Media influence on player value

[SebC]

To some extent, media should influence GMs. Media influence fans, and a GM's true job is to make money for the owner. You can do that by satisfying fans (even if, from a winning perspective, your moves are less than ideal).

[d_phaneuf]

I think they definitely influence

look at how much an average player in Montreal or Toronto (either re-signing or signing with someone else can get paid)

if James Wisnieski has a good 30 game run with Nashville instead of with Montreal does someone give him 5.5 on a long term deal?

[browna]

In the age of pre-trade deadline shows like TSN had tonight, the appetite is there for fans, as is the discussion about a player which turns from a possibility to an almost certainty online in a thread in the matter of a day...if local media picks up on it and blurts it out, asking the local GM in the next meeting about a guy, suddenly the rumor and potential is legitimized.

For these shows like tonight, the talking heads have to fill the half hour or hour with some sort of content, which spurs discussion, as do thef fans with the "grass is greener" mentality too, thinking that someone on another team is the savior, justifying with "need a change of scenery" as a good a reason as any.

Moreso the media shows their influence come UFA time...if the crop of a certain position is pretty weak, no matter...the best of the weak bunch get hyped.

A guy like Scott Hannan back when, as he was turning UFA after his time in SJ. Ok defenceman, but the only marginally higher end guy available...as a result, talked about at trade deadline, then post deadline, then post season, then pre July 1... totaling weeks, and by the end, the impression was that he was highly coveted, just because he had been talked about so much simply because he was the default guy and it was made to seem that he was head and shoulders above anything else available. The price seemed to drive up as a result, and he was never full value for that bloated contract he got in COL.

Toss in the fact that agents now are undoubtedly in the ears of the Dreger's and McKenzie's via text etc to get their guys spoken about on national broadcasts or online, and those TSN guys also have a web of contacts on various teams gauging interest via text in trades/UFA's off the record with those teams.

Thus the hype and rumor machine is running constantly these days behind the scenes as well as in front of the camera, and most certainly, the more people get to/are allowed to talk about a player or players, the better chance he's overvalued by a fan base or a local media base. Then, for teams worried about perception issues or fan opinions, GM's and Presidents etc do probably take note of that opinion in some matter..

That's why Sutter was a beauty; no press allowed to get in his inner circle or look over his shoulder meant no credible rumors leaked, and that meant he could deal in the cloak of anonymity, relatively speaking to many other GM's. That is, until Dreger presses a Rangers contact too hard, and spills the Jokinen trade two days early.

[mister__big]

I'm sure the GMs and scouts do read the media reports and may be subconsciously influenced by them. However, I believe they all do their due diligence when it comes to evaluating players.

When it comes to Mike Milbury though, my theory is he looked at the numbers in EA NHL as the basis of his trades:

"Ooh Florida's offering me their 87 Parrish and 85 Kvasha for my 83 Luongo and 84 Jokinen? SUCKERS!!"

[FAN]

There is a difference between the media saying a team is rumored to be asking for and what a player can fetch. The former is much more accurate than the latter from what I have noticed.

[Northendzone]

i'd like to think that perhaps it can cause a GM to perhaps have a second, third or fourth look at a guy - i'd like to think that everyone in the hockey ops of most teams are professionals and they have very solid understanding of what guys strengths and weekness are.