Huberdeau's agent: "Negativity sucks the joy right out of players"

[Hockey_Ninja]

Originally Posted by Flamesfan05

Inability to play hockey in OT and goaltending are the main issues

Huberdeau and Kadri are close behind

Kadri's 20 goals has definitely hurt the Flames....definitely

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Kadri was fantastic to start the season. Lately? Not so much. Overall this season he's just been ok. Definitely need a lot more out of him if he's going to be the 1C.

[Pickle Juice]

Kadri’s presence has pushed Backlund down the line up which has allowed him to become arguably the best 3rd line centre in the league! More tangible’s than just scoring.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

Kadri was fantastic to start the season. Lately? Not so much. Overall this season he's just been ok. Definitely need a lot more out of him if he's going to be the 1C.

Kadri has never been a number one centre. Even in Calgary, Lindholm was meant to still be number one, with Kadri being number 2.

It's just our lack of top end talent that is leaving our fans hoping that he can carry a team offensively.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers

Is there a metric that takes value to the team into consideration? Because that’s what I’m saying.

The size of the circle:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1622762411777306627

So we're essentially tied for 3rd fewest games lost and maybe 9 or 10 teams have lost more pts (though I really don't know their methodology)

[Flamesfan05]

Originally Posted by Hockey_Ninja

Kadri's 20 goals has definitely hurt the Flames....definitely

Until last night, that line has looked terrible for the last few weeks

The Flames need production when it matters from their most expensive players

[Shazam]

This was clearly a deep psyops mission initiated by Sutter. He told Tre to contact Walsh with the contents of that tweet. Huberdeau was told after the fact for plausible deniability. Tweet was sent out late via the reverse vampire network.

[dustygoon]

The disagreement between Bieksa and Friedman last night was good. Bieksa (and Hrudey) thought it was poor form of Walsh to tweet that.....and Bieksa in particular deeply believes Huberdeau didn't instruct his agent here.

Meanwhile, Friedman is obviously stuck...he has droned on before about how agents never do anything without client's ok. But he would look like a dope if he doesn't double down.

I fall on the side of the two ex-players and take Huby at his word.

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by dustygoon

The disagreement between Bieksa and Friedman last night was good. Bieksa (and Hrudey) thought it was poor form of Walsh to tweet that.....and Bieksa in particular deeply believes Huberdeau didn't instruct his agent here.

Meanwhile, Friedman is obviously stuck...he has droned on before about how agents never do anything without client's ok. But he would look like a dope if he doesn't double down.

I fall on the side of the two ex-players and take Huby at his word.

I actually think Kelly’s point paralleled exactly what I thought a player’s mindset should be, in that the player should be pissed off and be ready to fire his agent. But the fact his players don’t fire him after these outbursts I think speaks to them not only knowing, but expecting these tweets.

Also, looking at Huberdeau’s reaction, he wasn’t mad at all, he seemed to be in a joyous mood after during his interviews. That was the opposite reaction of a guy who was just blindsided by his agent like Kelly was alluding to.

So I’m actually on Elliotte’s side, I think the player always gives the OK, there’s just too much on the line in terms of current and future prospects to not get consent.

[UnitedFlames]

Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper

Also, looking at Huberdeau’s reaction, he wasn’t mad at all, he seemed to be in a joyous mood after during his interviews. That was the opposite reaction of a guy who was just blindsided by his agent like Kelly was alluding to.

He was joyous because he just played a great game.

Huberdeau's words right after the game were, "Walshy fired me up," which to me sounds like he was angry and it got him going. It could also be that he was embarrassed by what Walsh did. Huberdeau strikes me as the type of person that doesn't need someone else talking for him.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper

I actually think Kelly’s point paralleled exactly what I thought a player’s mindset should be, in that the player should be pissed off and be ready to fire his agent. But the fact his players don’t fire him after these outbursts I think speaks to them not only knowing, but expecting these tweets.

Also, looking at Huberdeau’s reaction, he wasn’t mad at all, he seemed to be in a joyous mood after during his interviews. That was the opposite reaction of a guy who was just blindsided by his agent like Kelly was alluding to.

So I’m actually on Elliotte’s side, I think the player always gives the OK, there’s just too much on the line in terms of current and future prospects to not get consent.

That's a hell of a way of looking at it.

[curves2000]

Originally Posted by dustygoon

The disagreement between Bieksa and Friedman last night was good. Bieksa (and Hrudey) thought it was poor form of Walsh to tweet that.....and Bieksa in particular deeply believes Huberdeau didn't instruct his agent here.

