Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Brew
Re: highly valuable endorsement deals in large American markets. Is this really true? Does Doughty make big endorsement money in LA? Tavares in NY? It's an honest question but I rather doubt it personally. I think those guys are pretty invisible in their cities.
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Okay, I think it's time we put this whole endorsement deal conversation to bed. Endorsements deals don't impact hockey players the same way they impact the bigger sports like basketball and football.
According to
this article in Forbes, this is a list of the top 10 highest paid hockey players last year:
1. Sidney Crosby: $12.0M Salary + $4.5M Endorsements ($16.5M)
2. Jonathan Toews: $13.8 Salary + $2.2M Endorsements ($16.0M)
3. Patrick Kane: $13.8M Salary + $900k Endorsements ($14.7M)
4. Shea Weber: $14.0M Salary + $100k Endorsements ($14.1M)
5. Alex Ovechkin: $$10.0M Salary + $3.0M Endorsements ($13.0M)
6. Henrik Lundqvist: $10.0M Salary + $800k Endorsements ($10.8M)
7. Evgeni Malkin: $9.5M Salary + $350k Endorsements ($9.85M)
8. Eric Staal: $9.5M Salary + $250k Endorsements ($9.75M)
8. Zach Parise: $9.0M Salary + $750k Endorsement ($9.75M)
10. Ryan Getzlaf: $9.25M Salary + $150k Endorsements ($9.4M)
There's also
this article from Opendorse.com that lists the top 12 highest endorsed players in the league. It's a couple years old, but I think the idea still transfers.
1. Sidney Crosby: $4.5M
2. Alex Ovechkin: $3.5M
3. Steven Stamkos: $1.7M
4. Jonathan Toews: $1.2M
5. Zach Parise: $800k
6. Jarome Iginla: $750k
7. Brad Richards: $600k
8. Zdeno Chara: $500k
9. Evgeni Malkin: $400k
10: Vincent Lecavalier: $250k
11: Eric Staal: $250k
12: Rick Nash: $150k
There are reports that Conor McDavid signed a $1M endorsement deal with CCM at the draft combine last year, which would put him up there as well.
All of this tells us a couple things:
1. Endorsements do not make up a statistically significant portion of most players overall income. (Conor McDavid would be the one exception, only because he's still on his ELC).
2. If you read the linked articles, it seems like most of this endorsement money is coming from things like CCM, Sportchek, Adidas, Reebok, Gillette, etc. The odds of Gaudreau or Monahan making $500k in a local endorsement deal (i.e., a Philly car dealership or Boston restaurant) is virtual zero.
All of that leads me to believe that any player would be ludicrous to base their location decision on what kind of local endorsements they could receive. If either Gaudreau or Monahan are going to get any kind of endorsement deals, they will most like be global deals, not local. There is no evidence to support the idea that either player wants to move down to the States in order to get a bigger endorsement deal.
They will sign in Calgary. When they do, it will be for big money, long-term deals. The sky is not falling and everyone can relax.