32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Agent To The Stars

Episode Date: April 23, 2022

Gerry Johannson represents some of the biggest names in hockey including Carey Price, Brayden Point, Brendan Gallagher, Josh Morrissey and Ryan Getzlaf. With some much talk about Price and Getzlaf, Jeff and Elliotte decided to have Gerry on the podcast to talk about Carey’s future, Ryan’s retirement and possible role in management, working with Luke Prokop last summer on his announcement, how much the hockey landscape has changed, the inner workings of an offer sheet, his days playing collegiate and junior hockey, how he got into the industry and when he got his break, and the advice he’d give to someone trying to get into the industry.Music Outro: JW Francis - I’m Down, WhateverCheck out more music from JW Francis on Amazon MusicThis podcast is produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

And we laugh about it, but I'm just thinking back, we were cavemen back then. I don't know what was going on. Jesus. It was a wild, wild time. It was different, but I remember it fondly. Okay, once again, time for another interview version of 32 Thoughts to Podcast, presented by the all-new GMC AT4 lineup. Elliot, before we bring on our guest today, I want to open up with a little bit of true or false. I'm going to read a statement.

You tell me whether you think it is true or it is false true well okay yes you know you're confirming it this is the bit that we're doing to start the podcast so very good you're one for one agent jerry johansson once lent ryan getzlaff his escalade in order to go to his prom and drove it from edmonton and regina to get there. True. That is true. Very good. Agent Jerry Johansson once gave Johnny Boychuck a Rolex watch late in his career for helping him recruit a young Ryan Getzlaff

whom Boychuck sat beside in junior hockey. False. That is actually true. Yeah, okay. I figured you wouldn't give them to me all true. I figured this was like a game where one answer is false, and I had to pick which one it was. No, that was legit.

Johnny Boychuk, who once upon a time said, hey, where's my cut for helping you recruit Ryan Getzlaff? Jerry Johansson showed up at his door one day and handed him a Rolex watch. Anyway, as I'm sure you can tell, everybody, our guest today is Jerry Johansson, who represents, amongst other players, I mentioned Ryan Getzlaff and Johnny Boychuk,

Carey Price, Braden Point, Brendan Gallagher, Josh Morrissey, Colton Pareko, younger players like Ty Smith and Seth Jones and Joel Hofer. Your thoughts, Elliot, on Jerry Johansson. One of the reasons that we wanted to do this was because he's got a lot of clients who are in the news right now, Cary Price. And we recorded this interview before

we knew if Price was going to play this year. Also Ryan Getzlaff, who announced his retirement. And, you know, he represents, and we talk about this later in the interview, is Luke Prokop, who was the player from the, now the Edmonton Oil Kings, who announced that he is gay, a big story in both the hockey and the sports and the news world. And so one of the things that we were discussing is just the role of the agent in all of those very different conversations. None of those situations are the same. I'm always interested in that. A lot of the times, Jeff, when we talk about agents, we're talking about salary negotiations or has this player demanded a trade? These are different conversations, much more in-depth

conversations, obviously in some situations, much more emotional. So i really wanted to get an idea of what the agent and the player and the family goes through in those times and it should come as no surprise as well uh considering yours truly was part of this interview that we did ask about his playing career nobody who played for the new westminster bruins of the old western loop and appears on this podcast can escape without at least a couple of questions about either Ernie Punch McLean or Patti Janelle, and we talked about both of them. In the meantime, enjoy what we found was a really fascinating interview

with someone who doesn't really do this very often. This is Jerry Johansson of the Sports Corporation on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Corporation. On 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Elliot, as we mentioned in the intro, pleased to be joined by the president, the CEO, and an NHLPA certified agent of the Sports Corporation, the one and only Jerry Johansson. Jerry, how are you today? Thanks so much for doing this. I'm good. Thanks for having me on.

The pleasure is ours. We have a lot to get to, and we'll drill down on a couple of specific issues and specific players, but I'll open with a wide brush question. How would you describe being a hockey agent right now in 2022? Because you've been at this for a long time. How is it right now? Well, you know what I have to say, I'm a big fan of our business. I think it's really important that these families have advisors and players have someone they can trust. And it's changed a lot. The communications is probably the biggest thing, like with social media and just access to information. But it's been fun. It keeps you on your toes. It keeps you young. And I find more similarities than differences as it's involved. But yeah, it's a really good business. You know, Jerry, when people think about sports agents, they think about Arliss, the HBO show from about a couple decades ago. Or, well, he wasn't a sports agent, but they think about Jeremy Piven's character in Entourage. a sports agent, but they think about Jeremy Piven's character in Entourage. So how close are sort of the Hollywood portrayals to what your job is really like? Well, I'll tell you, if you made a movie of our business, you'd be probably pretty boring,

actually, you know, but it's, I mean, there are highlights. I mean, it's like any business, there's a lot of grinding that goes on and, you know, there's a lot of work behind the scenes. So 95% of what we do isn't like that. But we do have our high moments, you know, when you see one of your players, you know, sort of you watch them become successful and sort of live it with them. That's really cool. Or, you know, when guys hit these high watermarks like winning a Stanleyley cup or they retire with an incredible career and you have these moments where you kind of reflect on it so uh you know or big games olympics you know stuff like that so you know there's a lot of really really cool things that probably if you

