Down-to-earth Sebastian Cossa is working hard to harness all the elements needed to become a starting goaltender in the National Hockey League.

Story and photo by Mark Newman

        Sebastian Cossa grew up playing hockey in Fort McMurray, Alberta, because there wasn't much else to do. Options were limited.

        "Dig a hole. Hit your head against the wall. Pick your nose," laughs Cossa, who moved to the capital of Canada's burgeoning tar sands industry when he was a little boy. In the hinterlands of the country's western prairies, you grew up playing hockey or football because, well, that's what you did if you didn't want to become bored to death.

        You might think fishing could have been a possibility for someone living 600 miles north of the U.S. border, but Cossa suggests you think again. "There's the Athabasca River, which is not too pretty," he said. "You're not eating a single fish you catch out of there."

        The river cuts through the heart of the oil sands deposit, and traces of the heavy oil are readily observed on the river banks. Historically, the indigenous Cree and Dene aboriginal peoples used bitumen residue to waterproof their canoes.

         "There are two or three lakes in the area, but they're a couple of hours away," Cossa continued. "There are two golf courses, which are nice and where my parents played five or six times a week, but other than that, there's not much."

        It was, in fact, the oil sands that led Gianni and Sandie Cossa to take Sebastian and his older brother Nicholas to Alberta in the first place. They left the residential community of Stoney Creek in Hamilton, Ontario, before Gianni's work as an occupational health and safety professional brought him to the Fort McMurray area.

        The blue-collar roots go back more than a generation. Cossa's late grandfather, Pietro, emigrated from the Italian island of Sardinia to Germany, where he labored for six years before coming to Canada. Cossa's nonno found work as a miner in the Red Lake area of northern Ontario before eventually settling his family in Sarnia, across the Michigan border.

        Cossa, who stands 6-foot-7 today in his stocking feet, was always tall for his age. So he naturally gravitated to sports as a boy, except he never played organized basketball, even though he was already over six feet tall at the beginning of his teens.

        He started skating at a young age and was already playing goalie by the time he was seven or eight. "During my second year of atom hockey, we had three goalies to start the season and we were kind of rotating each game," Cossa recalled. "By Christmas, the other two quit being goalies because they didn't like it, so I was the one who stuck with it."

        Curiously, Cossa can't recall what drew him to the position. Contrary to others who play between the pipes, it was not the mask or goalie pads that provided the attraction. "Honestly, I don't remember too much, but it was something different and I remember being pretty good at it," he said.

        Cossa was born in 2002, so the heyday of Edmonton goalies Grant Fuhr and Andy Moog had long passed, and he wasn't an Oilers fan anyway. His hockey hero was farther east, even farther than the city of Toronto.

        "My whole family's from Ontario, so they were big Leaf fans, but my favorite goalie growing up was Carey Price," said Cossa, name-checking the winningest goalie in Montreal Canadiens history. "Price was definitely my idol growing up.

        "I would spend hours just watching the way he played, searching for videos on YouTube to watch how he practiced, the way he moved in the net, and how smooth everything was. I watched him a lot." But Cossa had his eye on other netminders as well, including Curtis Joseph, who retired with the most career wins (454) of any goaltender in NHL history who never reached the Stanley Cup Final.

        "I actually have one of his old game-used sticks in my bedroom," he said. "A family friend knew someone who somehow got it for me. The stick still has the beat-up tape on it. If I weighed the stick, it's probably three times heavier than the stick I use now."

        Cossa and his brother were on the ice at an early age, even though their father didn't learn to skate until he was 42, eventually becoming a youth hockey referee. Coming late to the game didn't stop his father, however, from imparting his wisdom in a heartfelt attempt to mold his son into the best that he could be.

        "Looking back, it's funny now because he never played the sport, but his biggest thing was that whenever I got beat top shelf, when I was 8, 9, or 10, he always wanted me to play straight '80s or '90s standup style.

        "That was his big thing. 'Don't go down! Don't go down! Stand up! Stand up!' He must have watched some YouTube videos. Even though he didn't know hockey that much, he was always trying his best to coach me. Both my mom and dad were very supportive.

        "My mom meant everything," he continued. "I wouldn't be the person I am today without her. She was always in my corner, and she still helps me daily, giving me all the tools that I need to be successful. My parents have always been unbelievable."

        Growing up, Cossa also tried soccer and Taekwondo, but football was his other sport. He played in a travel program in Fort McMurray. "I was probably the biggest kid on the team and they were like, 'Protect the quarterback.' So I played center on offense and linebacker on defense. I'm a bit lankier now, so I don't know if I'd be able to stay with those guys now, but it was fun at the time. I probably stopped playing football when I was around 12."

        That's about the same time his father ceded his coaching efforts to the professionals. Cossa started working with Mike Brodeur, a distant relative of Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur and a journeyman who was selected by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft and played a couple of seasons in the National Hockey League with the Ottawa Senators.

        "As a big body who wasn't that agile or that coordinated, he played a crucial part in hammering down the technique part, which is big for a younger guy," said Cossa, who worked with Brodeur roughly from the time he was 12 until the age of 14.

        It was during that time that Cossa and his family were confronted with the life-altering experience of the largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta's history. More than 88,000 residents were forced to evacuate their homes before flames destroyed approximately 2,400 homes and buildings.

        With an estimated damage of C$9.9 billion, the Fort McMurray wildfire was the costliest disaster in Canadian history.

        Cossa and his family had attended a spring hockey tournament in Edmonton the weekend before the fire, which eventually spread across 1.5 million acres before it was fully extinguished three months later.

        "As we were driving back, we saw the smoke because it's a 4-1/2 hour drive from Edmonton to Fort McMurray," he recalled. "There are no other cities up there – it's just a two-lane highway all the way up. Seeing the smoke, it was obviously something we'd have to keep an eye on what was happening.

        "We heard rumblings about a possible evacuation, so we packed some suitcases and slept the first night being a little nervous about getting a knock at the door in the middle of the night and being told that we had to get out of there."

        Even so, Cossa still went to school, wondering what might happen.

        "I remember leaving lunch and looking out and all you saw was this red and black sky. It was something that I had never seen before," he said. "I remember when we got back in class, kids were running around, crying, and screaming and stuff. I remember kids puking in the hallways. It was pretty crazy.

        "Our school was grades 7 through 12, so you had a range of emotions, but parents started coming to pick up their kids because it was obvious we were going to evacuate. It was a crazy day, for sure."

        His family headed for Highway 63, the main road in and out of the city.

        "It's only north or south, so we tried going north first, but we couldn't find anything because, with no hotels, the only place to stay is at the sites [work settlements] for the oil sands," Cossa recalled.

        "We drove north for three or four hours but the traffic was insane. My brother had heard that they had opened the highway south. We ended up going back through the city toward Edmonton. What usually is a 4-1/2 to 5-hour drive took us 15-17 hours, which seemed like a ridiculous amount of time."

        "Once we reached Edmonton – my mom has a sister who lives there – we stayed there for maybe a night or two before we headed to Calgary, where her other sister lives. We ended up staying in Calgary for three months."

        Cossa was fortunate to be able to make the most of a disastrous situation. During his family's time of evacuation, he attended Edge School, a private school in Rocky View County, just west of Calgary. Edge School adheres to a three-sphere philosophy – academics, athletics, and character development – to prepare students for either post-secondary education or a career in their chosen sport.

        "It's similar to a prep school and they took in all the Fort McMurray refugees, which was great for me," he said. "We waited three months to go back. We might have been able to go sooner but there were restrictions – you weren't allowed to use water and grocery stores were still low on supplies because everything gets shipped up there from Edmonton."

        "The fire came within two blocks from our house. Still, there was a lot of smoke damage, so we ended up throwing out almost everything. It could have been worse. I knew a lot of people who lost their homes, including Mike Brodeur."

        Meanwhile, Cossa continued to make progress as a budding goaltender worth watching. At age 13, he started billeting to play AAA hockey in Fort Saskatchewan, a city just 16 miles northwest of Edmonton. He would eventually begin working with Kurtis Mucha, the Edmonton Oil Kings’ goalie development coach since 2015 and a goalie guru with whom Cossa still skates every summer.

        Scouts began to take notice of the gawky goaltender who was slowly but surely shaping into the type of puck stopper around which an organization could build a winning team.

