The Expensive Path to Becoming an NHL Player 

The problem with hockey has always been and always will be the cost.. It's one of the reasons the NHL is the 4th sport. Most people can't afford it , played another sport instead , and can't relate to it.

This is one of the main reasons why I always roll my eyes when people talk about "growing the game" as if all we need to do is introduce kids to the sport to get them to play. My goalie pads cost me $1500 (plus tax), that's just the leg pads, I had to decide between buying my first car and a single piece of equipment. I knew plenty of kids growing up who would've LOVED to play hockey... But it just wasn't financially viable.

extremely grateful to have gotten to play hockey. thank you for shining light on how A LOT of kids cannot afford the opportunity.

As a kid I never got to play hockey and had to quit sports all together from my family not having the money, it’s tough but that’s life sometimes.

I’ve always thought that hockey players and their parents sacrifice the most of any of the large NA sports. Many of us Americans have no idea that Canadian children often spend their teenage years away from their homes to play the game they love. Much respect.

I’ve spent 330$ on used goalie equipment over the past two years and I still need to get a few more pieces to complete the set

I remember the old Garrison Keillor line that a curse in Minnesota was something like, “May you have four sons two years apart in age… and may they all play hockey!”

I have a 17 yr old playing elite travel hockey in Ohio. It costs his mother and I (we are divorced) about $3500 a yr plus any extra camps or private training. He is gone almost every weekend from Oct-Feb. Neither myself or my ex are very well off, we have made a lot of sacrifices to make sure he has a chance to play at a high level. I do not go out socially, buy new clothes, etc. I wish there was a better system than the one we have now.

Yeah this is an unfortunate barrier for many into hockey. For soccer all you need is a ball and 2 points to call goals and you’re good to go. Hockey is a completely different story.

When I was 10 (1972) and first started minor hockey, I remember both my parents putting a little extra money away all the summer before and I also remember it being the time when I was first introduced to the whole concept of "chores." We knew we were going to have to buy equipment in the fall and I was told flat out that if I wanted to play, I'd have to chip in something. Of course, the amount I'd be able to save up from allowances and cashing in pop bottles and the like was a pittance but it introduced me to the idea that the things you want have to be worked for. No one was going to hand me anything for free. I still remember the Saturday afternoon we all went to Crappy Tire (by appointment, no less) to get me kitted out. As a goalie, the league supplied the pads, the mask and the jersey but we had to supply everything else. The total bill for everything.... $22.00.... which you may believe, was a helluva lot bigger deal in 1972 than it is today! My share.... $2.00 and there wasn't a prouder kid on that ice the first time out!

I’m well into my 70’s and have played, coached and refereed for many years. Grew up in New England but have lived in Wisconsin for about 50 years. At one time Madison had 6 different youth hockey organizations and now there are two. Now the surrounding communities have developed teams but over all, numbers are significantly down. I attribute this to a variety of issues but cost is close to the number one reason. I have two grandsons who live in Nebraska and play for travel teams. I can tell you that while equipment and fees are costly, it is the travel (hotels, gas, meals, etc) that add tremendous costs to playing hockey. Now you may think Nebraska, but one of our grandsons has won two separate Silver Stick Tournaments so they play at a high level but the costs are absolutely ridiculous. It really unfortunate for the sport over-all. Now my son’s not wealthy by any means and if it weren’t for the grandparents helping financially they might not be playing travel hockey!!! Unfortunately I see this in other sports, baseball, lacrosse, where travel becomes the most expensive aspect of playing. In the long run I fear that many youth will not have the opportunities to play organized sports if the “craziness” continues.

At least in Massachusetts, there are 7 rinks within a 20 minute drive of my house. That helps to have so many youth programs, especially girls ones, for a very good used gear market, to help keep costs down. I feel that's one of the reasons a lot of former Bruins players stick around the Boston area post-career, if they want to be around hockey, especially for their kids.

My son wanted to start playing hockey recently but once we started realizing how much the cost would be plus his lack of experience skating to begin with (he’s 14).. it wasn’t gonna happen.

Hmwhat I love about Vegas is that we have numerous businesses and wealthy individuals who contribute thousands of dollars to youth hockey to help offset the costs.