took a really short clip would make a really short movie but uh a lot of it's just grinding her out too like as we all know there's a couple of players I want to get to with you, and most specifically, as of recent note, Ryan Getzlaff. Yeah. The Anaheim Ducks announcing recently that the longtime captain of the Anaheim Ducks will be retiring at season's end. From an agent's point of view, can you walk us through what those conversations are like with Ryan Getzlaff,

and if you have any idea you know what he when we talked to him a little while ago I know he doesn't want to coach that's obvious said that right away but any idea what Ryan Getzlaff wants to do post playing career but before that if you can walk us through you know what an agent does and what you did with Ryan Getzlaff leading up to this announcement that he's calling it a career yeah I mean I guess I always thought Ryan would go out on his own terms, which he is. And I'm really impressed by that. You know, it's really, we didn't really talk about it much until this year and actually

until quite recently. So, you know, you sort of give a guy space to kind of come to terms with what they want to do. And especially Ryan, like he's, he knows what he wants and he's sort of the man's. And, uh, you know, I, I was in Anaheim not long ago and he told me what I kind of already knew that this would be his last year. It's pretty cool. I mean, you sort of live in the moment with these guys all the time. And then every once in a while, when these things happen, you reflect back on his career and man, is it impressive. It's just,

you start thinking about, I mean, I've known Ryan for 20 years, you know, since he was a kid. So it's a pretty cool moment for me to think about my relationship with Ryan and what he's accomplished. And, you know, we've been a small part of that, but it's pretty impressive. There were some things he talked about in his press conferences. I think you could probably talk about a bit more and he revealed, you know, Vegas, obviously last year was wanting to get him at the deadline and he did say that him and his wife Paige had a couple of sleepless nights leading up

to the deadline but they decided it wasn't the right thing to do for them can you sort of take us through that Jerry and what's an agent's role when a player and his wife are agonizing about what to do and how you kind of are there to try to help them get through it? Yeah, that's a good question, Elliot. Like, I think every player is a little different. Ryan, obviously, being a very special case. But I think where it really came down to with the Ducks struggling last year, they obviously had a better year this year.

Their young players have played really well. But last year, I think, Ryan, our conversation with Bob was, if you can make a deal that helps the team, then Ryan would consider it. But he didn't want to leave. I think we made that clear with him the whole time. And we had a number of teams calling, obviously, to try and bring Ryan in. And it just never came together. You know, there just wasn't anything there that was compelling enough for Anaheim to

go to Ryan with. And so really, as close as it might have seemed, probably in Ryan's mind, because you're either, you know, it either comes or it doesn't. It probably never got that close. But, you know, still the stress and anxiety is real for his family and him did montreal ever try to make a pitch for him i always wondered if perry tried to get him there there were all these rumors were they were they were the montreal try at all yep mark was i talked to mark uh i i'm you know vegas a number of teams actually

dallas just very respectfully checking in you know same idea would Ryan come here what's he thinking that kind of thing so and it just sort of never really you got close but never really got to the point where there was offers made or anything like that it just it didn't quite get close enough to happen and I'm in hindsight I think we're all happy that it didn't probably now when he's going through what he's going through this year, like there's always somebody who says, are you sure? Are you the person who does that? Or is Paige the person who does that? Who's the individual who says to Getzlaff, are you sure it's your time? Well, I'll tell you, you know, a lot of our players that have retired, you know, I've had that conversation with them and sometimes they don't have a choice, you know, like Brent Seabrook, for example.

But with Ryan, you really don't have to ask Ryan, are you sure? He's such a leader and Ryan doesn't make decisions lightly. And so when you meet, when you sit down with him for two minutes, you know that this is what he wants to do and he's thought about it and it's time. Mostly what I do with our guys, you know, because we've had a number of guys like you think about Mikko Koivu, you know, Brent Seabrook, Johnny Boychuk, you know, we really talk about what their careers are going to look like after they're done playing. What I stress to them is, you know, they have so much knowledge and so much experience, but they've been, you know,

looking at their career through such a narrow lens, you know, their job is to get the puck out or score a goal or whatever, right? And I just try to encourage them to be positive and optimistic about what lies in front of them because they're young guys. I mean, most guys in business, like ours, you don't even really get going until you're in your mid-30s, you know. So, really, these guys have a whole career in front of them. And I think Ryan sees that. I think he knows that he's got incredible strengths and a lot to offer. And, you know, so I think he's looking forward with a, there's a bright light in front of him for sure.

I wanted to ask you, like, what is the toughest conversation that agents have with players? You know, it varies. I mean, if we do our job right, contract negotiations generally, we're prepared for the tough conversation. It's not a surprise. Injuries are hard. I think injuries are hard. And sometimes I think when a player's career is winding down, it can be difficult to understand it a little bit. You know, because not every career ends like Ryan's or Brent Seabrook's.

A lot of these guys play for a few years and then they're moving around. So we get guys over to Europe or different things like that. And that process could be a little bit difficult. But generally, I would say almost always, we have a really strong personal relationship with our players. So the conversations, the tough conversations are ongoing. So we don't really get to a moment where there's one big issue. I mean, except for perhaps injuries, injuries are tough. You know, they can happen in a second and they can be tricky, but if we're doing our job, right, we're trying to stay one step in front of all this stuff. Let me follow up with one thing about Getzlaff here, because I'm curious. Next steps for Ryan Getzlaff. Can you ever see yourself negotiating against Ryan Getzlaff can you ever see yourself negotiating against Ryan Getzlaff over a player's contract can you see management on the horizon for him one day well I hope so I would that would be a

pure highlight for me 100 he's built to be in management there's no question like I mean you talk about leaders that I work with you know like guys like Cary Price and Mikko Koivu, Brent Seabrook, you know, Bear Jackman. I mean, these guys are incredible, you know, how they carry themselves. And I have to tell you, Ryan's at the top of the list. Like the guy has incredible social IQ. He reads a room. He's humble. He's just got a a really just a leadership quality that I've never really quite seen at that level he's by far the biggest alpha guy I've ever worked with and um you know people love him he just built for it so I we've been talking about that a lot you know about his post-playing career and I think he's perfectly suited to be in management what would that be like for you?

