Colin Patterson doesn’t play in the National Hockey League anymore, but he’s still hustling to get noticed.
The former Flames winger, who helped Calgary claim the Stanley Cup in 1989, now serves as director of sales with Solium Capital, a local startup that administers company stock option plans online.
Solium is projecting revenue of $4 million for the fiscal year 2000-2001.
Patterson’s new team administers stock option portfolios for 1,000 employees of four different companies. The portfolio values range from $5,000-$200,000. “We want to be global in two years,” said Patterson, 40.
Since launching in January of 2000, Solium has grown from six employees to 20 and opened an office in Montreal. On Monday, to help accommodate its increasing employee roster, Solium moved its Calgary headquarters to 325 10th Ave. S.W., from its old location next door at 323.
In 2001, Solium will set up shop in Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto. The company will also maintain a U.S. presence through its investment carrier, Cannacord Capital.
Patterson, who joined Solium last June, admits his dreams are ambitious, but he’s betting that the lessons he learned in hockey will help him succeed in his new game.
“I think the best thing I learned from hockey is dedication — what it takes to be a success,” said Patterson. “I saw what Cliff (Fletcher, the Flames’ former general manager) did to build a team. I saw what it took for (Flames’ management’s dreams) to come true. It’s no different in business.”
Based on Patterson’s history, it’s probably not wise to bet against him.
The odds of becoming an NHL regular were stacked against Patterson when he signed as a free agent with the Flames out of Clarkson College, a small school of 3,500 students based in Pottsdam, N.Y., in 1983. He had never been drafted and, as a teenager, never expected to play in the NHL because “to be honest, I wasn’t that good.”
“My parents were more upset with me signing because they wanted me to finish my degree,” recalled Patterson, who grew up in the west-end Toronto suburb of Rexdale, Ont.
“And they felt, much like I sort of felt at the time, too, was I really going to play in the NHL? But at the time, you know, the money that they were offering ($30,000) for the minor-league salary was very good. I wasn’t going to make that anywhere else. I said: ‘Well, if I can play four years in the minors, that way I’d be able to make some money and start a career afterwards . . .’ ”
Patterson did receive his marketing and management degree from Clarkson (in May of 1986, when the Flames were losing the Stanley Cup final to Montreal Canadiens), but he played only 13 games in the minors.
Playing every shift like it was his last, Patterson counted 96 goals and 109 assists and, despite his physical style, only 205 penalty minutes in 504 NHL regular season games. He accumulated 12 goals, 17 assists, and a modest 57 penalty minutes in 85 playoff games. The year that the Flames won the Stanley Cup, he ranked third in the NHL with a plus-44 rating and was nominated for the Frank Selke Award, which goes to the league’s best defensive forward, and contributed a career-high 13 playoff points.
For a season and a half, the classic mucking and grinding winger also played on one of the NHL’s most prolific scoring lines, with Doug Gilmour and Joe Mullen. After missing the entire 1990-91 regular season because of a knee injury, Patterson fell out of favour with general manager Doug Risebrough, another former linemate, and was traded to Buffalo Sabres for future considerations.
“I was Dougie Risebrough’s first trade — I want that on record,” quipped Patterson, whose friendship with Risebrough became strained. “I am not sure what they got for me. Two dozen chicken wings and a case of Molson Canadian!”
Patterson lasted two injury-riddled seasons with Buffalo before he left the NHL. After playing a season in Slovenia, where he became a scoring star, Patterson returned to Calgary and spent eight months with a startup tech company that produced CD-ROM titles. He then spent four and a half years selling investment services for Montreal Trust.
Patterson credits his Montreal Trust experiences with helping him in his new job, but he’s also trying to take a page out of late coach Badger Bob Johnson’s book by striving to be innovative.
Offering a win-win proposal for Solium and its clients, Patterson coaches companies on ways that they can pass off their employee stock option plans and spend more time on their own businesses. Patterson also spends extra time tutoring Solium employees on the fine art of selling.
“I saw the way that Badger personally took me and worked with me and made me a player,” said Patterson, who shares Flames’ season tickets with friends. “He said I was a project for him, he was going to make me better — and he did. It’s the same way with people here.”
Next question: Why is Patterson here?
Most of today’s players, who earn millions, can live leisurely for the rest of their days if they want. However, Patterson, who never earned more than $250,000 US in a season, has to work for a living.
“People tend to look at the game today and say: ‘Well, you played hockey. You made millions of dollars.’ Well, no, I didn’t make millions of dollars,” said Patterson.
“People ask me the same question: ‘Well, why do you work?’ Because I have to. If I want my family to survive, and to support them, I have to work. Not that I wouldn’t work if I had a lot of money, but it’s a little different than players now who are getting millions of dollars and can just put that in the bank account and retire at the end of their (hockey) careers.”
As a young hockey player, Patterson could learn from veteran linemates. Although he tries to learn from Solium founders Mark van Hees and John Kenny, there are no online stock option plan administrators from whom Patterson can learn.
According to director of marketing Janet Carswell, Solium is the first online investment firm specializing in the administration and execution of employee stock ownership programs for publicly and privately held Canadian companies.
Solium’s employee stock option administration platform, known as e-SOAP, advises subscribers on the value of their stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options and fixed income securities, and processes their purchases and sales.
Approvals that required lots of time and paperwork can be done in two or three minutes online, said Patterson, who has completed the Canadian securities course.
