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Hot NHL prospect has link to Orlando Solar Bears
Jim Hughes barely had settled into his new job as an assistant coach with the original Orlando Solar Bears when the crying started.
His first child, Quinn, was born five days after the Solar Bears played their third game of the 1999-2000 International Hockey League season. Jim sometimes took Quinn to practice at RDV Sportsplex, marveling at his son when he was not instructing players.
When diaper-changing duty called, Jim cleared a spot on his desk and got to work, a sort of on-the-job training.
“He sort of grew up with the sport,’’ Jim said. “Kids at all ages, they grow their passions and their love of the game, and I’m sure it was no different for Quinn.’’
Quinn Hughes, a University of Michigan freshman defenseman, has developed into one of the nation’s top hockey prospects. He is a potential top-10 pick in the NHL Draft in June.
Hughes (5-10, 175) has produced five goals and 24 assists in 36 games for the Wolverines (22-14-3), who will meet Notre Dame in an NCAA Frozen Four semifinal Thursday night in St. Paul, Minn.
“From the first moment I saw him on TV, his high IQ and hockey sense were clearly evident,’’ John Buccigross, who covers hockey for ESPN, said in an email. “Now, after five months of training and normal/natural teenage maturation, you can really see his acceleration, especially in person.
“He’s a beautiful player to watch. He is the star of the Frozen Four.’’
Quinn, the oldest of Jim and Ellen Hughes’ three sons, follows in a family tradition of excelling at hockey.
Both of his parents played collegiately — Jim at Providence and Ellen at New Hampshire. Quinn’s mother, whose maiden name is Weinberg, was on the U.S. women’s national team that finished as the runner-up at the 1992 world championships in Finland.
His uncle, Marty Hughes, won a Frozen Four championship with Boston College. Quinn’s brothers, Jack and Luke, are showing promise in youth hockey, with Jack in the discussion for the No. 1 overall pick in 2019.
“[With] my dad’s job, we’d always have pros coming over to the house,’’ Quinn said. “I would also be at the rink. Just seeing how they act, having my dad in the house, just teaching me how to act, you kind of knew what it takes to get to play. It was always hockey 24-7.’’
Jim Hughes came to Orlando because of an old friend. He grew up on Long Island with John Weisbrod, an executive with the Solar Bears at the time and later a general manager with the Orlando Magic.
Weisbrod had a staff vacancy when Peter Horachek was promoted to the Solar Bears’ head-coaching position after Curt Fraser left for a similar position with the Atlanta Thrashers when they joined the NHL in 1999. The Solar Bears were a minor-league affiliate to the Thrashers, who folded after the 2010-11 season.
When an opening became available, Weisbrod thought of Hughes.
“We had some very good teams in Orlando and we scored very well, but usually what kept us from winning was, we weren’t as good defensively as we could have been,’’ said Weisbrod, an assistant general manager with the Vancouver Canucks. “[Jim] viewed the whole game from the defensive side of the puck, which is sort of rare.’’
Hughes spent two seasons in Orlando, and Quinn and Jack were born here.
It was a time for growth, not only off the ice. The Solar Bears were good. They were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs in 2000, then reached the IHL finals for the second time in three years.
Two seasons after losing a winner-take-all Game 7, the Solar Bears clutched the Turner Cup after holding the Chicago Wolves to eight goals and prevailing in five games.
“Orlando was just a ton of fun,’’ Hughes said.
Horachek, a scout with the New Jersey Devils living in Deerfield Beach, said he realized that Solar Bears team was special by Christmas.
“We could win a game with skill,’’ Horachek said. “Some teams wanted to play a rough game. We could play any way you wanted to play. They were comfortable when things got hard.’’
Weisbrod still cherishes that championship.
“In my 25 years of being in sports and running sports teams, it’s certainly one of my fondest memories,’’ he said.
Those Solar Bears never took the ice again. Less than two weeks later, the league ceased operations because of financial problems.
The Hughes family’s time living near Timacuan Golf and Country Club in Lake Mary was over.
“We have such fond memories,’’ Ellen said. “We used to golf every day. We’d put Quinn in his baby carriage, and we’d get on a golf cart. We’d go golf our nine to 18 holes. Where else could you do that?’’
After the Solar Bears folded, Jim joined the Boston Bruins as an assistant coach, then moved on to the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League. Quinn spent most of his childhood in Toronto, where Jim worked for the Maple Leafs’ organization.
“I grew my passion for the game on the outdoor rinks in Toronto,’’ Quinn said. “There’s so many. I probably have four or five in my neighborhood. It was really fun playing with my friends and brothers. I would be out there six, seven hours a day.’’
During “Hockey Night in Canada’’ — a Saturday night institution in the Great White North — Quinn and his friends congregated in his family’s basement, watched their favorite sport and ate pizza.
When they weren’t watching, the boys played hockey down there.
“It was the relationship, the people, friends,’’ said Jim, who now works for a sports agency. “It was a real positive experience for him.’’
Quinn had not celebrated his second birthday by the time there was no tomorrow for the original Solar Bears. (The current Solar Bears — not connected to the IHL version — joined the ECHL in 2012.)
He does not remember his time in Orlando but has seen pictures. Asked whether he had been back to the area since he was a toddler, Quinn said he had not.
“It’s something I want to do in the near future,’’ he said.
Given the trajectory of his hockey career, Quinn will come back certain of one thing.
At the NHL Draft in Dallas, Quinn’s mother’s hometown, any tears will be ones of joy.