June 29, 2017 at 11:56 a.m.
For the love of the game
Ex-NHLer Dwyer still playing at high level
For the love of the game
By Nick Sabato-
Minocqua resident Patrick Dwyer lasted seven seasons and played in 416 games, tallying 42 goals and 51 assists for the Carolina Hurricanes from 2008-2015. He was 31 years old during his final NHL season.
For many players, when they play their final NHL game, it's the final professional game of their career. They move onto something else in life, whether it's coaching, scouting, front office work or a career path beyond hockey.
The American Hockey League has long been considered a place for a player to start his career, not finish it. The game is evolving, but that narrative still rings true for the most part. Only 73 players -14 percent of the league - age 30 or older suited up in an AHL regular season game in 2016-2017. One of those players was Dwyer.
Having just turned 34 and coming off a season with Carolina's AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, Dwyer understands that getting back into the NHL is long shot at this point, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a lot of hockey left in the tank.
The beginning
Born the son of a U.S. Air Force veteran, Dwyer grew up in Great Falls, Mont. He would have been the first NHL player from Montana had he not spent the first 10 days of his life in Spokane, Wash., before the family moved.
Dwyer's father, John, was originally from Boston and was a lifelong hockey fan and player. At the age of five, Patrick tried playing for the first time. John Dwyer retired from the Air Force in 1997 and, at the urging of a cousin, the family moved to Minocqua after visiting on vacation.
The Dwyer family's initial stint in the Northwoods lasted just two years, but it was enough for Patrick to make an impact on Lakeland Union High School's record books. Dwyer set a school record with 28 goals in a season, which has since been broken by Brent Gwidt and Bruno Borowczyk.
"At the time when I played here, kids played high school hockey at least the first couple years," Dwyer said. "Now you see kids from Point or Wausau play for the Capitals or midget or stuff like that, but the time kids played high school hockey. (San Jose Sharks all-star Joe) Pavelski was at SPASH and stuff like that. I had a good career my two years here. It was a different type of hockey than we saw in Montana, where there was a lot of traveling. It was good to be close and to have good players here."
His performance in two years for the Thunderbirds was enough to earn him a ticket back to Montana to play for the Great Falls Americans, a Tier II Junior A team in the America West Hockey League, racking up 114 points in two seasons before earning a scholarship to Division I Western Michigan University.
Dwyer played four seasons for the Broncos - despite being drafted after his freshman season by the Atlanta Thrashers at the No. 116 pick - scoring 101 points in his career.
His family moved back to Minocqua after Dwyer graduated high school and John currently runs Lakeland Ice Arena. Dwyer returns to the Northwoods every summer and now calls Minocqua home with his wife, Ashley, and two children.
"From my college years on this has been my summer home," Dwyer said. "It's been a vacation spot that's now turned into home."
The Show
Dwyer's college career came to an end during the NHL lockout year in 2004-2005 and he finished the season with the ECHL's Gwinnett Gladiators.
After spending a season in the AHL with Atlanta affiliate the Chicago Wolves, Dwyer was not retained and signed a two-way deal with the Hurricanes. He spent two more seasons in the AHL with the Albany River Rats - called up for one game but did not dress in 2007-2008 - before his first legitimate opportunity finally came knocking.
In the fall of 2008, Dwyer was one of the last forwards to be sent down, but his stay in Albany wouldn't last long as he made his NHL debut on Nov. 2 and scored his first goal against the Philadelphia Flyers 26 days later. Dwyer played 13 regular season games in three stints and also played in the two Stanley Cup Playoff games of his career.
"I think that's when I established myself as an NHL guy," Dwyer said. "Coming into the next season it wasn't whether or not you're going to be on the team next year, it was you're going to be on the team next year and just come ready."
Dwyer was sent down three more times the following season, but after being recalled to the Hurricanes in December for the third time, he remained in the NHL for the rest of the season and for the next five full seasons.
During his time in the NHL, Dwyer was one of Carolina's top defensive forwards and even represented the United States in the 2012 World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden.
