NHL to honor Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau with special helmet decals to begin 2024-25 season

When the puck drops for the 2024-25 NHL season, all 32 of the league’s teams will wear special helmet decals to honor Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew.

The black and white decals will have the letter G in the middle with Johnny’s 13 on the left and Matthew’s No. 21 on the right.

The commemorative decals will be worn by every player in all games played through Oct. 24, when the Los Angeles Kings host the season’s final home opener versus the San Jose Sharks. The New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres will be the first teams to feature the Gaudreau tribute when they open the 2024-25 season at O2 Arena in Prague for the NHL Global Series.

Players for the Sabres wore the decals on their helmets during practice on Monday in Prague.

“I think it’s an incredible tribute to an incredibly sad situation,” Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff told NHL.com “We as a league, we as a team, have to try to honor these guys for what they did for the game.”

The Gaudreau brothers were killed on Aug. 29 when they were hit by an alleged drunk driver while bicycling in rural Salem County, New Jersey.

Johnny, 31, and Matthew, 29, were in New Jersey to attend their sister’s wedding, which was supposed to take place on Aug. 30. The brothers were going to be groomsmen for the ceremony, while their other sister was to serve as the maid of honor.

Johnny Gaudreau played 11 seasons in the NHL, nine with the Calgary Flames and the past two with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He was a seven-time All-Star and won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy in 2017, awarded to the player who demonstrates “the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.”