32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Blue Jacket Blowup

Episode Date: September 13, 2023

Massive news day at Media Day! Jeff and Elliotte break down the Mike Babcock player meeting situation in Columbus (1:00), chat with Johnny Gaudreau in Vegas about how his new coach approached getting to know the players (19:30), and Billy Daly provides the league's perspective on the Blue Jackets news as well as several other topics (33:28).The guys also discuss the Thomas Tatar contract (12:00), the blue line in Carolina (13:20), a new captain in Winnipeg (15:40), Ottawa sale (17:30) and they chat with Troy Terry who tells us about his contract negotiation over the summer (47:30).Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Montana's Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.Music Outro: Portugal. The Man - ChampListen to the full track HERE*additional music by Jack HarlowThis podcast was produced and mixed by Amil Delic, and hosted by Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman.Audio Credits: Generation Now and TNT.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.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 3, 2, thoughts. Elliot, we're in Vegas. And by Vegas, I mean Henderson at the NHL Players Tour. Welcome once again to 32 Thoughts, the podcast. Here is truly alongside Elliot Friedman and Amil Delic. Coming up on the podcast today, you will hear from Johnny Gaudreau of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Columbus, a very newsworthy team, Elliot, on Tuesday. Also, Bill Daly, deputy commissioner of the NHL, comments on the news stories of the day on Tuesday, which were most notably the Blue Jackets, Mike Babcock, and also the Terry Pegula situation in Buffalo. And you will hear from Troy Terry of the Anaheim Ducks. And this is an interesting one.

Troy Terry sort of pulls back the curtain, Elliot, on how his arbitration case went and how close he was to actually going into the room. This is a fascinating interview from a really thoughtful guy. Before we get to the big story of the day, you have a quick thought on what we're going to hear from Troy Terry in a couple of moments. Well, I wanted to run him early, at at least the interview because i thought it was a really good interview i thought he was a good talker and he had good insight so i don't want to ruin it i just thought it was good okay so let's get to the new story of the day then elliot and it revolves around mike babcock uh paul bassinet and players photos if you're listening to this podcast you don't need us to regurgitate the entire story you know it you've written a blog at sportsnet.ca about it we'll

hear from Johnny Gaudreau in a couple of moments on the situation doesn't sound like this story is going to vanish anytime soon and here's what I wonder is the only question here, how big this story is going to get. I agree with you, Jeff. I don't think it's over. We're recording this part of the pod on a Wednesday morning, you know, Tuesday night after really a wild and crazy day, I wrote a piece and look, if you read it, I spoke to people who didn't like it i spoke to people who liked it you know i took all the quotes that we got from here at the at the tour especially johnny goodrow who kind of defended what happened not kind of he did defend what happened my point was i don't think everyone columbus included realized how this was going to go this year.

And that is that Babcock is still a name that evokes enormous feeling from people who like him and people who don't like him. And everything he does is going to be a firestorm. I don't think even the Blue Jackets realize the level of that until Tuesday. And like I said, like I wrote, I don't think Paul Bissonette is coming out with this unless someone is absolutely telling him this. He's not making this up. He's not making it up. He's not making this up. Now, there could be people who feel one way, and there could be people who feel another way. I spoke to people who said they didn't like it,

but my conclusion was Babcock is going to have to be perfect because if he isn't, it's going to get out there. We were reminded. It's Babcock. It's a big name. It's controversy. Now, Wednesday morning, when I woke up, uh, out here in Vegas, look, I just agree with you.

I don't think this is over. You know, some of the veteran players downplayed it. Uh, but one of the things that I was kind of thinking of was maybe how does some of the younger players feel and veterans probably can handle it a bit more maybe than younger players can. So I'm wondering how the younger players felt. And as we left on Tuesday night, I checked with the Players Association

and they told me they were still investigating. And I think a lot of the reaction to this could come down to how did the younger players feel and it's a really difficult position for a young player a really difficult position pause for one second how do they feel about being asked about photographs on their phone yes or asked about the entire story and how big it's gotten no i about asked about their photograph the photographs on the phone so i think that's a question that's still to be determined i'm gonna interject quickly that's one of the reasons why

we asked bill daily that which you'll hear a little bit later on in the podcast like there there is a power dynamic here where a veteran might be more comfortable saying no i'm not going to do that you're a young kid and Columbus is a young team. Yes. You don't necessarily have the same amount of clout and can't make the same decisions that a veteran can. I think that's going to be the biggest remaining unanswered question here. But what I really believe, Jeff, and like I wrote,

if it's not squeaky clean, it's a frenzy now. And you know what it brings to mind? Do you remember Tim Johnson, the Blue Jays manager? Oh, okay. Yeah. I'm thinking of Tim Johnson and hockey. I'm like, I don't know Tim Johnson and hockey. So it reminded me of Tim Johnson.

So Tim Johnson, for those of you who are not familiar familiar in a previous life, I did a lot of baseball. And one of those years was 1998, which was Tim Johnson's one year as manager of the Toronto blue Jays. And the team actually, I think had their first winning record that year, since they won the world series in 93,

they finished, uh, 14 games over, uh, 500. And they actually made a late, it was a really outside run, but they made a late charge. September baseball was actually interesting that year

because there was a time when if they really finished great, they could have made the playoffs. So on the field, he had a successful year. Off the field, there was a lot going on this behind the scenes. You know, I remember Ed Sprague got traded to Oakland that year. And when he came back, we talked to him about a lot of things.

And I remember we asked him about Tim Johnson and he said, I will not talk about the manager. It also turned out that he had lied about his Vietnam experiences. Like he talked to Pat Henkin about, he moved Henkin down the rotation and when Henkin was upset about it, he talked about his experiences in Vietnam and it turned out that he, although he'd been, I think he was in the army, he'd only trained in California and hadn't gone there. And it also turned out he lied about being a basketball player at UCLA.

