2020 is an interesting time to be a professional hockey player. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, hockey is seemingly on pause at the moment with the remainder of the 2019-20 ECHL and AHL seasons cancelled and the NHL delicately trying to maneuver a return under a proposed new format.

Most professional hockey players are currently navigating through a time of uncertainty, and for San Antonio Rampage forward, Evan Polei, it has been no exception.  Polei has been trying to get regular workouts and offseason training in while recovering from a significant injury. The 2019-20 season was Polei’s first in San Antonio and was cut short due to an orbital bone injury suffered in a fight versus the Texas Stars in December.

“Recovery has been okay. It’s slow,” said Polei.  “It was a pretty significant injury and there’s a lot of damage that I’m trying to get worked out. I’m trying to see doctors, but it’s been difficult with the virus. Doctors told me it would be slow, but I just keep doing exercises for it every day. Hopefully by the time camp rolls around I’ll be 100% and ready to go.”

While the road to recovery has been long and strenuous, Polei has the discipline and work ethic to battle back to a point where the focus is now on improving his game for next season.

But hard work is not a foreign concept to Polei. Drafted 242^nd overall in 2011 by the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League, there was no guarantee that Polei would get as far as he has in pro hockey right now.

“I knew I was a good enough player to be drafted, but I had to work hard.  When I got the opportunity and Saskatoon drafted me, I told myself, ‘I know I was only an eleventh-round pick, but I’m going to prove that I can play in the Western Hockey League.’”

One of the most pivotal points in his career was a trade that sent Polei to Red Deer in his rookie 2013-14 season. It was in Red Deer where he enjoyed some of the best hockey of his career under the tutelage of coach Brent Sutter.

“When I got traded from Saskatoon to Red Deer, Brent Sutter gave me the best opportunity I could’ve asked for. I don’t think I would be a professional hockey player if it weren’t for my time in Red Deer.”

A character like Brent Sutter can seem larger than life in junior hockey circles. His resume speaks for itself with a playing career that spanned 18 seasons and a coaching career that includes five seasons in the NHL split between New Jersey and Calgary, two gold medals as head coach of the Canadian World Junior team and a 2001 Memorial Cup Championship with Red Deer.

As the current coach and GM of the Red Deer Rebels, Sutter has a reputation for being tough. But nobody can question that he knows what it takes to get to the next level. For Polei, Sutter’s coaching style got the best out him.

“A lot of guys will tell you ‘he’s a hard coach to play for’ or ‘he’s grumpy all the time,’” Polei recalls. “But you know what? He set me up to take criticism and I thought he was a great coach. I wouldn’t be where I am today without him. He’s a fantastic coach.”

Polei enjoyed four strong seasons with Red Deer where he scored 72 goals and 131 points in 242 career games. While his play and hard work earned him more playing time on the ice, Polei was also very present in the community.

“I did a lot of humanitarian work in Red Deer and was recognized a few times for my effort. I loved interacting with the fans the most. I loved to go to the schools and spending time—playing a lot of floor hockey with the kids.”

For Polei, and Rebels fans for that matter, one of his fondest memories was the team’s run in the 2015-16 playoffs. As host of the Memorial Cup, Red Deer was guaranteed a spot in junior hockey’s most prestigious tournament. That year Red Deer loaded their roster for a deep playoff run.

As Polei remembers, “We had a lot of depth.” The team featured future NHL players like Jake DeBrusk, Haydn Fleury, and Josh Mahura and was also loaded with junior standouts like Polei, Adam Helewka, Ivan Nikolishin, Michael Spacek, Colton Bobyk, Brandon Hagel, Conner Bleackley, and Adam Musil.

“We had depth, size, speed, and a lot of skill. Brent (Sutter) has been around hockey a long time and he helped mesh it all together.”

The team made it to the Memorial Cup semi-finals after a thrilling 2-1 overtime win over the Brandon Wheat Kings. The game-winning goal came as a result from of a cross-crease pass from Bleackley to Polei whose goal whipped the home Red Deer crowd into a frenzy.

“Scoring that goal for sure one of the highlights of my time in Red Deer.”

The Rebels would go on to lose 3-1 to Rourn-Noranda in the semi-finals, ending one of the most anticipated seasons in the franchise’s history.

“I feel like we should’ve went further in the Memorial Cup,” Polei reflects. “But we played hard and sometimes that’s the way it goes. We had a solid team and had a lot of fun. I loved playing in Red Deer. It was a good time in my life.”

Polei would go on to build off of the momentum from that Memorial Cup run and have his best season for Red Deer in 2016-17. After not being selected in the NHL draft, a strong 33 goal, 62 point performance earned Polei a minor league contract from the Edmonton Oilers in the middle of what would be his last WHL season.

“I kind of knew that pro was in my sights, but at the time I had my mind on gearing up for the WHL playoffs. I had to prove that pro was a ‘reachable’ goal for me and prove that they made the right choice in signing me.”

In the first round of the WHL playoffs, Polei scored nine points in six games against Lethbridge before receiving a suspension for an elbow in Game 6. Red Deer would end up losing Game 7 meaning Polei would have to watch his junior career end from his couch.

