Why Keanu Reeves Joined a Canadian Hockey Team

If you didn’t know, Keanu Reeves is a big hockey fan and even played goalie growing up in Toronto. As a teenager, he almost signed with the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires, but an injury kept him off the team, that is, until now.

The Spitfires have officially announced Keanu to their roster after he signed a contract with them. It seems it’s never too late to pull on that Windsor jersey and live out a dream.

According to the Canadian Broadcasting Company, his contract is just for one day so he can help the team raise money for the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Keanu is signing auction items.

And how’s this for a coincidence? According to the NHL, Keanu decided to go into acting full-time after his hockey injury took that dream away. His very first movie role was in Youngblood, where he played a teenage hockey goalie trying to make it to the NHL. The movie also starred Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze.

Anyway, according to ESPN, Keanu was in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, just across the river from Detroit, playing a gig with his alternative rock band, Dogstar, when he decided to help out.

It’s a big day for our organization. We are so proud to finally have Keanu on our squad. If he’s half the goalie he was in ‘Youngblood,’ we should do well this season. We are big supporters of the CMHA and hope the auction for this extremely rare jersey will help such an important cause in our community.

The auction ends August 30. Here’s the Windsor Spitfires website if you’re interested in bidding.

Source: Canadian Broadcasting Company, NHL, ESPN