How Chris Cederstrand Turned Tragedy into a Lifetime of Purpose

What does it take to turn 20 seconds of tragedy into a lifetime of purpose? 

Carlin Lutzer sits down with Chris Cederstrand, a Foothills resident, retired Team Canada sledge hockey athlete, former firefighter, and founder of PX3 Hockey Academy, for one of the most remarkable conversations the Okotoks Podcast has ever hosted. 

Chris's story begins in a small Saskatchewan town, winds through junior hockey dreams, a life-altering workplace accident, and a years-long battle with opioid dependency…and arrives somewhere extraordinary. 

From becoming the first above-knee amputee firefighter in North America to helping design accessible arenas right here in Okotoks, Chris embodies what community, resilience, and local pride truly look like. 

Listeners will be inspired, challenged, and reminded why this community attracts such incredible people.

Listen for:

04:10 How did Chris Cederstrand's WHL hockey dreams shape the man he became in Okotoks?

11:02 What really happened the day Chris's workplace accident changed everything on Bow Trail?

20:22 How did Chris battle opioid dependency and find his way back to life in Foothills County?

38:38 How is Chris Cederstrand making Okotoks hockey rinks more accessible for everyone?

48:43 What is PX3 Hockey Academy and how is it building community champions in Okotoks?

Connect with Guest: Chris Cederstrand, Public Speaker, Director at Cederstrand Foundation, AMP PX3 Adaptive Director

Website | LinkedIn | Instagram | Email| Facebook

Connect with Carlin

Email | Website | LinkedIn | Facebook 

Transcript

Announcer

[00:00]

It's the Okotoks Podcast coming at you with small town vibes and big rock energy. Thanks to Carlin Lutzer Real Estate.

Carlin Lutzer

[00:22]

Have you ever been hit with something so big, so unexpected that "I can't" would've been the easiest thing to say? A diagnosis, an accident, a setback that changes everything? Most people would understand if you folded, most people would even expect it. But what if "can't" simply wasn't in your vocabulary? Today on the Okotoks Podcast, I sit down with a Foothills local who had every right to say, "I can't," and refused. After a life-altering accident that led to the amputation of his leg, Chris Cederstrand could have stepped away from sport, community, and purpose. Instead, he leaned in. From hockey to sledge hockey, from firefighting to recovery, from adversity to advocacy, Chris did not let his disability get in the way of his ability. Chris Cederstrand joins me today, and if you don't feel motivated after this conversation, well, you might want to check your pulse. Let's get into it.

Carlin Lutzer

[01:35]

Chris, thank you for joining me this afternoon.

Chris Cederstrand

[01:38]

Oh, it's my pleasure, Carl. I'm glad to be here.

Carlin Lutzer

[01:40]

Yes. Now, we got to know each other because our sons are playing on the same hockey team, and we got to chat and right away in my conversation with you, it probably wasn't too long and I was like, "I'm going to ask this guy to see if he wants to come on my podcast because you're such a fascinating individual." And I think all we were talking about was hockey at the start. And I think I was trying to show my cards to you as to how much I knew about hockey. Then I realized I better shut up because this guy knows a lot more about hockey than I do. But you have such an incredible story, a story that many people know, but it's a local story as well. You're a Foothills resident and making a huge impact on not just this community, but no doubt worldwide you're making an impact on sledge hockey.

Carlin Lutzer

[02:37]

So thanks for your time this afternoon, Chris.

Chris Cederstrand

[02:40]

No, my pleasure. And thank you for the nice introduction. I'm sure you could have said a few more negative things or a little bit more offside in it, but I'm happy with that.

Carlin Lutzer

[02:49]

Yeah. Well, maybe we need to get to know each other a little bit better and then I'll have some offside things. I'm an old hockey player. Chirping's part of the game. It's out there, so for sure. Well, Chris, I'm wondering if you can tell us a little bit about your journey and basically what got you to the place where you are today. Now, we share something in common. We're both Saskatchewan boys. So right away, we know that we are quality individuals.

Chris Cederstrand

[03:20]

Oh, best of the best. Best of the best.

Carlin Lutzer

[03:23]

Yeah. But you started your life out like most young Canadian kids playing hockey.

Chris Cederstrand

[03:30]

Yeah. I grew up in a small town just outside Saskatoon. It was like 3,000 people. And back then, I think that it was the days where you would drive down the street and you would see a game of road hockey going on. So I mean, it was the thing to do. And growing up, I mean, I got on the ice early and being a hockey player and being a firefighter were actually my two aspirations when I was young. And yeah, I was fortunate that I excelled at hockey.

Carlin Lutzer

[04:04]

Yeah. And where did your hockey career take you to? You played junior level, didn't you?

Chris Cederstrand

[04:10]

Yeah, I was fortunate enough to get drafted into the Western Hockey League, so I moved away from home really early. I was just turning 15, so I was 14 when I moved away from home to play AAA Midget in Tisdale and spent some time there and then ended up playing for the Red Deer Rebels and the Swift Current Broncos. And unfortunately had some concussion issues over the years, which definitely, at the end of the day, I guess it was the thing that ultimately shut down my hockey career. And that was a really tough sort of pill to swallow, I guess. I was ranked to go in the NHL draft when I was 17. And I mean, I'm talking way later on. Nowhere near that sort of thing. But knowing that I had the talent and the ability to play and then sort of having that pulled out from underneath you was a pretty tough go.

