Puslinch man takes up triathlon after retiring from professional hockey

When it became clear that Bryan Little's NHL career was over, he decided to switch his athletic endeavors to triathlon.

Little, who was born in Edmonton, raised in Cambridge and lives in Puslinch on a five-acre property near Puslinch Lake, thought he could get a little more serious about triathlon.

“When we moved to the country I got a racing bike and started getting on the racing bike, mainly for recovery because I was still playing hockey,” he said. “So I went on weekends for a while.

“I discovered triathlons through YouTube. Canadian Lionel Sanders had a popular YouTube video channel and I thought it looked really cool and he looked a little crazy and I thought it would be something cool to try. I actually did my first sprint triathlon in Guelph when I was still playing hockey. I didn't train for it at all. I stopped my hockey training and hoped for the best, and had a blast. I was a bit addicted to it, so I decided that once I was done playing, I would dive into it a bit more and train for it seriously.

Little's professional hockey playing days came to an end in the 2019-2020 season when he was hit in the ear by a blow seven games into his career after returning from a concussion suffered in a preseason game. Although there were times when he felt he could return to playing, he was advised not to.

“One of the hardest things was making sure I felt good,” he said. “It was just the unpredictable nature of what happens if I take another big hit. That's exactly what stopped me from playing again and believe me, I've seen a lot of them – I've seen three or four specialists and not one of them recommended returning to contact sports. It was tough, but on days like today, when I found something else I'm passionate about, it definitely helps.”

Despite the premature end of his professional hockey career, he looks back on that career with great pleasure.

“I got to live my dream,” Little said. “It was my dream to play in the NHL as a kid and it's all I ever wanted, and I got to play 12 seasons there and have a decent career and score some points and goals. Looking back, the only hard pill to swallow is that I never got the chance to play for the Cup. I've only been in the play-offs three times and it definitely hurts when I look back at the missed opportunities and you know you don't get jealous, but a little jealous of the guys who won the game. It's still hard to look back and know that you'll never get the chance to lift it.

Little played 843 games in the NHL, scoring 217 goals and assisting on 304 others, all for the same franchise. He was drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers, 12th overall, in the 2006 NHL draft and remained with the team as it moved north to become the Winnipeg Jets. He was traded to the Arizona Coyotes in 2022 and will officially retire from the Utah Hockey Club when his contract expires next month.

“After my contract was moved there, I never went back there,” the 37-year-old said of Arizona.

“It's more of a technical issue that's on their books. My heart was still in Winnipeg and I still followed those guys because I still knew a lot of the guys on the team. It's July that I'm officially retired, so it would be nice to be done with that.”

As for triathlons, he actually started back when he was still playing in the NHL.

“It's definitely humbling, especially the swimming,” he said. “It was a 750m swim so quite short and I had to take a few breaks and I was passed by a lot of people. As explosive as I felt and as good as I was, it was definitely humbling when you went out and saw people flying by who were much older than you, so it's definitely a different kind of sport.

Little, who trains as much as possible with Guelph's LPC triathlon group, likes that there are three different disciplines in the sport.

“It was really different from the training I did for hockey,” he said. “I spent a lot of time in the gym, a lot of weights, a lot of short, fast things. I always wanted to get into endurance training because it was so different from what I was doing before. I actually wanted to get away from the gym because when I was done playing, I was kind of done with being in the weight room a lot. I like that it is so different and that the training is so different. It is almost meditative when you are there alone.”

Of the three disciplines – swimming, cycling and running – which one does Little like best?

“I'd say bicycle,” he replied. “I would say this is probably my strongest too, but I've grown to like all three. I've always loved running and swimming, I had a love/hate when I first started, but I've enjoyed that too now as I've gotten better.”

Little started his season early this month with a fourth-place finish at the Milton Subaru Triathlon. He was the best amateur.

He was also top amateur over Labor Day weekend last year, second overall, in the Guelph Lake II Triathlon, finishing behind Guelph pro-triathlete Taylor Reid.

“I don't really have a goal in the sense that I want to come to this place or this place,” Little said. “I just want to see how well I can push myself. I like to just try to improve on something that I'm not very good at, so I'll keep doing it and keep trying to improve as much as I can and see where it goes.

Because of a promise he made to his wife, Little keeps his triathlon training on a part-time basis.

“Right now I'm basically a stay-at-home dad. I told my wife when I was done (with pro hockey) that I would do that. This is a bit secondary. It's a hobby,” he said.

As for the triathlons he participates in, Little has pretty much limited himself to sprint triathlons.

“I've never done an Olympic (distance triathlon),” he said. “I have to see how close, if I did it, how close it would be to the 70.3 that I do. I just don't know how sore I would be after the Olympics. I think I get more sore after these races than the average person, especially while running. Even sprints I have some pain for a few days, so we'll see how close it gets.”

While some triathletes compete almost every weekend, Little limits his races to an average of about one per month. While he has not yet decided whether he will compete again in the Guelph Lake II Triathlon at the end of this summer, his main event of the year is next month's Ironman 70.3 Musselman in Geneva, NY.

“Usually four or five (per season), depending on how I'm feeling,” he said. “I've done four in the last two years. It just depends on how I feel. I usually get complaints and such. I'm quite injury prone when running and things like that have been creeping up since I started playing with knees and shoulders and all that. I think at least four, hopefully.”