It has also taught me an immense amount about life itself.

For starters, it has taught me that no one is perfect.

I don’t write this to talk down on anyone. I write it as someone who experienced a change of perspective when I began to play with superstar players.

I grew up in an untraditional hockey market. Meaning my hometown is not a hockey hotbed. My only contact with the NHL was watching the 3-5 games that came on local TV channels per year and my collection of hockey cards.

Outside of that, the NHL was fantasy land.

In my mind, NHL players were the epitome of perfection. I put them on this pedestal that I think a lot of people tend to do with their favorite athletes.

The way they skated, moved on the ice, and made plays. I wanted to be able to do those things and these guys did it effortlessly.

They must be perfect humans, right?

Undrafted is a project by a current professional hockey player with the goal of sharing insights, experiences, and lessons from within the game.

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Learning a Lesson

It turns out that just because you are good at a sport, doesn’t mean you are a good person. And I found this out first hand.

Growing up, like most kids, I had my favorite player. He was plastered all over my bedroom walls. He was even on the ceiling, and I was on the top bunk of our bunk beds so he was the last and first thing I would see every day.

That may sound crazy, but star players are super heroes to aspiring young athletes.

Flash forward 15 years.

My favorite player growing up is now my boss.

He is the assistant GM of the team I am signed with. For those that don’t know, in a lot of organizations the assistant GM deals with the AHL team. Which is where I was playing at the time.

I remember being so excited that I would get to meet my childhood idol.

But it was a total let down.

For years, as a kid, I had built up this perfect persona that I wanted and thought this player would be.

But when the time came, in training camp, for me to meet him he was stand offish. Didn’t want to talk, and kept to himself.

I was bummed, because I wanted to ask him questions and learn from the legend. But I wrote this off as a bad day and made a point to myself that if the opportunity ever came up I would ask my questions.

Then the opportunity came. In the form of me getting sent down from the NHL to the AHL. My childhood idol called me into his office and broke the news to me. But I wasn’t all that distraught because this was my chance to pick his brain and try to become a better player.

So I asked him some questions about how I could improve my game and what I was struggling with.

What I got back was very short, generic answers that weren’t really helpful and a quick exit out the door.

This was a let down. It felt there was an empty space in my mind where I had this perfect person and player. I was bummed and a little upset.

But it wasn’t the players fault at all. It was my own for thinking that great players are automatically perfect humans.

Because that is just what any athlete is. A human.

And humans have flaws.

What makes great players so good, is that they are able to perform so well while having flaws. And possibly even because of their flaws.

Flawed But Great

The best players are not always the best people. In fact the best players are usually highly flawed. They can have terrible habits. Sometimes huge egos. They can be hard to talk to.

Everyone has there own problems and circumstances. Just because you are good at a sport doesn’t mean you have life figured out.

The greats can perform even with their flaws.

Take Michael Jordan for example. He is a well known degenerate gambler. There are stories abound about his tendencies to bet high stakes on card games, at the casino, and most notably at golf.

Yet, he is still the GOAT.

Ovechkin is another example. He drinks beers like they are going out of style. Eats Subway and potato chips every time the team travels. Not exactly the quintessential diet of a professional athlete.

But he is the greatest goal scorer of all time.

Those are two examples of many greats that have great flaws. But they are human. No one is perfect.

What makes these guys great is their ability to do what they do.

The point of this article isn’t to point out three great athletes and say they are bad humans. The point is to bring them to Earth. To show that being good at a sport doesn’t mean you don’t have your own problems to deal with.

Because I have seen first hand what it is like to be on both sides of the curtain.

The monetization of all aspects of sport has crept up on us. It’s been a slow build up. But like a snow ball rolling down hill, it has continued to gain momentum. If we don’t stop and realize what is happening, we won’t have sports as we have known them in the past.

They will become something completely void of the spirit they were intended to cultivate.

My purpose of writing this is to bring light to this issue, and stop the snow ball before it gets too big.

So, what happens when money becomes the sole purpose of sport?

Undrafted is a project by a current pro hockey player with the purpose of sharing insights, stories, and ideas from within the game.

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The Essence of Sport

At its core, sports are a test of the human will.

Back in the day, Romans would fill the coliseum to watch gladiators test their will against each other, with the most dire of consequences. History tells us that some of these combatants were slaves and forced to partake in such battles. But the essence of the sport remains the same: human beings using physical means to test their will against each other.

