Saturday was a relatively slow news day, but we got official word that a Russian prospect will not join the Chicago Blackhawks next season. Meanwhile, across the NHL, a young forward still wants out of Toronto. There were exit interviews in Dallas and some injury updates out of Florida.

Blackhawks Chirps

• Ilya Safonov will not be coming to North America this season. Scott Powers confirmed he signed a one-year extension with Ak Bars in the KHL. A few weeks ago, there were reports that Safonov was interested in signing with the Blackhawks, but it appears the interest wasn’t mutual. The 2021 sixth-round pick has had two rather pedestrian seasons after breaking out in 2022-23. We’ll see where he stands a year from now, but it’s not looking good that he’ll make it to the NHL.
• On June 1, 1992, the Stanley Cup made an appearance at Chicago Stadium. The Pittsburgh Penguins completed the sweep of the Blackhawks with a 6-5 win in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final. The win was the Penguins’ 11^th straight of the postseason, tying a record the Blackhawks had set heading into the series with Pittsburgh.
• Three years later, the Blackhawks lost 2-1 in overtime to the Detroit Red Wings in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final. Joe Murphy gave the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal in the first period. After Keith Primeau tied the game in the middle frame, Nicklas Lidstrom scored a minute into overtime. This was the Red Wings’ first overtime playoff win at home since 1960, ending a 10-game losing streak.
• On this date in 2013, the Blackhawks opened the Western Conference Final by beating the Los Angeles Kings 2-1. Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa scored four minutes apart in the second period to provide the offense. Corey Crawford stopped 21 of the 22 shots he faced, only allowing a first-period Justin Williams goal.
• The Blackhawks and Kings wrapped up the Western Conference Final one year later. This time, it was the Kings advancing to the Stanley Cup Final with a 5-4 overtime win in Game 7. Sharp scored twice as the Blackhawks took a 4-3 lead into the third period. After Marian Gaborik tied the game late in regulation, future Blackhawk Alec Martinez scored the series-clinching goal in overtime.

• Blackhawks Birthday Roll Call, June 1: Larry Zeidel, Paul Coffey, Jeff Hackett, Michal Grosek, and Dylan Sikura.

NHL Chirps

• According to The Athletic’s Chris Johnston, Toronto Maple Leafs forward Nicolas Robertson’s trade request from last year still stands. The 23-year-old scored 15 goals in 69 games this past season, both career highs. He is the perfect “change of scenery” guy and could get a bigger role in Chicago. I’m sure Kyle Davidson will inquire about the asking price.
• While speaking with reporters on Saturday, Matt Duchene indicated that he wants to stay with the Dallas Stars, but wants more than just a one-year deal. This is not a guy I want the Blackhawks to pursue this summer, plus, Duchene sure feels like a guy who wants to play for a contender.
• Staying in Dallas, general manager Jim Nill confirmed Roope Hintz sustained a foot fracture after being slashed by Edmonton Oilers’ defenseman Darnell Nurse in Game 2 of the Western Conference Final.
• According to Florida Hockey Now, Florida Panthers forwards Eetu Loustarinen and Anton Lundell are expected to play in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final after missing Saturday’s practice. However, head coach Paul Maurice called A.J. Greer a “question mark.”
• Finally, ESPN’s John Buccigross posted on X last night, suggesting that top 2026 draft prospect Gavin McKenna could be headed to Michigan State University.

SEWELL, N.J. — In the hour before the Gaudreau Family 5K on Saturday morning, with the sidewalk still wet from a rainstorm the previous night, hundreds and hundreds of participants filed into Washington Lake Park and headed toward a clearing where the race was to begin.

A rainbow in the sky greeted all of them.

“The boys are here,” said Deb Vasaturo, one of the event organizers.

Nine months ago, mere days after John and Matthew Gaudreau were struck and killed by an SUV driver while riding bicycles together on Aug. 29, a group of close friends, including Vasaturo, had gathered at the family home in Penns Grove, N.J., hoping to offer support to the brothers’ parents, Jane and Guy. That day, a double rainbow had split through the sky — a tiny comfort in a period of unimaginable grief.

