32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Tavares And Gagner: NHL Players And Minor Hockey Owners

Episode Date: February 15, 2021

John Tavares and Sam Gagner will operate the Toronto Marlboros minor-hockey club. Jeff and Elliotte explain why the pair were interested in the team (00:00), how it will work and why this is good for the Greater Toronto Hockey League. They also discuss the surprising Chicago Blackhawks (19:00), the struggling Predators (23:30), Francesco Aquilini’s tweet supporting his […]

Can I borrow 20 bucks? Elliot, level with me here. Did you have any idea that during headlines on Saturday on Hockey Night in Canada, your story about Sam Gagne, John Tavares, and the Toronto Marlboros of the GTHL was going to be as big as it turned out to be? Or did you think it was, hey, here's a nice story. I'm going to put it out there. B, and let me just say this.

For people who don't know what the GTHL is, it's the Greater Toronto Hockey League. It's the minor hockey league in the city of Toronto. And it's basically where all the kids who live in the city play their elite level hockey. Here's a sense of how old I am. I used to play there when it was called the MTHL, the Metro Toronto Hockey League.

I played house league hockey. I wasn't good enough to play in the MTHL or what is now the GTHL. The top hockey players in the city are the ones who go there. So anyway, Toronto Marlboros are the most famous team and the most elite organization of all of them. They have a long list of NHL alumni from Connor McDavid to the Hughes brothers, to Jason Spezza, to Sam Gagne and John Tavares. And somebody told me that they had bought the organization. And the thing that was really presented to me was in particularly, Sam Gagne has an incredible reputation for helping other people.

And that is, I think, the way that I found out about it is that, you know, people who told me about it, they were, they have a lot of respect for Gagne and they were really excited that he i mean tavar superstar but gagne in particular was going to be involved in helping the kids because he he's really seen as a person who likes to give back so you know i started poking around and you know people were pretty careful about it but i didn't think much of it you know it's one of those things because i'm not around the minor hockey world i'm not aware of everything that's going on in it, Jeff. So, you know, I just think, oh, okay, this is a really nice human interest story to

end the headline segment, you know, no big deal. Then the moment I got off the air, Jeff, I had people saying to me, I had two people in particular text me and say how can you buy a not-for-profit team and they explained to me about what they really had was control of the board and when you look at my tweet where I pinned the headlines to it I actually changed it but then I got a phone call from the podcast guru of everything non-NHL, Jeff Merrick. And Jeff, why don't you take it over from here? First of all, to your point about the GTHL, the Greater Toronto Hockey League, what would you say if I told you that 10% of the NHL this year played in the GTHL.

It would not surprise me. 10%. Like just let the gravity, I think it's like 27 teams have a GTHL grad or someone that played in the GTHL on their team. I think Calgary Flames have the most with six players from the GTHL on their team. So you're 100% right about that.

Like that is, the gthl is as far as the elite level goes an incredible hothouse for talent and connor and the hughes brothers etc and there's more on the horizon so the toronto marlboros uh the president of the toronto marlboros board is a gentleman by the name of jim nicoletti so as i've been told he's wanted to retire he's an ex-princip told, he's wanted to retire. He's an ex-principal and he's wanted to retire for a couple of years now and has been looking for a situation where he can turn this over to someone else. So all the GTHL is informed about is a transfer of control of the board. This happens automatically if there are less than, I believe

the number is 25 board members. If there's more than 25 board members, the GTHL doesn't need to sign off on it, but the GTHL does need to sign off on it if it is less than 25. That is the case with the Toronto Marlboros. Now, this new board, I was told by someone at the GTHL, will not, in the either president or GM role, have either a current player or former player in the NHL. So that wouldn't be Sam Gagne or John Tavares. There are new board positions that are being created. I would assume that's where they would go. The interesting part about all of this is the word sale. And if you rewind a number of years.

