BUFFALO, N.Y. - When Tage Thompson was born, his father gave him an early start into the world of hockey.

"My wife actually picked the name," Brent Thompson says of his oldest son. "One of the meanings was the sound of one with a lethal slapshot."

Tage has been asked about his uncommon name plenty of times in his life.

"We're a hockey family," he says. "So it only makes sense that my name would have a meaning of hockey."

Brent Thompson played professionally for 15 years, and introduced Tage to hockey in the middle of his career.

"He put me on skates when he was two," he says. His father says Tage was always moving around, and excelled at multiple sports.

"Always active. To be honest, it would have been nice to watch him play baseball, because I thought he was a better baseball player," Brent adds with a chuckle. After successfully nudging his son towards a hockey career, he tried to make a few other suggestions.

"I tried to get him to play defense at a young age. He absolutely had no desire to do it. He wanted to score goals," he says. 

"He tried to get a lefty stick in my hands, too, when I was younger," Tage remembers. "I heard that he brought home a lefty stick for me. He was a lefty. I kept flipping it over and putting it as a righty."

Brent's playing and coaching career moved the family all over the country. Tage recalled various places he lived in, including Connecticut, Long Island, Alaska, Illinois and Phoenix.

"That's all he knows is the gypsy lifestyle," Brent says. "We're in one place for a couple of years, we're here for a couple of years or we're here for eight months of the year."

Regardless of where he lived, Tage always had a place to play hockey, while his family was always there to make moving less of a chore.

"It was pretty easy for me," he says. "Especially because I had my brother (Tyce) with me. We're only 19 months apart from me. We both share that same passion for hockey. You had a best friend everywhere you went.

Little brother Tyce is a freshman at Providence, whlie Tage has set career-highs with seven goals and 11 points in 51 NHL games. The young forward still asks his father for advice from time to time.

"There's always a 'hey dad, what do you think?' Or 'what can I do better? Did you watch that game?'" says Brent. "For me right now, I know when to back off. He's in the NHL, he's under a great coaching staff and great organization."

"He's played the game for 15 years, he coaches," says Tage. "He can't help but text me pointers and things I need to work on. For a couple years now, he's been pretty good now just watching as a father and I think he's really proud of what me and brother have both accomplished right now."

I asked Brent what made him most proud of Tage - ironically enough, his answer had nothing to do with hockey.

"I'm more happy about what kind of kid he is. I think he's a pretty respectful, he's an honest kid," he says. "Those are the biggest things that I'm happy or proud about. He's a pretty respectful kid."