Islanders' dads enjoy hitting the road with their kids

ST. LOUIS — Pierre Brassard has gotten a unique perspective on several NHL franchises, the latest being the Islanders, as his son Derick has had a well-traveled career.

“It’s different,” Pierre Brassard said on Thursday morning as he watched the Islanders’ morning skate at Enterprise Center before that night’s game against the reigning Stanley Cup champion Blues. “You can play with one organization 12, 14 years. But I can compare the coaching, the dads, everything, with how they run things.”

The game in St. Louis was the road portion of the Islanders dads’ trip, which also included Tuesday night’s 4-3 breakneck-paced overtime loss to the Rangers at NYCB Live’s Nassau Coliseum. Eighteen Islanders players either had their father or a male mentor traveling with the team.

“He’s excited every year,” Mathew Barzal said of his father, Mike, on his third dads’ trip with the Islanders. “He talks about it in the summer, just the funny stories over the course of the weekend. He loves coming around and I’m sure all the other dads do, too, and it’s fun having them for a few days.”

Almost all NHL teams now do some variation of a family member trip each season. Some teams have had moms’ trips, some also have done siblings’ trips.

Usually, though, it’s the dads.

“It brings some good memories,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “They remember some of the stuff growing up. But let’s not forget the moms, too. We haven’t done a moms’ trip and they get a lot of credit, too. I’ve got to remind the dads they better bring a nice, big present back.”

To the best of Trotz’s knowledge, he was involved in the NHL’s first full-scale dads’ trip during the Predators’ inaugural season of 1998-99.

Trotz said general manager David Poile came to him with the idea, which Trotz endorsed. That first trip included games at Buffalo and New Jersey and quickly became an annual excursion.

Derick Brassard played for the Blue Jackets, Rangers, his hometown Ottawa Senators, the Penguins, the Panthers and the Avalanche in his first 12 NHL seasons before joining the Islanders. This marks Pierre Brassard’s 10th dads’ trip with a fifth different team.

He was chatting in the stands with Andy Mayfield, defenseman Scott Mayfield’s father, who is on his fourth dads’ trip with the Islanders. But this one is special because Scott Mayfield was born and raised in St. Louis until he was 16.

The family now lives in Denver.

“To see him playing in St. Louis, it’s really unique coming here,” Andy Mayfield said. “The dads’ trip is the highlight of the year as far as going on road trips. It’s a great group of dads.”

Like most parents, what strikes Andy Mayfield most is the vast amount of food the players eat in a day to counter the calories they burn through training and games.

“I just go on dads’ trips and eat normal meals and I gain five, 10 pounds, there’s so much food,” he said. “It’s like being on a cruise. But it’s a blast. This year is interesting because we went to a bar and I heard somebody call my name. It was one of my best friends from St. Louis who I lost contact with over the last 15 years. I talked to him for a couple of hours.”

Michael Dal Colle’s father, Gus, is on his first dads’ trip. His son is in his first full NHL season after being the fifth overall pick in 2014.

“He loves it,” Michael Dal Colle said. “I owe everything to my parents to get to this level, how much they sacrificed, driving me to rinks at 5:30 a.m. in Toronto.”

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.