The 31-year-old John, better known as Johnny among fans, was playing for the Columbus Blue Jackets when he and 29-year-old Matthew died, and Zach Aston-Reese felt his presence throughout the NHL season. In February, on the first birthday of John’s oldest son, a beautiful sunset graced Columbus; late in the season, before a must-win road game for the Blue Jackets, a rainbow appeared above the Philadelphia Flyers’ arena. He was touched again when another rainbow emerged before the 5K, as throngs of runners and walkers gathered for the race.

“It’s almost a year since (the accident), but I think it’s something that can take a lifetime to heal from,” Aston-Reese said. “Any time you get a chance to support, especially the bigger events, it’s really special.”

Around 1,100 people signed up for either the competitive 5K, which kicked off at 8 a.m., or a more casual 8:45 a.m. race of the same distance. Kids had their chance to compete in a one-mile run later in the morning. Multiple race participants wore jerseys of John, a seven-time NHL All-Star nicknamed Johnny Hockey, who played for the Calgary Flames and Blue Jackets. Some also wore gear for Matthew, who reached the AHL after a four-year career at Boston College and most recently suited up with the ECHL’s Worcester Railers in 2021-22.

The park was alive with activity throughout the morning. One tent showcased signed jerseys up for a silent auction, as kids played lawn games nearby. Baskets sitting on the covered stage were raffled off. Below them, attendees wrote memories and messages of support for the Gaudreau family on a big white banner.

The event raised money for an adaptive playground at Archbishop Damiano, a special education school in Westville, N.J. The Gaudreau family has deep family connections with the school: Jane’s brother has special needs, and their mother worked there for more than 40 years. All four of the Gaudreau kids — Kristen, John, Matthew and Katie — have either volunteered for or worked at the school too.

“The playground has been a project for I think four or five years, and there just never was enough funding,” Vasaturo said. “(The 5K) was a perfect marriage of doing something good to honor the boys and seeing children laugh and smile.”

Fans sign a banner for the Gaudreau family. (Peter Baugh / For The Athletic)

Jane, Guy, Kristen and Katie were present throughout. Both boys loved children, Jane said, so seeing all the smiling kids would have been everything they would’ve wanted in the event. “I think they would just be so proud of us that we did (this),” she said.

Guy noted that Matthew would have run the 5K and won. He frequently beat John in off-ice exercises growing up, leaving his older brother “so mad he couldn’t see straight,” their dad said with fondness.

Professional hockey players went out of their way to attend as well. South Jersey natives Buddy Robinson, who played 62 NHL games and is now in the KHL, and Tony DeAngelo, who played with the New York Islanders this past season, were both there. Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, a teammate of John Gaudreau’s for the United States at the World Championships last summer, traveled from his offseason home on the Jersey Shore and wore a black sweatshirt that read “Johnny Hockey.” Aston-Reese and Erik Gudbranson represented the Blue Jackets.

“Our family wouldn’t have missed this,” said Gudbranson, who came with his wife and kids straight from a trip to Disney World. “There’s no way.”

In the aftermath of John and Matthew’s deaths, the Gaudreau family’s friends wanted to find ways to help. Vasaturo initially thought of the charity 5K. When she approached Guy and Jane in October, Jane thought it was a wonderful idea but felt the family didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to provide much help.

That wasn’t an issue. Their friends — a committee of around 18 people — took care of it all.

“They did everything, organized everything,” Guy said. “They just wanted us to be here.”

Community members beyond the committee, including Aston-Reese, helped too. The Blue Jackets forward studied graphic design while playing college hockey at Northeastern University, and one of Jane’s friends reached out and asked him to create the event logo. Honored, the Blue Jackets forward came up with a design — two interlocking hockey sticks with doves above them and the Gaudreau family name across the middle — that ultimately went on the race shirts and medals.

“It was pretty surreal pulling in and seeing everyone with their shirts on and the logo you created,” Aston-Reese said.

NHLers Brady Tkachuk (black hoodie, left) and Erik Gudbranson (white shirt, back) walk in the “Fun 5K run/walk.” (Peter Baugh / For The Athletic)

Along with the race in Sewell, more than 1,300 people signed up to compete in a virtual 5K, with participants across the U.S. and Canada, as well as in multiple other countries, including Ireland, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates. Florida Panthers players, who are preparing for the Stanley Cup Final, participated from Fort Lauderdale.

