AHL: QA with Alvaro Montoya

Traded to the Phoenix Coyotes from the New York Rangers at the trading deadline, goaltender Al Montoya is looking forward to his chances in the Coyotes organization, now managed by former New York Rangers Vice President of Player Personnel Don Maloney. Despite solid numbers each season with the Hartford Wolf Pack, Montoya did not get a chance in New York, as his tenure with the Rangers organization coincided with the rise of "King" Henrik Lundqvist. Although Josh Tordjman took the helm for the San Antonio Rampage in the 2008 AHL Calder Cup Playoffs, Montoya finished the regular season fairly strong with his new team and now looks set to compete for the backup spot in Phoenix in 2008-09. When Montoya does play that first NHL game, he will become the first Cuban-American to do so.

McKeen's had the opportunity to talk with Montoya just before the AHL Playoffs. Montoya discussed his trade from New York to Phoenix, his adjustment to AHL hockey in San Antonio, his time in the Rangers organization, college hockey at Michigan, playing for Team USA at the National Team Developmental Program and the World Junior Championships, skating for the Texas Tornado as a 15-year-old, and his development prior to Junior A hockey.

McKeen's: Obviously, the big news for you recently was the trade February 26 when the New York Rangers traded you along with Marcel Hossa for Fredrik Sjostrom, David LeNeveu, and Josh Gratton. Were you expecting a trade at all and what was your reaction when you realized you had been traded to Phoenix?

Montoya: I mean, every year I've heard my name come up at the deadline and the summer, so I knew, being in that position, I always knew I was trade bait or available for it. Even this summer, I thought it was coming here. You know, I was waiting. I didn't hear it, I didn't see it on TV, so I waited, and then got a phone call, and I was pretty surprised. Not surprised, I'd say shocked, just the shock that I've never been traded before. But then, after that, it was excitement, excitement going through me, knowing that I'm going to get a chance here, knowing that this is (pauses), I know Don Maloney from back with the Rangers, and he drafted me. So, it's good to be wanted. It's those times when you're not wanted is when you've really got to worry about it. I'm excited, and I'm excited to be with this team and going in the right direction now.

McKeen's: How have things been going so far with San Antonio and maybe, in what ways is it different than what you played in your two-plus seasons with Hartford?

Montoya: Oh, well, the first thing I'd have to say the difference would have to be the travel. I mean, I never stayed on the road when we were in Hartford. We were at home every single night. Here, we fly, we play the same night, then fly out the next morning and play that night. So, just getting used to the travel. It's different hockey out here. It's exciting, it's a lot of up and down, not too much grinding out, so it's exciting for a goaltender to come out here and play with this team and a with good team in front of me.

McKeen's: Tell me more about the sense of opportunity you feel you have with Phoenix as opposed to with the Rangers organization.

Montoya: Well, yeah. After they signed [Henrik] Lundqvist for six years, or whatever it was, you know they had him locked up pretty good. So, with that being the thing, wherever you go you have to beat the best to get to the top. The same thing's going to be here with Phoenix. They've got [Ilya] Bryzgalov, you know, and management's told me that if I can come in there and play well and take the job, I'll hopefully be up there next year. Whatever the case is, I'm down here to win games and down here to play well and let this summer take care of itself by my play down here.

McKeen's: In your two and a half seasons with Hartford, what were some of the highlights of your time and maybe some favorite memories?

Montoya: Just having the chance to work with Benoit Allaire, one of the best goalie coaches in this league. he things I've learned from him I'm going to take until the day I retire. So, very fortunate in that aspect, and now I've got to work with [Sean] Burke and [Grant] Fuhr here. But, other things in Hartford, the guys, we were a young team. Every single year, we were the youngest team in the league, basically. Just learning and knowing the excitement, what it is, playing in playoffs, and being at the top, going to the All-Star Game, it's all been exciting and fun. But, this is a new chapter and I'm looking forward to it.

McKeen's: Tell me more about some of those small things that Benoit Allaire worked with you on, since he's worked with some pretty big names.

Montoya: When I came out of college, I was just reacting. Whatever it took to stop the puck, my head, the back of my stick, whatever it was, I would do it. He really controlled my game, really tightened it up, just not making any extra movements than I have to, and then being there and being square to the puck every time so the guys don't really have much to shoot at. He really helped me in that aspect, and off the ice he's been great. I've still got his number and still looking forward to talking to him.

McKeen's: That sort of showed itself in your play tonight. There were many times where it was classic Allaire goalie: square up, take it in the chest, control the rebound.

Montoya: Yeah. Exactly. It's pretty simple hockey, and the sooner you figure it out, the better for yourself.

