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Monthly Archives: August 2013

NHLers wait – and hope – for spots on U.S. Olympic ice hockey team

27 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Barclays Center, Brooklyn, Chicago Blackhawks, Dustin Byfuglien, New York Islanders, Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel, Seth Jones, Toronto Maple Leafs

New York Islanders forward Kyle Okposo spends a lot of time these days  waiting- and it never felt so good for the Minnesota native.

Okposo and his wife are expecting the birth of their first child in January. He’s waiting for the Islanders 2015 move from Long Island to suddenly hip downtown Brooklyn and the Barclays Center And he’s waiting to learn whether he’ll make the cut and play for the United States men’s hockey team at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in February.

Kyle Okposo awaits birth of first child and berth on U.S. Olympic hockey team.

Kyle Okposo awaits birth of first child and berth on U.S. Olympic hockey team.

Okposo was all smiles Monday as he joined 47 other professional hockey players who were invited to attend USA Hockey’s two-day pre-Olympics orientation camp at the Washington Capitals’ practice facility in Arlington, Va.

“It would be awesome, pretty special to represent my country,” Okposo said. “I’ve represented my country at a lot of different events, but never the Olympics. It was definitely nice to be invited to this camp.”

While he’s waiting for good things, Okposo admits that – to borrow a line from a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song – the waiting is the hardest part when it comes to whether or not he’ll be selected for Sochi.

The final decision on the team won’t be made until the weeks before the Olympics. The U.S. national team, piloted by Pittsburgh Penguins Head Coach Dan Bylsma, will pick talent based on how the invitees to this week camp perform for their NHL or minor league teams in the opening months of the season.

“This is going to be in the back of your mind, the Olympics,” Okposo said. “That being said, what’s going to dictate you being on the team is how you play on the ice for your NHL team. So that has to be your first and foremost thought. You have to play well and do everything for your own team in order to make this one.”

Okposo hopes he’ll have a better start to the upcoming season that he did during the labor dispute-shortened, 48-game, 2012-13 season. Last season, the right wing only registered only 4 goals and 20 assists.

But he turned things around in the second half on the season. He scored three goals and one assists in six games in the Stanley Cup playoffs opening round against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Islanders lost the series.

His numbers pale compared to those of Chicago Blackhawks right wing Patrick Kane, Toronto Maple Leafs forwards James van Reimsdyk and Phil Kessel, and other players invited to the pre-Olympics camp. But he has intangibles that the U.S. national team covets.

Okposo has experience playing on larger ice surfaces like the one in Sochi. Most rinks international rinks are 200-by-100 feet, which increases the importance of skating ability. NHL rinks are 200-by-85 feet. Okposo spent his college career playing on the University of Minnesota’s international-size ice surface.

Both the U.S. and Canada are so concerned about the larger ice surface, which they believe contributed to poor Olympic performances off North American soil, that Canada Head Coach Mike Babcock of the Detroit Red Wings held ball hockey walkthroughs with his prospective players in Calgary Monday in an arena with a melted international-sized rink surface.

“Skating is magnified more so on the Olympic sheet. To have a team that can move is definitely going to be a factor,” Okposo said. “All the guys in the NHL are going to have an adjustment the first time they get on (international-sized) ice.”

Defenseman Seth Jones, who the Nashville Predators selected with the fourth pick in June’s NHL draft, has experience on the big rink from playing on the U.S. junior national team that won the gold medal at the 2013 World Championship last December in Ufa, Russia.

Though he’s yet to play a minute in the NHL, Jones said he’s setting his sights on Sochi.

Seth Jones hopes to make the Nashville Predators - then the Olympic team.

Seth Jones hopes to make the Nashville Predators – then the Olympic team.

“It feels unbelievable to be invited here with all these great players and being thought of in the same category with some of these guys,” Jones said. “Obviously there are a lot of great defenseman here and they’re very deep, but we’ll see. I’ve got to make Nashville first, and I’ll have to have a pretty good start to the year to make it. But that’s definitely my goal.”

