No business like pro business
February 7, 2010 6:30 PM
There has been a significant amount of buzz surrounding the newest member of the Saint Mary’s Huskies hockey team.
As pretty much everybody already knows, Mike Danton, a former NHL player for the St. Louis Blues and New Jersey Devils and ex-convict serving five years for a murder plot, has enrolled in the Halifax school and suited up in maroon and white on Wednesday, January 27 for his first hockey game in six years.
The Canadian Press reported that he looked rusty, but the 29 year old from Brampton, Ontario showed that he hadn’t lost it, scoring the lone Huskies goal and earning a standing ovation in the 4-1 loss to the Acadia Axemen.
The fact that he is an ex-convict serves to sensationalize the story, but to be completely honest, I think that his criminal record is irrelevant.
Danton went to prison and served his time. When a person has any criminal record, let alone one that says that they were part of a murder conspiracy, it is hard enough to get a job.
If they want to go to university and get an education, they should have the right to do that, and if they have the talent to make the hockey team, they have the right to play on it, just the same as any other student.
What is relevant and what I take issue with is not Danton’s criminal record, it’s his employment record. A former professional athlete who participated in the Stanley Cup Playoffs has no place in the CIS, an amateur league.
Call me an idealist, but I think that the CIS is a league where highly talented young athletes can hone their skills, develop their abilities and gain valuable leadership and life skills while pursuing higher education.
Some of the best can use their time in the league as a stepping stone to the big leagues, while the vast majority, to paraphrase the NCAA, go pro in an area other than sports. What the CIS should not be is a place for washed up ringers to come back and relive the glory days at the expense of younger, more inexperienced athletes.
If professional players can come back and play in the university league, how can players coming out of high school or major junior expect to compete?
Of course there are always superstars who will always tear it up, but the way the NHL and CIS is laid out, these players often circumvent the CIS and go directly to the AHL or other minor pro leagues from Major Junior. That leaves the solid junior players to go the CIS to develop their skills and gain strength and maturity before the best of that group make the pros.
What would happen if it became common practice for guys who didn’t quite make it in the pros, for whatever reason, to come back after a few years and hijack ice time and roster spots from deserving amateurs in the university league?
I think it would spoil the spirit of interuniversity sport, but it could help give teams a boost. So unless the CIS makes a rule against professionals competing in the league, I could see it becoming epidemic.
However, it is worth noting that at Danton’s first game with the Huskies, the crowd was twice the usual size for weekday home games at Saint Mary’s. The CIS may decide that having professionals on the ice for their games is good for ticket sales and as with many epidemics, the disease is more profitable than the cure.
