from Alex Prewitt of Sports Illustrated,

Midway through a pugnacious and loquacious playing career that ended five months ago, Steve Ott found a fresh notepad in his home office and began jotting down ideas. Some of the roughly 100 pages filled with tactical lingo, practice drills and set plays and systematic concepts that Ott found particularly effective. Others contained motivational tactics and teaching moments that resonated. He never knew exactly when those notes might come in handy, only certain that one day they would. “Man,” Ott kept telling himself, “I can’t wait to coach in this league.”

That moment finally arrived late this May, when Ott formally retired and took a job as an assistant coach with the St. Louis Blues, one of his five former teams. At first, the rugged forward planned to squeeze one final year from a body that over 15 seasons had undergone 15 surgeries (16 if you include the ruptured appendix, which he does not). But that was before several Canadian junior executives called, wondering what Ott’s future held. And before St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong did the same. Soon, the 35-year-old found himself sporting a crisp suit at Blues headquarters—“You always class it up”—for the first job interview of his adult life.

Such a move, while abrupt, actually isn’t altogether uncommon. Among the NHL’s 31 staffs, 12 coaches have hopped straight from the ice to the bench, wielding sticks one season and whistles the next.

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