Rare is the situation where someone aspires to be both a professional hockey player and a doctor. Robert Slaney is one of the few throughout the history of the game able to hold the distinction of doing both.
Now 36 years old, Slaney was a powerful two-way winger with offensive upside for four seasons in Cape Breton. On the ice, he holds the distinction of ending the second-longest game in QMJHL history, a quadruple overtime clash between the franchise then known as the Screaming Eagles and the Quebec Remparts back in 2009. Shortly after this historic snipe, the native of Upper Island Cove, Newfoundland signed a three-year entry level deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs. As the end of that deal neared, the man who would finish with 191 pro games in the AHL and ECHL had to make a decision.
“After the third season of my entry-level contract, which was a lockout year in the NHL, contracts were hard to come by,” Slaney recalls. “My agent and I got together and had a pretty real conversation. He said it was time to look at education. I had always been a good student and this was a chance to go back while I was still young. It made the decision pretty easy.”
With that, it was out of the iron lung and into the classroom at St. Francis Xavier University in the fall of 2012. Medicine had been an interest of Slaney’s even before his pro career came to an end. However, the specific pull towards family medicine spoke to realities of life that literally hit close to home.
“For me, it was the aspect of being able to give back,” he explains. “Being from Newfoundland and the kind of shortage we had here, I felt I had the ability to become a physician based on life experience and the ability to excel academically. I also had the interest in medicine so it made it quite easy for me to make that link and give back to people.”
“More specifically, that’s why I chose family medicine,” he goes on to say. “You get to build these relationships with families and go through life with them. Whether it’s the best day of their life or the toughest day, you can be a constant for them in terms of someone who’s there to support them.”
Support is something Slaney is quick to credit his junior team with. Although his time in the pro ranks prevented him from accessing financial assistance at both the team and league levels, the emphasis on managing both hockey and school provided Slaney with a baseline he could draw from when it came time to hit both the ice and books in his university days.
“I give a lot of credit to the league but, more specifically, the Cape Breton Eagles,” Slaney says. “The day I stepped foot in Cape Breton it was made clear that education was a focus for the team and was of equal importance to hockey. They always spoke of building character people, not just hockey players. I had a wonderful education coordinator named George Bailey who really ironed things out for us and made sure we were in the right programs.”
“It also provided structure to young players who were away from home for the first time,” Slaney adds. “It provides a degree of normalcy to life. With the busy (hockey) schedule and education and being able to succeed at both, it sets you up well for success in the future. While I was at St. FX, I played with players from throughout the CHL and you could see most of them were able to balance academics with athletics because they’d been set up to do so.”
These days, the balance lies between Valley Medical, a practice Slaney operates with a group of physicians in St. John’s, and his family life, which includes his wife, four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter.
“The glorious part of family medicine is you’re able to create your own work-life balance,” he points out. “If you want to work through the week, you can. If you want to run a clinic on the weekend, you can.” My (son is) starting (Pre-Kindergarten), so if (either kid) has something going on, you can be there.”
Between memorable goals at the Quebec Colisee, his patient roster of 1,500 and being a husband and dad, Dr. Slaney has made a fulfilling life out of being there.
