Toronto Maple Leafs exec Hayley Wickenheiser shares her favourite parts of the job

When Toronto Maple Leafs assistant general manager Hayley Wickenheiser heads home from her work at any of the team’s facilities, it’s not often she’s got much time to sit around and rest.

While most NHL front office members have just one full-time gig, Wickenheiser opted for a different route, as she also works in emergency medicine as a doctor at a Toronto-area hospital.

“People don’t go to [the emergency room] when they’re having a good day. So it’s a lot of bad days for people, or tough news that you’re giving or helping people. When I step inside the hockey world and the pressure cooker that it is, even though it’s all relative, I’m able to sort of have that 30,000-foot view of, you know what real pressure is,” Wickenheiser said in an interview with Daily Hive.

Having first joined the Leafs organization in 2018 after hanging up a storied career that included four Olympic gold medals, Wickenheiser finds that her two full-time jobs help complement one another.

“You have to stay nimble and flexible, and have the ability to listen, to communicate. Players want to be understood, and they want to know that you care about them, first off, before you’re telling them or teaching them anything. So I always learn every single day, and I find that what I am doing in medicine, it helps me a lot when I step back into the rink and vice versa,” she added.

Highlights with the Leafs

Having spent over half a decade in the Leafs program, she’s been able to see a few success stories under her various roles in the team’s player development department.

“You get a chance to talk to the players, work with them every single day, try to help them get better, whether it’s on the ice, off the ice, and in a variety of different areas. You get a chance to watch these guys come in as 17- or 18-year-old kids and grow into men in the NHL,” Wickenheiser said.

While some players like Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner were high draft picks and always expected to reach stardom, Wickenheiser noted how she’s enjoyed seeing prospects taken in the later rounds find a way to have success at the NHL level.

“Seeing the players develop and mature, a player like Matthew Knies who’s come in and become an impact player for the team… it’s a lot of gratification,” Wickenheiser said. “The challenge of trying to win in Toronto and chase that every single day, the pressure that comes with that… I’m really used to that being with Team Canada, but it is a bit of a different beast here in Toronto.”

Knies, in his third pro season after being drafted in the second round in 2021, is currently having a career year with 18 goals and 13 assists in 46 games this season despite still being on his rookie contract.

Helping get the game back to its roots

For the third year in a row, Wickenheiser is involved with the Kruger Big Assist Program to help more kids across the country get involved with the sport.

Five regional minor hockey associations will each receive $25,000 to help remove barriers that prevent children from accessing hockey, with one grand prize winner who will receive an additional $75,000.

From now until February 10, 2025, Canadians can go online to nominate minor hockey associations for the chance to win up to $100,000, while also having the chance to cash in a receipt from specially marked products in exchange for a free Kruger Big Assist toque.

Wickenheiser is working alongside Natalie Spooner, Nazem Kadri, Marie-Phillip Poulin, and Macklin Celebrini as ambassadors for the program this year, with all of them talking about the joys of the sport and why it’s important to try to raise youth participation rates.

“I find the best coaches should coach the youngest kids because that’s where they need it the most. And it’s actually really hard working with young kids, and you have to be an elite communicator and understand the balance between play and skill development,” Wickenheiser said of what she’s enjoyed most about working with children in her time away from the Leafs.

While she said hockey hasn’t changed much at its core over the years since her playing days, Wickenheiser did suggest that perhaps there’s too much focus on the youth level with minor hockey being a 24/7 endeavour for some children and their parents.

“Today, everybody has a skills coach. They’re in hockey schools. Hockey is played 12 months of the year. I’d like to see us get away from that and just get into, throwing a puck on the ice and [letting] kids go out there and experiment and play the creativity of the game, just let kids dream and try things in a non-threatening environment. And to me, that’s what the game’s all about,” she added.

And for someone who first took to the ice at an outdoor rink in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan, more than 40 years ago, Wickenheiser feels most at home when she keeps the sport simple.

“Still to this day, when I feel frustrated or lose my passion for the game, all I have to do is go back to the outdoor rink, anywhere in the country that has them, and I feel rejuvenated… I love this game. I always have. I can’t really explain it. It’s just in you and a passion that we have.”

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