Five Questions with Scott Niedermayer

NHL.com's Q&A feature called "Five Questions With…" runs every Tuesday. We talk to key figures in the game and ask them questions to gain insight into their careers and the latest news.

The latest edition features Scott Niedermayer, a four-time Stanley Cup winner, 2004 winner of the Norris Trophy voted as the top defenseman in the NHL, 2013 inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame and a part-time consultant with the Anaheim Ducks.

Scott Niedermayer is closing in on 10 years since he retired from the NHL, so the former defenseman is well past the days when he missed playing the game.

"The first few years, you do, absolutely, but I've still been around it so much that I still feel like it's been a part of my life and it has," said Niedermayer, who retired following the 2009-10 season with 740 points (172 goals, 568 assists) in 1,263 NHL regular-season games over 18 seasons. "I'm at the rink every day still. I just don't come home with bumps and bruises and all that sort of stuff, which in some ways is kind of nice."

Actually, the only rink Niedermayer is at these days is the one he had built in his backyard in Penticton, British Columbia. It has a refrigeration system, so at least the three sons Niedermayer and wife, Lisa, have living with them there (his oldest, Logan, is in California) have that to keep them busy while most of the rest of their activities are on hold because of concerns surrounding the coronavirus epidemic.

During normal times, Niedermayer, who won the Stanley Cup on three occcasions with the New Jersey Devils (1995, 2000 and 2003) and once with the Anaheim Ducks (2007), does some amateur scouting and player development work for the Ducks in British Columbia. But the 46-year-old mostly watches his sons play.

Jackson Niedermayer, who is 19 and committed to play for Arizona State beginning in 2021-22, plays for Penticton Vees in the Junior British Columbia Hockey League. Josh, who is 16, will join Jackson on the Vees next season.

"Potentially they'll be playing together next year, the two middle boys," Niedermayer said. "So, that will be fun at least for the parents. We can go to one spot and see two boys doing their thing."

Watching Jackson and Josh and youngest Luke, who is 11, play is enough hockey for Niedermayer right now.

"I'm still around the group, the team atmosphere, the competition, so I guess I still have that in my life," he said. "It may change in a few years when my boys are all gone and I don't have that anymore, but 10 years later, I still feel like hockey, I'm right in it."

Here are Five Questions with … Scott Niedermayer:

You used to be more active with the Ducks in your role with player development when you lived in California. How involved are you now?

"It's very part time. I'm doing some scouting, watching junior hockey up here. I watch a lot of the BCHL, where my son plays, and then I do watch some of the WHL games up in Kelowna, and in Vancouver. Then, we did draft a player out of the Western Hockey League last year (Victoria forward Brayden Tracey, selected No. 29 in 2019 NHL Draft) and I've checked in on him a few times this year sort of in the player-development capacity. I'm sort of a local asset for them out west here to do a few things."

Are you content with that for now?

"They've been very accommodating with whatever fit into my lifestyle at this point. I'm still enjoying helping coach. Last year, I helped coach the two youngest kids still. That's sort of been the story of my life since I retired, spending a lot of time doing that and helping a little bit here and there where I can with the Ducks over the years. Obviously, up here it's limited much more what I can do, but they've allowed me to sort of stay involved at some level."

The Ducks were 29-33-9 and likely to miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second straight season before play was paused. How far along is the rebuild?

"That's always going to be that quick easy word to say. It's a much more difficult challenge to make happen. Obviously, the team got younger. They had some young guys in the lineup getting experience and learning that it's pretty darn hard to play in the NHL, and that takes time. Hopefully, we can find some good young players and develop them and bring them along that when the time is right that they'll be back to being a competitive team. Every team at some point finds themselves in that in scenario. [The Detroit Red Wings] maybe gave its best shot at sort of sticking with that. New Jersey, obviously, did a good job of being competitive for a long time, but at some point you just can't stay ahead of it."

How much fun did everyone have at the reunion of the Devils' 2000 Stanley Cup team in February?

"It was really good. I think the first one I went to was our '95 [Stanley Cup] reunion. I'd never been to any reunion in my life until that point. I think I was, I don't know about skeptical, but I was sort of like, 'I don't know.' But it's a blast. A lot of guys you don't see much. All of them are spread out all over the world, essentially, and just catching up and telling stories and seeing how people are doing, it's a fun time. So, it was really good."

Did you see the chicken coop your former Ducks teammate Ryan Getzlaf built in his backyard and what did you think of it?

(Laughs) "I didn't see it. I did read about it. I think his dad is in carpentry and construction. I was impressed because I couldn't even do that. My skills probably wouldn't allow me to do that. So maybe some of that [skill] rubbed off from his dad."