The Michigan sophomore notched two goals in two games for Team USA, an NHL-less squad with 15 current collegians that is dreaming of the country’s first men’s hockey podium finish since 2010.
BEIJING — The pass slid into the empty slot, and suddenly there was Brendan Brisson to pounce. Fresh off the United States bench in the second period at National Indoor Stadium, the 20-year-old winger wasted no time tracking the puck onto his backhand, shoveling it past the glove side of Canadian goalie Edward Pasquale, and kicking up a leg and pumping his arms in celebration as he skated away. “You grow up watching the Olympics,” Brisson said later, “and just imagining scoring a goal and winning games here, it’s just been amazing so far.”
In many ways, Brisson is wholly emblematic of the speedy and skilled American scions who beat their border rivals 4-2 on Saturday afternoon. Unlike four years ago, when a roster of retreads exited in the quarterfinals at the 2018 PyeongChang Games, this group boasts 15 current collegians, conjuring countless Miracle on Ice references and raising hopes of the country’s first men’s hockey medal since 2010. Among them is Brisson, a sophomore at Michigan and a 2020 first-round pick of the Vegas Golden Knights who reports filling his free time in Beijing with pin-trading, picture-taking and putting off the essays he has to write for English class.
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And yet there is no one on Team USA—heck, not even in these entire NHL-less Olympics—who has Brisson’s background. The older of two sons of Pat Brisson, the co-head of CAA’s hockey division and perhaps the most powerful agent in the sport, Brendan grew up with a who’s-who of world-famous clients swinging by the family’s Southern California house as though they were next-door neighbors asking to borrow the weed wacker or a cup of sugar.
“He’s always been a good student,” Pat Brisson said by phone last month. "I remember days when I’d be driving in the morning to Anaheim, or a tournament on the road, and he’d be in a car seat in the back listening to my conversations with players about adversity and situations in the game. And when they were over, he used to ask questions and questions and questions.”
The stories are legion. For years Brendan and younger brother Jordy would beg their parents for the “John Tavares shake,” a blend of fruit, almond milk and protein powder that the now-Maple Leafs captain once whipped up in their kitchen. Another time Brendan was dueling Sidney Crosby in an NHL video game when one of Crosby’s digital skaters suffered a concussion. “He stopped playing,” Pat recalled of Crosby, who famously received the same injury in the 2011 Winter Classic. “He was like, ‘This is too much for me.’”
Brendan, however, never got enough, whether playing mini sticks with Jonathan Toews or shooting slapshots with Patrick Kane. “Those were special moments,” Pat said, “His eyes were like a kid in a candy store.” The only exception came whenever Avalanche dynamo Nathan MacKinnon paid a visit, and even then, Brendan and Jordy absorbed what they could from afar.
“They were afraid of him because he does everything hard,” Pat said of MacKinnon. “He’d be ripping pucks in the backyard, and my boys would watch him for hours from the glass doors.”
Even so Brendan was a late bloomer on the ice, born in Oct. 2001 and thus among the youngest in his age group. His dad puts it bluntly: “When I look at 14- and 15-year-olds in this business, Brendan wouldn’t have been a prospect that we would’ve gone after.” But that changed after Brendan enrolled at the famed Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Minnesota, following in the skate paths of Crosby, Toews and many more. So did his relationship with those stars.
“Since he became a true prospect, he started communicating differently with them,” Pat said. “They'll text each other, talk about his game a little bit. He’s very comfortable in those settings.”
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After the NHL backed out of Beijing, citing COVID concerns amid the omicron wave, Brendan set his sights on replacing his one-time idols, having just won gold at the world junior championships in early January. “He believed that he belonged, and he wanted to be part of it,” Pat said. When the call came from U.S. general manager John Vanbiesbrouck, though, it first went to his dad, as Brendan and the Wolverines were busy hosting UMass at home.
“I found out a couple hours before Brendan did,” Pat recalled. "He called me right away after the game. I told him congrats, because they had a great win and he played well. He goes, ‘Do you know what else?’ I played dumb a little bit. Then he tells me and says, ‘How about that?’”
According to U.S. coach David Quinn, the national team was primarily attracted to Brisson because of his “improvement,” going from 21 points in 24 games as a freshman to a team-high 27 points—including 14 goals, then good enough for fifth in Division I—at the time of his selection. He has only continued to progress in Beijing, lighting the lamp in an 8-0 romp over China to open preliminary play and again finding the back of the net against Canada.
“He’s a special player, he's got special abilities, and the things he's getting better at are the things that everybody can do,” Quinn said. “That’s what talented players need to understand: If they can do things that everybody can do, on top of the things that everybody can’t do, you’ve got a chance to be a special player. And I just like the direction his game’s going. I really do.”
For Brendan, the Olympic experience has been special for many reasons, and not just because his professors have been “really understanding” about his absence from class. There is the fact that he is here alongside Michigan teammate Matty Beniers, the second-overall pick in the 2021 NHL draft (Seattle Kraken). And the other events he has been able to attend to cheer on fellow Team USA athletes, from the opening ceremony to big air freestyle skiing. But nothing beats being able to represent his country on the sport’s biggest stage, just like his dad’s clients.
“Some of those guys, they’ve played here years ago, when the NHL was allowed to be here,” Brisson said. “I remember just watching them, cheering on for them when I was a kid, and it’s a blessing that I’m able to play here right now.”
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