Parents trips have become an annual tradition throughout the NHL over the years as players show appreciation for everything their parents did for them to help them get to where they are today.
In the latest Cabbie Presents, NHLers Jamie Benn, Ryan Reaves, Sebastian Aho and Dougie Hamilton show appreciation for their fathers in a different way by sharing how their dads humbled them in their homes when they were teenagers. Whether it was through play fights, arm wrestling, basketball games or on an outdoor hockey rink, the physically imposing dads would remind their boys who was the “king of the castle.”
All four players took different paths to the NHL, but they all have their early battles with their dads in common. Ryan Reaves’ father, Willard, put him through football drills. Jamie Benn fought his brother, Jordie, and never won an arm wrestle against his father, Randy. Dougie Hamilton couldn’t beat his Olympic rower father, Doug, in anything endurance related. Sebastian Aho’s dad, Harri, might have mixed in a body check or two on outdoor rinks in Finland.