Carlin Lutzer

[05:05]

Absolutely. You have these dreams and aspirations, pretty typical Canadian boy dream to make it to the NHL. And my dream probably died when I was six or seven years old, so I know that it wasn't going to — just someone

Chris Cederstrand

[05:23]

Stomped on it right there, right? It was just over. Yeah.

Carlin Lutzer

[05:26]

But yours dying later. I imagine the later you go, the harder it is to

Chris Cederstrand

[05:32]

Let that jump out. Oh, absolutely. It was one of those things. I was just in a haze for a while after. And I mean, after I got my last concussion, I had some very serious post-concussion syndrome and you're dealing with that and you're dealing about what's next, where do I go? I feel like a lot of the junior players, when they get to that level, I mean, they really do just start putting all their eggs in one basket. There's not a lot going on outside of that. And even back in, I mean, obviously in the late '90s, we didn't have internet like we have now. We didn't have that access to everything. So school really did take a backseat to everything. And being out of province even made life immensely more difficult. They're trying to line up classes via letters and phone calls. And sometimes you didn't get to take classes that you needed or wanted to take because after your first semester's over, everything is depending on — you take what you can take depending on the lineup over there.

Chris Cederstrand

[06:43]

So it made — I mean, obviously you got all your core classes, but moving forward into post-secondary, it was difficult. If you missed one year of bio or chem or physics, I mean, you're that year behind and then all of a sudden you're not going into it. And growing up in a small town, I mean, we had a graduating class of 80. They maybe only offered physics once. And if you didn't catch it in that semester, well, you were sort of out of luck and then you miss it in grade 10 and you're missing it all the way through. So it makes it tough to have something to fall back on.

Carlin Lutzer

[07:21]

Yeah, no, for sure. And you do see that even nowadays, you see a lot of kids putting a lot of their eggs in the sports basket hoping that they're going to do something. And that, yeah, it's very risky doing that, obviously, because you're hoping that you're going to make it to, well, at least get a scholarship or maybe the doors open into Europe or whatever, but the percentage of that actually happening for a lot of kids is very, very low. And now it's nice because they have shifted gears because you can do stuff correspondence, you can do it online, you can take summer school, whatever. But yeah, that's no doubt a good lesson. But how did you end up in Alberta?

Chris Cederstrand

[08:01]

So I actually ended up going to fire school out in Vermilion and my wife had finished her education degree and a job plopped up for her in Black Diamond. And so the way that the fire colleges worked back then is if you went, there's two very predominant ones in Western Canada. There's Vermilion and Brandon. And if you went to Vermilion, you were more looking to work out of Alberta and BC. And Brandon sort of did the work with Manitoba, Saskatchewan, a little bit of Ontario. And so I started going through the hiring processes and things like that out here when we initially moved. But yeah, we ended up out here with Shannon taking a job. And then it was just one of those, "Well, you got to get life started."

Carlin Lutzer

[08:48]

Right, right. And then so you ended up in fire school in Vermilion and then what led you — because you ended up having a workplace accident. Now, how did that all get set up that you were working construction during that time?

Chris Cederstrand

[09:04]

Yeah, I'd been working out at Sika with their fire department out there. And on the days I wasn't working, I ended up — my brother-in-law here was actually working for a construction company, or a road construction company here in Calgary. And he's just like, "Yeah, if you want some extra money on the days that you're off," which I think is a very common thing for most emergency responders, I'm going to say more predominantly firefighters, they really take advantage of the time off. And so I took on this construction gig that I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. But ultimately the accident ended up occurring just because of a massive list of safety failures.

Chris Cederstrand

[09:55]

And just that old school mentality. We were working up at a job site at Bow and Sarcee here in Calgary and working in the median at Bow, going up Bow Trail. And for the people that are familiar with Calgary, it's a very big, long hill. And I was backing one of those giant road packers back up Bow Trail. And like I said, this packer, there were a lot of problems with it, almost to the point that you'd have to wedge it against the concrete at night to make sure that it didn't do something funky and potentially start moving. But as I was backing this up the road, it ended up malfunctioning and started going back down the hill. And this was occurring at about 5:15 in the evening. So I mean, incredibly busy time here in Calgary, and I was trying to do everything I could to get it to slow down.

Chris Cederstrand

[11:02]

And my last resort was — because the brakes weren't working, couldn't get it back into gear. I tried rolling it up against the asphalt where we wedge it at night. And I mean, it was about a six-inch drop from the top of the asphalt to the base layer. And I mean, just the velocity I was going already and the weight of the machine, it just jumped up on the road. And so now it's picking up more speed and I'm getting closer and closer to the intersection and I was sort of left with two choices. I could have jumped off while it was on the road and would've probably, I mean, been a little banged up, but nothing too serious. And the other option I had was to get it into a safe place, which was back in the median, but this part of the median was still being developed.

