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How about a nice Hawaiian punch?
That’s precisely what Zach Pamaylaon is dishing out to a towering opponent early in the secondperiod of a hard-fought Dec. 2024 game between bitter rivals inside Connecticut’s Danbury Arena.
In his third season playing for the Danbury Hat Tricks of the entry-level Federal ProspectsHockey League (FPHL), the 28-year-old Pamaylaon is making history as the first male from theState of Hawaii to play professional hockey.
In the fight – after which he earns an additional penalty for being the instigator – “ZP,” listedgenerously at 5-foot-9, lands several clean shots on a 6’4″ member of the Binghamton Black Bearswhile withstanding some returned fire.
While he doesn’t quite do enough to win the fight cleanly, the 160-pound Pamaylaon doesn’t fall first, and that’s enough to ignite Danbury’s infamously passionate fans. Pamaylaon strides toward the penalty box to crashing applause from the crowd of 2,500.
“We got tangled up, and I dropped my gloves when he asked me if I wanted to fight,” saysPamaylaon, a native of Aiea in the Greater Honolulu area. “If I’m in a position to generate aspark for my team, even though I don’t want to fight someone twice my size, I’m going to do it.”
Learning the game in a state where there is just one ice hockey rink, Pamaylaon’s work ethic andstrong skating abilities caught the eye of mainland scouts. Since then, he’s relied on hard workand faith to carve out a career on the “low pro” levels.
“My parents told me that because I come from such a small state, I have to make sure torepresent Hawaii well,” Pamaylaon says. “I always have that motivation.”
Honolulu baby
A few years before Pamaylaon was born, his father, Aaron, who, his son says, “played everysport,” came across a group playing roller hockey and instantly wanted to try the game. WhenZach arrived in 1996, his dad was playing and coaching at the Ice Palace Hawaii in Halawa, thestate’s lone ice-skating arena.
“I loved hockey from the get-go,” Pamaylaon says. “Before I could walk, I carried around ahockey stick, and I was 3-and-a-half years old when they took me on the ice.”
The pint-size Pamaylaon’s coaches would have to lift the tiny skater over the boards and onto thebench.
Before long, Pamaylaon says, he was competing against players roughly twice his age.
Hockey in Hawaii was not dissimilar to how the sides were organized in the classic Disney film“Mystery, Alaska,” where the same player pool was shuffled each week because there was onlyenough skaters for two teams.
“I was on the ice twice a week, and if I wasn’t, I was watching hockey,” Pamaylaon says. “It waspassion.”
Beyond paradise
Hawaii had just 279 registered players in 2023, according to USA Hockey, the nationalgoverning body for the sport. Pamaylaon says that growing up, the number of people playinghockey in Hawaii was constantly in flux.
“Because Hawaii is one of the most expensive places in the world and there were so few kidsplaying, adults would sometimes play in my house league games,” Pamaylaon says. “It wasn’tUSA Hockey-sanctioned at all then.”
Pamaylaon’s break came when he was spotted by James Smith, a frequent visitor to Hawaii and ayouth hockey coach from South Jersey, during a pickup game at the Ice Palace. Smith askedPamaylaon if he wanted to play college hockey and connected him with Chris Kanaly, whoplaced teams in “high-end youth summer tournaments.”
“He’s a very good skater and stick handler, but I was a little concerned because he’d never playedfull-contact hockey,” Kanaly says. “He flew out, and he played, and he was pretty damn good.”
The next wave
Pamaylaon finished high school in 2014 and joined the Philadelphia Revolution, a pre-collegejunior hockey team with clubs in multiple leagues run by Kanaly. Nearly 5,000 miles from home,Pamaylaon, who played a far less structured version of the game in Hawaii, had to catch up.
“I didn’t know what the hell they were talking about at my first practice,” Pamaylaon says. “I hadto learn the game because I knew nothing about hockey.”
