After 16 seasons in the NHL with four different teams, Andrew Ference knew it was time to call it a career as the 2016-17 season came to a close.
How, exactly, did he know?
“Well, I started getting healthy scratched…” Ference said with a laugh during a conversation with Sportsnet on Friday. “And other people started playing better than I was. So, uh, that’s usually a pretty clear signal.”
The longtime (and very honest) defenceman is no longer lacing up his skates in the big leagues, but he’s still very much part of the game. Now serving as the NHL’s Director of Social Impact, Growth & Fan Development (a position to which he was officially named in March 2018), Ference brings an important voice to the sport’s many initiatives — a voice he used increasingly during his playing days, too, as an ambassador for organizations like You Can Play and Pride Tape, as well as several environmental initiatives.
“I feel quite fortunate. It’s a really great role that I loved as a player,” Ference said. “And now I kind of get to carry it on into my second life.”
This week, Ference has also been part of one of the game’s most beloved celebrations: Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada. The Edmonton native touched down in Swift Current, Sask., along with several other former pro hockey players like Lanny McDonald, Darcy Tucker, Wendel Clark, and Cassie Campbell-Pascall, among others, to join in the festivities.
We caught up with Ference to talk about his Hockey Day experience, transitioning from the pros to the men’s league in retirement, athletes speaking out, and going green in the game he loves.
[snippet id=3803149]
Sportsnet: Is this your first time being part of the Hockey Day festivities?
Andrew Ference: Yeah, it’s my first time being on-site. It’s been absolutely tremendous. To me, this is where you feel at home, at smaller rinks … to see a big event like this, complete with the Stanley Cup, the alumni game, even some of the legends I grew up watching — like, Lanny McDonald’s here! I get to be kind of part fan, part alumni. I’ve got the best of everything, it’s awesome.
Sportsnet on Twitter
What it’s all about. #HockeyDay
The amount of work that the local organizing committee does, they pour their hearts and souls into this, there’s so much work that goes into it. You see the pride of their hospitality and what they put into it, it’s great. I genuinely appreciate coming here and seeing how much work goes into putting this on.
Do you have a favourite moment from your time in Swift Current so far?
I was just on the ice with a big group of kids, we were running through a practice. I’m always going to enjoy my time on the ice more than anything.
We had a great morning, we’ve done a couple of things now with the Declaration of Principles where we held a breakfast and kind of a community forum. That was great this morning, with Cassie Campbell-Pascall, myself, and three people from the [Swift Current hockey] community: Terry Pavely, Bobbi-Jo Slusar who used to play for the Canadian team, and then also Mac Gross — he plays midget hockey here.
Sportsnet on Twitter
Fun morning at the Declaration of Principles breakfast in @City_SC! Check out our Instagram Story for a #HockeyDay AMA with #StanleyCup champ @Ferknuckle. https://t.co/VccLVZbwUu
So we had a panel that I hosted, just literally had a conversation about hockey — our experiences growing up in it, the culture of it, how we can welcome more people into the game. It was a really good kind of fireside chat between us at the breakfast this morning. I really enjoyed that.
Those two [events] have really stuck out so far. It’s always fun to jump on the ice with kids and run through some drills and just kind of mess around.
Sportsnet on Twitter
Women’s hockey needs to be included in the conversation on an equal level.” – @CassieCampbell spoke about growing and developing women’s hockey at this morning’s Declaration of Principles breakfast. #HockeyDay
Does being on the ice kind of make you miss your playing days?
You know what, it actually comes full-circle to when I was a kid. You get back to just kind of scrimmaging and screwing around with the puck and seeing what you can do and trying new things.
For most of your career, it’s very boring to practice, right? You’re trying to accomplish something … there isn’t a ton of free time to just kind of mess around and goof off on the ice when you’re playing. So it’s more about that, just getting back to no-consequence, pure have-fun hockey. So that’s kind of neat, it’s fun to come full-circle back to that.
Sounds like the best way to rediscover the joy of the game.
For sure, it’s a blast. I remember the first couple of times I went out after I retired, you go out for a men’s league [game] or whatever, and you’re still kind of playing your position, still doing your job. And then it clicked for me that, Oh, yeah, it doesn’t really matter if I lose my guy, or if I don’t have perfect position on this. You just kind of have fun. So it’s been a blast every time I go out on the ice now.
A lot of guys, after they retire, talk not about the wins and losses themselves as the best part of the game, but of the relationships they’ve built in the locker room and at the rink. Are you still tight with a lot of your former teammates?
Yeah, I have some really close friendships. I mean, you spend so much time together. The wins and losses definitely have a heavy impact on the mood of the room and the mood of the season and whatnot, but regardless, you still spend great time and great moments with all the teammates that you have.
I’m in close touch still with some of the guys in Boston — [Patrice] Bergeron and [Zdeno] Chara, I keep fairly close contact with.
I want to talk about your role with the NHL, as director of social impact, growth, and fan development. How did this role come about?
I’d always wanted to keep a foot in hockey somehow. When I was playing, I got involved with some different initiatives with the [NHL players’] union that had some cross-over where we worked with the league on NHL Green and different environmental initiatives, and then with Pride Tape and You Can Play. So I’d built up relationships with people in the league office that were working on some of these initiatives, and had become familiar with their work and what they’re doing. Those were always parts of the sport that I really loved.
