Gudbranson shares rehab journey, admiration with sheriff's deputy

COLUMBUS – The suggestion was made that Nick Golden was hockey tough.

Erik Gudbranson, a defenseman with the Columbus Blue Jackets, laughed at the premise.

“He’s a little more than that,” the injured defenseman said Saturday, hours before the Blue Jackets played the Detroit Red Wings at the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at Ohio Stadium.

Golden, a deputy with the Delaware County sheriff’s office, was hit by a jackknifed tractor trailer truck in the early morning hours of Dec. 5, 2024.

He sustained major injuries to his legs and pelvis and spent more than a month in the hospital.

It’s there that Gudbranson met him, on a hospital visit to the injured superfan of the Blue Jackets. It was 10 days after the accident.

“He was sitting up in bed, grinning ear to ear. It’s one of those things you will probably remember for life,” Gudbranson said. "‘How is he so happy?’ Crazy tough, inexplicably tough. His story, what he experienced from his vantage point, is terrifying. He’s just a pretty impressive individual."

Which explains why Golden was at the Stadium Series game, wearing a Gudbranson No. 44 jersey, walking a bit tentatively, using a cane for balance less than three months after his whole life had been turned upside down at the intersection of State Route 37 and Interstate 71.

In fact, he had been back to the hospital Saturday morning for a procedure but told the staff he had to be out in time to make the game, which was a goal he had set for himself while in the hospital.

“I had a drain put in earlier in the week because of some pain I was having in the area where they did the surgeries before,” the 27-year-old said. “They went in and removed some stuff and got me back out of there. I told them I had a deadline to meet.”

He met his deadline and was at the game, talking to Gudbranson beforehand. The defenseman isn’t playing because he is still rehabbing from a shoulder injury he sustained in October.

They sat in a small office at Ohio Stadium, above the interview room where Ohio State football coach Ryan Day briefs the media throughout the season, trading stories about the ups and downs of rehab. More than once, Gudbranson just shook his head and chuckled when Golden downplayed another achievement on his long road back to full functionality.

“Nails,” he said softly, describing the sheriff, who is in his fifth year on the force.

A return to full normalcy and active duty is not imminent, but it is reachable, Golden says.

“We don’t have a timeline now, but it looks like I’ll be good to go back to full duty,” he said. “I have a rod in my leg and it will take a little to get used to that and a lot of PT, but eventually we will get back to running, jumping, all that good stuff.”

And, he will have Gudbranson to thank, in part.

The Blue Jackets player was there at the beginning.

“One injured guy at the time talking to another,” Gudbranson said. “You kind of know what he is going through, but not really. He’s just a really special person doing a really tough job.”

For Golden, the outreach meant the world.

He says he thought about Gudbranson and Boone Jenner, the Blue Jackets captain, doing their physical therapy when it was time to do his own. He thought about the visit from Gudbranson and all the small things his organization did for him.

“It’s been an absolutely amazing experience and I can’t say enough about what the Blue Jackets have done for me and for the Columbus community,” he said.