It'd be awesome. I don't know how the negotiation would go. I'd probably lose that one with him. He's pretty tough. So, you know, the guy had well over 1,000 games, well over 1,000 points, and more than 1,000 penalty minutes. So I don't know. I'm not sure how I'd handle that one.

I'll have to give that some thought. I have a little time maybe. So hopefully I'll be, I'll have to get sharpened up. I might have a few secrets on Ryan. So maybe I'll hold that against him. That's right. You know, you could say, Ryan, if you don't give me this extra million, I've got a couple photos of you out on the beaches of Anaheim that I'll release. That's right.

That's right. Well, he may have a few secrets on me, so maybe I should be careful. Yeah. I have a lot of questions based coming out of that. First of all, what's the toughest negotiation? I understand you might not want to tell us who, but what was the toughest negotiation you ever had? Wow, that's a good one.

Usually the toughest one we have is the one that's coming up because we're always preparing for the worst. I know that sounds kind of throwaway, but, you know, you sort of, I think when you go into negotiation, number one is, you know, making sure your client's prepared for best case, worst case, you know, kind of make sure they understand the whole picture. And then you sort of go in, at least I do, expecting, we're a little pessimistic when we get into it. You know, it's a good way to start because then you can only be impressed. And there's so many different ones. But again, it's a process.

So I try not to get caught up in the moment. I mean, a lot of the big negotiations, there's some tough moments. Sometimes they're a lot easier than you think. And they come together. Braden Point's last deal or Colton Parako's last deal were pretty straightforward. Sebastian Ajo's deal took a long time and it worked out really well, I think, for everybody. I think even for Carolina. So I think you go in naturally, you're a little pessimistic, but you just stick to your guns and see how it works. I don't know if there's one that's

really stuck out. If it was probably a young guy in the minors that wants to play, it's probably the smaller deals that can be more difficult because you just don't have any leverage. Actually, you know, it's funny. You're not the first agent to say that to me. I say that when I ask these kinds of questions, they always say to me, like, you think it's the big ones. Like, for example, you doing Getzlaf or you doing Carey Price.

They say, in some ways, those are the easier ones to do because you know it's going to be a big number. He says the toughest ones are kind of what you just said is that somebody who may be the 23rd player on a roster because they're expecting you to fight for them, but the teams have the hammer. He told me the exact same thing you did, Jerry. Those tend to be the nastiest because you're fighting for your client and the team's like, what do you think you're going to get here? That's interesting to hear you say that. And you know, in our world, when you're dealing with a client, a player who's who, you know, it's still a big deal for him, right? So the big deals,

you know, they get talked about, but, but, you know, the smallest deal we do is still that guy's life, you know? So you're equally as invested in that. And, and, and you're right, Elliot, it's can be more difficult. You know, they just, you just don't have the leverage or, you know, some of these players, you know, there's, there's so many other guys that can take that job. So, you know, it's, it, you have to be real careful with that. You want to try to get in the fish in the boat. You want to keep your boots on the ground when it comes to negotiating, but it can be tough. The other thing too is that a couple agents said to me that this year, you talk about being realistic, like informing your client, what's the best case scenario? What's the worst case scenario?

There are some guys right now, because the cap is so tight and it's only going up a million, they think that's the biggest challenge is that some of the players don cap is so tight and it's only going up a million, they think that's the biggest challenge is that some of the players don't realize how tight and competitive it's going to be, especially now. How much has the landscape changed and made that more challenging for you? It's been hard. I think it's, and I think what, you know, it's been really hard on teams too, right? They've counted on that cap going up over forever. You know, I think one of the things is I think it's equally difficult for clubs too, but I think the key to our business is managing expectations. I mean, I think we're doing that with our youngest player and with our pro

guys. We're, you know, we're trying to make sure that they understand the lay of the land and, and we're trying to stay ahead of that. And as long as you stay ahead of it, you're generally in pretty good shape. I think where guys in our business get into trouble is if they don't deal with that ongoing, then, you know, when it pops its head up, you're sort of surprised. So if you have surprises in our business, you know, we probably haven't done our job. Unless they're good surprises, then we'll take credit. Well, let me jump in here and ask about a name that you mentioned a couple of seconds ago, and that's Sebastian Aho. That was an offer sheet.

That wasn't your first. We think of Dustin Penner, certainly. And that offer sheet led to a barn fight threat between Brian Burke and Kevin Lowe, as we can all recall. When you go about crafting or proposing or talking about the concept of an offer sheet to a player, I mean, I'm imagining that some players are warmer to the idea than others. I guess from your point of view, how does that work? Are there players that sort of come to you and say, like, look, I think I'm worth this amount of money. I'm not going to get it here unless it's an offer sheet scenario. Like how does the dynamic of putting together an offer sheet with a very specific player happen

from the sports corporation? That's a good question. I mean, I think you never tried it. You're not trying to get an offer sheet. I think the offer sheet is a bit of a last resort. I don't think that's ever your goal going in. I think when you do get stuck in a negotiation and, you know, in Penner's case or Ajo's case, or actually funny enough, Andre Mazzaro years ago, no one really knows that one. The offer sheet never got filed. Really? Yeah.

