32 Thoughts: The Podcast - Tyler Seguin: All Business

Episode Date: December 15, 2020

Tyler Seguin has had a busy off-season rehabbing a torn labrum in Dallas. But while on the couch, he’s found time to build out his lifestyle brand, NINE ONE and do a photo shoot for his new favourite fragrance. Seguin joins the guys to discuss why he’s decided to focus on off-ice business interests, how his […]

I want to go back to about a week. That's a fine. Hold on one sec. This is called doing a podcast with an insider. In a couple of moments, you're going to hear an interview that Elliot and I did with Tyler Sagan of the Dallas Stars. Also want to pass along condolences from our entire crew here to the family and friends of the late Pierre Lacroix. At the end of our piece with Tyler Sagan,

Elliot and I will share our thoughts on the former general manager of the Quebec Nordiques and the Colorado Avalanche. Elliot, I can recall very specifically, right before the Stanley Cup final, Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars, I had a conversation with someone around dallas and i was saying well congratulations it's been a tumultuous season everything that happened with montgomery to the ups and downs of the season to the pause in the middle of march uh to getting

things going again you know what a nice sort of end of the season for the dallas stars and he said to me i'll tell you what's really remarkable and i'm not going to give you any names and I'm not going to give you any specifics, but we are a hurting bunch right now. We are limping into this and I got to really hand it to the guys because there's a lot of players that probably shouldn't be playing hockey at this point. And as we saw in the final, Elliot,

Tyler Sagan was clearly one of those guys. And you are responsible for this interview. You're the one who set it up. So tell us how it came to happen. You know, we got the press releases we all did about Tyler Sagan, who has like the interesting thing about Sagan to a lot of people is he's not just a hockey player and he's never just been a hockey player. And he's never just been a hockey player, even going back to when he played with Jeff Skinner

and the Nats and the GTHL. He's always been about, you know, hockey is part of my life, but it is not my life completely. So I wasn't surprised when I got the press release that Sagan has launched his own lifestyle brand, 9-1. So I started to make a couple of calls to get Tyler on the program to talk about that. And also to get his thoughts, Elliot, and he talks about it in the interview here,

get his thoughts on things that aren't related to hockey. Like there's a lot of hockey in this interview. There's a lot on the Stars. There's a lot on some funny stuff on Anton Hudobin. There's some good stuff on anton hudobin there's some there's some good stuff on on his teammates but i find them one of the more interesting things about tyler sagan and you know for my little purposes with my you know audit doing you know talking to my kids about tyler sagan the first thing they refer to is oh that guy we saw on dude perfect you know one of

the interesting things about sagan is how active he is away from the game like when you hear the name Sagan do you just think hockey Elliot no and and that's the thing like when you said that we were we should prepare for this interview because we were going to do it you know we had Francois Allaire on the weekend and with Francois Allaire you know it's been a while since he'd kind of been in the news so you know I reread some things i reread his book i reread patrick waugh's book where he talks about lr you know you kind of have okay okay i gotta put some time into this to make sure that you know i'm not missing anything when you told us that sagan was what our guy this time you know it came flooding to you right away you mentioned the injuries going into the stanley

cup playoffs and the final where clearly uh he was not right you know you mentioned the dude perfect stuff also there was of course he was one of the players who took a knee yep he was very involved in a lot of the social justice initiatives that happened during the bubble and will continue to happen in the NHL. If you go on to his Instagram, you talked about his away from hockey stuff. You talk about his cologne, the kinds of things he's going to be launching. And he is coming back from a pretty serious injury. And I wanted to make sure that sometimes you talk about all these other things, you forget that this injury has had a serious effect on players in the past.

I think Tuomo Ruto was one of the guys whose career was seriously affected by something pretty similar. So it wasn't hard to come down with a list of questions and say, this is what we're going to talk to Tyler Sagan about. And I thought one of the interesting ones, and I'm glad you asked it, is who is the sneaky best personality that we're unaware of on the Dallas Stars? And I thought his answer was pretty

interesting as well. The two of them that really stood out to me was who was the worst poker player because he served up someone right away. Yeah. And of course, what would happen if I used his cologne? I thought that was

very important i you know what i found interesting too and i always love asking hockey players this and uh sigan shares his answer towards the end of the interview here when was hockey the best for you yes you know there used to be the old saying you know sports are always the best when you're 12 years old that's when you start to really sort of you know attach yourself to things all the marketers will tell you that's when you start to attach to different brands and you create a brand identity for yourself, etc. But I thought his answer to that was pretty interesting as well. So let's get to it. This is Tyler Sagan of the Dallas Stars on 31 Thoughts, the podcast.

Enjoy. The Stars will send Sagan up ahead. He catches. Forced by Mete. To the backhand. He scores! A beauty! Tyler Sagan, a highlight reel game-winning goal to complete the comeback win in overtime.

This is just flat-out sick. A peek from John Klingberg. He knows that Sagan is taking off. And then Tyler Sagan with a lobotomy of both the defender Mete and Carey Price. He froze Price. And lovely

he says in Mount Royal. What a dazzling winner from Tyler Sagan. Please be joined by Tyler Sagan of the Dallas Stars. And Tyler, normally in an interview like this, when you say, how are you and how are you doing? It's kind of a throwaway, just an introduction to an interview.