Dwyer's NHL career was a rarity in that his entire career was with the same organization. He was never traded or waived, achieving something usually reserved for elite professional athletes: stability.
Instability
Dwyer's deal was set to expire in 2015 and he had an opportunity to test the free agent market for the first time in his career. However, a shift in the way NHL teams shaped rosters and injuries saw him go unsigned.
He had a free agent tryout with the Arizona Coyotes, but no deal was made and Dwyer spent the 2015-2016 season playing for MODO in Sweden's HockeyAllsvenskan. Dwyer returned stateside completely healthy and went to training camp with the Cleveland Monsters of the AHL, but again the two sides could not come to an agreement financially. For the first time in his career, Dwyer experienced instability.
"Typically as a hockey player I would have dealt with more instability throughout my career, but I was lucky," Dwyer said. "I was with one organization for 10 years. It's different not knowing. At this point we would know when we were going back to Raleigh and now it's a waiting game. I think the first year was the hardest, but now we've come to terms and we know how it works and we know how it plays out. It's really just a big waiting game."
Back to the future
Finally, Dwyer returned to North Carolina, signing an AHL deal with the Checkers. He appeared in 58 games this past season, scoring 14 goals and dishing out 12 assists in his first full season back in the minors in nearly a decade.
He's back in the AHL, where he started his career, and where many of his teammates are starting down a path he took 11 years prior with his future in front of him.
Chartered flights and catered meals have been replaced by buses and takeout food. He likened it to a musician who once toured with Beyonce and is now back to going from bar to bar looking for gigs.
The last time he was in the AHL, Dwyer was the young kid looking to find his way. Now he's the grizzled veteran who can impart his wisdom to young guys trying to find the way.
"It was fun to go in there and help with the young kids and show them what it's like to be a professional," Dwyer said. "A lot of them, it was the first time being on their own in an apartment without a billet family or their own parents. Like any kid that's on their own for the first time, it's easy to get lost and wrapped up in video games and stuff like that. It was fun to teach those kids and watch their progress that they made through the year."
The next phase
While many players would have called it quits by this point, Dwyer has no designs on retiring any time in the near future. He still feels like he has a lot to offer an AHL team and his family will stand behind him.
Typically, the Dwyer children start the school year in the Northwoods before transferring to Raleigh, or Charlotte as they did last year. Moving can be taxing on any family, but the Dwyers continue to support Patrick's career in any possible way.
"It's our job to make the best of it," Ashley Dwyer said. "We do what we can do. It's our job to support him and his career. So we try to make it as pleasant as we can and just look at it as a family adventure - no matter where we go."
Even though Dwyer is closer to the end of his career than the beginning, he still has time to focus on playing hockey, and let's face it, how many jobs can someone find that offer the salary and benefits a minor league hockey player gets? For the man who started his hockey career nearly 30 years ago, it provides him the chance to watch his son continue to play the game that he loves.
"I'm happy watching him and letting him do it as long as he wants because if you decide not to do it and wish you were still doing it and you make that decision, sometimes there can be regrets," John Dwyer said. "When he gets done, he'll be like everybody else. You have to see the next step and what's to come."
Dwyer is yet again a free agent, but he believes his prospects of finding a new team or re-signing with the Checkers are strong, given his previous season and his credentials. He's expressed an interest in coaching when the time comes to hang up his skates, but as long as his body allows him to, Dwyer is going to continue to play.
"I'm happy with what I'm doing," Dwyer said. "The way I look at it is you have a set time frame to play this game. Even if I retire at 40, our generation's still going to be working until we're 70 years old. I'm still going to have 30 years to go out and do whatever I do in the workforce. As long I can play the game and the body feels good so that when I retire I can still do things and I can still make the financial ends I see fitting work, then I'm going to play it as long as I can."
The free agent signing period begins July 1.
Nick Sabato may be reached at [email protected] or via Twitter @SabatoNick.
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