Former NHL player Cody Hodgson is still a relative newcomer to pickleball, but he's already gone all-in on the sport in a significant way.

The 35-year-old Toronto native recently joined the ownership group of the Canadian National Pickleball League's (CNPL) Southwestern Ontario Brewers alongside NHL free agent TJ Brodie and businessman Bret Shepley.

He was also named an official ambassador for Team Canada at the upcoming Pickleball World Cup in Florida and will serve as special advisor to the general manager during the tournament as well.

Keep in mind, Hodgson was introduced to pickleball just three years ago in Tennessee while working in the Nashville Predators (NHL) organization.

Now back in Canada, pickleball has become his primary focus in retirement.

We caught up with Hodgson to learn more about his love of the game and his hopes and dreams for the sport moving forward in his home country.

What was your introduction to pickleball?

Like a lot of amateur players, you just fall in love the first time you play. I had a buddy in Nashville that invited me out, and I lost to a 70-year-old my first game. I thought, 'You know what? I feel like I'm a pretty good athlete, if I'm losing right away, I can play this game for a long time.' I ended up playing for four or five hours that first day, just so I could try to compete with everyone, and I went back the next day and the next week after that, and then it kind of snowballed from there. I actually joined Life Time just so I could play pickleball. I never even went to the gym. There was open play every day, and I got into it. When I moved back to Toronto, I tried to find a place to play, and there weren't really a ton of indoor places at the time, just mostly outdoor courts in the summer. My goal is to eventually get into pickleball in a bigger way, provide more places to play indoors, and really help grow the sport, so enjoying the game kind of came naturally to me.

You medically retired from hockey in 2016 because of a rare muscle disorder (malignant hyperthermia), before returning for 13 games with the AHL's Milwaukee Admirals in 2024 and then hanging up your skates for good. 

Was pickleball ever a part of your fitness regimen during the comeback bid?

My hockey story is kind of unique. I took eight years off. When I got into pickleball, it kind of helped me with training to get back into playing hockey as well. Just the hand-eye coordination and the agility, there's a lot of parallels there. When you know how to train and you kind of isolate separate skills, you can see how it helps you across the board. They talk about cross-training being good for young athletes, but you could also apply that to older people getting into pickleball. It just kind of came naturally because I was trying to stay active and play more sports. Having that taken away from me at 26 years old was very difficult. I never would've thought I was going to play pickleball to train to get back into the NHL. It just helped that I was able to do something active, and then when I transitioned to more hockey-related training, I didn't feel like I came from nothing. I had a bit of a baseline where I was still active and working on those hand-eye and agility skills. It was a great way to build up since pickleball involves as much strain as you want to put into it. I still try to play a couple of times a week with all of my hockey buddies at this place in Mississauga.

What excites you most about being involved with the CNPL?

Just seeing the growth. I remember reading a newspaper clipping when TJ bought into the team and thought, ‘Oh, that's really cool. I'm glad he's getting involved in that.’ It's a great avenue to explore from an investment perspective, but I also like being a part of something that's expanding so quickly. I thought it would be cool to travel and be a part of a team again. I've always enjoyed pickleball, so I wanted to see how it would play out. People are really coming around to how big this thing is. There are a lot of eyeballs on it, so it's a great opportunity to help grow the game. 

Do you watch a lot of pickleball to expand your knowledge base?

I love watching Ben Johns and Anna Leigh Waters, of course, but I really enjoy watching the CNPL players because I feel like I’m learning more. When I watch tennis, for example, if I watch Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, or Novak Djokovic, it's very difficult for me to see myself transferring those shots to my game. When I watch the CNPL, I feel like the game is more my pace. I feeI like if I work really hard, I might be able to make those shots, too. I can see the game kind of develop, and I see how things are coming together. It’s an easier game to process, so I love watching it. I'm a big fan of our team. It's fun to marvel at the talent, and it's only going to get better.

Talk about your role at the Pickleball World Cup.

Hopefully my experience in hockey can help Team Canada. If I see something out there, I can try to help by lending my advice and my expertise from playing a competitive game. That's basically the scope of my work. I always loved wearing the maple leaf. It was a dream of mine as a kid to play for Canada. I played U17, U18, World Juniors, World Championships. You just have so much pride in your country and you play for more than just yourself. When you play for your country, it's just all about the front of the jersey and playing for your teammates. I'm really excited to be a part of it. There's no egos. It's a competition, but you're also there as a goodwill ambassador as well. I'm eager to see what it's going to be like in Florida.

What do you hope your involvement in pickleball will look like in the future?

I'd love to be someone who helps build the game. I take a lot of my sports experience from the hockey world, obviously, so in the Hockey Hall of Fame, there’s players, there's builders, there's officials, there's different categories of inductees. I don't think I'm good enough to be a player, but I'd love to be a builder. It’s a great sport overall. It's really social. I get my family involved when we travel. We bring our paddles. But also on the other side of it, just from a growth standpoint, I'd love to see the Southwestern Ontario Brewers get their own facility and get their own home base where we play, put on exhibitions, and even have community challenges. That's where I'd love to see the game go for us. Having a home base really helps you cement yourself in the community. I'd love to help build that and be a facilitator of it. With the Brewers, I'm lucky to have a team that’s just built in with my family running things. My brother does all the merch, my sister works in the music industry, puts on events, and deals with sponsors, and my other sister is in the finance world with the insurance business and they own a lot of restaurants. I'm going to have a lot of work cut out for me, but it's going to be rewarding.

Do you have any aspirations to turn pro at some point and compete?

I'm going to be all recreation. I see what it takes to reach a high level as a professional in pickleball. I don't know if my body would handle it, so I'm happy to live through the Team Canada experience in a couple of weeks and continue my work in the CNPL.

Click here to learn about Cody's medical journey via The RYR-1 Foundation website.