Charles Auguste Fortier was a Canadian hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 left wing who signed a contract with the Montreal Canadiens

Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...

 of the National Hockey League

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 during the training camp prior to the 1923-24 season

1923-24 NHL season

The 1923–24 NHL season was the seventh season of the National Hockey League. Four teams each played 24 games. The league champions were the Montreal Canadiens, who defeated the first-place Ottawa Senators in the league playoff...

 but then opted to remain an amateur, and thus never played in the NHL.

Playing career

Fortier played in the Lower Ottawa Valley Hockey Association, the Ottawa City Hockey League

Ottawa City Hockey League

The Ottawa City Hockey League was an amateur ice hockey league with junior, intermediate and senior level men's teams in Ottawa, Canada dating from 1890. It is considered the second ice hockey league to form in Canada. The senior league operated until 1945 and the junior league operated until 1957...

 (at the senior level) and the Hull-Ottawa Senior Hockey League.

Prior to the 1923-24 season, he participated in the Montreal Canadiens training camp in Grimsby

Grimsby, Ontario

Grimsby is a town on Lake Ontario in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. Grimsby is a part of the Hamilton Census Metropolitan Area. The majority of residents reside in the area bounded by Lake Ontario and the Niagara escarpment...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, where he was one of three rookies (the others were Howie Morenz

Howie Morenz

Howard William Morenz was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He played centre for three National Hockey League teams: the Montreal Canadiens , the Chicago Black Hawks, and the New York Rangers...

 and Sylvio Mantha

Sylvio Mantha

Sylvio Mantha was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who played fourteen seasons in the National Hockey League for the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins.-Playing career:...

) who signed a contract for the upcoming season. However, just prior to the beginning of the season, which took place in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 against the St. Patricks

Toronto St. Patricks

The Toronto St. Patricks professional men's ice hockey team started as an amateur ice hockey organization. In 1919, the club purchased the Toronto National Hockey League franchise from the NHL. The club renamed the franchise the Toronto St. Patricks club and operated the franchise until 1927, when...

 on December 15, he changed his mind and returned to Ottawa.

For unknown reasons, Fortier was long believed to have played that first game of the season in Toronto, leading to his being credited with having played one NHL game in his career. However, research done in the late 1990s showed that Fortier had not played that game. The 1998-99 edition of the NHL Official Guide & Record Book

NHL Official Guide & Record Book

The NHL Official Guide & Record Book is the complete statistical record of the National Hockey League, published annually by the league. It contains detailed year-by-year data on 2,000 active players, all-time records, club rosters, NHL Entry Draft information, along with player and goaltender data...

 was the last to list him as a former NHL player, whereas his name was removed from the Montreal Canadiens' media guides

Media guide

A media guide is a sports-related press kit, distributed as a book or binder, and published by American sporting teams before the start of the sporting season. It features information relating to the team players, history, statistical records and other similar items...

following the 2008-09 season.