McKeen's: Back in 2005-06, you were a 20-year-old rookie netminder in the AHL, played in the AHL All-Star Game, and put up very respectable numbers, and that's something that not a lot of 20-year-old goalies, especially not coming out of college. So, tell me more about that rookie season and what it was like and then the injuries to the ring finger and the shoulder.

Montoya: Yeah. Every year, going into it, my last couple years, I've always been the underdog. Like, going into Michigan, I came in, I graduated early, I was a 17-year-old there. I really thrive on, "You can't do this," or, "You can't do that. This kid can't come in here and do that." So, I really thrive on that kind of thing and use that as motivation. I took that into my first pro season knowing that I want to be in the NHL, and that's where I feel like I belong. I go down here and show them what I can do and it'll pull over into the NHL. So, my first season I went out there and just did what I could. We had a great team on top of it, so it made things a lot easier at the same time.

McKeen's: That shoulder surgery in the summer, what precipitated that and caused it to happen?

Montoya: I did it the seventh game of the first round of the playoffs there. It just really set me back. I guess if there was a perfect time for it to happen, it would have to be then, because after the end of the four months it was the start of training camp. I probably missed a little bit of training camp, but it gave me a chance to start the season. But, at the same time, I didn't have summer. I didn't have the chance to get bigger, get better, do all that kind of thing, just making sure I'm on the ice.

McKeen's: What are some of the other areas, besides the positional play, that you have worked on in your game, such as with training, off ice, stuff like that?

Montoya: Um, just working on my mental game. You know, you play a lot of games in this league. So, coming out of college, it's a lot different. So, just working on my mental game, being mentally prepared so I'm focused 110 percent of the time I'm on that ice, because you show up, you give a team a chance to win every single night, that's the goaltender's job, and just making sure I can bring that intensity every single night.

McKeen's: Any particular things you do during the game to help stay involved mentally and stay focused?

Montoya: Just making sure, I guess it's all the preparation I do before the game that makes me stay focused during the game. So, just the work I put in, the practice, the hours off the ice, mental imagery, whatever it takes to get out there. By the time I'm at the game, I'm not really thinking, I'm just doing it.

McKeen's: Sure, sure. I know some goalie will sometimes break the game up into smaller five-minute games or things like that. To a different topic, what do you consider as the strengths of your game and what style of goaltender do you consider yourself?

Montoya: I'd like to say I'm a hybrid. I'm a hybrid goaltender, not the butterfly guy, not definitely the butterfly guy, but the strengths of my game are I'm a big guy that can move quick and can make the save, but at the same time I can also move the puck and help the team out in that aspect. So, a couple strengths, and hopefully just moving in the right direction.

McKeen's: Throughout your career, you have played levels up at a fairly young age. You played in the North American Hockey League at 15 and then Michigan at 17, which begs the question: when did you start playing hockey and when did you first start playing in net?

Montoya: Oh man (pauses)… I started playing hockey, I don't know, maybe started skating when I was three, but my first time I played in net was my squirt AA team. I don't know how old you are then. So, that was the first time I started, and I just took it off from there. I played in house league in mites and the rotation that you do once every month. So, we didn't have a goalie and I wanted to be the goalie and never left.

McKeen's: Plus, if you are the starter, you probably get to play all 60 minutes.

Montoya: Exactly.

McKeen's: Just have to do the math. Now, at what point in your youth did it become apparent that you were significantly advanced for your age?

Montoya: Um, maybe pee wees, because I was in a lot of sports. There was a point in my career where a couple coaches pulled me off the ice and were like, "You know Al, I know you love to do all these other sports, but this is the one that's going to take you where you want to go and if you truly love it, this is what you can do for the rest of life." I am, however old I am, 13 years old, wondering, like, "Whatever. I want to be at football practice doing whatever." But, at the same time, I think that's when it was, when I ended up in Texas when I was 15, I think that's when I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

McKeen's: What were some of those other sports that you played?

Montoya: I played football in high school, and did baseball, basketball, and soccer.

McKeen's: Kind of the typical American kid sports.

Montoya: Exactly.

McKeen's: When you played for Texas in 2001, you were a 15-year-old, as we talked about. How was it you came to play Junior A and even try out for a team so young?

Montoya: It's a crazy story. It's a long story, but the short part of it, I guess, I was with (pauses)… I had played with my high school team my freshman year and then second year I was like, "I need to go. I want to play hockey, this is what I want to do." I made all the Triple-A teams in the area, and then I'm like, "Ah, forget it, I don't want to do this, I want to go back to high school and play football and whatever." And then, I think, September, I'm like, "No, I don't want to do this." And the midget teams were all taken up, I guess, and so I had an advisor and he just took care of me, helped me find teams here and there, and people from Chicago put a word in Texas and then there I was, the next couple days I was down there. I didn't play much, played about 20 games, but it was kind of my last chance to get on a team there, and it's funny that I end up in Junior A hockey.

