"He was in Africa with one of his teammates on a trip": Erik Gudbranson's wife Sarah shares how she found out about his trade from Panthers to Canucks

By Anjum Rajonno

Modified Apr 02, 2025 12:42 GMT

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Columbus Blue Jackets alternate captain Erik Gudbranson’s wife Sarah made a guest appearance in the latest episode of the Never Offside podcast with Julie and Kat. During the segment, she shared the story of how her husband found out about his first trade in the NHL.

Sarah explained that back in the summer of 2016, Erik was on a cruise trip with a teammate when the Florida Panthers traded him to the Vancouver Canucks.

“He was in Africa with one of his teammates on a trip and I was in Florida at an apartment in dental school,” she said. “So I got home from night clinic and I was literally sat down to like make my dinner, sat on the couch and just started like scrolling through Instagram. And I saw that he got traded.” (23:25)

Sarah shared that Erik had no idea about the trade at the time because he was on a riverboat cruise with no Wi-Fi.

“Erik found out 12 hours later because he was on a river, riverboat cruise with no Wi-Fi. So everybody knew he'd been traded and he had no clue,” she added.

Sarah also mentioned how unexpected the trade was since at the time, Erik had recently signed a contract extension with the Panthers.

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Erik Gudbranson’s wife Sarah reminisces about how they first met

Sarah shared the story of how she met Erik Gudbranson during the same podcast appearance. She mentioned that she grew up in a small town in northern Ontario and had always dreamed of going to dental school in Florida.

Around the same time she made it to Florida, a friend she had worked with during university also moved to the city and invited her over to her boyfriend’s house. That’s where she first met Erik.

At the time, Sarah was going through a tough breakup, so nothing happened right away. However, about six months later she was in a much better place. They had a beach day out with friends where the couple would eventually connect.

“And we all had a beach day, actually, probably the only time my entire life skipped school to go to the beach this day with everyone. And we just started talking that day. We really hit it off. And then here we are, like, 11 years later,” she said. (12:10)

Sarah and Erik got engaged in 2018 and tied the knot in July 2019. Together they have two children, Bennett and Zoey.