Chris Tanev’s children are far too young to appreciate the journey that led their father to playing in the best hockey league in the world.
But some day they will.
Likewise, Bobby and Lucy are far too young to understand the perseverance their father showed in returning to college to complete a hard-earned degree in finance a decade and a half after he first stepped onto the campus at Rochester Institute for Technology in Rochester, New York.
But some day they will.
Both moments will be meaningful. That is a given. But it will be a little more meaningful when Bobby and Lucy hear the stories about Tanev cracking open the laptop and textbooks on road trips – studying and working on assignments after evening story time to complete his educational journey that ended with Tanev earning a finance degree from Southern New Hampshire University last season with the help of NHLPA UNLMT.
“Just something that they can look at in the future and say, both my parents have degrees, and maybe this is how my dad did it and this is how my mom did it, so there's not a perfect way to go about getting an education or pursuing any sort of interest or dreams in your life,” Tanev explained.
Long before he rejoined the academic crowd in finishing up his finance degree, Tanev’s NHL story was markedly different than many of his hockey-playing peers.
Growing up in Toronto to Macedonian parents, Mike and Sophie Tanev. Chris, the oldest of three boys, played youth hockey with future NHL peers like Steven Stamkos and P.K. Subban.But attention and accolades did not follow Tanev.
He didn’t play major-junior hockey and went undrafted by NHL teams.
Instead, Tanev enrolled at the RIT and played one season for the Division I team in the Atlantic Hockey America conference. Tanev was named rookie of the year for the AHA as RIT made its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Frozen Four at the end of the 2009-10 season.
While at RIT, Tanev met soccer player, Kendra Tanev, through mutual friends. The young couple were both serious about school and Kendra recalled going to the library to study and do homework before dropping Tanev off to meet up with his hockey pals.
Kendra went on to earn a master’s degree in physician assistant studies at Syracuse University, while Tanev was unexpectedly signed by the Vancouver Canucks at the end of his first year at RIT.
Tanev told Kendra not to worry and that the pro hockey thing would be a small detour in their life path.
That’s not exactly how things turned out.
After playing in the American Hockey League for most of the 2010-11 season, Tanev ended up playing in a handful of playoff games with the big club as Vancouver lost to Boston in seven games in the Stanley Cup Final.
In 2026 and almost 900 NHL regular-season games later, Tanev is back in his hometown Toronto with the Maple Leafs.
“I think for us, this whole life, Chris’ career, really wasn't supposed to happen. It was almost kind of like a fluke,” Kendra said.
“When he signed with Vancouver, he said to me, ‘Nothing's going to happen. I'm just going to leave for three years. When I'm done, you'll be done with your school and we'll just have a little bit of extra money to start our lives,’” Kendra recalled.
“And then he ended up in the NHL and less than a year later he was in the Stanley Cup Final and it was just really crazy. But I think it took probably 10 years to feel real. And I just remember his grandmother, his baba, she was from Macedonia, she would be like, ‘When is he going to wear a suit and tie and go get a real job?’”
“It was almost kind of like a joke. You better finish school so you can go get a real job. But also, just that feeling that playing in the NHL and achieving this goal and this dream, it took a very, very long time to feel like it was real,” Kendra added.
Maybe that’s why casual discussions about Tanev finding a way to complete his college degree took on a much more serious tenor during COVID-19.
It’s one thing to contemplate taking on college courses while playing pro hockey, but it’s an entirely different thing to carry it out in real time.
That’s where NHLPA UNLMT comes in. Every year, NHLPA UNLMT helps players identify areas of interest to explore and expand upon outside of hockey.
Whether it’s documentary film making, real estate, building renovation, stand-up comedy, podcasting – if a player can think it, NHLPA UNLMT’s team of experts can help them pursue their interests by connecting them with a wide-ranging network of professionals and academic institutions.
About one-quarter of the NHLPA’s membership has been involved with NHLPA UNLMT on some level, with many embracing the route that Tanev took in returning to post-secondary education.
“I think I was maybe a little nervous, but I've always been a good student, my whole life I've been good in school, so I wasn't too worried about how I was going to do, more so nervous of the process and managing that while I was playing – which turned out to be great,” Tanev explained.
“It’s easy when you're on the road to do some homework or you get on the plane, it was easy to get that done. We have a lot more time than we realize I think,” added Tanev, 36.
In many ways Tanev illustrates perfectly why UNLMT has become such a crucial tool for NHL players looking to enhance their lives in the midst of their careers by exploring outside interests and perhaps building a pathway to life after NHL hockey.
In Tanev’s case he knew what he wanted to accomplish but needed guidance on how to meet those goals. That meant getting help transferring post-secondary credits from RIT and some from Canada and finding an institution that would offer the kinds of courses Tanev needed to take in order to complete his degree.
