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For WHL Alumnus Miske, WHL Scholarship Helped Set New Career Course

February 18, 2023 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Spokane Chiefs News Release


After spending his youth focusing on a career on the ice, former Spokane Chiefs and Prince Albert Raiders forward Curtis Miske has found a new passion in the financial sector.

And the 26-year-old has the WHL Scholarship to thank.

Since graduating from the University of Alberta with a degree in finance, Miske has worked as a licensed financial advisor with IG Wealth Management in Edmonton.

"I love the puzzles that finance creates, 'what do you buy, what do you sell, what's happening in the economy, how is that going to affect everything else,' and putting those puzzles together," Miske recently told WHL.ca.

Working under a senior advisor, Miske has hit the ground running in his new line of work after taking licensing courses in concert with his university degree.

Growing up in nearby Beaumont, though, hockey was always number one.

"I was lucky enough to get selected by Spokane in the second round [of the 2012 WHL Draft], that was always one of my biggest dreams," Miske said.

"I grew 10 inches the year before the draft, so that was a bit hard, being a bit lanky," he joked.

In Spokane, Miske worked under the wing of former NHLer and long-time coach Don Nachbaur, the first of two veteran WHL bench bosses to give the young forward not only hockey advice, but life advice as well.

"Don came from the old Broad Street Bullies, it was hard-nosed hockey," Miske recalled. "It was 'you're not tired, you just think you're tired' mentality, that was one of the ones that stuck with me and I use it in my everyday life."

Fast-forward to 2017, when Miske found himself on the move to the Prince Albert Raiders, a group finding their feet in the always challenging Eastern Conference.

"You could just kind of tell, when I got traded there at 19, something about the culture was turning," Miske said.

"They won [the WHL Championship] the year after I left, but we like to think we played a part in building that culture and shifting them in the right direction."

As Raiders captain, Miske enjoyed a career year with Prince Albert in 2017-18, scoring 27 times and totalling 64 points before leading the team with 10 points in seven post-season games.

And like Nachbaur, the Raiders coach at the time, Marc Habscheid, served as a purveyor of life lessons to Miske.

"The biggest thing Marc taught me was how to grow up, be a man and be a captain," he noted.

A self-professed analytical mind, Miske had the WHL Scholarship in the back of his mind throughout his WHL career, and the opportunity to return home, and to the University of Alberta proved too good to pass up.

"I had a brief stint in Orlando (ECHL) after my 20-year-old year and I decided pro hockey wasn't for me and I wanted to cash in my WHL Scholarship," said Miske. "I got a lot of offers from a lot of different universities, but I decided I wanted to play for my hometown."

Each year, more than 200 WHL Scholarship recipients further their education while playing elite hockey at the U SPORTS or collegiate level across Canada. In partnership with Canada West universities, more than 125 WHL Scholarship recipients each year are also awarded additional financial assistance from their university to receive Western Canada's Premier Hockey Scholarship.

"It's amazing, especially now, when university is crazy expensive," Miske said of the WHL Scholarship. "But it's not that the dollar amount matters, it's what it fostered me to be able to do with my life and I wouldn't have had that opportunity if I didn't play in the WHL."

Recently married, Miske has found his new passion project in his day-to-day work, with his time in the WHL and the WHL Scholarship to thank.

"I was given a chance to be very successful, and at the end of the day it's gotten me to where I am now."

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