IRVING, Texas — For Seth Jones, there was no other place he wanted to spend his day with the Stanley Cup than at his local rink in the Dallas area.
The 30-year-old defenseman capped his 12th NHL season by winning his first Stanley Cup championship with the Florida Panthers after being acquired in a trade from the Chicago Blackhawks on March 1.
“My family is here. This is where I call home in the summertime when I’m not in Florida. I skate here, do a lot of things around this area. This is the place I wanted to come back to,” Jones said. “I’ll take [the Stanley Cup] to the golf course, I’ll do a little party with some friends and family tonight. The best part about winning the Cup is getting to share it with the people that care about you and have been with you through that process of getting to where you are.”
Jones spent nearly two hours on Thursday at the Children’s Health StarCenter Valley Ranch, a community rink in the Dallas area, taking pictures with youth hockey players and their parents, signing jerseys, Crocs, sneakers, player cards, pucks, and even filming a TikTok with a Miss Texas pageant winner who plays on one of the girls teams at the rink.
“I spent a lot of time here for a lot of different coaches, lot of different teams,” Jones said. “Without the development of Texas youth hockey and the growth that we’ve seen over the last 10, 15 years, I know I wouldn’t be standing here today. I wanted to give back, show the kids here that just because it’s not a huge hockey market, things are still possible. You can still make the NHL.”