The 7 NHL veterans still livin’ the dream in minor leagues

The Seven is an arbitrary list of randomly connected hockey subjects that will run every Thursday on Puck Daddy. Agree to disagree. There was a time when the North American minor league hockey system would be peppered with ex-NHL players at every level. You'd have teams like the IHL Las Vegas Thunder in 1994 with wacky rosters that included everyone from Alexei Yashin to Pokey Reddick to Clint Malarchuk. Today, there are more opportunities for players in Europe and especially in the KHL, and there are fewer opportunities in North American minor leagues. (The IHL, for example, folded in 2001.) But there are still former NHL veterans livin' the dream down in the AHL and ECHL. We're not talking about the players stashed away for salary cap purposes like the AHL's Wade Redden, Jeff Finger, Steven Reinprecht and to a lesser extent Sean Avery. We're talking about the guys who refuse to hang up the skates or feel they're one bad break (for someone else) away from ...