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Leagues and Governing Bodies

NHL Teams Commit A Record $500M To 70 Players On Opening Day Of Free Agency

The start of NHL free agency yesterday "was a crazy day of wheeling and dealing," as teams committed a record $500M (all figures U.S.) "to sign more than 70 players to new contracts," according to Eric Duhatschek of the GLOBE & MAIL. TSN said that the previous record was $384M spent back in '09. The "rush to sign players as soon the signing window opened at noon (Eastern) Tuesday came about largely because of a change in the collective bargaining agreement, which gave NHL teams a 'grace' period to explore contract talks with free agents five days before their old deals actually expired." Ryan Miller was "probably the biggest name player to land with a Canadian team," as he signed a three-year, $18M contract to join the Canucks. It "went along like that all day -- every new signing more bizarre than the last one until eventually you became numb to the numbers." But "hope springs eternal in the NHL and though the history of free-agent signings is littered with expensive mistakes, that knowledge didn’t prevent teams from wading in, cheque books in hand, to scoop up what had been thought of as a modestly talented free-agent group" (GLOBE & MAIL, 7/2). In Toronto, Terry Koshan writes, "Jaws began dropping not long after NHL clubs were able to start throwing gobs of money at players that otherwise wouldn't have gotten it had it been any other day on the calendar." Some of the players who "found new homes on Tuesday will live up to their new contracts, but others will fall woefully short, leaving frustrated fans in their wake." What is certain is "the day itself surpassed its billing as a free-agent frenzy" (TORONTO SUN, 7/2).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

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SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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