To your last point, you don’t necessarily remember the skills and the stick-handling and shooting and that kind of stuff — it’s the bigger-picture, the impact of doing something in the community, whether it was a hospital visit or going to a school or out with a group of kids to their practice. Whatever it was, I saw the massive impact you can have through hockey.
So to be involved in that side of the NHL, getting involved in some of the great initiatives — there’s Hockey is for Everyone, all about diversity and inclusion, and Hockey Fights Cancer. There’s learn-to-play programming and getting more kids involved in the game through USA Hockey and Hockey Canada.
I mean, it’s a really wide scope of things that I get to work on, and they’re all based on really positive things — all about growing the game and making it more fun and having people just really feel welcomed to our sport.
Sportsnet on Twitter
Out on the ice is not the same as out in the cold. Hockey is for everyone. #HockeyNight | https://t.co/ETIwdTfibS https://t.co/57nAVvun8m
It definitely seems like a natural fit. When it comes to some of the environmental programs you work on, what are some of the initiatives that you’re most proud of so far in this role?
As a player, going back, I think the first step was just talking about it. We had a carbon-neutral challenge and did some campaigns in different cities with recycling and stuff like that. So those were great, but I think the end product is really just awareness and getting that conversation out there about why.
It’s an incredibly important issue, and an issue that needs people to talk about it to keep it front and centre and to show that it is an important issue for the communities that we live in and for society at large.
It’s, to me, very personally important. When fans come up and talk to me about things, they don’t talk to me about my games and stuff like that — they’re like, “I love the environmental work that you did.” That’s usually the first thing that people talk about. I think it’s a thing that really connects players to a lot of our fans.
Because quite frankly, we’re all just people. I’ve got kids who go to school, I wake up in the morning and try to recycle and compost and do all these things. It’s really a life that I think most people can identify with. And with that life, I have my concerns about what’s going on with climate change. How can I do more? What are the impacts that my life has on this? Being in a position as a player, I could be a great advocate, and now being in this position with the league, the impact we can have is at a scale so much bigger.
By finding efficiencies in our professional rinks and finding efficiencies in all of our community rinks where our youth play, we can not only have a massive environmental impact but also with technology now we can have a really big economical impact. We can even help some of our community rinks where youth are learning our game stay open, quite frankly. We can save them money, find efficiencies, find partners that are able to install those efficiencies.
It’s still somewhat rare for athletes, and especially hockey players, to talk about issues outside of the game, whether it’s politics or activism or the environment. Why do you think that is?
I think quite honestly, the reward can be elusive. It’s like getting a really honest answer — it’s great, some people like it, but the blowback from people who don’t like honesty or don’t like things that are kind of outside of your lane, sometimes that just kind of isn’t worth it for guys.
For me, I didn’t really care if I had some negative feedback. Any of those things that I ever did as a player were overwhelmingly received positively and I think that if you always lead with good things and do things that are good for people and things that are nice to people, that’s a pretty good guiding light and I think that with these kinds of initiatives, that’s what those are. Some people may not like it and just think you should shut your mouth and stick to sports and that’s fine — they can have those opinions.
But I think for a lot of guys, I think it’s just not worth it to step outside of the lines. I can relate to that, especially when I was a younger player. I kept my mouth shut, too. You want to keep your head down and you don’t want to make any waves, you just want to play the game and you don’t want any negative ammunition for people to use against you.
Fanbases can be a tricky thing.
Yeah, and I understand. To a certain point, too, players — and it’s not just hockey players, it’s athletes in general — are really good at what they do because they are really just focused on what they do. I’m not saying that we don’t have any interests outside of hockey or sports, but quite frankly, that’s our primary interest.
If you’re not super confident about your awareness or education on a certain issue, unless you’re feeling really confident on putting your opinion out there on something other than what your specialty is, it’s understandable that you don’t want to stick your neck out and perhaps be wrong about something or give a half-educated viewpoint of something and face the blowback for it.
When you watch hockey today, who’s the guy you’re most excited to watch?
I mean, Connor [McDavid]’s pretty unbelievable to watch. He’s a really good person, too. That’s always big for me, when you get to know people and you feel more of a connection with them when you know they’re a really good person as well. So he’s kind of got that double whammy for me.
There are so many unbelievable talents in the league. I’m completely blown away when young guys step into the league now. They’re so ready, they’re so talented. What they’ve obviously done at a younger age, to train and to hone their skills, they’re coming into the league just a hundred times better than I ever was. The game is just advancing so quickly.
And I do watch a lot of Boston still, so [David] Pastrnak is another guy … he’s always got a smile on his face, he’s having a good time. That’s kind of endearing to me, just the way that he’s so obviously just enjoying the game, enjoying life in the NHL.
Alright, final question: Do you have a Stanley Cup prediction?
It’s hard to predict a winner for hockey. I don’t think there are upsets any more. I’m not shocked when a lower-seed team beats an upper team, it’s just so close.
I like they way the Jets play, their fanbase — Winnipeg’s so great. Right from the top down at the executive level, they’re run so well, their community engagement is amazing. And I feel like they’re built for the playoffs. They’re a tough enough team with good skill. And Canada’s due.
[relatedlinks]