It turned into a trade. Oh, with Tampa. So Ottawa-Tampa. That's what that was? Yeah. Tampa. So we had an assigned offer sheet and then they used the thread of the offer sheet, which was signed, to force a trade.

So Ottawa got more assets back. That's something not too many people know. I can talk about it now because I don't know if that's a long time ago. But so you're never really setting out to get an offer sheet. I think an offer sheet's a bit of a last resort. And obviously, you know, just for the top players. But, I mean, our job is to find opportunity for guys. And, you know, we're spending 99% of our time looking, you know,

with the club they're with, trying to make it work. But every once in a while, you get sort of backed into a corner and, you know, the only escape hatch is an offer sheet. They're not easy to find, but they've been, you know, they're an effective tool, certainly from from our business if we can get them any other uh players barrett jackman or miko koivu or uh marty zelina any other offer sheets we don't know about out there no wink wink a couple i maybe pretended we had that we didn't but that's don't tell anybody that that's a secret so so when when you're about to do that jerry like what's the call like

when you call carolina do you call don waddell do you call tom dundon who do you call there and you say look do you even give them a heads up do you say guys we're about to sign an offer sheet with the montreal canadians well actually you know that's good it's really team to team so in every case the team phones the other team to let them know they're signing the offer sheet. And then we just keep our head down and let the bullets fly. So we're just, you know, we're hunkered down. But generally the team will call the other team to notify them that they're doing that. I guess Bergevin called Waddell and then did they call you?

Did they text you? What was the first communication you got from Carolina? I don't even think I heard back from them until after they had matched the offer sheet. We sort of just watched it in the press. Cause at that point, once the offer sheet's done, our job's sort of done, you know, the player's going one way or the other. And, uh, you know, so at that point we're kind of, you know, just sitting tight. And once the offer sheet signed, it's actually a contract. So there's no tweaking of it or you know it is what it is so they're really at that point it's like us having a signed contract we're just sort

of watching like everybody else to see where it goes so now i'd like to ask you about carrie price you know i think a lot of people including ourselves and the canadians fans are kind of wondering about his future will it be in montreal will it be somewhere else I mean last year left unprotected I guess you know like I guess can you kind of walk us through the last year like he had an unbelievable playoff he took them to within obviously three wins of the Stanley Cup you know I was thinking going into the final win or lose he might be my consmith winner anyway like he was that good and then the news comes out that he's hurt and he's unprotected and jerry can you sort of walk us through the last year of you know kind of where it went with carrie and and what his future might be whether it's

montreal or elsewhere yeah i mean i you know it goes back to our earlier conversation your earlier question about you know what's difficult about working with players. And when they're injured, the problem with that is it's really hard to plan forward because you just don't know until you're healthy. I mean, you're either injured or you're not, you know. And so when players are hurt like Kerry has been, you know, you're really just focused on getting him back. And, you know, getting back physically is one thing, but, you know, coming back from an injury, especially one that's kept you out for a while and that, you know, he was obviously pretty banged up in the playoffs last year as well, you know, so it's a mental thing too,

you know, when a player's actually ready. And so we try not to, you know, project too far ahead of that. It's just one of those things where, you know, you just got to be patient and really let the player come to terms with where he's at health wise. And then we can kind of get on with what the next steps are. But yeah, I think with the, you know, with Kerry being left unprotected, you know, Kerry was part of that. We were part of that whole process, you know, that, you know, Montreal was in a bit of a tough spot that if they, with Jake Allen, if Kerry was protected, he may be left unprotected. You know, so Kerry was part of the whole conversation about leaving him unprotected. And I think we all felt that, you know, there's a chance Seattle would take him, but there

was also a lot of risk there, you know, with his having surgery and sort of going to be on the shelf for sure for a significant period of time. You know, there was a fairly good chance that they wouldn't have taken them. But Kerry and I were part of that whole process with Mark. I want to ask you about owners and I'll open it with, uh, with this story that Bill Waters, former agent, uh, told me about his negotiation with the Detroit Red Wings, uh, over Warren Young, who, uh, got, I think it was a four year, $1 million deal out of Detroit, which was, at that time, a really great contract for the player. And Waters told me he was at dinner that night with Mike Illich,

the late owner of the Detroit Red Wings, who said, you know what, Bill, you got me on the Warren Young deal, but if it doesn't work out, you know what I'll do? I'll just raise the price of pizza, and I'll get my money back either way. Do you feel that right now, you know, we just mentioned Tom Dundon a couple of moments ago, from your point of view, it's more important to have a relationship with an owner as opposed to a general manager or are still the best relationships with the GMs? I think the best relationships are with the GMs.

