Huberdeau’s Agent Hints Fun Being Sucked Out Of Flames Players

NHL player agent Allan Walsh is at it again. Never one to shy away from putting something out there on social media that gets everyone stirred up — and sometimes requires his players to issue a public statement with the agent speaks out of turn — Walsh tweeted on Thursday night, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. Also, negativity sucks the joy right out of players.”

The hint here and as the media asked head coach Darryl Sutter, is that he’s coaching in a way that is limiting the players and taking their creativity away from them. In Walsh’s particular situation, he represents Jonathan Huberdeau, who is having a lousy season compared to his 2021-22 campaign and people are looking at the new eight-year contract he just signed and wondering if the Calgary Flames made a massive mistake. While Walsh didn’t mention Huberdeau’s name, it’s not hard to put the pieces together.

This isn’t the first time Walsh has potentially put his client in an awkward spot. A couple of seasons ago, he tweeted a photo of Marc-Andre Fleury being stabbed in the back by the Vegas Golden Knights. He posted a literal photo of a sword going through his client and that required Fleury to come out and say there wasn’t an issue between Fleury and then-starter Robin Lehner.

At the same time, Elliotte Friedman notes that Walsh has always contended that his clients have been aware every time he’s sent a tweet before he posts it. The suggestion here is that Fleury knew that photo was going out and that Huberdeau was aware of Thursday’s tweet. If so, that means Huberdeau is trying to send a message to the organization and the coach. Again, if true, that suggests there are issues in Calgary and that Sutter’s style is becoming a real issue.

The Flames were once considered buyers, but their struggles this season have potentially changed the direction that they want to go. The Flames are losing, many of the players are struggling and it’s not clear if this is related to Sutter. Some are wondering if Huberdeau needs to take more responsibility here and that his struggles are as much on the player as it is on the coach.

Clearly, it sounds like this is something that’s going to need to be addressed, even though Sutter contended during his media avail that what an agent says has no correlation to what a player thinks and that things on social media don’t get into the locker room. Both of those things are likely inaccurate.

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