Sean Avery is now an advertising executive on Madison Ave.

Back in March, former New York Rangers über-pest Sean Avery "officially retired" from hockey, telling Bravo TV that he had thrown his skates in the Hudson River.

What's Avery been up to since then, besides the occasional foray into semi-nude modeling?

He's trying to avoid middle-afternoon nap cravings as an advertising executive on Madison Avenue, that's what.

The New York Times caught up with Avery, who has been working as a strategist or "kind of an editor at large" at the Lipman agency since his hockey career ended.

From the Times, a glimpse at the 32-year-old's ad life during his long days in the meat-packing district (quiet, you):

When he replies to a question at a meeting or after-work event like, "Oh, so what brings you here?" Mr. Avery said, "You always see this shift in a person's face, half confusion, half interest."

But advertising is not so far afield, he added, because when he was playing hockey, "I was always marketing myself."

In addition, Mr. Avery is keenly interested in technology and social media. And, as a former professional athlete, "I had the cash," he said, to be "a consumer since I was 19, a high-end, luxury-brand consumer."

The transition has not been seamless, Mr. Avery acknowledged. "Sometimes I don't do it the right way," he said of his interactions at Lipman. "It's not a locker room; you can't challenge people the same way: 'Let's go. We need you.' " When that impulse comes over him now, "I go for a walk," he added, laughing.

And here we were hoping most of his meetings involved Avery standing in front of a client swinging his iPad wildly to obscure their vision.

Avery is set to appear in an ad campaign for the agency for "7 for Mankind" jeans, which will include his face appearing bruised and cut up like it would have been during his playing days had he ever fought anyone of consequence.

Congrats to Avery on the new advertising gig. Although we feel it's a few decades too late: Can you imagine Sean Avery and Roger Sterling prowling through Manhattan during a series of liquid lunches? Or, at the very least, the solid sucker punch Avery would have already landed on Pete Campbell's squirrel-y mug?

But as we've often said: The NHL was a more interesting place with Sean Avery in it. From his political activism — his gay marriage support seems ahead of the curve now — to his philanthropy to his interests away from the rink being a tad unconventional for a hockey player, Avery could be a pain in the ass but never a bore.

Hey: Maybe the NHL can hire him to help resell the game to apathetic fans after the lockout.

Provided we don't end up with something like this again.