Vegas Golden Knights: Shea Theodore shares emotional battle with cancer

All of our focus this weekend will be on the Vegas Golden Knights returning to work and opening their preseason schedule. However, we were reminded on Thursday that there is more to life than just sports.

In an emotional letter penned on The Players’ Tribune, Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore opened up about his heroic battle with cancer this off-season, revealing that he learned he had testicular cancer after failing a drugs test during the IIHF World Championships.

He detailed at length the shock he had when he first learned the horrifying news, his emotions throughout the whole process and the road to recovery as he begins to shift his life back to some level of normality.

Speaking openly about his cancer battle for the very first time, Theodore revealed that he had failed a drug test taken before the quarterfinals of the IIHF World Championships in Slovakia. That revelation led to blood tests and the confirmation of the worse news anyone can receive. Here is a snippet from The Players’ Tribune sharing Theodore’s thoughts after finding out he had cancer.

“When I got back home and was finally able to go in for blood tests, the results were confirmed. My hormone levels were high. At that point, I wouldn’t even say I was scared. Everything was just happening really fast, you know? Almost too fast to process. The doctors sent me to get an ultrasound scan to look for tumors, and I’ll tell you what, it didn’t play out like in the movies. When they sat me down for the results, there was no dramatic music. No dramatic pause.“My doctor was just super calm and straightforward about it. Which should have made me calm, I guess – but when you find out that you have cancer, nothing can prepare you. Now I was scared.“And now it was time for the toughest part: having to call my girlfriend and my parents to tell them the news.”

Theodore went under the knife and thankfully the lump was successfully removed. And, in reality, the failed drug test helped Theodore and the doctors to detect the cancer early and act before it spread. The defenseman also talked about that in the emotional article on the Players’ Tribune, while also revealing an unlikely source of support.

“After the surgery, when the doctors were able to do a biopsy on the mass in my testicle, they found that it was a mixed germ cell tumor: embryonal and seminoma, stage 1. While the embryonal component can be very aggressive and spread to abdominal lymph nodes, mine was caught early because of the comprehensive blood testing they conduct at the Worlds.“If I had not taken that test, and then if the cancer had gone undetected for a few more years – I don’t even want to think about how differently my life could’ve turned out. Whether or not you believe everything happens for a reason, what happened to me really feels like a miracle.“Currently, I’ve made a full recovery and of course I’ll be followed closely for any signs of recurrent disease by my surgeon.”

“It’s kind of funny, in retrospect, because I went to play golf at Shadow Creek a few days before the surgery – and who do I run into on the course, of all the people in the world?“Phil Kessel. Can you believe that?“I guess you’d think that I’d have told him what I was going through, and asked him a million questions about his surgery and recovery – but I didn’t actually say one word to Phil about it. I just said what’s up, and we talked for a bit. He couldn’t have been nicer. But for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him what was going on.”

We all know by now how tight the Vegas Golden Knights locker room is and Theodore went on to reveal just how amazing his teammates were in the wake of finding out that he had been diagnosed with testicular cancer.

“And by the way, if you thought I was exaggerating about the first-class guys we have on the Knights, Max Pacioretty and his wife had a three-day meal service sent to our house so I didn’t have to worry about anything while I was stuck on the couch. Really appreciated that.”

Incredible. It was a really brave and emotional article from Theodore and we salute him for being so open about an important subject. And it goes without saying that we are all over the moon to see Shea Theodore healthy and recovering well.

You can read the full letter on the Players’ Tribune article here.

Shea Theodore will be donating to early detection causes for every point he tallies during the 2019-20 season. The Vegas Golden Knights Foundation will match Shea dollar for dollar. If you are interested in making a donation to bring awareness to early detection, please donate to the Vegas Golden Knights Foundation and designate your donation to Shea Theodore and/or Early Detection.