The Gaudreau Family honors Johnny and Matty’s legacies through new learn-to-skate hockey program

Dozens of children between the ages of 3 and 12 lined up in front of the ice hockey rink at Hollydell Ice Arena on Thursday — wearing helmets, blades, and shoulder pads that appeared large compared to their small stature. At the sound of the whistle, they took off — with some on Bambi legs — as they followed their instructor, Guy Gaudreau, toward the entrance of the skating rink.

“This is more like home than home away from home,” Gaudreau said. “I spent 30 years here running the rink as hockey director, and John and Matt basically lived here with me. They were on the ice a lot and they made a lot of friends here. It’s just such a great sport. Anyone in the hockey world understands what I’m talking about.”

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Thursday marked the first day of the Gaudreau Family Foundation’s first-ever learn-to-play/learn-to-skate program, a free initiative to introduce boys and girls to hockey in a fun, safe, and supportive environment. The 12-week program was made possible through the funds raised at the Gaudreau Family 5K & Family Day.

“We get them in learn-to-skate, learn-to-play,” Gaudreau said. “Now, we’re working with the NHL a little, trying to create a league that is financially — it won’t cost them anything to play one game a week, one practice a week. … We want them to continue. We don’t want them to fall in love with the sport and say ‘Hey, sorry. We’re done.’ So, we have a lot of work ahead of us to get that done.”

This is just one way the Gaudreaus have continued to honor the legacies of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, who were both struck and killed in August 2024 by an alleged drunk driver while biking near their family’s home in Salem County. Matthew, who played professional hockey for five seasons, and whose wife, Madeline, gave birth to the couple’s first son five months later, was 29. And Johnny, a seven-time NHL All-Star and father of three, was 31.

Over the summer, the Gaudreau family also completed a yearlong project at Archbishop Damiano School, a special needs school that the family has been connected to for over 50 years, opening the Gaudreau Brothers’ Wings of Hopes and Chrysalis Corner, an adaptive playground for children with special needs.

“This was always important to the boys, they loved children, and they always wanted everybody to play hockey, even their friends from school who had never heard of hockey,” said Jane Gaudreau, Johnny and Matthew’s mother. “They were always trying to get someone involved in hockey. They wanted to grow the game, they wanted everybody to have a chance to play hockey, and I just think this is so important to them.”

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After teaching the kids the basics of skating, Guy led them in a number of beginner skating drills to let the kids find their footing on their blades. He did something similar when teaching both John and Matty how to play as kids — but he has one lesson for all the hockey parents: Be patient.

“My son Matthew was probably two and a half [years old] when we did learn-to-skate and he did an hour of snow angels,” Gaudreau said. “Of course, me being a crazy hockey fan, I wasn’t too happy about it. But he finally grew out of that. So, it’s patience. You have to have patience. That’s one thing we’re going to tell the parents, be patient. They may go out there 10 minutes and if that’s all they’re going to do, that’s great. Next week, we’ll have them do 20 minutes. They got to work their way into it.”

To make the sport more accessible, all of the children received a bag full of hockey equipment for free before they headed into the rink.

“There were so many children that couldn’t afford to play hockey,” Jane said. “And when we put it out on social media, we realized that was exactly the case. We had so many people that wrote in and said, ‘I never played hockey. I don’t know anything about it, but we watch it on TV and we just want to get our children involved.’ And we were like, OK, this is perfect. Let’s try this.”