Nic Kerdiles, the former hockey player once engaged to Savannah Chrisley, dead at 29 after motorcycle crash in Nashville – hours after posting ‘night rider’ Instagram picture on his bike
Nic Kerdiles, the former hockey player once engaged to Savannah Chrisley, dead at 29 after motorcycle crash in Nashville - hours after posting 'night rider' Instagram picture on his bike
Nic Kerdiles, a former NHL player for the Anaheim Ducks, died in a motorcycle accident in Nashville in the early hours of Saturday morning at 29.
According to TMZ, Kerdiles died from injuries in an accident at around 3:30am Saturday morning. Reports indicate that Kerdiles struck the side of a BMW. The driver of the other vehicle stopped immediately and he was transported to a local hospital.
Police say there were no signs of impairment from either Kerdiles or the driver of the other vehicle.
Kerdiles had posted a picture of himself on a motorbike on his Instagram story on Saturday night, captioned ‘night rider’.
He had previously been engaged to Savannah Chrisley, a former pageant queen and a member of the family highlighted on the USA Network reality television show ‘Chrisley Knows Best’.
Kerdiles and Chrisley began dating in November of 2017, about three years into the reality TV show’s existence.
The two became engaged on Christmas Eve of 2018, but the pair never wed.
In September of 2020, Chrisley announced that the couple had split, saying in an Instagram post that ‘there’s no hatred between the two of us’.
‘We have nothing but love, respect, and admiration for one another but it’s time for us to move forward individually,’ she wrote.
Savannah starred in both the ‘Knows Best’ series as well as a spin off, ‘Growing Up Chrisley’.
Both those series’ were cancelled when Savannah’s parents – Todd and Julie Chrisley were sentenced to twelve and seven years in prison respectively for tax evasion and bank fraud charges.
Kerdiles was born and raised in Lewisville, Texas to a French father and a French-Canadian mother – moving to France before eventually settling in California.
As a kid, he took part in the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a team of children from Los Angeles.
He represented the United States in their hockey National Team Development Program in multiple prestigious youth tournaments.
Kerdiles won silver with the United Sates at the 2011 IIHF U-17 World Championships before winning gold in the U-18 World Championships later that year.
The United States won gold in the same tournament the next year, where Kerdiles scored the most points of any American.
In 2012, the Anaheim Ducks drafted Kerdiles in the second round with the 36th overall pick. He went on to attend the University of Wisconsin for two seasons, racking up 26 goals and 45 assists for 71 points in 60 collegiate games.
After those two seasons, he signed a three-year entry level contract with the Ducks in 2014. He debuted for Anaheim’s AHL minor league affiliate – the Norfolk Admirals – in the 2014 Calder Cup playoffs. He’d go on to play for the San Diego Gulls when they became the Ducks’ new affiliate.
Following three seasons of playing in the minors, Kerdiles made his NHL debut on February 22, 2017 against the Boston Bruins.
Kerdiles went back to the Gulls and played eight games in their short-lived Calder Cup Playoff campaign.
But the Ducks called him back up for four exciting games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He was on the ice in Games 5 and 6 in the Western Conference second round against the Edmonton Oilers, a series Anaheim would eventually win.
Kerdiles’ next two games came in the Western Conference Finals against the Nashville Predators. After putting up a blank in that series’ Game 5, he tallied his first and only NHL point in Game 6.
His pass behind the net to teammate Chris Wagner cut Nashville’s lead down to 3-2. Unfortunately, Nashville would win that game which meant they eliminated Anaheim and advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Kerdiles would return to play in the NHL the following season for two games after he signed a one-year extension.
Unfortunately, he failed to make an impact enough to stay in the team and he played his last game with Anaheim on October 15, 2017 against the Buffalo Sabres.
He was traded to the Winnipeg Jets on June 30, 2018. While he made three appearances for their AHL team – the Manitoba Moose – he never played in the NHL again.
His final game came on October 13, 2018 in a 6-2 loss against the Belleville Senators.
Kerdiles finished his NHL career with seven appearances in the regular season and the playoffs – managing one point.
In the AHL, he put up 47 goals and 60 assists for 107 regular season points in 181 regular season games.
He also had seven goals and five assists for 12 points in 18 AHL Playoff appearances.
