Like father, like son: Hockey is family for FGCU winger

“We have the Coach of Nashville, Peter Laviolette—his son is playing for us this year.”

As a hockey fan, hearing that come from the mouth of FGCU’s hockey coach, Bob Brinkworth, makes you do a double take.

Jack Laviolette is FGCU’s newest freshman winger, and also a business management major. His father happens to be Stanley Cup-winning coach Peter Laviolette.

“You kinda get use to it. A lot of people eventually find out on the team and everyone is excited about it at first but everyone gets use to it,” Laviolette said.

Having an NHL coach as a father would be easy to get used to. Especially when seeking advice.

“I try to talk to him every day, really. Especially after practices we talk, and he asks me how it goes and he watches every game and tells me what I need to work on and everything so it’s always good having him help me,” Laviolette said.

Laviolette primarily plays on the third and fourth line, so his name doesn’t pop up on the score sheet often.

But as the son of Peter Laviolette, a man who never potted more than 13 tallies in a season during his professional career, there’s more to hockey than scoring goals.

Like father, like son.