Andrew Ference’s contract had expired. Were it up to him, the 38-year-old would have silently snipped off the laces of his skates and advanced to the next segment of his life. Ference last played on Nov. 27, 2015. Nearly two full seasons of inactivity were proof that another NHL game was not in his future.
The decision, however, was not his to make alone.
Wife Krista believed a 907-game scrappy NHL career that included a Stanley Cup, three tours of the Final, a captaincy in Edmonton, an alternate captaincy in Boston, and a bird flicked at the Bell Centre crowd were worthy of recognition. So on July 13, Ference announced his NHL retirement. The well-wishes that stuffed his mediums of communication proved his wife was right.
“To have one day to really get your ego stroked a little bit, it felt really good. I don’t know if there’s anything wrong with that,’’ Ference said. “I got a lot of really nice messages from people about my career. A lot of those came out of Boston. It’s by far the most supportive city I’ve ever been in.’’
It is no surprise that Bostonians remembered a stay-at-home defenseman who swapped his Bruins jersey for one with his hometown Oilers more than four years ago. Since arriving from Calgary on Feb. 10, 2007, with ex-Boston College Eagle Chuck Kobasew for Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau, Ference rapidly incorporated himself with not just the organization but the city.
Ference, Pittsburgh’s eighth-round pick in 1997, defined himself in Boston as a fighter — literally as in the shift when he flattened Steve Ott and fought Sean Avery, and figuratively in the way he played above his 5-foot-11-inch frame. His coaches could plug in Ference to fill multiple holes: penalty-killing regular, third-pairing left-side defenseman alongside Adam McQuaid, or second-tandem blue liner next to Johnny Boychuk. The latter was the role he filled during the 2011 playoffs, which ended with the prize that would take the sting out of an unexpected downturn in his final years.
“Any time you end a season feeling like you wasted a year of potentially doing something special, that’s the worst feeling,’’ Ference said. “Getting to the end of the year, looking back at all the frustration instead of embracing the chance to have a year in the NHL, put in everything you have, and you don’t feel you have that in your team, that’s really frustrating. That [stinks]. So it would have been amplified by 10 if I never had the Cup under my belt.’’
In 2013, Ference fell two wins short of his second Cup. His contract was up with the Bruins. Torey Krug was next in line. Ference signed a four-year, $13 million deal with the Oilers.
He had big plans in Edmonton. As captain, Ference believed he’d lead a rising club that reminded him of the 2007-08 Bruins that fell to Montreal in the first round: young but capable of doing good things. In theory, Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Nail Yakupov, Jeff Petry, Sam Gagner, and Justin Schultz would fall in line behind Ference. That didn’t happen.
The Oilers went 29-44-9 in 2013-14 under rookie coach Dallas Eakins. The Oilers fired Eakins after 31 games the following season. Ex-Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli replaced Craig MacTavish after 2014-15. Of the aforementioned players, Nugent-Hopkins is the only one remaining in Edmonton.
In 2015-16, Ference dressed in only six games for new coach Todd McLellan. On March 31, 2016, Ference underwent hip surgery. Following the procedure, Ference understood the severity of his injury.
“When you get it fixed, you actually realize how crappy it really was,’’ Ference said of his bone-on-bone condition. “Now I feel normal again. But it was really bad. I couldn’t stand a certain way or else my hip would lock up. No running at all, or else it really flared up. Even pivoting a certain way on the ice, I stopped doing it that way because it hurt.’’
It was a career-ending operation. Ference spent all of 2016-17 on long-term injured reserve. During his four-year run in Edmonton, Ference didn’t appear in a single playoff game. Over six full seasons in Boston, Ference dressed in the postseason 69 times.
“It’s not like I was coming in with an incredible skill set that other guys didn’t have. That was never the type of player I was,’’ Ference said. “But you battle it out and try and differentiate yourself. I did it through fitness and being able to perform late in the season or the playoffs when other guys fade.’’
Ference’s career trailed off with ellipses instead of an exclamation point. For some players, it would not have led to a healthy post-ice transition.
Ference, however, made diversification of every variety a priority while still playing hockey. Ference initiated the Carbon Neutral Challenge to offset teams’ travel by purchasing carbon credits. He became acquainted with former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick. He earned a certificate in corporate sustainability at Harvard Extension School. Ference became involved with November Project, the worldwide fitness movement. Ference is into cycling and speedskating.
