Chasing the Dream

September 12, 2016
Veteran sportswriter Starkey (Red Rising) offers readers a view into life in the American Hockey League (AHL), hockey’s foremost minor league, where players are a “heartbeat or a sprained ankle away from the NHL.” After spending eight months with seven different teams during the 2014–2015 season (with an update to add the AHL’s California shift for ’15–’16), Starkey compiled a dizzying collection of interviews and glimpses into the sport’s realities, including franchise financials and how affiliations with NHL teams work. “If there’s one constant in the American Hockey League, it’s change,” Starkey writes, unintentionally pointing to the book’s weakness. The players, coaches, and owners he interviewed have been involved in the league in recent years, so the book is relevant now, but it lacks a historical perspective. Even in the chapter on the league’s championship, the Calder Cup, which dates to 1936, Starkey stays firmly planted in the 21st century. Nevertheless, there’s much to be gleaned about life in the minors here, including travel woes and the psychological battles for players who are close to and yet so far from their NHL dreams. Readers will come away with great respect for those who have recently called the AHL home.