And let me just say for the record here, I had no idea. Okay. Like I said, I'm not in this world and you are, and you know this a lot better than I do. Let's rewind a second here. The word sale is problematic for a lot of people because to the point of the person who sent you a text or a DM, you can't sell GTHL teams by their bylaws. These are not organizations that can be sold. All they can do is transfer control of the board. Years ago, Stu Hyman, there's a very famous Toronto Star piece you can find online.

I did a big story about that for the score. Oh, did you? So you remember, he bought 90 teams. I think the number was 90. But the one I did was they were offering prize money for winning tournaments. Yeah. And a lot of it is documented in the start piece. The business model was one that very much made the league uncomfortable.

And they don't want to have that situation again. They don't want this to be a for-profit league. They don't want it to be a wheeling and dealing league. So they changed the way that the GTHL did did business and it seemed as if for a few years everybody went along with it and it went fine but when you have a situation where there are a lot of hockey players at the elite level uh we know that by and large this can tend to skew towards people that have let's say a healthy income to spend on their kids' hockey, the opportunity to make money is certainly there.

And to make money on organizations is certainly there. And I don't want to bury my head in the sand and say, oh, I can't believe that there's sales of franchises going on, gambling here, Casablanca, of course. But the GTHL is not informed of that. They only know about transfer of control. Like I've heard wild things about prices of organizations and anybody that's been close to minor hockey, either had a kid involved or been a coach or gone through it themselves has heard all the stories of, you know of people coming in and spending a lot of money on organizations,

spending large dollars to buy, you mentioned the Toronto Marlboros, this heritage franchise and the GTHL. I think you can throw teams like the Junior Canadians, JRC into that mix. I think you can throw in the Don Mills Flyers into that mix and Mrs. Saga reps, like all the Red Wings, like AAA, like high level AAA teams. And there are 12 of them in the GTHL. There's a lot of high level hockey and the opportunity for people to buy organizations. And one of the ways that you look at to make money in these teams, I mean, registration is obviously one of them. Sponsorship, which is supposed to reduce the amount of money that parents pay for the kids to play, but the big moneymaker is tournaments. tournaments anywhere in North America. And the opportunity to make money with these tournaments is pretty big. And I would assume, you know, pretty tempting for someone that wants to purchase a franchise like the Toronto Marlboro. So when I saw your report yesterday and I saw people coming out and saying, well, hang on, you can't sell a team.

You can't sell a team. Look, Elliot, I was born at night, but I wasn't born last night. We know that this, we strongly, sorry, we strongly believe, or however much we want to legally stick handle this, that this does happen. But my point in all of it is I'm surprised that there aren't more either current or ex-NHLers involved in the GTHL already. Like when I first saw your- Like there are in junior hockey, right? Bingo. Great point.

Because what we always hear is ex-NHLer or current NHLer wants to purchase junior team that he played for, OHL team, Quebec League team, Western Hockey League team. So before we go to that, off the top of your head, how many former players do you know that own junior teams? There's all those guys like Mark Reckie and Shane Doan who have a piece in Kamloops. In Kamloops, absolutely.

Stéphane Robida has a team in the Quebec League. Jean-Sebastien Jaguer with Blainfield, Barbian, Eric Brewer as well. Like there's always players. You look at Reichel and Bugner with the, the Windsor Spitfires. There's always interest from ex-players to buy. Drew Doughty and Tyler Sagan have been rumored,

right? They have. Cody Hodgson is rumored now to be knocking around, looking for a, looking for a team to buy. Like there's always, always reports aboutored now to be knocking around looking for a team to buy. Like there's always, always reports about, oh, this player is looking for a team. That player is looking for a team. I'm surprised that it doesn't happen to the minor hockey level, which is why I was,

because I've been talking about this for a while now too, pleasantly surprised to see a report on Saturday night that Sam Gagne, John Tavares, who, by the way, were part of one of the best minor midget AAA hockey teams of all time. That team was stacked. It was Sam Gagne. It was John Tavares. It was Akeem Alou. It was Brendan Smith.