Naturally, Ference has been busy. He is a venture capitalist through Fifth Season Ventures, which invests in companies providing environmental solutions. Ference is the chair of Alberta Sport Connection, which funds sports in his home province. He started working for Sportsnet in an on-air role he terms as storyteller. In July, Ference rode in the 2017 Haute Route race in Colorado, a seven-day, 507-mile event with nearly 50,000 feet of climbing.
“I wanted to do well,’’ said Ference, whose company included ex-pro riders. “The competitive level is still pretty high. I needed something on the calendar to get ready for. I really enjoyed that, having something to circle and train for. So if I went back and did VO2 testing, I’d smoke my old score. I’ve lost about 10 pounds of upper-body weight, so I wouldn’t do so hot in the corners nowadays.’’
Curiosity has always been one of Ference’s strengths. In the sweet spot of his career, when he was down and out because of injuries, Ference had off-ice interests and friendships to keep his spirits high. Near the end, when scratches, both healthy and unhealthy, kept him out of uniform, Ference knew life was not winding down. Just the opposite.
So Ference was a natural fit to speak at the recent NHL Rookie Symposium about how life in the NHL can affect life after it.
“When you make the NHL, you’re a toddler. But you can’t stay a toddler until the day you come out,’’ Ference said. “You have to educate yourself, grow as a person, and have experiences so when you retire from the NHL, you’ve gone through the stages and progressed to adulthood. I played with a lot of guys, guys with long careers, who from the day they came into the league, they stayed a toddler. They didn’t have any experiences. They didn’t have friends outside of hockey, no interests outside of hockey. They didn’t do anything other than hockey. So when it ends, it’s a very abrupt end. Guys have a lot of trouble with that.’’
When Ference understood his on-ice career was over, he and his family considered returning to Boston, the birthplace of his younger daughter. But 8-year-old Stella and 12-year-old Ava have settled into the rhythms of Edmonton since 2013. The pull of Boston was not enough for Ference and his wife to yank out their daughters’ roots.
“Perhaps we’ll revisit that when they’re done with school,’’ said Ference, who lived in the North End. “I love the city. It feels like home. It’s the people I get the most nice messages from. When we run into people around the world, they’re always from Boston.’’
For now, Ference makes do with regular visits back East. In May, Ference stopped in Boston during Ride On for Red Nose Day, a charity ride to raise funds to address child poverty. He is currently in Vermont as an ambassador for NTSQ Velo, which hosts clients for bike rides and retreats in luxury accommodations. Ference is an investor in Somerville-based Greentown Labs, a clean technology incubator.
Ference feels welcome in Boston. The feeling is mutual.
DIFFERING OPINIONS
Second contracts aren’t all the same
Leon Draisaitl could be an outlier. The left-shot center, the No. 3 overall pick in 2014, is an exceptional talent who can play multiple positions while exhibiting opposing styles of skill and power. A 29-48—77 regular season in 2016-17, followed by a 1.23 points-per-game rate in the playoffs, helped the 21-year-old score an eight-year, $68 million second contract.
Another reason for Draisaitl’s $8.5 million annual payday is the identity of the center to which he defers. The Oilers presented Connor McDavid with an eight-year, $100 million extension. McDavid might even be underpaid considering the halo effect he bestows upon the organization and league in terms of marketing, corporate sponsorship, and appeal to prospective teammates (see: Milan Lucic). But purely in hockey terms, the Oilers could not afford to apply previously existing templates, such as six years and $36 million, on Draisaitl. It would not have been easy for management to explain to Draisaitl why he was worth $6.5 million annually less than McDavid, regardless of the latter’s prodigious skill.
While different parties have different opinions on Draisaitl’s AAV, the value the Oilers intend to extract from their top centers cannot be disputed. Starting next year, the Oilers will commit $21 million annually toward McDavid and Draisaitl. It’s the same amount Chicago invests in Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews per season.
The differences are age and expected future performance. McDavid and Draisaitl will be 21 when the puck drops on 2018-19. The Blackhawks are paying Kane (28) and Toews (29) $10.5 million each for five more seasons. Guess which tandem every GM would prefer.
Eight-year term for second contracts, however, is not set in stone. Columbus took the six-year approach with Alexander Wennberg. Unlike the Oilers, the Blue Jackets had no generational comparison on their roster during their negotiations with Wennberg, who agreed to a six-year, $29.4 million second contract.
Columbus’s richest player is Sergei Bobrovsky, owner of a four-year, $29.7 million deal. Centers and goalies are apples and oranges.
So even if Wennberg (119 career points in 217 games) could argue that he deserved a ride on the rising tide initiated by Draisaitl (137 points in 191 games), the left-shot center followed the route set by earlier comparables, coincidentally all Panthers: Aleksander Barkov (six years, $35.4 million), Vincent Trocheck (six years, $28.5 million), and Nick Bjugstad (six years, $24.6 million).
