By Mike Vernace



So you want to be an NHL player?



Hey, great choice. I always did. And, to be honest, I don’t think that feeling ever goes away, even when you make it.



The problem is so do approximately half a million other kids in Canada. There are only 660 full-time jobs up for grabs each season in the NHL – 22 spots on 30 teams – and those are tough odds. If you add in the rest of the world’s hockey-playing population, you really start to see how difficult it is to make it.



I saw a stat recently that 7,400 people have ever played in an NHL game. That’s a small fraction of the kids playing in the GTHL today – let alone all the Toronto kids that have ever laced up the skates with the same goal.



Somehow, I was one of the lucky ones that made it – for 22 games anyway. And I’m extremely grateful for the short time I was there.



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Here’s what I learned along the way: You...