What's up with stars wanting out?

[Hockey Widow]

Longer than that Wids.

Tkachuk and Gaudreau were pre Olympcs.

Not only Americans either.

Rantanen forcing his way out of Carolina.

Marner dictating his own path out of Hog Town.

Marner and Rantanen were a little different in that they were both expiring contracts that would not re-sign with their existing team. Similar to what Hughes is now with Minny. I was speaking more of players who still had term demanding trades and only accepting to the USA.

[Hockey Widow]

^^^^^
Thus why Benning claimed he always had to overpay to land UFAs.

[donlever]

Right...fair enough...I was speaking within the realms of the original context of the thread....

[Topper]

Power to the people

[Ronning's Ghost]

....
If the organization doesn't really care about the individual beyond what he can produce for it, why would we expect the individual to give two shits about the organization beyond what it can provide for him...

I think Vancouver has another problem on top of that: what is the cachet of the Canucks brand to somebody who didn't grow up a Canucks fan...

So when we ask, “Why would Player X want to leave?”, maybe the better question is “Why would we expect him to want to stay?”

Great post with great points.

I will say, though, that as much of a liability as various aspects of the franchise or the local tax structure might be, the city itself is an asset. It's still a great spot if you're a millionaire, which most NHL players are, whatever Tryamkin's girlfriend may have though of it. There have been players who specifically wanted to play here because it was the city in which they wished to raise their kids. Seems to happen particularly often with Swedes.

[Meds]

How much of this is because of Canadian hockey culture?

While NFL, NBA, and MLB, are undoubtedly far more popular in the US, none of them ascend to the level of religion that hockey does in Canada. Football comes close, but in general I don’t get the impression that NFL fans and media crucify their star players the same way their Canadian counterparts do their NHL players.

Think how hard we are on our players at this here HTMB (and AI considers us to be elite btw). Think how hard our media is.

Think about Marner’s experiences in Toronto.

American stars playing in Canada are suddenly thrown into a cauldron of pressure that they have not experienced…..and they have no homegrown loyalty to Canadian fans. So when thinks head for the ditch they bail out.

I’m not out to throw mud at them of anything, just an observation.