Ex-Canucks winger Raymond finding peace from NHL grind in farm life
There was a time when Vancouver Canucks winger Mason Raymond was known across the NHL for being one of the speediest, shiftiest players in the league.
Potting 80 goals and 170 points over six seasons in Vancouver from 2007 to 2013, Raymond established himself as a popular player who was a staple of some of the most successful teams in franchise history.
But some 10 years on from his last game with Vancouver, Raymond hasn’t exactly found himself slowing down just yet, working in both the agricultural and automotive industries.
Nearly every day, Raymond finds himself up early in the morning tending his farm out in Alberta before heading out to his General Motors dealership in his hometown of Cochrane, which he purchased in December 2022 and currently serves as the president of.
“Cattle need to eat every day. Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day, you name it,” Raymond said in an interview with Daily Hive. “It’s a never-ending process.”
But Raymond doesn’t mind that he’s seemingly always got something on the go, whether it’s selling cars or checking in on his animals.
“I enjoy the heck out of it. I guess that’s why time flies by, I run multiple companies and manage a lot of people,” Raymond said. “I love what I do and I really don’t feel that every day is work, at all.”
Raymond, who spent the bulk of his NHL tenure with the Canucks before moving onto stints with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, and Anaheim Ducks prior to finishing his career with Bern in Switzerland, says he’s grateful for everything he got to experience over the course of his career.
“I loved having the pressures that came with it,” Raymond said of playing nine of his seasons in Canada. “I owe a lot to the game of hockey for what it’s taught me and what it’s helped me do. There’s so many parallels between sport and life and business.”
In his final year as a pro, Raymond suited up for Canada at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, having previously worn the maple leaf at the 2010 World Championships and 2016 and 2017 Spengler Cup tournaments.
Raymond might be removed from the professional side of hockey, but he hasn’t stopped being involved with the sport. Raising an 11-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter while also finding time to help out at a local hockey school every few weeks, Raymond says he finds joy in passing on the knowledge from his NHL career.
“I love seeing people or hockey players or any [athletes] get to new levels and that is extremely rewarding for me and something that really does drive me,” Raymond said. “I took from the game of hockey for so many years. I took knowledge, I took everything I could, and used it to my advantage to be the best player that I could be.”
Raymond remains in contact with several members of the 2011 team who fell in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final to Boston.
The conversations can vary depending on who he’s talking to: sometimes it’s with Aaron Rome, who’s working on a farm himself these days. Then there’s Montreal Canadiens assistant coach Alex Burrows, who Raymond says he’s in contact in with “every day.”
“It’s a tight-knit family that I definitely keep in contact with,” Raymond added of his former Canucks teammates. “I think it’s neat to see what guys can do outside of the game and other businesses that they get into. I learned this from Trevor Linden: I can hear his words, he said, ‘When you retire from the game of hockey, you’re an old man. But when you hit the real world, you’re a very young man.”
Courtesy Mason Raymond
Raymond added he’s also in touch with Kevin Bieksa, the former Canucks and Ducks defenceman who’s found his niche on the Hockey Night in Canada panel on Sportsnet and CBC.
“It’s awesome,” Raymond added of watching Bieksa. “He more or less says what’s on his mind, within parameters… I’ll be texting him and saying what I think [during his broadcasts]. He’s been really good for it, he’s got a great personality, a great face for TV.”
But outside of the friendships, Raymond’s also found a few new clients via his old teammates, as one of his recent vehicle sales came to former Canucks and current Flames defenceman Chris Tanev, who has spent the last three seasons in Calgary after 10 years in Vancouver.
Raymond’s 2011 playoff run came to an end a game earlier than most of his teammates, where he suffered a broken back just 20 seconds into Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final following a hit by Boston’s Johnny Boychuk.
The injury sidelined him until December of that year after a lengthy recovery process. After what Raymond describes as “extensive treatment and training,” he was able to carve out six more seasons in the league following what could’ve been a career-ending injury.
“It’s still something that I look back on and think about a lot, to be honest,” Raymond admitted about suffering the injury. “You think you’re going to hoist the Cup that night, to [finding out you had] severe damage and was gonna not sure what the next step was, if I was gonna play hockey again or not.”
Despite the brutal nature of the injury, Raymond still seems to take the silver linings of the whole ordeal.
“I learned a lot from that instance… I came out a better person for it, in my mind. Sometimes those rough situations you’ll learn a lot about yourself,” Raymond added. “For me, it’s come and gone and it’s in the rearview mirror. But still wish I had that Cup to hoist.”
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