“Thursday, yesterday and even this morning I woke up, (and) I can’t clean out my inbox because I get all the notices of all the donations and all the registrations,” said Paul O’Connor, an organizing committee member whose son was a childhood friend of Matthew. “It just keeps growing.”

Jane Gaudreau said it was emotional pulling into the park and seeing how many people were there. She and Guy initially expected the 5K to draw maybe 100 or 200 people. To see it balloon into an event with more than 1,000 was “overwhelming, but in a good way,” she said.

After the races, the family stood on stage for an award ceremony. The public address announcer listed off the overall top finishers, then the winners of each age group. The NHL players on hand presented awards: In place of trophies, each person received a gift card and one of the hockey sticks left at public memorials after John and Matthew’s deaths.

“Just to be able to show support for this amazing family and see this amazing turnout, it was pretty great to be a part of,” said Tkachuk, who walked the more casual 5K. “I’m just so thankful they had me here.”

Guy Gaudreau runs the Gaudreau Family 5K. (Peter Baugh / For The Athletic)

Every finisher received a medal that read “1st annual 5K run/walk,” indicating Saturday wasn’t a one-off event, and indeed the current plan is to continue it in the future. Jane has seen messages asking if the family would host the race in Calgary or Columbus, which has given her ideas. She saw requests from Calgary first, so she said she’ll perhaps run next year as a virtual participant with people there.

But this year the Gaudreaus were home in New Jersey, only a five-minute drive from Hollydell Ice Arena, the rink where the boys spent countless hours as kids. Jane stood near the end of the course as the fastest runners wrapped up the competitive race. She clapped and whooped as they neared the finish line.

Guy, meanwhile, ran the race. He wore a bright orange long-sleeved shirt, and the crowd burst into applause when the public address announcer pointed him out as he came around the final turn. Vasaturo, the friend whose idea led to Saturday’s event, cheered and cheered from the stage.

“His strength and Jane’s strength and their resiliency is just amazing,” she said. “We just want to be there and help them along the way, take these steps with them.”

(Top photo of the Gaudreau family and NHL players: Gillian Kocher / Gaudreau Family 5K) 

James Hagens is no stranger to the Utah Mammoth.

When asked which players he has looked to in the NHL to model his game after, a familiar name surfaced.

“I grew up watching Patrick Kane, I grew up watching John Tavares. Now, Jack Hughes and Logan Cooley,” Hagens said. “The way [Cooley] has been able to jump in the league and the things he’s done, it’s special. He’s a special player. He’s always been so good in the way he controls the game and the way he thinks it — it’s something that separates him.”

Hagens, who is one of the top players in the 2025 draft class, has taken a path that somewhat resembles Cooley’s. Both centers played for the United States National Team Development Program (USNTDP) before jumping to NCAA hockey. Each went into their drafts as highly-touted, undersized options, too. Cooley went third overall in 2022 to the Arizona Coyotes.

Utah now has the fourth overall selection this year and Hagens sees landing in Salt Lake City as an option.

“I’ve watched a ton of the Utah games,” Hagens said. “I’m a big fan of the new logo as well, the Mammoth. It’d be super cool to be able to be a draft pick for the new logo Mammoth.”

A year ago, Hagens was widely viewed as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. Since then, Matthew Schaefer, Michael Misa and Caleb Desnoyers have drawn more attention and bubbled to the top of mock orders.

Part of it is because players like Misa, a 6-foot-1 center, tore it up in the Ontario Hockey League this season. Misa had 134 points (62 goals, 72 assists) in 65 games. Hagens played for Boston College last year and had 37 points (11 goals, 26 assists) in 37 games. It is not a fair comparison, though. The level of the NCAA sport — particularly in Hockey East, which is one of the best conferences — is much more of a challenge than the Canadian Junior routes.

Hagens has also been knocked for his size. The 18-year-old stands at 5-foot-11, 176 pounds. His draft-class counterparts are bigger.