But I mean it legitimately. How are you? Because the last time we saw you, we said, that doesn't look like Tyler Sagan. And then found out afterwards about the the torn labrum etc how are you right now I'm good I'm a little bored to be honest it's been laying on the couch days I had surgery on my labrum just over five weeks ago now so in the last kind of 10 days I've gotten to go to the gym and you know do more rehab stuff and kind of feel more like an athlete. So it's been better as of late,

but the last few weeks have been a little tough. Okay, I have some serious questions to ask you about your rehab and stuff, but there's something more pressing that has to be answered first. And that is that if I put on a dab of sexual noir pour homme, how irresistible am I going to be?

Irresistible, Elliot. You're going to feel amazing. You're going to look better. You're going to feel better. You know, I did the photo shoot a couple of days before I posted on my social media. And one of the things in the sheet said, lay on the couch and look sexy. Things on the sheet said, lay on the couch and look sexy. So that third picture was kind of my interpretation of trying to look sexy. I didn't really know what to do. We just put the hand on the back and then did a straight face. So that's what came out of it. And then the company actually asked me to have that as my first picture. And I just couldn't do it.

I tried to hide it the third one you know knew it probably could discover it and you know sure enough i had all my teammates we have a group team texts and everyone was giving it to me within hours of it being posted so it was great i had a good laugh yeah it was pretty awesome you know tyler i think we need this as a sport you know i do like first of all like if someone said to me, Elliot, lay on your couch and look sexy, we could take a thousand pictures and none of them would end up on Instagram. Like it's that simple. But the fact is like yesterday, the story came out that they're talking about ads on the helmets. And I think the day is going to come where ads on the jerseys, but I think the sport has to change. And I think that if an NBA player did that, nobody would even blink an eye.

It would just be part of the culture. And I think hockey has to get there. And I wonder, Tyler, you know, how close are we to that and how accepting are hockey players and organizations getting of that? I think we're definitely closer. And I think when you see guys, more guys doing things, you get more confidence as an individual to do that. I think hockey's ceiling for this is so high because no one's really done much of it. No one's really done the branding. I've done a little bit. P.K. Subban's good at it. But what I'm most excited about is kind of the younger guys that are getting into it. You know, a big guy is Austin Matthews.

You know, I saw a picture, I think it was yesterday, of him and Justin Bieber. Things like this, guys being more, you know, active with celebrities, with their fashion. Mitch Marner as well, with their fashion. You know, just going outside of the typical stereotype and culture of just being, you know, North and South and never going a little, a little West to show your own true, you know, colors and your own swag. So I love it. I think it's great.

You've been part of this change though. Like I know you're focusing on some of the younger kids and what they're going to do. And Akil Thomas has a clothing line going back to when he played junior hockey, et cetera. But you were sort of at the vanguard of all of this, of putting yourself out there. And I'm sure that, you know, somewhere along the way, you must have heard, oh, don't be a distraction. Don't be a distraction. Are we at the spot now that you think, Tyler, where we've heard the last of don't be a

distraction and we're now closer, like the other sports, to embracing that an athlete is more than just, you know, pucks in deep. Yes, coach, no coach. All the answers are in that dressing room. Yeah, you said it right there. Exactly. You know, I definitely remember my first, you know, year or two, you know, in the league and it was kind of looked down upon more than it is now. Now it's just, you have to expect to get some of your teammates to, you know, have a comment towards you or chirp you and all in a fun way, as long as you go into it, knowing that, you know, you can laugh at yourself, it's all good. So I'm one

of those guys that can. And I've been happy to be kind of a part of it, you know, really since I got in the league, just always, you know, sticking to my true colors and my gut and what is me. And it's great that a lot of guys are doing similar things now. And like I said, I think the ceiling's high and we can really start catching up to some of the other leagues. You know, you've mentioned PK. Everybody knows PK. We've seen Matthews and Marner show that. Who is the guy in the NHL that we don't know about

that has this side to them that you would like them to see, whether it's cologne or fashion, and say, just take the leap so everybody can see the true you that's a tough call you know i'd say as far as my team and someone that you know isn't quite there yet to do that doesn't have quite the social media i don't know confidence maybe you'd say is rupe hints the kid's got he's got great style and he flaunts it especially when he's back home but he's a little more reserved uh here in dallas and when he's around the boys

and he's obviously speaks mainly finnish so he's you know learned english a lot better and he's good at now but i think once he keeps getting more confidence with his game and with his personality i think his ceiling is high for this as well good to know you know i thought tyler was really great for you and maybe here's you know this is what what rupee for this as well. Good to know. You know what I thought, Tyler, was really great for you, and maybe this is what Rupe Hins needs as well. What I thought was really great, and I'm just using this as an analogy with my two kids, 2012 and 2010, and all of their buddies. When you and Jamie Benn did Dude Perfect,

my kids, honestly, Tyler, must have watched that video. Those videos were on a loop in our house. And then all of a sudden, you know, they want to be, you know, playing mini sticks in the basement. They want to be Tyler Sagan and they want to be Jamie Benn. How much did that doing Dude Perfect mean for you? And I hate to, I hate to use these types of terms, but your hashtag brand. How much did that mean to you? It was awesome.

