Lynden McCallum among 350 ex-WHLers in school

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This article was published 23/11/2023 (719 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While Lynden McCallum recovers from off-season surgery that’s temporarily derailed his professional hockey career, he’s back in school making full use of the Western Hockey League’s scholarship program.

The 23-year-old Brandonite, who played three full seasons with the Brandon Wheat Kings between 2018 and 2021, is one of 350 former players making use of the WHL incentive this school year, and is set to graduate in December with a science degree, with a major in psychology.

“As I’ve gotten older, I don’t even consider it to be a backup,” McCallum said of the scholarship plan. “If I still fulfill my dream and have a 10-year NHL career, it doesn’t matter how good I do, I want to do something else after regardless.

“Maybe that’s starting when I’m 35 or 33 or 40, I don’t know when it will be, but no matter what and how well my hockey career goes, there is going to be another chapter where I want to get the most out of myself in a different area of life.”

McCallum’s former team, the Wheat Kings, were in action on Wednesday evening in a game against the host Edmonton Oil Kings that ended after deadline.

This is the 31st year of the program, which was set up on a league-wide basis in 1993-94. Since then, nearly 8,000 scholarships have been awarded at a cost of more than $35-million to the 22 clubs.

This season, the price tag for 350 students is more than $2.5-million, but it’s invaluable for players like McCallum who are already planning for life after hockey.

“I don’t know if that’s going to be a psychiatrist or psychologist or if it will be something totally different,” McCallum said. “Just going to school and having that on the go, at some point it’s going to transition for me.”

After graduating from the Wheat Kings following the 2021 season in the Regina hub, McCallum split the 2021-22 campaign between the American Hockey League’s Henderson Silver Knights and the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Comets. He played 19 games last season with the Savannah Ghost Pirates before a right shoulder injury ended his season around Christmas.

He had surgery for the dislocation in February, and had an unfortunate training accident at the track this summer that damaged his left shoulder. As a result, he had the left one fixed, too.

McCallum started taking university classes when he was still a member of the Wheat Kings. He took a couple per semester, and by the time his WHL playing career was over, he had earned a year of credits.

“I just enrolled in classes and the Wheat Kings would pay me back for them once I passed them,” McCallum said. “I don’t think that actually used up any of my WHL scholarship.”

It was certainly encouraged by the club, which is well represented in the list of 350 players taking advantage of the scholarship this season.

When McCallum’s WHL career began, Kelly McCrimmon still owned the team, and the forward said McCrimmon was a strong believer in current players taking university classes.

“He always encouraged that and said it was a good thing to do,” McCallum said. “He obviously thought it was important and that would have went for anybody. They would have said ‘Right on’ if you were taking classes. You don’t have to, but people definitely saw the benefit of it and applauded me for doing it.”

One of McCallum’s teammates, defenceman Jonny Lambos, earned 33 credit hours while still playing.

This season, 150 players around the league are enrolled in classes.

The program is simple. The program sets out that for each season played in the league, the scholarship covers tuition, textbooks and compulsory fees to a post-secondary institution of each player’s choice, whether that’s a university or trade school. It’s also up to them if they want to keep playing hockey.

Some clubs also now offer what’s essentially a signing bonus which guarantees an expanded number of years regardless of how long the player is active.

“On an annual basis, it is very rewarding to see WHL graduates reap the benefits of the WHL scholarship,” WHL commissioner Ron Robison said in a release. “The WHL not only produces many of the world’s finest hockey players, but just as importantly, highly educated student athletes who, through the WHL scholarship program, move on to highly successful business careers and leaders in their communities.”

The University of Saskatchewan leads with 31 WHL graduates enrolled this school year, followed by the University of Calgary (28), University of British Columbia (27), University of Alberta (25), Mount Royal University (22) and University of Regina (21).

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