The Hughes-Faber Pairing Might Be the Minnesota Wild's Superpower

When you look at the NHL's recent Stanley Cup winners, you can identify a superpower for each of them. That One Thing that elevates them above the pack, a unique attribute that the team leans on to great success.

The Florida Panthers have boasted impossible forward depth in recent seasons. The Vegas Golden Knights had a towering blueline. The Colorado Avalanche arguably had the best skaters in the world at their positions in Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. The Tampa Bay Lightning had that unstoppable power play.

Over this same time period, what was the Minnesota Wild's superpower? Kirill Kaprizov is one of the best goal-scoring forces in the NHL. Still, while he's great, he's not uniquely so. The Wild's most distinctive attribute has probably been its best checking line in the NHL. In Marvel Cinematic Universe terms, their Disney+ series would have been something like "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D's Roommates."

A big reason the Wild made the Quinn Hughes trade was to pursue their superpower. Maybe they could have a dynamic duo in Kaprizov/Hughes that could rival MacKinnon/Makar. A bit derivative, perhaps, but definitely something you can build a blockbuster franchise around.

Instead, through six games at least, it appears Hughes might have brought the Wild something a bit more distinctive. A superpower that's uniquely theirs. That would be the union between him and Brock Faber, which is looking lethal in the early stages of their relationship.

Hughes has come as advertised. His four points in six games undersell the impact he's made on the team offensively. He's already pushing the pace in a way that we've rarely seen coming from the Wild, which makes the team feel faster up and down the lineup. Hughes is referred to as a "one-man breakout," and would be true... except we're also seeing Faber trying to play Hughes' game. Better yet, more often than not, Faber's succeeding.

Faber's got the edge in points since the two took the ice together, with five points in those six games. While Faber can't duplicate Hughes' mobility in tight spaces, he's showing that he's a great skater in his own right by moving the puck nearly as quickly as Hughes. When Hughes hits a roadblock, Faber is there to get out of his own zone decisively, and is doing so with a new level of flair.

Like all great partnerships in the NHL, each player is propelling the other to new heights. We're seeing Faber benefit from playing with someone like Hughes for the first time, but we may also be seeing Hughes play with the most talented defenseman he's ever played with. No disrespect to Filip Hronek, but Faber's raw speed is elite, and he combines it with top-tier defensive awareness. Faber is demonstrating on a nightly basis that he can shut down forwards, plus step up when the puck lands on his stick.

It's a dream combination on paper to put Hughes and Faber together, and it somehow looks even better on the ice. In 114 5-on-5 minutes, the pair has outscored opponents 7-4 while controlling 64.3% of the expected goals share. Those are elite, elite numbers.

What's more, they're excelling on both sides of the ice. There are 164 defensive pairs in the NHL with 100-plus 5-on-5 minutes together. Hughes and Faber are generating 3.92 expected goals per hour, ranking third in the NHL. In their own zone, they're 18th of 164 in allowing scoring chances, surrendering just 2.17 expected goals against per hour.

It'd be impressive enough if the Wild simply had a pair of elite mobile defensemen who could push the pace and be responsible in their zone. Only Hughes and Faber don't stop there; they also happen to be two absolute workhorses. Hughes leads the NHL in average time on ice (27:34), while Faber is 11th in the NHL (24:40). In terms of 5-on-5 minutes, Hughes is No. 1 (20:54), while Faber is fifth (19:34).

That combination of talent and minute-munching is hard to find. The Avalanche had it for years between Makar and Devon Toews, but that era appears to be over with Toews entering his early 30s. But the Avs rode the ability to almost guarantee they'd dominate for 25 minutes a night with their top defense pair (and yes, also MacKinnon) to a Stanley Cup. 

It's early, but one would expect Hughes and Faber to improve with time to build chemistry, not worsen. It's hard to get better results than what we've seen so far. Still, if there's an extra half-layer of efficiency that comes from getting comfortable with each other, then Hughes and Faber could be a superhero duo that puts Minnesota over the top.