Plymouth Whalers' Colin MacDonald, Nick Malysa lead 'Movember' Initiative Toward Men's Health

Watch Plymouth’s Colin MacDonald and Nick Malysa on the ice, and you’ll see that they are stay-at-home defensemen who often work together to kill penalties. 

Although they don’t generate a lot of headlines, MacDonald and Malysa play a steady, responsible game that is important to the Whalers success.

MacDonald and Malysa show the same responsible attitude off the ice as well.

MacDonald (19) and Malysa (18) are growing moustaches this month to raise awareness towards men’s health and specifically, towards prostate cancer.

They’ve set up websites on the Movember.com/Mospace site for donations and are encouraging everyone for donations.

See Malysa's site.   See MacDonald's site. 

“Last year and previous years, we’ve grown moustaches just to try to raise awareness and have fun,” said MacDonald  “But this year, Nick and I wanted to do a little more, get some charity work going and get some donations from people to go towards men’s health.”

See MacDonald and Malysa in a video.

Men’s health awareness hit close to home recently for the Whalers, when David Whaley – the father of Plymouth center, Michael Whaley – passed away earlier this season. 

“You can donate to us or donate to the team just to help out against prostate cancer,” said Malysa.  “It affects tons of people around the world.  It affected us as a team with the passing of Michael Whaley’s father (David).  We feel it’s a great thing to do, to get the word out and try to help everyone in need.”

MacDonald and Malysa’s initiative mirrors other teams within the Carolina Hurricanes family.  Jamie McBain, Brandon Sutter and Derek Joslin head the Hurricanes’ initiative. 

Former Whalers captain Chris Terry is one of the Movember captains for the American Hockey League’s Charlotte Checkers. Whaler alums Brett Bellemore, Michal Jordan and Justin Peters are all part of Terry’s team. His team is going against captain Chris Durno and members of his team.

The message from MacDonald and Malysa is heartfelt and simple.

“Any donation is appreciated,” MacDonald said.  “It doesn’t have to be a lot.”

Meanwhile, the Whalers (10-6-2-1) are back in action this weekend, playing in Guelph (8-5-1-2) on Friday before hosting Sault Ste. Marie (12-7-0-0) on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. and Erie (3-13-0-0) on Sunday at 2 p.m. in the first matinee game at this season.