Inside the Real Estate Deal Settled by a Hockey Game

A former NHL player returned to the ice to settle on a final home purchase price

Hockey goal
Two men, one of them a former NHL player, took to the ice to settle on the price of a home.
Santeri Viinamäki/Creative Commons

What happens when a buyer and seller in the world of real estate can’t quite agree on a final price? If one of them is a former professional hockey player, this dispute might end up being settled in a unique manner: a penalty shootout on the ice in at a local rink.

This is exactly what happened in Calgary recently, reports Paige Ellis of BNN Bloomberg

Negotiations for the house came down to a difference of $3,000. “With talks near collapsing, homeowner Gavin Wolch said he made a sarcastic comment to Weiner, his agent, about heading to the rink to break the impasse,” writes Ellis.

The prospective buyer, a former professional hockey player whose career took him to the NHL, agreed. Wolch, who plays goalie in a local recreation league, was up for the challenge.

The two men, joined by a group of 30, went to a local rink to finalize the deal. Wolch’s recreation league must be a pretty high level, as he emerged victorious, making 6 saves; his opponent scored 4 times.

Ellis reports that the real estate agents involved also had a wager going on: 

Weiner and the buyer’s agents also managed to get in on the action: the realtor representing the shootout loser had to pay the $260 ice rental fee.

As negotiations go, this sounds like one of the most enjoyable methods of settling a dispute imaginable. 

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