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Home is where the heart and hockey was for Jack Rathbone last season.

The Vancouver Canucks’ prospect defenceman purposely chose to remain at Dexter Academy in Brookline, Mass. for another season. It allowed the fourth-round pick in the 2017 NHL draft to stay close to his autistic and inspirational nine-year-old brother Teddy.

“He’s unbelievable — he has made strides,” said the 19-year-old Rathbone, a native of West Roxbury, Mass. “We had a senior project for my school and I was in his classroom for about two weeks. I was helping with anything he went through and he’s my best friend.

“I didn’t want to be away from him for many months in the USHL or another junior league and that was a very good decision on my part. He put life in a new perspective when I learned he was diagnosed (age two).”

Teddy has ASD (autism spectrum disorder) which includes problems with social communication, social interaction and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities. Long-term issues may include creating and keeping relationships, maintaining a job and daily tasks.