Some player agents already focused on off season

As the EURO League prepares to start the playoffs, some player agents don’t really care.

They are already thinking of Season 19 and they may have already started working the phones with a focus on convincing general managers to shell out big bucks next season for their clients.

At least 37 players – through their agents – have announced they are thinking about testing the free agent market in the off season.

It’s a varied group.

First, you have four players including Patrik Laine who are sick and tired of going through the Helsinki rebuild and want to win now. Then you have a trio of Smurfs whose bodies need a break from the cheerleaders. One of them, Vadim Shipachyov, knows he’s the league’s all-time leading playoff scorer and he also knows he can’t add to that total much if he stays in Berlin. His former teammate Erik Forssell, now of Copenhagen, knows every team’s fan base wants him badly and he decided to give their GMs a chance to bid on him this off season. He said he will play anywhere … for the good of the league. What a guy.

Then you have four talented Zurich Lions who want to leave the pride as soon as possible and go off hunting league titles on their own. And puck wizard Filip Forsberg, 33, says he can’t relate to his Paris teammates who all have cottage cheese and Jell-O for pre-game meals and listen to Frank Sinatra records in the locker room (btw, he’s the “young kid” assigned to flipping the record on the turntable every 22 minutes).

Some players and their agents just believe in themselves more than their general managers seem to. Stanislav Galimov is one of them and the Russian goalie might come to regret his decision to jump ship from Kosice, the only place he has ever seemed to play well. After playing the backup role for seven seasons with Helsinki, Bern and Munich (and a 49-game season with Dublin), Galimov was given a shot as starter by Kosice GM Daniel Podmanicky and the plan worked well. The then 30-year-old net minder from Chelyabinsk blossomed, posting save percentages over 90 in Seasons 16 and 17. But this season, the GM signed Calvin Pickard away from the Smurfs and Galimov was second fiddle once again. And he’s not happy about it. In the midst of team’s fighting to go from 5th to 4th in the Southern Conference this year, Galimov stepped into a circle of reporters interviewing Pickard after a game and said “I play more, we win more. Point cameras at me. Fools.” It was hard for many to understand his logic because Pickard has a higher save percentage, a lower goals against average and 30 wins this season. Still, Galimov declared he’s leaving Slovakia at the end of the season and he will have company in the job search line. Five other talented goalies will also test the free agent market including Niko Hovinen (Dublin), Andres De La Garma (Helsinki), Robin Lehner (Lisbon), Martin Jones (Milan) and Jordan Binnington (Tallinn).

Here is a list of players with OV ratings of 77 or higher who say they will test the free agent market this off season.

Athens