How NHL players navigate the real estate market in the New York City metro area (2024)

Damon Severson spent one summer during his junior hockey career living with a couple of friends in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

It was a nice place — two bedrooms plus a den and a balcony. Nothing fancy, but Severson and the two brothers he stayed with had plenty of space and enjoyed their time in Saskatchewan’s largest city. They also enjoyed the cost: $1,200 per month plus utilities. Not per person. For the entire apartment.

“Including utilities it was like $1,400 Canadian dollars, so that’s like just over $1,000 U.S.,” Severson said, before shaking his head. “It’s a lot different here.”

“Here” is northern New Jersey. Severson is in his sixth season with the Devils. He’s also in the third season of a six-year, $25 million contract.

Until Nico Hischier inked a seven-year, $50 million deal in mid-October, Severson was the only player on the roster under contract through 2022-23. Even with that type of security, Severson has yet to venture into the crazy New York City metro area real estate market.

He opts to rent instead of looking for a place to buy and call his own.

“I don’t even bother,” Severson said. “If I had a family, I would definitely buy something and have it so I would not have to worry about moving everything when you come back (every season). But it’s me, my girlfriend and a little dog, and we don’t have a problem moving in and out of it all time.”

Players with the Devils, Rangers and Islanders recognize they live in one of the greatest cities in the world. It’s also one of the most expensive, particularly when it comes to housing.

In its Global Living 2019 study, CBRE listed New York as the seventh-most expensive city in the world based on average property price. It’s actually third among NHL cities, behind Vancouver (fourth) and Los Angeles (sixth). But when it comes to rental prices, New York tops them all, checking in with an average cost of $2,844 per month.

“The best way I can put it is a guy who plays for the Calgary Flames could rent a penthouse with an unbelievable panoramic view of Calgary right by the rink, five minutes away, walk if you want to, in a prime area, for the price of a one-bedroom apartment here,” Severson said. “There are nice views here, but yeah, a one-bedroom. It’s definitely different.”

Based on which New York City Metro-area team they play for, players will have different logistics to consider before deciding which neighborhood or town is the one for them.

The Rangers’ home, Madison Square Garden, is in Midtown Manhattan, one of the most congested neighborhoods in the world. Driving to MSG isn’t much fun, regardless of the day of the week you’re traveling or the direction you’re coming from.

It sits on top of Penn Station, which is one of two major transportation hubs in the middle of the island. That does make the arena accessible by subway from many neighborhoods.

“It was great to live in New York,” said Coyotes goaltender Antti Ranta, who spent two seasons with the Rangers and lived on the Upper West Side. “I was only there once before, when I was with the Blackhawks, so when you started to look for the apartment, it was kind of overwhelming a little bit and you weren’t sure where to go, where to look, but the team helped a lot.

“At that time, my wife and I had a dog so we wanted to be close to the park. We were only two blocks away from Central Park and two blocks away from the Riverside Park, so we were right in there. I think the location was great. The 72nd Street subway was there, so I always took the subway to the game. Some of those small things … after the first year, you start to realize how big those small things are.”

The second part of the Rangers’ logistical puzzle is the practice facility. Madison Square Garden Training Center is in Tarrytown, about 25 miles north of the arena along NY-9A. The particular route is better known as the West Side Highway in the lower half of Manhattan, the Henry Hudson Parkway in the upper half and eventually the Saw Mill River Parkway closer to the facility.

For many NHL players, living near the practice facility is the top priority. They spend more time there than they do at the arena.

For players on the Rangers, it’s not that simple. The allure of living in Manhattan is strong. The location of the practice facility makes it a long drive, but living on the west side of the island is key.

“Seven seasons — I spent five in the city and two out in the suburbs,” said Coyotes forward Derek Stepan, who played for the Rangers from 2010-17. “You kind of just follow the other guys on the team. At the time, there were a lot of guys on the Upper West Side, so that’s where I lived. My wife and I really liked it there, so we stayed there for five years. We tried Tribeca, but it wasn’t for us, so we moved back up there.

“We were right off the highway. You get on at 72nd and there’s basically no stoplights all the way to practice.”

The Rangers roster essentially gets split into two groups. Younger players tend to live in the city, while those with families gravitate toward the practice facility. Where players cluster has changed over time.

In recent years, Raanta and Stepan were on the Upper East Side with a few other teammates. Derick Brassard started out in Hell’s Kitchen, but eventually bought a place in Tribeca.

“I think playing for the Rangers might be a little different from any other team,” said Brassard, who spent three-plus years with the Rangers and is in his first year with the Islanders, his seventh NHL club. “It’s probably the only place where you’ve really got to live there one or two years to kind of figure out where you want to be. Going to the game on game days, like at 4:00 or 5:00, the traffic’s really bad so you have to take the subways.”

Stepan was a part of the Rangers core that grew up together with the organization and moved out toward the practice facility.

“When we were looking, the Staals were in Greenwich, (Conn.) and the Girardis were in Rye, (N.Y.),” Stepan said. “We looked at both, but we found a house that we really liked in Rye. I think we would have been comfortable with either place, but we chose the house and it happened to be Rye.”

