- Mike Condon hid a mental health battle for his entire NHL career
- The former Senators, Penguins and Canadiens goalie is now a mental performance coach
- Read below for how a session with a Sabres prospect changed his path
Mike Condon spent four NHL seasons in the crease, but he says the toughest opponent he ever faced was the one in his own head.
The former Senators, Penguins and Canadiens goalie told NHL.com’s Amalie Benjamin this week that he hid a mental health battle throughout his playing career.
Condon was asked what hockey actually felt like for him on a day-to-day basis.
“Most fun I’d ever had playing sports was like JV soccer,” Condon said. “But then I found myself in the NHL being like, ‘I hope this game gets cancelled.’ I was like, ‘something’s not right, but you’ve got to smile.'”
He finished his NHL career in 2019 with a 45-58-17 record, a 2.79 goals-against average and six shutouts across 129 games in Ottawa, Pittsburgh and Montreal.
The turning point came later. Condon served as Northeastern’s goalie coach from 2021 to 2023, and his sessions with prospect Devon Levi kept running far past the two minutes he’d planned.
Condon explained why those long talks stuck with him.
“I was like, this is more beneficial than talking about where you’re holding your glove,” he said. “I want to learn how to do this the right way.”
He went back to school at Boston University, earning a master’s in counseling and sport psychology in 2025. He now runs his own practice, Condon Performance Consulting.
Beat writer Andrew Zadarnowski summed up that career shift well:
Condon said he never felt like he could speak up during his playing days, since he spent his career fighting for a roster spot on two-way deals.
That part of the league has shifted some. He pointed to Spencer Knight, Linus Ullmark and Victor Hedman as players who stepped away this year for their mental health and made it back, with Ullmark and Hedman both finding their footing again on the ice.
Condon was asked how hard it is to separate the job from everything else going on in life.
“You go home and you’ve got to be a human,” he said. “What if your dog dies? What if your girlfriend breaks up with you? Life doesn’t care, but you still have to compartmentalize and show up. That is a very, very hard thing to do.”
These days, Condon spends his time trying to make sure the next goalie doesn’t have to hide a mental health battle the way he did.
