Kylie's Kids: Meet Tucker

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- So many kids across Minnesota look up to our professional athletes, but the Minnesota Wild may have had their own role model this season.

Tucker is a really big sports fan in general, but especially when it comes to the Minnesota Wild. This season, the men he looks up to looked to him for inspiration.

A few months after Tucker lost his leg, he's up and playing hockey in his hospital room at Masonic Children's Hospital.

"I just really wanted to play, shoot some pucks," Tucker said. "So I tried my hardest and I could actually do it."

Tucker's always been an athlete.

"For me, sports is really fun," Tucker said.

But last fall, Tucker started feeling pain in his leg.

"First we thought it was a broken bone," Tucker said.

They found a four-inch tumor on his right femur. It was a rare form of bone cancer, or what Tucker calls, Black Legos.

"Once one little black Lego started to grow, it started to build more and more black Legos," Tucker said.

"Tucker decided to take control over what he could," said Dana Anderson-Helstrom, Tucker's mom. "It's way to distance himself from it."

"I don't call the 'ch' word chemo, I call it 'T,' Tucker said.

When T didn't work, they had to amputate his leg in February.

"We found out the day before his tryouts for a big hockey season," Dana said.

It only took Tucker three weeks before he was back in action, rollerblading with his walker.

"He's kind of an engineer that way," Dana said. "He figures out how balance will work, how to get around, how to use his crutches."

Tucker has an incredible team supporting him, which includes the team he's been cheering for his whole life: the Minnesota Wild.

"They came up to the hospital, got him a stick," said Dana. "The whole team signed his jersey."

Tucker's favorite player, Jason Zucker, has become especially close with Tucker's family.

"We play Xbox, hockey," Tucker said. "We talk about how he needs to work hard and not be a puck hog."

But the Wild didn't stop there. Tucker and his family spent 10 games in a suite.

"We got to park where the players park," Tucker said. "We got to sit on the bench where they do warm ups."

And if the Wild aren't having a good game, they lean on Tucker for support.

"If they're down in the 2nd or 3rd period they would say, 'Tucker is here and he would never give up so we're not going to give up,'" Tucker said.

"For my son who has loved sports since he was old enough to stand, it's great for him to say that sports is about men with character who get to do what they love," Dana said.

"They know I never give up so they're going to try to never give up," said Tucker.