Despite infrequent playtime, graduate student goaltender Noah Altman will serve in the Bobcats’ leadership group in his fourth and likely final season. Here’s how.

Noah Altman is not a traditionalist.

He hardly fits Quinnipiac University’s standard student demographic. The Los Angeles native began his freshman year in Hamden, not at 17 or 18, like most wide-eyed first years. He was 21. Now at 24 years old, he’s lived in seven different states.

His path to hockey was not remotely similar to that of the average player. The 6-foot-7 goaltender didn’t put on his first pair of skates until he was 13 years old. He played his first organized game a year later at 14. In a decade, he has played just one position.

And under no circumstances does he fit the conventional mold of what a captain looks like for one of the most prestigious Division I hockey programs in the nation. Altman has appeared in only four games over three seasons — par for the course for a third-string netminder — bringing his career ice time to 11 minutes, 42 seconds.

Yet, at a team banquet near the end of Quinnipiac’s 2023-24 season, coaches announced Altman was voted by teammates to be one of three alternate captains for the upcoming year. Quinnipiac last had a goalkeeper in its leadership group in 1996. Now, Altman is just the sixth goalie in the program’s history to stitch a letter to his sweater.

But what is not weird? The overwhelming consensus, a most collectively understood and uniformly accepted thought, that a lifetime of irregularity has prepared him for this role, one he is undoubtedly fit to serve.

Humble beginnings

Noah’s parents, Kendra and Ron, are not Los Angeles natives. Kendra, from Calgary, and Ron, from Vancouver, found their way to sunny So-Cal separately (and yes, there is a massive Flames-Canucks rivalry that persists to this day in the Altman household). Noah’s natural curiosity for sports started young. He immediately gravitated to all but hockey, ironically enough.

“He played every sport,” Kendra Altman said. “From the time he could walk, he had a basketball in his hands. We used to travel even away for the weekend with a portable hoop. I think some of his first words were slam dunk.”

On top of basketball, his initial sports of choice included baseball and soccer. It wasn’t until he was about nine when hockey entered his athletic arsenal. Inspired by players like Wayne Gretzky, whose playing days with the L.A. Kings inspired millions of youth hockey players on the West Coast, and goaltending legend Roberto Luongo, Noah started to practice casually.

“Roberto Luongo is my favorite athlete — definitely favorite goalie — probably favorite athlete of all time,” Altman said. “The reason I play hockey.”

The passion to play came quickly. The proper equipment came later. Using what he could — a catcher’s mitt, mask and chest protector, soccer shin guards and a skater’s glove for a blocker, Altman suited up for the first time in rag-tag fashion. He and his dad began shooting around on a net in the family’s driveway. When his parents took him to Goalie Monkey, a sports superstore in Orange County, to buy his first set of street hockey gear, Altman was “A kid in a candy store,” as his mom put it.

Not long after, Noah joined his first team in a house league — designed to equip players with the necessary fundamentals to pursue hockey more ambitiously. At 15, he joined his first organized team, the U18 California Heat.

“It was basically high school kids,” Altman said. “I was a goalie, I always was a goalie. I was coordinated because I had played so many other sports. I was big and I was pretty good at it. It’s a lot harder to move around when you’re bigger, and that was hard for me especially because most kids will be players before they’re goalies, but I never had that. I basically learned how to skate and then put the goalie gear on.”

Surfin’ U.S.A

At 16, Altman played for a local team — the California Titans. At 17, he left California for Ohio to join the Cleveland Barons. At 18, he attended the acclaimed Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Minnesota, where many aspiring NHL talents frequented in their days prior to the league.

But Shattuck proved to be a challenge for Altman, who struggled through the team’s tryout process. Poor performance ultimately relegated him to the school’s junior varsity equivalent, a lesser team Altman had not been recruited to play for. This proved to be an especially frustrating blow.

“It still, to this day, eats at me,” he said. “It was the worst hockey I ever played.”

Withdrawing from Shattuck — what Altman calls, “The hardest decision I’ve ever made in my life,” landed him in Detroit for his final year of youth hockey with the program Belle Tire. From there, he began junior hockey, bouncing around to Washington and finally to North Dakota to join the USHL’s Bismarck Bobcats.

Altman was the eldest of five goaltenders on the team and was given the nod as the team’s starter to begin the season. He played well before tearing his quad. When he returned a few weeks later, his coaches informed him of the team’s decision to move away from him, opting to play and develop younger prospects.

