Taking a shot at college

Lemieux took a battery of self-assessment tests with Drake Beam Morin (an outplacement firm that is partnering with the LAHP) at the branch office in Phoenix, where he now lives. He has learned that he has a creative, artistic side, and he wants to develop it. He is working in a training program at a local business, and he's considering taking college classes, possibly with a focus on architecture.

"Once you leave that la-la land of pro sports, you begin to realize the average person in the real world works long hours and a long time to acquire certain financial security," Lemieux says.

Most players are already financially secure when they leave the sport, but a growing number are not, says Brian O'Neill, who helps administer the NHL players' emergency fund.

Out of roughly 700 current NHL players and 3,000 living NHL alumni, 60 to 70 people (including several widows) currently receive financial help from the fund, Mr. O'Neill says. The money is supplied by fines levied against players during the season.

An upturn in recent years in the number of retired players drawing on the emergency fund was a key reason the league formed the Life After Hockey Program.

"We've seen some recently who got caught up in bad technology investments, others had high lifestyles, others had marriages break up," says O'Neill, a former executive vice president of the league and now a member of the LAHP board.

There is, however, a new breed of players who, by example, have been leading the NHL to be more proactive about education. Ken Baumgartner is one of those.

Dubbed "the bomber" during his hockey days, Mr. Baumgartner was known more for his pugilistic prowess than his other skills. But, unlike many players, he never lost sight of his academic goals, working off-season to fulfill his undergraduate degree requirements at Hofstra University on Long Island. Recently he earned a master's degree from the Harvard Business School, and is now working for a financial-services company.

His role as an on-ice heavy for teams like the Boston Bruins, amassing 2,244 penalty minutes during 13 years in the NHL, has meant that he's been dogged by headlines like "From Goon Squad to Grad School." Still, he has persevered, and his story has inspired others to defrost their study skills.

The go-it-alone approach worked for Baumgartner, but Claude Vilgrain, the NHL's first Haitian-born player, has appreciated the league's helping hand.

Mr. Vilgrain grew up playing Hockey in Montreal. When he was drafted by the Detroit Redwings in 1982, he promised his father and himself that one day he would get his university diploma.

"My dad always told me I needed something to fall back on if hockey didn't work out," he says. "My family always encouraged me to finish my degree. It's very important to them."

After a six-year NHL career, Vilgrain played a few final years in Europe and then returned to finish his degree in business management in Calgary. "It felt good going to university instead of just going golfing in the summers," he says.

He was unsure about his next step, so the LAHP gave him a battery of aptitude tests that helped him firm up his goals. Today, he loves his work bringing businesses to the province of Alberta.

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