The Bieksa family has two things to celebrate in Vancouver this week

The Bieksa family has landed in Vancouver to celebrate two members of their family this week.

Kevin Bieksa is retiring from professional hockey, officially, as a member of the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday. The Canucks will honour Bieksa prior to their game against the Anaheim Ducks, giving fans at Rogers Arena a chance to salute one of their favourites.

It’s a moment that’s been years in the making.

In an exclusive interview with Daily Hive, Bieksa confirmed the idea to retire as a Canuck first came from his father, Al Bieksa, in 2019. And Kevin required some convincing.

“He’s like ‘why don’t you retire a Canuck? Sign a one-day contract,'” Bieksa explained. “I kind of thought ‘no, I don’t need the attention.’ I just started my media career and I was on TV a lot. I didn’t need anymore attention.”

Kevin’s wife Katie Bieksa, as well as his agent Kurt Overhardt, helped convince him to have another night in the spotlight.

“We all kind of thought it would be a fun way to have some sort of closure, and celebrate, and bring everything back to where it started, which is Vancouver.”

Bieksa was actually supposed to retire as a Canuck on March 28, 2020. The pandemic cancelled those plans until Bieksa received a call from Canucks president of hockey operations, Jim Rutherford, this summer.

Katie Bieksa’s moment in the spotlight

The smartest and most talented member of the Bieksa family, by Kevin’s admission, is his wife Katie.

While the attention will be on Kevin Thursday, on Friday the spotlight will be on Katie.

After the success of Newport Jane in 2017, Katie is publishing a second book titled Cedar, with Vancouver-based The Self Publishing Agency.

“It’s different than Newport Jane,” Katie told Daily Hive. “I think a lot of people found parallels to Newport Jane to our life. Some people took it like reading my diary, which was a little uncomfortable, and not true… this is a little bit deeper. Domestic, psychological thriller… it’s definitely a little heavier.”

 

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A post shared by Katie Bieksa (@katiebieksa)

Kevin is immensely proud of his better half.

“Everyone that knows Katie knows she’s this sweet, innocent woman. And then you read some of her writing and you’re like ‘wow, she’s got a darker side.’ But it’s entertaining.”

Katie began writing as a hobby, while the couple’s two kids were at school and Kevin was busy playing for the Ducks.

“Katie did a lot of work when I played for the Canucks in the community with the Canucks Family Education Centre and helping some refugee women get their citizenship,” said Kevin, who noted that Katie was unable to work in the US after he was traded to Anaheim. “So her starting to write, which started as a hobby, turned into a secondary career for her, which is pretty cool to watch. And just how natural it comes to her, and how good she is at it. I think everybody thinks they can write, but I think not a lot of people can do it the right way, and entertain. Certainly she’s got the mind for it.”

The Bieksa kids are proud of mom too.

“They obviously know that mom runs the whole household, and everything goes through her. We wouldn’t be able to survive or function without her,” said Kevin. “Sometimes they think that mom’s just a glorified Uber driver, because it’s just basically carting them around from activity to activity, and school. But they know that she works on something during the day when they’re at school and they see her and they respect her when she’s in the office and she’s doing her writing… they all know that mom is definitely the smartest in the family, and now probably the most talented.”

Fans can meet Katie and Kevin at their book signing, this Friday at The Cross in Yaletown (1198 Homer Street) from 4 to 6 pm.

 

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A post shared by Katie Bieksa (@katiebieksa)

“Everyone’s welcome,” said Katie. “I absolutely hope some hockey fans come out and say hi to Kevin… [but] if someone comes with a jersey, they have to buy a book. So that’s the way it goes.”

A born media personality

Kevin has successfully transitioned into a new career of his own, as one of the stars of Hockey Night in Canada.

The former Canucks blueliner had to work for everything he got as an NHL player, but being a hockey commentator comes to him naturally.

“He is definitely a born media personality,” said Katie.

“I’m the toughest guy in the media, I know that,” Kevin quipped.

During his playing days, Kevin would train so hard, because as he said, he was competing against “natural talent.”

“Now I see him doing media, and he doesn’t have to train at all. He doesn’t prep, he just goes in, watches the game… it shouldn’t surprise me because he’s so witty and he’s so smart. He gets up there and he’s able to do it so effortlessly,” said Katie.

Part of Kevin’s success as a broadcaster has been the mix of elite hockey analysis and expert trolling of Elliotte Friedman.

It’s respectful trolling though.

“There’s nothing premeditated about the show,” Kevin explained. “I can just go on and we just wing it. It’s kind of like having a teammate that you’re around every day and you have such a good relationship with, that you can go at each other and you know it comes from a place of love. I know it’s entertaining for the fans when we go at each other, but honestly, it’s out of respect and love. I think we can both laugh at it.”

“When we’re going back and forth with each other, I’m honestly encouraging him to take jabs at me. And he’s encouraging me to take jabs at him. Because he knows it’s entertaining and it’s fun. That’s a big part of our show. But it’s a balance between that and obviously the hockey knowledge and entertaining the fans from a technical standpoint.”

“It’s where our heart is”

Though they make their home in Southern California, Vancouver quite clearly holds a special place in the hearts of Kevin and Katie.

“We were so lucky, it was like starting at the top,” Katie said about Vancouver. “We always felt like we were wanted in the organization. We always felt like it was home.”

Bieksa played 597 games with the Canucks before being traded to Anaheim in 2015.

“When he got traded, I know he didn’t want to get traded, and he said in the media ‘I’m going to go down with the ship’ when they were having a hard time. So it just seems fitting that now he can come back and actually retire [in Vancouver]… it’s where our heart is.

“Even when we played for the Ducks, which was great, we still spoke so highly of the Canucks. Probably sometimes too much. Probably rubbed some people the wrong way,” Katie said, with a laugh.

Kevin is one of the most popular players in Canucks franchise history, loved by fans for his hard-nosed style of play and clutch playoff goals, to go with his charming personality.

But playing in a market like Vancouver wasn’t always easy. Still, for Kevin, the good far outweighed the bad.

“I think I just embraced it,” he explained. “When you play in a Canadian market, there’s a microscope on you for sure. And when you’re a young player, and you’re trying to make the NHL, that’s an amazing thing… every hit, every fight, you get the applause, you get the accolades. And then as your career progresses, you start to see there is an invasion at times of your personal life, and everything you do and say is, again, replayed and repeated. So, there’s a responsibility. But certainly… I would never trade off not playing in a Canadian market.”

“I engaged with the fan base. I didn’t battle it. Even in the tough times. The fans have a right to their opinion. We didn’t always win… and in those tough times, the fans definitely voiced their opinions, and you have to take the good with the bad. I always thought the good far outweighed the bad.

“Winning in Vancouver was the best feeling and the best experience in my professional hockey career for sure.”

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