Colin Fraser was enjoying retirement. He was spending more time with his family. He had more time to himself. He was rid of the grind of being a pro hockey player.
Fraser made sure to completely step away from the game when he retired three years ago. He wanted to experience life without hockey and explore whether he might be interested in other avenues. And he did that … for a while.
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“You know what? The first little bit was great because you put your feet up; I have three little kids, you enjoy your time at home,” the 33-year-old Fraser said recently. “And then after that, it was difficult. Like everyone talks about the transition into the real world, so to speak, and it wasn’t easy.
“From 3 years old, I’ve played hockey, and that’s all I’ve ever done my entire life was play hockey, and my only sole goal in mind was to play in the NHL, and I achieved all these goals. Now that you’re done playing, it’s now what do you do? Everyone had asked me what do you want to do? I said I don’t know what I want to do, but I can come up with a list a mile long of things that I don’t want to do. I’m not afraid to work hard, but I was being very choosy where I wanted to go with my life. I kind of for one and a half years there felt like I had no direction. I didn’t know what I was doing and it was hard. It wasn’t easy.”
Then one day, he was drawn back to hockey. As much as he had thought he would seek his next chapter in life outside the game, all roads kept bringing him back to it. Hockey was what he knew and what he was most passionate about. His time away from it convinced him of that.
As Fraser began playing around with the idea of re-entering the hockey world, he discussed the possibilities with an old friend with the Blackhawks. Fraser and Al MacIsaac went way back. They met with the Norfolk Admirals in the AHL. Fraser played and MacIsaac was the general manager. Eventually, they both were promoted to the NHL with the Blackhawks and shared in the celebration of winning the Stanley Cup in 2010.
It so happened that after Fraser talked to MacIsaac about potential roles, the Blackhawks had an amateur scouting position open up in Fraser’s home region of Western Canada. Kirt Hill held the position before leaving the Blackhawks to become the general manager of the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings this offseason.
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Fraser was intrigued by the position, and MacIsaac was intrigued by having Fraser in the position. MacIsaac knew enough about who Fraser was to be optimistic that it would be a good fit.
“What he brings to the table with his determination, his work ethic, his hockey knowledge, those are important,” MacIsaac said. “You don’t know when you hire somebody that’s just a former player how they’re going to see the game, how they’re going to report on the game, but you have a pretty good understanding of who they are and how they got to where they are in their careers. And Colin in particular, he worked his way up. He wasn’t a sure-fire NHL player. He had to work extremely hard. He had to hone his craft in a lot of different areas. Where other guys maybe it came a little more natural, he worked at it.
“I know he’ll do the same with this job in our scouting department. He’s going to work at it. He’s going to hone his skills. He’s going to listen to (Blackhawks amateur scouting vice president) Mark Kelley and many other senior guys who will work with him and pick up the tools of the trade. I have no doubt he’ll be excellent. He’s a people person. He’s got good relationships with the area that he’s in with the Western Hockey League. I just think you get a lot from a person when you start with an incredible work ethic.”
Fraser knows who he was as an NHL player. He was a fourth-liner, a role player. But he also played alongside some great players and on great teams. He has three Stanley Cup rings to show for it. He witnessed how to build winning teams from the top to the bottom.
“I think so far as I was a fringe player, a fourth-line centerman and a guy who was in and out of the lineup my entire career,” Fraser said. “With that said, I played with very good players and played on very, very good teams. I was fortunate to win a Stanley Cup with Chicago and two with the LA Kings. I played with (Jonathan) Toews and (Patrick) Kane and (Brent) Seabrook and (Duncan) Keith and (Corey) Crawford, to go back, (Andrew) Ladd, (Dustin) Byfuglien, Marty Havlat, Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, all these guys. You learn from players how good they are.
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“For me, a big reason why I stayed in the NHL, I was a smart player. I wasn’t the fastest player. I wasn’t the most skilled player. I had to rely on my smarts and my work ethic and tenaciousness. I guess those intangibles, the simple intangibles of hard work, wanting it more than the other players and then having good hockey sense, the smarts, I think if anyone can relate to that, it’s me because that’s what kept my NHL career alive for the six years I played in the NHL.”
Fraser will be going back to the grind again. It’s a different grind, though.
