Quote:
Originally Posted by getbak
Keep in mind, most UFAs are married.
It's one thing for a player to want to play in a big-time hockey market and be mobbed everywhere he goes. It's a lot different when he has a wife who's sitting at home during those long road trips in January, or standing idly by while her husband is mobbed everywhere he goes.
I was reading a story the other day about one of Gretzky's kids, who's a top baseball prospect who has already accepted a scholarship to play college ball in San Diego, and is now waiting to find out how high he'll go in the MLB draft. In the story he talks about how different it is to see how his dad is treated in Canada versus the States. Here, he can't go anywhere without being recognized, there, he's just another kid's dad (it also helps that he goes to the same school as Will Smith's kid).
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Meh. If you really want to make it work, playing in a hockey-mad city and having a family, you can definitely do it. Conroy comes immediately to mind.
I still think the weather and non-recognition in public get tossed around too too much as excuses. Even with a family, I'd much rather be recognized and pushed that much more on the ice, within an electric atmosphere. If you love hockey, you'll live it as much as you can.
Don't get me wrong - there are players out there that are comfortable taking it easy and playing in obscure locations for those reasons. However, I wouldn't want to be that type of player.