Silvertips goalie raises thousands of dollars for mental health causes

EVERETT — Looking at the merchandise available at Angel of the Winds Arena during Everett Silvertips games leading up to the holidays, there are a few particular items that stand out from the rest.

In addition to replica jerseys, hats and all the typical garb, one could find shirts and hoodies adorned with a Lego design of Silvertips goalie Raiden LeGall. It’s not a name, image and likeness-esque cash grab, but rather something much bigger. With the help of his hometown goalie coach, Tim Morison, LeGall is raising money for mental health causes both in Snohomish County and Manitoba, his home province.

Proceeds from the merchandise sales are split between Camp Erin Snohomish County, which is one location among a network of bereavement camps for children aged 6-17 coping with loss, as well as Eden Health Care Services in Manitoba.

“(It’s) really important to just talk about things,” the 19-year-old LeGall said. “And it’s easier said than done to talk about stuff, but it’s a lot better than keeping it to yourself because I think when you keep it to yourself, it only gets worse.”

While the mission is all about giving, its origins come from LeGall taking away.

After backstopping a 30-save shutout last season against the Wenatchee Wild during their Teddy Bear Toss night on Dec. 8, 2024, LeGall picked up the playful of nickname of ‘LeGrinch’ from the Wenatchee fans, who never got to throw their bears on the ice upon the Wild’s first goal, and had to wait until the game ended. Hearing about that sparked a light bulb in Morison’s head.

“I had the idea of making some T-shirts with, ‘You’re a mean, Mr. LeGrinch,’” Morison told The Herald over the phone. “And I wanted to sell them and donate whatever I could out of those sales to mental health.”

For Morison, the cause is more personal. Morison and his wife, Nikki, had a stillborn son in 2022, which caused Morison to fall into a depression, during which he “had thoughts in my head that I never thought in a million years would happen.” Around this time, the COVID pandemic was still impacting the hockey scene in Manitoba, limiting a major passion of Morison’s life, which only compounded his struggles.

So the moments when Morison did get to share the ice with LeGall, whom he’s trained since he was nine, brought him joy when he needed it most. It wasn’t until years later when Morison told LeGall that their training sessions helped him through his darkest times.

“That felt amazing (to hear),” LeGall said. “Obviously he sort of was struggling a little bit, but I didn’t even know about it at the time. We would just go out on the ice and have a blast for an hour. It was always so much fun, and the fact that he was willing to share that story with me means the world to me. And that’s something I wake up to every day and (it) motivates me as well, because I’m able to sort of help out and be of importance to someone else.”

The two have developed a familial bond. Morison named the son he and Nikki lost after LeGall, and their two-year-old daughter Mylah’s middle name is ‘Rae,’ also after LeGall. The coach and goalie talk to each other weekly, and while Morison does not step on the toes of Everett’s coaches, he remains a key figure in LeGall’s life both on and off the ice.

So when LeGall put up that stellar performance on the ice in Wenatchee, Morison decided to use it for some extra good. However, with it being just a couple of weeks before Christmas, Morison only reached out to friends and family to see if they were interested in the idea after a friend of his put together the initial artwork. His brother, Justin, is a freelance artist in Manitoba and was enlisted to develop it into a more professional-looking design.

Morison ended up selling around 15 shirts and generating a couple of hundred dollars to donate. Certainly a solid last-minute fundraiser before the holidays, but as LeGall and Morison were golfing at the Carman Golf and Curling Club in Carman, MB the following summer, they thought about how to make it bigger.

“(LeGall) was like, ‘How do we get this to be something that we can raise more awareness, raise more money, and make this an actual thing?’” Morison said, recalling the conversation. “And I said, ‘Well, we have to get, obviously, people on your end through the (Silvertips) and everything on board, because obviously with copyright and everything.’”

That became the next step of the plan, but it came together semi-organically. Prior to summer but after the Christmas of the ‘LeGrinch’ shirts, Morison had changed the Grinch head design and replaced it with LeGall rendered as a Lego figurine. Building Legos with his son, Mavryck, played a big role in helping Morison in his battle with depression, so it became another meaningful symbol for the cause. After seeing the nickname ‘LeWall’ take off on social media, Morison incorporated a Lego brick wall into the background with the text: ‘Another Brick in LeWall.’

When Morison and Nikki first wore the new designs at the next Silvertips game they traveled down for, they turned heads in the concourse. Fans kept pointing out their shirts, with some approaching them asking where they could order from. At the time, there were only a few copies printed only for family and friends, but that quickly changed when Silvertips Booster Club President Robin Snyder saw a photo Morison had posted online.

“I really liked the design,” Snyder told The Herald over the phone. “And so I messaged him on Facebook, and we got to talking.”

With Snyder’s help, LeGall and Morison got the copyright approved from the Silvertips as well as TRUE Hockey, which is the brand of LeGall’s pads, to use their logos on the shirt for sales purposes. The next step was securing approval from Lego.

Enter Bricks & Minifigs.

In Morison’s travels, he likes to find “hidden gem” Lego retailers, which is how he met Tony Capelli. Capelli owns the Bricks & Minifigs location in Everett, and his daughter is an ice hockey goalie. Morison and Capelli have grown close through their shared interests, so when Morison approached Capelli with the idea of adding an advertisement for Bricks & Minifigs to the merchandise if Capelli could secure the approval of Lego for their design, it was an easy decision for both parties.

“He didn’t want to take away from our whole thing with having like a huge advertisement,” Morison said. “He’s like, ‘If you can just put something little, great. Fantastic. If not, whatever. I’ll still back it 100 percent,’ so we had the (Silvertips) Booster Club, myself, (LeGall) and (Capelli) at Bricks & Minifigs all in on this, and it all came together.”

With all the pieces in place — pun not intended — the fundraiser skyrocketed. The Silvertips Booster Club took care of setting up a supplier, marketing the shirts and distributing the orders, and as of Dec. 10, the fundraiser has received $12,210 in donations between t-shirts, sweatshirts and recently stickers, which have been added into the fold. Taking out production costs, over $7,500 will be split and donated to Camp Erin and Eden Health Care Services.

“We have the most generous fanbase,” Snyder said. “They 100 percent support whatever the boys do, and (LeGall) has been great about whatever we needed from him. He’s been willing— He’s like, ‘Do I need to sign something?’ He’s 100 percent into whatever he can do to promote this.”

Said Silvertips coach Steve Hamilton: “I think it’s an awesome way to connect with the community and give back to other people that support us. So anytime players take it upon themselves to do something like that, I think it speaks volumes about their character.”

The initial sale ended on Dec. 6, but the next wave of sales will be open until mid-January. LeGall, Morison & Co. have also added a window in February, predicting that the more the merchandise spreads around from these initial sales, the more traction it will gain and the more demand that will arrive.

“I’m hoping to be able to do this every year,” LeGall said. “It’s been really cool to see how much it’s grown in this year alone. And yeah, I mean, (we’d like to grow) as big as we can get it, but even if we can make one person’s life better, make them sort of feel better about themselves, that’s all we’re trying to do.”