Kevin Westgarth is looking to improve hockey’s connections from the NHL down to the junior leagues.
The vice president of the NHL’s newly formed Hockey Development & Strategic Collaboration Group is on a mission to grow the sport by strengthening relationships and collaboration between the NHL and developmental leagues and organizations, including the American Hockey League, ECHL, NCAA, United States Hockey League. , USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and the Canadian Hockey League, with more to come as the group grows.
“It’s really aligning the hockey spine,” said Westgarth, an NHL vice president of hockey development and strategic collaboration. “It’s just good to get people talking together, but then to also be able to help guide and add some resources from the hockey side. And on the business side, with an expanded footprint of other collaborators, to help share and promote all this other good stuff we’re doing from Hockey Fights Cancer, Hockey is for Everyone down to fan development programming.”
Westgarth, a forward who played 169 games for the Los Angeles Kings, Carolina Hurricanes and Calgary Flames from 2008-14 and won the Stanley Cup with the Kings in 2012, has been passionate about those relationships since the moment he joined the NHL’s corporate side as vice president of development and international affairs in January 2016, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said.
“Having that point person whose primary responsibility is to maintain those relationships, further develop those relationships, service those relationships…he’s really kind of improved the frequency, the amount of time we spend on it,” Daly said.
Daly said Westgarth brings a wealth of hockey knowledge at all levels to his new position.
The 38-year-old from Amherstburg, Ontario, played NCAA Division I hockey at Princeton University from 2003-07, played 224 games across four seasons (2006-10) in the AHL with the Kings affiliate in Manchester, New Hampshire, and played five seasons in the NHL before finishing his career in the United Kingdom with Belfast of the Elite Ice Hockey League in the 2014-15 season.
“He knows it, but he’s passionate enough about it that even if he didn’t know it, he’d learn it,” Daly said.
Working under Daly, Westgarth has hit the ground running with fellow strategic collaboration team members Donny Khan, senior director, and Bill Xouris, coordinator.
Westgarth and Khan attended the Amerigol LATAM Cup, held at Florida Panthers IceDen in Coral Springs, Florida, in September. They held formal and informal meetings with tournament organizers and officials from teams that represented Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and other countries and territories in so-called non-traditional hockey regions.
“The meeting we had was excellent,” said Juan Carlos Otero, president of the Amerigol International Hockey Association. “It shows teams down there (Latin America) that the NHL is committed. It helps them going forward, knowing they have the support of the NHL.”
Westgarth said he’s looking forward to further deepening ties and helping to expand college hockey. He’s been involved in that effort since 2017, when the NHL, NHL Players’ Association and College Hockey Inc. announced they would sponsor feasibility studies for colleges interested in exploring establishing NCAA Division I programs.
Among the institutions that have undergone the studies are the University of Illinois; Lindenwood University near St. Louis; Tennessee State University, a historically Black college in Nashville; Oakland University in suburban Detroit; and Binghamton University in New York state. A few others have remained confidential. The University of St Thomas in Minnesota has added a program, while Augustana University and Lindenwood will begin play next season, all with the help of the NHL and College Hockey Inc.
“Kevin, quickly realizing how valuable a tool the feasibility study is to find schools that have some intrigue about college hockey, has been absolutely critical in the success that we’ve had, and hopefully much more success that will come,” College Hockey Inc. . executive director Mike Snee said.
Westgarth said he’s thankful “for our partners at the League and organizations, especially (for) their willingness to work together and explore ways to improve player experience, grow the sport, and solidify the long-term business of hockey.
“Combining my background with the experience and talent that Donny and Billy bring will allow us to continue to build upon this work, often taking from the great things that are being done by others at the NHL, all while creating new avenues that will really focus on the long-term health of our sport.”
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