Editors note: The Carolina Hurricans picked Charlie Cerrato, who grew up in Fallston and is the son of local sports talk host Vinny Cerrato, with the 49th pick of the NHL Draft on Saturday.

“Great fit for Charlie,” Vinny said.

“So excited,” Charlie said. “Can’t wait to get started with them.”

Below is our story on Charlie’s unusual path to pro hockey.

The story many hockey fans remember when they think about Charlie Cerrato involves him, at age 4, staring at a naked Alex Ovechkin. Cerrato, a longtime Capitals fan, doesn’t remember it. But his father, Vinny, a former NFL executive, does.

Maybe that was the moment when something subconscious in Charlie clicked. His father worked in football, but he was destined to be a hockey player.

That’s something of an unusual goal for a kid growing up in Maryland. The Cerratos settled in Fallston — Vinny is a host on Baltimore’s 105.7 The Fan now — and Charlie embarked on a long journey that could lead to a new path Saturday.

Most projections have him going in the middle rounds of the NHL draft (the first round concluded Friday night; the other six are Saturday). He would become only the sixth Virginia native drafted.

Cerrato had hoped to hear his name when he was first eligible two years ago. But an unexpected detour led him on an exhilarating run to the pinnacle of college hockey and now has him poised to realize a dream.

“I’ve been passed up twice now,” he said. “In the moment, yeah, it’s tough. Like, you want to get drafted. A lot of your friends get drafted, but just use it as motivation, a little adversity and a chip on your shoulder.”

Chasing the game

While Maryland’s hockey culture has improved — in part due to Ovechkin’s influence — Cerrato had to leave the state to hone his game.

He first learned to skate when he was 3 or 4 in Reston, Virginia. His father — a high school hockey star in Minnesota who opted to chase a college football career — would start the day at 6 a.m. at the rink where Charlie would skate with the hockey director. A quick stop at McDonald’s for breakfast, and then Vinny Cerrato would drop his son off at preschool before heading to work for Washington’s NFL team.

Eventually, Charlie needed to find better competition, which meant driving 84 miles (each way) for practices at Hollydell Ice Arena in Sewell, New Jersey.

“If I didn’t have a dad who was in the position to be able to spend so much time in the car, drive me all over the place, I would not be where I’m at,” Charlie Cerrato said.

Charlie would complete his homework and watch YouTube videos on the car ride, but, more than anything, he liked listening to his father make phone calls.

In 2021, Charlie joined the prestigious USA Hockey National Team Development Program in Michigan, which annually produces top draft prospects.

In the 2023-24 season, he played with the Youngstown Phantoms in Ohio (it is common for college-bound players to delay school and play junior hockey). Originally committed to Michigan, he picked Penn State after the Wolverines changed coaches.

That was good news for Vinny, who’d found it difficult missing his son’s game when he was in the Midwest.

“He and I traveled three days a week.” Vinny Cerrato said. “And then it was basically cold turkey after that because I wasn’t able to go into the practice. ... That was something that was totally foreign to me because I was at every one of those games.”

Charlie Cerrato said leaving home forces players to “grow up quicker.”

From learning to do laundry to perfecting the art of cooking steaks, Cerrato picked up life lessons that would help him as he traveled across the United States and Canada.

Making history at Penn State

Cerrato’s freshman year did not get off to the start he wanted. The Nittany Lions went 0-8 against Big Ten opponents.

That only made the team’s dramatic run to end the year more satisfying.

Cerrato’s steal and behind-the-back pass set up the game-winning goal in overtime of the regional final, sending Penn State to its first Frozen Four in school history.

Assistant coach Andrew Sturtz rushed to hug Cerrato after that pass. He was overcome by the pride he felt for a kid he said put in extra time and effort for his team.

“There’s so many things that he did in the run, and it just was really rewarding to see the smile on his face when we won that game and he got to go to his first-ever Frozen Four,” Sturtz said. “It’s a moment I’ll never forget in my coaching career.”

Cerrato doesn’t remember the exact words “Sturtzy” said to him in the moments after the win.

“Maybe a couple curse words, like, ‘Fuck yeah’” he said. “That was great.”

Cerrato said the team’s success led to a change on campus.

“We start winning, and we go to the playoffs, and we make it to the Frozen Four,” he said. “You see people start wearing Penn State hockey stuff, and you see the buzz on whether it’s social media or on campus or at games. It really, really was something special to watch last year.”

Vinny Cerrato credits the national program for helping his son pair his innately high-energy game with a level of professional polish.

Charlie says it’s partially because he grew up around athletes. He saw what it was like to be a professional player, taking cues from his father’s job with the Washington Commanders.

Being Vinny’s kid had other perks. The Cerrato family once spent time with Tom Cruise and his family at an amusement park, and Cruise nicknamed him “Meatball.”

But mostly Charlie learned what it would take to succeed at the highest level. He’ll gather his family — including those who hosted him when he was living in Ohio — for a draft party as they await the next step in his career.

Like any media-aware player, Charlie says he is happy to join whatever team selects him. He plans to be back at Penn State this fall but is eager to start pushing toward his ultimate goal of playing in the NHL.

Although he does admit, with a small grin spread across his face, that there might be one player in particular he’d love to play with: Ovechkin.