Tristen Robins following dad’s journey to NHL with windbreaker in tow

Tristen Robins is heading to San Jose, and he’s taking his windbreaker along for the ride.

The 19-year-old Blades forward was selected 56th overall in the NHL Draft Wednesday.

More peculiar is the family heirloom that will be making the trip with him once hockey resumes.

Robins has been regularly seen wearing an early ’90s San Jose Sharks windbreaker, the one his father, Trevor, received after signing with the Sharks in 1993.

“I have one of his old retro windbreakers from back in the day, so I threw that on right after the draft,” Robins said from his parents’ home at Clear Lake, Man.

In fact, Tristen and Trevor took a nearly identical path to the professional ranks.

Trevor was the starting goaltender for the Blades from 1989 to 1992 before being traded to his hometown Brandon Wheat Kings for his final season in the Western Hockey League and subsequent journey to the Sharks.

“It’s actually almost like it’s been scripted,” Robins said of the bizarrely similar history between him and his father.

“It’s kind of crazy to think of.”

Trevor never ended up playing for the Sharks. He bounced around the minor leagues and then took his talents to Great Britain before retiring in 2002.

Watching his son try and do what he was never able to makes the draft experience that much more special.

“It was a pretty proud moment for him…a moment where we both looked at each other and (I) gave him a huge hug,” Robins said. “Just seeing that everything that I’ve worked for up to this point has been paying off.”

Blades general manager Colin Priestner knows about Robins hard work all too well, but that teal, black and white windbreaker will forever stay in his mind.

Priestner pushed hard to add Robins onto a blockbuster deal in 2018 with the Regina Pats that involved Libor Hajek going the other way as the Pats prepared to host the Memorial Cup.

As Priestner arrived at the airport to pick up a then 16-year-old Robins, there was the bright windbreaker matching his equally bright smile.

“It was the first time I ever met him. I was laughing saying, ‘Oh, nice taste in the retro jacket,’ but it wasn’t retro-like ‘$200 retro’, it was like ‘sitting in dad’s closet for 25-years retro.’”

“It’s so funny that ends up being the jacket that he takes the picture in with his family when he got drafted.”

Robins journey to being a second-round selection was uncertain. At the beginning of the season, Robins wasn’t given a numbered ranking from NHL Central Scouting.

At the mid-term rankings he was 134th, but then jumped nearly 50 spots to 86th among North American prospects on their final report thanks to scoring 51 points in his final 31 games.

“He seemed to be one of those names that seemed to be talked about as a big-value guy that you could get,” Priestner said of the chatter leading up to the NHL Draft.

Priestner always had one thing to tell any NHL teams calling for pre-draft research.

“He’s got unbelievable cardio to him, like, he does not get tired,” Priestner said.

Priestner remembered one day when it was Robins’ turn to sign autographs on the concourse after a home game. His parents were in town to see him, but that didn’t stop him from spending all night with the remaining fans in the building.

“He took the time with absolutely everybody. I remember telling his parents, ‘You guys should be pretty proud about how he’s conducting himself here.’”

With the draft moving to a virtual setting as opposed to its original location, the Bell Centre in Montreal, Robins spent plenty of time meeting with scouts across the league via video call.

“It’s been extremely busy,” Robins said. “It’s understandable, this is a huge part of the NHL and their recruitment process. I’m a lot busier than I thought I would be but I’m happy it’s all done here and I know where the chips have fallen.”

Robins will have to become friends with two fierce rivals when he arrives at Sharks rookie camp. With the 31st overall selection, San Jose selected Prince Albert Raiders forward Ozzy Weisblatt. Noah Gregor, another former Raider, was selected by the Sharks in 2016 and made his NHL debut last season.

Priestner remembers one of the final games of the season where Robins and Weisblatt matched up against one another throughout the game.

“Ozzy and Tristen went at each other in the corner for about 12 or 15 seconds, cross-checking each other and battling. The refs just kind of let them go and finally Tristen knocked him down at the end and got a penalty,” he said.

“There must have been a head scout at that game, because you would have really fallen in love with both of those players from that shift alone.”