Chris Cederstrand

[11:49]

So it was about a two-ish foot or two and a half foot drop from the top of the asphalt to the base layer. At the end of the day, I decided to get it back to where it would be safe and somehow this machine landed upright when I got it back into the median, because I mean, it's not like those are BMX bikes to get launched around. And then just as I went to jump off, it hit a big pile of dirt and flipped and landed on me.

Carlin Lutzer

[12:17]

Oh, geez. Okay. And then, yeah, that's very unfortunate with the — The safety was no doubt a big thing back then as well, because it's not new, but it seemed like some of the standards had slipped a little bit on the construction crew, and that piece of equipment never should have been out there.

Chris Cederstrand

[12:39]

Yeah. I mean, and it's something that that industry is very notorious for. Back in 2005 was the year we were getting all that rain here. And so you're under a time crunch to be doing these jobs. And yeah, I mean, they're moving pieces of equipment around just to try and be as efficient as possible because contracts and timelines and due dates don't necessarily move a lot with obviously weather. And so yeah, it was one of those things where at the end of the day, we went back, OHS went back through it. I mean, in the safety log that was actually kept on the piece of machinery, I mean, they were talking about these problems years ago and things that just had never been addressed, never taken care of. And at the end of the day, it's what caused my accident. And I do a lot of safety talks and things like that within my public speaking realm.

Chris Cederstrand

[13:44]

And so many people — the company is definitely at fault. There's a lot of fault there, but there's still accountability on my part. I was young-ish, I guess, but I still chose to do that job that day, as opposed to speaking my mind and saying no, or whatever I wanted to do despite what was wrong with the packer. And I mean, that's a big part of some of my safety talks. And also on the other side of it is the post-injury side, the community side that I really like to promote with the hockey program I run and within the safety talks, just because it was the community that ended up saving my life that day. I had a trauma nurse jump out of her car without even blinking an eye and ran over to me. And I mean, obviously I was in pretty rough shape and she mitigated what she could until the paramedics got there.

Chris Cederstrand

[14:45]

And because of what she did, I was able to actually make it to the hospital before my femoral artery burst. And it was one of those things that community's such a big piece and I can even extend that all the way back to growing up in a small town. Having that community is something that you really learn back then.

Chris Cederstrand

[15:08]

And to have a good community that surrounds

Carlin Lutzer

[15:11]

You

Chris Cederstrand

[15:11]

Because they can make a monstrous impact in a day, a week, a month, and in my case, a life — somebody that's willing just to do that, regardless of if there was any danger occurring or what was going on. I mean, I was conscious throughout the whole ordeal of it, but for somebody to do that just so quickly is a truly amazing thing. And I mean, we have amazing people within our community.

Carlin Lutzer

[15:40]

Absolutely. So I just want to go back to something you said. It's very honourable for you to say that you had the choice to get onto that piece of equipment. In defence of you though, if you wouldn't have, somebody else would've got onto that piece of equipment. And at the end of the day, there's a lot of people that need — if they're not going to, they could very well have ended up losing their job as a result of, "Well, you're not willing to do the job, so we'll see you later." You're not going to get those calls on the next project. So it's very scary for a person that's employed where there's — yeah, they could wave the red flag and say, "Hey, this is dangerous." But I do, I hope — And you said that was 2015, right?

Chris Cederstrand

[16:31]

2005. 2005.

Carlin Lutzer

[16:33]

I'm sorry.

Chris Cederstrand

[16:33]

Oh, no worries. I mean, so safety protocols and things like that have come an awful long way. And I mean, these companies — when a company of the magnitude of the company I was working for then has an incident like mine happen, it restructured the whole industry in Calgary because it was news, this was getting out there, they were fined by OHS and it truly did help restructure things. Like I had no training going into the job, you're just sort of out there. And it's like, well, when you're working around large pieces of equipment, I mean, some jobs are obviously inherently more dangerous than other jobs. And that's a risk that you have to accept and you choose to accept that risk. So it's one of those things, like I said, there is accountability across the board on it. And I mean, I could have said no, I might not have had a job, but at the end of the day, like you said, somebody else would've got on that packer.

Chris Cederstrand

[17:36]

And when I look back at my accident, there's always ups and downs and things like that, but I wouldn't change anything. Yeah.

Carlin Lutzer

[17:45]

For sure. So can you tell us then the domino effect, I guess, as to what transpired after your accident, because you ended up losing your leg?

Chris Cederstrand

[17:58]

Yeah. As a result of the accident, ended up having to amputate my right leg above the knee, and they were initially trying to save it, and so they really mangled my other leg, harvesting veins and things like that. Oh, really?

Carlin Lutzer

[18:12]

Okay.

Chris Cederstrand

[18:13]

So it wasn't just the one leg that was affected at the end of it. And then just because it was such a rush amputation, they didn't get to address all the things that they would address on a planned amputation, i.e., like diabetes or if you've got a staph infection or something like that. So it was just get to the bleed, cut it off. And as a result of those, there's been a lot of issues as far as pain and things like that, just because there was so much traction on my nerves that they weren't able to address. And I mean, that'll be a lifelong thing for me. But post-accident, I mean, it was obviously a very, very rough go. I went from being a very capable human being, did every sport under the sun, played hockey at a high level, was a firefighter, and all of a sudden I'm having to ask somebody to grab me a glass of water or for help to the washroom.

