Grand-Pierre has never been one to turn down a challenge

February is Black History Month, and nine Black players have suited up for the Blue Jackets over a quarter-century of hockey, a list that includes Fred Brathwaite, Anson Carter, Anthony Duclair, Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre, Jet Greaves, Jordan Harris, Seth Jones, Greg Mauldin and Malcolm Subban. With the Blue Jackets in their 25th season, we’re featuring select journeys and stories from those who have donned the CBJ sweater.  

In some ways, it feels like Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre can do it all. 

He spent 16 seasons playing pro hockey all around the world, including four in Columbus. He became a successful real estate agent after his career, then began a second act in hockey as a coach and broadcaster.  

Grand-Pierre also now dabbles as a goaltender after a career as a defenseman, was invited to Team Canada soccer camps as a kid and even became a U.S. citizen two years ago. 

It seems like any time Grand-Pierre puts his mind and energy into something, he’s able to master it.  

“Everything but golf,” Grand-Pierre said with a laugh. 

Truthfully, he’s not half bad at that, either. Grand-Pierre has seemingly always found a new passion or a new way to reinvent himself over his 49 years, and he’s not about to stop.  

“I still want to do more,” Grand-Pierre said. “I just don’t know exactly what it is, but I always thought life is too short to really define yourself into one thing. A lot of times, you get stuck in life where you just know one thing and you think that’s all you can do and all that you want to do, until you try something new.  

“I always tell people – don’t be afraid to fail, because you’re going to fail plenty of times, but those experiences will make you grow stronger and bigger and gives you more appreciation for what you have and what you’ve accomplished.” 

Learning The Game

Grand-Pierre grew up in Montreal, the son of a doctor, his father Allaix, and a nurse, his mother Michelene. The two were both born in Haiti but moved to Canada to pursue their careers, and Jean-Luc was born in February 1977. 

In the same manner that someone moving to Columbus would naturally become an Ohio State football fan, the family took an interest in hockey – Allaix rooting for the Quebec Nordiques and Michelene cheering for the local Montreal Canadiens. 

Jean-Luc grew up watching the local teams, and when he was around 7 years old, his parents signed him for skating lessons. It just didn't go exactly, perhaps, as planned.  

“They decided we need to get this kid into a sport, and (my father) basically told my mom to put me in skating lessons, which is the start for hockey,” Grand-Pierre said. “And my mom went in and I think secretly didn’t really like hockey and the fighting and the violence and whatever, so she went to the arena and signed me up for skating lessons. About halfway through the year, my dad had the day off and took me to practice and realized I was figure skating and not playing hockey.”

In the end, though, that turned out to be a blessing, as Grand-Pierre's natural athleticism combined with that early edgework made him a gifted skater. A move to the suburb of Laval also helped build his passion in the sport of hockey, as street hockey games with neighbor kids were common, and as he got older it seemed he might have a future in the sport. 

But he also excelled at soccer, putting the skates away and playing the sport all through the summer before going back to hockey in the winter. He loved both sports, but a decision had to be made when he was a teenager when he was invited a camp for Canada’s U-15 soccer team.  

The problem? Hockey tryouts for the local AAA squad were at the same time.  

“That’s when I had to make a decision, like, hey, am I going to the hockey training camp or the soccer training camp?” Grand-Pierre said. “I basically chose the hockey training camp. I didn’t make the team, which sucked! I never had any regrets, but soccer was definitely something I was pretty competitive at.  

“I don’t think I was great at it, but also I wasn’t that great at hockey at that age, but after I focused solely on hockey, that’s when I really saw a big growth because I went out and played all winter and then that following summer as well, and that’s when I really started opening eyes.” 

Indeed, once he committed himself to hockey, Grand-Pierre quickly started to turn heads. That AAA team realized its mistake, inviting him for a couple of call-ups that season, but Grand-Pierre only went once because he was enjoying his time with his buddies in bantam hockey. 

Not only was he having fun, he was succeeding, and Grand-Pierre was chosen by Beaufort in the second round of the QMJHL draft in 1993. He was just 16 years old and reported to camp figuring he was a longshot to make the team that year in a league where players can skate until age 20, but lo and behold, he did.  

