{"id":14790,"date":"2025-07-22T06:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T06:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/14790\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T06:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T06:45:07","slug":"keller-chasing-dream-to-play-in-olympics-become-2nd-french-goalie-in-nhl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/14790\/","title":{"rendered":"Keller chasing dream to play in Olympics, become 2nd French goalie in NHL"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON, Va. — Antoine Keller<\/a> is chasing two hockey dreams.<\/p>\n

One is to become the second goalie from France to play in the NHL. The other is to play in the Olympics.<\/p>\n

A seventh-round pick (No. 206) by the Washington Capitals in the 2023 NHL Draft, Keller has some work to do to reach the NHL, but he will take a significant step this season by playing professionally in North America for the first time after signing a one-year contract with Hershey, Washington\u2019s American Hockey League affiliate.<\/p>\n

Keller is much closer to fulfilling his Olympic dream. Although the Dijon native is only 20 years old, he is expected to be among the three goalies selected to France\u2019s roster for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor every hockey player it\u2019s a dream to play in the Olympics,\u201d Keller said at the Capitals development camp earlier this month. \u201cIt\u2019s not my main focus, but I can play in the Olympics, and I will do everything possible to be able to play in the Olympics and to be in the best shape I can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were no goalies among the initial six players named to France\u2019s Olympic team on June 16, but Keller has talked with the coaching staff about being added when the rest of the roster is finalized in January. With France to host the 2028 IIHF World Championship and the Olympic Winter Games French Alps 2030, the national team is looking develop young players and Keller appears to be its goalie of the future.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to the Olympics, France had Keller — the youngest of its three goalies behind Quentin Papillon, 26, and Julian Junca, 27 — start four of its seven games at the 2025 IIHF World Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to talk for the coach, but there is a very, very good chance that Antoine is going to be on the team,\u201d said former NHL goalie Cristobal Huet<\/a>, an assistant on France\u2019s national team and Keller\u2019s goalie coach last season with Lausanne of the National League, Switzerland\u2019s top professional league. \u201cWe took the [approach] where we have to throw our young guys into a world championship so they can learn. They can watch. They can play. They\u2019re going to fail maybe, but they\u2019re going to get back up and we need them to get back up and play again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although France went 0-6-1 and scored only eight goals at the world championship, Keller helped earn its lone point by making 47 saves in 4-3 overtime loss to Finland. Being pulled after allowing three goals on four shots in a 5-2 loss to Austria hurt Keller\u2019s tournament statistics (0-3-1, 3.98 goals-against average, .897 save percentage), but he played well with 33 saves in a 2-1 loss to Slovakia and held his own with 32 saves in a 4-0 loss against a Sweden lineup loaded with NHL players including Filip Forsberg<\/a> of the Nashville Predators and Mika Zibanejad<\/a> of the New York Rangers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played against Finland. I played against Sweden,\u201d Keller said. \u201cIt\u2019s great players. When you get ready for a face-off and you\u2019ve got Zibanejad and Forsberg in front of you, it\u2019s pretty nice. They\u2019ve got such good skills. You have to be 100 percent all of the time and I think I did a pretty good job in those games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice to represent France. I\u2019m very proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keller is trying to follow in footsteps of Huet, who played in the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics — France\u2019s last Olympic appearance in men\u2019s ice hockey — before becoming his country\u2019s first goalie to play in the NHL with the Los Angeles Kings in 2003. Huet played seven seasons in the NHL (2003-2010) with the Kings, Montreal Canadiens, Capitals and Chicago Blackhawks, and could see Keller\u2019s potential while working with him with Lausanne last season.<\/p>\n

He was 5-5-0 with a 3.16 GAA and .894 save percentage in 13 National League games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great opportunity for him to grow on the pro level, which is not easy to do as a 19-year-old, to play in such a competitive league,\u201d Huet said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the NHL but it\u2019s still big budget and big pressure. It is competitive, so it was nice to see how he adjusted during the year and how he progressed with a little bit of everything, not only the technical but also the mental.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keller acknowledged he would\u2019ve liked to play more with Lausanne, but valued the experience, including three appearances in the Champions League, where he was 2-1-0 with a 2.14 GAA and .889 save percentage. When the Capitals offered an AHL contract for this season, though, he jumped at the chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get the opportunity to sign and to go play in the minors for an organization like Washington, you just take it,\u201d he said. \u201cMy main goal is to play in the NHL, obviously, so coming here and playing on the small ice with guys who are just one call-up from the NHL, I think that\u2019s a great thing for my development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keller could play for the Capitals\u2019 ECHL affiliate in South Carolina and in the AHL with Hershey this season. It\u2019s a development route the Capitals have utilized often with goalies, including Braden Holtby<\/a> and Philipp Grubauer<\/a>, who helped them win the Stanley Cup in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done a really good job, I think, of working our guys up through the ECHL into the AHL and then the NHL,\u201d Capitals general manager Chris Patrick said. \u201cSo, now he\u2019s on that schedule. \u2026 Hopefully, he can kind of follow the same path as our other guys have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing in the ECHL and AHL could also help prepare Keller for the 2026 Olympics, where he\u2019d face the best competition in the world with NHL players participating for the first time since the 2014 Sochi Olympics.<\/p>\n

Goaltending hasn\u2019t been a strength for France since Huet\u2019s playing days. Keller being on a potential NHL development path is reason for hope for the present and future.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor our country, having a guy like that is a big help,\u201d Huet said. \u201cWe had a bit of a hole in the national team. It was not easy to have goalies that were competitive at the international level, and we found some now. When you want to win, you need to be great at this position.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Va. — Antoine Keller is chasing two hockey dreams. One is to become the second goalie from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-14790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}