It's an incredibly difficult time for hockey player David Pastrnak, who plays for the Boston Bruins, and his girlfriend, Rebecca Rohlsson. The athlete took to Instagram on Monday to make the devastating announcement that his 6-day-old newborn baby boy had died.
He shared the baby's name, birthdate, and the day he died. "Viggo Rohl Pastrnak
June 17th 2021 – June 23rd 2021 ," he wrote. "We have an Angel watching over us and we call him SON. You will be loved FOREVER ."
His teammates also released a statement about the loss of David's son: "We are heartbroken by the passing of David and Rebecca's son, Viggo. David and Rebecca are a part of our family and we share in their loss. Please keep them in your thoughts and respect their privacy during this very difficult time."
David and his girlfriend, Rebecca Rohlsson, are asking for privacy during this time. That's to be expected given the magnitude of their loss. Just last month, David talked to NHL.com about getting ready for the baby by building a crib and painting the nursery.
"You come home and you don't think about hockey at all, you obviously have other priorities," he said, while prepping for baby. "You're getting ready for the baby and we couldn't be more excited. So, hockey's not been talked much lately at home and sometimes that's good, you know?"
"When things are going well, it's good, and when things are not going well, sometimes you just need to think about other stuff," he continued. "For me it's been definitely something new, but I'm so excited."
He also said that family would be his No. 1 priority, and he seemed ready to build that with his girlfriend. "I'm grateful that I can live and work with a job that I love, but at the end of the day it's just a game," he said. "My family is always going to be No. 1."
We don't yet know the details about what happened to the baby, but it's an incredibly devastating loss for the couple. It's especially heartbreaking because, by all accounts, David is not only a tremendous player but an amazing human as well.
"He is a person that hands out joy everywhere around him, a person with great sports and a human heart," his mother, Marcela Ziembova, said. But it's not just his mom who thinks highly of him.
His coach, Bruce Cassidy, talked about his infectious personality that draws everyone in. "It's not so big a personality that it dominates the room where he doesn't have respect for what we're trying to do and what players are trying to do," the coach said. "When it's business, it's business, and fun, it's fun. So, I think that's what's made David exceptionally mature for his age is that when it's time to get down to business and train and play in practice, he's 100 percent on board."
Players who have known David since he was young have also sung his praises, saying he hasn't let his ego get the best of him. "I can say one thing," Jakub Vrana, who has been playing with him since he was 15, said. "Since I've known him, since we were kids, he hasn't changed much. He's still the same kid. He's going out there and having fun playing hockey."
Sadly, David's loss isn't the first he's known in his life. His father, Milan Pastrnak, died in 2013 from skin cancer. David was just 17 at the time and playing hockey in Sweden. He had planned to take his son back there to visit once he was born.
