Taro Tsujimoto is still playing in the AHL (Anatarctic Hockey League), he put 69 goals, 0 assists in 42 games this year to commemorate turning 69, go Taro!
Older Ex NHLers still playing Pro hockey
- Thread starter Flukeshot
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tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
It’s really weird that this question comes up… literally this afternoon I was wondering “what top tier NHL’ers have played in the ECHL after their prime”.
Everything I can find on NHL’ers playing in the ECHL is about prospects making it big. I’m more interested to know about guys who made it to the Show, then went all the way back down the ladder.
One I know of, and possibly the best one available, is that HOF’er Rod Langway played in the ECHL at the end of his career to get coaching experience.
Everything I can find on NHL’ers playing in the ECHL is about prospects making it big. I’m more interested to know about guys who made it to the Show, then went all the way back down the ladder.
One I know of, and possibly the best one available, is that HOF’er Rod Langway played in the ECHL at the end of his career to get coaching experience.
wunderpanda
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craig rivet went to the echl after the nhl
WarriorofTime
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37 year old Mark Olver played 36 games with the Idaho Steelheads this season. I wouldn't be surprised if he only plays home games or something like that. Former 5th round pick with the Avalanche, 74 career NHL games (all with Colorado), the last of which was in 2012-13. Spent the previous 7 seasons in Germany.
Mark Olver - Stats, Contract, Salary & More
Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Mark Olver, 1988-01-01 Burnaby, BC, CAN Canada. Most recently in the ECHL with Idaho Steelheads. Complete player biography and stats.
www.eliteprospects.com
WarriorofTime
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An easy way to check through is to use quanthockey, look through various seasons, and sort by age, then you can click through and see who has played in NHL ECHL Season Stats
Goalie feels like "cheating" when it comes to ECHL answers, but Keith Kinkaid played ECHL this year, he was an NHL goaltender for multiple years.
www.eliteprospects.com
Goalie feels like "cheating" when it comes to ECHL answers, but Keith Kinkaid played ECHL this year, he was an NHL goaltender for multiple years.
Keith Kinkaid - Stats, Contract, Salary & More
Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Keith Kinkaid, 1989-07-04 Farmingville, NY, USA USA. Most recently in the ECHL with Savannah Ghost Pirates. Complete player biography and stats.
www.eliteprospects.com
tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
This one surprised me, because Rivet was a fixture in the NHL for a long time.
So I checked into it… apparently he took the ECHL gig for a year in order to obtain permanent US citizenship
GoldenSeal
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MessierII
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Branislav Mezei turns 45 this year and is still playing in the Slovak league where he is the captain of HK Nitra.
www.eliteprospects.com
Branislav Mezei - Stats, Contract, Salary & More
Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Branislav Mezei, 1980-10-08 Nitra, SVK Slovakia. Most recently in the Slovakia with HK Nitra. Complete player biography and stats.
www.eliteprospects.com
tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
The great thing about the ECHL is it has one foot in each world. High-level SPHL guys mixing with low-level AHL guys, and all sorts of random cameos. It’s kind of the way the minors are supposed to be.
Locally, my favorite story is Jorge Alves who is best known for having the shortest career in NHL history (7.6 seconds as an EBUG for the Canes). He got his start at NC State University where hockey is a club sport, not a scholarship sport. From there he just kind of lingered around the hockey scene in NC, occasionally picking up a spot start for an SPHL or ECHL team that was in a bind. Well, do that often enough and you end up playing for 6 different professional teams — granted, only one or two games each, but his tenure as a pro player lasted longer than some drafted guys. Those little opportunities led to a job on the equipment team for the NHL club, which led to being listed as the EBUG, which led to a one-day contract, which led to this random rink rat being an NHL player. Meanwhile on Wednesday nights he was playing on a B-C level beer league team.
Jorge Alves Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com
Statistics of Jorge Alves, a hockey player from Boston, MA born Jan 30 1979 who was active from 2002 to 2017.
www.hockeydb.com
wunderpanda
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he used to host the instigators show on wgr550 in buffalo, he did an episode about echl stories. echl owner had set up rentals for the team, one house was infested with bedbugs so rivet let the young guys have it. he turned down plane tickets to ride the bus & brought cases of beer for everyone. i have spent 4 hours trying to find an archive of the episode but no luck.This one surprised me, because Rivet was a fixture in the NHL for a long time.
