NORFOLK, VA (WTKR)- Hockey has taken Pavel Padakin all around the world.
During his AHL days with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the sport brought him to Norfolk before the Admirals were even on his radar.
"Nine years ago, I visited Norfolk," he recalled. "I remember that huge, beautiful rink and that's in my memory, because that's a huge rink that I said 'hey, this is NHL kind of rink.'"
Lehigh Valley was one of the many teams he would call his own during his career. From Fairbanks, Alaska, to Canada, to Russia to his native Ukraine, he worked hard to turn his passion into a profession and created a good life for himself, his wife and their young son.
But it's a life that would be turned upside down in the blink of an eye.
"Everything you're dreaming to have by 50, you have at 28," Padakin noted. "In one second, in one day at 5:00 in the morning on the 24th of February, you're just like losing everything."
The hockey player and his family were at their home in Kherson, Ukraine, when chaos awoke them.
"We're waking up in the morning, and we're hearing the helicopters," he recalled. "We had the airport not far away from us, international airport. We're hearing missiles, bombs were flying, I'm opening my window and I see everything blowing up."
Kherson was one of the first cities under attack in Russia's invasion of the country. Padakin and his family quickly decided to evacuate, but the highways were blocked by the military and fighting was taking place, so they used the cover of nightfall and forest to make their escape.
"We're just following them (friends) during the night, no lights," remembered Padakin. "It was crazy because I don't worry about really myself, but when you have, at this time, a three year old son, two and a half, that's kind of crazy, and what can you get in the car? A couple toys, a couple suitcases. We left our house, closed it and just left."
Russian forces occupied Kherson for about eight months before Ukraine liberated the city and regained control, but attacks continue today and many places that once held joyful memories are now reduced to rubble. That includes the Padakins' home, which was destroyed in the war.
"Our house, a little over seven or eight months ago, got hit and everything there destroyed fully," he said. "The house that I was working for, building, just got fully destroyed."
Eventually, the family decided that its best option was to relocate to the United States. Pavel's agent put him in touch with the Norfolk Admirals this past summer and the forward spoke to head coach and general manager Jeff Carr. It would not take long for him to sign a contract, creating a life-changing moment for himself, along with his wife and son.
"When I landed in Washington, DC, I had a car that they helped me pack all my stuff in, drove me right to my house," Padakin said of the Admirals. "I came to the house and it's like three minutes away from the ocean. The next day, Weston (DeWitt) said here's the school for my son, the school bus came for my son. My son was like 'Oh my God, I saw the school buses only in the cartoons.'"
"He's alive, right?," Carr added. "I don't mean to try to be somber, but what's going on over there I obviously don't know, but you see in the news and what he's shared, so I think being alive with his family and playing the game of hockey brings him a ton of joy."
The Padakins are settling in Virginia Beach, but a half-world away, the destruction continues in their homeland. Pavel's in-laws still live in Kherson and describe to him the air raids, rockets and bombs dropped from drones on a daily basis.
"They're putting bombs there and, just for fun, going around the city and just dropping those," he explained. "Her dad and mom, they cannot go from the house. In the evening, they cannot turn on the lights because if you turn on the light it's like a target."
"In parts it's a lot worse than people could ever imagine," added Carr. "I know his house obviously got blown up with, I think, two separate bombs, so just living that, I can't imagine. I can't put myself in it."
Will Pavel ever return to Ukraine? Will his son, now five years old, ever see his home country first hand? The 30-year old hockey journeyman doesn't know and says it will be decades before he would even consider going back, but the family has rebuilt its life stateside, making Hampton Roads home.
"In the United States, it's always safe," Padakin pointed out. "I can let my son go play on the streets. I can let my son go to school and don't think it will be an air-emergency signal and [he'll] need to run in the basement."
It's a horror from which he can shield his child, and professionally, he's returned to that arena that left such a lasting impression on him some nine years ago.
"We're just glad he's on our team and separating the life stuff to getting back to hockey," Carr noted. "I think it's really given him a lot of oxygen for him and his family."
"We love playing here," added Padakin. "I love being in the locker room. Every person in the organization wants to help, but on the other hand, here I'm working, I'm helping the [Norfolk Admirals], I'm in this organization."
Through it all, Pavel has chosen happiness. Sure, there are hard days, the anger, the fear for family members still in Ukraine, but he relies on the power of positivity to get him through, both on and off the ice.
"Why do I need to be sad?," he said. "You need to move forward and start your new life from the start. It's a little hard, but if you're always thinking about how bad everything [is], then it will be bad. If you think positive, everything will be great."
While Pavel's in-laws remain in Kherson, other members of his family, including his parents, live in Kiev, which he says is not as dangerous with it being the protected capital city in the western part of the country.
You can catch Pavel Padakin all season with the Admirals at the Scope.
