Welychka a pro success story

Playing in Denmark, former London Knight and hockey journeyman Brett Welychka has gained culture and valuable life experience.

Welychka, like most hockey players, isn’t living the NHL dream. Rather, he’s living a fulfilling life (on and off the ice) in one of the best countries in the world. (Photo: Daniel Storch).

Brett Welychka laughs when he remembers one of the strangest questions he was asked many years ago by an NHL scout:

“If North Korea invaded North America, who would you leave behind and why?”

He wasn’t sure what to say, nor the reasoning behind the question.

“Do I say my dad?” Welychka says laughing from his apartment near Copenhagen, Denmark. “Or do I say myself? I really had no idea what to say.”

In Welychka’s case, a London-born former Knight who appeared in two Memorial Cups, the scout was employing what those in the NHL entry draft business call a ‘reactionary question.’ There are no right or wrong answers, only an opportunity to see how a player responds.

Now, years later and odd questions from NHL scouts behind him, the 27-year-old Welychka has put together an eclectic and successful hockey resume. Besides the two Memorial Cups, he’s captained Team Canada at the World University Games, he’s been a CIS all-star, and he’s played in half a dozen leagues, including the GOJHL, OHL, CIS, AHL and ECHL.

The sixth is the Metal Ligaen, the top tier of Danish ice hockey, where he’s played as a centre on the Rødovre Mighty Bulls this year (the team bowed out of the playoffs earlier this month). Current Leaf goaltender, Frederik Andersen, is an alum of the Metal Ligaen (he managed an empty net goal against The Mighty Bulls back in 2010).

Welychka celebrates a goal in an empty arena. In 34 regular season games with the Mighty Bulls this year, the Londoner had 23 points. (Photo: Daniel Storch).

“If you respect the game and put the work in, you’ll be a better player,” Welychka says as he reflects on his career. “But with injuries, the losses, the tough times, you think you have it figured out and then you don’t …”

Welychka makes a great argument for figuring it out – even if it’s not the NHL. He loves living and working in a country where bike and front door locks are optional, and where babies nap outdoors while their parents dine inside. He’s a 20-minute bike ride to his home rink, and he says the Danish game is skilled and less physical than in North America. It’s Denmark, after all, a country that the United Nations consistently marks as one of the world’s best countries for quality of life – and where modesty and social equality reign supreme.

“It’s just such a great place to live,” he says. “People really value friends and family here.”

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For almost all junior hockey players, the NHL will be an unfulfilled dream. Scanning the lineup during an OHL game, the odds say that only one player will have an NHL career beyond 100 games. Overall, no matter when you were born, the chances to play a single NHL game is 1-in-2500.

Meanwhile, the rare player who is drafted and has a legitimate shot quickly becomes commoditized. Organizations invest money and ice time in their player with hopes of seeing a return on their asset. It’s as much a modern-day algorithm as it is luck. Drafted players will often see more ice time than a non-draftee, even if the latter develops faster or has a better skillset.

This is something Welychka has experienced first-hand. It’s not just contract dollars. It’s the payroll of nutrition experts, training gurus, and psychologists. There are training facilities to manage, film crews, trainers, and assistants to the assistant trainer …

Welychka as a 19-year-old with the London Knights during the 2013-14 season. He played in all 68 games (22 goals and 34 assists) and then competed in his second straight Memorial Cup. (Photo: London Knights).

During the development phase, both players and organizations have a lot on the line. For the player, it’s easy to watch teammates and gauge the level of one’s own talent, says Welychka. It can be sobering to realize you might not have the chops to make it. What can be worse, though, is knowing you’re faster, or have a heavier shot than a drafted teammate, only to see your playing time dwindle.

“I had to realize that parts of my game worked for the NHL,” says Welychka, “but others didn’t. Sure, there were guys I was faster than or had better hands, but to play an 82-game season in the NHL takes a unique type of player.”

Veteran hockey journalist Ken Campbell, along with Jim Parcels, explored how minor hockey in Canada has lost its soul in the quest for NHL glory in their 2013 book, Selling the Dream. Parents fighting in the stands. Sticks worth $400. Reports of parents paying up to $15,000 for guaranteed ice time. Unrealistic expectations and broken dreams dot Canada’s minor hockey experience like faceoff circles on the ice.

Campbell tells the story of a young American goalie named Max Stang whose parents sold their house and quit their jobs to move to Toronto so their son could play in the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL), arguably the most prestigious minor hockey league in the world (it counts Mitch Marner and Connor McDavid among its alumni). According to GTHL data, more than eight per cent of all NHL roster players had played in the GTHL at some point. The Stang family lived on a 150 square foot boat in Port Credit Harbour. Stang never made it to the NHL. He last suited up for the Evansville Thunderbolts, a minor professional team in Indiana. Sure, lifeboat living probably supplied its fair share of happy memories – but at what cost?

The parents of Colorado Avalanche centre, Matt Duchene, admitted to spending $300,000 on their son’s minor hockey career, according to Campbell. So far, the investment has paid off for the Duchenes – Matt has earned almost $60 million so far in his NHL career. But this story is by far the exception.

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All of this makes Welychka, and thousands of players like him, hopeful tales in the unrequited narrative of NHL dreams.

Who wouldn’t want their kid making a living playing pro hockey in one of the best countries on earth? The payoff is resilience, future post-hockey career contacts, meeting future partners, learning new languages, and cross-cultural communication skills that only lived experience can teach.

“To me, that’s what it’s all about,” says Welychka. “I’ll take bits and pieces of my hockey life over to my future life. It’s not all sunshine and glory. It’s the winning, the losing, the crying, being injured and recovering that matters. It’s the love of the game.”