ARLINGTON, Va. -- Antoine Keller is chasing two hockey dreams.
One is to become the second goalie from France to play in the NHL. The other is to play in the Olympics.
A seventh-round pick (No. 206) by the Washington Capitals in the 2023 NHL Draft, Keller has some work to do to reach the NHL, but he will take a significant step this season by playing professionally in North America for the first time after signing a one-year contract with Hershey, Washington’s American Hockey League affiliate.
Keller is much closer to fulfilling his Olympic dream. Although the Dijon native is only 20 years old, he is expected to be among the three goalies selected to France’s roster for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.
“For every hockey player it’s a dream to play in the Olympics,” Keller said at the Capitals development camp earlier this month. “It’s not my main focus, but I can play in the Olympics, and I will do everything possible to be able to play in the Olympics and to be in the best shape I can be.”
There were no goalies among the initial six players named to France’s Olympic team on June 16, but Keller has talked with the coaching staff about being added when the rest of the roster is finalized in January. With France to host the 2028 IIHF World Championship and the Olympic Winter Games French Alps 2030, the national team is looking develop young players and Keller appears to be its goalie of the future.
Looking ahead to the Olympics, France had Keller -- the youngest of its three goalies behind Quentin Papillon, 26, and Julian Junca, 27 -- start four of its seven games at the 2025 IIHF World Championship.
“I don’t want to talk for the coach, but there is a very, very good chance that Antoine is going to be on the team,” said former NHL goalie Cristobal Huet, an assistant on France’s national team and Keller’s goalie coach last season with Lausanne of the National League, Switzerland’s top professional league. “We took the [approach] where we have to throw our young guys into a world championship so they can learn. They can watch. They can play. They’re going to fail maybe, but they’re going to get back up and we need them to get back up and play again.”
Although France went 0-6-1 and scored only eight goals at the world championship, Keller helped earn its lone point by making 47 saves in 4-3 overtime loss to Finland. Being pulled after allowing three goals on four shots in a 5-2 loss to Austria hurt Keller’s tournament statistics (0-3-1, 3.98 goals-against average, .897 save percentage), but he played well with 33 saves in a 2-1 loss to Slovakia and held his own with 32 saves in a 4-0 loss against a Sweden lineup loaded with NHL players including Filip Forsberg of the Nashville Predators and Mika Zibanejad of the New York Rangers.
“I played against Finland. I played against Sweden,” Keller said. “It’s great players. When you get ready for a face-off and you’ve got Zibanejad and Forsberg in front of you, it’s pretty nice. They’ve got such good skills. You have to be 100 percent all of the time and I think I did a pretty good job in those games.
“It was nice to represent France. I’m very proud of that.”
Keller is trying to follow in footsteps of Huet, who played in the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics -- France’s last Olympic appearance in men’s ice hockey -- before becoming his country’s first goalie to play in the NHL with the Los Angeles Kings in 2003. Huet played seven seasons in the NHL (2003-2010) with the Kings, Montreal Canadiens, Capitals and Chicago Blackhawks, and could see Keller’s potential while working with him with Lausanne last season.
He was 5-5-0 with a 3.16 GAA and .894 save percentage in 13 National League games.
“It was a great opportunity for him to grow on the pro level, which is not easy to do as a 19-year-old, to play in such a competitive league,” Huet said. “It’s not the NHL but it’s still big budget and big pressure. It is competitive, so it was nice to see how he adjusted during the year and how he progressed with a little bit of everything, not only the technical but also the mental.”
Keller acknowledged he would’ve liked to play more with Lausanne, but valued the experience, including three appearances in the Champions League, where he was 2-1-0 with a 2.14 GAA and .889 save percentage. When the Capitals offered an AHL contract for this season, though, he jumped at the chance.
“When you get the opportunity to sign and to go play in the minors for an organization like Washington, you just take it,” he said. “My main goal is to play in the NHL, obviously, so coming here and playing on the small ice with guys who are just one call-up from the NHL, I think that’s a great thing for my development.”
Keller could play for the Capitals’ ECHL affiliate in South Carolina and in the AHL with Hershey this season. It’s a development route the Capitals have utilized often with goalies, including Braden Holtby and Philipp Grubauer, who helped them win the Stanley Cup in 2018.
“We’ve done a really good job, I think, of working our guys up through the ECHL into the AHL and then the NHL,” Capitals general manager Chris Patrick said. “So, now he’s on that schedule. … Hopefully, he can kind of follow the same path as our other guys have.”
Playing in the ECHL and AHL could also help prepare Keller for the 2026 Olympics, where he’d face the best competition in the world with NHL players participating for the first time since the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Goaltending hasn’t been a strength for France since Huet’s playing days. Keller being on a potential NHL development path is reason for hope for the present and future.
“For our country, having a guy like that is a big help,” Huet said. “We had a bit of a hole in the national team. It was not easy to have goalies that were competitive at the international level, and we found some now. When you want to win, you need to be great at this position.”
