NEWARK, N.J. -- Luke Evangelista has given his father plenty to celebrate during his hockey career but a chance meeting with former NHL goalie Glenn “Chico” Resch may have produced the ultimate father-son moment.
The New Jersey Devils forward was coming off the ice after a recent practice at RWJBarnabas Health Hockey House at Prudential Center when Devils assistant equipment manager Brent Overkamp stopped him and made the introduction.
"Hey, Luke, have you met Chico Resch yet?", Overkamp asked.
Evangelista didn’t immediately recognize the man standing in front of him, but the name certainly sounded familiar.
"Chico Resch," Evangelista recalled. "I was like, 'My dad used to talk about Chico Resch.'"
As the story goes, Evangelista's father, Andrew, was not merely familiar with Resch. As a youngster, he was Resch.
At least whenever the neighborhood road hockey game needed a goalie.
"My dad was like a big goalie guy," Evangelista said. "He loved it. He would go in net playing road hockey. I guess when you're a kid, you pick your favorite player. He was Chico Resch when he played road hockey."
The younger Evangelista quickly realized this was not an ordinary introduction but an opportunity to deliver the kind of surprise that would make a lifetime of imaginary Stanley Cup victories worthwhile.
"So, I was like, 'Chico Resch, I recognize that name,'" Evangelista said. "I got to talking with him and took a photo with him, got a video with Chico, and sent it to my dad. He said it made his day. So that was a really cool moment for me."
Andrew responded immediately, and enthusiastically. For a former road hockey version of Resch, receiving a photo and video of his son standing beside the real one qualified as breaking news.
"I was sending him the photos and the video, and he was loving it," Evangelista said. "Then we talked that night, and he just said, 'What a full-circle moment that is for me.'"
The sequence was almost too perfect. Andrew spent his childhood pretending to be Resch. Decades later, his son was playing in the NHL and unexpectedly ran into his father's hockey hero.
"It's pretty amazing,” Evangelista said. “Now I'm playing and taking photos and videos with him. So, (dad) was fired up."
There's been plenty for the Evangelista family to be excited about recently.
The 24-year-old right wing, acquired by New Jersey in a trade with the Nashville Predators on Sept. 1 and signed a five-year, $36.25 million contract with the Devils on Sept. 15. The contract, which has an average annual value of $7.25 million, begins in the 2027-28 season.
Evangelista, who had 142 points (45 goals, 97 assists) in 253 regular-season games with Nashville before joining New Jersey, scored his first two goals as a member of the Devils in a 5-3 loss to the Utah Mammoth on Tuesday.
"At the end of the day, I’m just trying to contribute to wins for this team," Evangelista said. "Obviously it was nice to get the first one there. It (stinks) we didn’t get a win out of it, but you always want to do your part."
Evangelista certainly has, in more ways than one.
