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Johnny Gaudreau was told thousands and thousands of times that he was too small for the NHL.

So when he and his wife, Meredith, welcomed a son in February, he was especially excited about one stat.

“John would want me to take this time to mention Baby Johnny’s size,” Meredith said as she eulogized her husband Monday. “He’s in the 93rd percentile for his weight, which is something that Daddy is very proud of. ‘A little unit,’ he would always say.”

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Loved ones, friends and scores of former teammates gathered Monday at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Media, Pa., to mourn the death of Johnny — sure to be remembered as one of the NHL’s biggest little stars — and his younger brother Matthew.

The siblings were killed Aug. 29, struck by a suspected drunk driver as they biked along a rural road in Salem County, N.J.

“I want to say to everyone that neither John nor Matty suffered,” Meredith said. “It makes me feel better knowing that whatever silly conversation they were having, it just picked right back up in heaven in a flash.”

“The bond Matt and John shared is something that, unless you knew them personally, even the most perfect words, pictures or videos cannot adequately describe it,” echoed Matthew’s wife, Madeline, delivering the eulogy for her husband. “They were attached at the hip. They slept in the same room up until college and neither of them ever wanted that to change. I remember in our early years of dating, our friend group would go to country concerts and when we got back to the house we were staying at, Matty and I would go to bed and we would always wake up with John right in the middle somehow.

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“Meredith said it best — you do not hear one name without the other. They were so extremely proud of each other, and it brings me comfort knowing they are still together forever, as they always were.”

On Monday, their caskets rested side-by-side at the front of the church, with many of the biggest names in hockey on hand to pay their respects.

Johnny, who turned 31 a couple of weeks before his tragic death, had starred for nine seasons with the Calgary Flames and was still in the prime of his career with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Meredith revealed that she is nine weeks pregnant with their third child.

Matthew, 29, played with his brother at Boston College and later skated for five winters in the minor-pro ranks. He was excited to welcome his first child, a boy named Tripp, later this year.

Father Tony Penna, who heads the ministry staff at Boston College, recounted a scene from Johnny’s freshman campaign with the NCAA’s Eagles. Matthew, still in high school at the time, had visited for the weekend during a break in the action with the USHL’s Omaha Lancers, and Penna happened across the brothers as they were saying their farewells. He described a “tennis match” of I-love-yous. “They must have said it 19 times,” he marvelled.

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Johnny’s pallbearers Monday included Sean Monahan and Andrew Mangiapane, two of his former teammates at the Saddledome.

Buddy Robinson, who grew up with the Gaudreaus and briefly played alongside Johnny in Calgary and alongside Matthew with the AHL’s Stockton Heat, was called upon to read a prayer.

During the livestream, glimpses of a somber and teary-eyed crowd showed many other Flames connections, past and present — Rasmus Andersson, Mikael Backlund, Sam Bennett, TJ Brodie, Craig Conroy, Mark Giordano, Noah Hanifin, Elias Lindholm, Jacob Markstrom, Chris Tanev, Matthew Tkachuk, Brad Treliving and more.

As Meredith stressed: “Calgary has such a special place in John’s heart and mine.”

It was in Calgary that Johnny emerged as a bonafide superstar.

He averaged upwards of a point-per-game during his stint with the Flames, a rare stat in today’s NHL and especially impressive when you consider he was always the smallest guy on the ice. Even though his father, Guy, had used Skittles as motivation when he was teaching him to skate way back when at Hollydell Ice Arena, he never grew past 5-foot-9 and about 165 lb.

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Perhaps his son won’t have to silence those same doubters. That’s what Johnny was undoubtedly hoping when they became a family of four, bringing John Jr. home to meet his older sister Noa.

“He looks nothing like John — his eyes are blue and his hair is lighter and, so far, pretty straight,” Meredith said of their infant boy. “But I do think Baby Johnny has his dad’s hands. Perfect, beautiful hands, I’ve always thought. Let’s hope he inherits his dad’s hockey hands, too. John, I promise to have Baby Johnny on skates soon and to be a dedicated hockey mom that drives any distance to all the tournaments and I’ll wake up early for the games, even if that means Baby Johnny shows up in Winnie the Pooh pyjamas and sleeps on the bench, just like you did.

“PopPop will coach him and Tripp, but no pressure Baby Johnny. Mommy and Daddy will be proud of you no matter where life takes you, but I have a feeling it is taking you straight to Hollydell to start.”

Just like it did for Johnny and Matthew.

As Madeline summed up: “Linemates forever.”

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