#draft era jhughes

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Feb 16, 2018 | NTDP

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ok that terrible fight has piqued my interest pls tell me more about this dude he fights like gumby would if he fought i think...the complete lack of a closed fist in particular also...

OHHHHHH i could say one million hundred gazillion things about henry ALWAYS thank you so much for asking...... the fact that his pathetic little limp wristed slap fight was PLANNED tells you sooo much 😭😭😭😭😭 the main thing to know about henry is that he is a nerd in jock's clothing.... he's like if a smart person chose to be dumb out of their own free will. he was a double major at harvard (where he was also captain of their hockey team for a while) because he finished his first degree too fast (!) and he had to make his psychology minor into a second major so he could keep playing. his main comment on this was that psychology classes are Kind Of Scary... because they make you think about Your Own Brain... look what you did harvard. you took a perfectly good henry and you gave it anxiety!!!! he went to prep school in massachusetts. listening to any sort of media with him is so funny because he says things like "oh gosh" and responds to every question with "great question" like he is just sooo polite... he's not a fighter. that's not his bag!!!! and yet!!! he was also part of the same usntdp era that gave us the jhughes-tz11-cole caufield trio but lowkey no one remembers he was there because he's a little bit irrelevant like that 😭 up until recently i really questioned if anyone on the sharks besides bordy (his usntdp teammate who does NOT want him cramping her style) knew his name because like. he's just henry... he's just there.... but apparently they do? they love their big polite very manly muppet? which they should!!!! but like. i was not sure...... i felt like a mom worried her son wasn't getting along with the other kids at preschool 😭

another important part of Henry Lore is that he was originally drafted by the ducks in 2019, same year as tz11, but before he left college, he let them know he wanted to go to free agency when his rights expired and he ended up becoming a shark!!! he claims it was because he knew and liked a lot of the staff in san jose but idk the ducks seem to have some kind of insane soul crushing thing going on in the locker room that you can't even attribute to not winning because the sharks aren't winning either and they're still full of joie de vivre.... but it did give us this moment which i think about constantly.... henry "if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all" thrun <3

he loves his dogs.... he plays a lot of tennis (he would be the art in a challengers situation OBVIOUSLY).... his college bestie mitchell gibson is a goalie which i'm sure has to do with henry's propensity towards masochism but not even in a hot way just in the sense that i think there is still some kind of puritan ghost named like, Chastity Patience residing within him, as is the case with MANY people from massachusetts.... i'm probably forgetting things because it's early but in conclusion:

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June 20, 2019 | The day before the draft Jack Hughes to the media crowd: “Ready?”

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Hi I’m Jack Hughes, I’m seventeen years old, and I was born in Orlando, FL.

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ALT TEXT from https://thehockeynews.com/news/archive-in-2019-devils-jack-hughes-was-on-precipice-of-beginning-his-nhl-career for searchability

Archive: In 2019, Devils' Jack Hughes Was On Precipice Of Beginning His NHL Career

New Jersey Devils center Jack Hughes is one of the NHL's up-and-coming superstars. In this 2019 story, Hughes pulled back the curtain on his life as a fledgling force to reckon with.

May 3, 2024

Vol. 72, No. 14, May 13, 2019

The Hockey News Archive

Although his New Jersey Devils didn’t make this season’s Stanley Cup playoffs – and despite his injury that forced him to have surgery in early April – center Jack Hughes is one of the NHL’s rising young superstars. 

In this cover story from The Hockey News’ May 13, 2019 edition (Vol. 72, Issue 14), contributing writer Giovanni Siciliano profiled Hughes as he began his NHL journey.

Before Hughes was picked first overall by New Jersey in 2019, he was a much-hyped youngster who dominated for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program. And while some said he was born to play hockey, Hughes had a confidence in himself that extended beyond the hockey world.

“I feel like I could be successful in a lot of things,” Hughes said. “I love playing baseball. I was a pretty good baseball player, and if I put as much time as I did into hockey into golf, I could be a pretty good golfer. If I wanted to do something smart, I could probably do that, too.”

Hughes is currently on an $8-million-per-season salary that makes him one of the NHL’s best bargains. He doesn’t worry about the money he’s making, but instead, he simply focuses on the game itself and being ready night in and night out to be a difference-maker.

“That’s really the only thing you gotta do,” Hughes said. “Every player in the NHL deals with it. I mean, they’re getting paid, and they have to live up to what they’re getting paid.”

JACK HUGHES: BORN FOR THIS

Vol. 72, No. 14, May 13, 2019

By Giovanni Siciliano

Two months before the NHL draft, Jack Hughes is sitting at the dining room table in his family’s home in Canton, Mich. A continuous loop of the NHL Network is playing on the big-screen TV in the family room just a few feet away, where his father Jim is relaxing in a recliner. “First five picks in 2013. Go!” Jim says. “OK. MacKinnon, Barkov, Drouin, Jones…” Jack replies, stuck on No. 5. “If you give me the team, I think I can get it,” he says. He’s told it’s Carolina. “Oh yeah, then it’s Lindholm. And Monahan sixth, right?”

There are some people who were put on Earth to play hockey. Jack Hughes is one of them. One of the first photos of Hughes is of a chubby, bald, 12-day-old baby in a Detroit Red Wings jumper sitting in the Turner Cup. A few years later, when Jim was an AHL assistant coach in Manchester, Jack would quietly sit in his seat and eat popcorn, enraptured with what was going on in front of him the way most toddlers are possessed by Sesame Street. As a youngster growing up in Toronto, he would tag along with his father on scouting trips and diligently write notes in a hardcover book about the players he watched. When he was old enough to take part in the family’s fantasy draft, he would dress in a suit and walk around telling people he’d be a GM in the NHL one day. He even made his own business cards.

