First of all, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and seeing as how I’m in Canada, a Happy Boxing Day. Just a few minutes ago, I walked back into my hotel room after another long but productive day in Toronto. The last few days have flown by and I’m starting to think that my original itinerary might have to be amended. With 59 teams at the Bantam Major level alone, it’s impossible for me to see all the hockey I want to in just three days. Even with me eating all my meals at the rink bar and grill, there always seems to be another game I want to catch. I don’t like to base my evaluations on only one game, so once I see some potential from a player, I always want to see him play again. Thus, while I originally planned on staying only through Monday, I’m currently in the process of scouring Priceline.com for a hotel room for tomorrow night. No luck so far, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

This being my first real scouting trip of my young career, I’ve quickly realized how valuable the internet can be when it comes to booking travel. Anyone who’s ever spoke with an agent has probably heard about the stories about how when they first started, they had to spend nights on the road alone in dump motel rooms because $40 a night was all they could afford. Thanks to the power of William Shatner and his price-kicking ways, I was able to book a hotel room at a Marriott Courtyard for that same price. For any of you that might be looking into booking a cost-effective recruiting trip, I definitely recommend you check out Priceline, Orbitz, and the other online booking sites.

When I’m in the rinks for these 12+ hour workdays, watching games isn’t all that I’m doing. These big tournaments are the best opportunity for an agent to network with scouts from the major junior and college clubs. I’ve definitely noticed a huge increase in the number of scouts here compared to the Bauer Invite, and I’ve been doing my best to take advantage of it. You might be wondering how I can decipher which spectators are scouts versus agents, but it’s almost humorous how easily identifiable we make ourselves. Every scout I’ve come across so far has been proudly sporting their official league jacket donned with their team’s logo. In contrast, every agent I’ve run into has been dressed, well, like an agent. To this point I’ve been limiting my contact with the other player reps at the tournament but whenever I’ve noticed a scout in the area, I’ve looked for a good opportunity to strike up a conversation.

Just this morning, I was lucky enough to run into one in my hotel lobby after I finished up an early morning run on the treadmill. At the rink itself, usually it’s just as simple as sitting next to one for a while and watching the same game. Eventually you’re bound to come up with something good to talk about. Now for the most part, major junior and college teams aren’t looking at the Bantam Major players yet since they’re not going to be eligible for the OHL Priority Selection until the Spring of 2011. Nevertheless, I want to build some relationships here, so just getting my name out is a good step in the right direction. In addition, it never hurts to get your players some exposure, even if scouts won’t take the time to watch them now.

In addition to establishing some connections with scouts, I’ve also been spending my time up here meeting with some parents to explain what I and my company can do for a young amateur player. Besides merely educating them on what players can expect as they begin to near eligibility for the major juniors though, I’m also selling myself. Advising a player is about building trust so that when and if he eventually turns pro, he can feel confident knowing that I will be a good agent and person overall. As a result of some of these discussions, it looks like I’ll be advising at least one new player and hopefully there will be a few more to follow in the coming weeks.

Tomorrow and possibly Tuesday will be spent following up on some leads that have developed over the last 48 hours. Moscow Dynamo sent their Midget Minor squad over and I was able to speak with some of the parents and players after their first game. My decision to take three years of Russian in college is definitely paying off. Not only was I the only person at the facility that had the ability to converse with the team, my doing so definitely got me some attention from others who overheard. This naturally struck up a few side conversations which in turn gave me more opportunities to promote myself and my company. Anyway, it turns out that most of the Dynamo players and parents know a few of my Russian friends from back in my playing days. They all seemed very intrigued and excited about the connection and I’m going to continue to make myself very visible with this group.  Dynamo plays two games tomorrow and right now they’re both on my schedule.

Besides the Russians though, I’ve remained close with a few Ontario teams, so I’ll be sure to be in attendance at each of their respective contests for the day. I realize that by sticking close with only a handful of clubs after the first two days, I might be missing some talent elsewhere. As I said before though, I can only see so many games in a given day and in my opinion it’s much more efficient giving 100% to five teams than giving 25% to ten (I have no clue where I came up with those numbers but I’m exhausted right now and math is definitely not on the menu).

Well it’s time for me to start updating my stats for tomorrow’s games so this is where I have to let you go. Next week I’ll recap the remainder of my stay in Toronto and discuss where I’m going to go from there. Until then, I hope you all have a terrific and safe New Years…time to hit the showers.

As I’m sure you can gather, I’ve still yet to receive a contract offer from Louisiana for Matt. The good news is that Matt was able to get on the ice for the last few days and his shoulder has held up pretty well. I’ve talked to him pretty much every day he’s been down there and it sounds as though he’s been skating well, too. While his health and solid on-ice performances help to ease a lot of the tension surrounding the situation, I still just want to get him on this team and move on already.

