Men's Hockey | 7/30/2020 7:00:00 AM
MINNEAPOLIS – Saturday will be a big day for hockey -- the return of NHL action and the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs after a 142-day pause due to COVID-19 public health concerns.For Brady Skjei, it will also be the first day the former Gopher and current Carolina Hurricanes defenseman wakes up as a University of Minnesota graduate.
Skjei will fulfill his graduation requirements for a bachelor's degree in business and marketing education from Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development on Friday – the culmination of eight years of academic studying for Skjei between his three-year college career at Minnesota and his five years in the NHL.
"Friday will be huge," Skjei said. "It's something I've taken pretty seriously since leaving the 'U', and it's something that is very important to me and my family. For me to finally complete everything and earn that degree, it will feel really good."
But there will be no grad party for Skjei. No traditional celebration of one of life's major achievements.
Instead he'll wake up on Saturday ready for the opening game of his third career Stanley Cup playoff appearance and first with the Hurricanes – the organization Skjei was traded to just 17 days before the unprecedented halt to sports and society across the globe. He played in only seven games for Carolina before the shutdown – not many considering Skjei played 60 games this season and over 300 in his career for the New York Rangers (Skjei's former team and the Hurricanes' opponent in the best-of-five Stanley Cup qualifying series).
So in the middle of a world-wide pandemic, the former NHL All-Rookie defenseman also had to adjust to a new team and a home after nearly five years in New York. One thing benefited from pausing the rigors of life as an NHL player though…at least in Skjei's case.
"It was the perfect time to bear down and finish things up."
A native of Lakeville, Minn., Skjei spent three seasons at Minnesota, playing in 109 career games on the Gophers blue line. The defenseman helped Minnesota claim three-straight regular-season championships and three NCAA tournament berths including a national championship appearance in 2014.
A two-time All-Big Ten Honorable Mention and two-time Academic All-Big Ten selection, Skjei estimates he had between 12-14 academic credits remaining after signing with the Rangers in 2015, forgoing his senior season to join the team that drafted him in the first round (28th overall) in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.
Since then, he's been chipping away with an online class here and there as his schedule allowed as part of the Gopher Grad Program – an initiative of Gopher Athletics and the Lindahl Academic Center that helps former Gopher student-athletes complete their degrees. Launched in 2007, the program has been widely successful throughout the athletic department and particularly with Gopher Hockey as 27 former players have now earned their diplomas through the program.
This week alone, four Pride on Ice products will fulfill their requirements for graduation with Skjei being joined by fellow NHL veterans Stu Bickel, Ryan Potulny and Jordan Schroeder.
"The Gopher Grad Program and Chris Cords made this an unbelievable experience," Skjei said. "Chris works so hard for his student-athletes, and then he goes above and beyond for guys like me – helping figure out what we still need to do, lining up classes with our schedules and staying on top of things all along the way. I have to give a lot of credit to Cords. Finishing up my degree was really important to me but without his help it would have been tough."
Three years in the Twin Cities, almost five years in New York and now just a few weeks in Raleigh -- one of the oddest anecdotes in Skjei's graduation story is that the final chapter takes place in…Toronto?
But that's exactly the case as the Hurricanes arrived in Toronto - the NHL's Eastern Conference hub city - earlier this week before official playoff games start on Saturday. And one of the first things Skjei did after settling in at the team hotel on Monday was submit his final academic project for an economics class at the 'U'.
With his coursework now completed, Skjei will turn his full attention to the ice for the Stanley Cup playoffs. He'll be one of 17 Gopher Hockey products in this year's Stanley Cup playoffs – the most alums by any NCAA program – and the newest to have earned his degree (10 including Skjei are 'U' graduates while two more are currently enrolled in the Gopher Grad Program).
And while his present situation will prevent Skjei from a proper celebration of the occasion, this week will undoubtedly be one he'll remember for a long time…even if all he gets on Friday is a steak.
"I'm sure my family will do something special once the playoffs are over, and I get back to Minnesota, but right now I'll probably keep it pretty mellow since we play on Saturday…maybe a nice dinner to celebrate."
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