Johnny Gaudreau is proof that NHL players can come in all shapes and sizes and still excel. In a career and life cut unbelievably short, he achieved so much, says Michael Traikos.

The story that Guy Gaudreau loved to tell over and over again was how he taught his sons to skate.

It started with candy. Skittles, to be exact.

As a rink manager in South New Jersey, Guy had full access to Hollydell Ice Arena. That meant that his sons also had full access. It was in that rink where Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau spent their childhood and where both took their first strides, often in pursuit of the tiny rainbow-colored candies that Guy scattered on the ice.

“The Skittles were huge,” Johnny once told me. “Every Christmas or any holiday, I’d get bags of them as presents.”

For Johnny Gaudreau, who seemed perpetually younger than his actual age, it was a fitting origin story. 

'Johnny Hockey' was a hockey trailblazer. He was proof that hockey players can come in all shapes and sizes. He provided hope for the small guy. It was a role he wore as comfortably as he did an NHL jersey.

The 31-year-old Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, tragically passed away on Thursday. Gaudreau leaves behind a wife and two children. He also leaves behind a legacy that, over a 10-year NHL career, dwarfed his frame.

At 5-foot-9 and 163 pounds, Gaudreau was the poster boy for undersized players, eventually paving the way for the likes of Mitch Marner, Brayden Point and so many others. Had he been born 10 years earlier, the chances are that Gaudreau would never have made it to the NHL. But in a career — and a life — that was cut unbelievably short, he achieved so much.

Gaudreau was a Hobey Baker Award winner as the best men's college hockey player. He won the Lady Byng for his gentlemanly play. He was a seven-time All-Star Game player, a 40-goal scorer and a 100-point producer. And he did it all while looking like someone’s kid brother.

“At Boston College, I realized that my size wasn’t a downfall to my game, that I should use it to my advantage," Gaudreau told me years ago. "I was playing against men. But guys couldn’t hit me if I used my speed and my creativity and made plays.”

Today, the NHL is filled with more players who resemble Gaudreau than Eric Lindros. Players like Sebastian Aho, who is 176 pounds, and Cam Atkinson, who is 5-foot-8. The game is faster, more skilled and smaller than it has ever been. And it's arguably never been this entertaining.

“It’s great to see,” Gaudreau once said of how the game has changed. “Hopefully, we can keep paving the way for younger kids. Hopefully, they realize you don’t need to be a giant to play in this league. You need to be smart, fast, skilled and be able to see the ice and read the ice well.

“There’s a future in the NHL for those guys.”

As a draft-eligible player, there didn't seem to be a future for Gaudreau. He was so afraid that his lack of size would be used against him that he would spoon Nutella right from the jar in hopes of putting on weight. When that failed, he once stuffed his underwear with hockey pucks before hopping on the scales to fool a scout. The first time Gaudreau joined the Flames on a road trip, Jiri Hudler assumed someone from the management team had brought along their son.

"This kid looks like he was 12 years old," said Hudler.

It was often like this for Gaudreau. First appearances closed more doors than they opened. It wasn't until he stepped on the ice and showed what he could do with the puck that people changed their minds. Even then, it was an uphill road.

Despite leading the USHL's Dubuque Fighting Saints to a championship, Gaudreau was selected in the fourth round of the 2011 draft. Thirteen years later, only Nikita Kucherov has scored more points from that class of players.

For some, the constant rejection would have caused them to have a gigantic chip on their shoulder. But Johnny didn’t take offense at being the butt of jokes. Rather, he laughed along with it.

At the 2015 NHL All-Star Game in Columbus, Ryan Johansen provided a heartfelt moment when he guided the son of the Blue Jackets' training staff down the ice during the breakaway competition. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKB-iNHIvN4[/embed]

Moments later, things went from sweet to silly as Jakub Voracek grabbed Gaudreau and similarly steered him around the ice for big laughs.

"I think that little kid was bigger than him," Voracek said of Gaudreau.

"He came up and asked me first if it was all right," Gaudreau said at the time. "I thought it would be pretty funny to do something like that, and it was a lot of fun."

That was Gaudreau. He was an immensely talented all-star. But he was forever the NHL's kid brother. 

In the process, he became a trailblazer for any player who didn't fit the mold of what we believe an NHLer should look like.