Another major problem with hockey is if you didnt start by age 4 or 5, your chances of going anywhere get really slim.

A colleague of mine has a son in hockey. He once said to me, "I can't wait until he realizes he'll never be good enough to play in the NHL so I can stop paying for this" lol

It’s not the BS you hear from the media about no personality, no stars, fighting, violence, and so on that makes hockey the 4th sport. It’s the cost. Plain and simple. Basketball and soccer are so cheap to play.

THIS is a good topic from you THG! Iv never seen anyone in NA media talk about the cost of hockey.

Not only do you have to learn to skate before you can play hockey, but you also have to be pay hockey at an elite level. NHL players deserve the money they are being paid for the most part.

Growing up i wanted to play ice hockey but the cost of equipment and ice time my family couldn't afford, so i went to play soccer and baseball, luckily floor and street hockey was accessible to play my school had a team

The funny thing is that if the people who complain about players making too much money were offered the opportunity to make that too, they’d be all over it faster than you could blink.

I always have wanted to play a sport, however they have all been really expensive. I didn’t really find a sport that I really really wanted to do until hockey though. Then my family looked at the cost of the equipment. Yeah let’s just say I never got to play a game of hockey. I have a stick, gloves, and roller skates (although I wanted to place on ice). I understand that my family couldn’t afford to pay for a sport, but that isn’t even the issue. The issue is how expensive it is. It has always made me upset that I could never play a sport, wether it be baseball, or hockey (never liked football, basketball. or soccer). Not to mention sign up fees are ridiculous. Being on the east coast of the US (in between the north and south) also means there is far less demand for hockey here, so there are not many places to go to play. It also doesn’t help we don’t have a professional hockey team here. The closest we have got is D.C. So yeah, it really is sad that these sports are so expensive to play. It takes opportunities away from people like me who loved sports, but had to watch all the other kids play football, soccer, basketball, or other sports while we had to sit and watch. Also, like I said there are not many, if any ice hockey organizations in the area. It’s something I really wanted to do, but at this point it’s far to late to attempt to play. The CHL is way up in Canada, and honestly I would have had to start playing a few years earlier to be able to play at a high level. Yeah technically I’m still young enough to where if I was playing, in a different world I’d be playing in the CHL right now. I haven’t even started yet because of the cost. Travel, Equipment, Fees. It just disappoints me that hockey is so expensive and I’ll never get a chance to play. The chance has already come and gone, but to be honest there never really was a chance. Sorry that this whole comment is a bit of a mess, I sort of wrote it without thinking too much about the structure of it. I just wanted to voice my opinions and frustrations.

canada should've subsidized hockey at the youth level like football here in the states

For as much as Gary wants to embrace that expansion, as it means more money for the league, entry-level accessibility remains tough in a lot of US cities. Hockey is also a game that requires getting into adequately at a younger age than, say, football or the more ubiquitous basketball, for key growth and development.

Let's raise a glass to hockey parents

After seeing Bedard in shorts at the NHL Combine it makes me wonder if more time doing squats and lifting weights is a way to save money over more ice time.

It honestly makes me sad knowing how many hockey players just didn't have the resources to go further in hockey. For reference, I played hockey in Riverton, MB, home of Reggie Leach. Look his story up when you get a chance. There are thousands of hockey players good enough to be in the NHL, but it is a rich family's sport.

I had to make a fake company for one of my marketing classes and I made one based around creating refurbishing and selling cheaper hockey equipment. I had to do a lot of research on how expensive it is to play hockey and its crazy. Not only equipment but ice time, you can find a basketball hoop or a grass field anywhere in America, but ice is more rare, especially in the southern states. If we want hockey to grow it has to be more accessible.

Even playing street hockey was expensive, but glad my brother and I got to. I absolutely love this sport! :)

Single dad with 3 kids, i pulled my boys out of hockey and taught my kids to ski....we still ski together now they're grown.

I didn’t start playing ice hockey until I was an adult and could afford my own gear. Unfortunately, a little too late to get drafted by the NHL…😅

There was always a lot of food, no shortage of quality eats but our vacations were dirt cheap. After 2 weeks of summer camp we went on road trips all over Canada and the US, we looked like the Griswolds with gear loaded on top and pulling a trailer of supplies, camping in a tent, eating our own catch of the day after flyfishing local spots, KAO campgrounds had pretty much everything summer camp had without camp councilors hovering around 24/7 and they were dirt cheap.

