NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman Matt Paranych looks for options with the puck during a training camp scrimmage on Aug. 30 at Co-op Place.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Matt Paranych isn’t looking to be a hero, he’s just following his gut.
The Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman displayed his confidence and care in the weeks leading up to training camp. On Aug. 19, while driving to a friend’s house in Edmonton, Paranych saw a driver in distress in the middle of the road.
The Edmonton product spun his car around and parked behind the stopped vehicle. Seeing the female driver was slumped over and in distress, he called 911.
Paranych says instincts took over in the moment.
“The lady looked like she needed help and it’s just me, I’m just going to do that and make sure she was OK,” Paranych said. “That’s just how I am.”
It wasn’t a surprise to associate coach Joe Frazer that Paranych stepped up in a moment like that.
“For him to have the courage to stop and help somebody who’s in distress, I talked to the cop there and the lady was sitting there for a half hour with people driving by and no one was willing to help,” Frazer said. “For Matty to have the courage, because you don’t know what the situation is, and it takes a lot of courage to stop and help somebody, I couldn’t be more proud of him.”
The 17-year-old has had a lot of opportunities to grow the last couple of seasons. Moving away from home in 2022-23 for the first time to play at the South Alberta Hockey Academy, he made the jump to the WHL with the Tigers last season.
He says he’s grown to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations, giving him the confidence to stop in the middle of the road when things didn’t feel right.
“I didn’t know if the lady passed out, or if she was still awake,” Paranych said. “She turned out to be OK and we got the ambulance there, and they got her help. I’m not sure how she ended up but I’m hoping she ended up OK.”
Both Frazer and head coach Willie Desjardins said they want to develop good players and better people who would react like that in that kind of a moment. They both agreed that an instinct and a care for the fellow humans comes from home.
“Those are family values that you’re taught on what to look for and what to do,” Desjardins said. “The main place he got it was from his parents. It was great for him to step in and see somebody that was in trouble and react the way he did.”
Paranych made it a focus of his offseason to get faster and stronger entering his second full season in the WHL. He also put work in to improve his confidence, a trait he’s seen early dividends in.
“I feel like I’m a very confident guy, so it’s just been getting that confidence back and I’m really excited to get going,” Paranych said.
He played regular minutes on the blue line for the Tigers in his rookie season, putting up 10 assists in 56 games. With the addition of four new defencemen in the organization, he’s looking forward to the team success and what the collective can do this season.
“There’s a lot of excitement around our team, our goal is to win a championship and a Memorial Cup, it’s cup or bust,” Paranych said. “We’ve made some moves and acquired some players and we have a lot of speed. We’re fast, we play hard and we play the right way, too.”
