The wolf of Wayne Fleming

Michael St. Croix is a star on the ice and an entrepreneur off it

Bison forward Michael St. Croix heads up ice against the Regina Cougars.Bison forward Michael St. Croix heads up ice against the Regina Cougars.

Michael St. Croix of the Bison men’s hockey team is a talented hockey player, as well as being business savvy.

The son of former NHL goalie Rick St. Croix was hesitant to share any kind of future business plans, but if hockey doesn’t work out for St. Croix, he should do fine in the business world.

“I have a lot of dreams, to be completely honest,” St. Croix said. “I’m definitely a dreamer, I’m always thinking about different ideas. I can’t play my cards yet but there’s definitely some ideas that I’ve been looking into.”

Currently managing a few rental properties as well as working for a solar company, St. Croix has a lot on his plate.

“I’m a busy guy. To say the least, it’s been a pretty fun year,” he said.

On the ice, St. Croix is leading the Bisons in scoring with 29 points (9G, 20A) through 24 games. He is also fourth in the entire conference, five  points back of Alberta’s Luke Philp.

“It’s gone well,” he said. “At the end of the day you’re worried about team success and right now we’re right where we want to be. We got to keep winning and move on there.”

With St. Croix playing on a line with Kamerin Nault and Zach Franko, it appears Bison head coach Mike Sirant has found the perfect top scoring line. Franko is third on the team in scoring with 20 points, and Nault in fourth with 19.

“It’s been great. [My] linemates have made it real easy for me this year,” St. Croix said.

“Naulty’s been scoring a bunch of goals, Zach makes a bunch of plays all the time and we feed off each other. We’ve been gaining a lot of chemistry since the start of the year I think, personally, I’m having a lot of fun. I think the team is having a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to moving on.”

St. Croix was originally drafted by the New York Rangers in 2011 in the fourth round after an extremely successful career with the Edmonton Oil Kings of the Western Hockey League. He couldn’t quite make the jump to the big leagues and played 13 games in the American Hockey League with the Hartford Wolfpack in 2013-14. St. Croix then spent the rest of the season with Greenville Road Warriors in the ECHL.

The Road Warriors switched their name to Swamp Rabbits in 2015-16, and St. Croix spent two and a half seasons in Greenville, South Carolina. He racked up 129 points in 178 games during his time there.

“It was good. You get to play against a lot of good players, you learn a lot in all those situations, playing in a bunch of different cities,” St. Croix said. “There are only three lines so it was a lot of playing but at least for me it was time to move on and look at some other options.”

St. Croix was elected to play U SPORTS hockey back home with the Bisons and enrolled in the Asper school of business. He had to red shirt last season, but the rust has been quickly shaken off.

“I didn’t want to be playing in the minors the rest of my life,” St. Croix said. “There’s other things I have interests in so this was an opportunity to stay in the game, while looking forward to a future.”