Former professional hockey player Steve Passmore is pictured at his office on Victoria Street where he works as a financial advisor for Sun Life Financial.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Former NHL goaltender and Kamloops resident Steve Passmore is charismatic and lights up when he talks about hockey.

Passmore fell in love with the game as a kid growing up in the tiny town of Grand Forks and credits pure drive for his move up the ranks to playing goalie in the National Hockey League before retiring at age 35.

“I told my grandmother when I was three I was going to play in the NHL. That’s what I’m going to do,” he said.

Now 52, Passmore is an advisor for Sun Life Financial and iNFOnews.ca recently stopped by his office to ask about his rise to the big leagues and hear a few of his favourite memories. 

“Grand Forks had only 3,500 people living there and I started out playing on team of 15 kids,” he said. “We didn’t have rep teams or tryouts. We needed everyone to show up, so if 'Bob' didn’t want to play that year, we had to go talk him into it.

“We had a pretty good team for a small town and two of us made the NHL, which is — I’m going to say, is bigger than lottery odds. I have a lot of pride, I’m from a small town and ended up making it where I did in hockey.”

While Passmore said he wasn’t the most skilled kid on the hockey team, he had drive and put extra time and effort into his game.

When he was 14 he played for the Junior B team called the Border Bruins but got cut because he was too young.

“My mom was living in Victoria at the time so I moved there, I needed better hockey and that’s what I was going to do, I was determined." 

He got listed by the WHL's Tri-City Americans.

“I made the decision early, I wanted to play in the WHL (Western Hockey League). My first game I played there I was 15 years old, it was pretty cool,” he said. “I kept going and got drafted and went from there.”

A few years later he was playing for the Kamloops Blazers and at age 19, was called to backup a game in Edmonton for the Oilers, an experience he remembers vividly.

“It was awesome,” he said. “It was the game after Gretzky broke the scoring record in Vancouver and his next game was in Edmonton, he was playing with LA at the time. I remember sitting on the bench looking out on the ice, the face off was in front of our bench and there was Gretzky, Kurri, McSorley and Kelly Hrudey in net, and I literally looked down at my jersey and thought, 'this is crazy.'”

The next year Passmore was playing for the Blazers when they won the Memorial Cup. In 1992, he was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques in the NHL Entry Draft.

He played 93 games in the NHL between 1998 and 2004 with the Edmonton Oilers, Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings. He spent the last three years playing for the minor leagues in Europe.

“I went on for 14 years which was fun, lots of ups and downs along the way," he said. "I literally got to chase the dream and live all over the world."

When asked why he chose the position of goalie, Passmore said it was a personality flaw.

“I just want to be the centre of attention,” he said with a laugh. “Either the hero or the bum, either we won because of me or we lost because of me. I enjoyed the spotlight.”

Steve Passmore when he was playing for the American Hockey League's San Antonio Rampage in 2005.

Image Credit: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/Darren Abate

Passmore credits his success to hard work and drive.

“It’s a grind, and I played with a lot of guys with a lot of skill, but it takes a combination of skill, heart and head,” he said. “It’s a mental head game, it’s stressful. You get defeated and people say you’re not good enough or you do well and people say you’re amazing and you have to remember to stay humble.” 

Passmore said respect for your team and opponents is a big part of hockey.

“It’s one of the few sports where you go out there and you’ll kick the shit out of each other and then go have a beer together,” he said. “With team mates, we live and die for each other. If you get traded, we’re at war.”

The camaraderie is something he misses the most.

“The one thing we retired guys miss is the team aspect, the dressing room, the boys, going on the road and telling stories.”

He said he wishes he kept a log on how many miles he rode on a bus for during his career.

“It’d be funny and not funny at the same time,” he said. “We’d have 18 hour bus trips in the minors, there would be a lot of hours. There isn’t a card game I can’t play, all we did on the bus was play cards, it was a good way to kill time and now we’re degenerate gamblers.”

Passmore still loves hockey and plays recreationally every week as a defenseman in what he calls “fat league hockey.”

He still cheers for the Edmonton Oilers and Chicago Blackhawks.

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