Henrik Lundqvist has always lived in the city, but the rest of that group, other than Staal, is gone. The Rangers are a much younger team now and the hub has shifted to lower Manhattan, either in Tribeca or the West Village.

Raanta and his wife, Anna, welcomed their first baby in February of 2017, his second season with the Rangers. He had one more year left on his contract at the time, but the few months they spent with a newborn in Manhattan was enough for the couple to start thinking about a move to the suburbs.

The Rangers ultimately traded Raanta to the Coyotes that summer. Living in Arizona, he says, is at least closer to what he remembers from growing up in Finland.

“You’re seeing all these cars and you see the ambulance going and everybody’s honking their horns and it’s just a busy city,” Raanta said of Manhattan. “The first year we lived on the seventh floor and our window was right next to Broadway. It just felt like we could never sleep with the noise because it was so loud outside. We really liked the building, so the second year we stayed there but went to the 17th floor and it calmed down a bit.”

When Raanta returns to New York now as part of the visiting team, he tries to explain to his teammates why it takes so long to go a few blocks through the congestion around MSG.

“I’m like, ‘I never had that problem because I was always using the subway. I was always underground,’” Raanta said. “Then they’re like, ‘Did you drive your car in the city?’ I was like, ‘No, never. Never. You don’t want to do that.’ Because even if you can get somewhere with your car, you’re never gonna find a parking spot, you know?”

Devils forward Blake Coleman and his fiancée at the time, Jordan Daigle, were interested in buying their first home together in the summer of 2018, but were unsure where it was going to be. Both are from Plano, Tex., a northern Dallas suburb.

Coleman had a successful 2017-18 season, his first full year in the NHL, but he was also a restricted free agent and wasn’t exactly sure where he fit into the Devils’ long-term plans. When he agreed to a three-year contract, the couple decided to buy in New Jersey instead of downtown Dallas.

They picked a condo along the Hudson River in West New York, N.J.

“Once we were able to get a little security, we wanted to plan for the future and for a family. We ended up looking all over the place. There are so many nice waterfront spots that aren’t cheap, but you can find deals,” Coleman said.

“Let’s just say, for what I got our condo in Jersey, we could have gotten a very nice house in Dallas. It’s just different. Obviously you pay for different things. You have access to New York here and the views in that area. In Dallas, you’re paying for good schools and being close to downtown. It’s a different set-up, with a lot of more houses and a lot less people packed into a tight area.”

Devils players do not have to make a housing decision based on the practice facility. RWJ Barnabas Health Hockey House is connected to Prudential Center in Newark. The biggest question is whether they’d rather live near the big city or out in the suburbs.

The players generally gather in two places — the younger ones in Hoboken or Jersey City, and the veterans with families in the suburbs west of Newark.

“We started in Hoboken for the first two years when I first got traded here (in 2013),” Devils goaltender Cory Schneider said. “No kids, and I had two years left on my deal. It was great and we had a great time. I mean, it was a huge shift. When I first got here, we had a much older team — (Dainius) Zubrus and (Jaromir) Jagr and (Marek) Zidlicky and Patty (Elias) and Marty (Brodeur). So they’re all out in the suburbs. So me, Greenie (Andy Greene), Rico (Adam Henrique) and Mark Fayne were, like, the only guys in the Hoboken area.

“I signed my contract (a seven-year deal through 2022) and my wife got pregnant, and probably the biggest reason was the dog. My wife, she’s like, ‘What if I have the baby and we’re on the eighth floor of an apartment and the dog needs to go to the bathroom?’ So I was like, ‘Alright, good enough for me.’ We bought in the suburbs, and our son was born and I think that was the year Ray (Shero) came in. We got younger real fast, and all of a sudden everybody was in Hoboken and Jersey City. We missed the boat on that one.”

Hoboken and Jersey City, two of the fastest-growing places in New Jersey, offer views of the city landscape, a deep and diverse collection of restaurants and bars, younger crowds and easy access to lower Manhattan.

The suburbs offer an escape from the “rat race,” as Schneider called it. Several Devils used to live in West Orange, N.J., when the team practiced at South Mountain Recreation Center. Now that they practice and play in Newark, most of the veterans are in Short Hills or Summit, N.J.

“Anywhere off 280 and 78 that’s easy to get to the rink,” Schneider said. “It’s really nice once you’re off the highway. It is beautiful in some of these areas.”

Deciding whether to rent or buy in the area can be difficult. Travis Zajac and Greene are the longest-tenured players on the Devils. Zajac grew up in Winnipeg, but lives in New Jersey full-time now; Greene still goes home to Michigan with his family during the offseason.

Many of the players choose to rent here and buy at home. Connor Carrick has a place in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in Chicago. Sami Vatanen just moved into a new home in Finland this offseason.

Severson has a house in Kelowna, B.C., where he played for the Rockets in the WHL.

“I’ve been in a different place (in New Jersey) every year. That’s something I’ve actually enjoyed doing,” Severson said. “So I’ve lived in Jersey City the last couple years. I lived in West Orange my first couple years, I lived in Union a couple of years. The last two years were my favorite. Lots of the younger guys are there. I guess I’m not considered a younger guy anymore after six years, but I like Jersey City a lot.”

