Milwaukee Admirals rookie Tyler Moy is hockey’s Renaissance man.
Rookie Moy has passion for science, art and hockey
Every athlete needs something to fall back on.
For Tyler Moy, that’s a degree from Harvard, in human evolutionary biology, the study of 4 million years of physical and behavioral development of the species. Science is an interest inherited from his mother.
An escape is important, too. Moy’s has always been art. Painting and drawing are talents nurtured by his late grandmother, and you might not be able to tell he only dabbles. (Just ask Matt Damon.) Then there’s passion.
That’s hockey in Moy’s case, a sport introduced to him by his father and nurtured throughout his 22 years.
Before graduating in the spring, Moy had led the Crimson to the NCAA semifinals and scored his first professional goal as a member of the Milwaukee Admirals. Now Moy is deep into his first full season and understanding what life may have in store for him.
“Every day is an opportunity to grow,” Moy said after a recent practice.
“I want to do something as best I can do it, and anything less than that I’m not happy. Whether it’s art, whether it’s sitting down and writing an essay, whether it’s taking a test, practicing for hockey, those are all things I need to know personally that I’ve done all I can.”
Moy grew up in San Diego wearing, of all things, a Detroit Red Wings jersey. His father, Randy, is a native of the Motor City who played at Western Michigan University, His mother, Susanna, was an exchange student from Switzerland when she and Randy met while he was coaching on the West Coast.
Tyler watched youth hockey develop in a city where players leave a frigid rink to thaw at the beach.
“I think we take pride in just being from California and not a well-known hockey market, but I’d say it’s up and rising, and a lot of great hockey players have come out of California, especially recently,” he said.
“I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.”
Still, Moy went east, first with his parents to Chicago for his third year of high school, then to Omaha, Neb., for junior hockey, and finally to Boston, where the Harvard men’s program dates to 1898.
The Crimson won the NCAA title in 1989, 27 Ivy League crowns and 11 East Coast Athletic Conference regularseason titles. Without athletic scholarships, Harvard may be at a disadvantage, but its athletes have had more than their share of success in and out of competition.
“When you go to a school like that, you know you’re going to have to work harder,” Moy said. “You know you’re going to be pounded with homework and have to take exams and write essays.
“You’re getting high-quality people there, which really helps. On the hockey front, that’s an aspect and a characteristic of our team that took us a long way.”
Moy, a sixth-round pick of the Nashville Predators in 2015, led Harvard with 22 goals last season as a
senior. He scored twice in a regional semifinal victory over Providence, netted the winner in the regional final against Air Force and had the Crimson’s lone goal in its 2-1 elimination by Minnesota-Duluth in the Frozen Four.
Six days later, Moy slipped on an Admirals game jersey and recorded an assist in his debut. Then six weeks after that — and after the Admirals had been eliminated from the Calder Cup playoffs — Moy graduated from college.
“You do what it takes to get it done,” Moy said. “I’m proud of my accomplishments to be able to get it done.
“There are a lot of athletes at Harvard that are in the same boat. You learn that you can’t be complaining. You signed up for it.”
The difference for Moy was that while most of those other athletes were studying in the library around other like-minded teens and 20somethings, he was in a hotel lobby in Rockford, Ill., or Grand Rapids, Mich., thumbing through notes or writing essays.
“It was a unique situation for sure, but one that we respected and one that he handled very well when he went through it,” Admirals coach Dean Evason said.
“There was no distraction from his end. He just went about his business when he came to work at the rink. He put his time and his effort into playing the game of hockey.”
For most of his life, when Moy has needed an escape from the rigors of school or sports or whatever, he has found it in a sketchbook.
Drawing, though — like taking an exam or studying a goalie’s tendencies — takes concentration, energy and time, and Moy has had less of those to spare in 2017.
“I’ve worked on some (drawings) that take all summer,” an hour or two at a time, he said. “Some may go (better) than others, and some may require more erasing than others. It’s a process.”
On one page, a zebra leaps from seemingly random scribbles, and his Instagram account is a refuge for elephants and cheetahs. The actress Emma Watson pops up there, too.
A favorite sketch of Moy’s is one he did rather quickly last year, a portrait of Matt Damon’s and Robin Williams’ characters from the movie “Good Will Hunting.”
Moy gave it to his mother as a Christmas gift, although he briefly asked for it back after Damon — loosely connected to Harvard through a strength coach — was spotted working out on campus.
“He’s walking out, and I said to him, ‘Hey ... sorry to bother you, but I just want to show you a drawing I did of you and Robin Williams from "Good Will Hunting;" it’s, like, my favorite movie,’ ” Moy said. “I showed it to him. He was really happy to see it.”
Moy had his mother ship him the drawing ... just in case he found a way to run into the actor again.
“I woke up and my buddy was in the gym and I saw his Snap story and it showed that Matt Damon was in there,” Moy said. “So I grabbed my drawing and ran down there . ... He was actually jogging back home when we were turning the corner. We were able to call him over. I said, like, ‘Sorry to bother you again, but ... uh ... my mom sent me the drawing. I wonder if you could sign it.’ ”
Damon did: “To Tyler, I wish Robin could have seen this. Great job! All the best.” He has a copy, too.
Moy hasn’t had much chance to draw lately.
One training camp led quickly into another and then into the season, Moy is still adapting to the speed and a different style of play. With twice as many games on the American Hockey League schedule he played in college, Moy is plenty busy learning and adjusting and growing as a player.
“All these young people, especially a lot of them coming from college to pro hockey, there’s a process they have to go through to figure out the pro game,” Admirals coach Dean Evason said. “It’s a more structured game, systematically, and it’s an opportunity that they’re living on their own for the first time and going about their business as a professional.
“Tyler, it’s been a process for him. He’s been up and down, like our hockey club has been up and down.”
The 6-foot-1, 201-pound right wing has played in 28 of 29 games with three goals and four assists for the Admirals (15-12-2).
Perhaps the biggest flaw in Moy’s game, he and Evason agree, is one of his strengths as a person. He is always thinking, always calculating.
“I’ve heard the term, ‘analysis leads to paralysis.’ Kind of like that,” Moy said. “You have to find a balance . ... Playing off your instincts, knowing that the things you’ve practice (will) become second nature, and just reacting off of that.”
Moy will keep working, he insists. He will find that balance.
His goal — his dream — has been to succeed in pro hockey, and he's not about to fall back on that Harvard degree just yet.