Game On Magazine - April 2017 Game on Preview Edition | Page 94

PROFILE
michael
s t. c r o i x
B y S c o t t Tay l o r
Photos courtesy ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits and University of Manitoba
Back
home
and
loving it
The last thing Michael St.
Croix wants anyone to think is
that he’s bitter or angry with
what happened to him as a
professional hockey player.
He’s not bitter because he
gets it. He knows he is just one
of thousands of players who
have found themselves at the
wrong place at the wrong time.
One of thousands of players
who saw that brief window of
opportunity close.
Unlike, so many others,
however, he knew exactly
where he was and what he had
to do. He had no desire to give
up playing hockey, but he knew
that the road he was on was the
wrong one and there had to be
another opportunity.
“In my second year as a pro,
I thought I had a real good
training camp, but you don’t
have a lot of time to impress”
he said thoughtfully. “I’d
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worked hard with
(Winkler-based
trainer) Chuck
Williams to prepare
and I really thought
I’d start the season
in the American Hockey League.
But at the end of Hartford’s
camp, I was sent to Greenville
again even though the coaches
said I was one of the best
players in camp. At that point
I kind of knew what was ahead
for me and after a pretty good
season with Greenville that
year, I decided to give it one
more shot, but after my 2015-
16 season, I knew I had to go in
a different direction.”
St. Croix won’t blame the
Rangers, injuries, bad luck or
“some coach that didn’t like me”
for the fact he never made it to
the NHL. He is not, in any way,
angry about what might have
been. Instead, he’s simply taken
a different route and, as he says,
it just might be the best one.
He’s back home in Winnipeg,
playing with the University of
Manitoba Bisons – and they’re
thrilled to have him – and he’s
using his Rangers money to
purchase rental properties
in the city. He’s 24 and he’s
already a big success.
“I used my NHL signing
bonus and I actually had an
AHL contract every year in
the ECHL so I was paid pretty
well for an ECHL player, plus
all my living expenses were
paid for,” St. Croix explained.
“So now and I have a couple of
partners and we’ve purchased
three homes. I have two on
Kingston Row in St. Vital
and one in Fort Richmond.
Every house I purchased was a
house I would live in. I’ve had
a lot of doors open for me in
Winnipeg and I still know a
lot of people in hockey so we’ll
see where all this takes me.”
St. Croix came home last
year and redshirted for the
Bisons (U Sports rules state
that he has to sit out a year
before playing on a university
team), while busting his butt
to get a 4.15 Grade Point
Average and entrance to the
Asper School of Business.
School has been solid and now
he’ll get to play competitive
hockey again.