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NHL to talk to teams about tampering (the GMs)

Gaylord Q Tinkledink

Gaylord Q Tinkledink

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Apr 29, 2018
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Per 32 thoughts, the NHL is looking to talk to the teams about tampering, mainly because it's rather obvious that this is out there.

He goes on to talk about the possible fines teams and individual people will face.

Talked about how they don't want players to do that, either.

At the GM meetings they were warned and now Something more formal about it.

A person can face a fine up to 1 million.

33:20 mark is where it starts on the newest podcast, released today November 28th.
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Elliotte added just as he was about to go on vacation he heard the NHL didn't like how free agency went.

I guess because a lot of the signings came out and the hype/excitement/intrigue came and went in a few hours.

Personally, wouldn't be surprised to have no one at the higher, or probably even mid level of interest to be signed until later, so maybe a few hours.

However, this might be a way to get some more rights traded before the kick off of free agency.

Should just bring back that legal tampering period.

FrozenJagrt said:
Didn't they announce a couple years back that teams could talk to pending free agents a week before July 1? I could have sworn they did. It was obvious it was happening anyway
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They did, then got rid of it.
 
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I say let UFAs negotiate as soon as their team is eliminated. This is obviously happening, so just make it transparent

You'd lose trades for negotiating rights but who cares?
 
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ACC1224 said:
I don't think you can stop players talking to each other, that's how most of the 'tampering' occurs.
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There’s also the fact that agents work with several players causing them to be in contact with management from several teams …

It’s not like Team A is calling Player X out of the blue. Team A talks with Player X’s agent as a normal course of business because the team has negotiating rights to another of that agent’s players… and that conversation obviously exposes what the team’s needs and spending plans are, and the agent’s job is to find his clients opportunities…
 
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GeeoffBrown said:
I say let UFAs negotiate as soon as their team is eliminated. This is obviously happening, so just make it transparent

You'd lose trades for negotiating rights but who cares?
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Not too sure when players get their last paycheck. I’m guessing it’s around their last regular season game. So if a guy is a UFA and his club is out of the playoffs it makes sense he could negotiate with other teams from that point.

tmg said:
There’s also the fact that agents work with several players causing them to be in contact with management from several teams …

It’s not like Team A is calling Player X out of the blue. Team A talks with Player X’s agent as a normal course of business because the team has negotiating rights to another of that agent’s players… and that conversation obviously exposes what the team’s needs and spending plans are, and the agent’s job is to find his clients opportunities…
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Exactly! If a club wants to keep their UFAs then get them extended before the end of the regular season. Or those UFAs will look for the best fit and money elsewhere.
 
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ACC1224 said:
I don't think you can stop players talking to each other, that's how most of the 'tampering' occurs.
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The obvious thing is that players from different teams share the same agent and agents and GMs are communicating constantly.

I think that if you take any random NHL team and the GM is talking to only the agents of players that are on their own team, they will also be talking to the agents of most other NHL players, because they are the same guys.
 
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There is one and only one problem with this


ALL TEAMS ARE DOING AND THE PLAYERS AND THEIR AGENTS ARE HAPPY TO DO IT.
 
It’s hard not to wonder to what degree the extremely stagnant cap recently was creating a scenario of musical chairs leading to a greater incentive to do this.
 
I don't know how it all works, but as several have already pointed out - even if GMs and their front offices are not the ones in direct communication with a player, how does the NHL discipline a middleman agent?
  • We know players obviously talk amongst themselves.
  • We know several players on different teams may likely be represented by the same agent or agency.
  • We know GMs speak with agents.
Obviously GMs and players have contracts with anti-tampering clauses.

But do agencies have to have a contract with the NHL/play by the NHL's rules, or are they technically independent arbitrating parties representing the players' interests? Can the NHL blacklist an agency?
 
Probably just time to admit it happens and let it be. Don’t be the league that chases its tail and never catches it. You’ll never remove tampering from professional sports.
 
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Teams have over a year to resign their players. If they can’t get a deal done, players find one elsewhere. I don’t see the issue here.
 
Tampering has always occurred. I remember all the deals that used to get signed on July 1 even before the league started allowing a courting period prior to free agency. Like there's no way that big contracts could come together so quickly without pre-existing talks.

I don't see a solution to it, and quite frankly, I didnt think the issue should rank all that high on the list of league issues.

As long as you are not hearing about players already deciding where to go while they are still playing games, I don't really think about it.
 
"Tampering" of this sort has always been going on. All this means is one or more of the GMs did something specific that Gary doesn't like and/or couldn't control.
 
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