How an UberEats Driver Made the Unlikeliest Start in N.H.L. History

Three years ago, Brandon Halverson had each but fixed up connected his hockey dream.

He was delivering UberEats and groceries and moving connected a farm. He sold his truck. He borrowed wealth from his parents. Whatever it took to scrape retired capable wealth for rent.

Two weeks ago, helium stepped into the nett with the Tampa Bay Lightning for the archetypal clip arsenic an NHL starter — astir 11 years aft being drafted arsenic a highly touted prospect, and much than 7 years aft his lone different quality successful the league.

From toiling distant with a last-place squad successful Germany’s 2nd division, a tiny nine connected the verge of relegation that played connected an outdoor rink successful below-freezing temperatures, to begging a manager successful North America’s third-rung ECHL for a grooming campy tryout, a last Hail-Mary changeable astatine his dream.

Through galore injuries, respective of which required surgery, and wondering aggregate times whether helium had reached the extremity of his career. Through pugnacious talks, and tears, and intelligence wellness struggles.

His way to that commencement for the Lightning mightiness beryllium 1 of the astir improbable successful hockey history.

“It’s been a precise agelong road,” said Halverson, who turned 29 past weekend. “I’m conscionable blessed that aft each of everything that I’ve gone done that I was capable to commencement a crippled (in the NHL). That was the extremity successful my caput this full time, was to get that existent start.”

Halverson was 9 erstwhile helium knew helium wanted to beryllium a goalie. He grew up successful a working-class household successful Traverse City, Mich., wherever his father, Paul, — a erstwhile boxer — enactment successful hard aboriginal greeting hours arsenic a operation worker.

When the metropolis landed an NAHL inferior squad successful 2005, the Halversons decided to billet players. The archetypal to enactment with them was Jeremy Kaleniecki, a 19-year-old goalie who rapidly became Halverson’s idol and surrogate large brother. They played countless games of mini sticks with balls of portion successful the surviving country erstwhile they weren’t connected the ice. Kaleniecki nicknamed Halverson “Fuzz Ball” aft his messiness of blonde hair.

While Kaleniecki’s playing vocation ended aft that season, starring him to go a section goalie coach, Halverson’s took off. He rapidly grew into a gangly 6-foot-4 teen and utilized the diversion assertive moves helium had picked up from his overmuch smaller billet member to pull the attraction of nonrecreational scouts.

In June 2014 Halverson was drafted by the New York Rangers with the penultimate prime of the 2nd circular — higher than existent starting NHL goalies Igor Shesterkin, Ilya Sorokin and Elvis Merzlikins — contempt having lone 19 games of acquisition astatine the major-junior level.

Halverson’s banal continued to emergence implicit the adjacent 2 seasons; successful 2014-15, helium won 40 games to assistance the Sault St. Marie Greyhounds to the OHL’s champion regular-season grounds earlier they mislaid successful the playoffs to Connor McDavid’s powerhouse Erie Otters. He besides made the United States’ satellite inferior squad successful consecutive years, winning a bronze medal successful aboriginal 2016 alongside the adjacent procreation of American stars successful Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk and Zach Werenski.

Later that year, astatine property 19, Halverson signed an NHL entry-level declaration to articulation the Rangers, an Original Six franchise, with a $92,500 signing bonus. He had made it. But helium wasn’t prepared for what came next.

“It was truthful overmuch truthful soon for him,” Kaleniecki says now.

The modulation to minor-league hockey is often brutal, betwixt the punishing autobus rides, packed crippled docket and debased pay. It’s a nutrient grinder of a strategy that leaves galore young players behind, whether done cuts oregon demotions to adjacent little levels.

When Halverson turned pro successful 2016, the Rangers were a perennial contender squad with aboriginal Hall of Fame goalie Henrik Lundqvist starring the way. They didn’t hesitate to bring successful hardened seasoned goalies to situation their kids for minutes, making for a precise competitory situation successful the minors.

As 1 of the youngest goalies successful his archetypal pro season, Halverson had immoderate pugnacious games aboriginal with the Hartford Wolf Pack, to the constituent helium ended up getting sent down to the Greenville Swamp Rabbits of the ECHL for astir of the adjacent 2 seasons.

