Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images
Blues prospect Matthew Mayich next to Army soldier
Hockey players have a reputation for pushing their bodies to the limit, and the sport is defined by a culture where you’re expected to play through the pain while leaving it all on the ice. However, that mindset can do more harm than good, and it appeared to play a role in an incident that led to a hockey player at Arizona State landing in the hospital.
Grueling workouts come with the territory if you have dreams of becoming a professional athlete, and that’s certainly the case if you have your eyes set on a career in the NHL.
Hockey players need to possess a combination of speed, strength, and stamina that you’re never going to have if you don’t put in some serious work, and they also have a reputation for their almost superhuman ability to play through injuries that the average person would classify as “debilitating.”
It’s far from the only sport where players are highly encouraged to ignore the signals their body is sending them for the good of their team.
However, that mentality can be a fairly toxic one that has the potential to lead to some serious issues, as highlighted by the case of a St. Louis Blues prospect who was subjected to a military-style workout while gearing up for his first season at Arizona State.
Blue prospect and Arizona State hockey player Matthew Mayich was hospitalized after enduring a workout overseen by a former Green Beret
In 2023, the St. Louis Blues used the 170th overall pick in the NHL Draft to select Matthew Mayich, a defenseman who was born and raised in Ontario. He was still playing in the OHL when he was scooped up, and last season, he made his NCAA debut while suiting up for Clarkson University in upstate New York before tallying seven goals and eight assists for the Golden Knights.
The 21-year-old decided to transfer to Arizona State for his sophomore year, and he was taking part in a preseason workout with the team on the morning of August 20th when he was rushed to the hospital after collapsing following what has been described as a “cardiac event.”
The school quickly announced it was looking into what transpired, and we now have some more information courtesy of The Arizona Republic.
The outlet reports Mayich and other Arizona State athletes were participating in a military-style workout led by Tim Ziesel, a Scottsdale resident who was formerly a member of the United States Army Special Forces (a.k.a. the Green Berets).
The Athletic detailed the specifics of the workout, which was conducted outdoors at Arizona State’s track facility last Thursday, where the temperature was hovering in the mid-80s when paramedics responded to a call that was initially chalked up to a “heat-related illness.”
People familiar with the workout said Mayich and the other athletes taking part spent close to an hour being subjected to an unceasing gauntlet of “sprints, planks, push-ups and bear crawls,” with those who fell behind “forced to complete extra sprints or exercises.” Participants “were instructed not to complain, and Ziesel reportedly departed before the final exercise: a 200-yard endzone-to-endzone sprint while holding a medicine ball.
It’s not entirely clear when Mayich collapsed, but he was transported to Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, where he remains in a coma and is listed in critical condition.
This isn’t the first time a military-style workout has caused serious issues at the college level; in 2024, a dozen members of the lacrosse team at Tufts were hospitalized with rhabdomyolysis, a potentially fatal condition that can trigger kidney failure, after taking part in one overseen by a former Navy SEAL.