NHL strike puts local hockey pro’s career on hold
Graham Mink has been playing hockey since he was old enough to tie his own skates. But, growing up in Stowe, he could scarcely have imagined one day he’d lace up for the Washington Capitals and play in front of tens of thousands of people.
Mink has now been playing professional hockey for more than a decade, mainly in the American Hockey League, a tier below the National Hockey League. But his career has been derailed, at least temporarily, by the NHL lockout, which has already canceled the first two months of the 2012-13 season.
The lockout began in September, when NHL owners failed to reach a collective bargaining agreement with the NHL Players’ Association. Games have already been canceled through Dec. 14 — more than a third of the season — and there’s no end in sight.
Mink spent the 2011-2012 season with the Hershey Bears in Pennsylvania, the top minor league affiliate of the Washington Capitals. Currently a free agent, he hoped to re-sign with the Bears, but the lockout created a surge of competition from NHL players looking for work. Unable to sign with a team in the U.S., Mink went looking for a contract in Europe. But teams there, too, were inundated with out-of-work NHL players.
“Teams just weren’t interested in signing me,” Mink said. “I would love an opportunity to play somewhere, but the jobs are kind of taken up because there are 700 jobs that aren’t around right now because the NHL is not playing.”
For Mink, the lockout halts a career that’s been nearly 30 years in the making. Born in Newport, his family moved to Stowe when he was five years old. He picked up his first hockey stick shortly thereafter.
“I was a pretty rambunctious kid,” he said. “My parents were just looking for a way for me to burn off some energy, and in Stowe it was either you’re skiing or you’re skating.”
Since then, hockey has been central to Mink’s life. As a student at Stowe High School, he went to the state championship three straight years and won twice. He graduated in 1997 and went on to play as a walk-on at the University of Vermont.
“That was always my dream growing up, to play for the Catamounts,” he said. “Just being able to play there was an honor.”
Mink left the University of Vermont at the beginning of his senior year to embark on a professional career. After a brief stint in the East Coast Hockey League, he signed an NHL contract with the Capitals and played for their American Hockey League affiliate at the time, the Portland Pirates in Maine.
It was during his third season with the Pirates that Mink was called up to play in his first game with the Capitals. Skating in an NHL game was the fulfillment of a dream that once seemed unattainable. He felt his years of hard work had paid off.
“It’s definitely a personal highlight I’ll never forget,” he said. “For that one night, you’re in the best league in the world and you’re playing with the best players in the world.”
Mink has now skated in seven NHL games, all with the Capitals. He has also played for minor league affiliates of the San Jose Sharks, Florida Panthers and St. Louis Blues. The Hershey Bears, the Capitals’ current AHL affiliate, won the Calder Cup in 2006 and 2009 with Mink playing right wing.
Now 33, Mink hopes to continue playing hockey, but his ability to do so will depend on the resolution of the NHL lockout. If the owners and players do not come to an agreement soon, the entire season will likely be canceled.
“I hope that they can come to some kind of agreement,” Mink said. “I’m still optimistic that cooler heads might prevail.”
At the crux of the feud is the owner’s desire to reduce the players’ total share of hockey-related revenues. Mink, a former executive board member of the AHL’s Professional Hockey Players’ Association, said he agrees with the players in principle.
But he’s disappointed that the two sides can’t reach a compromise.
“Ultimately, these are millionaires fighting against billionaires,” he said. “No one’s willing to make a deal until everybody suffers.”
Even if the two sides work out their differences and salvage the season, Mink is not guaranteed to land a contract. Although he says he is mentally and physically ready to play, he’s also prepared to accept that his hockey career may be over.
“At 33, I’ve had an excellent career, and I’m very satisfied with it,” he said. “I’d like to keep playing, but if it doesn’t happen, I can sleep easy at night knowing I got a lot more time than a lot of guys do.”
In the meantime, Mink is working as a real estate agent with New England Landmark Realty in Stowe, where he lives with his wife and two young children. He also now works for Stowe Insurance, which his father owns. His wife recently launched her own business, The Blooming Cupcake, based at their home.
Selling insurance and real estate is not the same as delivering bone-crunching hits and hurtling slap shots, but Mink enjoys it.
“I’m so used to making my living with my body. So now, to be making my living with my mind is nice,” he said.
Even if he never returns to the ice, Mink hopes the lockout will end before it causes lasting damage to the game that has defined his life.
“I hope it doesn’t hurt it permanently,” he said. “I love the sport of hockey. It’s been great to me and provided for me and my family for a long time, so I hope it can recover.”
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