NHL defenseman Nick Blankenburg revealed how God transformed his heart and reminded him that there is so much more to life than hockey.
“God just really revealed some things in my heart, some idols that I feel like we’re growing due to hockey and growing due to just being a professional, you know? Wanting more and wanting to solidify yourself and sign that next contract and the comfort and the security that maybe money can bring, or that the lifestyle of hockey may be able to bring,” Blankenburg said on the Sports Spectrum “What’s Up” podcast.
He felt that God had him “take a step back.”
“There’s much more to this, and I feel like He was just aligning the posture of my heart with His will, just transforming my character and just opening my eyes to what truly matters and what’s important,” the defenseman continued. “And honestly, that’s allowed me just to live each day and play hockey as a gift and just being thankful for it.”
“I think going out and playing these games — just like I said, like the posture of your heart is not for these worldly things or these earthly things, but they’re to honor Jesus, to give back to God what is already His, and I’m super thankful for that,” he emphasized.
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Though he had to learn to keep hockey in the right place, his identity in Christ helps him stay strong under the pressures of the sport.
“I think my faith plays a huge role in that, and my relationship with Christ,” Blankenburg told his former team, the Nashville Predators, in 2025. “I feel like in the moment when you’re a walk-on at Michigan, or you’re just trying to get a Division I scholarship, and you are healthy scratch, I feel like it’s so easy to let your identity get tied up in hockey and in success and kind of wanting that, I guess, in my work. Those earthly desires and those earthly passions, those aren’t bad things, but I just think I try and keep my identity rooted in my relationship with Christ, and I think that just gives me so much peace and joy to just to go out there and play.”
“I mean, God’s put me in every single opportunity and every different season of life for a specific reason, and I think every single season that I go into, it’s been the same thing so far, where I feel like I have to prove myself…I’m just super blessed and super thankful for that,” he added. “So, for me, just continue to take it day-by-day and just enjoy the moment. And obviously, when the puck’s going in the net and you’re playing well, just do whatever you can to just keep going.”
In professional sports, it’s easy to let the distractions of winning or signing the next contract pull athletes away from what’s really important. The same can happen for each of us when daily tasks distract us from what God calls us to. Like Blankenburg, we need to remember that glorifying Him is our ultimate goal.
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