Yesterday in Louisiana, the team had the day off. Most of the guys went out to the local shopping mall while others were at the hotel packing – a second wave of cuts had just been made. Matt hasn’t really been getting much information from the coaching staff down there, but I suppose at this point no news is good news. With the team having its first game this coming Thursday, though, I would imagine we’re going to hear something very soon. In fact, I’m going to be calling the GM in just about an hour, so maybe we’ll get something good then.

In other news, recently I met up with and had lunch with another player who might be looking for an agent. His name is actually Matt also, and he heard about me from my Russian “brother,” Oleg. At first, when Matt asked if he could have lunch or dinner with me some night to discuss his options, naturally I was a little skeptical – I mean I had never heard of the kid before or seen him play. But realizing that I was going to eventually have to pitch myself and my company to “can’t miss” prospects, I figured I’d go and get some good experience. Worst case scenario, I waste an hour of my day…and I need to eat lunch somewhere right?

The one major difference between the two Matts and their situations is that the Matt that I recently had lunch with hasn’t played in college yet. Seeing as how the NCAA is a group you don’t want to find yourself in trouble with, I decided to play this one very carefully. First off, I bought a digital voice recorder to bring along with me at our meeting. I figure that by recording the entire conversation, if the NCAA ever comes at me or Matt for violating regulations I can always produce the tape. Next, I wanted to be very upfront with Matt in explaining that I couldn’t buy his lunch or agree to represent him until he was absolutely sure that he didn’t want to play hockey at the NCAA level. His eligibility is important and is something can easily be lost. Instead, I let Matt know that I’d be there to answer any questions for him and try to advise him the best that I could. Matt explained that he wanted to play NCAA DI eventually but needed to get his grades up first. Naturally, I told him that I thought that would be a good idea.

Before I go any further, I should probably point out one thing (or I guess another thing) about hockey that makes it a lot different from other sports like football, basketball, or baseball. With hockey, if a player has the talent and makeup of a potential NHL star, he probably won’t be suiting up for a North American university any time soon. Instead, most of the players who make it to the show get drafted straight from Canadian Junior Hockey leagues like the Ontario Hockey League (the “O”), the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (the “Q”), and the Western Hockey League. Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, Rick Nash, and hundreds of other current and former NHL players are all products of Canadian Major Junior Hockey. And while there are always a few NHL Draft picks playing in the annual NCAA Frozen Four, most of these players were selected before they began their collegiate career. Just as it is with baseball, entering the draft doesn’t compromise a hockey player’s NCAA eligibility.

Anyway, as I was saying, my meeting with Matt wasn’t really an attempt to get a new client – it was more of an opportunity to further develop my ability to sell. With this year’s hockey season officially underway, hundreds of potential stars out there, and all the competition I can handle, I’m going to need all the practice I can get.

As always if and when I get some up-to-date information regarding Matt’s contract status I’ll be sure to post it to my Twitter page at www.twitter.com/scott_deady.

Today there are almost 7 billion people in the world. When I was a kid, there were 5 billion.  It’s hard to keep up.

In Windsor, Ontario, a 17-year-old kid named Taylor Hall registered 90 points in 63 games in the Ontario Hockey League. You will see a kid named Cam Fowler next year in the World Junior Championships.  Next June, teams will be falling all over themselves to sign Kirill Kabanov of Moscow, Russia in the next NHL Draft.

Believe me, there’s genius everywhere but until they turn pro, it’s like popcorn in the pan – some pop, some don’t. Now I’m the guy you don’t usually see. I’m the one behind the scenes. My name is Scott Deady, and I’m the sports agent.

Most of you reading this probably picked up the Jerry Maguire rip by the end of the second sentence. If you could tell by the end of the first, I can’t decide if I’m impressed or if I just feel bad for you. After the release of the film Jerry Maguire, it seemed as though every third person’s goal was to work in the sports industry – most people specifically wanting to be the guy yelling, “Show me the money!” And who wouldn’t want to work in sports after seeing Jerry work the hotel lobby like he did? It painted a picture where the life of an agent was sexier than that of the professional athlete himself. But the truth is that life as a sports agent, while certainly providing its share of perks, isn’t all that the film makes it out to be. Long hours, consistent rejection, and often feeling like nothing more than a babysitter all come with the territory. However these issues are rarely understood by those not working directly in the sports industry. That’s what I’m here for – to show you what life as a sports agent is really like.

