Last summer, Michael Garteig, still only 26, feared his hockey career was done.
The goalie, coming off a couple of contracts (one an NHL deal, and another at the American league level) following four years of U.S. college hockey, waited by the phone that didn’t ring.
It was a stressful time.
“I had a long summer,” Garteig admitted. “It wasn’t easy. Not many teams were calling looking to sign me. It was a very humbling experience.”
Eventually, Garteig did receive an offer, from the ECHL expansion Newfoundland Growlers, and the Prince George, B.C. native grabbed the ball — or puck, as it were — and ran with it, one of the big reasons the Growlers are in the second round of the Kelly Cup playoffs.
“I signed here in September,” he said, “and I’m very grateful for that.”
For every NHL star, there are countless other hockey players across the globe playing for contracts. One minute you’re gainfully employed, the next you’re looking for work … you and hundreds more, veterans looking to hang on and kids coming out of junior and college.
Garteig played four years at Connecticut’s Quinnipiac University, where he made two appearances in the NCAA’s Frozen Four championship game.
Following college, the Vancouver Canucks signed him to a one-year, free agent contract and Garteig split the 2016-17 season between the AHL’s Utica Comets and ECHL’s Alaska Aces.
He even dressed for one NHL game, though there’s nothing in the books to officially indicate the occasion. In November, 2016, he was summoned to Vancouver on an emergency recall to serve as Jacob Markstrom’s backup against the Arizona Coyotes.
Garteig was in Alaska at the time, and the Canucks didn’t think they could get Richard Bachman cross-continent from Utica to Vancouver in time for the game. So the call was put out to Garteig in Alaska, which offered a direct flight to Vancouver.
When his NHL deal was done, Garteig was signed to an AHL deal with Utica, but spent the entire 2017-18 season with the ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings.
And then the Canucks organization washed their hands clean of him.
“It proves you can’t take anything for granted,” he said, “and you have to be grateful every day to play professional hockey.
“For me, that includes playing in a city like St. John’s. You have to embrace everything.”
The signing of Garteig, by Mike Dixon, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ director of minor league operations, has proven to be a home run for the Growlers.
Garteig, said Newfoundland coach John Snowden, has been a “rock” for the team all season.
“Garts,” said Snowden, “has been consistent, steady and calm all year. I really like the way he’s played.”
Garteig played a large role in the Growlers emerging from the first round of the playoffs against the Brampton Beast, a series that went six games.
He posted a 2.66 goals against average and .905 save percentage, numbers that surely would have been better if not for the seven goals he allowed in an 8-2, Game 5 Brampton win, one that you can chalk up to as stuff happens.
“If you look at the series, I haven’t let in more than two or three goals a game,” he said prior to Newfoundland’s second-round series opener against the Manchester Monarchs last night at Mile One Centre. “So I think I did my job as best I could to give us a chance to win.”
There’s an old saying that if experience was so important, there’d be nobody on the moon.
That theory applies to Garteig, who enjoying his first taste of playoff hockey since his college days.
His last postseason appearance, before joining the Growlers, came in the 2016 NCAA national championship game in Tampa, Fla., when his Quinnipiac squad lost 5-1 to Brock Boeser and North Dakota.
Quinnipiac also played in the national final in 2013, Garteig’s freshman season, losing 4-0 to Yale. Garteig was a backup to Eric Hartzell in that one.
“Playoffs are a special time of year,” he said. “You can lose a game in the regular season, and it’s like, ‘Let’s get ’em the next night.’
“In the playoffs, every little play matters so much, everything matters so much. It’s why playoffs are so much fun.
“Like I said, you can’t take anything for granted in this game. You never know when you’re going to play next, and you never know when you’ll get to the playoffs next.”
Snowden, for one, wasn’t overly concerned his starting goaltender was going into the postseason without a lick of pro playoff games. In fact, the truth is the Growlers coach wasn’t even aware of that fact.
“Didn’t matter,” Snowden said. “He’s been our guy all year, and even when (Eamon) McAdam was here (he’s currently serving as a backup with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies), they split the load.
“Garts has been very good for us. Yeah, there was that one wobbly game in Brampton (Game 5), but outside of that, he’s been outstanding.”
One more note to Garteig’s season, one that he thought might have been in peril last summer: he enjoyed a stint with the Marlies this year, and even registered a win, a 5-1 decision over the Manitoba Moose in Winnipeg on the strength of a 26-save performance 10 days before Christmas.
“Signing with the Marlies and having them show some faith in me was great,” he said. “It shows how quickly things can change.
“It’s been a very good season for me from a personal standpoint, and I couldn’t be with a better organization or a better group of guys.
“This year has been a lot of fun, and it’s because of this group. That’s really what matters at the end of the day.
“And hopefully, it’s not over yet.”
Robin Short is The Telegram’s Sports Editor. He can be reached by email [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @TelyRobinShort
