Mike Brown arrived in Charleston, S.C., from northern Michigan in mid-March for his foray into professional hockey. It took less than a full weekend for the realities of his new life to hit.
Barely a week after ending his college career at Lake Superior State, Brown joined the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays on a Friday. He made his debut Saturday night, and with little time to relish the achievement, hopped on an overnight bus to Atlanta, arriving past 5 a.m. for a 3 p.m. puck drop that afternoon.
“That was my welcome to this lifestyle type of thing,” said Brown, 25.
The Belmont High School alum’s amateur hockey career took him all over New England and the Midwest, but it’s unclear where his next professional gig will be. For now, he’s back home in Belmont, working for his uncle’s carpentry business, staying in shape, and communicating with his Massachusetts-based agency, Pro Hockey Consulting, about his next steps.
Brown attended Belmont Public Schools through seventh grade, attended Belmont Hill for two years, then returned to graduate from Belmont High School. Brown played two years at Merrimack College before transferring to Lake Superior State. The 6-foor-two-inch, 223-pound defender scored a goal and collected four assists for the Lakers (11-22-3, 8-16-2 Central Collegiate Hockey Association) in his final college season.
Instead of the normal senior week events at the Lake Superior State campus as it thawed out after a long Michigan winter, Brown spent his spring toiling in nine games with the Stingrays while finishing his bachelor’s degree in business administration, with minors in finance and accounting, online.
Brown traded senior week for competing in crowds upwards of 6,000 at the North Charleston Coliseum & Performing Arts Center; a step up from Lake Superior State’s Taffy Able Arena, which seats about 4,000.
Charleston? Brown “loved it.”
“Playing in South Carolina was amazing,” Brown said. “We were right in downtown Charleston, so it was beautiful. Playing style, speed-wise, it was pretty similar to college, I’d say, just a lot less mistakes on the ice. It’s a little more mature style of hockey.”
The Stingrays, an affiliate of the NHL’s Washington Capitals, released Brown just ahead of the postseason to make room for drop-down players from the American Hockey League (AHL) Hershey Bears. Both sides expressed mutual interest in a return this fall, but the coaching staff changed, and Brown is now on the open market. The timeline remains unclear, but Brown knows he’ll find a new professional hockey home soon.
“I’m kind of just making calls and staying in touch with my agents,” Brown said. “I’m probably trying to sign in the South Division, which is usually where the best competition is. Right now, we’re playing on an ECHL deal and maybe squeak out an AHL camp somewhere.”
And he doesn’t mind a summer at home.
“It’s honestly kind of nice,” Brown said. “Get to come home and get some home-cooked meals. And I don’t have to pay rent.”
