by Mark Newman | AHL On The Beat
Grand Rapids Griffins goaltender Sebastian Cossa grew up playing hockey in Fort McMurray, Alberta, because there wasn’t much else to do. Options were limited.
“Dig a hole. Hit your head against the wall. Pick your nose,” laughs Cossa, who moved to the capital of Canada’s burgeoning tar sands industry when he was a little boy. In the hinterlands of the country’s western prairies, you grew up playing hockey or football because, well, that’s what you did if you didn’t want to become bored to death.
“There are two or three lakes in the area, but they’re a couple of hours away,” Cossa continued. “There are two golf courses, which are nice and where my parents played five or six times a week, but other than that, there’s not much.”
It was, in fact, the oil sands that led Gianni and Sandie Cossa to take Sebastian and his older brother Nicholas to Alberta in the first place. They left the residential community of Stoney Creek in Hamilton, Ontario, before Gianni’s work as an occupational health and safety professional brought him to the Fort McMurray area. The blue-collar roots go back more than a generation: Cossa’s late grandfather, Pietro, emigrated from the Italian island of Sardinia to Germany, where he labored for six years before coming to Canada.
Cossa, who stands 6-foot-7 today in his stocking feet, was always tall for his age. So he naturally gravitated to sports as a boy, except he never played organized basketball – even though he was already over six feet tall at the beginning of his teens. He started skating at a young age and was already playing goalie by the time he was seven or eight.
“During my second year of atom hockey, we had three goalies to start the season and we were kind of rotating each game,” Cossa recalled. “By Christmas, the other two quit being goalies because they didn’t like it, so I was the one who stuck with it.”
Cossa was born in 2002, so the heyday of Edmonton goalies Grant Fuhr and Andy Moog had long passed – and he wasn’t an Oilers fan anyway. His hockey hero was farther east.
“My whole family’s from Ontario, so they were big Leaf fans, but my favorite goalie growing up was Carey Price,” said Cossa. “I would spend hours just watching the way he played, searching for videos on YouTube to watch how he practiced, the way he moved in the net, and how smooth everything was.”
Cossa and his brother were on the ice at an early age, even though their father didn’t learn to skate until he was 42, eventually becoming a youth hockey referee. Coming late to the game didn’t stop his father, however, from imparting his wisdom in a heartfelt attempt to mold his son into the best that he could be.
“He was always trying his best to coach me,” Cossa said. “Both my mom and dad were very supportive. My mom meant everything. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without her. She was always in my corner, and she still helps me daily, giving me all the tools that I need to be successful. My parents have always been unbelievable.”
When he was around 12, Cossa started working with former pro goaltender Mike Brodeur, who was selected by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.
“As a big body who wasn’t that agile or that coordinated, he played a crucial part in hammering down the technique part, which is big for a younger guy,” said Cossa.
It was also around that time that Cossa and his family were confronted with the life-altering experience of the largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta’s history. More than 88,000 residents were forced to evacuate their homes before flames caused an estimated $9.9 billion in damage, the costliest disaster in Canadian history.
Cossa and his family had attended a spring hockey tournament in Edmonton the weekend before the fire, which eventually spread across 1.5 million acres before it was fully extinguished three months later. They ended up staying with family in Calgary for three months.
At age 13, Cossa started billeting to play AAA hockey in Fort Saskatchewan, a city northwest of Edmonton. He would eventually begin working with Kurtis Mucha, the Edmonton Oil Kings’ goalie development coach with whom Cossa still skates every summer. Scouts began to take notice of the gawky goaltender who was slowly but surely shaping into the type of puck stopper around which an organization could build a winning team.
During his 2016-17 season with the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers, he was the top goaltender in his U-15 league. He was selected in the second round of the 2017 WHL Bantam Draft by the Oil Kings but played two more seasons in Fort Saskatchewan before graduating to the Western Hockey League, where he would post rather incredible numbers: During his three years in the WHL (2019-22), Cossa compiled a record of 71-16-7.
“I was lucky,” Cossa said. “We had some really good teams while I was there.”