You know, when I first got told about Dude Perfect, I had heard of them before. I didn't know a lot about them. And then when I went and looked at all their YouTube clips and, you know, talked to them and understood their philosophy, I was just all on board with it because it's different, you know, like anything different and out of the usual and out of the comfort zone is, you know, like anything different and out of the usual and out of the comfort zone is, you know, attracted to me. It's what I always, you know, go after is, you know, finding ways to get us in the comfort zone.

And that helps you grow as a person as well. And, you know, I think at the end of the day, it all helps that word that you said, brand. I don't like using that word either, but it's just all about, you know, at the end of the day, if you believe in something, you know, do it. Not to bring this up yet, but even with the you know kneeling with uh jason dickinson myself and ryan reeves you know at the bubble you know in one light it was because it was what we believed in but in the other light it was also to you know express to people hey if you believe in something you know do it you know the culture of hockey isn't necessarily to go take that you know knee and it hasn't in the past and we're in a great spot now but something uncomfortable and doing something

that is something you believe in is what i'm all about and if you want to call it a brand you can if you want to call that just getting outside the uh typical culture and stereotype you can as well i did want to ask you a little bit about that tyler and just in the sense that there was some pushback in the market and, uh, you know, the stars obviously supported you, but they admitted there were some, I don't know if it was fans or advertisers. It was kind of mixed based on the reports about had an issue with it. And just, it's not an easy position to be in. It's something you believe in, but you also want to support your organization.

Just how did you handle all that? and what was your reaction to it? Honestly, my reaction and all I know about it is what people have seen on Twitter. You know, my organization has been awesome with Dickie and I and with anybody who, you know, feels a certain way strongly. No one's came to me and told me anything about anyone not being a part of, you know, season tickets anymore or not supporting us as a fan base. All I've only seen is on social media, maybe like you. So that's all I know on the topic, which kind of shows, you know, how great our organization is here in Dallas because no one even came and talked to us about it or said, you know, hey, do this or do that. It's all about you guys do what you believe in,

and we support that. It's a good sign. It's a very good sign. This was, for the Dallas Stars, a fascinating and at times challenging and topsy-turvy and roller coaster, and I don't know how else you could describe it more accurately, season for any hockey team, whether it was a situation with-

You meant to say a great time. But that's a great thing. Like at the end of all this, all the Montgomery stuff, sometimes, you know, extended losing streaks and, you know, not knowing who this team was. And sometimes you guys would look like world beaters. Other times it looked like, you know, there'd be stretches where you're like, who are these guys? There's no way they belong in the playoffs.

And then at the end of it, you find yourself in the Stanley Cup final. I don't know if you had a chance really, because you were in the middle of it. I mean, you're Tyler Sagan with the Dallas Stars. Do you have a sense now of what exactly happened all last season? And if so, how would you describe it? Yeah, last season I'd describe it as our team was so successful down the stretch and when games were most important because we went through so much adversity as a group. And I know it's a typical old cliche, but we really did.

And when something went sideways in a game or in a series or anything with the bubble, there was no panic in our dressing room. There was no panic ever because we realized we started that year, I don't know what it was, 1-8-1 with high expectations. We're on a winning streak and our coach gets fired. And coaches get fired all the time, but not when you're on a winning streak in the middle of the season. We have COVID hit, we go to the bubble, we don't win the game to start, you know, we lose to all the, you know, teams that we're going to be facing and nothing just rattled us. And I think we had the perfect mix of veteran players and rookies that, you know, played with not feeling any

pressure, played with, you know, knowing they can go out and just wanted to help the team. And we just had such a great family. And it reminded me a lot of some old days in Boston when I've been on successful teams there just the camaraderie of the whole team and the group and it was great I look back and the game I remember was the one where Bishop came back that night against Colorado it was so crazy like they were down goalies and you know everybody was looking at this and saying oh this is going to be a dallas blowout and colorado got hot early and won that game they got a poor bishop that's a routine. That's a goalie that hasn't played.

Look at the traffic in front, though. The grit in front. And that's what made the Colorado Avalanche talk about all their players about being meaner in front of the net. And he said, we're letting them push us around. The craziness of that night. What do you remember about it? And we could have eliminated them, I think, that night too, right? Yeah, they won 6-3 and then you guys won the next game yeah i mean i remember that we you know left bish hanging out to dry and i think you know we may have fallen into what everyone else kind of said as well that was you know we got bish back in net who you know my eyes is the top

or if one of the top three goalies in the world. And maybe that made us a little comfortable. But we really, we gave them no help. And that's why they came out in that first period and did that. And like I said, though, I mean, after the game, it was, we put it behind us so quickly. You know, it was just kind of like, okay, let's move on. And I know it's cliches is what is always said, but, you know, you don't know it till you're there in the room and you actually feel it

and you feel the nonexistent panic. And we know what's being said about us, and we know what some of even our own people are saying about us and what they are envisioning each series to go to. And there wasn't one series that we had the majority of people saying we were going to win. There really wasn't. Our first series against Calgary, we were going out there after losing every game, calgary was tough and big and they were gonna run us over then we go play

colorado who's the you know they're really the top team out of round robin and they're beating everybody beat them then we go vegas who's a real standing cup contender and beat them and then sure enough we blink and we're in the final so it was a a crazy run. The other thing I wanted to mention was the Stars put out an incredible video of your playoff run and your experience of the bubble. It wasn't long enough. It wasn't long enough. What, the time in the bubble or the video?

