WALDRON GRAIN & FUEL

05/01 07:00 CDT Kyle Okposo joins the NHL Players' Association months after winning the Stanley Cup and retiring Kyle Okposo joins the NHL Players' Association months after winning the Stanley Cup and retiring By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Hockey Writer Kyle Okposo is joining the NHL Players' Association as business development and player engagement adviser. The NHLPA is announcing the hires of Okposo, chief commercial officer Steve Scebelo and communications and media relations manager Stephanie Maniago on Thursday. Okposo retired in September after playing 17 seasons in the league and winning the Stanley Cup last June with the Florida Panthers. Okposo was a prominent member of the search committee formed in 2022 to find a new executive director that ended with U.S. Secretary of Labor and former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh landing the job in February 2023. "I knew that I wanted to stay in the game," Okposo told The Associated Press by phone this week. "I love it. It's given me everything that I've had in my adult life, and I wanted to continue to stay in it and I think that this is the best route for me to go right now." The 37-year-old who played more than 1,000 regular-season and playoff games with the New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres and Panthers from 2008-24 began considering working for the union when he participated in the executive director search. He and Walsh clearly hit it off to get Okposo in the fold after spending some time together at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. "I'm looking forward to learning a lot from him," Okposo said. "He's done a lot for the PA in a very short amount of time. We have plans to keep moving this thing forward, and Marty, I think he's the right person to lead it." Okposo, who wanted to take some time to make sure he had the emotional energy to devote to a gig like this, wanted to be on the business side and expects his role to be fluid as he feels out his place at the NHLPA, working under Walsh and assistant Ron Hainsey. Walsh said Okposo's experience as a player and an executive board member makes him a well-respected, trusted resource. "Being freshly retired, I have relationships with a lot of different players and have some different ideas on how we can create excitement and engagement with the current members of the union," Okposo said. "For me, just having the relationships with those guys and being able to talk to them like we're in a locker room is going to be, I think, an asset to the PA." Scebelo comes from running his own sports and licensing consulting firm after spending more than a decade with the NFLPA, most recently serving as president of the union's licensing program, NFL Players Inc. "Some of thing that we were able to do at the NFLPA do lend themselves to this," Scebelo said. "There could potentially be opportunities for the NHLPA to work with emerging companies --- small or early-stage companies who may have some endemic ties to hockey as a sport that there could be investment opportunities that allow a players association to grow with that company as they grow." ___ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl