We should talk about how much influence CAA has in the hockey world
The Predators are using the firm to find a GM, the agency's top news breaker also broke a hockey trade that featured a player who is represented by CAA
If you’ve paid mild attention to the world of sports and entertainment, you’ve likely heard of Creative Artists Agency, more commonly known by its acronym CAA.
CAA is huge, they represent the likes of Los Angeles Dodgers global icon Shohei Ohtani, Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, while also having additional divisions that represent all of Formula 1 and pretty much any musical act you can think of.
In the hockey world, CAA represents the likes of Sidney Crosby, the Hughes brothers, Nathan MacKinnon and many more.
Amongst the “power brokers” in hockey, CAA is one of the biggest players, which is why the NHLPA is investigating the fact that the Nashville Predators have hired CAA to help with the ongoing general manager search.
See, there’s rules in the NHL that an agency can’t represent players and also represent coaches or management. It’s a conflict of interest and a natural one if you think about it, if an agency has hands in both buckets, they have the ability to influence certain things in an oversized manner.
NHLPA certified agencies are only supposed to be fighting for the best interest of the players. And well, when that agency takes an active role in filling the GM spot for an NHL team, there’s a risk that the new GM, who helped get their job because of CAA, might be partial to CAA clients.
This might seem like a stretch, and maybe it is, but that’s why these rules are in place, so that this speculative theory doesn’t add murkiness to what should be above-the-board decisions.
CAA already unofficially controls such a wide swath of NHL business and how dollars are spent, the Predators hiring of the firm for a GM search just takes it a little bit further.
This brings me to the next element of CAA, which I think most people aren’t aware of.
In addition to representing athletes and entertainers, they also have a robust media talent division. That includes NFL Insider Adam Schefter, who has a page on CAA’s Speaker’s page where you can book him for your next event if you want to shell out for that.
Schefter is a CAA client. Many NFL players are CAA clients. It certainly doesn’t hurt his insider business.
Which is why it’s funny timing that Schefter dropped into the hockey world for a scoop today, noting that the Los Angeles Kings had acquired Artemi Panarin from the New York Rangers in exchange for Liam Greentree and a third-round pick.
Panarin isn’t a CAA client, he’s represented by Paul Theofanous. But Greentree is a CAA client and one of more than 150 that are represented by CAA hockey agents J.P. Barry and Pat Brisson.
Agencies and agents often have the advanced news on trades and transactions, it’s smart business for NHL GMs to do that to keep their player’s and their representation happy. Agents also tend to be some of the best leaks for scoops to NHL insiders. It’s not how all scoops get out, but I can tell you from experience that for many agents trading simple information about transactions to the “had-it-first” hungry insiders goes a long way in landing other potential favors or coverage of their clients.
To be clear, I don’t know if CAA hand-delivered the scoop to Schefter, who reported it with Emily Kaplan or how it was uncovered, but there’s something noticeable, to me at least, about CAA’s overlap in how the news broke from a typically untraditional hockey source with Schefter.