Brent Belecki (born December 22, 1977 in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

) is a former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

who played in the

Western Hockey League The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a major junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior h ...

East Coast Hockey League The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The E ...

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

United Hockey League The United Hockey League (UHL), originally known as the Colonial Hockey League from 1991 to 1997 and last known as the International Hockey League from 2007 to 2010, was a low-level minor professional ice hockey league, with teams in the Unite ...

, and

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

. In the 1997-1998, as a junior, he won the WHL's top goaltender award and the WHL playoff Most Valuable Player award. Belecki backstopped the Portland Winter Hawks to the CHL's highest honor, the

1998 Memorial Cup The 1998 Memorial Cup (branded as the 1998 Chrysler Memorial Cup for sponsorship reasons) occurred May 9–17 at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena in Spokane, Washington. It was the 80th annual Memorial Cup competition and determined the major ...

. However, due to his small size (5-9, 175 lbs), Belecki was never drafted by a

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

team.Little goaltender plays big
Slam! Hockey, May 11, 1998, Accessed: September 10, 2007 As a professional, Belecki played for teams including the

Miami Matadors The Miami Matadors were an ice hockey team in the East Coast Hockey League. They played in Miami, Florida, at the Miami Arena for one season before folding. The Matadors franchise would resurface two years later as the Cincinnati Cyclones. Histo ...

, the

Huntsville Channel Cats The Huntsville Channel Cats was a professional ice hockey team based in Huntsville, Alabama. The franchise was a member of several different leagues, the Southern Hockey League (1995–1996), the Central Hockey League (1996–2001) and the Sou ...

, the

Asheville Smoke The Asheville Smoke were a minor professional ice hockey team in the United Hockey League. Home games were played in the Asheville Civic Center in Asheville, North Carolina. Team history The team played in Asheville, North Carolina, from 1998 ...

, the San Antonio Iguanas, the

Utah Grizzlies The Utah Grizzlies are a professional ice hockey team in the ECHL. They play their home games at the Maverik Center in West Valley City, Utah. Franchise history The current Utah Grizzlies franchise started in 1981 as the Nashville South Stars ...

, the

Corpus Christi Rayz Corpus is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of linguistics Music * ...

, the Austin Ice Bats, and the

Muskegon Fury Muskegon ( ') is a city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Muskegon County. Muskegon is known for fishing, sailing regattas, pleasure boating, and as a commercial and cruise ship port. It is a popular vacation destination because of the expans ...

Awards and achievements

* Named to the WHL West First All-Star Team in 1998

References

External links

* 1977 births Asheville Smoke players Austin Ice Bats players Canadian ice hockey goaltenders Charlotte Checkers (1993–2010) players Corpus Christi Icerays players Corpus Christi Rayz players Fort Worth Brahmas players Greensboro Generals players Hampton Roads Admirals players Huntington Blizzard players Huntsville Channel Cats (CHL) players Living people Miami Matadors players Muskegon Fury players Ice hockey people from Calgary Portland Winterhawks players Richmond RiverDogs players San Antonio Iguanas players Utah Grizzlies (AHL) players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States {{Canada-icehockey-goaltender-stub