There has been a lot of noise around Hagens. He is trying to stay grounded.

“You just kind of have to be grateful about it. Being able to hear your name in those conversations. Obviously, leading up to the draft now — having the opportunity to get drafted to any organization in the league, it’s something you have to be grateful for,” Hagens said. “The noise will always be there, but you just have to make sure you’re living in the moment and taking it day by day.”

The ambiguity around Hagens’ ranking makes the possibility of him being available for Utah at No. 4 real. If it were up to his former head coach, Nick Fohr, who had Hagens at the USNTDP, the decision would be easy.

“I’ve had NHL teams calling and talking to me about him. I tell them all, ‘If you get a chance to pick him, pick him. You’re not going to be disappointed,’” Fohr said. “This kid has just proven it over and over again everywhere he goes.”

Fohr and his staff knew about Hagens far before his name started hitting the NHL headlines. The USNTDP selects the best 16- to 18-year-old players around the country for its U-17 and U-18 teams. Accordingly, scouts and coaches are following these guys through their youth careers.

Some players don’t pan out. Others take the opportunity and run with it. That is what Hagens did.

“I think his coming out party for everybody on the world stage was the Under-17 World Challenge where he set the record for the most points in the history of that tournament,” Fohr said. “I think that’s when everybody went, ‘Oh boy, this kid’s pretty good.’ They started talking about him being a really high pick for this coming draft.”

Hagens posted 102 points (39 goals, 63 assists) in 58 games with the U18 Team in 2023-2024 before transitioning to Boston College. He was dominant in all three zones against older, stronger opponents. Fohr never saw Hagens’ size as a deterrent.

“It hasn’t affected his game at the younger levels at all. His intelligence, his hockey IQ, his skating ability, his ability to make plays and to think the game at a higher level — size doesn’t impact him with those types of assets and attributes,” Fohr said.

“People fall in love with size because it’s size and you can’t coach it, but I think you see guys like Jack Hughes, Clayton Keller and Logan Cooley — the success that they’re having as undersized guys. There’s a place for him in the game.”

While Hagens no doubt got knocked around a bit more in college hockey, he still centered Boston College’s first line between Gabe Perreault and Ryan Leonard (who are both now in the NHL).

“I love making plays. I love being able to find a guy backdoor. That’s something that I feel like is a big part of my game my whole entire career here. I wouldn’t say that I ever deflect away from shooting the puck,” Hagens said. “I know when to shoot and when to pass. Just something that really helps take my game to the next level is the way I’m able to find other guys.”

Some were expecting Hagens to make a bigger splash in terms of production in the NCAA, though.

In the past few years, centers like Macklin Celebrini and Adam Fantilli played in college ahead of their respective drafts. Celebrini had 64 points (32 goals, 32 assists) in 38 games with Boston University in his freshman season in 2023-2024. Fantilli had 65 points (30 goals, 35 assists) in 36 games in his freshman season with the University of Michigan in 2022-2023. Both won the Hobey Baker Award (given to the top men’s ice hockey player in the NCAA Division I). Celebrini was selected first overall in 2024 by the San Jose Sharks; Fantilli went third overall in 2023 to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Hagens did not close in on any of those numbers or accolades. He still took lessons from his first year with the Eagles. Hagens said no decision has been made if he will return for his sophomore campaign; that will be discussed after the draft. But he will be focused on “maturing [his] game — especially off the ice as well, making sure you’re doing all those little things that help you get ready for the games and prepare.”

Hagens’ focus now shifts to the NHL Scouting Combine, which will take place in Buffalo, New York, from June 2 to 7. All of the top prospects attend and go through interviews with prospective organizations and fitness testing. Hagens will meet with Utah general manager Bill Armstrong and his staff.

What does he want to get across in these conversations?

“Going into these meetings just really expressing how hard I compete and how badly I want to be on a team and hopefully win a Stanley Cup one day,” Hagens said. “I love winning. I will do anything to win. Something that’s helped me get to the point where I am today is just how hard I’ve been able to work my whole life. Nothing’s ever come easy. I’ve had to work for everything that I’ve ever gotten before.”

