Mehrdad Zibanejad, the father of Rangers No. 1 center Mika Zibanejad, cannot fathom the fact that his son has played in more than 700 NHL games.
The elder Zibanejad didn’t even know about hockey when he was raising Mika in Stockholm, Sweden. He was a volleyball and a soccer guy, having competed for Iran’s and Sweden’s national volleyball teams, as well as at a high level for soccer. Mika’s older half-brother, Monir Kalgoum, however, was a center who went on to play professionally for several lower-tier European hockey leagues. Monir is the one who got Mika into hockey.
“I remember when he was a kid I started to let him play tennis, he had his own coach,” Mehrdad said. “And one day he said, ‘Please tell my dad, I don’t want to play with that old man all the time. I want to go play hockey.’ Growing up, every time they picked up his brother or went to play the game, he watched and he loved it. Just running between the seats and playing the game. So that’s [when I said], ‘I give up.
Mehrdad said he moved to the United States because Mika was drafted into the NHL by the Senators in 2011. “Tried to be close and support him,” said Mehrdad, who had the honor of reading the lineup card before the game Thursday night in Detroit, which was Mika’s 700th game. “Not tell him what he has to do, but just know that I am there and [if] this is happening, that I’ll try and help you.”
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