When Andrew Hotham was 18, he enjoyed a brief taste of life as a teammate of his older brother Scott.
He was devastated when that memorable experience was cut short by a trade from his hometown Barrie Colts just two months into his Ontario Hockey League rookie season in 2004.
“Playing in my hometown and playing with my brother, it was a great opportunity,” Scott recalls. “Having to leave the town and leave him was tough to swallow. I got on with it, but it was always a dream of mine to play with him again.”
The Saint Mary’s Huskies have made that dream come true.
When Scott wrapped up his junior career and came to Saint Mary’s, it was a given that Andrew wouldn’t be far behind. These days, the brothers are doing their best Denis and Jean Potvin imitation on the Huskies’ blue-line.
The Hothams are the highest-scoring defence duo in Canadian Interuniversity Sport. They quarterback the AUS’s most prolific power play and have combined for 76 points in 28 games.
Andrew, a sophomore, led the country in scoring among blue-liners with 43 points, while Scott, in his fourth year, added 33. No other AUS defenceman had more than 21 points.
“We’re extremely similar,” Scott says. “We’re both offensive defencemen, but we go about it different ways. He’s got a little more scoring touch to his game, although I hate to admit it, whereas I tend to pass a little more.”
Their father, Greg, played six NHL seasons with the Maple Leafs and Penguins and was a minor-league all-star.
“From what he says, he was a mix between us,” says Andrew. “He played more like my brother, but a little tougher. All I’ve seen are highlight reels, but there’s a little of him in both of us.”
The Hothams are best friends off the ice. Scott is graduating and isn’t planning to come back, so the brothers are hoping to win an AUS title together before he moves on.
“That’d be huge,” says Scott. “That’d be huge if he wasn’t here, but to do it with him, looking back in a couple of years, would be something pretty special for both of us.”
