The agent can advise anything he wants, but young men, especially ones as arrogant as most pro athletes, don't exactly listen to advice very well. And ultimately the agent is an employee of the players so if they can't convince their boss to chose a more realistic path they can only follow his instruction.
Turris wanted a fresh start, so his agent did what he could to make it happen, ryjo wants an absurd amount of money, so the agent is doing what he can to make it happen.
And that comment is silly by Davidson because ryjo clearly does have leverage, not as much as with arbitration or as much as he would as a UFA, but he still holds some leverage, otherwise they wouldn't have been giving him so many different offers, and while the CBA gives them exclusive rights, it doesn't guarantee that the player has to sign whatever they are gracious enough to offer him.
The more I read about this the more childish ryjo and colombus' management come off, with the agent looking the least bad.
The agent's job is to do what the players want, but what always seems to forgotten in this argument is they're supposed to advise the players what to do.
RyJo has no leverage. Columbus gave him multiple offers because it's the final hour before training camp and they didn't want him to hold out. That's his only leverage, to hold out. UFA's get an open market to bid on them. Older RFA's get arbitration rights. All RyJo had was the possibility of an offer sheet, if he didn't like what his team was offering him. He didn't get that so he's holding out.
There's a clear cut strategy to change the market price for 2nd contracts in the NHL. It's been done for a while now, and every year it's been pushed further and further. This is not something the players got together and decided. It's something a few agents realized they could capitalize on, and started advising their clients to do.
They want to have their cake and eat it to. Just like Davidson said. They get overpaid as UFA's, and now they want to get overpaid on their 2nd contracts before they've proven themselves.
This is where it's the agent's job to step in and say this isn't a good idea, trust me. They just want to make sure what kind of player you are, and then you'll be paid a hefty sum when we have more leverage with arbitration.
Except they don't say that. They paint it as an insult and that the team is the villain. They want to make it seem personal, and then to say what they're doing is just business. That's why Pat Morris is on the radio essentially saying the team is slapping O'Reilly in the face taking him to arbitration, that's why he felt so offended the last time when he held out, and that's why RyJo is doing interviews saying the Jackets offers are insulting.
There's no way the agents don't know the players are feeling this way, and they would never have those emotions if guys like Overhardt weren't promoting that feeling. You just can't ignore the fact that he's done this with so many of his clients. If Overhardt runs like a duck, and quacks like a duck, he's a ***damned duck.