Two days after getting the news that former Coquitlam Express player Matthew Hutchinson was one of the victims in a double murder/suicide, team announcer Eddie Gregory said he was still in shock.
Gregory knew the former BCHL player when he was with the Express during the 2010/’11 season — the year the club moved back to the Tri-Cities from Burnaby — and described him as a polite young man who was a respected member of his team.
“I was shocked like everybody else,” Gregory told The Tri-City News. “You never expect to read that an alum has passed at such a young age and in the matter in which he did.”
Gregory was in the middle of his Sunday night broadcast of the game between Coquitlam and Nanaimo when he received the tragic news. After checking with some sources, he announced on air that Hutchinson’s body was one of three found at a home in Geneseo, N.Y.
Police confirmed Monday the 24-year-old North Vancouver man was stabbed to death, possibly while he slept, along with 21-year-old Kelsey Annese. Investigators believe the pair were killed by Colin Kingston, an ex-boyfriend of Annese, who later took his own life after calling his father.
Hutchinson and Annese were students at State University of New York in Geneseo, where Hutchinson played hockey and Annese basketball. Kingston was a former student.
“He was a character kid,” Gregory said of Hutchinson. “He was like a brother for those players.”
Hutchinson played 57 games with the Express during his first year with the team and 11 more the following season before moving to the Chilliwack Chiefs. In total, he played 130 games in the BCHL, including brief stints with the Surrey Eagles and the Quesnel Millionaires.
Gregory said in the tight-knit hockey community, the loss of a player is felt far and wide.
“The hockey world is so connected in so many different ways,” he said. “Unfortunately, this tragedy will touch a lot of people.”
“He was a hardworking, honest player. He competed hard,” said Billy Coupland, who taught Hutchinson at Sutherland secondary in North Van and coached him when he played in the Bantam division with the North Shore Winter Club. “Everybody respected him. He was just a good kid.”
“I saw him in the summer,” said Coupland. “He was excited about moving on to the next stage of his life.”
Coupland said he was shocked to learn on Sunday that Hutchinson had been killed. “Words can’t even describe a senseless act like this,” adding, “It’s the last thing you expect to hear. It’s going to take a long time for a lot of people who cared about him and loved him to try to make sense of it.”
Express president Mark Pettie said he was sorry for Hutchinson’s family while league commissioner John Grisdale issued a statement Monday stating: “We are deeply saddened to hear the news of Matthew’s passing. He was a hockey player that worked extremely hard to earn the opportunities he got in the game. His former coaches and teammates remember him fondly and I know he will be missed.”
The Coquitlam Express will be holding a moment of silence to honour Hutchinson prior to Friday’s game. The Chilliwack Chiefs will do the same on Jan. 30.
Hutchinson also worked for the B.C. Wildfire Service in the summer and had looked forward to a career in that area after he graduated from college this year. He was also a member of Geneseo’s volunteer firefighting department.
@gmckennaTC
– with files from Jane Seyd, North Shore News
