There’s regular everyday busy, and then there’s Hayley Wickenheiser busy.
Not only was Wickenheiser, the Maple Leafs senior director of player development, a mainstay throughout the development camp, the Traverse City rookie tournament and Leafs and Marlies training camp during September, but she also continued to work shifts at a Toronto hospital after completing medical school this year. And on Tuesday, her latest book, “Over the Boards: Lessons From the Ice” will be released.
Advertisement
Better busy than bored, as it were.
“I’m actually getting off the phone with you and doing a Zoom with Roni Hirvonen in 20 minutes,” Wickenheiser told The Athletic with a slight chuckle.
For the Maple Leafs, that work ethic and the experiences she details, in her book, from her four Olympic gold medals to seven World Championships gold medals, could serve to benefit prospects like Hirvonen. The book breaks down what she’s learned in the game, and how those learnings could help others.
To celebrate the launch of “Over the Boards: Lessons From the Ice,” Wickenheiser joined The Athletic for a conversation about those lessons and how they might apply to some of the Leafs prospects she works with.
Note: Conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
You wrote “Learning from your mistakes is how you get better. There’s no shame in trying and screwing up and learning from it all. It isn’t failure at all.” This reminds me of Semyon Der-Arguchintsev. I’m curious how this phrase applies to a player who admitted to making a lot of mistakes in development camp.
If you’re going to be an athlete, especially the higher you go, you probably fail as much as you win. At the end of a career, you look back and say, “Well, I hope I won the games that mattered.” Nobody will remember the ones that you didn’t if you win the ones that do matter. The personal journey you have as an athlete is such that — take a young player like (Der-Arguchintsev), the key is that each time you falter, to take the message and take the learning and to continue to improve.
That takes some maturity, it takes some hard knocks, which I certainly had many of through my career as well. And (Der-Arguchintsev) is a young guy that is no different than I was, or any other player. You’re trying to find your way and you hope that you don’t need to learn the lesson too many times before — especially at the pro hockey level — your time runs out, right?
Advertisement
There’s an entire chapter in your book titled “Pressure is a privilege.” There might not be any team under more pressure to win in the NHL right now than the one you’re working for. Can you take me inside how you deliver that message to players?
I don’t know that there’s anything I can tell a player necessarily that they don’t already know, or they need to experience themselves. But what I do try to say is that, for the most part, the players at this level don’t need to put any more pressure on themselves. They need to take it off of them.
And so what I do say is, “Pressure has to come and pressure has to go.” There’s no human on this earth that can withstand living in a pressure cooker, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I think young players want to come in, make the team, want more ice time — it just never ends. You can never stop being satisfied. And that’s fine. And I really believe that the best players in the world, they put more pressure on them than any external source could ever do.
With that being said, I just try to encourage players that pressure is a good thing. You’ve got to embrace it. One way to do it is to flip it on its head and not think of it as a burden, but something to be grateful for. To use self-talk. I’m reminded of what I said a couple of weeks ago to some players: “When (the pressure) feels too great, remember, you’re the most privileged people in the world, you’re in the greatest league in the world, where else would you rather be?”
You wrote about how after the 2013 World Championships, you penned a letter to your teammates and you vowed to open the lines of communication. What have you learned about how to communicate with players a generation younger than you?
Well, I have a 21-year-old son (Noah), so I’m pretty astute. … Well, I don’t know if I’m astute, actually, I’m probably not very astute according to him. Quite frankly, when I’m talking to a lot of these players, it is like talking to my son. Even exchanging text messages, I chuckle sometimes because I’m like, “Oh, that’s exactly what (Noah) would write in a text message.” There is certainly some differences in this generation. The means of communication, they would just rather use WhatsApp, text messages with quick, short soundbites. I tend not to send long, lengthy video clips. Only 20 seconds or less and try to get their engagement and their attention for a few short minutes. That’s how players these days process information.
Players also want to be collaborative. That’s certainly something that I’ve learned through my career. I think when people feel like they’ve been heard, regardless if their opinion is going to take weight or not, they feel much better and much more respected and much more able to pull the same way within the group.
Advertisement
One of the things with our development is that we want to have more touches with players — talking to them quite frequently every week or two, just touching base quickly. Hockey is notoriously bad for, “Just put your head down and suck it up and work through it.” But I think players — this generation especially — they want to talk about things. I find guys to be really open and interested in things outside of hockey. Maybe players always were but they were never allowed to say that they actually have other interests they liked in life besides hockey 24/7. You can find different ways to engage with players and I think that’s always the continual challenge within our development group, is how do we actually influence a player? Being in medicine really has helped me to enhance those skills because you’re constantly delivering news every single day, good, bad or neutral to people. You’ve really got to be adept with what you say. Every word matters.
When you wrote that letter, you put yourself out there and were a bit vulnerable. That reminded me of three players in particular: Topi Niemelä, Roni Hirvonen and Mikko Kokkonen. I am very high on these three players, but they’re a little more reserved, at least in my interactions with them. How are you approaching their development in really pivotal seasons in Finland? Do you want to bring them out of their shells at all?
It’s a bit of an exploratory process. I played in Finland for two seasons. I know the Finnish culture, I know the people quite well. But I don’t think we’re going to change anyone’s personality, per se. Sometimes with those guys, it’s like pulling teeth to get information but there’s a comfort level. And this is something (Leafs director of player development) Danielle Goyette has reminded me of constantly. She came to the national team in her 30s and didn’t speak a word of English. She could only communicate by the drills on the board. And so for some of these players, it’s tricky to learn and live in a different language. So that’s one thing is to be sensitive of, and to the culture of hockey that they’ve grown up with in their country.
