Playing Hockey In Europe
Agents
There are many agents in Europe, as there are many agents in the US and Canada. As in North America (NA) some of these agents are really good and some are really bad. So how do you go about finding a good agent?
Well this can be a little tricky. You must remember that agents are in the sales business. There goal is to sell you and your abilities to a team and then they will get there standard 5%.
Knowing this you have to realize that they will also be selling you to sign with them. "Sure player x, I can get you that, just sign on the dotted line."
You have to be careful and make your selection of an agent carefully. Don't be afraid to ask questions of them! For example:
- Do they have another job outside of being an agent? You don't want to hire a guy who is just doing this in his spare time.
- What sort of connections do they have? If the guy is from England and you want to play in Germany and he has never contacted a team in Germany it may be difficult to work with that agent.
- What type of education does the agent have? Many are lawyers or have been GM's for teams and have many connections
- Do they have any other North Americans in the agency? It may be difficult for an agent if they have never dealt with NA players before
- Can you contact a few of their players and ask about them? This is good so that you know the agent is reliable and the players he has enjoy his services.
These are just a couple of questions I came up with but don't be afraid to ask a lot of questions. They don't cost anything and if the agent can't take the time to answer your questions than you don't want that person.
I would say that it is better to have a European agent if you are looking to play in Europe although many NA agents have partnerships with European agents so that is also something to look into.
So how do you find an agent? Well the internet is one way of finding agents. These agents can be found by running a search and I know that many of them post on the forum so if you look back a couple days usually you will be able to find them.
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