Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021 | 2 a.m.
Once they take the skates off and drive home from T-Mobile Arena after a game, there are a few Golden Knights who shift from hockey player to dad duty.
Some are new parents, some have been doing this awhile, but all have advice for a first-time father. That’s me.
Our son was born Oct. 4, watched morning skate ahead of Tuesday’s season opener and stayed up late with Mom to watch the Golden Knights defeat the Kraken.
Eager for pointers, I asked a few of the players last month about what to expect in fatherhood. A lot of the answers were what you might expect — sleep when you can, support your partner as much as possible.
But Alex Pietrangelo’s words will stick with me. Pietrangelo's wife had triplets in 2018, then had a fourth child just weeks before signing with the Golden Knights in 2020.
“Enjoy it. I think when you’re a new parent it just goes by so fast,” Pietrangelo said. “Now the triplets are 3 and I guess sometimes I wish I would have enjoyed it a little bit more because now they’re fighting and throwing stuff at me. Goes in kind of phases, where now you’re running down the street and you’re chasing them everywhere. I think every phase you’re looking for the next step of walking or crawling and all that, but I kind of wish I would have taken time back and enjoyed those small moments when they were small.”
It makes sense, and grounded me a bit. My son doesn’t do much other than eat and sleep, but it’s nice to know that I should enjoy him at this stage while I can. It’s mostly Mom doing the heavy lifting and I’ve been coping with how to be a good partner when I can’t do everything for the baby that she can.
Father of four Jonathan Marchessault said that time will come.
“Be patient,” he said. “Obviously your first one is new and it’s super fun. As a dad you don’t do much until they’re 1, really.”
And as it turns out, having lots of kids is a staple among the Vegas room. There’s eight between Pietrangelo and Marchessault, and Max Pacioretty welcomed his fifth child (and first daughter) soon after returning from the playoff bubble in 2020.
It was so close, in fact, that had the Golden Knights reached the Stanley Cup Final he might have missed her arrival. She had her first birthday a few weeks ago, and his oldest is 7 and playing hockey. Pacioretty may have even let slip that his son’s team will be doing something ahead of the NHL All-Star Game in Las Vegas in February.
“My advice is have as many as you can,” he said with a grin.
There are some newcomers to fatherhood as well. William Carrier is the only Golden Knights dad I talked with who is younger than me, and his first daughter was born in March 2020, with another on the way.
That meant there was some unexpected bonding time as the world shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was kind of good with COVID and obviously I’m expecting a second one in December, so I don’t know how that’s going to go with the season,” Carrier said. “We got lucky the first year when we got shut down as soon as we got our first one.
“I don’t think you’re going to get a lot of sleep. So if you were planning on traveling, just forget about that.”
Most of the players who left the team in the offseason were fathers, as Marc-Andre Fleury, Nick Holden, Tomas Nosek and Ryan Reaves all have children. Deryk Engelland, Paul Stastny and Jon Merrill have been gone multiple years now, but they all have kids and the Vegas room used to have far more dads than it does now.
One now-former Golden Knights I did get to talk to was Patrick Brown, before he was claimed off waivers by the Philadelphia Flyers. He was another who offered some encouraging words.
“Enjoy it. The first week is crazy,” he said. A quick fact-check: true. “You never thought you could love this little human as much as you can, but enjoy that first week. It’s kind of like an out-of-body experience and then after that just sleep when you can.”
Sleep was a common thread. That was coach Pete DeBoer’s advice as well — “get lots of sleep this week; it's coming to an end,” the father of three said the week before my son’s arrival — and I can confirm that part has been challenging to say the least.
Who knows if my son grows up to be a hockey fan, but he’ll be familiar with the sport considering my profession.
Until then, I’m going to enjoy the phases of life as they come, as Pietrangelo said. I’m going to be patient as Marchessault said and I’m going to love that little human with all my heart, as Brown said. Who knows, maybe I’ll follow Pacioretty’s advice and give that kid a sibling one day.
And yes, I’m going to sleep as much as my newborn son will allow me.
