To say Tyler Mosienko brings experience to the ECHL’s expansion Iowa Heartlanders would be a bit of an understatement.

But, having played in nearly 1,000 games between the regular season, postseason and tournament play over a 15-year professional career that’s taken him from the highest levels of the North American minors to both Asia and Europe, the 37-year-old center wasn’t sure if a 16th season was on the horizon.

“I really missed playing hockey,” Mosienko, who took last year off to spend more time with his young family, told FloHockey via cell phone.

“I knew (Heartlanders assistant) Derek (Damon) from playing against him, and (head coach) Gerry (Flemming) as well, and I guess it just kind of got out there that I was looking to play hockey again, so they gave me a call and we chatted. We thought about it, and we all thought it would be a pretty good fit.”

For the 2020-21 season, Mosienko had a contract to return to play in Germany, where he’d spent the last two seasons with Saale Bulls Halle of the Oberliga, but when the COVID shutdown continued to affect both import players as well as European leagues as a whole, he elected to stay home with his wife, their six-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter given the uncertainty of how that all might unfold.

Mosienko, the grandson of Hockey Hall of Famer Bill Mosienko, who still owns the National Hockey League record fastest hat trick with three goals in an unfathomable 21 seconds, stayed in the game by coaching a 17-year-old team back home in the Kelowna (British Columbia, Canada) Minor Hockey Association and also worked in construction for some time.

But he knew he wasn’t done just yet. He sure doesn’t look like he’s done, either.

After a year away, he says there’s still a lot of progress that needs to be made in a short amount of time to get his game back to where it was when he left off. However, remarkably, Mosienko has contributed three assists in his first three games with Iowa.

“I just missed playing, I really enjoyed playing and I still felt like I had a little bit left in the tank,” Mosienko said. “But my game still needs a lot of work right now though, I’m not going to lie. I have some steps to take to be where I want to be at. I had no idea, I hadn’t really been skating or training a lot getting ready for a hockey season, but once everything came together, it was getting everything organized at home and trying to get to Iowa as fast as I could…I expected this could have been really bad or maybe even really good, and it’s all been somewhere in-between there.”

Mosienko has long been one of the most coveted scorers on both the North American and European free agent markets, a proven producer at virtually every stop. In his most recent stint in the ECHL, back in 2013-14 with the now-defunct Alaska Aces, Mosienko helped lead them to a Kelly Cup, and is only three years removed from a year in Germany in which he posted a career-best 80 points (24-56—80) in just 48 games.

While he says the league hasn’t changed terribly much since the last time he was in it seven years ago—he noted the game as a whole has evolved to become faster and stronger—his role has changed. Especially on an expansion franchise like the Heartlanders who had to build a roster largely from the ground up, outside of players provided by their NHL and AHL affiliations. Mosienko provides an exceptionally valuable presence in a largely inexperienced locker room as a veteran who’s been to the top of the mountain in the league they’re currently in.

As much as production on the ice is key for him to stick around, he knows he was brought in just as much for what he’ll be able to contribute in the locker room.

“I’ve really enjoyed that so far,” Mosienko said. “The guys here, it’s such a good group of guys we have here, and they’re all asking questions and they want to learn. I’ve enjoyed teaching some stuff when I can along the way, helping them along, and hoping we can build a good inaugural season here. We have the group of guys that can do that."