After scoring the game-winning goal in the New Jersey Devils' 4-3 overtime victory over the Colorado Avalanche, Jack Hughes will grab his suitcase and join his teammates on the bus as the team heads to the airport to begin a four-game road trip.
Among Hughes' belongings is Atlas Shrugged, a 1,088-page novel by Ayn Rand, which is the 24-year-old's current read. With the Devils on the road for the next week, he also brought one smaller book, just in case.
Hughes reignited his love for reading during his fifth season in the NHL when he was 22-years-old.
"I wasn't an anti-reader, but I just didn't read for so many years," he told The Hockey News after a recent practice. "I think it must have been three years ago."
The lifestyle of an NHLer allows Hughes more time than the average person to read, as he takes the opportunity to pull out his book when the team is on the bus or the plane.
For Hughes, reading is one way he can get away from the game.
"You turn your brain off and you are thinking about other things," he explained. "It is nice not to be on your phone or watch TV. It is nice to sit and chill."
He prefers a book to a Kindle, saying he likes holding a physical book rather than a device—a sentiment most avid readers would agree with.
Hughes' love for reading has been a talking point over the past week as the Devils announced the launch of Hughes Brothers' Pucks & Pages, a multi-year reading program developed in partnership with JAG Physical Therapy and Hockey in New Jersey, designed to promote literacy among New Jersey's youth.
"We have been in partnership with the New Jersey Devils for over 20 years, and we are honored to be a part of Jack and Luke's new program, working alongside them to help support reading among our youth hockey players," said John Gallucci Jr., President & CEO of JAG Physical Therapy in the press release. "We look forward to continued collaboration to positively impact children within our communities and provide opportunities and new experiences for youth hockey."
"Pucks & Pages is an awesome program that we are excited to be creating," said Jack and Luke Hughes. "It is an interactive way to engage students with our passion for reading for many years to come. We are lucky JAG partnered with us, along with Hockey in New Jersey, so we can bring people to the game, meet them after, and share that experience."
In the days after the initiative's announcement, it was revealed that Jack and his older brother, Quinn Hughes, had held a competition to see who could read the most books during a hockey season. The Devils' star center read 50 books.
His favorite novel from that reading challenge was Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer.
"That was a book I crushed in a few days," he said.
Given his preference for physical books, it makes sense that there is a home library in the brothers' Michigan home.
"That is kind of how it got going big time because we wanted to fill up the library and make it full of books we have read," Hughes said. "We were using that as a little extra motivation to fill up the library. People come to see it, and it is a fun thing for us.
"There are layers to this," he continued with his signature laugh.
While the Devils are in the air for the next several hours, you won't find Hughes at the card table with Nico Daws, losing to Paul Cotter. He will have Atlas Shrugged in hand as the Devils begin their road trip in Denver, wrapping up a home-and-home against the Avalanche.
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