No, the video. I mean, it was like, I watched it too and like all of a sudden after like 20 seconds it went to day 27. I was like, oh, you guys missed all the grind days.

It was nuts. so give us an example of something that maybe wasn't there that you would laugh about and say or think about i wish that was there i wish there was maybe just a you know camera put in our lounge and it just kind of did like a quick fast forward in like 10 minutes of all the days and just how repetitive it was of guys playing cards and guys hanging out and guys literally doing nothing, playing ping pong. It was so long. And if I'm being honest, you know, the really only time that was enjoyable was once we were in the finals.

Maybe that was because we had a, you know, due date of, okay, we're out of here in two weeks uh i don't know what what it was but i really felt the most enjoyable part was definitely the finals um and everything up to that was just you know kind of felt more like a grind but when you're winning you know it's it's fun but you know for anyone thinking that the bubble was just kind of like all these athletes are okay you know it's just they're playing hockey they're good it was a lot harder than people um make it out to be and i don't know how toronto was but edmonton was it was definitely tough you know boredom is part of every adult life um but i

could imagine that gets even compressed more when you're in a in a bubble like you guys were how did you handle boredom tyler started playing uh some video games uh we played a lot of cards it was funny i used i was telling some friends back home when i was in there that you know i miss just going to a grocery store or just going to a gas station you know the thing about the bubble is and like any professional athlete sometimes you want like just time to kind of go hide you know whether it's go for a walk or go to like your favorite coffee shop or go shoot some hoops just kind of take your break from teammates from hockey from other players but there's nowhere to hide in edmonton in anywhere you went if you weren't seeing you know a hockey person you were seeing another you're a teammate or you're seeing someone from the other team you're about to play

against or a guy that you got in a verbal assault match with the night before in a game so there was no there was no hiding anywhere so it was uh it was different i'll always remember it i wouldn't want to go back but the last two weeks were you know the most fun hockey i've had uh probably in my career so did you ever see the movie rounders no sounds familiar though yeah it's a card movie it's about poker players it's uh matt damon he's the star of the movie um with ed norton it's a great movie john malkovich but there's a line in the movie where they're sitting at a card table and it said if you look around the table and you don't realize who the sucker is and you are the sucker so who's the sucker at the dallas stars card table oh i hate to do this to him but

definitely ben bishop he was uh this was definitely the the cooler of the group we call him he was the guy that if he came in we were gonna get some good laughs because he's so fun to be around but we'd usually uh be winning off him. So sorry, Bish. I like how quickly you went right to him. It wasn't like, well, you know, I don't know. I don't want to embarrass anybody. There was no thinking of that, no. Good for you for not being hockey about that answer, Tyler.

Bish knows I love him, so it's okay. I want to get your thoughts on Rick Bonus. And I was told a couple of different things. I was told one story about after a string of losses, that Bonus came into the room after the game and there's no kicking garbage cans and yelling and screaming. He just grabbed the chair and sat down and just wanted to talk to everybody

and said, what can I do better? Do you remember that specific night, that specific conversation? And what are your thoughts on Rick Bonus as your head coach? Yeah, I'll be honest. It's hard to remember that night because there were so many of those moments not as far as you know a bad loss but if things weren't going well it wasn't much of you know kicking a garbage can he he he does get vocal though he's a very passionate guy

wears his heart in his sleeve and he has the biggest heart in the world but he is very you know what can he do better first, and then what can the team do better after that? And he's the definition of accountability and a leader and someone you want to follow. And a lot of our conversations, especially when things aren't going well, it's like you said, he sits in a chair and we all talk. You know, he goes around the room.

He gets obviously the leader's opinions first. But then he goes to guys that, you know, maybe don't talk the most. And he wants to hear what they're thinking and what they're feeling. And it's just his culture. It's what makes him so successful. And even a day like this morning, I'm in there by myself. And I went and met with Bones for like 30 minutes. And the first question was, so what do you think our staff can do better this year after last year and i'm not even gonna be playing until you know

months from now and i'm not even gonna be on the ice or anything so that's just how he is he just always wants to find a way to get better from the staff first and from him first and for him to do that you know it's a guy with you know the most games coach you know ever he's like he's he's played so much hockey and coached so much hockey and knows so much but he always wants us and how we're feeling first we just all love him and uh he's an awesome coach to have tyler i've learned just over the years from my experience in covering sports is that the longer you go the harder it is to lose and you talked about the final being like some of the most fun times in the bubble and competing for a stanley cup but from that video that shot of jamie bang

just sitting there and yeah it's gut-wrenching like if that doesn't get to you you have no soul and you know i just wanted to ask you those moments where you give it your all and you're just short? Like, how do you guys handle it? How did you guys deal with it? Yeah, I mean, it was tough. I was actually kind of glad I was in the room. I was hiding in the, I was in the workout room undressed and by myself in there for a couple hours.

Everyone has their own, you know, way of handling it. The thing that makes me most, you know, frustrated about sometimes is the views on Jamie Benn sometimes. You know, people sometimes handling it. The thing that makes me most, you know, frustrated about sometimes is the views on Jamie Benn sometimes, you know, people sometimes say he doesn't care. And, you know, when him and I got called out a couple of years ago, it was all that we don't care and this and that. But I mean, it's a great video of just showing how much Jamie Benn cares, you know, his heart and souls and everything when it comes to the Dallas Stars and he's the ultimate captain and leader. And we have so much respect for him.

