beautifulduckweed's Recs Masterlist (fics and vids/edits)
(thanks to @actuallysara for the inspiration)
The masterlist will be regularly updated. When I do, I'll reblog this post with a date in the tags, as well as update the post with my last updated date
I also have a date recommended column so you can always sort for for the newest recs
It's a spreadsheet, so best viewed on a tablet screen in landscape mode or larger
Covers fics posted on AO3 (complete works only) and vids. Each tab includes my works at the very bottom; feel free to filter my name out (beautifulduckweed) if you want recs only
BUT CANDY, you say, THIS IS VIEW-ONLY SO I CAN'T USE FILTERS. Well, good news, everyone! Google Sheets lets you set up individual views even in view-only mode. Go to Data -> Create Filter View, and Google Sheets will automatically turn all the column headers into filters. Tap on the little funnel-shaped three-line icon on the bottom right of the column headers, and you can sort or filter each column however you want.
This masterlist won't stop me from making the occasional rec roundup post on Tumblr
hey could you expand on the fact that wsh has a better defensive rating that Quinn Hughes? I’m very new to hockey and the most common things I’ve heard, esp across other platforms like tiktok, that Hughes is one of the best defence men in the league and will’s defensive game needs heaps of work??? Like verbatim I’ve heard ppl call Hughes the best defenseman on multiple occasions so how does this discrepancy happen? Is it just different people’s interpretations of stats and the game?
I would literally love to, Anon! Buckle up, because this can get a little technical at times but I’ll do my best to make everything easy to understand. Full analysis of Quinn Hughes & Will Smith's defensive metrics, plus my take on the discrepancies between the metrics and how people discuss both are under the cut!
The first thing I was to make abundantly clear is that when people say “best defensemen” they almost never exclusively mean “best defender” —confusing, I know. They mean best player in that position, which includes far more than just defensive impact. Like with forwards, truly elite defensemen are expected to have a pretty complete 200ft game. This means impacting in all three zones, and having high usage rates. That said, important to note that even though I’ll be almost exclusively using the numbers here, my bias does exist. I flat disagree with people who think Quinn Hughes is the best defenseman in the league. I do think he’s an elite, game changing player, but I don’t think he’s the best player in the league, at his position or in general. For Will Smith, I agree with the notion that his defensive game needs work, but I think it’s in some very specific areas (not necessarily all around or “heaps of work” as you’ve worded it here) and I think that he’s more disruptive than he’s often given credit for. But you asked about the numbers, so let’s dig into that.
For this, I’ll be looking at Net Rating, rather than the individual stats that go into the model, otherwise this would be far too long. Still, there’s nuance in these stats that must be acknowledged. That said, Net Rating (and defensive and offensive rating) has been developed with a lot of awareness of that nuance and very careful precision to try and account for it, so I feel pretty comfortable trusting the numbers.
Net Rating is essentially a measure of a player’s value in wins—an all encompassing stat when looking at players’ skill and impact over the whole game—that can be broken down into two sections: Defensive Rating and Offensive Rating. Here's how both measures break down:
Offensive Rating: A weighted combination of goals, primary assists, secondary assists, individual expected goals, faceoffs, penalties drawn, expected goals for impact at 5-on-5, goals for impact at 5-on-5, power-play goal impact and usage.
Defensive Rating: A weighted combination of blocked shots, faceoffs, penalties taken, expected goals against impact at 5-on-5, goals against impact at 5-on-5, penalty kill impact and usage.
Offensive and Defensive Rating are both centered around an average skater at their position where positive is always good. An average player by Net Rating is right at zero. Note, because goalies exist, offensive metrics still hold more weight because they can be more easily isolated to an individual player.
Okay now that we understand the numbers, let’s look at Quinn Hughes’ stats analytics from this season:
His O Rating of +21.5 puts in him the 99th percentile, is the 6th highest in the league, and the 2nd highest among defensemen. His Net Rating of +14.6 puts him in the 96th percentile, is the 35th highest in the league, and the 17th highest among defensemen. What stands out here is that his D Rating is -7, which is in the 1st percentile (meaning the bottom 1% of the entire league). Out of 716 total players who played in 20 or more regular season games, Quinn Hughes’ defensive rating ranks 709th, or 8th worst in the league.