McKeen's: That's not bad.

Montoya: Yeah (chuckling).

McKeen's: Most people, when they get shuffled out, end up in a lower level, but you get shuffled into the best organization into the North American Hockey League.

Montoya: Exactly (smiling).

McKeen's: That's interesting. Who was the connection, or what was the name of your agent, or advisor I should say?

Montoya: Kurt Overhardt.

McKeen's: Kurt Overhardt. Yeah, he's with T.J. Hensick, too, who I talked to a while back.

Montoya: Yeah, T.J. Hensick, too. So, I was there, and some coaches in Chicago spoke to Tony Curtale and put a good word in I guess, and they were like, "Sure." They took me in and it worked out for the best.

McKeen's: What were some of the biggest adjustments for you that first year away from home and also the adjustments on the ice, too?

Montoya: Just being used to the speed of the game. You're so used to playing against kids your own age, but you're playing with 20-year-olds, guys that are in school, or been in school, or trying to go to school, and it's like, "All I want to do is just play hockey." I didn't even think about college. I didn't think I'd be in college two years after that. So, it was just (pauses), pretty naïve at the time. Probably a good thing, and I had an amazing billet family there in Fort Worth, so that really helped out.

McKeen's: The next season, you were with the U.S. National Team Developmental Program. Tell me about your development there and the training there, because that's pretty intense, and how did it help prepare you for college?

Montoya: Well, I guess, I was telling somebody the other day, when you go to that program, you have this routine and the schedule they give you, and then they put the games in. So, no matter what, you're doing this routine. You've got your workouts. If it's a game day, you're doing the workouts, whatever it is. It's all about development. So, it doesn't matter who you're playing, the best team in the league that night, you're going out there and you're running around the building every single day, you're doing workouts. I never got to play against the college kids, I was in the team underneath that, but you played against the North American League, and you never know until you put yourself into that situation if you can do it or not, and I had confidence in myself and in my game that I felt I could make that next step and run with.

McKeen's: That's one of the things Hensick mentioned to me. It did not matter if you are playing a big college team Friday night, you're still doing your three sets of squats Thursday.

Montoya: Exactly (chuckling). Exactly.

McKeen's: I read to go to college as early as you did, you had to cram a couple years of high school together. How was it that you went about doing that, how that happened?

Montoya: It wasn't easy. I mean, I went to three different high schools in three years, and my first school was a Jesuit school, which means not all of the credits transferred over. So, when I figured out that I was going to do this and my third year, in Ann Arbor, I just had to do classes through the mail. I didn't know until the last day of school, basically, that I was getting in. It came down to the wire there and I just crammed. It was a pretty busy year.

McKeen's: No doubt about it. If I may ask, what sort of GPA were you able to graduate with after so much school crammed so tight and playing high level hockey?

Montoya: It was pretty good. I think it was, like, a 3.7.

McKeen's: That is pretty good. There are a lot of kids who have no extracurricular activities and have half that. So, it's kind of like, "What have you done with your life?" Now, we have talked about how when you went to Michigan, you are a 17-year-old, and that's pretty rare. A.J. Thelen did that, who's a defenseman, which is hard, too, but it's rare. I mean, with most people going the Tier I or Tier II junior A route and coming in at 19, 20, and 21, tell me about going to college as a 17-year-old and what your freshman year was like.

Montoya: Oh, it was unbelievable. When you get in there and you know there's a spot open at Michigan and you talk to the coaches and you want to graduate early and they tell you the spot's there, and you know the tradition Michigan has, with the goalies they've played, like Steve Shields, Dan Blackburn, Marty Turco, and once you're a freshman, you play all four years, you play every single day. So, it was a no-brainer for me. I went there, didn't really visit many other schools, I couldn't visit any schools, I guess, so I went to there my freshman year and we just rolled. I tell you, it's just a blur. We went all the way to the Frozen Four, it was unbelievable, just a 17-year-old playing with older guys. It was awesome. It was the time of my life. I'll always remember that place.

McKeen's: What were some of the on-ice adjustments you had to make from the Developmental Team into the college game?

Montoya: Once again, it's always the speed that you notice at first, and then it's the heavier shots or the way the guys crash the net. A little bit of everything, but the speed would have to be the most. Then, going to the college game, I'm going to say I was fortunate to play at Michigan, because I never had to really compete with any kind of crowd that came into Michigan, so I was fortunate with that and playing in one of the best rinks in the country.

McKeen's: Yost definitely is well known for its atmosphere. During your three seasons, in only three seasons, you came close to setting some Michigan records. I know you came close to Turco's wins record and stuff like that, so what were some of your favorite memories in your time with the Wolverines?

