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. This week, we feature Glenn Healy, a former NHL goalie who has been president and executive director of the NHL Alumni Association since June of 2017.
NEW YORK -- In 2017, right around the time Dave Semenko was diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer, Glenn Healy was approached by Wayne Gretzky with an idea to help their fellow NHL alumni live better and healthier lives.
"He watched a whole bunch of people around him struggle, people who fought for him, and he thought we could do better," Healy told NHL.com. "He called and said, 'Let's fix this.'"
Healy was named the president and executive director of the NHL Alumni Association on June 19, 2017. Semenko died 10 days later.
Since then, Healy and the NHL Alumni Association have followed the same mantra every day.
"Make tomorrow better than today for players immediately," Healy said.
It's been happening for nearly eight years now, and considering Healy's energy and passion, it feels like he and the NHL Alumni Association are just getting started.
Healy recently attended an event to help launch the new "Honour The Past" Apparel Collection, an exclusive clothing line partnering the NHL Alumni Association and Fanatics, at the NHL Shop NYC, the League's flagship store at One Manhattan West, a short walk from Madison Square Garden. He was joined by fellow former NHLers Adam Graves, Mike Richter and Patrick Flatley.
Prior to participating in an autograph signing session at the store, Healy spoke with NHL.com about the work being done for retired players by the Alumni Association.
Describe the difference you guys are making? What is it? What's the tangible difference?
"I think the biggest thing is the phone calls. I used to answer the calls for suicide, critical care, acute intervention, and I am nowhere prepared to answer those calls. I went to Western Michigan. It was daycare, OK? And I'm answering those calls, so I knew we had to get a full-blown library of services to wraparound all the players so that when the phone rang I didn't have to say, 'I'm sorry,' but instead I could give them an answer. That's what we built up from mental wellness in Canada with the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, UPMC in Pittsburgh, the KI Institute out of Sweden to take care of the Europeans, because we have 1,300 of them. To make sure that all of those questions get answered and help and hope is there for every player and their wives. We're the only sports organization that hired a female to work with the wives. We have 37 players with Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and dementia and we have a female who just works with the wives, who are the caregivers. So, we're covering all the bases and more because we know that short career, long life, they've got to equalize, they've got to matchup. That's our journey, our vision, what we want to create so when we turn the lights off and leave the next guy who turns it on it is ready to go and built for them."
Do you have the stories of all the help working, making a difference?
"Oh, it's ridiculous. It's overwhelming. It's why we do it. It's what drives the passion in us. We do it because we get up every day with our feet on the ground and know we have made a difference for guys that don't know where to go to get help or their wives. Their wives are saying I want my husband back, or the kids are saying I want my dad back. We can bring them back. They just have to call, and we can give them the hope and the help."
How did you get the rolodex of all these former players? There are so many of them.
"You know what? We had a good chunk of it, but once the word gets out in our small community that there is hope there and help and all you have to do is call and I can make tomorrow better than today -- can't guarantee final results, but I guarantee tomorrow is going to be better than where you are now -- then word spreads fast. And, players, like we were as teammates, they are the ones that call and say, 'This is what I'm hearing, can you help?' It spreads fast. We're not a big community -- 5,000 in total, 1,100 that have played 10 games or less. You think about it, the Montreal Canadiens for 16 years had three centers. So, it's a small community."
It seems like this has become a passion project for you. Has it and did you expect that?
"Yes, and yeah I did. If you've got gas in the tank, do it. If you've got passion, do it. Don't lay off because you're lazy, because I've got better things to do. Is bag piping more fun? Yeah, it is. But you do know every day that you can make a difference, so do it while you can. You played with all these guys. You played with guys that committed suicide. Why? Why did they commit suicide? We show a video, a Springsteen video, ‘No Surrender.’ You'll watch it and you'll think that's an amazing video. Seven seconds in that video, they're all suicides. You watch it and you wouldn't even know it, but that seven seconds bothers me more than anything in this world. That's got to be zero. It has got to be zero. So, while I can do it, I'm going to do it. And then when I'm too tired to do it, I'll lay down and someone else will pick up the reins and off they go."
You've been able to help the Alumni Association monetize as well, creating a business side to it. Describe the business side, what does it do and how does it benefit the alumni?
