The report comes from ESPN’s Craig Custance (via TSN), who asked 10 prominent agents of NHL players which cities their clients would prefer not to play in, as written in no-trade clauses.
The three most common reasons players asked to avoid these cities are a losing record, the climate, the media or some combination of all three.
The two most common answers, Custance wrote, are Edmonton and Winnipeg. One agent went so far as to call Edmonton “a complete nightmare,” and that shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise — the Oilers are in 29th place in the NHL and just snapped a 13-game losing streak in an ugly win against the Boston Bruins. Edmonton apparently got five first-place votes and was on all 10 ballots.
While agents acknowledged that Winnipeg has a better winning record, the brutal weather is usually the main reason players want to avoid the city.
Rounding out the top five least-desired cities was Buffalo (home to the last-place Sabres), Ottawa and Toronto (mainly because of the media market).
Cam Cole of the Saskatoon StarPheonix lamented the findings, saying that teams considered underachievers have very little avenues to improve when no-trade clauses prevent other players from joining them.
