Hughes Brothers Make Video Game History
The trio of brothers are the first Jewish athletes to grace the cover of a sports video game.
It was one of the coolest moments of the last NHL season – and now it’s making video game history.
On Dec. 6 in Vancouver, the three Hughes brothers (Quinn, Jack, Luke), all of whom are budding NHL stars raised by their Jewish mother, Ellen Weinberg-Hughes, played in the same game for the first of what promises to be many times. Jack tallied a goal and two assists and Luke potted a power play goal as the New Jersey Devils edged Quinn (two third-period assists) and the Vancouver Canucks 6-5 in a game that drew national attention as it was only the second time in NHL history that an American family had three brothers skating in the same game.
And then, just a couple months later, eldest brother Quinn, 24, texted his middle sibling, Jack, 23, about the proposal to have all three Hughes grace the cover of the deluxe edition of Electronic Arts (EA) Sports’ NHL 25 video game. As all three grew up as video game junkies when they weren’t honing their puck-handling skills in basements, on driveways, and at rinks, Jack, Quinn, and their baby brother, Luke, 20, consented to a subsequent off-season photo shoot for this year’s cover. In doing so, the Hughes brothers became the first trio of brothers to be the face of the NHL’s marquee video game (the Sedin twins, Henrik and Daniel, were showcased on the Swedish cover for the NHL 11 edition) and the first Jewish athletes to ever have their image splashed on the cover of an EA Sports product.
“We feel incredibly honored to be on the cover of NHL 25,” said Quinn, in an official press release issued by EA Sports, which has long been regarded as the premier video game brand in the market. “Being featured alongside my brothers is the sort of thing you dream about as a kid but could never imagine happening in real life.”
Quinn, the NHL’s reigning Norris Trophy winner for league-best defenseman (17 goals, 92 points in the regular season), made his NHL debut for Vancouver during the 2018-19 season. During the following pandemic-truncated 2019-20 campaign, Jack broke in with the Devils as the No.1 overall pick in the 2019 draft. Since then, he has been one of the league’s more prolific scorers and a household name in the Tri-State area. Meanwhile, at the conclusion of the 2022-23 season, Luke, fresh off a dominant run with the University of Michigan, joined Jack in New Jersey and this past season was a finalist for the Calder Trophy given to the league’s top rookie.
While the Hughes are not the first family to have three brothers play in the NHL concurrently – in fact, eight such hockey bloodlines have preceded them – Quinn, Jack, and Luke have already built impressive resumes and could one day account for the all-time most prolific trio of brothers in NHL history. But at the present time, they’re evidently some of the sport’s most marketable players as they join megastars such as Auston Matthews, Alex Ovechkin, and Connor McDavid in receiving this prestigious honor to be front and center on the sport’s signature video game.
“It was a very proud moment for all of us when we saw the Deluxe cover,” said Jack, who’s coming off an injury plagued 2023-24 season in which he still managed to rack up 74 points (it should be noted that he will be the only one featured on the game’s cover for the U.S.). “It reminded us that on the ice, we’re competitors, always learning from each other, but off the ice, we’re brothers who love to play hockey.”
Sports video game history is encapsulated in an image that will be posterized across not just North America, but the entire globe: Quinn, decked out in his old school Canucks uniform, is flanked by his two younger brothers of the New Jersey Devils. They are sitting at their stalls in a generic locker room, skates on, helmets removed. All the world can see this next generation of Jewish superstars who came from the same athletically gifted household in which their mother, Ellen, was a three-sport (ice hockey, soccer, and lacrosse) athlete at the University of New Hampshire and father, Jim, was a star defenseman at Providence College.
“Being on the cover with my brothers is incredibly exciting,” added Luke. “We have a one-of-a-kind hockey story growing up together and now a one-of-a-kind cover. We can’t wait for fans to experience NHL 25.”
The video game, which is engineered for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, has been hyped up for delivering an unprecedented level of authenticity that closely simulates the breathtaking playmaking skills and explosiveness displayed by the Hughes brothers and their NHL colleagues. In more technical terms, NHL 25 is driven by a cutting-edge, logic-driven animation engine that enables gamers to be immersed in highly realistic scenarios, whether it be gliding along the blue line or squaring up to the puck carrier.
It is available for pre-order now and will be officially released on Oct. 4, the same day the NHL regular season kicks off when the Devils skate against the Buffalo Sabres in Prague. And just over three weeks later, on Oct. 30, the Hughes brothers reunite on the ice when the Devils and Canucks square off once again in British Columbia.
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