Brian Burke, the U.S. national team’s director of player personnel and former general manager of the Maple Leafs, said it’s not beyond the realm of possibility for  Jones to wear the U.S. red, white and blue come February.

“It might be a steep hill for Seth, but he’s always exceeded expectations to this point and I can see him doing it again very easily,” Burke said.

Jones, a Plano, Texas, native said he has to factor in earning an Olympics slot while adjusting to the NHL and its grueling 82-game season. He estimated that he logged 94 or 95 games during the 2012-13 season playing major juniors for the Canadian Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks, playing in Russia with the U.S. junior national team, and playing for Portland in the Memorial Cup final.

He said he “didn’t do anything for two weeks or three weeks, maybe,” after the Winterhawks lost to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Halifax Mooseheads in the final.

“It definitely felt like a 12-year – er, 12-month season this year. It’s definitely a big step, but I think I’m capable of making it this year.”

Winnipeg's Dustin Byfuglien wants trifecta: Stanley Cup, All-Star berth, Olympic Gold Medal.

Winnipeg’s Dustin Byfuglien wants trifecta: Stanley Cup, All-Star berth, Olympic Gold Medal.

One of Jones’ competitors for a defense spot on Team USA is Dustin Byfuglien of the Winnipeg Jets. For him, making the U.S. team and winning a Gold Medal would be a trifecta. He’s already been named an NHL All-Star and won a Stanley Cup in the 2009-10 season with the Blackhawks.

Byfuglien – a massive man with a massive slap shot, nimble skating ability, and the skill to play either defense or left wing – beamed when asked about the possibility of playing for the U.S. hockey team.

“It would mean a lot to me and my family just to get the opportunity to go over there and be part of the Olympics,” Byfuglien, a Minnesota native. “This is a fun thing to be part of. Any time you can put on a U.S. jersey and represent your country it means a lot.

Burke called Byfuglien a potential game-changing force on the ice.

“He can play forward, he can play defense, he’s got a cannon for a shot,” Burke told me. “On the big ice, is he the answer? I don’t know that depends on how he plays and on the coaches. But the one thing he can do is change the game.”

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T.R. Goodman brings the pain – and gain

21 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Anaheim Ducks, Chris Chelios, Emerson Etem, Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh Penguins., Rick Tocchet

Good coaches help make great hockey players. T.R. Goodman builds great hockey players.

For more than two decades, Goodman has been the go-to summer trainer for some of the National Hockey League’s biggest stars. Players such as 2013 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee defenseman Chris Chelios,  Hall of Fame forward Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins, former Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Rob Blake, and former All-Star forwards Rick Tocchet and Jeremy Roenick routinely made the post-season pilgrimage to Venice Beach, California, for weeks of physical recouperation and insanely intense low-impact workouts under Goodman – a regimen that several credited with prolonging their careers.

Trainer T.R. Goodman putting former NHLer Jeremy Roenick through his paces.

Trainer T.R. Goodman putting former NHLer Jeremy Roenick through his paces.

“When I first started, at first I thought my goal was to make guys bigger, faster, stronger,” Goodman told me recently. “What I found was that was a great thing and I was able to do that, but if guys got injured during the year it didn’t make a difference if they were bigger, faster stronger. Then I changed my goal to make sure guys didn’t get hurt.  My main core nucleus of guys, not one of them retired before they were 40 years old…if you don’t get injured, you have longevity.”

The 2013 summer class at Goodman’s Pro Camp Sports included Anaheim Ducks right wing Emerson Etem and Brett Beebe, a right wing from Western Michigan University who signed a contract to play this season for the ECHL’s Ontario Reign, a Los Angeles Kings farm club. Both Etem and Beebe are among the growing number of professional hockey players who are born, raised, and began playing the game in the Golden State.

Etem’s desire and dedication to train with Goodman has already become legend. The two have worked together since Etem was barely 14 and too young to drive. So to get from his Long Beach home to Goodman’s Venice Beach gym, Etem would wake up at 6 a.m., rollerblade to a nearby train station, hop a train, transfer to a bus, then put back on his rollerblades and skate the last mile of the 2 1/2-hour journey to the gym. Then he would work out.