There is no saying for certain where Hagens will end up. Utah has been looking for size, but with the recent signing of Daniil But, its mindset going into the draft could change. Cooley and Hagens as the No. 1 and No. 2 centers could be the makeup of a contending team.

It seems Hagens wouldn’t mind playing with one of his role models, either.

“It is one step in your process but you just have to be ready. Getting drafted has been my dream my whole entire life,” Hagens said. “That’s why I started playing hockey, that’s why I still play. I’m really just grateful for everything right now.”

In late December, University of Miami hoops coach Jim Larranaga retired two months into the season. There was no scandal behind it, no family reasons given.

Larranaga — who has taken two teams to the Final Four, most recently in 2023 — told The Post thisweek: “It’s not that I don’t love coaching anymore or wanted to step down. I felt like I was no longer the right guy for the job.”

More specifically, not the right guy in this brave new world where NIL — the NCAA right that lets college athletes profit off their name, image and likeness — combined with the freedom of movement the transfer portal provides young athletes, has essentially made college athletes free agents every year.

As the first class who were freshman under NIL privileges, which were instated July 1, 2021, are now ready to graduate, the college sports landscape is a chaotic one. Not only did it change the status quo for coaches and athletes, it’s taken dynamite to the whole system.

“When NIL hit and the transfer portal opened up at the same time, what I found immediately frustrating was that players and their view of the college experience was going to be completely changed,” Larranaga, 75, said.

The Queens native, who is currently writing a book on leadership and will be teaching at Miami, made it clear he’s not critical of athletes wanting to capitalize on a short window and make money.

“But to build a program as a coach, you’re losing the normal continuity,” he said of the now-yearly roster turnover. “I had 10 new guys and they weren’t that interested in a new system or developing skills that could be put to use. They were basically trying out for their next job.

“The culture changed. Not my culture, but the players had a different view.”

Followers of college hoops will likely cite Larranaga’s age and say he was already heading toward the end of his career. But only two months earlier, University of Virginia coach Tony Bennett also shocked the basketball world by calling it quits at 56. It underscored the tumult.

On his way out, he expressed similar sentiments as Larranaga. Bennett was critical not of student athletes being compensated — but of NIL’s lawlessness.

“The game, and college athletics, is not in a healthy spot,” he said at the time.

That was obvious this spring, when University of Tennessee sophomore redshirt quarterback Nico Iamaleava was a no-show at practice — because he was holding out in a high-stakes game for a better NIL deal than the reported $8 million one he had at UT.

After a high-profile game of chicken that angered the school’s rabid fan base, Tennessee removed Iamaleava from the roster and he transferred to UCLA for a reported pay cut of $500K a year.

A few executives and experts told The Post the Iamaleava situation is a “cautionary tale” on how to not conduct business. Sports attorney Mit Winter said the very public battle between a powerful institution and an individual player has “galvanized” coaches to prevent a repeat.

When NIL was enacted, it was a given that some athletes would be treated like influencers — netting deals with businesses and brands. We saw athletes like LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne and twin hoopers Haley and Hanna Cavinder, who transferred to the University of Miami, become early star earners. That led to NIL collectives — aka third parties — essentially paying them a salary for playing their sport.

“I don’t think people envisioned that every school would [create] a new entity called an ‘NIL collective’ … just to pool money to pay athletes. It spread a lot quicker than people had expected,” said Winter, adding that it caught the NCAA, conferences and many schools flat-footed.

As a result, college sports has truly shifted into a pay-to-play system with few rules in place, no transparency — and a whole lot of financial and cultural whiplash. Players, unencumbered bytransfer rules, can now hop around each year hunting for the best deals.

It’s also widened the gap between the schools that are the haves and have-nots. After leaping from Seton Hall, basketball star Kadary Richmond finished his collegiate career last season at conference rival St. John’s where, coach Rick Pitino revealed on Vice’s “Pitino: Red Storm Rising” docu-series, “He wanted to play for me. But we paid him a lot of money.” Richmond’s NIL deal was reportedly in the high six figures.

Texas quarterback Arch Manning is atop the NIL food chain with a valuation of $6.5 million, while Duke phenom Cooper Flagg, who declared for the NBA draft, had a reported valuation of $4.8. Dunne was valued at $4.1 million.

