B
y the time they were sat in the BB&T Center stands in late June for the 2015 NHL Draft, DeBrusk’s family was more nervous for their young big-league hopeful than he was for himself. “I had no illusions that he was going to be a first-rounder,” says Louie. “I thought he was going to get drafted. I had no idea where. … It was nerve-wracking.”
“I was actually weirdly prepared for it,” says DeBrusk. “I was actually pretty calm. You know, at that point, it’s out of your hands. … I definitely was nervous, don’t get me wrong, but I felt like I’d done what I needed to do, you know?”
The top of the draft played out as expected — Connor McDavid going first overall to Edmonton, then Jack Eichel, second to Buffalo. As the picks came off the board, DeBrusk noticed something. The cameras. “When you’re watching it on TV, there’s a camera crew that has the camera for reaction,” he says. “I knew Connor was going to go first overall, and I had a pretty good view of them, so I was looking to see where the camera went. … I just kept following [the camera] around. And sure enough, it was the 13th pick, and he was staring right at my section.”
Louie was seated on the aisle, with DeBrusk between him and the rest of the family. “The picks started to happen, and he leaned over to me,” Louie remembers. “He says, ‘Listen, when I get drafted, I’m going to go that way and hug all of them, and then I’ll come back to you and I’ll hug you.’ And I just started laughing. I’m like, ‘I’m glad you’re confident, kid.’”