Chris Cederstrand

[19:10]

And it was an incredibly defeating thing. And I think probably one of the worst things I did around that time is I tried putting on a brave face for everybody else.

Chris Cederstrand

[19:22]

As opposed to starting that acceptance piece early, you bottle it up and you go. And once again, unfortunately back then, they didn't do pain management and stuff like that properly. I mean, they just threw me on fentanyl and they had me on fentanyl and God knows how many other drugs for a lot of years. It wasn't a fast recovery. It got to the point where my wife, who, God bless her, has kept me around and everything that way finally ended up making the choice for me because I was just doing what the doctor said. I was, "Okay, the doctors are going to help me out with this." And I was just really following them blindly and they had me on so much fentanyl. I was just turning into a zombie and she was like, "We're not doing this anymore." And it wasn't like it was, "I'm going to leave you or something like that."

Chris Cederstrand

[20:22]

It's just, "This isn't good for you." And ultimately we made the choice to get off pretty much all the medications. And when we did that, I obviously started seeing things a little bit more clearly. And the really big thing that changed, I guess, the direction or the course of my life was I ended up getting an email from my fire instructor at that time. And I mean, we've all seen these crazy memes of the cat hanging off the clothesline, "Don't give up," blah, blah, blah. And I got inundated with those after my accident, but the one that he sent me was: "Scars should remind you of where you've been. They shouldn't dictate where you go." And it was just that aha moment for me. I just went, "Wow." And through a lot of years of processing it and things like that, to this day, basically when I tell people about my story, it's not that I had a bad day or a bad — I had a bad 20 seconds.

Chris Cederstrand

[21:28]

That accident took 20 seconds to happen and was I going to let 20 seconds of one day impact and direct the course of my life?

Carlin Lutzer

[21:37]

Yeah. So how long did you say you were on fentanyl for? What's the time period after?

Chris Cederstrand

[21:43]

Oh, it was years. It was years and years.

Carlin Lutzer

[21:46]

And then how did you come off of it? Did you just make a decision or did you go to some kind of rehab to get off of it?

Chris Cederstrand

[21:54]

They wanted me to go to a rehab, but yeah, we just made the decision and I was exceptionally fortunate because I didn't have a mental addiction to it. The only reason I was taking these things was because they were supposed to be helping me with pain. And that's the unfortunate side of those opiates — your body builds up resistance, you need more, you need more, you need more to keep on top of it. So when we made that decision to come off, it was a decision that I was very well aware of. And it was a very horrible time. And it's something I do get to talk to the odd person about, just about that withdrawal and people that are on or addicted to drugs or alcohol. I've gone through it in a sense where I know what the body response is to it because it was months of cold sweats and being sick as they tapered me down on this stuff and I can really sympathize with people out there when you start going through that withdrawal.

Chris Cederstrand

[23:04]

If you don't have that, if you're in a low place mentally and whatnot, it's easy to just get another fix.

Chris Cederstrand

[23:12]

As opposed to sticking it out and keeping course, I guess.

Carlin Lutzer

[23:18]

Right, right. So you kind of came out of that drug fog. Were you still in quite a bit of physical pain or was it more of a psychological addiction at that point?

Chris Cederstrand

[23:32]

Addiction to — The

Carlin Lutzer

[23:33]

Fentanyl.

Chris Cederstrand

[23:35]

Oh no, there was no psychological. It was all just physical. My body just needed it at that point. So like I said, I was lucky enough on a cognitive level, I'm like, "I'm stopping this. I'm going to stop this." And I think just the years of sport and everything else gave me that sort of grit and attitude just to see it through. I was able to set a goal, or a big goal with smaller intervals in between with goals. And it was like, "Hey, well, we're here, we're here, we're here." And when I finally got off of it, like I said, it was just the clouds clearing and all of a sudden these things, just pieces of my life started to click back together. They came along far enough with prosthetic technology that I was able to get it on and wear it for a bit because I've got just a massive amount of pain in my residual limb to this day where I've got to basically cover my leg in ketamine cream to be able to wear it, but it was a choice.

Chris Cederstrand

[24:46]

At the end of the day, I wanted to make that choice so that I could live the best life that I wanted to live.

Carlin Lutzer

[24:55]

Yeah. Well, and just looking into who you are online and pulling some information out, it seems like you've become almost like a yes guy. Almost if someone presents to you an opportunity, it seems like — and I'm talking like sports or whatever — you're going to take it. It seems, and I'm just assuming, I'm making an assumption that if somebody presents something to you that you're like, "Yeah, let's give it a shot." Is that true?

Chris Cederstrand

[25:31]

Yeah. I mean, I love to be challenged, and whether that's a good challenge or a bad challenge, I've developed a mindset that I want to take those things on, whether it's somebody negative saying I can't do something or something positive — with some of the stuff I've done over the years, I absolutely love that challenge. And I think a lot of people do things for other people with some of their mindset pieces. And for me, these challenges I do for myself, because I truly believe that if I'm helping myself and making myself the best person that I can be, all those people around me, my family, my friends, everything like that, see the positive benefits from it.

