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Thursday, June 28, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS

AMELIA CACCHIONE / DAILY
Freshman defenseman Quinn Hughes was drafted 7th overall by the Vancouver Canucks in the NHL Draft after a breakout year
Quinn Hughes taken 7th by Canucks

The past year has been a wild
ride for Quinn Hughes.
As
the
youngest
player
in
college
hockey last season, the 18-year-
old freshman defenseman helped
lead the Michigan
hockey
team
—
13-game winners
the season prior
— to the Frozen
Four,
all
the
while
wowing
Wolverines
fans
and
NHL
scouts with his
electrifying
skating and puck-
handling ability.
Soon, the ride
will take him to Canada.
On Friday night in Dallas,
Texas, Hughes was selected by
the Vancouver Canucks with the
7th pick in the 2018 National
Hockey League Draft.
Hughes is the highest Michigan
draftee since defenseman Jack
Johnson was taken third overall
by
the
Carolina
Hurricanes
in 2005 and is also the second
defenseman chosen in this year’s
draft after Rasmus Dahlin, who
went to the Buffalo Sabres with
the No. 1 overall selection.
Joining Hughes in attendance
at the American Airlines Center
was his entire family, including
his brothers Jack — a candidate
to be next year’s top NHL draft

pick — and Luke, who recently
committed
to
Michigan
for
2022. Hughes’ parents were both
hockey players as well — father
Jim at Providence and mother
Ellen at New Hampshire.
After Hughes was drafted,
he spoke to NBCSN’s Kathryn
Tappen
about
the
impact
of
his mother, who
taught him how
to skate when he
was little.
“It’s
always
nice
to
have
parents that know
what
they’re
doing,” he said.
“It always makes
a difference. I’m
obviously grateful
to both of them — my mom knows
a lot about the game, like I said,
I’m grateful.”
Just about every mock draft
had Hughes as a top-10 pick, with
the most common projections
coming in the No. 4-No. 8 range.
Considering
his
skills
and
production last season, these
projections made sense.
Hughes’ standout trait is his
skating — many outlets have
called him the best pure skater
in his class. Blessed with terrific
speed and acceleration, he’s a
terror in transition, and his puck-
handling and passing allow him
to quarterback an offense from
the blue line effectively.
His elite skating does come

with a cost — at just 5-foot-
9, Hughes lacks the size many
desire from a defenseman and
can be outmuscled at times.
But he compensates for it with
superior awareness and savvy
anticipation, and pairing him
with a larger, more physical blue-
liner — such as his partnership
with Joseph Cecconi last season
— neutralizes many of Hughes’
weaknesses.
Hughes’
talent
culminated
last season into five goals and
a team-high 24 assists, as well
as selections to the All-Big Ten
Second Team and All-Freshman
Team. After Michigan’s season
came to an end, he was named to
the United States national team
at the World Championships as
the only college player on the
roster, contributing to a bronze-
medal finish for the Americans.
It’s not yet clear what Hughes’
next move will be. Most analysts
believe he’s in need of at least one
more year of in college in order
to get stronger and develop his
defensive game. His performance
with Team USA, however, hints
that he isn’t far off from being
NHL-ready.
But for now, Hughes seems to
just be enjoying it all.
“Obviously, I’m very proud,”
Hughes said. “I’ve heard a lot of
great things about Vancouver, it’s
obviously a hockey market. I’m
really excited, and it’s a dream
come true. Honestly, I don’t know
what to say right now.”

JAKE SHAMES
Daily Sports Writer

“I’m really
excited, and it’s
a dream come
true.”

Read the full story at
MichiganDaily.com

Focus on fundamentals
helps Conry in first year

On
the
surface,
it’s
not
immediately
obvious
what
drew Kevin Conry to coach the
Michigan men’s lacrosse team.
He
came
to
Ann
Arbor
after spending five years as
the defensive coordinator at
Maryland. In his five years,
the Terrapins won the Big
Ten Tournament five times
and reached the Final Four of
the NCAA Tournament four
times — including winning the
National Championship in 2017.
In the five years before
Conry joined the Wolverines,
Michigan notched just one win
in the Big Ten and one winning
season.
That’s a big leap for any
coach to make — a perennial
powerhouse to a team still
trying to find consistent wins.
It’s an even bigger leap when
you’re going to your first head
coaching job.
“I think when you’re in this
business, you want to be a head
coach, but you don’t want to
sacrifice an option to be ahead
of the pack and be a part of a
winning organization,” Conry
said. “I was an assistant at
Maryland. We were going to
Final Fours, just coming off a
championship, so it was very
easy for me to stay there.
“But
when
you
look
at
Michigan,
all
that
it
had
academically, in the Big Ten
conference which is the best
lacrosse in the country, coupled
with all of the facilities that
are available and that were
gonna come online in a very
short amount of time, it was a
no-brainer for me.”
Conry’s first season at the
helm was a bit of a rollercoaster—
as is to be expected for a young
team and a new coach learning
together.
Culture
change
is
not
a
process that happens overnight,
though
Conry
is
quick
to
point out that he was merely
building on the foundation left
by the previous coaching staff.
But new coaches bring new
philosophies, and Conry has
been steadfast in his since Day
1.

“It was about having 46 guys
buy into an idea and a plan
and a process,” Conry said.
“Every day — we certainly had
our rollercoaster ride of a full
season — but we had guys who
wanted to be great, wanted to
buy in, and wanted to have the
success on the field and off
the field. We just helped them
to find the way, and once they
started
to
understand
how
to do it, it started to become
habit.
And
that’s
what
we
really wanted, to just trust the
process, get better every day.
Culture will come when they
understand and when they buy
in.”
Creating a team that trusted
his process and was willing to
work was Conry’s top priority
in his first year. After all, it’s
hard to have high expectations
of a team that has only had one
previous winning season.
“I knew we had to just
continually get better,” Conry
said.
“I
didn’t
really
have
many expectations per se, I
just wanted us to focus on the
process and say, ‘Every day, let’s
just get a little bit better, and
then we’ll worry about the wins
and losses when they come.’ ”
Despite
the
lack
of
expectations, Conry led the
Wolverines to arguably their
most
successful
season
in
history.
Michigan
started
5-0
at
home — a program record. One
of their two non-conference
losses came against Yale, the
eventual national champions.
The Wolverines went on the
road to then-No. 4 Notre Dame
and won, earning Michigan’s
first top-five win and first road
win over a ranked opponent in
program history.
But the Big Ten is one of the
most competitive conferences
in collegiate lacrosse — on
multiple
occasions
during
the
season,
all
six
teams
were ranked inside the top
20.
Though
the
Wolverines
had found success in non-
conference games, Big Ten play
brought growing pains and the
first real tastes of adversity.

MEN’S LACROSSE

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer