Liam Ruck and Markus may be headed into Friday’s NHL draft as late first-round picks, but Willie Desjardins says their value may not stop with one name on a card. He sees a pairing effect that could make one selection turn into a push for both twins.
Desjardins, who coached the brothers for three seasons near the end of Daniel and Henrik Sedin's careers, said the twins showed a play early in their rookie season with the Medicine Hat Tigers that still stands out. Liam was in front of the net, Markus was coming in from the wall at the blue line, and the puck moved because Markus read Liam’s small stick roll before the pass was ever obvious.
Medicine Hat Tigers Connection
“There is one play I remember,” Desjardins said, before describing how Markus threw the puck back door to Liam’s stick after Liam rolled the toe of his stick. He said the exchange showed something beyond simple repetition, and he added: “Oh, for sure.”
Liam gave his own version of the same sequence from a home game against Regina 20 months earlier. “I just kind of put my stick out behind my back and turned around and just missed the puck,” he said. He also said he and Markus have played a lot of years, a lot of games and a lot of practices together, which has shaped how quickly they read each other.
Desjardins Sees More
That familiarity is the obvious layer. Desjardins went further, saying the twins have “another level of chemistry and ability” when they are together, and that whoever gets one in the draft may try to acquire the other somewhere along the line so both can stay connected.
Markus did not dismiss that possibility, but he put a hard edge on the odds. “Yeah, it would be so special for not only us but our family, too,” he said. Then he added, “We know the chances are pretty low, but if a team could pull it off, that'd be quite special, for sure. We’ve spent 18 years of our life together, every day pretty much. We watch every hockey game together, we play every hockey game together, every practice together. So we've kind of seen everything the same, and I think that helps us.”
Draft Night For The Rucks
Desjardins also showed he was willing to act on that idea before. In the 2023 WHL draft, he traded up to select Markus 21st after choosing Liam ninth. That history gives the chemistry talk more weight than a casual compliment; he has already used draft capital to keep the twins tied to the same path once.
Friday is the next test. The brothers were projected to be late first-round picks, and Markus led the WHL this past season. If an NHL team believes the same connection Desjardins described, the draft could become less about one pick and more about whether one selection is enough to bring the other along too.