So it just turned out there were a lot of things that he'd said that weren't true. And they tried to bring him back the next year. He apologized about some things. He apologized to Hank and he called a lot of people to apologize. And he, I remember he did a whole media tour where he admitted what he'd lied about. And then at training camp or spring training that year, they fired him and people were like, okay, why did you do that? You could have fired them all off season. And Gord Ash was the GM of the Jays at the time said that, you know, we, we just couldn't

get past this. We realized we weren't going to be able to get past it. Now I'm not saying Columbus is going to fire Mike Babcock, but what I am saying is that, you know, Mike Babcock wanted a second chance and he's getting the opportunity here.

Columbus hired him. I think if people thought that it was going to start at zero with a blank slate, they were reminded on Monday that that's, that's not happening. The other thing here too, Jeff, is that Mike Babcock has done this kind of thing for a long time. He's asked players for photos. He's asked players for photos. He's asked management for photos. When he was being interviewed by the blue jackets,

he asked them for photos. You know, you'll hear what Johnny Goudreau says. You know, I don't want to put words in his mouth. You'll hear it. He supported Babcock on this one. You know,

he's done it to other coaches. He's done it to players with everything that's been said about Mike Babcock. If people really hated this, we would have known about this a long time before today. The asking for photographs. Yes. Right. It would have come out a long time before today.

And look, maybe only one person didn't like it. I don't know. Maybe it was 90 to 10 liked it maybe it was 75 25 maybe it was 25 people liked it and 75 haiti i don't know i heard from people who liked it i heard from a couple people who didn't like it but the bottom line is he has to be perfect of course when when you ask a thousand people or whatever it is for their phone some people aren't going to like it the thing about babcock is he has to be perfect and if people don't like it like there's a group of people who clearly want him to fail and those people are

going to make sure that information gets out it's je, like if I thought it was going to be hard, I think it's even harder after what I saw on Tuesday. A couple of things, and you'll hear this in the interview we did with Bill Daly here in a couple of moments, but I asked about that, what you're talking about. There'll be some players that are fine with the idea and will think it's harmless. Others will say, you know, I'm uncomfortable doing this. Others will say, you know, I'm uncomfortable doing this. I'm uncomfortable sort of, you know, if this is any other coach pick one in the nhl we're probably not having this conversation the way we're having it right now but the other person who

has his neck out on this one as well. And when all this was going down on Tuesday, I thought about him quite a bit is Yarmulke Kalanen. Mm-hmm. Because this was his decision to bring back Mike Babcock. So this isn't just a Mike Babcock situation and him needing to walk a tightrope perfectly. Mm-hmm. This is a Yarmulke Kalanen situation as well.

I don't disagree with you because if you make the hire, you're on the hook for it. I didn't think about that as much today. I thought this was going to be hard. Now I think it's even harder. What I wrote is that the standard is perfection. He can't be anything less than perfect because he has to know now, and the Blue Jackets have to know now,

that even if he does something that, let's just say for argument's sake, and I'm saying this for argument's sake, if most of the players like it but some don't, you have to worry now that it's going to be out there. I mean, we were all thinking if he does something that most of the players don't like, or, you know, the players revolt against, of course he's, he's out, but now you have to worry about the whole organization has to worry about what if only a small percentage of them don't like it. So coming up in a little bit here, you'll hear from Columbus Blue Jackets forward Johnny Gaudreau

on the situation and other situations with the Columbus Blue Jackets and their star forward. Meantime, some news before Gaudreau, Bill Daly, and Troy Terry. Tomas Tatar signs with the Colorado Avalanche. Elliott, one year, $1.5 million, coming off a 20-goal campaign. And there's always a couple of players that get, you know,

into September and we wonder what's going on here. They're getting squeezed. The music is slowed down. The music is stopping and they don't have a chair. Tomas Tatar, one of those players this year, but he lands with the avalanche. Yeah.

Colorado is not in the East. You know, I had some people, i had heard he was likely going to go east and perfection is the standard yeah really evidently and so i i i saw your messages ripping me for colorado not being in the east and yeah i was wrong about that i actually heard on monday night late that colorado was the favorite you know, just took me till next morning to get it knocked down. But I didn't see that one coming until late Monday night. So yes,

I accept all of your ridicule for the fact that I have a bad map of the United States. Look, I think that's a great signing for them. Denver is East somewhere. It's more east than California. Depends where you are. Denver can be east. It's more east than Tokyo, depending on

where you're looking at it on a map. Okay. Elsewhere, one of the things you mentioned on the last podcast, it's always an interesting exercise around this time of year, where you go team to team and you look at who has too many of one position this team has too many right wingers this team has too many goaltenders this team has too many

defensemen now you can make the argument you can never have too many defensemen look at the war of attrition in the playoffs you need to go to defenseman 9, 10, sometimes 11 if you're going to win the Stanley Cup. But you look at the Carolina Hurricanes, and Don Waddell had a really good offseason, and the Orloff signing is a wonderful one, we suspect. So between Orloff and Slavin and Burns and Shea and D'Angelo and Chatfield and Brett Pesci.

Are there too many defensemen on Carolina and should we look there? I think in a perfect world, Carolina would keep Brett Pesci and he would stay there. You know, there's a lot of history there. He's had a great start to his career there and they've obviously developed him very well. However, Pesci's going in the last year of his deal

and they haven't been able to find common ground on an extension. And I'd heard that he had been given permission to talk to other teams recently. And I wanted to check and see where that was. And I think there were two teams that asked for permission to speak to him. I have not nailed that down yet, but it didn't go anywhere. So initially I had heard he was given blanket permission to talk to teams and it kind of went away as they got to the season. And then someone else kind of corrected me and said, it wasn't quite like that.

