The headquarters of the Creative Arts Agency is located on posh Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, Calif., and in any given week, you can catch a glimpse of actress Jennifer Aniston coming out of the offices or California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger going in.
More recently, CAA is in the news as David Beckham, one of its clients on the sports side, makes his way to the United States to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Less than two years ago, CAA added a hockey division to its impressive roster of actors, athletes and singers when it scooped up two of the premier player agents in the game, Pat Brisson and J.P. Barry, who were previously with IMG.
Among Brisson's clients are Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, two of the most precocious young talents in the game. Barry's extensive client list includes Mats Sundin, Daniel Alfredsson and Jaromir Jagr.
Normally, the CAA offices tend to be quiet on a Sunday, but not this weekend, when Brisson will be at his desk at 9 a.m. Pacific time for the official opening of the National Hockey League's free-agency season.
Sitting not far from Brisson will be Daniel Brière, one of the most attractive free agents heading to the open market. Brisson will have the high-scoring forward at his side so that they can discuss, face to face, the offers when they start to roll in that morning.
This is the second summer of free agency under the new collective bargaining agreement and while a few things have changed — mercifully, the start time has been pushed back to noon (Eastern time) from midnight — many of the protocols remain the same.
Salary cap or no salary cap, the hottest candidates usually go first — and this year, Brière, Chris Drury, Ryan Smyth and Scott Gomez should all be gobbled up within the first 48 hours of what some call the NHL's silly season for prices that could reach $8-million (U.S.) or more a season.
Brisson likens the anticipated bidding war to "a game of musical chairs" and says that, nowadays, an agent needs to be aware of how many seats there are for a player of a certain type. For example, if eight teams have a need for a No. 1 player and there are only three on the market, the action on them figures to be fast and furious.
"Before, a lot of times, we'd go back and forth and the client would talk to his wife, and his family, his mother and father, and sometimes it would take hours," Brisson said this week. "There's no such luxury now. You've got to be ready; you've got to be quick. You need to understand the market, so we're preparing our clients for that — now, more than before."
The league's 30 general managers understand how this works and so do the agents. While Brisson will be juggling calls for his other clients — defenceman Brad Stuart figures to be snapped up in short order, too — the out-of-the-gate focus is usually on high-end, big-name players.
"You're probably not getting a call at nine o'clock in the morning for a fourth-line player," Brisson said. "No disrespect intended; it's just normal. General managers now, because they're working with a budget, have to see where the big money's going first. No team is going to be rushing to sign a guy at $750,000 first thing in the morning."
Complicating matters even further for Brisson is the fact that he eventually wants to get around to doing an extension for Crosby. The Pittsburgh Penguins would like to get the young superstar's name on a contract for as many years as possible.
