Two years later, in 1999, Giovanna and Lino welcomed a second son, Gabriel. Eighteen years after that, Gabe was drafted 11 th overall in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft by the Los Angeles Kings.

Giovanna was born and raised in a village in Southern Italy where ice hockey doesn't even appear on Wikipedia's list of top 10 most-participated-in sports. In 1997, she and her Italian-Canadian husband, Lino, moved their son Francesco to Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

If someone told Giovanna Vilardi back in 1997 where her life would lead her in 20 years, she probably wouldn't understand - and not just because back then she didn't speak English.

Video: Kings draft F Gabriel Vilardi No. 11

After contributing seven points in four games, Gabe helped the Windsor Spitfires to the Memorial Cup Championship in May of 2017, and it wasn't until this time that Giovanna thought her son could make it to the NHL.

"It's kind of late, I know, but I'm very cautious and I'm trying to keep both feet on the ground, so I don't watch games, I just drop them off and pick them up. We don't talk about the games, we talk about everything else around the game," admits Giovanna, who almost didn't attend the Memorial Cup Tournament were it not for people telling her it was a big deal. "If he was upset about a loss, I say 'OK, suck it up, next time work harder.'"

In June, not even a month after the Memorial Cup Championship, the Vilardis were in Chicago for the NHL Entry Draft.

"It was very exciting, I was very proud. I realized in the last couple of years that it's a really big thing for him and for everybody. Everybody was absolutely insane at the Draft and there was such an excitement all around," tells Giovanna. "Gabe got all dressed up with his brother and his friends, because we had friends with us. He was all excited and we went to the rink and he was happy, but he was nervous, too, because he was supposed to go a little bit higher."

Going into the Draft in Chicago's United Center, Gabe, a top-ranked prospect, was tabbed by the NHL's Central Scouting Bureau as the No. 4 North American skater and was projected to be picked in the top six. But by the time the Kings' first-round pick rolled around at No. 11, he was still available, and General Manager Rob Blake plucked the 6-foot-3-inch centerman for Los Angeles.

"It was a very proud moment. Hockey is such a part of our family and a part of our life that it sometimes scares you because it can either make you very happy or it can crush your dreams, you can get broken. So it's kind of exciting but at the same time a little bit scary too, because you put so much into it," Giovanna shares.

The exhilaration from Draft weekend is something that Giovanna vividly remembers - the people around them, the news and media coverage, the presence of so many elite names in the sport of hockey. But what stands out in her mind the most was the excitement of all the draft prospects.

"They were so happy. You look at them and you realized that they've worked so hard to get there," Giovanna recollects. "There are so many dreams in their eyes, but you look at the ones who were not drafted or the ones who were hoping to go higher, it's a mix of emotions - so much happiness, but can be crushing too."

Back in March, the 18-year-old signed a three-year entry level contract with the Kings, and Giovanna is happy to see her son's hard work begin to pay off, but feels that LA, where she has yet to visit, is a bit far from her Kingston, Ontario home.

"It seems like my kids want to go as far as they can from me. I am Italian, they were supposed to live with me until they're 45. I told them so many times growing up. He left home when he was 14, and it's like are you kidding me? What's wrong with you guys?" laughs Giovanna, good-naturedly.

When Giovanna tries to explain to friends and family back home in Italy what her kids are up to, she doesn't feel they truly understand the magnitude of Gabe's accomplishments so far.

"They have no freaking clue," Giovanna chuckles. "I've tried to explain to them it's the equivalent of soccer, it's a big deal, but they don't get it."

Not that she blames them.

Giovanna is the first to declare that she and her husband didn't know much about ice hockey growing up. While Lino was born in Canada, he split time between Canada and Italy, and in Italy, there wasn't much ice for hockey.

"We don't even know how to skate, to be honest with you. It was interesting to have two boys playing in the OHL," says Giovanna, referring also to Francesco who played three seasons in the OHL and now plays on the Queen's University Men's Hockey Team.

Growing up, Gabe cheered for the Philadelphia Flyers and idolized Pavel Datsyuk. He began playing organized hockey at the age of six, and getting both boys started in a sport they knew relatively little about was a bit of a challenge for Giovanna and Lino.

"We are in Canada right, so everybody plays hockey. We just put their skates on, dumped them on the ice, they started crying and we said 'you're on your own, buddy, go for it.' And they pretty much did," Giovanna shares. "When we started, we had no clue what we were getting into. We didn't realize it was so time consuming, and so intense. But it's been a riot, it's been fun and it's been good for them."

Some of Giovanna's fondest memories of her sons' childhood hockey days are from traveling - much of the time via caravan with other parents - to games and tournaments during the pre-GPS era. Most of the time they would end up lost, up to two hours off their course.

"Jumping in the car and driving in Toronto, my English was horrible, driving on a six-lane highway was a little bit scary, but it was always fun to go around," remembers Giovanna. "The kids would get upset, but after a while we just got used to it and we would jump in the car two hours before the time, and it would give us enough time to get lost. We knew we would get lost at least three times."

The Vilardi boys grew up loving sports. Giovanna describes her husband as very athletic, so the boys were always at the park, playing football, tennis and soccer. Hockey, on the other hand, could apparently be played in the house.

"He's very passionate about hockey - always thinking, playing, training," says Giovanna, who also describes Gabe as sensitive and shy. "When he has nothing to do he's downstairs in the basement shooting and stickhandling. The house is a mess, we don't have a basement, basically, the drywall is full of holes. It's always been hockey, hockey, hockey."

According to Mom, one thing that might compare to hockey for Gabe is his love of food. Chicken, fish, pizza, lasagna, meatballs and tomato sauce are among Gabe's list of favorites, and it's pretty easy to assume that his Italian heritage, and more likely than not, his mom's home cooking, has a lot to do with that.

"He eats nonstop," Giovanna divulges.

Approaching the one-year anniversary of Gabe's draft selection, he is currently in Los Angeles training. Being free from cooking duty, Giovanna reminisces about how far they've come from Italy, basement hockey, and days sans GPS. She has this advice for any parent who has a child going into the NHL Entry Draft, this year or any other:

"Enjoy the moment, prepare yourself, be supportive, and don't push too hard. Sometimes parents push way too hard. Just be there if they need you and if not, leave them alone."

When it comes to her role in her son's success, Giovanna is humble, if not humorous.

"He's so driven. I didn't do much, I just dropped him off and picked him up and paid the bills."

Maybe the little things are the big things after all.