I think there were just a couple, but obviously he's still in Carolina. And so I think now he's going to start the season there and we'll see where this goes. I think when you're a Stanley Cup contender, and they are, you keep your best roster. To me, I remember Tampa's first cup, Habibulan, how are you going to sign him? We're going to try to win the Stanley Cup

and we'll deal with it later. Deal with it later. And I remember when they won, that's the way I think about it. So if I think Brett Pesci makes my team the best possible team to win the cup, I'm keeping him and I'm taking my shot. Adam Lowry becomes the captain of the Winnipeg Jets,

replacing Blake Wheeler. Yeah, I think that's a great choice. I don't think anyone's going to argue about Adam. There's nothing controversial about this one. It's like, yeah, that makes sense. I didn't know if it was going to be Lowry or it was going to be Morrissey. I thought it was going to be one or the other. When I heard it was a press conference at 11 o'clock today,

Winnipeg time, judging from the fact that Morrissey was in Vegas with us, I knew it wasn't going to be him. I think either one would have been a great choice. You know, Vancouver did Quinn Hughes the other day, as we kind of expected. You know, now that leaves one team in Western Canada, and that's Calgary.

And it doesn't sound like they're as eager to do it. Like, I think they will do it, but their timeline isn't as quick. I'll say this, that, you eric francis tweeted he wouldn't be surprised if it's rasmus anderson i think that the one of the biggest questions they were just like okay is is now the time do we do it now hang on with him you and i came back from stockholm after having talked to rasmus anderson and having that exact same conversation. Did we just talk to the next captain of the Calgary Flames? Does he not feel sound like the next captain of the Calgary Flames? We've had the Michael Backlund conversation here on the podcast,

and with the absence of an extension, that doesn't make sense to put the C on Michael Backlund at this point. But we look at Rasmus Andersen, and did we not come away from stockholm you and i saying i wonder if it's going to be him i think so too i definitely feel that way but the one thing i just heard was that the flames just wanted to say are we sure they just don't want to give him too much too soon but i think they know that he's going to be the captain eventually the question is when it's going to be. Oh, I want

to mention a couple things you won't hear from Bill Daly today, but I wanted to add Ottawa. They said it may not happen this week. I think they'd really like to get it done this week. That's making the Michael Andlauer purchase of the team official. As someone once

said to me, whether you're buying a house or selling a team, at the end, who gets rich? The lawyers. The lawyers. Hang on. Before we do this, let's make some lawyers rich first. Yes. Then we'll get back to you.

And then the second one is that I had always thought, and we'd reported last year, and it was the plan that both the awards and the draft this season would be in Vegas. There's a possibility they may have to get split up. What a week in Vegas. You know, this is crazy here.

Like the hacking. And as we talk tonight, this is Tuesday night. Yeah. People can't get out of the Venetian parking lot. It's been a weird week here. Weird week. Before we hear from Johnny Gaudreau, Bill

Daly, and Troy Terry, just your thoughts on day one of the NHL media tour, North American edition. I really like what the European one is turning into, and it seems like there's a real momentum with that. The players are

fantastic, and I think it's a nice little benchmark that the NHL has on their schedule. This isn't new. Used to be done in Chicago. Now it's done in Vegas. Your thoughts on day one? Well, I really liked it. Again, the players were great. We had the opportunity to talk to a couple players

that we didn't really know. Seth Jarvis. He was excellent. He was excellent. You'll hear eventually Troy Terry, who you'll hear on this one. He was really good. Crosby, we'll have it later this week. Conor Bedard. I mean, they're in such great moods. I like to say it's like spring training.

They don't hate us yet. So I think it's a fantastic event, and we're really fortunate to go. Anse Kopitar, I thought was really good. Kopitar was great. Kopitar was really good. That was really good. Okay.

With that, let's get to our first of three guests on the podcast today. Johnny Gaudreau, 13, Columbus Blue Jackets. Johnny, first of all, thanks so much for taking time today. This has been a big news day for the Columbus Blue Jackets and your head coach, Mike Babcock. When you first heard the story this morning, what went through your mind? I was a little upset at how it kind of got blown out of proportion there. Obviously, I think a lot of people saw Boone's statement,

but I think what other way to get to know someone that you never met before is getting to know each other's families, and whether that's through pictures or what, what it is, you know, I think it was, you know, his way of kind of getting to know me and I got to get to know him. And I think Boone said a great in his statement today, but it kind of, it sucks to see how it kind of got blown out of the wrong direction, the way it went. And that's kind of where I guess it went. Can I say like, John, just for people who heard about this kind of thing

for the first time today, can you tell us exactly what happens when Babcock asks you, does he ask for your phone? Do you give it to him? Can you just explain how it all happens? You know, different coaches have different ways to get to know their players. And Babs came in, he said, I want to get to know you, you know, show me some pictures of your family, what you like to do in the summer, what you did this summer, things like that. And so pulled up pictures and got them, got to show them my, my daughter, she's 10 months or she was 10, 11 months

at the time. And he saw a lot of her tons of photos of her, but then, you know, I got to show pictures of my mom, my dad, my grandmother who just passed away three months ago, you know, my dog, little things like that. And, you know, I've never had a coach kind of take a direction like that and get to know me on a personal level like that. And right off the bat, and it was the first time I ever met him. So we kind of got into that. He showed me a little bit, a few things about his family and talked about his kids and his wife and, you know, the dogs that he's watching now because one dog was at the rink and he took the – it's a long story. But, you know, we got to know each other that way.

And then we got right into the hockey after. So I don't think the way whoever said it was portrayed the correct way. And it's unfortunate it came out that way. First of all, condolences on your grandmother. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks. It was very close to the line, so I understand.

