Cody Turcotte has already had multiple first-hand tales of the Stanley Cup, even as only a senior at Buffalo Grove playing for the co-op BG/H/W Stampede, which also includes players from Hersey and Wheeling.

Just consider:

• His cousin is Alfie Turcotte, whose NHL career spanned 112 regular-season games over parts of 7 seasons, mostly for the Montreal Canadiens, with a combined 17 goals and 29 assists. Plus, he appeared in 2 games for the Canadiens during the team's Stanley Cup-winning 1985-86 season — and to Cody, he's simply Uncle Alfie, mostly due to the near-30-year age-difference.

"He's taught me a lot, especially the advanced aspects of hockey," the younger Turcotte said. "He really taught me how to have fun while playing the game.

"When I go to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, in the mock Montreal Canadiens' dressing room, his name is on the Stanley Cup; that's pretty cool."

• Then there's Brett Lebda, who went from the U.S. Junior National Team to Notre Dame and then to the NHL — with a Stanley Cup-winning season in Detroit in 2008. Lebda started playing hockey in Glenview and was coached by Sylvain Turcotte, Cody's dad. The two families became, and still are, so close that Brett's parents, Nancy and Steve, of Buffalo Grove, are Cody's godparents — they are simply Uncle Steve and Aunt Nancy to Cody.

"I've learned a lot through Brett, especially the work ethic needed to get to the top and what I need to do to get better. It's been wonderful for me, to see what it's like being an NHL player," Turcotte said. "Also through Brett I learned to still have fun and do what you love."

Read the full article at the Daily Herald.