‘Dude, my kid’s playing in the Stanley Cup Final’: Jackson Blake and an NHL dad’s dream come true – The Athletic
The Athletic has live coverage of Hurricanes vs. Golden Knights in Game 3 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final.
LAS VEGAS — When the Carolina Hurricanes eliminated the Montreal Canadiens to win the Eastern Conference, Jason Blake didn’t jump for joy. He didn’t pump his fists. He didn’t scream.
“I just stood there and watched,” he said. “‘Oh, here come the waterworks.’”
For a guy who played 871 NHL games, represented the United States in the Olympics and World Cup of Hockey and carved out a 13-year NHL career through relentless work ethic and lightning-fast speed, he figured he’d seen just about everything hockey could throw at him.
He hadn’t.
Not this.
Nineteen years after he played in the Minnesota state high school tournament for Moorhead, Jason had already watched his oldest son, Jackson, score in double overtime to deliver Eden Prairie High a state championship in 2021. Getting to watch Jackson play for the Stanley Cup, that was too much.
“I’m just super proud,” Jason told The Athletic this week. “I was fortunate to play in the league for a long time and got to play in the playoffs. Never got out of the first round. But to watch your kid — and as a parent, you always want your kids to grow up to be better than you at whatever that is, whether it’s hockey or in business or whatever — I don’t even know how to put it in words. I am so emotionally proud of him, and every time I look at him, you just want to hug him because I can’t tell you how proud I am of him.
“Dude, my kid’s playing in the Stanley Cup Final.”
Jackson is just 22 years old, and after making the conference final as a rookie last year, he’s already appeared in 30 career playoff games after Thursday night’s Game 2 4-3 overtime win over the Vegas Golden Knights. That equals the number his dad played in his 13-year career. He’s Carolina’s second-leading scorer with 15 points in 15 games, playing on a fast, high-energy line with Taylor Hall and Logan Stankoven.
The trio has combined for 20 goals and 44 points in 15 games, with Blake scoring the series-clinching goal in overtime to eliminate the Philadelphia Flyers and catapult the Canes into the conference final.
Anything to do with hockey in Jackson’s life, Jason has been right there by his side.
It’s more than a father-son relationship or even a mentor-student relationship.
“We are literally best friends — inseparable best friends,” Jason said. “We talk three, four times a day.”
Asked if that’s an exaggeration, Jason laughed: “No. Every single day.”
Jason coached Jackson as a squirt, then on the Minnesota Blades. He’s trained with him. To this day, he studies video with him almost weekly on FaceTime from his home in Minnesota.
Jackson Blake joins Jason Blake on the ice during Dad’s Maple Leafs days. (Courtesy of Jason Blake)
This past week, Jason’s been there in person, staying at the house Jackson recently bought in Raleigh. So too, in fact, were Jackson’s girlfriend, Jane, 25-year-old sister, Lauren, 19-year-old sister, Anna Belle and 13-year-old brother, Brooks, a peewee hockey player.
It became the family’s headquarters.
“I try to help him out as much as I can,” Jason said. “Before he takes (his afternoon) nap, I’ll go down there and hang out with him and chat with him for a little bit. Just gauge where he’s at.”
Jackson accepts the help with open arms.
“A lot of the stuff I know about hockey is from him,” Jackson said. “He’s helped me grow as a player — and a person, as well. He’s been a huge help to me, and I’m super thankful for him.”
When asked about his father’s influence, Jackson smiled.
“I don’t remember the saying,” he admitted. “‘Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work’ or something like that.”
Jason laughed when informed that his son didn’t get it quite right.
It’s actually, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard,” Jason said.
The phrase wasn’t just something Jason said over and over again as Jackson grew up. It was the foundation of how he raised Jackson because that’s exactly how Jason played throughout a successful career that began with the Los Angeles Kings and took him to the New York Islanders, Toronto Maple Leafs and Anaheim Ducks. In his final season on Long Island, 2006-07, Jason scored 40 goals in 82 games after hitting the 20-goal mark the previous three seasons.
