Read All About This Scholar-Goalie

PALM DESERT – As a professional goaltender, Jack LaFontaine has contributed mightily to the winning records and playoff-bound seasons for Kraken affiliates AHL Coachella Valley and ECHL Kansas City. As a voracious reader, LaFontaine has in parallel added to his challenging and impressive book list this season with an emphasis on writers of the 1950s Beat Generation and literary journalism of the late 1960s and early 1970s. 

“Great books are something my dad and I have always connected on,” said LaFontaine a few weeks back when he was still with the American Hockey League Firebirds posting four wins during a stretch when starter Nikke Kokko was on the injured list. “Right now, I am reading Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.”   

This week, LaFontaine is back in Kansas City where he has been a key part of the Mavericks leading the ECHL with a record of 48-10-2 and LaFontaine posting a save percentage of .927 to rival his .933 at Coachella Valley. The 28-year-old former NCAA star confirmed he is finishing the final chapter of Wolfe’s book about the author Ken Kesey of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest fame and a group of psychedelic drug enthusiasts traversing the U.S.

“It all started just from a young age,” said LaFontaine. “My dad was a man of the arts. He taught me to write cursive at age four. I still write in cursive.  He always encouraged my reading and writing. I was writing little stories and stuff even at age four. In high school, he got me into reading Shakespeare. I mean, I am 15, saying, ’Yeah, well, no,’ and my dad is explaining the nuances to me. You know what? I enjoyed Shakespeare after that.” 

‘The Tipping Point’ as Turning Point 

LaFontaine’s dad, John, driving between appointments for his industrial real estate business in the Toronto metro area, said by phone that his son’s major escalation to become a lifetime avid reader was “when Jack read Malcolm Gladwell as a nine- or 10-year-old.” That Gladwell book The Tipping Point included the famed “10,000 hours” needed to perform a skill at a high level.  

“It’s a peculiar age to read that book, but I think it helped Jack in his hockey career too,” said John LaFontaine. “It cited all these things needed to become great, including the 10,000-hour club. From there, Jack read Andre Agassi’s autobiography Open, a powerful book about winning and losing and mental toughness and strength. I think it was those books first, then Jack started to parlay into the classics. He's read books I've not read, like Milton, Shaw, Dickens and Dostoevsky.” 

In fact, when asked to provide a classics reading list for “rookies” Jack LaFontaine recommended the Agassi book along with a couple of fiction entries, Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, and 1984 by George Orwell. For “pros” LaFontaine recommended two novels, Crime and Punishment by the aforementioned Dostoevsky, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. When informed his son’s “pro” choice for non-fiction is Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, John LaFontaine could only sort of whistle out a “Whoa!”

Becoming a Better Teammate Through Books 

The goaltender’s father then offered his theory on why this steep reading has made his son a better pro and teammate. “I believe reading about human behavior and our existence, that made Jack wise beyond his years,” he said. “You get to learn two ways, one is through experience. Then hopefully, in your 60s or 70s, you have wisdom. But you can accelerate that through reading because it teaches you about the human struggle, and that’s why Jack is so good in the dressing room. It’s one of the reasons he was named a captain at [the University of] Minnesota.”

LaFontaine was a 2021 Mike Richter Award winner for best NCAA goaltender, turning in three high-performance seasons for the Golden Gophers after starting his college career at  NCAA Michigan, where the 2016 third-round draft choice once again turbo-charged his zest for reading  when he enrolled in a course in Biblical literature.

“Instead of reading the Bible in a religious context, you're reading it as you would any of the American or British classics, right?” said LaFontaine. “I found that extremely interesting.  When I transferred to Minnesota, because it was my last two years of college, I was able not to take a single math class. I wanted all English classes. I took courses in romanticism with the focus on Shakespeare. Brit Lit. American Lit. I took a couple American Lit classes with focuses on different decades. After college, it was straight into pro hockey [including two NHL games for Carolina after his NCAA ended in 2022]. I couldn't believe how much  spare time I had to read. So, I just continued.”

Have Notebook Will Play – and Attend Meetings 

Firebirds goaltending coach Vince Stalletti is not surprised about LaFontaine’s leanings towards words and writing. He said LaFontaine is “such a good and supportive teammate, always writing notes and asking good questions” during goaltender meetings and individual video sessions. Plus, LaFontaine is the first to praise the two goalie prospects ahead of him on the Kraken organization depth chart-- the aforementioned Kokko and the former Swedish-born University of Maine goalie Victor Ostman.

The Firebirds are in the thick of contention for securing first-round home ice advantage in the Calder Cup Playoffs and not far from clinching their fourth straight postseason berth. With Kokko sidelined, Ostman and LaFontaine keep the winning percentage at .677 during that stretch.

LaFontaine said he regards reading as a constructive way to relax during a long season of practices, games and travel while doubling as a source of expanding his mind. LaFontaine also journals most days during the hockey year.

“My wife will be the first to tell you I have the memory of the goldfish,” said LaFontaine, he of movie star looks and a deep laugh. “If I go in to watch my video with Vinnie, even though the game was like a week ago, I write it down. I have long been keeping a journal to track my thoughts and emotions pregame and post-game.

“It started in my first  year in hockey.  I was seven, eight years old, and with my dad. We kept track of each game I played. The notebooks include teams we played, score, shots and then highlights. I would ask my dad how many shots [if there were no official stats]. The highlights would maybe a breakaway save. My notebooks now have evolved. I still do it today. I've kept that going. It slowly evolved into journaling and now video notetaking. I have a separate goalies’ drill book too. That’s part of my process.”

“He actually gave me the original notebook as one my Christmas gifts this year,” said John LaFontaine. “I wasn't sure how to feel about because it was something that's really sacred to him. But I felt like it will fall back in his hands someday. It has every single game he’s ever played. It shows the notes, the shots, the score. Unbelievable. It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen.  That just goes to show about his discipline and commitment to becoming a professional goalie.”