Beyond the Ice: Transitioning out of Hockey

Life after hockey: it’s something that many hockey professionals don’t want to think about. But the reality is, a career playing hockey is much shorter than the usual ‘normal’ career a person might have. A player will have many years ahead of him post-career, and often a second career will be a logical next step. 

So how does a player prepare, personally and financially, for life beyond the ice? We pose this question to Kent Manderville, Director of the IP Hockey Family Office—the branch of IP Private Wealth dedicated to wealth management for hockey professionals. Kent’s 16 year NHL hockey career, paired with his designation as a Certified Financial Planner, gives him great insight into the career transition discussion.

If you’d like to listen to the entire interview, head to the IP360° podcast.

IP360°: We’ve talked before about the fact that a player starts hockey at a very young age, and it’s not a 60 year career. What are some of the pros and cons about that early-life career experience?

Kent: It’s different for everybody. Because different guys have different interests, after hockey they want to pursue their passions, and they have different financial realities. And so a player’s transition and trajectory could be very different.

For me personally, life after hockey meant pursuing the educational side of life. This was an easy decision for me, as was going to an Ivy League school–I went to Cornell University where I was a finance major. But even having said that, they don’t teach you financial planning nor wealth management. So when I played hockey, I did a lot of reading my own research, and asked a lot of questions. It was a continuous process, to distill what I wanted to do after hockey.

It was a painful process too, because we don’t have that structure that says, “Okay, these are the steps you need to do”. It took some time for me to decide what I wanted to do. Usually, a mid-career guy player starts thinking about transitioning, but before then you’re just trying to get to the NHL, or trying to stay in the NHL.

IP360°: After spending so many years focused on hockey, how do you figure out what you want to do after?

Kent: Yeah, that’s a good question. Sometimes your interests aren’t exactly something that you can base a career on. So I think, during the offseason, during downtime, it’s good to reach out to people. Ask those questions, and really see turned turn your mind to it. Think, “What would it be like if I did x?” And, and obviously having a support network, whether it’s family or friends, is key and critical as well.

IP360°: Is there a commonality in the transition process for hockey players?

Kent: Well, I think I think the similarity for everybody is that sense of purposelessness, and saying, “Okay, how do I get structure back into my life?” But the difference is about your support network. Did you go to school? Do you have a university degree? What are your interests? How realistic are your expectations? Do you just want to stay in hockey? Do you want to go into broadcasting? Some guys stay in the game and do player development, and get into coaching. Others completely turn away from hockey and reinvent themselves. I think it really depends on the individual: what they need, what they want, and their family circumstances as well. It really needs to be customized to the individual and be treated as a continuous dialogue. 

IP360°: Is there anything in place within the league that that helps with transition? 

Kent: I think in the past, it’s been a little bit of the wild, wild west; I think the NHL alumni and the NHLPA is doing a better job on doing that. That’s part of the IP Hockey Family Office does, too: we facilitate those conversations, informed by my own experience–not that my experience is the only reality. But we can really tap the resources available to the players, and make them aware of what’s out there. And it’s true when you’ve been there. My path isn’t going to be the same as their path, but having an understanding advisor who says, “I know where you are; you will get through this,” I think is really beneficial.

IP360°: Do players often turn to some of the more senior guys on the team and look for advice? And is that a double edged sword?

Kent: That’s a good point. I think naturally, there’s a lot of downtime, and when you’re on the bus or the plane, when you go out to eat, you’re at the restaurant together. So I do think the older guys become mentors in a lot of ways to the younger players. I think that’s beneficial, and I would say generally speaking at the NHL level, the older guys have got it together. 

And as far as providing good advice, I don’t think I can think of any example where an older player was leading a younger player astray. Having said that, some of the older players maybe haven’t done their due diligence, and haven’t asked those hard questions of their advisors; so they may not have clarity on their own situation. And a lot of things that go wrong, they may only realize after the fact: after they’re retired, they go, “Whoa, I’m not in such a good financial shape as I thought I was.” That’s when we find that the advice they’ve been providing advice to the younger players maybe isn’t the best advice.

IP360°: We hear a lot about retired players starting things like a a franchise or other entertainment-related opportunities. Does the Hockey Family Office team talk players through making the right investment decisions?

Kent: We do see more players getting pitched on business ideas, and there are questions we would ask. And a lot of the opportunities are really not good: the only true beneficiary of the business arrangement is the person proposing it, not the player. And usually, the player is so busy that they will provide the money for the project, but there’s no oversight, no reporting, and no benchmarking. It becomes a bit of a fiasco. 

When the player is playing, maybe they can afford the risk and they don’t think much about it. But losing $50,000…$100,000….$700,000…it’s easy to paper it over when they’re playing, and they can absorb it. But in hindsight, they’ll realize that was a real tough one to absorb. Sometimes the best actions are those not taken; and that’s where we can provide advice and perspective that saves the players from those mistakes.

IP360°: How does a player balance out the need to focus on what’s happening right now in his career, with what’s going to happen later?

Kent: Well, quite frankly, that’s our job at the Hockey Family Office, and we do it very well, because we give that perspective. We provide counsel and guidance, and ask the right questions. It’s on us to have those discussions with the player–and every player’s reality is different. It’s up to our team to be able to customize and tailor a program to that specific player’s interest. Everybody has different strengths and the challenge is to understand those strengths. We help them on the financial side with that trusted advisor relationship, and help them get to the other side of their the transition, as well.

IP360°:  Can you share some examples of interesting post-hockey transitions that you’ve seen? 

Kent: Some guys stay in the industry, whether they’re coaching or getting into management as a general manager, or even at the grassroots level of player development or skills coach. It’s funny: when I started playing professionally, I was on the Toronto Maple Leafs, and they sent a bunch of us down to the minors during the playoffs. So we got sent down to the American Hockey League in St. John’s, and the coach down there was Mark Crawford, who was just coming on as a new coach. Younger guy, super passionate, and he went on to win a Stanley Cup with Colorado as a coach there. 

Then you have some guys who get into broadcasting; a former teammate of mine, Brian Boucher, does a great job with NBC. You get Jeff O’Neill, who is a teammate of mine: Carolina and Hartford. He’s done well with TSN, and he’s funny as ever. You see Gary Roberts, who took his passion for fitness when he played and had great career longevity, and retired twice–that’s a whole other story in and of itself. But now he trains some of the top players in the NHL: Steven Stamkos, and others. Gary’s created a business that way.

There’s others like Ken Baumgartner, who got his CFA and works with an institutional money manager down in the US. There’s other guys who have gone completely outside of hockey. It goes back to the person’s individual tastes, their realities, their family, support networks, finances; there are a lot of different options for them, and the players just need to understand the  options and be able to make those informed decisions.

And of course, that’s where the IP Hockey Family Office come in.

If you’d like to reach out to Kent and his team , visit the website. You can also read more about IP Private Wealth and the IP360° philosophy to wealth management.