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Brassard’s agent responds to Salzburg accusations: “There is no more unprofessional organization in all of Europe”

Derick Brassard

We had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before Allan Walsh -- the outstpoken player agent representing Columbus forward Derick Brassard -- would reply to today’s news that Austrian club EC Red Bull Salzburg accused Brassard of “turning his back” on the team and breaching his contract.

On Wednesday, Walsh did indeed reply -- and how.

“Derick Brassard is the fifth NHL player to sign with Red Bull this season, and the fifth player to leave within three weeks of arrival,” Walsh explained to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch.

“Talk to Tobias Enstrom, David Clarkson, Derek Dorsett or any of Red Bull’s current players.

“There is no more unprofessional organization in all of Europe. The club is misrepresenting the facts in an attempt to justify to their fans and media why NHL players keep leaving.”

Okay then!

To recap: Brassard left Salzburg on Tuesday, which prompted the club to post an accusatory statement on its website, saying it was seeking legal advice for possible breach of contract.

Clarkson and Enstrom both left Salzburg prior to November’s roster deadline. In explaining their decisions to leave, neither said anything negative (publicly, anyway) about the club.

“By [November] 12th there is a deadline where they can have so many guys on the roster,” Clarkson told NorthJersey.com. “I came over here to get into shape and to train, but I didn’t come over here to take some guy’s job when he has two kids or three kids.”

Enstrom had a similar explanation.

“They have a roster-cut deadline so I didn’t want to go there and take somebody else’s job so that made it easy for me make a decision to leave,” he told the Winnipeg Free Press.

Dorsett told the Dispatch that he had returned to Canada to wait for the NHL lockout to end, then forwarded all further inquires about his departure to his agent.

It’s possible the fifth NHLer Walsh referred to is Boston’s Johnny Boychuk, who inked with Salzburg in mid-November.

At the time of writing, Boychuk’s name was still on the Salzburg roster -- he was also on the game sheet for Salzburg’s last game, a 6-4 win on Dec. 16.