Dads Dish on Devils Early Beginnings | FEATURE

The Devils Dad and Mentor trip is in full swing, from sharing the NHL experience with their son, or friend, or family member, the trip is always one that is filled with amazing memories, memories that these dads and mentors can add to their memory bank that is already filled to the brim.
Creating memories - and sharing them - is what a trip like this is all about, so we decided to chat with some of the dads about the first time they put their kids on skates or any other hockey memory that stands out from the pre-NHL years.
Rino Hischier - Nico Hischier's Dad
It was Katya, my wife. In our town in Naters, we don't have a rink. My wife is a sports instructor and I am instructing soccer. My wife Katya said I'm going with the kids to Visp to learn how to skate. And Nico at first, on skates, the first time he waslike this (motioning his knees touching together, and feet at an angle), so he had to go with the thing to hold on to skate. He kept saying to the instructor, I want the stick, I want the stick. He kept saying it to the coach and the tutor. He kept saying he wanted to skate but it was no, at first you must learn skating, and then you can show that, then you can have the stick.
Nico's coordination, his head, if he wanted to learn something, he was going to do it. At two or three years, he went.

Randy Wood - Miles Wood's Dad
He's always, been a little bit of reckless abandon, a little bit of chaos out there. He's always had that. He's always been a good skater. It was a gift that was given to him like other players have their elite skillset. Butt he's always been that kind of a player and to see him play at this level it's just Miles, 20 years older.
I saw a lot of tenacity and a lot of going after the puck and that was one thing I taught a lot of kids on my youth hockey teams, if you don't do anything else on the ice, just go after the puck, cause a little bit of trouble, make some time and space that's kind of the thing that he took to heart and it's worked for him. It's got him this far and hopefully, it helps out a little bit more as he continues his career.
Paul Marino - John Marino's Dad
"One of my favorite stories was when John's, he's a twin, when Paul and John played in a Thanksgiving day tournament together and the team wasn't that good. And they held on and they won the tournament. And they played together. That was really a great memory."
When asked if he really thought John would make it at the professional level, Paul was quick to jump in.
"John? No! He always tried hard. And he had some talent. He was small, so you know, he didn't grow till later. But once he got into Harvard, he started to prove himself. I'm proud of John, I'm proud of Paul who plays for the L.A. Kings in analytics. I'm proud of both of them. They both have exceeded my expectations."
Brendan Smith's Father Lester, and Father-in-Law Frank
So, Brendan went to Wisconsin University. And so we're in Toronto, so we lost contact with him a little bit. We'd just go for certain games. And so he we went to the home opener or something. And we're sitting at this place after the game. They're just one we're sitting at this place after the game, and they had just won. We're sitting at a table with a bunch of young people, right and this girl has wicked, wicked eyes. I probably had a few drinks and go, my god, you've got beautiful eyes. And my wife was looking at me going What are you doing? And all she's doing is looking a Brendan, who had ordered a couple of drinks. And we didn't know they had anything to do with each other. They had just said hello, but I approved!
I looked at her eyes and she was smiling and it was Brendan.- Lester Smith
They met at a bar where my daughter was bartending, and Brendan told me he went up five times to ask her out but ordered a beer instead and walked away. It was too much pressure and he finally did it.
Brendan invited his father-in-law on this year's Dad's/Mentor trip.
Well, I had hinted at it for a few years through my daughter. He never relented. But year, I got a text from Brendan and it was like 'Would you like to go?' Oh gee, well, let me think about it! Yeah! 10 years ago I thought icing was something on a cake, and now Brendan has been with my daughter, I know a lot more hockey and it is so much fun. - Bob Frank
David Blackwood - Mackenzie Blackwood's Dad
"I can tell you this, when he first started he was a forward. And all he would do is stand in front of the net. He would never move up, he always wanted to block the shots. And I said, Well, if you're going to stand there, maybe you should try goalie.And he did it. It wasn't why he went in (net), but it planted the seed I guess.
He was a natural, he just picked up the position immediately, like he knew what to do. It's like you didn't have to train him or coach him. He just know how to hold himself and he went down in the butterfly position immediately. That was it., he was just a natural."

Craig Mercer - Dawson Mercer's Dad
As a kid, I just brought him to a "Parent and Tots", and when you're ready to go for a hot chocolate, I get a coffee and we head home.
And hopefully the next time hopefully it will be just as good or better, maybe a bit longer and see how he enjoys the skating part of it before moving over. He enjoyed it. He loved it. He moved forward fairly quickly with his ability to skate, so we went from the skating to the stick to the puck and one thing led to another and he just enjoyed the game. We always knew he had talent, the skill but where he was going to go, where his ceiling was going to be, no parents could know exactly the outcome (of the NHL) at the end of the day.