And while NIL has led to greater player agency, allowing athletes to create generational wealth for themselves, it’s also created a lot of uncertainty,

“I’ve talked to some of the smartest people in college athletics and it scares me when they say, ‘Hey, I have been in this business 40 years and I have no idea where this all ends up,’” ESPN analyst and former New Mexico coach Fran Franschilla told The Post. “I think they might have the answer but they have no clue.

“It’s a new system. It’s a very transactional business right now,” Fraschilla said.

One frequent criticism of the current NIL system is the lack of transparency. Many sources said no one truly knows how much money collectives have, nor what players are worth.

“What was a challenge for us was to talk to an agent and not know the true market value of a player,” said Larranaga. “An agent could tell you, ‘OK, to be involved with this player would cost you a million dollars’ … [But] no one knows what other schools are offering. And so you’re guessing and dealing with your own budget.”

Murky deals aside, Fraschilla said NIL and the transfer portal have altered not only the coach-player relationship, but also, in some cases, the power structure.

“I had a referee recently text me. He said, ‘I did games this year where I could tell the coach was afraid to yell at the players because he was worried the kid might get mad and transfer,’” said Fraschilla, adding that money and the reshuffling of players every year has impacted team chemistry.

“There are teams that, when you watch games, you think, ‘How the hell are they losing with all that talent?’ And you find out one guy is jealous of another guy because he’s getting more money,” said Fraschilla.

On the other hand, agent Daniel Poneman, the founder of Weave, one of the top agencies in college hoops, said the monetary incentive has only made athletes want to play harder — and, many times, led to more professional dealings between coach and player.

However, not up for debate is the danger of handing large infusions of cash to young people with little financial acumen. While not many are reportedly making millions, there are significant payouts that come with few if any guardrails.

“I had one client and I told him how to save for taxes. Tax season came and it was all gone. It turns out, he had been playing online blackjack,” said one executive.

That’s where people like Michael Haddix Jr. come in. Haddix, who taught financial literacy for the NBA G league and NFL teams, founded Scout, a fintech platform that helps athletes automate pesky things like tax withholding.

He works with top schools like Louisville, Mississippi State and Iowa.

“I’ve heard examples where players were going through money and not paying their taxes and jumping into the transfer portal, asking the new coaches for an advance so they can clean up their financial mess,” Haddix said, adding that coaches and ADs tell him they worry about athletes ending up in severe trouble with the IRS.

Over the summer, Poneman’s agency will be trying to stave off this kind of scenario by hosting clients in Scottsdale for a two-week offseason training. “It’s like a boot camp, where we’re bringing in tax experts, financial advisors and spiritual teachers,” said Poneman.

“We’re saying, look, the money you’re making is not for you to go crazy and buy bottle service on your college campus,” Poneman said. “This is to put in your Roth IRA and into a diversified portfolio. This is life-changing money if you allow it to change your life positively.”

There’s less emphasis on graduation, not to mention traditional alma-mater relationships, but players are staying in college longer for the paycheck.

“I don’t hear the term graduation rate anymore. No one is talking about getting degrees now. They’re just figuring out how much money those kids can make,” lamented Fraschilla.

And one positive is the incredible boost NIL has provided to women’s hoops by driving interest to the sport’s big stars.

In 2021, former UConn star and current Dallas Wings rookie Paige Beuckers became the first college basketball player to sign with Gatorade. Two years later, Caitlin Clark was the first collegiate athlete to notch a deal with State Farm.

And changes are coming. On July 1, the NCAA House Settlement — the result of a class-action lawsuit brought against the NCAA and the country’s five biggest conferences  — is expected to go into effect, kicking off a flurry of new modifications.

Among them: awarding $2.7 billion in backpay to athletes, allowing schools to directly pay athletes instead of compensating them through a third-party collective, revenue sharing and instituting what is, essentially, a salary cap of $20.5 per school over the next year.

But as the new rules settle, Winter expects new legal issues, including inevitable Title IX lawsuits — “Because, as of now, schools [are] paying like 90% of [their] dollars to male athletes,” he said.

