Moffat thankful for hockey and life

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – By nature, hockey – and the players who play it – are rough and rugged. As time has gone on, the size of the players and the speed of the game have increased greatly. For those who play and dream of getting to the NHL, making a roster is a matter of life and death in a figurative sense. For Knoxville Ice Bears forward Caleb Moffat, the life and death of the sport have a whole new meaning. Nearly two years ago, a freak motor vehicle accident nearly took his life.

Today, he is back playing as a pro, happy to be on the ice and looking to contribute to a second straight championship in Knoxville. “It (being back on the ice) feels absolutely amazing,” Moffat said. “After what I’ve been through, to be able to get back to the point and accomplish playing at this level which I never thought was possible, it’s just a blessing.” To understand how far Moffat has come, one has to understand where he had been. A 25- year old from Oakville, Ontario, Moffat was in his third pro season back in 2006. He had played 55 games in the SPHL between Fayetteville and Jacksonville and had accrued another 51 in the CHL with Odessa and Corpus Christi. He wasn’t a goal scorer as his combined nine goals and six assists can attest to. Still, he was a valued role player as an enforcer type who racked up penalty minutes mostly from fighting opposition team’s designated tough guys. Former Odessa teammate and present Knoxville coach Scott Hillman remembers how despite his youth, Moffat did his job and then some. “Obviously we brought him in (to Odessa) as a role player and for really just being a kid at that time, he did a great job,” Hillman said. “He stepped right in and played that physical role for us but also showed that he could skate well, handle the puck very decently and could do more than just sit on the bench and fight. He was a pleasure to have around that team. He stepped in a pretty tough time for us at that time and contributed.” Moffat was on the injured list with a broken jaw on the day of January 30, 2007 when his world was turned upside down. He was preparing to head to Atlanta in his 1997 Lincoln to visit with his parents who had moved there. Planning on getting an early start, Moffat turned in to get some sleep. After that, no one is quite sure what occurred. At 4 A.M., Moffat got into his car outside his Ponte Vedra Beach apartment and headed toward state route A1A. Problem was, he had no idea he was driving. Doctors think that he may have been “sleep-driving”, a condition that can be linked to people taking sleeping medications, which Moffat recalled taking in the days prior but didn’t recall taking that night. His car went off the road, striking two power poles and a traffic control box. Moffat, who was not wearing a safety belt, was thrown from the vehicle. His injuries included breaks in his lower back, a broken shoulder, a broken rib which in turn punctured a lung and internal bleeding including on his brain on top of the coma he was in. He was airlifted to a hospital where doctors feared for his survival. “They called my family at I believe it was four in the morning and of course no family ever wants to bury their child. It’s the worst thing that could possibly happen,” he said. “They told them that I had been in a horrific car accident. My dad said that they were in Atlanta and it would probably be a five to five-and-a-half hour drive down and the doctor said ‘if you would like to see your son you’d better fly‘. They didn’t think I would make it five hours.” Moffat remembers the excruciating pain and being heavily medicated. He lost six weeks being in the coma. Doctors told him he tried several times to pull his breathing tube out, causing irritation to his throat and vocal cords. As he lay in the hospital bed, he thought he’d seen his last days playing pro hockey. “I never thought I would play hockey again. I never thought I’d be able to make it back to this level,” he said. “After what I had been through, it was so devastating – devastating to me – and all the injuries I incurred, I just never thought I would be able to handle the ruggedness and everyday pounding of the sport.” Time passed and within two months, Moffat began to heal. He began doing more weight training and bike riding than he ever had. He even felt well enough to attend Game 3 of the 2007 President’s Cup finals between Jacksonville and Fayetteville. He was becoming more and more like the old Caleb but with a little different view on life. “Having been put through that situation, it kind of made me take a different outlook on life. It makes you not take things for granted. You take things that are frustrating and look at them from a different perspective,” he said. “In the short term, it kind of made me have to mature a little bit too.” Fast forward to the summer of 2008. The urge to play again was too strong to ignore. With all of the rehab training he had done,he felt strong enough to give the game another go. He knew that his old teammate Hillman was coaching in Knoxville so Moffat made a call and Hillman was more than happy to give him a shot. Hillman, whose career was ended by concussions, made sure that Knoxville’s medical staff was fully aware of the circumstances and thoroughly checked Moffat out before clearing him to play. “I took it right out of my hands and thank goodness we have an incredible expert with Bill Murray on our bench. I had Caleb and Bill do a phone consultation and then Bill did everything he needed to do with diligence and then got him right to our doctors,” Hillman said. “Our doctors took obviously a very thorough look at him and took his history. They did all the research we needed to make sure that Caleb wasn’t going to put himself in a spot where he would be injured. Having cleared all those steps, we were sure excited to get him back on the ice.” Moffat worked hard in training camp, spending extra time on the ice working on regaining his skills and just as much time in the gym continuing to build himself back up. The players supported his efforts, encouraging him to keep working. By the end of camp, he had earned a roster spot. While many of his teammates were accepting championship rings and watching the title banner go to the rafters, Moffat was having his own special moment being back on the ice. “I had a tingling sensation all over (during the anthems). It was great to be back,” he said. “It was just like old times once again. It was exciting to be back out there.” Despite an injury that has forced him to the injured reserve list, Moffat is excited about the prospect of adding an SPHL championship to the incredible personal victory he has already won. “I’ve already accomplished so much going from not playing the last two years to how far I’ve made it already. That’s already a huge goal accomplished and that’s a win for me,’ He said. “That was my main thing. I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it once again. That’s already a hat trick in my mind. A championship would be the cherry on top.” A cherry, and life, could never be any sweeter than that. Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com