Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Devan Dubnyk (FULL INTERVIEW)

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

FN Barn Burner: Boomer, Pinder & WarrenerBoomer sits down with former NHL goalie Devan Dubnyk for a wide-ranging conversation about his hockey journey. They cover his early development as a goaltender, the players he looked up to, and the moment he was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers. Dubnyk opens up about the ups and downs of his NHL career — including the challenging years of limited playing time and multiple trades — and the pivotal moment that led him to finding success in Minnesota. They wrap up by talking about his post-playing career and his goalie training program, Dubnyk Development.Subscribe to @Flames_Nation on Youtube🚨➡️ / @flames_nation 🔥 After Burner ➡️ • FlamesNation Afterburner 📲 Follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fnbarnburner/X (Twitter): https://x.com/barnburnerfn?lang=en🎧 Listen on:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/barn-burner-boomer-pinder-with-rhett-warrener/id1648562889Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Mc6Qd5U22R2zbMlQ7RxIiBARN BURNER BLONDE https://originbrewing.myshopify.comFLAMESNATION MERCHhttps://nationgear.ca/collections/flamesnationBARN BURNER SHORTShttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj_bcGtvvo-cW2DHEDZ6dEO5ePDmlhZc9SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Powered by @bet365. Whatever the moment, it’s Never Ordinary at bet365. Download the App today and use promo code:NATION. http://www.bet365.ca/ 👍🏼 McLEOD LAW https://www.mcleod-law.com/👍🏼 VILLAGE HONDA https://www.villagehonda.com/👍🏼 OUTDOOR DENTAL https://www.outdoor.dental/👍🏼 ORIGIN BREWING https://originbrewing.ca 👍🏼 Crystal Waters Plumbing Company https://crystalclearcalgary.com/👍🏼 BON TON MEATS: https://www.bontonmeatmarket.com/index.html👍🏼 GRETA YYC: https://www.gretabar.com/locations/calgary#games 👍🏼Invest-Med: https://invest-med.ca/Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!Producer: Jack Haverstock#NHLPlayoffs #Hockey #HockeyTalk #Playoffs #StanleyCup #EdmontonOilers #StanleyCupFinal #NHL #CalgaryFlames Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, you buddies. How are we doing? It's your old pal boom. How's summer? You're doing our good. Welcome to Barnburner, a special edition of Barnberger. You know, we're doing these, less of summer. Hey, we're putting a lot of time and effort into research and development for the show. The upcoming another great year, I'm sure, of Barnburner. And this is important time to kind of refuel and re-energize for another big hockey season. Bet365, great partners of ours, of course, presenting sponsor of Barnburner, get the app. download it, be 19 years of age and be respectful and, you know, what I call it, responsible, I suppose, is the best way to put it with Bet365. Great show for you today.

Devin Dubnick, he's got a great story. It's almost, it's one of those ones that I say it during the course of the interview. You could write a book about it. You weren't going to believe it. Kind of left for dead and then all of a sudden back on top. Cool story. It's a long one. And we get into it today on a special edition of Barnburner.

as we sit down one-on-one with Devin Dubick. Now, we had you on, I guess it was during the playoffs, and I kind of threw it by it. So born and Regina, but grew up in Calgary. When people ask you, where are you from? What's the answer? I'd say Calgary. It's Calgary.

Where did you move to Calgary? Moved to Calgary when I was like 10. Yeah. And then we lived, I was born in Regina. We lived in Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver all before Calgary. Crazy. What was dad doing? He worked for IBM, so he was just getting promoted and transferred.

Yeah. over and over and back then you had to you had to move there was no yeah no internet or anything so you had to go zoom no tough to do what do you remember I'm not to get you're not on the couch but what do you remember that as a kid because it'd be with that much moving you're not making tons of long-term longtime friends yeah it was interesting I mean things are different now with with the ability to stay in touch you know I didn't I didn't stay in touch with anybody until when we lived in Vancouver it was like second grade to fifth grade so um I had some really good friends there and we had I loved living there and so that was the toughest move

was Vancouver to Calgary and there was you know a short time that you make a couple long distance phone calls and talk on the phone for five or ten minutes with people but I mean after like a month or two that kind of goes away and then it was actually interesting when after I after I was in Calgary and then when I was playing in Camloops and we would play in Vancouver, this was when like Facebook and everything was starting to become become a thing. So I actually got in touch with some of my friends from like fifth grade and a few of them came to one of the games in Vancouver and I saw them afterwards. Nice.