Carlin Lutzer

[26:18]

Right. Sorry to cut you off, Chris, but there's a very profound thing you just said because I think as men, we typically feel that we need to fill everybody else's cup around us first before we fill our own cup. I actually heard a guy talking yesterday. It was kind of the first time that I heard it and he was basically saying, "No, we got to flip that around as men." We need to fill our cup and then the spillover is what the rest around us get. And once that transpires, the people around us, because we're flourishing as men, those around us then flourish as well, as opposed to we give and give and give until, well, our tank's completely empty.

Chris Cederstrand

[27:08]

Yeah. You end up breaking at the end of the day. And then once you break, it's hard to keep pushing yourself back. And it's one of those things that as a man and being able to realize that whole process, for me, I train still, even though I'm retired from sport, it's part of my thing that helps me as a person make myself better. And I've learned that I have to take that hour a day because if I take that hour a day, everybody benefits from it. And if I don't take that hour a day, I'm grumpy, I'm upset and mad, and then that negative spills over because I'm either mad at myself and that starts projecting everywhere else. And when you have that negative mindset, your attitude and your behaviour dictate what your actions and your success are going to be. And when that attitude and behaviour is horrible and you're mad at the world, you're drinking poison and it's hurting other people.

Chris Cederstrand

[28:18]

Yeah, absolutely.

Carlin Lutzer

[28:20]

Can you tell us a little bit — like we've kind of hinted on it here now, but kind of your mental health journey, especially after the drugs, Chris, after you weaned yourself, which is phenomenal in and of itself, just the fact that you did that is unbelievable. But no doubt, there's highs, there's lows that you go through. What is something that you did that would kind of — like you talked about working out getting you out of those ruts, but are there other things that get you out of those ruts when you're feeling a little bit low on the mental health journey?

Chris Cederstrand

[28:59]

Yeah. And I mean, mine — I hit some very big lows. There were days when Shannon would come home from work and she'd be wondering if she was going to come home to just a body. It got to that sort of level. And the biggest thing that happened with me is I got help and I got the right help. I went through quite a few psychologists in order to find the right one. It's not a one size fits all with these people. And unfortunately, I think a lot of people, whether it's covered under a drug plan or whatever it is, or you're paying for it yourself, you don't want to be paying the hundred and some bucks an hour and then you'll just be like, "Hey, well, this is the right thing." I might not be connecting with this guy on the right level. And I mean, I went through a number of them until I met an incredible gentleman that was really able to — I mean, he was a big sports guy.

Chris Cederstrand

[29:58]

We were really able to connect on a level where we used athletics and sports as that sort of catapult into what I was doing to myself. And through that, you slowly start digging out of that hole. And for me, it was a lot of having a high performance mindset. And when something didn't work, I just kicked the crap out of myself. And then you dig a little bit of a hole and when you're in a rough spot, it's easy to keep digging that hole. And eventually you get to a place where it's so extreme you don't even see the top anymore.

Carlin Lutzer

[30:41]

And yeah, I certainly can't imagine the highs and lows that you would feel, but there's a phrase, "What you focus in on expands." And that's what I see with you — having that "I can" mentality, I can do whatever and I'm going to fight until I get there. You focus on not the "can't" but "I can." And if you focus on the "can't," well, it's probably not going to happen. "Well, I can't do that." Because even here at the end of the month, you told me that you're going to the ice climbing.

Chris Cederstrand

[31:18]

Yeah, I'm doing the World Ice Climbing Championships up in Edmonton. So they're going to throw me up on a — I got to climb an ice wall. I've never done it before, but I'm like, I want to give this a shot. That's a big challenge. And I mean, as you know, I'm a bigger guy. So a lot of those guys are a little bit more slender and it's going to be an absolute challenge for me to haul my big butt up an ice wall. But I just looked at it and went, okay, well, I get to go and speak about adaptive sports and how people can get into whatever they want. And then to be able to go up there and actually try this. It isn't just the challenge of that. I use that as the big challenge. And now I've been able to set little goals along the way.

Chris Cederstrand

[32:09]

And I think that's such an important piece for people to do. You can't just have this challenge that is way up in the sky, or a goal or a dream. You need to learn to set those little goals along the way. So you're getting to that. You're climbing those stairs. You're not going to make that thousand-foot leap up to that top stair. You've got to climb it a stair at a time to get to that point. And for me, when they asked me, I just pivoted a little bit in how I'm usually training and what I'm doing and trying to work it so that I'm going to be able to climb that ice wall.

Carlin Lutzer

[32:50]

Okay. So really, I'm going off topic here a little bit, but how do they build an ice wall in Edmonton?

Chris Cederstrand

[32:56]

I was chatting with a guy and they start putting together giant blocks of ice. Apparently it's like this 40-foot tall — just blocks and blocks of ice that they actually create to sort of mimic — I mean, a lot of that stuff, I guess, is done obviously on waterfalls. And I mean, it's essentially like scaling a mountain, I guess, but you've got your big ice picks as opposed to finding handholds and you're just hammering your way up there. I know.

Carlin Lutzer

[33:28]

That's crazy. Well, and again, just back to your list of things that you have accomplished, is it true that you're still a firefighter?

