's only a year or two away from actually contributing at a high level in the NHL. After Smith, you're probably looking at the next D's in the draft becoming more 3-4 year development type players. Detroit for example, already having Cholowski and Hronek from the 16' draft, could go from being on empty when it came to D prospects only two years ago, to having 3 top tier prospects all pushing for NHL jobs in the near future. He could be Edmonton's final piece, combined with Larsson, Klefbom and Nurse and Montreal's quick replacement to add to Juulsen after sending Sargechev to Tampa. The Rangers couldnt afford not take him in my opinion, although they'd be the team to take Bouchard over Smith because of his size. Passing on Smith for any of those teams to take a forward would leave them all still searching for a big time prospect on D.
Both players should go in the top ten, but Hughes is the better prospect overall because of his ability to have dominant moments. It'll be interesting to see who lands both of them.
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