Luke Hughes Quickly Adjusting to NHL | FEATURE

It's been two weeks since Luke Hughes joined the Devils after his sophomore season at the University of Michigan and he's been able to experience some big moments. He made his NHL debut on Aprill 11 against the Buffalo Sabres at Prudential Center. Two days later, against the Washington Capitals, Hughes scored his first NHL goal, picked up his first NHL assist, and had his first multi-point game. The cherry on top? His goal was the overtime game-winner and his older brother Jack assisted on the goal.
"How much better could it be to get your first goal in overtime and your brother setting it up," Devils head coach Lindy Ruff said following Hughes' overtime winner. "It's been a pretty special week for him."
"Your first goal you never forget it," Hughes said about his first NHL goal. "It was awesome being out there and with Jack assisting it, it was pretty cool."

Now that Hughes had his first taste of professional hockey, he's seeing how the game differs at this level compared to college hockey.
"I think the speed and how structured everyone is," Hughes said about the differences of the pro game. "I don't know if the speed is that much faster but definitely just how structured people are. They don't rush out to the points, they're really tight in their structure in the D zone and the neutral zone."
Fellow blueliner Damon Severson discussed how he's seen Hughes perform in his first few weeks with the team.
"The skating and the puck handling is very smooth," Severson said about his first impressions of Luke Hughes. "Similar to his brothers. Other than that, when you look at the other two brothers around the league, and the way they play and the way they like to possess the puck and skate it's just very smooth and confident the way they play."
Besides the game being a different level, life away from hockey is a departure from balancing school and hockey at the University of Michigan.
"Off the ice, it's a little different from my schedule going to class everyday," said Hughes. "You have a lot of down time so you have to really recover and do the right things."
Hughes didn't play in the Devils' first playoff game, but watching Game 1, he gained more insight into the playoffs, this time from the perspective of his new team.
"It's always different when you're watching it live from a TV," Hughes shared about the playoffs. "I think just seeing the atmosphere and seeing how the fans showed out was pretty cool. Just how it ebbs and flows in a game, you can't get too high or too low because there's so much that happens, so many momentum swings and that's what I noticed."