Chris Cederstrand

[33:41]

So I took a leave away from firefighting. Did you? Okay. Just was one of those things between sport and everything else. It was getting very difficult to actually get to shifts.

Carlin Lutzer

[33:55]

Just because you're too busy.

Chris Cederstrand

[33:57]

Yeah. You're planning your shifts out three months in advance. And with me and the public speaking side of things and everything else, when it first started the hockey, when it first started the firefighting — even the hockey. I mean, Hockey Canada is obviously an incredible feather in your cap to be able to put on one of those jerseys, but they run at a whole different level. We'd get a call and two weeks later we're like, "Nope, guys, two weeks we're heading to Moncton for a training camp." And you're like, "Well, I've got a family, I've got kids." It's very hard just to pick up everything and go out to Moncton for a week and a half to train. And that was sort of the MO with a lot of the camps and things like that that we did with them. And so it just became harder and harder to keep shifts.

Chris Cederstrand

[34:48]

I shifted down to a part-timer. And then when public speaking took off, that really sort of put even more of a little bit of the nail in the coffin because now I was trying to juggle so many different things between hockey and firefighting, public speaking, the hockey school. I've got all these balls up in the air. And unfortunately, it was firefighting that had to come out, but I still am in close contact with all these guys and

Chris Cederstrand

[35:20]

I'd love to be able to go back and do it again. It was just such a passion of mine and obviously my childhood dream and being able to do it post-accident was something that was an incredibly cool process.

Carlin Lutzer

[35:36]

Were you one of the first amputees to be a firefighter?

Chris Cederstrand

[35:40]

I was the first above-knee amputee firefighter in North America. Above me. That's

Carlin Lutzer

[35:45]

Unbelievable. Sorry, you just keep saying so much and my head's spinning with everything that you're doing because you're talking about going out east for hockey camps. Now what kind — are we talking sledge hockey or are we talking hockey camps? Because you're involved in both.

Chris Cederstrand

[35:58]

Yeah, no, this is when I was playing for the national team. So playing for Team Canada, you're generally gone a week and a bit every month. Yeah.

Carlin Lutzer

[36:08]

I'm getting tired just talking to you. All the stuff that you've done, man, is truly unbelievable. Because yeah, sledge hockey — because I feel like we could talk for two hours. We're going to have to — we'll cut it short here at some point. But let's talk about sledge hockey a little bit. What's your role with sledge hockey right now?

Chris Cederstrand

[36:35]

So I'm a retired Team Canada athlete. I was an alternate for Sochi. And as my story generally plays out, I'm a little bit of a mess as far as being injured, but I ended up retiring just before the games in 2018. I blew my shoulder out for the second time and ended up staying within the sport. So I mean, I was lucky — I played with our national team for a long time and did world championships and all those fun things. And the other side of it is, is I was an old man in a young man's sport. I was getting to that age of 40 and I was the oldest guy on the team by a mile, and these kids are 16, 17, 18 years old. And I'm like, "Well, I'm old enough to be your dad."

Chris Cederstrand

[37:21]

It was a bit of a change that way. But I ended up retiring from sledge hockey and helped the national team out as a consultant. So I did some coaching and some skill development with them and ended up coaching our provincial team here for — we won four national championships in a row. And then the hockey school started when I was doing sledge hockey as well. I started doing that back in about 2016 because we've been at it for a decade and we've got a whole sledge component there, which I work with our Flames affiliate team or run that. So we send teams down to the NHL Sled Classic every year, which is a very rewarding thing because sending our young kids down there — young kids that might have been disabled since birth and all of a sudden they're getting to put on a Flames jersey with their name on the back and a name placard in their locker.

Chris Cederstrand

[38:21]

It's just an incredibly rewarding thing.

Carlin Lutzer

[38:24]

Absolutely. No, that'd be unbelievable. You also were involved with helping redesign hockey rinks so they were more sledge adaptable, right?

Chris Cederstrand

[38:38]

Yeah. So I've been lucky enough to do that. I mean, playing out at Insport is one of the more — it's sort of like the premier place in Canada for sledge hockey. And the accessibility side of things came as an afterthought. It was just, "We'll do this and we're going to build the rink and then adapt what is already built to sledge hockey." So I've been fortunate enough to help develop, I think, three or four rinks now. And the yellow here, or gold, in Okotoks was one that I helped develop so that it's a lot more sledge accessible and just accessible for everybody actually, where you're not having to utilize — you've got elevators, which was already there, but you can get to the viewing areas without being impeded. The locker rooms are all set up with accessible showers and they're big enough so people can be in there with wheelchairs.

Chris Cederstrand

[39:31]

And we've got the ice set up that way with the boards so that the boards along the benches, that top half of the boards is transparent so you can see through it and

Chris Cederstrand

[39:41]

No kick plates and all of those things just to make sure that people with sleds — if they're out there, it's accessible for them. But the funny part is there's benefits outside of that. Watching the little Timbits kids absolutely love it. I mean, because A, getting out on the ice and not having to step off that kick plate, which usually, I mean, it's comical, but usually results in some sort of yard sale, at least once a game where one kid steps off and falls and the rest of them all fall on top of him. But they actually also get to watch the game because the boards are transparent.

