Kraken-Jets Game A Family Affair For Dad Dave Lowry, Son Adam Lowry

It's not unusual for a dad and his son to root for different teams.

It is unusual when one is an NHL assistant coach, and the other is the captain of an NHL team.

That dynamic will play out for the second time this week, as the Seattle Kraken host the Winnipeg Jets Friday at Climate Pledge Arena.

Behind the Seattle bench, as usual, will be assistant coach Dave Lowry. Prior to taking up coaching, Dave played 1,084 games with five NHL teams. While playing for the St. Louis Blues in 1993, he welcomed into the world a son, Adam Lowry.

Adam, now all grown - and, at 6-foot-5, five inches taller than his dad - has played all 10 of his NHL seasons for the team which drafted him, the Winnipeg Jets. He'll be the guy on the visitors bench wearing the "C" as team captain.

Father got the better of son on Tuesday in Manitoba, as the Kraken rallied for a 4-3 victory. Though, son did cause dad some heartburn by scoring to tie the game with nine seconds left in the 2nd period.

“The big thing is you’re proud of not necessarily the player, but the person he’s become," Dave Lowry said about his son to the Winnipeg Free Press . "He’s always been like that. He’s always been a humble guy, and he’s always taken a lot of pride in being a leader.”

Dave makes sure wife Elaine gets much of the credit for that. “She did a really good job of core values and really gave him a solid foundation.”

Adam spent parts of two seasons honing his craft in the AHL, before finding his place with the Jets. "He was learning to become a third-line checking center. When he came to the NHL that’s the role he was put in, and that’s the role today that, No. 1 he takes a lot of pride in and, No. 2, I think he really excels in that role.”

Following in his dad's footsteps, playing the same position in the same way. Dave Lowry, never a prolific scorer, was described by FlamesNation.ca as a "smart, physical two-way center." He did erupt for 10 goals in the 1996 playoffs, leading the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final.

There is such a thing as too much togetherness. Father and son found that out when Dave Lowry joined the Jets as an assistant coach in 2020. Adam Lowry was already in his sixth season.

The relationship got trickier when dad was named interim Jets coach midway through the 2021-22 season. “If you stand up and say something," Dave recalls, "there’s always the question of, is it (the coach) saying it, or (the father).”

That's part of the reason Dave Lowry accepted a position on Dave Hakstol's Kraken staff in the summer of 2022.