By Matt Higgins
BUFFALO — Erik Burgdoerfer was two rungs below the N.H.L., riding buses from Bakersfield, Calif., to Boise, Idaho, and spending the night in Econo Lodge hotels as the Bakersfield Condors slid further down the ECHL standings. This was three seasons ago, when Burgdoerfer played defense for the Condors and the team was off to a 1-10-0-1 start.
His coach, Troy Mann, had given up a job as an assistant for the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League. Mann’s assistant Ryan Murphy had left a career in finance to return to hockey’s minor leagues.
Burgdoerfer, a 6-foot-2, 210-pounder who was undrafted out of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was about to turn 25, a time when, he said, “there’s a little saying: ‘You turn from a prospect to suspect.’”
Last week, days after turning 28, Burgdoerfer said, “Those are the times when you’re playing AA, two leagues away from where you want to be, and you’ve got to really work.”
For four days this month, Burgdoerfer was where he wanted to be.
He made his N.H.L. debut for the Buffalo Sabres in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Washington Capitals on Dec. 5. After setbacks, doubts and 429 regular-season games in the minor leagues, in places like Bakersfield; Oklahoma City; and Charleston, S.C., Burgdoerfer had finally gotten an N.H.L. call-up. He averaged 11 minutes 10 seconds of ice time and had no penalties over two games, including a 4-3 overtime win over the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 6.
Two days later, with two defensemen returning from injury, Buffalo returned him to the Rochester Americans of the A.H.L.
Burgdoerfer was not nearly the oldest player to make his N.H.L. debut. Connie Madigan, who was known as Mad Dog and had a cameo in the cult hockey film “Slap Shot,” was a 38-year-old journeyman defenseman when he joined the St. Louis Blues during the 1972-73 season. On Tuesday, Pat Cannone made his N.H.L. debut at age 30 with the Minnesota Wild.
But in a league that is trending younger and in which teams increasingly rebuild through the draft, “anybody 26, 27 to see their debuts is highly unlikely, even though he’s still a young man at 27 years old,” Mann, Burgdoerfer’s coach with Bakersfield, said.
Although Burgdoerfer’s time in the N.H.L. was brief and mostly unremarkable, Sabres Coach Dan Bylsma said he had served as a lesson in determination and resilience for prospects in the organization. And Burgdoerfer’s story — a common one in hockey, current and former teammates said — epitomizes the challenges of making it: how for all but the most celebrated prospects, getting a crack at the N.H.L. involves an odyssey.
Bylsma was 25 when he made his N.H.L. debut in 1995 as a Los Angeles Kings right wing after 200 games in the minors. He said he identified with Burgdoerfer “really closely.”
“I think that’s a great story, a story of the dues and the price you do have to pay to play our game at the highest level,” Bylsma said.
For two games, at least, Burgdoerfer body-checked N.H.L. opponents and was spell-checked by sportswriters. He met the Sabres in Washington, where a car was waiting at the airport to take him to the Ritz-Carlton. He learned the nuances of N.H.L. play.
“It’s more of a cerebral game,” he said. “You have more time with the puck, but you have to make the right play. Any mistakes that are made are definitely amplified.”
He learned about himself.
“You’ve worked all these years to say you’ve played in the N.H.L.,” he said. “Now it’s switched to now I want to be a full-time N.H.L. player.”
He learned from a fan that “Burgdoerfer,” in German, can mean “mountain village dweller.”
Burgdoerfer grew up in East Setauket on Long Island. He arrived at Rensselaer at 17, and even in his junior season worried about being scratched from the lineup.
“I think my road helped me learn and value day-to-day competition, fighting for your job, fighting for your dream,” he said.
After graduating with a degree in business, he gave himself three seasons to make it in the pros, taking internships in New York during summers to keep his résumé fresh. In his fourth season, he met Mann, who persuaded Burgdoerfer to stick around Bakersfield for another year.
“One of the things I told Burgy from my experience,” said Mann, who spent 11 seasons playing in the minors for 15 teams and never got an N.H.L. call-up, “maybe I held on a little too long, but people around me kept saying, ‘If you’re making an O.K. living, enjoying yourself and still have passion to play, just play till you really don’t feel you’re good enough to play anymore because there’s a lifetime of something else after that.’”
For Mann, who had a degree in education from the University of Toronto to fall back on, the next phase meant coaching.
After the brutal start to their first season together in Bakersfield, Mann called an emergency meeting. The Condors completed a turnaround, qualifying for the conference finals.
With winning came advancement. The next season, Mann was hired as the coach of Hershey, of the A.H.L., and he invited Burgdoerfer to training camp, where he earned a contract.
“I think the biggest thing with guys like Burgy is high character, and his work ethic was tremendous,” Mann said. “He had the size and pretty good skill for a stay-at-home defenseman.”
Last season, the Bears qualified for the Calder Cup finals, the A.H.L.’s championship round, in which they were swept by the Lake Erie Monsters. Again, winning helped Burgdoerfer get a contract, this time a deal with the Sabres.
Burgdoerfer’s promotion offered another lesson for Mann.
The Bears are 3 points out of first place in the A.H.L.’s Eastern Conference, and Mann is 47, below the average age of an N.H.L. head coach.
“Hopefully myself being one of those guys who haven’t given up over the years, in terms of battling it out at the lower levels and coaching here in Hershey,” Mann said, “and hopefully the N.H.L. is to come in the not-too-distant future.”