Born in the U.S. and assembled in Canada, Jack has been on the path to stardom from the time he could walk. There was no escaping it. Jim played defense for four seasons at Providence College, captaining the Friars in his senior year. According to Jack, legendary USA Hockey coach Ben Smith once referred to Jim as “the biggest hack of all-time, like the dirtiest player, but then he said he was a really good player, too, and a good puck-mover.” Jack’s mother, Ellen, is in the University of New Hampshire’s Sports Hall of Fame for both hockey and soccer. She played for Team USA at the 1992 Women’s World Championship and, along with Hall of Famer Geraldine Heaney, was named to the all-tournament team on defense. (Her silver medal from that tournament went to the Massachusetts Sports Hall of Fame but has since gone missing.) 

William Nylander lived with the family for a month when he first came to play in North America and often took Jack and the other Hughes brothers, Quinn and Luke, out on the ice to do drills. “We still do them,” Jack says. “We call them ‘Willy drills.’” In Jake Gardiner’s Twitter profile, his bio photo shows the Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman on the ice at the 2014 Winter Classic at the University of Michigan, flanked by Jack and his two brothers.

Hockey is all over Jack’s DNA, beginning with his father. After winning the International League’s Turner Cup as an assistant coach with Orlando in 2001 (the IHL’s final year), Jim moved his family to Boston and then Manchester for assistant coaching gigs, and finally to Toronto in 2006, when then-Leafs GM John Ferguson Jr., an ex-teammate at Providence, hired him as an assistant coach with the Toronto Marlies. (Jim later became the Leafs’ director of player personnel before being fired in 2015.) The family settled in Toronto for the better part of a decade. 

There, Jim presided over all three of his sons’ minor hockey careers in the Greater Toronto Hockey League, as well as spring hockey, and exposed them to the best on- and off-ice resources in the world. There are photos of all three boys outside on what they call the ‘ODR,’ or outdoor rink, with Jim leading them in drills, every one with a purpose. So, clearly, Jack is one of those rare few who was born to play hockey, right? “I don’t know what I think about that,” Jack says. “I feel like I could be successful in a lot of things. I love playing baseball. I was a pretty good baseball player, and if I put as much time as I did into hockey into golf, I could be a pretty good golfer. If I wanted to do something smart, I could probably do that, too.”

Hockey world, meet Jack Hughes, uber-modern athlete and one of the most laidback teenagers you’ll ever meet. If he’s feeling the pressure of being the top prospect for the 2019 NHL draft and likely the future of the New Jersey Devils, there isn’t a single crack in his facade that would suggest that’s the case. When talk of the upcoming draft lottery arises at the dining room table, he picks up his phone to start searching for a draft-lottery simulator website. “Let’s do it!” he says. “What’s it called? Screw it, why not?” Then he gets giddy as he goes through it 10 times. (For the record, the Devils won three times.) What kind of teenager does that?

Hughes is a player the NHL needs. And he’s more than ready to become the first player to jump from USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program directly to the NHL. Patrick Kane, Auston Matthews and Jack Eichel would’ve been the first, second and third, but all three are late birthdays, so they had to spend their draft years playing elsewhere. When it comes to comparisons, Hughes falls in that netherworld of prospects. He’s not considered a generational talent in the Sidney Crosby or Connor McDavid sense, but he’s not far off. Picture Kane playing center, and that’s as close as you’re going to get to putting a label on Hughes. 

Like Kane, he’s immensely skilled and fast. And even though he’s a little undersized, Hughes is about to enter a league where players who like to carry the puck can skate through the neutral zone without fear of having their heads taken off. “To me, Hughes could be superior to every other (draft-eligible) player in every skill attribute,” said TSN scouting director Craig Button. “The only thing he’s not better than other players with is his shot, which can be improved. But there’s no other area of the game where he’s not better than every player, in my view. He’s better than everybody.”

And it’s been that way for a few years now. Those who follow the game have known about Hughes since his days as a minor hockey phenom in Toronto. In his final year of midget – a year he played at that level because Hockey Canada denied him exceptional-player status to play in the OHL as a 15-year-old – he had 58 goals and 159 points in 80 games. He’s more likely to pass than shoot, and his speed and smarts set him apart from his peers. His array of offensive talents even prompted a “Lose for Hughes” campaign, which the Devils won in early April.

One day, teammate Matthew Boldy showed up at the team’s training base at the USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Mich., wearing a “Lose for Hughes” T-shirt with the ‘O’ replaced by a USA Hockey logo. A company in Buffalo was distributing the shirt, but as confident as he is, Hughes wasn’t about to add one to his wardrobe. “I just feel like that would be super cocky,” he says.

Hughes has been the unanimous projected No. 1 selection for most of the season, save for a blip around the World Junior Championship when he was playing hurt and was limited to four assists in four games. Finnish phenom Kaapo Kakko, meanwhile, scored the winner in the gold-medal game against Team USA. Hughes had an assist in that game, but the sense was that Kakko’s performance had narrowed the gap between them. Kakko has three inches and 23 pounds on Hughes, and not only did he spend 2018-19 playing against men, he excelled against them, with 38 points in 45 SM-liiga games. His 22 goals broke Aleksander Barkov’s record for goals by an 18-year-old. 

