Maybe all those hours spent playing video games wasn't a total waste of time.

According to Jack Han, a former assistant coach with the Toronto Marlies, playing the EA Sports’ NHL 21 video game can influence functional intelligence.

“Ever since I was 10 years old, I’ve been playing the EA Sports NHL series for fun, and in more recent years, I realized how this game that so many kids and adults play for fun, can be used to actually improve how players, behave or react on the ice,” Han said during his presentation at the Virtual Hockey Summit.