Detroit Red wings captain Dylan Larkin fiancée just gave birth to a baby after the lost of his unborn child during 2023. But thanks to God for making it possible for him.
Signs requesting pucks are a common sight during pre-game warmups at hockey arenas, usually referring to a first game, a birthday, or a trip from far, far away.
Jake Hutchison and his wife, Emily, had one so unique and charming it worked to create a memory for the ages. The 27-year-olds are transplants to Calgary, Alberta from Windsor, Ontario, where Jake grew up inheriting his dad’s love for the Detroit Red Wings. Love has no boundaries, and so when the Wings were in Calgary last season to play the Flames, the two got tickets to the game – and got creative in their request from Dylan Larkin.
He brought a sign reading, “Larks, a puck from u = first born named Dylan.” (Her sign was directed at Moritz Seider: “Mo, I’ll trade you a [drawing of a stick] for my fiancé” and included a couple of hearts.)
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“When we were down in warmups, we were screaming our heads off,” Jake said. “We were super excited. Larkin kind of skated up, he looked at the sign, and he smiled, and then he tossed me a puck.
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“I almost lost my mind.”
Jake said he and Emily moved to Calgary last year, “for a work opportunity for myself,” – he’s in law enforcement – but, “I lived in Windsor pretty much my whole life. My dad used to take me to Wings games at the Joe all the time.
“That’s where the love for the Wings came from. So now whenever they’re here, we make sure to grab tickets. This year they played close to my birthday, so my wife got me tickets to the game. At that point, we knew we were expecting a child, and we thought it would be cool to make up some signs and see where it goes.”
The two arrived early for the game, positioning themselves right up against the glass in the Wings’ end of the ice. “I think some of his teammates saw it and laughed, and then he came over near the end of the warmups,” Jake said. “He was in our corner, laughed and tossed the puck.”
Maverick Dylan Hutchison was born Aug. 13. The plan, his dad said, is to frame the puck so that Maverick Dylan will have a memento to go with the great story he’ll be able to tell one day about his middle name. The couple already had settled on Maverick as the boy’s first name, but were casting about for a middle name when inspiration struck.
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