Winter said some athletic directors favor a collective bargaining structure that mimics the NBA and NFL.

“If college sports is really going to be professional,” Larranaga said, “let’s come up with good rules and let’s figure it out.”

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At a celebration of life for Trent Dorais last weekend, it was patently clear how much the late Lumby father continues to live in the hearts of friends, family and former teammates. 

The love he inspires was evident in the words of his mother, Charlie Fedora, who in front of a crowd of hundreds told the story of Dorais’ life, not leaving out the details that led to his death.

“He had a heart that loved deeply and loyally, especially when it came to his family,” Fedora said, adding her son was “fiercely protective” of his sisters, brothers and step-siblings. 

He was also fiercely protective of his teammates.

Dorais had been an enforcer in his hockey-playing days. He played for the Vernon Vipers and the Alberni Valley Bulldogs in the BC Hockey League, and earned the kind of respect on the ice that is reserved for tough customers. 

Head injuries sustained in fights and physical play left Dorais with symptoms akin to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a disease that stems from repeated head trauma. Fedora said her son suffered from severe depression as a result. 

Following a missing person report, Dorais’ body was found on Saturday, March 29. He left behind four children, parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces, a nephew, a girlfriend and a wide circle of friends. 

One of those friends is Colton Sparrow, who like Dorais played for the Vipers and went on to join the team’s staff for four and a half years, serving some of those years as assistant coach. 

“He was a special guy for sure, and he certainly fought his demons, but he was one of the most selfless guys I ever met,” Sparrow said of Dorais. 

Sparrow knew the Dorais family well. As a teenager he was always at their home, expelling rampant energy as teenage boys do. He and Dorais would put on boxing gloves and exchange blows for the fun of it. 

Dorais was a role model for a young Sparrow who had big ambitions in the world of hockey. 

“He was a few years older and a tough kid, strong, a really good hockey player, and for me that was my whole life at that time, trying to make the NHL and striving for that,” Sparrow said. “I definitely looked up to Trent and I felt safe around him…he treated me almost as his little brother.”

In many ways, Sparrow and Dorais’ lives were in lock-step as they matured. Both played for the Vipers having made the team at a young age. Sparrow was barely 17 when he got his shot with the Vipers. Dorais was a 16-year-old walk-on who impressed enough at Vipers camp to earn a spot on the roster. 

Dorais signed with the Alberni Valley Bulldogs in 2009 and became the team’s captain. Sparrow, then playing for the Vipers, ended up playing against Dorais for a couple seasons. 

“He wasn’t a lot of fun to play against,” Sparrow said of his friend with a chuckle. “He was about as tough as they come…I remember knowing when he was on the ice because of the way he played.”

Dorais eventually moved back to Vernon, and that’s when he and Sparrow began to talk to one another about head injuries. 

Having left for college earlier, Sparrow himself had returned to Vernon to join the Vipers’ staff. Around 2021, Dorais reached out ot Sparrow with an invitation to grab coffee and catch up. 

“We got together at the rink just outside of my office and we sat and we had a coffee, and that was when we kind of first discussed (head injuries),” Sparrow said. 

Head trauma was essentially what ended Sparrow’s playing career. He said he had a “really bad” head injury while playing professional hockey in Sweden. He was blindsided by a late hit coming across the blueline at a moment when he’d let his guard down after an offside whistle. 

“I ended up on the ice, and the mistake I made is, me being the way I was, I was pretty fiery and right away I got up,” Sparrow recounted. “I knew I was hurt but I got up and I was looking for the guy who hit me.”

Sparrow dropped the gloves with the defenceman who hit him and wound up taking a heavy punch in the fight. It was that second blow to the head that Sparrow thinks did the most damage. He spent almost two full days in hospital as CT scans were done, with doctors worried about potential brain bleeding. It was deemed he’d suffered a “pretty aggressive” concussion.

“It took quite a bit of time for me to recover from that one, and I think that was a big part of me deciding not to go back the following season and play,” he said. “I was able to listen to my body and understand that probably if I got another one of those (concussions) it would only get worse.”

In their first conversation, Sparrow and Dorais talked about their respective head injuries, and the lingering effects. 