I do know some of the owners over the years. And Tom is I really like Tom he's one he's a very smart guy and he is passionate and I I really appreciate you know his investment of not just his money but you know his his energy into the hurricane so he's a real character and I really like Tom so you get to know a few guys I mean I met Jeff Molson a few times but I think out of respect for the structure of their team you try to stick with the general manager and, um, you know, every once in a while, you know, the owner maybe come in or weigh in or something like that. But I think probably 99% of the time we're dealing with the general managers. I also want to ask you about media. You generally do not like talking to the media. I know that when my name pops up on your phone

and some of your partners are even more media phobic than you the media. I know that when my name pops up on your phone and some of your partners are even more media phobic than you are. Like I know sometimes when some of us call you, you're like, Oh my God, what on earth is this going to be about? How do you see yourself with that? Like are some clients don't talk to them and are some, I'd rather you do this for me? Like, how did your clients view your role in terms of talking to us? Yeah. Well, you know,

I probably should do more media because you guys play a really important role in this whole business, like just in keeping fans engaged. And, you know, we've trust, we rely on you guys too, because don't,

again, don't tell anybody else. We get half of our scoops from you guys. So it's a boy. That's sad. Oh's sad oh boy that's sad so yeah no pressure you know generally speaking everything i know is is our players personal lives yeah generally like i don't you know other than just general agent stuff about our business things like that pretty much you know any question i have to answer is directly related to a player's life. So I'm pretty protective of that stuff. And yeah, and honestly, sometimes we just get so busy, you know, especially when it's like trade deadline or signings or something.

And the other thing is, you know, just the confidentiality when you're doing a contract. want to try and it's harder and harder nowadays to sort of keep that trust between the team during a negotiation or during whatever it could be. It could be an injury, things like that, just to make sure your player is somewhat protected. I mean, I think the media, there's no intention behind it, but you know, once it gets public, you know, it adds a layer of pressure sometimes on the player and my job is to take pressure off of them not to add to it right let me ask you about arizona we've talked plenty about it moving into a an asu facility that holds 5 000 fans we all know the the accompanying issues that come along with it what are the concerns that you have how do you talk to your clients about the arizona coyotes situation just a a general thought from your chair, Jerry,

on what's happening in Arizona and how it impacts the business and how it specifically impacts your clients. Right now, we don't have anybody in Arizona. But we will probably by the summer, I'm sure. But I mean, I think that's a tricky one. I mean, I do appreciate the fact that that's an important market. And, you know, they've been invested there a long time.

How it moves forward, I mean, on paper right now, it does seem a little strange that we're going to be playing in a 5,000 seat arena. Again, I sort of stick to my knitting as sort of above my pay grade. I know the PA is really capable and they're weighing in on our behalf. I trust those guys that they're raising concerns and, you know, I'm sure the NHL has got their grand plan in place for it. It does seem a little odd in the short term that we're doing that. It just, it does seem a little strange, but again, it's, it's above my pay grade. So we're just going to keep grinding her out. All right. I want to ask you about your career a little bit. I don't know how somebody could get 124 minutes and penalties in 19 games in Canadian university hockey.

Like I used to cover Canadian university hockey. There's no fighting. Um, you know, like how does a person get average, you know, almost six minutes and penalties a game in Canadian University of Hockey oh well let me just tell you guys back then I'm not sure I've changed but I was a hammerhead back then I can tell you that I don't know what was going on it was just junior hockey at the time Jeff and I were talking earlier it was you know we look back on it you know fondly I mean I got to play I played U.S. College I played you know New West in junior. And I played for Terry O'Malley, a wonderful guy, my coach in UBC.

But I just wasn't ready for college hockey. Terry called me in. I was suspended. I go, how long did I get? He goes, well, the rest of the year. He goes, I don't think this is really for you. I go, no, you're right. It's not.

Thanks, Mr. O'Malley. So I moved on. It worked out. But, yeah, I don't know. I look back it's it makes me smile to think of those days thank god there's even the old scouts i run into i offer them if they have a scouting report on me i'll pave to get that back and destroyed whatever i need to do so thank god there's not much on tape let me ask you about the new westminster

bruins because listen i i grew up as a kid loving junior hockey in that era and the new Westminster Bruins were always like the boogeyman oh you know here come the new Westminster Bruins you're gonna kick sand in our face of the beach and take our lunch money and beat us up like that was a big strong tough team uh Ernie Punch McLean would have been one of your coaches Patty Janelle as well I know you uh represented Mark Fistrick son of the legendary Boris Fistrick who may have been the toughest of the tough of all time in New West. But I mean, there's some skill on that team. You played with Mark Recchi. When I say New Westminster Bruins or I say Ernie Punch McLean or I say Patty Janelle, what comes to your mind right away?

Do you have a couple of stories about any of these gentlemen or that team specifically? So many stories. I mean, Patty was just he was really the guy that got me drafted back in those days. I played for him in Swift Current when it was still junior A. And his son was one of my best friends. And I mean, I had a full scholarship in the States and I liked it. And Paddy called me up and said, Jerry, you want to go to New West to play for me? I go, sure.

I just left. So I didn't even ask a question. But Paddy was a real mentor for me i go sure i just left so i didn't even ask a question but patty was a real mentor for me at the time and he took a liking to me when i was just a young kid and didn't really know there was a future in hockey and uh unfortunately patty didn't last very long there he was fired i don't know we had about four brawls and it was just crazy yeah um and then then ernie came in and then here we go again i love love Ernie McLean too. I still see him around, but it was a great experience for me because I ended up coaching in Tri-Cities after I was done playing. And that really was where I learned all about running a team and players and different things that actually I didn't know at the time, but made me sort of uniquely qualified when I got into this business at the time.

