Kanata Lasers' Johnny Kyte competes in Deaflympics, carrying on a family legacy

Johnny Kyte gained a new appreciation, of playing hockey and what people who are deaf must work around, while playing for Canada in the recent Deaflympics.

In hockey, of course, the Kanata Lasers defenceman's surname is synonymous with his uncle, Jim Kyte, the only legally deaf player in National Hockey League history. Johnny, a defenceman with the Central Canada Hockey League's Kanata Lasers who is legally deaf and uses a hearing aid, had the thrill of his life when he played for Team Canada in the Russia oil town of Khanty-Mansiysk. The 19-year-old, after learning to adjust to a brand of hockey where a strobe light beams to stop play and teams have an interpreter on the bench to help hard-of-hearing players communicate with teammates who use only sign language, helped Canada win a silver medal.

"It was different in the way that hockey was played," says Kyte, who got to team up at the tournament with his 18-year-old brother Thomas Kyte, a Junior B player. "It was more about the way you thought the game. You couldn't rely on the communication, of just yelling or hearing the stick on the ice, your name or nickname being called out. You had to look in the glass. You had to, in practice, go over and over and over the play and execute it on the ice. That's the only way you could play.

"The other cool thing about when you play is that — I find — it's very, very rough," adds Kyte, who became an alternate captain by the end of the CCHL season with Kanata. "Players don't know when to stop. There's no whistle. There's actually a strobe light, six strobe lights around the rink, and when you see that you know the play is stopped. A lot of guys don't see it right away. So you get hacked and get a lot of nicks and bruises. So that's how different it really is."

Along with his uncle Jim, whose 598 NHL games were spent mostly with the Winnipeg Jets, Kyte had two other uncles, Murray and Frank Kyte, each play on gold medal-winning Canadian hockey teams at the Deaflympics.

The Carp, Ont., native got the opportunity to join the Canadian team last year after playing in a deaf tournament in Toronto, earning an invitiation to an August tryout camp. The experience has been enriching for Kyte, whose dad John, brother and 16-year-old twin sisters Abi and Emma are all legally deaf.

His defence partner, team captain Steve Devine, who's an assistant coach with Ontario University Athletics' Toronto Varsity Blues, is hard-of-hearing. One of the team's assistant captains, Craig Garbacz, uses sign language.

'Very different culture'

"It's different having people who can speak to each other and who sign to each other," Kyte says. "It's a very different culture. I found it really rewarding because I got to learn sign language while I was there and communicate with people who physically can't speak. That's very different, needing an interpreter on the bench to send a message. Our Team Canada had a good mix of both."

Canada went unbeaten in the round-robin before falling 6-3 to Russia in the championship game. However, Kyte made some lasting memories. It was also the first time he and his brother have teamed up as young adults.

"It was amazing, the 5,000 Russian and Canadians fans in a KHL rink," he says. "We were broadcast online through the Deaflympics website so family members back home could see it. It was a special place to be. It was the first time we got to be in a game situation as teenagers, so that was really special."

Kyte's Junior A team had a tumultous season. After changing its nickname from the Stallions to the Lasers, the team made several changes to its staff and roster while winning only 10 games. Kyte, who's settled into a summer of training for his overage season while balancing jobs at a Hockey Life story and at Kanata Golf & Country Club, sees it as a positive experience. Losing now leads to lessons later.

"The team was a bit rocky from the start, we didn't make the playoffs, but the guys and the experience of playing Junior A hockey was second to none," says Kyte, who previously played at Northwood School in Lake Placid, N.Y. "It was my very first year and I ended up, at the end of the year, with an [alternate captain's] 'A' on my chest. I also won the perseverance award and that's very hard to do when you're going to rink trying not to have the attitude of 'we're probably going to lose today'.

"Overall, Kanata, there's a lot of changes but I was one of the few players who stayed all throughout the season and it was a rewarding experience to see through, to the end. Hopefully next season goes a little bit better."

Kyte calls his former-NHLer uncle an "inspiration" and notes there could be more members of his family playing in international deaf hockey tournaments in years to come. The cutoff to play is a hearing loss of at least 55 decibels. Kyte says he "passed with flying colours." His 16-year-old cousin, Patrick Kyte, also a defenceman, was chosen in the 10th round of the OHL priority selection draft by the Sault Ste. Greyhounds and has hearing loss.

"He almost passed a test for a hearing aid," Johnny Kyte says. "Usually that plays out. He's a very skilled little player. That would be great, to have another Kyte on our team."

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.