Peoria Rivermen player has experienced a lot: Trades, winning and cancer

PEORIA – New Peoria Rivermen winger Brennan Blaszczak is no stranger to hotel rooms in a career that has spanned 10,203.81 miles between stops.

Blaszczak, the scoring ace acquired by the Rivermen in a trade this month, was in his hotel room on a road trip with the University of Alaska-Fairbanks hockey team in November of 2019.

“I was sitting there watching TV and, like we know a lot of guys do while watching TV, I put my hand down my pants and felt a lump that didn’t feel right,” Blaszczak (pronounced Blay-zack) said. “I’d had a teammate (at Fairbanks) named Jack Weiss, who’d been diagnosed with testicular cancer almost exactly a year earlier, so just to be proactive, I went to the trainer immediately and then they set up doctor’s appointments when we got back to Fairbanks.

“I went to the doctor and they scheduled an ultrasound and as soon as the doctor saw the image, he knew it was cancer. So he immediately took me through the treatment process, but the worst part was then having to call my parents and go through the whole conversation again.”

Blaszczak joined the Rivermen just 17 days after the team staged its annual Hockey Fights Cancer Night. He made his debut Friday with Peoria in a 5-4 win against the Evansville Thunderbolts.

'It was therapeutic'

According to the American Cancer Society, about 1 in 250 males will develop testicular cancer in their lifetime. Thankfully, it is a highly treatable cancer and the risk of death is just 1 in 5,000.

Blaszczak received his diagnosis after an ultrasound and blood tests confirmed the findings on  Dec. 3, 2019. The appointment conflicted with a Fairbanks team practice and yet, once the appointment was over, being at practice with his team was the only place that Blaszczak wanted to be.

“I’ll never forget walking into the locker room and telling the boys and it was just silent,” Blaszczak said.

The team opted to continue with that day’s practice and Blaszczak was more than happy to put his mind on something else.

“I skated that whole week and played that weekend,” Blaszczak said. “That was the only time where I didn’t think about the cancer or what was ahead.

“It was therapeutic.”

Once the fall semester ended, Blaszczak returned home to Troy, Mich., to have an orchiectomy performed, removing the cancerous testicle.

“I got the benefit of Christmas break, so I had that time to heal up and then returned to school about a month into the second semester," he said. "Thankfully, all I needed was surgery, no radiation or anything. But even today, I still get checked every six months or so.”

Have stick, will travel

Even before the cancer diagnosis, Blaszczak had seen more than your average teenager. At age 18, he moved to Canada to play junior hockey and then returned to the States with the Springfield (Ill.) Jr. Blues.

In 114 games with the Jr. Blues covering two seasons, Blaszczak developed a reputation as a points machine, notching 41 goals and 29 assists. He plans to reach out to his old Springfield host family to invite them to a Rivermen game.

From there, it was off to Fairbanks, Alaska, for college hockey and then, after three seasons, he started his pro career with the Pensacola (Fla.) Ice Flyers of the SPHL. He has since had call-up stints in the class-AA ECHL with Savannah (Ga.), Kalamazoo (Mich.) and Tulsa (Okla.), not to mention high-A SPHL runs with Fayetteville, Pensacola and now Peoria.

Suffice to say that his approximately 850-mile, 13-hour drive from North Carolina to Peoria on was not his first long drive.

“It comes with the job,” Blaszczak said. “It’s great to visit other parts of the country and experience what life is like there.”

More: Peoria Rivermen trade for prolific scorer

Reunited and it feels so good

During his second season in Pensacola, Blaszczak guided the Ice Flyers to the SPHL championship, the President’s Cup. And he had help from two players he’ll be reunited with in Peoria – longtime Rivermen captain Alec Hagaman and fellow left-winger Jordan Ernst.

When COVID regulations here in Illinois prevented the Rivermen from operating during the 2020-2021 season, the Rivermen front office loaned Hagaman and Ernst to Pensacola. There they teamed with Blaszczak to lead Pensacola to the President’s Cup.

The trio combined to notch 70 points, including 54 goals, in a 44-game season. Of those 54 lamp lightings, 31 of them were credited to Blaszczak, who put up 50 points in 53 games during the Ice Flyers’ title run.

A year later, he was Pensacola's captain. Ernst and Hagaman returned to Peoria and helped the Rivermen win the President's Cup, the franchise's first championship in 22 years.

Now they are together again.

“I think our skillsets are very complementary and it wouldn’t surprise me if they were the driving force in me ending up here,” Blaszczak said. “My biggest asset is my speed and being able to find openings on the ice to get the shot off.

“Hags is great at putting his teammates in position to score and Ernie is a little bigger and able to go into the corners and get the puck out to us.”

Needless to stay he’s looking forward to seeing some familiar faces.

“I’m looking forward to sitting down and telling some old stories about the Pensy days and making some new memories,” Blaszczak said. “And my chemistry with them will make it a little easier to fit in in the locker room and get to know the rest of the guys.”

Powering up

Rivermen coach Jean-Guy Trudel is thrilled that his new winger has some familiarity with his teammates.

“That’s always the most important thing for a new guy, is to make sure they’re comfortable in the locker room and in their living situation and feel like they’re part of the family,” Trudel said.

As for his Blaszczak's usage, Trudel plans to use the scorer as the bumper on the power-play unit. In Peoria's system, the bumper sets up in the middle of the zone for high-percentage shots from straight on at the goaltender, or "bumps" the puck out to other shooters through passing lanes he creates.

“Brennan is a great bumper on the power play,” said Trudel, who remembers a hat trick the player scored in Game 2 of a 2021-22 playoff series against Peoria. “In a situation like this, you don’t have time to teach him everything we do here in Peoria.

“But I remember him from his time in Pensacola and I think he’ll bring some energy, be himself and keep growing with the team.”

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria Rivermen player is accustomed to trades, travel and winning