Canadian hockey player Eli Palfreyman died at the age of 20

Er Centennials mourn one of their own.

Eli Palfreyman, captain of Canada’s Ayr Centennials youth hockey team, died Aug. 31 after collapsing during a tournament. He was 20.

According to CBC, Palfreyman was in the locker room during the second halftime of a preseason game when he passed out. His mother, who is a nurse, reportedly rushed to the locker room when the team’s trainer began massaging the athlete’s chest.

As Palfreeman was placed in an ambulance and taken to the nearest hospital, Brian Shantz, Centennials vice president, told the CBC that his pulse had become weak. The athlete died soon after.

“Eli has been a great captain that we’ve been looking forward to,” Shantz shared Sept. 1 in a statement to the CBC. “As an on-ice captain, no one was going to be arbitrary with any of our players or they were going to hear from Eli. The other players respected him for it. They knew he was after them.”