“I just remember that in his overall approach he was being very deliberate. It was something that he had made a promise to his family that he was going to complete, and he just said help me figure out how to do this as easily and as efficiently as possible,” said Duncan Fletcher, a player strategist for NHLPA UNLMT, who helps marry players’ outside interests with professionals and institutions that can turn those interests into something tangible, like a college degree.
The fact that this wasn’t going to happen overnight for Tanev wasn’t a deterrent at all. In fact, Tanev felt the process of restarting his academic career was no different than any other challenge he’s faced in becoming a pro hockey player.
“As athletes, anything we start we definitely want to finish. And mainly just really wanted to show my kids that you can do stuff, maybe do something else and I just I thought it would be a good example,” Tanev said.
Research has shown players can see their careers extended and their level of play go up when they have outside interests that allow them to think about things other than hockey, to say nothing of the contacts they can make and the knowledge they can accrue for later in life.
“I think it's a great tool to sort of get your mind away from hockey, and I mean it doesn't have to be school. It could be something that you're interested in and you're able to sort of get away from the game for an hour or two and move on,” Tanev said.
“And, yeah, I definitely played quite well during the years that I was back at school,” he added.
Already Tanev is contemplating next academic steps. Kendra joked that they should both go to law school although she admitted Tanev thought that was a terrible idea. But perhaps some graduate courses. And having a finance degree now opens up possibilities when his on-ice career is done.
One thing is clear, though, and that is the work Tanev has put in to complete his degree will resonate not just with his peers but potential employers or business partners after hockey.
“What I've found is that typically when people talk to athletes that have earned their degrees while competing at the highest level in the world, there's typically an additional level of respect that's afforded to them, realizing that, hey, they didn't have to do this,” Fletcher said.
It’s not just grinding out a finance degree over five years, it’s the fact that in the midst of doing so Tanev and Kendra saw their family grow with the birth of son, Bobby, and grow again with Lucy’s arrival less than a year ago.
“He's probably one of the smartest guys in the league. He's just very, very intelligent and he's extremely good at math,” said Kendra who has served as editor of many of Tanev’s papers and reports during the last five years.
“I remember I bought him a notebook and pencils for him to work on his math. And he's like, no I don't need that. He was doing the stats in his head. And I'm like, how are you doing this? It was just like mind-boggling,” Kendra added.
In fact, Kendra said, the academics rarely interfered with the household machinery.
“When the babies were really little, if they were sleeping, he'd be holding a baby in one arm and typing with one hand to do his homework,” Kendra recalled.
Sometimes, after reading stories and following the nighttime ritual, Tanev would pop out of bed to finish up an assignment.
“I think the kids just seeing what he was doing to finish a degree while playing a professional sport and not taking the easy way out. I mean, Chris doesn't really need to finish his degree, but in doing so, just shows another level of hard work and dedication that hopefully they will both emulate at some point,” Kendra said.
When Tanev got the email that he’d completed all the requirements for his degree it set off a chain reaction of celebration.
Kendra organized a surprise golf outing with Tanev’s family and closest friends complete with t-shirts featuring an anime likeness of Tanev on the front complete with signature long hair and gap-tooth smile.
Among those in attendance at the special golf graduation outing were Tanev’s two brothers. Brandon, two years younger, spent four years at Providence College and is now a forward with the Utah Mammoth.
Education has always been a priority for the Tanev family. And if you could marry school with athletics so much the better, Brandon said.
“That was always our parents’ goal for us,” Brandon said.
“Growing up, we always wanted to finish what we started. And I think for him to accomplish receiving a degree after spending so many years away or out of the educational system was something inspiring. I think his desire, his passion, his ability to see things through is amazing.”
“At the end of the day, it gets you the best of both worlds. I mean, you get to pursue what you love in athletics and hockey, but at the same time also go to school and receive an amazing degree. You don't always know when your career might end. So, it's always great to have an education to fall back on. I think that was our parents' desire as we got older was always to push education because you might not know how long sports or athletics last. As much as you do love them, there's always a time that you're going have to step away from them,” Brandon said.
For his supporters at NHLPA UNLMT, there was likewise a moment of great exultation when Tanev shared the news that he was a college grad.
“It’s a significant accomplishment and again from our perspective it validates the work that we're doing,” Fletcher said. “To see a guy be able to do that, it's phenomenal. I think the next day there's about six or seven of us, we literally had a group call and we were just all ecstatic for Chris's success and knocking out the degree. So, it means a lot to us and obviously it means more to Chris but, in terms of what we're trying to accomplish here with NHLPA UNLMT, to have a guy go through that, that it's 100% pop the cork, hit the confetti because that's a real win for what we're trying to do with NHLPA UNLMT.”