Here’s his rating for every game this season by percentile:
As you can see, his O Rating started high and pretty much stayed there, really hitting his stride just before the trade to Minnesota. His Net Rating is a similar story, with less consistency. His D Rating is all over the place though, he had a lot of pretty good defensive games, and a lot of really terrible defensive games. What this tells me is that his defensive impact is extremely inconsistent and likely pretty susceptible to opponent match ups.
My personal ethos is that no matter how talented a skater is in one area, their game has to be more comprehensive to rightfully be considered “the best,” and especially with defensemen, I can’t justify giving the title of best defenseman in the league to a skater who is so completely inconsistent in their own zone, especially to such an extent that their overall defensive rating on the season ranks 8th worst in the entire league among all skaters.
For comparison, this is Cale Makar’s overall stats analytics and rating percentiles over the course of the season:
His +17.6 O Rating and +23.4 Net Rating both put him in the 99th percentile, and his +5.9 D Rating puts him in the 97th percentile. Among all skaters, his O Rating ranks 15th, D Rating ranks 27th, and Net Rating ranks 7th.
Looking at their Net Rating side by side, here’s how they compared throughout the season:
While Quinn Hughes had some spikes where he played a better overall game than Makar did, overall throughout the course of the season Makar played not only a better, more comprehensive game, but did so with far more consistency than Hughes did. Consistency matters, but also requires a bigger picture perspective, which sometimes gets missed.
As for Will Smith, here’s his overall stats analytics and rating percentiles over the course of the season:
His +7.2 O Rating puts him in the 89th percentile, his -1.3 D Rating puts him in the 25th percentile, and his +5.8 Net Rating puts him in the 84th percentile. For his first year at a new position and only his second year in the league, that’s incredibly good impact. In fact, offensively and overall I’d argue that’s damn good (at least top 16% of the entire league good according to the numbers). His defensive game does need work (remember the average for position would be 0, so his -1.3 rating does mean that defensively, his impact is below average for a forward with his usage metrics) but the numbers aren’t as concerning as people often make it appear with how they talk about it.
Here’s how his and Quinn Hughes’ D Ratings compared over the course of the season:
Like noted above, Quinn Hughes was all over the place, but Will’s rating was on an upward trend at the end of the season as he worked on his defensive game, and he was trending back towards league average for forwards, which is impressive given his already above average offensive and net impact ratings. Will’s got work to do, no doubt, but his defense is no where near as terrible as people claim (besides, defense at the NHL level is usually where skaters require the most development anyway) and he’s got the IQ, talent, and work ethic to continue to improve, especially as he continues to get more comfortable on the wing and playing at the NHL level in general.
So to answer your question about discrepancies between the way people talk about Quinn Hughes and Will Smith and the actual statistics, I think it’s a combination of people’s interpretations of the game and also Quinn Hughes’ impressive offensive impact that really explains it. Quinn Hughes is a high profile, impactful, highly intelligent and skilled skater. His Net Rating isn’t misleading, and it does mean that overall he’s a player in the top 5% of the league (ranks 35th among all skaters), but so much of that is entirely offensive impact. I just don’t think that’s enough to call him the best defenseman in the game. I wouldn’t even place him top 3.
As for Will, I honestly can’t say why people act like he’s not as good as his is. Part of it could be the Mack comparisons just because they’re playing every game together, and Mack’s insane—I honestly don’t know.
What I do know is that he’s an insanely talented player with a high ceiling that he’s nowhere near hitting, and largely I have zero doubt that he’s going to prove everyone who’s ever under-sold him or doubted him completely wrong. That includes everyone who likes to doom-post about Will being moved to the fourth line or possibly traded. All those people are doubting and underselling Will as well. He’s a damn good hockey player, one of the biggest assets the Shark’s have, and is coming off of an impressive sophomore season. He’s not going anywhere.
