Martin Frk’s life in North America began as it always does for the hockey players living with Doreen and Ken Bradley. With a trip to the grocery store.



In 2010, Frk arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as a 16-year-old kid who didn’t speak English, who had people around him preferring he keep playing in his native Czech Republic, and with a dream of playing in the NHL. It was a dream that was sparked around the age of 12, when he first realized he had a better slap shot than anybody around him on the ice. He still does.



And so they went shopping, on his second day with his new family. Doreen with an Atlantic Superstore shopping cart, Frk with an open mind about what meals might look like for the next few years.



He’d point at an item on a shelf. She’d say what it was, and into the cart it went. It was part shopping, part English lesson and the beginning of a bond.



Frk was the second Halifax player the Bradleys took into their home...