“It was a humbling experience to go there and train with old vets who have been in the league for so long and you can learn so much from,” Etem told ESPN in 2010. “I did it Monday-Saturday in the summertime and it made me the player I am today.”

Etem’s effort to get to Goodman’s gym may be why the 52-year-old Connecticut native considers the 21-year-old California kid one of his all-time favorite clients.

Etem, the 29th overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft, scored 3 goals and 7 assists in 38 games for the Ducks last season. He registered 3 goals and 2 asists in seven playoff games for Anaheim. In 2011-12, he scored 61 goals and 46 assists in 65 games for the Medicine Hat Tigers, a major junior team in the Western Hockey League. Goodman believes Etem is on the cusp of stardom.

“I think Emerson is going to be a real superstar in the game,”  said Goodman, who once made The Hockey News’ list of 100 People of Power and Influence. “It’s been really rejuvenating for me to be able to work with him. He still has a lot of humility, he has a good work ethic. He’s kind of like my little brother now. I helped Emerson come up as if he were my own son or little brother. Everything that I’ve had him to do, if I had my own son, I would ask my own son to do.”

Goodman predicts big things for Ducks' Emerson Etem in 2013-14.

Goodman predicts big things for Ducks’ Emerson Etem in 2013-14.

What Goodman asks Etem and other clients to do is endure a rigorous three-phase workout program that begins after the NHL season ends and ends before training camp starts in September.  The phases focus on repairing the physical trauma and injuries incurred during the long hockey season, strenthening core muscles, and concentrating on muscular growth and endurance.

“In Mario Lemieux’s case, Mario is so tall and so long that his back problems came because of problems he had in his hip core muscles. That started to make certain other muscles over-compensate for the weakness he had in his hip core,” Goodman said. “So the first thing we do is we get rid of all that crap that’s accumulated in their body. Then we kind of rebuild it. Then we improve their muscular endurance, increase their strength. Then we do the high-intensity, high performance, but low impact, training. I don’t feel the body needs to get beat up in the summer: it needs to get refreshed, rejuvenated and rebuilt.”

That’s done through a series of low-impact exercises repeatedly performed at a non-stop pace for 60 minutes. Even for the best-conditioned athlete, Goodman’s workout can be a vomit-inducing, knee-wobbling, muscle-burning experience. But the outcome is a strong, well-defined but flexible body able to withstand the rigors of an 82-game NHL season and the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Goodman and a sweat-drenched Chris Chelios take a workout break.

Goodman and a sweat-drenched Chris Chelios take a workout break.

Goodman once had NHL aspirations himself. He was a team captain for the Trinity College Bantams hockey team in the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons. He scored 35 goals and a career-high 60 assists in 1982-83 for the small Hartford, Conn., college – good numbers but not good enough to draw attention from NHL teams.

“At that time there weren’t really any Americans in the NHL,” Goodman said. “It was kind of like a taboo thing to think that an American player could make it in the NHL.”

And being African-American, “I had like two strikes against me,” Goodman added with chuckle. By the 1982-83 season, only one U.S.-born black player had reached the NHL – puglistic left wing Val James of the Buffalo Sabres.  In all, six black players had logged time with NHL teams by the time Goodman completed college: forward Willie O’Ree of the Boston Bruins, left wing Mike Marson and right wing Bill Riley of the Washington Capitals, right wing Ray Neufeld of the Hartford Whalers,  Tony McKegney of the Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo’s James. Quebec Nordiques right wing Bernie Saunders, brother of ESPN broadcaster John Saunders, and Los Angeles Sharks wing/center Alton White, played in the rival World Hockey Association during that time.

So Goodman took his degree in economics and hockey gear and headed West.

“After college, I didn’t skate for 10 years,” he told me. “I came out here and I wanted to test the workouts I was doing, I wanted to feel how it would affect the skating and playing. So I came back and played in some of the recreational leagues out here for a while.”

Goodman got his first workout client in 1992: Washington Capitals left Wing Alan May.

