Ex-Northeastern Skater Returns To Pro Hockey After Third Battle With Brain Cancer
'I said from the very beginning that cancer wasn’t going to be the reason I retire from professional hockey'
After four brain surgeries and a third battle with brain cancer, former Northeastern hockey player Wade MacLeod is returning to the ice.
MacLeod, 34, is headed to the United Kingdom to play for England’s Elite Ice Hockey League’s Manchester Storm. The EIHL is the highest level of ice hockey in the nation.
A native of British Columbia, MacLeod appeared in 149 games for the Huskies from 2007-11, where he scored 137 points. His professional career began shortly after that, when he joined the AHL’s Springfield Falcons — but when he fell to the ice during a game in 2013, doctors discovered a tumor in his brain.
That was just the first surgery — and the first battle with cancer. He recovered and returned to the pros before another surgery in 2016. He went on to play professionally in Germany, but in 2018, MacLeod had two more surgeries to remove tumors. He was undergoing chemotherapy in 2019.
Now, a healthy MacLeod is headed with his wife and two young daughters across the pond.
“I said from the very beginning that cancer wasn’t going to be the reason I retire from professional hockey,” MacLeod told Mario Bartel of the Tri-City News.
We’ll absolutely be rooting for him over here.
