The Gaudreau family is framing this as a celebration of legacy and family continuity—new life honoring fallen brothers, with Katie determined to raise her son with the same values that defined her close-knit hockey family.
Insiders say the timing has been excruciating for Jane. She watched two daughters-in-law give birth in 2025 while still processing grief, and now Katie's delivery on what would have been Father's Day weekend adds another layer of bittersweet emotion to an already devastating year and a half.
Johnny (31) and Matthew Gaudreau (29) died August 29, 2024 when struck by alleged drunk driver while riding bicycles—hours before Katie's original wedding. Katie gave birth to son Matthew on June 20, 2026; the family announced his arrival June 23.
The Gaudreaus keep turning grief into growth, but Jane's raw admission that her boys 'didn't get a chance' proves some losses no amount of new life can fill—though you won't catch this family admitting they're anything less than grateful for what they have.
Jane Gaudreau is speaking out about the devastating bittersweetness of watching her daughter Katie bring new life into the world while grappling with the absence of her two famous brothers. In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly published June 24, Jane opened up about how Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau—whose deaths at ages 31 and 29 shook the hockey world in August 2024—never got to meet their nephew. "They were just such big fans of children," Jane said, reflecting on her late sons.
"Sometimes I think about that and it's very heartbreaking that they didn't get a chance to be with their children, or even their nieces or nephews." The raw emotion in those words cuts straight to the core of what makes this story so devastating: Katie welcomed her first child, son Matthew Gaudreau-Joyce, on Saturday June 20, 2026, and the family announced his arrival Tuesday. But Johnny and Matthew—uncles who doted on kids wherever they went—are not here to hold him.
The timing of this tragedy has always been incomprehensible. Johnny and Matthew were killed on August 29, 2024, when an alleged drunk driver struck them while riding bicycles in Oldmans Township, New Jersey. The collision occurred just hours before Katie was supposed to walk down the aisle to marry Devin Joyce.
She and Joyce ultimately rescheduled their wedding for July 2025, but the shadow of that night has never lifted entirely from this family. Katie herself acknowledged the emotional complexity of her pregnancy journey. "It's a journey," she told Us in April.
"Your first pregnancy is crazy. My mom had it a lot better. She loved being pregnant.
I'm taking it day-by-day. We're just different generations. She had different toughness." Yet even with those struggles, Katie has consistently described her pregnancy as a "gift" after losing her brothers—the family's way of honoring Johnny and Matthew through continuation rather than despair.
This isn't the first time the Gaudreau family has navigated new parenthood amid profound grief. Johnny's widow Meredith gave birth to their son Carter in April 2025, roughly seven months after his death; they also share daughter Noa, 3, and son Johnny Jr., 2. Matthew's widow Madeline welcomed their first child, Tripp, in December 2025—four months after Matthew was killed.
Now with Katie's arrival, Jane and her husband Guy have expanded their family twice over while still mourning two sons who won't see any of it grow up. Katie has been transparent about her desire to carry forward the Gaudreau family values that shaped her. "I can wait to continue to tell my children stories about their uncles," she said earlier this year, adding that she's determined to model Jane and Guy's parenting for her own kids. "If I can raise my family, and I know Devin agrees, half the way that my parents raised us, I'd be happy with it." Whether that's realistic or even fair to expect from a woman raising children who will never know their grandfathers' namesakes remains unspoken—but you get the sense Katie would argue it's exactly what Johnny and Matthew would've wanted.
