Gear: Everything that happens after a player gets traded
When two General Managers hang up the phone after agreeing to a trade, it may seem like the work is done. It is the culmination of sometimes weeks or months of discussion, crystallized by both sides giving the deal their final blessing. Yet, before the players will actually set foot on the ice for their new teams, a lot of behind-the-scenes work still needs to be done.
In a lot of ways, a team’s work really begins when the trade is completed.
For starters, the deal isn’t finalized until the league holds a trade call to confirm the transaction. Within 30-60 minutes of teams providing the league with notice of trade particulars, a conference call takes place between a senior NHL hockey operations executive and a representative from each team, usually an assistant GM or director of hockey operations.
On the trade call, the league will verify each team’s understanding of the deal and review each affected player’s contract to confirm matters such as the prior payment of any signing bonuses and that consent has been provided for any restrictions on movement that applied. The league will also review the health status of each player and whether there are any pending surgeries or procedures the other team needs to be aware of or agree to take the risk on. They will confirm that any picks exchanged are actually available to be traded and review cap space to ensure the teams have room to accommodate the player(s) they have acquired.
Trade calls are usually a formality, but they can be tricky when it comes to things like salary retention, the question of whether trade protection travels with the player to the new team or the wording of conditions on conditional draft picks. I was involved in one case where there was a bit of a misunderstanding over what the two GMs intended with a condition on a late-round pick, so the call was halted while each side clarified with their respective GM.
People may also remember the 2018 three-way trade that ultimately saw Derick Brassard move from Ottawa to Pittsburgh in exchange for a first-round pick, Ian Cole and Filip Gustavsson, with Ryan Reaves also going from Pittsburgh to Vegas as part of the Knights’ agreement to retain a portion of Brassard’s salary. The NHL initially rejected the terms the teams had agreed upon, so they had to renegotiate the terms and come back to the league for a second trade call to seek approval. It’s rare, but it happens.
At the completion of the call, the league confirms the validity of the trade and sets an announcement time. That is supposed to give each team enough time to contact the affected players and to collaborate on a press release before making the deal public. Usually, the teams can keep a lid on the deal until they have advised the players. After that, the players call their agents, family and friends and all bets are off. It then becomes a race to issue a press release before the trade has been announced by a flurry of people on social media.
Once the players have been advised of their new lots in life, it’s important for teams to distribute the messaging about a trade internally. You don’t want your organization, and in particular your extended hockey ops staff, hearing about a trade in the media. It can make them feel disengaged, unappreciated and like they aren’t integral parts of the machine. A quick email or group text to your hockey staff before the deal goes public is a worthwhile investment in morale, cohesiveness and buy-in, even if there is always some small risk that a staff member leaks the news before the release is ready.
Bringing your PR and content team into the loop is also required, and the earlier the better. At the Canucks, we used to confide in our director of communications and director of content a few days before the deadline which trade targets we were pursuing or which players might be on the way out, so that they could be ready with statements, graphics and video clips regarding incoming players and/or thank you messaging to outgoing players. Even months before the deadline, there would be some discussion with the marketing and retail merchandise departments on which players to focus on in an ad or billboard campaign versus which players might not be staying long-term. The last thing your business team wants is to spend thousands of dollars erecting a building banner featuring a player that won’t be around 30 days after they spend that money – or to have hundreds of jerseys in inventory emblazoned with the name and number of a player you might ship off to a new city. While there have to be secrets and discretion in hockey operations, a certain amount of pulling on the same rope with your colleagues makes the entire operation run smoother.
The equipment staff is another key group to kick into high gear once the trade occurs. They will pack up the equipment for an outgoing player, make arrangements to have items shipped to the player at his home or new city and start preparing the kit to be worn by the new player, including finding out the player’s skate size, preferred (or sponsored) equipment brands and their number of choice and then sewing on a new name bar and number on home and away jerseys. It’s not always as easy as going to the other team’s dressing room to find the new player and his equipment, as the Canucks were able to do when they traded for Daily Faceoff’s Mike McKenna while the team was in Ottawa and McKenna and Anders Nilsson simply swapped dressing rooms!
Team services staff also jump into action, ensuring a new player’s travel is booked, arranging temporary accommodation and car rental, securing new immigration permits if the player has to cross a border, making school inquiries for any children a player may have, and making a whole host of arrangements that will assist the player with their welcome and adjustment to their new surroundings.
Team doctors and training staff will need to co-ordinate with the player’s former team to understand the player’s medical history, any current rehabilitation protocols, allergies and other items that might be important to the player’s health.
If the player is a high-profile addition, the marketing, social media, retail, ticketing and community relations teams will all get briefed on the player’s impact and what it may mean from a business and sales perspective.
In short, it takes a village, and there are so many people beyond the hockey-operations group that help make it all happen, once it has happened, so to speak. When the clock winds down on the trade deadline, a weary hockey ops staff finally gets to relax. For others, the clocks are just starting to tick.