The Hughes Boys And Michigan Make History At First Round Of NHL Draft

Holy Chef's Salad, Batman!

This year's draft is more of a crapshoot than ever given the havoc the pandemic unleashed. But the #1 overall pick was pretty much a slam dunk. As expected, D Owen Power went to Buffalo. Then his Michigan teammate from Hingham, C Matty Beniers, went from the South Shore to the Pacific Northwest as he became the first-ever Seattle Kraken draft pick. It was the first time since 1969 that teammates went with the first two selections. 

And he's a dead ringer for the North Shore's Gary Gulman...

Anaheim took gifted F Mason McTavish third. He was born in Switzerland when his dad played there and spent his first eight years there before the family moved to Canada.

The third Hughes brother, Luke, was taken 4th by New Jersey and his older brother/future teammate Jack was more excited about it than he was.

The brothers became the first American trio to all be selected in the First Round and the first trio of siblings to all be taken in the Top 10. The Hughes boys are just the third trio of brothers to all get taken in the First Round, joining the Sutters (Ron, Rich, Brent) and Staals.

Columbus took Kent Johnson with the 5th pick, making four out of the first five picks Michigan Wolverines (Hughes will a freshman this fall); it was the first time that a college program had three teammates go in the First Round.

Here are the remaining selections in the First Round...

A few more buds for your draft bowl...

*The only trades were swaps of picks between Edmonton/Minny, Carolina/Nashville, and Detroit/Dallas. Detroit made the swap so it could pick the first goalie of the draft, Sebastian Cossa.

*It was a very nice and classy call by Minnesota/Billy Guerin to have the kids of the late Tom Kurvers on hand to announce the Wild's selections. Kurvers was an assistant GM for the Wild who passed away last month from cancer at the much too young age of 58.

*Elliotte just dropped this nugget...

*Not long before the draft kicked off, the Blackhawks finally consummated the deal for Seth Jones and my boy Chief has all of the details right here...

*Round 2 starts at 11AM Saturday and airs on NHL Network down here and on Sportsnet and SN Now up north.