"Well, you need some fuel for the engine. The engine that drives it would be the business side that pays for the doctors, the social workers, the medical staff that we have. All of that costs money. You'd love for everybody to do it for free, right? They can't all be the Rangers doctors. They do everything for nothing. So, you need to make sure that business side takes care of everybody, so you have hockey sides, EA Sports, etc. And what makes it are the players who tell me, 'Put me in a video game. I'm good with that.' The No. 1 player in the video game is Johnny Bower because the kids cannot believe that a goalie played without a mask on. He's in it. And his wife, when she was alive, Nancy, she said, 'Put Johnny in it because he would know from up above that it's taking care of some of the guys.' It's the players who make it, nothing more and nothing less. The players have gathered together on one team and said, 'Fix it. Make a difference. Make tomorrow better than today.' That's it."
When a player is done playing, he doesn't immediately announce his retirement. Does he have to be officially retired, paperwork filed and everything, to be a member of the NHL Alumni Association?
"No, but we're very cautious. You know what? Probably the worst call you could ever get is from the GM saying you're done. I mean, I only know one guy who retired on his own. Pretty much everybody retired because of a pink slip, because of old age or whatever it may be. So, I think the worst call you could get is from the GM saying you're done. The second worst call is from me going, 'Welcome to the club.' So, we're very cognizant of that and very sensitive, but we do know there's a couple things -- everyone dies and every single player, I don't care who you are, you will be retired. And when you do retire, we will have a safe place for you and your wife and your kids to land because we look at the whole family dynamic and everybody gets taken care of. If someone calls with an issue with their kids, we take care of it. Done. It's done. No matter how overwhelmed we may be, how busy we may be, stay one more hour, stay two more hours, and you get this done."
What is the NHL's involvement?
"(Commissioner) Gary (Bettman) and (Deputy Commissioner) Bill (Daly), and Marty (Walsh) with the NHLPA, have been nothing but exceptional. The music stops and there's a chair for every one of us. They have been exceptional. I've had, privately, issues with players and Bill has stepped in and given me a lifeline that I never could have ever imagined I would have to help somebody. Gary has been the same way. Marty understands; he was a person who had some trouble with a coping mechanism and knows that sometimes you need help from your friends. He understands that his dad made a better tomorrow than today for him with the union side. So, he gets it all. The guys that came before him, off their shoulders he has a better life, and it's not insignificant to him. All of that put together with the dynamic we have in a $6 billion industry we can accomplish anything we want."
What kind of reaction do you get from the players, playing or retired, when you talk about this with them?
"Well, they're all on the same team. It's one team. It's kind of great to think that I can play now on a team now with Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey on defense, Jean Beliveau at center, Mark Messier gets moved to the wing and sorry, Wayne, you get moved to the wing too. What a lineup we can have. But that's the power of the players. The players built the game. The players that play today, we paved the roads for them to drive on. It's the players that have driven this and they're the ones that should be thanked and they're the ones that have made a difference."
Do you talk to current players, maybe even do a League-wide tour to each market, to let them know what's going on with the Alumni Association so they have fewer questions when their time does come to retire?
"Well, everyone has got a hero, so if we have a meeting with current players and Wayne or Bobby walk into that meeting, that matters. We haven't done the tour yet, but that's approaching in a sense that they do understand. We're not there to say when you retire it won't be as good. No, when you retire it's going to be as good. We're going to make that transition, which you all with have, much easier. Our current guys are busy playing. They don't have time for a lot of things we can do. We have time to help grow the game and build the game."
What is next for the Alumni Association?
"We need a wellness plan for players. We're the only sport that doesn't have it. Gary has done an incredible job with Bill of putting all the bricks in the wall to make sure the players have a better tomorrow than today. If you don't have money, that's all you think about. If you don't have health, that's all you think about. We need the last brick in the wall. A wellness plan is well in the works. It's about creating about a best plan that is sustainable. The current players have a health plan that is really well done. It has a subsidy in it, so they never have to lose it. I'm looking at the 1,500 guys that played 400 games and didn't have that and don't have it. We have a guy in Marty Walsh now who cares, who is passionate, who understands, who knows God gave him two ears and one mouth, and he uses those two ears to listen. He cares and I think we're going to get it done. The players care. They want to make a difference. We're doing it."
