32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Jamie Bozzo: Managing Players’ Careers

Episode Date: October 19, 2020

Sports Professional Management Inc. represents some big names in hockey, including William Nylander, Johnny Gaudreau, Torey Krug and Brandon Saad, and has a total value of active contracts that exceeds $222 million. Jamie Bozzo handles client relationships for SPM, dealing with players and their families on all kinds of specialized scenarios. She joins Jeff and […]

That's some good stuff. Welcome once again to a, how do we call this, Elliot? Bonus edition of 31 Thoughts, the podcast. Jamie Bozzo is someone you should know if you don't already. She works client relations for SPM, that is Lewis Gross' agency. And she kind of does, I don't want to say everything because I don't want to insult lewis gross like that but she does everything for lewis gross elliot the phrase i use is that she's his brain i first met her i believe during the world cup of hockey and then i ran into her once and we kind of talk about it in the interview

she was in town uh when the flames were were in Toronto and she was meeting with Johnny Goudreau. And I started talking with her a little bit about, she didn't want to give a lot of it away. Mind your own business, get lost. I'm talking to my client. It's none of your business. Go away.

Don't ask me anything about it. But at times, we've kind of talked about her role and what she does. And I just thought it was interesting. I was thinking about free agency and everything that was going on and what a whirlwind it is. And they've had some pretty high profile situations in the past few years. Tori Krug here, Willie Nylander a year ago, Brandon Saad, one of their clients just got traded. Goodrose in the middle few years. Torrey Krug here, Willie Nylander a year ago, Brandon Saad,

one of their clients just got traded. Goodrose in the middle of rumors. We don't know what Calgary is going to do. And I just thought it was a fun conversation to have about what exactly the job entails, what kinds of things you have to deal with because when we think about agents, a lot of us probably think of Ari Gold from Entourage or Jeff, people who are close to our age think about Ar a lot of us probably think of Ari Gold from Entourage or Jeff people who are

close to our age think about Arliss which was a pretty popular HBO show about I guess 20 years ago you know these are the kinds of things that I think people wonder about is it really like this you know I brought it up to her actually a few weeks ago. And she said, after free agency, she said, let's get us through that first. So, you know, Krug saw it. Hopefully that makes the interview better. And here she is. This was a lot of fun. And not only was it a lot of fun, it was really educational as well.

Understanding what agents do for their clients. All we think is, hey, player X got traded or hey, player X signed, and then magically they appear on their new team. But there's a lot of work that goes in from getting them to their old team, to their new team, or from their old contract to their new one. Here's how with Jamie Bozzo of SPM. Elliot, I'm always curious about job descriptions because sometimes the actual job description on a business card sounds good. Oh, that's one for the yearbook, Jim. But then what they actually do is even more interesting.

And Jamie Bozzo, who joins us from SPM, is in client relations. It's been described to me as Jamie is Lewis Gross's fixer, works with Lewis Gross, is Lewis Gross's brain. Jamie Bozzo joins us here on 31 Thoughts, the podcast. So Jamie, in my pretentious way of framing this interview, I am curious about what you do for a living. Client relations is a pretty wide-brushed statement. What is it that you do, Jamie? Wow. Okay. What do I that you do, Jamie? Wow. Okay, what do I do? I guess I would say a little bit of everything

from contract work behind the scenes to helping players when they get traded. We recently had a player traded over the weekend, so we've kind of been dealing with that. But pretty much everything. I know that's kind of a wide term, but there's a lot that goes into, you know, this not, it's all the behind the scenes stuff that not everybody sees. This is great. So all of Lewis Gross's secrets will be spilled out here in a couple of moments. And just so our audience has an idea of who the players are that

Jamie is talking about. I mean, some of the more high profile players, Torrey Krug, William Nylander, Brandon Sod, you mentioned a player that was traded and Johnny Goudreau. Elliot, I'll hand it over to you. So Jamie, before we go into some of the stories, I'm more interested in your route. You know, there's a lot of people who want to become agents or work with agencies. I don't know if it's the Arliss generation or the Ari Gold generation, but how did you get from there to here? So it's a funny story. And I get asked that question all the time. I was actually Lewis's children's babysitter. I grew up in the same town where Lewis had lived. And right after 2004, Lewis had approached me and said, would you want to come work for me?

And I said to him, quite honestly, I don't even like hockey. I don't know anything about it. He knew I loved sports. I said, I love baseball. I love football. I said, yeah, I just don't really watch hockey. And he said to me, I do need somebody I can trust though. So I said, okay, I guess I'll give it a try.

