The former NHL player (Vancouver Canucks, and Washington Capitals) Aaron Volpatti discusses his new memoir Fighter: Defying the NHL Odds (2022), with Joseph Planta.

Fighter: Defying the NHL Odds by Aaron Volpatti (2022). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Fighter

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Aaron Volpatti joins me now. The former NHL player has just published a new book, Fighter: Defying the NHL Odds. The book begins with Mr. Volpatti recounting the horrific 2005 accident that resulted in second and third degree burns to over forty percent of his body. He narrates the journey from the Vancouver General Hospital Burn Unit, fighting as it were to get to the Brown University playing NCAA hockey and graduating there, to realising his dream to play in the National Hockey League. It’s a riveting book that I’ve started and can’t put down. We see an athlete overcome staggering odds to make it, and it’s thanks to visualization, a practice that Aaron used and now uses to help athletes all over the world. I’ll ask Aaron about his family, about Cinematic Visualization, and about how it’s helped him not just with his injuries, but with challenges on the ice in his career (he was a member of the Vancouver Canucks 2010-2011 season, when the Canucks lost to Boston in game seven of the Stanley Cup final), as well as off the ice contending with his friend Rick Rypien’s suicide in the summer of 2011, what to do after his professional hockey career, as well as the challenges of his father Tony’s ALS. The book is available now. And information on it as well as personal appearances that Aaron will be making for the book can be found on his website www.aaronvolpatti.com. A portion of profits for the book will be donated to the British Columbia Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund. We taped this interview last week, with Aaron joining me from Lake Country, BC. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Aaron Volpatti; Mr. Volpatti, good morning.

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