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Richard Gregory
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23
Nick Niedert has done this so many times that he has the routine down pat.
When that phone rings, it’s time to drop everything and hit the road. Pronto. No time to waste. No time to think.
Such is the life of a professional hockey goalie, a crafty, rugged veteran who has logged more than 10 years — and many thousands of miles — in the minor leagues.
So much of his existence relies on split-second reactions, whether it’s snagging a shoulder-high slap shot from the blue line, or snagging the next red-eye flight to the latest call-up assignment.
At 33 years old, Niedert has played for dozens of minor-league teams. And his skills — whether it’s on the ice stopping pucks or in the dressing room imparting wisdom — are still very much in demand.
This particular call, from the Reading (Pa.) Royals of the ECHL, came on Jan. 8, right after Niedert and the Danbury Titans had finished a pre-game skate before a Friday night game against the Brewster (N.Y.) Bulldogs.
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“I had to pack my (equipment) bags, rush home, grab a couple suits, throw some stuff in a bag and get on the road,” Niedert said recently as he sat on a stool at Wesco Sports Center in Brookfield, where he’s held down the occasional side job selling hockey gear.
“I was driving (to Reading), praying I didn’t run into any traffic. Luckily, I didn’t. I got there, I got situated and everythying was good, and we played that night.”
Wesco’s basem*nt — the “Goalie Center” as it’s called because of all the goalkeeping equipment — has become a home away from the crease for Niedert, a native of Iowa.
For a journeyman goalie, it’s an oasis of stability in an unpredictable profession.
“I think I went up and down over 20 times (in 2012-13), and it did take a toll on me,” Niedert said. “You’re walking into the locker room and it’s a different set of faces than you saw the day before.”
Although Niedert leads a nomadic existence, he says it’s a small price to pay in order to live the pro hockey dream. And, he knows, chasing that dream often requires a brutal travel schedule.
“I’ve been called up where I’ve had to get on a plane in three hours in New York City,” Niedert said. “And this one’s unbelievable: I was playing for Elmira, got sent back here (to Danbury) on a Tuesday, found out Tuesday night that Wheeling had picked me up on waivers; Wheeling was playing in Elmira Wednesday night.
“I had to turn around from here — I was literally just putting my stuff back in the locker room in Danbury — and get back in my car and drive back to Elmira. The next morning, I found out I got called up to Bridgeport from Wheeling. So I waited until after the game that night, came back here, and practiced Thursday morning in Bridgeport.
“We played Albany Friday night in Albany. On the bus on the way back from Albany, I found out I was getting sent back to Wheeling. They were in Chicago. I had an early flight the next morning.”
Without a net
After back-to-back losses earlier this month, Danbury Titans coach Phil Esposito decided it was time to shake things up in practice.
So, the players skated. And they skated. And they skated some more.
At full speed. Lap after lap. For a solid hour.
There was a trash barrel a few steps off the ice at the Danbury Arena for those who needed to spill their guts — some of them for just $175 a week, the Federal Hockey League’s minimum salary.
As Esposito sees it, his job — in addition to trying to win a FHL championship in Danbury — is to help players get to the next level.
For the Titans, Bulldogs and the rest of the FHL, the next step is usually the Double-A ECHL, formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League, or the Southern Professional Hockey League.
“(The FHL) is a steppingstone to the next level. It’s a steppingstone to making hockey a long-term career for them, hopefully,” said the 45-year-old Esposito, whose own pro career included several stints in the ECHL in the 1990s.
In two seasons with the Jacksonville Bullets of the SPHL, Esposito collected 19 goals, 22 assists and 435 minutes in penalties in 47 games.
Outside Esposito’s office at the Danbury Arena that day, the players were still hopeful despite rubber ankles and twisted stomachs after an hour of intense skating.
“Could’ve been worse,” Ryan Patsch said with a smile.
Worse? What could have been worse than that?
Well, for these guys, not getting to live the pro hockey dream would be worst of all. They’re certainly not in it for the money.
The FHL’s weekly salary cap is $4,400, which gets divided among 18 players, most of whom make between $200 and $400 per week.