And fast forward now to 2020 and I am still here. So this wasn't in my plan. I had no idea what I was getting into. I thought I was going to answer the phones for a few months and kind of go from there. And it's just really evolved. And I'm still here. So what was the moment where you said, I want to do this? I want to make a career out of this.

Yes, this is for me. I want to make a career out of this. Yes, this is for me. I think when I started to take out that they're not just athletes, they're people. And I think that's a big misconception that people have where I understand they make a lot of money and that's the first thing people see. But they are just such genuinely great people. And I know you guys know this more than anybody being around it all the time. They're just, they're great people. They're families. They have kids, their sons, their husbands, you know, that that was really the awakening to me where I realized they're as much as they're not like us, they are like us.

And you start to care for them, you know, and you start to form these relationships with them where it's not as much just about how much money they're going to make. But are you going to make the right decisions to put them in the right path to take care of themselves and their family? So walk us through then. Tori Krug would be it would probably be a good one. make the right decisions to put them in the right path to take care of themselves and their families. So walk us through then Torrey Krug would be, it would probably be a good one. So Torrey Krug hits the market, not re-signed by the, by the Boston Bruins in advance of that, what would you have prepared for Torrey Krug with the perhaps expectation

that he was going to market? Like what's the package Jamie, that you put together for him? Because, you know, hockey fans like follow on Twitter. Oh, this guy's gone over here. Wow, that seemed really fast and simple and easy. And I know the reality behind the scenes with you isn't. What's the package you put together to prepare that player for the marketplace? So we take a look at every team before and we go through each team and we

look at the salary cap and how much cap space they have. And then we look at their depth charts and where are they going to fit in? And, you know, so we analyze every, I guess I would say possible scenario, but as you guys know, that all changes. So as prepared as you can be for it, it doesn't really matter. And it, everything changes so fast, but something we actually did for Tori is that I made a spreadsheet and I figured out for Tori exactly how much money he would make in every single market, whether he signed in St. Louis like he did, whether he stayed in Boston. And especially now with the new CBA, you have to take into consideration the deferral payment, the three-year deferral, you have to take into

the change in escrow and when that money is going to be paid back and the federal tax and the state tax. So I gave him this spreadsheet and said to him, we can put in any salary we want in any of these numbers and we can put in any tax wherever you're going to play and I will tell you the difference that you will make signing in Boston or signing in St. Louis. The team has signed defenseman Torrey Krug to a seven-year deal. The 29-year-old is a former Boston Bruin and three-time All-Star. Krug will average six and a half million dollars over the next seven years for that seven-year

deal. Oh, it's great. I mean, to be honest, it was kind of not expected, but as the day went on, it just seemed, you know, more and more like a perfect fit. And, you know, as going through, you know, some of the things that were available with the roster that the Blues have in place and the core group, it just seemed like a match made in heaven. So it feels great. I'm very excited to go on. and that was really the biggest thing for us to show tori that there is a difference where you sign you know and that's the most prepared you can be but it changes so fast and as much as you prepare sometimes it doesn't really matter how much you prepare what's the wildest situation you've ever been through? Whether it's a free agency or a trade or anything like that, when you tell the story about maybe the craziest scenario

that you've been through working in this business, what would it be? I would have to say the William Nylander story because we were under such a time crunch there. You're talking about the deadline of December 1st, the day he had to sign a couple of seasons ago. Yes. Anybody know where Kiefer Sutherland is?

I'm Alex Ixero with the Sportsnet Central Update. There are 24 hours left until we hit the William Nylander deadline. I'm losing my mind. And there's one thing Chris Johnston can be sure of. I don't see him being traded. I certainly don't see him being traded. Time has run out. We have hit the William Nylander deadline.

Now, one of you geniuses, tell me what happened. Well, here we are. It is 5 p.m. We had no news all day on William Nylander, but reports suggesting that there is a six-year deal that he has signed. That was one for the books because I kid you not, that came down to minutes before that deadline to where your hand is almost shaking, sending over papers because you're like, oh my gosh, there's two minutes left. This is really happening with two minutes left. That was a crazy, I guess, month, I would say. The Toronto media is reporting something different all the time, every day. So you're constantly in the spotlight

and you're trying to keep the player calm at the same time by talking him off a ledge and saying, that's not true, don't worry about that. And that was probably the craziest month, I guess I would say. That last month is when it really got insane. Well, we all know that I was accurate and everybody else was wrong. So that's, that's fact number one.

But you know, like walk us through like a couple of situations. Like we'll get to the signing day in a second, but can you give us an example of something that happens where you're saying, okay, we've got to deal with this right away. Or Willie is upset about something. We have to handle him. Can you give us a couple of examples of that process where you really had to manage the client? Yeah, it comes down a lot where you get a report that they're getting treated.

