Anand Oberoi will grace the Australian Ice Hockey League again in 2026, signing once more with the Central Coast Rhinos.
The Canadian goaltender has become a permanent fixture in the AIHL the last couple of years, winning club awards, setting league records and becoming one of the stars of the league and Rhinos. Oberoi is the first player signed by the Rhinos for 2026 and announced in their October 2025 newsletter. This obviously demonstrates his importance to the team as they look to climb off the bottom of the AIHL table in 2026.
OHM sat down with Anand Oberoi to talk about his re-signing, the season ahead and his journey to get to this point in his hockey career.
Season Ahead and Goals
Oberoi is looking forward to the season ahead. Chiefly getting into the dressing room with the team and stepping onto the ice at Erina in front of the Rhinos faithful. He believes the Rhinos are building and maturing, with the right pieces in place at the team to perform well in 2026.
The ultimate goal is to win the Goodall Cup, but there is a sliding scale of objectives for the season ahead. Firstly, avoid the wooden spoon and secondly, qualify for Finals.
First I look forward to getting back in the room with the guys and being back on the ice in Erina in front of our incredible fans. The goal is the Goodall cup, that’s true for every team in the league however, I really want to help us reach [the] finals weekend and break out of our wooden spoon streak. We have all the pieces inside of the locker room, we just need to make them all fit.
Why the Central Coast Fits Oberoi Like a Glove
Anand has not only found a home with the Rhinos, he has fallen for Australia and the Central Coast. Being able to play hockey with a home, rink and beach within a hop, skip and a jump has Oberoi living his best life down under. Anand really enjoys the sense of a close knit community he has found on the Central Coast. When you feel apart of a community it becomes easy to keep coming back and harder to leave.
Everywhere I’ve visited or lived in Australia has been nothing short of beautiful however, the Central Coast has really stolen my heart. With the stunning beauty and all the beaches within a short distance of my house and the rink, it is an amazing place to live. On top of that, I really feel a strong sense of community on the coast, not only with the team, but with the locals, many of which I consider to be some of my best friends.
3 Seasons In and Counting
Whenever an import player returns for a third successive season, everyone starts thinking, does this player intend to stay and naturalise. Oberoi would love to stay and call Australia home, but needs to find a pathway to permanent residency. At the moment Anand is completing some required regional work in Queensland for an extension to his work holiday visa. So it remains to be seen if this will be his final season in the AIHL or if he will be here for the long term.
I am excited to be suiting up in the AIHL for a third straight season. I have had a great time competing in this amazing league and have fallen in love with the country. As much as I wish I could stay forever, it truly comes down to finding a path to permanent residency once I complete all of my work holiday visas. If it was up to me, I’d never leave Australia.
The Anand Oberoi Hockey Story
Like many hockey players, Oberoi has had a career full of highs and lows. From being drafted in the OHL, gaining a scholarship for the University of Ottawa and becoming the full time emergency backup tender for the Ottawa Senators, to being scratched, suffering injuries and losing time to COVID-19. But all this experience led Anand to Australia and the AIHL. It’s funny how life is full of swings and roundabouts and where it leads us to.
I grew up in Ottawa, Canada and more specifically a suburb named Kanata (10 minutes down the road from where the Senators play).
My hockey story is a bumpy ride with lots of ups and downs but one I wouldn’t change for the world. In my early years I always played at the top level until my U13 year when I got cut for the very first time. A difficult moment for little me but one that would teach me very important life lessons.
It wasn’t until my U16 year that I made it back to the top level and from there I was drafted #239 overall to the Erie Otters in the OHL. Things started to really look up with me playing Junior A for the Kanata Lazers the next season while being called up to the Otters for the Memorial Cup run that season. The next year I made the OHL full time and the year after that I found myself back in Junior A with no hopes of climbing back to Major Junior hockey as a 19 year old.
For the next 2 season I played for the Trenton Goldenhawks and we were one of the best Junior teams in Canada and that lead to me getting a scholarship from the University of Ottawa. My last year of juniors, my team was poised to cruise to a league championship when all of a sudden the world was shut down for COVID and my last season of junior hockey was taken away from me and my entire age group.
After a year off I started my university career, however COVID took away another season of hockey. My second season was a good year where I took over the net for the second half of the season and I became the full time emergency backup goalie for the Ottawa Senators. My third year of my university career got off to a terrible start, I started slow, lost the net and got scratched for the first time. I then got concussed which was about to end my season and ultimately my university and hockey career… before I discovered Australia.
Australia Bound
A chance meeting leads to new friends, new frontiers and a continued hockey career for Oberoi on the other side of the world.
6 months into my “retirement” I went to a goalie coaching clinic in Breckenridge, Colorado, where 2 notable coaches were also in attendance… Gabe Robledo and Sera Dogramaci. During this clinic Gabe and I may have snuck off and gotten on the piss and him and I became great friends over night.
Fast forward 3 months and all my friends were starting hockey up again and I missed it. The feeling of the rink and being around the boys and the camaraderie. That night I sent Gabe a message on Instagram asking if any teams in Australia needed a goalie and I woke up in the morning to an email from this guy named Ron Kuprowsky asking if I’d be interested in coming to play for this team he just started coaching. After doing absolutely zero research on the country, the league or the team I agreed to come play and started to work to get myself back into game shape with a plane ticket booked for 4 months away.
To get into match fitness, Anand joined the Arnprior Rivermen in the Eastern Ontario Super Hockey League. It proved a good testing ground as he faced 50+ shots a game, something he would soon become accustomed to with the Rhinos in his first AIHL season.
Rhinos First Two Seasons
While results have not gone the way that Anand and the Rhinos faithful would have wanted for his first two seasons, the trajectory has been upwards and improvements within the team have been noticeable. Oberoi for his part has been stellar between the pipes over this period, registering an almost .900 average save percentage in over 50 games, while also securing a shutout, something that is super rare in the AIHL.
On the ice in the AIHL, Oberoi has wowed Australian hockey fans with his athletic big time shot saving, endurance and high level of consistency. His record setting performance vs the Sydney Bears in 2024 always springs to mind. Anand’s statistics for the game are impressive, 79 shots faced, 75 saves with a save percentage of .949. But that is only half the story about that performance. For the complete story, our guest writer Alyssa Longmuir did a great in-depth write up at the time.
Off the ice, Oberoi loves giving back to the Central Coast hockey community and having fun with the game he loves. Regularly devoting time to coaching youngsters and participating in fun collab videos with the Central Coast Figure Skating Club. As a result, we have great content like this video from 2025 featuring Anand and Sarah Cullen:
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