Ex-NHL enforcer shocks fans by writing a steamy romance novel

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NHL antagonist. Model. Actor. Vogue intern. Romance novelist.

Sean Avery certainly has checked off a lot of boxes on an eccentric life-long to-do list.

After a 10-year NHL career during which Avery was among the biggest pests in the game, the Pickering native certainly has branched out after his retirement.

But it’s perhaps his most recent venture that will turn the most heads. Avery teamed up with author Leslie Cohen to co-write Summer Skate, a steamy romance novel that was published earlier this week.

In an interview with People, Avery opened up about his surprising new career path.

“I’m a bit of a showman,” Avery told the outlet. “It’s in my blood. I feel it. It’s what makes me want to get up out of bed every day, you know, to chase it. So, it’s been an interesting journey here, but I think I’ve found my sweet spot, and I’m starting to really settle into it and have fun.”

Summer Skate isn’t Avery’s first byline, either. After his retirement, he wrote a memoir — Ice Capades: A Memoir of Fast Living and Tough Hockey — about his controversy-filled NHL career.

Avery said the idea to branch out into the romance genre was first pitched by his agent.

“He just called me up out of the blue one day and said, ‘I just finished your autobiography. Would you ever be interested in writing a sports romance novel?’“ Avery said. “And I had no idea that the category was so big, and he educated me on it, and it didn’t take long.

“I said, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’ But also, I said, you know, it’d be nice to write it with a woman. Because, listen, we all need a woman’s touch, OK? You know, nothing should be ever done without a woman’s touch in my opinion, because they’re just, you know, more gracious and patient and smoother than men.”

According to the book’s online listing, Summer Skate is about “a novelist with a rebellious streak and a bad habit of turning men into material, and a hockey player with a dark past … and a shot at stardom that he just might blow.

“A summer vacation that heats up with a forbidden attraction strong enough to burn their neighbouring Hamptons houses to the ground.”

Avery said that the writing partnership led to many “intense conversations” between the partners about sex and how the characters interacted.

“I mean, there were times where you would waffle the actual acoustics of us talking because it’s like, ‘oh my god, we were saying these things,’” Avery recalls. “Me and Leslie, we were always laughing about it in the end, but we had intense conversations.”

Avery also said it was an “eye opener” to learn the difference between “what do I think women want versus what (Cohen) thinks women want, and vice versa.”

Since hanging up his skates, Avery has landed several small roles in some very big films. He has appeared in Patriot’s Day, Tenet, the best picture Academy Award-winning Oppenheimer and, most recently, Happy Gilmore 2.

As for a potential sequel to Summer Skate, Avery said that it’s already in the works.

“We got a lot of runway with this guy,” Avery said, adding, “I’m excited to go through Carter’s entire career and I hope that we’ve sprinkled in enough for everyone — the romance, the hockey, the trials and tribulations of being young and famous and maneuvering those waters.

“There’s a little bit of everything for everybody.”