Catching Up With: David Moss
The sixth in a series of Q&As with former Coyotes
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David Moss never planned on a pro hockey career, but as a 2001 seventh-round Calgary Flames draft pick out of the University of Michigan, he knew he had to give it the old college try.
Hard work, coachability and versatility led to an 11-year pro career with the Flames, Coyotes and EHC Biel-Bienne. Moss’s best season came in 2008-09 with Calgary when he had 20 goals and 39 points.
Moss retired from pro hockey in 2016 and is living in Michigan with his wife Erinn, a contestant on “Survivor: Tocantins” (2009), and four sons. He still keeps tabs on his two former NHL teams and cousin Phil Kessel. I caught up with him last week while the Stanley Cup Final was still in progress.
You can watch the entire interview via my YouTube channel and the link near the bottom of the story.
What have you been up to since leaving Arizona in 2015?
Since I left Arizona, I played one year overseas in Switzerland and then retired after that. I moved back home to Michigan. My wife and I had our first son in 2015 right before we went to Switzerland and since then, we had three more so we have four boys who are 5 and under (Hank, 5, Owen, 4, George, 2, and Charlie, 1) so we have been busy adjusting to life with a bunch of kids and work and all of the things that go along with it.
There’s never a dull moment around here. They’re a ton of fun; high energy. I think by the end of the day everybody is worn out.
Is your family still growing or have you maxed out?
We’re good, I think four is our max. We kind of grew out of our home that we were in. We moved kind of right before the world shut down in February. Four is enough. The zone defense is tricky at times but we make it work.
How did you fare during COVID?
It was tough being at home with four boys. We spent a lot of time coming up with obstacle courses and things like that. As COVID went on, our two older sons were able to get back in school a little bit which was OK. The boys were young enough where they didn't know too much. They know that they got to see their mom and dad a whole heck of a lot more than they were used to, with everything being shut down. We took it as a blessing in disguise that we got to spend a ton of time with them that we wouldn’t (normally) get to spend. We did a lot of things around the house, rode a lot of bikes around the neighborhood.
We all got COVID in October so the boys had to miss Halloween. That was tough for them but they're pretty resilient and now that the world is getting back to normal and all their sports are back on, it’s a really good thing for them.
My wife got it and then we all got it so we were on the down low for almost three weeks. We had to stay inside, quarantined. That was the most challenging part really, not being able to see anybody or do anything, but we got through it. We were very fortunate not to have tough cases of it so everybody came out unscathed.
Where are you living?
I live in South Lyon, Michigan with my family. After the Swiss league, my family is from Michigan and it's where I grew up so it was the place where we wanted to raise our family. Just being around my family here, I know the importance of having grandparents and people to help when you’re trying to raise a family. It was just a natural place that we wanted to come back to. We love it here.
What are you doing for work?
I’m an independent rep for a company called Top Cat. We sell Adidas apparel to anybody who is not a Division I athlete so it’s a super flexible job. I kind of work for myself and then my wife and I also own a business called DryBar. It’s a blow-out bar franchise (a salon that does no cuts, or coloring; just blowouts.) and we own the two in Michigan right now so that keeps my wife extremely busy and I help out there when I can.
Do you miss hockey?
I miss it tremendously. I think one of the things I miss the most is the guys in the locker room; the kind of camaraderie you get from being a part of a team and developing really good relationships. As my two older boys are starting to play hockey now, it brings back a lot of fun memories and I hope they can enjoy it and have fun with it, kind of the way I did.
It was a whirlwind. It went by so fast, but when I look back I am just extremely blessed to have the career that I did. Going into it, I never thought I was going to play as long as I did in the NHL. As a seventh-round draft pick (out of the University of Michigan) and coming out of college, I thought I would try and play a few years and if it didn’t work I had a degree from the University of Michigan and I could find a job. I was just super lucky and fortunate to play for some great coaches along the way and develop good relationships. My ambition outweighed my talent. That’s for sure.
When you were drafted, how did you view the possibility of an NHL career?
I gave myself two years. I think I signed a two-year contract with Calgary and I was going to see what happened. After my first year in the minors, I had a pretty good year and was called up as a Black Ace for the Flames in the playoffs. That kind of gave me a little bit more drive like, “OK, this isn’t as far away as I thought it maybe was.’ I was fortunate the next year to get called up and stick with Calgary.
I knew I didn’t want to play a long time in the minors. I have seen guys who have done that. I’m not going to be a career minor leaguer. I thought if I could give this a crack and make it, it would be great and if not, I’m going to try to find something else to do with my life. I’m lucky it worked out that way.
Why do you think you stuck around as long as you did (nine NHL seasons)?
I wasn’t great at anything but I could do a lot of things OK. I think that helped me, just kind of being like a Swiss Army knife. I could play in a lot of different roles and positions and pretty much do whatever the coaches asked. Maybe one of the main reasons I stuck around is I tried as much as I could to be a coachable player. I really took a lot of pride in doing the little things right. Thank god there were coaches along the way that saw the value in that.
How do you look back on your time with the Coyotes?
People say that it’s not a hockey town but I found that there was a lot of passion for hockey in Arizona with the fans, and the people around the city had a passion for the Yotes. My last two years there were not great years in the win-loss column but our first year, we were right in the playoff mix and I remember the games toward the end of the year that were sold out and the place was rocking. I just thought, ‘What a cool atmosphere.’
It was right after they went to the Western Conference Final which is one of the reasons I was excited to come there as a free agent. They obviously had a great team and made a good run and it was somewhere that I thought we could do it again in short order. Obviously, it didn’t happen with the lockout. That was a tough year coming in with the lockout and really not being able to get on the ice with the guys until almost January.
