Six years ago, Mike Brodeur was all smiles, on top of the world, during his ever so brief experience as an Ottawa Senators goaltending hero.

Today, he chokes up while talking about the fundraising campaign in his honour, after his losing his house to the fires in Fort McMurray.

“It’s unbelievable,” says Brodeur, temporarily living with his family at his parents’ home in Calgary after joining the “scary” mass evacuation out of town last week. “It restores your faith in humanity … and it brings a tear to our eyes. People are offering donations, places to stay.”

Brodeur, his wife Melissa, four-year-old son Beckam, and three-month-old daughter Ryan, have struggled to stay afloat financially since his career ended with Orlando of the ECHL in 2012, due to a series of injuries, including on-going concussion problems.

Just as he was gaining some traction with his summer goaltending school, those plans — like so many other things in Fort McMurray — went up in smoke.

“I guess if you fall down 13 times, you’ve got to pick yourself up 14 times,” he says. “You have to look at the bright side. We’re safe. A lot of really good people have helped us.”

Leading that charge is Heather Parker, a longtime fan and family friend from Greenville, S.C., where Brodeur began his nine-year, 14-team pro hockey odyssey in 2004.

When the fires burned through Brodeur’s Beacon Hill neighbourhood — the same district where current Senators defenceman Chris Phillips grew up — Parker started up a Facebook GoFundMe campaign, hoping to raise cash. As of Wednesday afternoon, the total was pushing $4,800. Parker has also sent messages to Brodeur’s former teams, asking for help in any way possible.

“He was always so helpful to us,” says Parker. “He opened up his home for us to visit, he always left us tickets where he was playing, he always reached out to help kids and families.

“If the roles were reversed, I know (the Brodeurs) would do the same thing for others in a heartbeat.”

Parker kept in touch with the Brodeur family throughout his career. When he received an emergency recall to the Senators from Binghamton of the American Hockey League during the 2009-10 season — he boasted a sparkling 3-0-0 record, 1.00 goals against average and .966 save percentage, including a memorable shutout of the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden — Parker’s parents managed to see him in action.

Now, Parker feels for the Brodeurs because there was so little time to gather belongings while trying to stay ahead of the flames.

“Everything happened so fast,” she says. “They thought they might only be gone for three or four days. Melissa only had time to run in and grab a suitcase for each of them. Their mementos are gone. The impact is huge. I’m just trying to reach out to as many of the guys he played with as I can.”

Like the rest of the population of 80,000, the Brodeurs are in limbo, unable to return — to whatever is left — for at least the next couple of weeks.

“The house is completely gone,” Brodeur says. “The only thing that survived is my truck. It’s still standing — friends have sent me pictures — with one side completely burned, but my skates and stick are in the back of the truck.”

Brodeur says he’s unsure what’s next, but he has given some idea to eventually bringing his pads and gloves to Ottawa, where he has some connections.

While he certainly enjoyed the chance to have a few cups of coffee in the NHL, he says a reality check arrived when the cheques from playing hockey stopped.

“This is real life and things come to a crashing halt,” he says. “People see that you played in the NHL, they expect you’re rich, but my life in the NHL was short-lived (he played in seven games over two seasons). I haven’t worked at anything but hockey since I was 18 or 19.”

The concussion kept him from doing anything — “I couldn’t even walk up stairs” — for two years. Depression wasn’t far away.

“Sometimes, I was thinking I can’t do this anymore. I’m so lucky to have a great wife and family or I would have run the other way.”

The loss of his home and the fires are the latest major setbacks, to be sure, but Brodeur can find the silver lining from the outpouring of help.

“All the support shows the kindness of people,” he says. “It makes you realize that I was playing hockey for a reason.

“I always tried to be good to people, to make people feel a part of it.”

What goes around comes around. It’s not the first time the Brodeurs have been involved in a major community effort following a natural disaster.

When severe flooding devastated Calgary in 2013, Melissa Brodeur loaded up a truck with donations from Fort McMurray residents and drove 800 km south to help those in need.

“Maybe,” Brodeur says, “it’s karma coming back.”

kwarren@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/Citizenkwarren