On Frozen Blog

One of the first things I learned about George McPhee when he was hired here in 1997 was that he’d earned a law degree. He came to Washington having served as a quasi Assistant General Manager under Brian Burke in Vancouver — his official title was Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations for the Canucks — and the story as I remember it was that quite early into his post playing career McPhee indicated a keen interest in the management side of the sport, and Mr. Burke strongly recommended that he earn his law degree. I remember thinking in June 1997 that McPhee’s owning a law degree was a very good thing as the new manager for the Caps, and this July I’m doubly glad for it.

I don’t want to make too much of Kevin Lowe’s background in the Oilers’ misfortune in the Michael Nylander Saga, but to a layman’s eyes it sure appears that he lost out to a GM who knew perfectly well the specific and binding legal protocols at work during free agency, while Lowe himself did not. I also do not want to convey any impression that I’m absolving Nylander’s agent for the remarkable confusion/deception (?) that appears to have taken place between Lowe and him last weekend in Western Canada. But we all know that player agents, entrenched in the sports world forevermore, do as much if not more harm than good as far as sports fans (and managers) are concerned.

Perhaps the more interesting question in pro hockey this holiday week is: has contemporary athlete contract labor become so complex and sophisticated that it fairly mandates managers possessing JDs? And: is there something player movement malevolent taking root in Gary Bettman’s New NHL?

Across sports today no doubt one could identify scores of the most creative and astute GMs lacking even a business degree. Of course, you also have your Ivy-trained Theo Espteins, too. No doubt the most important quality for contemporary GMs in all pro sports today remains possessing a keen eye for player and scouting talent. But right behind that is contracts management — an ability not only to assemble a competitive and fiscally responsible roster in the present but to afford an organization the needed latitiude to retain core talent in the future. The Caps, for instance, certainly had the cap room to woo a Scott Gomez or a Chris Drury, had McPhee wanted to. But I suspect that part of the GM’s thinking in pursuing Michael Nylander instead was the day of contract reckoning for his star Russians, his captain, and his no. 1 netminder, next summer.

Likely it will take an extraordinary set of circumstances to radically realign the education/experience criteria for sports managers. But we in D.C. encountered such a set this week, and from where I sit we benefited big-time from our guy bearing a legally trained contracts savvy and sophistication.

If memory serves, the Caps have not merely McPhee the JD at work on these matters but a full-time “cap-ologist.” Does Edmonton?

The other storyline attendant to this mess out West is the renewed concern (that was supposed to be alleviated by Bettman’s new CBA) that hockey once again has cultivated “haves” and “have nots” when it comes to competing for player services. Bettman’s new and “improved” CBA was supposed to minimize if not eliminate altogether small-market clubs getting clubbed every July by the big-city bullies. In the last 12 months or so Lowe has witnessed defections by Chris Pronger, Ryan  Smyth, and to a lesser (but perhaps more troubling) degree, Michael Nylander. And we all know where the big unrestricted names went last Sunday and Monday.

It’s a sobering reminder: in a very real sense today’s sports are more about big dollars than big wins, and with so much lucre at stake, owners I think are very well advised to have the lawyer class way high up in an organization’s decision-making process.