Back on Campus: Dartmouth’s Hugh Jessiman Has Come Full Circle

Hanover — Earlier this week, Hugh Jessiman was stuck in the New York City area, his flight back to Lebanon delayed for days by inclement weather. Eventually, the airline provided a driver and car to ferry him north, and he arrived back on the Dartmouth College campus and resumed his class schedule.



Given that Jessiman is 30 years old and was last a full-time student in 2005, his most recent wait wasn’t much of a concern. The former NHL first-round draft pick has also rejoined the Big Green hockey team, for which he starred as a wing for three seasons, though this time it’s as a volunteer coach.



Thursday, the massive, 6-foot-6, 230-pound skater ducked in and out of drills, chatting quietly with players after they returned to line or rested briefly in the corners or by the benches at center ice. He was quick to smack his stick on the sideboards in appreciation of a nifty move and to elicit a smile and a laugh from younger men who look up to him, literally and figuratively.



“It’s special and fun for me to have him back, and I’m trying to really enjoy it,” said Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet, who was thrilled to have Jessiman return earlier this month and whose team hosts Rensselaer and Union this weekend. “He’s very unassuming and just wants to help. If that’s pushing the pucks around, that’s fine.”



Big Green fans know Jessiman’s general story well. How the Connecticut native tore up the ECAC as a freshman and was the 12th pick of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft by the New York Rangers, for whom he’d cheered since he was a small boy. A standout sophomore campaign followed and then a junior season all but wiped out by a serious ankle injury.



Jessiman jumped to the pros after that third college season, but encountered enormous expectations playing for the Rangers’ minor-league affiliates in Charlotte, N.C., and Hartford, Conn. His best season in that organization was a 42-point effort during 71 games of the 2007-08 season. His skating never seemed to develop quite to the liking of the NHL brass and although he fought as needed, he wasn’t the menace on skates that old-school scouts and coaches seem to demand from a man his size.



Jessiman was traded by New York to Nashville early in the 2008-09 season. He wasn’t sad to leave.



“I didn’t have a great growing experience in Hartford with the Rangers,” Jessiman told the Utica (N.Y.) Observer-Dispatch in 2012. “It was pretty clear they had given up on me.



“You think that you could handle anything coming at you, but that isn’t the case. I was excited to see guys being drafted and going to other teams where I knew there would be less outside pressure on them.”



Jessiman was laboring in the minors for his third NHL organization, the Florida Panthers, when he finally made his big-league debut in 2011. He played two games and had a fight, but no points, during a combined 15 minutes of ice time, then dropped back into obscurity, playing for his ninth pro team by the time the 2012-13 season ended.



Last winter, Jessiman played for a Croatian entry in Russia’s top league, but had only 11 points in 37 games. He moved down a level to an Austrian circuit to start this winter, but didn’t mesh with the coach and negotiated a buyout of his contract last month. There were offers from a pair of Swedish teams, he said, but with only six weeks remaining in the European season, it made more sense to come back to Dartmouth and complete the five credits needed to finish his undergraduate history degree.



“I wanted to get school done now so that when I go back to playing hockey, I can make the transition away from it more easily after I’m done,” said Jessiman, who plans to participate in June’s commencement exercises. “I’m keeping my options open, but the good thing about the next six months is I have time to formulate a plan.”



Like so many pro athletes, Jessiman loves his teammates’ camaraderie as much as actually competing. It’s hard to walk away from that, even after 10 seasons. For now, however, Jessiman can enjoy himself around the Dartmouth players while also preparing for his future away from the game.



“One of the best things about coming back here is that I walked into the locker room and I feel like I’m already friends with everybody,” he said. “If I hadn’t played here, they might not see me that way, but they’ve made me feel like a brother right away.”



Jessiman dresses in one of the players’ areas, which facilitates easy conversation and gives him the ability to be both a sounding board and an informal adviser.



“We kind of hang on every word he says,” said Dartmouth senior Eric Robinson, a big wing with pro aspirations of his own. “But we treat him more as a teammate, a sort of great middleman.”



Robinson added that a suggestion Jessiman made about the power play has been adopted and added space and zip to Dartmouth’s man-up attack. Jessiman said he’s coached players on where to position their stick blades in certain situations and how to take a quick glance at the defense even as a pass is en route. Gaudet said he overheard his former star advising a current competitor to savor the moment at hand and not to fret about what will happen with his pro career.



“It’s pretty cool to talk to a guy about something and see him do it on the next shift,” Jessiman said. “Seeing them put on the sweater and play in Thompson Arena is like deja vu for me on a daily basis.”



Jessiman had to hustle to the library upon his return from New York this week so he could write a paper. He’s collaborated on a group project with some teammates for their music class and he’s turned heads just standing in line at the dining hall while waiting for his eggs to cook. Adding to his everyman appeal, the big man is living in a third-floor single in one of the dormitories near Alumni Gym. It’s mostly populated by seniors and is a quiet haven, Jessiman said, although he admitted he still gets strange looks a few weeks after moving in.



“I’d like to say I’m a chameleon and I can blend in, but I’m more of a giraffe or an elephant in the room,” he said with a laugh. “But if I’m here, I want to be in the mix. I don’t want to live off campus by myself.”



Google Jessiman’s name and one of the first sites to pop up is one that lists him among the “biggest NHL draft busts ever.” He was the last member of the 2003 first-rounders to reach the NHL and he was chosen before such all-stars as Dustin Brown, Zach Parise, Ryan Getzlaf, Mike Richards and Corey Perry. Two years ago, he told NBCsports.com that if he could do it over again, he would have stayed at Dartmouth for his senior year, but Thursday, he amended that statement.



“It’s easy to say that in hindsight, but if I hadn’t left when I did, I wouldn’t be having this experience now,” he said. “I try to live in the moment and I’ve had some pretty great experiences in the last 10 years, meeting people and learning about life and traveling the world.



“I have a lot to be grateful for, and I try to remember that every day.”



Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.





