The second Jack Hughes stepped off the ice within the New Jersey Devils’ season opener — after he dangled via three Chicago Blackhawks, and scored on his backhand for an absurd extra time winner, then tossed his stick into the group in a second of euphoric celebration — he turned to a crew staffer and had one query:
“Am I going to get in hassle?”
Hughes, 20, spends his Sunday afternoons on his sofa glued to NFL Crimson Zone. He is aware of all too effectively how the NFL’s taunting rule stirs controversy. Hockey, by nature, is rather more reserved than soccer, with gamers hardly ever flexing their persona off the ice, not to mention on it. Hughes had by no means seen an NHL participant throw his stick into the stands earlier than. He does not know what compelled him to do it. He was intoxicated by taking part in in entrance of “a full barn once more” with “an unreal crowd” that was “buzzing all evening.”
He is aware of one factor for positive: “The boys cherished it.” As for the fits within the NHL workplace throughout the Hudson River?
“Like, you simply do not know with the league and what they suppose,” Hughes mentioned. “I did not know. I simply thought, ‘If I get fined just a few grand, I am not taking this fantastic. The crew higher choose this up.'”
His considerations turned out to be moot. The league wrote a narrative on its web site in regards to the heart’s twig-throwing heroics, and shared the clip on its social channels (a number of occasions). A month later, Hughes’ cellphone was blowing up with messages from his longtime buddy, Anaheim Geese ahead Trevor Zegras.
“I had like 10 texts from him and he is like, ‘dude, hilarious!’ laughing faces, all of this,” Hughes recalled. “I used to be like, ‘What are you speaking about?’ and he is like, ‘Go have a look at my aim.'”
After roofing an extra time winner in opposition to the Washington Capitals, the 20-year-old Zegras launched his stick into the Anaheim crowd.
“I used to be like, ‘That is nasty,'” Hughes mentioned. “We had been speaking about it earlier than, the previous couple of weeks. So I would not be stunned if one other considered one of my buddies had been to do it, too.”
Hughes’ story is commonly advised via the prism of his household, which has spectacular hockey credentials. His mom, Ellen, a College of New Hampshire standout, performed for the U.S. ladies’s crew on the 1992 World Cup. His father, Jim, starred at Windfall Faculty and bounced across the NHL in teaching and participant growth roles. Jack’s older brother, Quinn, is a standout defenseman for the Vancouver Canucks, whereas youthful brother, Luke, was drafted No. 4 general by the Devils in July — a second that went viral for Jacks’ uncontrollable enthusiasm.
(Hughes cringes watching the clip now, however justifies it: “It is so uncommon for that to occur. Like, so many issues need to line up.”)
Whereas rising up as the center brother in a puck-obsessed household definitely formed Jack, it isn’t the one factor that defines him. The Devils’ No. 1 heart has an electrical persona, which he is lastly able to let free — ushering in a brand new period for the NHL.
“You may form of sense the tradition is altering,” Hughes mentioned. “It is not an previous man’s recreation anymore. It is plenty of younger youngsters coming in with confidence.”
The hockey ceiling has all the time been tantalizing with Hughes. “Tremendous, tremendous gifted, easy, clearly nice fingers, imaginative and prescient, play-making potential. He is anyone who can form of just about do all of it,” mentioned his roommate and teammate Ty Smith. “He simply may very well be within the combine for probably the greatest gamers within the league fairly quickly. He may very well be a man that places up 100 factors.”
It is why the Devils felt snug giving Hughes an eight-year, $64 million extension in November, regardless of his having performed solely 119 NHL video games.
Off the ice, the potential is simply as nice. Ever since he was drafted No. 1 general by the Devils in 2019, Hughes has been hyped as one of many rising faces of hockey in america. However now in his third season, Hughes feels snug sufficient to actually lean in. And if he is leaning in authentically, he might problem the established order sufficient to turn into a transcendent star. That features not giving the standard hockey participant interview, the place the pronoun “I” is prevented in any respect prices and true opinions are by no means shared.
“Guys, for some purpose, are inclined to need to be critical and brief with reporters,” Hughes mentioned. “And, you understand, I have been at fault for that too, at occasions. There’s occasions after video games, you do not need to say an excessive amount of or you’re in a consolation zone. I believe now that I am getting older, I am beginning to be extra of myself. Like I am a cheerful man. I’ve a smile on my face a lot of the day. I like hanging out with my buddies.
“I believe folks in all probability suppose I am fairly cocky. I might say I am fairly assured, however you understand, that is simply, that is what I’ve grown up as: I am a assured, blissful child and I like my life and I actually take pleasure in what I am doing.”
It was a course of for Hughes to get so far. Being drafted No. 1 general got here with perks of which he’d by no means dreamed. After celebrating with household and teammates in Vancouver, the place the draft was held, Hughes was whisked away on a personal jet — a “PJ” in hockey parlance.
“I took my first ever PJ from Vancouver to New Jersey,” Hughes mentioned. “And went to a Yankees recreation that evening with Adam Sandler and Reggie Jackson. So yeah, it was a sick weekend. It was nasty.”
At age 18, Hughes made the Devils roster. Then the puck dropped on his rookie season.
“I hated it,” he mentioned.
