Freshman Carson Dyck's love for hockey started at an early age. With a father who coached in the Western Hockey League (WHL), one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior hockey in Canada, it would have been almost impossible for Carson to not fall in love with the sport.
"As far as I can remember, he's always had a passion to play hockey," Mike Dyck, Carson's father, said.
As a child, Carson would tag along with his father to the rink. He would meet the players, hang around the locker room, and go to the games his father coached. Mike was an assistant coach with the Lethbridge Hurricanes between 1997 and 2002, before he spent three seasons between 2002 and 2005 as an assistant coach with the Vancouver Giants.
Mike returned to Lethbridge in 2005 to act as the head coach of the Hurricanes, a position he held through the 08-09 season, before stepping away from coaching in the WHL to coach Carson.
"He coached me for about eight years growing up in minor hockey, and that just took my game to another level," Carson said. "Obviously, he was always around the rink with me and he was pretty hard on me, there were some not so fun car rides home from the rink with him…It taught me a lot about discipline and just integrity about the game and how to get better."
At the start, Carson said it was difficult for his father to separate being a coach at the rink and a father at home. Over time he was able to create a divide between the two, and at the rink it was "all business," and at home he was a "great dad."
"With my background in coaching, I certainly took a lot of joy in taking him to the rink, coaching him and watching him play," Mike said. "As time progressed and I started to coach him more it was, for me, a great opportunity not only to spend time with my son, but to work with him on certain things."
For Mike, coaching his son was easier than most parents would expect.
"Not only was he always a real good player, but he was always the hardest working player and probably one of the smartest players on our team," Mike said.
Throughout his life, hockey was one thing that brought father and son together. One of Carson's favorite hockey memories with his father is when the two went to a sports bar during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics to see the men's hockey gold-medal game. Sidney Crosby scored the overtime winner, sending Canadian hockey fans into a frenzy.
"Just seeing Vancouver like that, I mean for him, it was awesome to see. We just love the game and it was a huge Canadian moment…We bonded really well over that," Carson said.
While his father may no longer coach him anymore, the memories he has with him on the ice and the lessons he's taught him remain.
"The on ice stuff took care of itself, but (my dad) just (taught me) how to handle myself, what my character was and how to become a better person through hockey," Carson said. "You learn your lessons on the ice, but you also need to learn how to imply those lessons off the ice."
For Carson and his family, hockey gave them lifelong friends, cherished memories and, for Carson, a roadmap for the future.
Mike is back to being a head coach in the WHL, now entering his fourth season with the Vancouver Giants, as well as being heavily involved with Team Canada the past few seasons as an associate coach at both the World Juniors and World Championships in 2021.
"I was really proud of him (this past summer), he has a lot of silver medals under his belt, but he won his first gold with the men's national team in Latvia at the 2021 IIHF World Championships, that was huge for him," mentioned Carson.
Carson, who always thought his hockey path would lead through the WHL, never really knew anything about NCAA hockey, however, a trip to a Steelers game for his grandfather's 75th birthday changed his plans.
While in Pennsylvania, Carson and his family visited Penn State. After seeing the campus, the hockey facilities, and meeting those in the program, Carson was sold. Not only was he set on becoming a Nittany Lion, but so was his father.
"We felt at ease because we knew he was going to be very well taken care of (at Penn State)," Mike said.
As a parent, Mike said he hopes Carson will be able to grow as a person and as a student off the ice. He wants him to meet new people and become more independent than he already is.
"With the hockey team, he's going to grow and develop into a better hockey player – and where that goes is up to him. But, we know that he's in a really, really good spot there to grow as a player. The Nittany Lions have not only a really good track record, they have a really strong culture. He'll fit in well there," Mike said.
