John Hughes (born January 6, 1988) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

currently playing for

EC VSV EC Grand Immo VSV are an ice hockey team in the ICE Hockey League. They play their home games at Stadthalle (capacity approximately 4500 spectators) in Villach, Austria. The team colors are blue and white. Their mascot is an eagle - Villach's co ...

in the

ICE Hockey League The ICE Hockey League (International Central European Hockey League), known as the win2day ICE Hockey League for sponsorship reasons, is a Central European hockey league that also serves as the top-tier ice hockey league in Austria, it currently f ...

Playing career

Hughes was taken 1st overall by the

Belleville Bulls The Belleville Bulls were a junior ice hockey team, founded in 1981 and based in Belleville, Ontario, Canada. The team played in the Eastern Division of the Eastern Conference of the Ontario Hockey League. The team moved to Hamilton, Ontario at ...

in the 2004 Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Priority Selection. After completing his major junior career in the OHL with the Bulls, and

Brampton Battalion The Brampton Battalion were a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League. The team was based in Brampton, Ontario, Canada and started playing in 1998. As a result of consistently having among the lowest attendance in the OHL (last place ...

, he was the only player to be a 1st overall OHL Priority Selection to not go on to be picked in the

NHL Entry Draft The NHL Entry Draft (french: Repêchage d'entrée dans la LNH) is an annual meeting in which every franchise of the National Hockey League (NHL) systematically select the rights to available ice hockey players who meet draft eligibility requirem ...

. Hughes opted to forge a European career, first signing with Austrian club, the EC Red Bull Salzburg of the EBEL. After a short stint in Finland and Germany with

Tappara Tappara (; Finnish for "Battle axe") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team playing in the Liiga. They play at ''Tampere Deck Arena'' in Tampere, Finland. The team has won 18 Finnish league championships (1959, 1961, 1964, 1975, 1977, 1979, ...

and the

Hannover Indians The Hannover Indians are a professional German ice hockey team and public limited company from Hanover in Lower Saxony, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second mo ...

, Hughes returned to the EBEL with Slovenian club,

HDD Olimpija Ljubljana Hokejsko drsalno društvo Olimpija Ljubljana, commonly referred to as HDD Olimpija or simply Olimpija, was a Slovenian professional ice hockey club from Ljubljana. They played their home games at the Tivoli Hall. Olimpija has won 13 Yugoslav ch ...

. In his first full season with Olimpija in the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season, the skilled forward posted an impressive 64 points in 53 games, leading the league with 48 points to be selected as the EBEL rookie of the year. Hughes bettered his initial success in the following 2011–12 season, to lead the EBEL in points scoring with 68 points in 50 games to be named the EBEL MVP with the Ron Kennedy Trophy. Hughes then signed a lucrative two-year contract with Austrian club,

, on May 2, 2012. After leading the league for a second time with 85 points in 54 games in the last year of his contract with VSV in the 2013–14 season, Hughes opted to return to his first professional club, EC Red Bull Salzburg, with the lure of the

Champions Hockey League The Champions Hockey League is a European first-level ice hockey tournament. Launched in the 2014–15 season by 26 clubs, 6 leagues and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the tournament features top teams across Europe. Backgrou ...

on July 1, 2014.

Awards and honours

References

External links

* 1988 births Belleville Bulls players Brampton Battalion players Canadian ice hockey centres EC Red Bull Salzburg players EC VSV players Hannover Indians players HDD Olimpija Ljubljana players Ice hockey people from Ontario Living people Sportspeople from Whitby, Ontario Tappara players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Austria Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Slovenia Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Finland Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Germany Naturalised citizens of Austria {{canada-icehockey-centre-1980s-stub