Carlin Lutzer

[40:12]

Right, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. And it's like you said, are your shoulders bad because of sledge hockey? Because you are really working your shoulders hard in sledge hockey, aren't you?

Chris Cederstrand

[40:29]

I think, well, I mean, I've had my left shoulder reconstructed twice, and the injury did come from sledge hockey, but my shoulders were also beat up a lot over the years, just not being able to wear a leg all the time. I rely on crutches and things like that. And crutches are incredibly hard on your shoulders. So I mean, I think there was a fair bit of deterioration that was occurring beforehand.

Carlin Lutzer

[40:53]

For sure. Fair enough.

Chris Cederstrand

[40:55]

Just as a secondary result of having an amputation, you're hopping around a lot, your body just takes sort of a beating. Yeah.

Carlin Lutzer

[41:04]

Yeah. For someone that tries sledge hockey for the first time, what's kind of the common thing that you hear people saying after they've tried it for the first time?

Chris Cederstrand

[41:14]

The difficulty level. I think a lot of people see it and they're just like, "Oh, it can't be hard." And it's everyone — I've been fortunate enough to be out there with Connor McDavid, with Crosby, with all these pros. And yeah, they sit in a sled and all of a sudden it's the same sport, but played so differently and they're humbled by it. I think a lot of with parasport, I think that's sort of a common thing — people see it and you have that old adage, you're judging a book by its

Carlin Lutzer

[41:51]

Cover.

Chris Cederstrand

[41:51]

And you're like, "Well, they're disabled. How hard could it be?" And when you actually get your butt in a sled and you go, "Okay, I have this set up so that you can actually sit in it. Here's my sled where my blades are seven-sixteenths of an inch apart and that's all I balance on and on your sled, your blades are four inches apart and you're still falling over like crazy." And so the vast majority of people that get out of it, they just have a whole new respect for the game itself just because it's an incredibly difficult game to play.

Carlin Lutzer

[42:25]

Right. Now, I think I heard you correctly. I listened to a few other podcasts that you were on, Chris, before. And Connor McDavid did his lap in, was it like 15 seconds or something like

Chris Cederstrand

[42:40]

That? I think he's in that 13 and a half range right now. I think that was his last one. And correct me if I'm wrong, but yeah, I mean, the fastest guy on our national team does a lap in just right around 16 seconds.

Chris Cederstrand

[42:56]

A little bit under. And I mean, obviously two seconds is — it's a big margin, but you're still — I'm going to say we're playing at a junior level most of the time. The guys out there are flying and it's a full contact game, which a lot of people don't know. They see the kids playing it and it's a little bit like bumper cars there. But at the national level, it's violent just because you're not skating backwards. So it's always a head-on race for the puck. The only way you beat somebody is either with speed or physicality, and usually it's both because you can't dangle through somebody like standup.

Chris Cederstrand

[43:37]

So you're just running guys out of real estate all the time. It's a game of angles, and I'll tell you the boards aren't designed to be hit. Given the glass, the boards are pretty solid. So if you take a good hit out there and you go flying into the boards, you get lots of injuries. And then plus we have picks at the end of our sticks. So you're adding a whole other element — giving you a sharp weapon while you're out on the ice, but it's a wild sport. I mean, the guys are shooting the puck — I mean, Billy Bridges, who's retired now, used to be able to shoot the puck at 80 miles an hour. It was unreal. And so when you combine all those different pieces together, it's one hell of a game to watch.

Carlin Lutzer

[44:22]

Yeah. Just thinking while you're talking, and not just saying this because you're sitting on my computer screen here, but I'm overwhelmed, Chris. I truly am. And do you ever think that — this might be a tough question, but there was a reason why it happened to you, your accident?

Chris Cederstrand

[44:47]

Yeah, I think I'm one of those guys accidents happen to, so they don't happen to other people. I sort of seem to have that MO and sometimes the result of that ends up being a positive result. And I mean, that's the way that I really have to — I view life that way. There's a silver lining in everything. And I mean, even when it comes to my accident, had I not had my accident, I'd probably be grinding it out on a firehouse floor somewhere, working as a firefighter. And the crazy thing is, because I had a bad 20 seconds of one day, I got to represent my country and be a firefighter at the same time. I got to live my two childhood dreams simultaneously, which is not something a lot of people get to do. And it is, it's finding those — there's always a silver lining in something regardless of how tragic it is.

Chris Cederstrand

[45:47]

And we look at it a lot of times. I mean, even in death, people will say, "Well, at least they're not in pain." Or there is that piece that can be there where you can grasp onto something and it will help pull yourself up, pull you or other people out of a situation where if they can see light at the end of the tunnel, all they need is just a glimmer.

Chris Cederstrand

[46:13]

And it was like working with Ryan Strzynski. I was fortunate enough to see him right after his accident. And I mean, it's been eight years and I look at him and he's just flourished. And it's one of those things that you can show people that hope is there and show them that, you know what, you're going to achieve your goals. It might just be in a

Carlin Lutzer

[46:33]

Different way. Right. And just for a reminder for people that may not exactly know who Ryan is, but he was on the Humboldt Broncos bus and now he's excelled in sledge hockey. And did I hear correctly, like he's going to the 2028 Summer Paralympics?

