Hundreds of ECHL players suddenly out of work
Most sports leagues have suspended play since COVID-19 hit, but ECHL has shut down for year, leaving hundreds out of work
The news was painfully swift — teams in the ECHL, the mid-level pro league two rungs down from the NHL, just couldn’t afford any break in their schedule.
And just like that, Brayden Low and his friends, teammates and rivals, hundreds of them, who really play for love of the game were out of work.
“Thursday we had our regular practice, but the NBA ordeal had happened Wednesday and as soon as that happened, I had a feeling,” Low said Sunday from his home in Reading, Pa., where he was packing his belongings and figuring out how he would get home to Steveston.
“Then they gassed the season that afternoon.”
The impact of COVID-19 was obvious, so there was no arguing the idea they couldn’t play. But a small part of him laments what might have been.
It was his second season playing for the Reading Royals and he was having quite the campaign. He had 18 goals and 78 penalty minutes in 60 games this season, a testament to the rough-and-tumble role he’s carved out for himself as a pro.
The Royals were 37-17-5 and in second place in the ECHL’s North Division. They already had clinched a playoff spot.
“We had 12 more games left. We probably would have gone all the way, we had the team to do it,” Low said. “I’ve seen a lot of crazy things in my four years at the minor-league level, but without a doubt this is the craziest.”
And now his reality was staring him in the face. No more hockey for the foreseeable future. Plus the ECHL stopped paying its players.
Suddenly, a group of guys who play mostly for the love of the game found themselves in the same shoes as the rest of the population. Then again, with the wages you make in the ECHL, in many ways Low was already like the rest of the working class.
It’s not a league where you get rich. It’s a league you play in because you love hockey, nothing more than that.
“It’s no different from going to work and getting laid off and being off work for seven, eight months,” Low said. “Even in a city like this we’re characterized as heroes, but at the end of the day we’re just like everyone else.”
Briefly, there was talk of the league holding on and coming back for the playoffs, but a vote among the league’s owners kiboshed that idea.
Reportedly, so precarious are finances in the league still nicknamed as the east coast league by many — much to the frustration of ECHL bosses — it’s believed as many as seven teams faced immediate collapse if they weren’t able to lay off their players, even though the average wage is just $600 a week.
A typical ECHLer usually has two dreams: getting a coveted AHL contract — unlike ECHL deals, those are guaranteed for the season — or at least being in a Kelly Cup playoff run.
There are bonuses handed out for each playoff round victory. Winning the Kelly Cup is worth $5,000 per player. If you’re on the losing side you still pocket $3,500.
That means if you make it all the way to the final, an ECHLer earns at least $15,000 extra.
Low played games over five seasons in the Western Hockey League, mostly with the Everett Silvertips, and one year at the University of Alberta before embarking on a professional sojourn four years ago that has seen him also play for Wichita, Quad City and Rapid City of the ECHL and in the Australian Ice Hockey League last summer.
He’s been smart with his money and will be able to weather this storm, but many others haven’t and he’s worried about them.
“We have one guy, as soon as he heard the news, who started to look for internships since he has a degree,” Low said.
Because he spends so much of his life at the rink, he left his car in B.C. and was carpooling with his roommates, Frank Dichiara and Jimmy Mazza. They were renting a three-bedroom townhouse in Reading, a small city of just under 90,000 people.
He didn’t want to fly west so he rented a car to make the long drive home. Tuesday he hit the road, headed for Cleveland first. It will take another four days to get back to the West Coast.
The short term will be a struggle, Low admitted, but given the pluckiness he’s shown in building his career, it’s clear he and everyone else will eventually figure it out and move forward.