Was it put up on a screen or anything like that? Like that's one of the other things that was kind of talked about was it was put up on a screen where, were you uncomfortable with anything like that or anything? No, I mean, I wasn't uncomfortable at all. You know, I showed them, I I showed them pictures of my family. And, you know, if I had a problem with it, I would have been like, I don't think I'm comfortable with that. But I had no problem with it.

I mean, you know, when someone asks to see your family, I love my family. It's one of the main reasons why, the big reason why I chose to go to Columbus is I wanted to be around them more and to be able to show some of my family my kid my mom my dad my family my brothers you know that's important to me and I think it's a great idea for someone to get to know me is getting to know my family and you know Babs was thinking of flying down to New Jersey and spend an afternoon at my house to get to know me and my family. And it didn't work out that way, but, you know, he was planning to do that. Yeah, but I thought it was a great, great, great idea to kind of get to know each other, for me personally.

Last one for me on this, Jeff. I was just wondering, like, you're one of the leaders on the team, the veteran players. Did anybody come to you and say they had any concerns or questions about that? No, not a single person. And, you know, I'm pretty close to most of the guys on our team. With the amount of injuries we had, I got to play with a bunch of new guys that maybe never had the opportunity to do so with all the injuries we had.

So I'm super close. I'm friendly with all the guys. And as an older guy, I hope that I'm close enough with some of the younger guys that if anyone you know did have a problem or felt like they were uncomfortable in any situation I think guys would come up and tell us I mean me Boone Jenner's Zach Wierenski I mean you know we get along pretty well our team and we have a do you have a young team but everyone seemed like they had no problem with the way Babs went about getting to know his players and if someone did have a problem

sure that we would have heard about it but uh no one really said anything okay other parts of the talk um what was the hockey conversation like around you with your new head coach it was good um he was very energetic very excited to come to columbus um got to chat about you know new players coming to our team and what happened last year what what went wrong and things like that um and i got to know a little bit about himself and his coaching style and what he expected of me and you know ideas on who i might be playing with or how we might run this and that. And it was in the middle of summer and, you know, he just couldn't stop, you know, trying to figure out what we were going to do.

And we're still two, three months away. So that was exciting. Do you have a preference? Who you play with or do you say that's your decision? No, that's the coach's decision. You know, I try to, you know, whoever I'm playing with, try to build a chemistry. That's the biggest thing for me, build a connection or a chemistry

with two guys who I'm playing with and try to – I know it doesn't always work out this way, but try to stick with those two guys so, you know, you can build a chemistry and a relationship with them and know where they're at on the ice at all times and stuff like that. But whoever I play with to start the year, and hopefully we can start out well and play well and build a connection together.

So I've talked to guys before who a year after they go to the market, they say that it took them really months longer than they really, they thought they were okay the previous year, but all the changes, they weren't okay. Like there was, they just never settled or never felt right until almost late into their first season with their new team. Did you have any of that? Like when you look back at it, do you say, I wasn't as ready as I thought just because of everything I went through?

No, I don't think so. I think, I mean, we moved to Columbus. We had an empty house. My wife was a week away from her due date. I had a new city, new organization. Our furniture was two weeks late to our house. Our clothes and our cars didn't show up for a week late. So I was all over the map. So I was just worried one thing at a time.

Let's get a bed. Let's get my pregnant wife in where she can sleep in a bed before her due day in a week. And it was super stressful. But at the same time, the only thing I could think about was how excited I was to play hot. I love playing hot. It's like my favorite thing. I grew up doing it in the summers.

That's all I do. I'm on the ice all the time in the summer. But even though it was so stressful, the one thing I could kind of fall back on is how excited I was to get to the rink and play a game tonight or get to the rink, have practice, come home, got a game tomorrow night. We're going on the road, and we have five games in seven, eight nights. I want to play. I don't think, looking back, I don't think that had any effect on me.

I think I said in a recent interview, I, I wish it would have signed quicker that day because it's a long, stressful day. You know, you don't know what's happening and stuff like that. And some guys, it takes, you know, weeks for them to sign. I can only imagine, but it was a long, stressful day. And, but yeah, no, I thought, I thought I handled it pretty well and I thought I did all right. You have a thought on Adam Fantilli? Yeah. He's, uh, he's excited, uh, to, I thought I handled it pretty well, and I thought I did all right. You have a thought on Adam Fantilli? Yeah, he's excited to be at Blue Jacket. I know I got to chat with him a little bit.

Have you skated with him much yet? Skated with him once yesterday. Did you tell him, I like the puck right here, and you better make sure it gets there? Well, first I told him, we have too many Michigan guys on this team. And then I said, this is where I like, no. But he's got a great shot. He's fast.

He's iced really well. So I'm excited. I'm hoping, you know, he gets comfortable, has a good camp with us, and, you know, get to know him a little bit. And I think he's going to be a good player for us. You know, you've played with some players that can really shoot the puck.

And, you know, I always talk about Patrick Laine, and I say about his shot that it's it's violent like the the way that he lets like it's a violent shot yeah yeah you ever seen anyone shoot the puck like that or just in general you have a thought on linea's release yeah no i mean it's uh it's ridiculous how how quickly he gets the puck off the stick i mean it's unfortunate you know we ran into some injury and stuff last year because, you know, right when we started feeling good and together, you know, something obviously would go wrong.

He, you know, got hurt and hurt himself here. Yeah, last year, just injuries just every other day, you know, there's something with someone. So it sucked that way. But watching him and getting to play with him for a little bit last year, just whenever I have the puck, you know, that way but um watching them and getting to play with them for a little bit last year just whenever i have the puck you know just find them in the slot somewhere and half a second it's off a stick and probably in the net but if not you know the goal is not making a clean save it's

probably popping off somewhere get to the net and try to find some loose change somewhere but he's an incredible player yeah one of One of your teammates said, I was talking to him last season, and he said there's a night he thinks about a lot, and it motivates him a lot for this year, and it was the Tage Thompson. Alex Tuck over. Thompson loads it up. Scores! Number five for Tage Thompson.

