Hugh Jazz is one of the top prospects heading into the S48 SMJHL Draft and today we are going to be interviewing him on where he wants to play in the SMJHL and what his goals are for his player. Additionally, we are going to be asking him what separates him from the other players in this draft class.

What separates you from the other players in this draft class?

Jazz: It's a recreate heavy draft class in my opinion and there is a large amount of recreates into this draft including myself. So experience will not be one area where I am different than any other top prospect heading into the SMJHL. I think the one area my player is going to be different from everyone else is that I am going to focus on skating, puck handling, scoring, defense, and passing. I consider these five attributes as the main five to have a successful player and I am curious if I can create an effective player just focusing on these areas. I think that is one area that separates me from the rest of the pack as I won't be putting the into face-offs, strength, checking, and maybe even endurance. I will be focusing on my skills and is one of the most skilled players in the draft. I know having low endurance might affect how much minutes I play which is understandable. I don't care if I am on the 2nd or 3rd line, as long as I am helping the team win with effective production. I see a solid chance or opportunity for whoever drafts me to have a chance to win a championship. Additionally, I am the largest player ever which is going to help me with being more physical than someone smaller than me despite them having a higher checking and strength attributes.

What are your goals for your player in the SMJHL?

Jazz: I have never had a player win a four stars cup. I have won it before as a general manager but never as a player and that is one of my goals as a player. I feel like I am going to give my player a chance to win a championship no matter what. I have told teams that if I feel like the team isn't going to win a championship by year 2 or something like that I would prefer to get traded to a team that has a chance at a championship. This might be a selfish point of view but I just want to have a player have a strong chance at a championship at the junior level for once. Points really don't matter in my opinion or any other individual stats. I just want to win. Additionally, I am probably not going to change my player build to help the team out either. Again, I would like to give my player build a shot, I might be influenced to change my build once I'm capped if it doesn't work as planned and it will help out the team. So far in the prospect tournament, I had the most shots and the most hits in the tournament which were two stats I was curious about. I want to be a high shot per game player that can impact the game at all levels.

Do you have any preference in terms of teams?

Jazz: I honestly don't care where I get drafted as long as I am given a chance to win a championship within the 2-3 seasons that I will be playing at the junior level. I don't know when Hamilton is going to need me to be called up but I would like to join the SHL Level as soon as possible. Additionally, I might even consider being a year one player in the SHL if we end up winning a championship in my rookie season.

Are you going to be active in your SMJHL team's discord?

Jazz: I really don't know most of my time is spent in my SHL team discord and I feel like it's going to depend on where I get drafted on how active I am going to be. I will try my best to help the younger users in the discord but I won't be checking the SMJHL team discord as much as I check my SHL team discord. If I get tagged, I will respond and try and help out the younger users.

Jazz: I think this is all I am going to say ahead of the draft and I hope whoever drafts me in the upcoming draft will be happy with selecting me, I know I might be selfish in my decision of wanting to win a championship but I never really have been given a chance to win a championship with my last 2 players in the SMJHL.I know I have played very limited time in the SMJHL with my last 2 players but my goal this time around is to try and win some ships and be one of the most dominant players in the SMJHL. Hall played 15 games in the SMJHL and he had a point in every game, I know that's a different time in the SMJHL but I know how to build a successful player and I will help guide younger users into building successful players at the smjhl level if I am asked to. I also think I had a promising rookie tournament and I know that I wasn't the top point-getter or goal scorer but I was able to generate a high shot per game for my player, and I only shot like 13% which is almost half the top goal scorer in the tournament who might have gotten lucky in terms of being able to capitalize on their chances as I doubt they are going to be able to keep up their production.


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