Once I grew up I wanted to play hockey and buy all my new gear. I was looking at 2000€ for low-mid tier gear. Add on transport and registration on top of that…. Makes me realize how much my parents sacrificed to let me play.

Also compared to other sports, there are a very small amount of college hockey teams so a lot of parents invest money and don’t Even see it back from scholarships

I think it gets worse when you take into account that not only are basketball, football, and baseball "cheaper" and easier to play and practice, players make even more money.

I'm so glad I got to grow up in Minnesota where it's mostly community hockey all the way up. Most of the best players play for their local high school. I was a goalie and got to take advantage of the loaner equipment program so my dad didn't have to pay for all of it while I was growing the first few years. I moved to Dallas for a year when I was 13. To play for the top team in the area it was $10k/year, which was at least 10x what we were spending in Minnesota.

I remember when my brother and I started playing at the same time. We first went to National Sports and it cost over $700 each excluding the skates we already had. We ended up returning 50% of things and bought more affordable equipment from Canadian Tire. We even shared a hockey bag since we didn't play in the same age group. This is all excluding the price to play in a house league.

One of my favorite THG videos!!! SO ACCURATE!!!

And your talking about just boys hockey/men's hockey. There's nothing in girls/women's hockey unless you can make a collage team and then hopefully play in the NWHL or the National team for Olympic and worlds. Average anyway just for my daughter it's about 3k depending on if she needs equipment and registration with her school program. Then there's ice time payments that's not included in registration. then maybe after hockey training or spring hockey that's about 1k. not to mention all the tournaments so hotels gas food. In a single season someone can spend up to 10k. Boys it might be more because they'll go through equipment faster.

Travel and clinics have been the most expensive items for us. Skating clinics, stickhandling clinics, checking clinics, even fighting clinics. If you want your kid to keep up with his peers, then you need to pay up with the other parents.

I remember when kids could watch hockey, now with all the gambling ads I don't feel comfortable having it on in front of my daughter

Great video, love the break down on the numbers. Back in the 90's when I played we could often get used gear at a decent discount but it still cost around $1200-1500 per year once you got to the age where you had camps during summer. I'd say the main sacrifice parents make is time even if their kid isn't a promising prospect and just want to be there for the basic practices and games. Where I come from we couldn't have any gear in the club facilities and there was quite a distance with limited public transports. My dad easily spent 800-1000 hours of his free time per year for me to be able to play.

Hey THG, I grew up in Fayetteville and watched the Fireantz and Marksmen, and was at one point and time going to try out for the Fireantz. I never got to but looking back on it, I would’ve never got looked at without the resume as you stated. One thing the SPHL does to help with the cost is booster clubs and giving the players housing. This all is completely accurate. I worked in the hockey gear industry as well. Part of why so many people get priced out is the gear. This can be mitigated with buying used stuff and doing some research but it’s a lot of stuff that parents don’t know.

That is an important video! Thank you for this!!

Thanks for highlighting the high costs of hockey. My parents couldn't afford to get me into hockey as a kid, and I have no doubt that there are elite potential players out there that never had the opportunity to develop in the sport let alone try it in the first place.

Super interesting video. Thank you for making this. 🙂

I can totally relate to this. My mom worked at a casino that had a rink so we got comped tickets every now and again but she could only afford the bare minimum as far as equipment. So I only had the opportunity to participate in workshops. I had a blast back in those days but that's as far as I got

I was fortunate enough to be able to play hockey for 15 years. My parents worked incredibly hard to be able to afford it and they never complained about it once. They would use vacation time at work to go to my tournaments and watch me play. Unfortunately due to me getting older and having to become an adult, My schedule just never let me continue to play like i wanted to. Thankfully my local Rink has Sticks and Pucks every weekend and i can get my Fix in there.