The cases of Draisaitl and Wennberg indicate that when it comes to second contracts, there is more than one way to arrive at an agreement.
ETC.
McAvoy factors into their plans
Part of the reason the Bruins are wary of handing over a blank check to David Pastrnak is the sum Charlie McAvoy can request as soon as July 1. McAvoy is entering the second year of his entry-level contract without a regular-season game on his résumé. But six games of postseason data already indicate the 19-year-old will be in good position to request a generous extension when his entry-level deal expires after 2019.
Say what you want about such a limited sample size. But it came in the playoffs, with zero games of NHL experience. McAvoy averaged 26:11 of ice time, more than Seth Jones, P.K. Subban, Brent Burns, and Colton Parayko, some of the league’s bigger right-shot names. He deserved every minute of play.
Jones, Parayko, and Dougie Hamilton all signed second deals worth $5.4 million or more annually. In 2019-20, the first season of McAvoy’s extension, all of the Bruins’ big-ticket items will still be on the books: David Krejci, Tuukka Rask, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Backes.
Nobody knows whether the cap will rise enough by then to accommodate McAvoy’s expected market rate. So even if it’s two years down the road, the defenseman’s raise is affecting the Bruins’ current approach.
For now, preseason only in KC
The Blues will host the Wild in a preseason game at Kansas City’s Sprint Center on Sept. 28. It is the only time NHL teams will play in the 17,500-seat arena this season, although the city remains under league consideration for future expansion. “Kansas City has never been entirely ‘off our radar screen,’ ’’ NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told ESPN. “We have talked to potentially interested stakeholders in the past, and it’s certainly a market that in the right circumstances (including a desire by our board to entertain further expansion) our league would fairly evaluate and consider.’’ To this point, the league has not been sold on whether the city could support an NHL team or a credible ownership group exists. The NHL would prefer to add a team in the Western Conference. This would create a 32-team league and 16 clubs in each conference.
Malone sets sights on Olympics
Ryan Malone last played pro hockey in 2014-15. That season, the hulking left wing dressed in six games for the Rangers, was demoted to Hartford, and finished the year on unconditional waivers. Two seasons of professional dormancy is a long time, especially for a heavy-legged 37-year-old. Yet the Wild have invited Malone to camp, partly because the former power forward has his hand up for Olympic consideration. Malone has zero chance of cracking Minnesota’s roster. But reps in camp, plus an assignment to Iowa, the Wild’s farm team, may help Malone catch USA Hockey’s attention. Players like the Pittsburgh native on AHL contracts are eligible for the Olympics.
Hurricane upends Panthers’ camps
The Panthers hustled out of Sunrise, Fla., on Friday to Springfield to escape Hurricane Irma. Springfield is the home of the Thunderbirds, Florida’s AHL affiliate. The length of the Panthers’ northern stay is unknown. The Panthers were also scheduled to host a rookie tournament in Estero, Fla., with the Predators, Capitals, and Lightning. But the tournament was canceled. The Lightning made a last-minute switch to Nashville, where Tampa Bay’s rookies competed against the Predators’ youngsters.
Loose pucks
Drew Stafford, plucked off unemployment by New Jersey for a one-year, $800,000 flyer, wasn’t the only ex-Bruin to land a late contract. On Aug. 26, one day after Stafford signed, Matt Hendricks agreed to a one-year, $700,000 deal with Winnipeg. The hard-nosed Hendricks will give the Jets more snarl up front. The Bruins signed Hendricks as a free agent in 2007. The following summer, the Bruins wheeled Hendricks to Colorado for Johnny Boychuk . . . Ivy Leaguer George Parros will be the senior vice president of the Department of Player Safety. Guilty parties will not be subject to one of the ex-slugger’s punches. Harsher discipline will be a night spent reading one of the Princeton graduate’s economics textbooks.
St. Louis coach Mike Yeo donated a youth hockey practice session, a road trip to Dallas for the Blues-Stars game on Dec. 28, assorted Blues tickets, and his game-worn Winter Classic jacket to raise money for Houston residents affected by Hurricane Harvey. Yeo played and coached in Houston, the former AHL affiliate of the Wild . . . The Rangers added horsepower to their hockey operations staff on Tuesday, hiring Brian Leetch and Brad Richards as advisers. Part of their work will be in development. Both ex-NHLers are model examples for prospects to emulate.
Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeFluto. Material from interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.