But that video just kind of shows, I mean, this is everything for him. It's everything for all of us. And then after that loss, you know, it was probably, I don't know, probably two and a half hours after the game when we finally went downstairs in the lounge, and everyone was in there, and we just kind of hung out and had some beers and talks and then from there bones went upstairs and we all kind of one by one made our way up there

gave him the respect that he deserved and we probably had i don't know 30 40 people in there and bones is a little sweet in edmonton and we hung out there until probably two three in the morning and then uh everyone kind of went their own. We had maybe half the team back in the plane to Dallas, and the other half were gone to Europe or gone home. So a lot of guys I haven't seen since, but excited to see them trickle in here in the next couple weeks. Have you ever watched any of the cup final again, Game 6, anything like that? Have you watched it since?

Honestly, I don't know if I'm fully there yet. I will be here probably when our season starts and I have time because even watching that documentary on our team that hour long it was it was emotional at the end still you know I still is you know tearing up a bit at the end it's just it's pretty soon still everyone's different you know maybe some guys can't watch ever again or some guys can watch right away I'm kind of in between so I'll take a look there in the next couple months and watch again you know hockey's changed a lot even since you were you know drafted uh out of plymouth like hockey has changed a ton and one of the places

where it's profoundly changed is goalies are boring now like goalies can just be like it used to be like goalies were the domain of the insane athlete, like the crazy guys, the goofy guys, like all of it. And now goaltenders in a lot of ways are just like everybody else. And then there's Anton Hudobin. I was going to say not ours. Ours are great. You know, Ben Bishop is the guy that like, if you're having a down day or you're being quiet,

you do go sit down with him and he'll talk your ear off and just, you'll have a great time. And then Dob's just he's just mr personality how do you mentally reset for back to back tomorrow uh say a couple swear words maybe break the stick against the wall and uh go on the plane watch some tv uh come back maybe say a couple other swear words or whatever yell at somebody and go to sleep. You know, we're fortunate enough to obviously have two great goalies, but, you know, two great people in our goalies and guys that are, you know, they're also leaders.

Sometimes goalies kind of just kind of hide in the meetings and stuff. Our goalies talk. They're leaders. They give their opinion. They snap on the team after a period if we need it. You know, they're two leaders that we have, so they're phenomenal. Yeah, I was trying to lead you into Anton Hudobin there because he is that sort of throwback type goal,

whether it's like he's not 6'4", like we're told that goaltenders have to be right now. I know you must get this question all the time, but what is Anton Hudobin like? Is he the goalie that we see in front of the cameras? Like, who is that guy when the cameras are off? Yeah, he's a bit of what you see in the cameras. He's a funny dude.

He's Mr. Personality. He's one of those guys that doesn't have really any bad days. He's always happy and always joking around. And when it gets serious time, he gets serious. And then on the ice, I mean, he constantly reminds me of a guy named Tim Thomas. You know, not like super technical. You know, he's the goalie that you walk down.

And a lot of times with righties, when you walk down in a breakaway, you can shoot that mid-glove spot and they'll go in the butterfly. Dobie reminds me of Tim Thomas because he doesn't even go in a butterfly. He just puts his glove down and catches it. So he's frustrating to shoot on in net. but the biggest similarity is he just competes there's nothing super technical like I said he just competes and it makes it really tough to score on so he's undercover he's been undercover in Dallas for a little while now and now everyone's kind of seen him in the bubble flourish and how good he is. So we're happy to have him.

I wanted to ask you about your recovery. That labrum injury can be pretty serious. Like it's done a lot of damage to people. Yeah. Were you concerned when you knew how big it was? Well, honestly, so I'll try to make this short. When we, right before COVID kind of hit, I blocked a shot outside my knee with two games left and didn't think it was much. And then once we started quarantining, my knee was giving me a lot of issues. And it turned out I had two tears above my knee and my lateral quad.

So because of that, you know, before Edmonton and during like that couple month quarantine period, I couldn't do any lower body workouts. So like I couldn't only do upper body and core and I wasn't skating at all. If I went on the ice, it was just kind of shooting around, but I couldn't skate hard. And then when training camp came, I skated a little bit the week before, went right into camp, obviously with no training and my knee was giving me many issues. And then when we got to Edmonton, I was in a practice the day before our first game against Nashville and something went with my hip you know I felt it right away I knew it wasn't good but anyways we just you know kept rehabbing it and um I did a lot of injections this and that

and then we're gonna get an MRI and I honestly said I didn't want to know so I didn't want to know about the hip because I wanted to play. And I knew if I, you know, took some pain medicine and kind of shot up before properly that I could play in the games to the best of my capability. And then it turned out we ended up going all the way and I just managed as much as I could. And then right the day after we got home from Dallas, I went and got an MRI and, you know, found out my labrum was completely torn off. So then we made the next steps and got surgery. And that's the long, short story of it. And they're not concerned about any long-term kind of issue here or anything like that?

As long as the rehab and the training goes properly, there shouldn't be any long-term, you know, problems. So fingers crossed with that. And it's been a great, you know, five weeks. But it that you know i needed to get done and i'm happy i can finally i can do it you know because obviously i don't want to go through you know all hockey players we we play through pain all the time especially in playoffs you don't want to miss a game but to go through what i did you know i wouldn't really want to do again so i'm going to take this time to to make sure everything's done right and you know know, come back 110%. It's been a long time since I've kind of had time off to really restart the body. So I'm really excited for this time and get ready for playoffs.

