The NHL Draft is supposed to be the happiest time in a young hockey player’s life. Matthew Schaefer is expected to be the first overall choice in the draft, if not a lottery pick.
While the 17-year-old Schaefer is likely excited to get his professional hockey career underway, he will be missing some key figures on draft night. Despite being 17, the youth hockey star has dealt with several personal tragedies. In the span of a year, he lost his mother, billet mother and youth hockey team owner/mentor.
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Here is more on the various tragedies that Schaefer has had to deal with ahead of his pro hockey career starting.
What happened to Matthew Schaefer’s mom?
Schaefer’s biological mother, Jennifer, died of breast cancer in February 2024. She had battled the diagnosis for two years. While it is an awful situation, Schaefer is leaning on his mother’s experience and using it as strength while he goes through the pre-draft process. “Just seeing what my mom went through, having a smile on her face with cancer and everything trying to bring her down, but she wouldn’t let it bring her down. She’s someone I look up to, really strong.”
Schaefer’s mother was instrumental in getting him to this point in his career. He reflected on his childhood and how she would help him.
“My mom used to go in net and put on the equipment, and I’d shoot on her with my brother [Johnny] and all that stuff,” Schaefer said. “So, she’d do a lot for us. I’m just looking back and smiling on all the fun things. I mean, when I’m shooting pucks in the basement, she’s probably, you know, spiritually having the hockey equipment on, trying to save them, and I’m missing the net because she’s probably blocker saving that. Yeah, there’s a lot of things I’ve learned. I’m definitely a lot stronger.”
Schaefer knows that wherever he ends up in the NHL draft, his mother’s spirit will be right there with him.
“I know she has a front-row seat every game. I get to play for someone even more. She was a strong woman. I like to talk about her. If she was here, you guys would know exactly who she was even though you haven’t met her because I love talking about her.”
What happened to Matthew Schaefer’s billet mom?
Schaefer’s billet mom was Emily Matson. She married Ryan Onderko, and they had two kids. Matson was born and raised in Erie, PA and was a journalist, producer and reporter. She was struck and killed by a train in what was ruled a suicide on December 11, 2023, three months before Schaefer’s biological mother died from breast cancer.
Schaefer has also been dealing with injuries as his youth career comes to an end. He missed the final three months of his last season with a broken collarbone, but will happily take that over more personal tragedy.
“I’ve been through a lot in my life and I’d rather an injury than losing someone I love,” Schaefer siad. “I mean, there’s a lot worse things that can happen than injuries.”
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What is a billet family?
As hockey is an international sport, players in any league can come from all over the world. Hockey is also a sport that features several youth hockey leagues considered developmental for the NHL. International youth hockey players who join one of those leagues are often not old enough to rent their own living space. Thus, they are paired with a host family. In hockey, the term for a host family is “billet family.”
What happened to Otters owner Jim Waters?
Jim Waters owned the Erie Otters. He bought the youth hockey team in July 2015. Waters passed away from a heart attack in December 2024.
Schaefer spoke about the impact that Waters and his wife Sheila had on his life in the short time that he knew them.
“Jim and his wife, Sheila, were two big parts of my life. When I came down to Erie, they just made me feel so at home, and I got really close with them. I got to see him before I came to the World Juniors. It was definitely sudden, but I don’t know, life just goes the way it does, everything happens for a reason.”
The soon-to-be-rookie added that Waters was now with his mom, and he would continue playing for both of them.
