The vice president of the NHL's newly formed Hockey Development & Strategic Collaboration Group is on a mission to grow the sport by strengthening relationships and collaboration between the NHL and developmental leagues and organizations, including the American Hockey League, ECHL, NCAA, United States Hockey League, USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and the Canadian Hockey League, with more to come with the growth of the group.
"It's really aligning the hockey spine," said Westgarth, an NHL vice president of hockey development and strategic collaboration. "It's just good to get people talking together, but then to also be able to help guide and add some resources from the hockey side. And on the business side, with an expanded footprint of other collaborators, to help share and promote all this other good stuff we're doing from Hockey Fights Cancer, Hockey is for Everyone down to fan development programming."
Westgarth, a forward who played 169 games for the Los Angeles Kings, Carolina Hurricanes and Calgary Flames from 2008-14 and won the Stanley Cup with the Kings in 2012, has been passionate about those relationships from the moment he joined the NHL's corporate side as vice president of development and international affairs in January 2016, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said.
"Having that point person whose primary responsibility is to maintain those relationships, further develop those relationships, service those relationships … he's really kind of improved the frequency, the amount of time we spend on it," Daly said.
Daly said Westgarth brings a wealth of hockey knowledge at all levels to his new position.
The 38-year-old from Amherstburg, Ontario, played NCAA Division I hockey at Princeton University from 2003-07, played 224 games across four seasons (2006-10) in the AHL with the Kings affiliate in Manchester, New Hampshire, and played five seasons in the NHL before finishing his career in the United Kingdom with Belfast of the Elite Ice Hockey League in the 2014-15 season.
"He knows it, but he's passionate enough about it that even if he didn't know it, he'd learn it," Daly said.
Working under Daly, Westgarth has hit the ground running with fellow strategic collaboration team members Donny Khan, senior director, and Bill Xouris, coordinator.