That is unbelievable. I mean, the angle that I have from ice level, the way he drags that puck in, changes the angle, it goes bar down. And this is a guy that works on his shot. Yeah, and he said, like, I get sick thinking about that night and that period he had against us. And he said, if there's anything I'm going to do this season,

it's going to be we're not having any more nights like that. Just that thought. Yeah, that was, I think he had four goals in the first 10 minutes. I think he got, you know, sad or benched after the first 10 minutes. Not benched, but like you need to calm. He cooled off. We're all waiting for him to break Sittler's record. Yeah, he's about to score six in the first period.

That was hard, yeah. It was a long year, but when you see things like that and he scores four and then you're down six-nothing after the first, I think it was, or something like that, you're going back to your AAA days where you're the team scoring six or seven on a team. Yeah, I haven't been in a position like that in a long time, so whoever said it, I agree with them. hasn't, haven't been in a position like that in a long time. So we were said,

I agree with them. You know, I don't want to be in that position again and hopefully, uh, and we can learn from that. And, you know, I think, you know,

we're going to come out of this a little bit stronger going through all that last year. And, uh, I'm excited to start the year here. Can I ask you if the roles were reversed in that situation? Cause you put up big points and you can put up a lot of points all at once. If you were Tage Thompson that night and you'd be challenging for the daryl sitler 10 point record would you want to have your minutes relaxed or would you say i got a shot of hockey history

here i don't want to be i want to be on the full two minutes on the power play and i want to be – I want to be on the full two minutes of the power play, and I want to be double shifted. Yeah. I obviously would love to break that, but I wouldn't keep myself out for the full two minutes, maybe a minute, and let the second unit go out. But I'd like to get my opportunities for sure, and I wouldn't try to take away from other players' ice time. You know, if we're winning 7-8, something absurd like that wouldn't be all about me. But, you know, I would're winning 7-8, something absurd like that wouldn't be all about me.

But, you know, I would still like to get my, you know, 35, 40 seconds every fourth shift and maybe sneak a couple more out of there. Now you know who the glory seeker on this podcast is. I just think you owe it to the game. You have a chance to break a record like that that's gone since 1976. I think you'd do it. Be more of a pig. That's what Jeff's telling you.

Be selfish. Be selfish. Well, actually, going back and thinking about it, it was the year I had 99 points and I missed it by one. Right. Well, our coach, I think, was Bill Peters at the time. I got my first assist that game to make it 99 in the first three minutes of the game.

I think I played like 32, 30. I'd have to go back and check, but it was something ridiculous. It was like 32, 33 minutes, and we were getting ready to go to playoffs. And I'm like, oh, now I feel bad. I just played 33 minutes. I couldn't even get it. I got my first point in the first two minutes. I played 29 minutes after that and couldn't get a single sniff.

And I think just whatever, the hockey gods will figure it out at some point but I feel like if I would have played six minutes the rest of the game I would have got it but I don't know thanks so much yeah good luck this season thanks guys yeah thanks John yeah thank you hey guys this is Blaine Hartley calling from the big city of Corona, Ontario. I've got a question for you. And if it gets on, I'm sure I can hear the collective eye roll of all the fans because it's about the Toronto Maple Leafs. Is this the year? And have you heard anything about this?

Are they finally going to change the goal, Colin? Because if they do, it'd make my dreams come true. Thanks, guys. Keep up the good work. I want power. Thanks guys, keep up the good work Listen to the 32 Thoughts Podcast ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Alongside NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly. Bill, first of all, thanks for joining us today.

Thanks for having me. Oh, listen, pleasure. The Mike Babcock situation in Columbus and the idea of asking players to share photographs from their phones. Now, we should point out that both Mike Babcock and Boone Jenner have both released statements maintaining that the way the situation was presented on the Spit and Chicklets podcast wasn't close to the truth as they saw it or as they were part of it. But having said that, how does the NHL react when this happens? How did your office react when you heard this this morning? We needed to find out the facts for sure.

And we did make contact with John Davidson, had a conversation with John Davidson, been in contact with the Players Association, who I know have spoken to multiple players on the Columbus Blue Jackets, none of whom chose to portray the situation even remotely similar to how Paul Bizonette portrayed it. There was no level of concern. And the Players Association, obviously, we're here to look into it to the extent it needs to be looked into but all reports back so far have been what it was was not what is being portrayed when you have a coach is coming back after the situation where Babcock was uh let go in Toronto and some of the things that came out after do you look into

I don't even know if I would say his behavior. I'm trying to phrase this question fairly. But do you look into him at all harder than any of your other coaches? I mean, it's a good question. The only way I can answer it is it'll depend on kind of what we're dealing with. And so these allegations being made this morning, first I became aware of them more this morning. allegations being made this morning, first I became aware of them more this morning. So it's hard to kind of hypothesize what might happen in the future and what our perspective on it might be. I will say that I spent some time with Mike last week in Chicago at the general manager's head coach's meeting. He seemed to me to be very relaxed and he's happy to be

back and he had a positive attitude. And I thought it was kind of a refreshing conversation I had with him because I, you know, I think probably toward the end of his Toronto tenure, there was, you know, stress involved, right? And I think that was apparent looking at him, dealing with him. He seems kind of reborn a little bit with this opportunity in Columbus. So I wish him a lot with him. He seems kind of reborn a little bit with this opportunity in Columbus, so I wish him a lot of luck. The other thing I just wanted to ask about that is, when teams are about to hire coaches, and it's a coach who's had some controversy in their past, and I want to separate it from Chicago because it's not the same thing,

do they tell you in advance how much influence does the league have with that? When you heard Columbus was thinking of hiring Babcock do you say anything what kinds of questions do you ask I'm kind of curious about how that process goes I think it's different case to case I think as a general matter clubs who hire positions as important as head coaches do their due diligence and part of that due diligence is checking with the league making sure we don't know anything that they should know. And I'm not saying that with respect to Mike specifically, but I would say that as a general rule,

that's our level of interaction. So we may learn things from the clubs and they may learn things from us. Obviously, people are trying to make the right decisions. And in this situation, I think Columbus feels like it has the right person for the job. Asking players to share pictures from their phones with their coach, is that a line? I mean, for some players, I'm sure it's fine. And Boone Jenner presented it as such.

