My very first mailbag for The Ice Garden as Director of Hockey Operations for Cook Stark Hockey! If you have any questions you want me to answer, comment below, or message me on X at strongforecheck. The landscape is exciting and ever-changing and I love to share snapshots of it with all of you. Make sure to follow Cook Stark Hockey on X and Instagram to keep up with the agency as well!
Cook Stark Management is excited to announce the appointment of Eleni Demestihas to Director of Hockey Operations! #TeamCSM pic.twitter.com/neewgHs0ym
— CSM Hockey (@cookstarkhockey) April 8, 2025
Has player pay/compensation improved in Europe since the start of the PWHL?
This will vary a lot from team to team but definitely a little! I will also say that even before the PWHL, the SDHL especially did a good job taking care of their players. SDHL teams almost always provide housing (which is way more convenient for players than a housing stipend), and teams in the Postfinance Women’s League often do as well. Some teams in the Postfinance Women’s League even provide a car for players to get around in, which is another thing I would love for PWHL teams to think about doing–having a relationship with a car rental company or something so that players who aren’t from the area or close enough to drive to it, have access to reliable transport. All that being said, I do think you can see a little bit of a ripple effect from the PWHL to increased resources in the Postfinance League and the Auroraliga (Finland) especially.
What are some reasons that players might want to play in Europe rather than declare for the PWHL Draft / play in North America?
It’s going to depend a lot on the player, but one really common one is ice time, particularly if you are on the bubble of or playing for a national team program. Very few players from outside North America have so far gotten consistent top six, top four, or starting goalie ice time in the PWHL. If you are a player, particularly in the lead-up to the Olympics, who needs to be playing fifteen minutes or more per night in order to feel ready for Olympic competition, then Europe might genuinely be a necessary choice for you. Some players won’t feel like they need this, or will feel like the level of play even in practices or in their limited minutes is high enough to justify playing less–they’re just as correct as the ones who feel the need to play more minutes in Europe. It’s a very personal decision that I think actually has the most to do with what individual players need, mentally, to feel prepared. Another reason could be that the player simply likes the environment better: wanting to live in Sweden or Switzerland, wanting the ability to travel around Europe easily, stuff like that. Some players who go pro or semi-pro after college are just interested in extending their careers and declaring for the PWHL draft and trying to make it here might just be a much higher-pressure environment than they’re looking for.
What does your agency do for players still in the middle of their NCAA years? / How does college player representation work?
Honestly, every player is really different. Some NCAA players might not feel like they need an agent, and if that’s how they feel then they’re probably right. For some of our NCAA players, a lot of what we’re doing is NIL work, helping connect them with brands or helping them formalize partnerships with brands that can support them, building their personal brand. Part of building their personal brand out is also to generate content around, and encourage others to generate content around, their successes–helping them get onto podcasts where people can learn more about them, making sure the people and brands who follow us know about their careers, setting up a foundation to help them succeed when they go pro by increasing their name recognition and laying the blueprint for future relationships with brands and teams. For others, we function more as ‘advisors’ than ‘agents’ during that period. We have agents who will watch tape with their players and talk through that video, and we can also be available to answer questions from them about how to approach conversations with coaches, what they can or should be doing in the offseason to set themselves up to succeed, and so on. I always say that if a player is planning on going pro, it can be so helpful mentally and emotionally to have someone in your corner during your senior season that you already know and trust. It just makes the entire process of declaring for the draft or looking overseas less stressful.
How have NIL and other recent developments affected your work?
NIL is a big one for sure, as an attorney and an agent I’m always trying to keep abreast of the latest developments in this area and of course any guidance we receive or learn about is going to change the way we advise our clients. There’s no clear federal NIL guidance right now, so you really have to know how each state and each school handles things like players signing with agents or getting paid, and think about whether a specific player can or should be getting paid cash or just provided with product. On top of that, keeping an eye on how IP law in general is changing and evolving over time, especially with the increased use of generative AI, is something that I think about a lot, trying to ensure we have the best approach possible to protect players’ likenesses, etc. Even knowing which states require what paperwork for us to be able to work with players at all is almost a full time job in itself–we have to be certified in certain states, and every state where you have to be certified has different rules for what’s required and different lengths of time before you have to renew and so on. As the Director of Hockey Ops that’s a big part of my job, the more administrative and legal side of keeping us compliant and up to date.
