Some may call him the agent to the stars.
Pat Brisson represents some of the biggest names in hockey – past, present and future. Just a small list of clients he’s worked with includes Luc Robitaille, Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, Matt Duchene and Anze Kopitar.
Although he was was a pretty good junior hockey player himself as well (even reaching the Memorial Cup Finals), he’s best known as a forward-thinking agent who has been helping shape the business side of the game for more than two decades now.
He was also one of about 20 agents at the meeting in Los Angeles Thursday hosted by the NHLPA’s new Executive Director, Donald Fehr.
Immediately following the all day session we heard from Fehr (article here). And yesterday Dustin Brown’s agent, Scott Norton, commented on what was learned and discussed by the group (article here).
Now, here are some exclusive comments from Brisson…
MM: At a high level, what did you think of the meeting and what did you learn?
PB: It was good. Overall, we were getting to know Don (Fehr), his message and what he does. Of course, we know what he does – but, a small group session was a good idea. We got to express ourselves a little bit more and it’s much easier to deliver a message that way. Overall, it was enjoyable.
MM: Donald Fehr been a rather public figure for the last 30+ years on the baseball side of things. Have you learned anything new about him yet or has he been as-advertised?
PB: Not really. Being a public figure we knew a lot about what he’s accomplished in the other sport. So, nothing new – just the fact that we were a smaller group was very helpful.
MM: There were a lot of challenges in the PA over the last few years. Was any of that discussed or is it water under the bridge at this point?
PB: Some of the information we discussed is confidential. But, let’s put it this way, I’m very encouraged by the present leadership group in the PA.
MM: With several other sports about to begin new labor discussions, have you seen anything yet – say, in the NBA or NFL – that you may like to see incorporated into hockey?
PB: I guess we’ll see how it goes because their negotiations haven’t really started yet for the most part. They’re getting into the meat of it right about now or right around the corner. For the others, it’s going to start in about 6-8 months. So, I’m sure we’re going to observe closely and see how they’re going to do. But, we have the luxury of being able to see those three sports (including baseball) go through it before ours.
MM: Just for fun, how about we jump forward a couple days to the trade deadline. Any predictions for what will or won’t happen?
PB: I think there’s going to be a lot of action. I’m anticipating lots of moves before the deadline. For some reason we got a little bit of last weekend. We’re going to see a lot (of trades) in my opinion.
If you missed the exclusive interviews with NHLPA head Donald Fehr or agent Scott Norton, check out the links below.
The final article in this series will be an interview with Mathieu Schneider, newly appointed Special Assistant to Fehr. Look for it in the next few days.
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