Columbus Blue Jackets Announce Plans to Honor Johnny Gaudreau After His Death

The Columbus Blue Jackets plan to honor their late teammate Johnny Gaudreau throughout the upcoming season, the team announced Wednesday.

In a news release, the NHL team said its players will wear stickers on their helmets and patches on their uniforms honoring the late Blue Jackets player, who died last month when an alleged drunk driver crashed into him and his brother Matthew Gaudreau while they were riding their bicycles.

Johnny was 31. Matthew was 29.

“The sticker is blue with gray trim and features GAUDREAU, two doves between the numbers 13, which Johnny wore throughout his career, and 21, which Matthew wore at Boston College, in white,” the team said.

The Blue Jackets also announced plans to hold a moment of silence before the team’s first home preseason game next Wednesday, as well as plans to raise money for the John and Matthew Gaudreau Foundation with a 50/50 raffle throughout the preseason.

The Blue Jackets begin preseason play on Monday afternoon against the Buffalo Sabres. Their NHL regular season schedule begins Oct. 10 on the road against the Minnesota Wild.

Though their NHL season is set to move forward, it was evident on Wednesday’s media day that Gaudreau remains on the minds of his Blue Jackets teammates. 

Sean Monahan, who played nine seasons with Gaudreau during their tenures on the Calgary Flames and was a pallbearer at Gaudreau’s funeral earlier this month, wore a Johnny Gaudreau t-shirt while speaking with reporters at the event. 

Monahan, 29, said that although he’s “excited” to start training camp this week, “I’m going to miss Johnny a lot.”

“There’s a lot of weight on our shoulders right now,” Monahan told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s a huge loss, a special person is not here. I mean, it’s on my mind every day, every second. We want to put our best foot forward and put our best effort out there for Johnny.”

Players also said Wednesday that they plan to set up Gaudreau’s locker every game — home and away — throughout the season.

Head coach Dean Evason told reporters that the team has debated on how to move forward since Gaudreau’s death on Aug. 29 — down to reminders of Gaudreau in clips from training camp this summer.

“With our videos we put together for camp, one of the coaches asked, do we take Johnny out of all of the clips?” Evason said, according to ESPN. “I said ‘Absolutely not.’ Johnny is going to teach. Good and bad. If he didn’t back check, we’ll show it. He’s going to be with us. He’s going to be a presence.”

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Teammate Boone Jenner told reporters that Gaudreau’s teammates decided that it would be best to honor their late friend by doing “what he would want,” which is “to just play hockey.”

“He loved every second of every time he was in the rink. At practice, games, sharing time with the guys,” said Jenner, the team’s captain, according to ESPN. “That’s something, when we come in, we try to enjoy each other through the good times — but especially through the bad times.”