Curious About the Trade Process

[BlueJackets39]

With the trade deadline just passed, I was curious to know if anyone had any insight on the particulars of how the NHL trade process works (i.e. what happens after the player is informed, how the other team gets the player's gear and specific equipment requests, uniforms/jersey numbers, etc.). I've always found this somewhat interesting that to fans, a player is moved and shows up the next night in uniform with a new team...but what happens "behind the scenes"? Thanks!

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[jol]

With the trade deadline just passed, I was curious to know if anyone had any insight on the particulars of how the NHL trade process works (i.e. what happens after the player is informed, how the other team gets the player's gear and specific equipment requests, uniforms/jersey numbers, etc.). I've always found this somewhat interesting that to fans, a player is moved and shows up the next night in uniform with a new team...but what happens "behind the scenes"? Thanks!

I think there have been trades, just before game player has been told that "actually you will be playing with our tonight's opponent". So I would think that player is last person to know about the deal.
Panthers traded Bryan Allen on Monday to Carolina, and they had game against Carolina same night. Allen was hoping to fly to Raleigh with Panthers' charter plane, but no such luck. Anyways, he played on Monday night.

JOL

 

[New User Name]

With the trade deadline just passed, I was curious to know if anyone had any insight on the particulars of how the NHL trade process works (i.e. what happens after the player is informed, how the other team gets the player's gear and specific equipment requests, uniforms/jersey numbers, etc.). I've always found this somewhat interesting that to fans, a player is moved and shows up the next night in uniform with a new team...but what happens "behind the scenes"? Thanks!

I do know one of the conditions of most trades is the player passing a medical.

I would think that medical would be done by a team Doctor.
I'd imagine they're on call 24/7.

As for the rest, good questions.

 

[LadyStanley]

And their medical records.


(FTR, they had some great videos on nhl.com with the trade calls.)


AFAIK, the old GM gives the new GM the player's contact information. Old GM contacts player, then new GM chats with him.

 

[BlueJackets39]

Yeah, I saw the trade call video. Pretty cool stuff. Thanks for the replies.

 

[bodybreak]

The most interesting thing to me is that players are finding out they've been traded in some interesting ways... Chris Campoli said he saw it come up on TSN... Another player (traded to Columbus I believe) found out via a phone call from Sportsnet Ontario... The player didn't recognize the 416 area code at first, but the number kept calling, so he picked it up.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

The (Raleigh) News & Observer did a good article a few years ago when Kevyn Adams was traded to Phoenix for Dennis Seidenberg. The article's no longer available on the N&O's website but I found it posted on another website, so I'll cut and paste here.

RALEIGH - Kevyn Adams was on the ice at the RBC Center when equipment manager Wally Tatomir called him over and told the Carolina Hurricanes forward that he was needed in the coach's office.

With his skates still on, in full practice gear, Adams took the long walk to Peter Laviolette's office, hidden around a corner at the far end of the dressing-room complex. When he saw not only Laviolette but also general manager Jim Rutherford and assistant general manager Jason Karmanos awaiting him, he knew his five years with the Hurricanes were at an end.

That morning, Jan. 8, Rutherford and his Phoenix Coyotes counterpart, Mike Barnett, had agreed to a trade they had been discussing for some time.

Adams, the 32-year-old center and alternate captain who was still slowed, seven months later, by the two bones he broke in his right wrist diving in front of a shot during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, was sent to Phoenix for Dennis Seidenberg, a 25-year-old German defenseman.

The act of making a trade is simple, even if the art is not. A deal that may have taken months to negotiate takes mere minutes to consummate. As many as 40 players could change teams before the NHL's trade deadline passes at 3 p.m. today, each disrupting days and lives.

This is not the story of a trade. It is the story of its aftermath.

Leaving friends behind
Adams' ice time had declined while his name surfaced in trade rumors. He was far from surprised but was disappointed to leave a place that had become his home.

The Carolina dressing room was open to the media, but at Adams' request the room was closed so he could address his teammates. A traded player will typically have a few minutes at most to speak with his teammates. Adams thanked them for helping him put his name on the Stanley Cup, the room quiet with the loss of a leader and friend.
After calling his wife, Stacey, from the players' lounge, Adams met briefly with the media at the arena before heading to a more important meeting. He went to pick up his 5-year-old daughter Emerson at school, pulling her out of class to tell her what had happened. Adams asked if she wanted to stay in class or come home and help him pack. She chose to come with him.

His phone kept ringing -- Barnett, Phoenix coach Wayne Gretzky, a teleconference with the Coyotes beat reporters -- while he packed. At 6 p.m., he caught a flight for Dallas, leaving behind two bewildered children and a wife five months pregnant with a third.

"I remember on the plane, the first time the phone's been off, thinking, 'In this world you can wake up somewhere and a few hours later your whole world has changed,' " Adams said.

Seidenberg foresaw trade
While Adams was getting pulled off the ice in Raleigh, Seidenberg was in a hotel elevator in Dallas, on his way back to his room from breakfast, when his cell phone rang. It was Barnett, asking him to come up to his suite.
As the Coyotes' defense had gotten a number of players back from injury, Seidenberg had slid down the depth chart. He knew what was coming.