It was Cody Golubev. It was Brian Cameron. It was Justin Vive. It was ridiculous. I'll give you an example. So I used to play men's league at Vic village, um, on Thursday nights, that's where the Don Mills flyers play. And whenever the Marley's would come through with that stack team, the place would be jammed, like the parking lot filled. And like we would get off

the ice. We would always stay to watch. Cause you know, you want to watch John Tavares, this young phenom playing a year up, but you couldn't get into the building. Like even just getting out with your hockey bag, you had to like drop it on the ground and drag it out like you're trying to drag a drunk antelope out of the arena because it was packed. So I saw your report and I said, you know, why don't more NHLers get involved at the minor hockey level? We always talk about, you know, and sure, there is a financial opportunity here if you got into it for that reason.

But for all the reasons we hear hockey players wanting to give back to the community, et cetera, I'm surprised that more of them don't look at the minor hockey level instead. Or for our listeners stateside, it's called youth hockey. But I'm surprised that more don't look at the minor hockey model and, or for our listeners stateside, it's called youth hockey. But I'm surprised that more don't look at the minor hockey model and say, that's the one for me, because the opportunity, and again, these are not-for-profit organizations, reinvest in the organization, you hire people, you have staff. It seems to me like it is a safer investment, Elliot, than junior hockey, which can be quite volatile.

And sure, I get that it's an equity play and you get your money when you sell at the end of it. But year to year, you're generally, the majority of teams, showing losses. But there's a lot of stuff. We've all heard stories. I was telling you one not too long ago about one. I'm going to be very careful about names, so I won't use them.

I mean, this is a story that anyone who has a kid in minor hockey will sort of nod and say, yeah, I know, I've heard things like this. One ex-NHLer I was talking to at the gym once, we're talking about his kid and how he changed organizations in minor hockey relatively quickly. And I said, you know, why did you go from here

to here so fast? And you left like halfway through the season. He said, well, my kid wasn't playing at the beginning of the year. I didn't want to complain because, oh, here's the NHL guy complaining about his kid's ice time, but he wasn't playing. And this went on for a month and then it extended into two months. And I finally said something to a couple of the parents and they said, well, did you lock in? And he said, lock in? What lock in what do you mean he said well we all paid the coach an extra fifteen thousand dollars to guarantee our ice time these things happen at the minor slash youth hockey level and everybody has that is unbelievable to me that is just unbelievable but you know what that's the the elite level though. Yeah, I get it. I get it. I shouldn't be surprised. To be honest, I'm not surprised.

It's just hearing it because you told me this story earlier today when we were chatting about what we were going to do on the podcast tonight. And so this isn't the first time I've heard it, but it still seems unbelievable to me. But you know what though, Elliot? See, I think of that. I remember when he first told me the story, I thought, oh man, that's awful. And then I thought, well, why should I think this is any different than football or baseball or basketball, like at the youth level? I'm sure music prodigies do stuff like this too. Of course.

I have no doubt. It still amazes me. It amazes me. It really does. That explains why some parents are the way they are. Oh, absolutely. You know, when we talk about crazy parents, and there are some crazy parents out there,

why are you crazy? Because you just dropped an extra $10,000 to $15,000 to make sure that your child gets enough ice time. No wonder you're nuts. I want to go back to your point about Sam Gagne because I think that's a really important one here.

He has, in hockey, both minor hockey, junior hockey, NHL, a really good reputation. And I know a lot of people around the GTHL that I spoke to were not exactly surprised that Sam Gagne would go back

or Sam Gagne would be back involved in some capacity. So that isn't exactly a surprise at all, but again, to sort of push this story forward, the next step is now for the GTHL Board of Directors to approve the transfer of control. And neither John Tavares or Sam Gagne will be president or general manager. Not exactly a surprise there. They're playing hockey after all.

But there'll be two board positions for them. It's just funny, Jeff, how something I looked at is just a total feel-good story, not much to it other than that turned into this. Let me ask you this, because I had a few last night. I've had a bunch more today of people calling saying, A, how much did it cost? Yes, I got a lot of those. And B, how do I go about buying a team? I didn't get those because that's not my expertise.

