Johnny Gaudreau was one of the few NHL players whose star power transcended the hockey world. Even if you didn’t cheer for the Calgary Flames or, more recently, the Columbus Blue Jackets — even if you didn’t follow the NHL — you’d probably heard of Johnny Hockey.
The nickname just worked. Gaudreau played the game with dazzling, darting quickness and get-out-of-your-seat skill. And there was a Hollywood aspect to his career: the too-short, too-small player who many doubted could make it to the NHL much less be one of the league’s top players.
The 5-foot-7, 160-pound left winger touched and inspired an enormous number of lives.
That’s why so many were grieving Friday when the Blue Jackets and the NHL confirmed that Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew Gaudreau, were killed late Thursday when a man driving an SUV struck them while they were riding bicycles, according to New Jersey State Police. Johnny was 31 and Matthew 29.
The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, extended condolences. NBA star LeBron James and baseball star Mike Trout did the same. NHL clubs and fans took part in an outpouring of sympathy. Fans in Columbus left flowers beneath Gaudreau’s billboard-sized likeness outside the entrance to Nationwide Arena, and a candlelight vigil was planned for Friday evening. Ohio State will hold a moment of silence Saturday before its football season opener against Akron. Gaudreau would have played in Ohio Stadium in the Stadium Series game on March 1.
For many, appropriately, the first thoughts went to the tight-knit Gaudreau family.
In an instant, Guy and Jane Gaudreau lost two sons. Sisters Katie and Kristen Gaudreau lost their brothers. Johnny Gaudreau’s wife, Meredith, lost her husband. Gaudreau’s children, daughter Noa and son Johnny — both under 2 years old — lost their father.
Friday was supposed to be Katie Gaudreau’s wedding day. Johnny and Matthew were to be groomsmen, while Meredith and Matthew’s wife, Madeline, were to be bridesmaids. Madeline, now a widow, is pregnant with the couple’s first child.
Utter devastation. Unimaginable grief.
“I got so instantly down and sad after reading the story,” James posted on X. “My thoughts and prayers go out to the Gaudreau family! May Johnny and Matthew fly high and bless their family from the heavens above.”
“I am sick to my stomach,” Minnesota Wild coach John Hynes said. “I had the opportunity to coach Johnny several times with USA Hockey. Johnny was a great kid. Personable. Had a big heart. Teammates loved him.”
The Blue Jackets — players and management — were understandably quiet Friday after the club issued its early-morning statement confirming the Gaudreaus’ passing. On a day when everybody is trying to find a way to process an unbearable grief, what could possibly be said?
The legend of Johnny Hockey started when he was, oh, 8 or 9 years old, weaving through and around players twice his size in local rinks around New Jersey and Philadelphia. He continued to dazzle through his teen years even as he was passed over repeatedly in tryouts for elite programs.
He later spent one year (at age 18) playing in Dubuque, Iowa, in the United States Hockey League before heading to Boston College. Longtime NHL scout Brian Bates scouted him several times in Dubuque.
“Every pregame warm-up I’d wonder why they had a really young kid out there; he was so small,” Bates said. “That was my first thought every time … until he touched the puck and started skating. So small, but so skilled, and so much stronger than his fragile-looking build.”
Gaudreau was listed at 5-6, 137 pounds at the NHL scouting combine in 2011, his draft year, but that measurement might not have been exact. Guy Gaudreau once told The Athletic’s Hailey Salvian that they put two or three pucks in his jock strap to add a few pounds before his weigh-in at the combine.
When the Flames drafted him in the fourth round that year — No. 104 — it was a surprise to many, including Gaudreau, who stayed home to play in a tournament organized by his dad rather than attend the draft in St. Paul, Minn.
After three dominating seasons at Boston College — he won the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey’s top player in 2014 — Gaudreau turned pro. Incredibly, he never spent a day in the minor leagues.
“His whole life he has been told he’s too small and would never play high levels of hockey. (He) really earned everything he got because he never quit,” Guy told The Athletic several years ago. “A lot of people don’t realize all the times he’s been cut and told he’s too small and he fought through all that to get to where he’s at.”
