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Nashville bad for P.K. Subban’s brand, says marketing guy

Subban
Subban

P.K. Subban is now a member of the Nashville Predators, and the positive fallout of that move is palpable. Like being with an organization that doesn’t have a perplexing hesitancy to commit to him. Like being on a team headed towards a Stanley Cup rather than clawing at playoff contention. You know, the little things.

But Nashville isn’t Montreal, even if both have their own virtues when it comes to smoked meats. And in an effort to find anything that might be remotely negative about this trade for Subban, Canada’s Business News Network found a marketing guy to explain why this move is bad for P.K. Subban’s “brand”:

“P.K. Subban’s brand has been so significant, especially since he signed with Gatorade, and now he’s got to move to Nashville as a market.”

While also being one of the single popular players in the NHL whose every move will still be covered by Canadian media because of that popularity.

Also, it’s a shame they apparently don’t sell Gatorade to Americans. Sigh … if only there were some businesses based out of Nashville that could use a charismatic spokesman…

“He’s not a forward; in the U.S., they tend to put the forwards and goal scorers up front,” said John Yorke, president of Rain43, in an interview with BNN.

Yes, I’m sure the U.S. sports media will certainly give more attention to Ryan Johansen than the charismatic award-winning black hockey player in a Southern market, who (spoiler warning) also puts up 50 points in a bad season. Like ESPN already has, for example.

“I think the limit to him is that he didn’t go to a New York, or to an L.A. where he could’ve had that Mark Messier on Broadway kind of view, or [Wayne] Gretzky in L.A…It’s going to be hard for P.K. Subban to break in to Nashville and really make a splash in the U.S.”

No, this is exactly right: Without Subban being the NHL’s all-time leading scoring and helping to orchestrate a trade toto Los Angeles with his actress wife after winning multiple Stanley Cups, or being the player that quenched a 54-year Stanley Cup drought for an Original Six team, we simply can’t see him really breaking through in the U.S.

Yorke added he thinks the trade was unfortunate, coming so soon after Subban pledged a record $10 million donation to the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation. “You’ve got somebody here who is an icon with youth and a chance to be somebody to move up in Montreal, and in a matter of six months, that’s all going to be forgotten.”

Or not.

So in summary, condolences to P.K. Subban for having to move his #Brand to Nashville and a U.S. market, which we’re sure doesn’t exponentially increase his chances of winning the Stanley Cup, which might in fact, in some small way, help his #Brand.

Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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