Meanwhile, Friedman is obviously stuck...he has droned on before about how agents never do anything without client's ok. But he would look like a dope if he doesn't double down.

I fall on the side of the two ex-players and take Huby at his word.

Do you or anybody else happen to have a link to the debate? I am eager to watch it and ever since Sportnet took over HNIC, specific clips from segments are very hard to track down on Sportsnet's site.

When CBC had the right's it was a very easy " February 18, 2022 " Coaches Corner, After Hours, Hotstove Lounge, Around the NHL etc. All broken down into the actual segments by date.

Thanks

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by UnitedFlames

He was joyous because he just played a great game.

Huberdeau's words right after the game were, "Walshy fired me up," which to me sounds like he was angry and it got him going. It could also be that he was embarrassed by what Walsh did. Huberdeau strikes me as the type of person that doesn't need someone else talking for him.

No I’m talking about the initial media scrum which occurred the next day post Red Wings loss. He was in a happy mood making jokes and etc. If he was truly blindsided like he said was, he should’ve been pissed like any normal player, these guys don’t want the unnecessary drama like both Kelly and Kevin said.

Lastly, Huberdeau is a pretty reserved guy, I don’t think he’d be comfortable going out in public saying it himself, similar to the Walsh-Frolik situation.

[SuperMatt18]

There was a big difference in Walsh's tweet on Friday VS his previous tweets that is being overlooked IMO.

With Frolik and Fleury - Walsh always specifically would name his player and call out the specific grievance. With Frolik it was playing time, with Fleury it was more loyalty.

Walsh didn't really specifically name Huberdeau in this one - which makes me think it could have been a bit different.

I have no doubt Walsh and Huberdeau have likely had tough discussions about the system, lack of adjustments, and the overall negativity around the team (Sutter has some blame but think Tre has been pretty negative this year too).

I also don't think that Huberdeau instructed Walsh to send that tweet about 17 minutes after the game.

[Major Major]

Possible reasons for Walsh to act alone:

1. Get the coach fired. This seems unlikely just based on what his knowledge of the organization. No one in flames management/ownership screams out as pliable under threat.
2. Set an agenda for internal discussions. The player is frustrated but isn't pointing fingers, is trying to be a good soldier, and it didn't feel like it's on their organizational to do list.
3. Send a jolt through this corpse of a team when they were at their corpsiest moment. Give a rallying point. Motivate his client.
4. He likes chaos and his name plastered front and centre. He doesn't particularly care about his client or the team. He just likes the feeling of moving a piece and seeing what happens with his name in everyone's mouth.

My guess is it's #2 but 1 and 3 are both desirable side effects from his perspective.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Major Major

Possible reasons for Walsh to act alone:

1. Get the coach fired. This seems unlikely just based on what his knowledge of the organization. No one in flames management/ownership screams out as pliable under threat.
2. Set an agenda for internal discussions. The player is frustrated but isn't pointing fingers, is trying to be a good soldier, and it didn't feel like it's on their organizational to do list.
3. Send a jolt through this corpse of a team when they were at their corpsiest moment. Give a rallying point. Motivate his client.
4. He likes chaos and his name plastered front and centre. He doesn't particularly care about his client or the team. He just likes the feeling of moving a piece and seeing what happens with his name in everyone's mouth.

My guess is it's #2 but 1 and 3 are both desirable side effects from his perspective.

5. Remind all GMs that he's a loose cannon, especially if he feels behind-the-scenes conversations have not been productive enough.


But really, reading that tweet with a few days of separation and after a win, it is not nearly as inflammatory as it may have felt at the time, and it certainly wasn't incorrect. IMO its absurd to think a player should consider firing his agent over it.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by keenan87

All this does - Huberdeau will play even less minutes in a game so Sutter can teach him a lesson.

Is that a bad thing? I'm all for giving your best player ice time to operate, but when you do nothing with it all season, you don't really deserve to be playing anymore than 15-16 minutes a night.

Say all you want about the Sutter system, but this PP was top notch last year running through Gaudreau. Huberdeau has been given every opportunity to do the same thing here and has looked like a second unit guy at best.

Walsh has clearly heard something to this effect from Huberdeau, whether he was instructed to tweet it or not. There's always a reason teams give up on "elite" players, and it looks like this is a pretty clear indication of why they didn't think they can get to another level with this guy.