Canucks ice cleaner goes viral thanks to smooth moves

VANCOUVER (CityNews) — Devon Whitter is going viral after a video captured the unique spin he puts on his role as the lead of the Canucks ice team.

The team’s job is to skate up and down the ice and scoop up the snow that builds up on the rink so the surface is safe and suitable for play.

“Those guys chew up the ice pretty good, and if we weren’t out there, the puck would just be bouncing nonstop,” Whitter says.

The snow that’s shoveled up is dropped into buckets placed at either end of the ice. The team does their work during scheduled TV breaks, and in pre-COVID times, fans would cheer them on and sing along to blaring music.

At Monday’s game, Whitter was caught on camera adding a little flair to his routine — executing a spin while dumping the snow he’d collected from around the net into the bright yellow bucket.

A video posted the next day by a popular American sports podcast has now been viewed close to half a million times. The NHL later shared the video with the league’s 6.3 million followers.

“It’s picking up snow, you know? It’s surprising. Never in my life would I have imagined it would have gotten this big,” Whitter says.

“You feel like you’re just doing a job and having fun out there and next thing you know someone notices and then here we are.”

This guy was born to be the greatest ice crew member to ever live pic.twitter.com/hwTbdDtMn8

— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) March 9, 2021

Whitter doesn’t even remember precisely why or when he first decided to incorporate the twirl that has since become his signature move.

“I enjoy having fun out there on the ice. I guess one day I decided to put the snow in the bucket and do a little spin and here we are, now it’s blown up to some pretty epic proportions,” he explains.

Whitter started to skate when he was three, and has been with the Vancouver ice team since 2016.

“I’ve worked every job — coaching, cleaning the ice, I’ve been a skate instructor, and now I’m with the Canucks. Hockey has always been a big part of life,” he says.

“I’ve never figure skated in my life.  I’ve been seeing a lot of comments about that. Nothing against it, but just wanted to clear the air on that.”

He says it’s possible he picked up the idea of spinning through osmosis from the women he works with, who do have figure skating backgrounds.

“Some of the girls on the team are figure skaters, they are definitely much more graceful than I am,” he says.

“There’s definitely much better spinners on the team than I am.”

When Whitter got back to work at Rogers Arena on Wednesday, his coworkers paid a playful tribute to his new found fame.

“They made my day super special. They came up with the bucket, and they told me I got to sign the bucket,” he says.

“So now that bucket — we’ve had the same buckets for as long as I can remember — that bucket will always now say ‘Bucket Boy.’ It makes me happy. By the way, they call me the ‘Bucket Boy.'”

The whole crew is looking back to having fans in the seats, saying there’s no substitute for the energy of a live crowd.

“The vibe on the ice is always a good one. We’ve got a really positive team, it’s really enjoyable. I mean, we’re working a dream job out there bumping shoulders with these players,” he says.

But in the meantime, Whitter is aware that people are watching.

“The pressure to perform is now high. I’ve never dealt with this before.”