Hockey has an accessibility problem.
That’s not exactly breaking news but there was another subtle and yet clear sign at the NHL Draft in Nashville on Wednesday and Thursday.
A total of eight sons of retired NHL players were selected, starting with Oliver Bonk 22nd overall. Bonk is the son of Radek Bonk, the longtime Czech NHLer who settled in Ottawa after his career. This year continues a trend that stretches back more than a decade, where each draft sees at least a handful of sons of former players taken, often high in the first round.
Many more among the 224 selected players this year were the offspring of retired minor leaguers, as well as college and junior players, who often go on to become prominent coaches and officials in their local areas after their careers.
Until about a decade ago, all this was mostly a feel-good curiosity. Not anymore – elite minor hockey has become so expensive and all-consuming that increasingly young players need connections to access elite programs that are so important to developing into an OHL or college player, and ultimately a professional prospect.
One American parent, who I have become friendly with, moved his family from a northern hockey hotbed to a non-traditional market about two decades ago in the early days of telecommuting. In his new home the man happened to become friends with a Canadian pro who was winding down his career. Both men had boys the same age, with the now-retired hockey player taking the lead building an elite minor hockey program that their sons played in.
The American dad, who was a New York Rangers fan but had little hockey background, helped. Both kids flourished and both have now been drafted into the NHL and are well on their way to pro careers.
Why did this story stick with me? The American man in question had two older boys, hockey fans too, but without any connections in his original home up north, his two elder sons never got started playing in any meaningful way; they both quit in their early-teens.
The regret at how his younger son had more opportunity than his brothers was obvious in the man’s voice when he explained the story.
That’s an American tale but it’s also happening in Canada. Aside from an excellent study undertaken by the Hamilton Spectator’s Teri Pecoskie in 2016, there are no hard and fast numbers that illustrate how OHL players are increasingly being raised in upper-middle class and wealthy families.
Pecoski’s deep dive into the collective backgrounds of 218 OHL players seven years ago revealed that most hailed from affluent suburbs and, where it could be confirmed or reasonably inferred, had parents who worked in high-end occupations.
Frankly, I’m not sure I can think of a single example of an elite player in the local area whose parents are just scraping by financially, though that is not exactly a topic you immediately broach when dealing with them.
Come to think of it, I am familiar with one example: a local mother who robbed a bank about 20 years ago to help fund her son’s minor hockey career. She was caught and served jail time.
I wish I was kidding.
If you hang around OHL arenas long enough it becomes obvious that the parents of players tend to occupy much higher stations in life than the fans who take in the games. To wit, the parents of one current member of the Colts routinely rents a suite at Sadlon Arena for most home games.
Fans, by the way, remain a reasonable cross-section of the community, which is a credit to the OHL’s 20 member clubs for doing a decent job at keeping games affordable. Though, like just about everything right now, ticket prices are starting to creep up but that’s a column for another time.
Perhaps an even more damning commentary is to look at other sports. Hockey, by a wide margin, has its off-spring follow parents into the professional ranks at far greater frequency than baseball, basketball, football and soccer.
Why is that?
Perhaps because in those other sports school programs generally play a much bigger part in the development of elite prospects. American prep school – local player Larry Keenan was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday after two seasons playing at Culver Academy – has a history of churning out NHL draft picks. But it is just a trickle compared to the pipeline produced by Canadian and European junior leagues and the U.S. national team development program.
Unlike playing the game in school, kids here learn to play hockey from a very young age by playing in their local associations. As they get older, those programs become more specialized, more expensive and much more exclusive.
And the spin-off effects are becoming more and more obvious every year at the NHL Draft.