The Colemans, now married, are expecting their first child in March. Blake has another year left on his contract and has become what coach John Hynes often refers to as an “identity player” for the Devils. If he re-signs with the franchise, they’ll likely make the jump.

“Yeah, I will be a suburbs guy,” Coleman said. “Ideally, I’ll have a yard for the rugrats and for the dogs. But, while we’re still able to really live the city life and enjoy it, I think we’d regret it if we just skipped forward and passed that step.”

Brassard is playing for his second team in the area in 2019-20. Michael Grabner is one of 11 players who’s suited up for all three local teams.

Grabner spent five years with the Islanders from 2010-15, then (after a year in Toronto) one-and-a-half seasons with the Rangers before being traded to the Devils just before the deadline in 2018.

He kept his place in Rye after the trade. His family stayed there the rest of the season so the kids could finish the year at the same school, while he moved into an apartment in Hoboken. After 21 games with the Devils, he signed with the Coyotes.

“I was in Winnipeg before (in the AHL), so this was a little different,” Grabner said of joining the Islanders. “Obviously I made a lot more money, but you can’t change it. It depends on what you’re looking for, maybe a single-bedroom apartment or a three-bedroom house. A couple of the younger guys moved in together to split the cost. I’ve played in some expensive cities, so it’s been all the same to me in some places.

“I bought a house in Arizona. It is tough to rent there where we wanted to live. Everyone lives there in the winter. Obviously it’s a lot cheaper. I don’t know how much this house would be in New York, but we probably couldn’t afford it.”

From the outside, the Islanders’ housing situation might seem like one of the most volatile. The club moved to Barclays Center in Brooklyn at the start of the 2015-16 season. Since last season, they’ve split their games between Brooklyn and Nassau Coliseum, their old home that’s newly refurbished.

The Islanders are expected to move to a new, permanent arena at Belmont Park by the 2021-22 season.

Through all of the commotion in recent years, the players decided to stay put.

“I remember my first year in Brooklyn, a couple guys kicked around the idea of maybe moving out that way,” said Islanders forward Josh Bailey, “but with practice here, you’re still doing the commute and probably even more. I feel the great thing about (Long Island) is there’s plenty options to fit your needs. A lot of beautiful areas to live in. And for the most part, we all are pretty close to each other. So it’s pretty convenient.”

Most of the Islanders live in Garden City, which is just west of Nassau Coliseum, or in Manhasset, which is northwest and closer to the water. While they shuffled between home venues, the players kept their home addresses mostly because of Northwell Health Ice Center, the practice facility, which is about a mile from the Coliseum. In 2017, the new ownership group unveiled upgrades to the facility, with two indoor sheets and an outdoor rink, making it one of the nicest in the NHL.

Johnny Boychuk, traded from the Bruins to the Islanders in 2014, remembers the challenges of finding a place to live on Long Island.

“I tried to find something where I live currently, but there wasn’t really anything there,” Boychuk said. “Then I went further out and moved into a place, but moved out a month later because there was black mold everywhere. That wasn’t a great experience for housing. We had a house for a month. We moved into a hotel until we could find a rental to live in because we weren’t under contract yet. We were living in a hotel with twin girls and a dog. That wasn’t ideal.

“We eventually found a place in Garden City, and we liked the town so much, we ended up just building a house.”

Having a residential home base, he said, has given the Islanders some stability during the recent years of uncertainty.

“It’s been good,” Boychuk said. “Where my family lives and a lot of other guys are, it’s close to downtown. The kids’ school is down the block. The practice rink is five minutes away. The game rink (the Coliseum) is five minutes away. I think Belmont is going to be 14 minutes away, so that’s pretty good.”

Navigating the New York City-area housing market is never easy, but especially when a player gets traded in the middle of the season. The Devils organization will help new players find temporary housing.

Once they’re here, there’s something of a secret weapon waiting for them. Schneider’s wife, Jill, is a real estate agent. She’s licensed in Massachusetts, so she doesn’t broker any deals for her husband’s teammates, but she can be a valuable resource.

“She gives a lot of advice,” Schneider said. “The concepts are the same. She has steered a lot of guys, to certain areas or certain kinds of houses or ‘Look for this, don’t look for that’ kind of stuff. We try to help as much as we can.”

For players of each local team, the housing search is a multi-layered puzzle. Do you want to be close to the city (or in it, if you’re a Ranger) or in the suburbs, closer to the practice facility or further away, rent or buy?

“Everything I find here is 20 minutes away, which means it’s actually 40 minutes away,” Carrick said. “You want to go conquer New York City or East Coast traffic … it is undefeated.”

And regardless of which team you play for and which housing criteria you choose, the prices will probably take some getting used to.

“It’s tricky whether to rent, whether to buy, there’s a lot of logistics that go into it,” Schneider said. “A lot of it is what’s left on your contract, how much money you’re making. I’ve learned about property taxes, the hard way, as I’ve gotten older.

“(My wife and I) came here and you think, ‘Oh it’s New Jersey, it won’t be New York prices,’ but it is not far off.”

(Top photo: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)