Linesperson Travis Gawryletz will work the 600th regular-season game of his NHL career tonight in Denver, as the Colorado Avalanche host the Detroit Red Wings at Ball Arena. He’ll reach that mark on the lines with his older brother, Brandon Gawryletz, beside him. Referees Morgan MacPhee and Kendrick Nicholson round out tonight’s crew.

Gawryletz, the Trail, British Columbia native, reaches 600 in his ninth season in the NHL, with 17 Stanley Cup Playoff games on his résumé – his first postseason game came on April 17, 2023 – and a full 78-game slate in 2025-26. The milestone also lands one day short of nine years after his NHL debut: game No. 1 came on November 8, 2017.

He got to the NHL the long way – almost twice. As a player, Gawryletz was a physical defenseman and the first Trail Smoke Eaters player ever drafted straight out of the BCHL, taken by the Philadelphia Flyers in the eighth round (253rd overall) of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. Four years at the University of Minnesota-Duluth followed, then a pro career that ran through the ECHL (Elmira, Ontario, and Bakersfield), the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters, the Czech Extraliga, and Austria – six leagues and 10 teams in all – before he hung up his skates in 2014.

Officiating ran in the family. His older brother Brandon had made the jump first, debuting as an NHL linesman in 2015. Travis followed him into the stripes, working the lines in the WHL for three seasons. His AHL debut came in March 2017 – Rockford at Manitoba, wearing No. 64 alongside referee Pierre Lambert and linesman Bevan Mills. The NHL signed him to a minor-league linesman contract that summer.

His first NHL game came on November 8, 2017 – Tampa Bay Lightning against the San Jose Sharks – wearing No. 67 alongside linesman Michel Cormier and referees Ian Walsh and Brad Watson.

Nine years on, the younger Gawryletz brother is a fixture, having officiated the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs and, earlier this season, briefly part of the highlights himself when his onside signal at the blue line caught Sidney Crosby flush in the face during Pittsburgh’s 3-2 overtime win over Nashville at PPG Paints Arena. Crosby finished the game; so did Gawryletz.

Game No. 600 is tonight – with his brother on the other line.  Congratulations to Travis on 600 games!