Michael G. Barnett (born October 9, 1948 in Olds, Alberta)[1] is a Canadian ice hockey executive currently serving as Senior Advisor to the President-General Manager of the New York Rangers.

Barnett negotiated the playing and marketing contracts for Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull, Jaromír Jágr, Sergei Fedorov, Paul Coffey, Joe Thornton, Mats Sundin, Lanny McDonald, Grant Fuhr, Marty McSorley, Alexander Mogilny, Owen Nolan, Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin and numerous others.

Barnett's professional career led him to play with both the Chicago Cougars and Houston Aeros organizations of the World Hockey Association.

[7] Following his playing career, Barnett and long time hockey agent Gus Badali created Sierra Sports Group.

Modeled after Mark McCormack's International Management Group, CorpSport became the Canadian industry leader in representing a wide variety of Canada's top athletes.

[9] Wayne Gretzky and Lanny McDonald (hockey), Jim Nelford and Richard Zokol (golf), Kurt Browning (ice skating), Willie de Wit (boxing), Matt Dunigan (football), Cody Snyder (rodeo), and Steve Podborski, Brian Stemmle, Rob Boyd and Karen Percy (skiing) were all represented under CorpSport.

[11] In August 2001, Barnett left IMG and the athlete representation business to join his former client Wayne Gretzky, who had become an owner with the Phoenix Coyotes.

[13] Seven years later, several key players that were signed by Barnett - all-time leading scorer Shane Doan, Keith Yandle, Martin Hanzal, and Derek Morris - remained on the team as important pieces of the Coyotes 2013-2014 roster.

A staple of Barnett's presidency with IMG Hockey was their annual visit to the local Children's Hospital on the eve of the NHL draft in whichever city it was being held.

The IMG agents and their fifteen to twenty draft prospects would spend the Friday night handing out NHL merchandise to hospitalized kids.

[18][19] During the NHL's 1994 lockout, Gretzky decided to put a team together and barnstorm Europe (Ninety Nine All Stars Tour), much like Babe Ruth had done decades before.

[20] With the support of IMG's Scandinavian office, the tour was an overwhelming success, selling out Europe's biggest arenas before Gretzky and Friends had even departed America.

With nine NHL Hall-Of-Famers in the lineup (Gretzky, Messier, Hull, Yzerman, Federov, Coffey, Fuhr, Blake, MacInnis), Barnett arranged for the live television rights to be sold to Canada's CBC Network.

Not long after, the Saturday morning series ProStars, featuring Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and Bo Jackson, began airing on NBC.

In 1999, Barnett worked with IMG's Executive VP Barry Frank in conceiving Monday Night Golf, which saw Tiger Woods taking on Sergio García under the lights for ABC Sports.

[24] Barnett's further involvement in IMG's golf division saw him acting as the agent for PGA Tour Hall of Fame golfer Raymond Floyd.

[26] He also convinced North American contemporary artists Andy Warhol and LeRoy Neiman to release prestigious limited editions of the hockey legend.

Barnett convinced Chairman Jim Easton to create a bright, new, chrome aluminum shaft that would be used exclusively by Gretzky in NHL action.

[37] Anticipating a labor dispute, Barnett structured the majority of the contract in the signing bonus, which saved Gretzky millions of dollars when the NHL ceased operation for a few months in 1994.

[39] The contract then put McSorley ahead in salary of NHL all-star defensemen Chris Chelios, Ray Bourque and Al MacInnis.

[40] In August 1997, the Toronto Maple Leafs presented an offer sheet to Swedish defenseman Mattias Öhlund, an unsigned 1994 first round pick of the Vancouver Canucks.

A provision in the contract that Barnett created stated that Federov's $28 million signing bonus would be due in full if his team was to play in the Conference Final.

It became a standard understanding between player agents and NHL teams that the Thornton model would be required in order to sign top draft picks.

Barnett worked directly with Vancouver Canucks General Manager, Brian Burke, together convincing all other NHL teams to pass on both twins.