MILAN — In 2023, John Wroblewski, head coach of the United States women’s national hockey team, sat down with USA Hockey assistant executive director John Vanbiesbrouck for a state of the union of the program at their world championship selection camp in Blaine, Minn.

“Wrobo,” as he’s known to players and staff, felt the women’s program was missing one piece: a liaison who could work with the players and be a buffer between him and them. Somebody they would trust to talk to about their game, their life. Somebody who would always be a phone call away.

And he knew the perfect person.

Once upon a time, Wroblewski had coached not one, not two, but all three of Ellen Hughes’ boys, Quinn, Jack and Luke, with the U.S. National Team Development Program.

Hughes was a tremendous hockey player back in the day, a college star and captain who played in the second-ever IIHF Women’s World Championship in 1992, winning a silver medal.

“Ellen and I hadn’t talked in probably a year at that point, maybe even more,” Wroblewski said. “We were friendly, but Jim (Hughes) and I probably handled more of our interactions when it came to their boys. But I loved talking hockey with Ellen, loved her history with the sport and loved watching her interact with people.

So Wroblewski invited Hughes to Brampton, Ontario, where the worlds were being played.

“She met everybody and we never let her leave,” Wroblewski said.

Wroblewski hired Hughes as the U.S. women’s team’s player development consultant — an all-encompassing, year-round role where Hughes is on the ice during practices, helping with drills, sitting in on meetings, watching games from up high, constantly checking in and visiting players throughout the year and is always a phone call away for Wroblewski.

“If I pick up the phone and call Ellen, it’s amazing if we don’t connect within that first minute,” Wroblewski said. “Same if she calls me. We drop everything to pick up each other’s call.”

Wroblewski didn’t hire Hughes because she’s the ultimate hockey mom, the matriarch who helped raise three exceptional hockey players and grips her seat — and sometimes, as Olympian Taylor Heise learned at a recent Devils-Wild game, her seatmate’s leg — super tight anytime any of her kids are on the ice.

“She’s pulling me this way, that way … she’s talking, not finishing sentences,” Heise said.

No, Hughes was hired because of her incredible history in hockey — going from a little girl in Texas whose parents, Warren and Penny, let her play on boys’ hockey teams to becoming such a soccer and hockey star at the University of New Hampshire that she’s now in the school’s athletic hall of fame. She’s done everything, from wearing the red, white and blue jersey for Team USA to broadcasting the Olympics, world championships and Frozen Fours.

Now, Hughes is a huge part of a young, talented American team vying to win gold at these Milan Games.

Watch a U.S. practice, and besides being an extra coach to help with drills, Hughes, wearing a white USA track suit and helmet, is constantly skating around and pulling players aside.

“She lives and breathes hockey,” Heise said.

“Her energy is unparalleled,” said three-time Olympian Megan Keller. “From the moment she stepped in, she’s made sure to connect with us individually and throughout the year, and makes sure we’re all set in order to be at our best. We have a great coaching staff, but to have somebody sort of in the middle that you know has your personal best interests while also wanting to make the team better is huge. It makes everybody comfortable, and it’s a big part of our development and why we’ve been so successful.”

The irony of Hughes working for the U.S. women’s team the past three years is how excited she was for the program when they hired Wroblewski. She had gotten to know him while he coached all three of her boys as teenagers, before they became the first three siblings in United States history to be NHL first-round picks (top-10 picks, in fact).

But Hughes had always stayed around the women’s game and was proud of how it had grown. So when Wroblewski invited her to Brampton, she thought it would just be fun to watch the games and see a bunch of people she hadn’t seen in years.

“Never in a million years was it something that I was thinking about doing or thought I would have the opportunity to do,” Hughes said.

But when Wroblewski proposed the role, she thought long and hard about it. After all, she knew the sport, loved the sport and had watched her husband do a similar job for years. The former Providence College captain began coaching at the college and professional level in the early 90s and spent six years as director of player development for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The past 10 years, he has been director of player development for CAA, working with agents Pat Brisson and J.P. Barry.

Ellen Hughes spends her time on the ice helping with drills and pulling players aside for one-on-one coaching. (Courtesy of USA Hockey)

Brisson, the NHL power agent who represents all three Hughes brothers, calls Ellen an “encyclopedia.”