Many players have jobs off the ice, while others depend strictly on hockey to make their modest ends meet.
In the case of the Titans and the Bulldogs — both teams are owned by car dealer Bruce Bennett — most of the players live in housing provided by the team. Getting called up to a higher level means a slightly higher paycheck, but only slightly higher.
“It’s not even about the paycheck, because if it was, maybe some guys wouldn’t be here,” said Patsch, 24, a native of Philadelphia in his third pro season. “It’s more that we love the game and we want to push ourselves and play at the highest level possible.”
Life on the road can be tough in the FHL, where the six teams are scattered from New Hampshire to Illinois, and the miles between them are seemingly endless. A coach bus is actually something of a luxury in the FHL.
Case in point: The Danville Dashers recently made a trip from Illinois to Danbury stuffed earbud-to-earbud into two vans.
“The camaraderie that comes with being on the bus and being with 20 guys, you can’t put a price on that. If you asked players who have stopped playing, that’s always the part they miss the most,” said Titans forward Brett Liscomb, a 29-year-old Ontario native and a veteran of seven pro seasons.
“Those long bus trips when you’re playing cards in the back, or joking around with one another, that stuff. That makes the hockey part easy, actually, when you have those bonds with the guys on the team.”
What makes Single-A hockey different than the higher levels of pro hockey is that there is no safety net in the Federal Hockey League.
Players who can’t stick in the AHL with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the Hartford Wolf Pack and the rest land in the ECHL.
Those who can’t hang in the ECHL might fall to the FHL. From the FHL, however, the only place to go is recreation-league hockey and a 9-to-5 job.
“Playing pro hockey is a privilege, and a lot of guys would trade anything to do what we do,” said Titans forward Dean Yakura, a 30-year-old from the Vancouver area and a veteran of five pro seasons.
A puncher’s chance
If Joe Cannan was going to make the Brewster Bulldogs roster, he knew he’d have to do it with his fists.
“I’m not a Sidney Crosby or an Alex Ovechkin,” Cannan said as he sat in the bleachers at the Brewster Ice Arena following a recent practice.
OK, so Cannan isn’t necessarily a gifted scorer, but he is 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds. And when you’re living the pro hockey dream, it’s all about the next game, the next day, the next call up.
If you’re lucky.
You’ll do whatever it takes to make the roster, help the team and keep your job — score goals, block shots, throw punches, anything.
Cannan collected 31 penalty minutes in eight games for Brewster this season. Then he was waived by the Bulldogs on Jan. 15 and picked up by the FHL’s Berlin River Drivers two days later.
“I knew that I wasn’t going to score 10 or 20 goals, but I knew that I could bang bodies and I knew that I could fight,” Canaan said. “So, the first day at open camp in Danbury, I fought the biggest guy there.
“I knew if I didn’t do it, I wasn’t going to get on the team. They want someone who can — and will — throw a punch when they need to. I’m definitely the guy for it.”
A former club player at Johnson & Wales University, Cannan said he has worked on his fighting skills with former NHL player Mike Hartman, who collected 1,388 minutes in penalties in 397 NHL games.
Determined to play pro hockey, Cannan set out from his home in North Carolina last summer looking for any tryout he could find.
“I went from North Carolina to Providence to Quebec to Ohio to Port Huron,” he said. “Then I came back home when I ran out of money and had to work for a little bit, then I came back up here.
“I drove over 5,000 miles, spent over $4,000,” Cannan said. “Some nights, I’d be sleeping in my car because I didn’t have the $30 or $40 to go to a hotel, or there weren’t enough guys around that area to sleep on their couch.”
Cannan repairs cell phones in his spare time to earn extra cash. He studied restaurant food and beverage management in college, and he’s an experienced bartender. So there’s that, too.
Cannan is well aware of the risks that come with earning a living as a hockey enforcer. Repeated concussions, and the potential brain damage down the road, are real dangers.
But not always real impediments.
“It’s worth it. At the end of the day, we all love this sport, and that’s why we do it,” Cannan said.
“It’s for the dream.”