All this from an undrafted, undersized 5-foot-10 player. His son is an inch taller but still had to wait 109 names to hear his called at the 2021 draft.
“He works extremely hard in the summer,” Jason said. “I think the one thing that I’m so proud of him is his compete level and his work ethic. I think overall, he’s a way better player than I was as far as his hands, seeing the ice, probably a shot, his passing ability. But what makes me most proud is his work ethic is the same as mine was.
“He’s becoming the player that he and I always knew that he could be, or taking steps in that direction. And he’s still got a long way to go, but I mean, he’s ahead of what I was at this age. I mean, I was still in college. And he’s so humble, and that’s what I love. I feel like we raised him the right way.”
Jackson and Jason Blake pose together as Jackson signs his entry-level contract with the Hurricanes. (Courtesy of Jason Blake)
When Jackson was a kid, the first question Jason used to ask him after games was, “How do you think you played?”
The number of goals, points or highlights Jackson produced was irrelevant.
Even if his team won.
To this day, Jason still asks that question after Jackson’s games.
Even when Jackson was lighting up youth hockey, Jason would say, “You scored five goals, but it doesn’t mean you played well. Your work ethic has to be there every single game.”
Jason was trying to prepare his son for bigger stages he’d reach at the high school, college and eventually NHL level.
Jason Blake instilled in Jackson Blake that work ethic, not stats, are what matters. (Courtesy of Jason Blake)
“I feel like you can’t talk about (Jackson) without talking about his work ethic, and it’s all over the ice, but especially the way he forechecks,” veteran Jordan Martinook said. “He’s got such a quick stick, and I don’t know how many takeaways this guy has, but it feels like every shift he’s got a takeaway. He’s so slippery. You can’t really hit him. Sometimes you’re watching, you’re like, ‘Oh, don’t go there, Blake,’ but then he gets away. He finds a way out of it. It’s so impressive to watch the way that he goes about his business, the way he plays.”
Jason’s lessons stuck. They’re visible every night in the way Jackson plays, despite not being the biggest player on the ice.
“I’ve always been small,” Jackson said. “I was a late bloomer.”
He learned early, however, that limited size wasn’t an excuse.
“I don’t think it matters how big you are,” he said. “I just think it’s your heart and how willing you are to work and do the little things.”
Listening to him, it’s hard not to hear echoes of his father. Of course, it helps that they look and play so similarly, other than Jackson being a right-shot and Jason is a lefty.
“His work ethic is great,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “That was his biggest jump when he first came into the league. First time I saw him and then he had a summer, came back, and he was just night and day. He put the work in. I saw him on a daily basis do that. But sometimes those guys who work hard, you lose the fact that they’re very talented. If he wasn’t such a hard worker, you’d say he’s an amazing player because he has such skill. He has a combination. This is a little bit of his coming-out party because we’re playing at this time, but I think he’s just scratching the surface.”
That’s why Carolina signed Jackson to what could be a bargain eight-year, $40.94 million ($5.117 million average annual value) contract that starts next season. Jackson called signing the deal a “no-brainer.” He said even if he left money on the table. “It doesn’t matter if you love it here, and I want to be here the rest of my career.
“I’ve realized this (opportunity) is special, and you’ve got to embrace it and enjoy it. But you’ve also got to attack it because you never know when your next opportunity will come.”
Jason’s enjoying this ride through the lens of a former player but even more so as a proud dad.
The thought of his son lifting the Stanley Cup gives Jason chills.
“I pinch myself,” Jason said. “As parents, we try to live vicariously through our kids when we get to a certain age, but this is almost too much of a thrill of a lifetime.”
Jason never got out of the first round in 13 NHL seasons. Now he’s watching his son play for the Stanley Cup.
The tears have come often these past few weeks.
It’s not because Jackson is doing something Jason never could. It’s because, as Jason put it, “Jackson and I are literally best friends.”