“At that point I knew it wasn’t really the end of my career and that I had an opportunity to go out and make it as a pro.”

Polei would start his pro career with the American Hockey League’s Bakersfield Condors. 21 years old at the time, one of the biggest differences that jumped out to Polei about playing at the next level was the inherent professionalism of treating hockey as an actual job.

“(The biggest adjustment was) the professionalism around how you show up to the rink everyday,” Polei explains. “Rather than junior when you show up with your buddies and fool around and have a good time. Back then you just go out and enjoy hockey. Whereas in pro, it’s a job. You always have guys coming in trying to take your position and work harder than you. Coming into pro you need to have the mindset to be the best version of you on the ice and off of the ice.”

In his rookie season, Polei definitely had to adjust to a new pace and a new atmosphere. Despite his hard work, he was assigned to the ECHL to play for the Wichita Thunder, which ended up serving as a wake-up call for the young left winger.

“It took me a little bit in Wichita to figure out what I needed to do. I moped around and pouted a bit, but I realized that wasn’t going to get me back into the American League. So I turned it around.  I started going to the gym outside of the rink every day and played hard every night regardless of the score.”

Around Christmas of that season, Bakersfield noticed the growth in his game and rewarded Polei with a call-up. From there would end up sticking in the AHL.

The following 2018-19 season was a pivotal one for Polei in Bakersfield. Under first-year coach Jay Woodcroft, Polei thrived in a checking role and chipped in with 20 points in 53 games. This garnered the attention of the St. Louis Blues who signed Polei to a two-year, two-way NHL contract.

“Jay did a wonderful job. I thought he was awesome. (Assistant coaches) Dave Manson and J.F. Houle contributed and made a big difference in Bakersfield. They really helped me to earn my first NHL contract with St. Louis. It was a lot of fun playing for them.”

That brings us to a 2019-20 season that was chalk full of adversity. A slow start to Polei’s first year in St. Louis’ organization was only exacerbated by an orbital bone injury that would end his season altogether. Despite the obvious disappointment, Polei used his time to recover and volunteer in the community. As San Antonio’s Player Representative for the Professional Hockey Players’ Association (PHPA), he has been a very visible leader within the team and with the fans.

“It’s always been normal for me to things off of the ice and interacting with fans.  I like asking them questions, signing autographs, seeing the smiles on a kid’s face. It’s what they come to the games for. And it puts a smile on my face too.”

One particular program in particular that Polei participated in this season was the PHPA-Meridian Grow with the Pros! Mentor Program. He, along with teammates Josh Wesley, Adam Wilcox, and Jake Walman, served as Player Mentors for a group of about 40 minor hockey players through the Junior Rampage program. The Player Mentors interacted with the kids on and off the ice, leading them through drills and games on the ice, and later a candid discussion off the ice.

Polei found the program to be a worthwhile and rewarding experience.

“I think the program is great. I love seeing the smiles on the kid’s faces and you get to interact with the kids on a personal level. When you have a smaller group of kids you can just laugh around and play. They can come out on the ice and see what types of drills that we go through and see what type of skills that they have to work on. Simple skills like picking pucks up off the boards and stuff like that. It teaches them how to play properly. It’s a great experience for them. They look up to us and I think that they take a lot away from it. We have a lot of good conversations with the parents too and they appreciate us taking time out of our days to have fun with their kids on the ice. It’s a great program and I hope it continues to excel in the future.”

Due to a shuffling of AHL team ownership, next season, the Rampage are relocating to Nevada to become Vegas’ new affiliate, with St. Louis taking over Springfield as their new AHL destination. Despite having only spent a year in San Antonio, Polei enjoyed his time there.

“San Antonio was great,” Polei says. “It was more of a basketball town with the Spurs, but we still got a lot of fans every night. They love to come out to hockey games. You’d think in Texas hockey wouldn’t be that big, but we had big crowds every single night. It was awesome. They were into it and would cheer no matter what.”

Between the injury and pandemic-shortened season, this unusual 2019-20 season is in Polei’s rear-view mirror. As a self-described “steady, straight-line, hard-playing type of player,” he is working hard to get himself prepared to come back and prove himself to Blues management.

“It’s always tough signing with a new team. You have to come in and prove yourself again. I want to have a good career and play as long as I can. The ultimate goal is obviously the NHL.”

With a changing global landscape due to the COVID 19 pandemic, Polei has to get creative to get an effective offseason workout in.

“It’s been tough this summer without skating. If you don’t have anything at home it’s harder since gyms aren’t open. I’ve been going for a lot of runs, I bought some synthetic ice and the plan is to set it up in the back yard with some boards and do a bit of skating.  It’s a little bit challenging. There’s a lot of things we have to work on off-ice this summer because everything is closed.”

Despite all of this Polei is feeling optimistic to return to the ice. A career that has been built on having to prove himself at every level, he isn’t satisfied to just tread water.

“I worked really hard to get where I am and I have a lot of work left. The NHL is the goal.”