3 NHL players who excelled in the other sports ft. Joe Pavelski

NHL payers are like most professional athletes, as they often played multiple sports growing up.

We have seen NFL players drafted by the MLB and vice versa, however, hockey players are a bit different, as a lot of them focus on the sport year-round.

However, there are some players who have excelled at other sports and showed off their skills during the off-season. With that, here are three NHL players who excel at other sports.

#1, Joe Pavelski

Joe Pavelski has been in the NHL since the 2006-07 season and has played in 1,250 regular season games, recording over 1,000 points.

Although Pavelski is one of the best players of his generation - and could very well be in the Hall of Fame - hockey is not the only sport he is good at. Instead, Pavelski is arguably the best golfer in the NHL.

Pavelski just played in the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship and finished tied for second. He is a scratch golfer - which means he shoots par on average.

#2, Anders Lee

Anders Lee is the New York Islanders' captain

Anders Lee has been an NHL player since 2013 and is the New York Islanders captain. Although Lee has almost played 700 NHL games and has 416 points, hockey was not the only sport the Minnesota native had success in.

While he was at Edina High School, Lee was on the hockey team but was also the starting quarterback in his junior season.

As the starting quarterback, Lee passed for 2,049 yards and 14 touchdowns and helped them to a 10-1 record, but lost in the State Championship. In his senior season, Lee passed for 2,007 yards and five touchdowns and ran for 1,105 yards and 32 touchdowns, averaging 308.7 yards of offense per game.

Lee was selected as the 2008 Minnesota Gatorade Football Player of the Year, the Star Tribune All-Metro Player of the Year, and was a finalist for Minnesota's "Mr. Football." He also holds the state record for most all-purpose yards in a game, gaining 581 yards.

#3, Jamie Benn

Jamie Benn is the Dallas Stars captain but wasn't selected until the fifth round in the 2007 draft because there was some doubt that he would play hockey.

Benn was a multi-sport athlete growing up as he played hockey and baseball and he was very close to pursuing a professional career in baseball. The Canadian was a first baseman, outfielder, and sometimes pitcher for the Victoria Capitals, and was the MVP of the 2006 provincial AAA champion midget team.

Due to him playing baseball in the spring and summer, he wasn't fully invested in hockey and didn't do a ton of off-season training to prepare for the hockey season. With that, his stock dropped and he has said if he didn't get drafted into the NHL he would've gone full-time in baseball.