Inspired by his brother, Penguins prospect Luke Devlin's hockey journey is just beginning
Things were a bit chaotic during the second day of the NHL Draft on July 8 at Montreal’s Bell Centre.
Rogers Communications, a giant conglomerate that handles a major portion of any and all electronic communications in Canada, had a major outage that morning.
The disruption was so significant that NHL leaders instructed individual team executives over the public address system to use the hardlines on all 32 tables to call in their selections.
This modern inconvenience didn’t just impact downtown Montreal and the NHL’s business. Sectors including banking, transportation and other vital portions of life were impacted across the entire country.
Approximately five hours to the west in Toronto, one family jerry-rigged a way to watch the NHL Draft.
After all, one of them was a candidate to be one of the 225 players selected.
“My whole family, our WiFi, our TVs, they’re all set up through Rogers,” said Luke Devlin, a forward the Penguins drafted in the sixth round (No. 182 overall). “Our TV wasn’t working. My dad, luckily was able to stream some site and kind of had the draft (on). But that was three or four picks (behind). I was just looking at my phone, I had the NHL.com draft tracker on. I just made myself a bowl of pasta and I looked down and my name just popped up right next to the Penguins’ logo.
“After that, I pretty much blacked out. My whole family erupted.”
Like so many kids growing up in Canada — in Toronto, the self-titled center … er… centre … of the hockey universe, no less — playing in the NHL is a dream.
But the journey Devlin and his family took to this juncture isn’t as simple as just playing a sport so entwined with the identity of the country he was raised in.
Especially because it began in Memphis.
The beginning
After graduating with a communications degree from Boston College in 1990, Matt Devlin bounced around the United States as a play-by-play announcer for minor-league baseball teams like the Springfield (Mo.) Cardinals and New Haven (Conn.) Ravens before landing a job calling men’s basketball games for Sacred Heart in Fairfield, Conn.
By 1999, Devlin was hired by NBA TV, then a fledgling cable network for the league. That served as a springboard toward him landing the play-by-play gig for the Memphis Grizzlies, who just had relocated from Vancouver.
During Matt’s time in Memphis, his wife, Erin, gave birth to Luke in 2004, joining older brothers Jack and Ian.
(Eighteen years later, Luke became an answer to a trivia question when he became only the second NHL Draft pick ever born in Tennessee. Forward Simon Kjellberg, son of former Nashville Predators forward Patric Kjellberg, was a sixth-round pick of the New York Rangers in 2018.)
Almost as soon as Luke was born, the Devlins were on the move again as Matt landed the play-by-play job of the expansion Charlotte Bobcats.
Given their father’s profession, the Devlin boys grew up fans of hoops while living in the Tarheel State.
“I was a big basketball, baseball guy,” Luke said. “If I didn’t move to Canada, I would have probably been a basketball, baseball player, one of the classic American sports,” Luke Devlin said. “But once I moved to Toronto, I just really fell in love in hockey immediately. Once I got (to Canada), I wanted to start skating. I always played basketball a little bit for school from probably grades four to six. But hockey was always my first love in the sporting world so I kind of took to it more.”
So why did this seemingly All-American family move north?
There were two reasons.
First, Matt’s career. He became the play-by-play announcer for the Toronto Raptors in 2008.
The second reason was arguably more profound and definitely more important.
Jack.
Heading north
There isn’t a one-size fits all description for Jack Devlin, 22.
“He doesn’t have a specific diagnosis,” explained Matt Devlin. “There’s a multitude of things. He does have cognitive as well as intellectual disability. He’s been amazing. He’s somebody that has impacted our life on a positive note.”
One of those notes was their decision to trek north to Toronto.
As the fourth-largest city in North America, Toronto offered a multitude of services and educational options for Jack.
“Ultimately, one of the things that was important to us was my son Jack and his needs,” Matt Devlin said. “Being in a larger metropolitan area, there was more options and opportunity for him. That was certainly a factor. It has worked out exceptionally well for him.”
Things didn’t turn out too poorly for Matt, either.
As the voice for Canada’s only NBA team, he has had an opportunity other regional announcers in the United States don’t considering national broadcasters like TNT or ABC typically have exclusive rights to postseason games in later rounds.
“The unique thing about the Toronto Raptors’ broadcaster is that every game is national, and you’re able to announce playoff games beyond the first round,” Matt said. “The ability to do semifinals and conference finals and ultimately the NBA Finals … it’s always in the back of your mind. I thought, ‘Wouldn’t that be something?’ ”
It was certainly something in 2019 when the Raptors won the franchise’s only NBA championship thanks largely to the efforts of forward Kawhi Leonard.
During that magical spring, Devlin became something of a celebrity in his adopted home country.
“It seemed like at the time that my dad couldn’t even go outside without getting noticed,” Luke said. “It was all over Canada. It was at the forefront of everyone’s minds. They won it in Golden State that year, but we had a big party in our basement (for) Game 6 in case they won it and they did. And that was really special.
“I went to every single (home) playoff game that year except for the one where Kawhi hit the buzzer-beater (to win Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final). I had a math test the next day. So I couldn’t go. Me and my brother, we both had tests the next day. My parents wouldn’t let us go. We were going insane, happily. But at the same time, we were like, ‘How did we miss that game?’ ”
The Raptors’ success grew the game in Canada.
“During that two-month journey, it was just amazing to see how the country came together and was rooting for their one NBA team, the Toronto Raptors,” Matt Devlin said. “There are so many stories throughout those four rounds.
“That was the most meaningful thing for me was just all the stories that I heard from fans about where they were at certain moments. Something that is so lasting.”
Basketball’s impact
The Devlins’ roots in basketball are deep. Erin’s brothers are coaches at the NCAA level.
