MONTREAL \u2013 When the Montreal Canadiens call, you better answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those were Mike Condon\u2019s words\u2014but also his actions. When the organization reached out and asked if he\u2019d like to attend development camp, the former Canadiens netminder turned mental performance consultant graciously accepted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Condon, whose time in Montreal was short but memorable, appeared in 55 games for the Canadiens during the 2015-16 season. Following his playing career, he returned to school and earned a Master\u2019s degree in Counseling Psychology\/Sport Psychology from Boston University.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today, he runs his own business, Condon Performance Consulting, where he provides evidence-based mental performance coaching, drawing on both his education and his experience as a professional hockey player to help athletes build emotional resilience and navigate pressure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Canadiens content team caught up with the 36-year-old during the 2026 Canadiens Development Camp, where he reflected on his time in Montreal and discussed his new life beyond hockey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Please note some questions and answers have been modified for clarity and conciseness.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re back in Montreal right now. What\u2019s it like being back in the city, back in the rink where it all started for you in the NHL?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been 10 years, almost to the day, since I was here. I was really looking forward to it. I love the drive up from Boston. I\u2019m not sure if many people know that drive, but it\u2019s calm and beautiful, and I had a lot of memories on that drive. It was great to come back, see everyone, and be in this complex again. I\u2019ve spent a lot of nights at the hotel, so everywhere in this rink and in this city, there are memories and nostalgia. It\u2019s kind of cool to get\u2014not closure\u2014but just to revisit those things at an older age, reflect on the journey, and think about what an honor it was to be a part of this organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When you think of the Canadiens logo, what do you think of?<\/p>\n
I think of honor. I think of opportunity. Part of my mind goes to designing goalie pads again or designing a mask. But being a Boston kid, I think it\u2019s pretty cool to have such an affiliation with this team and this logo. I think the word is gratitude. I have a lot of gratitude. Montreal is the only team that gave me a chance at the start of my career, and when I had the opportunity to come back, I couldn\u2019t have been more excited.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Can you tell us why you\u2019re here at development camp and how it came about?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve stayed in contact with Marco Marciano and Vincent Riendeau over the years. They were so kind to me, and they were the ones who developed me when I was in the American league in Hamilton. Over the years, we\u2019ve just been having conversations about psychology, about goalies, and they\u2019re just great people. So, when Marco got promoted this year, we had some talks about maybe coming in to speak with the younger guys and share my experience and my journey. So when I got that call\u2014and when the Montreal Canadiens call you, you better answer\u2014I was more than excited to come up here.<\/p>\n
Can you explain some of your background in mental health and performance?<\/p>\n
My background in psychology and mental performance was really forced upon me. You need to invest in that when you\u2019re playing. I did a lot of trial and error when I played, and as I sit here, I can reflect and think about it now and realize I didn\u2019t need to suffer that much. In my experience, I saw not only myself, but a lot of other athletes, suffering. It was kind of a call to go back to school and get my master\u2019s degree in counseling psychology. That taught me how to be a therapist, how to communicate with people, and also what theory says about how humans perform at their best. So I took what I know from my experience playing the game and referenced it with what the book says, so to speak. I feel very confident in my ability to, at the very least, provide shelter and a safe space for people to vent their feelings and emotions, while also offering some tangible things they can do to make their experience a little bit easier.<\/p>\n
The conversation around mental health has evolved a lot since you entered the NHL. How is today\u2019s environment different from when you played?<\/p>\n
When we were playing, it was available to us, but I think there was still some stigma around opening up versus conforming to what hockey players were supposed to be: tough, no excuses, selfless. All those things hockey players are taught at a young age, and they\u2019re great skills to have. However, there is a benefit and a drawback to each quality that we have. So when speaking about that, it\u2019s just a matter of asking: How does that skill help you, and maybe how does it detract from your experience? I think just having those conversations is important, and today it\u2019s a much more popular field. I feel like more people are taking advantage of it and investing in it before they encounter something. It\u2019s preventative. I would recommend talking before you experience something because, in this game, there\u2019s adversity every year, and there\u2019s also adversity every game. We all know it\u2019s coming. What are you doing to put some structure in place so that when it does happen, you have a plan? As opposed to sitting there and, like I did a lot, just knowing that something may or may not be right and trying to gut through it, suffer through it. That\u2019s something you can do, but it\u2019s not an efficient pathway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2013 When the Montreal Canadiens call, you better answer.\u00a0 Those were Mike Condon\u2019s words\u2014but also his actions.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-815048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}