Jack Hughes Falls to 35th in 2024 Lady Byng Voting

jack hughes fell to 35th in 2024 Lady Byng Trophy voting after an injury-riddled season, a sharp drop from the years when he looked like a real candidate for the award. His penalty totals tell the story: zero in 2021-22, six in 2022-23, and 10 in 61 games last season.

That slide matters because Hughes was once one of the league’s most well-liked players, a forward who played with zest and clearly put his team before himself. He scored the Golden Goal and, for a while, looked built for the Lady Byng conversation rather than pushed out of it.

Jack Hughes and the Lady Byng arc

The early peak came in 2021-22, when Hughes had zero penalty minutes and finished seventh in Lady Byng voting with five first-place votes. Kyle Connor won the award that season, but Hughes was close enough to be part of the final discussion.

He stayed in the mix in 2022-23, when he finished second to Anze Kopitar for the Lady Byng Award. That season kept his profile high, even as the penalty column began to change from spotless to ordinary.

Penalty minutes changed the picture

The shift was clear in the numbers. Hughes went from zero penalty minutes to six, then to 10 penalty minutes in 61 games last season. That is the sort of change that turns a player from award favorite into a player voters no longer treat the same way.

The on-ice behavior tracked with it. He began arguing more with referees, getting into post-whistle scuffles, and spending more time in the penalty box. Jaccob Slavin and Jared Spurgeon finished ahead of him in the season when he placed seventh, a reminder that the award has always rewarded restraint as much as skill.

Jack Hughes and 2024

By 2024, Hughes had slipped to 35th after the injury-riddled season, and last year he finished 24th. This year, he might not get a vote, which is the clearest sign of how far the Lady Byng race has moved away from the Devils star forward.