Right. I got people telling me about the tournaments and how lucrative they are. I definitely got those. But there were a couple of people who kind of texted me out of nowhere saying, what did it cost? Would you ever do this? Run a minor hockey team? Buy a minor hockey team.

No, I have goals about something i'd like to do in the future it's uh for special needs children that i'm going to do sometime before i croak and i'm no longer on this earth so that's my goal but i think anything that uh puts money into minor sport boy or or girl, whatever sport it is, especially after what we're coming out of now, eventually, hopefully coming out of now, I'm all for it. I think this is really good.

And by the way, you're a better person than I am because my first thought is, yeah, well, and you're like, no, actually, I'd like to do something. No, no, that's not true. Everything's good. Believe me, I wasn't to shame you. Everything's good.

I think this is really good for the GTHL. I do having high profile nhlers around like this well i i agree because like i said i think the reason i found out about it was that people are excited that john tavaris and sam gagne are running it and like i I said at the top, Gagne in particular has shown a real willingness that when his career is over, he's going to be all about giving back and helping train the next generation of players. And I think these families are really

excited about that. I don't think the Marlboros will ever have a recruiting issue again. There's fierce competition from some high level teams, but if you get a knock on your door or a phone call and it's Sam Gagne or John Tavares saying, here's what we can do for your son with the Toronto Marlboros.

I was taken first overall and I was taken sixth overall. Oh, by the way, we'll end it on this one too, as we're talking about the Marlboros specifically from the 06 group, because we like to be ahead of the curve here on this podcast. I want you to remember a name, Elliot. I want you to tuck it away.

And in a few years, we're going to revisit this name. This is a big defenseman for the 06 Marlboros. His name is Sam Dickinson. Okay. Just remember, you heard his name early in 2021. Just tuck it away. That's going to be a big one. On that, let's begin the podcast. Just remember, you heard his name early in 2021. Just tuck it away. That's going to be a big one.

On that, let's begin the podcast. Welcome to 31 Thoughts, presented by the GMC Sierra AT4. To Phil Pullup, left wing circle. Push to the boards. He'll spin it behind the net. Keith grabs the puck in the near corner. Wrists it up the left wing. Did a brink. It ahead to Suter.

Two on one break in over the wing line. Suter from the left circle. Shoots. He scores! Hat trick ahead to Suter, two on one break in over the wing line, Suter from the left circle, shoots, he scores! Patrick for Puce Suter! Just over two minutes to play in overtime, Hoxer and Kane, Debrinkit score! A redirection, top shelf, Alex Debrinkit gets the only Chicago goal in regulation, and the game winner in overtime. Good play by Khrushchev.

Took it away. Got it to Kane. Should he score? Patrick Kane with a pass from Khrushchev that originated behind the Jackets net. Verslinkens was not in position and a quick pass from Khrushchev to Kane at the bottom of the right circle and he snapped it past the Columbus goaltender. The Hawks are enjoying a two-goal lead at 3-1. Jeez, Elliot, and you get on me when I talk about junior hockey.

We're going to minor hockey to start off the podcast this week. But we want to start by talking about the Chicago Blackhawks. To try to keep it positive, I think we can both say they're better than we thought they would be to kick off the season. They're in the race. They are, yeah, right? Like than we thought they would be to kick off the season. They're in the race. There are. Yeah.

Right. Like we thought this was going to be. At the beginning of the year, people were thinking it's going to be them and Detroit for seventh and eighth. Yes. Like we thought this was going to be the lottery turtle race with them, Detroit and the Ottawa Senators. And seven, five, and four. Listen, there's a few real good stories on the Chicago Blackhawks so far this season. Do you have a favorite one?

