New Jersey Devils: Jack Hughes Says All The Right Things
During his interview with the New Jersey Devils, Jack Hughes seemed to have a good answer for everything. This could be the moment that solidified his spot as the number-one overall pick.
The New Jersey Devils spent a long time with top prospect Jack Hughes at the NHL Combine. They likely asked him a ton of questions, as most teams can spend hours with these prospects. However, the Devils did us a favor and put it into a nicely knit one minute and 41 second clip.
So, obviously we’re getting the hits here. They wouldn’t show us Hughes stumble over a question because that just embarrasses the prospect, and there’s no reason for that at this point. Still, seeing how this kid speaks is extremely impressive.
We’ve all heard these questions on different interviews before. They all end up going in the same direction. “How do you define success” is the first question we hear in the clip. The answer may seem obvious, Hughes said the Stanley Cup, but what was more impressive is he dissected the question to talk about what makes a person successful.
General manager Ray Shero then asked Hughes what he’s learned about his game since the end of the Under 18 World Championships. Hughes went into why he decided to play in that tournament despite knowing he wasn’t going in there as the big dog.
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Talking about the importance of learning to not only play against men, but to learn how to play in a third-line role shows his incredible hockey IQ. He knows that he’s not going into the league next year and scoring 40 goals. He can’t dominate like he’s done his whole life. This was one last chance to test himself before the combine.
For him to understand that he needs to know how to play in the defensive zone, and that hockey is more than scoring goals, it’s once again impressive.
This was a short glimpse into the draft process, but seeing how confident Hughes was in that interview makes us think he can bring that confidence with him on the ice. He seems to be very sure of himself, and it’s hard not to be when it comes to players of this caliber.
Who knows what else happened in that interview, but based on what we saw we are all very happy with the results.