Elliott: Son of former Leafs draft making a name in South Carolina -- what could be finer?

Taj Marchand, son of former Toronto Maple Leafs draft, is a top-rated INF in Sosuth Carolina.

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Blue Jays scout Austin Wells was sitting in Hugo Marchand’s house in Charleston, SC.

It was a routine, pre-draft meeting that scouts make to the home of the top prospects each year. Wells was asking questions to Hugo and his son, shortstop Taj Marchand, when all of a sudden the scout stopped mid sentence. The Jays Atlanta Metropolitan area scout asked “wait a second ... where are you from?” according to Marchand.

“Montreal,” Hugo said, “I’m a proud Canadian. My parents are still in Montreal, I used to take the part of the summer off to go home until baseball took over.”

A few Canadian scouts know Hugo’s son Taj -- rated the third-best prospect in South Carolina by Baseball America -- and a prospect who climbed from No. 172nd to No. 86th on this week’s Baseball America’s national combined rankings -- would be eligible to play for Canada down the road in the World Baseball Classic.

“Oh yeah Hugo (his father) and I have talked about what Freddie Freeman, Jameson Taillon did ... playing for Canada,” said Taj. “I was one of the 88 players invited to try out for Team USA last year. I didn’t make the team, but what an experience.

“To play for Canada ... that would be sick.”

Even less draft hockey junkies and fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs would know Hugo’s background. After three seasons with the Victoriaville Tigres, Hugo was a seventh round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1997. He spent five years in the minors with the St. John’s Maple Leafs, Louisiana IceGators, South Carolina Stingrays and the St. Hyacinthe Cousin before retiring. He scored nine goals, with 17 assists and 442 minutes in penalties.

In Hugo’s draft year the Leafs and Nick Beverley also chose Jeff Farkas from Boston College, Adam Mair of the Owen Sound Platers, Frank Mrazek of Czechia, Eric Gooldy from the Detroit Whalers, Shawn Thornton from the Peterborough Petes, Russ Bartlett of the Phillips-Exeter Academy and Jonathan Hedstrom from Sweden.

“When my hockey days were over I had a choice -- either the beach or go home and shovel snow. I took the beach,” said Hugo, now a Charleston fireman.

Growing up, Taj played both hockey and baseball, but “baseball kind of stuck.” He made the right call. Hugo. Taj and Xavier, a grade nine right-hander spent every summer in Montreal until 2020 (and COVID kept everyone at home. He has been to Montreal once since 2020.

“We are all so busy with baseball now,” said Taj, who was asked his best tool. “I would say it is the hit tool. I swing at a lot of strikes.”

Playing for the James Island High School Trojans, Taj and his teammates are going for their third straight state championship.Taj has committed to Ole Miss for next fall.

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Charleston is a long way from the Montreal Fourm or the Bell Centre.

Hugo says they get a few “Habs games,” but his adopted state is without an NHL team. The closest NHL arena is the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, NC, home of the Carolina Hurricanes. Hugo says the main sports in his area are college football and baseball.

warrants a top 100 placement given his impact ability and could wind up being a top three-round selection.

Hugo grew up an Expo fan rooting for likes of Tim Wallach, Vlad Guerrero, Dennis Martinez, Pedro Martinez, Gary Carter and his favorite Larry Walker (Maple Ridge, BC).

“Our stadium played a big role in what happened to the team, Did you watch that Netflix documentary; Who killed the Montreal Expos? I’ll never forget 1994 when we had one of the best teams and the strike happened. I’m a dual citizen, it still hurts.. I still believe the Expos uniform is still one of the best in the history of the game. ”

He is in his 16th year as a fireman working 24 hours on and then having 48 hours off. We told Hugo where we had read on a site how he was acclaimed a hero after Dylann Roof entered a Black Methodist Church in Charleston and opened fire, June 17, 2015. Roof was charged with killing nine people, including Clementa Pinkney, a state senator and injuring a 10th.

“I wasn’t a hero, I happened to be the first one there,” Hugo said.

Marchand told David O’Brien of Quebec Major League alumni site “It happened on a Wednesday, around 7pm. I had finished supper at the station with the guys when we got the call. We were eight firefighters when we got there and we all immediately started to take the pulse of every victim.”

The shooter was already gone when the firemen arrived.

“Scenes like those make you think about the worst possible outcomes, of what could happen to us,” Hugo said. “We are human beings, but we were there to do our job. We wanted to save as many lives as possible. I went to see each victim, but it was clear that many were already deceased. Calls like those ones can haunt you. But the team spirit we have at the station really helps to put all that behind you for a while.”

On April 10, 2017, Roof was sentenced to nine consecutive sentences of life without parole after formally pleading guilty to state murder charges. He is currently awaiting execution for the federal convictions on death row at Terre Haute Ind.

“It was pretty tough, you have to create a bubble, go to work, do your work and come home,” Hugo said, “Then, you spend time with the family.”

His work schedule changed last year to one day on, three days off, two days on ... “so I am either at work, at Taj or Xavier’s game, or on Game Changer, which really became my stuff.”

Hugo said 80% of the calls his truck are sent out on are “medical emergencies -- we get their quicker.”

The Marchand family hopes to get a different kind of phone call July 11-13 when the 2026 draft unfolds in Philadelphia.