Former teammate pays tribute to Matthew Gaudreau.

The hockey world was left reeling last week when it was announced that brothers Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau had been slain by an alleged drunk driver, a United States Armed Forces veteran and father of two with a previous arrest for Driving While Intoxicated named Sean Higgins.

Understandably much of the focus following this unthinkable tragedy has been on Johnny Gaudreau, who was a major public figure in the sport of hockey and a young star in the world's top hockey league, the National Hockey League. There has been an outpouring of support with multiple impromptu memorials popping up at both the Saddledome in Calgary, where Johnny played for many years, as well as outside of Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio where Johnny was currently playing for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

With all that focus on Johnny however, one former teammate went out of his way to pay tribute to the other young life that was taken in this tragedy, the life of Matthew Gaudreau. Despite having only been around Matthew for what he describes as a very short period of time, his former teammate was left with a lasting impression about the kind of young man the Gaudreau family had raised.

"Obviously much of the focus will be on Johnny but I wanted to share a story about Matthew after hearing this news," wrote user b1boss on social media platform Reddit.

"I was a bubble player trying out for the Omaha Lancers when Matty was there. I wasn’t rostered but was skating with the team during the fall USHL tournament. It was a pretty intimidating experience to step into the locker room with that group but I distinctly remember how warm, kind and inclusive Matty was to me. He pulled me into conversations, made sure I was introduced to everyone and always made sure I knew where to be. He didn’t have to act that way because everyone knew I would be gone in a few days and wasn’t going to make the team, but he did anyway because that was his character. My favorite memory of him that weekend was him trying to figure out ways to hide pucks in his jock to weigh in heavier for the tournament stats that they were doing for NHL scouting. He was a really genuinely funny, kind person who others naturally wanted to follow."

A great show of class from Matthew's former teammate to take the time to remember him so fondly while much of the focus is, again understandably, on his brother who was a public figure. By the sounds of it though, it sounds like Matthew more than earned it.