The parents of an Ontario NHL prospect who is in critical condition after collapsing during a team workout say their son is “a fighter” and that they are not giving up on him.
Twenty-one-year-old Matthew Mayich, of Hamilton, was at an early-morning outdoor workout with the Arizona State University (ASU) hockey team on Aug. 20 when he collapsed.
“We know Matthew’s a fighter and we’re hoping he pulls through this,” said Matthew’s father, John. He and Matthew’s mother, Christina, spoke to CBC News from Phoenix, Ariz.
Before the workout, Matthew was “perfectly healthy,” according to Christina.
Now, their lawyer says, he’s “clinging to his life in a hospital bed.”
The incident has made waves in the sports world, prompting the Professional Hockey Players’ Association to speak up about the lack of protections for young athletes.
“When athletes feel pressure to remain silent about an injury, illness, exhaustion or concern because they fear the consequences of speaking up, the system has failed them,” said PHPA executive director Brian Ramsay in a statement on Sept. 10, which does not directly name Mayich.
“Athletes should never have to choose between their health and their careers. Period.”
The parents of Matthew Mayich, a 21-year-old NHL prospect from Stoney Creek, Ont., speak to CBC News after their son collapsed after ‘military style’ training at Arizona State University. Mayich is in critical condition and unlikely to recover, says his lawyer.
He loved hockey but ‘he was a lot more than hockey’
Mayich started playing hockey around age five, according to John, and excelled.
He played minor hockey with the Hamilton Huskies between 2016 and 2020, and then with the Ottawa 67’s. In 2023, he was drafted by the NHL’s St. Louis Blues. His parents say they were his biggest fans, along with his younger brother and older sister, travelling everywhere to support him.
“He didn’t care if he was at a small rink in Hamilton or a big rink in St. Louis with a lot of people — he just loves the game,” John said.
“And he wasn’t just about hockey. He was a lot more than just hockey.”
Mayich’s parents describe him as “a little fireball,” someone who people gravitate toward.
“Ever since he was young … he just lights up the room,” said John.
Hockey player got heatstroke, lawyer says
When Mayich joined the ASU hockey team, it was the next rung on the ladder while chasing his NHL team.
The recent transfer to ASU was just getting settled into a new apartment, with his family looking forward to watching him play at the university.
His parents say they spoke with him briefly before the last workout, adding that he was excited and “ready to work.”
Christina said one of Mayich’s teammates called her to tell her what happened, and that the family rushed to Phoenix to be by his side. They haven’t left.
“We were devastated,” she said. “Heartbroken. Shocked. [It’s] just so hard to believe.”
Mayich suffered heatstroke during the workout, according to the family’s Phoenix-based lawyer, Leonard Aragon, who is less optimistic than the parents that the young athlete will survive.
“I’m a lawyer, not a doctor, but I don’t believe so,” he told CBC News.
Workout designed to ‘break the kids,’ lawyer alleges
There were roughly 25 other players at the workout, according to John Mayich.
The morning session, which took place in advance of October’s season opener, involved push-ups, running and drills where medicine balls were carried from one side of the field to the other, said Aragon.
The lawyer describes the session as “military-style,” taking place in “overwhelming” heat and that water was withheld from players.
“[It] was designed to basically break the kids and try to put some sort of toughness or something like that into the kids at the beginning of the year,” Aragon said.
He also says safety guidelines at the university were not followed.
“Protocols that ASU itself says should have been followed, such as monitoring people to see if they have heat problems or having a cool-down tub if someone has heatstroke or heat exhaustion — things like that didn’t take place,” he said. “And it led to this tragedy.”
The university declined an interview request, citing an ongoing review.
It did not respond to questions about whether the individual who ran the workout was vetted and contracted by the university and whether there have been any consequences for the leadership team since the incident.
Instead, an ASU spokesperson referred CBC News to a statement issued on Sept. 3, stating the athletics program has “heat-illness guidelines in place” and that the morning workout included a “third party who had previously worked” with the team.
The statement said university police are investigating, “as they would anytime they are called to a serious incident.”
Aragon calls the university’s failure to immediately call for an independent third-party investigation “a slap in the face to the family.”
John Mayich’s thoughts are also with the young athletes who witnessed what happened to his son.
“It was tragic what happened,” he said. “I feel for them also. It’s not easy to see that.”
Is enough being done to protect athletes?
Athletes are highly competitive, seeking limited spots on sports teams, which is why protections for athletes are critical, says Adam Huxley, a hockey development coach based in Wainwright, Alta.
“When there’s 30 players and 20 spots, I can see where the mindset of, ‘Well, if I’m not feeling great or something’s not going right, I don’t want to be the one that says something, because then I seem like I’m the weak link,'” Huxley told CBC News.
He says there should be better education for players so they know when they are being pushed beyond their limits. Huxley also says it should be balanced with teams being able to tell their players it’s OK to speak up.
“If you’re in trouble, say something. If you feel like something’s not going right or whatever — and that goes for the player that is involved in it, that goes [for] the teammates that are around [them], OK? And that goes for the staff,” Huxley said. “Everyone’s gonna learn from this.”
In the statement issued by the PHPA, Ramsay said there is an obligation to keep pushing for a culture where speaking up about health and wellness is a strength not a weakness.
“That young man, on the cusp of his career in professional hockey, was failed by the system, the system that should have protected him,” Ramsay said in the statement.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which oversees student athletes in the United States, said a stated goal is to “ensure well-being … for college athletes.”
An NCAA spokesperson declined to comment on the incident.
The NHL also did not respond to inquiries from CBC News.
Family waiting for a miracle
For now, Mayich’s parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles are taking shifts at his bedside.
“Most of the kids usually come around him and they’ll sing to him. There’s Scripture-reading and prayers constantly. And we tell him funny stories, ’cause he was a funny guy, he was a jokester,” Christina Mayich said.
“There’s definitely a positive vibe in his room. There’s something there that we just cannot explain. So much love, so much peace.”
She says the family is taking it one day at a time.
“We’re just continuing and asking the Lord to give us our miracle.”
