Las Vegas — T.J. Hughes tried to hold all his emotions in, but tears and sniffles betrayed him on the podium at T-Mobile Arena. Another Frozen Four ended too soon for his Michigan hockey team Thursday night, and in double-overtime heartbreak so too had his college career ended.
He’d been the final addition to his freshman class, a May signee from the Alberta Junior Hockey League whose accolades paled compared to teammates who headlined NHL prospect pools. He came in with fans confusing him for a fourth Hughes brother of the clan that had sent Quinn and Luke. But in four years, Hughes made a name of his own.
In four years, the Hamilton, Ontario native scored 179 points for the Wolverines, 69 goals including a go-ahead goal in Thursday’s Frozen Four semifinal. But at the hands of Denver, his college career ended in a 4-3 double overtime tear-jerker.
“There’s really no words,” Hughes said. “It means everything. I tried my best to leave it better than I found it. There’s so many unbelievable people within Michigan hockey that have impacted my life in a positive way.”
Hughes will have one more chance to leave Vegas with hardware, for he’s one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey’s most outstanding player alongside Minnesota-Duluth forward Max Plante (a Red Wings draftee) and Denver defenseman Eric Pohlkamp.
To Michigan coach Brandon Naurato, this senior class that Hughes headlines has left the program in a far better place. It was his first group, his tone setters.
“I don’t know if it’s hit me yet because what these seniors have done for this program, it’s really special,” Naurato said. “You can tell a little bit from the outside, but if you’re in that room, all the conversations we’re having, these guys have changed the program. I’m really proud of them for that. I’m proud to be a part of it.”
It’s hard to argue that anybody played a bigger part in all that than Hughes. He stayed with the program when NHL teams knocked, turning down contracts twice to stay with the Wolverines. In a class that included NHL players Rutger McGroarty, Seamus Casey, Gavin Brindley, Frank Nazar III and Adam Fantilli — who won the Hobey Baker as a freshman in 2023 — Hughes was overlooked.
Now, Michigan is struggling to think of a world without Hughes, and Hughes a world without Michigan.
“I don’t even want to leave,” Hughes told the Big Ten Network when he was named Big Ten player of the year in March as the conference’s first ever four-time honoree.
Naurato recruited Hughes to Michigan’s vaunted 2022 freshman class when he was still an assistant coach, that same fateful offseason to cast him as the interim a couple of short months later. With the Brooks Bandits, Hughes put up a gaudy 127 points in a tier two Canadian league. Questions of his size and skating made some dismiss him. Naurato couldn’t.
“He tells me he picked it because of our conversations, but you’d have to ask him,” a smiling Naurato said March 31. “I think we just kind of hit it off, like nerding it up with hockey. It’s probably completely different from how I would pitch a kid on our program now, but it was more along the lines of development and one-on-one attention and video and on the ice.”
All around Yost Ice Arena, Naurato couldn’t stop raving about the player Hughes could be.
“I remember, it’s so funny, one of our first power play meetings Naur was showing clips of T.J. for the Brooks Bandits,” McGroarty told The Detroit News, “and we were all looking at this guy’s highlight reel, and it was ridiculous. And I feel like from day one, just seeing his care factor off the ice and how he manages his body, how he takes care of himself, like, there’s no shocker that he’s the captain now, and they’re back to a Frozen Four with him leading the way.”
Hughes became the key facilitator on Michigan’s power play, scoring 36 points as a freshman before that season ended in Tampa Bay, at the hands of Quinnipiac. He topped that with a career high 48 points as a sophomore. He passed on NHL contract offers to come back after a second empty Frozen Four run in Minnesota. When last year ended outside of the NCAA Tournament, Hughes came back to lead Michigan back to the postseason.
It’s that commitment to a program that teammates say should give Hughes the Hobey Baker Award.
“That guy’s the epitome of what that award is,” said defenseman Luca Fantilli. “He comes to the rink every day since I was a freshman, he’s been dialed in. That guy bleeds Michigan, he bleeds the Block M and he bleeds his team, and he’s showing it this year.”
And Hughes bled for Michigan Thursday night, playing through an injury in regulation that had sent him wincing to the bench. He was on the ice for the final goal, kneeling in its aftermath as Denver swarmed the ice in jubilation. He was distraught, the end of his college career and the start of a pro career he’d put off for so long staring back at him.
And to think, the path that’s going to end with Hughes signing an NHL contract this weekend is a completely different path from the one apparent to players now. With the admittance of Canadian Hockey League players to the NCAA ranks, the currents of the recruiting waters have shifted. Would Hughes have been overlooked in today’s game? Would he have been an impact player for three Frozen Four teams and two Big Ten tournament champions?
Friday’s Hobey Baker ceremony will be the end of the line for Hughes, a foundational player for Naurato’s program to which he’d given everything he had.
“I’ll forever be blessed, forever be grateful to call Coach Naur my coach and the rest of the staff my coach,” Hughes said.
And Michigan should be grateful to say Hughes was one of its own.
cearegood@detroitnews.com
@ConnorEaregood
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Frozen Four heartbreak ends college career of Michigan’s T.J. Hughes: ‘I’ll forever be blessed’
Reporting by Connor Earegood, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
