In the offseason, hockey fans are treated to the spectacle and grandeur of NHL free agent frenzy. The size of contracts handed out leave up-and-coming hockey players chomping at the bit to advance through the professional hockey ranks.

But, these types of payouts are definitely the exception and not the rule for the average professional hockey player. Recently retired hockey player Jordan Kwas understands the challenges of grinding through the-day-to-day of the ECHL.

A veteran of four seasons in the NCAA and four in the ECHL, Kwas decided last summer that he would hang up his skates to pursue his start-up company with his brother. But, as Kwas describes it, there was never a sense of finality to his decision to retire.

“I didn’t ever really think that I was ‘done’,” Jordan explains. “It wasn’t necessarily a situation where I walked away. Stuff happened over the summer and different opportunities came up. I knew it was time to transition to something else. I wanted to be on the climb in a field I knew I could build on, whereas in hockey I had felt that I’d plateaued.”

Kwas grew up in Cochrane, Alberta just outside of Calgary. He lived in Hawaii for a few years until age five where his father worked as an engineer. It wasn’t until his family’s move back to Alberta that Jordan strapped on a pair of skates for the first time.

“I didn’t get a chance to get into hockey until we moved back to Canada. Once I got a taste of it I fell in love with the game.”
 

As much as Kwas was enamored with the sport, he hadn’t considered a future in hockey until his seasons in midget with the UFA Bisons. Jordan was one of three second year players able to make the AAA midget team, and from there he had a feeling that he could make something out of hockey.

Kwas moved up the ranks and played three seasons of junior hockey with the Olds Grizzlys in the AJHL. In 2009-10—his last season of junior—Jordan led his team with 66 points and tallied 21 goals. This strong season led to an opportunity to play college hockey at the next level.

“Not to sell myself short, but Alaska-Anchorage was one of the few schools offering me a scholarship at the time,” Kwas recalls. “They hung around until my last junior season was done and told me that they had a spot. They were still in the WCHA at the time and played some Big Ten schools. It seemed like decent competition so I said, ‘why not?’ It ended up being a very good opportunity.”

The summer of 2010 Kwas committed to the University of Alaska-Anchorage where he got a scholarship and double-majored in marketing and management. While they have some NHL alumni in Jay Beagle, Curtis Glencross and Mike Peluso, the Seawolves were not considered one of the bigger programs in college hockey. But Jordan didn’t mind it that way.

“We were always the underdog competing against some pretty big schools which was fun. In my freshman year we actually swept the Gophers in Minnesota in the first round which just shouldn’t have happened. At the time it was a really big deal.”

Kwas enjoyed four seasons with the Seawolves where he scored 30 goals and 90 points in 124 career games.  He owes his development and success to his former head coach Matt Thomas, who is now the head coach of the Cincinnati Cyclones, who took over the Seawolves bench in 2013.

“Thomas came in my senior year. He was a different style of coach and inspired the older guys to take on a leadership role on the team. He had a huge hand in helping me get a professional hockey job.”

As his college career wound down Jordan started to take calls for some professional hockey opportunities.

The 2014-15 season saw Kwas make his ECHL debut with the Colorado Eagles where he scored 21 points in 52 games. A decent rookie season by any measure. Some of Kwas’ biggest adjustments from college to pros came away from the ice.

“I found that in pro hockey I just had a lot more free time on my hands. Up to that point I was used to having my days accounted for with practice, going to class and playing games. You’re almost forced to be social. Nobody’s holding your hand at the professional level. You see some guys fall into a bit of a hole where they’re playing video games all day as soon as they get out of practice, but I learned how to focus on my own growth. You realize that it’s a gift to work in professional hockey. You get as much as you put into it.”

His sophomore season saw Jordan play a combined 60 games across three different teams. After starting the year in Colorado, Kwas was traded to the South Carolina Sting Rays only to later be claimed off waivers by the Wheeling Nailers.

As Jordan put it, “in that 2015-16 season I was a bit of a suit case.”

After all of the uncertainty of the prior season, Kwas felt discouraged.

“After bouncing around a bit I ended up on the Nailers,” Jordan explained. “And at that point in my career I started to talk to my parents about looking for a job away from hockey. They convinced me to stick it out, I went to Wheeling and ended up playing with some of the best guys I’ve ever known.”

After the Nailers picked him up off waivers, Kwas scored 17 points in 33 games down the stretch for his new club. Wheeling finished second in the ECHL’s North Division and went into the playoffs with some momentum.

“It was an unreal team. We ended up making a playoff run. We beat the top seeded Florida Everblades and then got matched up against Reading, our rivals. We had some insane overtime games and beat them in seven. We then played South Carolina—the team that got rid of me—and we ended up beating them in seven. We lost to the Allen Americans in the finals, but the ride was unforgettable. Just an awesome group of guys. After bouncing around at the beginning of the season, the 2015-16 season ended up being the highlight of my professional hockey career.”

The 2017-18 season was Kwas’ last as a professional hockey player. He scored 33 points with the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks. Since stepping away from the game Jordan has found that there’s an adjustment in lifestyle.

“There’s definitely a transition period away from the game. Professional hockey players live a regimented life. Everything is set up for you and you have to come in and perform.”

Jordan has recently started to work on a tech consulting firm with his brother called TechYeti. The company is described as “a start-up for business planning for entrepreneurs.” They specialize in website building, graphic design and consulting and have begun to develop apps.

“In terms of moving over from hockey, the biggest difference has been how I focus my energy,” Jordan explains. “Instead of working my butt off every shift, I have to work hard and smart all within the framework of our company’s long-term strategy.”

TechYeti was born from an emerging new trend that saw space in custom website design for businesses looking to tailor-make and weave e-commerce and functionality into good looking designs.

“Anyone can go on Wix or WordPress and pay $15 a month to build a website with a pre-made logo. We’ve actually shifted out of that and try to provide a completely custom service. TechYeti can act as IT and help to implement software in your company whether it be inventory, accounting, account management, client relation software right into your website. We also can assist in social media services where we can set-up Facebook and Google business pages and optimize it for reviews, clicks and likes. We are wearing a lot of hats right now, but we brand what we do as ‘business start-up services’. In terms of the hockey community I know a lot of guys that want to start a business but just don’t know where to start. We’ll help to develop a business plan, marketing strategy. We’re wearing a lot of hats right now but we feel that it makes us flexible.”

As a professional hockey player, Jordan has used his connections to build their portfolio while helping friends to build a business and adjust to their post-hockey career.

“When I was in Wheeling I started working with my brother. I worked on sales and networking for the company while he worked on the software side of it. My connections have been great in helping former teammates develop their businesses, be it assisting in brand and website building for hockey camps, apparel companies or anything they may need that type of service. We would love the opportunity to be used as a resource by the hockey community to help players achieve their post-playing career goals.”

Jordan believes that transitioning from the professional athlete lifestyle to working and succeeding afterwards comes down to confidence and applying yourself.

“The biggest thing is having the confidence to sell yourself. The ability to bet on yourself is huge in both hockey and in business. Knowing that I played professional hockey is a huge personal achievement that nobody can take away from me. I take that confidence and use it to help myself grow as a business man.”

But you have to grind. Getting up at 6 am to learn a new software is like getting up early to drive to the rink for practice. Not to sound too cliché but anytime I learn a new skill or make a sale it feels like I’m scoring a goal.”