Ed Conroy is the coach of The Citadel, and Duffy Conroy is an assistant at Tulsa. A cousin, Liam Robbins, is a forward at Vanderbilt.
Jack, Ian and Luke all played basketball as kids, as well. But given their surroundings in Toronto, they gravitated to hockey. For Luke, he developed an attraction to a Canadian hockey hero based approximately five hours to the south in Pittsburgh.
“I had never really heard of hockey until I moved to Canada,” said Luke, who recently acquired Canadian citizenship. “Once I got to school, everyone was talking about hockey. Everyone was talking about Sidney Crosby — they still are — and once that happened, I kind of just became obsessed with the Penguins and Sidney Crosby. I watched all of his games. For Christmas every year, I’d get a new Sidney Crosby t-shirt. My dad, for my birthday, went to (department store) Canadian Tire (and) got a stick with his face on it. He was my favorite player growing up. From the ages of 4 to 8, you couldn’t not see me wearing a Sidney Crosby jersey.”
Oddly enough, during the Penguins’ recent prospect development camp, Luke inhabited a stall at the team’s facility in Cranberry that was a handful of feet away from Crosby’s usual stall.
“I (won’t) ever touch it,” Luke said. “I would never do it. I just kind of admire it from a distance. It’s surreal.”
Each of the Devlin boys got involved in hockey in some regard.
“I was on the road doing a Big Ten football game, and my wife called me and said, ‘I think it would be great if they learned how to skate.’ I said, ‘Yeah, it would be great,’ ” Matt Devlin said. “That’s how it all kind of started. Just took them to the local rink in North Toronto. They started skating there. Then put them in ‘learn to play’ (programs). From there, it really was (Luke’s) passion for the game as well as his older brothers’. They continued to play multiple sports throughout it all. Ultimately, as he got a little bit older, he wanted to focus on hockey.”
Luke’s journey to being an NHL draftee wasn’t exactly typical. Last season, he played for St. Andrew’s College, which, despite its name, is a preparatory school just north of Toronto. NHL teams don’t usually mine the prep ranks in Canada for talent.
But education was something Luke didn’t want to dismiss.
“My whole extended family is American, and I was born in the U.S. (and) my parents went to school in the U.S,” Luke said. “Most kids growing up in Toronto and Ontario, their dream is (playing junior hockey in the Ontario Hockey League). But for me, growing up around Americans — I have a lot of cousins that play Division I basketball in the NCAA — my dream was to always play NCAA and obviously go to the NHL. That’s kind of where I guess where my goals were always at.”
Luke is committed to play at Cornell of the Ivy League starting in the 2023-24 season. But first, he’ll make a stop at the junior level with the West Kelowna Warriors of the British Columbia Hockey League. Ian, 20, plays for the Coquitlam Express of that league.
Memorable graduation
Higher learning is clearly important to the Devlins. Ian is committed to play for Princeton, also of the Ivy League.
But neither will be the first of their generation within their family to earn a college degree.
Jack beat them to it.
In May, Jack graduated from the University of Iowa’s unique REACH (Realizing Educational and Career Hopes) program.
REACH is one of relatively few initiatives of its kind in North America and has a waiting list. According to the school’s website, the program “is a comprehensive transition program for students ages 18 (to) 25 years old with intellectual, cognitive and learning disabilities.”
Luke beamed recently when discussing his brother’s graduation.
“It’s incredible to think about,” Luke said. “He’s definitely made a lot of people proud. And does that every day. He amazes so many people. He’s such a point of light in our family. He’s a real inspiration to me and my brother and I’m sure my parents. The way that he’s been able to persevere through a lot of stuff has been incredible. His experience at Iowa couldn’t have been better. He absolutely loves that place. … Seeing Jack walk across that graduation stage and get a diploma, it was awesome to see. It was an emotional day for me and my family.”
Jack isn’t ready to leave the Hawkeyes just yet. After serving as a student manager for Iowa’s basketball team, he recently was retained as a paid intern by coach Fran McCaffery.
NHL awaits
Luke Devlin is still quite a way away from realizing his NHL dream. Sixth-round picks generally face steep uphill battles to reach that level. But just being drafted is a major step in the right direction of reaching that terminus. And the Penguins certainly saw something in Luke that prompted them to select him.
“He’s a big center,” Penguins director of amateur scouting Nick Pryor said. “He moves extremely well for his size. He brings a lot of compete. He does a really good job on both sides of the puck playing a responsible game. And plays a really competitive game as well.”
Luke suspected the Penguins had some interest well beforehand.
“I interviewed with (Penguins scouts) about a month and a half before the draft, and I thought it went well,” Luke said. “Obviously, there’s so many great players out there, and a lot of great ones don’t get picked. So you don’t ever know. I wouldn’t say it was a total surprise. But nonetheless, it was an incredible moment I got to share with my family.”
That’s saying something considering the moments the Devlin family already has experienced.
“(Jack) was always a part of (Luke’s and Ian’s) teams along the way, and that was always of great comfort to us,” Matt said. “To have their older brother, who has cognitive and intellectual disabilities, around was extremely meaningful as parents. In the spring, he would help coach their spring teams. When I say coach, he would get the water bottles, he would get all the sticks. There was one tournament where one of the coaches didn’t show up and they asked him to go on the bench which was awesome for him. They love having him around, and the hockey community has been just amazing to him throughout all of those years.”
That community certainly embraced a basketball family from Memphis, among other locales in the United States.
“The move to Toronto definitely introduced me and my brother to hockey,” Luke said. “We really hadn’t played it up until then. Toronto has been a great fit for me and my family. Jack’s been able to get really great support there. On top of that, me and my brothers got introduced to hockey.
“The move to Toronto was really life-changing in a positive way for our whole family. It fit everyone’s needs.”
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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