But do you want to talk about records? Going into the world under-18 championship, Hughes had already set the NTDP’s all-time points record, a mark that had previously been held by Kane, then Phil Kessel, then Clayton Keller. His 197 points were 30 more than Matthews and 58 ahead of Jack Eichel’s numbers with the program. Hughes also holds the single-season mark for assists and is second in points.

Led by Hughes, the group of 2001-born American players on that team has blazed a trail that could end up with every single player being drafted in 2019. Every. Single. One. There could be as many as seven first-round picks from the team, one that also lays claim to the program’s all-time leading goal-scorer in Cole Caufield. “I’ve seen every iteration since Day 1, every single team since Day 1,” Button said. “This team, the 2001-borns, they’re the best team that has ever come through this program. They are unbelievable. Last year, five of their players from the U-17 team went up to the U-18 team and played prominent roles.”

Things are going swimmingly in the Hughes household when, all of a sudden, there’s a rumbling down the stairs and in walks Jack’s younger brother, Luke, confident and buoyant. At 15 years old, he’s all arms and legs at the moment, so he has a lot of filling out to do, but anyone who has seen him play claims he’s better than their oldest brother, Quinn, was at the same age. At 5-foot-11, he’ll also be the biggest of the three. 

Like his two brothers before him, Luke is off to the NTDP in the fall, where he’ll play for the next two years before going in the 2021 draft. If he goes in the top 32 (that will be Seattle’s first draft), the Hughes will become the second family to have three brothers picked in the first round. (Four of the six Sutter brothers were first-rounders in the late 1970s and early ’80s.) “Hey Luke, you want to come and sit over here, bud?” Jack asks. “Come on over here, big dog.” 

There’s clearly an ironclad bond among the brothers, one that was forged on the ODR back in Mississauga, Ont., when Luke desperately tried to keep up with his siblings. Both Quinn and Jack were born in Orlando when their father was coaching there, and Luke was born in Canton just weeks before Jim started as an assistant coach with the Bruins. When their father was with the Leafs and the Marlies, the boys didn’t actually have tickets for the games but would show up early and go and stake out a spot in the standing room area with Kody Clark (the son of Leafs legend Wendel), who was drafted in the second round by the Washington Capitals in 2018. 

The Hughes brothers had every resource at their disposal wherever they went, but it was in the fresh air of Canada where they learned to exploit their talents. “You never get tired on an outdoor rink,” Jack said. “You hear a million people say that, but once you experience it, you realize, ‘Holy crap, it’s true.’ Being out there for hours, then going in and watching the Leafs games with my buddies at my house, probably eight or nine kids, and playing mini-sticks until we go to bed. It was always hockey, hockey, hockey.”

While Jack is speaking, Ellen approaches with her open laptop. She has some home movie footage of Jack to share. In one video, he’s a five-year-old playing against six-year-olds, wearing a Marlies helmet and using a pro stick. As he watches himself cut through his opponents with ridiculous ease, he makes an observation. “I look like Jack the Monkey,” he says, comparing himself to the star of the movie Most Valuable Primate.

It’s an exciting time for all three brothers. A couple nights earlier, Quinn appeared in his first NHL game with the Canucks and registered an assist, and Luke, who just finished training camp with the NTDP and made the under-17 roster, is days away from the OHL draft. In 2015, Quinn was taken in the third round, 49th overall, by the Sarnia Sting. Two years later, Jack would’ve gone first overall to the Barrie Colts, but he made it clear he wasn’t going to play junior hockey. 

That didn’t prevent the Mississauga Steelheads from gambling on him with their first-round selection. Ellen jokes that with their record of spurning the OHL, teams will have gotten the message and Luke will go a lot lower in the draft than his brothers. “That was like Christmas morning for me, man,” says Jack of being picked in the OHL draft. “I went eighth overall. Early morning for me.” He then turns his sights directly on his younger brother and says, “Dude, if you don’t get drafted, 15 rounds, man. Oh my god, you’d better re-evaluate your sport.”

Undaunted, Luke endures the ribbing. (And for the record he does get drafted – eventually. Despite having first-round talent, Luke falls all the way to the 14th round, 281st overall, to the Saginaw Spirit.) After a while he excuses himself. “Nice meeting you,” he says. “But I’m going to rip some ‘Chel.’” For the uninitiated, that means he’s going to play some NHL 19. Until he discovers that Alex Turcotte, the son of ex-NHLer Alfie Turcotte and Jack’s teammate on the NTDP who lives with the family, has gone to visit his grandfather and taken the console with him.

Easy is a relative term. When it comes to Jack Hughes, he knows he’s been afforded a lot of advantages that other kids go without. Like any elite player, though, he has combined his physical gifts with both his opportunities and his passion for the game to get where he is. There have been a fair number of sacrifices. On this day, he and Luke are sitting in their house watching the NHL Network because Jack’s season is still going on and Luke is about to play in the USA Hockey national championships. 

They’re doing that instead of going somewhere for spring break, something they’ve never done in their lives. “Growing up in this house just made all of this really kinda easy,” Jack says. “I mean, growing up has been really easy, and the hockey side has been easy because my parents have been through the same experiences.”

It’s a household where Jack is actually the outlier. Jim played defense in college, as did Ellen, and both Quinn and Luke patrol the blueline. But Jack is a center. He only played defense once, in an elementary school tournament in Toronto alongside Luke. When you have an undersized kid with the puck skills Jack has, that’s not somebody you want to put on defense. And while everyone in the Hughes household has played a part in getting Jack to where he is, Jack brings it all back to his father. 