“The writing was on the wall,” Altman said. “They basically cut me. They didn’t want to say that, but they basically cut me.”

Suit up or sit down

Altman returned home to California again as a free agent. He made frequent trips to train with his goalie coach in Michigan, but May loomed and the inevitability of a college decision crept closer.

Two paths emerged. Altman could pick up the phone, entertain the calls and emails he had been receiving from Division III coaches around the country and continue his days as a hockey player. Or, he could put down the pads altogether, regain his youth and attend college somewhere he could be known as Noah Altman the person, not the player. He chose the latter, unamused by the allure of smaller programs like Hamilton, Trinity or Colby College in his inbox.

“He applied to college as a normal student, putting it off as long as he possibly could,” Kendra joked. “He only had a limited number of schools he could apply to based on the application deadlines.”

“My older brother went to Michigan, so I applied to Michigan,” Noah said.

Altman had good grades — scattered across three different high schools — and his academic prowess yielded an acceptance from the University of Michigan. He soon shifted his aspirations to club hockey in Ann Arbor, or, if he was lucky, even a potential walk-on spot. He would be a Wolverine, just like his brother Adam.

“But he was going to be a 21-year-old freshman,” Kendra said. “The idea of going and rushing a fraternity when you were older than the seniors, and all of his friends were playing hockey, that would have been difficult for him.”

Then Joe Dumais called.

A Bobcat, yet again

Altman was leaving a workout when he noticed the missed call. Dumais, Quinnipiac’s assistant coach, thankfully left a voicemail encouraging Altman to visit the facility. The team was in search of a third goalie to flesh out the depth chart and reached out to the agency of one of two goalies already rostered — fifth-year Dylan St. Cyr — to inquire about other goaltenders not yet committed. It was the same agency Altman was signed to.

When the two connected, Dumais told Altman that they had seen him play sporadically over the years, but given it was now almost June, he would need to make his decision promptly and report to the team’s training camp just a few weeks later.

The next day, traveling cross country via plane, Altman and his mom met Dumais in the parking lot at M&T Bank Arena, then called the People’s United Center. Ongoing COVID restrictions prohibited any contact between them, so Dumais had to get creative with his recruitment.

“He waved at Noah and said, ‘Everything’s open downstairs,”’ Kendra said. “Noah walked in and got a grin literally from ear to ear.”

Coast-to-coast

Life had turned on a dime for Altman, who in February was unsure if he would even be playing hockey for the next four years. Come July, he packed up his life and moved across the country, the furthest east he had ever been. Only now, there were no billet families to help ease the transition. No former teammates to break the ice between him and his new one. It was him, an entirely new program and the overwhelming realization that he was now a Division I hockey player.

But Noah was still Noah. He retained the same full-of-life temperament that his parents say he was born with. A bright, bubbly personality gave him the tools to ground himself on a new team. Teammates felt an initial appreciation for his profound authenticity and unbridled free-spiritedness.

“I obviously (noticed) his height,” said Jayden Lee ‘24, former captain and defenseman over five seasons with Quinnipiac. “(But also) how he was so outgoing and charismatic and how good of a person he was. Everyone liked him. It wasn’t like some guys were like, ‘Oh, who is this guy?’ Everyone genuinely liked him.”

This was not a sentiment lost on his coaches, either. Justin Eddy, the team’s goalie coach, knew exactly what Altman’s character consisted of from the first conversation they shared.

“Sometimes you meet those people and you know right away you’re going to get along with (them),” he said. “I could tell by the enthusiasm in his voice. I knew we had very similar personalities.”

It was not an easy first year for Altman, who came to understand his role quickly as the young season progressed. He was not recruited to be the star — that he knew. But as reality set in, the truth was he would not be a day-to-day player or even the backup. He was chained to the bottom of the depth chart, brought in at the last minute to make sure the team could say they had three goalies rostered.

“I knew coming in, especially in my freshman year, that I wasn’t going to play unless (there was) injury,” Altman said. “Nothing was promised. I kind of realized halfway through the year that, in my situation, it would be very hard to get out of where I was.”

He worked hard to improve his skills, hoping to catch the eyes of his coaches, including head coach Rand Pecknold. But issues persisted. Limited reps, ill-fitting equipment and a general uptick in game tempo and skill made practice — the only real time Altman could prove his worth — a daily grind.