That was kind of cool. So some different lens we look through once we're parents ourselves. You know, you don't really think about it then. We're just moving a lot. You think now parents have must have been some pressure, be tough to be thinking, we're moving these kids around this is tough the feel for your dad in a different way looking back now yeah exactly i mean even now i think about that moving and how hard it would be and and but then you realize that with the kids ages like they adjust and they i mean they'd be able to be communication

more now with their friends but even they don't even need that it i'm not saying you to move because you want to or yeah it's like if it happens all the kids they'll adjust they'll meet new friends. It's something that a lot of people have to do. So when did you start playing hockey or goal, I guess? Because that would be one thing. It'll get you. If you get on a team in a hurry, you see a lot of those guys you can make some friend groups pretty quickly. Yeah, that was always an easy part for me. I never had a tough time is meeting new people. I think that was a big part moving around as well as learning how to meet new people and different stuff. I think that was a good skill that I learned as a young kid.

Excuse me. I started playing golf, I started playing hockey like anybody, three, four years old. And I started playing goal my last year that I was in, second last year that I was in Vancouver. So I started where it was just, I started novice and it was just, there were no tryouts or anything. You just got put on a team with whoever and played. And then the next year was the first year of trial hockey.

It was first year Adam. And then so I moved to Calgary. was my second year of Adam Hockey. And the hockey in Calgary was really good. I played for Crowchild. And so that was, it's really interesting listening. Now that I have kids that are going into minor hockey and seeing how it all works,

and obviously it's different now. But listening to my dad now, explain what he did for me when we moved to Calgary and how he went down, and he made sure that everybody at the association knew that there was a new kid coming and he was a good goalie and like pay attention to him and not just like randomly showing up a tryouts which is what i thought happened um it's it's funny to listen you know and and them having to like

sit out early in the morning to just register for it and all this stuff and i know um crazy we live it now yeah and now that i'm grown up and have kids and and hearing all the stuff he did is pretty crazy yeah what do you remember was it a was there a goalie that's because we talk about it here when kipersoff was doing his thing boy there's a lot of kid goalies and then it kind of goes away from a not many kid goalies was there a was it the gear somebody's mask was there somebody that you remember gravitating towards it made you want to be a goalie uh not entirely the gear was a big part of it um i always liked i was always defensively minded and um my dad was a goalie uh he played in junior crow's nest pass um but that wasn't why like when they they're

People are like, oh, your dad was a goalie. That's probably why you want to be a goalie. It wasn't really. I had a friend that was a goalie. I liked being, I liked subbing as a goalie. But the gear kind of fascinated me getting to put on the equipment. And I just decided one summer that I wanted to be a goalie. And I told my dad I was going to be goalie next year.

And he said, absolutely not. There's zero chance you're playing goalie. And so I argued with him back and forth a little bit. And then he said, fine, you can play half the games as a goalie. And so I started, and I wasn't very good at all when I started. But I learned really quickly, and I ended up playing every game that year except for one. And then the following year was tryouts. But, I mean, at the time, there wasn't like a specific person that was the reason I started playing goalie.

Once I did start playing, I was always a big fan of Curtis Joseph. He was in Edmonton and then Toronto. And my brother was a big Leafs fan, so I was forced to cheer for Toronto for my safety. but Kujo is always one of my favorites. Roberto Lorongo, when I started to get older, being a tall guy, he was kind of a guy that I like to watch, and he was super athletic as well, kind of somebody who I wanted to play like.

And then when I was a young goalie in Calgary, obviously can't play like him, but Freddie Brathaway was my favorite goalie at the time because I was younger and I had opportunity to meet him. I played minor hockey with Troy Preston, who was the assistant coach at the time, was Rich Preston, was his dad. And so I got a couple opportunities to go to pregame skate, and I got to meet Freddie.

