“The type of community that we have here in Winnipeg,” Mr. Zajac recalled, “Yeah, it's shaped him in that respect.”
“Winnipeg definitely built who he is,” his wife Nicole added. She too is from Winnipeg and the couple met when they were teenagers. “Winnipeg is a community of kindness. It's never about the car you drive, the house you live in, any of that stuff. It’s never about any of that. It's about whether or not you're a good person. And I feel like Trav embodies that.”
As a young boy, Travis learned to skate on the community outdoor rink, the closest was just a two-minute drive from his childhood home.
“Winnipeg being such a cold city, really what else do you do?” recounted Mr. Zajac, “Whenever we could, we took him to the rink, an outdoor rink, was two minutes away and I’d drop them off, him and his brothers or him and his buddies.”
Travis is the oldest brother, with Darcy, Kelly, and Nolan following behind.
“I remember him growing up, he was always unselfish,” Darcy, the second of the four Zajac brothers remembered, "Always unselfish. Like, even at that age, he would try and pass the puck regardless who it was. He was very unselfish.”
They have played hockey at various levels, in various leagues. Darcy is a year and a half younger than Travis.
“To be honest, being the younger brother, I always thought I was better,” he laughed.
And then Darcy paused.
“You know, I’m thinking back now, and I wonder, was he always even trying that hard [against me]? Or was he letting me have success too?”
That theory would check out, what with everything we know about Travis. Finding personal success, while also letting those around him shine, even have the spotlight.
With a personality like Darcy’s, there was hope in maybe pulling back the curtain, is Travis and has Travis always been the cool, calm and collected character. It’s cliché to say but were there ever anyone to fit that specific cliché it would be Travis. Not even his younger brother would deny it.
“He hasn't changed,” Darcy was quick to share. “He was always laid back, he always tried to help me out […] I think I probably annoyed him because, I was younger brother playing with him, trying to keep up to him, looking up to him. And he hasn't really changed that much. But you couldn't really get him upset. And I think that's one of his strengths.”
That’s the first bit of insight into Travis’ life before New Jersey that shows he has always embodied the qualities of who the New Jersey Devils are, well before they were on his radar, well before there was even talk of a career in the National Hockey League.