Jack and Luke Hughes, New Jersey Devils

We continue this exact Yelp show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio and now joining us on behalf of Prudential is Jack and Luke Hughes.

The duo has teamed up with Prudential to help raise awareness around the importance of financial literacy and being prepared for now what moments with the help of Prudential you can elevate your financial future with confidence. Jack and Luke Hughes of the New Jersey Devils with us. Gentlemen, appreciate the time. Welcome to the start of the hockey season. How we doing? Doing good. Well I appreciate you coming on. So let's get to this right out of the gate.

I'll start with you Jack. I'm not happy with you because in the postseason last year you sent my team home packing with the New York Rangers. But I will say what a series that was. You get in the taste of the playoff experience. How do you kind of look back at that series up against the Rangers? Yeah definitely like you know especially when I got drafted first to the Devils and you know the Rangers had the second kick. It was almost like a collision course that we knew we were gonna you know eventually play each other in playoffs because they were a team on the up and up and we were rebuilding. So for us to get our first like playoff experiences as a team as a core against the Rangers and beat them you know just a really emotional series and yeah it's great beating you Rangers you know it's great beating you guys.

I appreciate the extra smile on your face when you say that. I don't know if you guys were made aware of this video. The team put it out when you guys completed the comeback. A co-worker of mine was in his Rangers jersey after it was 2-0 and he was sweeping his bar saying that the series was over. The Devils put that out but when the series was going on did you guys see any of that just wondering on social media?

Well like when you're down 2-0 too your phone's in the drawer like you're not you're not looking at anything you know but like I guess like during those times you're down 2-0 you're so locked in you're just trying to like you know get a win and get back to it. So no but then obviously afterwards you know obviously a lot of like not bad blood but a really good really good healthy rivalry between the Devils Rangers so I know the fans were extremely into it you know gives us bragging rights for a year. Jack and Luke Hughes here with us we'll talk about Prudential in just a second. Luke you being only 20 years old what do you kind of hope to prove this season to the Devils fans as you get a full year on the ice? Yeah I think right now I'm strong day by day and you know like me and my teammates are really excited for you know the season start. My first full season I'm really excited to get going and just get better every day and get better every game and feel more confident out there. Jack you mentioned that you were a number one overall pick we all know where the expectations were last year you have 99 points in the regular season now you're getting talked about as being a top 10 player in the league just how do you kind of look back at last season for you individually and what are some of the things that you take to try to even get better here in 2023? Yeah I mean last season was definitely you know another another really good step in the right direction for me you know I think with when I came into the league at 18 my my you know my transgression and how my games developed and I've gotten better each and every year you know so I had a great year last year and you know it was just awesome for myself and my team you know for us to be like kind of side by side in a young team or a young player that are both taking a massive leap and you know obviously I want to have a great year but you know this year it's all about team team the team because you know we have such a good team and you know I think we think we can go really deep and obviously it's easy to say that before anybody's played a game but I think as a team we're going to be looking forward to getting better throughout the season and you know obviously getting towards playoffs and you think gearing up for that. We see you play on the ice jack and we all know the talent that you have but still only being 22 right you're a human being trying to figure out life and sometimes in sports we lose sight of that do you feel that pressure and how do you kind of compartmentalize it if you sense some pressure you know just kind of deriving when your name gets thrown into the conversation? No there's no pressure I mean I play hockey for a living you know it's pretty good so pressure is you know a lot it's pressure is when you're gotta pay the bills things like that you know so we're really fortunate that you know we get to play a game that we love and we get paid to do it and people watch us and you know live and die by the soil you know people you know they go you know they go to bed angry for the devil's lose so it's a it's a blessing and you know that's why we want to work so hard and you know for the people out there that are real real true fans. Talking to Jack and Luke Hughes, Luke for you what is this experience like so young in the league to be able to go through these things with your brother who you grew up right playing hockey at a young age with one another? Yeah I mean I think you know we live together try to stay up together all the time you know it's been really cool for me not even just be like obviously just playing with them you know being the same locker you know playing with them on the ice but just hanging out with them we haven't really lived together for four or five years so you know it's been really good and definitely definitely an easy adjustment from getting out on the pitch. Jack when you just look at what your family has accomplished right because you have another brother Quinn who's another high draft pick in the NHL with the Vancouver Canucks just how surreal is this because a lot of kids they grow up they say oh I want to be a professional athlete and then it's just not realistic and all three of you guys have gone on to accomplish this.

Yeah I mean it's honestly unheard of enough for three brothers to all play like in a professional league together you know I mean I don't think there's many families in terms of all four of major sports that are doing that so I think it's just a credit to my parents to you know how they brought us up and you know how we were always working hard when we were kids but there's never a thing of like oh we got to play in the NHL it's more of just like chasing your passion chasing your dream and you know through like hard work in the years you know somehow we ended up following the NHL stuff a lot of things have to go right but also it's a model that we put in as a family pretty special I get to do with my brother as well. Luke what was the best childhood fight you guys had because I would have to imagine with three brothers all playing hockey just knowing that the nature of the sport and how scrappy it is you guys probably had some good fights growing up right? Yeah I don't know I think we got three competitive guys and just growing up enjoying each other's company and just trying to fall in love with the game and you know we were really competitive whatever we were doing but there were definitely a couple fights but nothing nothing nothing crazy so. Jack I feel like you could you're holding in the laughter right now there has to be one fight that that comes to mind right?

Man I live with these guys for 16 years I don't know if there's I don't know if you want me to just throw something out there. Hey if you want to you know I want to remember a story of Travis and Jason Kelsey telling me that they like almost fought over a dinner and someone went through an oven growing up as kids so you know things like that probably just happen when you have a house full of athletes right? Yeah man you got three like dudes that are all around the same age you know it's like pretty competitive like Luke said. Jack and Luke Hughes wrapping up gentlemen tell me about what the work you do today the fine work with Prudential. Yeah pretty much you know me and Luke are both really young athletes and you know we're involved with Prudential now because you know they're helping out and helping people if they're financial for the future stuff especially young athletes so me and Luke it's like that's something that hits home for us because you know we're young guys and you're not going to play your whole life so you want to be set up pretty good for the future. Luke I know you're a Michigan man confident with the football team this year as they look to try to get a national championship? Yeah I think so I got some buddies on the team you know I think they're they're gonna have a really good chance to win this year you know they're pretty dedicated and they work hard and they work great so. Last thing for Jack and Luke Hughes right now joining us on CBS Sports Radio. Jack you know this whenever you have a young team and you have so much success and you put that on display people just naturally start to expect you guys to regress why will the Devils take it a step further this year and and not fall back this season? Yeah I mean we're hoping that our window just opened you know we had a really good year last year I think we caught a lot of people by surprise too so I don't think anyone expected this to be as good as we were this early so for us it's it's not about like you know proving people wrong or nothing like that it's more about you know we just got to keep working on our game and we have a really good core set in place and you know we we we run a little rough last year in the playoffs but you know I think we're hungry for more and you know we're really motivating the group heading into the season. Jack and Luke Hughes on behalf on behalf of Prudential gentlemen good luck this season good health thanks so much for doing it all right? Yeah thanks. See ya.