Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour is a mentor for one budding hockey star. He’s also dad.

Skyler Brind’Amour and his dad hopped in their car and pulled out of the driveway after a long round of golf. They flipped the radio to the NHL Network and heard it:

“The Edmonton Oilers select Skyler Brind’Amour.”

Most kids aren’t out playing golf the day they expect to be drafted by a professional hockey team, but most kids also aren’t the son of an NHL coach.

Skyler, the son of Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour, was taken by the Oilers in the sixth round as the 177th overall pick in the 2017 NHL draft. It was a moment neither father nor son will forget, one of those memories Rod said “we’ll have forever.”

Rod Brind’Amour spent the first day and round of that draft working with general manager Don Waddell to select forward Martin Necas. On day two, he took the earliest flight he could to make sure he was there for his son.

Knowing the stress that comes with sitting idly for hours, Rod Brind’Amour suggested a distraction during what he anticipated could be a lengthy wait.

Father-son golf.

“What I didn’t want him to do was sit by the TV and just wait for his name to be called,” Rod Brind’Amour said. “I wanted to spend some time with him. So I said, ‘Let’s go play some golf. If it happens, someone’s going to call us. I don’t want you to worry about it.’”

Brind’Amour is ‘dad’ first

Growing up, Skyler and his dad connected through their shared love of hockey. When he was a little kid, Skyler and his friends would go into the Hurricanes locker room at the RBC Center after home games to be designated water boys. But Rod said that was just an excuse for Skyler to talk to the players and fool around with the goalie equipment.

Skyler was 6 when his dad and Hurricanes’ captain won the 2006 Stanley Cup. He celebrated on the ice, though, in something other than Rod’s No. 17 captain jersey. Instead, he wore No. 14, which belonged to Justin Williams. Rod was asked over and over whether Skyler was, in fact, his son.

“Yeah, that one’s mine!” he remembered saying.

Skyler, 21, is now a 6-2, 185-pound sophomore center at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, and although his dad can’t attend most of his games because of his demanding NHL schedule, he watches on TV, his phone or his laptop. Even during the Canes’ training camp, Rod hurried home to catch Quinnipiac’s overtime win against St. Lawrence.

Then there are the postgame phone calls with words of advice and encouragement.

“A lot of people think he’ll constantly bark up on me and teach me this and that, but he does a good job of separating the dad and the coach in him,” Skyler said.

Although Skyler praises his father for his ability to balance the two roles in his life, Rod admitted it’s not as easy as it may seem.

“I’m his dad first and I know when he has bad games, like this year he’s been struggling a little bit, or he feels like he has,” Rod said. “So, you don’t want to come down too hard on his play or anything, that’s the coaches’ job. But, it’s the coach in me, too.

“At the end of the day, I try to pick him up when he’s down and get him back on track if I can. It’s a tough balance because you don’t want to be too harsh from the coaching end of things. Sometimes, he just wants to vent and you have to let that happen, too. I’ve got to be his dad first.”

From Raleigh to Quinnipiac

It’s no coincidence Skyler ended up at Quinnipiac.

Coach Rand Pecknold’s sister-in-law, Anne, was best friends with Skyler’s mom and Rod’s ex-wife, Kelle. So Rod called the Bobcats coach looking for advice.

“Hey, what path do you think I should have Skyler on?” Rod said he asked. “Because obviously North Carolina isn’t a hockey hotbed.”

The advice: Selects Academy, the British Columbia Hockey League and then college.

“He pretty much did exactly what I told him,” Pecknold said. “It all worked out that eventually, he came to Quinnipiac.”

Since his arrival at the small, private college, Skyler has been elevated from the third line as a freshman to the second line this season.

“He’s gotten faster,” Pecknold said. “His skating has improved. It was never an issue, always a strength, but I think it’s even more of a strength now.”

Explosiveness was an area of focus since last season’s abrupt ending in late February. Skyler returned home, and was able to spend quality time with his dad, on and off the ice. The two had workout competitions in everyone from pull-ups to ping-pong to basketball and pickleball. The loser usually has to do dishes or clean up after dinner. It wasn’t all that long ago that Rod was able to dominate Skyler in whatever sport they chose, but that has changed.

“I hate to admit it, but he’s starting to win more than I am,” Rod said. “I mean, he’s 21, so I hung in there for a while, but I think he’s the champ right now.”

Skating with players like Justin Williams, Andrei Svechnikov

While he may be dominating competitions against his dad, Skyler said working out with the Canes, which he was able to do when he returned home last March, is a far more daunting task. He spent time on the ice with players like Justin Williams, Andrei Svechnikov and Jaccob Slavin, who remained in the area waiting for the season to resume after the NHL shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“It was awesome skating with those guys,” Skyler said. “It makes you better, for sure. You don’t wanna mess up out there and you work really hard to keep up. They’re great guys so it was a lot of fun to be able to do that.”

“He’s still trying to get there obviously, but he can certainly hold his own in practice,” Rod added. “It’s definitely made him better being able to practice with the guys.”

At Quinnipiac, Skyler thrives on the faceoff dot and prides himself in being a solid two-way forward, much like his father. However, his offensive production is something that both he and Rod acknowledged needs improvement.

“I think he needs to get on the board a little more,” Rod said. “He worked a lot on his shot, so he needs to start trying to utilize that more.”

He has two goals and eight assists in 25 games for the Bobcats (16-5-4), the 11th-ranked team in the country. As a freshman, he had 13 points in 34 games and earned team Rookie of the Year honors.

While he’s close to 600 miles away from home, Skyler keeps a close eye on his dad’s team, especially with such high hopes for this season.

“I think they have great potential to be really good again this year,” he said. “I think they can go all the way to the finals, I really do.”

Skyler laughed, adding, “If they’re well-coached enough, I think they have a chance.”