The Vancouver Canucks got word of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash at a team dinner before the last game of the regular season.

Derek Dorsett, of Kindersley, kept checking social media and the news to see how bad it was, praying and hoping no one was hurt.

“Unfortunately it wasn’t the case. So it was just heartbreak and scared. It’s hard to put into words the feeling that was going on at the dinner with the whole team,” he told Bolt FM.

Dorsett and teammate Derrick Pouliot visited crash survivors at Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, telling them to stay positive and keep fighting.

They then came to Humboldt on Friday to pay their respects at the Elgar Petersen Arena in Humboldt, bringing a Canucks jersey signed by the whole team to raise money for the Broncos.

“There’s going to be some tough times ahead and it’s amazing what you see with everything that’s been raised already so far with the GoFundMe page and everything like that so every little bit can help here,” said Pouliot, who is from Weyburn.

Through the sadness of the crash, the bond between a hockey team and its town has shone through. Dorset was lucky enough to play for his hometown Kindersley Klippers of the SJHL - with the players who were his heroes when he was young, he said.

He was called up after his Midget AAA team, the Swift Current Legionnaires, were eliminated from the playoffs.  He then started the next year with the Klippers, and didn’t want to leave when he was called up to Medicine Hat, he said.

“We created such a great bond and that’s one of the messages all the players in the hospital were telling us yesterday, how great a bond these guys have, and it’s true. Every team you get to and play on, whether it’s in junior hockey or the NHL or AHL, it doesn't matter.

“Once you walk in that locker room, you’re family.”