Recently, I accepted a position with a sports agency as the Director of a newly formed hockey division. Before I came on board, the agency represented players from both the NFL and CFL, as well as a handful of other athletes. My company was looking to venture into another sport, and ice hockey interested them. That’s where I came in. As the Director of the Hockey Division, my duties include scouting and recruiting throughout Russia and North America, as well as procuring performance contracts and endorsement deals for, and handling the personal issues of, our hockey clients.

Now you might ask how a 25-year-old, with no real world experience, secures a position directing a division of a sports agency that already represents talent at the highest professional level. To be honest, I’d say it was a combination of about 75% hard work and careful planning mixed in with around 25% good timing. Or maybe it was more like 50/50 hard work and just being lucky…feel free to make your own assessment. But regardless of my “winning formula,” my path to where I am today all began while growing up playing club hockey in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois.

During my senior year of high school, my club team – the Downers Grove Huskies – competed in an annual international tournament known as the Tretiak Cup. For the two weeks the visiting foreign teams spent in the United States, my family agreed to host two Russian players from the Red Army Hockey Club in our home. The two assigned to us were Dmitry Shitikov (current forward for Moscow Dynamo of the Kontinental Hockey League) and Sergei Shirokov (drafted at #163 overall by the Vancouver Canucks in 2006 and the most recent Russian player to enter the heated NHL-KHL battle over players’ contract rights, and pictured, right). After getting to know and becoming very close with Sergei and Dima (Dima is a common Russian nickname for Dmitry), I decided that I wanted nothing more than to represent professional hockey players, specifically desiring to help underprivileged Russian players reach the ultimate goal of the NHL. Now that I knew where I wanted my life to go, I needed a plan to help get me there.

After high school, I went on to play hockey for Ohio University, where I would graduate in 2006 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication. While at OU, I studied Russian for three years and in the summer of 2005 I obtained a position in the prestigious internship program of IMG at their home office in Cleveland, Ohio. Throughout the years, I kept in contact with my Russian friends and upon graduation from OU, I traveled to Moscow for two weeks to visit them. By that time, I had committed to law school at Ohio Northern University after turning down an offer from Marquette University’s College of Law – one of the top institutions for those pursuing a career in sports law.  While ONU didn’t have a reputation as being a top law school, they were offering me substantial scholarship money. In retrospect, the decision to attend Northern ended up being possibly the best decision of my life – the founder of my firm was also an ONU Law graduate and last Fall a few of my now partners came to our campus to speak. Fortunately, I attended the Friday afternoon presentation and afterwards I approached the group, telling my story and explaining my basic career plan. They seemed intrigued and so I remained in contact with them through my third year of law school. Eventually I asked if we could meet at their home office to discuss the viability of a hockey division, and a week before graduation I flew out to California to present the extensive 40-page business plan I had developed over the previous six months. After several days of meetings, I was offered, and I eagerly accepted, my current position.

Now before making the connection with my current firm, I had sent my resume to practically every agent certified by the NHLPA and PHPA (Professional Hockey Players’ Association) looking for an opportunity to show what I could do.  The overall response from my efforts was discouraging at best, and I was beginning to realize that I might have to do this on my own. I read some books written by and about sports agents looking for any insight as to what the best route to success was. Unfortunately, most of those out there give only a brief glance at how the agent got his start. But what I really craved was an understanding of the day-to-day challenges facing an agent new to the industry. I wanted to know exactly what I was about to face and what I needed to do to really make it in such a competitive environment. The idea of this column is to give readers precisely what I was looking for – a glimpse into my daily life as a new sports agent. I’ll be posting new entries weekly and by reading, you can follow me from the beginning – sharing both the ups and downs in my pursuit to make a big splash in the hockey community.

While my company certainly provides me with the structural and financial support that many newcomers to the sports business community don’t have, there are still innumerable obstacles left to be overcome. Hopefully by reading this column, you’ll be able to replicate some of my moves that work, steer away from decisions that don’t, and better set yourself up for success in an extremely competitive industry. Even if not pursuing a career in sports, getting a peak behind the scenes can shed light on a lot of issues on the field or ice that otherwise might go unnoticed or be misunderstood. And who knows – by authoring this maybe I’ll learn a thing or two about myself as well.

For family advisors of hockey players, this decision presents a balancing of factors: quality of hockey, education, proximity to home, coaching, development physically and mentally, exposure to NHL scouts, etc. Cut and dry, the major junior leagues develop more National Hockey League players than the NCAA. The table below, taken from this article, is a little outdated but gives you the idea…

NCAA vs. Major Junior: 1990-2001

League Picks Made NHL Rate 3 Years Rate

OHL          583           269           46.1%     106      18.2%

WHL         570           266           46.7%     111      19.5%

QMJHL    305            140           45.9%     58        19.0%

NCAA       291           124            42.6%     52       17.9%

Many times the main concern for the player’s family is education. This is where the NCAA has the upper hand. The major junior leagues, realizing they are competing for talented players and needing to fill the seats, offer their own scholarship program in which they pay for players to attend Canadian universities. The three leagues will provide around $2.6M in scholarships this year. That seems like a lot, but not when you consider that only 32% of players take advantage of the scholarship program and the money is cut off after 18 months of the player leaving major juniors.