How did you handle that mentally? I can only imagine the frustration, you know, when your head knows what it wants the body to do, but the body says, yeah, you know what? I'm really not about that right now. It was tough in one breath and the other breath you know it's fun playing through stuff for your teammates i mean you love it i'm a guy that takes a lot of pride and playing every game um i've gone kind of three years now playing all 82 games and early on in my career that was hard for me to do i'd always play kind of you know 70 to 80 never the full. So I've had a lot of pride in that.

But, you know, like I said, it was tough, mentally tough, but, you know, I'm glad we went all the way and we were close. And the other part that was kind of fun to me too was, you know, I'm not blind. I got social media. I can see people chirping and saying this and that and saying something's wrong or, you know,

I think it's his wrist or Sagan doesn't't look right and my biggest thing was you know it was just an added chip on my shoulder to you know prove people wrong and you know go out there and run around even with no one knowing you know how much discomfort i was in unfortunately we just fell a little a little short of that but uh you know it's. Tyler, have you thought about, and obviously you won't be ready at the start, but playing this year, no bubble, but possibility of in and out of hubs, although teams prefer to stay at their own rinks. I mean, the positive news is it looks like we're close to the end of this. The vaccines are coming.

The rollout is coming. But we've got a couple months here that look pretty tough. Yeah. How much do players talk about what it's going to be like to try to play during this yeah honestly i don't know if we've talked about that you know too much the main talk right now as far as in our team is just the the protocols of getting back and how long we have to quarantine and how many tests have to be you know gone negatively before we can start. So as far as the next phase, you honestly, Elliot, you know more than me because you're the inside man.

So you know more, you probably know more than the players with your hookups, but I'm hearing, yeah, we might have to do not a bubble, but I think you go into a city for a couple of days. You can correct me if I'm wrong, play a couple of games. That's true. Possible. Yeah. But now again, for me, and I don't know if this is selfish or whatnot, but I'm not even really thinking about that. You know, I have all this other stuff I need to, you know, put all my emotion and heart

into. And, you know, my guess kind of is, is hopefully by the time I'm back, you know, might be the same time fans are maybe trickling in and, you know, April or whatever it may be. So we'll see. Tyler, I want to get your thoughts on nine one and tell us what this is all about like we're no stranger to tyler sagan putting himself out there i was at you know pro hockey life uh yesterday and there's a hockey shot product with you taking a slap shot on it so i mean your image is out there tell us about nine one yeah so nine

one is just basically the name for kind of everything I'm doing. The whole brand, if you want to call it, the business. And it's taken, you know, multiple years to kind of get to this point. I didn't want to, you know, really put out a full brand name until I had things in place. And it's taken a couple years of the business meetings and putting the structure in as far as what I want to be a part of. So you guys have seen the hockey shot and we have Dead Sox, which is a sock company. We have my hat line. We now have cologne. We have multiple things. We have yoga. We're going to have a beer coming out from Brock Street Brewery. Then I have Adidas. We have BioSteel. So we have all

these things and we're going to put them all on one kind of platform, which is 9-1 brand. So it's really exciting for me, especially with all this COVID stuff. It's something to do. It's become a hobby as far as the business side. And the hobby really is understanding that I am, you know, I'm not old, but I am 28 turning 29. I like to have steps in place for my future when hockey is done, whenever that may be. place for my future when hockey is done, whenever that may be. So this is just what my passion has been is getting invested in and invest in companies that I care about and that I believe in. And over the next few weeks and months, you'll see more stuff trickling out and more companies trickling

out as things I've been working on. So it's great. It'll be one headquarter shop for fans or kids to have inspiration or just get Christmas gifts, whatever it may be. Well, thanks. Cause you're, you're talking about being old at 28, 29. I just turned 50.

So I'm ready to go into the crypt according to you. But I also got a good laugh of the video. Like I'm starting to read now. I thought that was hilarious. I, yeah. Um, there were people who were drawing like,

uh, scholastic glasses on you and things like that. Like it turned into a really good thing on the internet. So what have you read? Like what stood out? Like what do you read? A lot of, a lot of psychology books, a lot of nutrition books. Today I just started Colby Bryant's Mama Mentality.

So that's kind of actually more of like a picture book, but just kind of tell the story. A lot of Tim Glover stuff. Yeah. I like his stuff. Yeah. I like him. I've actually been on a couple of his Zoom calls's stuff yeah i like his stuff yeah i like him i've actually been on a couple of his uh zoom calls the last few weeks and there's like you know 80 to 100 athletes and he kind of goes on there and talks and you know he's got a repertoire of you know kobe and

duane wade and all these guys and us as athletes we're always looking for that just extra inch to make us better especially when we're you know kind of established in our careers you know what can get us to the next level so that's what i've been spending a lot of my time on obviously with covid not doing absolutely anything i've been getting more books and reading so it's been great who else any other nhl players or hockey players on the tim grover with you bishop actually bish was on the call uh and then kevin weeks i saw on one of the calls so i know weeks he's involved as well. And that was it. That guy's a pretty impressive guy.

