Former Penn State hockey player Brandon Biro — and former roommates — preparing for the pros

It’s not lost on former Penn State hockey player Brandon Biro that all of his former roommates, including himself, are going to play professionally next season.

“Which I’d say is probably pretty unique, because you don’t get four guys who all live together that are following the same path post-playing career in college,” Biro said.

His former roommate Liam Folkes will be playing for the Bakersfield Condors, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers. Additionally, former roommates Peyton Jones will be playing for the Colorado Eagles, the AHL affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche, and Nate Sucese has signed an NHL contract with the Arizona Coyotes.

Biro, himself, inked an NHL contract with the Buffalo Sabres organization in March.

Thanks to his roommate, Sucese, Biro and his other roommates had become pretty familiar with the Sabres during their time at Penn State.

“I watched about every single Buffalo Sabres game, and they kind of got annoyed with it because I was a huge Sabres fan,” Sucese said. “Right after our season ended, Brio ends up signing with Buffalo. So that was a cool thing to have full circle when we watched so many games throughout our four years, and then he ends up in their organization.”

From the start of his time with the program, the former captain said the organization’s emphasis on personal responsibility had a large impact on him.

“You could go talk to them about anything, they didn’t want your parents going in to talk to them if things were going wrong. They were always transparent, and they wanted to talk to you,” Biro said. “One thing Guy Gadowsky is great at is building a team culture where it’s team first. It makes you want to do whatever you can for the guy sitting next to you in the dressing room.”

While many people impacted Biro during his time with the program, he credits head coach Guy Gadowksy for much of his on and off ice growth.

“He was someone who gave me an opportunity right away, even when I was a freshman,” Biro said. “There were some growing pains getting into the lineup freshman year, but he kept his faith in me and kept me confident and able to kind of utilize my strengths.”

On the ice, former linemate Sucese found playing with Biro easy and enjoyable.

“We’re kind of similar players, where we both use our speed really well, we both have a lot of skill. I think we fed off of each other,” Sucese said. “Watching so much hockey together at night, we’d try and implement things that guys at the top level were doing and linemates together. I think it really helped our game on the ice as well.”

Off the ice and around the rink, former teammate Folkes described Biro as a “goofball.”

“He always plays tricks on people and never says it was him,” Folkes said. “He does it probably once a week in practice, he’ll do something and all the guys would know it was him and he would be like ‘No, it wasn’t me.” Everyone would know it would be him.”

One of his most memorable pranks was when he switched the helmets of goalies Oskar Autio and Jones.

“Obviously, they have different sizes of helmets and different cages — it took them a while to really feel the difference in their helmets,” Folkes. “They thought it was the equipment manager, Ben, the entire time.”

Biro and all his former roommates are incredibly close, with fellow Canadian Folkes going to visit Biro in his hometown of Edmonton, Alberta, a week ago.

“We went into Penn State together in the same class, and then I lived with him for the last three years. He was probably one of my best friends on the team, arguably probably my best friend,” Folkes said. “We just kept in touch, and I kind of had a quick vacation out west and got to see a couple of his buddies and his little brother.”

Biro, like his other former teammates who have signed professional contracts for the upcoming season, is eager to start his professional career.

“It’s just going to be staying at my house here in Edmonton, Alberta, for at least the next month or two,” Biros said. “From what I’ve heard, the training camp’s not going to start until the middle of November or so.”

For now, Biro is doing weekly workouts that the Sabres organization proscribes through an app and working with a nutritionist in preparation for the upcoming season.

Biro added: “They’ve been proactive in making sure I have all the resources I need to be feeling healthy and be ready to go when the season starts,”

Moving on to the next level of his career, Biro is confident that with the support of his former teammates and friends the adjustment to pro will be easier.

“I definitely think it is a unique situation where we’re all going to be playing hockey again next year. We’re all kind of going through this together,” Biro said. “Which is definitely nice, having some other guys that you’re comfortable with to go through this with.”

It’s not lost on his former roommates how rare it is that they’re all heading to the next level of their careers together, either.

“I think it doesn’t happen all the time where the same apartment, everyone signs a professional contract,” Folkes said. “All four of us, we all made each other better. I think when you play with better players it elevates your game, that goes the same for living with those guys. You always want your best friends to succeed. I think that made us all better in the long-run, starting from our freshman year.

“As an apartment, the four of us really pushed each other to be better.”

This story was originally published August 9, 2020 at 12:30 PM.