NHL players receive stipend

Veteran players with their seven-figure salaries were advised more than three years ago to stash away money for the darkness that is this NHL season. Rookies making a fraction of that had less time to create a lockout cushion.

So it makes sense that Sharks forward Niko Dimitrakos was among the first to take advantage of the NHL Players Association’s offer this week of a $10,000 stipend, the first of what could be 24 monthly checks that players can count on.

Dimitrakos earned $450,000 in his first full NHL season and was scheduled to make the same this year. Nice money, of course, but the bottom of the NHL pay scale. He didn’t hesitate to sign up online to tap into the fund.

“It’s going to help pay the bills,” said Dimitrakos, who noted that it will go a lot further in Maine, where he’s now renting a house on a lake, than it would in San Jose. “There’s no fancy shopping there.”