Marc Gatcomb's parents attending their second NHL debut for the NY Islanders at UBS Arena

When Marc Gatcomb went to sleep last night, he likely didn’t expect to be making his NHL debut the following day. But with JG Pageau battling an illness and unable to play tonight, the 25-year-old received the call and began making the trip from Bridgeport to Long Island for his first taste of NHL action.

A former UCONN Husky, Gatcomb signed a one-year entry-level contract with the NY Islanders over the summer after playing parts of the last three seasons on an AHL contract with the Vancouver Canucks AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks.

Marc Gatcomb's parent are NHL debut professionals

A native of Massachusetts, once given the heads up that he’d be making his NHL debut later that night, Gatcomb was able to get in touch with his parents who luckily live close enough to travel to Long Island to see their son’s first taste of NHL action.

But this wasn’t the Gatcomb’s first NHL debut at UBS Arena.

“Our son’s roommate [at UCONN] Ruslan Iskhakov had his first rookie skate, and called us and we came down,” Katie, Marc’s mother, told Shannon Hogan during the first period. “So it’s just amazing.”

Iskhakov, a former second-round pick of the Islanders, made his NHL debut in the final game of the 2023-24 regular season against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Gatcomb and Iskhakov spent two seasons at UCONN from 2018- 2020 together before Iskhakov elected to continue to grow his game in Finland rather than at the NCAA ranks.

Iskhakov left the Islanders after last season to play in his native Russia and is now part of the CSKA organization.