This is why soccer is the most popular game on the planet. ONE, SINGLE piece of equipment and BANG, you're playing. Even Baseball needs a bat AND a ball.

my dad had to work 60 hours a week just to have me play in house leagues in nova scotia . i was a goalie which didn't help but i never had any new gear 😂 once i went to a rep league tryout by accident and turns out i was good enough to make AA league for my age group in bantam . my dad almost cried saying there was no way i was ever gonna be able to do that cause it was 3000 just to get on the team and then all the other costs started coming . one of the most disappointing moments of my life . i quit playing after that year .

Just the equipment breakdown is insane, being a goalie I had to get a job just to pay for my pads over a summer. It's insane.

My kids just started hockey this year. 2 forwards and a goalie. I shudder at the cost. We buy used when we can (having kids that aren’t standard size makes that so hard.) we are SO blessed that they play special hockey. Those fees are beyond reasonable (pretty sure my mom spent more on volleyball for me growing up.) I rejoice in our ability to donate all of our equipment to the coach so that others can try hockey without the steep investment up front. The amount of kids who want to play but can’t afford it just sucks. To do skills camps locally I would have to pay for registration for a league my child can’t play in (too competitive and way above her skill set) and the camp fees. I want my kids to be able to practice in the off-season, not the the tune of an extra grand. Ick.

Glad you made this video Shannon as the father of a peewee hockey player in ‘MA I can tell you we’ve had to give up vacations not only due to cost but also because of schedule during the regular season they play 50 games not including the playoffs. That’s 5 or 6 days when including practices where my son is on the ice. Now it’s spring/summer hockey which still has 3 to 4 times a week commitment. Will my son ever play in the NHL probably not but it’s such a great team sport and all the kids who play are really good friends and great kids - either way you slice it it’s a major commitment to play hockey but as a parent even with cost straining our budget - totally worth it

Really nice video about the fact that hockey is expensive ! lucky to have played it that many years !! nice vid!

Ty for doing this video

Thank you! As a parent of 2 kids who grew up playing hockey, I totally agree with you and your assessment. It is expensive and sacrifices are made. A lot of time for nothing. I’m glad they grew up loving and enjoying the sport and were good sports/teammates.

Great video and topic.

It says a lot about the sport of hockey when 90% of the draft each year are all snoody looking rich Canadian kids. All the resources for becoming competitive in this sport are so concentrated to 1 area and to 1 economic class. All other major Western sports have kids coming in from the inner city ghetto or small villages in south/central America, etc.

Ive always said the players deserve the money, but you brought a lot of things i never thought of to light & now i think they should be paid more.

I desperately wanted to play hockey when I was younger, and I was quite good… but my parents just couldn’t afford to let me play in any kind of organized leagues because not only was equipment expensive, we also lived in the States where there aren’t any or many charities to get kids who can’t afford it the equipment and not only that but the fees to play organized hockey are pretty expensive not to mention ice time and it all adds up and it just wasn’t feasible. I really hated that I wasn’t able to, I lived and died with the sport. I was able to play here and there in like drop in and street hockey and all of that but never did get to play organized. I know they feel bad about it, and it’s the major regret of my life that I didn’t get to see how good I could become, and obviously there are many many kids aside from me who haven’t been able to play and I’m sure some of them could’ve been great… but we’ll never know that we missed them and we’ll never know how our lives may have been different. It’s sad. It’s a thing that desperately needs to be worked on.

This is pretty spot on! And although all sports have “politics”, the expense of hockey ratchets things up 10 fold. I’ve been aghast at some of the things I have observed in youth hockey. In addition, there seems to be a huge amount of kids who are just under-served and ignored. Hockey tends to favor lots of superficial traits early on, thus favoring kids that tend to have me first attitudes. Kids that don’t possess these traits are ignored and under developed.

I have two sons playing hockey, 9yr one in AAA, 6 yr old in AA. We spent 50k a year on hockey, including team, camp, private coaching.

I absolutely love the game of hockey, but the cost is something that prevented me from being able to play at any organized level.

Cost is one of the biggest factors. It is crazy how much money you have to spend in the US and Canada to play competitive hockey. Its insane when you compare it to germany for example. The yearly fee for the top youth hockey programms is around 500-700€ (719-1000 canadian dollar). So while it is an expensive teamsport compared to like soccer or handball here in germany, it is still way cheaper than playing travel hockey in north america.

