32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Shane Pinto Suspended

Episode Date: October 26, 2023

Jeff and Elliotte react and add to the news that Shane Pinto has been suspended for breaking the NHL’s gambling rules. Elliotte dives into what he’s been told and reveals how the NHL came to this conclusion.Email the podcast at [e-mail] or call the Montana's Thought Line at 1-833-311-3232 and leave us a voicemail.This podcast was produced and mixed by Dominic Sramaty and Jordan McRae 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.

Welcome to a special edition of 32 Thoughts the Podcast, brought to you as always by the new 2024 GMC Sierra HD, Merrick alongside Friedman. This is an update on Shane Pinto, Elliot, and I guess now we know why the delay. We all thought this was Pierre Dorian and the Ottawa Senators attempting to sign Shane Pinto. Instead, we find out it looks like it was Pierre Dorian and the Ottawa Senators attempting to sign Shane Pinto. Instead, we find out it looks like it was Pierre Dorian and the Ottawa Senators stepping aside to allow an investigation to take place.

And now Shane Pinto has been suspended. What is the latest as best you can glean? Jeff, you have a pretty accurate assessment there this came up in the in the last couple of weeks that suddenly it became clear to everyone involved here that there was something the NHL was investigating and it was serious enough that I believe everybody was just told to hang on that there was going to be have to be a serious conversation about what exactly the league had turned up and everybody was in timeout phase and I think it was around the time that Pinto was in Ottawa and then went back that I think everybody realized that this was something that the

league was potentially going to step in on and put discipline on the player. So what we can definitely say now is there was a gambling investigation around Pinto and he was not specifically being accused of gambling on the NHL. And that's the big one here because last March, the NHL sent out a memo reminding everybody about the consequences for gambling. It reminded all league and club personnel, including players, that wagering on any NHL game, even where legal, is absolutely prohibited, constituting conduct that is dishonorable, prejudicial to, is authorized to discipline individuals in any or all of the following respects, expulsion or suspension for a definite or indefinite period, canceling any contract that such individual may have, and or by imposing a fine. Now, the key thing here, Jeff, is that I do think if Pinto was found to be gambling on hockey even if legally he'd be done but what we don't have a clear picture of is what exactly happened

here although someone did tell me whatever it was all all they would say, and this is a good source, that it was something that concerned the NHL. What that is, I don't know, but I'll give you some examples. And again, I want to say that I don't know, but I want to give an example of something that can be punishable in other leagues. There was a player on the Tennessee Titans, an offensive lineman, who was suspended six games this year, eventually dropped down to four for placing a legal wager while he was on team property. I believe he was like in the team's dressing room or the team's facilities. And was suspended for that again i'm not saying that pinto is guilty of the same thing but there are things that you can do that aren't specifically

gambling on nhl games that can cause a problem and all someone would tell me here was that there was something that alarmed them and they felt they had to take action. Let me ask you about one more element in this story. And I think it's a pretty big part of this story as well. It's not the main part, but it is a part of the story. And that is Pierre Dorian, general manager of the Ottawa Senators. He's taken a lot of heat over the Shane Pinto situation. Unable to get the signing done.

Ottawa Senators fans howling. A lot of people questioning. Could he get this done? What has he done to the salary cap? Everybody's speculating on the moves. What's the holdup? What's taking so long? Why is Pierre Dorian dithering here?

The season's on. Through all of this, Elliot, Pierre Dorian remained silent and didn't say a word to anyone. Do you have a thought on the Sens GM through all of this? Yes. I'm glad you asked me this, Jeff, because I believe, and I don't have confirmation on this, but one of the things I have heard is that Pinto did not ask for a trade at any point first of all he wanted to stay in Ottawa but secondly as this progressed he was appreciative of the fact that it didn't get out um I like I know I looked into it and I know I'm sure I wasn't the only reporter and it was kept really quiet and as a result I think Pinto is appreciative of that I wouldn't be surprised at all if he signs a quick contract at a lower number a number that

helps Ottawa because they won't have to do much to squeeze it in if anything and his thank you to them will be you kept it quiet while this was going on so I'm coming in to sign at a lower number and obviously now that this news has gotten out I think it changes people's perception of what happened at the end like you know for a long time this was not a factor like I said I think this only became a factor in the last couple of weeks. And as a result, it changed the dynamic to a point where Ottawa wasn't going to sign him. But I do think Pinto was appreciative that the senators were quiet about it because they could have really squeezed him or done a whisper campaign against them, and they did none of that. I think another important question here is, how do the centers feel, the organization, and the players?

