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For former Crimson forward Mike Taylor ’08, the decision to pursue professional hockey after graduation came abruptly. After NHL teams passed on him through his final year of draft eligibility, Taylor did not plan on continuing his career after Harvard until late in his senior year.

But after encouragement from Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91, Taylor signed during his senior spring with the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League, where he would play for two years with affiliates of the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes.

“For some it’s pure love of the game, for others it’s the fear of not having hockey in their life,” Taylor says. “You either have to have the complete mindset that this is what I want to do, and completely commit yourself to it, or just love it and [not] want to do anything else.”

The world of professional sports is one not uncommon to those who have played under the lights at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center.

Twenty-seven Harvard men’s hockey alumni have played in the NHL. However, many more Crimson graduates, like Taylor, have continued their careers elsewhere with minor league affiliates and other professional teams.

For Taylor, the decision to pursue a professional career didn’t come easy.

“Playing professionally wasn’t necessarily something I had set my hopes and dreams on,” Taylor says. “I had realistic expectations, and if the opportunity came, I was probably going to see where it would lead me, but that didn’t really come until my senior year when the season ended.”

The transition to college hockey was a smooth one for Taylor, who won a conference tournament and appeared in two NCAA tournaments during his freshman and sophomore years in Cambridge. The path to professional hockey was a more difficult one—particularly for an undrafted prospect.

“People tell you that it doesn’t matter if you’re drafted, [that] you still have the opportunity,” Taylor says. “But after going through it, there’s definitely more of an emphasis placed on the players who are drafted.”

For undrafted players, just earning a tryout with an NHL affiliate can be a demanding process. For Taylor, there were no inscribed invitations.

“I went undrafted, [and] then I was just going to basically see how the rest of my career played out,” Taylor says. “I was open to the opportunity [of minor league hockey], but it wasn’t at the top of my list.”

After a few teams showed interest in Taylor during a standout senior season, the opportunity seemed to be a bit more reachable. Following an overtime loss to Boston College in the Beanpot final, Taylor took the first step to play in the minors. He called a scout from the New York Rangers on the recommendation of Donato, who had played with the Rangers for a season.

“[Donato] thought that would be a good fit for me from an organizational standpoint,” Taylor says. “It ended up working out when I got an amateur tryout with the Hartford Wolf Pack.”

Taylor cites his tryout with the Wolf Pack as one of the tougher steps in making it into the minor leagues. The process did not end at the tryout, however, as he continued to compete for major roster spots with players in whom NHL teams had already invested scouting resources.