“It was one of those things where I just went for training camp to have fun,” Grand-Pierre said. “I was like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go play AAA this year anyway, so what’s the big deal?’ It kind of just shows you when you don’t put any pressure on yourself and just want to have fun, you never know what’s going to happen, and I ended up making the team.” 

Grand-Pierre spent four years in the QMJHL, playing one for Beaufort and three more with Val-d'Or, and he grew into a 6-3 defenseman with enough ability that St. Louis chose him in the seventh round of the 1995 draft. He also learned to use his size to his advantage, a lesson delivered during his draft year when the Foreurs made a coaching change. 

“It’s funny, so I remember my second year in junior, and the season was not going well for the team at all,” Grand-Pierre said. “We got a new head coach that came in halfway through the season, and he’s like, ‘Dude, if you want to get drafted, you need to be a little more mean.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He was like, ‘I need you to be physical and just hit people.’ And I was like, ‘OK.’”

Naturally boasting an easygoing disposition, Grand-Pierre nonetheless embraced the role, topping 200 penalty minutes in two of his last three years in juniors, including a Sept. 22, 1995, fight with a young enforcer over in Halifax by the name of Jody Shelley. 

Grand-Pierre turned pro after the 1996-97 season, and by then he had been traded by the Blues to Buffalo. His agent told him to show up on the scoresheet any way he could each night, and he totaled four goals, 10 points and 211 penalty minutes that season with Rochester of the AHL. 

The next year, he made his NHL debut playing 16 games on a Sabres team that went to the Stanley Cup Final, then skated in 11 regular-season contests and four playoff games the next year with Buffalo.  

Discovering Columbus

The next offseason, two new teams entered the NHL in Minnesota and Columbus, and the expansion draft proved to be a risky proposition for a Buffalo team that wanted to keep a pair of goaltenders in Dominik Hasek and Martin Biron. 

The Sabres worked out a deal with Columbus in which Grand-Pierre was traded to the Blue Jackets, who also selected Geoff Sanderson in the expansion draft while leaving the goaltenders alone. 

Little did Grand-Pierre know that the move would have a significant impact on his life.  

“Looking back 25 years later, if you would have asked me in full honesty in September of 2000 as I was driving down (Interstate) 71 from Buffalo if I would ever see myself living in Columbus, I would have said, ‘Absolutely not,’ because I knew nothing about Columbus,” Grand-Pierre said.  

“I didn’t know where it was on the map. People were telling me, ‘Hey, you’re going to Buckeye country.’ I didn’t know what a Buckeye was. That’s how clueless I was about everything. I fell in love with the place, and here I am 25 years later and here I am in Columbus and loving it.” 

Grand-Pierre quickly became one of the early mainstays of the Blue Jackets as well as the franchise’s first Black player, skating in 64 games the inaugural season, scoring his first NHL goal and adding four assists while racking up 73 penalty minutes. He’d go on to skate in 202 games with Columbus, totaling four goals – including an incredible tally vs. New Jersey in which he dangled past Scott Stevens and scored past Martin Brodeur in 2002 – with 14 points and 239 penalty minutes.

He was claimed on waivers by Atlanta on Dec. 31, 2003, but by then, his love of the capital city was cemented. Grand-Pierre met his eventual wife, Jennifer, an Ohio native, during his time with the Blue Jackets, but it was staying in Columbus during his first offseason that truly made him want to make Central Ohio his home.  

“I bought a house at the end of the season, so I ended up spending my offseason in Columbus,” Grand-Pierre said. “I remember at the time I was literally the only player that stayed back, so I got to really learn about the city. I trained here all summer, I got to meet a lot of people, and that’s probably when I really started saying, Columbus is pretty cool.  

“I don’t want to say I was a trend setter, but that summer, during the season all you know is your teammates and then all of a sudden I was in the offseason all by myself, so I got to integrate myself more in the community and that’s when I really started loving the city of Columbus.” 

New Adventures

Grand-Pierre played 27 games with the Trashers that season and 13 more with Washington, then went to Sweden to play during the 2004-05 NHL lockout season. The league returned a year later, but an orbital bone fracture suffered during his time in Columbus left him with bouts of double vision and considering his NHL future. 

After the year in Europe, he decided to stay overseas for a variety of reasons. 

