The Athletic has live coverage of Golden Knights vs. Hurricanes in Game 2 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final.
RALEIGH, N.C. — K’Andre Miller sat on the Carolina Hurricanes bench in an empty arena, cradling his infant son, Kashton, and basking in the glow.
There are miles yet to go in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but that image — Miller after the game of his life, in the Hurricanes’ Eastern Conference-title clinching victory on May 29, Kashton near the end of his 27th day on Earth — is sure to stick. So it goes when television cameras are in the building.
Miller exhaled and shook his head. He looked up at the rafters. He looked down at his boy. And in that moment, somewhere between the bench and the hospital, another Hurricane rode shotgun in an unmarked police car (silver Mustang, lights on) speeding toward the delivery room for the birth of his own son.
Jalen Chatfield, in team-issued gear and with post-win adrenaline still pumping, made it to his wife, Drew, in approximately 20 minutes. She’d gone into labor around the time her husband hit the ice for warmups and texted Hurricanes manager of team services Mike Brown to give him the update and to ask him not to tell Chatfield until the game was over.
Chatfield’s son Rhodes arrived approximately two hours after his dad’s police escort.
“It was a very confusing moment,” Chatfield said. “I went from celebrating with the guys to rushing out to in a quiet hospital room, getting ready to have a baby.
“There was no other way I’d rather have it. It was one of the best nights of my life.”
He’s the third Hurricanes defenseman to express that sentiment during their playoff run. Addison Clark, Miller’s girlfriend, gave birth to Kashton before Carolina’s second-round series against the Philadelphia Flyers. Taylor Walker, whose husband Sean is Miller’s defensive partner, gave birth to daughter Quinn a few days later. Rhodes Chatfield, meanwhile, waited until the Stanley Cup Final matchup was set to join Jalen, Drew and big brother Krew.
Hockey players becoming fathers for the first time in the middle of the postseason, or seeing their families grow, is far from unprecedented stuff. Part of that is simple math; May and June are nine months after August and September, the peak of the NHL offseason, and a full playoff run can last from April to June.
Three babies born to crucial players on a conference champion, though, is outside the norm — and Carolina’s opponent in the final, the Vegas Golden Knights, soon could have a few players in a similar boat. Or police car. Or airplane, which was Walker’s mode of hockey-to-hospital transportation.
The challenge is obvious: balancing the most important moments of their personal lives, and the lives of their loved ones, with the pursuit of their professional peaks — one that takes them across state lines and national borders, and away from their pregnant partners, for days on end.
The baked-in benefits of playing professional sports might simplify part of the equation, but not the whole thing. Carolina owner Tom Dundon could put Walker on a private jet, but not in two places at once. Taylor went into labor late on May 7, so Walker was stuck in the team’s hotel in Philadelphia, FaceTiming with her in the hospital until it was time to board. He made it back to Raleigh to witness Quinn’s birth on May 8, then slept, ate his pregame meal in the hospital cafeteria and played in Game 4 against the Flyers on May 10.
“I can’t put into words how proud I am of (Taylor),” Walker said after the Hurricanes’ sweep-completing win. “She had to go through it for a little bit without me there.”
NHL salaries can pay for food, but not a home-cooked meal from someone who cares. In the weeks before she gave birth to Rhodes, Drew Chatfield was sending over more meals than the Walkers could eat.
“Breakfast food, dinner food, she’d drop off coffee at random times,” Walker said. “It’s cliché, but it’s helpful. You’re new to the experience and figuring things out. Cooking meals and stuff can definitely fall on the back burner.”
Drew outsourced one of the big-time deliveries, loading up the driver with multiple casserole dishes.
“Everything was wrapped up in tin foil,” Jalen said. “I was carrying heavy stuff in there. Whatever they got, they got a lot of it.”
On Miller’s end, the timing was a bit simpler. Clark gave birth between the first and second rounds, no Mustang necessary. Both Walker and Miller appreciated the 12-day gap between the second-round series against Philadelphia and the Eastern Conference final. That break brought lots of diaper changing, enough sleep and, eventually, a lot of preparation for the Montreal Canadiens.
It’s a balance that Chatfield, whose first son was born in July 2023, has worked hard to strike. Some degree of compartmentalization is necessary, he said, but “obviously being a dad and husband never stops.” The gigs are separate and simultaneous, and the work is not easy, especially when your day job requires more rest and more recovery than that of the average person.
“I’m making sure that I’m going to be able to give this team 110 percent and more, every night, every day,” Chatfield said.
One of the biggest benefits, both said, is that they can move past worrying about the unknowns. Their children are here, they’re healthy, they entered the world with their fathers in the room, and they’re always around. That, Walker said, is the biggest benefit of all.
“As soon as you get home,” he said, “you kind of forget about everything that’s going on at the rink and just enjoy your daughter and your family.”
There are players in the other locker room who will learn that lesson soon enough. Among them is Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore. His wife, Mariana, is due after the last possible playoff game on June 17.
“She’s been amazing,” Theodore said. “She’s obviously ready, and we’ve got some family coming in town to help, especially with our first, so it’s gonna be an exciting time in more ways than one. There might be some surprises along the way, but that’s just how it goes.”
If that’s indeed how it goes for the Theodores, the odds that we’ll see another baby on the bench after the Stanley Cup Final will increase dramatically, and the cameras will be rolling.
