Michael DiPietro has spent nearly a decade chasing the kind of NHL opportunity that once felt like it might never arrive. Now, after years of setbacks, detours and dominant work in the minors, the former Canucks prospect is positioned to open 2026-27 as the Boston Bruins’ full-time backup.
That’s a long way from where this story started in 2017, when Vancouver took the Windsor Spitfires goaltender 64th overall in the third round. He was the third goalie off the board that year, behind Jake Oettinger at 26th overall to Dallas and Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen at 54th overall to Buffalo. For the Canucks, it was a notable pick: DiPietro was the first goalie they had drafted since Thatcher Demko went 36th overall in 2014, and he came in fresh off helping Windsor win a Memorial Cup.
At the time, the trajectory looked promising. DiPietro finished his OHL career strongly, represented Canada at the World Juniors and then turned in a encouraging rookie season with the AHL’s Utica Comets. But the next stretch tested him in ways few prospects ever have.
The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out almost an entire year of development, and DiPietro went 400 days without playing a game. After he asked for a trade, Vancouver moved him early in Patrik Allvin’s tenure, sending him and prospect Jonathan Myrenberg to the Bruins in the deal that brought back Jack Studnicka.
Boston did not immediately offer a clean runway. After one AHL game, DiPietro was sent to the ECHL, and the drop hit hard.
“I just felt like my career was going the opposite direction,” DiPietro said in 2025 on the InGoal Magazine podcast.
“Within the span of eight months, I went from the NHL, American League, and now I’m playing the East Coast.”
“I remember driving to Maine [Mariners, Boston’s ECHL affiliate] when I got sent down, and I was really upset. I was frustrated. I felt embarrassed.”
From there, though, the rebound started to take shape. During the 2022-23 season with Boston’s ECHL affiliate, he began to rediscover his love for the game. The next year, he became a full-time AHL goaltender and split starts with Carolina Hurricanes goalie Brandon Bussi.
“Brandon is one of the most genuinely nice people you’re gonna meet in the sport of hockey,” DiPietro said. “He’s probably, if not my only, one of my only best friend goalie partner combinations I’ve ever had in my career.”
What followed was a pair of seasons that put him at the top of the AHL goalie class. In 2024-25, the Windsor, Ont., native went 26-8-5 with a .927 save percentage and won the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the league’s best goaltender.
He somehow topped that in 2025-26, finishing 34-8-1 with a .930 save percentage and earning AHL goalie of the year honors again. That made him just the second goalie in AHL history to win the award in back-to-back seasons, following Dustin Wolf in 2022 and 2023.
Boston’s response came on July 1, when the Bruins traded incumbent backup Joonas Korpisalo to the New York Rangers for prospect Kalle Vaisanen and a 2028 fourth-round pick. Asked whether DiPietro’s rise was the main reason for the move, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said, “Yeah, primarily why,” then added, “We just feel that Michael has earned this opportunity…It’s just a real good opportunity for him now to come in and take the last two years in particular and apply it to the National Hockey League,”
“You’re never going to know unless you get that opportunity, and at some point in time, the team has to provide it.”
DiPietro has only four NHL games on his résumé, with two starts, but the runway has finally opened. Nine years after Vancouver drafted him, he looks ready for a much bigger shot.
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