Kyle Okposo back from the brink, now thriving with Sabres
4 min read“I think if you asked his family and yeah I think we consider ourselves family, a lot of us would answer, yes, we were worried,” Moulson said. “There was a tough stretch there. It’s definitely great to see what he’s doing now. I think everyone’s just proud of him and happy to watch him to what he’s doing.”
“Kyle went through so much,” said Okposo’s agent Pat Brisson, who was also instrumental in making sure every avenue was explored in helping Okposo back to full strength. “I couldn’t have been happier because you never know when you talk about health issues and mental health issues, it’s not like a shoulder or a knee injury.”
Not only has Okposo rediscovered his zest for the game, Brisson said he has also quietly made a point of reaching out and helping others who may be facing their own challenges.
“I know Kyle has been helping others as well,” Brisson said. “He’s the first one to lend a hand if he can make a difference in someone else’s life.”
Those days seem like a long time ago, as though they might have happened to someone else. Except they didn’t and there isn’t a day that goes by that Okposo doesn’t reflect at least a little on this journey and on the gift that is the game and the gift that is his health.
The fact he is playing as well as he has in years is of course the best kind of icing on the cake.
“I feel like a kid again,” Okposo said. “Sometimes you’re just playing, you’re not thinking about anything. You’re just making plays and the young guys really compliment that as well.
“I mean it’s definitely come back full circle for me. I’m a huge hockey nerd at heart and I always have been and I just love knowing what’s going on in the league and I love talking about it like Matt and I talk about that stuff all the time. We’ll call and go did you see that game last night what did you think of this guy that’s just what we do.
“But I didn’t have that right away when I got back after everything that I went through. I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to play again and if I was ever going to be the same and I had some anxiety in my life for not the first time but for the first time where I actually knew what it was.
“And coming back and playing and wondering: ‘oh shoot, am I going to be able to sleep in a hotel room on the road?’ That was tough because I went through a period where I didn’t sleep for a long time. And so that first season was a big kind of feeling out process of alright what’s this going to be like? What’s the new normal moving forward? And if I look back on it now it’s been a difficult journey to where I am now.”
Okposo’s children are 7, 5, 3 and 1 with birthdays upcoming in the coming months. His son, Odin, turning six, is a huge hockey nut like his dad.
“He loves hockey more than anybody that I know,” Okposo said. “Every morning he wakes up and watches highlights and asks why did you do this? Why didn’t you do that? He knows everybody’s number. He asks guys questions all the time. He just wants to play hockey all the time. That’s been a lot of fun.”
So we joke that he’ll have to keep playing at least four or five years so all the kids will get a chance to watch dad play.
Okposo laughs.
“Well, we’ll see what the body says.”
And then as the conversation comes to a close Okposo takes a moment to reflect and try and put all this is in some perspective.
“I love the game it just took me a little bit to find the path again,” Okposo said. “I never stopped loving, it’s just now there’s that kid again that’s in me. it’s just a ton of fun to play and it’s a ton of fun to be around the game and I’m not taking one day for granted because I know that it can go quick.
“I don’t know, I want to leave this game better than I found it and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
And it’s hard to imagine that hasn’t already been accomplished.