The right person can change the trajectory of your hockey career.
When I was a kid coming up through the hockey ranks in Green Bay, Wisconsin, I had something I didn’t fully appreciate at the time.
I had a mentor.
His name was Tim Coghlin.
Tim went on to become the longtime head coach at St. Norbert College and a member of the Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame.
But to me?
He was one of the people who helped show me the way.
You have to remember, this was back in the 1990s.
There was no YouTube.
No social media.
No endless library of hockey development videos.
No podcasts explaining the junior hockey landscape.
No Google search telling a 16-year-old kid from Wisconsin which path he should take next.
We were basically feeling our way through the darkness.
Trying to figure out:
Where should I play?
Which junior tryouts should I attend?
What level am I capable of playing?
What do coaches look for?
What am I supposed to do next?
And for a young player with big dreams, having a high-level college hockey coach willing to answer those questions was an unbelievable blessing.
Tim poured into me.
Every summer, I went to his hockey camps.
He treated me with respect.
He saw potential in me.
He nurtured it.
He encouraged me.
And when it came time to make important decisions about junior hockey and the next stage of my career, I had someone I could turn to who had actually been there.
That matters.
A lot.
Because one of the biggest problems in hockey isn’t a lack of ambition.
It’s a lack of direction.
A kid can be willing to work his tail off…
But if he doesn’t know where he’s going, what level he should pursue, what coaches are looking for, or what mistakes to avoid, he can waste years figuring things out the hard way.
That’s why I believe so strongly in mentorship.
And today, we have the opposite problem from the one I had growing up.
There’s almost too much information.
Everybody has an opinion.
Everybody has advice.
Everybody with a phone can become an expert.
So here’s something I would tell every hockey player and hockey parent:
Pay attention to who you take advice from.
If you want somebody to mentor you in business, find somebody who has actually succeeded in business.
If you want somebody to teach you how to climb a mountain, find somebody who has climbed the mountain.
And if you’re looking for guidance through the hockey journey…
Find people who have actually walked that road.
I say that with humility.
I know how fortunate I was.
God gave me abilities.
People opened doors for me.
Coaches believed in me.
Teammates pushed me.
Mentors guided me.
There were a thousand things that had to happen for a kid from Green Bay, Wisconsin, to eventually lace up his skates in the NHL.
But I also lived the journey.
Youth hockey.
High school.
Junior hockey.
Division I college hockey.
The ECHL.
The AHL.
Europe.
And eventually, the NHL.
I learned something at every single level.
Some lessons came from great coaches.
Some came from incredible teammates.
Some came through success.
And plenty came through getting punched directly in the mouth by failure.
I've always wished I could sit down with every young hockey player chasing this dream and tell them everything I learned.
What matters.
What doesn’t.
What coaches notice.
What separates players.
What mistakes I made.
What I would do differently.
And the things I believe helped me eventually make it.
Obviously, I can't personally mentor every hockey player.
But…
Wraparound and I have been working on something.
Something I probably wasn’t supposed to tell you about yet.
We’re putting the finishing touches on a new hockey resource designed to do exactly that.
Think of it almost like having a hockey mentor sitting beside you.
A collection of the biggest lessons and secrets I learned over a lifetime in the game—from youth hockey all the way to the NHL—written for ambitious young players and the parents trying to guide them.
It's getting close.
Really close.
And I’m incredibly excited for you to see it.
For now, though, I'll leave you with this:
If you're a young player, find great people and learn from them.
Ask questions.
Listen.
Observe.
Be coachable.
And if you're a hockey parent, look around your community.
Find the coaches.
Find the former players.
Find the people who have successfully traveled the road your child is trying to travel.
A great mentor might save them years of mistakes.
And sometimes…
one person believing in a young player can change the trajectory of an entire life.
Have a great weekend.
And, as always…
Keep your knuckles up.
Bobby Robins, savage motivator, NHL Alum, Writer for Wraparound
P.S. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to tell you about the hockey mentorship resource we’re putting together yet…but I couldn’t keep the secret anymore. It’s almost finished, and next week I’ll tell you more. Stay tuned. 👊
P.P.S. >>> This is my favorite off ice training tool.