I think if I had my druthers I'd be a billionaire who inherited Daddy's fortune...*cough Rocky WirtzPotatoe1 wrote:In my mind being a pro hockey player is akin to winning the lottery, easily one of the most enjoyable careers on the planet and one where you can easily set yourself up with enough money to be be very wealthy until the day you die.
I don't think hockey is a "game" for the elite-level athlete. Its a job - and a goddam tough one at that. Few people have the skills to qualify for the job, and fewer still have what it takes to be successful in pro hockey at the highest level.
There are a lot of far easier ways to make that much money over the course of a career, without sustaining injuries that will affect your quality of life forever, working the kind of hours, and having the necessary total life commitment of your entire family to your career. Also there's the fact that only a miniscule of hockey players since the NHL came into existence have made "enough money to be very wealthy until the day you die."
I take it you say pro hockey is like winning the lottery because you play hockey yourself - would you still find it fun if you had to devote 10 hours a day, 365 days a year, from your early teens until your 30s doing it? I imagine the commitment to the sport would suck a lot of the joy out of it...