Kyle Hallbauer knows all of the jokes.
He’s old enough to remember when the members of One Direction weren’t heading in different directions. He was around when the Titanic sank, but at least THAT was the movie and not real life. His nickname in the locker room is “Grandpa” and the “Godfather.”
This past weekend, he played against the United States National Under-18 Team, meaning he skated against players almost 10 years younger than him. He’s practically five years older than the average-aged hockey player … on his own team.
Thanks to the COVID-canceled season of 2020-21, the captain of Rensselaer’s hockey team is one of a selected group of hockey players who will turn 26 years old before the season ends. In a world where that might draw laughs or looks, Hallbauer wears that badge as an honor thanks to the opportunities afforded to him both on and off the ice, and while he is recognized as an elder statesman of sorts with Rensselaer’s 4-1 hockey club, he remains a prime example of how the talent pool in hockey is developed in a unique manner unlike anything in college sports.
“I definitely knew I was going to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest, guy in the league,” Hallbauer said. “But I don’t really see it from an age standpoint. If you’re on a team, you’re there for a reason. It doesn’t matter how old you are or how young you are. If you can play, you can play, and if you can play for that long, you play for that long. It’s an opportunity that fell into my lap, so I decided to go with it.”
The way athletes funnel into college hockey guarantees an older talent pool with the majority of recruits matriculating out of the various junior leagues that dot the American and Canadian hockey landscape, but a select group comes directly from the high school or prep school landscape. They skew much younger, but they offset older players who play in the developmental showcase leagues.
That occasional 18-year-old true freshman is still somehow less jarring than the sight of a 21-year-old who played two or three years in a junior league. That age is more readily recognized for upperclassmen, many of whom are well into professional careers by their mid-20s. Some have even gotten married and started families.
Older players are more rare occasions, but they can offer programs a combination of life experience and athletic know-how. In football, for example, an older player is usually someone who started a minor league baseball career but decided to return to college to play football, as was the case with former first-round picks Chris Weinke and Branden Weeden.
In hockey, though, a mid-20s athlete is more common, and a player like Hallbauer was able to qualify for an early bachelor’s degree because of his credits amassed during his junior hockey career. Joining the Engineers as a freshman then gave RPI that mature athlete while he subsequently retained all four years of eligibility to pursue multiple degrees.
“I was as old as you possibly could be, going into juniors, and then I played for Kingston, which isn’t even a team anymore (the Voyageurs were sold to the Barrie Colts after the 2018-19 season),” Hallbauer said. “But playing in Kingston, I got a little taste and heard things about college hockey, and I knew I was poised to at least make an attempt to play Division I. So then I went into the NAHL to play for Lone Star, and my coach, Dan Wildfong, helped with a lot of exposure to schools that he talked to. He was always on the phone, and we had scouts at every game, so I couldn’t have asked for a better spot.”
“With everyone, we look at pieces of growing a program,” added RPI coach Dave Smith. “We never plan on regressing, so for everybody that we bring in, we ask them to subscribe to everything academically, athletically, and socially. If they’re interested in that – we use the language ‘everyday champion’ – then it really doesn’t matter about their age. We look at the talent level and the academic profile and determine if it’s a great fit. In Kyle’s case, he was an excellent student and experienced in junior hockey, and he’s a terrific hockey player. That was a good fit in the beginning, and it’s remained a good fit.”
“I just really played my game for most of that year [in junior hockey],” Hallbauer sai26d. “RPI saw me at a showcase at the beginning of the year, but another player on my team, Ture Linden, committed to [play for the Engineers]. Right before they talked to me, he told me it was a great place, so after going to a [showcase] for uncommitted players and young guys that were already committed, I talked to them, and they called me a few days later and offered me a spot.”
He still had to discover and foster a role within the program, but after four-plus years, it’s hard to deny his impact on the program’s reboot and rebuild under Smith. In each of his first two seasons, Hallbauer played 30 games, and RPI earned a first-round bye with the No. 4 seed before the onset of COVID-19 canceled the entire postseason at the conference and national levels.
Losing that year stung, but like every other athlete on his team, Hallbauer faced subsequent challenges during the pandemic after RPI opted out of the 2020-2021 season. The ability to transfer made it open season for players who wanted to skate, but his mind returned to his master’s program, and he remained with the school because of the credits he’d already amassed while playing for the Engineers.
“Roster construction, for us, starts the year before,” said Smith. “We discussed with guys what their plans were, and we set goals with them [while] they set goals with us. We talked about their plans for an academic degree with what we call our ‘plan of study.’ We talked about experience and what opportunities are available for them here, and potentially, we talked to them about the transfer portal and how it works for graduate students. Even as we’re going through those discussions, they know the value of an RPI master’s degree or an RPI education. They live in and walk in the RPI hockey player’s shoes, so they understand what it’s all about.”
“Because I was a 21-year-old freshman, I had tons of credits coming into school,” Hallbauer said. “So I had the opportunity to graduate in three years and start my graduate program during the COVID year. Once I started the grad program, there was no reason for me to leave. Even without hockey, academics-wise, RPI was such a good school.’
As a result, an unintended gap year from hockey created his newfound status as one of the oldest players to skate in the 2022-23 season. A player born in March 1997 will spend most of the season as a 25-year-old before hitting his 26th birthday right as the playoffs begin.
“The guys stayed are a true testament to seeing [it through] for the long run,” Hallbauer said. “I think that helped me with my decision to stay. Everyone is here for a reason, and everyone that stayed is very close. We can bring all the new guys, the transfers, the freshmen into [the program] and get them into the family as fast as possible. It’s definitely worked out, and I think that we’re now one of the closest teams that I’ve been a part of.”
It’s a true payoff for a player whose patience in arriving at the Division I level is emblematic of college hockey’s opportunities. A player who nearly didn’t receive the chance to play college hockey after two years in juniors is now the captain of an ECAC hockey program. There’s a certain level of appreciation, and this weekend, it’s a moment he intends to soak in as his team faces Union for the Capital Skates currently located in the RPI locker room.
“It’s always fun when you play someone that lives 25 minutes away,” Hallbauer said. “The Union rivalry has been around for a long time. We have a trophy that whoever gets the most points earns the Capital Skates. If you lose the skates, you basically have to sweep to get them back. In our locker room, the skates are sitting right above the logo in the middle of the room. Everyone looks at them every day, and we know that’s what we’re playing for. The freshmen don’t know it yet, but all the other guys are constantly telling them that we have to beat [Union] at any cost.
“We’re prepared to do that this year.”
