Living With Legends: Six Surprising NHL Roommate Stories

Making the NHL as a teenager sounds like every hockey player's dream, that’s until you realize you're leaving home to enter one of the most competitive, physical, and often violent sports leagues on the planet. 

While this may sound daunting to some, the NHL is very much accustomed to the trials and tribulations that often see rookies moving in with fellow teammates, and in some cases club legends. In doing so, we reveal the strangest, funniest, and sometimes career-shaping living arrangements that helped turn aspiring hockey players into bona fide NHL legends.

Superstar Successors - When No. 1 Picks Move In With Hall of Famers

Of course, rookies sharing living accommodations with veteran players is a fairly common practice; but it's rare that a franchise-defining draft pick has the privilege of sharing a home with a club legend, yet it’s happened twice, albeit decades apart. 

Sidney Crosby and Mario Lemieux 

When Sidney Crosby joined the Pittsburgh Penguins as an 18-year-old in 2005, he wasn't just the first overall pick; he was widely viewed as hockey's next superstar who, in an ironic twist of fate, ended up living under the same roof as Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh's greatest ever player. 

Forging a bond unlike any other, Crosby was wholeheartedly absorbed into the Lemieux family and ended up living with them for five years before he moved into his own home in 2010 after becoming Penguins captain and leading them to Stanley Cup victory in 2009 at just 21 years old.

Macklin Celebrini and Joe Thornton 

Remarkably, the San Jose Sharks replicated the Crosby-Lemieux arrangement in 2024 when the first overall pick Macklin Celebrini moved into the home of Joe Thornton - a Sharks player who knew better than most what it meant to enter the NHL as a teenage No. 1 draft pick.

Over the two years of living with Thornton, Celebrini learned what it took to thrive when the spotlight fell on a budding teenage superstar before eventually moving out to live with fellow teenage prodigy Will Smith, who, between them, are currently rebuilding the San Jose franchise back into Stanley Cup contention.

Young NHL Stars Who Found a Second Home With NHL Elder Statesmen

While billet family setups are integral in the junior hockey leagues, in the NHL, young stars are often forced to find other means of accommodation. Nevertheless, sometimes, if they’re lucky enough, they’ll get to pair up with a true icon of the game and develop an authentic family-like bond that last long after they move out, as was the case in these two instances.

Jack Eichel and Matt Moulson (2015–2016)

Having shared a guesthouse with a young John Tavares earlier in his career, Matt Moulson was very much accustomed to softening the blow for prestigious talents entering the league. He replicated this again when Jack Eichel joined the Buffalo Sabres as the number two pick in the 2015 NHL Draft.

As a result, Moulson embarked on a mission to shelter Eichel from the distractions of home life, allowing the teenager to focus on his hockey rather than doing chores at home. Because of this, the Stanley Cup winner now often jokes that he hardly did anything around the house at the time, as everything was always done for him by Moulson.

Wyatt Johnston and Joe Pavelski (2022–2024)

Wyatt Johnston had a rather different experience after joining the Dallas Stars as a 19-year-old and moving in with veteran Joe Pavelski and his family.

Despite being tasked with regularly helping with the groceries and washing the dishes, not only did Johnston and Pavelski develop a super close bond from the experience, but more importantly, the youngster saw firsthand how the decorated pro took care of his body, which helped sustain his 18-season NHL career.

When Veteran Mentors Turn Into Lifelong Connections

For sure, as we've already witnessed, there have been several instances over the years where a veteran's spare room became the solution for a rookie's housing woes, but in some cases these arrangements can also spark a genuine bond between two pros decades after the event.

Patrice Bergeron and Martin Lapointe 

The remarkable story of Patrice Bergeron and Martin Lapointe's mentorship came to the fore when the 18-year-old rookie unexpectedly made the Boston Bruins roster in 2003. In doing so, not only did he face the tough demands of joining the NHL, but, only speaking a small amount of English, it required his teammate and fellow Quebec native Martin Lapointe to step in to help. 

Having spent his formative years living with Lapointe, Bergeron later went on to captain Boston himself, stating that his own passage into fatherhood gave him a deeper appreciation of Lapointe's generosity and credits him as one of his major early influences that shaped his NHL career.

Sean Couturier and Daniel Brière 

Yet another fabled NHL stewardship came about after Philadelphia drafted 18-year-old Sean Couturier and gave him a spot on the Flyers roster in 2011. This forced GM at the time Paul Holmgren to seek out a solution for the youngster's new living arrangements, with the choices being to move Couturier in with a stranger… or live with club legend Daniel Brière.

Not surprisingly, Couturier opted to live with Brière, who himself had previously looked after future NHL All-Star Game MVP Claude Giroux. To this day, more than a decade later, Couturier still speaks of Brière as a true father figure, whose initial housing arrangement fix became one of the longest-lasting relationships of his NHL career.

The Off-Ice Assists That Helped Define Superstar Players' Careers

As these epic acts of generosity reveal, there's more to the NHL than just the performances on the ice. Behind every legend is a fascinating backstory of how they achieved greatness, with some being more unconventional than others. 

From creating endless original family-like anecdotes to teaching elite rookies how to navigate entering the NHL, it just goes to show that the road to NHL greatness sometimes starts with the simple act of a veteran opening up their home to the next generational talent coming through.