When I got here I obviously didn’t know many guys. We were still doing our voluntary workouts and Doaner (Shane Doan) made sure that everybody was included. Incredible guy, great teammate, somebody that you will tell your kids about. You talk about character and discipline and the way to treat people — being humble — all those things is what he is. I was lucky to sit on the airplane for three years and he took a lot of my money playing cards. Just a super guy.
My last year in Arizona was obviously a tough year hockey-wise. You always think you can play another year and you slowly realize you're not as quick as you once were and your body doesn’t feel as good as it once did. I tried to take that last year all in, knowing that it could be my last year in the NHL and I certainly did that. I was super fortunate to have three great years in Arizona, meeting great people. Aside from hockey we made a lot of great friends down there. My wife’s dad and stepmom had a place down there and we got to see them a lot so a lot of great things came out of my time down there.
You were here for a period of uncertainty when the team was rumored to be relocating. How did that impact the team?
Me being exposed to that kind of stuff for the first time, I think a lot of the guys in the room had already been around it. You had Doaner, you had (Keith) Yandle, you had a lot of veterans who had been around that sort of thing. They tried not to make it a distraction. It's one of those things that is out of your control. It is one of those things where ‘We’re going to play hockey’ and the ownership or the team moving or a new rink was just a distraction. I think the leadership of the group really handled that well.
Why did you decide to play the 2015-16 season in Switzerland?
Before I re-signed with Arizona (in 2014), I was actually talking to a team in the Swiss league and it ended up I came back to the Yotes for that last year. I had a European agent and I said I want to try to play if I can and he said hang tight. He called me one day and said, ‘Hey, do you want to come play for a team in Switzerland?’ We just had our one son, Hank. He was like three months old so he came over with us. That was one of those things where you know it's the end of your career, great experience, kind of took it all in. I will say that year was probably some of the most fun I’ve had playing hockey. There wasn’t much stress., just pure enjoyment and having as much fun as I could playing the game.
Did you think about playing another year?
I wasn't sure. I thought I could maybe play one more year but once I knew I wasn't going back to Switzerland I just decided I wasn't going to run around Europe trying to chase the jobs. I figured it was time to settle down and start a family and change diapers. I didn’t have any other opportunities in the Swiss league and I said, ‘Hey, if I can’t find a job there I’ll just retire and start a new career.’
Did you enjoy living in Switzerland?
One of the great things about playing over there, especially in Switzerland is you’re so close to so many different great countries and places. The hockey does take up a big portion, but the other great thing about the Swiss league is there’s no airplanes. You take a bus everywhere so you’re home every night and when you do you have time off, it's quick (trips to get anywhere). We went to Milan, Italy. We went to France, Germany, all over Switzerland and the mountains, Davos, all these cool places. We tried to take in as much as we could. We saw a ton of Europe and it was great. Switzerland was awesome. I’ll definitely be taking our kids back there one day to vacation because it was a beautiful country.
Are any of your boys playing hockey yet?
Our two older ones, Hank and Owen, are on skates. They had their mini-mites stuff last year and they’re going to do it again this year. It was fun watching them playing and enjoying the game. They’re pretty much into everything sports so our house is pretty much on the go, non-stop.
They're sort of fair weather hockey (fans). I guess all kids are sort of this way. They're rooting for who’s winning. Their team changes daily. I think they want Tampa Bay to win the Cup (Tampa did), but it depends on who’s playing and what the score of the game is.
Are they aware of what dad did for a living for 11 years?
I don’t think they are. They know I played hockey. They don’t know for what yet. I do play a little beer league hockey around here so they think that’s my team. Every once in a while they’ll see a hockey card but I don't think they’re old enough to understand it yet. I’m sure that one day they will.
Will you show them a video montage of your career?
I don’t know how long that video montage is or if they’d want to watch it. It would be better if we didn’t have video.
Do you stay in touch with your former teammates?
The hardest thing about hockey is when guys kind of separate and go to their separate teams, not that you lose touch but you're so busy with your life. You spend years with guys and you see them every day - you’re best friends — but as guys move teams or go back to their home cities or retire, it's so hard. You don’t see each other as much or communicate as much but if you were to put all these guys back in the same room it would be like you never left the rink.
You are cousins with Coyotes forward Phil Kessel. Can you explain that relationship?
My mom and his mom are sisters. We stay in touch here and there, but we both have crazy busy lives. We used to get together all the time when we were kids but then we both got busy with hockey and our own lives. We used to have some good mini-stick battles.
Did you ever consider a post-playing career in hockey?
I always thought I would kind of stay around hockey. I love the game, love watching the game, love critiquing it. When I was retiring was when we were starting to have a family. You know the life of anybody in a hockey management staff. Even when you’re starting out coaching in the minors or scouting, you're gone a lot and I thought one of the things I wanted to do is be around my kids, especially when they’re young and just growing up, so I made the decision that I was not going to pursue that career and try to do something else, but I try as much as I can to stay involved. I was helping out a high school team for a few years, a couple years ago, but now that we have four kids, it’s a little tougher. I still love the game, still love being around it and I’m going to help coach my kids for as long as they’ll let me.
Follow Craig Morgan on Twitter: @CraigSMorgan
Gotta say I really enjoy this "catching up with " series.
Moss was a real good dude. Believe he won "man of the year" here at least once for all his humanitarian work.
He was one of my favorite unsung heroes when I first became a Coyotes fan. Seemed like he never took a shift off.