And if anybody that knows, Freddy, he's like the nicest guy in the world. So kind of fell in love with watching him and couldn't emulate my game around him at all, but he was still my favorite guy to watch. And funny story with him, like a roundabout, full circle thing when I was, we were at an auction. It was around Christmas time and there was this Freddie Brathwaite thing in the auction. I think it was a signs or no, it wasn't a sign. It signed jersey and picture. And then my parents surprised me with it for Christmas.

They told me, obviously, I went to bed early. They didn't win the auction. Obviously, they did. I got it for Christmas. And then when Rich got fired from Calgary, he had told me he'd get me a Freddie Brathwaite stick signed. And then he got fired. And I was like, oh, I'm sure he's got more important things going on. Yeah.

Whatever. I'm not going to get the stick. Well, sure enough, he pulled up to the front of the house. And he was brand new Freddie Brathwaite stick signed for me. And I ended up doing a summer camp in Minnesota, or sorry, in Colonna when I was playing for Minnesota. And Freddie was at the camp helping as one of the coaches. at the camp and so I'm telling them this and this is I had met him before and uh you know I told him I was just he was my favorite goalie grown up and he was kind of like yeah right like

I'm sure I'm sure I wasn't like no dude I'm serious I got like I got your jersey I get your picture I get your stick I got all this stuff signed and he's like okay and and so then we were at this camp and I was like Freddie I got I have the stick like I'm gonna bring you the stick so I think I was 33 or 34 years old yeah and uh I got to go to brought the stick to the ring. So the stick that he had signed for me when I was like 13 or 14, he personalized to me. And then I signed a stick for him and we got a picture together. So it was kind of a cool little full circle moment. It is very cool. It's those types of things. I don't, I don't think it's always the case. But you want to keep a piece of that in your hard drive. And remember when you're meeting some

kids and you're kind of, because it could be a lot. You're signing autographs. I would imagine as a hockey players like this kid here might be his life might go a certain way because of who I am or how I handle this kid at this moment and like you say one of the best guys ever yeah it's it's true um just little moments and you hear about gosh I can't remember I want to say no it's not going to be it I wanted to say it was jac cottinger but I don't know if it was but somebody told me that they were it made me feel so old yeah told me that they stood you were their guy and nice. No, it wasn't Audenger because it was in it was in Edmonton.

Gosh, this is going to bother me. Anyway, somebody told me that is now a pro goalie told me that they stood beside me when they were like 10 years old and I was like, oh my gosh. Wow. And they're just like, yeah, you're just, I never forgot it. You were so nice. And like you don't, you're about to play a game so you don't realize that.

But there's so many little things where you don't realize what that is to a kid and how much they'll remember it. I mean, all this stuff with Freddie with was just, you know, getting, getting his jersey in the stick and all this stuff and what it meant to me. And I imagine now, like, Rich probably just handed him a stick that, hey, can he sign this for me at the rink? And like, just that, how much it meant to me and then getting to do the full circle thing at the end. Well, better than the alternative. Hey, I was 10.

I met you. You were an asshole. Yeah, exactly. It could be the other way, too. Yeah. So you're playing hockey in Calgary. It's, we always bigger. Because, I mean, six, six, were you always did you have it right from peewee adam age yeah i was always pretty big um obviously hit more of a girl spurt later on but i was always i was always a tall kid i was always a kid that i'm sure i laugh now because i see kids on uh it's called squirt here i think it's the same as adam but um you know kid'll come on step on the ice and i'm like oh my god someone check his birth certificate i'm like yeah i'm sure i was that kid that stepped on the ice and they looked down the ice and they look down the ice and see the mutant goalie at the other end. Yeah, I was always a pretty big

kid compared to everybody else. It's funny. Your dad, I mean, being a goalie, you think maybe he'd have, okay, son, you want to be a goalie, but even from the goalie union, he didn't watch you play in net. No, and I don't blame him. My oldest is a goalie now, too. This is his first year, it was last year, and I've lost years off my life off of just one year. So he knew something by trying to not get me to be a goalie because it is a stressful position to watch as a parent. Yeah, it's hard to hide. So you go, I drafted to Cam, to the Blazers, how does that your blazer career kind of get underway?