So it all worked out really, really well. But it was fun days back then, as I recall. I wouldn't want to do it again, though. I can tell you that. Do you ever look back and just shake your head? Because, I mean, listen, the stories of the Western Hockey League at that time, like I still marvel that half the league wasn't incarcerated. How often do you look back and say, like what, what were, what were we thinking?

Well, it's true. And we, I see my, I just saw Mark Reckie the other day, New Jersey was in town. We had a good chat and, uh, you know, but it was just the way it was. And it, you know, it, it is hard to evolve. Like, you know, even the conversations are having now about fighting and hockey and different things like that. It's, you know, when you grew up a certain way, it was just the way it was. You didn't really question it. And, you know, I think the game's a lot better now because I think it was frankly dangerous back then. And, you know, I think it takes time to evolve and,

you know, I'm glad the conversation's happening. I wouldn't want my kid playing for the, you know, newest Bruins back then. I mean, it's a lot safer. The teams are way more professionally run, but I mean, it's the way you grew up. So you, it makes a lot safer. The teams are way more professionally run. But I mean, it's the way you grew up. So it makes me smile. And every time I run into one of my old teammates, we laugh and tell stories. And so it's really what you get playing hockey. You just get these great memories and just a great experience. So what was the wildest thing you saw? Paddy came in and we had the toughest team you could ever imagine if you look back and like darren kimball and al may and mike pollinchuk who was like six foot eight at the

time i still had mike and we represented his son he's around here somewhere but it was we had the cooperalls they didn't even fit him you know his arms wouldn't go he was in wwf and oh my god so we get to seattle and patty hasn't said a word to anybody the whole training camp but meanwhile we got all these tough guys coming in and so the whole camp Paddy doesn't say one word and I'm sitting here going I'm a fairly intelligent guy and I'm kind of like Paddy hasn't said one thing he's a quiet guy anyway so before our first exhibition game, he comes in the room and we know we're tough. And he comes in and says, I only have one thing to say. This is the first thing he said in two weeks, three weeks. He goes, if there's a fight, I want everybody in. I'm like, you can't say that.

So sure enough, we get Seattle starts and I can't believe I left college for this. I was pulling our guys off of their guys. It was just, and anyway, Patty got suspended the next night. We're in Victoria. He comes to the game. He's just been banned from the rink. He buys a fake mustache and beard and comes and sits right behind our bench.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. I swear.

So guess what happens? Another line brawl right away. And keep in mind, Paddy's only said one thing this whole time. He hasn't said anything else. I'm like, what is going on here? So anyway, it was pretty fun in hindsight. It was good. But a couple other guys, I just learned Jamie Hushcroft was tough

because we had a tough team, but he was out there battling our own. So, yeah. Wow. I remember Bobby Valentine getting thrown out of a game and coming back with the fake glasses and mustache on. Now I know where he got it from. He got it from watching old Western Hockey League games. So good.

Well, even saying it out loud, I can't believe it's true. Like even in my head, I'm going, this really happened? Or have I dreamt it? No, it really happened. So, yeah, there's a few stories like that but and there's viz out there of uh of ernie mclean hitting the ice to confront bart hunter oh it was a net minder in the western hockey league over over putting on the visor like every time i look back like it was just crazy town well a lot of these guys were characters like patty was a character he had a cowboy hat you know he was a total character his first practice we did three on twos for an hour and

a half straight then not one other drill and then so you know you know the guys at the time like the ken hitchcocks who were you know really coaching you know like in terms of you know that kind of thing it was sort of the end of that era where it was more about personalities than it was about you know teaching and structure and plays and breakouts and different things like that. So, you know, now it's so much, you know, evolved to the point where almost all these coaches have a plan and they're, you know, they're working it. It was, it was the end of that era for sure. So how did you get from there to here, Jerry? Like, did someone say to you, Hey, you know, you've got a head for business, you could do this?

Because there'll be a lot of young people who want to be agents and they'll say, okay, how did you go from there to here? Did someone tell you or was it always on your mind? Well, actually, because I get that question a lot, Elliot. I got a lot of kids who come up here who want to be sports agents and I try to give them a lot of time. It was just out of complete luck and desperation. And a guy named Scott Bonner, who is my best friend. And he works with you now, right? He does. Yeah. He was a longtime GM in Vancouver. And so what happened when I had my exit out of UBC, I had been the captain of New West and the team then moved to Tri-Cities, Washington. So it was a brand new franchise.

The owner was a friend of mine at the time. So I went down as an assistant coach for that team. So I was coaching some of the guys I played with. And in those days, it was like, there's just three of us running the team. So if I was single, I'd go in there early and answer the phone. So I was selling season tickets and ring boards and everything else, whatever they needed when the phone rang. And so I was selling season tickets and ring boards and everything else whatever they needed when the phone rang and so we I did that I worked with actually a guy named Rick Koza back I worked with Bob McCammon I worked with Bill LaForge for a very short time oh my goodness Bill LaForge

what a duo there Bill LaForge and Bob McCammon wow oh yeah well that's when the team the team went on strike when Bill came so we had to to cancel a game against Portland because the team was on strike. And so I was in the office with Bill, who was a legend. The guys that I know that played for Bill just loved that guy. He just loved him. Bill, at this time, he was sort of at the end, and I think he was health-wise wasn't doing great but you know as i'm explaining to bill me and the trainer at the time big bill the team's not coming portland's warming up he goes our trainer who was a nut bar great guy but crazy jimmy he goes jimmy call up the midget team we'll play them i go bill there is no midget team we're in tri-cities there's no hockey here we're the only thing so i'm really curious about this pause i'm on um uh on the forge but is Is that the Portland chicken hawk story with the live chicken? Well, I've heard about that one before.