He's a very interesting guy. He is very interesting. But yeah, he's a guy actually, I mean, I'd recommend a lot of kids to him too. Maybe not even kids, but kind of teenagers, you know, just to learn the basics and understand that there's a lot more than just, you know, putting a puck in the net. You got to be nutritionally sound. You got to have a lot of sacrifice in your life, a lot of training. And he's a good guy to look at.

So I guess my last question to you, Tyler, would be this. What is your dream endorsement? Dream endorsement? Yeah, if somebody came to you and said, Tyler, we've seen your stuff, 9-1, and we're really interested in what you have to do. You know, LeBron James has his tequila now. It's a big deal to him.

Like, is there something, if a company came to you and said, we want you to be the face of this, what would you want more than anything else? I'm a big jewelry guy, so I know I would never get this, but Rolex would be pretty cool. One, it'd be really easy to give out gifts if you're endorsed by Rolex. That'd be perfect for any Christmas gifts or anything. But I'm a big car guy. So I've also kind of had this goal and dream of mine, which I think one day hopefully I can do. And it's similar to what Ryan Gessleff has, which is basically you kind of buy into a car dealership. And because of that, you know, your own part of the company and then

you can kind of get the newest car all the time and flip in and out of that. And I think that's, that's where I want to be one day. But you know, I want to get some more liquidity before that. And, you know, have that as my goal when I'm up around your age there, Elliot. Nice shot. All right, Tyler, last one for me then. I'm curious about when hockey was the best for you. When did it feel the best?

I mean, was it when you played with Skinner and Oleksiak with the Nats? Was it cup time with the Bruins? Was it, you know, get to the final with the Dallas Stars? When did hockey just hit the sweet spot of the bat for you? I think there's been a couple different times. Honestly, the first time was when the Stanley Cup with Boston. That was a sweet spot for sure.

The only negative to that sweet spot that I've said many times is that I didn't understand the complete worth of the Stanley Cup or the grind that it took to get to that moment because it was my first year. The second time was actually probably my first year in Dallas. When I, you know, came to Dallas and, you know, we weren't a top team, so I got more ice time. And Jamie Benn and I broke out that same year. He ends up winning the Art Ross. It was just such a great time for hockey. a top team so I got more ice time and Jamie Benn and I broke out that same year.

He ends up winning the Art Ross. It was just such a great time for hockey, you know, getting to be back in my natural position at center and I was just super happy with everything that was coming together. And then the third time is kind of right now. It's taken, you know, seven, eight years to kind of get to this point where maybe six, seven years, you know, we lost to St. Louis two years ago in conference finals and now this year going back to the finals we you know we finally have all the key pieces in place we have this team that our windows open now and that's why this

is number three because it's exciting times to be a Dallas star and a part of this organization and having the right team to be able to go deep every year and have those expectations we haven't fully had those expectations since I've been here so that's what makes hockey a lot of fun it's a fun team uh the Dallas Stars listen continue success with the uh with the rehab uh we wish you nothing but the success with 9-1 and uh thanks so much for stopping by. Always appreciate catching up. Thanks so much for this, Tyler. Thanks for having me, guys. Thank you, Tyler.

Go get the front door. Did you hear that? Yeah, yeah. Sorry, guys. That's all right. That's all right. That's even better. That makes it even more funny.

That means the call's over. That's right. That's right. Time's up, boys. All right, boys. Thank you. Awesome. That's right. That's right. Time's up, boys. All right, boys. Thank you. Awesome. Thanks, Tyler.

See ya. And there you go. Tyler Sagan on 31 Thoughts, the podcast. We thank Tyler for stopping by. You can visit him online at a couple of different places. TSagan92 is his official Instagram handle. But also for his company, 9-1, you can go to T-S-9-1-N-I-N-E-O-N-E on Instagram to see what he's about. And like a true professional, he has everything listed as well at TylerSagan.com.

Interestingly enough, he does have that brand and that line of socks, Elliot, yet the picture of Tyler Sagan, which greets you at tylersaygan.com. He's wearing a lovely suit, gorgeous tie, real nice smile, really expensive biscuit watch, and no socks. So we thank Tyler Sagan for stopping by. And thank you, Jeff.

That was a good interview, and you lined it up. So anybody who enjoyed it, you should tweet at Jeff and say, again for stopping by and thank you jeff that was a good interview and you lined it up so anybody who enjoyed it you should tweet it jeff and say jeff you were finally useful jeff you're a better producer than you are a host i better get a producer credit on this one okay elliot pierre lacroix uh the former nordiques uh the last gm of the quebec nordiques and former general manager of the colorado avalanche passing away over the weekend at the age of 72. And I don't think that I can underscore more how, for a stretch of time, this general manager was larger than life.