We get that a lot. And the player will call us and say, is there any truth to this? And that's our job to find out, is there any truth to this? And that's our job to find out, is there any truth to this? More to just prepare them that this could happen. And if it does happen, it's okay. And are you okay with where you're going? Some situations we have control over and some we don't, but some of that can't really wait. We had an idea, even with the Brandon Saad trade, we had an idea it could happen. And I kind of warned Brandon ahead of time, this could be happening. And Saturday morning, he sent me a text early and he said, hey, any more news on

the trade? I said, I haven't heard anything yet. You know, I promise you will be the first person to know if this happens and you're trying to, you know, use all your resources to find out if it's going to happen. That's when the player starts to get worried more just because they don't know. They don't know where they're going to be tomorrow. That's when you almost have to deal with it right away there's a lot of places i want to go from here but first let's just close the loop on on neilander describe that afternoon i remember it was a saturday night the leafs were in minnesota hockey night in canada yeah yeah take us through that day as the countdown came to five eastern because if he wasn't signed by five eastern he couldn't play that year i first have to give give Willie credit because there's not a lot of players that could do what he did.

It takes a lot. I mean, I've had players hold out for days and I have to be on the phone with them for hours every day. Like you can do this. It's okay. Don't worry. Go, go to the movies, go, go work out again, stay longer at the gym. And every day, it's the longest day of their lives. And Willie's personality is just so calm and collected. And he knew what he had to do. So that was a help to us where we didn't have to,

we did have to, you know, you do have to calm him down but it wasn't to the point where it was every second having to calm him down but it was um controlled chaos i guess i would say you know lewis's phone is ringing the office phone is ringing you're trying to make sure everything's in place then you're also trying to make sure that as soon as the contract comes in once the deal is done can you how fast can you get it trying to make sure that as soon as the contract comes in, once the deal is done, can you, how fast can you get it over to get it registered? So it was a few hours of just sheer chaos. And Willie's also in Sweden as this is happening and our office is located in New Jersey. So we're doing all of this over the phone and back and forth. And it was,

it was controlled chaos. It ended up working out, but it was controlled chaos. Now I understand the hire. Now it all makes sense to me because Lewis Gross wanted a babysitter, wanted someone that can, that can babysit clients. I mean, not necessarily Nylander, but in the previous example of having to hold a hand for three or four days and assure a player that everything's okay. It makes total sense now, Jamie, that he hired his babysitter. Yeah, exactly. And sometimes it helps him even more for himself. I always tell the story that people don't know this, but Lewis is colorblind.

blind. And that's not an easy thing in hockey, especially that a lot of times I'll have to tell him, oh, you're looking for this team, especially when he's going to recruit with this color jersey on. And sometimes I have to make sure he can see the color jersey. It's pretty wild, but it happened to him where I always buy him his reading glasses and I always buy him black because it's the easiest and that's the color he can see. Well, he was on his way to a draft and he lost his pair. So he went in somewhere on the way to the draft and he bought his own pair of glasses. And he ended up, thankfully, meeting his son for dinner before he got on the plane. And he took out his glasses to look at his cell phone at one point. And his son turned to him and said, why do you have hot pink neon glasses on right now, dad?

Oh, no. And he's like, what are you talking about? He's like, I just bought these. He's like, dad, those are hot pink neon glasses. Awesome. So he called me and he said, see, that's why I keep you around. At that point, he just owned it. He said, yeah, that's right. It's not hot pink, man. Get with it. It's called style. I'll introduce you one day. I mean, the draft is not somewhere though. You want to have that? I was like, oh my gosh. No, that's a very good point, especially around scouts because they all wear black. That's it.

Exactly. Colby Armstrong calls it the scout fit. Yep, it is. It is. That's a great name for it. A Colby Armstrong original. Look at these guys all dressed up in the scout fit. One final question on Nylander.

Because he's a young guy as he's going through this. And he's a second generation hockey player. His father, of course, as we all know, Michael Nylander played in the NHL. Was he at all nervous through it all? Or the fact that he had a dad that went through contract negotiations and through the NHL, did that help William Nylander through his discussions? I think it did.

I mean, Michael is a great resource for William. Not everybody has that. So to have that firsthand and William gets to use Michael a lot for, you know, a sounding board and that his dad can relate, but we were very fortunate. And I think William is confident enough in himself that he could, he knew what he was doing and he felt he deserved a certain contract. And it takes a lot to do what he did. I said to him right after, I said, I am so impressed with you at this age to be able to handle yourself like that. It's not an easy thing. So I think he was nervous. I think anybody is naturally nervous. I don't know if William would ever admit that he was nervous, but I think you're naturally nervous, but he was very calm and composed.