You're right about player's families giving up a bunch when raising a hockey player. But there are a few exceptions (there's always exceptions). You mentioned Patty Kane and his mum saying it cost the family over 100k, but what wasn't mentioned was that his dad owned 2 car dealerships in a first ring suburb of Buffalo. So there's that, just sayin' that all hockey families are struggling.

Just the cost of entry is massive compared to basketball, baseball, soccer, etc. Can't just play it on some random field or your backyard

This video provides a great assessment and synopsis of the cost involved and the numerous sacrifices that numerous families have made along the way with the slimmest hope of winning the jackpot to get a shot at The Show. It's not for the faint of heart and those that do make it, by default, is not certain if they will even get a actual regular season game under their belts. I never take for granted those that even got 1 pro game under their belts as they are always one up on the rest of us.

Growing up in Winnipeg there were 4 tiers of hockey. Tier 3 and 4 where the cheapest. Once you got put into Tier 1 or 2, it was way more expensive. Going to tournaments all over the place and other fees were costly on my parents. That is why I quit playing at 16 realizing I wouldn't make it to the NHL.

hockey is the greatest sport, and I am very fortunate to be born in Minnesota to have one hell of a hockey journey. The level of competition at the High School level was so much fun to be apart of.

Thanks for this Shannon! I too wanted to be one of those thousand NHLers. When I tried back in the seventies. Salaries were low compared to today. Spoke to Joe Cadillac of the Flyers about a tryout. He remembered me from me at home games. What it boiled down to was I prepared to sign a personal services contract. No I was not prepared. So that was that. Then I blew out my knee in a beer league game. Oh well 😢 that was that .

In our family we have all pitched in for my nephews hockey … defenseman in high school varsity… broken sticks and growing inches every year got expensive, just in sticks. So, his grandparents, Aunt/Uncle have all got him hockey gear over the years … no way could his parents afford the game by themselves… 🏒

Really good video

Great breakdown of the subject. I'm an avid hockey fan and beer leaguer - and I watch Nasher's inline hockey tournaments. For kids, it would be great if they can just get out to play street hockey or inline hockey. This is off topic but I'm wondering why there aren't more inline hockey leagues in Canada? I'm from Ontario and like else where, ice time has been getting more and more expensive. I would assume inline hockey would be a cheaper sport. Any insight or thoughts on this?

One of my relatives, they had 2 sons, about 9 & 10 years old. They took them to one of those "try out hockey" days at the local rink (in Brooklyn). The two boys loved it and wanted to get more involved. These relatives of mine were pretty well fixed. Compared to me, I'd call them rich, but even for them hockey was too expensive. Even before thinking of equipment, just buying ice time was too much. So the kids played baseball instead. They would never have come close to professional hockey, but they were good enough athletically to make their travel teams in baseball. But it showed to me where you had to be financially to have your kids play hockey. Either that, or, like the Hughes family, have a father who's employed in the hockey "industry".

Higher pay makes the sport better. It takes an unbelievable amount of work to become and remain a pro athlete, and most people just wouldn't endure that if they only had a slight chance to make a slightly above average salary. It's the fact that you can make millions by being the best that makes so many people so willing to strive for that goal. That's part of why the NHL has gotten so much better.

Just listening to the cost overhead you mention in this video makes me angrier at some of my coaches and teammates for being such jerks. I grew up playing minor hockey for an organization in a rougher neighbourhood and it could be pretty cutthroat. For the amount of money, time, and effort everyone puts in to this project, it truly is disgusting how the coach would just favour his own son and his closest friends in opportunity and advancement.

Puts it in perspective.

I never balk at athletes making heaps of money. I go to the games to watch the players, not the owners. The players are the reason why teams generate revenue. And the owners are still raking in many times what the players collectively make. If anything, the owners make way too much.

Great video

Never would of thought that water skiing was the most expensive sport but does make some sense in my youth played competitive hockey and water skied. Had a couple of HO slalom skis and they can get expensive was $500+ USD for an Extreme limited about 30 years ago, gas is a huge cost and of course the boat is the biggest cost but the boat serves more than just the purpose of water skiing so it's often not thought of as a direct cost.

I was so lucky enough to play hockey from kindergarten until freshmen year in college. As well as attend camps. But now as a high school teacher in NJ I could never afford it for my child to do the same.