“Some of these guys are 23, 24 years old. There was a big learning curve, and he really went through that right away,” Eddy said. “He found out how fast the pace was and how smart you have to be to read plays and players’ releases … He struggled getting his bearings physically on the ice.”

But with time, Altman’s ailments faded and his relationship with the game returned to copacetic levels. Born from comfort was progress. Altman developed a routine and his game began to progress exponentially.

“There were days freshman year when he was getting absolutely destroyed in practice,” Eddy said. “It is unbelievable the difference from his freshman year (to) when he came in for his sophomore year. I was blown away by how good he was over one summer.”

Eddy saw Atlman as most didn’t — a player unbound by his role. Playing time allotted or not, Eddy could not deny Altman’s persistence. He was frequently the first on the ice for practice, he often fought for extra looks and he rarely passed up the opportunity to do additional drills. His unconventional nature had followed him to Quinnipiac. By no means were these the actions of an apathetic goalie third on a depth chart. This was a man who had everything to gain and nothing to lose.

“There were days when I thought, in the drills that we did, he was better than the two guys ahead of him,” Eddy said.

Both understood that Altman had a responsibility to the team. If and when his number was called upon, he needed to be able to hold his own.

“When the first guy gets sick and the other guy pulls his groin, I need to have him ready and confident to step in,” Eddy said. “Most people are like, ‘Oh, statistically the odds are it’ll never happen.’ You’re probably right, but when it does, don’t you want to have him comfortable and ready to play?”

Captain Altman

“Some of the other goalies I’d watch, and I’m like, ‘Geez, you know, I’d probably play a lot of games for this program,’” Altman said.

And yet, transferring was far from his list of considerations. As the years passed and the program’s customs became second nature to him, he said he could never imagine himself anywhere else. If he was going to play for Quinnipiac, he was going to earn it. As a head coach, Pecknold preaches these same values to his players. Luckily for Altman, he was already instilled with them.

“(Pecknold) respects coming to the rink, doing the right things, having a good attitude, being a good team, all those things I don’t even think about,” Altman said. “That’s just something I’m lucky (is) the way my personality is. I love talking to the guys. I’m always smiling.”

Altman’s voice began to carry more weight in the locker room as his personality began to shine its brightest. He kept the team tight, all the way down to Tampa, Florida, where the group won the national championship in 2023 during Altman’s sophomore season.

“Not everyone sees how much he does for the program,” Lee said. “Whether it’s on the ice, in the gym, or in a social setting, whether it’s rallying the guys together just to watch football on a Sunday or a day off. Just know how hard he works.”

Culture is bred through players like Altman — insatiable in practice and fiercely competitive, yet warm and welcoming off the ice, while also putting aside personal wishes to play to adopt a team-first mindset. His selection to this year’s leadership group came as no surprise to those within the program. Instead, there was pride and gratification.

“He has a big personality, which is why people love him. I mean, that’s why he is who he is,” Eddy said.

As teammates and friends came and went, either by way of graduation, the transfer portal or pursuit of professional careers, Altman’s consistent presence in Hamden allowed him to plant roots he was unable to do roving around the U.S. in years past. He built a group of friends that became some of his closest around the country. His dad says it was fate.

“It’s important to look at who his best friends are on the team. All of his friends that gravitated to him, as much as he to them, are the guys that were really the leaders of the team,” Ron Altman said. “The ones that he was closest with, even from his first year, they were the leaders.”

He’s not wrong. Lee and Altman lived together. Altman recalls older teammates like Zach Metsa, ‘23 the captain throughout the national championship run, specifically showing him the ropes when he was just starting out. Some of his best friends from the beginning like Jacob Quillan ‘24, Collin Graf  ‘24 and others — wore A’s for the Bobcats in prior seasons. This year it is Altman’s turn to sport a captain role, alongside graduate student forward Travis Treloar, and defensemen graduate student Cooper Moore and senior Davis Pennington The three all transferred into the program at one point. Not Altman. He’s been there from the start.

In a sport where goaltenders rarely ever wear letters, in a program that has not issued captaincy to a goalie in almost 30 years, on a team that settles for no less than perfection, a man who may not even play will hold one of its most valued titles.

“He wants to start and finish something,” Kendra said. “He signed up for four years.”

Irregularities and all, that is Noah Altman. California kid? Journeyman? Third-stringer? Yes, but he has grown to be more than that.

Self-sacrificer. Leader. Motivator.

Assistant Captain.