Yeah, that was interesting because same thing, my dad kind of kept me sheltered from the whole like, WHL draft thing for pretty much all the way until it happened right before. board happened because you have to you do phone call interviews with the teams and uh growing up in calgary obviously we had the hitman there and i've been to hit men games and to me that was like professional hockey you know you go and they're fighting and and they're really good and they got half fysers and like that was like professional hockey to me and the draft happens at 14 years old so i remember went on a walk with my dad one day and he's like he kind of explained to me he started explaining me the draft and it was like a couple weeks away and i was like a couple weeks away and i was like

like wait, you mean like right now? Like that was like professional hockey to me and I was 14 years old. And he's like, yeah, it's coming up. And so he just wanted me to be ready because I was going to have to do these phone call interviews. And I knew I was good and I knew, you know, because I'd played Alberta Cup and, you know, I'd played on all these teams growing up. But Alberta Cup, I think, at the time was the highest that you got to before the draft. And I mean, that's that's Calgary North.

So you're making a team out of one half of Calgary. So, and this is obviously all of Western Canada and some of the states that you're getting drafted out of. So I knew I was good. I had no idea. I don't know if my dad knew and didn't tell me, but I had no idea exactly where I ranked, I guess. It's funny. Kids would have, they would be dialed in today.

Oh, yes. I know. I mean, I honestly had no idea where I fell. And I'm sure my dad had a better idea than I did after talking to teams and stuff, but he didn't let me know. So I did a whole bunch phone interviews with teams, which again, it was, I think a great learning experience, a great life skill to do that as a 14-year-old to talk to these player development guys and GMs and go through these interviews. And yeah, I remember my mom picked me up from school. I think I had high jump practice or something. and field thing after school.

And so she picked me up late and I remember she pulled up in the minivan and there was like a homemade poster that says go blazers on it and I didn't include it and I was like, who was the blazers? I mean, I knew like it clicked pretty soon pretty quickly after, but that's kind of how I found out.

And then I went home and I found I was drafted early in the second round and I think I was the top goal to go. Yeah, I might have been. There was one other kid Watt was his last name. You're not an old guy, but you're kind of in that pocket where the internet existed

and it was a thing, but we didn't keep all the records, you know, they're not easy to find. But I was one of the top goleys if I wasn't the first goalie taking the draft and that was kind of a holy crap moment for me because, like I said, I didn't know exactly where I stood with everybody else

other than I knew I was a good goalie, but that was kind of the time where I was like, oh, okay, oh, maybe I'm, I am really good. Yeah. And you don't often, to play in the dub as a 16 year old in general, now you go, you end up going to Camloops, you're there, because you had a long Western League career. For a young kid, you've, you've had a lot of moving, but this is kind of the first one where it's, because you, not your dad's job, but your job kind of a thing. What's the, what's the cutting, cutting off of mom's home cooking and leaving home for you. Yeah, so that was an interesting process too because I ended up kind of getting a warm

up to it before because my 15-year-old year when too young to play, obviously, there was, the goalies got hurt a couple times. So I got one call up just over a weekend where I just backed up a couple games. And then one of the goalies actually had a high ankle sprain. So he was out for a good chunk of the year. I think he was out for two and a half months, maybe almost three months of that year, was a good chunk of the season. And I was up for all of that.

So it was just like one day I was like, got called and it was like, you're going to meet the team in Vancouver. But had they, they didn't even know the extent of the injury. And then it was like we were going day to day at first. And I was just, I was just gone and staying there. And I didn't care because it was, you know, you're 15. Like it's fine to be away from home for a week. not thinking anything more than that. And then it just kind of became longer.

And then all of a sudden, they found out the injury was going to be longer. So I was there for good for the time. And I'd fly home every once in a while and go to school and get my school work and then fly back, did that a few times. And so I was going to, it was 10th grade and I was going to two different schools. And, but there was no like, there was no end game for, and like ending timeline. So I was just kind of doing it without really thinking of it. so then I got a little warm up to what it was going to be like

the following year so it made it a little bit easier and also knowing that I was going to make the team knowing that I was going to be there having the time to kind of prepare leading up to it in the summer knowing this is the day you're leaving it was still super hard it was it wasn't something like I always knew there was never a question I knew this was what I wanted to do it was where I was going it was so there was never like I don't know if I want to do this or not that was never

