For the first time in 14 years, Victoria’s Tyson Barrie is not playing for an NHL team.

After more than 800 NHL games the 34-year-old retired this summer. But while some players struggle in retirement, Barrie is already well on his way to the next stage of his life.

It’s a Wednesday afternoon in Oak Bay, and Barrie is busy at work at his home office.

But he’s happiest down in his speak-easy lounge with a cold pint of Guinness that he has on tap.

“A little hidden room in the house where you come down after dinner – and it tends to spit you out early in the morning,” he says with a laugh.

It’s a taste of retirement for the 34-year-old, who hung up his skates after a 12-year NHL career.

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“The NHL for me was always something that was on a pedestal – I didn’t actually think it was attainable,” he says. “It was kind of just something I worked towards.”

“I’m really proud of the career I put together, and it was more than I could have even imagined growing up,” he adds.

Barrie says it’s strange to consider his NHL career as an “opening act” of his life, but now he’s on to the next.

He started a beer brand called Chilly Ones with some big name partners.

“I always just called beers ‘chilly ones’ with all of my hockey friends,” he says. “It started in Colorado, probably had too many chilly ones one night, and I put it in my notes – ‘I’d like to do a beer with all my best buddies’ – and we did it.”

“Kind of blasphemy to be drinking a Guinness I guess,” he says with a laugh.

On top of that, Barrie has joined the Canucks broadcast on Sportsnet this season, adding intermission insight for regional home games.

“You know, it’s close in Vancouver, and something that I always thought I’d be OK at,” he says. “So dipping my toes in the water, and it keeps me in the game, and keeps me around the boys.”

Barrie is friends with Justin Bieber and the Lumineers, and he’s also invested in a British band called Ten Fé.

He says he’s taken tips from musicians to help keep him grounded in a hockey world that can often be consumed by cliches and bravado.

“Musicians are a little more in touch with their emotions and feelings than maybe most hockey guys, so it was really nice to get to know them and take some of that back to hockey,” he says.

Also a father of two, Barrie is keeping busy, but also happy to stick to the basics.

“I like my friends, I like beer, I like music, I like hockey,” he says.

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