Lecavalier diving right in to retirement

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
February 15, 2017

TAMPA, Fla. – Still toting around his hockey bag from the Los Angeles Kings, which holds his grey practice jersey and black L.A. helmet with the No. 44 on the back, Vinny Lecavalier stepped on the ice at Amalie Arena looking like he was ready to join the Lightning for another practice.

But the former first overall pick in 1998, who served as captain of the Tampa Bay Lightning and proved the face of the franchise for more than a decade, takes things a bit more slow these days, and that includes when he steps on the ice.

“You skate around but you just don’t feel the same physically once you get on the ice, it’s just not the same,” Lecavalier said. “Everything is kind of slow motion right now when you don’t do anything for seven or eight months, it seems that everything is about 40-percent slower.”

Lecavalier returned to the Amalie Arena ice on Thursday as part of a Lightning alumni team that is preparing to face the Boston Bruins alumni team as part of Hockey Day in Tampa Bay. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door with all proceeds to charity.

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For Lecavalier, Saturday’s alumni game will be his first action since the opening round of the playoffs with the Kings last season. A late-season trade from the Flyers, where he was a frequent healthy scratch, to Los Angeles was consummated between the two teams when Lecavalier agreed that he would retire following the 2015-16 season as his contract would not fit under the Kings’ salary cap this season.

So Lecavalier honored the agreement and hung up his skates during the summer, ending his 17-year career with 421 goals and 949 points in 1,212 games with three teams, though most of his career was spent in a Lightning uniform. Though Lecavalier said the timing was right, some who took part in the alumni team practice on Thursday said he could easily still be a regular in the NHL.

“The quicker we can get a younger guy in to the alumni lineup the better it is for us,” said former Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk. “I did ask him why he retired because I told him that he could still play and if he didn’t watch out, somebody was going to want to sign him . . . and if he saw anybody (on Saturday) dressed in a long jacket, that’s the guy that is scouting him.”

But Lecavalier is quite content in retirement, spending time with his wife, Caroline, and their three children, Victoria, Gabriel and Amelia.

“Honestly I’m really enjoying it,” Lecavalier said. “With my kids’ age it was just really good timing, and I’m having a lot of fun this year. It’s been great.”

Lecavalier moved permanently to Tampa before the start of the hockey season, though he has stayed away from the game for the most part. He was “welcomed home” during a pregame ceremony before a game at Amalie Arena in October and was part of the ceremony where the Lightning retired the jersey number of Marty St. Louis in January. He’s attended a few games here and there while catching some other games on television.

But most of his time spent at the rink these days is with his son, Gabriel, who is five and just learning to play hockey. Twice a week Lecavalier puts on his skates and works with Gabriel along with a group of about 12-15 kids teaching them how to skate and do some stickhandling.

He’s not quite Coach Lecavalier at this point.

“I’m certainly not to the point where I have my own team or anything like that, but I teach a group on Thursdays and it’s been great,” he said. “They are still young and just learning the game so it’s really just more having fun than anything.”

As a now former pro athlete, there is a sense of enjoyment in watching his children participate in sports and help guide them in whatever it is they want to pursue, including baseball, which Gabriel plays three times a week.

That has made the transition from the active and public life of a high-profile professional athlete in to the slower paced world of parenting.

“If I didn’t have kids it might be a different story in the way that I feel, but I feel that being around my kids and teaching my son to play hockey and other sports with him and my daughters as well,” he said. “Now is like the perfect age to start, so it’s great to be able to coach him and be involved. It’s a great sport so I try to show him, as a father, to do the right things and play around with him.”

That transition was also made easier by the fact retirement didn’t come suddenly. He wasn’t somebody that was still hanging on hoping a contract would land in his lap over the summer. He came to accept the move long before it happened.

Lecavalier has not felt the pull of skating away from the game at the relatively young age of 36 and feeling any sense of regret.

“I knew from last January, and even before that, it was going to be my last year,” he said. “So it’s not like you can’t get a contract and you are disappointed, I knew that it was going to happen and it’s what I wanted. So I haven’t felt that.”

Being around his wife and kids on a consistent basis has been part of enjoying the transition.

” I see these guys (Lightning) leave on the road for two weeks and I saw the Lightning the first two months and all the games on the road, it was crazy,” Lecavalier said. “So I’m happy that I can be home now and spend time with the family.”

But that doesn’t mean traveling is out of the equation all together.

“I’ve done a few trips for that, I haven’t been here the whole time,” he said with a laugh. “I had a couple of trips with friends and I feel you still need to do that as well, going from traveling all the time to never is pretty hard. So it’s nice to have a couple of boys trips with some friends. I’m going skiing next month which I haven’t done since I was 10 years old, now I get to do it, so I’m looking forward to that.”

For the time being, this is going to be Lecavalier’s life, enjoy his kids, spend time at home and get the chance to do some of the things he was never able to do for most of his adult life to this point – just be a regular person.

Down the road that might change. The possibility of being Coach Lecavalier – at the youth level – is there with his son. Being more involved in the community is a possibility. It’s all up in the air as he continues to contemplate what the post-hockey life will bring him. But it’s not weighing on him at the moment, he’s just enjoying the first phase of his retirement.

“I told myself I would give myself a year not to think about it, then kind of see what I want to do,” Lecavalier said. “If it’s kind of gone the way things have this year, which I’ve been enjoying, then I’ll do that. As far as community stuff, I’m not sure. I know when the Lightning ask me to do some stuff, I’ll be glad to help out and be involved as much as I can. As far as making a commitment, I’m in a really good place right now and I don’t want to commit to too much right now. It’s my first year and I told myself I wouldn’t really think about anything and then kind of see after that.

“I just feel that I’m in a good place with my kids, they are at the perfect age so we’ll have to see. After a year, that might change, I might feel differently, I just told myself I would give it a least a year and then we’ll see from there.”

Video: Ruslan Fedotenko and Vinny Lecavalier discuss the alumni practice before Saturday’s game

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