User blog comment:PlantyThePottedPlant/Random Topic Blogging III: Blog Harder/@comment-1659929-20140203030651/@comment-4123215-20140205003051

Keep in mind, top-level athletes are like actors, and they work insanely difficult schedules.

The cheapest you can get a player in the NHL is about 750k a year, and that could be for some random guy you send down to the minor leagues. I think a lot of people can live off 750k for a long while, and that's only with one year played, imagine more! The MOST a player ever received was just under 100 million, Jaromir Jagr. That's insanely overpriced, but still, you could play one year and then retire.