KITCHENER -- A young Kitchener Rangers fan from the Georgian Bay area has been dreaming up possibilities for the eventual return of hockey games.

Ten-year-old Jax Brenneman, who lives with cerebral palsy, has been a hockey fan ever since his grandparents in Waterloo took him to his first Kitchener Rangers game.

“Jax is well-known at the Kitchener Auditorium hockey rink,” said Robert Brenneman, Jax’s father.

With the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down hockey and schools, the opportunity for a creative writing assignment presented itself.

“Jax is not a huge fan of school, every day it’s hard to keep him motivated, but I said one day you love hockey, why don’t you write about hockey,” said Ellen Kalis, Jax’s mother.

So Brenneman wrote a letter right to the man at the top, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

In his letter, Brenneman posed some tough questions, including when the NHL is set to start. He also laid out a few ideas to make the transition easier, like only allowing one player in the change room at a time, and keeping all players one hockey stick apart.

The family assumed Bettman would be too busy to respond, but about a week later, they heard back.

“He was downstairs playing hockey with his dad and I came running down very excited to tell him the news, we wrote the letter hoping to get a response, but not expecting it,” said Kalis.

Bettman’s response reads in part: “Your ideas are not only interesting and intriguing; some actually have been brought up in our discussions with the players. You obviously know and love hockey.”

“This is just another example of the tremendous passion our fans have for not only the Kitchener Rangers but hockey in general. The time and effort that Jax put into writing his letter, to help bring the NHL back to its fans in North America and around the world, is incredibly heartwarming,” said the Kitchener Rangers in a statement to CTV News.

Brenneman’s family says the first fan mail he ever wrote was to former Kitchener Rangers player Connor Bunnaman.

As for Bettman’s response about when the NHL may start up again, but the commissioner says it is impossible to say right now.