If you are an aspiring young hockey player or a family member of a player with professional dreams, you’ve probably thought hard about hockey agents or family advisors. The process of applying for NCAA scholarships or seeking out scouts from professional teams can be a long and arduous one, and many families are not as well-educated as they should be on the requirements.
When it comes to seeking interest from teams, most people don’t know where to start. This is where hockey agents or family advisors can be useful to a young player. You may have heard of each of these but might not be too sure what the differences are. While they perform similar duties and aim to provide comparable results, there are quite a few differences between an advisor and an agent. Learning about these two types of professionals can go a long way in helping you make the right decisions for your future.
Hockey Agents
Hockey agents are people who work with highly touted young players who are expected to be high draft picks in the Major Juniors. Agents negotiate future salaries and contracts with prospective teams. An agent works for future earnings, hoping to get a cut of the contract if they can land one for a player. If a player hires an agent, he or she can make decisions on behalf of the player as long as player or family has given him the authority to do so.
Hockey agents are not allowed to represent a potential college athlete in the way that they would a professional or major junior athlete. NCAA rules bar players from signing with agents. This is where some of the major differences between agents and advisors come in.
Family Advisors
Family advisors have become increasingly popular in recent years because of these rules. The main difference between an agent and an advisor is that an advisor is paid based on a contracted rate with the family. Their earnings do not depend on the size of a contract that they might procure for the player in the future. Payment is agreed upon before the player even signs with or is recruited by a team.
An NCAA player who is interested in furthering his career must work with a family advisor rather than an agent. There are many people who try to circumvent these rules, but if they are caught it could disqualify the player from playing in the NCAA. It simply isn’t worth it to try to break the rules.
The reason for this is that the NCAA does not want certain players to be receiving financial benefits that others might not have access to. Because an advisor works for an agreed upon rate and does not make money for the player, that is the route that NCAA players must take. Hiring an agent is against the rules because it makes for an uneven playing field.
Similarities and differences
Although agents and advisors work for different types of players and follow different rules, they still provide very similar services. They are there to give advice to young players who might not know exactly which teams or leagues they should be looking at. They can consult with the families and coaches of the players to offer insight on their abilities and talk about what the best path forward might be. Both the agents and the advisors have the main goal of furthering the career of their clients.
Advisors are there to help younger players who want to receive NCAA scholarships. They aren’t necessarily looking to land a big paycheck for their client. Instead, they get paid by the player or the family of the player to help put them in a better position for the future. You can look at an advisor as the first step towards getting an agent somewhere down the line. They can give advice on how much a player might expect to earn if he goes pro, but they are not allowed to negotiate contracts or speak to professional teams about signing the player.
Agents, on the other hand, are all about the big payday. They can speak with professional teams about signing certain players, and in turn can bring the offers to the players. An advisor might help groom a player to be ready to work with an agent, but the agent does the actual work of getting a contract and helping a player get signed. There are plenty of agents who care about the wellbeing of the player, but there is often a lot of money in it for themselves. Some people act as both advisors and agents, and may turn into an agent as a client of theirs has a chance to go pro. This is a fine line to walk, and they must be very careful not to break any NCAA or NHL rules.
When to Choose
As we mentioned, there is often a natural progression from needing an advisor to needing an agent. If you are a young player who is considering playing at the NCAA college level, your only option is to get an advisor as the rules don’t allow for agents. You will agree on upon a rate and the advisor will help groom you to be scouted in the future.
If, however, you are opting to skip college and play in the Major Junior circuit, you can choose either an advisor or an agent. They don’t have as many rules regarding payment as the NCAA.
Eventually, players who want to go pro will need to hire an agent, as they will be able to take care of negotiations and help you get drafted. Yes, they are looking to get a big payday for themselves, but that is based on getting an even more enormous payday for the players whom they represent. On the other, advisors and/or agents my find you instead! Agents and advisors also scout and recruit as well!