“If you weren’t doing what he asked, he’d pick you up and throw you out of the gym because he didn’t want to just go through the motions,” May, now a Capitals broadcast anaylst, told NHL.com’s Impact! online magazine. “He’s 24 hours a day and all he thinks about is what he does and how to make you better. He looks at you and figures out how he can fix you. It’s just amazing.”

Word of Goodman’s handiwork hit the NHL player grapevine and more players signed up to be tortured – er, trained –  by him.

“Rick Tocchet probably the largest quantity of guys…he was an influential leader-type guy,” he said. “He had guys from the Flyers come, from t he Kings to come, from the Phoenix Coyotes to come, that’s how J.R. came and (current Montreal Canadiens forward) Danny Briere.”

During the NHL season, Goodman finds himself glued to the television monitoring how his clients are doing and studying whether they are keeping up with their exercise regimen.

“It’s like I have a sports bar in my house, I had two TV’s here, always watching games,” he said. “A lot of times I could tell if (clients) were or weren’t doing what they were supposed to be doing during the season by how their bodies would move when they were skating. Yeah, I pay attention to what’s going on.”

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Pre-Olympics camps highlight NHL’s diversity

18 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Carey Price, Chicago Blackhawks, First Nations, Hockey Canada, NHL, Ojibwe, Olympics, P.K. Subban, Patrick Kane, Sochi, T.J. Oshie, USA Hockey

When Team USA and Team Canada prospects gather for pre-Olympics orientation camps next week, some of the National Hockey League’s best players of color and Native heritage will be in the mix to represent their countries in Sochi, Russia in February 2014.

Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien.
Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien.

Three players of color were among the 48 invitees to the U.S. camp: Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien, from Roseau. Minn.; New York Islanders forward Kyle Okposo, a St. Paul, Minn., native; and Nashville Predators rookie defenseman Seth Jones, born in Plano, Texas. USA Hockey will hold its orientation camp Aug. 26-27 at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, Va., the practice facility for the Washington Capitals.

Two players of Native heritage players received camp invites. St. Louis Blues forward T.J. Oshie, who is part Ojibwe (Chippewa), will join the U.S. invitees at the Kettler facility. Montreal Canadiens star goaltender Carey Price, whose mother is a former chief of the Ulkatcho First Nations, will attend Team Canada’s orientation camp.

Blues' T.J. Oshie hopes to be in Sochi in February.

Blues’ T.J. Oshie hopes to be in Sochi in February.

The U.S. camp boasts an offensively potent roster that mixes youth, talent, and international experience with forwards Oshie, Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks, and Paul Statsny of the Colorado Avalanche. The defensive corps has size and nastiness with the likes of Byfuglien, Jack Johnson of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Keith Yandle of the Phoenix Coyotes.

Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban headlines a deep  47-player Team Canada orientation camp roster that includes Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby, Tampa Bay Lightning sniper Steven Stamkos, Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Sharp and the Brothers Staal: forwards Eric and Jordan of the Carolina Hurricanes and defenseman Marc of the New York Rangers. Team Canada will hold its camp August 25-28 in Calgary.

Montreal's P.K. Subban

Montreal’s P.K. Subban

Among the other international teams participating in the Winter Games, Team Sweden invited Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Johnny Oduya to its camp.

With teams able to pick from the best hockey players in the world, some highly-talented NHL skaters didn’t receive camp invites. Notably absent for Team Canada were Winnipeg Jets high-scoring forward Evander Kane and Nazem Kadri, the Toronto Maple Leafs forward who had a breakout year last season that helped the Leafs end a long playoff appearance drought.The start of the camps begins the biggest mystery for both teams: who will be the goalies going to Sochi?  Team USA invited six netminders: Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings, Cory Schneider of the New Jersey Devils, Jimmy Howard of the Detroit Red Wings, Craig Anderson of the Ottawa Senators and the Buffalo Sabres’ Ryan Miller, who backstopped the U.S. team to a Silver Medal at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.But the most intriguing competitor for one of the Team USA three goaltender slots is John Gibson, the 20-year-old Anaheim Ducks draftee who played last season for the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League.

Seth Jones (Photo: USA Hockey).

Seth Jones (Photo: USA Hockey).

