Generally speaking, any word uttered in a hockey locker room of more than a couple of syllables is a rarity.
John Mitchell, the Avalanche’s third-line center, is an exception. No, he doesn’t stand at his locker quoting Shakespeare or draw algebraic equations on the team’s whiteboard in the dressing room. But he will startle the occasional out-of-town reporter with a vocabulary that might be broader than his own.
Last week, he began a sentence with “in conjunction with.”
When it was time to elect a team representative for matters pertaining to the NHL Players’ Association, Mitchell was the natural choice of his teammates.
“Everyone knows how smart he is. He probably has to lower his standards when talking to me,” Avs teammate Jamie McGinn said, laughing. “He doesn’t make a big show of it, but you always see him reading on the plane or watching shows that are pretty different from what you’ll usually see.”
Mitchell’s academic credentials aren’t much.
He has but four college credits to his name, from a Michigan community college called Schoolcraft, and he said he had trouble reading as a kid. But he speaks in complete, thoughtful sentences to go along with a polite, formal demeanor.
Mitchell gives his parents all the credit, along with a great aunt the family nicknamed “Mickey.”
“She was very old school. For her, it was all about table manners and pleases and thank-yous, and that’s what I try to instill in my daughter (3-year-old Grayson) as well,” said Mitchell, who grew up in Ontario. “Inevitably, I think it comes back to your parents. My parents raised me the right way. But I was not a good reader in school. When it came to reading out loud to the class, I was basically trying to hide under my table. But I don’t have a problem with speaking. When I was in junior, I went to community college there and took a class in public speaking. My teacher loved me.”
Mitchell, 29, said being a player representative isn’t difficult. The most important thing is to be available when a teammate has a question about the collective bargaining agreement, he said. After coming to the Avs as a free agent from the New York Rangers after the NHL lockout in 2013, he took over as Avs player rep, replacing the departed Ryan O’Byrne.
“Obviously, when there’s lockouts and things like that happening, there’s a lot more going on,” Mitchell said. “When Ryan left and the job was vacant, there weren’t too many hands thrown up to take the job. So I just said, ‘Yeah, I’ll take the reins on that one.’ I’ve read the whole CBA, and it’s certainly dry reading, but I found it interesting. I don’t think I’d ever want to be a lawyer, though.”
While his interests are varied, being a hockey player was all Mitchell ever wanted to be. He still isn’t sure what he might have done had he not made the NHL and isn’t sure what he wants to do when his playing career ends.
“Maybe I was naive and just thought I’d always make it, but I’ve always been a guy who’s kind of just done everything by the seat of my pants,” he said. “But when I was young, I didn’t have any other aspiration other than to play hockey. If you’ve played hockey your whole life, you don’t know what it could entail in the future. But I know there will come a day when I’m not just playing hockey. Whatever endeavor I do, I hope to enjoy it as much as this.”
Adrian Dater: adater@denverpost.com or twitter.com/adater