a question. But it was hard, especially at that age. I mean, that's, those are, it's high school. With girls and friends and, and all my buddies are playing hockey together, and I'm gone for, for a couple pretty exciting

years of childhood, and that's, that's a sacrifice that you have to make. So, obviously, you get that with your teammates and all the experiences that you get there, but that was probably the hardest part, being gone for that. And I, fortunately, I had, great friends and we had a really good group of friends in Calgary that I still still keep in touch

with and are friends with but fortunately at the time it was when MSN Messenger was coming in and so now there was a there was a easier way to communicate and you could you could go on and chat with your friends and kind of stay in touch and it wasn't always needing to pick up the phone all the time so the communication was there but I don't know it was always hard my parents would come once a month. My friends would visit sometimes. Sometimes they'd ride up with my parents. And so it's always something to look forward to that way. There are definitely in the first year or two, a lot of homesick times where you're just by yourself. And of course, you got your hockey and your teammates, but even at school, we weren't overly welcome at the school, which I made an effort to change.

and we got it was by the time we were we were going out of out of 12th grade there we'd made some friends and and softened up the the hockey player to school thing because it wasn't it wasn't very good when I got there they just by grade 12 you've been out of for a while that's yeah it's a long time slug away a year almost of just you know it's it's not it's not a hard concept just be a normal person and be kind to people and people will talk to you It's not a crazy concept. But then it goes back to the childhood of, you know, having moved around a lot and just learning how to make friends and talk to people and just be a normal guy and not have this.

There's very standoffish between the hockey players and the kids in the school. And hockey players, as we are, tend to enjoy the conflict and maybe feed into it a little too much at the time. But, you know, that was better at the end. But what I'm saying is you don't get that camaraderie at school. And that was that was a tough part of it too. But I would always look forward to the trips and then and then they were there. And the hardest time was always when they left.

And my mom would always whisper to me to just, she'd whisper in my ear and say, just give me the word and I'll take you home. Yeah. And I'd always kind of laugh and I'm like, first of all, I don't want to. Second of all, dad's not taking me home. So. Yeah. I've already had one of those conversations with my

my kid he was off to it. I was like, I'll get your plane ticket right now. Yeah. No, I'm good. I'm good. All right. And you're just hoping they say yes, too. Yeah, I'd be so happy to spend a lot of money on a plane ticket right now.

Yeah. I'm old enough. I'm a little older than you, probably a lot older. But I covered the Western League for quite a while. And I remember the Kamloops Blazers teams that were juggernauts. You did not have any Niedermeyers or Tuckers or Ginnlas or Dones on your Blazers team. Those were some lean years. fair to say as you get to Camloops?

Yeah, it was interesting. We were really good when I got there. So the 15-year-old year that I got called up, they were a really strong team. They ended up losing to clone in the first round, but they were a really good team. And then my 16-year-old year, we had a really good team as well. We had some really good older players. Scotty Upshaw was there, Jared All, and Shane Morrison. We had quite a few guys that actually went on and played. So my 16-year-old, we were really strong. strong and then we just basically we kind of just started to taper just not quite as strong

worse and then by the last year was it was our toughest year so it wasn't we we definitely weren't terrible by any means but we weren't we weren't a powerhouse which it was it was kind of a good combination because I got I got lots of work but we were still competitive and able I think we made the playoffs every year except for my last year so we were still competitive and able to win games and compete but I got lots of work it was like um playing on the year colonna one it's like gosh i can't remember his name now too i can like see them um they had all these shutouts and everything he got like 10 shots a game yeah and so like at the end of the day that didn't help him is that the kelly guard era or is that the guy guard that was there it is yeah

kelly guard um you know and his stats and everything it was like oh kelly guard but it's like you're not getting any better true um but i had to face Colona 10 times the year and I got better from that. Lots of, you going into Colona, it was like you're looking at 50 plus. Yeah. A lot of teams felt that way. You'd see them, you'd just see them more often than most. But yeah, it was, Colona was no fun.

No, we had fun 10 times a year. Yeah. And one game, this is probably my most memorable game, but we were, my parents were visiting and, you know, my dad, my dad taught me a lot of stuff, all the stuff that I learned growing up playing goal. And then from the time I was like, I was like 15 or so, you know, I kind of started to know more than he did. And he knew that.