Native Americans would play games to test each other as well. Some of these games were strange, such as the tug o war using only rope tied to the participants ear. Different cultures do sports in different ways. But the essence stays the same.

The point is, sports have been a valuable part of all cultures for a long time.

That includes modern times. Sports have a massive positive impact on society. But when money becomes more important than the sport itself, the value is lost.

The following are the areas of sport that I think bring the most value to the worlds. These areas are what I think are at risk if we lose the plot and focus only on monetizing all aspects of sport.

Culture

Sports cross cultural lines and bring people together. You don’t need to speak the same language to understand the same sport.

Likewise, you can be from a completely different part of the planet and cheer for the same team. That union creates a similarity and a bond between two strangers.

If you are the bar going type, you have probably witnessed or been a part of the power of sport culture during a night at the pub. Two random strangers hit it off with nothing else in common other than they cheer for the same soccer team.

Sports has this ability to blur cultures and bring people together.

Lessons

This is the most valuable aspect of sports for me. Growing up, hockey was my everything. I put my heart and soul into becoming the best I could be.

Because of this focus, I was forced to learn a lot of lessons I otherwise wouldn’t have.

For instance, when I was playing juniors. During my first season, I had a bad year. The team had a bad year. We just didn’t have much success. I remember calling my parents and telling them I don’t know if I can take anymore. It felt like my world was being crushed. My dreams of playing in the NHL were fading and my world was rocked. I wanted to quit hockey.

My parents told me to finish the year and reevaluate in the summer.

So I put my head down and played hockey one day at a time. Despite the discomfort, the season ended and I survived. With a bag full of lessons. The most valuable being the sun will always come up tomorrow.

There were times when I felt so discouraged I didn’t think there was ever going to be an end to the season. But it did, and I had offers to advance my career to boot.

This may sound dramatic. But that’s part of the point.

You can get so involved in a sport that it is a pressure cooker of lessons and experiences.

There is obviously a healthy limit to this.

But I think kids being put in the tricky situations that sports create is a very valuable part of their purpose.

Passion

Passion is felt by both players and fans.

For players, the passion for the game fuels us to practice, prepare, and execute training and game plans.

As an athlete, feeling the fire of passion for a sport is part of what makes it so much fun.

For fans, passion is felt in arenas. It’s felt in pride for a city. It brings people together. Passion for hockey can give hope to those watching.

Passion is a wholesome part of sports. It is a critical part of what make sports a value to society.

Creativity

Sports are something you play. In order to play, you have to be present and open to what is happening around you.

This is how sports breed creativity.

In all sports there is an aspect of unknown. In hockey, there are a lot of these. But imagine you are a player taking a penalty shot. You don’t know what the goalie is going to do. He could charge at you with a poke check. He could challenge you aggressively and skate backward quickly. Or he could play it conservatively and stay deeper in his net. Each of those scenarios is a possibility that the shooter must react to on the spot.

In this way, sports force creative action. You have to quickly find a solution to a unique problem.

Each game is its own piece of art. It is 20 players on each team, working together to creatively solve a puzzle that is the opponent.

This kind of creative problem solving is a valuable piece of sports.

Each one of these positive aspects of sport is at risk if we let money take over as the number one priority. That is why it is important to critically think about what happens as a result of this change in priorities.

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When Money Takes Over

Money has a certain level of value in sports. It is a great incentive for athletes to hone their craft. It allows athletes to focus solely on their craft by giving them a way to make a living.

It also creates better sport environments. From arenas to locker rooms and training facilities. These allow fans and athletes to experience sports in a high quality way. So money isn’t a bad thing for sports.

That is when it is prioritized correctly.

I think the above mentioned positive aspects of sports should be prioritized over money.

But what has happened of late is the powers that be have let money take the number one spot on the priority list. It’s turning into a greed fest.

I understand that owning a sports team is a business, and the owners have a bottom line to meet. But I also believe there is a way to do this where they make more money in the future by focusing on growing the game rather than monetizing it.

I plan on writing my solutions to this problem in a future article. For now, lets take a look at the threes areas that are taken the soul out of sport.

Gambling

Sports betting was legalized in 2018. Since then, it has been on a meteoric rise. Seemingly every star athlete has sold out to gambling companies and done ads. Which has only made the money spent (and lost) on gambling rise even faster.