        During his 2016-17 season with the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers, he was the top goaltender in his U15 league. Cossa posted a 1.80 goals-against average and a .934 save percentage in 19 games played, eventually earning the league's Most Valuable Player of the Year award.

        He was selected in the second round of the 2017 WHL Bantam Draft by the Edmonton Oil Kings but played two more seasons in Fort Saskatchewan before graduating to the Western Hockey League, where he would post rather incredible numbers.

        During his three years with the Oil Kings, Cossa compiled a record of 71-16-7. "I was lucky," Cossa said. "We had some really good teams while I was there."

        It was not all smooth sailing, however. In March 2020, the WHL announced the cancellation of playoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a disappointing end to what had been a promising season for the Oil Kings.

        A month later, a 25-kilometer ice jam near Fort McMurray caused rivers to burst their banks and threaten the downtown core.

        “We were lucky again in that our home was safe, but the biggest worry for us was the bridges," he said. "The water kept rising, and if the bridges flooded, we would be stranded without a way to access downtown or travel south to exit the city.”

        On a positive front, the extenuating circumstances of the coronavirus allowed Cossa to sleep in his own bed and enjoy his mom's cooking during a time that was trying for many families.

        The time away from the ice gave him a chance to refocus his energies and, for the first time in his young hockey career, recognize his potential.

        Cossa proved to be nearly unbeatable during his second season with the Oil Kings, leading into the NHL Entry Draft. He was 17-1-1 with a 1.57 goals-against average and .941 save percentage during the shortened 2021 season.

        He was delighted when the Red Wings selected him with the 15th overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, knowing Detroit had traded the team's first-round (23rd overall), second-round (48th overall), and fifth-round (138th overall) selections in exchange for the rights to the Dallas Stars' first-round pick.

        "Draft night is pretty crazy because you have no idea where you're going," he said. "Every time a pick comes in, you think, 'Well, I think I had a good interview with them. Are they looking for a goalie? Do they even want a goalie?' You really have no idea."

        He became the first WHL goaltender to be selected in the first round since his hero, Carey Price, in 2005. Coincidentally, Cossa retains the same agent (The Sports Corporation's Gerry Johannson) as Price, who remains on the Canadiens' Long Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) list.

        Cossa finished his junior hockey career with one more banner year. He was 33-9-3 with a 2.28 goals-against average and .913 save percentage during the 2021-22 regular season, then went 16-3 in the playoffs to lead the Oil Kings to the WHL championship.

        Although the Oil Kings later got knocked out of the round-robin portion of the Memorial Cup tournament, Cossa looks back at the year as an important one for his development.

        "We had an unbelievable year," he said. "It was a big year for my development because I hadn't seen a lot of playoffs until that point. We were second in the conference my first year but then Covid hit, and my second year we played a shortened season, facing only interdivisional teams.

        "Not seeing any playoffs previously, it was big to see how I would deal with it. With heightened emotions – heightened everything, actually – it was good to know how I would respond if a game went sideways. And while there weren't many, I thought I handled it well. I learned a lot of things and I was really happy with my play."

        Cossa had the option of returning for one more year of junior hockey, but with little to prove at that level he decided to begin his pro career.

        "I knew I didn't want to go back to junior," he said. "No matter what, I wanted to turn pro and get playing games and get used to the pro schedule, not to mention the speed and skill of the game at that level."

        Cossa won his first pro start, making 21 saves to help the Griffins beat Milwaukee 3-2 at Van Andel Arena on Oct. 19, 2022. But everything came apart in his next two starts on the road.

        "I was a little shaky in my first game, but we won, so I was pretty happy with it," he said. "But I think the speed of the game caught up with me. The pace being a lot faster, you start overcompensating. At that point, you're trying to do too much and then they beat you five-hole.

        "Sometimes it's just not your night. But when you look up and you see they've scored four goals on eight shots, it can be an eye-opener."

        While Cossa had no illusions of coasting into an NHL job, he admits that his early struggles at the AHL level shook his confidence.

        "I realized that it wasn't going to be easy," he said. "I knew I was not going to walk in and be playing in the NHL in one year. That's not how it works. You have to put in the work and you're going to have to get after it."

