Hockey Sense Roundup: Luke Hughes' historic freshman season; IIHF events in Russia and more
Plus: Rodion Amirov's diagnosis, Cooley picks Minnesota, more news and notes
About four years ago, I had an idea for a story that I thought was a perfect fit for ESPN The Magazine’s NEXT issue. I had to pitch it hard on the editors. Hockey didn’t get a ton of space in the Mag and it was going to have to be a special story to make it work. But the Hughes family had a special story.
We knew for sure that the oldest two boys were going to be especially high draft picks. Quinn was a first-round lock and everyone was already talking about how Jack was the next big thing in American hockey, a likely No. 1 overall. But then there was also 14-year-old Luke. He had shown some promise and had just transitioned from the GTHL’s Toronto Marlboros to the vaunted Little Caesars program in metro Detroit.
I couldn’t write a story that just was about Quinn and Jack without touching on Luke, but how much could we really project about a 14-year-old just starting to figure things out.
So I asked around about Luke. A few people said he had a chance to be special, too, but no one could tell for sure. He was so young. To his parents, they could instantly see the similarities with him and Quinn. He was a “Quinn-clone” I remember one of the quotes being. But still, if I’m going to write this thing that all three brothers are going to be top-level picks and that last one doesn’t live up to the hype, I’d feel pretty bad about overselling it.
What I didn’t know at the time is that Luke would grow to 6-foot-2 over the next three years. The year after the story ran, Luke helped lead Little Caesars to the 15-only national championship, then made the NTDP, had a good U17 season and then became the No. 4 overall pick of the New Jersey Devils after a stellar U18 campaign that ended prematurely due to injury in 2020-21.
Now four years removed from my nervousness about putting too much pressure on a kid whose last name was going to give him enough, the youngest Hughes boy is in the midst of a historic season. For two straight weeks, Luke was the Big Ten’s first star. He broke Michigan’s freshman defenseman goal scoring record that stood for 45 years and surpassed brother Quinn’s freshman point total in the same weekend.
Since returning from the cancelled World Juniors, Hughes has 14 points in 12 games including six goals over his last five contests. Over the entire season, he has 16 goals and 16 assists for 32 points. He leads all NCAA defensemen in points and is tied for second among all NCAA freshmen in total points, while no freshman in any position has more goals.
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