Arizona State hockey head coach Greg Powers opened his slot at the National Collegiate Hockey Conference media day with a clear message: He would not answer questions about Matthew Mayich.
Mayich, a first-year player on the men’s hockey team, collapsed during a Green Beret–led preseason workout on Aug. 20. On Tuesday, ASU released an initial report on the workout that put the St. Louis Blues draft pick in a coma. It outlines conditions around Mayich’s collapse but does not assign blame.
In the school’s preliminary internal review, led by ASU SVP James Rund, the university shared a timeline of events, weather conditions, a summary of activities participants performed, and the actions taken following Mayich’s collapse toward the end of the two-hour workout.
The report acknowledges the school’s athletic staff did not review a training plan for the workout run by outside consultant Tim Zeisel, which was meant to be part of a three-day “teambuilding” activity led by the Army special forces veteran. Zeisel, who was introduced to Powers in January, was not formally contracted by ASU to provide consulting services.
After arriving in Arizona from his home in Canada eight days before the workout on Aug. 12, Mayich was medically cleared by ASU staff to participate in preseason activities. He had participated in three voluntary preseason workout sessions before Zeisel’s first session with the hockey team.
According to the timeline of the workout that injured him, Mayich visibly struggled through the final “wind down” exercise, then stumbled and fell. He attempted to stand but fell again, after which he became unresponsive and EMS was called. Zeisel had already left the premises.
Mayich remains in a coma in an Arizona hospital. Rob Carey, the Mayich family attorney, has said that he is unlikely to recover from the exertional heat stroke, which limited oxygen to his brain.
Carey pushed back on ASU’s framing of the workout in its release, saying in a statement shared with Front Office Sports, “I’ve read ASU’s report. It recommends new policies. ASU had policies. They called for a cold tub on the field, a wet bulb globe thermometer reading, a consultant who’d been checked out, and a 911 call the moment an athlete goes down. None of that happened, and ASU’s own timeline says so. What the report doesn’t say is what the players will tell you: this was a punishment workout.”
The ASU Police Department is conducting an ongoing investigation, which Powers said was the reason he couldn’t address Mayich’s situation or the conditions surrounding it during Wednesday’s NCHC media availability. Sitting beside junior forward Ben Muthersbaugh on the Zoom call, Powers asserted he was the right person to lead the Sun Devils going forward, citing his 20-year run with ASU.
“ASU seems determined to ignore the clear violations of its own policies and failures—it’s a poor showing thus far for the University’s leadership,” Carey wrote to FOS directly following Powers’ media day appearance.
All indications suggest ASU hockey will go forward with its upcoming season.
Since Mayich fell into a coma, no public roster changes have surfaced. Six players have their rights retained by clubs in the Canadian Hockey League, to which they could theoretically return. (A 2025 rule change enabled CHL players to join NCAA teams last season.) When contacted by FOS, a representative from the Edmonton Oil Kings said he was “unaware of any discussions” relating to any potential return from its ASU player; the Swift Current Broncos declined comment; and the Kamloops Blazers, Lethbridge Hurricanes, Everett Silvertips, and Medicine Hat Tigers did not respond.