Is everyone okay? I don't profess to know the answers to these questions, but is anyone going to be angry? Is anyone going to say, hey hey we need to move on here i just feel that that's a question that needs to be asked in the aftermath of this situation now the nhl historically has had a couple of incidents uh before um babe pratt in 1946 billy taylor and don gallagher in 1948. They were suspended for life for gambling on hockey, Taylor and Gallagher specifically.

More recently, whether it was situations involving Yarmir Yager or Thomas Vanek, there were no suspensions there. This isn't new in sports. This isn't really even new in hockey um but do we know how far back this specific example goes the the shane pinto situation do we have an idea of any sort of timeline when things happened i mean you mentioned it became obvious to a lot of the parties when when he left ottawa to go back uh do we have any sort of of history on this Elliot as best you can glean I think it was fairly recent you know I don't want to give you an exact timeline but I think it was fairly recent like Jeff like I'll be honest with you I've been looking

into this for a little about a week a little bit longer. And the real danger with it was you couldn't pin it down. And the challenge in this story, and I think some other media members became aware of it too, is that the difficulty was figuring out exactly what was going on. And it's not the kind of thing that you can be wrong about like if I'm wrong about a trade rumor or something like that that's not good but it's not the same thing as being wrong about a player being investigated for something and getting that incorrect and I think that was the real challenge here Jeff was pinning it down But I think this was a relatively recent phenomenon. You know, the other the other challenge is, you know, aside from that one memo, it's, it's hard to find something that

says, okay, this is what you can and can't do. Like, like, I had people saying to me, look, you know, you mentioned the, the situation with Vanik a few years ago. People bring up Evander Kane to me, and they were saying, well, if he's not betting on hockey, why is he any different than these guys? And the answer is I don't have a good answer in front of you. Again, there's not anything that I can see that's written down that says, aside from gambling on hockey, you can't do that. But again, at least one source and kind of a second one said to me, there was just something

here that they didn't like and they felt they have to stop. And, you know, one of the things here too is gambling's all around the league right now. Like it's on jerseys, it's on helmets, it's on the boards, it's all over the Sportsnet broadcasts. And, you know, I had some people say to me, again, if it's not betting on hockey, what's the difference between any other one of those cases that we've mentioned and it's all over the place? And again, the answer I got to that was there was just

something that was concerning here and they felt they had to act i i do wonder on some level jeff like there's been a few suspensions in the nfl recently including one calvin ridley for betting on football and what what an individual said to me was, is that they're not surprised that leagues are going to go harder now because the line has been blurred so much. If there's anything that's going to make them nervous, they're going to act because they feel in some way

that it's really important to try to enforce whatever you have to enforce much more strongly now because there's so much gambling money in the sport. Like the whole thing with Tim Peel, I remember, I think that was all about gambling. You can't give fans reason to think that something wrong is happening with your games. And I just wonder if that's what's at play here. A couple of things.

I'll, I'll, I'll add a couple of more to what you're talking about, how the sport in a lot of ways right now, more so than ever revolves around gambling at a lot of levels. I don't think it's lost on anybody who the Stanley cup champions are right now, the Vegas golden Knights.

And also this is a week where the NHL introduced NHL Edge, where sophisticated player and puck tracking data is now being made available to everyone. The teams have had it for a couple of years and now that's being made public. I would have to think, Elliot, a large part of that motivation is also because of wagering on hockey.

Give people more data points, more information for gambling. I'm not going to argue with you on this stuff. Like we said, the line is blurred. It's all over the place now. Okay. Excellent work, Elliot. This story is still far from over, and the discussion will continue both here on the podcast, Elliot's blog, our Twitter feeds, and my radio show as well. Thank you so much for listening.

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