Quesnel's Brett Festerling is continuing his work with the NHL, taking on the role of analyst for the Seattle Kraken's Kraken Hockey Network (KHN).
Festerling played in the NHL for both Anaheim and Winnipeg, he also captained the Vancouver Giants in the WHL and led them to winning their first CHL title. That win also secured his place in the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame.
Last year he did analyst and colour commentary work for Canucks games on Sportsnet 650 Radio and because of that he was mentioned as an option to join the KHN.
Before all of that, Festerling played minor hockey in Quesnel with his brother Garrett who also had a professional hockey career. Their dad played for the Kangaroos, which ignited their interest in the game.
"Dad used to play and then all the kids that I played with in terms of Gassoffs, Marshes all those old Quesnel families that were heavy into hockey, all their dads played. That was kind of our intro to hockey as kids," Festerling told The Observer. Before getting into hockey at around seven-years-old, Festerling was more into skiing and said there was no pressure from his family to pursue hockey. "Garrett and I ended up loving it, obviously made careers out of it."
In his role with the KHN, Festerling will be breaking the game down for fans and pointing out what teams are doing well and where they're falling short.
"Especially for a Seattle Kraken fan that maybe doesn't have the history that maybe a typical Canadian fan would have, just explaining that and what's going on and showing it on the broadcast so they can understand it," he said. "But then also it's part of entertainment, trying to have fun with the analysts and discuss the team."
He said he'll be working closely with the play-by-play colour commentary team. He said being able to explain to fans why the game is going the way it is and using his experience and knowledge to help people better understand hockey is at the heart of the role.
Festerling played for the Quesnel Millionaires when he was 15 and said he thinks it's a good thing that Quesnel has a new junior hockey team.
"I think it's good for any kids to look up to a team and see what the next step is and be able to follow that," he said. "It's the kids that you look up to when you're younger in hockey." He said it's always good for young players to have more opportunities to play and more role models to look up to.
Festerling said he was living the dream and is extremely grateful for the success he's had in his career.
"It was incredible to go through it. It's very nerve-wracking obviously being a fresh athlete and trying to always move up but when you get to actually sit down and take it in at the end of it, I feel very fortunate," he said. He added that one of his career highlights was being able to play pro with his brother in Germany.
He said one of the biggest things he's excited about with his role with the KHN is being able to simply talk hockey.
"It's been a nice reintroduction back into hockey and be able to follow it and still be around the game and be able to talk again," he said. "One of the biggest things you miss when you leave is just being able to talk hockey with like-minded because that's what you do, you sit in the locker room and you talk about hockey and then you go play it."
