Quote:
Originally Posted by Devilman
Your local minor team, is it Junior "A" or equivilant?
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Unlike in Canada, we don't use the term "minor" for youth hockey at all. Minor league hockey in the USA is adult, professional hockey. "Juniors" is just called Juniors, and youth is called youth. This always confused me when parents of guys who played on the local pro team would chat about when their kid played "minor hockey" back home... once I figured out that "minor" = "youth", their conversations made a lot more sense to me!
In this case, the team in question is considered AA level minor league professional hockey. (The AHL is AAA level minor league professional hockey.) Examples of AA leagues would be the "new" IHL (formerly the UHL), the ECHL, and the CHL (Central, separate entity from the Canadian CHL juniors league -- that term threw me before I learned the translations, too!). These are all considered full pro leagues -- the players only play hockey during the season, without holding down separate jobs. (Many of them do have to work summer jobs, however.) Down another step is the single-A leagues (MAHL, SPHL), which would be considered more like semi-pro. Many of these guys are only making $100-$200/week (and even then, their checks often bounce, depending on the team they play for!).
Easiest example I can think of is Darren McCarty this past season -- when he wanted to make his comeback, Kris Draper (who is a part-owner of the team) offered him a contract with the Flint Generals, which plays in the same AA league as my local team. After he got back in shape and got his skates under him with the AA team, the Grand Rapids Griffins in the AHL called him up to the AAA level, and ultimately the Detroit Red Wings called him back up to The Show.