Ex-NHL player Nic Kerdiles dies in Nashville motorcycle crash

Former Anaheim Ducks player Nic Kerdiles was killed early Saturday morning in a motorcycle crash in North Nashville.

Metro Nashville Police identified Nicolas Kerdiles, 29, as the motorcyclist killed after colliding with an SUV at the intersection of 14th Avenue North at Wheless Street.

Kerdiles was selected by the Ducks in the second round of the 2012 NHL Draft. He played two seasons with the Anaheim Ducks between 2016-2018, according to hockeydb.com. He attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he played with the Wisconsin Badgers.

In 2018 he was traded to the Winnipeg Jets for Chase De Leo and spent one season playing with the Manitoba Moose minor league team.

What happened to Nic Kerdiles?

Nashville police say that a preliminary investigation shows that Kerdiles was driving his Indian Motorcycle west on Wheless Street around 3:30 a.m. when he ran a stop sign and struck the driver's side of a BMW SUV.

Police say there were no signs of impairment at the scene from either driver. Kerdiles was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he died.

No charges are anticipated, police said.

Anaheim Ducks, ex-girlfriend Savannah Chrisley and others mourn

Kerdiles was engaged to Savannah Chrisley and appeared on her family's reality TV shows "Chrisley Knows Best" and "Growing up Chrisley" from 2018 to 2019, according to IMDB.com.

The couple broke up in 2020.

Chrisley, who works in real estate in Tennessee, responded to Kerdile's death on her Instagram Stories sharing a photo of the couple and saying that she was still hoping he'd respond to her text.

"Heaven gained the most beautiful angel today," one of her posts said. "We loved hard... and I can't wait to ride bikes along the beaches of heaven with you one day."

The Anaheim Ducks and others in the hockey world also shared messages of grief in the wake of Kerdiles' death.

"We're heartbroken to hear the news about Nic Kerdiles, who died in a motorcycle accident this morning," read a post on X, formerly Twitter, from the main Anaheim Ducks account.

"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."

USA Hockey, the governing body of ice hockey in the U.S., among others in the hockey world joined in mourning Kerdiles' death, noting he helped Team USA win two gold medals at the International Ice Hockey U18 World Championship.

A post from the Wisconsin Badgers, the University of Wisconsin hockey team with which Kerdiles became a Western Collegiate Hockey Association and Big Ten Tourney champion, posted on X that they remembered his great spirit as part of the Badger family.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nic Kerdiles death in Nashville: NHL, Savannah Chrisley mourn