Mathieu Schneider has been a Montreal Canadien, a New York Islander, a Toronto Maple Leaf, a New York Ranger, a Los Angeles King, a Detroit Red Wing, an Anaheim Duck, an Atlanta Thrasher, a Montreal Canadien for a second time, and he’s currently a Vancouver Canuck. That’s why he had to pause for a moment and think when quizzed if he’d had more real-estate agents than defence partners during his 21-year National Hockey League career.

The 40-year-old New York City native has accomplished much as one of the smoothest puck-moving blueliners in the game during the past two decades. Schneider has suited up for more than 1,200 regular-season contests and a pair of NHL all-star games, won the Stanley Cup with Montreal in 1993, and twice represented the United States in the Olympics. The on-ice part of hockey has always come easily to Schneider. The hard part has been staying in one place for more than a year or two.

Since breaking into the league in 1987, Schneider has been traded six times, switched teams as a free agent on three other occasions, and even had his rights claimed in an expansion draft (by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2000, although he never played for the team).

It’s been a nomadic life, to be sure, but it comes with the territory of being a professional athlete—and it’s a part of the lifestyle that Schneider has tried to embrace.

“Once you get traded once in this league, you realize that it can happen and then every year can be a different story,” Schneider explained to the Straight after a recent practice at GM Place. “But moving around as much as I have has really been a special part of my career. I have played in some amazing cities.”

Some of the cities he has called home may be among the best on the planet. The hockey teams in those cities, however, haven’t always been so special. Schneider was a member of a 15-win New York Islanders team in the mid-’90s and was then shipped from Long Island to the Toronto Maple Leafs. He also had to endure some long nights with the Atlanta Thrashers, who struggled to win hockey games and put people in the seats.

At the time, it may not have been much fun for Schneider to be a part of losing organizations. But he doesn’t have any regrets.

“Every place I have played has been special in some way, even places other guys might not want to play,” he says. “Being on Long Island, I was born in New York and I had a lot of friends there, so that was great. Atlanta was great because my brother lived there. It was tough playing hockey there, but being close to my brother, I haven’t lived next to him or near him since we were teenagers. So our kids got to spend time together, which was really unique.”

Early in his career, when it was just Schneider and his wife, Shannon, picking up and switching cities on an almost annual basis wasn’t terribly challenging. Now, however, with four children under the age of 10, things have changed considerably. Since signing as a free agent with the Los Angeles Kings in the summer of 2000, the family’s off-season home base has been Manhattan Beach, California. It worked well during Schneider’s time as a King and then for the year he spent playing in Anaheim.

And it was one of the main reasons why staying on the West Coast and signing with Vancouver last summer seemed like a good fit, not only for Schneider but his entire family.

“The last couple of years have been the most challenging, with the kids in school,” he says. “When the kids were young, when they weren’t in school, moving really wasn’t an issue. Once the kids are happy and adjusted, everything else falls into place, and that’s the primary concern. And so far our kids are really enjoying Vancouver.”

After missing the first month of the season while recovering from shoulder surgery over the summer, Schneider has slowly been settling into life as a Canuck. Brought in to help the team’s power play, the veteran has occasionally flashed the big shot that has twice made him a 20-goal scorer in the NHL. He’s also shown the poise and patience with the puck that has made him a hot commodity all these years. Yet the hockey club has to be hoping that Schneider can give still more to help the Canucks become the team they believe they can be.

From his standpoint, though, Schneider has enjoyed his brief time in Vancouver and the process of getting to know a new group of teammates and settling into another organization. He is well aware his career won’t last forever, but the hundreds of friendships he’s made in the game certainly will.

“It’s exciting coming to a new team and coming into all the new dressing rooms like I have,” he says. “And I know I’ve made way more friends being on different teams over the years than I would have if I had been with just one organization.”

For a guy who’s been traded as often as Schneider has, it’s pretty clear he wouldn’t trade the way his career has unfolded for anything. Switching hockey homes has just been a part of the job. And whether it’s been moving the puck—or simply moving—Schneider has done both better than most in the NHL.

Jeff Paterson is a talk-show host on Vancouver’s all-sports radio, Team 1040. E-mail him at jeff.paterson@team1040.ca.