![\"Bobby](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/STP-Z-BRINK-0309-01_1104174659.jpg\")
Bobby Brink, #10 of the Philadelphia Flyers, celebrates his goal during the first period against the Carolina Hurricanes at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Dec. 13, 2025 in Philadelphia. (Emilee Chinn\/Getty Images)<\/p>\nWith his son playing the first 201 games of his NHL career for the Philadelphia Flyers, this was going to be a big week for Andy Brink and family one way or another.<\/p>\n
Bobby Brink, #10 of the Philadelphia Flyers, celebrates his goal during the first period against the Carolina Hurricanes at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Dec. 13, 2025 in Philadelphia. (Emilee Chinn\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the Flyers make their lone visit to St. Paul this season, and the Brink family of Minnetonka had already secured a few dozen tickets at Grand Casino Arena to watch son Bobby skate back in his home state.<\/p>\n
But in the past week, there has been a notable change of circumstances.\u00a0Last Friday in the early hours of NHL trade deadline day, Bobby, 24, was traded to the Minnesota Wild and on Tuesday scored his first goal for the team in a 5-0 blowout of the Utah Mammoth.<\/p>\n
The Brink family contingent wasn\u2019t as large as the crew of roughly 30 who will watch Bobby face his old team on Thursday, but for Brink\u2019s parents, Andy and Holly, and his two brothers it was an unforgettable moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was sitting with my middle boy, Joe, and he turned to me and said, \u2018This is one of the best moments of my life,\u2019 \u201d Andy Brink said late Tuesday after getting home from Bobby\u2019s home-state debut with the Wild. \u201cThat was a bold statement, but it\u2019s cool in so many ways \u2014 growing up here, going to so many games and always being fans of the Wild.\u201d<\/p>\n
Twin Cities hockey fans of a certain age have spent plenty of time watching a member of the Brink family skate, shoot and score. After a run as a golf and hockey standout at Bemidji High School, Andy, 52, spent four years playing for the Gophers in the early 1990s, skating in the NCAA Frozen Four twice.<\/p>\n
After winning the state prep golf title for Bemidji in 1992, and winning the Minnesota State Open in 1996, Andy turned professional as a golfer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spent three years trying to play. My wife and I moved to Southern California for the winters, and I traveled all through the Midwest,\u201d he said. \u201cI just wasn\u2019t good enough to keep playing. After doing it for three years and barely making any money, we were married pretty young, my wife said, \u2018Let\u2019s move on with our life.\u2019 It was the right move.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back in Minnesota, Brink says hockey took over their lives \u2014 coaching, training, running camps and eventually teaming up with another former Gophers standout, Dave Snuggerud, to start Breakaway Academy.<\/p>\n
Andy and Holly met in fifth grade with family roots in Bemidji and even further north, in Baudette, where they still spend a part of their summers. When they began a family, hockey was a theme, as well. The three Brink boys are all named after legends from the NHL\u2019s \u201cOriginal Six\u201d era.<\/p>\n
The newest member of the Wild is named Bobby Orr Brink, after the legendary Boston Bruins defensemen. Middle son Joe is legally Joseph Henri Brink, after Joseph Henri Maurice Richard, forever known as \u201cthe Rocket\u201d to Montreal Canadiens fans. The family\u2019s youngest son is Henri Richard Brink, named after Maurice\u2019s younger brother, known to Habs fans as \u201cthe Pocket Rocket.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve caught some flack about that over the years, but I was such a huge Montreal Canadiens fan growing up that I just was into that,\u201d Andy said.<\/p>\n
Bobby\u2019s home debut for the Wild was a rollercoaster of emotions for the family. Playing wing on the third line, he left the game for a time in the first period after going hard into the boards face first. He returned apparently no worse for wear and scored in the third period to put Minnesota up 3-0. Having watched his son play in downtown St. Paul for Minnetonka High School in 2018, for the University of Denver in 2021 and for the Flyers, this brought back memories of not of on-ice exploits, but times watching from the seats.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a parent, you always hear those stories where the dad turns to the child and says, \u2018Hey, you could be out there someday,\u2019 \u201d Andy Brink said. \u201cThat\u2019s one of those things I never turned to my kids and said, but maybe you let your brain go there a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family will be back again on Thursday for a night Bobby acknowledged will be different as he faces the team he was playing for less than a week ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely a little emotional, probably, but it probably won\u2019t be the last time I\u2019ll play them,\u201d Bobby said after Tuesday\u2019s win. \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of good buddies over there, and that organization treated me great for three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the new organization employing the oldest Brink boy, general manager Bill Guerin made it clear that friends and family buy their own tickets when they come to the rink. Andy said they got lots of freebies from friends for the Utah game, but that\u2019s not the case with the Flyers visiting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m spending some money Thursday night,\u201d Andy said with a chuckle. \u201cThat one\u2019s hitting the wallet a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
A small price to pay to watch every Minnesota hockey dad\u2019s dream come true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With his son playing the first 201 games of his NHL career for the Philadelphia Flyers, this was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[11180,5,161,38,5280,4,43,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-498410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-gophers-mens-hockey","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-wild","12":"tag-minnesotawild","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116211678505663637","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}