We actually teased him, you know, when it was starting to get done that, listen, don't take your time signing anything, sending anything back. Don't do your, uh anything, sending anything back. Don't do your usual too cool dance. Just sign what you have to sign and get it back. So Lewis kept saying that to him. Let's do a couple other scenarios here. So Brandon saw it, as you said, your client. What happens when he gets traded?

What is the team's responsibility Chicago Colorado and what is your responsibility I have to say the teams are great with this stuff the team services people are usually great with this stuff I was just on the phone with Brandon actually earlier today going over because you know people hear when players get traded but I don't think they fully realize how much goes into this. Brandon said to me on the phone today, he said, yeah, I've never gotten traded where I can't just drive to the new place. He said, what do I do? I have to ship like my cars and stuff. I said, yeah, we're going to have to have all your cars shipped. And Brandon's married.

So it gets a little more complicated the teams are very helpful with everything but the players always have questions on what what do we do what's the first step what do I do how do I do this what is the team responsible for does the team pay for this so he's for example Brandon will go out next week. He has to find a place to live and the teams, the teams are very helpful, but it's usually for us to be kind of in the middle orchestrating the whole process. And helping him figure out what's the best way to go about stuff is, well, is there maybe a, maybe the biggest trade Jamie, that you remember that kind of came out of nowhere?

Was there anyone that caught you guys by surprise? Oh, that's a great question. I don't think so. We pretty much have usually suspected it. One of the biggest trades I remember being a part of was when Marty St. Louis got traded to the Rangers. Why? A lot of people are asking why, but I guess it's asking you shall receive. Marty St. Louis asking to be traded to the New York Rangers. And general manager Steve Eisenman of the Tampa Bay Lightning happened to pull it off.

St. Louis traded today to the Rangers for premium forward Ryan Callahan and two high draft picks. Marty was one of the most liked, if not the most respected Lightning ever down the jersey. That was a crazy day. It was a great day. But we kind of had a feeling it was happening. Because Iserman plays his card close to the vest. Like, he's as quiet as they get. Yeah.

But that was a crazy day. And Marty actually played that night he got traded. He got traded in the morning. He played that night at Madison Square Garden. Me and Lewis raced to get there. Marty jumped on the plane with two sticks in his equipment bag, and that's it, and flew to New York right away. They actually landed a helicopter on the West Side Highway to get him to the Garden in time. And me and Lewis raced to the garden to see him in that game.

And I'm thankful for everything that the lightning has brought to me and my family. And with that said, a lot of respect for Mr. Vinik, Steve Eisenman, to honor my wishes. And it was a tough day for my family, but we're all excited to be here. This is an opportunity for me to play in the big market team. It's going to be a challenge, obviously, being somewhere for 14 years. It's just different, you know, just getting ready for the game and just the little things that you're used to, you know. But I don't think any trades we've been really surprised at.

It's more just, okay, the trade actually did happen now, and now the chaos starts. I remember one trip to Toronto. I came down for a Toronto game against Calgary, the morning skate, and I saw you there and you live in New Jersey. So you were there to visit your client, Johnny Goodrow from the flames. How often do you do that? How often do you travel to see your, your clients?

And you know, what are, are those trips regular or is that i gotta see my guy because something's going on they're kind of both we're very fortunate where we are that we have the devils rangers and islanders so most of our guys come through here and we get to see them here it is very different though seeing somebody home or, but any time they are doing any type of endorsement or anything like that, that's when we try to be there because we're very protective of them in a way. And we want whoever is doing any time of any type of promotion with them, we're protective. We want to make sure they're being portrayed in the right way. So anything like that, that's when usually you see me, Elliot. And I go and I will usually say to the player, let me be the bad guy.

I'll tell them, no, if you don't want to do something, I'll tell them yes. And those are the type of things that I will usually go to. Well, that leads me again to another follow-up up is can you give us an example, Jamie, of maybe where you said to a potential sponsor or endorser? No, this is too much. And we're not doing that. Oh, yeah. A few times. Sometimes they will say stuff is only going to take two hours. And after about three and a half, they're like, oh, come on, let's keep going. And I'm like, no, I'm sorry. And they don't expect me to say that. But again, I'll say to the player, let me be the bad guy here. It's fine. I've been at enough. Some companies are great to work with. And then some try to push the envelope. And it's always,

you know, just give us another hour, just give us another few hours. And then some try to push the envelope and it's always, you know, just give us another hour, just give us another few hours. And that's when I've had to step in and say, okay, enough is enough. Let's go. All right. We are about 25 minutes deep into this. So Jamie, I want some team dirt and here's how I'm going to frame it. I'm going to see what I can get out of you here. I'm curious about, and you were talking about, uh, Brandon sought a couple of moments ago and you know, I've got to ship all my cars and I've got to move everything. I'm curious about teams pushing back on any type of moving expenses. I can recall, and Elliot, you can remember this deal as well, when Igor Lirionov got traded from Detroit to Florida, we all knew this was a rental.