Well, I think the goalie has to be, Lankanen has to be the number one positive story. Oh, 925 save percentage when the rest of the league is depressed impresses you? Oh, really? I mean, that's a great story and because you know it's the old line if you don't have goaltending you're nothing the other story that i'm happy just to see too is you know to bring cat last year he really struggled and

you know you look at the way this team started the year you know Seabrook not in there Taves is not there you know all the questions up and down their lineup like I said like a lot of people thought that we were looking at a 7-8 battle with them in Detroit and all of a sudden they've got two really good lines Debrinket with Kane and Suter in the middle and Kubelik,-Kuryshev, they're better than I really thought they were going to be. No question about it. You look around for surprises and teams are kind of ahead

where you thought they would be. Florida's another. They got spanked by Tampa the other night, but they beat them in their first game head-to-head. I think Florida and Chicago are two of the teams I look at and say they're a lot better than I thought they were going to be. Arizona might be the third one.

They're in the middle of the seven-game series. They're going to game seven against St. Louis on Monday. They're playing a playoff series in season. And they're three and three. I would say those three teams, Chicago, Florida, and Arizona have all been better than I thought or maybe expected they were going to be. So let's rewind to Debrinkic. I'm glad you mentioned him. First of all, it looks like the release is back or the shot is back or maybe just getting free to take the shot is back.

16 points in 12 games for Alex Debrinkic. And he's one of those guys that changed things up in the off season. Like we all know last year Debrinkit didn't have a good year by his standard, anyone's standard, like Debrinkit had a tough one. So he worked with a guy by the name of, do you know Ian Mack?

I know of him. Like I've, I've heard that name. Yeah. So Tomahawk Science is his company. So he worked with him. He also've, I've heard that name. Yeah. So Tomahawk Science is his company. So he worked with him. He also works with Patrick Kane and Austin Matthews. And a lot was made about what Austin Matthews did in the off season. He got himself lighter.

I think he dropped like, was it like 15 Toledos for the season this year? A lot was made about that. But Debrinket's redone himself too. Like Debrinket spent the off season working with ian mack and and he looks like you know that guy that we saw and said wow this guy's gonna snap 40 every year isn't he that's what the brinkett looks like to me we all thought that yes kane's a good story kane's right back there with uh with with 22 points back in patrick kane territory so i'm i'm not willing to say that i think that the chicago blackhawks are gonna stay in the fight well the tough thing for the lot of the teams in that division is a lot of the top

teams or who were expected to be the top teams haven't played a ton of games yeah tampa bay's played 13 carolina's played 12 dallas has played 12 those are the three teams if you were picking at the start of the year you'd say okay those are the three top that if you were picking at the start of the year, you'd say, okay, those are the three top teams in the division. Now Florida's played 12. Then you've got Nashville at 15. And we'll talk about Nashville in a second, Columbus, Chicago, and Detroit at 16. So the math isn't good for Columbus and Chicago, but in the Blackhawks case, especially the performance has been excellent. Other end of the spectrum.

As we look at the Blackhawks and say, well, this is nice. This is pleasant. This is unexpected. What's happened in Nashville? I think they were worried this was coming. They made the Stanley Cup final in 2017. I think that will go down, by the way,

as one of the most significant Stanley Cup finals as the NHL changes, just in the way that Nashville presented itself. I think Nashville kind of begat Vegas as a showman kind of way. This is the way we do things in our city, and people embraced it and people liked it. But ever since then, they've never been the same.

And last year, I think David Poyle looked around on Dushane and Johansson, but they both have a lot of money in term left over. There's not much there. They're six and nine. They're at 15 games. They had a really ugly one on Saturday night against Detroit, down 3-0, outshot 24-10 after two. I think that there could be some changes here. Now, I think they kind of wanted to leave it a bit longer just to see if they could get back into the race. You know, the problem is, like, what are you moving? Okay? They have some pieces that don't have term

that I think could get them. I don't think they're huge returns, but you get them something. You know, Michael Granlund is a player who's only signed for this year. I could see some good teams having interest in Michael Granlund. He can play with good players. You know, Eric Holla, there were a lot of teams interested in Eric Holla at a low price. He's at 1.75 for a year. Again, he's not going to get you a huge return, but you know he can play with good players. Nick Cousins is signed for this year and next at one times 1.5. I think you can get something for him. Not huge, but

something. You're kind of looking at that and you're saying, okay, we can do something with those. The question I wonder is, how big do you go? Do you go to, you know, Victor Arvidson, three more years at 425? And remember, this is a league right now that, you know, not a lot of people are taking on money. So the issue for me with Arvidsson is not that can he play or not play, it's who's taking that contract. I don't know. You've got your D. Obviously, you're not trading Yossi. Does anyone seriously think they're getting Ellis or Ekholm out of there or Fabbro? I don't think so.

