NASHVILLE, Tenn.NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Former San Diego Gulls right wing Nic Kerdiles, who had a brief NHL career and was formerly engaged to a reality television personality, was killed in a motorcycle crash early Saturday morning in Nashville. He was 29.
The one-time hockey player for the Anaheim Ducks drove his motorcycle through a stop sign around 3:30 a.m. Saturday and hit the driver’s side of an SUV, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department. The SUV’s driver immediately stopped, and there were no signs of impairment in either driver, police added.
Kerdiles died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Police don’t anticipate any charges in the crash.
Kerdiles played for the Gulls during their first three seasons in the American Hockey League, with 37 goals and 39 assists in 121 games. He played in three NHL games in his career with the Gulls’ parent club, the Anaheim Ducks.
“We’re heartbroken to hear the news about Nic Kerdiles, who died in a motorcycle accident this morning,” the Gulls said in a statement posted on Instagram. “An Irvine native, Nic became the first player from Orange County to play for the Ducks, in 2017. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies go out to his family and loved ones.”
Kerdiles also appeared on the USA Network series “Chrisley Knows Best” with his former fiancée, Savannah Chrisley, who took to social media to post photos of the couple frolicking on the beach.
“We loved hard,” she wrote. “I can’t wait to ride bikes with you along the beaches of heaven one day.”
The two began dating in 2017, became engaged in 2019 and ended the relationship in 2020.
The Ducks drafted Kerdiles in 2012, and he was part of the team’s AHL when it moved to San Diego in 2015-16. Kerdiles tallied 15 goals and 12 assists in 45 games in the Gulls’ first AHL season.
After recovering from a concussion the next season, Kerdiles tallied four goals and five assists in 10 games for the Gulls before the Ducks brought him up on Feb. 22, 2017. He made his NHL debut that night in a 5-3 victory over the Boston Bruins, playing a little more than 11 minutes over 17 shifts.
Kerdiles was reassigned to the Gulls two days later and didn’t play again for the Ducks until October 2017 when he was scoreless in two games in what turned out to be his final NHL appearances. The Ducks traded him to the Winnipeg Jets in June 2018, and his hockey career ended in the 2018-19 season when he played three games for his new team’s AHL . More recently, he had worked in real estate in Nashville.
“We’re heartbroken to hear the news about Nic Kerdiles,” the Ducks posted on social media Saturday. “Our thoughts and deepest sympathies go out to his family and loved ones.”
USA Hockey, the national governing body for the sport, posted on social media that it was “heartbroken” to hear about Kerdiles’ death. The organization noted that Kerdiles helped Team USA’s under-18 squad win two gold medals at the International Ice Hockey Federation’s U18 World Championship.
He played in college for the University of Wisconsin, whose hockey program also mourned Kerdiles on social media, posting about his “great spirit as part of our Badger family.”
Kerdiles was inspired to begin playing roller hockey by a neighbor in Orange County who played. After a year and a half playing roller hockey, Kerdiles began playing ice hockey.
“I watched it on TV and loved the game, and I just wanted to keep advancing,” Kerdiles said in a 2017 interview with the Ducks’ team website. “I wasn’t the best player, but I worked hard and eventually progressed.”
City News Service contributed to this story.
