Flyers, Tortorella Host Guy Gaudreau at Training Camp

Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella invited a reluctant Guy Gaudreau, a former hockey coach and the father of Johnny Gaudreau and Matt Gaudreau, to help run a training camp practice session on Monday.

Tortorella, who attended the funeral of the Gaudreau brothers after they were tragically killed on Aug. 29, said that he never met Johnny or Matt and only met Guy for the first time at practice. From one coach to another, Tortorella hopes that the experience will help Gaudreau heal from the loss of his two sons and that he’ll be back at the Flyers Training Center again soon.

“Behind it is, I called him, and I wanted to know if he wanted to come out,” Tortorella explained. “It’s pretty close to home here, as far as his family and all and what’s going on there. He’s a coach… first time I met him was today. I never met Johnny and Matt. I never met them in my travels as a coach.

“I figured it’s perfect just to get him in with us. He was hesitant at first and we kind of let him go at his timetable. I think it worked out really well today. I gave him my camp book, we’re going to check in next week and see if we can get him out here a couple more times and have him be part of it.

“I don’t want it to just be ‘Come out here’. I want him to be part of it. I think it’ll be therapeutic for him to be around us, run some drills. He’s done it before. He’s a coach. It was great. It was great to have him here, and we’ll see where it goes.”

Flyers fans and locals may recall that Johnny Gaudreau, a seven-time NHL All-Star and Hobey Baker Award winner, played AAA youth hockey with the Philadelphia Little Flyers at the 13U, 14U, and 16U levels.

Matt Gaudreau, a forward like his older brother, also played for the Philadelphia Little Flyers in the 13U and 14U age groups. Matt last played professionally in the 2021-22 season and spent the last two seasons as the head coach of Gloucester Catholic High before he was killed.

Guy Gaudreau last coached the Philadelphia Flyers Elite 14U AAA in the 2021-22 season as an assistant coach. Prior to that, Gaudreau served as the head coach of Gloucester Catholic from 2006 to 2018.