Sportsnet.ca -- In the northern reaches of Quebec, far from the spotlight of the National Hockey League he knew for 13 seasons, Joe Juneau is making what he might call the most important assist of his career.
The 40-year-old has established a school that combines hockey with academics for the children of Nunavik, a collection of 14 villages and 10,000 residents that dot the coast of the Ungava Peninsula.
Watch Part II of Louis Jean's documentary on Joe Juneau Friday on Connected. Part III will be aired Saturday as part of Hoceycentral.
Juneau, who finished his career with the Montreal Canadiens in 2004, moved to the village of Kuujjuaq, nearly 1,500 kilometres north of Montreal, with his family last year after first visiting the region three years ago. He was moved by the challenge the residents, and in particular the children, face in the remote region.
Social ills are rampant, including alchoholism, violence and suicide. Distractions are few and the arenas that do exist were closed because of a lack of funds. Juneau saw an opportunity to make a difference.
"The kids from here, in Nunavik, have great needs and you know what, it just came like a flash," says Juneau.
The "it" became a school that saw 1,000 kids register this past fall. The school combines academics and hockey, and the students cannot do one without the other.
"I made it very clear that it was not a hockey school; that it was a social program that would be using hockey as a tool to keep the kids out of trouble and keep the kids in school as long as possible," says Juneau, whose long beard and non-descript clothes in no way suggest a man who made millions playing hockey.
"The dynamic with the schoolwork into it forces the kids to be a little more responsible for their actions. If they're not performing in school they don't get a chance to perform on the ice either."
To facilitate the program, Juneau arranged for a multi-million dollar grant that allowed the region's closed arenas to reopen and which also purchased new equipment.
That Juneau should find himself near the Arctic Circle comes as no surprise. He doesn't fit the stereotype of an NHL player. He holds a degree in aeronautical engineering from prestigious Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York State, where he played his college hockey, and is active in environmental causes. After retiring from the NHL he went to work in an engineering company but didn't achieve the satisfaction he was looking for.
"He doesn't like fake or superficial," says his girlfriend, Elsa Moreau. "He's not the kind of guy that spends a lot of money in restaurants or on cars."
"It's not a sacrifice for me coming here," Juneau says. "This is a chance. These people are more used to see the retired players once in a while dropping the puck at centre ice for an official faceoff or see them in charity events and things like that.
"This is all good, but it's not me. This is me."
The residents of Nunavik couldn't be more pleased.
"We know that he cares about us even though he was a professional hockey player," says one student. "He could go anywhere but he decided to come up here. We respect that a lot."
Juneau, though, is quick to point out that his involvement is just a small part of what needs to be done.
"They see that I'm just a normal guy willing to do something very special for their community and at the same time I'm telling them, 'Listen, I'm not here as a saviour. I'm just here as one of you guys doing this for your kids and I need you to do this with me."
