EGN NEWS DESK
NHL participant Johnny Gaudreau and his youthful brother had been killed Thursday night time after they had been hit by a suspected drunk driver whereas driving their bicycle of their residence state of New Jersey, police mentioned.
The 31-year-old Gaudreau and his youthful brother, Matthew, 29, are Carneys Point, New Jersey, natives and had been within the space for his or her sister Katie’s wedding ceremony scheduled for Friday in Philadelphia.
According to New Jersey State police, the Gaudreau brothers had been biking on a street when a person driving in the identical course tried to cross two different autos and struck them from behind. They had been pronounced dead on the scene.
Police mentioned the driving force, Sean M. Higgins, was suspected of being inebriated and charged with two counts of demise by auto and jailed on the Salem County Correctional Facility.
Johnny Gaudreau, often known as “Johnny Hockey,” has performed 11 skilled seasons within the league and was going into his third with the Blue Jackets. He performed his first 9 with the Calgary Flames, a tenure that included changing into one of many sport’s high gamers and a fan favourite throughout North America.
The Blue Jackets known as it an unimaginable tragedy.
“Johnny was not solely an important hockey participant, however extra considerably a loving husband, father, son, brother and good friend,” the group mentioned in a press release. “Johnny performed the sport with nice pleasure which was felt by everybody that noticed him on the ice. He introduced a real love for hockey with him all over the place he performed.”
Gaudreau, at 5-foot-9 and 180 kilos, was a part of a technology of hockey gamers who thrived in an period of pace and talent that made being undersized much less of a drawback. He scored 20-plus objectives six occasions and was a 115-point participant in 2021-22 as a first-time NHL All-Star when he had a career-best 40 objectives and 75 assists.
“While Johnny’s infectious spirit for the sport and show-stopping abilities on the ice earned him the nickname ‘Johnny Hockey,’ he was greater than only a dazzling hockey participant; he was a doting father and beloved husband, son, brother and teammate who endeared himself to each particular person lucky sufficient to have crossed his path,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman mentioned. “We ship our most heart-felt condolences to his spouse Meredith; their youngsters, Noa and Johnny; his mother and father, Guy and Jane; and sisters Kristen and Katie. And we grieve alongside his teammates, members of the Blue Jackets and Flames organizations, his many buddies in hockey and numerous followers around the globe for whom he created indelible reminiscences on and off the ice.”
A fourth-round choose of Calgary’s in 2011, Gaudreau helped Boston College win the NCAA championship in 2012 and in 2014 took residence the Hobey Baker Award as the highest school participant within the nation.
As knowledgeable, Gaudreau completed was a part of the NHL all-rookie group throughout his first season within the league and was third in voting for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the yr in 2014-15.
Gaudreau was a point-a-game participant with 642 factors in 644 regular-season and playoff video games since breaking into the league. He most lately signed a seven-year contract in 2022 value almost $69 million that put him and his younger household in central Ohio, nearer to his household in New Jersey.
He holds the lads’s world championship information by a U.S. participant with 30 assists and 43 factors, earlier this yr breaking marks beforehand held by Patrick Kane.
Gaudreau’s demise is the newest off-ice tragedy to strike the group prior to now few years. Goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks died in July 2021 when he was struck within the chest by a firework whereas attending the marriage of then-Blue Jackets goaltending coach Manny Legace’s daughter in Michigan.
