Rumour - Now Confirmed - Jeff Marek Leaving Sportsnet

[dustygoon]

Originally Posted by dustygoon

I just don’t believe this leak story. The guy is strait laced. He does seem to wish he was more connected/insiderish, but why would he pass info?

Simplest explanation is probably the best. Contract was likely up June 30. And he knew he wasn’t getting a renewal. He already conveyed he was taking red eye home after 1st round. His work was done.

Well. Swing and a miss by me. I still think he is straight laced and meant zero harm. He should have been suspended for being an idiot and friends with a dummy in Seidel. But not fired.

[cam_calderon]

Originally Posted by dustygoon

Well. Swing and a miss by me. I still think he is straight laced and meant zero harm. He should have been suspended for being an idiot and friends with a dummy in Seidel. But not fired.

As mentioned Sportsnet probably happy to shed his salary, though they need to get someone with at least a little profile to babysit Friedman.

[dustygoon]

Originally Posted by cam_calderon

As mentioned Sportsnet probably happy to shed his salary, though they need to get someone with at least a little profile to babysit Friedman.

They are cutting costs, but if you want to shed salary, you ditch Maclean and Kyprios. Marek was mostly radio. They are cheap i think.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by dustygoon

Well. Swing and a miss by me. I still think he is straight laced and meant zero harm. He should have been suspended for being an idiot and friends with a dummy in Seidel. But not fired.

Not a swing and a miss at all. There's nothing wrong with waiting for confirmation before jumping to conclusions. The rumor in this case proved to be true but even at that I don't find this overly scandalous.

League and media sources said that Marek gave Seidel a heads up on the picks so that Seidel could better prepare and offer analysis of those selections on social media.

He made a mistake for sure and maybe he didn't realize that Seidel would be tweeting the picks ahead of the NHL but even if he's just helping him prepare his analysis of the picks but he should have touched base with Rogers or the NHL first. That's on him. In regards to his firing maybe there's more to this or maybe that's just it and Rogers HR deemed he had to be let go for breaking policy or maybe they used the opportunity to shed salary. We will probably never find out any more than what this article states.

[cam_calderon]

Originally Posted by dustygoon

They are cutting costs, but if you want to shed salary, you ditch Maclean and Kyprios. Marek was mostly radio. They are cheap i think.

I'm not privy to his contract but 32 Thoughts is the leading hockey podcast - pretty sure he would've been on decent coin.

[TheIronMaiden]

Whatever became of the "draft reasons" ?

[rohara66]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/567...draft-removed/

Marek had come under scrutiny from the NHL during the first round of the draft for allegedly revealing to a friend which players teams were drafting moments before those picks were publicly announced, according to league and media industry sources.

Sounds like he was leaking info to a friend, who was posting the picks to twitter (big whoop).... also sounds like no gambling issue/angle.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by rohara66

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/567...draft-removed/

Sounds like he was leaking info to a friend, who was posting the picks to twitter (big whoop).... also sounds like no gambling issue/angle.

Feels like an excuse just to can the guy unless there is a little more to the story than what is out there.

[868904]

Originally Posted by rohara66

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/567...draft-removed/





Sounds like he was leaking info to a friend, who was posting the picks to twitter (big whoop).... also sounds like no gambling issue/angle.

Isn’t this what Bob McKenzie was doing for years?

It’s not really on the media guy is it? It’s on the GM for feeding that info. If a GM didn’t want that info leaked, they wouldn’t have said anything. Teams always use the media for information and disinformation.

[rohara66]

Boils down to this:

As part of Sportsnet’s crew that night, Marek was privy to the draft selections before they were publicly announced. This is common practice for broadcast rightsholders. The production truck is notified of the pick approximately one or two minutes before it’s made so that graphics can be prepared, video clips readied and cameras trained on the player about to find out he has been selected.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

The only odd thing about this is, a few years ago, Bob Mckenzie was tweeting out the picks a minute or two in advance. He nailed every one of the first 15 and it seemed like every one knew someone was feeding him the picks from the draft floor. So why was that OK? Unless, because of who he is, he was somehow given permission by the league?

Or McKenzie is from the future. There is a poster here who consistently posts Flames' goals in game threads well before they are scored on TV, on the radio or any other poster. They are also from the future but I won't name them here because you don't want to mess with people from the future. It's bad enough dealing with people from your past.

[D as in David]

Imagine losing your job because you were helping someone else score Twitter points.

[TheIronMaiden]

A real image of sec after hearing this news,

[AustinL_NHL]

Mark Seidel's final tweet on draft day is absolutely perfect lmao careful what you wish for.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1806838096870486438

Wild that Marek risked his career for a guy who averages like 6 likes per draft day tweet

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Yeah it's a bit of a joke TBH.

People leak picks before they are made publically all the time in drafts...Marek was doing it privately just a couple minutes before for non-gambling related reasons and loses his job for it.

Likely because his contract forbade it.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

IIRC McKenzie was not officially working that draft.

I believe that was the first year ESPN took over the US side of draft coverage.

Prior to that NHL network would cover the draft and bring McKenzie along with a handful of his TSN cohorts to help.

ESPN did not bring in anyone from TSN.

Listening to the Athletic podcast on this sheds some light. Indeed the reason why Marek was fired, and Bob could do this without that risk is because Marek was performing as a member of the broadcast right holders when he leaked the info. Bob wasn't.

In addition, the NHL engaged first with the gambling authorities before they even engaged with Sportsnet.

To me, reading between the lines, I don't think this is a case of Sportsnet looking for a way to dump Marek. My guess is the NHL determined that Marek leaked info, and demanded he get fired.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

To me, reading between the lines, I don't think this is a case of Sportsnet looking for a way to dump Marek. My guess is the NHL determined that Marek leaked info, and demanded he get fired.

That is kind of like what it sounded to me like. Or the NHL told Sportsnet that Marek lost his privileges to be involved in high profile events that required secrecy and an honour system. In which case, Marek became much less useful to them and they couldn't justify keeping him.

[Incogneto]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

To me, reading between the lines, I don't think this is a case of Sportsnet looking for a way to dump Marek. My guess is the NHL determined that Marek leaked info, and demanded he get fired.

...Which in-turn means that Marek has burned his NHL bridge. He ain't gonna be able to turn up on Amazon or TSN anytime soon. He's blackballed from league activities.

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Listening to the Athletic podcast on this sheds some light. Indeed the reason why Marek was fired, and Bob could do this without that risk is because Marek was performing as a member of the broadcast right holders when he leaked the info. Bob wasn't.

In addition, the NHL engaged first with the gambling authorities before they even engaged with Sportsnet.

To me, reading between the lines, I don't think this is a case of Sportsnet looking for a way to dump Marek. My guess is the NHL determined that Marek leaked info, and demanded he get fired.

Exactly!

[bluejays]

It sounds like they were probably concerned about the info being used for gambling reasons but ultimately it wasn’t? Sucks for Marek. Like I said before, even if gambling was the case which in this case probably wasn’t, people make mistakes. To me it’s likely he knew and disregarded the policy so it’s a tough way to lose your job. But will he find a way back? For sure. If I were in a greasy business this isn’t terrible. In fact I bet there are a dozen probably doing the same who didn’t get caught.