Marketing Makeover

Wednesday in New York, deputy commissioner Bill Daly and the NHL’s marketing team will be meeting with a number of high-profile agents to discuss its strategy on how to market the league’s star players.

“They maintain they are creating a new direction,” said one agent who will take part in the two-hour meeting. “The players will not be hidden anymore. They’ll be front and center.”

It’s about time.

After the widely panned "Art of War" campaign that launched the new NHL, the league has come up with a new strategy with the league's star players as the focus.

Among the league's initiatives this season will be a series of 75 mini-features produced by NHL Productions that will be available to broadcasters across the NHL. Ed Horne, the president of NHL Enterprises, told ESPN.com that having re-established a relationship with the core fan across the NHL last season, the league is focused on expanding that bond to the casual fan.

The theory is simple, if fans are twigged to the stories of a player like Jarome Iginla or Joe Thornton or Evgeni Malkin, they might be curious enough to buy a ticket. And, so the theory goes, once the fan is inside the building, the game sells itself.

The NHL is also trying to push itself into the consciousness of the American public by insinuating its logos and brands into movies and television series via the league's ongoing talks with West Coast ad agencies. The FOX show "Bones", for instance, features NHL merchandise in office shots. And on Denis Leary's critically acclaimed "Rescue Me," seen on F/X in the United States, Phil Esposito did a nice turn as a firefighter in the past season.

The NHL is also pushing its major sponsors to use its players in their spots, as well, while hip magazine FHM will shortly unveil it's first hockey-themed preview issue.