Utah Mammoth captain Clayton Keller mourns his father while leading his team

The Mammoth captain has continued to lead his team while mourning his father.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Mammoth captain Clayton Keller.

Send up a prayer and give an extra-loud cheer for Mammoth captain Clayton Keller. He could use both.

Two days before his father shockingly died, slipping away in his sleep to whatever comes after this mortal existence, Keller was with his Utah Mammoth teammates, visiting kids in a Salt Lake City hospital. While there, he said the annual visit is one of his and his team’s favorite off-ice activities.

“What [patients here] are going through is more important than anything we’re going through,” he said. “Any way we can give back, meet new faces, try to put a smile on their face, is the best feeling. That’s why we all love this event. … There’s some coloring going on, some slime, and some bracelets, too. It’s great … I haven’t colored anything in a long time.”

A grin spread across his own face as he spoke.

He added: “Hockey guys are a special breed. We care about the community.”

And the community should care about its hockey guys, certainly a hockey guy like Keller, especially in a tragic time when finding a little extra care would be helpful and healing.

Keller’s father, Bryan, passed away on Thanksgiving. I do not know all the specifics of what the player’s relationship was like with his dad, but I do know what it’s like to lose a dad to the clutches of death and the sad and sorrowful goodbye it presses upon a son, even an adult son. What Keller has said is that as a kid, growing up in the St. Louis area, he used to sit on his father’s lap at Blues games, on the path to pursuing and falling hard for the game he’s made not just his profession, but his own.

The boy grew up to be exactly what he dreamed of being — a great NHL player, a four-time All-Star, a man who works hard at his craft and sets a stellar tone and a level of dedication, devotion even, for his teammates.

Remarkably enough, Keller made the decision to honor his dad by staying and playing with his teammates since Bryan’s passing, skating with a heavy heart, shooting the puck through tears in his eyes. Every hockey player knows what it’s like to play through pain. This was a different kind.

In the first game after his father’s death, the Dallas Stars honored Keller as the “First Star of the Game.” The next outing, at St. Louis, the Blues paid tribute to their former fan and his father as Keller took the ice, again.

Afterward, an emotional son, his voice shaking and his expression aggrieved, said: “Teammates, coaching staff, management have been unbelievable toward me and my family. Big thanks to the Blues for everything they did tonight. They didn’t have to do that. Yeah, lots of memories at this rink. Growing up, coming to games here, sitting on my dad’s lap, my grandpa’s lap, Just admiring those players … (pauses to look up to the sky) … wanting to be out there. It was definitely a tough couple of days, but I couldn’t have done it without my family, my teammates, they had my back, always, and I care for them more than anything.”

Keller’s teammates and coaches had heartfelt things to say about their 27-year-old leader, who has more than earned their admiration and respect for the way he approaches them and the game, having played for the franchise since being drafted by the club in 2016.

After the Stars game, forward Lawson Crouse said: “It’s been an emotional 24 hours. Obviously Kells is our leader in a locker room, but also away from the rink. Thoughts and prayers go out to his mom, his brother, and Kells. He’s done an incredible job leading us and guiding us. I’ve been with him for 10-plus years now. It’s hard news and we’re trying to all deal with it in the best way we can. Just trying to be there for him, support him, and give him the love and friendship that he needs.”

NHL players might be as tough as any group of athletes in any league in any sport, but the same heart and passion that drives so many of them, players of character such as Keller, is sometimes vulnerable to frailties of the human condition. Keller has been subject to both sides of that ardor over the past few days.

“He loves his teammates and his teammates love him so much,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said. “He drives our passion and our competitiveness every night. He’s the kind of guy who wants to be better every night. We cannot have a better example as a captain.”

Comfort, then, to Clayton Keller and his family in his and their time of mourning. Hockey guys — the ones like Keller — are a special breed.