An unexpected heart condition sidelined this hockey player for years. Here's how he made his way back

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Deep into his first full season with the American Hockey League's Rockford IceHogs, Jacob LeGuerrier experienced unfamiliar sensations: a pressure in his chest and a dull ache radiating down his left side.

The Ottawa-born defenceman kept playing as the symptoms started building, game by game. Soon he began to feel palpitations and skipped heartbeats, and he realized something was seriously wrong.

“That’s when I thought: I don’t think this is from the physical contact of hockey,” LeGuerrier recalled. “It might be something else.”

LeGuerrier ended up in the hospital, where he got a diagnosis that would sideline his hockey career for what turned out to be years.

The former Montreal Canadiens prospect shared his story of what happens when your hockey dreams are put on hold and how he dealt with his unexpected time off the ice in Heartline, a short documentary for CBC Ottawa's Creator Network.

Hockey was his life, until he was forced off the ice

LeGuerrier learned in 2022 that his symptoms were caused by viral myocarditis, a condition involving inflammation of the heart muscle.

It's often triggered by a sometimes minor virus or other illness, according to Dr. Chris Glover, an interventional cardiologist with the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.

Though many recover relatively quickly from symptoms like shortness of breath or chest pain, Glover says for some it can take longer. He usually advises three to six months of complete rest from