But our job is to reinforce and teach them that in order for them to jump to the next level, because the Finnish Liiga is not the NHL, the time and space shrink, all of those factors change. When we’re working with them on a Zoom, for example, we’re showing them clips as if they’re playing in the NHL, essentially, and what that moment will mean when you have five other faster players around you and less space because the rink is narrower in North America. I would never want to change someone’s personality. It’s more about exploring who they are and then helping them enhance their game.
“We grow by taking chances and putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations. Embrace the struggle bus.” When I read that, I thought of one player: Timothy Liljegren. How does Timothy need to put himself in uncomfortable situations?
It’s the only way forward: to go for it, to get out there and play in a proactive state of mind versus a reactive state of mind. I think for Timothy, he knows that. Just seeing him over the last few weeks, he certainly looks stronger, more confident, like he could really take the jump. I know he wants it. Sometimes when you want it too bad, it’s a bit of a delicate balance of going for it but then being calculated at times in order to get yourself in the lineup and then stay there and gather the coaching staff’s trust.
It’s been a long road for him. The only way is to continue to push forward and to not get frustrated and to try to bring out the best of yourself and use every resource you have around you to continue to do that. He has put a tremendous amount of commitment into his off-ice training. There’s really no stone left unturned for him. It’s now just time to go out there and play the game.
You write, “Do things as well as possible, not as fast as possible,” and that, “Speed comes from a series of small, well-executed steps.” So, why would a full season in the AHL benefit Nick Robertson?
(Laughs) I don’t know if it would. Certainly, I know from last year, Nick came from junior to the American League and thought it might be a little bit easier than it was. His comments and reflections certainly endorse that. I think it was a good step for him to see that it is hard.
I remember having a conversation with Auston Matthews, and he said, “The NHL is really hard. Some players come in and they think it’s easier than what it is.” I think for Nick it was just a matter of understanding that he’s playing against men, he’s in a pro game where everybody’s a pretty good hockey player and the difference between this level and next level sometimes is splitting hairs.
Advertisement
For him, he has the physical ability, he can shoot the puck. It’s going to be about his ability to make four players on the ice better. I played, early on, a lot like Nick. But you go from a bull to a spider mentality, learning to distribute the puck, shoot off the pass a bit more, get the puck back in key spots and then just relax into yourself in the game that you have to play.
He is going to get there. In his exit meeting, I was totally blown away by his maturity and how far he’d come. It’s there if he wants it.
You wrote, “Each of us is capable of battling through so much more than we know.” And I understand this isn’t a literal statement, but when it comes to Rodion Amirov, the thing I kept hearing from his coaches is how he needs to battle more on the ice. Does that statement apply to Rodion at all?
I think it applies to most of the young players that we have coming up. I think players think they train hard, think they work and then they get around the best players in the game and they go, “Whoa, I’ve got a lot more to do here.” I think that our ability, or our capacity, is only limited by our mind. Our body can often handle so much more than we think.
And so with Rodion, he’s a very fun-loving, young kid. He’s got tremendous physical abilities, and his ability to turn the corner on that maturity and really elevate himself physically to put on a little bit more strength and power. He is a very good player, very explosive. He could be a game-changer if he wanted to.
For every young player, there’s a light bulb moment. He certainly has immense talent. Being around better players and mature players that are pros and know how to train and approach everyday situations will be good for Rodion.
I know you’ve talked about easy speed when referring to Nick Robertson. But in your book, you wrote about easy speed and not being burdened by the weight of expectations and how nothing should feel forced. I think this actually applies to Nick Abruzzese, a player coming off a season out of the game due to surgery. Does this not apply to Nick at all? And what does Nick need to do to get his game back this season?
Nick just needs to play. He’s a student of the game. He loves to talk about hockey, he analyzes it and knows himself and every player he plays against in his league very well. And he’s a very good hockey player. He’s had some injuries, some setbacks. First of all, he has to get healthy, as cliché as that is, but that is true. I think for a player like Nick who’s so intuitive and cognitively smart, it is about just parking the analytic side of the game and just trusting your instincts because he also does have very good instincts.
Throughout your book, one theme that kept popping up to me was just how difficult you understood the road to be and just how difficult your road was. And you seem to have taken a little bit more of a firmer hand with players as you discussed in your opening press conference. You want to instill that in players: The NHL is tough. Why is that line of thinking necessary for this hockey club right now?
It’s funny you say that, because I feel like I’m pretty laid back. But I suppose, as a group and as a staff, we have people that have lived it. We would be doing a disservice to these players if we didn’t demand their best and we didn’t demand excellence from them, I think.
Advertisement
You’re not here just to hang out and get invited to a camp, get some apparel and head out. You’re here because you want to have a career, you want to have a life and a job. And it’s there for the taking for those that want to sacrifice and go through what it takes to get there. But it’s not easy. And for young players to think that what they did in junior is going to work at the next level, or their habits that they have currently, for the most part, it’s a big jump. And I think that we need to teach them early on, we need to demand excellence every single day.
I suppose that was who I was as an athlete, that was the road that I had to take. That is the road, I think. To think that you can just coast through it, and it’s going to happen, it’s not happening. The NHL is way too good. Every team is competitive. Every moment matters in a season, it really does.
(Top photo: Mark Blinch / NHLI via Getty Images)
