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Carle brothers know best defense is family in times of crisis

Matt Carle remembers when it hit him. It was last June. He had just finished a workout near his home in San Jose. The Flyers defenseman was a member of the Sharks then. His phone rang and it was his younger brother, David.

Matt Carle came to Flyers from Tampa Bay early in season.
Matt Carle came to Flyers from Tampa Bay early in season.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff photographer

Matt Carle remembers when it hit him.

It was last June. He had just finished a workout near his home in San Jose. The Flyers defenseman was a member of the Sharks then. His phone rang and it was his younger brother, David.

Having moved away from their Anchorage, Alaska, home at the ripe age of 14, Matt was used to phone calls and text messages to keep up their "long-distance brotherly relationship."

But this one was different.

David, a rising star out of Shattuck-St. Mary's, a prep school in Minnesota, was shaken up. His brother could tell.

A nimble, 5-11, puck-moving defenseman, David had been getting ready to begin his college career at the University of Denver, where Matt had won two NCAA titles. But David was destined to join his brother on an NHL blue line someday.

David was ensconced in training for the NHL draft combine. During his combine interview, he listed big brother as his biggest influence. He said he wouldn't have gotten where he was without Matt's help.

But that day, he needed a different kind of help.

He told Matt that doctors at the combine had noticed an irregularity in his physicals. But Matt was convinced it was nothing.

"I remember the initial phone call when he told me that there was something wrong with his EKG [heart test]," Matt said. "I just told him it was probably something that he would get checked out and be fine. I was concerned, but I told him not to worry about it."

David Carle's stock had risen considerably during his senior year at Shattuck. He jumped 14 spots in the Central Scouting rankings among top skaters. He interviewed with nearly every team and was told he probably would be taken in the second round.

On June 19, the day before the draft, David was told he would never play again.

"I was training for the combine. I went to all of the interviews with teams and I even skipped my high school graduation, which was a big decision," he said.

"I had gotten a call before my last workout in Burnaby, British Columbia, that during the combine testing they had noticed an irregularity. They said that I might have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

"I had never heard of it before. I just assumed it wasn't serious. So I went back to Anchorage and I just started Googling it.

"I read that it was the most prevalent cause of sudden death in young athletes. I was in shock."

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is when the heart muscle thickens without any obvious cause. It is what killed Hank Gathers and forced Cuttino Mobley to prematurely retire from the NBA.

There was no confirmation of Carle's condition from doctors in Anchorage. They had seen only two similar cases.

Rather than fly to Ottawa to attend the draft, he went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

After just four tests, doctors told him that he needed to retire due to the risk of sudden death.

David Carle's dreams, promising career and hard work ended with a blip on the heart monitor. Rather than look for his name on television monitors inside ScotiaBank Place, he stared at his computer screen and punched out a painful e-mail to all 30 NHL teams advising them to not pick him.

"I was just in shock," he said. "I remember leading up to the draft, doing media interviews and talking with my friends like I was going to be drafted. Inside, I was bracing myself for the worst.

"Nothing can prepare you for a moment like that. I just broke down."

Those calls to his brother, his friends and his mother back in Alaska were the hardest - to both make and take.

"I was stunned," Matt said. "His career was over in the blink of an eye. It was something that our family had never been through before. It was something I had never even considered.

"I didn't even know what to say."

Just hours after the diagnosis, something magical happened. Denver had notified him that it would honor his 4-year scholarship in full.

And then . . .

"I had just gotten in from another workout. It was the Sunday of the draft," Matt Carle said. "I quick hopped on my computer and the first page that I went to was NHL.com. I just happened to look at the draft board.

"Just as I got onto the site, David's name popped up as the next pick."

The Tampa Bay Lightning unexpectedly had selected him with the 203rd pick in the seventh round.

"I thought that it was a joke," Matt said. "I thought that maybe they hoped that the diagnosis wasn't true - that he would someday play again."

Turns out that new Lightning owner Oren Koules had a son who attended Shattuck with David and had learned of his condition.

"They did something that they didn't have to do," David Carle said. "They treated me as a regular prospect. I got my jersey and went to prospect camp like everyone else."

As fate would have it, his brother was traded to the Lightning less than a month later.

David was the first member of the Lightning organization to officially welcome Matt to Tampa Bay. For 1 day at least, the brothers donned the same NHL jersey.

"It was a special moment for me," David said. "It was really cool to do that."

Four months later, Matt's life was shaken with another phone call.

This time, it was Lightning general manager Brian Lawton informing him of the trade to the Flyers. He had just gotten settled in Tampa Bay.

"When you go to a team, you don't just expect to be traded right off the jump," he said. "I figured I would at least be there for some time.

"I was traded after just 12 games and that was a shock. But looking back on it, it was a blessing in disguise."

Carle, 24, has settled in with the Flyers and has shown the promise he displayed in his rookie year in San Jose (42 points, plus-9 in 2006-07). He was a plus-2 with 24 points in 64 games with the Flyers in the regular season, and has played nearly 70 minutes of the first three games of the playoffs against Pittsburgh.

But he wasn't the only Carle to settle into a new role in November. This past year, his brother was an assistant coach with the University of Denver. He has gotten accustomed to listening and watching instead of playing - and he isn't afraid to speak up in coaches meetings.

"I'm still a student-athlete," he said. "I have the same time commitments and I am still at all of the practices. I wanted to make the most of it. It is a learning process, but it's very gratifying."

"He has handled it so well," Matt Carle said. "He has been mature way beyond his years. It doesn't surprise me though, that's just the way he is."

Skipping his high school graduation to go to the combine probably saved David Carle's life. If not, his condition would have gone undiagnosed.

"I could have been dead," he said. "But I'm incredibly thankful. I'm still supposed to live a long and healthy life. I am very lucky.

"It was a big change, but my family is thankful. They're much happier with David the person than David the hockey player."

Still 2,000 miles apart, the brothers have become closer. Like most brothers, the Carles are bonded by more than blood. They are bound by a passion.

"My story has resonated," David said. "Matt is a smart guy. He realizes that the game is fragile and can be taken away at any moment. You never know when it is going to be gone."

"I've definitely learned a lot in the past year," Matt said. "I've learned about the business side of hockey. You realize that some things are out of your control. I've learned to appreciate the game more and make the best of my situation. I'm just thankful to be here." *