\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJul 22, 2026<\/p>\n
William Rousseau\u00a0plays one of the loneliest positions in sports. As a goaltender, he\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0entirely alone\u00a0in preventing the other team from scoring but\u00a0still spends\u00a0much of each game alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u00a0can definitely be isolated from the team,\u201d said Rousseau.\u00a0\u201cIf you give up a bad goal,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0easy to take the blame.\u00a0That can be\u00a0really hard\u00a0mentally, but you\u00a0have to\u00a0remember it\u2019s a team sport.\u00a0When forwards make errors, the defensemen are there, and when defensemen make errors, the goalie is supposed to stop the puck.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rousseau\u2019s\u00a0mental approach has been heavily influenced by\u00a0work with Alain Vigneault, a Canadian sports psychologist.\u00a0Over the course of several seasons, Vigneault has taught Rousseau to\u00a0reset after allowing goals and in other challenging moments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no time for that in a game,\u201d said Rousseau.\u00a0\u201cYou have to put yourself in the present and not think about the past.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rousseau considers himself privileged to not only have access to a sports psychologist but to have also been coached by Patrick Roy, one of hockey\u2019s all-time greatest goaltenders, during his\u00a0first three QMJHL seasons\u00a0with the\u00a0Qu\u00e9bec\u00a0Remparts\u00a0(2020-23).\u00a0Roy, who served as the team\u2019s head coach, allowed Rousseau\u2019s goaltending coach the freedom to work but would occasionally\u00a0provide the young netminder with valuable insight from a storied NHL career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had a bad game or a bad stretch, he\u00a0would get me\u00a0in\u00a0his office\u00a0for a\u00a0little video session,\u201d said Rousseau.\u00a0\u201cHe\u00a0talked about his past experiences with Colorado\u00a0and\u00a0goalie to goalie stuff.\u00a0He\u2019d\u00a0talk about the mental side of the game,\u00a0how to approach a game,\u00a0and\u00a0how to get a bit more of that\u00a0thicker\u00a0skin as a goalie.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe helped me with\u00a0owning the crease, which I struggled\u00a0with\u00a0a\u00a0lot. I was a bit too friendly\u00a0and\u00a0he taught me more about\u00a0how to manage games.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Roy\u2019s tutelage paid off\u00a0during the 2022-23 season, when\u00a0Qu\u00e9bec\u00a0lifted trophies as QMJHL and CHL Memorial Cup champions.\u00a0Rousseau led the QMJHL in goals-against average in both 2022-23 and\u00a02023-24 and\u00a0was recognized\u00a0with the Patrick Roy Trophy as the QMJHL\u2019s Goaltender of the Year and the CHL\u2019s Goaltender of the Year\u00a0following his 2023-24 season with Rouyn-Noranda.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rousseau, who went undrafted\u00a0but attended development camps in\u00a0Ottawa, Boston, and Minnesota,\u00a0signed an ECHL contract with the Iowa\u00a0Heartlanders\u00a0prior to the 2024-25 season. After\u00a0a few months of prolific performances, the Iowa Wild signed Rousseau to an\u00a0AHL contract through the 2025-26 season, bringing him one step closer to his dream of playing in the NHL.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was always my goal, to compete in the NHL,\u201d said Rousseau. \u201cAs a goalie,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0harder.\u00a0There\u00a0are\u00a0only two spots on every team, and the difference comes down to mental toughness.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rousseau has spent a significant amount of time before and during his hockey career pursuing a different goal.\u00a0Since he was young, Rousseau has dreamed of becoming an airline pilot, a goal he intends to achieve after his professional hockey career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up, I watched YouTube videos about\u00a0aviation\u00a0and visited\u00a0airports,\u201d said Rousseau.\u00a0\u201cEven just the weather outside\u00a0and learning how clouds are formed was something I was passionate about.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rousseau\u00a0began attending a pilot training program at 17 at\u00a0Qu\u00e9bec\u00a0International Airport and earned a private license with\u00a045 hours\u00a0of flight time at 18.\u00a0A\u00a0Canadian\u00a0commercial pilot\u2019s license requires\u00a0200\u00a0hours\u00a0of flight, and Rousseau has just a few more to go prior to certification.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a long way to go to become a full-time pilot,\u201d said Rousseau.\u00a0\u201cYou start out with\u00a0more regional flights,\u00a0up north in\u00a0Canada\u00a0in smaller airplanes like the Dash 8-400.\u00a0You\u00a0build up your hours till you get to 1,500 and\u00a0get your airline license.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once Rousseau\u00a0acquires\u00a0his airline license, he hopes to\u00a0eventually work for Air Canada and\u00a0possibly even\u00a0pilot a\u00a0Boeing 777 on trans-Atlantic flights.\u00a0While ensuring the safe passage of hundreds of travelers is a\u00a0huge responsibility, Rousseau believes years of mental preparation from goaltending will help him in\u00a0the skies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re\u00a0in net, you\u2019re\u00a0kind of alone out there\u00a0and\u00a0controlling what you can control,\u201d said Rousseau.\u00a0You\u00a0can’t\u00a0control how the players are playing in front of you, but you can make a big save and help the team at some point.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s\u00a0the same thing with aviation. Once\u00a0you’re\u00a0up there,\u00a0you’re\u00a0alone in your little machine and\u00a0you’re\u00a0just flying around.\u00a0If something goes bad or something,\u00a0you\u2019ve\u00a0got\u00a0lives\u00a0of people that\u00a0you\u2019ve\u00a0got to save.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0not the same thing, because\u00a0the danger is a bit higher for aviation, but I really\u00a0thing\u00a0flying planes helps\u00a0me a lot with\u00a0goaltending and then goaltending helps me a lot\u00a0with flying planes.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jul 22, 2026 William Rousseau\u00a0plays one of the loneliest positions in sports. As a goaltender, he\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0entirely alone\u00a0in preventing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[401,8559,1928,5,8558,161,38,5280,4,55390,43,162,11519],"class_list":["post-628944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-wild","tag-ahl","tag-des-moines","tag-entertainment","tag-hockey","tag-iowa","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-minnesotawild","tag-nhl","tag-rousseau","tag-sports","tag-wild","tag-william"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116966436612657339","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}