Stanley Cup champion with Panthers is unrestricted free agent, still considering future
In NHL.com’s Q&A feature called “Sitting Down with …” we talk to key figures in the game, gaining insight into their lives on and off the ice. Today, we feature unrestricted free agent forward Kyle Okposo, who won the Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers last season.
Not long after celebrating his day with the Stanley Cup, Kyle Okposo was getting an education about a different side of the sports world.
Okposo, who won the Cup with the Florida Panthers last season, was one of five NHL players, along with Panthers teammate A.J. Greer, Jacob Trouba and Will Cuylle of the New York Rangers and Vinni Lettieri of the Boston Bruins, who participated in the latest immersion program developed and run by Fanatics, the global sports business and the official outfitter of the NHL’s uniforms.
The hands-on program provides a learning experience for athletes who are thinking about off-field and post-career opportunities.
It was based in New York and featured a trip to Philadelphia on Wednesday to visit Mitchell & Ness headquarters, where Okposo worked with a designer to learn about their process and even design his own personalized merchandise.
Current and retired athletes from the NFL and NBA also were in attendance.
© Fanatics
Okposo, who is an unrestricted free agent, is 36 years old and has played 1,051 NHL games. He now can call himself a Stanley Cup champion, and he admitted he’s thinking about life after hockey, even if he’s not quite ready for that phase to begin.
Okposo spoke to NHL.com on Thursday about the Fanatics immersion program, why he wanted to participate, what he hoped to gain from it, and, of course, the Stanley Cup.
This week you were involved with the Fanatics immersion program. Why were you involved and what do you want to get out of it? Is it post-career thoughts for you at this point?
“I wanted to be a part of this program just for the opportunity to learn from people who are successful in a different field. I think as hockey players a lot of times you can get boxed into somebody that you are. I am Kyle Okposo and I am a hockey player, but I am also Kyle Okposo and a person, and I enjoy so much more than what I do. So I wanted to hear the stories from other people and how they became successful and what advice that they could give me, just share their insight and input and really listen to everybody. It’s been phenomenal to be with other athletes too. Any time you can get together with athletes from other sports, it’s just a blast to pick their brain and get to know everybody. It’s a phenomenal program and it seemed like a great opportunity to get a really fast education in the business world.”
Is the timing for this program right for you as well? I’m not saying you’re done as a player, but you have to be thinking about what’s coming next in your life professionally.
“Yes, I am thinking about that. I’ve thought a lot about it. So, yeah, the timing is right. I’ve thought a lot about it since two years ago really when I was on the committee to pick the next executive director of the NHLPA. That’s when I first started to really think about post career and started to talk to a lot of people in the business world. I found that I had an interest in talking to these people and getting to know about their lives, getting to know their stories, and really dissecting what they do and how they did it. The people that are leaders in their industries, I have found they are very purposeful in what they do and they have done things over a career that have been proven to be effective. It’s been awesome to learn how they implement those skills.”
Is the business world, whether it’s the business of sports or other ventures, where you want to be whenever Kyle Okposo the hockey player is no more?
“Oh for sure. I wake up and listen to Front Office Sports and read Sports Business Journal pretty much every morning. I like to be clued into what’s going on in the world of sports. There’s a lot of interest in the sporting world. There is a lot of money that is being put into the sporting world. Having been somebody that has been involved in that industry in the past 17 years professionally, it’s been fun to learn more about that side of it. I’ve never really thought about that side of it seriously. You always have something in the back of your mind. You’re playing and you’re like, I have to do this because I have to train this day, or I have to get ready for a game. I’m just trying to get an early education into the other side of the business because I know I hopefully have a lot of life to live.”
So you were at Mitchell & Ness in Philadelphia. You learned about the brand and you worked with designers to create your own product with your own brand. What did you design?
“I designed a hoodie that was pretty personal to me. The designer that I was working with was incredible. The things that she was doing with the computer, it would take me four lifetimes to be able to do something like that. It was a hoodie that kind of represents my life and my career. I had five teams on both sides of the hoodie. They were the five teams that when I was growing up that I was a really big fan of. On the other side it was five teams that really impacted my life or that I played for in adulthood. Three of my signatures with all different numbers on the front, 9, 21 and 8. And it culminated with that big silver thing on the back.”
That big silver thing of course is the Stanley Cup. You are a Stanley Cup champion. Has it changed you as a person? Has it changed your life?
“Has it changed me as a person? No. I think I’m pretty solid in who I am. Has it changed my life? Honestly, probably a little bit. I talked about it during the playoffs. So many people are looked at by what they accomplish in the game and you get labeled as somebody who can’t win or is not a winner. I didn’t play in the playoffs for a long time, and then all of a sudden you get labeled as a winner and people start treating you differently because you’ve won. They’re more interested in you and your process and how you think. I’m not changing and I haven’t really changed that much. I’ve evolved as a person and my emotions I’ve gotten more in check, but I haven’t changed as a person because I’ve won. It’s just that now people are paying attention a little bit more to things I am doing and the things that I am saying. It’s been an awesome ride and I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying the time that I’ve got to spend with my family over the last month as well.”
Kyle Okposo on winning Game 7 of the SCF
Isn’t this interview that we’re doing right now an example of that? We’re talking about the business of the game, your future, but honestly I don’t know that we’d be doing it today if you didn’t win the Stanley Cup. Maybe in a few years, but not today.
“Exactly. It’s an example of how it has changed my life. It’s a really special thing. I was talking with [former NFL running back] Todd Gurley today and we were sitting outside. He was asking me, ‘How does it feel to win that trophy?’ I just told him that for the last 30 years I have watched that trophy being hoisted every single year. It always gave me chills. It always gave me motivation. It’s something I’ve been working almost my entire life to do. To finally achieve it after so long, I can’t put the words to describe what that felt to me.”
The bad news, of course, is that your day with the Stanley Cup in Minnesota was impacted by the international IT outage. You had to cancel an event you were going to do. Describe that whole experience and what you ended up doing on your day with the Cup.
“Well, it was pretty heartbreaking. I woke up and saw the big IT outage. The Cup was stuck in St. Louis. I was speaking with the two guys that had the Cup and they were keeping me updated and informed. I wanted to get the word out so I actually called Mike Russo (Minnesota-based writer for The Athletic) and told him the situation so people that were driving in that had a long commute could be informed. That was pretty devastating that I couldn’t share that with the public in Minnesota. But it landed just after 11 a.m. and got to our place around 11:45. We had an event for friends and family from 12-3. I brought it to Cottagewood, which is the area I’m going live in in Minnesota, and there were so many kids running around there. It was just awesome. I took a picture in front of the Cottagewood General Store, which has been there since 1895. That was pretty neat.