Short a goalie? There's an app for that

Brennan Bleile was a beer league hockey goalie looking for a little side action — puck-stopping action, that is.

That's when Bleile became part of the Calgary goalie-for-hire team that utilizes a little 21st century ingenuity, namely a mobile app that recruits low-cost freelance goalies at the last minute. 

It's called Puck App, and it's helping connect goalies (and their expensive gear) to games, where they get to earn a bit of money and help fill a gap in the hundreds of recreational league hockey games that take place every season in Calgary and 19 other Canadian cities, with Vancouver coming soon.

It was invented in 2015 by Toronto rent-a-goalie Niki Sawni, who may have been inspired by GoalieUp and its precursor Montreal Rent A Goalie — invented by Mark Manning and incorporated in 2012. (Goalie rental services have been active in Calgary for years through services like Rent-A-Goalie, which was founded by Marc Cyr in 1997 and mainly uses phone calls to live operators and text messages to book goalies, although it has an app in development.)

The unfortunate reality of hockey in every province of the nation, says Bleile, is that the goalie is always a good guy to blame when things go wrong, leading to a lonely goalie epidemic that frequently manifests itself in net absenteeism.

"Sometimes, goalies can't handle the pressure, so they end up quitting, because the [other] five players out there think it's the goalie's fault for a loss, I guess," said Bleile, on the Calgary Eyeopener Monday.

Goalie for hire

A lot of those goalies, it seems, have signed up as fill ins on Puck App, according to Bleile, creating a whole roster of goalies who, on short notice, will suit up for your rec league team — or even show up to a practice or a game of shinny if you're willing to pay the fees of around $40 (if you notify them more than two hours before the game), or $50-$60, if it's less than two hours to puck drop.

"You put in the rink, time and skill level you need, and it sends out a push notification to all the list of the goalies we have on the app," said Bleile. "The first goalie that can take it, accepts it."

The fees don't change, but the relative merits of each goalie are prorated, Bleile said, with the top goaltenders being offered return visits to teams, which have the option of clicking on an app button to bring someone back for an encore appearance.

Prorated for ability

"The prices are the same, but we do have a radio system where if you want the best [goalie available], you get the best," Bleile said. "If you don't care who you get and just want a target  — someone better than a Shooter Tutor — then you can put in your information and the prices are the same. But yeah, we do prorate our goalies for their skill."

The roster list of goalies available on Puck App includes female goalies, Bleile said.

"We have a bunch of females on the app," he said. "Very athletic women in goal for us."

Bleile is a goalie himself but didn't take it personally when it was suggested by host David Gray that goalies are a little different than everyone else on the team.

"Every goalie knows they're weird," he said. "You have to be to take pucks to the head. And I'm sure a few of them have taken pucks to the head that have affected the way they act these days."

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With files from the Calgary Eyeopener