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Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporter
Instead of just one cover athlete, EA Sports chose to go with three from the same family, selecting Jack, Luke and Quinn Hughes for the cover of NHL 25.
Jack and Luke, who are teammates with the New Jersey Devils, and Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn are the first brothers to be on the cover of the NHL series and are believed to be first family to grace the cover of a sports gaming franchise.
NHL 25 will be released Oct. 4, the same day the season opens with the Buffalo Sabres facing Jack, Luke and the Devils in the NHL Global Series in Prague, Czechia.
“I think all of us are just honored because it’s a hard thing to be on the cover and there’s so many great players in the league,” said Quinn Hughes, the reigning Norris Trophy winner as the NHL’s top defenseman. “For them to decide to attach their brand with the three of us was pretty cool.”
3 Brothers
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Hockey has seen siblings before, with more than 200 of them having reached the NHL. The Hughes are the latest with an opportunity to be one of the game’s most memorable families.
Their father, Jim, was a captain at Providence before becoming an assistant coach with the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs, who then promoted him to director of player development. Their mother, Ellen, played hockey as a three-sport athlete at the University of New Hampshire. She was a member of the United States women’s national team that won a silver medal at the 1992 world championships, then was an assistant coach for UNH’s women’s hockey and soccer teams before becoming a broadcaster.
“I think we grew up on the game,” Luke Hughes said. “I don’t think our parents let us have it at too young an age. I think our first couple games were NHL 14, 15, 16. [Players such as] Patrice Bergeron and Marty Brodeur, I think that’s when we got into it, and we just played it together and had fun.”
EA introduced the franchise in 1991 with Los Angeles Kings goaltender Glenn Healy as the first cover athlete. The next year was the only other time the game has had three cover athletes with Philadelphia Flyers center Rod Brind’Amour and New York Rangers duo Randy Moller and Mike Richter.
Chris Haluke, one of the game’s senior producers, said NHL 25 will have a stronger emphasis on skating through its new “Ice-Q” feature that is designed to make the game more realistic and played a role in choosing all three Hughes brothers for the cover.
“Just having their skating abilities, the way that they play, the way that they are playmakers, their offensive and defensive explosiveness — there’s so much that goes into their highly skilled play styles,” Haluke said. “We felt it was a direct match and helped influence what we were trying to accomplish with ‘Ice-Q’ and that feature overall.”
All three brothers were standout youth players who would go on to play at the United States National Team Development Program. Founded in 1996, the initiative was designed to advance hockey in America and has produced NHL stars such as Patrick Kane, Auston Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk, among others.
It led to Quinn, who starred at the University of Michigan, being drafted seventh by the Canucks in 2018. The next year, the Devils selected Jack with the first pick of what was known as the “Jack Hughes draft,” and two years later, they selected Luke, who also starred at Michigan, with the fourth pick.
“It’s a hard thing to be on the cover, and there’s so many great players in the league. For them to decide to attach their brand with the three of us was pretty cool.”
Canucks captain Quinn Hughes
On Dec. 5, the three Hughes brothers played against each other in the NHL for the first time. It was just the second time an American family had three brothers in the same game and was the ninth such occurrence in NHL history. The Devils won 6-5 with Jack scoring three points, Luke scoring a goal and Quinn finishing with two points.
The Hughes brothers have captured several individual and team accolades and won medals at various international events, and they are now the faces of NHL franchises that are looking to become long-term contenders and Stanley Cup winners.
They can add being the faces of NHL 25 to their list of accomplishments.
“This is obviously a pretty special accolade and something I think every NHLer wants to accomplish or grows up and thinks, ‘Wow, it’d be really cool to be on the cover,'” Jack Hughes said. “We were the same way growing up, and it’s another really special opportunity that we grabbed at when it came toward us, and I think we’re really excited with the final product.”
Source: www.espn.com