As we approach the silly season which is the start of free agency in the NHL it’s time to remember a few things. Some team or GM, usually more than one, will do something that radically shakes the foundations of hockey’s collective sanity. However, there are some lessons that everyone should remember, not just GMs but hockey fans in general.

Sure we can always look back at buyer beware but the biggest point that the smarter minds believe is that GMs can keep themselves out of trouble. I had a bit of an epiphany today while sitting with my son and watching Pawn Stars. You probably know of the show. Recently Marc Andre Fleury appeared on it to verify that it was his autograph on a jersey. Basically it’s a reality show about a pawn shop in Las Vegas that is run by a guy and his son and some fool named ChumLee.

The gist of the show aside from the dumb family stuff is people come in to sell stuff to the pawn shop and the guys at the pawn shop basically give them a reality check on the value of their stuff.

It usually works like this, prospective seller comes in with a widget and a story about it and Rick (the head guy) knows a bit about it and gives some background on the widget and then asks the prospective seller how much they want for it.

“$40,000 is a fair value I think,” and then the inevitable happens.
“Do you mind if I call a friend and have them come down and check this widget out?”
“Sure”.

So then a commercial happens and then the expert shows up and looks at the widget, usually verifying its authenticity, quality, and status before giving a value. Rick then looks at the friend and says, “So what’s the value?”

At that point one of three things happens.

“It’s worth around $60,000”.
“It’s worth around $40,000”.
“It’s worth around $10,000”.

This is when the lesson starts.

Imagine free agent day, July 1st, or for the more significant players the five days prior and an agent is trying to get his player a new deal, he’s selling him really.

He comes into the store/GMs office and says, "I have this guy his name Rick Nash and I’m looking to sell him to you”.

“Okay, I know Rick Nash he was a good goal scorer, a bit one dimensional player but the first super start for the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets. He earned a huge salary and scored some goals but eventually he was traded to the New York Rangers because it was believed he was tired of Columbus and losing and that he could never get the team into the playoffs,” said Rick(the owner). He expounds on about Nash and his history and says, “Yeah I’m interested, so how much do you want for him?”

The agent looks at Rick(the owner) thinking hey, we’re gonna get a deal done here and replies, “6.5 million a year for 3 years, he’s worth as much as Marleau and Kovalchuk right?”

“You know,” says Rick(the owner). “I’m gonna need to check this out, do you mind if I call a friend?”

This is exactly what GMs need to be doing. Call your expert to determine the value of NHL players and how to value them. In all seriousness, that’s not always the GM who does this. The GM is an architect but when it comes to knowing what a player is worth GMs often swing and miss.

If you know the show, you know Rick(the owner) never overpays. So he gets his expert to come in and review Rick Nash and give him a value. In this case his expert says “In this market say 5 million a year for 2 years,” and then they thank each other and the real part of the show begins, the negotiation.

Again this is the part that GMs need to learn from Rick, do not overpay and be prepared to walk away and thank the agent on the way out of the door. So Rick would come back to the agent and say something like this, “You know I need to make sure I cover myself on this, I have to make some money so I’ll give you 3.5 million a year for 2 years,” and so it begins.

The lesson here is that when they (the Pawn Stars) are looking at buying something they don’t overpay. They know exactly where they can make money, i.e. find value. That’s the lesson here for the silly season, paying to get a player is not the same is paying a player to get value. The most important piece is they use someone independent who can establish the value to both parties and then those parties have to agree on a value that makes sense.

The Jets, or any team can learn a ton from this because they are dealing with a salary cap crunch by not holding firm on value. The guys on Pawn Stars are ruthlessly dedicated to only buying at their value not anything more and they let products leave all the time because the risk of sitting on something they can’t sell is too great. That’s what bad contracts are-something you cannot sell to other GMs.


Now that we’re here for the free agent frenzy remember how those guys negotiate and if your team does not get the player you think they need maybe they made the smart move. Maybe they did the smart thing and looked at his value and brought in an expert to figure out what the real value is and the risk to the team by overpaying.

Enjoy the weekend.

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