Like son, like father: Meet 55-year-old Robert Burakovsky, the NHL Dad who can’t quit the Swedish hockey circuit

Andre Burakovsky has learned to be skeptical whenever his dad, Robert, says he’s done playing hockey. A Swedish TV station once visited Robert in Switzerland for an interview, Andre remembers, and the older Burakovsky assured the reporter he was in his last season.

That was more than a decade ago.

“He just has too much love for the game,” said Andre, a 26-year-old Colorado Avalanche forward.

In the latest chapter of a novel-length career, Robert spent part of the 2021-22 season with IK Pantern, a fifth-tier Swedish club in Malmö, where he resides. The former NHL player scored 11 points in six games — all at 54 years old (now 55).

Before the fall, Robert hadn’t been on the ice for around two years but, wanting to prepare for a charity exhibition game, he asked IK Pantern’s coach if he could skate with the team, just to get into shape. The club obliged, and Robert was surprised at how good he felt on the ice. So when IK Pantern had a series of injuries, he told the coach he could fill in as needed.

Then on Oct. 14, just over a month shy of his 55th birthday, sporting a graying beard, Robert pulled on a black IK Pantern jersey with a growling panther as its crest. He took the ice and, by the end of the night, he had three assists, one of which came on a goal by Sebastian Mollden, his part-time defense partner and full-time son-in-law. IK Pantern, a first-place team, beat Åstorp 13-1.

“I always say it doesn’t matter how old you are or how young you are. If you can help the team, that’s good,” said Robert, who played 23 games with the 1993-94 Ottawa Senators. There, he was teammates with goalie Craig Billington, now an assistant general manager with the Avalanche.

Having won a Swedish championship with the Malmö Redhawks in 1992, Robert is a known figure in his area’s hockey community. After the first game in his latest comeback, Åstorp coaches and trainers found him in the locker room to offer congratulations. They didn’t know he could still play at that level.

“I was a little worried (when they came in),” Robert says. “Maybe they were just coming in to say, ‘This is embarrassing,’ but actually it was the other way. I was proud of it.”

When Andre first learned of his dad’s return to the ice, he wasn’t thrilled. He knows his dad doesn’t have the physical abilities of his younger days; he switched from forward to defense so he wouldn’t have to skate as much. In the offseason, he gets sore when playing tennis with Andre. His back hurts. At some point, Andre believes, his dad needs to settle down and let his playing days go.

Well, Robert didn’t believe it was the time for that.

In his second game with IK Pantern, Burakovsky jumped in the rush on a two-on-one and buried a wrist shot for his first goal of the year. He potted another tally two games later, giving him as many goals on the season as he had in the NHL nearly three decades earlier.

“I always was a good goal scorer, but also I can read the game pretty well,” said Robert, who has appeared in games for Swedish clubs in five of the past 11 seasons. “The brain really (wanted my body) to go faster, but the hip and the groin, they said no.”

Based on skaters who have registered games on Elite Prospects this season.

Back when Robert played at a higher level, he competed in pro leagues across Europe. Though Andre represents Sweden internationally, he was born in Austria and also lived in Germany and Switzerland before going to Malmö when he was approximately 10 years old. Though moving and language barriers posed challenges to young Andre, he views the stretch as a fun time in his life, and he was able to learn the game from his dad and grandfather, who coached in Sweden.

“I think it was great when I was younger because my dad was extremely, extremely hard on me,” Andre says. “He would lose his mind if I would go out in practice and just not try and have fun and fool around.”

Andre remembers that, when he was around 5, he didn’t try his hardest in one game. Afterward, his dad broke his hockey sticks in the driveway. Poor effort was unacceptable.

“He always pushed me to be better,” says Andre, who is enjoying a strong season with 29 points in 32 games after scoring a goal and an assist in Friday’s 4-3 shootout win over the Coyotes. His 0.91 points per game is a career-high.

Andre still has years of hockey ahead of him — he’s set for a big payday this offseason as an unrestricted free agent — but he can’t see himself following his dad’s footsteps and playing until his mid-50s. By that age, he says, you’ll find him on the golf course.

Andre Burakovsky (Isaiah J. Downing / USA Today)

Andre is close with his dad — “We are not only father and son, we are like best friends,” Robert says — and they talk multiple times a week. They love golfing together in the offseason, and Robert wakes up in the middle of the night in Sweden to tune into Avalanche games.

This season has featured an occasional father-son role reversal. When the two talked while Robert was playing for IK Pantern, Andre would ask how his games were going.

“I (was) expecting at least two (points) out of him every night,” Andre said.

Robert is the eighth-oldest skater who appeared in a game recorded on Elite Prospects this season, and he also played in a reunion exhibition for Malmö’s 1992 championship team. His return to the ice was fleeting, though. He visited Andre in Denver from Nov. 21 to Dec. 20 and got shoulder surgery shortly after returning to Sweden. He hopes to recover by June so he can golf with his son this offseason.

His hockey days are over. That’s what he says, at least. Andre isn’t so sure.

(Top photo courtesy of Ishockeyklubben Pantern Facebook page)