from Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail,

Welcome to the seventh edition of the PMT, arguably the single most important promotional event on the league’s 2014-15 marketing calendar. Many of the intermission features and public-service announcements that will show up on your television screens during the coming hockey season were recorded in a crammed two-day period last Monday and Tuesday in New York.

The players spend one day mostly sequestered at NHL headquarters in downtown Manhattan; the other day is spent across the river in New Jersey, where on-ice action is filmed at the Prudential Center, the home of the Devils.

The attraction on the media side is clear: a chance to get one-on-one face time with a who’s who of NHL stars and up-and-comers, a rare and unique opportunity in an era of pack journalism. But it is equally valuable for the players, especially the star players, who can find the demands on their time so great that it can act as a distraction when training camps for the 2014-15 season officially open next week.

Pat Brisson, the Los Angeles-based co-head of the Creative Artists Agency’s hockey division, has 14 clients in attendance, including Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Sidney Crosby. Brisson believes the PMT is a godsend, especially to his high-end clients, because it helps them knock off about 80 per cent of their training-camp media responsibilities in a concentrated period of time.

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