Seamus Kotyk (born October 7, 1980) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

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 h ...

coach and former professional

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 ...

. Kotyk played professionally for the

Cleveland Barons The name Cleveland Barons has been used by three professional hockey teams and one junior team. *Cleveland Barons (NHL), the National Hockey League team that played between 1976 and 1978 *Cleveland Barons (1937–1973), the original American Hockey ...

Milwaukee Admirals The Milwaukee Admirals are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). They play in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Panther Arena. They are affiliated with the NHL's Nashvil ...

and Houston Aeros of the

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 developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...

(AHL). He also played in the Austrian Hockey League for

HK Acroni Jesenice Hokejski klub Acroni Jesenice ( en, Acroni Jesenice Hockey Club), commonly referred to as HK Acroni Jesenice or simply Jesenice, was a Slovenian ice hockey team from Jesenice that last played in the Austrian Erste Bank Hockey League and the Sl ...

and

HC TWK Innsbruck HC Tiroler Wasserkraft Innsbruck is an Austrian professional ice hockey team in the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL). They play their home games at OlympiaWorld Innsbruck complex in Innsbruck. History The club was founded in 1994 as HC Innsbruck ...

. Kotyk is currently the goal tending development coach for the

Buffalo Sabres The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team was established in 1970, along w ...

of the NHL.

Playing career

Born in

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

, Kotyk played junior hockey for the

Ottawa 67s The Ottawa 67's are a major junior ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, that plays in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). Established during Canada's centennial year of 1967 and named in honour of this, the 67's currently play their ...

of the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; french: Ligue de hockey de l'Ontario (LHO)) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 16–19. There are exceptions for overa ...

from 1997 until 2001. He was a member of the 1999

Memorial Cup The Memorial Cup () is the national championship of the Canadian Hockey League, a consortium of three major junior ice hockey leagues operating in Canada and parts of the United States. It is a four-team round-robin tournament played between t ...

-winning squad and played for the 67s in the 2001 Memorial Cup. He was drafted by the

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...

in round 5, #147th overall,

1999 NHL Entry Draft The 1999 NHL Entry Draft was the 37th NHL Entry Draft. It was held on June 26 at the FleetCenter in Boston. According to ''Sports Illustrated'' and other sports news agencies, at the time the 1999 draft was considered one of the deepest in talen ...

. In 2001, Kotyk signed an entry-level contract with the

San Jose Sharks The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference, and are owned by San Jose Sports & Entertainm ...

and was assigned to their AHL affiliate the Cleveland Barons where he played three seasons. Though he dressed for an NHL game during the 2003-04 NHL season as a backup, he did not got on the ice and ultimately he never played an NHL game. Koytk split the 2004-05 season with the AHL's Milwaukee Admirals and in the

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 ...

with the

Rockford IceHogs The Rockford IceHogs are a professional ice hockey team based in Rockford, Illinois. They are members of the American Hockey League (AHL), having begun play in the League starting in the 2007–08 season. The team plays their home games at the ...

. With the Admirals, Kotyk scored an empty-net goal against the

San Antonio Rampage The San Antonio Rampage were a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League based in San Antonio, Texas. The Rampage was primarily owned by Spurs Sports & Entertainment throughout the team's existence. In 2020, the franchise was sold ...

on April 17, 2005, becoming the eighth goaltender in AHL history to score a goal. He then spent the 2005-06 season with the Houston Aeros and in the

ECHL 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 ...

with the

Augusta Lynx The Augusta Lynx were a minor-league professional ice hockey team based in Augusta, Georgia. The Lynx played their home games at the James Brown Arena. The Lynx, who played in the ECHL, had affiliations with the Tampa Bay Lightning of the NHL ...

before deciding to play in Europe. In 2006, Kotyk signed for the

Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg Grizzlys Wolfsburg are a professional ice hockey club of the German professional ice hockey league Deutsche Eishockey Liga. They play their games at Eisarena in Wolfsburg. History Wolfsburg earned their first promotion to the DEL in 2004. Howev ...

of 2nd Bundesliga in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, but played just five games for the team before moving to

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

n side HK Acroni Jesenice of the Austrian Hockey League. In 2007, he signed with HC TWK Innsbruck and remained with the team until his retirement in 2010.

Post-playing career

In 2010, Kotyk took on a role as goaltending coach of the OHL's Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds which ended his playing career. A year later, he was promoted to assistant coach of the Greyhounds and remained at the role until 2014 when he moved to the Buffalo Sabres as a scout. In 2017, he became the goaltending development coach for the Sabres.

References

External links

* 1980 births Living people Augusta Lynx players Boston Bruins draft picks Buffalo Sabres coaches Buffalo Sabres scouts Cleveland Barons (2001–2006) players Grizzlys Wolfsburg players HC TWK Innsbruck players HK Acroni Jesenice players Houston Aeros (1994–2013) players Ice hockey people from Ontario Milwaukee Admirals players Ottawa 67's players Rockford IceHogs (UHL) players Sportspeople from London, Ontario Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Austria Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Slovenia Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Germany Canadian ice hockey goaltenders Canadian ice hockey coaches {{canada-icehockey-goaltender-stub