On Sunday morning, defenseman Marc Del Gaizo received the call to join the Nashville Predators roster. The journey to play in the NHL is a long one figuratively, but it also turned out to be a long journey for Del Gaizo literally. The 24-year-old was in San Diego with the Milwaukee Admirals in the middle of a four game road trip and had to make his way to Tennessee. It was a full day of travel from California with a few logistical snags that saw him arrive in Nashville around 1:00 AM Monday morning, but Del Gaizo was on the ice for practice at 10:30 AM ready to go.

A long day of travel is well worth it to get back to Nashville for Del Gaizo who made his NHL debut on Nov. 4, 2023 against the Edmonton Oilers.

Getting the call on the road can put an interesting spin on an already quick moving process.

“I had a bunch of clothes because we had a pretty long road trip down in San Diego and they’re heading to Colorado now. It wasn’t too bad.”

The process of a call up can happen in a number of different ways, but typically the player receives the call from Nashville’s Director of Player Development and Milwaukee Admirals GM Scott Nichol.

Luke Evangelista remembers getting “the call” from Nichol in late February 2023.

“We had a day off in Milwaukee and it was just about 11:00 am,” Evangelista shared. “I had just woken up and was chilling in bed on my phone and ‘Scott Nichol’ came up.”

While that phone call marked a huge moment in Evangelista’s career, it wasn’t completely out of the blue for the young forward.

“I was following along with the Preds. I’d seen guys were getting hurt, trades were happening, they were short on players. I think they had played with ten forwards in Arizona the night before so I was kind of keeping an eye on it,” Evangelista said.

“I saw Scooter [Scott Nichols] call me and I was like ‘Oh boy, this is probably it’.”

“He said I was going to be making my debut against Sidney Crosby and the Penguins,” Evangelista said. “I hung up and called my parents right away and told them the news and they booked their flights.”

One of the uncertainties about a call up is the duration. Evangelista was initially supposed to be with the Predators for a game or two but ended up played the remaining 24 games with Nashville that season.

“I just packed a little carry on bag. I didn’t know how long I was going to be sticking around, so I packed a carry on bag and had a flight later that afternoon,” Evangelista said.

That quick packing made the rest of the season a bit tricky.

“I don’t know if anyone noticed, but I actually wore the same suit like 24 games in a row,” Evangelista said laughing.

“Like I said, I didn’t know how long I was going to be around. I just packed one carry on, so my clothes supply was pretty limited. I was just kind of recycling through stuff.”

Forward Mark Jankowski has been through the call up process a number of times in his career but earlier this season was one of the more unique situations he’s experienced.

“Earlier this year was probably the weirdest one where I played the first period down there [for Milwaukee] and then the coach pulled me after the first and then I got called up right there,” Jankowski said.

“You gotta rush to pack whatever you can and then head over to the airport,” Jankowski said. “They want to get you in as soon as possible.”

While the goal is to get with the team as soon as possible, the airlines don’t always cooperate. When defenseman Spencer Stastney was called up to make his NHL debut in early April of 2023, his trip to Nashville became a modern day take on the Steve Martin and John Candy classic Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. A simple plan to fly from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport to Nashville turned into a canceled flight, an hours long Uber ride, delayed and canceled flights and a shelter in place at O’Hare, a lost bag, an overnight stay in Chicago, and a quick change into his pants, gloves, and helmet from training camp to take the ice at Bridgestone Arena in his NHL debut against the St. Louis Blues.

Once the chaos of the call up is over and the players arrive in Nashville, they settle into a familiar routine of hockey.

“You fly here, you meet the team whether it’s on the road or at home, and then you go to the rink and it’s business like usual after that,” Jankowski said.

Once the on ice work and team meetings wrap up, the player heads to a hotel where he stays during his time with the team. Hotel living is something hockey players are used to, and in Nashville the players who have been called up usually stay at the same hotel where they lived during training camp so there’s an extra level of familiarity.

There is one small adaptation a player has to make when living out of a hotel during a call up.

“The biggest thing is probably just cooking meals,” Jankowski said. “They do a really good job here of giving us breakfast and lunch every day, which is awesome, so you really only have to worry about dinner.”

“I’m someone who, when I’m back home or in my apartment, I like to cook a lot so that’s probably the biggest adjustment,” Jankowski said.

He makes do by visiting the good Italian restaurants or steak houses in Nashville. The team provides the players with rental cars to get around town while they’re here.

The work when a new player comes up from Milwaukee extends to everyone in the Predators’ locker room. Veterans on the team take the job of welcoming and helping their newest teammates seriously, and the time spent together as a large group at training camp helps with that process.

“A lot of those guys you see at training camp,” captain Roman Josi said.

“They get acclimated at training camp and know most of the guys, but I think obviously first you want to tell them congrats…and just help them feel as welcome as possible.”

“I think we all have a similar role in the sense that you want to make guys feel comfortable and welcome in the locker room,” Colton Sissons said. “That’s including them at lunch or sitting with them at your table at pregame meal or just helping them with any questions they may have.”

Who did that for Sissons when he first arrived in Nashville?

“Shea Weber was really good to me. Pekka Rinne was great to me,” Sissons said. “A lot of big name figures that I was probably pretty shy with in my early days.”

“It’s easy for me to kind of pass it along now.”

As the regular season winds down and teams deal with injuries, call ups will be happening all across the league. The travel logistics and living situations don’t take away from the most important thing for these recalled players — a chance to play in the NHL.

Marc Del Gaizo sums up the experience of being called up perfectly.

“Any time you’re called up, it’s pretty awesome.”