Link Gaetz

Link Gaetz (born October 2, 1968) is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Minnesota North Stars and San Jose Sharks.

Playing Career
Link was drafted in the second round, 40th overall in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft by the Minnesota North Stars.

According to then-North Stars general manager Lou Nanne, he was intended to provide on-ice protection for forward Mike Modano, Minnesota's No. 1 overall pick that year. Four months after being drafted by the North Stars, he was arrested & charged with drunk driving.

After 17 games over two seasons with Minnesota, he was taken by the San Jose Sharks in the 1991 NHL Expansion Draft.

On April 2, 1992 at 10:00 am, Link was thrown from the passenger seat of a car driven by a friend. The friend (later charged with driving under the influence), had lost control on an off-ramp at 80 mph. Gaetz arrived at the Peninsula Hospital with back and facial injuries and was semi-comatose for eight days. His mother, Sonja Koskinen flew down from Vancouver to hear doctors say her son might die.

Link's brain stem had been injured and awoke with his left side partially paralyzed & no memory of the accident. He left the hospital after six weeks. Over the next two months, he worked with therapists to regain movement & speech and confounded doctors by returning to the ice late that summer, skating twice daily.

He would later be released from the hospital and several months later, he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.

On September 10, 1993, Sharks general manager Dean Lombardi decided that he had enough and traded Link to the Edmonton Oilers for a tenth round pick in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft.

From there, he never played another game in the NHL and found himself playing in a wide variety of cities and leagues all over Canada and the United States.

While playing with the Thetford Mines Prolab of the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey (LNAH) on March 13, 2005, in a game against the Verdun Dragons, Link did not take a shift during the first or second period. During the second intermission, he changed out of his jersey and skates and went out to the concession stand to buy a hamburger and "promptly ate it".

Thetford Mines Prolab considered this disrespectful to the players and suspended him for the remainder of the season.

The incident later earned Link the reputation as one of the "quirkiest athletes in pro sports" in his native Canada.