In the hours after the Columbus Blue Jackets announced that forward Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew had been killed, team president and general manager Don Waddell said he received about 500 text messages.
One hit him even harder than the rest. It belonged to Graham and LuAnn Snyder.
On September 29, 2003, the Snyders’ son Dan was seriously injured when a car driven by Atlanta Thrashers teammate Dany Heatley was involved in a single-vehicle accident. Snyder died six days later.
More than twenty years later, the family is still in touch with Waddell, who was the general manager of the Thrashers at the time. The message they sent on August 30, the morning after a car struck and killed the Gaudreau brothers, wished the organization strength and had a simple message for Waddell: that there was no doubt that he could lead the organization through this tragedy , just like he did the Thrashers.
“I think in those moments it’s important that you feel support or love somewhere,” Graham Snyder said The Athletics. “Because the emotions are so high.
“When I woke up and first heard the news and saw the headline and started reading… it took me about a minute and I said, ‘Oh, my God. It’s Don again.’ I knew he had moved to Columbus.
“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, Don, how are you going to get through this?'”
Once again he has to lead a grieving organization through so much pain. And yet, at a time when hockey isn’t even that important, he has to somehow try to get ready to play hockey again.
“Nobody wants that job, but he certainly helped us, and the organization did too,” Graham Snyder said. “I just felt we had to reach out to him. Because who could imagine experiencing that twice in your life?”
The message got home.
“When Graham and LuAnn contacted me that Friday, it meant the world to me,” Waddell said The Athletics. “Because the family has been through it and lost one of their two sons, it’s not easy for anyone. How they dealt with it and how we stayed in touch over the years, it meant the world to me to hear from them, knowing that as parents who went through it, we felt like we were dealing with it the best we could. and supported them.
“They are good people.”
Graham Snyder has vivid memories of talking to Thrashers players after his son’s death in 2003 and wishing them the strength to carry on.
“I remember going into the Thrashers locker room in Atlanta, and I don’t know, there was strength coming from somewhere,” Snyder said. “A peace just came over me and I started talking to the team about what needed to be done and that we were there for them.”
As Snyder remembers, the support from people in the sport was so important.
“One of the things that got us through, and that’s what’s happening right now in Columbus and throughout the hockey world, is people really coming together,” Snyder said. “I don’t think it can be compared to any other sport. The hockey world is so connected and so close.
“This is how they will get through it now, with the support of others in the hockey world.”
The Jackets felt that.
“Yes, 100 percent,” Waddell said. “It’s quite evident from all the players who came to the funeral – a lot of players who played with him, but also a lot of players who didn’t play with him. This has not only impacted the Blue Jackets, but the entire National Hockey League. And for that matter the entire country. I’ve heard from so many people who didn’t know the Gaudreau family but saw all the stories and I just wanted to be supportive and ask what they could do to help. It was moving.”
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The idea now is to honor the memory of Johnny Gaudreau by playing for him.
“If it’s anything like what happened in Atlanta, the emotions are going to carry them for a while,” Snyder said.
Right now, the Jackets are still in a fog of pain and shock. But they must find the strength to move on.
“We are all devastated for the Gaudreau families,” Waddell said. ‘You never think that parents should bury their children. Not a moment goes by that you don’t think about the families.
“From a team point of view, we know it will be difficult. But we also listened to (Johnny’s wife) Meredith when she spoke at church. She knows Johnny wants the best for us. I know guys have talked about it, that he would want us to go out there and do what we’re capable of and try to win as many hockey games as we can.”
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It is of utmost importance that the players get as much help as they need.
“Everyone grieves and grieves differently,” Waddell said. “You don’t expect people to get through this on their own. The union (NHLPA) was great. They have offered several grief counselors.”
Waddell added that starting this week, the Jackets also have people on site to talk to players through Ohio Health.
It will be a difficult process in the coming days.
“We have to try to figure out how we can get through the healing process and continue to move forward,” Waddell said.
And as Waddell noted, just three years ago the Blue Jackets also lost young goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks to a tragic death, an event that still scars many in the organization.
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It’s not an easy road here. But only the hope that everyone will find the strength somehow.
“This was a senseless and cruel way for people to lose their lives,” Waddell said.
It is a tragedy that will stay with so many forever. But somehow, in doing so, the Jackets will honor the spirit of a player beloved by teammates. And within that, they will want to continue to help a grieving Gaudreau family in any way they can.
The Snyders felt that from the Thrashers 21 years ago.
“They were so behind us and supportive of us,” Snyder said. “It was really amazing and really moving.”
(Photo: Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)