So we didn't really butt heads anymore over anything. He would just encourage me. And so it had been a while since he'd kind of given me crap. And I think it was New Year's Eve. And we played at Lethbridge at home in Kamloops. And we lost like four to two, I think. And he kind of ripped into me after the game. and told me I was being lazy and like my intensity wasn't there and all this.

And I, you know, I was 19 years old now, I think 18 or 19. And I kind of took exception to it. And I was like, screw you. You know, what are you talking about? You know, so we had this big blowup and we played Cologne at home the next day. And I'm going to the game and I'm rattled and just ready to show him. Yeah. And we got outshot like 67 to 17 or 68.

and we won four to two. I think it was, I think it was 68, 67 or 68. Set a record for saves and we won the game. Of course, they come out after the game and I see my dad standing there and he's got this smirk on his face and I'm just like, whatever. Yeah, you're like, see, dad, I told you so. And he's, hey, same is on, I told you so. Exactly.

Yeah, you're both right. Yeah, those teams, I remember because I was, at that time, I was working in Red Deer. It's like, well, they got Shea Weber and they got Josh George's. I think Spurgeon might have been. They got a kid coming here from college, Duncan Keith. Yeah. Holy shit.

So they're top three D men are Shea Weber, Duncan, Keith, and Josh George. This is junior hockey, by the way. Two NHL Hall of Famers. Yeah. So that's their blue line. So have fun getting a five on three against them. Yeah. And then, yeah, you had Blake Colmo, Troy Bodie, Jared Spurgeon.

Gosh, I can't remember. They had another guy that was like 610. Yeah. It was really good. They had, um, gosh, they had, they had a bunch of guys that played pro. Like, they had a really, really good team. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Even guys that you realize, oh, you were, now, now I know your name. You were on those Kelona teams, even maybe we didn't know it at the time. Yeah, they were, they were no fun at all. Now, so the Western League draft maybe sneaks up on you. The NHL draft isn't going to sneak up on you. You've got to be well aware. What's your, what's your draft year?

like nerves like you say you're playing a ton you're seeing lots of shots you're getting all the work any any vibes going into that NHL draft um yeah like once the draft came you have a pretty good good idea of of where you're landing um at that point you know there'd been i'd played two different under 18 world championships um so you obviously you know you're seeing all the goleys all over the world at this point uh and then you know there's news articles and talk and all that so you're starting to see more of it. So you got an agent and then you go to the combine and you do all the interviews at the combine. So definitely more information and I was more aware of where I kind of fit in when it came to that. So draft day, you're expected to go first round, but especially being

with a goalie, there's nothing guaranteed because there's only certain teams that need goalies. And if the dominoes fall a certain way, you know, you could potentially fall out. So I had to keep that in the back of my mind and just make sure that there wasn't any sort of major disappointment if something didn't happen that way. And so it was just an interesting time through the draft because you're not like waiting on every pick because you kind of know, okay, this team, like it gets to L.A. was really the first team at 11 that I actually thought I was going to go to L.A. at first, but they were the first team that was really like a potential. Sure.

That I would get picked at. So obviously it was like really nervous for that pick. And then after that you get a breather for a couple of picks. And then Edmonton was the next team up to potentially pick a goalie. Then it was St. Louis who ended up taking a goalie. And then California. Calgary didn't take a goalie, but St. Louis and Vancouver both did. So I was hoping to go to Edmonton.

and so it worked out great that way being from Calgary and having family in Edmonton and stuff. And so that was the most nervous I was. And I just, it's hard to describe. They start talking. And all I remember is hearing is hearing Camloops Blazers. I didn't even hear my name. And I was like doing quick math in my head. I'm like, yeah, okay, it's nobody else on my team.

All right, it's got to be me. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. It's surreal. Nowadays, there's more teams now, too. It's so rare for a goalie to go in the first round, it seems like. And I went back, obviously, you got Montoya at six, shorts goes, you go, Cory Schneider, a couple in the early second round.