It was not all smooth sailing, however. In March 2020, the WHL announced the cancellation of playoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a disappointing end to what had been a promising season. But on a positive front, the extenuating circumstances of the coronavirus allowed Cossa to sleep in his own bed and enjoy his mom’s cooking during a time that was trying for many families.
The time away from the ice gave him a chance to refocus his energies and, for the first time in his young hockey career, recognize his potential. Cossa proved to be nearly unbeatable during his second season with the Oil Kings, leading into the NHL Entry Draft. He was 17-1-1 with a 1.57 goals-against average and .941 save percentage during the shortened 2020-21 season.
He was delighted when the Red Wings selected him with the 15th overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, knowing Detroit had traded the team’s first-, second- and fifth-round selections to Dallas for the chance to take him.
“Draft night is pretty crazy because you have no idea where you’re going,” Cossa said. “Every time a pick comes in, you think, ‘Well, I think I had a good interview with them. Are they looking for a goalie? Do they even want a goalie?’ You really have no idea.”
He became the first WHL goaltender to be selected in the first round since his hero, Carey Price, in 2005.
Cossa finished his junior hockey career with one more banner year. He was 33-9-3 with a 2.28 goals-against average and .913 save percentage during the 2021-22 regular season, then went 16-3 in the playoffs to lead the Oil Kings to the WHL championship. He had the option of returning for one more year of junior hockey, but with little to prove at that level he decided to begin his pro career.
“I knew I didn’t want to go back to junior,” he said. “No matter what, I wanted to turn pro and get playing games and get used to the pro schedule, not to mention the speed and skill of the game at that level.”
Cossa won his first pro start, making 21 saves to help the Griffins beat Milwaukee 3-2 at Van Andel Arena on Oct. 19, 2022. But everything came apart in his next two starts on the road. While Cossa had no illusions of coasting into an NHL job, he admits that his early struggles at the AHL level shook his confidence.
“I realized that it wasn’t going to be easy,” he said. “I knew I was not going to walk in and be playing in the NHL in one year. That’s not how it works. You have to put in the work and you’re going to have to get after it.”
Cossa spent most of his rookie pro season with the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye, where he was able to regain his confidence. He credits Phil Osaer, Red Wings head of goaltending development, and then-Walleye head coach Dan Watson with getting his play back on track. So there was a real sense of relief last season when Cossa and Watson were back together again, this time in Grand Rapids after the Red Wings promoted both men to the AHL.
Cossa won only three of his first 10 starts in 2023-24, but his fortunes – along with those of his Griffins teammates – changed dramatically after Christmas. After winning two of his first three post-holiday starts, Cossa put together a franchise-record streak of 19 consecutive games with the team earning at least one point (13-0-6).
“For me, it’s so much about confidence,” he said. “When you start winning four or five games in a row and the team’s feeling it – the vibes in the locker room are really good – it’s easy to come to the rink every night.”
Cossa felt he benefited from the tutelage of Griffins goaltending coach Roope Koistinen, who came to Grand Rapids last season.
“Our relationship grew a lot during the season,” Koistinen said. “He knew how to pick the right spots, whether it was calming things down or picking things up, depending on the team’s schedule. He is good with that kind of stuff.”
Developing proper technique is important for any goalie, but ultimately it’s all about building confidence. For his part, Cossa has grown more confident in every facet of his game.
“I’d say my entire game has evolved,” said Cossa, who has a 1.98 GAA and a .936 save percentage through his first eight appearances this season. “My skating is better, and working with Roope I would say my hands have gotten better. I think my play through traffic has gotten a lot better as well. I feel like I’m learning to use my size to its full advantage.”
Cossa, who turns 22 later this month, had a busy summer. On June 22, he wed his longtime sweetheart, Emerson. He also spent a lot of time working on his explosiveness, pushing his reaction time and quickness.
“I still don’t think I have fully grown into my body,” he said. “With the amount of speed on the ice, if I can move faster as a big guy, it’s only going to help me.”
Ultimately, he would like to push for the promotion that he hopes will eventually come.
“My goal is to make it a hard decision for the Wings to keep me down here,” he said. “Overall, the work I’ve put in and the improvement I’ve shown, I feel very confident. My only worry right now is to do what I can control. I want to play a lot of games and win a lot of games and see what happens.”