Imagine you have a job where you’re asked to work full time hours, make immense sacrifices in your personal life and experience little development other than that which directly relates to your current job position. Now imagine that you get paid around $800 a month for the privilege.
While overly simplified, that’s the sort of life that junior hockey players currently live. Their jobs, and that’s what they are, dictate everything that happens in their lives. As children, and most of them are, they are drafted and sent to a team that may be hundreds or even thousands of miles away from their family.