The expectations are sky-high for any prime general choose, particularly one which makes the opening evening roster. However there’s additionally a paradox: A crew wins the draft lottery as a result of they’re inherently dangerous. And the Devils crew Hughes joined — which had chosen No. 1 general for the second time in three years — wasn’t in nice form. New Jersey was winless in its first six video games. The Devils fired their coach, John Hynes, in December then traded their finest participant, Taylor Corridor, who was simply two years faraway from his MVP season. By January, the GM who drafted Hughes, Ray Shero, was additionally let go.
Amid the turmoil, Hughes struggled in his transition to skilled hockey. “You are the primary general choose and then you definitely’re within the NHL,” he mentioned. “You’ve got acquired [Connor] McDavid one evening, then [Brad] Marchand the following evening then [Sidney] Crosby the following evening.”
Hughes scored simply seven objectives and 21 factors in 61 video games.
Life got here at him quick.
“Like, I used to be in highschool, dwelling at house, driving a automotive my mother and father paid for, fortunate if I had Chipotle as soon as every week. I would need to ask my mother and father, ‘Hey, can I am going to Chipotle with my buddies?'” he defined. “After which the next 12 months, you are making one million bucks, taking part in in entrance of reside arenas. You clearly have plenty of hype. It is the whole lot I dreamed of and I would not need to change it, I simply want I might have performed higher. However on the similar time, I believe going via that adversity goes to make me the participant that I’m.”
Hughes, who’s listed at 5-foot-11, was additionally nonetheless creating bodily. He bulked up with 14 kilos of muscle (going from 164 kilos to 180) coming into his second season. And whereas he upped his manufacturing (going from 0.34 factors per recreation to 0.55) he nonetheless felt like he was discovering himself as a participant. That mentioned, he by no means misplaced confidence. “I imply, I might go like 5 video games and not using a level and I would in all probability nonetheless be l considering I used to be the person,” he mentioned.
Then, the pandemic hit, which Hughes mentioned helped floor him. He returned to his household’s house in Michigan when the NHL season was placed on pause in 2020.
“It allowed me to sit down again and loosen up; I considered myself, considered my recreation, the place I’m and the place I need to go,” he mentioned. “That was a very good interval for me mentally, to debrief and simply have a look at myself within the mirror.”
One of many causes Hughes feels empowered to point out up and be himself now’s due to his surroundings. The Devils, who’re constructing now with conviction, are the youngest crew within the NHL.
“Our captain is Nico Hischier and he is 23 years previous,” Hughes mentioned. “On the ice, we’re studying easy methods to put the work in and actually learn to win. However off the ice, within the locker room — I would not say it is a occasion within the locker room, however clearly it is plenty of enjoyable.”
It does not harm that the elder statesman within the locker room is 32-year-old P.Okay. Subban, who is thought for pushing boundaries of what we count on from hockey gamers off the ice.
“He is extraordinarily aggressive and he is had a terrific profession, however he is acquired different issues happening outdoors of hockey,” Hughes says. “I am positive it is a good factor for us younger guys to have a look at. At occasions, I am so invested in hockey. It is hockey, hockey, hockey, hockey. However we have now the remainder of our lives too. So I believe that is an excellent factor that he is concerned in different issues.”
Hughes is an avid fan of the NFL and NBA, and he is starting to dabble in soccer. He is a pupil of different sports activities’ superstars and trendsetters.
“I like Jack Grealish, and his swag,” he says. “Soccer, or soccer over there, it wasn’t too large in my world rising up, however I watched the Euro Cup and he was nasty so I form of caught onto that. After which LeBron. I grew up loving basketball, and he is the goat in my thoughts.”
Hughes’ extracurriculars, for now, do not deviate too removed from these of a typical 20-year-old. Of their free time, Hughes and Smith wish to hop on their electrical scooters and discover Jersey Metropolis and Hoboken — particularly the meals scene.
“You may’t even examine the bagels, and I will not even contact the pizza again house [in Michigan] now,” says Hughes, ensuring he provides that there are additionally “elite delis” in New Jersey. On Sunday’s, they arrange camp on their sofa to observe Crimson Zone, the place they “sewer one another” (their phrases) whereas following their a number of fantasy leagues. It is fixed jabbing forwards and backwards.
In keeping with Smith, Hughes has additionally come “a great distance” within the kitchen.
“That was a giant flaw of his in 12 months one,” Smith says. “His specialty was in all probability like scrambled eggs. However this 12 months he is acquired some steak and different issues he can do, and it isn’t dangerous. It is nothing flashy, however he will get the job achieved.”
Hughes can be getting the job achieved on the ice. After lacking 17 video games with a shoulder harm, which halted the early-season momentum, Hughes is again. It took him just a few video games to ease again in, however the heart now has 9 factors in his final 4 video games — together with one more game-winner in extra time.
Hughes’ confidence, unsurprisingly, stays excessive. As he comes into his personal as a hockey star, he by no means needs to lose his sense of self. And meaning persevering with to shock.
Requested what he can be doing if he did not play hockey, Hughes replied: “I might say surfer. I really feel like that is like my persona away from the rink. Like low-key, blissful simply chilling. I would be blissful. That is it. Nothing loopy.”