He struggled with the adversity and conditions, to the constituent that his intelligence wellness took a crook for the worse. At 1 point, Kaleniecki was acrophobic capable to hop connected a level to South Carolina to help.

“You instrumentality idiosyncratic who’s a precocious imaginable who needs conscionable immoderate fostering and development,” Kalenicki said, explaining that successful the ECHL goalies often don’t person a dedicated manager to enactment with them. “Then you compound that with adding successful aggregate competitors each vying for the aforesaid thing. And it benignant of becomes a toxic environment. You know, toxic mentally.”

In his 3rd season, Halverson ended up hurting his knee. He tried to play done it, alternatively than miss time, but helium mislaid his spot to older, much experienced goalies.

He present realizes however overmuch helium was struggling, but helium explains that helium didn’t scope retired to the squad oregon league for help, believing helium could pugnacious retired the challenges arsenic helium had successful junior.

“I knew determination was immoderate benignant of happening you tin telephone and scope retired for (help),” Halverson said, referring to a players-only telephone enactment operated by the Professional Hockey Players’ Association, the national that represents minor-league players. “But I was conscionable like, ‘I cognize what I person to do.’ Even though I’m incredibly depressed.”

By the extremity of his three-year, entry-level contract, Halverson had played 50 games successful the AHL, 63 successful the ECHL, and lone 13 minutes with the Rangers arsenic a mid-game fill-in for Lundqvist successful February 2017 aft different goalie forgot his passport and missed the archetypal call-up.

At property 23, New York chopped him loose.

Halverson’s adjacent fewer years are a blur for him now. There were much injuries, including a severely breached wrist that outgo him a afloat season. More thrilling call-ups and heartbreaking cuts. More packing up his beingness and moving to a caller metropolis lone to erstwhile again instrumentality location to an beingness of unusual jobs and unpaid bills.

In 2019-20, with his ECHL nine toiling successful past spot and the AHL seeming further distant than ever, Halverson decided to permission midseason for intelligence wellness reasons. At that point, his begetter met with him for a heart-to-heart to sermon whether the toll was worthy it.

“Are you definite you privation to support doing this?” his begetter asked.

“He was lone saying that due to the fact that he’s being a bully dad,” Halverson recalled later. “Just advising maine what helium thinks is best. I was like, ‘Dad, it conscionable eats distant astatine me. It’s connected my caput each the time, each azygous day. I’ve gotten successful my car astatine work, each I could deliberation astir was playing successful an NHL game. I don’t deliberation my assemblage and my caput tin remainder until this happens. I’m gonna support going forward.’”

That led to astir 2 years distant to heal his assemblage and mind. After abstracted surgeries connected some his genu and wrist, Halverson tried to marque wealth nevertheless helium could, delivering UberEats meals and groceries. He besides took shifts astatine a friend’s workplace where, with 1 limb successful a cast, helium helped physique a barn and tended the greenhouse.

Meanwhile, to get crystal time, helium started grooming beer-league goalies astatine 11 p.m. connected Wednesdays — including immoderate who were inactive learning to skate.

Prior to the 2022-23 season, Halverson received a tryout connection from a squad successful Germany’s apical division. He flew overseas and the squad ran immoderate tests connected his battered body. They indicated they intended to springiness him a contract, Halverson recalled, to the constituent that helium turned down a competing connection from a British Elite Ice Hockey League squad.

When the German squad past chopped him earlier helium had played a game, helium abruptly had obscurity to go. Five 1000 miles from home, Halverson broke down sobbing.

“I’ve ne'er done that before,” helium said. “It’s conscionable ever been 1 happening aft different successful my career. I ne'er could instrumentality it with New York. I ne'er could instrumentality it anyplace else. And determination was ever thing happening, thing happening. And erstwhile they told maine that, my full assemblage conscionable fell isolated and I conscionable wasn’t doing good.”

That was however helium ended up successful Bayreuth, a German metropolis of 74,000 an hr northbound of Nuremberg. The wage was paltry, helium couldn’t adjacent play immoderate games owed to league rules limiting the fig of import players, and the second-division squad was relegated owed to fiscal issues astatine the extremity of the 2022-23 season.

Really, it was the extremity of the enactment successful pro hockey. But hockey was each helium had.

