Two-time Stanley Cup champion Pat Maroon comes from the St. Louis suburb of Oakville, Missouri, and there’s another player from Oakville who’s trying to make his pro hockey dreams come true in the Red Wings’ final pick of the 2020 NHL draft, one Chase Bradley.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Jim Thomas posted a profile of Bradley, a life-long Blues fan, and he found that Bradley’s well aware of his ties to Maroon–and vice-versa:
The Red Wings worked a trade with Bradley’s hometown squad — the Blues — moving into the round and taking him at No. 203. As you might expect, Bradley’s phone immediately was flooded with congratulatory messages, including one from another Oakville hockey player of some renown: Pat Maroon.
“He texted me after the draft and just congratulated me,” Bradley said of the player who won a Stanley Cup with the Blues last season and with Tampa Bay this year. “He said he’d be watching.”
Bradley said he’s never skated with Maroon, who at age 32 is 14 years older. And never even met him. But the Oakville hockey community is tight-knit, and this was glorious news.
“It’s one big circle from South County,” former Oakville High coach Tyler Sollberger said. “We’ve produced good athletes, good hockey players in the region, and proud to have a couple come out from Oakville. Patrick winning his second Stanley Cup in a row. So it’s been very rewarding to see both of their careers progress.”
