How a mortgage broker ended up as goalie at Vancouver Canucks practice
Making it to the NHL isn’t easy.
Players often spend most of their childhood working on their craft and climbing the ranks for a chance at becoming one of the few who make it to hockey’s top level.
With all of that considered, how the heck did a Fraser Valley mortgage broker end up as the Vancouver Canucks goaltender at practice earlier this month?
Thatcher Demko’s first absence from Canucks practice prompted the team to recall Jiri Patera from Abbotsford on an emergency basis.
The issue? Patera couldn’t make it to practice in time as he had travelled to Colorado with the Abbotsford Canucks the previous day.
That led to a mystery goalie being spotted at practice for the Canucks. That goalie, as pointed out by Ben Lypka of the Abbotsford News, was local mortgage broker Alex Kotai.
“I don’t really tell anybody,” Kotai said when speaking to Daily Hive. “I’m kind of low-key about it. I just help them out whenever they need to.”
Kotai, who runs his own mortgage broker practice out of Abbotsford, developed a relationship with Canucks current goalie coach, Marko Torenius, back when the Finnish coach primarily worked in Abbotsford.
Now that Torenius has been promoted to goalie coach of the Vancouver Canucks, he’s continued to rely on Kotai to be the emergency call-up for NHL practices.
Kotai said that Torenius just texts him whenever he needs him at a practice, and the self-employed goaltender can drop things on a moment’s notice and help the Canucks.
He also revealed that this wasn’t the first time he subbed in at Canucks practice.
“I was there a couple of times last year, but no one else noticed,” he said.
Kotai plays in Langley’s Adult Safe Hockey League (ASHL), a competitive men’s league where some of the top players have played in the NCAA, AHL and ECHL.
“I play competitive hockey and I practice every week,” he said. “So, I do train a lot for it.”
“This is my main hobby. It’s almost more like a part-time job in life.”
Although the ASHL is a competitive men’s league, it’s certainly a few levels up from the NHL.
“The speed is faster. The passes are crisper. The shot speed is faster. But the shot speed, after a while, you kind of get accustomed to it,” Kotai explained.
“It’s like being on the Coquihalla and in the first 10 minutes, you feel like you’re flying. Then, after that, you start to feel like you’re crawling.”
Kotai was involved in a high-intensity Canucks practice on Nov. 7, including two-on-one drills where Vancouver’s best players were firing pucks at it.
“Once you adjust to the pace, it’s about just managing your heart rate right and you’re breathing so you can execute properly,” Kotai said.
“The last thing I want to do is look out of place, right? Helping them out and being tough to score on, that’s my goal.”
Kotai didn’t look out of place at Canucks practice. In fact, he blended in so well that some Canucks media members thought he was Patera at first.
So, what was it like for Kotai to interact with members of the Canucks?
“Everybody was just normal, super nice guys,” he said. “It was like I’d been there before, like 20 times, so they didn’t make me feel like I was out of place at all.”
Kotai said he knew some of the Abbotsford Canucks from last year a bit better since he frequented their practices with more regularity.
He did give a shoutout to Kevin Lankinen, the lone other goalie who was at Canucks practice the day Kotai was there.
“He’s extremely kind,” Kotai said. “Even last year, he really made a point to talk to me, and he was really nice.”
“Obviously, they’re all at levels beyond where I’m at. So, just to be there and have him talk to me like a normal guy, and talk through goalie stuff, it was great.”
While Kotai isn’t your normal NHL practice participant, it’s a neat success story for a guy who’s living his dream.
“This is my passion in life, so it’s kind of cool that I get this opportunity,” he said.