He only ended up playing, I think, like 25, maybe 30 games for the Panthers, but he wanted his entire wine cellar moved to his new place in Florida and the Panthers squawked big about it. Have you ever had teams push back and say, hold on a second here, now this is too much? I actually haven't. I gotta say, maybe I just represent really great players that don't try to push the envelope. But I, I haven't yet.

I witnessed more GMs fighting with Lewis, I guess I would say, and that pushback more than teams pushback. But no, I haven't had that yet. I mean, don't jinx me now as i'm dealing with a player that just got traded but i haven't yet so so far so good okay my next one is about um the

size of contracts and i can remember we used to work with doug mclean and when he was a general manager of the columbus blue jackets uh the rick nash deal was a pretty groundbreaking one. Coming out of his entry-level deal rings the bell and sort of resets that marketplace in a lot of ways. And Doug tells a story that they're flying back on Mr. McConnell's plane and Rick Nash turns to him and says, wow, thanks, Doug. That's a real lot of money right there. How many times have you had a client say, geez, Jamie, that's a lot of money and almost become overwhelmed when they realize, you know, the decimal point involved here? A lot, I guess I would say. You know, hockey players are, I mean, maybe I'm a little biased, but I think one of the best professional athletes there are out there. They really just are such great people.

And I think they're so appreciative of everything. I really do believe that. And I think when they see this, I think sometimes they're just like, this is more money than I could have ever imagined. One of the first times Johnny Goudreau was up in our office, his dad came up with us and there was an autograph seller up here and they were doing a licensed memorabilia signing. And Guy turned to us and said, why is this guy here? Who would ever want to buy my son's autograph?

here. Who would ever want to buy my son's autograph? And he said it so sincere and he 100% meant it. And I turned to him and I said, somebody is going to want to buy his autograph. I promise. And he was like, really? Somebody's really going to want to buy his autograph? And I just thought that was just such a great moment where he was a dad first, you know, before anything else, and John was just still his son, and that's how he thought of him, just as his son before anything else. I'm going to assume Goodrow is probably a lot similar to Nylander personally.

Are they comparable? No. Hmm. I would say no. Well, that's a good question by me then. Yeah, that was a great question. I've known John since he was in college. The first time I ever met him, he came up to our office.

Louis said, John's coming up here, you know, him and his brother. And he walked into our office the first day that I had ever met him in flannel pajama pants and came up here and I turned to Lewis and my eyes were just like wide open. And he looked like a little kid. And I ordered him a Philly cheesesteak because that's what he wanted for lunch. And I turned to Lewis and I was like, what? I said, this is a baby. And he said, nope, I'm telling you he could play hockey though. And I guess they're different personalities, I guess I would say. Maybe because I've known John longer from the beginning, more to say. And it's very different being a number eight draft pick and a sixth round draft pick when

everybody tells you you're too small for your whole life to play hockey. And, you know, you change a little bit, I guess I would say. So take us through that process. He's taken in the sixth round by Calgary. All of a sudden he starts becoming a star and then you guys in the flames have to negotiate a deal for him to leave school and go to play in calgary yep and that was a crazy night too we john had to really make the decision if he was going to leave and it ultimately came down to his mom as it usually does with everything for

everybody, anywhere that it came down to his mom being okay with him leaving school and he just really wanted to make sure she was okay with it. And once she gave the blessing for him to leave, then he was like, okay, I'll leave and go play. I'm curious, Jamie, how many times would you or Lewis overrule a player? Say, I know this is what you're thinking, but I'm telling you no, or do this. Does it ever happen or does it always have to be the client's final choice? Contract-wise, it's really their choice.