This general manager was the architect of two Stanley Cup champions, of eight division winners, pulled off some of the biggest deals of his era. Your thoughts on Pierre Lacroix? I don't think that we in English Canada understand how big a deal Pierre Lacroix was to the French community in hockey. His death on Sunday was hugely significant to the French community in hockey. First of all, I think there's a couple reasons that

a lot of us didn't really know how significant he was. Number one, he hasn't really been a general manager for about 15 years. I believe it was 2006 that he was replaced by Francois Jaguar. And even though he remained as president of the organization, he went through a lot of health issues. And even though he remained as team president, he really wasn't able to do the job. But the Avalanche didn't care. He'd done so much for them. He was the architect of two Stanley Cup championships that they

basically said, take care of yourself. We'll do what has to be done to make sure you're okay, but don't worry about the titles or not being able to do anything. We're loyal to you. to do anything were loyal to you. And one of the things that was kind of interesting was I think that in Arizona, as there was some uncertainty about what was going to happen, I think that there was a time over the last couple of years, he thought about getting back in with the coyotes that he pitched to them where he would come in and stabilize the franchise and take over like he started to feel better and he had the itch and the urge and i know that there were some people who would or hoping that he would get back in because they felt that unfortunately

because of his health he never got to end it the right way the first time and he was doing pretty well and then he came down with covid uh recently and he had to go into the hospital and he was in pretty serious condition from what i understand but he'd recovered and then sadly he had the fatal heart attack on Sunday. But this guy, he was a titan in the sport. First of all, because he was in Colorado, a lot of us didn't deal with him. I wasn't at that point in my career where I dealt with him a ton. And he was also kind of, for lack of a better phrase, Jeff, he was Lou Lamorello light. Let's pause on that because the one thing around his Colorado avalanche,

this is just from a media point of view. Yeah, nothing got out. No, there were no leaks. Like this was locked up. Brian Burke always talks about, you know, security around your organization with nothing getting out. That was the abs under Pierre Lacroix, Elliot. Yeah, it was like that.

Nothing got out. And Joe Sackick is a big believer in that. You know, Sackick once told me that. He said that, I think Lacroix once told him, I think the line was something along the lines of, you get more accomplished if you do things quietly. And the players bought into that. And the people in the organization bought into that.

And Sackick is very much like that. You get more accomplished if you do things quietly. And Sackick, who had the nickname Quoteless Joe as a player, you don't really have to tell him that, but he operates in the same kind of way. And even though LaCroix had left the Avalanche organization some time ago, they continued to work like that. They don't let things leak. They're pretty quiet about what goes on. They like it that way.

And like I said, in the French community, his work as an agent, his work as a GM, as an executive, I mean, there were a number of people, whether they were in media or whether they were agents or whether they were players, they told me that, you know, he was a big, big mentor and example to them. And it was a huge story when he passed away on Sunday. And it was a huge story when he was hired by the Quebec Nordiques. As you mentioned, he was an agent, 21 years, Patrick Kwa, one of, if not the biggest client that he had. And, you know, Marcelo Boo at that point talked a lot about how he was bringing in Pierre Lacroix because in his mind, he was an exceptional negotiator. negotiator. And he was exceptional at trades as well. To your point, a lot of the trades were done quietly. Certainly Patrick Waugh was loud, but that's just the nature of how that all went down. But as far as being an architect of a perennial Stanley Cup contender and two-time Stanley Cup champion and multi-year division winner, whether it was the Sundin trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Wendell Clark, the primary going back the other way, the subsequent Wendell Clark to the Islanders

for Claude Lemieux trade, the Ron Sutter for Uwe Krupp bringing in Ray Bork, bringing in Rob Blake. When you look at how he went about this, and listen, you're a general manager, they're not all going to be hits. But when you look at how he put this team together, and let's all be on the same page here too, on a quote unquote small market team. Like we're not talking about the Maple Leafs and the Philadelphia Flyers and the Montreal Canadiens. We're not talking about the Rangers here. the Montreal Canadiens, we're not talking about the Rangers here. We're talking about the Colorado Avalanche and the way that he was able to put together this collection of high-end hockey players and make it all work

and become the best team in the game, period, was quite an accomplishment. You're absolutely right. The Patrick Waugh trade for you, was that the signature Pierre Lacroix move? Well, it was because Lacroix never really said much about it. But the story I was told was that one of the things that Pierre Lacroix hated was, you know, people said, oh, the Avalanche won with an unlimited budget. He always said that was wrong. And a couple of the local reporters there, one of them is Adrian Dater,

who's been there a long time. He told me that Lacroix would get angry when people said they had an unlimited budget. He said that was never true. But he went to ownership and he said that was one where he didn't fight with them, but he said that if we make this happen, we are going to win. I believe that was the line that he told them. And so I think they bent for that one. And, you know, that's what he said. He said that we are going to win if we get this player.

And it was the kind of thing where if he decided he wanted someone, you know, they were going to get him. Rob Blake was another one. You know, Rob Blake, there were no leaks that they were going to do it until it happened. But I remember, you know, people saying that don't be surprised if Colorado gets this guy because it's the kind of move that Pierre Lacroix would make. And it did. I also do remember that someone in the Avalanche organization once told me that one of the toughest things Lacroix ever had to do as a GM was make that deal because LA wouldn't do it without Adam

Deadmarsh and Adam Deadmarsh wife had just gone through a very difficult pregnancy and he made the deal and he made it because he thought it was the best thing for his team. But I was told that that was the one that really ate at him from a personal point of view, that it was a difficult time to trade dead marsh it was hard for him to do it that was the one that i was told was the the toughest deal for him to make for a personal reason anyway you know i just thought we should talk about it and

i know if there are people in french canada who listen to our podcast someone was telling me the other night about just how I think a lot of people underestimate how big a deal this was in the province. Absolutely. Condolences to the Lacroix family from everyone here at 31 Thoughts to the Podcast.