A key reason for his team winning their first-ever National Championship in hockey during the 2024-25 season, Western Michigan University goalie Hampton Slukynsky is quickly becoming something great.
The college sophomore already has quite the career, and it’s far from over. Starting his freshman year on the team, Hampton wasn’t expected to see much playing time, as the third goalie behind senior Kirk Laursen and redshirt senior Cam Rowe, who was signed following the National Championship win by the Rockford IceHogs, AHL affiliates of the Chicago Blackhawks. Needless to say, Hampton was destined to be the emergency third goalie, who typically sees no ice time at all.
This was very clearly not the case, however, as Hampton was quickly established as the number one goalie, making Cam Rowe his backup, and Kirk Laursen the third, who did not see a single second of ice time all season. And he truly put on a show. With twenty-five games played, Hampton had a 19-5-1 record and an almost jaw-dropping save percentage of .922, meaning he was stopping just about every puck that was sent his way. To put into perspective, in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, Edmonton Oilers’ goalie Stuart Skinner, who made it all the way to the cup finals, had a save percentage of .913.
And he started this pattern of saves from the very start, winning in his college debut against Ferris State University, the last college team in Michigan to win a National Championship, and recorded 28 saves on the night. To emphasize the severity of this achievement, professional games in the NHL have been won on fewer than 28 shots on goal, making this an impressive statistic, and not even the highest number of saves Hampton has made in a game.
When the team made it to the post-season, it would be completely understandable for Hampton, then only 19 years old, to feel nervous, and be the perfect opportunity to put in the known-to-be very talented veteran Cam Rowe. This, of course, was not the case in the slightest. Not only did Hampton not falter, he played so well that, come playoffs, Cameron Rowe did not see a minute on ice, and Hampton helped his team beat the University of Denver (heavy favorites) 3-2, and then Boston University in the championship game, where they won 6-2 against a team that has won the National Championship five times, as a team that has never won a natty in it’s history.
You may be asking yourself, ‘Why would Hampton go to Western if he wasn’t supposed to get playing time in the first place?’. Well, as my older brother (who attended WMU that National Championship year, and is a big hockey fan) told me, Hampton was only semi-considering Western at the start. The primary factor that drew Hampton Slukynsky to Western Michigan was the quickly ending opportunity to play hockey alongside his older brother, newly appointed alternate captain Grant Slukynsky. Grant, as this same source informed me, has yet to even declare for an NHL draft and has a less likely chance of making it to the pros than his younger brother, so, with Grant going into his junior year, Hampton and Grant may only have two more seasons to play together.
To take this point even further, Hampton technically didn’t have to play college hockey at all. In the 2023 NHL entry draft, the Los Angeles Kings selected Hampton with their fourth-round, 118th overall pick. And, for context, Hampton didn’t start playing at Western until the 2024-25 season, after he had been drafted.
This is a pretty typical move for both players and their organizations, notably with goalies. Having a pick, specifically if they were from a round lower than three to four, playing in college is a smart move, as it gives them more time to hone their skills without the added stress that the AHL, and especially the NHL, could put on them.
However, it is something that has become increasingly less common as of late, notably with San Jose Sharks stars Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith, who both played one year in college, at Boston University and Boston College, respectively, both playing in the 2023-24 season. Smith was drafted in 2023, meaning that he played after being drafted, but was already committed to BC; however, Celebrini was drafted in 2024, meaning that his season was played before being drafted. This also famously occurred with the “new face of the league”, the Chicago Blackhawks’ savior, Conor Bedard, who was barely out of high school when he started playing professionally.
Being a goalie, more often than not, is a thankless job. When a team wins, it is because the forwards and defenders scored enough goals, not because the goalie stopped the other team’s shots. And when a team loses, it’s almost always put on the goalie, something that I myself have been guilty of, not because the rest of the team failed to get it past the other team’s goalie. The seemingly only exception to this, where the goalie actually receives the recognition they deserve, is when a shutout is achieved, which is rare in hockey; Hampton himself only has one in his college career, which is actually a really impressive stat for only one year played.
It is also very rare that a goalie gains any recognition for their talent, in general. When debates occur over who the best hockey players are, goalies are never mentioned, and that comes from the notion that the goal-scorers are the most important players, and the number of goalies who have scored goals is less than twenty. And while there are debates as to who the best goalies are, it’s almost always the same few names being tossed around, even though the NHL celebrates its hundredth anniversary this year. The common names of great goalies are among Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Ed Belfour, Henrik Lundqvist, Terry Sawchuck, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Dominik Hasek, Marc-André Fleury, and, most recently, Sergei Bobrovsky.
What does this have to do with simple collegiate athlete Hampton Slukynsky? I believe that someday his name will be thrown around with the greats. Why do I think this? Following his major part in the National Championship win, Hampton was named as a goalie for the 2025 Team USA National Team at the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) World Championship. And while Hampton was the third goalie and never saw a minute during games, he was awarded a gold medal with the rest of the team, because he was a member of the team. To get to the point, the fact that Hampton was named a member of the team in the first place, a team of professionals minus him, and the Minnesota Wild drafted defenseman Zeev Buium, is a testament to how impressive he is currently, and expected to be in the future.
It’s important to remember, hockey games are won or lost by goalies, so it’s important to give them the recognition that they deserve. It’s also important to understand that at the end of the day, they’re human, they will have an off game, and that’s okay. Luckily for the Western Michigan Broncos and the LA Kings, Hampton Slukynsky certainly knows how to win a game.
