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University of British Columbia.
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Chris Levesque
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On December 9, 2003, under bizarre circumstances, he was called up to serve for one game as a backup goaltender for the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (National Hockey League). He came very close to playing when starting goaltender Johan Hedberg collided with a player from the Pittsburgh Penguins. However, Hedberg recovered, and Levesque ultimately did not play in the game.
Levesque has since worked as a sous chef in Vancouver.
On December 9, 2003, the Canucks were hosts to the Pittsburgh Penguins. That morning, their starting goalie Dan Cloutier injured his groin.
The Canucks planned to start Johan Hedberg in Cloutier"s place, but they still needed a backup. Under normal circumstances, they would have recalled Alex Auld from their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate Manitoba Moose.
However, the Moose were on the East Coast, several time zones away, and Auld could not arrive in Vancouver on time.
Under National Hockey League rules, the Canucks needed to find an undrafted player who had never played in the National Hockey League. Milan Drajicevic, the coach of the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds, happened to be at the practice when Cloutier was injured, and he suggested the Canucks use Levesque, University of British Columbia"s second backup. Because of amateur call-up rules, the Canucks could not recruit the T-Birds" top two goaltenders, Kevin Swanson and Robert Filc. At the time Levesque was in one of the many University of British Columbia libraries studying for a geography exam he had the next morning.
His friends and teammates scoured the campus, and when they found him, he assumed he was the victim of a prank.
He was not convinced otherwise until he received a phone call from Jon Wall, Manager of Scouting and Player Information for the Canucks. Once he realized the situation was real, he quickly received a one-time exemption from Canadian Interuniversity Sport rules to play in the National Hockey League, and drove to General Motors Place to take a spot on the bench.
When Cloutier failed to take the warm-up skate, Levesque officially took the position of backup goaltender for the game. There was an extremely low chance that Levesque would have to play.
However, a late first-period collision between Hedberg and Konstantin Koltsov nearly forced Levesque to play.
Hedberg revealed later that he had broken his wrist in the collision, but decided to stay in the game. Levesque finished the game as a backup. The closest he came to any game action was taking warm-up shots before the game.
He did not expect to return to play for the Canucks, but described his experience as "surreal" and "a great time," particularly highlighting being scored on by Todd Bertuzzi during practice.
In May 2007, The Province interviewed Levesque to reflect on his life since his experience with the Canucks. Foreign a few days after the game, he enjoyed brief celebrity.
He said that he treasured the experience, and refuses to watch the only video tape he owns of the game, for fear of his Videocassette Recorder destroying lieutenant Levesque never got to play in a major-junior hockey league, and when he finally earned the starting position at University of British Columbia, he suffered two concussions.
He later tried out for the ECHL"s Augusta Lynx, but was cut.
Levesque is currently the Head Chef of Joey on Burrard and Robson in downtown Vancouver, and is now married to Masters of Psychology student Jillian Levesque(Schmidt).
