HOPING FOR BETTER PAYDAYS

There’s a sound reason players in the lower pros strive to move up: The pay is better.

In the ECHL, players earn US$500 per week on average, which means they got a pay raise this week when the Canadian dollar dipped below US80 cents. Some players earn more, based on experience and contract, but teams are restricted by a salary cap of $12,600 per week.

Accommodation is provided to players, and they receive a modest travel per diem to cover meals on the road.

The schedule itself is a beast: 28 teams play a 72-game schedule with bus travel in all of the U.S. and southern Ontario.

Three games in three days is typical, even for the AHL, but a quirk in the ECHL schedule is that a team can play at home Friday night, an away game Saturday, then return home to face that same Friday night opponent, who has been sitting and waiting.

For former college players used to a 30-game schedule and less travel, the adjustment is huge.

“There’s a lot more games,” says Corey Durocher, a Beast centre who played OHL and USports hockey. “You really have to get your body ready for the grind.” this year. Last season, his first full year in the ECHL, he dealt with a lingering sports hernia until he was finally operated on in April by Dr. David Mulder in Montreal.

Like Durocher, Zion has dreams of moving on up hockey’s pro ladder.

“You see guys who get sent down from the AHL or are in the AHL, you’ve either played against or played with them, and it may seem like you’re far from the AHL or NHL, but really it’s just a league or two leagues up, respectively,” Zion says.

“You have to make the most of the opportunities when you get them.”