LOS ANGELES – The room was filled with NHL players wearing all-star game branded warm-up gear. Gray, drab long-sleeve shirts, with the Los Angeles event’s logo.
As he walked over to NHL Network’s set for an appearance,
a veteran Montreal-based reporter standing nearby uttered, “He doesn’t even look like a hockey player anymore.”
(



thank goodness he's away from that ungrateful ass city and media)
That Subban has been as much a personal brand as he’s been an NHL player – 296 points in 468 games as a defenseman, winning the Norris Trophy in 2013 – isn’t breaking news. His logo appears on hockey gear. His admirable charity work hasn’t been what you’d call “subtle.” He’s done television, he’s done comedy. He’s everything hockey fans wish some of these painfully humble
“logo on the front not the name on he back!” types could be, to hype the sport; and he’s everything traditionalists don’t want from NHL players, and particularly loathe in modern athletes.
The Hollywood Reporter, which
broke the news that Subban has signed with talent agency WME. Specifically, he hopes to work with Jill Smoller, the star agent that reps athletes like
Serena Williams and Genie Bouchard.
“WME is such a successful organization. You look at the athletes they represent, and they’re great,” said Subban. “I have a great relationship with Maverick Carter, who represents LeBron James. He had suggested Jill Smoller to me, and she has a long lost of athletes that she’s worked with in her career, including Serena Williams. She knows what she’s doing.”
So what’s the end result? Movies?
“Do I want to be in movies? I mean, if there was a movie about me, I would like Denzel to play me,” he said, with a laugh. ‘It’s about building relationships. As an athlete, you want to build as many positive relationships as you can when you’re playing.”
Was this deal possible for Subban without being traded to a U.S. team? “Not necessarily,” he said. “I think you add pieces to your team that can help in different ways, and that’s a piece I didn’t have.”
There’s only one P.K. Subban, as much as P.K. Subban wishes his peers could have their stars shine just as brightly.
In the past, Subban has blamed the NHL for the lack of true star-power in hockey, players who enter the pop culture zeitgeist and get featured on ESPN.
There’s this prevailing notion in hockey that if you make a big deal out of your goals or you’re outgoing, you’re not a leader, Subban says, sounding exasperated—and that just doesn’t make sense to him. “Bobby Orr didn’t celebrate because that’s the way he was—he just didn’t feel the need to. Great. Tiger Williams used to go down the ice sitting on his stick. That doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy—that means he gets excited. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
To Subban’s mind, hockey is the one pro sport that eats its own. If you listen to basketball coverage, he says, 90 percent of what they’ll say about the game’s biggest stars is positive, but hockey just isn’t like that—for him or anyone else. “Even Sidney Crosby—look at all the heat he’s been taking. This guy’s the best player in the world, and he’s getting the heat he’s been getting? Really?”