        Cossa went back to the ECHL's Toledo Walleye, where he was able to regain his confidence. After a slow start, he helped the Walleye build a 22-game winning streak that extended into the third round of the Kelly Cup Playoffs, a new ECHL record for regular season and postseason combined.

        He credits Phil Osaer, Red Wings head of goaltending development, and then-Walleye head coach Dan Watson with getting his play back on track.

        "They were good with making me feel comfortable," he said. "They have an open-door policy where you can go in and talk to them whenever you want, which helps a lot. It takes a little bit of the weight off your back.

        "They've played, so they've been where you are, so you try and ask questions. They helped with the transition because it's a big transition from one level to the next. You can have those conversations where you have a good dialogue and it makes you feel good to know that you can talk whenever you feel it's necessary."

        So there was a real sense of relief this past season when Cossa and Watson were back together again, this time in Grand Rapids after the Red Wings promoted both men to the AHL, where they hoped to find the same winning formula for the Griffins.

        Cossa won only three of his first 10 starts in 2023-24, but his fortunes, along with those of his Griffins teammates, changed dramatically after Christmas. After winning two of his first three post-holiday starts, Cossa put together a franchise-record streak of 19 consecutive games with the team earning at least one point (13-0-6).

        "For me, it's so much about confidence," he said. "When you start winning four or five games in a row and the team's feeling it – the vibes in the locker room are really good – it's easy to come to the rink every night. It's almost like you come to the rink knowing you're going to win, which helps your confidence when you go down a goal. There's no doubt you can come back and win, which is huge."

        Cossa felt he benefited from the tutelage of Griffins goaltending coach Roope Koistinen, who came to Grand Rapids last season from Finland, where he had worked with several high-profile NHL prospects.

        "Me and Roope really hit it off," Cossa said. "It was a big change for him, too, coming from Finland and the big ice, but our relationship grew a lot during the season. He knew how to pick the right spots, whether it was calming things down or picking things up, depending on the team's schedule. He is good with that kind of stuff."

        Developing proper technique is important for any goalie, but ultimately it's all about building confidence.

        "If you look around the league and all the different techniques – the different ways you can play the position – at the end of the day it comes down to the fact that your job is just to stop the puck. They don't care how you do it.

        "Obviously, they want it to be as smooth as possible and they want you to set yourself up in better positions for second pucks and that kind of stuff, but if you stop the puck, you're going to have a job. So gaining confidence is massive."

        For his part, Cossa grew more confident in every facet of his game. "I'd say my entire game has evolved," he said. "My skating is better, and working with Roope I would say my hands have gotten better, because that's something they hammer with the Finnish guys. I think my play through traffic has gotten a lot better as well.

        "I feel like I'm learning to use my size to its full advantage. I'm setting myself up in a good spot, being square to the puck, and knowing how to have good depth. With my size, I don't need to be playing at the top of the crease, for example.

        "It's just figuring out all those little tweaks."

        Last season, Cossa enjoyed sharing the Griffins' goaltending duties with veteran Michael Hutchinson, who came to Grand Rapids with 150-plus games of NHL experience.

        "Hutch was like my second goalie coach last year," he said. "He had an unbelievable attitude the entire year. He'd push me in practice, but he'd be the first guy to come up to me after a game, good or bad.

        "We roomed together on the road and it was like he was always looking out for me all year. Even though we have different styles, it was good to have him there to chitter-chatter about our games. I was really happy to have him as my goalie partner."

        With the coming season setting up to be another stepping stone to the NHL, Cossa had a busy summer.

        On June 22, he wed his longtime sweetheart, Emerson. "We got married in the backyard of her parents' home in Fort Saskatchewan with just 16 guests," he said. "In two years, we're going to go to Italy and have a little ceremony there."

        He also spent a lot of time working on his explosiveness, pushing his reaction time and quickness. "I'm only 21, so honestly I still don't think I have fully grown into my body," he said. "With the amount of speed on the ice, if I can move faster as a big guy, it's only going to help me."

        Ultimately, he would like to push for the promotion that he hopes will eventually come.

        "My goal is to make it a hard decision for the Wings to keep me down here," he said. "Overall, the work I've put in and the improvement I've shown, I feel very confident. My only worry right now is to do what I can control. I want to play a lot of games and win a lot of games and see what happens."