Gaudreau was a star with the Flames for eight seasons — one of the most beloved athletes ever in that city — before signing with the Blue Jackets as a free agent two years ago.
The move rankled many in Calgary — he picked Columbus? — but he made the choice for all the right reasons. As he grew older, his family took on increased importance in his life, a feeling that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which made travel between the United States and Calgary more difficult than ever.
Now his family was an afternoon’s drive away, not a full day of flying with border restrictions. Guy Gaudreau was a near-constant presence. He attended more morning skates the past two seasons than some local media members. Much like his son, he never stopped smiling.
The Blue Jackets mostly struggled in Gaudreau’s two seasons with Columbus, but he was the leading scorer both seasons and seemed poised for a big season in 2024-25. The team signed Gaudreau’s good friend, Sean Monahan, to a free-agent contract to be his linemate on Columbus’ top line.
The Gaudreaus and Monahans had planned to raise their children together — to spend time together as families, to enjoy the primes of their careers together. Yes, there’s yet another level of sadness to this.
Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan were going to be reunited in Columbus this season. (Derek Cain / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Through his incredible skill and memorable nickname, Johnny Hockey had an aura. Young players in the dressing room would look at him and speak with a sense of awe. Fans would stand mouth agape as Gaudreau walked by them on his way out of the rink.
But Gaudreau never carried himself in that way. He could be immediately disarming with fans. His least favorite topic to discuss was Johnny Gaudreau.
And in a dressing room full of millionaires, most of whom dressed accordingly, Gaudreau would get spiffy for game nights and team functions. But on off days, he’d most likely be seen in a T-shirt that should have been turned into a dust cloth years ago. His preferred footwear was flip-flops.
All of this made it easy for fans in Columbus to embrace him.
Truth be told, Gaudreau’s willingness to sign with Columbus as a free agent was a surprise to the Blue Jackets, too. When his agent, Lewis Gross, first reached out to management, the team believed it was an attempt to drive the price higher in negotiations with his more likely destinations, New Jersey and Philadelphia.
Once former Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen learned he was serious, the Jackets pounced, signing him to the biggest free-agent contract in franchise history.
Gaudreau’s desire to sign with the Blue Jackets came on the heels of the noteworthy departures of Sergei Bobrovsky, Artemi Panarin, Seth Jones and others, further saddling the franchise with a reputation for being one players avoided.
By choosing Columbus when others were choosing to leave, Gaudreau immediately endeared himself to Blue Jackets fans, and the No. 13 sweaters started flying off the shelves.
On Friday, those sweaters were hung on stickhandles and placed outside doors all around central Ohio, a tribute to the Gaudreaus.
This is a franchise that has known mostly long seasons and chronic losses. And it has endured more than its share of tragedies.
On March 16, 2002, during the Blue Jackets’ second season, a young fan, Brittanie Cecil, was struck in the head with a puck while celebrating her 12th birthday party in Nationwide Arena. She died two days later of internal bleeding, prompting the NHL to equip all of its rinks with netting above the end of the rinks.
In July 2003, Blue Jackets’ minor-leaguer Trevor Ettinger died by suicide.
On July 4, 2021, goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks died after a fireworks mishap at the home of then-Blue Jackets goaltending coach Manny Legace.
There was a sense of shock when the Blue Jackets arrived for training camp just two months after Kivlenieks’ death — almost a second wave of grief. They remembered where Kivlenieks sat in the dressing room, how he smiled, his friendly disposition.
The Blue Jackets are processing a new wave of grief now, just three weeks ahead of training camp. Many players are already in town preparing for the season. Many more will arrive early next week.
The loss of Gaudreau is so profound, so piercing, you can only wonder how the players in the dressing room can process this — how new GM Don Waddell and coach Dean Evason can help them through the process.
“The impact he had on our organization and our sport was profound,” the team said in a statement, “but pales in comparison to the indelible impression he made on everyone who knew him.”
— Hailey Salvian contributed to this story.
(Top photo: Jaylynn Nash / Getty Images)