Yeah. I don't know that. I mean, the one thing I can tell you, Jeff, it was, you're asking him stories. He doesn't even know about Jeff.

You're making this stuff up. No, no, no, no, no. This is, this,

this was alleged before, before a Portland winter Hawks game, he brought in a live chicken and proceeded to sure he did proceeded to damage it significantly in front of the kids who are all oh my god what is this no the guy was a legend some stories i've heard players just loved him and and he was a character but that was the hockey news in the hockey news there was the cartoon was the tri-city americans team picture and from left to right bill the forge and it just has bill sitting there no team because we'd been on strike the week before so it was a pretty classic that was pretty funny so yeah but

i got into then i was recruiting down there and i was involved in i when i worked with bob bob was coaching and managing but i was kind of doing all the work if you will and i had those days there was no rules in junior so i was recruiting i was I was trying to get Paul Correa to come. I was going all over the place, probably batting one out of 100. But we got Todd Simpson to – he left Brown to come play for us. But then we all got fired. And I had no idea what I was going to do. And Scott Bonner phones me out of the blue and goes, you need to go see Rich Winter.

And I was like, who's Rich Winter? He goes, you know Rich. Vlad Vojtekjtek i coached him so he was his agent i go okay so i i flew up to edmonton met with rich and uh we talked he had a lot of czech and slovaks at the time but no real canadians and so basically rich hired me and as i recall the next day i was in fort mcmurray talking to chris phillips because I knew where all the players were. I knew all about the league and all about everything. So I just never thought about being an agent, never crossed my mind. And so Rich gave me that opportunity and that was really it. It worked out from there. So it was your first client, Chris Phillips then? I didn't get Chris Phillips. I should have though. I should have. I still

kicked myself. A great guy, wonderful family. But it literally was my first meeting, so my closing skills were average at that time. So who was your first client? Who was your first guy? I think my first guy that signed was Michael Grady, the Alberta kid, but a big defenseman. But we hit it kind of hard.

Early on, I had a lot of first round picks right off the bat, like Jonathan Aiken, Dan Folt, Lance Ward, Chris Beach, you know, Barrett Jackman. So sort of because I didn't know the players and I was aggressively driving around all over the place. So I kind of caught the business early. Like now it's so competitive. There's, you know, agents everywhere.

But I mean, I remember driving up to, I was driving through BC and I met Brett Festerling in Quesnel and I was dead tired. And I called Scott and he goes, you should go meet Kerry Price. I go, you think? He goes,

yeah, just go meet him. He's in, he's in Williams Lake. So I drove up to Williams Lake, sat down with Kerry and his dad at the golf course, clubhouse sandwich in the clubhouse. And yeah, they hired me right there. And then on my way, as I'm leaving those days, the cell service,

once you got down the hill in a big, big valley, there was no cell service. So I was returning Steve Getz last call because we were in the mix with Ryan. He had kind of sort of showed up on the scene a little later, like he he was already playing so every agent was talking to him and uh i phoned steve back and i said where are we at because we've been talking for quite a while great guy and uh he let me know he said well jerry we've narrowed it down to two you and newport i said okay he goes ryan's leaning towards you and i'm leaning towards newport and i go so I like my chances. Hey,

Steve, he goes, so do I, because he gets, isn't listening to anybody. He's making this. So I was at the McDonald's in Cornell and that was the day we basically got Ryan gets laughing and carry price.

So what a day, what a day was as, as price changed at all, since he like gets laugh is so in your face and intense. It's hard to imagine two almost different people, but I guess how old was Carrie then? And how has he changed at all since you've really known him? I honestly,

I don't think either guy has changed one bit, not one bit. They are so humble and just so grounded as most of our guys are. If I literally go through the list, I have a hard time finding someone who's not, but yeah really haven't changed like but you know when you get a young player you know you know they're good but you don't want to put expectations that they're going to be great you know so then you watch them go and you know you guys probably remember carrie as a graduating junior going to hamilton who was an average team, like a good team, but they were probably fifth place or something like that,

and they won the Calder Cup, right? Or Getzlaff, you know, obviously the 0-4 lockout kind of kept those guys back in junior, but he went to pro and just hit it. And so you see that sometimes, like Braden Point did that, Colton Pareko did that. Just Seth Jarvis is sort of doing that in Carolina. Some of these guys, it's almost easier for them to play pro in a weird way.

They get to pro and they can just think at that level and play at that level. And in a weird way, it's almost easier for them. Those are my words. I'm sure they might not agree with it, but they just make that seamless transaction. And other guys struggle with it. You know, it's really interesting. I should have asked this earlier, but you mentioned just Price again. He had some, obviously, some big challenges this year.

And I did want to ask you, just how do you manage that? I mean, your relationship with him is obviously very close. You're very protective of him. How did you help him get through the challenges he had to go through off the ice this year? Just being there for him and making sure that he had someone to talk to. And I knew right away that Kerry just needed a little bit of time. I mean, he's such a, talk about a grounded person. And what he deals with, like, yeah, you guys know,

being Kerry Price in Montreal, the guy handles it like a champ. Like, I can't even believe it. You know, it's, I'm sure being Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin, you know, but you're in Washington and Pittsburgh, so it's probably a little bit better. But being Carey Price in Montreal, that's a pressure, pressure job. And, I mean, the guy has handled everything in his career just so well, including this. And I think the injury had a lot to do with it.

