A former star of the Swift Current Broncos is speaking out about his devastating fall from grace, that led him into the darkest depths of his mind. 

Flashback to 2004, a 17-year-old Brady Leavold captured the hearts of fans in the WHL during his rookie season with the Broncos. 

On the outside, Leavold looked like someone with a bright future ahead. However, the emotional turmoil he was feeling daily was beginning to take a toll on the young man. 

Growing up in Port Coquitlam, BC, Leavold always knew that he wanted to play hockey. The young man's prospects looked promising as he propelled himself to elite levels. 

Leavold had spent years painting the outside appearance of a bright young man with endless potential. That image would hold firm, while the man behind the façade continued to crack.  

He spent time playing for the Swift Current Broncos as well as the Kelowna Rockets, managing to hold it together long enough to sign a professional contract. 

“Up until that point, I think everything on the outside looked good, but things were already not doing too well for me,” Leavold stated. “But I was hiding it, and holding on to hockey and kind of, you know, sweeping all that stuff under the rug by holding on to hockey essentially. And eventually, you know, it all fell apart for me.” 

Leavold fell into an escalating spiral of drug use, and the once-promising athlete dug deeper for any escape from the pain and suffering inside his head. A pain that stemmed back to the young man’s childhood. 

Having now come to terms with what happened to him, Leavold shares openly that he was sexually abused as a child.  

“As a kid, I was sexually abused,” he said. “It’s, you know, something that I didn't deal with until I was, essentially, until two years ago. And so, I was 32, and that was a big barrier for me.” 

The years following his time with the Broncos were accompanied by many highs and lows for the athlete as he tried to cover up the pain that always seemed to creep back into his mind. 

In 2006, Leavold was kicked off the B.C. Hockey League's Burnaby Express for cocaine use, partying, and missing games. 

A couple of seasons later, the right winger put up a good season in his first year with the Kelowna Rockets, landing a leadership role and being one of the team's top scorers. 

However, as the years progressed so did his drug use. A stint in the Dutch pro league was cut short when Leavold struggled through two games, dope sick, before returning to Canada. 

The final string seemed to unravel for Leavold in 2009 after a knee injury provided him access to prescription painkillers. 

Leavold’s downward spiral continued. His drug use that was once a way to numb the pain had turned him into a desperate shell of his former self, searching for his next fix. 

“You know, I've made a lot of mistakes in my life,” he said. “I've made a lot of poor choices. I had some stuff happen to me that was out of my control as a kid, and you know, that no question put me on a path and did some damage to me as a kid. But you know, I made a lot of poor choices and put myself in a lot of bad situations. 

“Because I was so hurt and trying to self-medicate and just so lost, and I know there's a lot of people feeling like that. And I always tell people, like if I can do this, I swear anybody can. I know that sounds pretty cliche and you know, like I'm full of baloney or whatever you want to say, but it's the truth.” 

Leavold elaborated further, stating that it doesn’t get much worse than where he found himself just a few short years ago. 

“I found myself in places I never would have imagined,” he states about those dark days, wandering the streets of Vancouver. 

Leavold’s addiction morphed from snorting pain killers, to shooting heroin, to then shooting fentanyl as it began to penetrate the streets of Vancouver. 

He did not care, however, that he was risking his life daily. On the contrary, Leavold was hoping that one fatal dose would prevent him from waking up in the cruel world he had become accustomed to. 

The former athlete’s desires almost came true on multiple occasions, overdosing more times than he can recall. 

Leavold lived on the streets of downtown Vancouver for a year between overdoses and stints in and out of jail. 

In order to support his growing addiction, he would rob liquor stores or sell small amounts of drugs. Most notably, he robbed a taxi driver at gunpoint in 2013. 

The world came crashing down once again on Leavold in 2016 when the then 28-year-old was sentenced to 21 months in jail minus time served. The conviction came after Leavold plead guilty to a robbery charge and ten lesser counts including theft and resisting a peace officer. 

Leavold spent more time behind bars in Ontario before being released in 2019. He is approaching his second year of sobriety. 

He now spends a large amount of his time encouraging others and sharing his story with whoever will listen. 

“I'm almost two years clean and I have a better life today than I could have ever imagined,” he stated. “Even if my life panned out as a professional NHL hockey player, I have a better life today than any hockey career could have taken me on.” 

Posted in Vancouver's largest paper in 2016.

Leavold believes that it is crucial to have conversations centred around mental health. 

“I've lost a lot of friends, some hockey players, many who weren't, to suicide and overdose, and I feel very lucky every single day that I'm here,” he said. 

Leavold says that he feels a sense of responsibility to speak out about his experience if there is even the slightest chance that it may help someone else. 

“There's a lot of people out there that are struggling, and a lot of people that feel guilt and shame,” he said. “And I was one of those people. And you know, if I can be a small part of the solution to try to help people get out of the rut that they're in, then everything that I've gone through is absolutely, 100% worth it.” 

Leavold makes it a priority of his to communicate with young athletes as much as he can, noting the champion mentality that so many feel pressure to achieve. 

“You know, in a group of 20 or 25, I know that going into these and I'm not going to get through to every single player, and that's okay,” he states. “Maybe I'm not even to get through one today, but there will be a time when there would be part of my message or something that will resonate with people because the unfortunate stats are one in six boys and one in three girls will be sexually abused in their life, and one in four people here in Canada will either suffer from a mental illness or an addiction or both.” 

Leavold also credits members of the hockey community such as Theoren Fleury, Todd Holt, and Sheldon Kennedy for inspiring him to speak about his own struggles. 

“I feel like I have a responsibility that I'm still here and alive, and have these experiences, the highs and the lows,” he reflected. “I really hope, and I just do my part to the best of my ability to try to make a difference every single day now.” 

Leavold started a podcast in 2020 called “Hockey 2 Hell and Back” where featured guests join him to chat about hockey but also about mental health, suicide, addiction, and depression. 

“Giving people the time and the space to share open honestly without judgment,” he said. “That to me is the first real start to the solution instead of us all looking for an outside entity to come and save us. We can all band together and that to me is the real power here, and so I hope by me sharing my story, just like Theo and Sheldon and Todd did prior and inspired me to do the same.  

"I hope that you know, I can just be a smaller version of Theo, and Sheldon, and those guys and try to make a butterfly effect in the world. There are so many people doing this, but unfortunately, there's even more who are suffering and feeling alone, and that's the scary part."