The origin story of Steve Oleksy's Eastside Elite Hockey League and its charity all-star game

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. — Jake Chelios had never drafted anyone before. Not even in a video game.

Yet here he was, in the lobby of the Mount Clemens Ice Arena last Thursday, furiously scanning a sheet of draft-eligible players for the Eastside Elite Hockey League’s upcoming charity all-star game. Jake, the son Hall-of-Famer Chris Chelios, is a first-time player in the EEHL, a summer league that started from scratch 10 years ago and has grown ripe with Michigan-area talent.

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For the third straight year, the league is using its platform to give back, hosting a charity event on Thursday with NHL headliners from past and present, including Igor Larionov, Todd Bertuzzi, Vladislav Namestnikov and Dylan Larkin.

There was a time when that wouldn’t have been possible. A time when just hoping players would come play twice a week was asking enough.

“I didn’t know this league existed,” says Jake Chelios, before correcting himself. “Well, I didn’t know it was this big.”

About an hour before the all-star draft, Steve Oleksy can’t afford to do just one thing at a time. So he explains how he started the EEHL while clicking away at his computer.

Like Chelios, Oleksy once had innocent expectations for this summer league. During his junior year at Lake Superior State, where he was a defenseman for the Lakers, Oleksy came up with the idea of a league to showcase the deep pool of hockey talent in the area. The league was meant to serve as a career contingency plan for Oleksy, too.

“Part of it for me was I never expected to play hockey after I was done (college),” he says while retrieving EEHL roster sheets from a printer in the arena office.

Oleksy thought he might end up on the management side of hockey, so running a summer league felt like a decent starting point. He reached out to Nick Poliski, the general manager of the Mount Clemens Ice Arena, which is just 10 minutes from where Oleksy grew up. Then he went on Facebook and messaged a bunch of nearby players to gauge interest.

Through mostly social media and word of mouth, the EEHL housed eight teams and roughly 80 players in 2008, its first summer. The first “big fish” Oleksy recalls landing was Sterling native Patrick Davis, an American Hockey League player for the Lowell Devils who had a brief call-up with New Jersey the following year.

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But the depth of quality players was lacking. Commitment was an issue, too. On some nights, only five or six players per team showed up. Still, the league was viable, proving Oleksy right that such a thing could exist in Mount Clemens.

As for Oleksy and his career path in hockey? Yeah, he was wrong about that.

There is no clearer evidence in the arena than the autographed and framed No. 61 Oleksy jerseys hanging in the office. One is from his time with the Washington Capitals, with whom he made his NHL debut in 2013. The other is from his time with the Pittsburgh Penguins, who signed him for most of two seasons starting in 2015.

He has played for parts of four NHL seasons, as recently as 2016-17, achieving a dream he didn’t expect. The EEHL benefited in the process.

“The higher level I played, it seemed like more of those guys were getting involved,” Oleksy said. “It’s a little bit different when you’ve got a college guy saying, ‘I’m running this league.’ Or you’ve got an NHLer running this league.”

Now, the EEHL has swelled to 15 teams and roughly 200 players. The experience levels range from midget major hockey to the NHL, with various levels of junior, college and minor professional hockey mixed in. Oleksy believes pros now account for the majority of the players, including about “30-plus NHLers” this season.

Oleksy, 32, is still working to get back to the NHL. He’s entering the second half of a two-year deal with Anaheim, though he spent all of last season with the AHL affiliate in San Diego. Being the player-commissioner of the EEHL feels like a full-time job, but he says it doesn’t hinder his training regimen. Instead, it means using less of his offseason to enjoy Michigan summers and sharpen his short game.

“I don’t get to go out on boats all the time like some guys do,” he says. “Or go golfing whenever I want.”

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For Oleksy, it’s a worthwhile trade to give local players the opportunity to play through the summer in relaxed versions of game-like situations. From the middle of June to the first week of August, players skate twice-weekly in 5-on-5 games with no checking.

“For a summer league, it’s very organized,” Larkin told The Athletic’s Craig Custance. “It’s not goon hockey.”

Thursday’s all-star game is a 3-on-3 format, with four teams captained by Larionov, Sergei Samsonov, Todd Bertuzzi and Chris Chelios (or David Legwand if Chelios cannot be present). Proceeds from the $10 tickets are going to a quartet of charitable causes: ALS awareness, autism awareness, StopConcussions and the Special Olympics. Fire capacity at the arena is about 500 people and both previous all-star games sold out.

Tickets are now available at Mt. Clemens Ice Arena!! Or contact me directly! pic.twitter.com/YJCJm0OtdI

— Steven Oleksy (@StevenOleksy) July 20, 2018

When the all-star draft finally begins, Jake Chelios — filling in for his father — confidently calls out his first pick: Namestnikov, a forward for the New York Rangers. Soon, each roster is dotted with pros, including Larkin, Danny DeKeyser and Austin Czarnik.

The draft is conducted in remarkably low-key fashion. As names begin to fill the Excel sheet on a large projector in the lobby, only a handful of people pay attention. Others simply flow in and out of the arena.

But that’s kind of the point. Sure, the all-star game is about letting fans see pro players up close and bringing hundreds of people together to raise money for good causes. But the league itself is not for fanfare. It’s for growth and fun.

Ten years in, Oleksy has witnessed plenty of both. His reward is skating alongside these players for a handful of weeks each year, watching some develop through the ranks of junior, college and pro. A sort of pipeline has formed, keeping the league sustainable — and now, charitable.

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“A number of guys have come up to me over the years and thanked me for what I do,” Oleksy said. “When they acknowledge that, it makes everything worth it.”

(Top photo: Jordan Horrobin/The Athletic)

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