In three seasons with the Revolution, Pamaylaon played on a circuit designed to give players achance at college hockey, even learning under former NHL standout Keith Primeau. In May of2015, he competed in the Pre-Draft Showcase tournament in Boston, which included variousNHL prospects.
When his junior eligibility expired in 2017, Pamaylaon caught the eye of Bryn Athyn College,just 30 minutes from the Revolution’s home ice in Warwick Township, Pa. The move made himthe first Hawaiian-born and trained hockey player to commit to an NCAA school.
Pamaylaon steadily improved throughout his first three years at the D III institution. In his thirdyear, he collected 15 points in 22 games — tied for fourth on the team in scoring — beforedisaster struck.
“COVID hit a week after my junior season ended,” Pamaylaon says. “A couple of days before I was supposed to go back to school, our coach held an emergency meeting on Zoom and told usour school was cutting the program.”
He flirted with pro tryouts but eventually returned to school and joined Bryn Athyn’s new pay-to-play club team. In his one season on the lower level, Pamaylaon totaled 73 points in just 20games.
“I told the school I wasn’t happy about the situation,” Pamaylaon says. “I made the best of it.”
Aloha championship ring
After college and a failed audition on a slightly higher level, offers came to Pamaylaon fromFPHL, a team in Delaware, the Black Bears of Binghamton, and the Danbury Hat Tricks —but he says the decision was easy.
“The Netflix documentary was one reason I came to Danbury,” Pamaylaon says. “I learned thatthe fans here expect to see a physical hockey team that works hard every single day.”
Pamaylaon was referring to “Crimes and Penalties” from the streaming giant’s “Untold” series — the story of Danbury’s original pro hockey club, the Trashers, whose garbage-hauling, mob-tied owner made his 17-year-old son the team’s general manager.
The Trashers’ “scrappy” legacy inspires Pamaylaon today.
“In Danbury, we fight for the guy next to us, and we care about every single person here,” he says.
Since making his debut in the 2022-23 season – following female Jessica Koizumi as the firstHawaiian to play professionally – Pamaylaon has fit right in.
“He’s a team guy and a staple of Danbury hockey,” says AJ Galante, the subject of “Crimes andPenalties,” who’s now 37 and a Hat Tricks senior advisor. “He may not score every shift, but he’llmake his presence known.”
As a rookie, Pamaylaon was part of the Hat Tricks squad that won the FPHL’s Commissioner’sCup.
“It was a surreal experience,” Pamaylaon says. “We set a goal; we accomplished it. Goals aren’t realistically like that, but we did it.”
Since turning pro, Pamaylaon – who regularly flashes his skating skills as an anchor of the HatTricks’ defense – has collected 53 points and 272 penalty minutes in 115 games..
“Z is that spark plug, a Swiss army knife; you can put him on offense or defense,” says HatTricks player/co-head coach Jonny Ruiz. “He’s a kid you want to be around all the time.”
Hat city Hawaiian
Pulling into Stanziato’s Wood-Fired Pizza on Danbury’s Mill Plain Road, you can spot Pamaylaon by the rainbow license plate and traditional Hawaiian leis hanging from his rearview mirror.
A fan-favorite, one Galante lists among “the most popular players in Danbury’s history,” heregularly hosts humorous question-and-answer videos with his teammates on the Hat Tricks’social media accounts.
The Zach Pamaylaon-inspired “Flyin’ Hawaiian” T-shirt – a surfing rabbit holding a hockeystick-shaped carrot – is a hot item at the merch stand.
“We see kids wearing the shirt all the time,” says Max Sorcher, a game operations and marketingassistant for the Hat Tricks. “We sell at least five of his shirts a game, and we’ve sold outnumerous times in kids’ and adults’ sizes.”
Coming from Hawaii’s tiny hockey community hasn’t stopped Pamaylaon from being anambassador in a hotbed like Connecticut. Aside from his own games and practices, he’s at therink daily as a youth coach for the Hat Tricks 12-and-under squad.
“I’m at the rink today and for the rest of the week before our road trip this weekend,” Pamaylaonsays. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
