‘We support each other:’ How Florida Panthers built a brotherhood through fatherhood
Nate Schmidt didn’t understand it. Not at first, not when he was younger. He would see teammates taking a break early in pregame warmups to meet with their kids. In the moment, it was perplexing for the defenseman.
“It’s like ‘Come on, these guys are at every game. What the heck?’” Schmidt said.
And then Schmidt became a father himself in 2023 to a baby boy named Harvey. As he skates over to see the blonde-hair boy in the number 88 sweater with “Daddy” on the back, he gets it now.
“You don’t really realize how precious it is to have your son be able to see you on the ice and just see you at work, right?” Schmidt said. “A lot of jobs you can’t take your kid to work. So it’s really fun for him to be able to see me on the ice. We play a ton at home. It’s really special. I didn’t realize how special it was until I had him.”
Schmidt isn’t alone. He is one of a slew of Florida Panthers players who takes the time pregame to visit with their kids. They all congregate in the corner between their bench and goal, taking turns to have a brief moment of levity before the game begins. Some, like forwards Evan Rodrigues and Tomas Nosek, feed their kids pucks through holes in the glass each game. Others just wave and talk to their kids. Each has his own tradition that he sticks to.
“You can’t stay too long,” said forward Jonah Gadjovich, father of 1-year-old twins Lion and Adalee, “because there’s a lot of other kids that want to see their dad. It’s cool going over there and seeing my kiddos and seeing the smiles on their faces and then it’s also fun seeing the other kids and waving to them and seeing how excited they are when they get to see their dad come and say hi.”
The Panthers are already a tight-knit group, bonded by long playoff runs.
But for the dads on the team, an extra sense of brotherhood has been forged through fatherhood.
“We support each other as teammates,” Gadjovich said, “and then also as fathers and husbands.”
Added Panthers coach Paul Maurice, a father himself to sons Jake and Luke and daughter Sydney: “When you bring your stroller to the rink and there are 12 other strollers there, you got lots of stories to tell. And they’re all going through it at the same time. It’s been marvelous to watch and I think it does build the connections that you have with your team.”
Eetu Luostarinen is the newest father on the team. His daughter Sophia was born in February.
“It’s been really great,” the 26-year-old forward said of the past three-and-a-half months. “I’m more busy for sure, and have more purpose. Just seeing her grow, it’s been really good.”
Becoming a parent has a profound impact on a person. Their life is about more than just them now.
“They just become your whole world,” said Dmitry Kulikov, father to son Maxton and daughter Evelina. “You do anything for them. It doesn’t matter anymore how much time you get to rest, how much time you get to have to yourself. You just want to spend time with them and make it as best as you as you can for them, set them up for for success and in life. That’s the main key.”
For the newer dads on the team, there’s a lot of communication about what to expect at different stages of childhood.
Defenseman Gustav Forsling’s son Bo is 1 and a half, about a year younger than Schmidt’s son Harvey. The two talk regularly about their kids.
“I try and give him the playbook of what the next year is gonna look like all the time,” Schmidt said with a smile.
Added Forsling: “It’s not easy being a dad, so it’s always good to talk with guys that are having the same experience. We’re enjoying it. It’s a lot of fun.”
Rodrigues, father to sons Grayson and Noah and daughter Ella Grace, said the camaraderie can be felt among the group.
“It’s a connection, right? It’s something that you can have conversations about,” Rodrigues said. “It’s fun hearing other people’s stories and things that happen with them. Schmidty will say something like, ‘Oh, Harvey did this.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah, I remember that. Like I was doing that at this point.’ I don’t know. It’s a conversation piece, something to connect over.”
Added Luostarinen: “There’s a lot of guys in the same phase as me. They’re with their newborns and or even those guys to have one or two or three kids already, so I can ask for advice. It’s nice to have something else to talk about as well other than hockey.”
Gadjovich’s journey to fatherhood took place during the Stanley Cup playoffs last year. He was away from the team for about a week midway through the postseason when the twins were born, returning for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final. Florida won the Stanley Cup about a month later.
Lion and Adalee were on the ice for the celebration, with Gadjovich and wife Allison putting both of them inside the Stanley Cup as the Panthers celebrated the victory last June.
“It was fun to have the twins on the ice and putting them in the Cup was just such a cool experience,” Gadjoivch said. “They were still so tiny that they both fit in the Cup at that time. They’re awesome. It’s fun having them having them be part of that.”
Gadjovich said players and families regularly have get-togethers during the season, which gives their kids a chance to bond.
But the most common of those meet ups comes during pregame warmups, when a true glimpse of the familial atmosphere around the team can be seen.
“That’s one of my favorite moments right now, to just watch them be able to be that close,” said Nosek, father to sons Patrik and Matias. “So hopefully they will remember that. That’s what I think they’ll remember more than anything. Just to be able to be near them, for them to touch my hand, it’s great.”
This story was originally published June 13, 2025 at 1:40 PM.
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