“I always say none of us would be here without (him),” Jack says. “He was telling a 12-year-old me the same thing he was telling a 21-year-old prospect. We had an NHL coach in our house teaching us the game, going to our games, managing what we do, evaluating us and helping us out on and off the ice. When we’d be watching a game, the first period would take an hour-and-a-half, just from rewinding every play. It’s still like that a little bit, but it was awesome.”

Part of what makes Hughes so special is that his upbringing has left him undaunted. He’s been interacting with adults all his life, many of whom occupy NHL teams’ executive offices and hold the levers of power in the pro ranks. No wonder the kid is so confident. Nothing about the journey he’s about to embark upon intimidates him. He said he was more nervous during his OHL draft year than he has been this season. When you’re 15, he says, you’re worried about how many Instagram followers you have. Having just turned 18 in May, this season has been all about staying more balanced and just going out and playing the games. “That’s really the only thing you gotta do,” he says. “Every player in the NHL deals with it. I mean, they’re getting paid, and they have to live up to what they’re getting paid.”

That day will come when the NHL drops the puck for the first game next season. Jack Hughes will no longer be on the outdoor rinks or playing mini-sticks in the basement with his brothers. He’ll no longer have the protective cocoon that has enveloped him for all of his hockey-playing life, and the father who was always in the front seat of the car will be hundreds of miles away. But you get the sense he’ll be just fine. He’s been preparing for this all his life.

THN May 2019

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-Jack Hughes: in his own words

go lukey go!!

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Players under 18 years old must wear full face protection.

Jack’s draft combine interview

“Uncharted water”

“He’s very brave”

Bonus quote (not included here): “they took great care of me”

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Hughes served as team captain for the NTDP, and just based on skill alone, that’s not a surprise. But Hughes’ captaincy stemmed from more than just his prodigious skill. He earned a unanimous vote from his teammates, many of whom knew Hughes and played with him prior to arriving at the program.

"Jack is the captain. He’s the one who forged a lot of those relationships and kept everything going in the right direction,” Wroblewski said.

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Five Questions with Jack Hughes

May 29, 2019 | Timestamp: Jack Hughes (5:03)

Do you feel ready to play in the NHL next season? "My speed and skill will translate well, and I believe in my heart I'm the best player in this draft and the best player on the board. I'm a confident kid so I think I had a great year. I know in my head and in my heart that I'm an NHL player and I think that after my experience at the World Championship, it solidified in my mind that I'm ready to go for it next year. I want to be an impact player and come out of the gates fast."

What was the most memorable moment for you as the youngest player for the United States at the 2019 IIHF World Championship in Slovakia? "Just to be in the locker room with the NHL players, go out to dinner with them, hang out with them. I feel like it was an invaluable experience and kind of like going to Harvard law school, I guess, because that's the best education you could get being around guys like that. You've got guys there like Ryan Suter, a 14-year veteran in the League, who was once in the same position as me. Patrick Kane and James van Riemsdyk took great care of me, taking me out to dinner, talking with me, and teaching me things. Those are guys I kind of created relationships with that will help me for the next couple of years."

Did you meet your goals and expectations at the NTDP this season? "You want to be realistic for the year, but I think of myself pretty high, and I had some goals in mind like breaking the record for most career points at the program and did that. I kind of shattered it and hopefully no one will touch it for a couple of years. I wanted to get the single season record but I missed a few games with an injury and finished with 112 points; the record was 117. Along the way, you don't really think of it that much but keep pushing the pace and pushing your play. I had a pretty good sequence of games at the World Under-18 Championship but our main goal was to win gold there, and we didn't. I'd trade all 20 of my points there for a gold medal, but I feel like I had a pretty good tournament."

How did two seasons at the NTDP make you a better player? "First of all, it makes you a better person. You're growing up with 23 kids your own age on the same team and dealing with the same things. It's kind of a brotherhood you create there, and you can't really say that about other places. The NTDP is a great spot to grow as a human. If you want to dedicate your life to becoming a hockey player, your game will absolutely go through the roof. There's a shooting room there and you're on the ice two hours a day, there are two games over the weekend, you skate 5-to-7 times a week, lift three times a week. If you want to be a hockey player and you're an American boy, the NTDP is the place you need to go."

What are your plans between the end of the Combine and the NHL Draft? "Just having some fun and relaxing. I don't think I'm going to work out or skate. I was in Europe for almost two months (at the World Under-18 Championship in Sweden and World Championship), just playing hockey, being dialed in and focused. Now that the hockey season is over, I think I'll just watch the Stanley Cup Final, golf and hang out with friends ... be a kid for the last month. Then I'll head to Vancouver. I think my life will change a lot once that weekend goes by."

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Jack at age 17 vs age 21 🥺

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Jack “I’ve been making high-skilled plays since I was six or seven” Hughes

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“What if that becomes the Devils’ dance after wins?”

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June 19, 2019 | The Day Before the Draft | Jack Hughes

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USA Hockey's Jack Hughes viewed as future NHL superstar

Published: Oct 2, 2018

It’s not hard spotting Jack Hughes on the ice for USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program.

Just watch the puck. Chances are pretty good 17-year-old Hughes is there, too.

Mesmerizing, quick, nimble and creative are just some of the words that aptly describe Hughes. Scoring machine, workout freak and almost certain top pick in the 2019 National Hockey League Entry Draft are other spot-on characterizations.

“The draft is 10 months away,” said Hughes, a 5-10, 168-pound forward, who opened the 2018-19 season along with his NTDP U-18 teammates with road games Sept. 29-30 in Cranberry, Pa. “All those websites can come out or people can come out with the rankings, but really, none of it really matters until the teams' rankings come out at the draft.

