How Senators prospect Hoyt Stanley became a fan favourite on one of Barstool's biggest shows

Hoyt Stanley celebrates after being selected 108th overall pick by the Ottawa Senators during the 2023NHL Draft. Getty Images

Article content

Hoyt Stanley has already made a name for himself — just maybe not in the way you’d expect.

Article content

On a random day in April of 2024, months after the Ottawa Senators selected the defenceman 108th overall in the NHL Draft, Stanley was in microeconomics class in his freshman year at Cornell University when he noticed his phone blowing up.

Article content

Article content

He opened Instagram to find hundreds of interactions with his most recent photos, every account commenting the same thing: “HOYT.”

Article content

Article content

To his shock, this wasn’t a prank by his college teammates or friends back home in Vancouver. And the commenters weren’t bots—they were real people.

Article content

Article content

Unbeknownst to Stanley, he had become a fan favourite of Barstool Sports’ The Yak podcast overnight for a very strange reason.

Article content

“It had nothing to do with my ability to play hockey,” Stanley told The Citizen in a phone interview. “It was more just that my name is Hoyt.”

Article content

A daily show involving a random cast of Barstool employees shooting the breeze, the Yak has many running bits. One of them just happens to be that co-host Nick Turani dearly desires to befriend people named Hoyt.

Article content

The next day, Stanley agreed to join the show for what would surely be the weirdest interview of his young career.

Article content

“My entire life I’ve wanted a Hoyt in my crew,” Turani said to Stanley over video chat. “I’ve wanted multiple Hoyts in my crew. I have none. And I was wondering, if you wanted to, completely up to you, do you want to be my first Hoyt?”

Article content

Stanley, hanging with several teammates in a study room, obliged.

Article content

What is the story behind Hoyt’s name?

Article content

The story and inspiration behind the blue liner’s given name is quite something. As legend has it, over a century ago Stanley’s great-great-grandfather entered into a poker game where the consequence for losing was naming your son after the victor. The man who won that card game was Judge Hoyt.

Article content

Article content

Stanley’s father, Graham, is particularly fond of the tale, known to re-tell it “after a few drinks.”

Article content

Currently wrapping up a business degree at the Ivy League school, Stanley will make the jump to pro in the fall, driven to become more known for his play on the ice than his annual five-minute podcast hit.

Article content

Stanley’s game has been dramatically evolving since his mid-teens. He was a forward all the way up until bantam (under-15), idolizing the likes of Sidney Crosby and Patrick Kane.

Article content

In junior, he was an offensive defenceman, quarterbacking the power play and racking up 38 points in 53 games during his final season with the Victoria Grizzlies of the British Columbia Hockey League in 2022-23.

Article content

Joining Cornell as a true freshman the following year was yet another significant shift. There were big minutes up for grabs — Stanley was one of a dozen new recruits eager to prove they were capable of playing against men.

Article content

“When I first got here we had a great coach, Mike Schafer, who had coached for 30 years,” Stanley said. “He just kind of really wanted me to emphasize defence as part of my role and get more physical. I’m a bigger guy, so being able to use my body a little bit more. He definitely taught me a lot, helped me transition. The first couple months on campus (he was) just grilling me and all the new guys about details and defending our net, so I think I just took pride in it over time.”