On July 17, five years since he last played hockey, Ryan Kesler was back at an NHL training camp. Only, at this camp he never stepped foot on the ice.
Despite not playing a game since the 2018-19 season, the former Vancouver Canucks great has yet to officially retire. He's expressed interest in following in the footsteps of his friend Kevin Bieksa and signing a one-day contract with Vancouver to retire as a Canuck.
Kesler might also follow in Bieksa's footsteps and go into broadcasting. He was one of nine current and retired players who took part in the NHL's Broadcast Training Camp earlier this month, the first of its kind. Two other former Canucks also took part: retired defenceman Michael Del Zotto and current New York Rangers goaltender Louis Domingue.
The other six participants were Erik Johnson and Garnet Hathaway of the Philadelphia Flyers, Chris Wagner of the Colorado Avalanche, and former players Devante Smith-Pelly, Nate Thompson, and Darius Kasparaitis.
"We went to our clubs and we looked for candidates, players who may want to transition into broadcasting hockey as one avenue of kind of post-career opportunity, as part of a broader umbrella for us of providing player development resources so players can start thinking about life off the ice and what follows their hockey careers," said NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly.
The camp took place at the NHL offices in Manhattan and featured instruction from experienced broadcasters — play-by-play announcers Kenny Albert and Steve Levy, analysts Eddie Olczyk and Brian Boucher, and studio host Ashlyn Sullivan — to cover all aspects of the on-camera experience of an NHL broadcast.
"There is life after hockey," said Olczyk, who had a 16-year NHL career before going into broadcasting. "I can speak from experience: it's a scary place."
Some players end up in broadcasting after they retire, helping to communicate the game they played for so many years, but sometimes those former players end up getting tossed into the deep end, essentially receiving only on-the-job training and having to trust fully in their personality and experience of being on-camera as a player in interviews. Giving these players a crash course in broadcasting from industry experts should better prepare them for taking that next step.
"I remember being in your guys's shoes when I wrapped up and it was a scary time," said Boucher, who played 13 seasons in the NHL. "I didn't know where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do, how I could do it...I wish I would have had this opportunity, it would have made life a lot easier."
"Easier" is a relative term, as one of the things that catches former players off-guard is how much work and preparation goes into things on the broadcasting side and how even the little details, like what to do with your hands, can trip you up.
"It's one of my favourite things to do in the industry is to see former athletes or coaches come over and try it from our side of the street," said Levy. "They are all of them, without fail, blown away. I think these guys really think we just show up at puck drop and put a headset on."
Kesler has a little bit of on-camera experience, albeit in a very informal sense as the host of Kes' House on Sportsnet during the 2021 playoffs. Perhaps now, with this training under his belt, Kesler might step in front of the cameras in a more formal role as an in-studio analyst or colour commentator in the future.