“I’m not too worried about it, I’m just worried about my game and focusing on that. I’m not the only guy on the team with high expectations. I could go pretty high. We got a really good team with a lot of really good players. There’s a lot of good stuff looming with our team.”

Hughes already is displaying traits both on and off the ice that give a strong indication that he’ll be ready whenever he gets the NHL call.

“I haven’t been around anything like this,” NTDP U-18 head coach John Wroblewski said. “Where there’s been pressure for almost a year and a half for him to be the No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming (NHL) draft, I’ve never seen anything like it.

“I know the kid hasn’t changed much. He’s still the player and the young man who comes to work. He’s got teenaged tendencies, but he’s also a very impressive young man. If you tell him something, his uptake is so quick and he’ll put it to work. And it’s the same kid that always comes to the NTDP every day.”

And who knows, if the Detroit Red Wings miss the playoffs (as is widely expected), the younger brother of University of Michigan defenseman Quinn Hughes (this summer’s No. 7 pick by Vancouver) could wind up as Detroit’s next cornerstone teenage player — just like then-18-year-old Steve Yzerman was in 1983.

“It’d be cool, of course. Detroit’s a great place to play,” said Hughes, who attends classes at Plymouth-Canton Educational Park. “But it’s the NHL. All 31 teams are unbelievable and, if you got the chance to play for any team, it would be just so special.“

Work comes first

Hughes isn’t getting too far ahead of himself. He knows he has a lot of work to do for the NTDP, including international medals to go after next April in Sweden, when the IIHF U-18 Men’s World Championship takes place. USA Hockey Arena fans will get their first chance to watch him play at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, against the University of Minnesota.

“It’s a big year, of course. It’s fun,” said Hughes, whose parents are Ellen and Jim Hughes of Plymouth. “First of all, it’s our last time playing together with our team. None of us will play together again after this year, so it will be really fun. We’ll make the most of it, for sure.

“With the NHL draft, most of the (U-18) guys are draft-eligible, so it’s a really important year and we’re all really excited about it.”

Hughes isn’t the only budding NHL prospect with the team. He and 17 other NTDP players took part in the recent All-American Prospects Game in St. Paul, Minn. — six of whom are projected top 20 picks in the 2019 NHL draft.

The other top NTDP players include center Alex Turcotte, left wing Cole Caufield (54 goals in 2017-18), defenseman Cam York, left wing Matt Boldy, center Trevor Zegras and defenseman Alex Vlasic.

“Cole’s a special talent, of course,” Hughes said. “Not many guys can come to the program and be able to score goals as well as he can. He’s obviously an unbelievable player and an unbelievable scorer. He’s such a good kid off the ice, too.

“Not only do we click on the ice, but off the ice we’re really good friends, too. I think that helps, for sure.”

Puck finds him

Wroblewski raved about Hughes’ uncanny ability to find open ice and either go top shelf or thread perfect feeds to linemates such as Caufield.

But the coach sees all the intangibles that add up to a future NHL superstar.

“(College and pro scouts) see the guy that flies around the ice. But in games, sometimes the puck is attached to him,” Wroblewski said. “I don’t think that they see how hard he works in a game. The reason the game sometimes looks easy for this guy is he works so hard in practice. He’s got such an unbelievable VO2 (oxygen rate during exercise) and ability to create at the end of shifts, because of what he does in practices.”

Yeah, skating fast is one thing. Of course, Hughes is like any hockey player in that he loves to score goals.

Last year, playing for both the NTDP U-17 and U-18 teams, he tallied 40 goals and a program-record 76 assists in 60 games.

“I’d definitely say scoring a goal,” Hughes said, when asked about which part of the game he gets the most buzz out of excelling at. “If you don’t say scoring a goal, I think you might have a problem, because that’s the name of the game. Score goals.

“Anytime you get to score a goal, it’s definitely something you don’t forget about. You get really excited for it, just like it’s your first goal.”

Just relentless

Yet he is the guy who doesn’t stop in practice drills.

“He loves the drills that involve up and down the sheet that exhaust you to the point of being keeled over,” Wroblewski said. “But he’s always going to jump in line for the next rep. Some guys, not necessarily on this team, who are lesser players, might try to find the line where they can rest in — or go to a line that has a few more guys in it.

“He’ll go right back up in our hardest drills if that line is vacant. He’s a relentless worker.”

The coach was asked whether or not Hughes could be a Wayne Gretzky-like player in the NHL and he smiled. He quickly pointed out how much the league has changed since The Great One hung up his skates in 1999.

“It’s just such a different era,” Wroblewski said. “What I’ll say is, I’ll compare (Hughes) to Gretzky in that he’s got that class. You read the stories about Wayne, how he used to take on all the media requests and handle them with dignity and be able to still perform at a high level ... carry himself as a gentleman and ambassador of the game. I see Jack as the type of kid who can carry on that type of legacy. Respect, charismatic and still humble.

“It’s a different superstar compared to what it was back then. Gretzky was playing a different game than everybody else that was out there. There’s a lot of players who play like Jack. There’s not a lot of players who play exactly like Jack — it’s speed, skill. There’s a lot of people out there that have it, (but) it’s his determination and desire to be the best that separates him from a lot of other guys.”

Family plan

Another plus for Hughes was growing up in a hockey hothouse. It didn’t matter whether they were in Florida, Boston, New Hampshire or Toronto.

