Nationwide Hockey League star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother have been killed in a automobile accident in New Jersey on Thursday night time.
The Columbus Blue Jackets participant – who was 31 – and his youthful brother Matthew, 29, have been driving their bicycles on a rural street in Oldsman Township when a automobile struck them, New Jersey police instructed the BBC.
The driving force of the automobile, Sean Higgins, 43, has been arrested and charged with two counts of dying by auto, in response to officers.
As of Friday, he’s being held with out bond on the Salem County Correctional Facility.
In a press release, Gaudreau’s workforce referred to as the incident an “unimaginable tragedy”.
“Johnny was not solely a nice hockey participant, however extra considerably a loving husband, father, son, brother and pal,” the Columbus Blue Jackets mentioned.
“We wish to let everybody know we’re receiving your messages of affection and assist and we respect your continued ideas and prayer,” the household wrote in a press release on Fb.
Gaudreau’s brother Matthew was additionally knowledgeable hockey participant who beforehand performed for the Studying Royals workforce in Pennsylvania.
The Gaudreau brothers have been in New Jersey to attend their sister’s wedding ceremony on Friday in Philadelphia, the place they have been presupposed to be groomsmen, in response to the Columbus Dispatch, a neighborhood outlet.
Police mentioned Mr Higgins hit the brothers along with his automobile from behind as he tried to move two different automobiles on the street.
Mr Higgins was suspected of driving whereas inebriated and is at present being held within the Salem County Correctional Facility, New Jersey police mentioned.
Nicknamed “Johnny Hockey”, Gaudreau was the Blue Jackets’ ahead who scored 243 targets over the course of his 11-year NHL profession.
Johnny Gaudreau joined the Ohio workforce in 2022 after beforehand taking part in for the Calgary Flames in Canada.
Gaudreau “performed the sport with nice pleasure which was felt by everybody that noticed him on the ice”, the Columbus Blue Jackets mentioned of their assertion.
“He thrilled followers in a means solely Johnny Hockey may,” the workforce added.
Brian Burke, a profession NHL government mentioned on X, previously Twitter, that Gaudreau introduced ”kindness that radiated out by means of the locker room daily”.
“Few gamers in hockey historical past who matched his ardour and love for the sport,” he mentioned.