So I checked into it… apparently he took the ECHL gig for a year in order to obtain permanent US citizenship
tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
This is a really important factor in the “is ECHL a living wage?” conversation, btw. Having your rent covered is a huge deal.
Of course, doctor’s bills for bedbugs add up…
I can´t really remember any "top tier" players. Besides Irbe who played in ECHL in his last season but ended his career in NHL.
Ron Wilson (not the more well known coach one) had long career and some seasons in AHL but more than ten seasons in NHL and 832 games in NHL. Not really top tier though.
Well actually Ron Duguay had some toiling around in lower minors, but mostly in WCHL. 860 games in NHL.
Neil Wilkinson was somewhat regular NHL D in 90´s, but with only 460 games in NHL. Had various comebacks 5 years after retirement and one was in ECHL.
There was some weirdish veteran comebacks for one or two games, but can´t really remember those now.
Stanislav Gron 46 played two games in Slovak league too. Two players that played in NHL in 2000-2001. Gron only one game though.Branislav Mezei turns 45 this year and is still playing in the Slovak league where he is the captain of HK Nitra.
Branislav Mezei - Stats, Contract, Salary & More
Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Branislav Mezei, 1980-10-08 Nitra, SVK Slovakia. Most recently in the Slovakia with HK Nitra. Complete player biography and stats.
tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
I had forgotten all about that!
If I could have a ticket for any hockey game anywhere, I’m not saying my first choice would be seeing Arturs Irbe play in Johnstown, but it would be on the list.
Yeah, during the season ECHL players get housing, some meals, gear, medical, and probably a negligible amount of wardrobe (hats, tees, hoodies), a handful of players on each team will also be called up to the AHL at various points which is a nice bonus check. That is a decent amount of compensation on top of the salary.
Not that it's glamorous, but it's enough to live on. It's something that makes it such a great league, every guy there has his heart 100% in the game every day because it's not enough money to justify the lifestyle and risk, and while there are a lot of players who have made it up to the NHL, it's still an unlikely path. It's a league of players playing for their love of the game.
Someone on the Pens forum pointed out that Tim Wallace (AHL journeyman who played 101 games for Pens, Islanders, Canes and Lightning) is playing for the Milton Keynes Lightning in the NIHL (British ice hockey's second tier). He had a 2 season break from playing in 19-20, 20-21 as he was head coach of the Nottingham Panthers in the EIHL (British ice hockey's top tier)
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I wonder if that's some variation of a scott foster situation. Like what do you do if you're the Nottingham Panthers and both goalies have freak injuries on GameDay?
I think people would be surprised how far the range of men's league quality could really go.
Quick story, pre-covid I was a goalie-for-hire-for-free in Canada, basically I just put up a Kijiji ad, if somebody needed me I was there. Sometimes Id ask for gas money if the drive was pretty far.
Anyways I'd obviously play with a lot of the typical beer leaguer crowd, but maybe two or three times I'd get the call from a group that was obviously ex-major junior guys, and holy shit there is just no comparison. One of my other groups was a uni faculty with a smattering of ex-CIS guys. One of them once told me I had a fairly obvious tell of opening the fivehole if he deked laterally, just thinking the game where 95% of beer leaguers don't think at all.
The other notable bit was meeting some gen-x goalie at a shinny that turned out to be an ex-major junior backup from the 90s. He literally had the fastest glove hand I have ever seen live, faster than OHL starters have right now
So I guess I'm just saying the level of play in a high-level men's league could be pretty high.
SharksFan1992
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WarriorofTime
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I didn't read the whole thread, so I'm not sure if he's been mentioned yet, but Mike Keane is the perfect example. After playing 1161 games in the NHL, Keane played 5 years with Manitoba of the AHL, finally retired at age 42 in 2010.
Mike Keane Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com
Statistics of Mike Keane, a hockey player from Winnipeg, MAN born May 29 1967 who was active from 1983 to 2010.
www.hockeydb.com
lakai17
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- Aug 10, 2006
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Branislav Mezei turns 45 this year and is still playing in the Slovak league where he is the captain of HK Nitra.
Branislav Mezei - Stats, Contract, Salary & More
Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Branislav Mezei, 1980-10-08 Nitra, SVK Slovakia. Most recently in the Slovakia with HK Nitra. Complete player biography and stats.
Decent. He won the league with them at age 34 and last season at age 42. It appears his team is still going in the playoffs this season.
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