Gambling can be a fun way to blow off steam. Im not going to pretend I have never gone to the casino and had a good time. But sports betting is dangerous because 1) it’s addictive and 2) people feel like the athletes they bet on owe them a good performance.

That second point is important, and one that most people don’t see first hand.

This isn’t a problem when I am playing in the AHL. But when I get called up to the NHL, I get DM’s after every game about how I made or lost someone money. Seriously. Every game.

When I under perform these people go for the throat. And nothing is off limits. Family. Death threats. Creepy comments.

It’s sad. But this is what sports gambling has done.

It has turned that pure, wholesome passion into a vicious, entitled monster.

I don’t let these comments affect me. I understand these people are deranged. I say all this to show the direction things are going and how gambling is the root of this problem.

Private Equity

Private equity isn’t all bad, but I think it puts pressure on the wrong incentives.

In simple terms, private equity is when a group of investors get together and buy an investment. Most of these groups are not on the stock market, so decisions are made behind closed doors. In private.

Private equity owning part of a sports team can do good. It can pump up money and resources for the team. However, the PE groups are purchasing the teams as an investment. And thats where the incentives take a turn for the worst.

When you invest in something, you are looking for a return on the at investment. These PE firms are not around the teams on the daily and aren’t interested in the day to day functions, much less the development of players and the organization as a whole. They just want a return on investment.

This leads to a rise in ticket prices. Concession prices. Parking. Every thing that can be done to bring up the bottom line and show investors that their stock is rising.

It takes the focus off of long term development, both of the fan base and players, and puts it on immediate returns on the investment.

ETF’s

This is the latest money grab in sports. From my understanding it’s basically sports gambling with a nice bow on it so it doesn’t feel so degenerate. After all, ETF’s are investments, right?

Here is a short quote I found that details what these ETF’s are:

“Each (ETF) measures the cumulative on-ice performance of a single team during regular and post season games, using a rules based scoring system where positive actions add points and negative actions subtract them.”

-Jake Fitzgerald (247wallst.com)

It sounds like the ETF’s will be scored on stats and other markers put into an algorithm. So if the team you ‘bought’ does well, you win money. If they do bad, you lose money.

So sports gambling.

The issues with this are the same as gambling. It is putting emphasis on the wrong thing.

Rather than admiring sports for what they are: a test of will, focus, courage, camaraderie, and determination. The focus is how can I make money off this.

I think we are at a cross roads with sports. We are close to a point of no return. If we keep going down this path of monetizing all aspects of sports, the magic of sports will be lost.

I think the hockey community needs to come together to not let money ruin our great sport.

Every hockey team has a captain (except the 2025-26 San Jose Sharks). Some are grizzled old vets and some fresh young stars. Some are loud and emotional while others are stoic. There are hockey legends known for their leadership and others who captained teams to Stanley Cups seemingly under the radar.

All this is to say, captains come in all shapes, sizes, and styles. So what makes a good captain?

I have had the privilege to play for 22 different pro hockey teams. That is a lot of captains that I have been around. Throughout my experiences I have been able to conjure up what has worked well and what hasn’t for the captains of the teams I have been on.

I have seen predominately two different types of captains emerge. Which I will go over below. I will also dig into what I think are the five most valuable traits a captain can have.

Undrafted is a project by a current professional hockey player with the goal of sharing lessons, stories, and insights from within the hockey world.

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The Two Types of Captain

There are really two types of captain. The first is the vocal guy. The guy always in the mix in conversation and typically has more of a commanding leadership style.

The second is the quiet captain. This guys leads by example and is a consummate pro.

Both can be effective.

Loud Leader

Most captains fall into this category. This is an outgoing guy who loves to chop it up with the boys. Though not in a goofy way as discussed in a previous article about different types of hockey personalities.

This vocal captain is in the mix in a productive way. It’s his way of being a part of the team and understanding where the team is at.

Sometimes, teams can become clicky. Especially on pro teams with a mix of nationalities. You get some Europeans, Russians, North Americans. People tend to gather with those who have similarities.

Hockey teams are no different.

A vocal leader does really well in this situation as he is able to break down those barriers and make the team one.

But this is the only effective leadership style. The opposite works in other scenarios as well.

The Stoic

This is the captain that doesn’t yell and scream. He is more quiet. But don’t let that fool you. He is well aware of what his team needs and will speak up when necessary.

