For the first time in a while, Ben Lovejoy got to enjoy the NHL’s trade deadline.
He was a spectator. Not a participant.
During the bulk of his 11-year NHL career, Lovejoy always was a bit on edge when the deadline rolled around in February.
Now retired and doing work for NBC Sports, Lovejoy was much more at ease and less invested when this season’s deadline expired Monday.
“I get why people love the trade deadline and why they’re so excited to follow it,” said the former Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman who retired this past offseason. “It’s an exciting time for fans. I followed it because it’s part of my job right now. But I didn’t care nearly as much as I used to. It was a very stressful time for me for a long time leading up to trade deadlines.”
Lovejoy was moved twice at the deadline during his career. In 2015, the Penguins reacquired him from the Anaheim Ducks. Last season, the New Jersey Devils shipped him to the Dallas Stars.
“I was a player that could have been easily shipped out every deadline. I held my breath every time. My family held their breath every time. This (Monday’s deadline) was a pleasure just sort of having the TV on and following the trades knowing it wasn’t going to affect my life one bit. It was pretty awesome.”
“Awesome” would be an apt description for what life is like for a 36-year-old retiree with three daughters and plenty of free time.
Reaching the NHL was the fulfillment of his life’s work. But remaining in the NHL was a taxing endeavor for an undrafted player entering his late 30s.
“Hockey was hard for me,” said Lovejoy, who was a member of the Penguins’ Stanley Cup team in 2016. “I spent my whole life trying to get to the NHL, then trying to stay in the NHL. It was a childhood dream come true to make it and play as long as I did. But it was really hard.”
Every turnover or bad clear fans scream about at their TVs or on Twitter? Lovejoy dwelled on each of those miscues on a much more direct level.
“I was a guy in the trenches who took every play very seriously, and every mistake and every goal against,” he said. “The game was very difficult for me. And it was awesome. But I was done.”
“I love the game. I love watching it on TV. I love being a part of the hockey community. I still communicate with all my friends. But I don’t miss going to practices. I don’t miss going to games. I don’t miss the sleepless nights after most games. I don’t miss watching everything I eat in preparation for that game. I don’t miss the video sessions. I gave the game everything I had. I had to. I wasn’t talented enough to just go through the motions, to just lace up my skates and play. It was very hard. It was the best, and now I’m done. I don’t miss going to the rink to play hockey.”
Being sent to Northeast Texas to play for the Stars was hardly ideal for a family with three young children.
“We had a tough season last year in (New) Jersey,” Lovejoy said. “I got traded at the deadline. I knew it was coming. I went to Dallas. It was a good experience in Dallas. It was a good place to play hockey, but my family stayed in New Jersey. And I didn’t see them for a seven-week stretch at one point just because of road trips and school. I didn’t want to do that again. I was emotionally spent. I gave the game everything that I had and it rewarded me tenfold. I’m so lucky that I got to do it for so long. But I was done.”
Lovejoy nearly was done right when things began for him. During the NHL’s lockout of 2012, Lovejoy, then 27, was without a contract and, until that point, never made more than six figures during a season. While he wasn’t exactly clipping coupons, he wasn’t exactly in an ideal station at that point in his hockey career or life.
Eventually, the NHL went back to business, and the Penguins traded Lovejoy to the Ducks, who signed him to his first multiyear, multimillion contract, a three-year deal worth $3.3 million during the 2013 offseason.
Once that contract expired, Lovejoy joined the Devils during the 2016 offseason when he inked a three-year contract worth $8 million.
“Life turned out very well after that lockout,” said Lovejoy, who considered leaving the game and pursuing a career in the private sector in 2012. “That was a tough time. We didn’t know what was happening. The previous lockout (in 2004-05), the season had been canceled. If that season (2012-13) had been canceled, I was an unrestricted free agent having done very little in my hockey career so far. I was lucky enough (the NHL and NHLPA) came to an agreement. I got traded (early in the season) after we started back up to Anaheim. My career blossomed at that point. I was super lucky.”
Lovejoy is, by his own description, enjoying a year of “funemployment” in his native Hanover, N.H. He is serving as a volunteer coach with his alma mater, Dartmouth, an environment he labels as “special” to him. And he’s dabbling in broadcast work for NBC with studio shows for national broadcasts.
He quips he is on a “PTO” (professional tryout) — to use the parlance of hockey contract — with NBC.
“(Television is) something that I had been interested in a long time,” Lovejoy said. “I had spoken to a couple of different places throughout the years. When I decided to retire this summer, the conversations started again. I met with NBC. I spoke with them in the summer. Then went down (to Stamford, Conn.) and went with them in October.
“I really enjoy it. The first couple (appearances) were very stressful. I still don’t feel like I’m perfect at it. But I feel every day I’m getting a little bit better.”
While he is happy to be free from the daily commitment the business of being a hockey player demands, Lovejoy would like to remain in the business in some fashion.
“I’m spending this whole year figuring things out,” Lovejoy said. “I did not know what I wanted to do (after retiring). I’ve really liked coaching at Dartmouth. And I really like NBC. I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do next. I would like to stay in hockey. There was a long period of time where I thought, ‘OK, when I’m done with hockey, I’m done. I want to do something else. I want to get out of it.’ The last couple of years, I feel like I’ve earned a Ph.D. in hockey.”
Follow the Penguins all season long.
Seth Rorabaugh is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Seth by email at srorabaugh@tribweb.com or via Twitter .
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Ex-Penguins defenseman Ben Lovejoy giving TV a try - TribLIVE
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