Reinhart takes Stanley Cup on trip down memory lane in hometown

WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Sam Reinhart had a clear picture of what he wanted to do on his day with the Stanley Cup before he won it: a two-stop celebration that started at the rink where he learned to skate and ended with a golf memory he’d get to relive forever.

Reinhart did exactly that in his hometown of West Vancouver on Sunday, first bringing the Cup to Hollyburn Country Club to share it with the coaches and families he grew up with in hockey, and to take pictures with and sign autographs for the next generation of players he hoped to inspire. Then, it was a quick drive up the road to Capilano Golf and Country Club to play a few holes with his family, including mom Theresa and dad Paul, who played 11 NHL seasons; older brothers Max and Griffin, who spent parts of three seasons in the NHL; and his wife, Jessica, before another round of photos with him and the Cup.

“Hollyburn was always going to be the first stop,” Reinhart told NHL.com. “Honestly, you get into a good situation the last couple years (with the Florida Panthers) and you can kind of see it, you start envisioning it and then it's tough not to think about what you'd do with it, and how you'd spend your time, and once I started really thinking about it a little bit, this was always on the list. I wanted to come play a couple of holes and share it with the membership here. I'm going to come up for the rest of my life and remember this day.”

It started at Hollyburn Country Club, where Reinhart and his brothers all learned to skate, and mom, Theresa, remembers pulling up in the family suburban to drop all three kids off for a day of hockey, swimming, basketball, tennis, ping pong and more. Driving around that same corner on Sunday and seeing more than 500 people lined up to celebrate her son, then having the Cup pull up behind them made for a memorable morning.

“To see it come out of the case was special,” Theresa said. “We found his name right away.”

The crowd at Hollyburn Country Club was full of old coaches and mentors, including Jack Cummings, a former hockey director who started a learn-to-skate program called Cookie Monsters that Reinhart remembered taking part in when he was 4 or 5 years old.

“It's funny to hear Sam talk about the yellow rope,” Cummings said. “We always finished up Cookie Monsters with about five kids lying on their stomachs and holding the rope and I would throw them around and swing them. The motto was always -- and it's really nice to hear Sam saying it today -- because the motto was to teach them to love the game first. If they don't love the game, they're not going to keep playing or they're going to quit.”

Seeing Cummings in the crowd was fitting for Reinhart.

“I can't wait to give him a hug later,” Reinhart said. “I'm looking forward to seeing him at the after party. That's as full circle as it gets. He retired kind of close to the end of my career [at Hollyburn], so it's a pretty cool journey to have him come back and be a part of it.”

Reinhart is the first to win the Stanley Cup among a list of Hollyburn alumni that includes Morgan Rielly of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Alex Kerfoot of the Utah Hockey Club, as well as Sam’s brother, Griffin, who played 37 NHL games with the New York Islanders and Edmonton Oilers before retiring in 2022. Griffin, who was picked fourth in the 2012 NHL Draft by the Islanders, rejoined the club as an adult and gives lessons to kids there.

Many of those kids were on hand Sunday for a photo with his brother and the Cup.

“Ever since day one, you knew this day would come and you're excited for it and you have high hopes for it,” Griffin said. “And then when we turn around the corner and see everyone standing here, where we all grew up playing hockey, where we learned to skate for the first time, seeing our old coaches, family, friends and everybody celebrating with them and then, seeing how much joy it brings to the kids, it's a pretty special moment.”

The day continued by playing the 17th and 18th holes at Capilano Golf and Country Club, with Sam using the Stanley Cup as his ball marker on the greens, and his brothers and parents using a miniature version of the Cup to mark their balls. After that it was another long line for photos with him and the Cup, but Reinhart wasn’t complaining.

“The turnout speaks for itself and it's pretty cool,” Reinhart said. “It's something that I'm going to remember every time I come up here for the rest of my life.”