“I’ll never forget that first conversation because I feel like it was such a weight lifted off both of our shoulders,” Sparrow recalled. 

The two kept talking. They’d grab coffees and offer each other words of support. Though Dorais wasn’t on the Vipers’ staff, he’d come to the rink, put on a helmet and skates and run battle drills with the players in the corners. 

Eventually, Dorais told Sparrow he wanted to spread the conversation of head injuries beyond the confines of Sparrow’s office. 

Trent’s legacy 

“I don’t know if we ever used the term CTE,” Sparrow said of his conversations with Dorais. 

Indeed, as Fedora said at the celebration of life, while Dorais “truly believed” he had CTE, the doctors couldn’t definitively diagnose it because such a diagnosis can only come after an autopsy. 

High-level hockey players are to some extent hooked on adrenaline, and Sparrow says both he and Dorais had to work to find an outlet for that energy after leaving the sport. 

“It’s the thrill of competing, and when it’s hard to find that in everyday life, I think that’s where you really need to learn to slow down and find other ways to relax and calm yourself,” he said. 

The two would do deep breathing exercises in Sparrow’s office. Sparrow noticed some progress in his friend in those days. 

“What really hurt when he passed was that I felt in the last couple of years he’d really made some gains, I had really thought he’d made some strides. And sometimes maybe you make strides but then you go backwards. It’s an everyday battle.”

Starting a couple years before his death, Dorais repeatedly mentioned to Sparrow an idea he seemingly couldn’t get out of his head. 

“He would always talk about wanting to do a charity game, like putting together a game towards mental health,” Sparrow said. 

Life got in the way of bringing that idea to fruition. But in memory of his friend, Sparrow is determined to make a mental health charity game happen. 

Sparrow is currently living in Fort St. John but is moving back to Vernon in August, having been hired by the Greater Vernon Minor Hockey Association to do player development. Once he returns, he plans to use his new connections with the association and his old ones with the Vipers to set up an annual charity game in Dorais’ honour. 

Funds raised would go towards mental heath support organizations, and Sparrow said some of the funds could be used to set up a foundation for Dorais’ children. 

Sparrow said he’s already gotten enthusiastic support from high places in local hockey about the idea. 

Should fighting be a part of hockey?

Dorais suffered the long-term effects of being a hockey enforcer, and growing awareness of CTE and other forms of head trauma in recent years has sparked debates on the degree to which fighting should be a part of the game.

Sparrow sees both sides of the debate. 

On the one hand, being an enforcer and regularly dropping the gloves exposes players to repeated blows to the head that can have long-lasting health implications. On the other hand, some say removing fighting from hockey altogether would remove the way hockey players police themselves on the ice, leading to players being able to target the head on hits with impunity. 

Sparrow played a couple seasons in the NCAA. In the college league, players wear full-face cages which effectively removes fighting from the game. Sparrow said while fighting wasn’t part of the game, hits to the head were more common in that league than in others he’s played in. 

“Some of the hardest hits I ever took that resulted in some pretty bad headaches and head injuries were in college hockey,” he said, adding he believes players were able to “take a pretty good liberty at a guy while knowing nobody’s going to come beat you up afterwards.”

He described a play in which a college player “was able to knock my head off without any sort of repercussions.”

While Sparrow doesn’t thinks fighting can be removed from the game completely, he agrees there should be limits on fighting, especially at the younger levels. And he’s seen some progress on that front first-hand. 

He said in his second year in the BCHL in 2011-12, the league introduced a rule that players could only engage in six fights in a season without getting fined or suspended. That limit has been lowered over the years. 

“That just kind of took away the guys that were just trying to fight every night,” Sparrow said. 

He says he got through his first fight unscathed at the age of 16, and adds younger players still need the odd experience like that before they turn pro and are thrown into a league where fighting is commonplace. 

Positive strides have been made, said Sparrow, and young players are more aware of the potential cost of fisticuffs on skates. 

“Kids nowadays understand the risks of head injuries,” Sparrow said. “I didn’t play that long ago but I remember, even in 2010 or 2009, there were guys fighting all the time, and it was ugly. And so I think we’ve made progress in that for sure.”