When I was 15 and my brother was 10, He was playing elite level hockey in Canada. I noticed the struggles my parents had trying to afford it with all the camps he’d do and what not. I ended up giving up playing hockey so they could keep him in everything. He made it to the OHL but ended up burning out and stopped playing at 18

That hat is amazing

Damn Shannon, you make me feel like volunteering to coach now.

Somebody just had a talk with his kid about why they should try soccer 😂

Pretty much like this in most sports. Those travel teams add up fast.

I'm still surprised that despite the money hockey players make, they for the most part still humble and accessible for fans.

While you only need a ball to play basketball. Heck you don’t even need a ball since a game of bball only requires one ball, someone else could bring the ball. And for shoes, all shoe brands sell budget shoes for around 100 bucks and they even go on sale to like 50

I play sledge hockey and I’d imagine it’s a little more expensive because i don’t know how it works for everyone but I borrowed a sled for a few years then the team in Montreal I played for said I had to buy it. It was like 600 bucks or something like that. I now play in London Ontario and registration for this season could be 500 bucks. That’s just for the season not including my sled I gotta pay for that if something breaks on that

My folks were not wealthy bu any means, but I was fortunate to have a choice, they said they would support me in either skiing/snowboarding or hockey. Hockey of course. Practice times in BC were brutal, figure skating got the best practice times for some reason

As a hockey parent, I can check off most of the stuff on your list. Our most limiting factor, however, is time. Travel hockey requires a lot of time dedicated to it. Some kids are homeschooled or taking online classes so they can concentrate on hockey. And that’s one of the things where we had to draw the line. Go to school, junior, get a social life, find a girlfriend. 😉

Cool video. These guys dedicate their lives

labor is entitled to all it creates!

My son played youth hockey in Minnesota for three years 1993-1996. It cost me over $5,000.

For a long time, every vacation we went on as a family it was for a hockey tournament

once again an excellent video full of easy to understand data....some players are totally overpaid whereas others are totally underpaid.....some are greedy and some are not.. Sid took 8.7 million a season his whole career thereby leaving some money on the table for his team to sign others took whatever they could get screw everyone else....

Yup...two hockey playing sons. And the younger was a goalie+skater 😱. While they were still in school, I was living off of credit card debt ...and living paycheck to paycheck. I'm good now but I remember those days.

Does Canada have community sponsored ice rinks like USA does with football/T&F fields? Which also used for soccer and lacrosse. Or do you just have frozen ponds everywhere?

My son has been playing within the Dallas Stars Metro Hockey League for six years now. I'm greatful for the organization. They seem to be doing there best to keep pricing lower than what I hear about in other states. We even were able to hold winter league during the pandemic which was AWESOME. Last year was the first year we had a price hike of 200$ for winter league since we began. My son is old enough to play JV now and the price doubles not including equipment costs. Id reather just keep him within the Stars organization. I'm already scratching and penny pinching to keep him on the ice as much as possible year-round because he just absolutley loves playing the game and the on-ice atmosphere. Its like hes a completely different kid when hes on the ice vs at school/home/non-ice hockey friends. Knowing he will most likley never play a single minute in college or pro, I just hope he keeps playing when hes older in rec leagues and meets good people. Thank you for this analysis HG. That said, any of you who have a kid in the North Texas area and they want to play. The Dallas Stars org has a FREE method to get your kid into a 4wk Hockey academy with equipment to get them started. It takes the 'what if they dont like it/cost' issue and eliminates it. The equipment and bag costs 250$ if you wish to purchase it after the academy. Which in my opinion is a STEAL for a full set of new equipment. Just a quick FYI for yall in the area. And girls from what I can tell get the equipment for free if they wish to continue and there are loads of girls programs out here too for those wishing for an all female team environment.

..There needs to be more "house leagues". No travel, kids play at the same rink every week. That lowers the cost straight away. At my brother's work, there was a small league that competed against other companies. My brother found out there was a guy working there who played in the WHA. This guy was approached to join the team. The idea was he would be a "ringer". He stated he had no interest, as being a pro hockey player was his job. He was finished with it, and had no intention of playing hockey ever again..