There was, however many it was, all by the 38th pick, there was like six or seven goalies taken. Yeah, it was a unique year. I think it was a pretty light year or two for just the draft in general. so that played into a little bit. And then I think just the thought process has changed a little bit. You got to have a pretty big standout. Spencer Knight, I know, went first round. Yeah.

I'm trying to think of, I wouldn't know other guys. Yeah, there's still a few, but that was like you said. But you're never going to get four in the first round again. I can tell you that much. Yeah. So was it Edmonton? Was it just proximity to home? Was it based on the tandem that they had at the time?

I could get some work there soon or, What was it about the Oilers? Yeah, I mean, I didn't really expect to get work there soon. And it's funny looking back. Like, I mean, so much changed between the time I was drafted at the time I actually played. I mean, it was Roley, obviously, going to the Cup finals and the UC Market and and Ty Conklin. And then, I mean, when I come up and play it, it was Nikolai Havie Boulin, who wasn't even on the radar at that time. So so much changes.

But no more, it was, it was going up in Calgary, you know, flames struggled mightily when I was, when I was, when I was a kid. So I obviously would cheer for them and go to the games, but there wasn't a lot to cheer for. And so Edmonton was always making the playoffs. And I had family. My mom was born in Edmonton. So I have lots of family and visited Edmonton lots.

But mainly you, there was a lot when Kujo was there and all their playoff series against Dallas and whatnot. So I was kind of a bit of a fan growing up and cheered for them lots. And then just knowing. the history of the team and the opportunity to go into a place like Edmonton with how everybody feels about the Oilers there and being a Canadian team and a Canadian kid, kind of all of that stuff just was why I was hoping to go. Yeah.

And they were right in that sweet spot too of like a good possible spot that I would get taken mid first round. You never need a lawyer until you need a lawyer and then you need McLeod Law. They are the Calgary law firm. Calgarians, people that understand how our city works. So no matter what your legal needs are, it's simple. MacLeod-Dashlaw.com or hit socials at McLeod Law LLP. Peter Klein, you know him as the personal injury guy.

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maybe he's a year or two away. You never know with goal. Who have you got under contract? When is the kid, you finish up your career. You got two more years in Camloops. For you, when did you feel like maybe now there's pressure, even though it might not be vocalized, but I should be an option to make the team now.

Is it two years later? Is it three years? When did you feel like I better be ready to contend for a job? You know what? What's funny is I never felt like there was a job. training camp that I had an opportunity to make the team until I did. Just because of the way everything was going. And it was good because that year that I ended up when having Bullen hurt his back and

I ended up actually getting called up and playing, that was when I started to get a little frustrated because it felt like, you know, like what's the end game here? Like, why is Delore just automatically in? We'll talk about that for sure. And we're getting now to the point where like we're past the okay development stage. just like I've had enough time. And so my first, I knew I was going back to Camoos for a couple years.

Then I signed. Then my first year going into pro, that was an interesting camp. I actually played really well at camp and played a couple really good preseason games as well, which I laugh at now because like who gives a crap about. It's all you got then, no. But I can tell you that.

They were big to me. Those were like Stanley Cup playoff games to me. What do you remember about them? Oh, man. I remember. I got to play in. Calgary. This is the coolest thing. So I, uh, they had no, like, we didn't have an American League team. So I had nowhere to go. So I, I played all the way up to the very end of preseason

until they had to name the roster until they, like, actually had to send me away. And they still didn't know what I was going to do. That's when I ended up playing the coast in Stockton. But the coolest thing ever was my last pre, last preseason game, we played, uh, in Calgary. And, um, yeah, we were, so we were in Calgary. And I was, and then, They were doing it after that game. I was going home. So I was just staying at home in Calgary. So I played in the saddle home against the flames.

And this is the year that they were just bringing the shoot out in. So they were trying to just practice it regardless of the score. So I wasn't supposed to play the game. And I'm just pumped because I'm on the bench. And it's Calgary and all my friends are there. And this is super exciting. You got the best seats ever. Best seat in the house.