“Player development comes in a lot of different ways,” Hughes said. “So when Wrobo approached me, we didn’t know what this role was going to look like. But it’s about being there for the players and creating relationships. I’m really here to help them problem-solve. If it’s going through a speed bump or they need an outreach, I’m there and I keep my finger on the pulse with everyone. And a lot of that is confidential for each player, and each player it’s different. Some want more touches. Some want less touches. Some only reach out when they really need something, and it comes in all different shapes, size, and forms. And I’ve just loved the role.

“Every single one of these players are the best players in the world, and they want to even get better. So how can we collectively as a group, and what can I do to be a sounding board? And whether it’s finding a skills coach or whether it’s just being a good listener, whether it’s giving them some positive reinforcement, whether it’s listening and then talking through it with them, whether it’s a player that got traded in the (PWHL), whether it’s a player that hasn’t scored in a while, whether it’s someone that’s not happy with their role, it’s just giving them that positive reinforcement and being an advocate.”

Take Caroline Harvey, one of the best skaters in the world and somebody the women’s staff jokes is like the fourth Hughes sibling because of the way she plays and Ellen’s affinity for her.

“She just has the perfect way of instilling confidence and getting through to us girls and building people up,” Harvey said. “I’ve never met somebody who thinks the game the way she does. She sees it and she just gets it and knows the perfect way to talk to each of us.”

There’s Laila Edwards, an elite forward who has now become an extraordinary defender from the back end. Edwards credits Hughes for helping her with the transition.

“Probably the biggest help of any person,” Edwards said. “She’s just been there for me through the whole thing, trying to give me extra help and motivation and confidence I can do it. I went to her place this past summer and she took care of me and did whatever she could to make sure I transitioned smoothly.

“The thing with Ellen is she’s really helpful in almost every area and a lot of it is because she was a defenseman, but she’s got two incredible boys who play defense and one incredible forward. So she knows both languages, so to speak. And she just cares.”

Throughout the year, Hughes is constantly doing check-ins. When she was in Minnesota last month for the Devils-Wild game, the Seattle Torrent were in town, so she made sure to attend practice and see U.S. Olympians Hannah Bilka, Alex Carpenter and Hilary Knight.

“Not to talk hockey,” Hughes said. “They have enough coaches. They don’t need to be micromanaged. Just to check in and see how things were going.”

What Wroblewski loves most about Hughes and her invaluable role with the national team is that she’s “75 and sunny 99 percent of the time.”

That’s why back in November, after the United States took its second of an eventual four straight victories over Canada in the Rivalry Series, the entire U.S. coaching staff was shocked when Hughes advised them all to check their flight statuses for the next day.

The staff — especially Wroblewski — teased that this was the most negative she’d ever been.

“But I heard there was a big storm coming, so I was worried,” Hughes said, laughing.

The next day, Hughes drove five hours in that snowstorm from Buffalo back to suburban Detroit.

Wroblewski?

“Short story long, I had a full day of delays,” the Olympic coach said.

It ended late at night when Wroblewski’s plane, after sitting on the tarmac at Detroit Airport, returned to the gate. The flight was canceled.

The date was Nov. 9 — the same weekend the FAA instructed airlines to dramatically reduce flights to ease pressure on air traffic controllers during the U.S. government shutdown. So when Wroblewski walked to the Westin attached to Detroit’s airport, there were no rooms. He called other hotels. They were all sold out because of the canceled flights.

Wroblewski didn’t hesitate. He hopped in a cab and gave the driver Hughes’ address, 18 minutes away. After all, the Vancouver Canucks were hosting the Colorado Avalanche that night, so he knew she’d be watching her oldest of three NHL-playing sons, Quinn.

About 10 minutes from the house, Wroblewski, distracted by rescheduling his life since he wouldn’t make it back home to Southern California that night, realized he never told Hughes he was coming.

He texted Hughes: “Are you up watching Quinn?”

She said, “Of course.”

“And he goes, ‘Be there in five,’” Hughes recalled. “I wrote back, ‘LOL.’”

John Wroblewski and Ellen Hughes at the 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championship, where Team USA won gold. (Courtesy of Ellen Hughes)

Hughes thought he was making fun of her after warning the night before that flights could be canceled.

Five minutes later, Wroblewski was dropped off in a cul-de-sac that looked identical to the one the Hugheses live in. It was dark, cold and snowing. And Wroblewski knocked on the wrong house’s door.

When nobody answered, and not realizing the cab driver’s GPS messed up, Wroblewski called Hughes: “Are you actually home?”

