from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- Most who watched Quinn Hughes play in the GTHL never saw him becoming an NHL star. What they didn’t see was his over-the-top hockey sense and his ability to compete. Too many of us get caught up with the size of a player rather than the talent involved. The rookie Hughes is among the best players on the Vancouver Canucks.

- The great Alex Ovechkin has had 10 seasons of 45 goals or more, which is more than remarkable in this day and age The nine active scorers who follow him – Patrick Marleau, Sidney Crosby, Eric Staal, Joe Thornton, Steven Stamkos, Evgeni Malkin, Jeff Carter, Corey Perry and Zach Parise – have had 10 45-plus scoring seasons as well – when you combine all of them together.

- Note to John Chayka, general manager of the Arizona Coyotes: Teams don’t win the Stanley Cup without first or second line centres of quality.

St. Louis had Ryan O’Reilly and Brayden Schenn. Washington had Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nick Backstrom. Pittsburgh, obviously, had Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Before that, Chicago had Jonathan Toews and Los Angeles won with Anze Kopitar and Jeff Carter.

The Coyotes have recently traded for star winger Taylor Hall after trading in the summer for winger Phil Kessel. Both can be game-breakers at times. Just not when it matters if they’re not surrounded by all-star calibre or near all-star calibre centremen....

more on the last topic plus other hockey notes...