He played his entire NHL career with Minnesota and was forced into retirement by multiple cervical spine injuries.

Payne played 613 career NHL games, scoring 228 goals and 238 assists for 466 points.

He sits on the advisory board of the United Heroes League, a non-profit that helps children of active military families participate in hockey, baseball, football and basketball.

He is also the director of the UHL Outdoors program that takes military parents and their children fishing with sports celebrities from the NHL, NFL and MLB at various locations around the US and Canada.

Payne has also supported the non-profit Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, as the founder and director of the "Battle at Boxwood", a fundraising fly fishing event held from 2011 - 2018 at the Boxwood Gulch Ranch near Shawnee, Colorado.