Welcome to The Post Game, a podcast about the game after the game. On each episode, Kent State standout and the host of the program, Trevor Huffman, speaks with a former pro athlete about life after sports, transitioning to new careers and the stories of what happens after the lights go out. This week, Trevor spoke with former NHLer and current mental health advocate Clint Malarchuk.

Malarchuk spent a decade in the NHL, with stops in Quebec, Washington and Buffalo. During his time in Buffalo, Malarchuk suffered on the most infamous injuries in league history. After a collision in the crease, Blues player Steve Tuttle’s blade hit Malarchuk’s neck, severing his cartoid artery, causing massive blood loss, and threatening Malarchuk’s life.

After retirement, Malarchuk struggled with obsessive compulsive disorder, and alcoholism, with culminated in a suicide attempt in 2008, which he vividly detailed in both his autobiography and gripping Players’ Tribune article. Since retiring, Malarchuk has worked as a goaltender coach, and become a mental health advocate, travelling and sharing his story about overcoming his struggles.

Additional Reading:

• Bleeding Out. Players’ Tribune.
• Clint Malarchuk suffered a horrific sporting injury. But PTSD put his life in peril again, decades later. CBC.
• Coaching Hockey in the Mental Health Era. Grandstand Central.
• After Dodging Death Twice, Ex-Goalie Clint Malarchuk Makes Saves of Bigger Kind. Bleacher Report.
• A Matter of Inches: How I Survived in the Crease and Beyond. By Clint Malarchuk. 
• Nick Lowery on going from the Chiefs to the White House. Grandstand Central.
• Clint Malarchuk has new lease on life. NHL.com

Additional Episodes of “The Post Game” Podcast: 

• Pat Hentgen on the Steroid Era and the Hall Question
• Brian Windhorst on Kent State and His First Gig
• Damon Stoudamire on the Jailblazers Era
• Brian Bickell on Battling MS
• Ben Curtis on Finally Saying Goodbye to Golf
• Nick Lowery on Going From the Chiefs to the White House
• Beasley Reece on the Time Roger Staubach Got Sucker Punched
• Julie Heldman on Billie Jean King and Bipolar Disorder
• Brent Sopel on Taking the Cup to Pride and Battling Dyslexia
• Georges Laraque on Veganism and Entrepreneurship 
• Todd Stottlemyre on His Dad and the Windbreaker Slide