Former Calgary Flames star and fan favourite Johnny Gaudreau spent almost a decade in the city, during which time he cemented his legacy on the rink and in the community.
Gaudreau died Thursday at the age of 31 after he and his brother Matthew were hit by an alleged drunk driver while they were cycling in New Jersey a day before their sister’s wedding.
Gaudreau, who was affectionately known as Johnny Hockey around the hockey world, made his presence felt in the NHL when the Flames drafted the undersized forward in the fourth round in the 2011 NHL draft.
On April 11, 2014, the same day Gaudreau won the Hobey Baker award at Boston College as college’s best hockey player, he signed his entry-level hockey deal to join the Calgary Flames.
Gaudreau suited up for the team’s last game of the season on April 13th in Vancouver against the Canucks and in true Johnny fashion, he scored the Flames only goal in his first game at hockey’s highest level.
Gaudreau made his presence felt in Calgary and the NHL in the 2014-2015 NHL season when he made the big club out of training camp and started wearing his trademark number 13 on the back of his NHL jersey.
On October 7, 2014, the Calgary Herald introduced Johnny Gaudreau to the Stampede City with these words:
Go ahead, Calgary.
You can now officially purchase your Johnny Gaudreau jersey.
No. 13, for the record, and he’ll be wearing one when the Calgary Flames open the 2014-15 season against the Vancouver Canucks.
In his first full season in the NHL with the Flames, Gaudreau scored 24 goals, 40 assists and 64 points in 80 games.
Gaudreau scored his first career NHL hat-trick against on Dec. 22, 2014, against the Los Angeles Kings, becoming the youngest Flames player to record a hat-trick since Joe Nieuwendyk in the 1987–88 season.
The reigning Hobey Baker award winner finished third in the Calder Cup voting as the NHL’s top rookie that season.
Not only during his first season in the NHL was he making his mark on the ice, he was also making his mark in the community and quickly becoming a fan favourite in Calgary.
Gaudreau wanted to make sure he didn’t suffer the sophomore blues in his second full season with the team and as he told a Herald’s sports reporter in September 2015 he really hit the gym hard to continue his success in the NHL.
“Good weight, too — more muscle,” Gaudreau said Tuesday morning before teeing off in the Calgary Flames’ annual charity tournament at Country Hills Golf Club. “It’s exciting to get a little more weight on me.
All the hard work that Johnny Gaudreau has put on and off the ice finally paid off when he signed a long-term contract with the Calgary Flames and committed to the city of Calgary for six more years in 2016. Sports reporter Wes Gilbertson summed up the signing:
The Calgary Flames made big news on Thanksgiving Monday, finally hammering out a long-term contract extension with YouTube-filler, fan favourite and emerging-face-of-the-franchise Johnny Gaudreau.
Once Johnny and the Flames knew he had decided to make the City of Calgary his home he jumped in being part of the community head first.
He always had a longstanding relationship with Pizza 73 and he made sure to put that partnership to good use by helping sick children from around the area with the Johnny Hockey Hat Trick Special.
For every ‘Johnny Hockey Hat Trick Special’ sold, Gaudreau will donate to the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation.
“I have been a part of the Pizza 73 family since my rookie season and I look forward to representing Pizza 73 both on the ice with the Flames and in the community,” said Gaudreau.
Not only was Gaudreau using his star power to make Calgary a better place off the ice, he was making sure he was fully entrenched in the Calgary community and what is more Calgary than the Stampede — — and you better believe he was going out to make sure that he knew what he needed to be an ‘official Calgarian’.
Johnny Gaudreau is officially a Calgarian. The tell-tale sign? The Calgary Flames winger now owns cowboy boots — an essential wardrobe item for the 10 days of the Calgary Stampede and sensible footwear for riding horses, specifically down 9th Avenue S.W.
