Panarin's former agent stays focused on his business

Millions of sports fans over the years have seen - and fallen in love with - the 1996 smash-hit movie "Jerry Maguire."

Jerry, sick of the dollar-sucking world of sports agents, is fired from his company and tries to survive and grow his own business with just two remaining clients. One of those clients is set to go No. 1 in the NFL draft, but Maguire loses him the night before and he's stuck with Rod Tidwell, an unrestricted free agent WR on the Arizona Cardinals.

In a bizarre situation of life imitating art, that's pretty much what happened to Tom Lynn, who represented Artemi Panarin before being replaced last month right after Panarin agreed to a two-year, $12 million bridge deal with the Blackhawks.

Lynn was the assistant general manager for the Minnesota Wild for the first nine years of the franchise's existence, but has since jumped the other side, becoming a certified NHL agent in 2010. Most of his clients are still amateurs and will be turning pro in the next few years.

But he had one big fish - that being Panarin, who chose Lynn on the recommendation of Viktor Tikhonov, Panarin's good friend and former Blackhawks teammate.

Lynn secured Panarin's first contract, which ran for two years and had a $812,500 base salary with potential bonuses of $2.575 million, which Panarin reached last season and will likely reach this year.

With Panarin set to become a restricted free agent this off-season, Lynn was working with Hawks GM Stan Bowman on a new deal when Panarin decided he wanted an agent who spoke his native tongue.

So Panarin hired Dan Milstein, who hails from Ukraine but now lives in Michigan.

Lynn said he doesn't feel robbed despite the fact he could easily lose in excess of $1 million when Panarin signs his next deal after the 2018-19 season.

"Our business is still developing the way we foresaw it," Lynn said. "Taking the amateurs - a few dozen of them will turn pro the next few years and that will be my business.

"It's not exactly easy come, easy go. But I didn't recruit (Panarin) in the first place.

"He came to me and now he's gone away."