America's First Family Of Hockey

- Chris Peters

JACK HUGHES HAS a split second to survey the ice and make up his mind. Five defenders and a goalie stand between him and the net. His options are limited, but as soon as Jack makes his turn, everyone in the arena a knows what he’ll do, and no one can hope to stop him.

Jack, a center for the U.S. national under-17 team and the early odds-on favorite to be picked No. 1 in the 2019 NHL draft, takes the puck to the net. The first Green Bay Gamblers defender doesn’t even get a stick on him. The next looks to have an angle, only to see the 5-foot-10, 157-pound Hughes slip the puck behind him and collect it on the other side, unscathed. Jack slithers left between defenders who hopelessly poke their sticks and make just enough contact to knock Hughes off balance—but not enough to deny him a shooting lane. He tumbles while getting off the shot, and the puck flies over the right shoulder of the Green Bay goalie, whose body language suggests he can’t believe what everyone just saw either.

Within a day of that play last November, video was making the rounds on Twitter, leading hockey fans across the continent to discover the 16-year-old phenom and, by extension, his equally gifted brothers, Quinn, 18, and Luke, 14.