Luke Esposito earns his Wings in Detroit

Red Wings rookie and former Brunswick prep star Luke Esposito is a detail-driven perfectionist, yet he found himself distracted during warmups of his game against the Rangers at the Traverse City NHL Prospects Tournament.

“I was looking at the jerseys,” said Esposito. “There’s a personal connection there.”

He was staring at those iconic Broadway Blueshirts — the team he was weaned on his entire childhood, as the nephew of Rangers captain and “Messiah,” Mark Messier.

Playing in front of Rangers executives Glen Sather, Chris Drury, Brian Leetch and Adam Graves was like playing in front of his extended family, only they were now the enemy. “I’ve gotten to know all those guys pretty well,” said Esposito. “Whether it was hanging around the rink with my uncle when he was playing, and then when he was working there, they’ve always been great to me, offering up all their facilities … just a top-class organization. I’m glad I got to play against them while I was up here.”

Luke had his best game of the four-game tournament against the Rangers, quarterbacking the power play, winning important faceoffs and defending deep in his own zone. The Wings prevailed, 4-1, and Esposito set up a pair of goals. “It was exciting to play against the Blueshirts,” said Esposito. “First time ever against my hometown team. I still feel like there’s something to prove when you play against the team you cheered for growing up.”

To know one Messier is to know the entire clan. Led by 81-year-old patriarch Doug Messier, the Messier extended family, including sons Mark and Paul and daughters Jennifer and Mary Kay (Luke’s mom), all homesteaded within biking distance in Hilton Head, S.C., for much of the 1990s.

“It was my house, my aunt’s house, my uncle’s house, my other uncle’s house and my grandparents house, all within a mile of each other,” said Luke. “All the cousins, there were 11 of us, from ages 30 to 12. We all got know each other really well. Instead of an extended family, it was really just one big nuclear family.”

Like his famous uncle, Luke was a hockey force in the NYC metro area, leading Brunswick prep (Greenwich, Conn.) in scoring both of his years with the Bruins, their first in the elite Division 1 Founders League. Rangers passion ran deep at Brunswick.

“My whole high school, if you were a hockey fan, you were a Rangers fan,” said Esposito. “I grew up cheering for them.

Even after my uncle retired, they were still our team.” Luke allowed himself a moment to reminisce from within the Red Wings locker room. “I’ve been to more games at the Garden (MSG) than anywhere else, so you always imagine yourself stepping onto that ice, pulling the Blueshirt over. It’s a dream of every kid to play for their hometown team.”

Grandfather Doug is the primary source for the competitive fire in the Messier clan, a fierce player from the old Western League who went on to coach several generations of players. He instantly took a keen interest in Luke. “He was the one who drove me up when I was 10 years old from Hilton Head to Connecticut, the two of us, when we moved,” said Luke. “I had hockey camp and he came with me before the rest of the family. He coached me in my high school years when we were playing Midget. He’s had an incredible influence on my career.”

After Brunswick, Luke was off to British Columbia for a gap year of seasoning before college. His future coach at Harvard, Ted Donato, made a holiday trek west to scout Esposito. Although unable to make the trip, the patriarch made his presence felt.

“It was nearly 11 p.m. in Chilliwack when the game was over,” said Donato. “That’s 2 a.m. Eastern time. Doug insisted on a phone call, wanted to know everything about Luke’s performance. Talk about commitment and involvement.”

Doug Messier was seen at the Yale Whale in New Haven when Harvard stunned Yale in the 2015 college playoffs. He and Mark Messier were like little kids piling into the Crimson locker room to celebrate with Luke.

Now young Esposito is in the next chapter of his hockey life. The beloved grandson of the man who embodies the rawboned toughness of western Canada, the nephew of hockey’s greatest leader, Luke Esposito embarks on his own professional career, his first victory gained at the expense of his hometown Rangers.