"I asked, 'Do you have bad news for me?' " Seidenberg said. "He said, 'You can view it how you want. You're going to the Stanley Cup champions.' "

Seidenberg had brought extra gear on the road with him just in case, but that didn't include his passport, which he would need to meet the Hurricanes in Toronto the next day. He was booked on a flight from Dallas to Phoenix to get his passport and grab some clothes, then a late flight from Phoenix to Las Vegas and a red-eye from Las Vegas to Toronto, arriving a mere 12 hours before Tuesday night's game against the Maple Leafs, a journey of some 3,060 miles.

Seidenberg's girlfriend lives outside Philadelphia, so all he left in Phoenix was clothes and some furniture. He went back during the Al-Star break to get the rest.

Pre-trade preparations
While Adams and Seidenberg were grappling with their new circumstances, machinery had been set in motion behind them before they were even told of the trade.

At the RBC Center, Kelly Kirwin, the team's event coordinator for hockey operations, was already booking Seidenberg's travel. She also called the Coyotes to exchange personal information on the two players -- medical history, family details, immigration and visa status -- and started putting together a relocation plan to get Seidenberg's car and personal property from Phoenix to Raleigh.

Bob Gorman, one of the Hurricanes' three equipment managers, worked the phones as well. His first call went to Stan Wilson, the Coyotes' equipment manager.

While Seidenberg would use much of his Phoenix equipment to start, the Canes would need to order new gear for him in the proper colors, so Wilson relayed to Gorman the sizes of Seidenberg's gloves, skates and pants. Wilson would send extra sticks and Seidenberg's special skate blades from Phoenix.

Gorman reached Seidenberg on his cell phone to ask what number he'd like. The No. 22 he wore in Phoenix was unavailable, and the two settled on No. 4. Gorman ordered a nameplate from a company in Rockford, Ill., and had it expressed to Toronto. If he couldn't find someone to do the sewing there, he'd do it himself.

Effects on Adams family
This had all happened before, always in the middle of a season. Once, Stacey Adams got the call when she was eight months pregnant, the day before she and Kevyn were going to close on a house in Columbus, Ohio. That time, Kevyn was traded to the Florida Panthers.

This time, it was tougher. Emerson was only 8 months old when Adams had been traded from Florida to Carolina in January 2002.

With Kevyn's name coming up in trade rumors, Stacey had tried to prepare Emerson, telling her, "If Daddy played for another team, you'd get another jersey," or "Cooper's dad used to play for Nashville," when Scott Walker's son came to the house. But when the time came, Emerson still asked, "Do I have to move?"

She did not. The Adamses decided that Kevyn, who will be a free agent this summer, would head to Phoenix alone and Stacey, still suffering from bouts of morning sickness, would soldier on with the two kids in Raleigh. They would catch up with him on the road -- making trips to see him in Nashville or Florida.

"What it comes down to, really, is [that] it's the hockey life," Stacey Adams said. "It's about your husband's career. It's not that long that they get to play, so whatever's the best situation for them.
"If you look at it any other way, it would be very hard."

Checking out new team, city
Seidenberg arrived in Toronto early in the morning of Jan. 9, a little after 7 a.m. He took a cab to the team's hotel in Toronto, where a room key was waiting. After a quick breakfast, he changed in the room while trying not to wake Andrew Ladd, his new roommate, then went to the arena. (Ladd feigned sleep so Seidenberg wouldn't feel bad waking him up.)

Seidenberg wandered the dressing room, organizing his gear and introducing himself to his teammates as they trickled in.
Gorman found a red nylon shell for Seidenberg to wear over his purple Phoenix pants and applied red tape to his purple gloves.

Assistant coaches Kevin McCarthy and Jeff Daniels took a few minutes to show Seidenberg video of Carolina's systems and a few more to diagram plays and strategy on a whiteboard.

That night, Seidenberg played 20 minutes for the Hurricanes. Adams played 12 minutes for the Coyotes against the Dallas Stars.

When the team returned to Raleigh that night, Seidenberg checked into a hotel. In a strange town where he had never spent more than a night or two, he had two weeks to find a place to call home.

 

[BlueJackets39]

GREAT post, Palmetto. Exactly what I was trying to find. Thanks a ton. Very cool.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

GREAT post, Palmetto. Exactly what I was trying to find. Thanks a ton. Very cool.

NP. It's something that's always interested me as well. I remember when the Canes traded Andrew Ladd for Tuomo Ruutu, Ruutu got to the RBC Center with minutes to spare (the rest of the team was out for pregame warm-ups IIRC and Ruutu was seen running up the runway to make it out onto the ice) and actually had to get a police escort from the airport in order to make it to the arena on time. While en route from the airport to the arena, Ron Francis went over the basics of Carolina's offensive schemes with Ruutu.

The other thing that always interests me is the human factor to it. I know many 'Canes fans were upset that Ray Whitney refused to waive his NTC last season to go to LA, but when you read about what Adams had to do - leave his kids and pregnant wife behind - you can understand why some of these guys choose their families first.

Also, slight correction to jol - Allen and Samsonov were traded on the 28th, but the 'Canes and Panthers didn't play until the next day, the 1st. You are correct that Allen hoped the Panthers would let him fly on the team charter but that they refused to let him do so and he had to fly commercial. Due to flight delays because of weather, Allen didn't get to his hotel until 4:30 AM the morning of the 1st. Still, he made it to practice at 10:00 AM and then the game that night.

 

[Blue Dragon]

I seem to recall when Adam Foote went from Columbus to the Avs, they flew him to Calgary (where they were playing) on Kroenke's private jet. My recollection is he arrived at the Saddledome some time during the first period.