Montoya: Oh, man. There's so many. But, like I said, my first year we went all the way to the Frozen Four, lost in the semifinal game there, in overtime I think it was, and then the CCHA title, we'd win a couple tournaments a year, CCHA title, and then the playoffs. Just, every single year, it was something special that we would put together, and the new guys that would come in, these lifelong friends that I'll always have, and play against out there now.

McKeen's: Yeah, Michigan has a way of moving players up.

Montoya: Yeah.

McKeen's: Who were some of your Michigan teammates, while you were there, that impressed you the most?

Montoya: I'd have to go with my good buddy Jeff Tambellini, just one of the players who can do anything he wants out there on that ice. I played a couple times against him these past couple years of my pro career. T.J. [Hensick], you know, I grew up playing against T.J. since I was in travel hockey, so he was something special. Yeah, everybody. There's some guy every single year that will dazzle you.

McKeen's: That happens when half your roster every night has been drafted by the NHL.

Montoya: (Laughs and smiles) Yeah, right.

McKeen's: With the World Junior Championships, your first go-round was pretty good, won the gold and were named the top goaltender of the tournament. Tell me about that tournament.

Montoya: Well, that first tournament was unbelievable. I go in, make the team, have a good year in college, and knowing that it's my job and we probably have one of the best teams ever assembled by USA Hockey and going out there, going to Finland, knowing (pauses)… We just rolled. Every single game was unbelievable, it was some kind of trip that we were on, and we just kept going and going and then we come down to the final game against Canada, we're down 3-1 going into the third, and we just looked at each other and were like, "We can do this. If it's whatever a player has to do, put the puck in off his own guy or whatever, we're going to do this." So, that was a trip and something special.

McKeen's: And then 2005 in Grand Forks, which didn't go as well.

Montoya: (Chuckles) Yeah, then next year didn't go as well, but anytime you get to put on that jersey, it's an honor. It's an honor. The guys that have put it on in the past, you're not just representing yourself, you're representing the whole country, and it was on home soil, which was something really neat.

McKeen's: Any hopes to represent Team USA again in the future?

Montoya: Definitely. That's my goal. I play during the season and then whenever they come calling and knocking, I'm going to be there to answer that call and hopefully it's sooner than later.

McKeen's: You were the sixth overall pick in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, so what would you say to the impatient prospect fan who might say, "He's in the third year of his entry level contract and he hasn't played an NHL game yet. I don't know," what would you say to that person?

Montoya: I'm doing what I can, developing down here. It's about when you get that chance, that you take it, and I haven't gotten that chance. In New York, it was a different situation. They had their guy and they went with him. They gave me the reins down low and told me just develop, just go down there and play hard. So, hopefully things will change and when I do get that chance, I know I'll be able to step up and play well. I've had three good years here (in the AHL), put together pretty good numbers, and just hope to keep going and go long in playoffs this year.

McKeen's: It's fairly well known that you're of Cuban-American decent.

Montoya: Yeah.

McKeen's: And what your mother had to do to even get here, going to Miami and then later to Chicago. So, when you play in the NHL and become the first Cuban-American to play, what is that going to mean to you and then also your family?

Montoya: It's just like anybody else's story, but maybe from a different place, I guess. Once I get there, it's the sacrifices that were made before I got there, and not by myself, but by my family, my friends, whoever was there to help me out whenever I took it. It's just that extra thing that'll help me. Not help me, but I think it'll make me feel good, it'll make everybody feel good because it's not just me making it, it was a pretty big group that pushed me through.

McKeen's: How was is it that you started playing hockey in the first place?

Montoya: When we were younger my mom wanted us to do everything. I had three brothers. One older and twins a year younger than me. So, we were into everything, like I said. The thing that helped, we lived across the street from the rink, so once I got out there, it was a no-brainer, and I just wanted to stay out there forever.

McKeen's: That worked fairly well. It's not every parent that says, "Try everything, including almost the most expensive sport on the planet."

Montoya: (Laughs). Exactly. She was not going to hold us back from anything. So, God bless her. It's been something special.

McKeen's: Lastly, who have been some of your favorite players, or goaltenders, growing up and why?

Montoya: You know what, I never really watched hockey when I was growing up, but when I got to be a student of the game, I guess, my favorites were obviously Marty Turco, Roberto Luongo. I like Turco, just the way he plays the puck, and Luongo, just the way he's a beast on the ice every single night, the way he can single-handedly steal games every single night in the NHL. You never know if you're going to get it past him that night.

McKeen's: Does liking Turco influence you coming out to play the puck?

Montoya: Oh yeah. I mean, that's always been part of my game, and the way he does it makes it something really special. It makes the game a blast. You can see him having fun.