A three-time double-digit goal scorer at Boston University in the 1980s, Peter Marshall knows a thing or two about hockey sticks. Now the point person for Warrior Hockey's stick business with NHL players, the Danvers, Mass., native is a behind-the-scenes force in bringing life to Zdeno Chara's record-setting slap shots and Brad Marchand's scoring binges.
A former assistant coach at Salem State and BU, Marshall remains the only player to ever score a hat trick in the Hockey East title game, helping BU win the 1986 crown. He recently spent time with NEHJ's Billy Jaffe to discuss the state of the hockey stick industry.
New England Hockey Journal: How does one become a representative of an equipment company? Particularly, how does one become a stick rep for a company?
Peter Marshall: Quite frankly it was timing. In my case, I was actually headed over to Northeastern to coach with Ben Smith, as an assistant coach over there, and the Bauer job came up at the same exact time. My son was actually going to be born that October. I wanted to be around for it, I wanted to be around for them growing up, and I chose the path of getting into the rep business. I’ve been there for 26 years now and I enjoy every day that I get up and go to work. It’s a great feeling.
NEHJ: Any sales job is about relationships, and I think anybody understand that. Is it even moreso in your business, or is it about the product? Can you put a balance on what sells for you more?
Marshall: It’s changed over the years. When I first got into this business, it was relationship built. It is still today for the most part, but product is going to win out, over and above all of that. I’m fine with that, because even though it’s my job to make sure guys get in my product and they’re happy, if the kid isn’t comfortable in my product, I don’t want him to be in it. There’s a lot of jobs out there where they’re forcing everything down players’ throats. I just want the player to be comfortable in what they’re using. That comes down to when we sign them to contracts. There are some players out there, right off the bat, “Hey, what can we do for a contract?” That’s not what it’s all about. I want to see if you like the product first. I want you to try it, I want you to tell me what you like, what you don’t like, and let’s see if you can be comfortable in it before we move forward and have a partnership. Getting back to the whole relationship thing, that is still a huge, huge part of it.
NEHJ: How many variations of a stick do you usually have to go through to where a player is comfortable?
Marshall: It varies. Basically what we do, from the start, is get a player who likes a certain stick and he might like a quality in that stick but not like others. We’ll send it back to our office out in Chula Vista (Calif.) and we’ll test that stick. We have so many variables, so many different types of sticks, as far as shafts, blades. There’s so many moving parts to it, but basically what my office does in Chula Vista is they’ll send back a spec sheet that suggests what a player, based on what he’s currently using, what he should be using now. We have thousands of molds that are already made out at the factory. Luckily, it matches up to one of those molds. If it doesn’t, we’ll make a mold that can take a week, and then, on top of that, another week to 10 days to make the sample. If we don’t have to make a mold, we’re placing that order that day. And basically we’re getting the sticks out the following week.
NEHJ: What’s the most common element of the stick that players are most particular about?
Marshall: The pattern of the blade itself. When we played, it was a wood stick. … This is what you have. If didn’t like it, you could kind of mold it a little bit, you could put it underneath the door and mold it. Nowadays, the mold is the mold. You can’t heat up the stick, you can’t bend it. So guys are very, very particular with curves. Even though I might not see it, and other people might not see the differences in, let’s say, their sample that they want, they know. Players know. It’s tough to sit there and say, “I don’t see that.” They see it, and that’s all that matters, and now we’ve got to correct that issue. I’d say the pattern of the curve is probably the biggest thing for guys.
NEHJ: As sticks have changed so much from the wood to the aluminum two piece to the original one piece to today, have you noticed that players have become pickier than ever? Is it almost where maybe more choices make it more difficult for you and for them to find what they like?
Marshall: No question. Before it was, “This is what you have, go play with it,” Now you have them thinking about every aspect of that stick, whether’s it’s the curve, the flex, the grip that we have on it, the texture that we have on the blade, the kick point. There’s so many different things that players are thinking about now.
NEHJ: What’s the relationship between you and the player and the team’s equipment manager?
Marshall: As a rep, we have to have relationships with the equipment managers, otherwise, you’re not getting in the locker room. You need to have foundation first. Once in the locker room, it’s my job to service the players, talk to the players and find out if anybody needs anything. First and foremost, take care of the guys that I currently service, and make sure they’re happy. On top of that, just be there if guys have questions, maybe solve some problems, and if they want to try a sample, try a sample. Once we get the player situated in his samples and he’s comfortable, then it’s time tp go to the equipment manager and figure out how we’re going to get these through.
NEHJ: Is there a minimum to make somebody’s new pattern?
Marshall: Not necessarily. If they want to try a couple of types of sticks, I might make one and one. Usually my samples comes in two, in case they break the first one and they have that other one behind one. Once that happens, typically a normal order is 12, 18, 24. Usually it doesn’t go over that.
NEHJ: Is there a typical amount of sticks you see a player going through now? (Alex) Ovechkin has like 10 new sticks a game. Is there a way to put a typical number of sticks per player?
