Work hard, play hard: a familiar phrase, but when we’re talking about hockey players, the play is the work. So how does a player keep himself healthy and balanced during a high-octane career?
Kent Manderville, former NHL player with 16 years and over 700 games in his career, answers this important question. As Director of the IP Hockey Family Office, he has devoted his time to working with hockey professionals as they manage their careers and lifelong wealth. Here’s the interview; and remember, you can listen to the entire interview on the IP360° podcast.
IP360°: How intense is a hockey career, above and beyond the game?
Kent: That’s something that I don’t think a lot of people outside the industry really appreciate. I remember some people in the past looking at our schedule, and they’d say, “You guys played 14 games this month, what do you do with all your downtime?” That’s not really accounting for the travel, the practice, the training…and it’s very intense. You have to perform, not only on a personal level, but also on a team level—and you’re performing in front of a lot of people. Quite frankly, your job is at stake, contracts are at stake, and your team success is at stake. It’s a lot of pressure.
It took me a while to learn as a young player that the real key is that you need to decompress and find a way to relax. Because when you’re on and you have that pressure, you want to have enough energy and focused mental power available for you to perform.
IP360°: How does a hockey professional balance out the intensity of game time, and the season against downtime?
A lot of guys do different things. For me, it was reading. It was even going to a movie, or working out where you’re just actually stretching. And it’s really about turning your mind off, giving your body and mind a break. On a day to day basis, you could do those things; and on a practice day, for example, you’d grab a bite to eat–maybe with your teammates, or with your wife. You really need to make sure you relax, because you can’t be on all the time. So those off days, you take advantage of them. Whatever you do to relax, you need to do that. There’s a lot of players with really high physical talent; but I think what really separates long-term players in the NHL is really their mental abilities, and being able to persevere through slumps.
What is IP Hockey Family Office?
IP Hockey Family Office is a team of wealth advisors that operates as a round-table board of advisors for hockey professionals. We help hockey players plan for their future through our 360° approach. Our team is lead by Kent Manderville, former NHL player and Certified Financial Planner. Learn more about the IP Hockey Family Office.
IP360°: When you’re off the ice, do you need more of a mental break or a physical break?
Kent: I think I think it’s a bit of both.
The difference when you’re pro, (whether it’s in the NHL, the American Hockey League, or whatever), is that it’s continuous. It’s, “Game day; off; game day; off.” It has a flow. And you so it’s really about giving yourself permission to rest. But I think physically and mentally, your body just demands rest and you have to adapt.
IP360°: We have talked before about the intensity of a hockey professional’s schedule: your meal times, practice time, even your nap time is scheduled for you. When you hit the offseason, do you get to loosen up?
Kent: Well, this is where things have changed. When I played, a lot of guys took several months off from the ice; they’d be training in the gym, but they would not be on the ice until August, maybe even mid August. So I actually took advantage of that. In the summers, especially when I first turned pro, I went back to Cornell in the summers and I took classes. I was still training and still moving forward, but I was doing other things in the summer. My girlfriend and –she’s now my wife–went to Turkey, and another summer we went to Italy. It’s about taking that downtime, and making sure you have full use of it.
But I think right now, it’s getting to the point where you’re on the ice almost 11 months out of the year. And that makes it more necessary to have those downtimes.
IP360°: That sounds like there’s a lot of pressure to always be thinking about hockey and that could really overlap into your family life.
Kent: You’re right, it’s not just about the physical game of hockey. It’s about the whole experience of teamwork and contracts and an entire complicated career. That was one thing we saw when the guys were when the NHL was in the bubble during the pandemic. A common refrain from the players was they just couldn’t get away from the game of hockey; you’re basically trapped, you’re in the hotel, you’re going to the rink…everywhere you turned, you had hockey. When you’re home under normal circumstances, there’s escapes that you can take advantage of. And with those escapes, they give you some mental and physical energy as well.
IP360°: Does the pace and pressure of the season affect a player’s relationships?
Kent: It’s interesting because people see the glamour, the chartered flights, nice hotels, nice restaurants, and that’s great. But having a partner, a spouse that’s supportive, is so key and critical; and that’s one area where it becomes a challenge and a stress point. That’s why, when you get into the transition of retirement, you no longer have that sweet life of traveling and restaurants and hotels, and your home all the time, you have to find that new routine. And sometimes that causes friction.
I think every player, when they leave the game faces these challenges; some do better than others. But it’s the reality of the situation. So I think it’s key to have that family support. Having that support–and it goes both ways–is really key and critical for success.
IP360°: When a hockey player is injured and off the ice, does that bring on certain challenges?
Kent: Yeah, quite frankly, it’s the worst position to be in as a player. Generally, the tendency is that the team really doesn’t want you around too much either. You almost become a bit of a distraction. Different teams have different philosophies, but when I was playing, you’d go in and get treatment either before or after the guys got in, and then when the guys were coming, you’d go off and you do a workout–depending on the injury, obviously. And when the team is on the road, obviously, they’re not around, so you stay at home, and you’re still doing your training. So in a lot of ways, it’s very isolating, and it’s definitely a grind mentally. And the honest truth is, you know other guys could take your job while you’re away: the team could go on a winning streak, and hey, “Maybe we don’t need this guy, maybe we can trade him away and get a different different position,” or whatever. So yeah, there’s always a stress there.
IP360°: During an injury or forced downtime, is that when a player may start to think about life after hockey?
Kent: Yeah, well, I think I think it depends on where the player is in their career. As you go through your career, you probably have a family, kids. You start thinking about what you need to do to provide or at least protect what you’ve made. As you get older, you start thinking, “Okay, what’s the next step? Retirement is a reality; I’m going to have to face it sometime. What do I need to do?”
IP360°: When we think about players on their off-time, I think we all picture them doing the same thing: playing golf. Is that the standard hobby?
Kent: Well, golf is obviously a big one. I know, in the summer, we’d have the NFLPA summer meetings, and a lot of the European guys would actually play tennis. I think it’s good just to be active and do something. But I would say golf and tennis would be the primary ones, because you also don’t want to get injured.
The great thing about being on a hockey team is you’ve got, say, 20 to 25 individuals, and guys like doing different things. You’d have these groups of guys with similar interests. And you know, I played with a lot of guys that had interests outside the game. I remember Martin Jelena. When I was playing in Carolina, he actually had a business–a siding business, still going in Calgary. And so it was really cool sitting next to him on the airplane, because he’d have invoices, and he was basically managing the business from afar. Another former teammate from World juniors bought a Tim Hortons. You see these interests and after their careers are over, they go in all these different directions. I think that’s the really cool part to see.
If you’d like to reach out to Kent and his team, visit the IP Hockey Family Office site. You can also read about IP Private Wealth for more information on the IP360°° philosophy to wealth management.
