Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 24, 1993 TAG: 9304240040
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
\ Dave Schultz, undoubtedly, is the most famous player. Mike Keenan, without question, is the most well-known coach.
But of the hundreds of guys who have passed through the Roanoke Valley at the start of their careers, none have enjoyed more hockey success than Michael Barnett.
The 42-year-old Calgary native is considered by most experts as the National Hockey League's No. 1 agent, representing such stars as Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull, Jaromir Jagr, Alexander Mogilny and Grant Fuhr.
Barnett, who played for the 1974-75 Roanoke Valley Rebels, had an estimated income of $750,000 in 1992, according to Inside Hockey magazine.
"When it comes to money," noted Claude Piche, Barnett's old Rebels teammate, "he's the best. He's got us all beat in that department, I believe."
When Barnett made the long haul from Western Canada to Roanoke in the summer of 1974, he had dreams of making the NHL. But his vision included sticks and skates, not calculators and business contracts.
"I was under contract with the Houston Aeros [of the old World Hockey Association]," Barnett recalled, speaking via phone from his Los Angeles office. "I was probably an average player who had reasonable skills and a great deal of desire. I still thought I had a chance, though, at playing in the NHL."
Barnett's dream of making the big-time was short-lived. After putting up decent numbers - 20 goals and 15 assists in 58 games - Barnett's career ended in a late-season game at the Charlotte (N.C.) Coliseum.
"I got hit with a puck in the left eye," Barnett recalled. "It did quite a bit of damage. All the rods that hold the lens in place were broken. That was it. Just like that, my career was over. And to this day, I still have triple vision in my left eye.
"There's no telling if the eye injury halted a pro career in the NHL or WHA. But there's little doubt that it didn't halt what would have been much of a career at that level."
His playing career finished, Barnett returned home, where he went back to St. Lawrence University to earn a second degree.
"Probably getting hit in the eye literally opened my eyes to the fact that it was time to move on to another career," said Barnett, chuckling. "So I decided to try and combine my background in hockey with my education."
By the late 1970s, Barnett had opened restaurants in Calgary and Edmonton, and had begun assisting several NHL players with their off-ice business ventures as somewhat of a sidelight.
Inside the restaurant at Edmonton's Northland Coliseum one night in 1980, that all changed. That's when Barnett met a boyish 17-year-old named Wayne Gretzky.
"Wayne was 17, old enough to be in the restaurant, but not old enough to have a beer," Barnett recalled. "Well, any 17-year-old has the occasional beer. Whenever I saw a player slip him one, I'd order a coffee cup and pour the beer in it so nobody would notice."
Barnett and "The Great One" immediately became good friends. Not long thereafter, Barnett was asked by Gretzky's father, Walter, and Gus Badali, Gretzky's former agent, to help with the superstar's off-ice deals.
Before becoming Gretzky's business guru, Barnett had been negotiating with the NHL for a marketing position in the league's New York office. It has turned out to be one of the best deals he never made.
"Things really worked out well. I was just very fortunate that one of my first clients was a young 18-year-old named Wayne Gretzky," Barnett said.
While other advisers came and left the Gretzky camp, Barnett stayed because of his ability to pull the right strings and make the right deals. Gretzky is in his ninth year representing such companies as Coca-Cola, Nike, Thrifty Rental Car, Domino's and Sharp Electronics.
Barnett conceded he was lucky enough to have a gold mine fall into his lap.
"Wayne Gretzky invariably has that ability to say and do the right thing at the right time," Barnett said. "He, better than anyone, recognizes his role as an ambassador for the game. The best way I can describe him is that he is a better person off the ice than he is a hockey player on the ice. He's everything that parents, youngsters would hope him to be. Young athletes could do no better than emulate Wayne Gretzky."
Barnett's association with the game's franchise player helped make him one of the more powerful men in hockey. Barnett is considered the authority on licensing and marketing of players.
When Gretzky was traded by the Oilers to the Kings in 1988, Barnett moved his wife and family to Los Angeles. Three years ago, his business merged with International Marketing Group (IMG), the sports marketing giant run by Mark McCormack. Barnett is president of IMG's hockey division, which has a stable of approximately 65 players.
The astute Barnett already has signed contracts to represent the two players predicted by many to go 1-2 in this year's NHL draft - 6-foot-5 Russian-born center Victor Kozlov and Robbie Nedermeyer, younger brother of the New Jersey Devils' Scott Nedermeyer.
"Any success that I might have had personally is for the same reason we try to emphasize to our young players - work harder than the next guy and love your work," Barnett said. "It's really the result of their efforts that we've been able to be successful. With several, we were fortunate to get involved with them at an early age and have watched them grow from relative obscurity to becoming internationally well known."
Barnett, who is married and has three children, said he still retains fond memories of Roanoke.
"The thing I remember most is how friendly everybody was," said Barnett, who shared two houses nestled on a five-acre lot in Hollins with teammates Russ Houston, Randy Andreachuk and Mark Davis.
"They would bring you into their homes and treat you like some kind of long lost friend. It was a great place to play. Coming from the severe winters in Calgary, I remember finding the humor in having to meet at the golf course for our practice because there was no ice available to practice on. That was something.
"I saw a lot of 300-mile runways [long bus trips] while in Roanoke. Speaking of endorsements, looking back, I guess the only one I could have had would have been with Greyhound bus lines."
Piche said Barnett's success story doesn't surprise him.
"The guy could do virtually anything he wanted," Piche recalled. "Shoot, he helped design and decorate the back room at my restaurant here.
"Unlike some, he was not here just to have a good time. He was a quiet, very serious guy. You could tell then that he had good common sense, a very good business person. I always figured he would end up doing something really big."
Keywords:
PROFILE
by CNB