I think he just – and the stress of the playoffs, because he was playing hurt during that time, if you can believe it. And now he's back and he's doing great. So just really being there for the guys as we try to be with all the guys, just that they need us. I'd like to say, if you need something, you know, make sure you call us or better yet, we'll probably call you before you call us. So, you know. Okay. And just a couple more to, before we wrap it up uh number one you mentioned that you have a lot of young people uh reach out to you about being an agent what's the biggest advice that uh you give young people men or women who want to go into the business what do you tell them

well basically two things i say if you you know if you want to be in hockey, then you really do need to get involved in hockey at some point. It's hard to be in hockey and not be in hockey, if that makes any sense, you know? And the other thing is to stay patient. I mean, our, our business is a little tricky. Well, in some ways it's easy to get into because you can just be an agent if you want, sort of, but it's really hard to stay in. because you can just be an agent if you want, sort of. But it's really hard to stay in. And so what I try to tell guys, if you're interested in hockey,

there's a lot of different entry points to it. You can do marketing. You can work with a team. You can try to work with a league. You can do all sorts of stuff. But you need to invest in hockey. And once you're in there, if in the back of your mind being an agent is something that's interesting to you, just keep your eyes and ears open and pay attention. And that's how to do it.

And stay patient. That's one of the things that's probably hardest to do now is patience is in short supply, it seems, everywhere. So that's a tricky one. And the last one I have for you is, and I want to end this on another one of your clients that we interviewed last year, and he did a number of interviews last year, that's Luke Procope.

And I just saw him actually interviewed by Gene Principe on an Oilers broadcast as they had their Pride Night. And that was a big one. Basically, when he decided to make his announcement and tell everybody that that he is gay like that's something that I think we're all going to look back in 20 years and the good thing and we're all going to say is why was this a big deal and I think that's what we all want right but at the time it is a huge deal and you know you and your staff you're going through you know this announcement coming there's a media strategy just walk us through that Jerry and and how you're going through you know this announcement's coming there's a media strategy just walk us through that jerry and and how you want to make luke comfortable and how you help

him make his decisions and how you kind of go through it with him is as he makes his announcement that was a career highlight for me like it was so interesting for me especially growing up when we grew up right like it was yeah that wasn't really even an option. You know, it wasn't like, you never really talked about that, or no one was coming out. And Luke is just the best kid in the world. Like, he's just a really nice young man, just a total gentleman. So anyway, he sat down with us, and we were one of the first people to know. So I was first of all, flattered that he trusted us enough to tell us because it was big news. And he was just in the process of telling his family and he told us. And so, you know, I was pretty flattered that he trusted us enough to tell us. And then I just told him,

I said, Luke, whatever you want to do, if you want to, you know, this is private business, you can do whatever you want. But if you ever want to, you know, do something more, you know, make it more public, then, you know, let's talk about it so we can do it properly. Because there's a lot of people out there that will want to support you. But to be fair, we want to make sure everybody has a heads up on it so that they can be prepared. And so sure, a few months go by, maybe, I don't know what it was, four or five months, and he came back and said, Yeah, I think I want to do this. And, and we were part of it. And I spent the whole morning with him as he announced it and watched his whatever it is instagram go from 2000 to 60 000 or maybe five hours or something like

that or wow and but but you make a good point elliot like my daughter's you know at the time was 15 and the players we have they don't even even care. Yeah. They're like looking at us like, what's the big deal. But, you know, but our generation, you know, it was a big deal. And so it was so impressive to see that like all our players, their teammates, nobody really cares. They're just like, Oh, whatever. You know? So I was pretty, you know, it's a,

it's a good sign of the generation of the young generation coming up. I can tell you that. Listen, that's great. He's such an impressive young man. We really enjoyed our conversation with him. And like we said at the time, we wish that guy nothing but the best and all the success in the world. That's A, a good hockey player, and B, a brave young man as well.

Jerry, this has been great. We really appreciate it. You probably spent longer with us than you intended. Or wanted. Or wanted. But as you know, we're very, very selfish here on the podcast. Well, my takeaway from this is when Elliot calls me, I need to call him back right away.

That's basically what I pulled out of this whole conversation. So there you go. Okay. That's great. Thanks, Jerry. Thanks, guys. Have a good day. Thanks very much, Jerry.

Thank you, Elliot. Bye, Jerry. Thank you, Elliot. Bye, Jeff. Really enjoyed that interview. Thanks so much to Jerry Johansson for stopping by. Taking us out is an artist who marks himself as New York's next lo-fi legend after receiving mass support from several music outlets, including BBC six music and Spotify JW Francis is not only Sam McKee's doppelganger Sam McKee by the way is a producer at Sportsnet 590 the fan in Toronto but he also crafts

music that our future indie classics that reek of modern New York City charm according to DIY magazine that is from. From his 2020 record, We Share a Similar Joy, here's J.W. Francis with I'm Down, Whatever, on 32 Thoughts, the podcast. I was thinking about what I've learned I was thinking about where I want to go I was thinking about who I want to be So I pulled out my phone

And I called my mom and everyone I wanted to be And I told them I want to be someone else But I've never wanted to be anybody but me You've got to think about what you've learned What you've learned is that love is the key What you've learned is love is the key I'm down whatever I'm down whatever I'm down whatever

I'm down whatever Somebody else Nobody else