For others, that may seem to be an out of bounds request, but because we're dealing with a coach player dynamic and power structure, that may seem like, you know what, this is a request that might not be made. Again, I think it probably goes player to player, but could you look at that and say, you know what, that's maybe a line you might not want to cross? I think that's assuming some facts that I'm not prepared to assume yet in terms of how those interactions went down. Certainly, I could conceive of a situation where that would be totally inappropriate, but that's not my understanding of these interactions.

There's another story today about Terry Pagula, the owner of the Buffalo Sabres, in a lawsuit. There's an allegation there that, quite frankly, is awful. He has denied it and come out strongly and said he never said it. It's an NFL investigation, but I'm assuming you were aware. Just where's the NHL on this situation? We weren't aware until this morning anything about this. So we had two sets of news this morning early to deal with. But obviously,

the important part of the recitation is that Terry has strongly denied it. I would say it certainly would seem to me, given my experience with Terry over time, to be totally out of character and not something that he would ever say. He has strongly and directly denied the allegation. As you said, the NFL will have to investigate it. We'll certainly be guided to some extent by what their findings might be. And obviously we'll be in touch with Terry as well.

Would you ask the NFL for their investigation? Because the NFL did say they investigated it. Would you ask them for a copy of their investigation? Would you go to them in this case? I don't know if I'd ask for a copy of their investigation. I might. Certainly, we'd want to know what their conclusions were. Joel Quenville and Stan Bowman recently met with managers and coaches in Chicago.

Many people look at that and might say, is this the or wonder if this is the prelude to reinstatement in the NHL? Accurate, premature, how would you describe that? I don't really think one is necessarily connected to the other. I mean, they did both have meetings with the commissioner over the course of the summer. You know, the opportunity to address the managers and coaches if they wanted was made available to them. Both embraced the opportunity. I thought both gave kind of very impactful messages to the managers and coaches.

And I don't know what kind of feedback that you guys have gotten from them, but I think for the most part, they were very positively impressed with the lessons learned and some of the steps taken since those incidents took place. So, you know, it was nothing really more than giving them an opportunity to address a group that they used to be part of. Now, teams can talk to them right now, right?

Yes. They can't hire them without NHL approval. Correct. Do you think it'll come down to a team saying, we want to hire this person for them to be reinstated or that decision to be made? Well, I mean, look, both have kind of formally applied for reinstatement. Commissioner continues to deliberate on those applications. He hasn't decided anything to this point in time. Whether he needs to or will before a formal application might be made

by a club to want to employ these people. I guess we'll have to find out. But, you know, currently their applications for reinstatement remain pending. Okay. By the way, you mentioned about what they said. I heard it was pretty powerful. I think there's a couple reasons. Number one, because it's a room of general managers and coaches

who are in the same position that Bowman and Quenville were in. And one of the things I kind of am under the impression was the way it was painted was somebody higher up in the organizational chart may say, you don't worry about this. This is our issue to deal with, but that's not good enough. And that was the message. I saw some of the quotes in Eric Engel's story, but that's also what I heard. Is that what everybody thought was important to get across? That if something happens in your room or in your organization, you may not think it's your responsibility, but it is your responsibility. Well, we've been drilling that home for a long time, that messaging. Certainly, I would say, among other things, that Stan's and Joel's communication to the

managers and coaches involved that, and both regret not having done or said more at the time it happened to them. And I think, for better or for worse, their situations are kind of a sad story of what happens when you don't do what you should do in certain circumstances um the coyotes in arizona um we've heard the commissioner talk about being on the clock and needing a decision and we're getting to an hour here where it needs to go one way or the other. Is there an update on the Coyotes? And is there any time?

I know I always come shy of wanting to, okay, Merrick, you're not going to get a timeline here, but in sort of any sense of when we might be able to find out something about the future of this team? I think the hope and expectation is we'll know more by the end of this calendar year. And my understanding continues to be that the Coyotes believe they have viable options, multiple viable options, and they're in the process of deciding which ones they're going to pursue.

We're in Vegas. Would you care to put odds on this? What am I putting odds on exactly? Well, Arizona's staying beyond next season. I've been down this road so many times and you know it. And at points in time, it's frustrating. So I'm beyond the point of really putting odds on it. I do have a good, close working relationship with Javier Gutierrez. He remains confident.

And so if he's confident, I believe there's good reason to be confident. Hockey Canada. I know the answer seems to be a lot. We're getting close to the end, but I just wanted to see if anything had changed. Nothing new to report. Again, what I'd say is definitive progress toward the end has been made but i don't really know what the end looks like to tell you the truth and so there are certain steps we'll have to take before we get there for me to give you a better timeline but we're getting toward the end i want to ask you about an nhl slash ahL issue, and that is the Carolina Hurricanes, who are without an American Hockey League affiliate. We all understand how hockey works and how players graduate to the National Hockey League. Right now, a lot of European players for the Carolina Hurricanes are going back to Europe.