But what do NHL scouts think? Here’s another excerpt from the article linked above:

So, is there a difference on draft day?

“No,” said Calgary Flames director of scouting Todd Button with a laugh. “How’s that for a simple answer? There’s good players in both leagues, and where you choose to hone your craft it doesn’t really matter.”

And here’s what Nashville Predators chief amateur scout, Jeff Kealty, had to say:

“From a strength and physical maturity standpoint, yes, the college players can be physically stronger,” said Kealty. “They’re older and they don’t play as many games, so they have more time to workout and develop physically.”

“But, on the flip side, the junior kids are playing more games, there’s more travel, there’s a longer training camp and preseason, the playoffs are different and each round is seven games. So there’s benefits to both sides of it. The college kids can be a little bit older coming out, but there’s certainly elements on both sides of the ledger that can benefit players and prepare them in different ways.”

So while major junior teams produce more NHL players (and more elite NHL players), NHL teams don’t let the league a kid is playing in determine whether or not they will draft him. My opinion, and one that is not often pointed out in blogs and newspapers, is that major juniors is really for kids who develop physically at an earlier age. College hockey is usually a better route for players who need a couple more years to develop.

As a family advisor, my approach is similar to that of the informed consent standard for doctors- lay out all the information the family could possibly need to make the decision, and let them make the call. Some agents/advisors favor one road or the other. I favor whatever path that the player will put the most effort and passion into.

Mike Danton

Danton made it to the National Hockey League after a few average seasons in the Ontario Hockey League.  He was drafted by the New Jersey Devils in 2000 following a stand-out season in his final year of major junior.  Although Danton did garner 87 points in 58 games in his final year of major junior, he knew his role on the ice: a tough guy grinder who was crucial to his team’s momentum on the ice.  Danton excelled in his first season of professional hockey in the American Hockey League, so it’s no surprise his mix of grit and goal-scoring potential found him a spot on an NHL roster.  His last season of hockey was in 2003-2004 with the St. Louis Blues, still just 23 years old.  He was an important role player for the Blues as evidenced by this scrap with the Too Too Train (ew) (you’ll notice Danton go nuts at the end because, big surprise, Tootoo throws a cheap shot).

It would be easy to say the house of cards began to fall when he was convicted of a murder-for-hire plot to kill Frost, but I think it started far earlier than that.  A mix of a weak family structure and strong manipulation by Frost resulted in Frost gaining control of Danton’s life in a way that had an extremely detrimental psychological effect on Danton.  Just four years after being drafted into the NHL, Danton found himself in U.S. federal prison.

This is where the story begins to turn around though.  Just like he was on the ice, Danton is fighting to get his life back on track.  The Calgary Herald documented his time in prison.  Prison officials described him as a “model inmate” and “an incredible asset.”  Assuming Ontario grants him full parole, I’m not sure what to expect.  He’s made it clear that he wants return to hockey.  But there’s only one reason I’m worried for Danton in his journey back to the ice: Frost’s presence.  The very fact that Frost is commenting publicly on Danton’s return is concerning.  The Herald story quotes Frost: “Frost said Tuesday night he fully supports Danton, who he said is ‘anxious to get his career back on track.’”  And Danton seems to allude to Frost by saying, “I’ve worked really hard on being the best I can be, but, in actuality, this (prison) is detrimental for me. I’m away from my support network, and here I am in a place where your only connections are criminal.”  One can only hope said support network Danton refers to isn’t Frost.  There isn’t much more that can be said about Frost’s status as an agent.  He isn’t even allowed at Phoenix’s facilities anymore.  Let’s hope Danton, and all young hockey players, steer clear of Frost.

I believe that it was a bad decision for Tavares to fire his agent and sign his mom. John, if you are reading this, you should hire me because not only have I worked in the banking system (well, I deposited money once so I guess that counts), but I can also act as a lifeguard if your mom lets you have a pool party, or give you extremely basic knowledge on criminal or constitutional law. No? Well, it was worth a shot. No word on if in addition to helping him prepare for the NHL and finding sponsorship, she will continue to cook dinners and make brownies for him. All the best to John and his mom, I’ve missed having a strong mothering presence at sporting events since Vince Carter and his mom went to New Jersey.