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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