Players are being scattered all over the American Hockey League. This is because the Chicago Wolves have decided to go independent. Hockey League. This is because the Chicago Wolves have decided to go independent. Would this be a situation where the NHL would look to step in to try to broker something, make something work? This is going to be increasingly more and more difficult here for the Carolina Hurricanes, who are a Stanley Cup contender. Is there anything the NHL can or would do for Remedy for Carolina? at the end is there anything the nhl can or would do for remedy for carolina so the answer is we have been involved we continue to be involved and you're right it's not a sustainable situation going forward obviously it's going to be the reality this year and carolina is going to have to deal with it but it's not a status quo that we can allow to continue. Now, there are a couple different ways we can address that.

I don't need to necessarily list the alternatives, but yes, it is something that we feel is important to get resolved. And, you know, for all of our clubs, not just Carolina Hurricanes. We have to go, but I just wanted to ask quickly before we, World Cup, February 2025, any progress made on that? before the World Cup, February 2025. Any progress made on that? I mean, it continues to be something that we're talking about with the Players Association in terms of developing.

It's going to be kind of a unique type of competition and tournament. That's the second time you've said that to me. I want to know what that means. I need to know what it means myself before I can tell you, Elliot. I want to know what that means. I need to know what it means myself before I can tell you, Elliot. But no, we actually did have an internal meeting on it last week, I believe. So it's something we know we have to push forward if we're going to execute it. And it's something we've prioritized to try to execute.

This is great, Bill. Thanks, as always, for your time. Best of luck this season. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Where you love you left, left me home. That's Bill Daly, Deputy Commissioner of the NHL. From there, we head to someone who had a pretty interesting summer,

who went from thinking that he was going into the dreaded arbitration room, where teams make the case why they shouldn't pay you the money you feel you deserve, to getting a $49 million contract from the Anaheim Ducks. Here's Troy Terry, 32 Thoughts to Podcast. My name is Troy Terry with the Anaheim Ducks, number 19. In a lot of ways, Elliot, this was the summer of Troy Terry with a new contract and a newborn. I should probably put those in a different order though, right? Yeah, I mean, both awesome.

But the newborn probably trumps it. It's been a, like you said, it's been a hectic summer, but the newborn has become the priority in my life. That's for sure. We're going to get to the deal here in a second, but tell us about the growing family. I think it was talked about a little bit at the end of last year. My wife, she's great doing healthy. She had some complications at the end.

So I was actually only playing like home games at the end. So it was kind of a roller coaster. And then, yeah, baby came healthy. Everyone's healthy. And yeah, so we actually were planning on having the baby in Denver and everything all year that we got for the baby I sent to Denver. Yeah. And then all of a sudden everything happened and she couldn't travel. And we had the baby a week later in California.

So we were like full scramble, didn't have any baby stuff, had to get, you know, everything. And yeah, we were able to get back to Denver and get all settled. And he's sleeping now, which is awesome. Good. Makes things a lot easier. I noticed you didn't have big bags under your eyes, so I figured it was good. It's crazy.

When you're sleeping, the days are just so much easier. So yeah, he had babies dialed in for the season, got them sleeping just in time, and I'm dialed in for the season. Left-hand shot or right-hand shot? Are you psycho hockey dad already? I'm observing him as an athlete, yeah. I don't want to put too much pressure on him, but he's, his right hand is stronger than his left hand. I've noticed that. So.

All right, there we go. He's starting to hold the bottle on his own. Like he's got, he's got the makings of, you know, he's showing us some athleticism early. You're going to be some parent. I can already see this. Yeah. You're already, so the Terry's are already agent shopping for their son. That's healthy and well-adjusted. That's great. That's very good. are already agent shopping for their son. That's healthy and well adjusted. That's great. That's very good. The contract. And, uh, I mean, the story that kind of came out was that it looked like for sure you were headed towards arbitration and then at the last minute it changed. So you're sitting there, how did it all go down? Yeah. Um, the whole process was wild. I think

I didn't see it going that way. And then I arrived in Toronto the night before we actually went to dinner, which I thought was great with my agent, Kurt Overhart and, you know, Pat Verbeek and our assistant general manager, Jeff Solomon. It was kind of wild because I think it was great, but we, Kurt told them, we don't want to talk about the contract at all. We don't talk about any of it. We just want to go to dinner, which, you know, I felt just was great, but Kurt told them we don't want to talk about the contract at all. We don't talk about any of it. We just want to go to dinner, which I felt just kind of put everything aside and kind of just let us

be humans with each other and just go to dinner. It was actually a great night to just not think about it and just have personal relationship and personal conversations with Pat and that side of was it was it awkward at all or were there any sort of like i thought it was going to be but um

it wasn't i mean it was nice to kind of do that and then it was wild it was like you left dinner and then it was like like a flip switched it was back to like you know business and everything and um i was just kind of in my hotel room just kind of waiting to hear anything going on and made it to the next morning. And I had my suit on and was down there, you know, meeting the lawyers and the whole process was more than I expected it to be. I mean, the amount of people that were there, there's college students that are there to like witness and, you know, learn and observe and, and just like the amount of people that were there for it and everything. It was, it was definitely a wild experience. was that feeling like where i mean literally like

elliot mentions you're feeling okay we're walking into that room to a seven-year contract at 49 million dollars yeah i did it come out of nowhere like when did they say to you okay we're gonna put this on the table you know everything kind of materialized in the morning. Like the hearing was supposed to be at 9.30. And I think that, you know, the real discussions probably started around like eight or nine in the morning. So, and you can push the hearing back, obviously. I was, you know, pretty prepared to go into the hearing that morning. And then probably around like eight or nine, it became evident that, you know, I think we might like be able to get something done. And then it takes a while. nine, it became evident that, you know, I think we might like be able to get something done. And then it takes a while.

