The Ride to The Rink: Jack Han Explains the True Rewards of Hockey

Hello hockey skaters and goalies around the world. Welcome back to another edition of

the ride to the rank We've got a great friend here today. Jack Han has worked at

every level you can think of from the NHL down at youth hockey He helps me as a

coach and we brought him on here today to talk to you kids a little about ROI So

just in case you don't know what ROI is, this is a word you'll hear a lot as an

adult, is return on investments. And the investments in hockey, kids, obviously your

parents, you, you're investing a lot of time, you kids know you probably hear about

it, there's money, if you're buying equipment, you've seen it. What is the return in

exchange for that investment? And Jack has a really great perspective on this he

wants to share with you, Jack, take it away.

So really happy to be here and talk to you. I made the NHL twice,

but neither times as a player. So about 15 years ago, I first made the NHL as a

social media coordinator for the Montreal Canadiens. And then a few years after that,

my real passion is coaching and helping young players. And I ended up working with

the Toronto Maple Leafs as a player development analyst, and also later as an

assistant coach at the AHL level. And perhaps one day I'll make the NHL a third

time as a general manager or as a head coach or anything else. But there's so many

more opportunities in pro hockey than you imagine. Like I know players who have a

great time playing pro hockey in France or Australia or Germany or Hungary, lots of

beautiful countries where you can get paid to play hockey and really have a lot of

fun and compete. So it's not just about earning a scholarship to D1 school.

That's one way for you or your parents to get return on investment. But there's so

many other ways, whether it is working at the NHL level, maybe you drive the

Zamboni, right? That sounds like fun. Or maybe You get to see many other parts in

the world that make you friends and play hockey in countries that you never dreamed

of visiting. So for me, hockey is such a beautiful game because you can express

yourself. You can discover new things. You can learn lessons about yourself. You can

learn to love to suffer because that's a really important life lesson. And so just

beyond going to college for free, I think there's so many other ways to get return

on investment in your hockey. - Jack, can you talk a little bit about why it's so

important then as a youth player, and you're in the rink, right? And you're around

all these people around, everybody is not just your coach, you're around officials

and office officials, Zamboni drivers, rink managers, social media people.

Like why is it so important then to be on your game all the time and know about

your surroundings in kind of modern culture? Well, one, one cool thing about hockey

is that you're always meeting new people and whenever you meet somebody, you know,

the first impression, maybe it's not everything, but it does count for a lot. So,

uh, you know, not only do you learn how to talk to people and how to approach

people and how, how to get on their good side, but you also learned that, you

know, maybe sometimes you make a mistake, you apologize, you move forward and hockey

is a game where, you know, Penalties get you penalized. Obviously you go and sit

for two minutes or five But then you come out and you keep playing the game and I

think that's a great left less Lifeless and where you know, you can make mistakes

and you can learn how to overcome them And you're always meeting new people. So you

you know, you get to start from scratch once in a while And Jack, what are some

of the advantages for kids to once in a while play with and watch closely older

kids? So, you know, maybe your coach or your parents will show you clips of any

child players, and it's great because, you know, you can learn from them, but you

can also learn from players who are just a little bit older or a little bit better

than you because it's very motivating to see someone else do a move and you can

say, well, I'll practice it for a couple of hours and I can do it too. On the

flip side, I think it's also good to play with younger players because then not

only can you practice things that maybe you're a little bit less comfortable with,

but in my case when I was young I would always work at hockey camps with younger

players and it really ignited a love of coaching and helping others that ended up

helping me get to the NHL. So maybe the same will be true for you. I love it.

And I want to say here too, Jack, on both ends of that, older, younger and then

the I things is kids when you look at who's talking to you here every one of us

works in the game in some way You know Christie has written several books about the

game. She's a broadcaster Mike helps organizations out He's a coach Jack's a coach

He has a great business online where he helps other coaches He helps players by

viewing the footage and then you know like what we're podcasting about hockey here

right now And we have a lot of fun with it now I will say this kids listen to

me listen to me very carefully come close to your speaker Play as long as you

possibly can okay play as long as you can if it's your dream to play pro hockey

No one here is going to tell you not to pursue that dream play as long as you

can but also keep in mind That the as Jack said there are so many different ways

to be involved in this game aside from playing That's why your education is also

important. That's why we tell you all the time. It's never about just one thing.

It's not just about playing hockey. It's about making yourself the most well -rounded

you can be. So you can have a life in the game as well. But going back to what

I just said, play as long as you possibly can, okay? 'Cause again, all roads lead

to adult league at some point. You gotta understand that. But I love everything that

we talked about here, Jack, and these are great questions from everybody. Just about

the game is expensive, right? And the game is something that you can expand. It's

not expensive kids It's expensive too, right? There's so many ways to be involved.

All right, but Jack Thanks so much for taking a few minutes with the kids today

and and and I know they love here No problem and Enjoy your right to the rink

enjoy your practice enjoy a game. It goes by really fast You know make a lot of

friends you'll have for a long time and just enjoy it. I love it. Kids, remember,

wherever you're at on your hockey journey, we believe in you. You should, too. For

Christy, for Mike, for Jack, I'm Lee. We'll see you on the next ride to the rink.

Have fun. Skate on. Skate hard. Take care.