'I'm selling fun': Arlington Heights man has a major-league passion for minor-league hockey

Ask Barry Soskin to name his favorite all-time Chicago Blackhawks player.

"Besides Keith Magnuson?" he'll answer rhetorically.

That choice tells much about a person.

Magnuson wore his heart and a lot of blood - his and others' - on his sleeve standing up for teammates as a brawling Blackhawks defenseman and team captain in the 1970s.

Despite his point total being a tenth of his 1,442 penalty minutes, respect for Magnuson led the organization to retire his No. 3 jersey five years after his 2003 death in a car crash.

Soskin's reasoning is this: "Who had less talent and made more of it?"

A former recreational-league defenseman who said he was not quite good enough to make the junior teams he tried out for growing up in Rogers Park, as an adult Soskin helps hockey players try to reach their potential.

For more than 30 years Soskin has served as a minor- and junior-league hockey team owner, president, CEO, general manager, volunteer and all-around supporter.

"And scapegoat," he added.

"I probably should sit down and count one day, but I've probably had more than 60, 70 years worth of teams," said Soskin, 66, who for 39 years has lived in the same Arlington Heights home with his wife, Fran.

"I've learned a lot at all of them, which I've tried to take with me everywhere," he said.

Like the old song goes, he means everywhere, man.

Soskin has been affiliated with teams in the East Coast Hockey League, Central Hockey League, United States Hockey League, North American Hockey League, Continental Junior Hockey League, Southeast Hockey League and, currently, the Federal Prospects Hockey League.

His son, Brian, helped the Danville Dashers win the 2017 FPHL title. Former Blackhawks television analyst Eddie Olczyk used to talk about the Waterloo (Iowa) Blackhawks when Barry Soskin had them.

Soskin also has owned a couple Double-A baseball teams and ran collegiate summer leagues in Iowa and Ohio.

This hockey season his teams are the Port Huron Prowlers, the Mississippi Sea Wolves, the Carolina Thunderbirds and in their inaugural seasons, the Blue Ridge Bobcats and the Baton Rouge Zydeco.

All of them play in the A-level Federal Prospects Hockey League.

"My mission statement is, No. 1, to stay in business," Soskin said. "No. 2, to be a platform to move people up to the next level should they so desire."

Soskin's teams have produced National Hockey League players, including Bob Boughner, Phil Crowe, Alex Hicks and Barry Potomski out of the Toledo Storm alone. The Storm was the first franchise Soskin owned, in 1990.

If it doesn't happen on the ice, the goal is to find success in other avenues.

The last three broadcasters for the Winston-Salem franchise, Soskin said, all have been able to land better paying jobs. Retired players will go on to other occupations in hockey organizations, such as sales.

"Not everybody can play in the NHL, but everybody can be a productive member of society," he said.

Through these multiple minor-league franchises Soskin hopes to grow his favorite sport. He has plans to develop "learn to skate" classes and youth hockey programs in Baton Rouge and Winston-Salem, "trying to keep (kids) off the streets," he said.

Though he joked that a good way to make $1 million in minor-league hockey is to start with $2 million, he feels he's got a proven commodity.

"I'm selling fun, that's why people want to get involved," he said.

And with the teams he's got this season, Keith Magnuson would approve.

"The Federal Hockey League finishes their checks," Soskin said.