“It was unreal,” Hughes said. “With three of us in the house, it was crazy and hectic for my mom, of course. We’d always have friends at the house, (playing) mini sticks, watching hockey, going to the outdoor rink.

“It was always hockey, hockey, hockey for us. It was a really good childhood growing up. The house was really competitive whatever it was, whether it was ping pong or whatever.”

Wroblewski also credited the Hughes family for instilling the winning traits that all three of their sons (next up is 15-year-old bantam phenom Luke) possess in droves. Luke Hughes played last season with the Little Caesars Bantam Major AAA team.

Yet in the case of Quinn and Jack Hughes, they have had to step up to expectations seemingly every step along the way from childhood. They’ve aced every test coming their way. By the time 2019-20 rolls around, both could be playing in the NHL.

“They’re different kids,” Wroblewski said. “I’m sure that (family) support system helps, but they’re very unique. There’s sometimes where you’ll see them in an interview and they appear similar, but they’ve got some dimensions that are different.

“It has a lot to do with how they play on the ice. Jack, his motor is relentless. And Quinn is much more deliberate and he’s able to kind of make people, he baits people in. Where Jack is always going, he’s at high speed a lot during a game.

“It’s a different position (each plays). They just have a different mentality, a different mindset. It shows in their personalities, too. Jack goes and that’s him. Quinn is a lot more calculated and deliberate. They’re both unbelievable kids, teammates and competitors.”

This season, in what might be his final season in Ann Arbor, the older Hughes will try to pick up where he left off last year with the Wolverines.

Stiffer challenge

As far as Jack Hughes is concerned, however, Wroblewski expects opponents in college, international and United States Hockey League play to ratchet it up and really see what the uber-talented prospect is made of.

“It was one thing when he wasn’t under the radar, because of how good he was,” Wroblewski said. “But it wasn’t his draft year. He wasn’t constantly being keyed on. Moving from U-17s to U-18s, there was some differentiation there. But this season, it’s going to be every night, he’s going to have that bull's-eye on his back.

“This is gearing him up for what he wants, to play in the NHL as the No. 1 pick and go on to a lengthy career as a franchise-type player. This is all a learning experience for him.”

It undoubtedly will be a blast, too.

“Just fun, everything’s going on,” Hughes said with a small smile. “It’s what you dream of — having a good game, where everything is just easy and so fluid. You’re kind of just in a zone and locked in on everything else going on around you. You’re kind of in your own bubble.”

From all accounts, the Jack Hughes bubble isn’t about to burst for a long time to come.

[whirlpool-blogs]

An Inside Look at Jack Hughes, the Top NHL Draft Prospect Flyers Fans Are Craving

Published January 28, 2019

Understandably, John Wroblewski had initial doubts.

Not necessarily about the player as much as the situation. Wroblewski was coaching the 2016-17 U.S. national U-18 team when the little brother of star defenseman Quinn Hughes tagged along for a skate.

That little brother was Jack Hughes and Wroblewski had yet to see him play.

"You sort of ask the questions, OK, well how often do you have a 15-year-old skating with a U-18 team and how good is the kid?" Wroblewski said.

The verdict?

"The answer is he's pretty good, he's pretty good," Wroblewski said with a laugh last Wednesday in a phone interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia. "We've got to keep an eye on him. You get him out there and instantaneously he fits in and exceeds and then also enamors you - all three of these observationalist thought processes come to your senses in that hour and a half skate of this tiny, little kid who somehow comes out and impresses you so much within that short period of time.

"Not only with his skill level, but kind of how some of the great players out there, how they can make the game slow down or speed up at their will. It's tough to describe unless you've been around him."

Wroblewski has been around him a bunch, coaching Hughes for the second straight season in the U.S. national team development program. 

Unequivocally, he now knows all about the 17-year-old, a darting and dynamic center whose playmaking ability can cause motion sickness for opponents.

Before the start of 2018-19, Hughes was hardly a blip on the Flyers' radar. Not with the team signing James van Riemsdyk to bolster an experienced roster and take its biggest step since the 2011-12 season. The NHL draft was an afterthought.

Oh, how things have changed.

The Flyers entered the All-Star break at 19-23-6 and with more points (44) than only two other NHL teams - the Devils (43) and Senators (43). A startling shake-up within the front office and coaching staff became the messy byproduct of another slow start, this one the most impactful of them all.

Suddenly but inevitably, Hughes' name has permeated the fan base. He is widely considered the consensus No. 1 pick for the 2019 NHL draft.

And Flyers fans are astutely aware. 

The golden spot is in sight.

Similar to any NHL draft, the climb of the top overall pick will be debated. Many will line Hughes up against past No. 1 selections - from Patrick Kane (2007) to Connor McDavid (2015) and fellow USNTDP product Auston Matthews (2016).

While Hughes is only 5-foot-10, 168 pounds and turns 18 just a month before the draft, Wroblewski sees him developing into a player of his own mold.

My belief is that he'll be in the NHL next year and there's really not a comparable. You're starting to see more and more of the hybrid type of player - guys that play with speed and skill. One of Jack's unique traits is that even though there are questions out there in regards to his size, he's a true center iceman and he will play in the middle and he will figure out a way to make it work.  You throw him into the blender with wingers like Kane and [Johnny] Gaudreau, but then you have to put him in the middle of the ice, so he's got that speed like McDavid. He doesn't have McDavid's size, but he's got things that I think McDavid would be envious of, as well.  There's a component here that I think has yet to be realized. Like his brother Quinn, young kids are going to look at him and want to be him as a player, sort of revolutionize the position that a quote, unquote undersized centerman can persevere and make it to be a superstar in the National Hockey League - because there's not a ton of them that have done that.

