Chudzinski: A special player for us

Rian Chudzinski never wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. He opted to put on skates instead.

The 17-year-old rookie right winger with the Moncton Wildcats has a rich athletic pedigree: his father Rob played football at the University of Miami and won two national championships there before embarking on a coaching career that included one season as head coach of the National Football League’s Cleveland Browns.

Rob is a football lifer, currently the senior offensive analyst for the Boston College Eagles, where his son and Rian’s older brother Kaelan is a starting tight end as a freshman.

Rian though, “has never played football in my life,” he said. “My parents never pushed me to play football. They just said ‘Whatever you love to do, do it to the best of your ability.’”

He recalls playing catch with his brother on the sidelines while Browns legendary running back Jim Brown watched, “but I was too young to know who he was,” Rian recalled.

But he remembers when he fell in love with hockey.

It was the spring of 2011. His dad’s coaching journey took them from California, where he had been on staff with the San Diego Chargers, to North Carolina, where he would become the offensive co-ordinator with the Carolina Panthers.

In the meantime, the family stopped at his grandparents home in Boston. The Bruins were in the Stanley Cup final that year.

“We watched the games with all my family, and we just loved it,” he said. “I thought it was awesome.”

And while he didn’t get into hockey until he was eight years old and living in Indiana – his dad was associate head coach of the Indianapolis Colts by then – and he was “not great,” he said, he improved quickly when they got back to Boston and he played for the Boston Junior Eagles minor program.

“I just kept getting better and I just loved it,” he said. “I just kept working and kept catching people and moving up. I’m still trying to do that to this day.”

So far, so good.

Last year, playing for Dexter Southfield School, he scored 27 goals and 25 assists in 28 games to lead his team in scoring. He’s scored five goals in eight games with the Wildcats and, playing in the first QMJHL Prospects game for Team Crosby last week, coach Gardiner MacDougall said he had “a tremendous performance. I thought he was one of the top forwards on the ice.”

Chudzinski was drafted in the fifth round of the 2024 USHL entry draft by the Youngstown Phantoms, but general manager Taylor MacDougall convinced him to come to Moncton instead.

“He came down and talked to me and my parents and we just loved it,” Rian said. “The facilities are unbelievable, but it’s the people who are here — GMac, Taylor, the assistant coaches — I knew some people who were coming up here, but the people here pushed it over the top. This is an unbelievable place. I love it here.”

“Rian is a special person and a special player for us,” said coach MacDougall.

“It’s a big jump coming from the U.S. prep school circuit, but he made a quick transition. He had a bit of a setback with mono(nucleosis) and he went back to Boston for a little time with his family. But we look forward to bigger things from him. I think he can be a two-way player for us. He’s got a great shot, an edge to his game…he’s a really dependable player for us.”

There’s another up and coming hockey player in the Chudzinski family too. His 15-year-old sister Maggie goes to Dexter Southfield School where he went last year.

“She’s a really good player,” said Rian. And keep an eye out for 11-year-old Declan down the road too.

“He plays hockey too, but he’s just having fun being a kid,” Rian said.

Article by Bill Hunt