Chris Cederstrand

[46:57]

Yeah, he's working toward that. So he's transitioned over to wheelchair basketball and he's doing phenomenal there. And he's taking a break from sledge hockey to pursue that. And I mean, if you want to talk about the definition of just grit and positivity, he's a guy that — check him out because if you don't know who he is, his story is just so incredibly inspiring. And for him to do it at the age that he did it at is the truly remarkable piece to me because I mean, you put that in most 18-year-olds' hands and they're going to crumble and he thrived right out of the box with it.

Carlin Lutzer

[47:40]

Yeah. Well, Chris, I'm sure your story was an inspiration to Ryan and Ryan's story's an inspiration to some kid that's looking up to him right now, right? They're on YouTube. They're hoping one day to meet either yourself or meet Ryan just as an inspiration for their disability, right? And that you can get through life and live very, very well and still — I see all the stuff you're doing and you're doing more than most people who have two legs. And your story is so inspiring. I appreciate your time today. And I look forward to having you back on again very, very soon because I know there are so many different stories that we could discuss, Chris. But yeah, no, I do appreciate your time. Oh, hey, before we go, let's talk about — tell me about PX3.

Chris Cederstrand

[48:43]

Yeah. So we have our PX3 Hockey Academy that we run out of Insport. It's a really unique process. We do it for both adaptive and able-bodied kids. Our able-bodied group is obviously the bigger group, but it's a professional coaching model. So my little guy, Carter, got to start off with the Hitch Page group. He had Glen Cross staging and Brower as his three main coaches, but he's been out there with — I mean, he had Gratton when he was here, he had Lewis, he had Stone before he retired, Lucic. All these guys are sort of flocking to our program. We got Backlund, we had Ras when he was here. Lombo's got his kid in it. It's a really unique coaching model, and you've got kids learning from pros in all small area games. And for the parents, the best part is you have the schedule at the beginning of the year.

Chris Cederstrand

[49:46]

Your kid plays Monday or Wednesday, or both Monday and Wednesday, or Tuesday, Thursday at whatever time, and Saturday's game days. And so it's easy for parents to navigate that as opposed to — I mean, we know what it's like — we've got a 6:45 AM practice every week and we don't know what day it's on.

Chris Cederstrand

[50:05]

So it's a really unique thing. And then on the sledge side, we do a lot with that. We have a grade three program that we run called Community Champions that we've made completely free for grade three classes to come out. So they come out, we put them in roller sleds, we put them in ice sleds, and we just sort of teach them how to be good community members, how to be champions in their community and send them off on their way. And yeah, I mean, it's been phenomenal with the hockey school and seeing it grow and seeing the impact that we're having community-wide and hopefully growing that community with all these little champions that we're producing.

Carlin Lutzer

[50:49]

Yeah, that's amazing. Last question. And I think I know the answer to it, but I'm not sure. Do you still skate?

Chris Cederstrand

[51:00]

Oh yeah. Yeah. I taught myself to do everything post-accident. So I actually helped run the hockey program out of Black Diamond shortly after my accident. It was one of the first things that I got back into sport-wise. And so I talked to actually a racing crew. It was a racing crew out of Okotoks and they helped design one of my prosthetic legs so I could get back out there and skate again. And as technology's improved, like I've got a snowboarding leg, I've got a swimming leg, I've got a running leg, I've got this closet full of legs, but there's pretty much no sport that I don't get out there and do now. You need the right equipment for it, but anything is essentially possible. So it's a cool thing to be able to get out there and do all that now.

Carlin Lutzer

[51:50]

Chris, you are an inspiration. I really do mean that. And you're an inspiration to me and no doubt many other people that are so fortunate to get to cross paths with you. And I'm so glad that we met this year.

Chris Cederstrand

[52:05]

Oh, I appreciate the kind words, but you know what, everyone, go out there and live life for yourself.

Carlin Lutzer

[52:11]

Yeah.

Chris Cederstrand

[52:12]

Be the best to you because this spillover is amazing and it turns everybody else's life positive. That's one piece of information I can leave with. And obviously, thank you so much for having me on, Carlin. It's been a fantastic talk and I look forward to coming back on.

Carlin Lutzer

[52:29]

Yeah, we will do it again. Thanks, Chris. What a conversation. Chris's story is a reminder that resilience isn't loud, it's consistent, it's daily. It's choosing to move forward when staying still would be easier. And with the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games taking place March 6th to March 15th in Italy, the spotlight is about to shine on athletes who redefine what's possible. These are not stories of limitation, they're stories of adaptation, grit, and elite performance, and Chris is making sure more people get the chance to experience that world. Through the Cederstrand Foundation, he's helping raise money to provide sports equipment and accessibility support for individuals with disabilities who want to compete, move, and belong in sport. Because equipment is expensive, opportunity shouldn't be. If this episode moved you, share it. And if it challenged you, act on it. And if you ever caught yourself saying, "I can't," maybe today's the day you drop the "t."

Carlin Lutzer

[53:48]

This is the Okotoks Podcast. I'm Carlin Lutzer, and we will see you next time.

Announcer

[53:54]

You've been listening to the Okotoks Podcast, brought to you by Carlin Lutzer Real Estate. Thanks for joining