The ‘Five O’s’ method for courting NHL free agents

The term ‘free agent’ is an oxymoron. There’s nothing free about mercenaries who sell their services to the highest bidder. In fact, they are usually the opposite of free, in that they come at a premium. But what if money was taken out of the equation as a differentiator?

That’s exactly the case with free agents who are still subject to the NHL’s entry-level system. These young men are a rare commodity, players under 27 years old whose rights are not held by any NHL team or whose rights have expired for one reason or another. No NHL team can offer them more than the entry-level maximum compensation, so the notion of a bidding war is removed. Unless you factor in tax rates, each team is on an equal footing with respect to what it can offer financially. It is a free market in the truest sense.

Living in Vancouver, it was hard to hear any other hockey news this week amidst the commotion over the Canucks’ signing of KHL free agent Andrei Kuzmenko. At 26, Kuzmenko is likely not the second coming of Artemi Panarin, but he figures to be a good top-nine contributor in the Canucks’ lineup and is a solid signing given that there was no acquisition cost to get the player. Vancouver fans were quick to point to the city’s beautiful scenery, restaurants and other civic attributes as reasons why their team was successful in convincing the young Russian to sign. In my estimation, those things were pretty well down his list. In a typical season of approximately 200 days, a player will only spend half of that in the playing city and half on the road. Most will spend off-seasons in their city or country of origin. So at roughly 100 days per 365, they’re likely to spend just over 25% of their time in the city they will call “home.”

If a city’s views, weather and steakhouse scene are not the biggest considerations when the world is truly their oyster, what do players look for and how do they make their decisions about where to play? From what I have seen, I would call it the Five O’s. ‘O’ as in opportunities. A nice mountain view doesn’t hurt, but if a team can address the Five O’s, their chances of getting a signature on the dotted line are very good.

1. Opportunity to play a meaningful role. The biggest thing any hockey player wants to hear is that the team plans to give him opportunity, be it a top-six or top-nine forward role, top-four ‘D’ role or otherwise. Most teams will embellish a little in this department. After all, it’s a sales pitch. Teams typically don’t know where a player really fits into their lineup until they see him in training camp and preseason, but the player wants to hear that the job is his to lose. Some will undoubtedly take the view that you do what you need to do to win the player first – and give him honesty after the fact. With a player only eligible to sign for one year, though, it’s important to balance the sales job with a certain level of honesty about expectations. A player isn’t likely to re-sign in a city where he was guaranteed power play time only to end up with fourth line minutes. If his expectations are managed, he’ll see it as part of the growth plan.

Every free agent wooing session includes a detailed examination of the team’s depth chart with the free agent prospect and his agent. Not only a discussion of who occupies the spots now, but who may be coming from the AHL and how the team is intending to shape the roster going forward. If the team has a clear vision for where the player fits in, both in the current lineup and as it evolves, the player can project the opportunity for himself beyond the first year of his contract. If you are courting a left winger and he sees two core left wingers in front of him plus a first-line AHL prospect on the way, he may get antsy about his place on the team. This is the biggest reason why the best teams often lose out on college and European free agents. It may be the only time when gaping holes in your roster are a good thing!

2. Opportunity to grow. Coaches are critical in the free agent bid process. Every team will heavily involve its head coach. It’s one thing for a management team to make promises about a player’s opportunity, but the coach makes the on-ice decisions and has to be singing from the same song sheet as the front office. The coach is the one person that will have most to do with the player’s development and growth as a player, not to mention his playing time and usage. The player and his agent may have a sense of the coach by reputation and past examples of free agent deployment, but mostly they are looking to be reassured in the meetings that the player will learn and grow under this coach. If the coach can establish a good rapport and an early trust with the player, it can make all the difference to how he feels about the city.

3. Opportunity for comfort. By this, I’m referring to a player’s opportunity to choose a situation where his transition will be made easier by an existing relationship with friends or past teammates. It’s natural for players to gravitate toward a situation where they have some prior connection with other players or coaches, especially if that connection is a unique one. The Kuzmenko signing in Vancouver would have had a ton to do with the presence of Vasily Podkolzin, a fellow Russian and his former SKA St. Petersburg teammate. A player’s comfort in new surroundings can make all the difference when trying to decide among alternatives , and a friendly face (who speaks the language) is a huge arrow in the quiver of a team trying to hit the bullseye. If a team has that advantage in the process, they will likely pull out all the stops to have that friend or teammate take part in the wooing, directly or indirectly.

Comfort can take other forms, too. For players with families, the family members can often be part of the pitch. You want the player to know that the organization will be there to support not just them, but their spouse and children as well. When you make room at the boardroom table for the player’s wife and four-year old (and supply said four-year old with a custom jersey with dad’s name on the back), it carries weight in the comfort department.

4. Opportunity to play with a star. Players are always intrigued and enticed by the opportunity to play with special players. We used to joke that every free agent being courted by the Edmonton Oilers was told they would play on a line with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl – how many damn linemates can those guys have at one time?! It matters, though. If a young player foresees an opportunity to play with elite-level talent, that is very appealing. Young players revel in star power just like the rest of us do. Sizzle sells! They also know that playing with a star can elevate their game. The only caveat is that if a team has too many stars already, especially at the same position as the free agent, the player may see himself getting lost in the shuffle and not having the opportunity to shine as brightly as he would in an environment where he can have a greater impact. But if you have a star, you have to talk up that opportunity, as usually the free agent will lap it up.

5. Opportunity to win. Every kid dreams of winning the championship. This one is a little further down the list for younger players and higher on the list for older players. Younger players always feel like they have a long career ahead of them and that their team will win it all at some point, so they focus less on this aspect than on their personal opportunity. They just want to see that an organization has the desire to win, and that it has an outline for how that will be achieved at some point. It’s unlikely that a young player will choose a team based solely on how close that team is to winning. An older player who has been in the league a while and seen how hard it is to scale the mountain will prioritize which team is closest to winning all day long.

So those the Five O’s. Sure, a cool dressing room, shiny practice facility and a lavish steak dinner will be impressive elements of the pitch, but at the end of the day, the stuff that matters is what should matter.

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Chris Gear joined Daily Faceoff in January after a 12-year run with the Vancouver Canucks, most recently as the club’s Assistant General Manager and Chief Legal Officer. Before migrating over to the hockey operations department, where his responsibilities included contract negotiations, CBA compliance, assisting with roster and salary cap management and governance for the AHL franchise, Gear was the Canucks’ vice president and general counsel.

Click here to read Gear’s other Daily Faceoff stories.

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The ‘Five O’s’ method for courting NHL free agents

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