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Prominent NHL player agent gets in blog war...with blogger

cody hodgson getty

Ritch Winter is a sports agent that represents over 70 NHL players through The Sports Corporation. One of his clients, Cody Hodgson, is having a fine rookie season for the Canucks, though there has been some consternation among Vancouver media types about his ice time (or lack thereof.)

This was discussed in a blog appearing on the Vancouver Sun’s website, with the headline “Hodgson seems happy with his icetime (sic); who isn’t?” The piece suggests Winter fed local reporters the requisite ammo to go after Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault -- the guy responsible for Hodgson’s (alleged) lack of ice time.

Problem? Said blogger, Daniel Wagner, didn’t reach out to Winter.

Bigger problem? That infuriated Winter.

As such, Winter responded with a 6,400-word missive tearing into Wagner’s piece. An excerpt:

Wagner speculates about the reason for the Vancouver fan and media’s attention to Cody Hodgson’s ice time when he states: “The most likely candidate is Winter, particularly when you consider Gallagher’s comments near the end that Hodgson’s agency group has been ‘way more than patient.’”

In fact, every time Tony [Gallagher, of the Vancouver Province] and I speak I am surprised at how much angst Cody’s ice-time is causing him. In fact, my reaction to his concerns was all Tony was talking about. Nothing more. Nothing less. But, Wagner never called Tony or me to check on that and went on to make a mountain out of a bag of pucks.

Many of the staff at the Vancouver Sun have my number. They know how to reach me. Wagner knows how to find my number. And everyone knows I am accessible to the media. Maybe too much so historically. Instead of calling me, Wagner builds his article off of a theory. A theory I knew nothing about and which could not be true without that being the case. And all of this without calling me. Why? No one knows. I don’t. He never called.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a player agent go public with his grievances (hello, Alan Walsh!) and it probably won’t be the last. That said, we’ve now entered some exciting uncharted territory, skipping over the traditional “Blogger vs. Mainstream Media” battle right into the “Blogger vs. Player Agent” war. Can’t wait to see how this turns out.

Related: Wagner has since posted his response to Winter’s response. We’re two more responses away from Godwin’s law, I can feel it.