\u201cIt\u2019s pretty surreal,\u201d Lombardi said. \u201cVery emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lombardi, 23, was talking on Wednesday, a day before the opener against the Philadelphia Flyers at Prudential Center (7 p.m. ET; Disney+, HULU, ESPN+), about his long journey to this moment and how his family — including siblings with unique and musically themed names — helped him get there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The forward called his younger sister, Symphony, the \u201cbackbone for everything\u201d because of the time she sacrificed accompanying him and his younger brother, Ulysses, to rinks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ulysses, 18, is pursuing his own hockey career and has become Lombardi\u2019s closest training partner. Ulysses is in his second season with Erie of the Ontario Hockey League.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy sister has sacrificed so much growing up, just coming around the rinks with us, always being there by our side,\u201d Lombardi said. \u201cShe supports both of us so much. My brother, we\u2019ve gotten so close over the last few years, going down the same path. I really believe in him. He\u2019s my best friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their unusual names reflect their parents’ love of music and mythology. Lombardi\u2019s father, Nick, played in two bands, Dropkick Me Jesus and Attomik.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth my parents love music,\u201d Lombardi said. \u201cAmadeus means to love God, so that\u2019s where my name comes from, in Latin. The Latinized version of Odysseus is Ulysses. Symphony, I believe the translation is harmonious conjunction of sounds. We all have pretty unique names.\u201d<\/p>\n
His story to get to the NHL, however, is not unique. It\u2019s one of a player overcoming odds and sticking with the dream to eventually make it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lombardi\u2019s journey included four seasons with Grand Rapids, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings. He had 109 points (40 goals, 69 assists) in 163 regular-season games, including 42 points (16 goals, 26 assists) in 47 games last season.<\/p>\n
The Devils acquired him in a trade with the Red Wings on June 25 for a fourth-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, giving Lombardi the opportunity he had been chasing since the Red Wings selected him in the fourth round (No. 113) of the 2022 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n
When asked if he expected to reach the NHL by now, Lombardi said, \u201cI think yes and no. After a couple years, maybe you\u2019ll crack it. But the reality is there\u2019s so many good players in the world, so many good players in the NHL. It really takes time to fully polish your game and be ready to take that next step.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wait tested Lombardi, but it also drove him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it felt like I was so close but so far,\u201d he said. \u201cGoing into the summer, I was pretty motivated. I was working, not out of anger, but I was very motivated.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce the trade happened, once I talked to (Devils general manager Sunny Mehta), the staff, (coach) Sheldon (Keefe), all these guys, it went from training to prove people wrong to training to prove people right. These guys took a bet on me. These guys are willing to give me an opportunity. I\u2019m going to make sure they look really good for betting on me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s pretty surreal,\u201d Lombardi said. \u201cVery emotional.\u201d Lombardi, 23, was talking on Wednesday, a day before the opener…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-915990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}