Forsberg, he's the heart of the team but there's the problem like you have a team where you're not getting results it's diminishing returns it's on a team and decline but you can't bring yourself to philosophically justify anyone that's going to bring you any future i think the predators would move would move to Shane or Johansson if they could. And we talked about some other pieces around their lineup that I think they could get things for. I think the biggest question you're going to have there is, at what point or do they get to a point where they say,

okay, we've got to maybe go into some territory we don't want to go into here. Do you think it's an organization that just starts to look for cap savings? Well, I think that right now, if you're not winning, that's all you're doing, right? Yes. I don't blame the Predators for that. If you don't think you can win, why wouldn't you try to save as much money as you can? The problem is, like I said, who's taking on money? Not a whole lot of teams.

Look, like Paul Byron is on waivers as we record this. You know, I know he's got a couple more years. You know, I think in a normal year, I think people would look at him and say, wow, I could take that. Or I'd think about that. But in this year, it's really hard to see it. Hang on.

Do you have a quick thought? You mentioned Carolina a second ago. Do you have a quick thought you mentioned carolina a second ago do you have a quick thought on it just seemed like this was uh these players aren't happy here so let's send them somewhere else so the single paquette galchenyuk deal i agree totally with that you know paquette did not play well in ottawa they couldn't get what they wanted out of him they really wanted paquette they thought he could really add a level of energy and annoyingness to them that they wanted. He just didn't bring it.

And he will be put in that position to do it in Carolina. Obviously, they know him. They saw him plenty. Dezingle was playing sort of lower down the lineup there, and it didn't make any sense. It was clear that Carolina didn't trust him. He'll be put in a position where he can score in ottawa they know him very well be using his seat does ottawa extend

him or do they flip him for another pick somewhere down the road and then you know galchenyuk look i don't want to kick anybody when they're down he's already on waivers it's it's a tough time for him you know he former third overall pick and you you just got to be wondering what the future is you know carolina took him to even out the money so it's tough you know you're he's got to be at a real crossroads six theme uh for alex galchenyuk if he's not claimed on waivers and we don't expect that he will be i found it interesting but not surprising to see what francesco Aquilini did on Twitter on Saturday. And you guys mentioned it on headlines on Saturday evening.

And my first thought was whenever you hear an owner talk like this, it's the kiss of death. Is it? I don't know. I don't think that's the case in this case. Now I do think that there's a chance that things could change at the end of the season, but there were some reports, and I'd said it too, I'd heard it,

that the way things were going in Vancouver this year, I always believed at the beginning of the year, Jim Benning was the GM this year in Vancouver. He was the guy. But I had heard similar rumors that things were changing and that maybe Benning was in trouble and perhaps as soon as last weekend. And obviously those things, I'd mentioned them. They were mentioned in Vancouver locally. And a lot of us were hearing the same things. And I think where it comes from is if you look

at Francesco Aquini's history, when they fired Dave Nones, they had Mike Gillis in place. When they fired Mike Gillis, they had Trevor Linden in place. And there started to be some rumors. And I will tell you, I didn't hear any specific names myself. I theorized about whether or not they would have interest in Roberto Luongo, but I haven't heard any specific names. And I think people were starting to wonder about, okay, they've contacted certain names or have they reached out to certain

names? And then if that's the case, you look at their history and that's what they're going to do. And so I think what Aquilini did is he said, look, nothing's happening now. Nothing is happening now and we're going through this. And I believe it I I think that they will go through it this year and they will make their decisions after the season and one of the reasons I think and we just talked about this with Nashville is money people rip owners for spending or not spending that's fine that's life that's the way it goes I think generally during their tenure as the owners of the Vancouver Canucks, the Aqualines have spent. They spent on the ice. And especially when Mike Gillis was there, they spent a lot off the ice.

