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38 // AUGUST 2021 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM F ate can create a plethora of possibilities. For Jason and Carly Zucker, fate intervened in their lives in unimaginable ways, helping so many others along the way. In December of 2015, Jason, then a forward with the Minnesota Wild, hit the sixth floor at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital during a team visit. There, he met Tucker Helstrom, an 8-year-old hockey player battling osteosar- coma, a rare bone cancer. Through mutual friends, their paths crossed again. And again. And again. "There are people that you meet and you just click," said Carly, a radio personality on Minneapolis sports station, KFAN. "That's what Tucker and his family were like for us." Helstrom eventually lost his fight on July 2, 2016, at the age of 9. But the Zuckers were just beginning theirs. "I think what Tucker did for us was give us a direction," said Jason, who had Tucker's initials and words of advice to 'shoot more' tattooed on his wrist. "Carly and I were always giving where we could. When he passed away, that gave us something where we said, 'OK we want to build his legacy.' For us it worked out perfect to go to the hospital. We saw how the hospital worked and it seemed like the perfect fit." The Zuckers began the legacy remem- brance in 2016 with Team Tucker's Locker, a replica Wild locker room stall located in former Minnesota Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph's End Zone at Masonic, a space that serves as an escape for kids at the hospital, complete with games and movies. T h e f o l l o w i n g y e a r J a s o n a n d Carly pledged $160,000 to the hos- pital and by 2018 opened their own special wing as an escape for fami- lies called The Zucker Family Suite and Broadcast Studio. The facility includes a state-of-the-art broadcast studio and fully outfitted theater, lined with a number of NHL and local youth used hockey sticks. The theater Shoot More, Pittsburgh Penguins Forward Jason Zucker Uses His NHL Platform To Impact Other People's Lives By Jessi Pierce EVEN AFTER BEING TRADED BY THE MINNESOTA WILD TO PITTSBURGH, JASON ZUCKER AND HIS WIFE CARLY REMAIN COMMITTED TO THEIR WORK WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MASONIC CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL. PHOTOS BY Getty Images; courtesy of Jason Zucker and the Helstrom Family