Garcia drawing influence from Matthews at start of hockey odyssey with USNTDP

AJ Garcia has played six games in his first season with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program Under-17 team. The 16-year-old forward from Romeoville, Illinois, scored his first goal in an 8-5 win against Johnstown on Sept. 18.

Countless practices, off-ice workouts and bus trips remain before Garcia is eligible for the 2026 NHL Draft.

At the start of his journey, Garcia draws confidence from the success of those who have come before him. In NTDP graduate Auston Matthews, he sees a role model who has won the Hart Trophy (2022), is captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs and who, like Garcia, is Mexican American.

"It's cool, because you don't see many Latin American players," Garcia said recently. "Especially for the best American-born player to be Latin American, it's pretty special to have some connection with him. I would love to meet him one day."

Matthews, who has won Maurice "Rocket" Richard trophy three times in the past four seasons, arrived at the NTDP 11 years ago. When Garcia began his time with USA Hockey, he announced his commitment to play college hockey at the University of Notre Dame, a development-focused program that placed 13 alumni in the NHL last season alone.

Garcia tried a variety of sports as a kid, including baseball, soccer and football, but nothing captivated him like hockey. He loved the constant movement. It helped that his older cousin played the sport, and AJ wanted to do whatever he did.

The headline on Garcia's youth hockey career is that he's done a lot of winning, especially last season. In April, he helped the Chicago Mission at the AAA level to a USA Hockey national championship in Fargo, North Dakota. Two months earlier, he won gold at the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics in Gangwon Province, South Korea, when the United States defeated Czechia 4-0.

"Playing in the gold-medal game was something I never thought would happen that early on [in my career]," Garcia said. "That was probably the best game of my life and winning was super special.

"I remember the locker room after … that whole game was great. We played probably our best game of the tournament in the gold-medal game."

AJ's mother, Lisa, was there to watch. A radiology manager in the Chicago area, she witnessed the on-ice celebration and thought back to all the hours she and her husband, Aurelio, spent driving so AJ could play for coach Sean Berens at Team Illinois and Gino Cavallini at Chicago Mission.

"They could not get the smiles off their faces," Lisa said of AJ and Team USA. "It was the best moment of his life -- of my life, so far -- to see that happen.

"That was the most exciting thing, to see how happy they were, and to see them so happy for each other. Hugging each other, taking pictures, doing the song they sing in the locker room. I think I watched that video over and over, just because they were so happy."

Garcia's performance at the Youth Olympics helped his candidacy for the NTDP evaluation camp, held in March at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan. The tryout was stressful, but he made the roster, following the path of recent Chicago Mission alums Gabe Perreault (New York Rangers) and Cole McKinney (2025 NHL Draft eligible).

Both of AJ's parents grew up in the Chicago area at a time when it was common for baseball fields in city parks to become hockey rinks during the winter. Aurelio saw fellow neighborhood kids enjoying the ice and wanted to join them. He asked his mother for a pair of skates. Money was tight and she went to the secondhand store.

"She got me a pair of figure skates," Aurelio recalled. "I learned to play on a pair of figure skates. When I looked at the other guys, I went back to my mom and said, 'These aren't the right skates.' She's like, 'Well, if you want to play, you're going to learn on those and we'll go from there.' At the time, that's the best we could do. So I learned."

Aurelio went on to play high school hockey at Gordon Tech, now known as DePaul College Prep, on Chicago's North Side. As an adult, he's continued to play in Chicago-area men's leagues.

"I play defense," Aurelio said. "I got more ice time that way, I learned. I would get on the ice every other shift, where we'd have three [forward] lines. I found the magic there."

Aurelio teaches at a charter school in the Brighton Park neighborhood of Chicago, which has a majority Latin American population. Many of his students speak Spanish fluently, but he does not. While Aurelio was growing up, he felt pressure to speak English only and assimilate into the culture around him.

A generation later, Aurelio is happy that attitudes have changed around preserving and promoting the Spanish language. AJ said he'd like to learn Spanish to connect with the growing number of Hispanic hockey fans across the United States throughout his hockey career.

The Garcia family also stays connected to their heritage by one of the most popular methods: Mexican food.

"Chorizo and eggs is our staple," Aurelio said. "Even when we travel, we'll make it and take it with us to heat up when we're in a different city for hockey."

It's a wonderful family tradition, within a hockey odyssey that is just beginning for AJ Garcia.