Johnny Oduya hopes to represent Sweden in Sochi.

Johnny Oduya hopes to represent Sweden in Sochi.

Gibson supplanted Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship in Helsinki and Stockholm last May and guided the U.S. team to a Bronze Medal. He has a solid international pedigree, having guided U.S. under-20 teams to Gold Medals at the IIHF Junior World Championships in 2013 and 2011.

Montreal's Carey Price vies in a crowded net for Olympic spot.

Montreal’s Carey Price vies in a crowded net for Olympic spot.

Canada also must untangle its net. Hockey Canada’s brain trust will have to choose from the Chicago Blackhawks’ Corey Crawford, Braden Holtby of the Washington Capitals, Montreal’s Price, Mike Smith of the Phoenix Coyotes, and Vancouver Canucks’ Roberto Luongo, who was the winning goaltender in the Gold Medal game against the United States at the Vancouver Games.

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Oduya day with the Cup

14 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Johnny Oduya, Marcus Kruger, Nashville Predators, Stanley Cup, Stockholm, Sweden, Viktor Stalberg

The Stanley Cup Summer Victory Tour landed in Stockholm, Sweden recently, where Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Johnny Oduya,  center Marcus Kruger and left wing Viktor Stalberg  (now with the Nashville Predators) showed off the oldest trophy competed for in North America to family, friends, and fellow countrymen of the hockey-crazed nation.

Johnny Oduya, Viktor Stalberg and Marcus Kruger pose with their hard-earned prize in Stockholm. (Photo via Phil Pritchard, Hockey Hall of Fame.)

Johnny Oduya, Viktor Stalberg and Marcus Kruger pose with their hard-earned prize in Stockholm. (Photo via Phil Pritchard, Hockey Hall of Fame.)

Rather than follow in the footsteps of other players who’ve water-skied with the Cup or allowed their pets or children to eat out of the iconic trophy, Oduya had it as the guest of honor at a dignified, formal sit-down affair with a group of life-long friends and hockey buddies.

Chicago Blackhawks' Johnny Oduya and friends got gussied up for their moment with the  Stanley Cup in Sweden. (Photo via Phil Pritchard, Hockey Hall of Fame.)

Chicago Blackhawks’ Johnny Oduya and friends got gussied up for their moment with the Stanley Cup in Sweden. (Photo via Phil Pritchard, Hockey Hall of Fame.)

Oduya shares a bus ride with Lord Stanley in Sweden. (Phil Pritchard, HHOF).

Oduya shares a bus ride with Lord Stanley in Sweden. (Phil Pritchard, HHOF).

Kruger, meanwhile, had a party with the Cup at The Soap Bar in Stockholm and Oduya stopped by for the festivities. Stalberg, a free agent signed by the Predators, took Lord Stanley on a first-ever visit to Gothenburg, Sweden.

Oduya was traded to the Blackhawks from the Winnipeg Jets during the 2011-12 season for a second and a third round pick in the 2013 NHL draft.

The trade paid dividends for Chicago last season as Oduya registered six goals and 14 assists and was a steady plus-12 in 48 regular season games. He notched 3 goals and five assists and was a plus-12 in 23 playoff games.

He scored a goal in the third period of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins that sent the match to overtime. The Blackhawks eventually won that game 4-3 in a triple-overtime thriller.

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Black sports agents scoring in NHL

06 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins, Boston College, Chicago Blackhawks, Finland, Kevin Weekes, Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues, Sweden, T.J. Oshie, Tuuka Rask, University of Miami of Ohio, Wayne Simmonds

Hockey has taken Eustace King from bucolic Evanston, Ill., to the bright lights of Los Angeles and from between the pipes to the thick of the business end of the game. It’s taken Brett Peterson on a full-circle journey from Boston and back.

Their separate trips have made King, a former Miami University of Ohio goaltender, and Peterson, a former standout defenseman at Boston College, the rarest of a rare breed: African-American sports agents who represent professional hockey players.

As a managing partner for O2K Worldwide Management Group, King is an agent of change of sorts. He represents several of the growing number of players of color who are gradually changing the face of the National Hockey League.