And I don't think you could ever say they haven't put the money into the team, whether you like them or not. Now, this year is different in terms of pure dollars. They have one of the lowest pure dollars in the NHL, but I can't get mad at owners this year. They're getting hammered. They're getting clobbered. You know, they're losing a fortune. And I know some people out there hear that about owners and they don't care about millionaires or billionaires.

That's fine. Everybody's entitled to their opinion. But I look at it like this. They are getting hammered. And if there's a year you're not going to spend a penny more than you have to, unless you think you're winning the Stanley Cup, it like this. They are getting hammered. And if there's a year, you're not going to spend a penny more than you have to, unless you think you're winning the Stanley cup. It's this year.

And I just think that they're saying, look, if we fire someone, we don't want to have to spend more than we have to. And the other thing too, is it's hard to hire people, especially in Canada. You can't bring in anybody to talk to you so unless someone's in

your lap who you 100 certain is the right person it's not like you can bring someone into bc they have to quarantine so i understand why i do think that they'll hold for this year and then we'll see what happens. Speaking to people in new positions, Saturday was the final day for Brian Burke at Sportsnet. So I'm Sunday afternoon, Washington capitals, Pittsburgh penguins. I'm not sure if you've received your,

Hey, we're two and O with the, the Burke Hextall regime yet. But they're two and O with, with Burke and Hextall running the ship what was I wasn't there obviously, what was Saturday like with Burke, first of all I love that he undid the tie

with David, I thought that was fantastic, I liked the Brady Bunch scene with him in the middle and the closing shot for Brian what was that night like I know what Wednesday was like when it was the last shot for Brian and Christine did the wonderful piece with him what was that night like? Because I know what Wednesday was like when it was the last shot for Brian

and Christine did the wonderful piece with him. What was Saturday like with Brian there? Well, first of all, I will say I was the person who wrote Traitor on his door. Well done. Not that I really have a problem with it. I was just trying to make him laugh. Of course, I'm happy for him. You know Anthony Stewart has a line, line are you a team are you a club

right yeah and it was just proof that it's a team uh because berkey wanted to come in and we all wanted to see him you know he loved coming in early on saturday watching the afternoon games if there were any you know he'd have his chew and everything and you know it was just funny you love shooting the breeze with him and uh you know he left early on sunday morning for pittsburgh he drove down he was at the game as you saw like it was just good to see him one last time it was light we were having fun we were kidding around he was talking about all of the uh people who called him and he hadn't gotten back to him yet. And Amber had a good line, like,

I thought you'd go alphabetically because, you know, my name begins with A. I was kind of hoping you'd do that alphabetically. I'm still waiting. It's been a while. Check the text. Did you think sitting here every week people would listen to you and go, yeah, that guy's smart.

I better bring him into our front office because, you know, you hadn't really thought you were getting back in the game, and you're getting back in. Well, part of it was I enjoyed this job so much. So I got an opportunity with the team two years ago, and I said, no, I like what I do. I like the people I work with, and I like the people I work for,

which is a definition of a perfect job. But I will tell you, the sweatiest part of the interview was when they asked me to defend drafting and then signing Kevin Bieksa. And we're going to hear from the guys. Rebuttal, Kevin? I just want to know, is Ron Burkle or Mario Lemieux, who's going to be door-dashing you cheeseburgers during the games

like I did for you for the last year? Which one? You did bring the burgers, I have to admit. What about Elliott? Are you going to bring him into your staff? Because I see him angling. He's been really close on the shoulder trying to tap it to you. Well, that's the best part about this job is I won't see Elliot hardly at all anymore.

