The new Dunedin Thunder coach arrived in the city with his wife in September last year, having obtained a transfer to the city through his job at Deloitte.
Coming from Saskatoon, Canada, Hladum has played ice hockey most of his life.
After arriving in Dunedin, he reached out to stay involved in the sport.
One thing led to another and he ended up taking the coaching reins of the city’s premier team.
"Originally, I had noticed there was some ice hockey here, so I got into refereeing some games just to help out," the 33-year-old said.
"Then word got out that the Thunder were needing a coach.
"So Alexis, who’s the team manager, just contacted me almost out of the blue and said ‘we’re looking for a coach’ and it just kind of fell into place pretty quickly."
He has enjoyed his time in New Zealand, making the most of the outdoor activities on offer and finding the people welcoming.
Having been on holiday to the country in July last year, it has not been an entirely new experience.
He has travelled extensively over the past few years with his wife and they had decided it was the right time in their lives to look into gaining some overseas work experience.
Coaching will be a new venture for him, but he has brought plenty of experience from playing the game his whole life.
He knows the game well and has been exposed to many coaches in Canada.
Through high school and university he played at a competitive level, which he thinks is similar to, or possibly slightly higher than, the New Zealand national league.
He has been impressed with the skill level since arriving, although thinks New Zealand needs to work on building its player depth.
That is how he sees the Thunder, too.
He will focus on guiding the experienced players to work as a team and create chemistry, while helping develop the younger ones.
"[There is a] great skill level and everyone’s got a great attitude.
"So it’s just a matter of getting the more experienced players out there all at once.
"[They are a] great group of guys. They seem eager to play, hard working; they’ve got a great skill level.
"It’s tough to say. I’ve never seen a game in the league, so it’s just going off what I’ve seen at practices.
"I think the goal for this year is just to take it one game at a time and just continue to develop chemistry and depth within the team.
"I think we can be pretty successful. We’ve got the skills and the motivation to win the games.
"So I think the outlook is good. Hopefully, if we can gel together as a team quickly, come some time in July we’re looking at still being in contention to make a playoff run.
"The ultimate goal is to try to win it all, but we’ll see how that goes."
The team had its first pre-season game against the Southern Stampede last night and was going to use it as a chance to practise doing things well. It was not at full strength, with several players out through injury and other commitments.
The Thunder’s first game in the national league is a double-header against the West Auckland Admirals on June 10-11.