“During the lockout, I went over to Europe and, one, I really, really liked the experience, and two, there’s no fighting over there, so it’s like a little less risk,” Grand-Pierre said, noting the impact of the injury. “There’s less contact, less games. It was one of those things where the injuries take a toll, and that was one that was always on my mind.  

“I was like, I could be one punch away or one big hit away from my career being done, so after the lockout, I said, ‘You know what? I’m staying over in Europe and I’m going to take advantage of the opportunity and bring my kids and my wife,’ and we absolutely loved it.” 

Grand-Pierre two years in Germany, then returned to the U.S. for the 2007-08 season with the AHL affiliate of the New Jersey Devils, simply because the family was building a home in New Albany and wanted to be closer. He then went back overseas, playing the next five seasons for teams in Germany, Norway, Sweden and Finland before retiring after the 2012-13 season. 

From there, Grand-Pierre returned to Central Ohio, even fielding a call from Fox Sports Ohio about potentially getting into broadcasting. But after spending the previous two decades dedicating his life to hockey, he decided it was time for a break.  

“I kind of thought about it, but at that point, I was kind of burned out on hockey,” he said. “It was like, I want to establish myself at something else, and I always loved real estate. I just wanted to focus on my real estate business and stuff like that and didn’t really want to get into covering hockey anymore. At that point, I’m 33, 34 years old, and it’s almost like that’s all I’ve known for the last 20 years of my life.  

“I needed a break. It sounds crazy, but when you’re around people that have a normal job and you’re an athlete, it sounds appealing because you never got to do it.” 

A Return To The Ice

Grand-Pierre started working in real estate during hockey offseasons starting in 2009, and he spent his first couple of years of retirement focused on the job, finding a passion for helping his clients find the perfect home.  

In 2015, though, the New Albany hockey program was going to the varsity level, and a friend approached him about joining the coaching staff. At first, Grand-Pierre hesitated, but after taking the job, he fell in love with hockey again over five years with the Eagles program. Grand-Pierre also has coached a number of youth organizations and development squads in Central Ohio. 

“As much as I love the hockey part of it and the coaching, to me, watching these kids in high school from being freshmen to seniors, it’s just to see what kind of men they’ve become, right?” Grand-Pierre said. “It’s so fun, I’ll be at the desk during the game and so many of my former players will stop by. To see where they were when they started to where they are now, now they’re getting married, some of them have kids, they have real jobs and they’re still connected to the game.  

“It’s more about the growth of the sport, the growth of the human than just the hockey part itself. That’s really what drew me to coaching, to be honest with you.”

Along the way, Grand-Pierre also got a second chance at broadcasting. He was looking to step away from the New Albany program right around the same time longtime CBJ analyst Bill Davidge announced his retirement, and Davidge approached Grand-Pierre and told him he should look into the opening. 

In the summer of 2019, Grand-Pierre was offered the job and has been on the team’s television broadcasts as an intermission analyst ever since. He brings levity and a sense of fun to the broadcasts but also isn’t afraid to offer direct analysis when the situation calls for it.  

“After talking to my wife, she was like, ‘You know what? It keeps you involved in the game and it’s something you passed on in the past. This time maybe you’re ready for it,’” Grand-Pierre said. “I think that was probably the best thing for me was to step away for that five years or so and just come back with a fresh perspective.  

“As a player, you look at the game and you critique everything, but as a fan, you have a completely different point of view, so now I have kind of both perspectives because I stepped away for a few years. I felt like I was more ready for it.” 

Through it all, Grand-Pierre has lived not just a full hockey career but a fulfilling life in general. He's found success in just about everything he’s done, and he’s never been afraid to try new things.  

One reason for that? As he just noted, Jennifer has been a big part of that, often encouraging him to get out of his comfort zone. 

“My wife has been extremely supportive in every endeavor that I've tried, and she’s definitely one that keeps pushing me, too,” Grand-Pierre said. “She’s like, ‘Hey, why don’t you try that?’ Sometimes I’ll be like, ‘You’re crazy,’ but sometimes I’m like, ‘You know what? Why not? If you don’t try, you’ll never know,’ and I don’t want to be one of those guys that looks back at his life and is like, man, I just wish I did that and now it’s too late.” 

And more often than not, it’s worked out.