Oh, it's such a loss. How wrong. Wrong. Yeah, you'll hear from him every day now. Elliot, go ahead on Brian. Good segment, Dave. There you go. And that's one of the running jokes here get to explain to the audience a little inside baseball after every show i praise all the other people around the panel except elliot and leave him out specifically

but i love elliot like a brother too i'll miss you brian you're gonna do a great job ron go ahead yeah well i'll bring in the two Alberta crew first. Cassie, your remarks. Yeah, you know, just for me, you know, thanks, Brian. I know you've always been a great supporter of women's hockey. I know you will continue to be. And of course, my husband, Brad Paschal, you gave him his first NHL job with the Calgary Flames. But I am going to be serious. Like, what are your priorities here the first 30 days heading into Pittsburgh?

Well, we've agreed we're going to see what we can do with this group. It's win now if we can with this group. We've got to do some things if we're going to be able to do that, but it's win first. Then we've got some tough decisions next summer, and we'll deal with those when we get there. I think Ron Ekstahl is the perfect guy to run the show here. Brian, I've known you a long, long time, and there's nothing about you that I'm going to miss other than the Barbarian Steakhouse gift certificate that you gift all of us around the holiday season, one of my favorite steak joints in all of Canada. So that's what I'll miss about you, my friend. Have a great time in Pittsburgh. Thank you. If I'd have known I was taking this job in February, none of you would have seen those Barbarian Steakhouse certificates.

You are so generous. I think of the books you've given me, Lewis and Clark, The Expedition. You gave me a great book on Boys in the Boat. Brian, in fact, when you wrote your book, it was lovely to see a person who so loves reading write a book yourself. And I'm sure there'll be another one coming. But it gives you the opportunity when you read it. And by the way, some people weren't sure who delivered We'll See You in a Year. That was Amber. Some people thought it was BXS.

Some people thought it was bxs some people thought it was ron that was david and david deserves credit for the line thank you and david and brian as a tandem magic uh we're gonna miss that very much thank you all we'll see you in a year but that segment was just fun it was really fun and uh kidding you know we're really happy for him he's so excited we talked about it how excited he is it's just We're really happy for him. He's so excited. We talked about it, how excited he is. We're going to miss having him around, but at the end of the day, you only want people to be happy, and he's going to be happy. It was a nice night. People clearly on Twitter, when Sportsnet's Twitter account posted that on social,

they really liked it. Yeah. It was great. I'll tell you what. You know what was weird for me on Wednesday? It was the first day since Brian Burke has been with us on Scotiabank Wednesday Night Hockey that I came to work, of all the commentators, second.

I always came second. Wednesday was the first night that I wasn't second. That was weird to me because whenever I go up to that 10th floor and go to Lotus, I'd always see Berkey there, TV on, laptop open, with his phone, with his shoe, and it's, hey, Berkey. That's the one thing. And he even talked about this going back to his days in Vancouver with Pat Quinn, where he wanted to be in one of the Vancouver Canucks to be open for business in Vancouver when the Boston

Bruins were open for business back East in the Eastern time zone. And he's just used to being at work first before everybody. For me, Elliot, it was bizarre to walk into our, our Lotus room, our green room and be there without anybody else. I understand that.

I get that. Good luck, Berkey to a no don't drive it in the ditch. I can't wait till his first loss so I can rip them on Twitter. All right. I get that. Good luck, Berkey. 2-0. Don't drive it in the ditch. I can't wait till his first loss so I can rip him on Twitter. All right. Taking us out. Four-piece band from Toronto.

Quickie podcast to kick off your week, folks. Four-piece band from Toronto. They raised some eyebrows in 2018. We hope to see the guys back very soon as well. With Smoker's Smile, here's Basement City on 31 Thoughts, the podcast. It's no fun coming down from a high. You've been around but just can't satisfy. The problem is anything but easy. It's very convincing necessity.

Every fool is their blues and their youth. They get off with their own truth. You don't have to go on in brood. Here's your chance to start anew. A smokey smile like yours we've never seen before. A crescent moon in some beach tiles to adore. Is there something else you're hiding from a lion fall? Do I want to know? Bye.