This type of captain is the guy who leads by example. Always doing the right thing. He doesn’t have to say much because his actions speak louder than words can.

When I think of NHL captains that fit this example I think of Anze Kopitar. You can see he isn’t much of a talker. But he carries himself very professionally and you can see how much his teammates and opponents respect him.

Inexperienced but skilled teams do well with this type of leadership. The youth has the piss and vinegar to be great. They just need an example to channel that energy.

An older player who is doing all the right things can be a North Star for these types of teams.

Communication is still very necessary. But when players are curious and have the energy of youth, seeing a veteran operate can be a huge part of the guidance needed.

The Five Traits of Great Captains

1. Fearless

Great captains don’t let situations intimidate them. They understand that when things look daunting, the team turns to them. They want to see how their leader is handling the situation.

As a leader, if you cower in the face of a challenge, your team won’t go very far.

I have been in the leadership group on teams in the past, and sometimes you have to fake it. Pretend that the situation isn’t so bad. For instance, your team may be going through an injury bug. And some of your best players are injured. That can make the next stretch of games much harder to win.

Great captains will rally around such a challenge and proceed with confidence.

2. Experience

To be a great leader you need experience. There are some NHL teams that make young stars captains before they are fully ready to lead the team. In almost all of these situations there is an old veteran player wearing the A that probably acts as the real captain.

Experience is invaluable because there is only one way to get it. Time and effort.

You have to show up day after day and learn through the highs and lows. Eventually, you notice patterns.

These patterns are where the value lies.

A player with experience knows that a hockey season is like a roller coaster ride. Even the best seasons have highs and lows. You just have to stay on the ride and keep pushing.

3. Team First

This might be the most obvious trait. It would be an interesting stat to see, but I would be willing to be that there hasn’t been a captain lead a team to a Stanley Cup without getting a fighting major at a some point in the season.

The point is, great captains will put there bodies on the line for the team when necessary. Whether it’s fighting an opponent who is taking liberties on your boys. Or blocking a shot.

Great captains will suffer some pain for the betterment of the team.

4. Good Communicator

The role of a captain is to be an example, a provider of energy, and a middle man between the coaches and players. In order to do all three of those, you need to be able to communicate efficiently.

This means getting your point across. It also means not beating around the bush and having the courage to say what needs to be said.

That could mean telling the coaches when practices are getting out of hand. Coaches sometimes get carried away with practice time, which can lead to serious fatigue. A good captain will have a talk with the coach about managing this better. Coaches sometimes don’t realize how taxing practices can be, because they aren’t doing all the drills. So in this instance it is important to get that communication across.

Good communication could also mean letting a teammate know when you need more out of them. Which leads to the next point.

5. Accountable

Humans tend to be lazy. Like flowing water, we regress to the easiest path. As an athlete, this can be a slippery slope.

In such a highly competitive business, if you start to get lazy teams and players will pass you by in a hurry.

Good leaders don’t let this happen to their teams. They see when guys are trying to cut corners and put an end to it. This is what creates a winning culture.

Think of how Michael Jordan pressured his teammates to be better. You hear the same things out of Nathan McKinnon. These guys are fierce competitors that make sure everyone is pulling on the same rope.

It can be a pain in the butt to be around. But almost every athlete would agree, an accountable captain gets the most out of his players.

A good captain can take a team from good to great. They are in tune with the team and provide value beyond the scoresheet.

But as you can see, they aren’t all the same. There are many values and attributes that make each captain unique and effective in their own way.

I was curious, do teams cover housing? Are players fully responsible to find their season home? How is a location decided? Do players stay where they play year round?

It is different at all three levels of pro hockey. But there is one similarity: it probably isn’t as glamorous as you think.

I have had the privilege of playing at all three levels of pro hockey and am familiar with each unique situation. I’ll break down the ins and outs of each.

Undrafted is a project by a current professional hockey player with the goal of sharing lessons, stories, and insights from within the hockey world.

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ECHL

In the coast, the team provides players with housing. There is some good and some bad to this.

The good is the player doesn’t have to worry about paying rent. It’s also nice to live by all your teammates.

And thats about where the good usually stops.

The team gets to pick the location and building you live in. This can be great if the team isn’t cheap and wants to give the players a high level experience. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case in the ECHL.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a few teams in this league who treat players very well. But those teams are the minority. Most teams are putting players in whatever apartment complex is giving them a good deal.

