Eight-year-old Zach Cezar thought he was about to enjoy a pizza party with his teammates after his ice hockey practice at Sno-King Ice Arena in Renton. He was shocked to find that this wasn’t an ordinary pizza party, but a Make-A-Wish party for him.

Over a year ago, Cezar was diagnosed with optic glioma, which is a brain tumor. At first, he tried going through chemotherapy. But after 12 weeks, the tumor proved to be persistent and kept growing. So he had a surgery to disconnect his optic nerve and remove the tumor. The surgery was successful, but he is blind in his right eye.

During his treatment, he had to take a break from hockey. So a successful surgery meant he was able to do what he wanted to do the most — get back on the ice and play hockey with his teammates.

“For the most part, he’s a normal 8-year-old kid now,” said his dad, Chris . “He likes to play hockey and play with his friends.”

“At first, I wanted to quit hockey as I didn’t think I’d play well when I was sick,” Cezar said. “But I didn’t quit because I would miss my team. My favorite part of hockey is being on my team.”

But the best was yet to come. When Cezar realized the pizza party was actually a Make-A-Wish party for him, it could only mean one thing — he was going to the NHL All-Star game in Los Angeles on Jan. 28.

Cezar will be the official “Stick Kid” at the All-Star Skills Competition, and he’ll receive an exclusive “Stick Kid” jersey and helmet, as well as an exclusive sneak peek at the locker rooms where he’ll be able to hang out with the players.

“Hopefully when Zach looks back at this part of his life, he’s not remembering the brain tumor, the surgery and all the bad things, but he’ll look at the positive,” his dad said. “Hopefully he’ll pay it back one day.”