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Hockey entrepreneurs stickhandling into Whistler

Le Scandinave spa just the latest investment by former NHL players
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Take a right turn off Mons Road and you find yourself traversing a gravel road into a Nordic oasis.

The road, still clearly a work-in-progress, gives no hint of the little Arcadia that lies at its end. You park your car and then travel along an illuminated forest path before arriving at Le Scandinave, a "spa in the heart of nature."

There you can enjoy a relaxing experience in three stages. First you warm the body in a Finnish sauna, eucalyptus steam bath or hot bath. Then you rinse in a shower, outdoor waterfall or cool bath. The final stage sees you recharge your cardiovascular system in a solarium, hammock or by an outdoor fireplace.

This isn't the work of a Finnish developer who's airlifted the idea of a Nordic spa over the Atlantic. It's the child of two hockey players-turned-investors who are among many now looking to Whistler to turn hefty salaries into business opportunities.

Former NHL players Vincent Damphousse and Eric Desjardins are just two of the investors who've stickhandled Le Scandinave into reality. They're partners in Scandinave Spa Management, formerly known as Gestion Riviere du Diable, which has opened three other properties, in Mont Tremblant, Blue Mountain and Old Montreal.

The Whistler location is slated to open Feb. 6, just before the Olympics, and over 1,000 private security personnel are expected to be among its first clients.

Damphousse and Desjardins were in Whistler last week to oversee the fruit of their investment.

"I think (Whistler's) a good fit," Damphousse says, sitting in an office as tradesmen move furiously to finish their work outside. "The town here is already built up, which is great, there's already people here. We know it's going to be busy all year round and that's what we look for."

He was a star player in the NHL for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Montreal Canadiens and San Jose Sharks. Drafted sixth overall in 1986, he was MVP of the 1991 All Star Game and helped the Habs to a Stanley Cup alongside Desjardins in 1993.

Damphousse retired after the 2004-05 lockout, amassing 1,205 points over 18 seasons. Toward the end of his career there was even a slim chance of him playing for the Vancouver Canucks but the deal never went through.

It was in 1998, his last year as a Canadien, that he was approached by Pierre Brisson and Benoit Berthiaume, two entrepreneurs who were developing a Nordic-style spa at Mont Tremblant. Damphousse, by that time wondering what he would do with himself after hockey, thought the idea was great and invested enough to become a quarter-owner of Gestion Riviere du Diable, then the name of the company that was developing the spa.

"I was 12 years in the league," he says before he started investing. "I was thinking of my after-career, thinking of what I could do. I like the business side of hockey, I was always involved as a player rep and I was vice-president of the NHLPA (players' union).

"I was thinking what can I do afterwards, I thought a business opportunity could open doors for me to do something for my career."

Desjardins got involved in much the same way as his former teammate. When approached to invest he was a defenseman with the Philadelphia Flyers, gaining regular recognition as the team's top D-man. A friend of his knew Brisson and Berthiaume, who then showed the player a business plan for what they wanted to build at Tremblant.

"Pierre and Benoit got together and really pushed to start it," he said. "The guy that owned the land back then, we had put money and were trying to see if we could raise money to reserve the land for a certain time and the guy said, okay, we can't have an extension anymore, you've got to buy it or I'm going to sell it to someone else.

"You never know. You put money somewhere, believe it's going to work and it worked out pretty well."

Damphousse and Desjardins aren't the only hockey players who've turned to business ventures after retiring from the game. Another is Len Barrie, a developer and investor who used to be a journeyman player for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Los Angeles Kings and Florida Panthers.

He's now a partner in Points West Hospitality Group, which owns Players Chophouse and Prime Tapas in Creekside. Other partners in the group include current NHL defencemen Darryl Sydor and Nolan Baumgartner, of the St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks, respectively.

Rob Ward, president of Points West, says hockey players regularly look to pool their money into ventures like the Chophouse. He says they're choosing Whistler for their investments because it's a resort destination they'd choose themselves.

"I think a lot of people when they go on holiday, for instance, and they're thinking about where they'd like to invest in, they invest in places that they regard fondly," he says. "A place like Whistler is a place people see a lot of promise in. When they're there and enjoying themselves, it's pretty easy to imagine doing some sort of venture there, whether real estate or business or anything like that."

Several NHLers, including former Canucks captain Trevor Linden, invested in the Whistler Four Seasons hotel.

But liking the destination isn't the only factor encouraging hockey players to invest. When Damphousse started playing hockey he was making $90,000 a year. Now the minimum salary for an NHL player is $500,000, with amounts going as high as $10 million a year for stars like Vincent Lecavalier. Clearly, hockey players have a lot more disposable income these days.

"I certainly think they have more disposable income than they did in the past," Ward said. "Pro hockey has come to par with other professional sports. I just think they're planning better for the future than the generation that was before them."

The ventures themselves have shown varying levels of success. With three existing locations and one to open within the week, Scandinave seems to be expanding - as is Players, which opened its satellite tapas bar across from Dusty's in the first week of December.

Barrie, one of the partners in Players, is also a major investor behind Bear Mountain, a golf resort in Langford, B.C. that is the biggest planned development in Vancouver Island's history. The resort's investors are a who's-who of NHL stars including Rob Blake, Mike Vernon, Scott Mellanby and Gary Roberts.

The $2.4 million resort faced major protests from environmentalists who opposed the construction of a highway that would lead to the resort. A First Nation in the area also opposed plans to collapse the roof of a cave it considered sacred.

Meanwhile an audit of the resort's finances indicated that Barrie may have been using funds from Bear Mountain to finance his ownership of the Tampa Bay Lightning - accusations Barrie denied vehemently. His voicemail was full when Pique tried to contact him for an interview.

Though business presents challenges that the players never faced on the ice, Damphousse and Desjardins are comfortable in their new roles as entrepreneurs. They take a largely hands-off approach to Le Scandinave and have no role on the operations side of things. The Whistler spa is the biggest facility their company has ever developed and they look forward to seeing how it's accepted in the future.

"I have a good business with good partners so I didn't have to find something after I retired," Damphousse says. "Guys now are willing to do that because they can pick and choose.

"There's more opportunities coming their way because people know they have money to invest."