I mean, we'll advise this is what we think you should do, but this is what we think you should do, but it really is your choice. Other times when it's, maybe you shouldn't tweet that out, maybe you shouldn't post that, maybe you shouldn't go here, maybe you shouldn't go there. That's kind of when I come in and say, you are absolutely not doing that, or you are absolutely not posting that, or you are absolutely not doing this. That's when I get called in to say, no, you're absolutely not doing that. I'm not expecting you to name names on this one. But what are some of the more weirder requests or things you've had to help professional athletes with that most quote unquote normal people just

take for granted. And I'll bookend it this way. A lot of these athletes grow up in elite level programs where everything is taken care of them. And things that you and I may take for granted, driver's licenses, travel, shopping, whatever. It's just a matter of day-to-day living, but for them, it's always been handled before. Have you had any situations where you have to step back and take the deep breath and say, I can't believe I'm going to have to do this with a grown man, but? Many. I've gotten a lot of, I lost my credit card. What do I do? I get that all the time, all the time. I get a lot of, I lost my cell phone. That's the biggest one. That's always my favorite when it's,

I see a strange number call and I don't recognize the number because they're using somebody else's phone. And it's, I lost my cell phone. Do you know where it is? Well, it's in a cab in Montreal. Okay. Geez, I'm sure that's only happened once or twice before. Yeah. And the best is, is that nine times out of 10, they don't have a passcode on their phone. That started to be a big thing with me that I would start to tell them right away. You need to put a passcode on your phone and you need to make sure you know your find my iPhone login so you can give it to me

so I can erase your phone right away when you lose your phone. And like you said, it's so accurate. Everything is taken care of for them. And then they leave, whether it be college or one of these hockey programs. And now it's you're out into the real world and you're making a ton of money too, on top of that. So I get a lot of, some don't even know how to deposit a check. I had a player have a signing bonus check of $92,000 and slept with it under his pillow for a few days because he didn't know where to put it. And he then went to the bank and went to the teller and asked the teller to just put it on his debit card because he wanted to take his brother out to dinner that night.

Awesome. Yeah, $92,000. We've always heard, I mean, various hockey players will tell you the story of like, yeah, my first few checks, I didn't know what to do with them. So I just stuffed them in the glove box of my, of my truck. And then I realized, holy smokes, I got like half a million dollars worth of checks in my glove box right now. So this isn't strange to you, Jamie, at all. No, not at all. Not at all. How would you, we sort of mentioned social media a second ago how would would you advise your clients to have if they are going to be active on twitter to have two accounts one the public account and two the

burner account or as you used to call it egg accounts so you can see what people are saying or what the conversation is without actually having to follow people or engage? You know, I, the biggest thing I try to tell them is if you're going to dip your toes in social media, be knowledgeable of social media, know what you're getting yourself into. Some have no idea and they don't fully realize what Twitter is. Even I remember having to, and you don't fully realize what Twitter is even. I remember having to, and you don't think that you would ever have to have these conversations. I had to explain to one of our older players what Twitter was years ago. And I'm like, well, Twitter is just Twitter. And he's like, what do you mean?

I don't understand. What is that? And you're trying to find the words, but you kind of just assume everybody knows what that is. And I'm like, well, you could send a tweet. And he's like, what's a tweet? So the biggest thing I can tell them is, is to just make yourself knowledgeable, ask questions too. Social media can make or break you, unfortunately. And some of our players are great. Torrey Krug is a perfect example. He is so great on social media. He is so funny.

He is so witty, appropriate, easy. And other players would just rather have nothing to do with it. That they don't even care about it. They don't want to be involved in it. It's almost too much for them. don't even care about it. They don't want to be involved in it. It's almost too much for them. If a player has, let's just say a player has a bad night, goes minus five or something like that. How, how quickly do you reach out? How often do you reach out?

Lewis usually talks to them that night. He will reach out pretty much right away. We try to stay on top of things as it's happening, which, I mean, we know when bad nights happen and we know when good nights happen. But Lewis will reach out to that player right away that night. And sometimes they'll write back and sometimes they won't, especially how bad the night was. But they need a little reassurance sometimes. the night was, but they need a little reassurance sometimes. And unless you're in it and in the business and know how stuff works, sometimes you're one of the only people they can really relate to at that moment. John Greenewald 00,00,00 What are the hardest discussions you

have to have with your clients, your players? Oh, that's another good one, Elliot. Hardest discussions. Hardest discussions are when a player wants to go to a team, I guess I would say, and that team doesn't want that player. That's a hard discussion to have when you have a player and they're like, all right, well, these are my top three teams. I would love to play there. And it's a hard discussion to have when none of those teams want your player. And it's, all right, you have to go back to the drawing board. That's a hard discussion, but you just have to do it, unfortunately. Okay, just as a dovetail to that one then,

when you have a player who really wants to play for a team and that team is interested in him but at a much lower rate than another team that also wants him what are those discussions like like i'm sure some players like oh i grew up a huge bruins fan it would mean everything to my parents to see me play for the bruins. Well, that's great, but LA's got a whopper of an offer right over here. How are those discussions? Yeah, that's a discussion usually where it's, okay, what would the Bruins need to offer you for you to turn LA down? That's the hard discussion. And that's where they have to almost mentally come up with a number or how much is L.A. going to have to offer you to blow Boston out of the water and you say, I will go here for any amount of money. For that amount of money, I don't care. You know, maybe that's not my top choice, but I don't care.

