Logan Thompson during pre-game warmup for Canada’s first game, against Czechia, at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
The day Logan Thompson strode off a plane and into the arrivals terminal at Hamilton’s airport, Luc Lobsinger couldn’t believe his luck.
Thompson was 6 feet 4 inches, about 200 pounds, and oozed confidence. He just looked like a pro goalie. There was just one problem. The pro teams had all taken a pass on him.
It was the summer of 2018, and Lobsinger was the goalie coach at Brock University for a Canadian varsity team whose goalies had moved on. Their net was empty and a guy like Thompson was exactly what they needed.
Thompson, who is from Calgary, had just finished his junior career with the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League. But despite having decent stats and good size, he’d been ignored in all seven rounds of the NHL draft. Without any offers from minor pro teams, Thompson just needed somewhere to play.
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“I didn’t think we were going to land him,” Lobsinger said.
But the Brock Badgers had one thing Thompson wanted.
“We told him, you’re going to play 90 to 95 per cent of the games here. That was big for him.”
That season at Brock helped revive Thompson’s career, sending him on an improbable hockey journey that has taken him through the minors to the NHL and now to Milan, where he is one of the goalies on Canada’s star-studded team at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Thompson plays for the Washington Capitals.Nick Wass/The Associated Press
It’s a tale for every hockey player who was never picked, who thought they were done but insisted on never giving up.
“He was just overlooked and didn’t get the right-place, right-time opportunity,” Lobsinger said.
“But he didn’t sulk, he didn’t pout. He was upset and felt that he deserved to be playing at a higher level, but he just worked and grinded and wanted to prove people wrong.”
Located in St. Catharines, Ont., Brock was a place he might get noticed, Lobsinger told him. The biggest concentration of NHL scouts is clustered in Southern Ontario.
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Soon Brock saw the diamond in the rough that Thompson was.
There were practices where Thompson would go an entire hour, face hundreds of shots and only let in two pucks.
“It’s not an exaggeration, it was crazy to watch. He hates getting scored on,” Lobsinger said.
“He made too many crazy saves to remember.”
It was a long way from the packed barns of major junior hockey. On a busy night there might be only 200 fans at a Badgers game.
“I think it just gave him a little perspective, and made him not worry so much about the outside noise,” Lobsinger said. “It let him enjoy the game and just kind of play for the love of it.”
Soon the scouts started coming.
“We had NHL goalie guys that would fly into Toronto to do their OHL games to watch guys for the entry draft, but then would rent a car and come down to St. Catharines,” Lobsinger said.
“There was probably five to six NHL teams that were tracking him throughout the year. So he was catching eyes.”
The Capitals recognized Thompson’s selection to Team Canada before a game on Feb. 5.Nick Wass/The Associated Press
Thompson is an athletic goalie who moves quickly in the net. But he has an unusual stance by today’s standards. Goalies are taught to be as big as possible, to take away the top corners. Thompson likes to bend and crouch lower than most.
Lobsinger suspects his technique may have scared scouts away when he was in junior.
“You can see him in his stance and he doesn’t look 6 foot 4, just because he gets so deep in his knee bend and forward over top of pucks,” he said. “It’s what works for him.”
Lobsinger loved everything about his game. He was a fierce competitor. But he warned Thompson: At the higher levels, they’re going to want to coach that style out of you.
But Thompson never changed. He was supremely confident. His stance, like he was ready to explode at the puck, became his strength.
“He walks that line between cocky and confidence,” Lobsinger said. “He just had a swagger about him and a belief in his own abilities. He plays his own way.”
He won 18 games for Brock, lost six, and had a 2.22 average and a .934 save percentage. That landed him a gig with the Adirondack Thunder of the ECHL at the end of the season – and a game in the American Hockey League, one step below the NHL.
After one more season in the ECHL, the Vegas Golden Knights came calling in 2020, and placed him on their minor league team in Henderson, Nev. Later that season, he made his NHL debut.
By 2022 he had taken over the starting job in Vegas and, had it not been for an injury, Thompson might have been in net for the team’s Stanley Cup win in 2023, rather than watching Adin Hill.
When Vegas decided to hand their net to Hill full-time in 2024, the Washington Capitals acquired Thompson for two third-round picks. In D.C., he solidified himself as a starter, and his play eventually put him on Team Canada’s radar.
In Milan this week, Thompson said he’s extremely grateful for the unusual path he’s taken.
“It’s been a weird journey. I obviously never thought I’d be in the NHL. And being in the Olympics was definitely not even in the question,” Thompson said.
“Just really happy. Really thankful. I wouldn’t want to take my journey any other way.”
Thompson said he’s grateful for the unusual path he’s taken.Marton Monus/Reuters
He’s now 28. When he looks around the Team Canada dressing room, at names like Crosby, Makar, MacKinnon and McDavid, he can’t help but be a little amazed.
“These are all special players,” Thompson said. “It’s just a really fun time.”
The competitor in him wants to win. No matter if it’s him, Jordan Binnington or Darcy Kuemper in the net for Canada, there’s only one objective.
“All that matters in this tournament is winning games,” Thompson said.
He hasn’t forgotten the people who helped him.
“I’m just really thankful for every coach and every goalie coach that has worked with me along the way,” Thompson said. “They all got me here.”