Four years later, four years after Peterka made his NHL debut for the Buffalo Sabres, it is all coming true, all that he dreamt about, all that he hoped for, with JJ Peterka Arena set to open on June 13th to the general public. It comes just four months after NHL players — Peterka included — are set to return to the Olympics, with Germany kicking off its schedule against Denmark on Thursday at Rho Arena (3:10 p.m. ET; Peacock, CBC Gem, TSN).

It will be a small-area rink, best for 3-on-3 play, where kids can practice, where professionals can get better, where families can congregate and spend time. It will be exactly what the Peterka family had ached for on all those four-hour (each way) car trips from Munich into Czechia, with good coffee and strong Wi-Fi, an arm out and an arm up to a new generation of German hockey players.

“Our passion, since JJ is playing hockey, it’s hockey,” Dennis Peterka said. “And I told my wife, we have learned so much about hockey, about coaches, about practice, about winning, losing. We made a lot of mistakes in this way, just with JJ. Why not make something for the following generations, help them?

“Germany is not a hockey land. Germany is soccer — and you have to help all these parents if they have kids who have a passion to be a hockey player. If we help them not to make these mistakes we made, then it’s a great step for them. So that’s the passion for the future.”

* * * *

Back in 2023, Dennis and Natalie Peterka were looking for a new home.

Not a hockey rink. A home.

They found both.

They toured a property in Buchbach, Germany, less than 40 miles outside of Munich, that had a warehouse-type structure that Dennis Peterka described as a “hall” alongside. It was steps away from the house, with all the potential that they had never imagined they would find. As JJ Peterka put it, “It was an easy choice at the end of the day.”

“That was the beginning of the dream for him,” Dennis Peterka said. “So then we started.”

The project was not without its headaches.

They had just started building the interior of the rink when they got word that the roof was unstable, that it had to be removed. Once it was, the rest of the building sat through the winter exposed to the air.

“There was rain falling down in the middle of that and it was really terrible,” Dennis said. “And I told to my wife, I don’t know, it looks like we’re just destroying everything and we’re not building anything.”