Former Flyer Fedoruk learns from mistakes

[hf101]

by Randy Miller

VOORHEES — Ilya Bryzgalov was out there on the ice skating sprints and blocking shots for 90 minutes Wednesday morning at Skate Zone, and it probably felt twice that long the way Flyers players were being pushed.

Deciding he’d had enough, the Russian goalie left his post and began skating off the ice.

“We’re not done yet, Bryz,” a voice called out with authority from center ice.

Bryz didn’t listen and left, but everyone else out there sure got a kick out of seeing the determination and outspokenness of a former Flyers tough guy who recently got into coaching.

Out of work since last Sunday due to the start of another NHL lockout, Flyers players have been renting their usual practice rink for morning workouts and they’re getting their money’s worth with Todd Fedoruk tiring out whoever shows up daily.

“They bust my chops, but I’ve got to keep them moving out there,” Fedoruk said.

Fedoruk was an easy hire. The Redwater, Alberta, native lives just up the road in Mount Laurel; he has minor-league coaching experience; he was hireable during the lockout because he’s not employed by an NHL team; and he needs the money.

Fedoruk, 33, has made some major transitions the last 2½ years to a life that had been full of highs and lows.

A year ago, he quit playing hockey after a training camp tryout with the Vancouver Canucks didn’t go the way he had planned. The year before, he gave up drugs and alcohol.

There have been many challenges since Fedoruk entered and completed a 28-day outpatient rehab at Turning Point in Tampa when becoming sober on April 26, 2010, the toughest coming 11 months later when Minnesota Wild enforcer Derek Boogaard died in May 2011 from an accidental overdose of alcohol and oxycodone.

Fedoruk, a 6-2, 232 pounder, and Boogaard, 6-7 and 265, became good friends and teammates on the 2007-08 Wild. Before that they had been fierce rivals, and Fedoruk has a permanent reminder to show for it — titanium plates embedded into one of his cheeks from being knocked out in a hockey fight with Boogaard on Oct. 27, 2006.Worse yet, Boogaard died from the same alcohol/pain-pill cocktail that Fedoruk had done many times.

“When things like that happen, it really opens your eyes to how lucky you are to live to see that you’ve got to make a change,” said Fedoruk, who still keeps in touch with Boogaard’s brothers. “That’s what I do, and I deal with it on a daily basis.”

Few outside of Fedoruk’s circle knew what he’d been through until last September when he opened up to an Associated Press reporter following a pre-training camp skate with Flyers players at Skate Zone.

A year later, he sometimes wishes he hadn’t made his former lifestyle public. He regrets naming some of his addictions, specifically cocaine and marijuana, because his three small children someday now may learn detailed accounts of his past demons. Also, he’s been looking for steady work and now is forced to explain his past during job interviews.

“But it is my story and it can help you, too,” Fedoruk said. “That was my intentions in telling my story. Sometimes you’re looked upon as a role model.”

Through it all, he’s maintained good relationships with the Flyers — players and management.

“I just know Todd as a solid dude,” Flyers enforcer Jody Shelley said. “He’s very outspoken and very forward with what he’s been through. He appreciates what the Flyers did for him and the people around him. He’s fun to be around, too, so we like having him out there.”

Opening up about his past, Fedoruk says, has led to friends with addictions making positive strides and he’s interested in taking that a step further by securing employment as a counselor to hockey players with addictions.

His first choice, though, is to coach. He got his feet wet last season as an assistant for the ECHL’s Trenton Titans, an opportunity that came just a few days after he was let go by Vancouver.

But Fedoruk earned only $1,200 monthly with the Titans, not enough to pay the bills and take care of his family. Most of the money he earned over nine NHL seasons is gone, and he prefers that his wife not use her University of Pennsylvania education for employment and remain a stay-at-home mother to their three children, an 8-year-old boy and girls, 7 and 2.

Coaching again in Trenton is an option, but in his perfect world, the NHL lockout ends and the Flyers hire him full-time in some capacity.

“It’s coming down to the wire where I have to put in an application to the real world,” said Fedoruk, who had 32 goals, 97 points and 1,050 penalty minutes over 545 NHL games from 2000-10 with the Flyers, Anaheim, Flyers again, Dallas, Minnesota, Phoenix and Tampa Bay. “I don’t have $20 million. Trust me, I was compensated well playing hockey, but I don’t have a lot left.

“I want to stay around hockey because I feel I have a lot to give with my experience in the game, but eventually you’ve got to let go and start bringing in some money.”

For the time being, Fedoruk is enjoying his work earning a few bucks helping Flyers players stay in shape.

"I think I was just the guy who was here and available, but this is good experience working with NHL players," he said. "It keeps my availability out there to teams that maybe want to look at bringing a guy in."

[bryanc]

Good for Todd, and you know what, good for his family too. All too often parents hide things from their children. Addiction is a disease, and it is partially genetic. His children should know what he went through and how to deal. And if it helps some other players in the league get some help, all the better.

I wish Feds the best. He was always a righteous player who stuck up for his teammates and played with heart. Who doesn't remember him leveling Jagr with a huge hit or that killer hook that flattened Barnaby?

[jammer2]

@bryanc Always had a lot of respect for Todd, have even more now. I know what he is going through, when you are early in recovery, you shout from the mountain tops what you did (sometimes to much detail), and you don't really think about future repercussions when divulging what you were into....I have felt the same backlash, someties it's just better to keep those things to yourself....but I understand him wanting to help others that have been through the same thing. It's a very unselfish mind set, very cool of him to tell his story in order to help others.