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.