Boston Bruins: Fathers and Sons Who Have Played for the Organization

Already this offseason, the Boston Bruins have traded for Chris Bourque, the son of the former franchise face who needs no introduction. And while there is no need for fans to get their hopes up, if Boston wins the free-agency footrace to nab Zach Parise, it would mean bringing the 27-year-old to the same franchise that gave his father, J.P. Parise, his professional start.

Seems like there could be no better Father’s Day than this year’s to take a glance back at the handful of fathers and sons who have both seen action in Boston—or at least the Bruins' farm system. The five known combinations with that distinction are presented as follows in chronological order.

Harvey Bennett Sr. and Bill Bennett

The elder Bennett played 25 games in the Bruins net as a professional rookie during the 1944-45 season, but he spent the next 14 years entirely in the minors. In that time, spent largely with the Providence Reds of the AHL, he started and raised his family in nearby Cranston.

Each of his five sons would play professional hockey, including winger Bill Bennett, who saw action in seven games with the Bruins in 1978-79.

Albert G. DeMarco and Albert T. DeMarco

The junior DeMarco was born in Cleveland while his late father was playing for the AHL’s Barons. Perhaps not knowing it at the time, the senior DeMarco had already seen the best of his playing days, as that 1948-49 season was the second of five straight spent in the minors before retirement.

But within his NHL days, the elder DeMarco played six regular season and nine playoff games for the Bruins.

His son would ultimately play 344 NHL games and 47 in the World Hockey Association, finishing his career with a three-game stint in Boston.

Tommy Williams and Bobby Williams

Tommy Williams was somewhat of an American trailblazer, joining the Bruins a year after winning gold for Team USA at the 1960 Olympics. He would ultimately spend the majority of his professional career in Boston, starting with eight seasons with the Bruins before transferring to the North Stars in his native Minnesota and later joining the WHA’s New England Whalers.

Sadly, the Williams bloodline was laden with tragedy after the patriarch’s playing days were over. Bobby Williams was only 23 and was looking to join the Maine Mariners, Boston’s AHL affiliate at the time, when he succumbed to asthma in the summer of 1987.

His father would meet an untimely death himself at age 51 in 1992. But the tandem still had time to cement their memories in the Spoked-B family.

Ken Hodge and Ken Hodge Jr.

Ken Hodge’s son and namesake was a year old when the family moved from Chicago to Boston at the start of the 1967 season. Hodge would prove to be a key cog in the core that immediately brought the Bruins back into the playoff picture and soon delivered a pair of Stanley Cups in 1970 and 1972.

The elder Hodge swapped uniforms again in 1976, transferring to the New York Rangers. But his son proved a Massachusetts mainstay through his three years at Boston College in the mid-1980s.

After three seasons in the North Stars system, Hodge Jr. came home once more and got his breakthrough with the Bruins, seeing action in 112 games over a span of two seasons in Boston.

Ron Grahame and John Grahame

The elder Grahame went a solid 26-6-7 in 40 starts during the 1977-78 season, his first NHL campaign after four years in the WHA. Although, his Boston tenure would meet an abrupt end that summer, as he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for the eighth overall draft pick.

As it happened, the Bruins used that pick to select Ray Bourque. And by Bourque’s 21st and final season with the Black and Gold, there was a roster opening for John Grahame, made possible by No. 1 stopper Byron Dafoe’s October-long holdout.

The younger Grahame was drafted by Boston out of Lake Superior State in 1994 and spent each of his first two professional seasons exclusively in Providence, backstopping the P-Bruins’ record-setting Calder Cup campaign in 1999. By the time he was traded to Tampa Bay in 2003, he had played 76 games for the NHL Bruins, winning 29 decisions.