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Braden Holtby’s tortoises are back in the United States: It was a ‘much shorter holdup at the border this time’

By Ian Oland

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September 23, 2021 5:09 pm

After a difficult season in Vancouver, Braden Holtby is looking for a fresh start with the Dallas Stars after signing a one-year deal with the club over the offseason.

Holtby is coming off a strange year that saw the goaltender face criticism for an insensitive mask design and his play in front of a hole-y Canucks defense. But the biggest drama of all came weeks before puck drop when Holtby’s tortoises, Honey and Maple, got stuck at the US/Canada border.

While meeting with the Stars press on Thursday, the Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender revealed that he had no such problems this year.

It was a “much shorter holdup at the border this time,” he said.

Um, excuse me, people, these are tortoises. Show a little respect here.

Last November, the two pets caused a separation between the Holtbys and Dad due to missing paperwork.

“No, we didn’t know we needed an export permit (we did do the import permit for the Canadian side),” Brandi Holtby wrote on her now-deleted Twitter page. “So now Braden is stuck at the border with two tortoises 🙈”

Two days later, Holtby was finally allowed to cross and basically, the entire Hockey Community rejoiced.

Upper Deck made hockey trading cards of Honey and Maple and Tim Hortons sent the family a gift basket with tortoise-designed donuts.

In other news, Holtby will be returning to the number 70 with the Stars after spending a season rocking 49, which never quite looked right.

If you’re interested in rocking a Stars’ Holtby jersey, you can customize one here from the NHL Store.

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