The way this works is the team will search for an apartment complex that will give them a deal for leasing a certain amount of units. When it comes to selecting which apartments to use, the team has to weigh certain factors. These factors include:

• Vicinity to rink

• Price

• Quality

• Size of units

• Amenities

Each team will prioritize these differently. Though we can all probably guess which one comes first (hint: its green)

Now, the PHPA (Professional Hockey Players Association) aka the union, oversees this to try to keep player treatment at a certain standard. But it definitely varies from team to team.

Still, the players don’t have to pay. Which is a massive plus for a player making $800 a week.

But let’s not get too excited. As I mentioned above, the team only leases a certain amount of units. And it’s not enough for everyone to have their own place. That means you will have roommates. In most cases, you live with two other players. And in my experience, you don’t get to choose who you live with. They just give you a key and an address and off you go.

I have nothing against having roommates. But over half of the guys who enter pro hockey are living on their own for the first time. No parents or billet parents to clean up after them.

You can imagine the cleanliness of some of these apartments.

To be fair, I only spent a couple months in this league. And I was with a team that seemed to treat players pretty well. But all of the above still applied. And I have heard horror stories of roommate and living situations that were less than ideal.

The good news is, if you work hard enough, perform well enough, and get enough good breaks, you can move out of that crummy apartment and into the a place of your own. Let’s find out what thats like.

AHL

This is arguably the best living situation out of all three leagues. You will find out why it’s better than the NHL later. For now, let’s get into the details.

When you get sent down from the NHL training camp and make the AHL team, you are given a housing letter. This housing letter is like Willy Wonka’s golden ticket for a young player trying to crack the lineup. It means you made the team.

It also means it’s time to find somewhere to live for the next 9+ months.

In the AHL, players are responsible for their own housing. This is mostly great, but there are a few down falls.

The obvious first downer is you have to pay rent. In most AHL towns this isn’t so bad. But there are a few places where this is a real issue. Especially for players on entry level contracts/not making much money.

For instance, the California AHL teams (Ontario/LA, San Diego, San Jose) have to pay a premium for living expenses. So much so, that most young players have to room together in order to get by financially.

Most AHL cities are very affordable, though. You can get a very nice apartment, condo, or house for a great price. And be close to the good spots in town and the arena.

You get to choose the location. Which is great. Most players will live in a central location either close to the game rink or practice rink.

The housing letter mentioned above is like a contract saying the team will no longer provide you a hotel room (you get a hotel room for training camp) and that they will cover your rent in the event that you are traded or called up for a long period of time.

If you do play well and get called up, it’s a whole other experience.

NHL

The NHL is the highest level of hockey. You are at the pinnacle of the sport when playing here. Bright lights, big cities. When you make it to the NHL you can pick where you want to live.

It also comes with a hidden pressure.

Some call it “keeping up with the Jones’s”. To me, it’s the pressure to spend money since you are now in the big leagues. This affects all areas of your life as I wrote about in a previous article.

That includes the pressure to live in a highfalutin spot. In most major American and Canadien cities, that will cost you a pretty penny. Nonetheless, as an NHL player you feel like it is necessary and proper to get yourself a nice pad.

So you spend more than you ordinarily would.

This isn’t such a big deal for an established player who has made millions. But for a young, inexperienced player who should probably save more money, this pressure can lead to bad financial choices. It’s one of the hidden downfalls of housing in the NHL. And a major reason why I say the AHL is sneakily the best when it comes to housing.

Living in NHL is often great, though. You get access to great restaurants, events, nightlife, etc. Your family also wants to visit a lot more because of the allure of the city (for better or for worst).

With the city comes the traffic. Which is usually bad.

You typically live near the practice rink. Which in my experience is never closer than a 30 minute drive to the game rink, not including the traffic you will experience when heading to a game at 4pm. Not ideal.

As you can see. There are some major positives to the living situations in the NHL, but there are some serious negatives, particularly for the category of players who are young, inexperienced, and/or haven’t made millions yet. Which is the category where most players fall.

Everyone wants to be in the NHL including myself. But my goal here is to spread this knowledge so it is out in the universe and stops catching young players by surprise.

For me, this is the hardest part of the off season.

It’s a time when I start to feel anxious to put all the training I have done to the test. The skates, the lifts, the cardio, the recovery. You spend the whole summer building yourself up, and eventually you reach a point where you are ready to see where you stand.

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