And that's what you have to mentally prepare them for. And they have to come up with those numbers. And it's important to do that earlier rather than later because they have to be ready for when those teams come in with those numbers, whether they like the numbers or not from both sides. So what have you found? And we've listened, we've lived with the salary cap now going back to 2005. What do you find is most important to players outside of compensation? I mean, there are caps and there's team caps and there's rookie caps, there's caps inside of caps in this system right now. What are the other things that are most important to players today in the NHL? I think living now, where you're going to live. I think the living situation. I think they all are kind of right now very aware of that. I think where they're going to raise their kids, where they're going to raise their family. I think travel too. I think the way that the schedule has been recently that some of the travel schedules are not easy anymore for some of these teams and players are starting to ask that question and starting to realize that and be more aware of that. Uh, how much have you warned players?

For example, going into a lockout or going into coming out of this, you know, warn them saying, hey, guys, you know, the market's going to be tight. Save your money. How much of that is discussed? A lot. We are very fortunate that Lewis is actually a CPA and we do all of our players tax returns here. So there's no downtime here, basically. But that is so beneficial to our players, because, you know, we do projections all the time with them, like, you know, let's say this, and you know, you got to watch your money for this, and this could happen in this year. So at least Lewis has such financial knowledge on their situation to help them not only

now, but also for when they're done playing. You know, he told me right away when I always started, it's not about this contract that the player is going to sign. It's about their career. You can't think of just what are they going to sign right now? It's what are they going to sign next, then next? And what are they going to sign after that? And then what are they going to do after they're done playing? So I think that is something that he is so in tune with. And that's so important, especially now after what we're going through. So how do players, Jamie, want to be told about trades?

I remember Nazem Khadri feeling a little bit miffed that he was called by Kyle Dubas on the phone and not told face-to-face, to which I always maintained in the world of social media, it's better to hear it by a phone call than read a tweet about it before the other side contacting you. How do players want to be told that they've been traded?

I think a phone call is sufficient. I mean, we find out stuff on social media before it even happens now that I think face to face, you don't even have time to talk to somebody face to face now before it's out on Twitter or somewhere else. So I think a phone call is sufficient. And I think most NHL teams, you know, the GM's call right away, as soon as it happens and they'll let you know, but I just think you don't have time for face

to face stuff is stuff is getting out way too fast. More and more women are getting jobs in hockey. We've seen Alexandra Mandrycki in Seattle, for example, and she's got a pretty bright future. Emily Castonguay just represents now the Alexei Lafreniere, the number one pick in the NHL draft. What advice would you give to young women who are going to listen to this and say, I would be interested in doing that? I guess I would say that don't be intimidated and just really, I mean, sports are for everyone, I guess. We see all those campaigns and they really are though for everyone. I'm a mom too, which some of even our players laugh about that all the time.

They found that out a lot about that during COVID when I would talk to them on the phone and I would have to apologize when there'd be two screaming girls in the background. But just put yourself in a good position. You know, I think I'm fortunate enough that Lewis taught me so much and it gave me the opportunity to realize that just because, you know, I'm a female and I love sports, that doesn't mean that I can't, you know, be actively involved in it. What's maybe one misconception that you learned about the business that you thought was true about working in the business that wasn't true or something you thought no way. And it was true. I guess I didn't realize the,

how amazing these players are and how much you would start to almost consider them family. Tory Krug on Friday, when that whole situation and his signing went down, you know, I was in this office by 8am. And I think it was 1215am when Torrey and I finally got everything over and formalized with St. Louis. And that's when he sent me a text and said, I know today was a really long day. Thank you so much for everything today. And that just shows again, that these are players and you, you care about them. You care about their family. You care about their decisions, where they're going to end up. I speak to the wives a lot to kind of talk them off the ledge a little bit and just reassure them that

everything will work out. This will work out. And I think that's what really helped me realize what sports is all about and that these are just people too. Last question that I have for you sort of winks at the last one that Elliot mentioned. And do you find and we talk a lot about women in hockey on this podcast. Do you find that the guys find it easier to open up to you than to another guy? I think sometimes because I can almost be that a little more relatable, I guess, if that makes sense, then, you know, an older man who is your agent, you know, there's stuff that they'll tell me that they'll that I'll say, don't worry this, you know, it never leaves this conversation. Lewis doesn't even have to know about that. And I think in that sense, sometimes I also think they know I can relate to their wife too, if they're married or girlfriend. And that's a big component too. I called Tori on Friday and I said to him at one point, I said, I care how you're doing,

