- The NHL and NHLPA are putting more than $4 million toward a new post-retirement wellness plan for former players
- Play one NHL shift and you now qualify for a family doctor and a mental health professional for you, your wife and your kids
- Read below for what 400 games gets you and the fund set up for players in crisis
The NHL’s former players just got something they’ve wanted for decades.
Alumni president Glenn Healy announced a new post-retirement wellness plan on Monday, funded by a $4 million-plus donation split between the League and the NHLPA as part of the new collective bargaining agreement. He laid out the details at the NHL Alumni Celebrity Golf Classic at Coppenwood Golf Club in Uxbridge, Ontario, per NHL.com.
Healy did not undersell how far the coverage reaches.
“The way it’s set up now, if you’ve played one shift in the NHL you will get a family doctor. If you played one shift in the NHL you get a mental health wellness professional for you, your wife and your kids,” Healy said.
It runs deeper for guys with longer careers. Anyone who played 400 games gets dental and prescription eyewear coverage. The League and NHLPA also set up a fund for former players in financial distress or, as Healy put it, “catastrophic situations.”
The association has pushed that message for years. Here’s the reminder they keep sending their members:
The holdup, Healy said, came from the alumni’s global membership, since each country carries its own insurance rules. “We have 1,300 members in Europe alone,” he said. Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA president Marty Walsh also worked out how to help the widows and families of former players.
Mike Gartner, who ran the NHLPA from 1996 to 1998, called it a long time coming.
“First of all, it’s essential,” Gartner said. “This was a vision years and years ago. But in order for it to come to fruition, you need the funds to make it happen, and certainly the NHL and the NHL Players Association stepped up.”
Paul Coffey, who sits on the alumni board, has partnered with a group called EAS to push wellness and mental health support. He said the problems former players face have not changed, but the help finally has.
“The difference is, now they have a place to go. And it’s OK,” Coffey said. “It’s not just for the players. It’s for the wives, for the kids, for the families.”
That brotherhood is the whole point, and the alumni have made it plain before:
Every former player at Monday’s event walked away with a platinum alumni ID card, numbered by when they signed their first NHL contract. Card No. 1 belongs to the late Gordie Howe. More than 5,000 living ex-players, including recent retirees, now have somewhere to turn.
