Tonight, the Columbus Blue Jackets play their first home game of the 2025-26 NHL season. It typically is a night filled with hope and excitement for the great promise of the year ahead. But for the hockey community, it is one still marked by great sadness, as it is the second season without the late Johnny Gaudreau.
Meredith Gaudreau, the widow of John, as she calls him, said losing her husband still feels like yesterday. On Aug. 29, 2024, John and his brother, Matthew, were killed by an alleged drunk driver while riding their bikes the night before their sister Katie’s wedding. “Just absolute recklessness, just ruined everything forever. It’s crazy to see all the layers that one terrible mistake can affect,” Gaudreau said.
Life was shattered in that instant for John and Matthew's family. Gaudreau recalled the fateful summer day as starting out pretty normal. The family gathered together in New Jersey to prepare for Katie’s wedding. She said John and Matthew played golf with the groomsmen, while she went to her parents’ house to get their kids settled before the big day. What followed, she explained, was a time span of confusion, before ultimately finding out what happened to the brothers. “I just left my parents' house and drove over to John's parents' house. And then pretty much as soon as I got out of my car realized something really bad just happened. I just walked over and there were police at the house,” Gaudreau said through tears.
After John and Matthew's untimely deaths, Katie postponed her 2024 wedding and eventually got married this past July. Gaudreau was happy Katie and her husband, Devin, finally got their day. “I was heartbroken for them, that’s a whole different layer to this, she looked beautiful, she has a great husband. They deserve to be celebrated as a couple,” Gaudreau said.
As the seasons change and the days and months pass by, Gaudreau said the tragedy still is “super fresh” in her mind. “I can’t believe they’re both gone. They did everything together; they were really excited to be dads together. It’s really crazy, it’s too much to process sometimes,” Gaudreau said. From the moment John was gone, it was all about getting by with her three kids. “Last year was purely survival, maybe this year is more like, this is my life now. I’m just still figuring that out on a daily basis,” Gaudreau said.
She’s now a single mom to their daughter, 3-year-old Noa and sons, 1-year-old Johnny Jr. and 6-month-old Carter – who was born seven months after John was killed. She calls her three happy kids her “only sense of comfort” and said she doesn’t know what she’d do without them. “I feel like I’m just staring into their souls. My daughter looks so much like him. My sons do, too. The boys are starting to remind me of John and Matt, so I’m excited for them to grow up,” Gaudreau said.
Like many other families who experience incomprehensible loss, Gaudreau and her sister-in-law Madeline, Matthew's widow, turned their pain into purpose through The John and Matthew Gaudreau Foundation. “Right when the accident happened so many people wanted to help. There wasn’t really a whole lot they could do but we just saw this as an opportunity to make a difference moving forward in their honor,” Gaudreau said.
The foundation aims to support youth hockey initiatives, hockey families that have faced similar tragedies, as well as families affected by drunk driving. Gaudreau said it’s been heartwarming to see the donations and support pour in from across the globe. “I hope he knows or knew how many people really were a big fan of him. And I like how much people have learned more about him outside of hockey, because that’s who he was to me,” Gaudreau said.
The brothers' shared passion for the game made the decision to support youth hockey a no-brainer for the foundation. Gaudreau said it was never lost on John and Matthew just how expensive playing hockey was and they acknowledged the sacrifices their family had to make. She hopes to lessen the burden for others through the non-profit, by helping families and youth programs with essentials, like uniforms and equipment.
Gaudreau said building the foundation has kept her and Madeline quite busy during the last year and she’s proud of the work they’ve accomplished so far. She hopes John and Matthew would be, too. “I've battled with this thinking like, 'Oh, I want to make them proud,' but I can't think of anything more they'd want us to do other than be good parents. But you know, I'm sure John and Matt would be proud of us for doing something in their honor,” Gaudreau said.
Being a good parent is a responsibility that keeps Gaudreau going, especially on the toughest days. Like the countless times she’s been asked to speak or attend a ceremony, like last year’s Blue Jackets home opener, to honor the beloved “Johnny Hockey,” – a nickname bestowed by fans dating back to his Boston College playing days. But even when she feels like she can’t or when the burden simply feels too heavy, she finds a way, for John. “I can be sad any day, I’m sad every single day, but in those moments, I want to be happy that he’s so deserving of such an honor,” Gaudreau said.
While Gaudreau appears to personify rock-solid strength and resiliency throughout many public appearances, she often feels far from it. However, in those moments, she remembers John chose her to be his partner in good times and in bad. “I’m doing it for him because it should be him, not me. He didn’t pick me as his wife as someone who can’t do this. My kids lost their father, they’re not going to have a weak mom, too,” Gaudreau said.
Now, as Gaudreau works to “keep their names alive in the hockey world,” their family is forced to watch life and hockey carry on, without John and Matthew. After Katie and her husband Devin’s rescheduled wedding this summer, they went to Italy for their honeymoon and were overcome. “I remember she said when they were walking around Italy, they see these signs for the Olympics. So it was a big reminder, too. John would have loved that. Big pasta guy,” Gaudreau said.
She, too, thinks a lot about the upcoming Winter Games and how badly John wanted to be there for the competition. “Last summer he talked about Milan and we were excited that it was in Italy because that’s our cuisine of choice. He was working really hard, like extra, thinking about the Olympics and wanting to be a huge part of that,” Gaudreau said. The seven-time NHL All-Star was in the best shape of his life preparing for the Games — he skated with his dad and spent a lot of time at the rink with Matthew, who was coaching youth hockey. “He was so humble. He always would say, 'Well, I'm kind of old now. I might have missed my chance at it,'” Gaudreau said. He was bummed he hadn’t been able to participate sooner and was excited that NHL players were eligible for competition in 2026.
It was almost part of the perfect storm. This couldn’t have gone worse as far as Katie’s wedding, Madeline and I both being pregnant, Sean (Monahan) joining the Blue Jackets, the Olympics, Four Nations...everything was taken.
While she hates to make assumptions, she likes to think he would have made the U.S. squad for the upcoming Games. John represented Team USA in five IIHF World Championships, the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and won gold at the 2013 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship. “I have one of his Team USA jerseys. He was honored to wear those, whether it was the Olympics or worlds or whatever, so I’m glad he was a part of what he was,” Gaudreau said.
The U.S. men’s hockey team honored John at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February and at the 2025 IIHF World Championship when they took home gold. Gaudreau said she doesn’t yet know of any upcoming tributes at the Olympics, but she plans to sport his old Team USA gear plenty in February.