Heart Of A Lion: Inside Andrew Kuzma’s Recovery From Life-Changing Surgery

Posted on by Ryan Sikes Ryan Sikes
Photo Credit: Madison Capitols / Rosenau Photography

As Andrew Kuzma prepared for his freshman season at Penn State, he felt confident, energized, and ready to contribute at the collegiate level. He was coming off two strong seasons in the USHL, including a 30-goal, 52-point campaign with the Madison Capitols in 2023–24.

However, an undetected heart condition was quietly threatening both his hockey career and his long-term health. During a routine summer medical screening, something showed up on his echocardiogram.

“I had bicuspid aortic valves,” Kuzma told PuckPreps, referring to a congenital heart defect in which the valve that controls blood flow from the heart to the body has only two flaps instead of the usual three.

“It’s something that a lot of people live with and play with, but it just got to a point for me where I would need that fixed sometime during my pro career. It was just something I was born with, and I had zero clue that I even had.”

In an instant, the trajectory of Kuzma’s college hockey career changed, and so did his life.

Kuzma’s condition was uncovered only because of Penn State’s comprehensive cardiac screening protocol. Some programs only perform an EKG, which would not have caught the defect. The echocardiogram did.

"I'm thankful to have ended up at a school like Penn State to have that resource," he said.

That extra step may have saved his hockey career.

There had been no red flags during his junior hockey days with Madison or Des Moines. Kuzma’s conditioning was one of the stronger aspects of his game. He had no chest pain. No shortness of breath. Nothing out of the ordinary that would have raised concern.

The news hit hard, but the young forward never let panic take over.

“My whole thing was, I can’t change anything,” he said. “If I have any type of injury or health issue, it’s just, ‘What’s the next step?’ That was the biggest thing that helped me out because there were a lot of unknowns.”

Although the condition had caused no symptoms, the fix was far from simple. After consultations with NHL team physicians, NHLPA doctors, and other sports physicians, Kuzma and his family weighed the option of surgery versus managing the condition.

At just 19 years old, Kuzma underwent open-heart surgery in late November.

“It was past the point of managing it,” he said. “The risk of playing was too high for being a college hockey player at that point. This is what I needed to do in order to keep playing, extend my career, and also be the healthiest player that I can be.”

The operation was performed at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago, where a specialized cardiac team developed a plan focused on long-term athletic health. It was invasive, as expected with this kind of surgery, but it was also considered a safe approach that would give him the best shot at a full career.

You might expect a 19-year-old facing heart surgery to be terrified, but Kuzma surprised everyone.

“[The doctors had] never seen someone that calm before,” he laughed. “I had wrist surgery. And I think I was more freaked out for that than the heart surgery, honestly.”

After a successful surgery, Kuzma spent about a week in the hospital. Then came the road to recovery, which went better than he could have imagined.

“I was on the treadmill the second I got home,” he said. “Every day, walking. Then you move into a jog and then you start running. So every week, we kind of stepped it up.”

He was surprised by how mobile he was allowed to be so soon after surgery.

Six weeks post-op, he was back on the ice, doing light skating, wrist shots, and getting reacclimated to the feel of the game. By the three-month mark, he was a full participant in practice, with the only limitation being no contact. It was a recovery timeline that felt almost unreal.

“We took the approach of, ‘How do we get back on the ice the fastest and get back to hockey the fastest and then extend my career?’, he said.”

The process was not without its setbacks. Recovery after open-heart surgery is never completely smooth. Some days felt off, and it was not always a steady climb. But week by week, he kept making progress.

As Kuzma rehabbed, his Penn State teammates made an incredible run to the program’s first Frozen Four.

He did not fully realize how hard it would be to watch from the sidelines until he had to do it all season. It was not easy. Once the team made it into the Big Ten Playoffs, all he wanted was for them to keep winning, one game at a time.

It was only after the season-ending loss to Boston University in the Frozen Four that he could step back and recognize just how far the team had come.

“I was just proud of our group where we started 0–9 in Big Ten play, and then by the time I came back, we were winning every game it felt like,” he said. “So, it was tough to sit out.”

Now fully cleared and heading into a pivotal year, Kuzma is not making any bold statistical promises. His goals go beyond just hockey.

“I know what I'm capable of. I know my strengths,” he said. “The biggest thing for me is just to be able to identify those strengths again with my play and be able to play with confidence. That's the biggest thing. Then the points and goals will follow up after.”

Ryan Sikes

08/07/2025