This is so long but it was a really fun deep dive, and I hope that answered your question!
will: welcome to the sharks stenberg all the way from the great and good looking country of sweden :~) you’ll love me here i mean you’ll love it here. say hello macklin
Porter: Me and Bumper lived together last year when I came up. We lived together, and I guess you could basically say we lived with Barks too, because we all spent a lot of time -
Denver (off-screen): You lived at MY place!
Porter: We basically lived with Barks and Zegras. But me and Bumper technically lived together.
Eklund Wishes Sharks “Best of Luck”, Looking Forward To Reuniting With Zetterlund
Felicia Keller, San Jose Hockey Now 6/27/26
William Eklund was at a Pitbull concert when he heard about being traded to the Ottawa Senators.
When he received the call from San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier, he stepped out of the arena.
He said his favorite song is “Fireball,” which Pitbull plays near the end of his set, so it’s unclear if Eklund actually got to hear it this time around.
But once he overcame the shock, Eklund got excited.
Then he made all the important phone calls. First to his parents, and then soon after, Fabian Zetterlund.
“He didn’t believe me at first, to be honest,” Eklund said. “He was so happy, and his family too. We became very good friends in San Jose, and I think that’s going to translate to here. He was really excited.”
Zetterlund, one of Eklund’s best friends, is already in Ottawa, traded there during the 2024-25 season. The pair of Swedes were both in a sauna when Zetterlund got news of his trade to the Senators.
So, the duo that were responsible for some of the best San Jose Sharks’ goal celebrations from 2023 to 2025 are officially reunited.
But also, Eklund – who has never made the playoffs with the San Jose Sharks – is joining a team that has made the playoffs in the last two seasons, this year losing to the eventual champion Carolina Hurricanes in the first round.
“The times I have played them (Ottawa), they’ve been really hard to play against,” Eklund said. “They’re a very well-rounded team, deep group. I heard really good things about them. A lot of good young guys trying to do good things, so I’m really excited to join that group and do the best I can.”
With the Senators, Eklund could potentially see playing time on the wing of Tim Stützle – who housed Zetterlund following that trade.
“Obviously a great player. He’s been a great player in this league for a while now, so if you get that opportunity, just do the best you can with it. He’s been doing really good things for this organization and this league for a while. Whoever I play with it’s going to be a fun journey.”
Eklund still wished his former team the best.
“That’s a part of the game, sometimes it’s a business,” Eklund said. “I got no hard feelings for San Jose. I wish all the guys the best of luck there.”
Now, he wants to take the opportunity to continue growing as a hockey player.
“Coming to Ottawa is a big chance for me,” Eklund said. “I haven’t even proved myself as the best player I can be, and I really hope to take another step next year, another step year after that, and to help us win more games in the playoffs and stuff like that. So I’m just really excited, that’s the only thing I am.
one of the hardest things to learn as a depressed former Gifted Kid™ is that half-assed is better than nothing. take the 50%, 40%, even 20% job. scrubbing your face is better than not taking a shower at all. picking up your clothes is better than never cleaning. nibbling on some bread is better than starving.
DO THINGS HALFWAY. NOW YOU’RE 100% BETTER OFF THAN YOU WERE BEFORE.
One of my college professors used to say “anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.” I didn’t understand that for years because I didn’t do anything poorly, I couldn’t do anything poorly, I had to Do Everything Perfectly.
But brushing your teeth for 30 seconds is better than not brushing them at all when that 2 minutes seems exhausting. Doing ten minutes of yoga is better than 10 minutes of sitting when 30 minutes of cardio sounds impossible. Changing my clothes is good when a whole shower is impossible. Standing on the porch for a few minutes is worth it after being in the house for three straight days because I don’t have the energy to go anywhere.
Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly… because doing it poorly is better than not doing it.
You must understand that perfectionism isn’t striving for excellence, it’s a crippling fear of being flawed and therefore worth abandonment or punishment. It’s a kind of psychological avoidance. You’re avoiding fear and failure , not embracing the thing you want to do bc if it was about the thing you want to do you’d be fine with partial victory.
