It seems as if the Vancouver Canucks may have taken care of Teddy Blueger’s holiday gifts for him this year.
Following Tuesday night’s 4-3 overtime loss at home against the St. Louis Blues, the winner of the Canucks’ 50/50 prize draw in benefit of The Canucks for Kids Fund appears to be Jana Blueger, mother of Canucks forward Teddy Blueger.
As first reported by Matt Foulger on Bluesky, he checked the winning lotto numbers online and saw none other than one Jana Blueger listed as the winner of the $105,852 jackpot.
The 30-year-old centre Blueger is a native of Riga, Latvia, where he would grow up a close friend of future Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins, as his mother had attended school with both of the netminder’s parents. Latvia, a country with a population of just under two million, has a tight-knit hockey community, as seen by the National Holiday declared after Canucks goaltender Artūrs Šilovs led their national team to their first-ever World Championship medal.
To advance his career, Teddy Blueger would move stateside at the age of 15 to play at the renowned Minnesota preparatory school, Shattuck St. Marys, which claims the likes of Nathan MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, and Blueger’s Canucks teammate Conor Garland amongst its alums. Blueger moved on to the collegiate level with Minnesota State University, where he would play all four years. After he was drafted in the second round by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2012, Blueger played with their AHL affiliate Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins from 2016-2019 before joining the club in an increased role beginning during the 2018-2019 season. He was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights at the trade deadline in 2023 and would sign a $1.9 million one-year contract with the Vancouver Canucks that summer in free agency. He re-signed with the club this summer for two years at a $1.8 million cap hit per season.
According to both his Minnesota State University biography and an interview with his parents on the Latvian sports program Sporta Studija, Blueger’s mother is listed as Jana Bļugere (Jana Blueger).
This is not the first time that Jana Blueger has taken centre stage in her son’s NHL career. After Blueger’s Stanley Cup win with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023, Jana proved to be the true MVP of the campaign, helping clean up her son’s mess during his day with the Cup back home in Riga.