"Say Hi To His Dad For Me" - Carolina Hurricanes GM Don Waddell Is Sick And Tired Of Dealing With Hockey Parents
Parents in youth sports can be brutal across the board. Doesn't matter what sport their kid is playing, there's a faction of parents who think that their kid is the greatest to ever play the game. That their kid is the next Gretzky, the next Jordan, the next Messi. Parents can be crazy in youth sports, but you can't really do anything about it. Their 10-year-old son isn't necessarily in a position to do all the communicating for himself, so you have to deal with the parents' bullshit.
You'd hope that stops by the time the kid gets to high school and is able to have actual conversations with the coach himself without needing mommy and daddy to step in. At the very least, the parents should stay out of it once the kid gets to college and/or goes away to whatever junior team they end up playing for. Once that kid is 18, you've done your job. You can root for your child's success out there, but you sure as shit aren't getting involved anymore.
But for your son to be playing in his 5th full season in the NHL, making $6M per year and about to get a $50 million contract in free agency this summer? If daddy still needs to run to the media to demand a trade because his sweet baby boy isn't playing on the top powerplay unit?
You have to be out of your goddamn mind. The man is 25-years-old. Imagine you're working in sales as a 25-year-old and your dad shows up to the office one day to bitch out your boss because you're not an account manager yet. Don Waddell is clearly over it and doesn't have time to deal with hockey parents who still treat the NHL like a peewee team where they can bitch enough to get what they want for their little pride and joy.
Necas is a restricted free agent. The Hurricanes don't have to do anything they don't want to do. If they don't want to trade his rights away, then the only way they'd lose the rights to Necas would be if another team came out and offer sheeted him. I'm not sure how many teams are going to be out there willing to give up a few draft picks to sign a guy whose dad is going to be causing headaches with management once things aren't going perfect. If anything, this just made negotiating a new contract easier for Don Waddell.
P.S. -- If there's anybody who should be familiar with this kind of situation, it's Rod Brind'Amour after spending so many years in Philly with Eric Lindros. Moral of the story here, I guess, is that crazy hockey parents just never go away regardless of what level you're playing at.