Wroblewski calls Hughes "manicured."

It's an excellent way to describe him. Hughes doesn't sound like a 17-year-old. He's well-spoken because he's well-groomed, unfazed by the hype of being the top-ranked 2019 draft prospect.

He credits much of his maturity and preparation to his "great support system," featuring his family and coaches.

His father Jim Hughes, mother Ellen Weinberg-Hughes and uncle Marty Hughes all played Division I hockey. His older brother Quinn was drafted seventh overall by the Canucks last summer and plays at Michigan, while his younger brother Luke is 15 years old and considered an up-and-coming talent.

"We've all kind of been through the ringer already," Hughes said last Tuesday in a phone interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia. "I'm thankful to have them around me."

Wroblewski said the scouting presence this season for the Hughes-led U-18 team has been "overwhelming," but in a good sense.

"It's been nonstop, it's been relentless," Wroblewski said. "The scouting community - reporters doing articles or scouting prospects, [people] that do this for a living, and of course the NHL scouts - is all trying to decipher where do these guys fall in the pick of the litter. And I'll tell you, right behind Jack on this team, there's a slew of other players that are going to be right there with him in the National Hockey League."

For Hughes, the eyes on him are at an all-time high with the draft a little less than five months away.

Is he keen to the amplified attention?

"No, I've been dealing with that since I was 14, 15 years old," Hughes said. "A scout is pretty much another person in the building. All I have to do is play my game and have fun."

Like Wroblewski said, Hughes is manicured.

He gives you guys the clichés at times, but there's a little bit of twist to his cliché answers. There's insight there, it's not like he's just throwing out these random phrases. He's got practice at it, but he's not just going through the motions when he talks to the media, which gives me a lot of hope that he could be at that ultimate ambassador to the game. Not just a guy that goes through and plays excellent hockey and is a focal point, but somebody who is also attractive to the media.  At the same time, when the cameras are away and he's not on the spotlight, he's a kid. He's a high school kid who is goofy and funny in the back of the bus - he's got personality, he's got swagger, he has a lot of the intangibles.

There wasn't just one play or game that convinced Wroblewski.

"I don't think moments capture excellence," he said, "particularly with a kid that's going to go No. 1 overall in the draft."

The World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in November 2017 was when Wroblewski really saw it. The U.S. had taken home gold by beating Canada, 6-4, in Dawson Creek, British Columbia.

Hughes led the field with 15 points (five goals, 10 assists) in six games.

"He just completely dominated the event - and then as the octane and the temperature rose in the tournament, he continued to surpass expectations and continued to dominate and find another level," Wroblewski said. "In a hostile environment - he was a kid who grew up a bit in Toronto wearing the American sweater, and all of a sudden he's thrust into this environment; it was such a pro-Canadian environment, and he allows himself to block out all the X-factors and just concentrate on dominating the game at hand. 

"That to me was kind of the time where I was like, 'This kid is No. 1.' I always had that throughout the fall, but from there on, it was like, 'This is the kid that's going No. 1 next year.'"

Hughes strives to be the entire package.

That doesn't mean he's there yet. However, the multifaceted, no-holes-in-your-game mindset is what pushes him.

"As a hockey player, everything you do you want to improve," Hughes said. "You see the best players in the world working on their game, year in and year out. For me, I focus on everything, but some of the things I focus on the most are my faceoffs and my shot. Those are two things that need to be really good to be a good player."

What about his strengths?

I play a new brand of hockey - speed and skill, the way the game is now. I'm kind of an open book. There are a lot of great players out there and something that they all have in common is that they're Swiss Army knives. They can do everything really well. I feel like my game is what my game is, but I'm working on other parts of my game and trying to become the best at everything that I do. I'm going to show up to the rink to compete and have fun.

In 28 games this season as the captain of the U.S. national U-18 team, Hughes has 56 points on 13 goals and 43 assists. In 60 combined games last season between the U-17 and U-18 teams, Hughes had 116 points on 40 goals and 76 assists.

"He's a workhorse on and off the ice," Wroblewski said. "He'll do whatever it takes. When he finds a deficiency in his game, or if there's something not at - if you want to scale things out of five - if there's something that's not at a five, he'll start working right away at getting to that number. 

"Last year, it was his shot. He did not have a very good shot. It was still good, but it wasn't elite. He went at it hard this summer, his one-timer, his release, everything else has improved so much in that regard. And that's something that I think he'll continue to do."

The Twitter hashtag has grown in popularity for any struggling team near the NHL basement and in the ballpark of the 2019 draft's first overall slot. #LoseForHughes.

Hughes isn't oblivious to the slogan in which many Flyers fans have adopted.

"The first time I heard it was actually my OHL draft year (2016-17)," he said with a laugh. "It's not new to me, but every time I see it, it's pretty funny and I get a little chuckle out of it."

How hard the Flyers charge after the All-Star break will determine their chances for Hughes, while the NHL draft lottery results will have the final say.

Whichever team does land Hughes, its fans will be on board with his message.

"I'd tell them I hope to give them a lot of good years," Hughes said. "That's what every player wants - they want to go to a city that's hungry to win and a city that's a lot of fun. That's really what I'd be excited about - have fun with the city and playing hockey for the community and the city, for however long I'm there."

[whirlpool-blogs]

Brothers Jack and Quinn Hughes, two of hockey’s top prospects, take the ice at U.S. junior showcase

Aug 1, 2018

The Hughes brothers used to play mini-stick hockey in their basement, pretending they were on the same NHL team.

