Craig Hillier (born February 28, 1978) 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 ...

former professional

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

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 ...

. He was drafted in the first round, 23rd overall, by the

Pittsburgh Penguins The Pittsburgh Penguins (colloquially known as the Pens) are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference, and have play ...

in the

1996 NHL Entry Draft The 1996 NHL Entry Draft was the 34th NHL Entry Draft. It was held at the Kiel Center in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 22, 1996. The last active player in the NHL from this draft class was Zdeno Chára, who retired after the 2021–22 season. ...

Career

Born in Cole Harbour,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native En ...

, Canada, Hillier started playing as a goaltender when he was six years old. He found his cousin's equipment and thought "how cool it was" to play goaltenderOutlawsGoaltending.com: Craig Hillier Interview
After four seasons in 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 ...

with the

Ottawa 67's 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 h ...

, Hillier turned pro in 1998. Hillier made his professional debut against the then-Stanley Cup champions

Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the East ...

in a preseason game as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins in September 1998.OutlawsGoaltending.com: Craig Hillier Profile Page
Hillier initially started the game as the backup goaltender, but the starting goaltender was injured several minutes into the game. Hillier lost his debut at

Joe Louis Arena Joe Louis Arena was an arena in Downtown Detroit. Completed in 1979 at a cost of US$57 million as a replacement for Olympia Stadium, it sat adjacent to Cobo Center on the bank of the Detroit River and was accessible by the Joe Louis Arena sta ...

by the score of 3–2. Shortly after, Hillier was reassigned to Pittsburgh's AHL affiliate in

Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States * Syracuse, New York ** East Syracuse, New York ** North Syracuse, New York * Syracuse, Indiana *Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, M ...

, where he was immediately placed into the role of starting goaltender. He then played 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). Th ...

, playing for four teams in two seasons, playing for the

Johnstown Chiefs The Johnstown Chiefs were a minor league ice hockey team located in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, that played in the ECHL. The team was founded in 1987 in the All-American Hockey League, and moved to the East Coast Hockey League (now "ECHL") when th ...

Charlotte Checkers The Charlotte Checkers are a minor-league professional ice hockey team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the American Hockey League (AHL), and are the top minor league affi ...

Toledo Storm The Toledo Storm were a minor league professional ice hockey team in the ECHL from 1991 to 2007. The Storm played their home games at the venerable Toledo Sports Arena along the eastern banks of the Maumee River in Toledo, Ohio. The team colors ...

and the

Wheeling Nailers The Wheeling Nailers are a professional ECHL ice hockey team based in Wheeling, West Virginia. They are the ECHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey Le ...

. Hillier then had a spell in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

before returning to North America, playing 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 league, minor professional ice hockey league, with teams ...

for the Columbus Stars and in the

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 ...

with 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 * ...

before retiring in 2004.

Personal

Hillier has returned to the Halifax area since his retirement and is involved in several ventures. He and Brad MacCharles are the founding partners of Outlaw Goaltending, a goaltending camp based in the Halifax area. Hillier has also started his own real estate company that has been in operation since 2005. During the 2009–10 season, Hillier was also the goaltending coach for the Saint Mary's Huskies Women's Hockey Team, helping them to their first Conference championship in 6 years, which also led them to play in the national AUHC tournament

Awards

OHL

*1995-96 1st Team All-Star *1995-96 Goaltender Of The Year *1996-97 Dave Pinkney Trophy (Lowest Team GAA *1997-98 Dave Pinkney Trophy (Lowest Team GAA) *1997-98 Lowest Individual GAA

Eredivisie (Netherlands)

*2002-03 All-Star TeamEuroHockey.net: Dutch All Star Game, 2002
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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hillier, Craig 1978 births Canadian ice hockey goaltenders Charlotte Checkers (1993–2010) players Columbus Stars players Corpus Christi Rayz players Ice hockey people from Nova Scotia Johnstown Chiefs players Living people National Hockey League first-round draft picks Ottawa 67's players Pittsburgh Penguins draft picks Syracuse Crunch players Toledo Storm players Wheeling Nailers players Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States