Professional sports is a business. A big business. Because of that obvious fact, an athlete simply can't have his mom or dad (unless there's a pretty sharp lawyer in the household) negotiate his contract or manage his career.

Don't believe me? Just check out some of the contractual messes on the resumes of Rangers teammates Mark Messier and Eric Lindros, who've had their fathers heavily involved in their various business negotiations. When family gets involved, things get personal. Then, they get ugly.

Thus, with the exception of Devils goalie Martin Brodeur -- who hired a lawyer and negotiated his own deal -- there's a need for the agent. An athlete needs an agent to be the bad guy in tough contract talks, to manage and invest large sums of money and help guide a professional career.

In a perfect world, that agent would be a seasoned adviser like Toronto-based Don Meehan or Winnipeg-based Don Baisley. Unfortunately, in the currently imperfect world of Lightning star Vinny Lecavalier, that agent is Boston-based Kent Hughes, an inexperienced recently-turned-thirty-something, who hasn't been doing his client much good in recent weeks.

Yeah, Hughes did manage to work out a four-year, $10 million deal with Tampa Bay GM Rick Dudley on opening night. But, only after the 21-year-old Lecavalier missed all of training camp. (For the record, players who miss training camp usually don't go on to have career seasons.) So, not surprisingly, Lecavalier -- still a work in progress on the ice -- hasn't been lighting up the league since signing his deal. In fact, he has just four goals and 11 points in 28 games.

To make matters worse, Lecavalier hasn't been getting along with his coach, John Tortorella, who had the nerve to ask his skaters to play within a defensive system.

So, just six weeks after signing his new deal in Tampa and feeling a bit unloved, the impetuous young Lecavalier asked the equally youthful Hughes to orchestrate his escape from Florida. With that, Hughes whipped out his cell phone, dialed up Lightning GM Rick Dudley and demanded a deal on behalf of his client.

This is where Hughes went wrong.

A better or more-experienced agent might have advised Lecavalier to be patient with the situation in Tampa, which has changed for the better (it couldn't have gotten any worse) with the arrival of goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin.

A better or more-experienced agent might have opted to quietly mediate a settlement between Lecavalier and team management, especially in light of the fact that the ink wasn't quite dry on his new four-year deal.

A better or more-experienced agent might have advised his client that he might be doing some serious damage to his reputation around the league. After all, some GMs actually put a premium on a player's character.

Those GMs, by the way, are usually running winning teams.

But, Hughes, who's been described as a "longtime friend" of Lecavalier, apparently failed to do any of the above. Instead, he forced Dudley (who, by the way, seems to be an equally inept GM) to start a very public auction for Lecavalier. Finally, after hearing everyone's best offer, Dudley wisely chose to keep his cornerstone center and potential superstar...for now.

Still, some serious damage has been done.

Now, instead of focusing his efforts on refining his craft as an NHL player and earning his hefty pay check, Lecavalier will be distracted by endless questions from the visiting media and indifferent feeling from local fans.

Really, it wasn't necessary. Just as it isn't necessary (or smart) for Lecavalier to continue to employ Hughes as his agent, despite any loyalty he may have toward his so-called friend/advisor.

So, Vinny, here's a piece of free advice straight from the heart: Just shut up and play. You're young, talented, good-looking and wealthy. In other words, things really ain't so bad.

Oh yeah, you can do one other thing...find a new agent.

E.J. Hradek writes puck for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ej.hradek@espnmag.com.