Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Players? Occasionally.
Coaches and general managers? Not at all as far as I can see. Can you think of a single instance in which a UFA has opted to sign with a team specifically because of who is coaching, or who happens to be the GM?
Even with players, I think that this occurring is really rare. For the most part—and I'm merely echoing what others have already clearly explained—players care about winning, and they care about earning top dollar. UFA's select their destination on the basis of these primary criteria.
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Players care about earning top dollar, players care about winning, but they also care about their role on the team. Relationships matter in hockey. To dismiss relationships as a factor is to be ignorant.
Players sign because of past relationships with a coach all the time because they know the coach knows how to utilize them and they trust they'll get a fair opportunity. You hear players asking other players about what a coach is like or what the franchise is like before signing. The majority of the time players aren't dealing with a situation where they are considering offers that are far apart where it's easy to simply go to the highest bidder. The majority of the time, players are considering offers they consider to be pretty close. Many players are smart enough to look at the team, listen to their agent, and listen to other players. A GM's past conduct especially in promises made will factor into a player's decision to sign.
Back on topic, I don't think Calgary would be more attractive with Feaster leaving. Feaster seems to have a pretty good relationship with his players and outside of players being skeptical of Feaster's abilities, authority, and job security, I can't really think of too many reasons why Feaster would have a negative effect on attracting free agents. Once Burke was hired, players would be listening to Burke anyways and not trusting Feaster so if the question is whether the Flames are suddenly more attractive because Feaster just got fired the answer is no.
Edit: I actually think the Flames are potentially a worse free agent destination with Burke here rather than Feaster because of Burke's outspoken reluctance to hand out NTCs. Right or wrong, a team that is willing to give out full NTCs and NMCs is not going to be hampered in their ability to attract the top free agents.