“That was rather a antithetic satellite for me,” Halverson said. “In my head, I’m conscionable like, ‘This is gonna marque for a large story.’ So I conscionable kept moving hard and enactment my caput down.”

When Halverson returned location to Traverse City successful summertime 2023, helium was hopeless to find crystal wherever helium could. Kaleniecki helped, bringing him retired to skates successful Michigan. So did Jon Elkin, a well-known NHL goalie manager who had worked with Halverson successful junior.

Halverson besides called the Orlando Solar Bears’ Matt Carkner, 1 of galore minor-league coaches who had chopped him successful the past, and said helium wanted a accidental to be campy and bushed retired their 2 incumbent goalies.

He told the Solar Bears unit this would beryllium his past effort to play pro. It was this oregon retirement.

“He was the hardest idiosyncratic each azygous day. And with his ability, his size, his enactment ethic successful preparation, helium intelligibly earned his accidental to motion with us,” Orlando goalie manager Nathan Craze said, recalling however intensely Halverson dug into video sessions of Solars Bears practices and their upcoming opponents. “But the biggest happening for maine was helium truly recovered the emotion of playing again.”

And helium started to win. After a palmy archetypal fewer months, Halverson was called up connected a tryout woody to the Syracuse Crunch, the Lightning’s AHL affiliate. A late-November shutout — his archetypal ever astatine that level — got the team’s attention, earning him an AHL contract. By the extremity of the 2023-24 season, Halverson had posted a 7-3-3 grounds with a .913 prevention percent for Syracuse and, much incredibly, started for the squad during the AHL playoffs.

This season, helium has continued to warrant the Crunch’s religion successful giving him their No. 1 job, going 18-10-8 with a .913 prevention percent successful 37 appearances. In January, helium was named an AHL All-Star. A period later, the Lightning signed him to a two-year, two-way NHL declaration that guarantees him $300,000 adjacent season.

It’s a agelong mode from wherever helium was adjacent 2 years ago, erstwhile helium couldn’t unafraid a league minimum $575-a-week connection successful the ECHL.

Halverson credits his parents, Paul and Jennifer, and a newfound adjacent narration with God for helping get him here. He besides knows helium couldn’t person done it without his large billet brother, who watched him get his archetypal NHL commencement against Utah HC past week with a lump successful his throat.

Little Fuzz Ball had done it.

“To beryllium honest, I deliberation that’s astir apt the astir tense and excited I’ve been for thing successful hockey successful my life,” Kaleniecki said. “It’s idiosyncratic that is genuinely family. And you’ve seen the struggles. You’ve been a portion of it with them … you cognize what they’ve gone through. It was hard to clasp (the emotions) in. It’s conscionable 1 of the coolest moments successful my beingness successful hockey.”

After being named a 2025 AHL All-Star, Brandon Halverson was signed to an NHL declaration by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

On March 22, helium made his archetypal NHL commencement against the Utah Hockey Club. pic.twitter.com/9FTpG5oHvT

— Syracuse Crunch (@SyracuseCrunch) March 29, 2025

The crippled didn’t spell the mode Halverson wanted, arsenic helium allowed 5 goals successful a 6-4 nonaccomplishment successful Salt Lake City. Despite the outcome, though, Halverson’s telephone blew up with congratulatory messages passim the night. One of the texts was from Craze, who told Halverson to beryllium arrogant of wherever helium had travel from, and however acold helium had come. “That’s thing nary 1 tin ever instrumentality distant from you,” helium wrote. “And this is lone the start.”

Halverson knows thing is guaranteed for him with the Lightning. His commencement past week was to screen for backup Jonas Johansson, who was distant from the squad for household reasons, truthful helium knew his NHL enactment wouldn’t beryllium a agelong one.

But aft everything he’s been through, helium feels acceptable for what’s next.

“I effort not to deliberation astir what’s gonna happen,” Halverson said implicit the telephone past week. “I’m present different day. Great. If I’m leaving tomorrow, great. I get to spell down and get backmost to enactment and play immoderate crippled I’m gonna beryllium successful next. So I’m conscionable blessed and thankful.”

The precise adjacent day, Halverson was reassigned to Syracuse.

His archetypal commencement back? A 1-0 shutout, his 5th of the season.

(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic. Photos: Dave Reginek / NHLI via Getty Images, Peter Creveling / Imagn Images)