but how's Mel doing? That's who I really want to know. How is she doing through all this? And because I really do, I sympathize with her too. It's not just about him. It's about her and it's about their daughter. So I think in that way, it helps sometimes. Actually, it's funny you bring that up because I've told a story before how I had a conversation

with one player and he was saying like, I've heard what you guys say about me on TV. And I go, well, do you watch it? He goes, no, my, my family tells me. And I said to them, tell your family to stop telling you what's being said on TV. Cause it's always worse. family to stop telling you what's being said on TV because it's always worse. How much do you have to manage a player's family, whether it's a partner, whether it's parents, siblings, anyone, how much do you have to manage that? Um, sometimes a lot. Some families are a little more over the top than others. Some are easy, some are great.

Some parents, from the time we take on their son, we will never hear from them the entire time. And some families we are really, really close with, that they're kind of like our own family. Sometimes we have to tell parents to back off. I remember Lewis had to tell a player's father years ago, you need to back off, you need to stop. And it essentially saved the player's career. It really did. The dad was a little too much over the top and he was getting involved too much. And once Lewis did that, the player really got

on a better track and a better route and it ended up saving the player's career. Was it A, Nylander, B, Goudreau or C, Saad? Which one was it? Actually B, none of the above I can actually say. All right. We've taken enough of your time. I know you're busy.

Your office always is. Thanks for spending a big part of your day with us today, Jamie. This has been a real eye-opening and learning interview. It's been a delight. Continued success both in your role as babysitter of daughters and also babysitter of hockey players. We appreciate your time today. Yes, and thank you guys so much for having me.

Thank you. yes and thank you guys so much for having me so that's Jamie Bozzo really interesting informative conversation a lot to take away there the stuff on you, dealing with whether it's William Nylander and his contract negotiations, the Brandon Sod trade, most recently the free agent signing by St. Louis of their client, Tori Krug. A lot of interesting things there, Elliot. Elliott. And the one thing that I found fascinating was how she talked about how they put together different types of packages and essentially prepped Tory Krug for the free agent marketplace. Well, first of all, let me just say that when she talked about Johnny Goodrow showing up in flannel pajama pants, I lost the ability to do it in the interview because it kind of passed its time, but I did the interview in flannel pajama pants. So I can empathize with Johnny Goodrofe.

I would just like to say I support his fashion choice all those years ago. Excellent. There was a lot there I thought was really interesting. And you know, she's always got to be careful. She can't really come out and say everything she wants to tell us. You have to be guarded.

You have to keep some things privately, but I found the Nylander. I mean, there, there's a lot of high profile stuff there and the Nylander thing about, you know, that whole negotiation, how tough it was.

And, you know, don't screw around, get this thing, sign and get it back or else you're not going to be playing this year the good draw stuff about autographs was pretty funny too like she's just a wonderful person and so talented at what she does and uh and quite valuable uh to lewis gross okay want to let you know as well in a couple of days you're going to hear another podcast from us i know last week we swore we were taking a break and this time we mean it

but we want to do these two podcasts so the one you just listened to with jamie baza was one the other is with a um how should i describe him elliot an irate or maybe an annoyed adam oats i would say annoyed as opposed to irate okay so really quickly tease how the podcast that people will hear in a couple of days came together. Well, basically what happened was I was sitting around and he called and he was angry about something that he saw on Instagram, a drill that a coach put on there for kids. And he said that drill will not help a hockey player. And so he wanted to do a podcast about how he could help better drills. So the one time we had Adam Oates on,

the feedback was fantastic. And right away, it's get Adam Oates back. So he is back here in a couple of days on the podcast. And I think that you'll really enjoy it unless you are a hockey skills coach, Elliot, or unless you are a hockey coach uh because adam kind of puts uh you guys on who's running terrible drills yeah you're who's running terrible drills get the props off the ice here's what you need to start learning because you get put on blast by

adam oats taking us out today and again we thank jamie bozzo for stopping by the podcast taking us out a very talented artist from edmonton alberta last month kaylee thomas released her five-track ep how else can i tell you from that ep here's midnight hours by kaylee thomas on 31 thoughts the podcast driving all around the town in that limousine headlights rolling on the We are now at Upper Session Road We do what we have to do to make it through the midnight hours We do what we have to do to make it through the midnight hours Midnight hours Time stands helpless when we kiss Interlocking fingertips I can't bring myself to say

Watch that old love slip away You're a friend I never see You're a friend I never see You're a long apology But I'm somewhere in between waking and dreaming We do what we have to do We make it through the midnight hours I'm in my hours. We do every afternoon to make it through the midnight hours. Thanks for watching!