Courtesy @GoldenKnights
This screen grab shows Brendan Brisson, the Golden Knights’ first-round pick, 29th overall, on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020.
Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022 | 2 a.m.
It’s a shame for Golden Knights fans that they won’t be able to see Mark Stone or Alex Pietrangelo or Max Pacioretty or any of the half-dozen Vegas players who seemed destined for their respective Olympic teams.
The NHL and NHL Players’ Association pulled the plug on league participation last month due to COVID-19 concerns.
But smiling in a dorm room in Ann Arbor, Mich., his Vegas draft jersey hanging on the wall behind him, was the reason Golden Knights fans should be invested in the US men’s Olympic team.
That’s Brendan Brisson, the Golden Knights’ 2019 first-round draft pick and a sophomore for the Wolverines. With no players signed to NHL contracts permitted to play, USA Hockey turned primarily to the NCAA ranks, where the electric forward was among 15 collegians selected to the team for the Games in Beijing next month.
“You grow up watching the Olympics and it’s just a thing where you think, ‘Wow, look at these guys representing their country on the biggest stage,’” Brisson said. “Words couldn’t really describe how pumped I was, how happy I was. It was like when I got drafted, when I committed to Michigan, it’s all in the same boat.”
Brisson, 20, has 15 goals and 30 points in 25 games for Michigan this season, and is considered the Golden Knights’ top prospect.
Brisson already has experience winning gold for USA, helping the Americans beat Canada at last year’s World Junior Championships, the biggest competition for under-20 players. In a USA Hockey pyramid that sees so many layers come through the national team development program, Brisson took the less-heralded track of playing his junior hockey for the Chicago Steel in the United States Hockey League, the top American college feeder circuit.
His experience though is anything but ordinary.
The son of NHL player agent Pat Brisson, Brendan has been around Olympic hockey stars his entire life. His dad represents Sidney Crosby among others, and Brendan was in attendance for Crosby’s “Golden Goal” at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
“Sid’s been close to me my whole life, so obviously I wanted the US to win but when he scored that goal I was just as happy as anybody else just because I was rooting for him,” Brisson said.
Brisson is the marquee name for Vegas fans, though some old friends were invited to Team Russia’s camp as well. Those would be former Golden Knights forwards Vadim Shipachyov, who played three games for Vegas in 2017-18 before his contentious exit, and Nikita Gusev, who signed an entry-level contract with Vegas in 2019 but was traded before ever playing a game.
Shipachyov and Gusev won gold with Russia at the PyeongChang Games in 2018.
The lack of NHL participation opens doors for players like Brisson, but shuts them for the best players in the world. Shea Theodore (Canada) and William Karlsson (Sweden), both expected to be selected, both expressed disappointment at the decision and said despite COVID-19 worries, would have gone if their countries asked.
In a normal year Robin Lehner would be one of the top goalies for Sweden, but he removed himself from consideration before the NHL and NHLPA’s announcement.
Stone (Canada), Pietrangelo (Canada) and Pacioretty (USA) were seemingly locks for their team, as was rookie Jonas Rondbjerg for Denmark as one of just six Danes to appear in an NHL game. Evgenii Dadonov (Russia) would have merited consideration as well.
“It was definitely on the fence whether it was going to be good for guys to go with the rules that they had in place, but definitely a little disappointing that we’re not going,” Theodore said. “The big debate was the quarantine rules with China, but any time you’re asked to go you’d be hard-pressed not to go.”
For now, eyes shift to players with the opportunity of a lifetime, like Brisson and Michigan teammate Matty Beniers, last year’s second-overall pick from Seattle. The two have skated together at Michigan, and could see themselves skating on a line together in Beijing too.
Brisson will play with Team USA on his chest, representing not only Michigan but the Golden Knights as well. He has family on both sides of the US-Canada hockey rivalry, but is pleased to know his future employer’s fans will be rooting for his team to win.
“I’m not a part of the team yet but I’m still part of the Vegas family,” Brisson said. “Just representing Vegas, playing for their fans as well, it’s something that’s going to be really cool. I can make a good impression of myself out there.”