Marshall: It’s tough. It’s kind of all over the map. When I handled New Jersey a bunch of years ago, (Ilya) Kovalchuk down there, he was taping up six to seven sticks a game. I remember having to talk to Lou Lamoriello afterward, because the stick budget was through the roof because of that. But it’s really not my job to police that. That’s more the equipment manager’s job to kind of police that, what a player is going through. Typically, a player might tape up two sticks a game, then whatever they don’t go through, they’’ll use them in practice. Players usually are pretty good with their sticks. They’re not blowing through them like Kovalchuk. The breakage issue — it used to be where the sticks were breaking quite a bit, and they used to have some on hand, but I think the breakage issue, throughout the industry, and those companies, has kind of been kept to a minimum, which is nice.
NEHJ: What has progressed to the point where the breakage issue has gotten better?
Marshall: When it’s on TV, it’s under the spotlight. … There goes Patrice Bergeron on a breakaway and he goes to take a snapshot, and it snaps, blows up in his hands. What people don’t understand is it’s a graphite stick, and he could be slashed the whole way up the ice, and that compromises, that breaks down, the graphite, and all of a sudden he goes to take that shot and there’s added pressure on it and boom, it blows up. That’s going to happen from time to time. What the industry has done is come up with new materials. It’s kind of like a chemistry experiment, putting all these materials together to make a more durable stick. That’s why you don’t see it quite as much. You still see it. But for the most part, every company out there has done a good job with making sure that’s not happening on a regular basis.
NEHJ: What is your territory? What teams do you cover right now?
Marshall: Right now, the Bruins, the Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Flyers and Nashville Predators. That’s six NHL teams, and we still look after the AHL, because we do shoe business and sneaker business, things like that, being involved with New Balance. Also the goalies are available down there. We don’t have a lot of traction with the players, because it’s a CCM deal with the AHL, but we just picked up the East Coast League this past year, so every team is using Warrior product in the East Coast League. With me, that includes Worcester and Maine. Then whatever colleges we deal with in between. It’s a good-sized territory.
NEHJ: Typically, how often are you on the road? How often are you seeing teams?
Marshall: Well, if I’m not in the locker room, I’m not getting anything done. I need to be in the locker room every day. I try to get out there every day. You have to play catch up a lot, because you are on the road, so you have to have office days every now and then, but I try to get to teams every other week, every third week. Obviously, being based in Boston, I’m in Boston a lot more. But typically every third week is what I like to get done.
NEHJ: Are there a few teams or players who have the biggest recognition in the hockey world right now?
Marshall: We have Pekke Rinne down in Nashville, one of the premier goaltenders in the league. We got him to switch back over. He used our stick when we were making our woods sticks in Finland, but we got him switched over two years ago and things are working out great. He’s just a class act. In Boston, you’ve got (Zdeno) Chara, you’ve got (Brad) Marchand, (Kevan) Miller, (Torey) Krug, (Sean) Kuraly. You can go down the list. … Tuukka Rask. So we have a pretty big stable of players. And throughout the league, Drew Doughty, (Mark) Scheiffele. We’ve got a bunch of guys that we have in our stable who do enjoy using our product.
NEHJ: What is Zdeno Chara’s flex on his stick? The man is so big and so strong. Has it changed as materials have changed?
Marshall: “Z” and I have had these discussions before. It was probably five years ago that he thought we were changing the stick and his thought was we were changing his stick to sell it at retail, to appease the retail. I was like, “ ‘Z,’ you don’t understand, there isn’t one person on this planet who is using your stick at retail. They can’t bend it.” I want to say, and it’s a guess because we have different calibrations, but I think it’s a 140 flex, in that range. It’s a stiff stick. When we need to change things for him, when we need to make a mold for him, not only are we changing the mold, but we have to change the whole layup in the shaft to make sure that we get it to the stiffness that he needs. It’s a very, very stiff stick. … He’s so strong. What’s amazing is, when you see him take a slap shot, and you see him torque on that stick, you’re like, “How does that happen?” Because it is a stiff, stiff stick. But he does it, he pulls it off, and he’s got a bomb of a shot.
NEHJ: Is there somebody from your history of selling that had a really incredibly unique request that was either difficult or more of a challenge?
Marshall: Last year, I had to deal with a player who wanted a special stick for a shootout. He was only going to us it for the shootout. He wanted the blade as straight as possible, he wanted the longest blade, and he wanted the tallest blade you could make, in his specs as far as the shaft goes and things like that. That was a unique thing. I don’t even think he ever got down to using it, but that was kind of a different thing, in case he was in a shootout and wanted to try a couple of trick shots. We had to make up a couple of extra sticks for that.
NEHJ: If you were playing right now, which Warrior stick would you choose to use? For Peter Marshall — who had a hell of a career at BU — what’s your favorite stick right now for you?
Marshall: I would say the Alpha DX stick. The kick on it is fantastic. I like more of a stiffer stick. It doesn’t have that real whippiness like we have with the QRE down low. The Alpha DX is the stick for me.
NEHJ: What would you suggest for kids?
Marshall: A lot of kids, and a lot of parents, like the big hooks on the curves, on the blades. Being a coach in youth hockey and at the college level, it’s kind of taking away from kids being able to backhand a puck. They can’t control it on the backhand so everything is on the forehand. I think a straighter blade — and I don’t mean completely straight, but a little bend to it — that’s what I would go after. When my kids did play, they got a brand-new stick at the beginning of the year. They never broke them, never had an issue with that. They didn’t have the big bender on the blade. Some parents like the huge hook so the kid can take a big wrist shot and shoot it off the glass. That’s not what’s it’s all about developmentally.
