Seabrook continuing career transition with Canada at world juniors: 'I love hockey'

Brent Seabrook was trying to find something.

A three-time Stanley Cup champion forced to prematurely end his playing career in 2021 due to a lingering hip injury, the former Chicago Blackhawks defenceman considered plenty of options.

Real estate or starting a business were on the table. Those would have been fine. The sport flowing through his veins, however, was the only true calling.

And his wife, Dayna, knew it.

"She's like, 'You just light up when you talk hockey. You're done playing, but it's what you're meant to do,'" Seabrook recalled. "I love hockey, but I've got so much to learn on the other side of it."

His latest step on that side comes as part of Canada's backroom setup for the 2024 world junior hockey championship.

"When Brent Seabrook talks to players, it's a little different than a coach or one of us from the management group," Hockey Canada executive Scott Salmond said. "A guy who can really settle players down and talk to them from a different perspective."

Seabrook last played a competitive game in December 2019. After a year of rehab following surgery, the blueliner felt ready for the pandemic-shortened 2021 campaign.

He instead woke up one morning and realized something was very wrong.

"I couldn't walk," said Seabrook, who would undergo three major procedures on shoulder and hip issues in hopes of resuming his career. "I was ready to go, and then all of a sudden, I couldn't walk. It was three months of banging my head against the wall trying to get healthy.

"It wasn't getting better."

Seabrook, who helped Canada capture world junior gold in 2005, finished with 103 goals and 464 points in 1,114 regular-season games with Chicago. The 38-year-old from Tsawwassen, B.C., added 59 points (20 goals, 39 assists) in 123 playoff contests that included Cup victories in 2010, 2013 and 2015.

"I had a great career," he said. "Maybe my stubbornness of not missing games — wanting to be out there with my teammates — affected my body later on. You don't want to go out that way. I wanted to go out on my own terms.

"I told my body to just screw off for 15 years. It finally turned around and told me to screw off."

Seabrook's contract, which was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning for salary cap reasons in July 2021, will expire after the current season, allowing him to officially retire and potentially seek out an NHL job.

The fire, without a doubt, is still there.

"Gave it everything," said Seabrook, who lives in Kelowna, B.C., with Dayna and their three children. "Still think I could play. I've gained a bunch of weight, I'm not in good shape … but my mind's still there. It's definitely tough."

He got a taste of coaching with the Western Hockey League's Vancouver Giants in player development before a brief stint on the bench in 2021-22.

Salmond, who has brought former NHLers Roberto Luongo, Rick Nash and Shane Doan into the Hockey Canada fold at past tournaments, reached out to gauge Seabrook's interest for the under-20 showcase, which opens Dec. 26 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

"You can't replicate the time he spent in our program in that jersey and the success he's had," Salmond said of the 2010 Olympic gold medallist. "I know him as a person, as a man and a father. I knew he'd be good with these younger players and have the opportunity to share his experiences."

Seabrook got a glimpse of the management grind when he accompanied a friend on a scouting trip to the under-18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.

In the stands scanning the ice and taking copious notes was Jason Spezza — a veteran of 1,248 regular-season NHL games in the midst of his own career change.

"You could see how hard he was working," Seabrook said. "Definitely what I envision. Jason Spezza was a great hockey player, and I don't doubt he's going to be great on this side of hockey.

"But it takes time to learn it. You've got to work at it."

Canada head coach Alan Letang is eager to see what Seabrook, who addressed the team about the opportunity in front of them after the country's roster was picked last week, will bring to his group.

"Stories can captivate the kids," Letang said. "You get little goosebumps. Our kids are super blessed to have someone like him."

Seabrook, meanwhile, is grateful for the opportunity — especially after the pain and disappointment that accompanied the end of his playing career.

"I'm just excited," he said. "I don't think I could be a coach or a manager of a professional team today. But that's definitely something I want to keep open.

"Maybe one day I could give it a shot."

That push starts with Canada.