Peterson, the Boston-based director of hockey operations for Acme World Sports, has a client list that includes Tuukka Rask, the superstar Finnish goaltender for the Boston Bruins, and Alex Broadhurst, the talented young center for the Chicago Blackhawks.

King’s clients include Philadelphia Flyers right wing Wayne Simmonds; St. Louis Blues right wing Chris Stewart and his free agent brother, right wing Anthony Stewart; Anaheim Ducks right wings Emerson Etem and Devante Smith-Pelly; and San Jose Sharks left wing Raffi Torres, a Canadian of Mexican heritage.

He also represents Blues right wing T.J. Oshie; Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon, and Buffalo Sabres defenseman Tyler Ennis.

Sports agent Eustace King (right) with client Emerson Etem of the Anaheim Ducks.

Sports agent Eustace King (right) with client Emerson Etem of the Anaheim Ducks.

King helped negotiate former NHL goaltender Kevin Weekes’ first television contract with NHL Network and he represents Willie O’Ree, who became the NHL’s first black player in 1958 and now serves as the league’s director for youth development and diversity ambassador.

Philadelphia Flyers' Wayne Simmonds, a King client.

Philadelphia Flyers’ Wayne Simmonds, a King client.

“I don’t have these athletes who happen to be minorities because I’m black,” King told me recently. “It’s because I’m highly capable and I happen to be black. One critical point is I understand their history and background, being West Indian or being African-American, and being able to relate to them. That’s the piece that makes the bond that we have so much greater and we’ve been able to accomplish the things we’ve been able to do.”

Peterson said breaking into representation end of hockey wasn’t difficult because of the welcoming nature of the hockey community.

“I played hockey since I was two years old,” Peterson told me recently. “Obviously being an African-American hockey player – it was always rare. But the hockey community is one of the best communities that I know, and it was so welcoming to me. It’s such a tight-knit community that I don’t think, for the most part, anybody really judged it as a black-white thing. You’re judged on your work and your ability to have relationships with people.”

Sports agent Brett Peterson.

Sports agent Brett Peterson.

Still, making it as a black sports agent isn’t easy. In the four major sports – even the predominately black NBA and NFL – only a few dozen top athletes have black representation while “hundreds of others continue to turn to white agents and attorneys to handle the finer points of negotiation on contracts with teams and corporations seeking their endorsements,” ESPN.com’s David Aldridge wrote last February.

“To say that you’re only a black agent and you’re trying to be extremely pro-black in a non-black environment is challenging, I’ll be honest with you, in hockey,” King said. “It’s not that people are going to be necessarily racist or they don’t want to listen to us. It’s just because sometimes they don’t understand us, or understand the experiences that we’ve had to go through.”For example, when some in the hockey establishment expressed concern about Mark Owuya, a black Swedish goaltender now in the Toronto Maple Leafs farm system, after he performed rap songs on his country’s version of “American Idol” when he was 16 in 2006, King questioned the musical tastes of his client’s detractors.

“If he was a country singer, or he was singing rock and roll or something more relevant to the audience he was trying to showcase his (hockey) skills to, I think maybe it wouldn’t have been a big deal,” King told the Toronto Star newspaper.

King said he’s been able to thrive in the sometimes cut-throat representation business because of his hockey-playing experience and the bond he shares with several of his minority clients – like Simmonds, the Stewart brothers and Weekes – who have Caribbean roots.

He also attributes his success to hard work, good fortune, and to a small village of mentors who’ve helped him almost every step of the way in his professional and personal life. It’s a formula he tries to instill in his young hockey-playing clients.

“I really believe that a young man needs anywhere from a minimum 4 to 6 mentors in his life,” King said. “It’s going to be his parents, his coaches, it’s also going to be friends…the ones that are positive.”

And King relies on minority NHL players past and present to pay it forward and mentor the new generation of players of color.

“Kevin Weekes, for example, used to mentor Chris Stewart and Wayne Simmonds,” King told me. “Now I’ve got Chris Stewart and Wayne Simmonds mentoring Devante Smith-Pelly and Emerson Etem. ”

Boston Bruins' Tuukka Rask, a Peterson client.

