Bruins pledge over $100,000 to help injured high school hockey player

The Boston Bruins have pledged at minimum $100,000 to help a high school hockey player who suffered a spinal cord injury during a game.

The Jacobs family, the Bruins and the Bruins Foundation announced the donation Thursday as support poured in for A.J. Quetta, a senior forward for Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, Massachusetts who went head first into the boards during a game on Tuesday. He was taken off the ice on a stretcher.
The school's president, Tim Sullivan,
told NBC Boston
that Quetta had a successful surgery Wednesday night and doctors were still working to determine whether Quetta would be able to move his body again.
"Despite these tragic circumstances, it makes my family and the Boston Bruins organization very proud to see such an outpouring of support from the New England hockey community," said Boston Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs. "A.J. and his family should know that they are not alone in the journey to recovery, and that we will be with him the whole way."
A GoFundMe
set up for the cost of Quetta's surgeries and recovery had well exceeded its $10,000 goal with donations from more than 6,000 contributors in excess of $400,000 as of Thursday night.

In addition to the monetary donation, the Bruins are auctioning game-used sticks at
www.bruinsauctions.org
and holding Bruins Foundation 50/50 raffles from Feb. 1-6 with all proceeds going to Quetta's recovery.

Several Bruins players voiced their support for Quetta and his family.

, forward Charlie Coyle emphasized how the hockey community is rallying around them in their time of need.
"A.J. and his family aren't alone by any means," Coyle said. "We got so many people behind them, supporting them, helping out as best they can, sending well wishes. We know he's going to pull through it and be great. I hear he's a strong kid as it is and the family is as well, so we're behind him. I know a lot of people are and it's great to see support when tragedy strikes but we know there's brighter days ahead."
The team also posted video of forward Brad Marchand hanging Quetta's jersey behind the Boston bench.

"I think the biggest thing is we just wanted to show that we're thinking about him and we want to support him," Marchand said following the game. "It's a very tough thing to see, especially a young kid go through that. I can't imagine what the family is going through, so we just wanted to let the family know that we're behind him and we're there to support him and support his family. That was the message we wanted to send."
Forward Chris Wagner echoed those sentiments with his postgame comments.
"Before we talk about tonight's game I just wanted to say that we're all praying for A.J.," Wagner said. "Way bigger than hockey, such a freak accident, our team's really thinking about him, his family, anybody affected. You know it really makes us think how fragile our careers are and how life is and we just want to say we're praying for him."
After the game, forward Craig Smith presented the game puck to Quetta and placed it in a locker where Quetta's jersey is now hanging.

NHL.com staff writer Amalie Benjamin contributed to this story.