Eddie’s back! Meet our Hockey Fights Cancer puck dropper

It’s fitting that Eddie Golden’s favorite color is bright, sunshine yellow. It’s a shade that reflects the bright, positive attitude of an energetic child who has faced his cancer with bravery and determination. 

Eddie was first diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in April 2025 after developing a cough that just wouldn’t go away. He’s been through several rounds of chemotherapy and has developed avascular necrosis in his hips as a side effect of treatment. Eddie now relies on crutches to walk and moves a little more slowly than he used to. 

If he looks familiar, it’s because Eddie was selected as the tree lighter for the Tree of Hope festivities at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in December 2025, but he had to push the button to illuminate all those lights around Kaminski Park from a hallway above the park due to some medical setbacks that threatened to derail his holiday magic. 

Another chance to walk the purple carpet

Right away, Eddie wanted a second chance, says his mother, Melissa Golden. He had previously been a little disappointed when a high fever meant he couldn’t attend the Hockey Fights Cancer game in 2025 and ended up hospitalized the day of the game. 

“He was crushed,” Melissa says. “He still wanted his brothers to go to the game, but he ended up having to stay” at what is now Golisano Children’s Hospital of Buffalo. “This is also why he was so upset when Tree of Hope was on the line because these unplanned hospital visits were really cramping his social life,” she jokes. 

When the Buffalo Sabres announced their special events calendar, Eddie was prepared. “We were in the car, and he just yelled out ‘November 6!’ as if everyone’s brain was thinking the same thing and didn’t need any more details,” Melissa says, learning the date of this year’s Hockey Fights Cancer event. He called it his “chance at redemption” and asked her to call “the girls” – Megan Crawford and her team in Roswell Park’s Courage of Carly Fund, who organize a series of events leading up to Hockey Fights Cancer and a visit for pediatric patients and Sabres players before the game. 

“Those girls, they 100% came through,” Melissa laughs. 

Last year, during the Courage of Carly Halloween party, Eddie had the opportunity to interview Buffalo Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen as a lighthearted exchange. This year, the goalie was in on the plot, asking Eddie if he could turn the tables and conduct the interview, and popped the big question: Will you drop the puck for us?

“It was awesome,” Eddie says, grinning ear to ear, dark curls framing his face and peeking out from under his Sabres hat. 

A big night ahead for the Golden family

As of mid-October, Eddie is doing well and feeling good. He’s back to attending school in person full time, something he couldn’t do in 2025. The special stuffed animal, a large monkey with a backpack meant to keep Eddie connected with his friends at school in his absence, now lives under his younger brother’s bed. 

Melissa says now that his hair has grown back, in thick dark curls, he’s “waiting to cut it once he knows ‘it’s mine and won’t fall out again,’” another sign of his progress toward survivorship. 

Eddie says he might practice dropping the puck before the game on November 6 to make sure he lands it just in the middle, between Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin and a representative from their opponents, the Columbus Blue Jackets. 

“I just want to say thank you for everything everyone has done to help them have these special opportunities,” Melissa says. “It’s super special. We move one day at a time and when I tell you the power that these magical days like Hockey Fights Cancer have over his spirit and his motivation...it’s way more than one night for us!”