They realized he was one street over. Wroblewski began trudging through the snow with his luggage to Hughes’ actual home.

Hughes cooked Wroblewski a Filet Mignon. They watched the end of the Canucks game. And he retired to an extra bedroom.

This is how close Wroblewski is to Hughes and her husband, Jim.

He’s able to show up to their house uninvited … at midnight, and know that he’ll have a warm meal and a bed to sleep in.

And he loves that the players on his team know she has their backs, too. The respect is universal.

“These women trust her. They confide in her, and Ellen doesn’t tell me everything,” Wroblewski said. “But as far as making the players feel comfortable and being the first sounding board, she’s perfect because, like I said, what makes Ellen so special is 99 percent of her days are 75 and sunny. Like, it’s the best day ever. Yet, she’s not one of these people that lives with her head in the sand, and when the 1 percent needs to get said or called out, she’s got the gumption, and, you know, kind of the FU to be able to say, ‘This isn’t right’ or ‘This has to change.’”

With Wroblewski or the players?

“Anyone,” he said, howling.

Ellen’s husband couldn’t be prouder of the job Ellen does working with Wroblewski and GM Katie Million.

“Her athletic experience as an athlete and a Hall of Famer at UNH, she’s got all that playing experience and all that competitive experience. And then she had 15 years of raising-three-boys experience,” Jim Hughes said. “So when Katie and John brought Ellen on board, it’s been a wonderful addition to the women’s Olympic team.

“Ellen has been an incredible sounding board for these women, where they can come and talk to her about anything. And if she doesn’t have the answers, she’ll find the answer, but she gives them really great advice. Because I sit in the living room or I sit in my office and I hear these conversations going on.”

With her own boys, of course, Ellen plays the role of Mom — not hockey coach.

They, too, as Ellen joked, “have enough coaches.”

“They don’t need me doing that,” Ellen said.

Still, you do have to wonder whether the skill level of the Hughes boys is nature or nurture.

Jim and Ellen Hughes were both great hockey players and exceptional skaters, so they were able to teach their kids how to use their edges and skate with power from the time they were little.

“A lot of that was just playing, free play,” Ellen said. “At the end of the day, just playing, play, play, play, play. We did a lot of skating with them when they were little.”

Ask the Hughes brothers, and they’ll tell you their parents taught them the value of hard work from a young age. They’ll also quickly tell you how much their mom did when their dad was busy coaching or doing player development.

“I was running around with three little kids,” Ellen said. “We didn’t have a ton of money. And so we did what we knew. And all I knew was sports. I knew how to get out and play tackle with them. I knew how to run around the field. I knew how to go skate with them. There was no grandiose plan, but that’s what Jimmy and I knew. We loved sports. They were always around sports. And I think just having three kids so close in age, because we were moved around a bit, they became best of friends. But we had no big plan. It was just like, ‘OK, can we just play nice?’”

Ellen Hughes pictured with a young Quinn Hughes. (Courtesy of Ellen Hughes)

“Yep,” Jim said, “They loved playing and loved each other.”

Spend any time with Ellen, and you’ll notice that she hears from her kids a lot. She’ll often step away to talk to them about anything.

“She’s really smart,” said Quinn, the former Norris Trophy winner. “She’s just got a big heart and she’s there for everyone. But just her intelligence, you can always rely on that. So we’re always bouncing things off her — not even hockey-related, just life things. Sometimes we give her crap because she’ll have her doctor’s hat on. She’ll have her teacher’s hat on. She’ll have her golf hat on. She’ll have her boater’s hat on. She knows all the answers to everything, all these departments. She really does.

“And just obviously an amazing sounding board. And as far as the women’s team, I would imagine it’s the same thing. We see how much those girls love her anytime they visit our house in the summer.”

Now Ellen’s in Milan. She’s watched the Americans win gold at the 2023 and 2025 worlds. As a broadcaster, she got to witness them win gold the first time women’s hockey was sanctioned to be part of the Olympics in 1998 and felt joy when they won again in 2018.

Her two oldest boys will be big parts of the men’s team, striving for their first gold since 1980.

“It’s a blessing,” she said. “What a great experience. What a luxury to be a part of this. And never in a million years did I think that I would be in Italy and have the opportunity to be a part of the women’s Olympic team. And then to have two sons there, you just count your blessings … and hope for a lot of wins.”