For Bruins forward Nick Foligno, the draw to sign in Boston was about more than just hockey | Matt Vautour – MassLive.com

Nick Foligno the hockey player liked joining the Bruins for all the reasons all hockey players do: The history. The passionate fan base in a city that loves the sport. The chance to play with Patrice Bergeron on a team with Stanley Cup aspirations. All of those contributed to him signing with the team as a free agent Wednesday. Foligno is a second-generation NHL player and has appreciated this stuff his whole life.

Nick Foligno the dad was drawn to Boston for reasons that had nothing to do with hockey. He and his family have been here before. Shortly after his daughter Milana was born and again as a five-year-old, she came to Boston Childrens Hospital for life-saving surgery.

For the past eight years, Boston Childrens Hospital has been the No. 1-ranked pediatric hospital in the United States by U.S. News and World Report. Children from around the country and around the world are sent to Boston to be treated when their condition is too rare or too complicated for their hometown hospital.

In 2013, when Milana was diagnosed with mitral valve arcade, a congenital heart defect that could lead to heart failure, the Folignos brought her from Ohio to Boston. She had successful open-heart surgery then and again in 2018.

Three years since her last surgery, Milana is thriving.

Shes doing great. Shes having a blast up here, Foligno said smiling when asked during his Zoom conference with Boston media. Were up in Canada for our summer home. Shes on the lake, so shes just a typical seven-year-old girl and having a blast.

The Folignos didnt put the experience or the city behind them. Theyve given their time, their money and used their platform to help other kids and families facing cardiac health issues. They started The Hearts Playbook, an offshoot of the Janis Foligno Foundation, a charitable endeavor Nick Foligno started and named for his late mother.

The Hearts Playbook, according to its website, has been created to build stronger communities in heart health, support cardiac centers across the nation in patient care, aid in the discovery of technological advancement through innovative heart research, and provide resources to other families in need. Through the work of this foundation, our goal is to help patients and families work with the best physicians, receive the best care, engage with the best technology in heart health, and be introduced to some of the most positive communities so that they may have positive outcomes.

They donated $1 million to Boston Childrens and Nationwide Childrens Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, in 2016. Janelle Foligno, Nicks wife, wrote a childrens book Dear Heart: A Letter to My Special Heart to help kids with heart conditions.

Moving his career and family to Boston means Milana will be close to elite medical care if she needs it and the Foligno family and their foundations will have an opportunity to work closely with Boston Childrens to do the most good.

Boston has a very special place in our heart because of that. I think it was my wife said, serendipitous in a way, of coming back to a place that gave us a chance to be a family in the first place, Foligno said. Were really looking forward to that bond that was created. We love the doctors and the people in that hospital. Were looking forward to playing in front of them, having them cheer us on. I think they were secretly cheering me on from afar, but now theyll really have a reason to cheer from me, which will be great. And probably even more so to see how well Milana is doing for them, to see her on a more day-to-day basis, will be really special. Were pretty excited about being back in Boston for that reason.

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For Bruins forward Nick Foligno, the draw to sign in Boston was about more than just hockey | Matt Vautour - MassLive.com