About
Canadian model and former ice‑hockey goaltender Mikayla Demaiter was born on May 14, 2000, in Chatham, Ontario. She first caught the public eye between the pipes for the Bluewater Hawks of Canada’s Provincial Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) junior program, where she logged 20 games and 428 saves before injuries cut her athletic career short in 2019 at just 19 years old. While a knee operation forced her off the ice, it nudged her toward modeling—an arena where her confident poses and playful captions quickly resonated. By 2025 she had amassed roughly 3.2 million Instagram followers, partnered with sportsbook‑style brand SportX, and earned headlines such as “the world’s sexiest hockey player.” Her feed now mixes swimwear sessions, fitness snaps, and nostalgic goalie throwbacks, keeping her athletic roots firmly woven into her influencer persona.
Before Fame
Demaiter spent childhood weekends toggling between boating on nearby Lake Erie and early‑morning rink practices. She joined Chatham’s minor‑hockey system at nine, gravitated to the crease, and later back‑stopped the Bluewater Hawks junior squad, posting a respectable 2.50 goals‑against average with a .909 save percentage in her final season. Off the ice she honed a love of photography and enrolled at the University of Western Ontario, balancing first‑year classes with provincial‑league road trips. In January 2017 she casually uploaded a few modeling portraits to Instagram—just filler between hockey highlights at the time. The images took off, giving her a parallel fan‑base well before she imagined retiring from sport. When the knee injury struck two years later, that growing audience offered a ready‑made stage for a fresh career built on cameras instead of kick‑saves.
Trivia
- One‑liner queen: Her captions often double as tongue‑in‑cheek apologies—“Global warming? Yeah, my bad,” she joked beneath a sun‑soaked beach shot that went viral in April 2023.
- Stats still stand: In those 20 PWHL games she spent 953:57 on ice and faced 471 shots, a workload rarely seen by junior netminders.
- Height vs. hype: At 5’4″ (163 cm) she was undersized for a goalie, yet quick reflexes and strong lateral pushes made her a fan favorite.
- Agency athlete: She’s represented by Verge Agency and often fronts campaigns for swimwear labels and the SportX betting platform.
- Holiday scene‑stealer: Her December 2024 “Daisy Dukes” reel shot to Reddit’s front page hours after posting, proving off‑season hockey buzz can happen without the ice.
Family Life
Mikayla keeps relatives out of the spotlight, mentioning only that her parents encouraged both sport and school while she commuted to league practices in Sarnia and London. She often posts with her golden retriever, Sonny, calling him her “most loyal teammate.” Romance, however, does surface online: she began dating NHL forward Kurtis Gabriel in April 2020, and the pair shared playful shootout clips on his YouTube channel. Sports Illustrated noted in late 2024 that the two have since parted ways and that she’s now single, focusing on travel shoots across North America.
Associated With
Demaiter’s dual identity as athlete‑turned‑influencer often draws comparisons to golf content‑creator Paige Spiranac, and the two occasionally exchange likes and comments. Hockey fans still link her to Bluewater Hawks alumni and to fellow goalie‑models such as Sweden’s Simon Loof and Australia’s Anna Flanagan, both profiled alongside her on Famous Birthdays. She has appeared in Kurtis Gabriel’s charity vlogs, partnered with SportX for promotional shoots, and earned coverage from Sports Illustrated’s fashion vertical, cementing her crossover status in both sports and lifestyle media.
