Keanu Reeves Fulfills Childhood Dream After Inking Contract With Hockey Team He Tried Out For As A Teen

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Keanu Reeves is a man of many talents who’s managed to achieve more than most people can ever dream of, and things have come full circle for the Canadian actor who can now technically say he signed with a hockey team he tried to join when he was a teenager.

I’m only being slightly hyperbolic when I say most kids who grow up in Canada strap on a pair of hockey skates as soon as they’re able to walk.

Keanu Reeves may have gotten off to a comparatively late start (he was born in Lebanon and spent time in Australia and New York City before moving to Toronto as a kid), but he made up for lost time and did pretty well for himself as a goaltender at the prep school he attended in the capital city of Ontario.

The beloved actor eventually tried to earn a spot on the Windsor Spitfires (a junior hockey team in the OHL), but he eventually decided to focus on acting after his hockey aspirations were extinguished by an injury—a pivot that obviously worked out pretty well for him.

Reeves was able to leverage those talents in the 1986 movie Youngblood (where he played a goalie on a fictional OHL team alongside Patrick Swayze and Rob Lowe), and while he minded the net in some celebrity all-star games around the turn of the millennium, hockey obviously took a bit of a backseat to his Hollywood career.

OHL rosters are reserved for players between the ages of 16 and 20, but the Spitfires were allowed to make an exception on Thursday when they signed the 59-year-old to a ceremonial one-day contract more than four decades after he tried out for the squad.

He might not actually see any time on the ice, but it’s pretty cool to see him finally check that box.