It has been almost 27 years since Stew Gavin played his first NHL game for Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens, but he remembers it vividly: pulling on his Leafs sweater, listening to the opening-night crowd, the rookie sat in the dressing room drinking it all in.

“You dream about being there, and now you’re there,” Gavin says about that night. “Whether you play one game or 1,000, you can say you played in the NHL.”

Today, the Leafs no longer play at the venerable old Gardens, but instead regularly entertain — or disappoint — their fans at the Air Canada Centre, which is also where you’ll find the offices of Gavin Management Group, the financial planning firm Gavin established in 2003.

Gavin has a small and exclusive client base of about 70 clients, 60% of whom are NHL stars, including Jarome Iginla, Eric Staal and Jason Smith, and the rest of whom are senior corporate executives, a legacy group from his early days in the advisory business, a career he started after he retired from the game in 1995.

“If I represent anything to my hockey clients, it is that I’ve been there,” says Gavin, now 47, who went on to play 13 NHL seasons with Toronto, Hartford and Minnesota. “I know how hard it is to get to the NHL; I know how hard it is to stay there. I stand up for the players.”

Although some people may feel little sympathy for professional athletes earning seven-figure salaries, Gavin has seen a lot of hockey players finish their career with little to show for themselves, either because they received bad advice or because of lack of planning.

After all, he says, the vast majority of a hockey player’s lifetime earnings come early in his adulthood — when he may be least prepared to deal with it. And a hockey player faces a target retirement date of sometime in his 30s — as long as injury or declining quality of play don’t force him out earlier.

“They don’t have a clue what their cash flow is, so invariably they just spend it,” Gavin says. “Our whole goal is to make sure players never have to work again, that they can maintain their same lifestyle post-hockey, without working.”

Gavin and his team of four associates provide players with a high-end comprehensive financial planning service, including cash flow management, taxes, insurance and estate planning, as well as investment advice. The services are provided either in-house or in conjunction with experts and specialists brought in by the firm.

Where his group’s offering differs, Gavin says, is in the “high-touch” services it can provide. This can include any and all financial, banking or other services, from assisting a player with the decision to buy or lease a vehicle to helping a newly arrived European player get a driver’s licence, from opening a new bank account to handling a home purchase or sale.

“Most people who are very successful are very focused on what they’re doing,” Gavin says. “I don’t want one of my clients going into a playoff game wondering whether his mortgage is arranged, or if he needs to go to the bank. I don’t want a lawyer calling him on the day of the game, telling him this or that needs to get done — now. That might throw him off completely.”

Of course, when Gavin skated in the NHL in the 1980s and early ’90s, players didn’t enjoy the financial rewards big-leaguers now do; players today bring home anywhere from US$450,000 to US$8 million a season.

In 1980, the 20-year-old Gavin, an Ottawa native, signed with the Leafs for $55,000 and a signing bonus of $20,000 — all in Canadian dollars and considered solid earnings at the time.

Gavin remembers planning to spend his bonus money on a vehicle, a stereo and other expenses; he also remembers how upset he was when he saw the bonus cheque, made out for $12,500. “That was my first introduction to taxes,” he laughs, adding that the experience was one of many in his playing career that sparked his interest in financial planning.

Gavin, who was a checking forward, would go on to score 130 goals and 156 assists in 768 career NHL games. After five seasons with the Maple Leafs, he was traded to Hartford in 1985, where he played three seasons with the Whalers. In 1988, he was claimed on waivers by Minnesota, where he played his last five NHL seasons.

@page_break@It was with Minnesota that he experienced what he says was one of his career highlights — and greatest regrets. Gavin’s underdog North Stars managed to reach the Stanley Cup final in 1991, only to lose to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games. “To be there, to be so close to taste it, and then not realize it, was probably the biggest disappointment of my career,” Gavin says.

All through his playing days, Gavin remained interested in financial planning issues. He took courses in the summer, and became acquainted with brokers, businessmen and other people in the financial services industry. He earned his personal financial planner designation, and his insurance and securities licences.

Stints as team representative for the players’ association also made him aware of the business side of the game. Still, he was determined to keep playing as long as he could.

In 1993, Gavin sustained a serious knee injury in practice and Minnesota elected to buy him out of his contract. The team, by then the Dallas Stars, offered him a job as a scout and advisor, a role he served in for one season. The next year, Gavin tried to make a comeback but an NHL lockout scuttled his hopes. After playing 40 games with two minor-league teams, Gavin decided to call it quits.

Moving back to Toronto, Gavin established himself as a sole proprietor, and began to make contacts and build his financial planning business. In 1997, he joined Toronto-based Corporate Planning Associates, which focused on full-service financial planning for senior executives. It was there that he got the idea for Gavin Management Group.

“I had already been working with some athletes, but it was more on an asset-management basis, or maybe life insurance or a defensive plan. It wasn’t comprehensive,” Gavin says. In 2003, he left CPA to build a business tailored specifically to the financial planning needs of high-earning hockey players.

Gavin Management Group, which manages more than $75 million in assets and is licensed through FundEx Investments Inc., charges its clients according to their needs. In most cases, there is a financial planning fee, usually $10,000 or more, depending on the time and complexity of the work involved. There’s also a percentage fee on the investment-management side, declining as the asset base grows into the millions.

Gavin discloses all his fees clearly and transparently, a point of pride for him, and adjusts the fee structure as required: “If revenue is being driven from the asset-management side, maybe the planning fee drops, because at some point you’re being adequately, or more than adequately, compensated.”

Gavin works with each client in tandem with one of his two fully licensed associates, Matt Bacchiochi and Steven Close, who implement client strategy. The support of the two associates and two other staff members gives Gavin time to take the lead with clients.

Gavin says two player representative agencies that choose not to provide their own financial management refer clients to Gavin’s team. “Over the years, they’ve become more than comfortable with me,” he says. “And it makes them look good because their clients are really happy with me.”

Gavin says the best part of his business is that it allows him to stay close to the game he loves. He is a member of the board of directors of the Leafs alumni association and a past president of the group. He often walks down from his office and goes to the rink for the visiting team’s morning skate, where he chats with one of his clients or catches up with an old acquaintance.

“It’s nice when you combine the passion for your sport with your business,” he says.

In May, Gavin joined a group of former NHL players taking the Stanley Cup to visit Canadian troops in Kandahar, Afghanistan, an experience Gavin calls “a huge eye-opener.”

“You don’t understand the scope of what they’re doing, and the conditions they’re doing it in, until you are there and talk to the troops. It was a wonderful experience and it left me with a real appreciation for the men and women of the Canadian forces.

Gavin is a divorced father of two — an 18-year-old son, Max, who plays hockey with the North York Rangers, an Ontario Junior A team, and a 14-year-old daughter, Taylor. Over the Christmas holidays, he became engaged to Paula Citron, an Air Canada flight attendant and a mother of three. IE