Can a PWHL team trade a player for future considerations?
Good question. Honestly the answer is that I have no idea. I assume someone, somewhere in the PWHL office knows the answer to that question, but as far as I’ve experienced, it hasn’t come up so I don’t know. I’m going to guess they probably wouldn’t allow it; I know you can theoretically trade for a reserve contract, though, so maybe I’m wrong.
Do you travel to Europe to see clients?
Yes! I’m going to the Olympics in the spring. We will have at least a few players competing, won’t know the exact number until rosters are set though. I’m also planning on visiting Switzerland while I’m out there to see one or two of our players who will be there next season.
What effect will the expiration of the 3-year free agent contracts have on rosters and salaries?
It’s gonna be huge. If you’re someone who follows the NWSL, it’s going to be like that first offseason where free agency was a thing, if not more crazy. Teams will free up huge amounts of money all at the same time. Plus it’s right after the Olympics, which could mean you see more players on European national teams willing to make the leap and take the risk, especially if they know they can be well compensated, too. I think it will basically function as a market reset. There are players on those deals who will probably still have the same value when their contracts are up and others who won’t, in comparison with who else is available, especially because that draft will be really deep as well.
How do you think the use and demand of certain contract clauses (performance bonuses, trade/expansion protection, etc.) will evolve over the next 3-5-10 years?
Well in the short term, we won’t see any of that. The SPA is not flexible in that way at the moment. In the long term I’d bet we’ll see something similar to the NWSL trajectory, maybe once teams are individually owned we’ll see signing bonuses and so on. Eventually I’d expect we will get to a point where trade protection will be broached, but I think that’s got to be at least 10 years down the line, just thinking about when the current CBA expires and how long it took the NWSL to hit that point. The NWSL now has abolished the college draft and players have to consent to being traded, but for a season before that we saw some no-trade clauses finally. It took over ten years to get to the point where a player asked for and received a no-trade clause though, and I expect that even if we’re operating on a faster schedule it’s still going to be after the next Olympic cycle.
What PWHL-specific rules would you most like to see implemented in international play and why?
This may be controversial but most of them I would leave. I like that the IIHF rules are different and I think for the most part they should stay that way. The one I think could be fun though is the jailbreak rule–I kind of feel like all hockey should be played with this rule, it just makes everything more fun and would be even more so at the international level.
When looking for players to sign onto your agency, what are you looking for in those players?
I think for each agent in the agency it’s probably different. For me, I have to be really picky about who I choose because I have to make sure that I never have too many players to do the Director part of my job. I try to look for players whose game I know well, and who are different enough from my other clients that I don’t feel like I’m going to be in a position where I have two similar clients competing for the same role, just to ensure I can really represent them at the highest standard. There’s also a more vibes-based part of it that’s just talking to people, getting to know them, and seeing how you click with them. To do my job well, it’s so important to me to feel like my players can trust me with whatever they need to and can really believe, not just hear from me, that I’m on their team and in their corner, so the personality fit is also important to me, mostly for their sake.
What does a day in your life as the Director of Hockey Operations look like?
One thing I really love about this job is that no day is the same. So I’m not really sure that I have a ‘typical’ day. It’s usually some combination of email and phone calls which I know doesn’t sound that interesting, but I spend a lot of time on phone or video calls with players, answering questions, or just catching up with them and seeing how they’re doing. Talking to GMs, coaching staff depending on the team, or scouting staff, league staff in some cases. Organizing our contracts or administrative spreadsheets, supporting our other agents and checking in with them to make sure I have a picture of how the whole vertical is doing and what obstacles we might be dealing with down the line, planning out the logistics of travel for things like the draft or the Olympics or Frozen Four, scheduling posts on socials, and so on.
What advice do you have for others trying to work in the hockey space you do?
Just get involved. Don’t wait for the perfect opportunity, it starts with getting shots on net. Try to meet people in the space, but without necessarily having your goal be to get something from them. Knowing people, surrounding yourself with people who already work in the space, just getting immersed in whatever way you can, whether that’s getting into covering the sport, or content creation, or doing some other job in the industry, are all really good ways to start.