Michigan native makes NHL debut with New York Islanders

ELMONT, NEW YORK — In a New York Islanders uniform, under blue and orange spotlights and to the screams of his family and the roar of the crowd, Travis Mitchell skated on to the ice and into a lifelong dream—his debut as a player in the National Hockey League.

“It was an unbelievable moment,” Mitchell, a South Lyon native, said Wednesday, less than a week after making it to hockey’s biggest stage and the night after playing defense in his third game. “You get to take that lap by yourself and having my mom and dad in the crowd meant so much… All the hours, the time, the money, the sacrifice from your parents to get me where I needed to go. Without them, none of that would have happened. You have to have belief in yourself but also belief from your supporting cast.”

Jeff Mitchell said it was “surreal” to see his son’s dream of playing professionally in the NHL come true, perhaps a recurring dream for a father who reached that goal himself years before, playing briefly as a forward with the Dallas Stars.

Mom Jodi Mitchell agreed.

“It was a proud parent moment for Jeff and I to see him put in the hard work and dedication over the years to reach this and it was an amazing moment to be there for him,” Jodi said.

Travis Mitchell has always known the odds of making it as a professional athlete are low.

“It’s less than 1%. Something like one in 4,000 kids who play organized hockey will end up in the NHL,” he said. “It’s pretty crazy to think I was able to be one of those people.”

Jeff and Jodi, who was a division 1 swimmer at Eastern Michigan University, raised Travis and his siblings Trevor and Emily, on the ice.

Travis was in skates by the time he was 2-years-old and “throwing a fit” because he didn’t want to wear a helmet, but his love for the game quickly grew. So did his skill as he learned the fundamentals at Suburban Ice in Farmington Hills, then played travel hockey with the Novi IceCats, before moving on to the HoneyBaked Hockey Club.

Mitchell recalls meeting with a school counselor in South Lyon in his early teens.

“Their job is to guide you to what you want your life to be and what you want to be when you grow up,” he said. “At that age, I wanted to be a pro hockey player. It’s all I wanted to do, I had no intention of anything else and she was like, ‘Think of something more achievable.’”

But his heart was set on the NHL and the advice that was counter to what he wanted just made him more determined than ever. That would mean another big step, away from South Lyon and his family.

At just 16-years-old, Mitchell would leave home to play for the Muskegon Lumberjacks in the United States Hockey League.

“It was hard to let him go,” Jodi Mitchell said, recalling that Jeff had told her it was a must for their son to play junior hockey if he was to play in college later. “It’s part of the path, but it was absolutely worth it. There were definitely a lot of facetimes, a lot of calling, to make sure he was still a part of his brother and sister growing up.”

The family also went to visit Travis often, first in Muskegon where he played for a year, and then in Nebraska after he was traded to the Omaha Lancers.

Mitchell graduated from Ralston High School in Nebraska in 2018 and was talking to NHL teams with hopes he would be drafted. He was not.

“It’s devastating when you don’t (get drafted), and some think that is the only way,” Mitchell said. “I knew if I wanted it, I would have to continue to work at it and would have to do it in a more non-traditional way.”

He took a gap year before going to play hockey for Cornell University in the Ivy League, where he earned his degree in applied economics and management with a concentration in finance and a minor in real estate.

The degree has given him a measure of comfort, “a safety valve,” he says, as he is always thinking of what comes after hockey, but also allowed him to continue giving everything he can to the game in the present. With that in mind, in his senior year of college, he signed his first contract to play in the American Hockey League, the NHL’s minor league.

His first full year with the Bridgeport Islanders was 2023-24, and he tore his pectoral tendon halfway through the season. Last year, he played a full, healthy season and got his first chance to fill in for an injured player. Mitchell traveled with the New York Islanders for nine days on a West Coast trip, but never ended up getting into a game.

He got his second call up to the NHL earlier this season when another player was expecting the arrival of his first child, but again, did not play.

Finally, the third call came and this time it was the charm—although maybe not at first for Jodi, whose facetime call with her son on his 26th birthday was rudely interrupted.

Distracted with decorating the Christmas tree, Jodi Mitchell missed the part where Travis said he had to take a call coming from the New York Islanders’ general manager.

“I said, ‘Ok, Mom, I gotta go,’” recalls Mitchell, laughing. “I had to hang up and finally I just hung up and then I get a text from her, ‘Did you just hang up on me?’”

But this time, the call up to the NHL wasn’t just a birthday wish.

Jodi and Emily Mitchell, who has committed to playing hockey for St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, had already planned to visit Travis for Thanksgiving. Now his Dad, who was scheduled to work a tournament as the general manager of the Novi Ice Arena, scrambled to make sure he would be there, too.

Joining them as well would be Travis’ girlfriend, Katie Castiello, who he met at Cornell and who lives in Washington, D.C. His brother Trevor, playing hockey for St. Norbert College in Wisconsin, would have to miss it.

Mitchell’s family still wasn’t sure he would finally make his NHL debut until Travis picked them up from the airport on Nov. 27, or Thanksgiving morning. As they got into his truck, Jodi told him their flight was rocky.

“He said, ‘I’m glad you made it, because if you didn’t, you wouldn’t see me play in my first game,’” Jodi recalled. “We went crazy in the car.”

The next day, his fans were going crazy in the stands, while Travis took the solo lap reserved for NHL players making their debut, shooting a puck into the net.

It didn’t feel real and his nerves were thrumming, but as he took to the ice to defend the Islanders against the Philadelphia Flyers, he settled in to advance pucks, block shots and played hard.

“It’s a game you have played for 20-something years, so you do what has gotten you here,” Travis said.

His family watched with pride, and did so again on Nov. 30, when the Islanders faced the Washington Capitals.

Jeff Mitchell, who played more than 500 games in the American Hockey League and seven games for the Dallas Stars, said his son did what he needed to do as a physical defenseman.

“He is the hardest working kid I know,” Jeff said. “He’s very smart, moves pucks and sees the ice well. I’m not the coach, I’m the Dad, but for his first two games, he did extremely well.”

The Islanders lost in Mitchell’s first two games, by a score of 4-3 in a shootout that went to the Flyers and 4-1 to the Capitals. But proving once again for Mitchell the third time’s the charm, he notched his first win with the Islanders, a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, on Dec. 2.

“It was a cool moment to share, with team camaraderie,” Travis said the day after the game. “I hope it is the first of many wins as a team where I can help contribute… It’s the greatest game there is, and I am lucky to live it out and play it as my career. Right now, I’m just taking it day by day and hoping I can turn this opportunity into becoming a full-time player in the NHL.”

Contact reporter Susan Bromley at sbromley@hometownlife.com.