Jamie Oleksiak tries to establish himself as an NHL regular

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There was a night, a few weeks back, when Dallas Stars defenceman Jamie Oleksiak found himself on all the nightly highlight reels, after the splashiest game of his NHL career.

First came a dipsy-doodle-dandy of a goal. Oleksiak neatly executed a toe drag around St. Louis Blues' all-star defenceman Alex Pietrangelo, which put him in position to roof a shot past goaltender Jake Allen for the Stars' opening goal. For a big man – 6-foot-7, 260 pounds – it was an exceptionally deft display.

Then, in the final minute of play, Oleksiak added a second goal to force overtime and earn the Stars a point. It was a big night for Oleksiak, as he tries to establish himself as an NHL regular.

"Hopefully, I'll get a little more opportunity here and try to make the most of it," Oleksiak said with a laugh, "and help me get out of my little sister's shadow a bit."

Up until that breakthrough night, most Canadians were probably familiar with Oleksiak mostly because he's the older brother of swimmer Penny Oleksiak, one of Canada's two breakout stars at last summer's Olympics in Rio. Penny Oleksiak, then just 16, won four medals – a gold, a silver and two bronze – which earned her the 2016 Lou Marsh trophy as Canada's athlete of the year. To win, Penny Oleksiak defeated an exceptional class of contenders – from sprinter Andre De Grasse, whose memorable races with Usain Bolt also produced high drama, to hockey star Sidney Crosby, golfer extraordinaire Brooke Henderson and tennis sensation Milos Raonic, all of whom had outstanding years.

Jamie Oleksiak plays against Crosby in the NHL and knows, from ice level, the magic he can conjure up. A playoff MVP award followed by a World Cup MVP award is not easy to dismiss, but Oleksiak knows where his vote would have been cast.

"There are so many great athletes in Canada, and obviously, I'm a little biased, but I think my sister was the best athlete in Canada this year," Oleksiak said. "Just from being there personally, it was such an incredible experience. I was so fortunate to be able to do that."

Jamie Oleksiak, who turned 24 on Dec. 21, has been in the spotlight far longer than his sister, albeit on a smaller scale. He was chosen in the first round, 14th overall, by Dallas in the 2011 NHL draft, and played at the world junior championship. As a result, he is familiar with the challenge of performing in the spotlight. However, when he and his sister get together, generally what he's offered is brotherly advice, not media training.

"Most of the time, we don't talk about sports," he said. "Right now, she's talking to me about getting a car, and I said, 'you've got to get your driver's licence first.' That's her thing right now. She's still our little sister, and we treat her as such.

"It's one thing for me to say something to her, but my parents were there on a daily basis and they did a really good job making sure she stayed a kid. A lot of this can be overwhelming, but she has such a good head on her shoulders. She's so occupied with school and friends, and that's a good release for her."

On the day Penny won the Lou Marsh, Jamie tweeted out his congratulations to his sister and then added: "Next big step is getting that drivers license and a bday present for the bro in a week #casualbirthdaydrop." Penny tweeted right back at him: "Drivers licence for sure. #dunnoaboutthatbdaygift."

Jamie Oleksiak moved away from Toronto when he was 16 to play for the Detroit Little Caesars. From there, he went to play for Chicago and Sioux Falls of the United States Hockey League. After his freshman year of college at Northeastern University, Oleksiak played a year of major junior and then turned pro.

"Penny got into swimming by swimming in a neighbour's pool – and I wasn't even in the house anymore when she started," Oleksiak said. "It was just trying a variety of things, and our parents going out of their way to do the sports we wanted to do and make sure we enjoyed it."

There were five children in the Oleksiak household, so it was a challenge for his parents to juggle all of their various sports interests.

"Honestly, a credit to the sacrifices they made for us, especially since we were all in and out of the house at different times. My sister was pretty young. They have been consistently in and out of gyms, rinks and pools.

"Growing up, our parents didn't really push us too much. We were always competitive, but the big thing was to always enjoy what you did and commit to it and [we] did the best we could. They did a really good job of feeding our enthusiasm for sport. To see what they did for us, it made us want to do well."

Once Penny started appearing on the Olympic podium, the cameras were constantly trained on her family in the seating area, cheering her on. Jamie says it was always his intention to go to Rio to support his sister, even though they couldn't possibly have imagined the success she would ultimately have.

"The thing that worked in my favour was the World Cup, which pushed our training camp back," he said. "It gave me two extra weeks to train in the summer. I thought, 'how many times am I going to get this opportunity?' I went down for six days. I was still pretty active when I was down there, but I got a chance to watch her and I'm really glad I went. It's something I'll never forget. It was just such a proud moment for us."

Given how well Penny Oleksiak performed, there's a pretty good chance he'll get to watch her compete in Tokyo in 2020. In the meantime, he is trying to assert himself on a Stars' team that has a logjam of talented young defencemen in the pipeline.

But he showed a couple of weeks ago what he's capable of and now just needs to do it on a more regular basis. "We've got a young squad and we're trying to get a little more consistent, and a little more flow going," he said. "It's real competitive."

Competition is not something the Oleksiaks shy away from.