It was no debate from former teammates that Johnny Gaudreau was a great person off the ice, it turns out he was a great person on the ice. During the 2016-17 season, Gaudreau won his first major award, bringing home the NHL’s Lady Byng trophy. The Byng probably sums up Gaudreau’s life and career best as the award goes to the player who exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct, combined with a high standard of playing ability. This article in the archives explains what an incredible season it really was for Gaudreau.
Johnny Gaudreau logged 1,595 shifts this past season.
He clocked 1,331 minutes of ice time, a total tally that exceeds 22 hours.
Along the way, he was dinged for two penalties. Two!
Gaudreau wasn’t satisfied by winning the Lady Byng. His game on the ice only improved afterwards, making a massive impact for the Flames and keeping the team in the NHL spotlight.
During the 2018-19 season, which was one of his best seasons in the NHL, Gaudreau teamed up on a line with one of his best friends Sean Monahan and winger Elias Lindholm. Gaudreau scored 36 goals, 63 assists for 99 points coming up just a point shy of hitting the century mark. Maybe more importantly the city fell in love with the line that was known as the Purple Gatorade line — in which after they scored a goal the line all shared some purple Gatorade in which was one of the more unique goal celebrations in Flames history.
The 2021-22 NHL season, which turned out to be Gaudreau’s last year wearing the flaming ‘C,’ will be his most memorable season in the league and one that Calgarians won’t forget for a very long time.
Gaudreau teamed up with linemate Matthew Tkachuk to form one of the most dangerous combos in the NHL that year. Gaudreau had his best year in the NHL that season scoring 40 goals, adding 75 assists and for the first time ever he past the century mark getting 115 points that season.
Once the playoffs started, Gaudreau found another gear and was excellent in the first round against the Dallas Stars. Johnny Hockey scored probably the biggest goal for the Flames since the 2004 Stanley Cup playoff run when he buried an overtime goal in Game 7 for the Flames to advance to the second round of the playoffs.
When tensions were at their highest in overtime and every Flames fan in the Scotiabank Saddledome was wondering if there was anything anyone could do to put a puck past Dallas Stars goalie Jake Oettinger, it was Gaudreau who buried one in the back of the net to secure the 3-2 win and set off celebrations across the city.
In a very fitting video clip, the last time Calgary got to see Gaudreau wearing a Flames jersey, he was embracing Sean Monahan as he was leaving the ice after he scored the biggest goal of his career in the National Hockey League.
In the summer of 2022 Gaudreau made a very hard choice to leave the Calgary Flames to be closer to his family. In July of that year, he signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets and said farewell to Calgary. Wes Gilbertson tried to put his departure into words.
There are Calgary Flames fans who always feared this possibility, those who have been fretting since long before he reached superstar status that Johnny Gaudreau would someday decide he wanted to play closer to home.
Someday has arrived.
After 602 games and 609 points in the Flaming C logo, Gaudreau is a goner. The next time he steps on the ice at the Scotiabank Saddledome, it will be as one of the out-of-town guests.
Gaudreau knew his first game back in Calgary wearing a different jersey was going to be a strange feeling. Even though at the time he was expecting a less-than-warm welcome to the Saddledome, he knew it wasn’t anything personal and made light of the situation to the media.
“I won’t take it personally,” Gaudreau insisted to NHL.com. “The Calgary Flames have a great passionate fanbase, a great organization. And I get it. Like any sports team, you don’t want to see players leave. I’m a big Philadelphia Eagles fan and if (star quarterback) Jalen Hurts were to leave, I’d probably boo him too.
In the two seasons since Gaudreau left Calgary, the Flames haven’t been the same team since he wore the jersey. For a person who was small in nature, he played the part of a giant for the Flames and for the city of Calgary for nearly 10-years.
Johnny Gaudreau leaves behind wife Meredith and their two children — daughter Noa, who turns 2 in October, and son Johnny Jr., seven months, along with his parents Guy and Jane, and sisters Kristen and Katie who are all a fixture at the Saddledome.
Condolences have been pouring in from across the league expressing shock, disbelief and sadness at the passing of Johnny and his brother Matthew.