Former NHL player Mike Danton speaks about playing for the Huskies hockey team during a news conference at Saint Mary's University in Halifax on Thursday.PAUL DARROW/Reuters
Mike Danton just wants to play hockey. But he knows it's not that easy.
His criminal past and age, 29, have brought intense scrutiny upon the decision by St. Mary's University to let him skate with the Huskies. The spotlight has shone also on the former NHL player; more media turned up yesterday for his first appearance as a member of the team than come to most prime ministerial events here.
Danton didn't want to talk about his past, including the years spent in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to murder his agent, and university public-relations staff asked reporters not to question him about it. But that was the elephant in the room and it took only minutes to come up.
"Are you prepared when some guy faces off and says, 'I've never played against a felon before,' or, 'If I hit you, are you going to hire a hit man?'" one reporter asked. "Are you expecting that, because you can't control that?"
The former St. Louis Blue appeared unfazed by the thought.
"I've learned to expect the worst and hope for the best," he said in his first public comments since starting as a student at the Halifax university this month.
"I'm expecting, I guess, any and all sorts of criticism. But when it comes down to it, I know how to deal with that. You know, someone wants to say something, they can say it. We'll go up the ice, we'll score a goal, we'll be up 1-0."
Danton was released from prison last fall and comes to the school with great personal baggage. The team had a lengthy meeting to address players' questions and concerns, but team officials said his welcome was unanimous. And yesterday he praised St. Mary's for looking past his notoriety.
He would not specify other universities with which he had been speaking, saying only that there had been several. And he rejected suggestions he is too old for postsecondary sports.
"Is 29 really that old?" Danton asked reporters.
"I'm well within the parameters of playing," he added. "I think more of the criticism comes from the fact that I've done some prison time."
He did not want to talk about the events leading to his prison sentence but said the last few years had given him an appreciation for education. He is studying sociology and psychology, coming to the press conference from class in student uniform of jeans and a T-shirt, and hopes one day to work as a coach or sports psychologist.
"We've all made mistakes," Danton said. "The severity of those mistakes is what differs. But when it comes down to it, I think that everybody deserves a second chance."
He is practising with the Huskies and looking forward to his first game. He rejected the suggestion that this was a springboard only, to be left at the first hint of a pro contract, and stressed that he was taking university seriously.
"I already got three strikes," he said. "I can look at it from a selfish standpoint and say, if I screw this up, there's absolutely nothing else for me."
Danton was convicted in 2004 in a failed murder-for-hire plot. He returned to Canada and was granted full parole last September. The prosecution in the case in the U.S. said the target of the plot was David Frost, his agent at the time, but Danton suggested the intended victim was his father. The target of the plot was not identified in the agreed statement of facts that was part of the court record when Danton pleaded guilty.
With a report from The Canadian Press