Ramapo High School students, alumni and Mehta's childhood friends were ecstatic that he decided to bring the Cup to the school where he played as a forward/benchwarmer for the school's hockey team from 1992-1996.
“It's incredible,” says Anand Shukla, a childhood friend who used to play street hockey with Mehta. “To go on to high school, play on your high school team and bring home the Stanley Cup. What else can you give back to other students? This is an inspiration to all the kids out here, all the young hockey players. Dreams can become a reality.”
Ramapo High School hockey head coach Mike McLachlan said he couldn't believe it when he got an email from Mehta on July 8 asking if he could bring the cup to the school.
“I nearly went off the road,” said McLachlan, who was driving home later that night from a hockey tournament in Suffern, N.Y. “I thought it was spam and I almost deleted it. How common is it to get an email that says, 'Can we have the Stanley Cup?'”
Mehta said he initially wasn't sure what to do the day he got the Cup.
He flew from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Las Vegas for the 2024 Upper Deck NHL Draft and sought guidance from Mario Della Sabia, outreach specialist for the Hockey Hall of Fame, and Phil Pritchard, Hall of Fame curator and widely known as the Cup's keeper.
“He asked me, 'What do you think?'” Della Sabia says. “I said, 'What you want to do is bring it to the community. You want to make sure you have a good time, and you don't want to push it. You don't want to be pulled in every direction and not be able to enjoy it. You want to have fun.'”
And Mehta appeared to do just that on Monday, talking to teammates on an admittedly not-so-great hockey team and explaining the work he's done pioneering analytics in the NHL.