Like, I think it was we didn't sign it or agree officially until probably closer to like one. So it was processed. But there was definitely a time in the morning where you realize and it's not that I I knew the whole time that they wanted to get something done. And, you know, I've made it clear to them that I wanted to stay in Anaheim and I believe in what's going on there. And I wanted to stay at my family loves it there. And so there was a time in the morning for sure when it kind of switched, but there was also a time in the morning where I was, you know, even sitting in the room, you know, waiting. So like there was, it was just a wild morning for sure. I'm always curious about this. Cause because you're much younger than I am,

but when I was your age, I wouldn't negotiate any of my own contracts. I took it so personally. And I've talked to players who've been through arbitration. Like Brendan Morrison tells a famous story about how when he was in arbitration, he was playing with Naslund and Bertuzzi, and the arbitrator looked at him and said, you know, you're the mouse. You're not the elephant doing all the work on this line or whatever. The mouse on the elephant's back is the elephant carrier.

That's right. That's what it was. So if someone said it about me, I would get up and I would kill them. Like, were you nervous at all or concerned at all about what the docs or a lawyer was going to say about you? Yeah. I mean, like, not that I couldn't take

it. I just like, I, I realized that, you know, if we got to that point that it doesn't always, it can have like negative, you know, impacts on, on relationships and all that. And I knew that they didn't want to go to that and they knew that I didn't want to, but it's definitely like, to that and they knew that I didn't want to but it's definitely like you don't want to and then I hear you know I met the arbitrator and I'm someone that like I'm sure our media person over here knows I I make dumb jokes all the time whenever I'm talking and everything and um they told me they're like she's not like don't don't make jokes to her and i and i was like okay like and just like the whole thing like it was pretty nerve-wracking for me and something that i'm definitely wasn't in my comfort zone so i was it was wild can you can you talk about the moment when you can call your wife

danny and you can say after everything that we've been through you and grayson you're going to be we're going to be taken care of for years. Yeah, the moment that the 7x7 got offered, I knew that was when we were going to agree to something. And me and my wife have, other than a few years in college or whatever, but we've been together since high school. So we were together before I got drafted. Then she was with me when I got drafted as, you know, a fifth round pick.

So, you know, she's really been there through a lot with me and then getting married and then all of a sudden having a kid. And then, you know, like it's, it's crazy. I I'm curious, like if I didn't have what my mind, how my mind would have worked in the whole thing, if I didn't have, you know, a newborn son, because, you know, it's so much of what you're thinking about is all of a sudden changed and and but yeah the moment that i got to you know step aside and call her because that contract offer was you know very different than what i had you know before that so being able to just tell

her and she started crying immediately and then you know you know, if she starts crying, then I'm like, I get all, I've started crying. I'm like, don't you got to go back and see Kurt. And then I go back and see Kurt and he's like, we're going to ask for more. I'm like, I'm like, yeah, but, um, but yeah, just the whole thing, like just it's tough too, because as, as special as that moment was like, it was unfortunate that I wasn't able to like be there with them and you know so like that part is tough but we knew kind of the whole summer that

that was like where it was headed and that was how i was going to go so but but that moment being able to call her and yeah it's pretty hard to to describe like your whole hockey career like you kind of you're working for that so it's a pretty special feeling uh the anaheim ducks uh big night at the draft with leo carlson um i think we look at anaheim and we look at i mean you look at the you know this like the the prospects on the blue line like it's a murderer's row all three chl teams defenseman of the year are all yeah property of the anaheim ducks like we can all see where this is heading do you have in your mind a sort of timeline where this is all going to come together?

Because when it does, like not exactly a secret, you're going to be a big part of it. Do you have a kind of idea of like where this whole thing is going and how quick you're going to get there? It's hard to say. I think, you know, the young guys that we have, like Jamie Drysdale, I feel hasn't been talked about probably enough because he missed all of last year. But he's a player that I think I'm really excited about.

He's only had really one full year. So he's a guy I'm excited about that I think will take a big step into being a great NHL player this year. Like Mason McTavish, I think he's a stud. I think he takes another step. And then like Z, he's already proven himself. He's a high-end hockey player. So I think we have some young guys that I expect to, and myself, I think I have another step to take too.

I think we have guys that are ready to take a next step and be more impact players like this year and so hopefully it's soon that the whole process and i know that we've got you know these defensemen prospects especially that are coming so there's a lot of excitement i hope it's soon i think kind of the big thing is you know like just building the you know we have new coach and and just building kind of the locker room and the culture and that type of thing now for you know even myself but especially like the other young guys that are coming in that they're coming into a good culture and that's one of working hard and working together and just establishing that early so that you know we

can grow over the next few years together with the right culture and have everything kind of in order. So hopefully it's a quick process, and if not, it's nice to have that contract. And that's why I wanted to stay here because I'm excited about what's coming. So I'm excited for it. Last one. When does Grayson watch the World Juniors? I don't know. When do you first show it to him?

I don't know. That's a good question. i don't know when do you first show it to them i don't know that's a good question i i don't know that's probably like one of the it probably is the the coolest hockey moment i've had um it was it was pretty crazy for that so i think you know i don't know i'll probably show it to him pretty early that was that i don't have to brag about it like to him or anything but like that was just something that was so cool to me and I hope, I hope he finds cool too.

One day he's gonna, he's gonna say to your wife, oh, dad's putting that on again. Yeah, I know, he's gonna get to that point. Put that on again.

Okay, we got it dad, we got it. Congrats on the deal. Best of luck this season. Yep, thanks for having me guys. Really enjoyed that conversation with troy terry uh appreciated everyone who stopped by the podcast today bill daly and johnny gaudreau as well and by the way we will have at

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