Now that dream is edging closer to reality, with two of the brothers among hockey’s fastest rising stars.

Eighteen-year-old Quinn was taken seventh overall by the Vancouver Canucks at this year’s draft and 17-year-old Jack is an early favourite to be next year’s top pick.

Their younger brother, 14-year-old Luke, played major bantam AAA in Detroit last year.

Whether the Hughes siblings will ever get to play on the same NHL team remains to be seen, but the day when Quinn and Jack play in the same league appears to be just around the corner.

“(Playing together) is something all brothers dream of and that’d be pretty fun,” said Quinn.

This week, Quinn and Jack are on the ice together in Kamloops, B.C., where they’re playing for the U.S. in the world junior showcase.

“Any time you get to be on the ice with a kid like Quinn, whether he’s my brother or not, you’d be excited to play with him because he’s so good,” Jack said.

It’s the first time they’ve really had an opportunity to play organized hockey together.

Jack fed a pass to Quinn for the winner with 2:25 left as a U.S. split-squad team beat a Canada split-squad team 7-5 on Tuesday night.

“It’s definitely a cool experience,” Quinn said.

On the ice, the young men have obvious chemistry, talent and passion for the game, said Mike Hastings, head coach of the U.S. junior team.

“They don’t have a lot of fear in their game. They don’t mind giving it up and getting it back,” he said. “They’re good hockey players.”

The fact that they excel at the game isn’t a huge surprise, considering their family’s hockey roots.

Their mom, Ellen Weinberg-Hughes, played hockey, soccer and lacrosse at the University of New Hampshire, and suited up for the U.S. women’s hockey team.

Their dad, Jim Hughes, played for Providence College, then worked in coaching and player development with the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs.

When Quinn was a baby, the family lived in Orlando and Ellen often worked out of town. Jim would often take Quinn to the rink, where various players would watch over him, Ellen said.

All three of the boys grew up in hockey rinks, Jim added.

“They took a liking to it from an early age. It just happened naturally, organically,” he said. “And I suppose somewhere along the way, they fell in love with the sport.”

Ellen and Jim tried hard to expose their boys to other sports, too, and let them pick what they loved, making sure that they were always having fun, and being good people and teammates.

“The things we stressed were find something you’re passionate about and whatever you’re going to do, be the best that you can be,” Ellen said.

It just happened that what they loved was hockey, she added.

Jack said his parents are “tremendous athletes and tremendous hockey minds.”

“Both of them taught me so much,” he said.

Quinn remembers his mom driving him to games and giving him tips on getting better.

“A lot of times, she would be the one telling me, ‘Maybe on this play, do that.’ So obviously I respect her opinion. She knows the game,” he said. “It’s always nice to have two parents who know what they’re talking about.”

Growing up in a hockey family with a talented player as an older brother has been great, Jack said.

“I love watching (Quinn) play and he’s been a really good influence on me growing up,” he said.

The middle child admitted, though, that the desire to beat his siblings is strong, whether they’re skating on an outdoor rink, playing mini sticks in the basement or shooting hoops in the driveway.

“Whatever you do it’s competitive with three boys in the house. It’s a really good childhood,” Jack said with a laugh.

For Quinn, being the oldest doesn’t always mean leading on the ice.

“Even though I’m the older brother, (Jack) pushes me too. And I respect his opinion and everything like that. He has a very smart hockey mind, so it would be dumb of me not to listen to him,” Quinn said.

Jack showed off that hockey mind in his first game at the showcase in Kamloops this week, saucering the puck to himself amid a cluster of Finnish players.

It was a gutsy move for the five-foot-10, 166-pound centre, but Jack said that’s just the way he plays.

“I’m a confident player. I trust myself, I think. I mean, high-skilled plays, I’ve been doing it since I was six or seven,” he said.

The teen’s ability to make those plays, combined with his stunning acceleration, has many guessing he’ll be the No. 1 pick at the NHL draft next year.

Jack doesn’t see those projections as adding any sort of pressure as he heads into another season with the U.S. National Development Team.

“I’m not too worried about where I’m going to go. I’m kind of just worried about my game and how I’m playing,” he said.

Quinn, too, is looking at improving his game.

The five-foot-10, 174-pound defenceman went to the Canucks’ development camp in July, but recently decided to return to the University of Michigan this fall.

It was a tough call, he said.

“Do I think I could have played this year? Absolutely,” Quinn said. “But I want to step in when I can really make a difference and help the Canucks win hockey games.”

Last year he had five goals and 29 points in 37 games with Michigan. The team was knocked out of the NCAA championship semifinals by Notre Dame and Quinn has said he believes they have a chance to win it all this season.

Heading back to Michigan will allow him to focus on getting stronger and developing as a player, Quinn said, adding that he sees “no reason why” his play wouldn’t improve five to 10 per cent.

Still, the top Canucks prospect is likely to return to Vancouver this winter, when the city co-hosts the world junior hockey championship with Victoria.

Quinn said he’s looking forward to playing in front of B.C. fans, both with the junior national team and the Canucks.

“I’m excited to get to Vancouver when the time comes and kind of show everyone what I can do,” he said. “But for right now, I’m just focused on USA Hockey and trying to build this group here.”

Jim Hughes said he’s always emphasized the importance of staying in the moment to his sons.

The family doesn’t pay much attention to the hype surrounding the young men, he said. Instead, they focus on continuing to get better at what they love.

“Up to this point, they just need to keep their feet on the ground, keep loving the sport and keep working,” he said.