Boston Bruins’ Tuukka Rask, a Peterson client.

The son of Jamaican immigrants, King grew up in Evanston, Ill. where his father was a veterinary assistant and construction worker and his mother a nurse. Hockey served as a de facto baby-sitter for King: practices at the local recreation center rink were in the afternoon –  times when child care was either too pricey for his parents or too hard to find.”It started off me watching Northwestern University hockey games, Northwestern had a club hockey team,” King told me. “I could barely see over the boards and eventually the coach said ‘Hey, do you want to play?’ I started that way.”Fate intervened at age 7 when the goalie on King’s youth team failed to show up for one game and the team’s coach asked King to strap on the pads.

“They put me in there and I got a shutout,” he recalled. “At that point, my coach back then put out a little carrot for me that they would help me with my hockey – pay for it, kind of scholarship me – which led to me saying ‘Hey, I could play goal.’ The first four or five games, I gave up three goals. So I was pretty pumped about that. I was getting my hockey pretty much subsidized, because my family didn’t really have a lot of money to be able to pay for that, so it worked out.”

His goaltending skill led to a scholarship at the University of Miami of Ohio. There, he compiled a record of 5 wins, 6 losses, 2 ties and a 3.90 goals-against average in his senior year in 1995-96 – stats that hardly screamed “draft pick” to NHL scouts.

“I never really got to be the starter and be the guy until my senior year, at that point I didn’t have the resume I needed to,” he said. “But I did have offers to play pro hockey and I could have played and gotten a contract from, at the time, a team called the Dayton Ice Bandits who were in the (Colonial Hockey League), and I was going to do that.”

King in his college playing days.

King in his college playing days.

But King said a close friend’s father “talked me into the real world.” So he took his Miami of Ohio degree in communications into the advertising world.

From there, connections and mentorships took over. Bryant McBride, an entrepreneur and hockey enthusiast, joined the NHL and became one of the league’s highest-ranking black executives. McBride created the NHL Diversity Task Force – the forerunner of the league’s current “Hockey is for Everyone” program – and brought O’Ree into the fold to help with diversity efforts. O’Ree had been monitoring King’s on-ice and off-ice career and encouraged him to work for the NHL.

“He said ‘Hey Eustace, you’re not playing anymore, you’ve got a great background, we want someone like you to come over to the NHL,'” King recalled. “So I went there and started working in the marketing and business development area.”

As King progressed at NHL headquarters, McBride left the league offices to become a sports agent. He helped Jason Allison secure a $20 million contract with the Los Angeles Kings in 2001.

McBride decided to get out of the representation business about the time King and his partners launched 02K in 2004. Their first client? Jason Allison.

“Really, this whole thing in hockey, in my whole experience, it’s all about relationships and mentors that bring people to the next stop,” King said. “It’s almost like a pay it forward in our group. We have a mindset in our group where everyone from the NHL down to the younger guys, they’re  all interconnected and we make sure that they all have access to each other.”

Peterson started playing hockey at such a young age that he barely remember when he wasn’t on skates. A Massachusetts native, he was a smooth-skating defenseman on the 2001 Boston College NCAA championship hockey team.

Brett Peterson in his smooth-skating Boston College days.

Brett Peterson in his smooth-skating Boston College days.

After college, he had a solid minor league hockey career, playing for the East Coast Hockey League’s Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies, Johnstown Chiefs, Florida Everblades and Phoenix Roadrunners.  He also spent time in the American Hockey League with the Albany River Rats before hanging up his skates with the AHL’s Grand Rapid Griffins in the 2008-09 season.

Like King, Peterson made the leap into sports representations through past hockey connections.

“I met with a group that represented a bunch of my roommates when I played at BC, kind of formed a relationship with them. The sports agency business was something I always wanted to get into,” Peterson told me. “It just kind of fit that along the time I was thinking about stopping playing hockey they wanted me to come on and work with them.”

“It’s one of the rare cases that it kind of worked right from the start,” Peterson added. “It’s been unbelievable ever since.”

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