Before every road trip, Avalanche players, along with coaches and team broadcasters, receive an envelope. Inside that envelope is cold, hard cash that can be spent on anything they want.
It is the per diem money, long a tradition in professional sports. Even in today’s multibillion-dollar sports world, pro athletes still get pocket money when they’re on the road. In the NHL, the daily per diem is $85. That is the amount players get for one full off-day on the road. On days when there is a game, or on travel days when the team leaves after noon local time, the per diem is $42.50.
Players get the money up front before a road trip, in cash, and in the currency of the country where they will be staying. It is all mandated by the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement.
“When you first come into the league, you think you’re loaded. You think it’s all the money in the world,” said Avalanche winger Andrew Brunette, an NHL player since 1995-96. “Especially when you just came from the minors or junior, where you’re not making a whole lot of money. But the fact is, it goes pretty quick.”
Players spend it on the three C’s: cabs, coffee and cards. Did someone say cards? Well, it cannot be officially confirmed (or denied), but it is possible that an occasional card game is played on the road – for money.
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe there is sometimes,” Avs veteran Pierre Turgeon said, with a laugh. “You never know.”
Turgeon has been getting envelopes full of cash for 18 seasons. He has made more than $52 million in his career and has received around $50,000 in per diem money.
“It’s just always been part of being in the NHL, and it’s a nice thing that the teams do for the players,” Turgeon said. “But it does go pretty quick. Usually, it just goes for little things like a cab, because a lot of guys like to get to the rink earlier than the team bus. Or you might tip a guy a few bucks at the hotel for things, or maybe use it tipping at restaurants, things like that.”
Eighty-five dollars buys a nice dinner at a lot of good restaurants, but not at the really fine steakhouses players often frequent on the road. On full off- days, therefore, players often make up the difference in dinner prices with their credit cards. Players don’t skimp on quality dinners on the road, usually spent with a big group of teammates.
“That’s where you really get to know your teammates better, is on the road, and you want a real nice meal on days off, especially the night before a game,” Avalanche defenseman Patrice Brisebois said. “Mostly, all we ever see on the road are the restaurants. There isn’t a lot of time for much else.”
On game days on the road, when the per diem is smaller, NHL teams provide players with a pregame meal, usually in a hotel conference room around 1 p.m. On the Avalanche’s last road trip, through Chicago and Edmonton, Alberta, each player got envelopes filled with $212.50 – the per diem for three half days and one full day – with half the money coming in Canadian currency and the other half in U.S. currency.
In the 1970s, when Avs coach Joel Quenneville first came into the league, the per diem amount ranged between $20 and $25. Former NHL coach Scotty Bowman believes it was $18 when he first coached the St. Louis Blues in 1967.
“You had to buy all your meals yourself usually,” Bowman said. “You ate at a lot of hotel coffee shops in those days. Players don’t do that much now. The teams provide a lot more now than they did then.”
Most players spend all the money before the road trip is through, but Brunette said he has seen a few skinflint teammates through the years.
“Like Laakso (Antti Laaksonen),” Brunette said, with a kidding nod toward his Avs teammate. “He’s got all his buried in the backyard, probably.”
Travel that pays
According to Article 19 of the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement, teams must provide players, coaches and any other employees accompanying the team on road trips with a $85 per diem. The per diem amount is to be lowered by half (to $42.50) if:
* A team departs from its home city after noon local time before a road game.
* On game days, a team provides a pregame meal.
Major League Baseball has a per diem of $72.50, and it’s $102 per day in the NBA.
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com.
