After the ink was dry on the last NWHL contract to be processed, Today’s Slapshot spoke with Brant Feldman of AGM Sports by phone in order to get an agent’s perspective on the signings.

Feldman represents Meghan Duggan, a 2010 and 2014 U.S. Women’s Olympic Team player and former Boston Blade in the CWHL who now runs the Buffalo Beauts back end in the new U.S.-based league, had the very last contract to be finalized and announced publicly.

Feldman began working for Pat Brisson (who represents big NHL names such as Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews) as an “intern, gopher, whatever the lowest member on the totem pole was about 20 years ago.” But soon he moved on to representing Natalie Darwitz and Kelly Stevens, who were his first clients in 2005.

He currently represents Duggan, the Lamoureux twins, who play for the Minnesota Whitecaps in the WHA, and Julie Chu of the CWHL’s Montreal Canadiennes, among other elite athletes. His clients span a number of leagues, and Feldman has seen a lot about in his 10-year career as an agent, but the NWHL’s rocket-like start was a surprise to him, he said.

“From an agent’s perspective, what Dani (Rylan, NWHL Commissioner and founder) and her team at the NWHL has done in the course of six or seven months at this point has been pretty remarkable,” Feldman said. “They’ve been able to assemble not only a staff that works for the office but all of the hidden things that the fan will never see.”

Those things would include ownership of one’s image, which is not something your everyday person has to think about. The U.S. National Team players who withdrew from the CWHL to join the NWHL (Duggan, Kacey Bellamy, Hilary Knight, Kelli Stack, Emily Pfalzer, Gigi Marvin and Brianna Decker) decided to sign with their new league as a group, given their status as National Team players meant they needed certain accommodations, from insurance to negotiating the number of appearances each had to make as representatives of the league.

Feldman assisted the U.S. Women’s National Team players in negotiating their exit from the CWHL ­– not necessarily releases, but things such as who held the rights to use players’ images and names.

Image ownership was one of Feldman’s biggest concerns and played a part in delaying the players’ releases from the CWHL, though sources have indicated that some players were not as focused on the image issue.

“It had to do with marketing rights,” Feldman explained. “As an example, if you retire from USA Hockey tomorrow, USA Hockey can use your image in a non-commercial manner forever. They can use you in a historical perspective but they couldn’t use your image with something such as, say, Wal-Mart or Coca Cola without your permission in advance and maybe some compensation. We were able to get it to where the rules are that you see in commonplace usage.”

Only then were players released from the CWHL and given the opportunity to sign with the new league.

“They were very honorable about it,” Feldman added.

When contacted, Sasky Stewart, the CWHL director of public relations and communications stated the following in an email to the author:

The majority of USWNT players applied for their release on 16 August as a group. All the releases were granted by the CWHL on the 7 of September, pending the player returning the appropriate paperwork to the CWHL.

The initial delay on player releases was due to a request of disposal of player imaging rights. The CWHL and players agreed (as a term of their player release) to cease the creation of any new materials using the Players Name and likeness. The league is not however prevent [sic] from using current existing materials (i.e. game and event highlights and recaps) or at any point using group photos where players are wearing CWHL uniform or logos (ie. Championship Winning Photos). […]

In this instance, the CWHL tried to comply with the requests in an efficient fashion but both the number of requests received at once and the requests pertaining to image rights which required further discussion and negotiation between the parties before competition. Throughout this time however, the CWHL were in contact with the players who had requested release including a follow up email from Commissioner Andress on the 28 August which updated players as to the status of the releases.

Once the players began negotiating contracts with the NWHL, Feldman’s job began again. While certain aspects of contracts Feldman is unable to disclose, he did talk a little about player appearances.

“I would say that players have a certain number of appearances that they have to do in their contract. That was certainly a number we negotiated,” Feldman said.

But what constitutes an appearance? Is it signing autographs in the hall after the opening game, like the Connecticut Whale did in early October, or as the New York Riveters did after their home opener?

“If the Buffalo Beauts are signing autographs after a game, that’s not really an appearance for me,” Feldman clarified. “That’s doing the right thing. That’s signing autographs for the kids and the families and everything else in the arena. That’s different.”

“If you have an appearance of 3 or more athletes . . . let’s say that the NWHL has a deal with Choc Full O’ Nuts Coffee ­­– that’s a very Brooklyn thing, Chock Full O’ Nuts. If they’re going to go sign autographs at the Chock Full O’ Nuts Coffee factory, you’re going to have a certain number of athletes that are there, then you’ll be there for a couple of hours and then the appearance is over with,” Feldman said.

However, the ramifications of extra appearances could be large for any team foolish enough to ignore its players’ specific contracts.

“If the league needs players to do more than what is in the contract, that has not been determined. That shouldn’t be envisioned for the season because it may have salary cap ramifications to it, and that has not been discussed,” finished Feldman.

That is of particular note, considering just how close to the salary cap some of the teams run, with Boston coming in at $269,000, only $1,000 under the cap. As such, it seems that the Pride, who have the highest concentration of National Team players, may be able to make the least amount of use of them, depending on how many appearances each contracted for.

And when it came to salaries, while the National Team players certainly earned higher paydays than many of their new NWHL teammates, having waited so long they more or less had to take what was available.

“Truth be told,” Feldman said, “there wasn’t really any negotiation with the NWHL as it relates to player salaries this year . . . the NWHL slotted a certain budget for those players and that’s what they ultimately signed to. I think in the future that will change but this year, that’s how that happened.”

So if it wasn’t for a payday, why did the National Team players head to the NWHL?

“Once the players told the CWHL that they were departing there were only four options of the players at that point,” Feldman explained. “Option 1 was to go to the NWHL; Option 2 was to go to Europe; Option 3 was to go to the Minnesota Whitecaps or 4, play rec league hockey wherever they lived.”

“The NWHL was the preferred destination because the girls said, let’s try something different and see if it works out.”