VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Who knows what the future holds for Parker Wotherspoon, just five games into his NHL career at age 25, thrust into the Islanders’ lineup after the team suffered a glut of injuries. Whether this ends with him as a mainstay in the NHL or back in AHL Bridgeport, though, he will always have Tuesday night, buried deep in the bedrocks of his memory.
Wotherspoon on Tuesday at Rogers Arena could look behind the Canucks’ bench to Section 117. About 16 rows up, he would’ve seen the seats his father, Troy, has held as a season-ticket holder for 20-plus years. He grew up there, sitting with his dad, his grandfather (an original season-ticket holder) and his brother, Tyler. He would’ve seen a guest list approaching 30 people, ranging from family members to high school friends from his hometown of Surrey, BC, a suburb of Vancouver. He might have forgotten for a moment the stakes surrounding the game against the Canucks and let himself acknowledge that he is living out a dream after working so hard to get here.
“I think it’ll be a different kind of nervous,” Wotherspoon told The Post following Monday’s practice. “The first game was heart beating out of the chest. But I’ll be excited to go out there and be in the hometown. It’ll feel great. I’ll definitely be nervous, though.”
Wotherspoon, a fourth-round pick back in 2015, played 293 AHL games before finally getting called up just before Christmas. Troy and Susan, his parents, could not make his debut on Long Island due to snow affecting travel. They’ve been at every game since.
“As much as you think he’s doing everything, playing well in the minors and paying his dues and playing that, after a while you’re sometimes questioning a little bit is he gonna make that next jump?” Troy Wotherspoon told The Post via phone Tuesday morning. “You gotta have the faith, gotta believe that he can. For him to finally do it is incredible. And anytime I watch him play, you can’t take it [for granted] — you can’t think it’ll always be that way. You gotta take it one game at a time, just like they do and just soak it up because you just never know how long it’s gonna last for and how long it goes for.
“It’s just a great opportunity to watch him. I’m proud of him every game.”
Troy and Susan have done this before, back in March 2014 when Tyler made his NHL debut with the Calgary Flames. His second career game came in Vancouver, and Tyler played 30 NHL games across four seasons, the last being in January 2017. He’s still in the AHL, playing for the Utica Comets.
So this is a family that knows well what it takes to make it this far, and how much every moment must be cherished. For Parker, to be able to play in Vancouver, where he watched the Canucks lose Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final to the Bruins in-person as a 14-year-old in 2011, is something to behold.
“I’ve seen probably 150-200 games here,” Parker Wotherspoon said. “So it’s pretty special because, man, just stepping out on the ice for the first time, it was nice.”
“I can see it in Parker’s eyes, it’s his dream to come home and play,” Troy Wotherspoon said. “I think for both my boys it was. And that’s where they grew up, watching the Canucks. … I said to my dad, when Parker played the first night, the first game, I said to him, ‘Did you ever think you’d have two grandsons playing in the NHL?’ He couldn’t believe it.”
As a restricted free agent last summer, Parker had some offers to go overseas, Troy Wotherspoon said. Instead, he chose to come back to the Islanders on a one-year, two-way deal worth $750,000 at the NHL level and $175,000 in the AHL. It looked for a brief moment during training camp as if he had a chance to make the roster, but that quickly faded.
The dream, though, never died.
“I think it’s hard because you can see it and you know other players that he knows who are in the league that he played with. He just wanted to be there just like them,” Troy Wotherspoon said. “The desire and the far going and I talked to one of the Islanders coaches and I said I think he appreciates it more. The longer I think you’re in the minors or struggling to do it, when the time comes, I don’t know what the word is, you just appreciate having finally gotten there.
“I can’t imagine for him, for all those nights of dreaming about it and wanting to play for the Islanders, play in the NHL and for it to finally happen, that dream came true.”
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