“There’s a commitment of time,” MacIsaac said. “When you’re talking of time, there’s a commitment of giving away a lot of those holidays, a lot of holidays are at tournaments and they’re not in the most luxurious of places; they’re in smaller towns. There’s late nights driving through terrible weather and going from city to city to city. The most commitment is your time, and your time on top of that you got to build relationships with all the hockey people in the various places you’re going. So you’re not only gathering eyes on the player information, but also behind the scenes information. So building relationships is going to be important for Colin.”
The job will be a challenge in that way, but it also requires looking at the game in a different way. Fraser is aware of that, too.
“I’ve always watched hockey, but now I have to watch, watch hockey,” Fraser said. “I’m not casually watching it with my buddies and having a six pack of beer. You got to pay attention to all elements of the game kind of like when you were a player. When I played, I was a fourth-line guy, in and out of the lineup, so I watched a lot of hockey. Those games you’re watching them on the bench or I’m in the dressing room or I’m in the press box, you have a better grasp of what’s going on than if you’re casually watching with buddies.
“I had my first taste of it at the under-18s tournament here in Edmonton and Red Deer. I got to meet all the scouts, all the staff. They’ve been very helpful with their tips. I think naturally after that week or six days I feel comfortable. I didn’t know, I guess, what to expect going in, but now that’s over, I kind of have a good lay of the land of what to expect on how to watch the game, on how to do a report, how to set a schedule, all that kind of stuff. There’s definitely a learning curve, and there’s going to be a learning curve, but I’m really excited. I don’t think it’s going to be difficult in as much as it’ll just be learning how to adapt to it.”
What excites Fraser is helping the Blackhawks potentially reach more success, but in a new way. Fraser understands how Joel Quenneville plays, the attributes possessed by a lot of players in the organization and how the NHL game has evolved. Fraser isn’t looking for the type of players he came up with.
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“I think first off the game everybody talks speed and skill which is absolutely true,” Fraser said. “Back when I was coming through, it was size. ‘Oh, he’s big, he’s a project, he has good size.’ Now especially with the Hawks and the way they play a puck possession, speed game, they’re not so worried about size as much as, ‘Can he skate? Can he think the game? Does he have good hockey sense?’ So, it’s definitely changed in that aspect.
“The other aspect is how much and these scouts with the Hawks have kind of opened my eyes to this part of it — how much do you know about the player not only on the ice as a player but the person. When I was going through the draft, sure, I had a couple meetings with teams and you met with a scout here and you met with a scout there, but it wasn’t on the regular. It wasn’t so every week you’re meeting this team, that team, that team.”
Fraser will be working alongside Darrell May, the Blackhawks’ head Western Canada scout. Fraser said his focus will be on the WHL and a few of the other smaller leagues in the vicinity.
This season will be a lot about Fraser learning the ropes, and for him and the Blackhawks to assess whether he’s suited for the job. Fraser indicated that if everything goes well, his role could expand.
For what it’s worth, Kane believes Fraser will excel as a scout.
“He’s a really smart guy,” Kane said. “He’s very smart about seeing different players. Always fun to be around, great locker room guy as well. It’ll be fun to see him around. Probably be a good scout for the Mario Kart game. He was pretty big into it, always hearing him screaming and complaining about something that happened in the game.
“Yeah, obviously had a great career, won a couple of Stanley Cups, had success with us and L.A. He’s probably seen it all from different players and also different organizations as well. He’ll be a great asset to the organization.”
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Fraser already has a feeling he’s made the right choice by getting back into hockey. When he joined the Blackhawks’ other scouts recently, he felt back at home.
“Oh man, I loved it,” Fraser said. “I’m in the rink a lot with the kids and having my own son who plays. But like-minded people. When I met all the scouts, I think there’s 11 of them, the European guys, the Ontario, Jim McKellar, Darrell May, Rob Facca, all these guys, it was like these like-minded people. You’re hockey people at the end of the day. It’s like you have this instant bond and instant friendship, like you’re on a team again.
“Everybody knows they’re going to miss the dressing room when they retire from hockey, and I knew that, and it’s nice to have that sense of camaraderie and friendship and that sense of team again. Even though we’re not together every day, we’re kind of all pulling in the same direction. We want the Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup, and it kind of starts with us trying to find the next wave of kids.”
(Top photo: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