And I think I'm so cool until Conklin starts complaining about it's growing. in between and I just kept telling myself I'm like nah he's okay he's okay not again laughing thinking back on this is like if your groin is even remotely hurt near the starting goalie like you're not you're not you're not you're not you're not grinding it out in preseason but I'm here telling myself I'm like he's going to be okay so we go in the dressing room after the first period conx takes his bottom stuff off and he goes back to the trainer's room and I'm sitting there still in like full denial there's I'm like everything's going to be okay he's going to be healthy he's going to go back in there and I'm sitting and he's still back there and I'm looking there's

10 minutes on the clock and then there's six and he's still back there and I'm still in my head like thinking he's going to somehow get his gear on in time to go out which you probably physically couldn't even do at the time and then McTavish came in to he was the coach and he came in to talk and he walks in the room and he kind of looks around he's like where's conks and they're like oh he's in the training room and then he just looked at me he's like okay do where you're going and I mean, I must have just like just flushed out like white as a ghost. And all of a sudden it was like, oh my God, I'm going. And not a great start for me.

So it was zero zero going into the second period. I was obviously very, very nervous. And they scored three goals on six shots in like five minutes to start the second period. Because I remember being in there and doing like math in my head. I was like, I'm going to let in 36 goals in this game in front of them. all of my family and friends. I'm going to, like, I was like doing the minutes and the math and my head, like the pace I was on and how many goals I was going to give up.

And I was going to have a 13% save percentage and all these thoughts. And then fortunately, I settled in after three and stopped it at three. So I had a better end of the second and then had a good third period. But then, and I just laugh at this too. So then we go to the shootout because you do the three shot shootout anyway. Well, I got to stop Iggy in the shootout. So Iggy came in the shootout. and he made a move five hole and I stopped him and it was like I won the Stanley Cup.

Like I stopped all three shooters and we won the shootout. And I was smart enough to keep it contained and not be an idiot and celebrate that we won a shootout that we actually lost the game three to nothing. But I was like bursting inside. Like I was so excited coming off. I stopped all three shots in the Saddle Dome and like life was complete. And then after the game I knew like I packed up my game. gear and my parents drove me home from the saddle dome back home and all my friends came over and we had like we just got to hang out and like party at my house so great right after right after

I won the Stanley Cup and a shootout in preseason yeah that's great that was that was a really cool memory and then the crazy thing was is is then I stayed at home for two weeks without skating because they didn't have anywhere for me to go and the ECHL training camp didn't start until like October it's crazy so I just was then back home, not going to school, not just like at home hanging all with my friends for two weeks, not skating after I just went like. You just won the cup. Yeah, just won the cup in preseason shootout in the Saddle Dome.

And then I went home and like didn't skate for two weeks. And then went then went to Stockton for full H.HL training camp, which I discovered when I got there is an open trial. So there's you can literally just show up. up and try out, which was a go again, going from my preseason Stanley Cup to open tryouts in Stockton in the coast was an interesting change in events there. Well, I was going to, yeah, I wanted to ask you about that. Lucky you, you get two training camps.

Guys would love that. Do a full, probably a rookie camp, then a full NHL camp, you're playing, and then, oh, start all over again in the coast. Yep, that's what it was. And so, yeah, going back to the original question. And so played the full year in the coast. I knew that was what the plan was. And it was good.

I got lots of playing time. And, you know, it's still good hockey. And it's just seeing shots as a goalie and learning, you know, obviously it's a little different in the coast. But playing professional hockey, being on your own, all these things. Like you learn all these things as you go. Men, like full grown, old-ass men, some of them now. Oh, yeah.

There were some 30-year-olds on the team. Yeah. So, yeah, and so you learn that stuff. And then the next year we got Springfield. So I knew I was going to be there. And Kelly Buckberger was the coach. And he was a big JD guy too. So that was kind of a whole battle there sharing with JD with Deloree.

So played that year. Then again, next year going to camp knew Deloria was going to be up. I knew that there wasn't a competition at camp. It was just, I was now the starter in Springfield. So then I went and I played in Springfield. And then that was that following year then after that where it was kind of like, okay, I still knew that I didn't really have a shot at camp because they weren't going to give me one. And Deloria was the guy and Habie Boulin was there.

And so then he went back to Springfield. And I hadn't even been on the bench for an NHL game at this point. And that's when it kind of started like, what's the end game here? Like is there, am I going to get an opportunity? Because he's a couple years, a couple years older than you at that point. Yeah, so he was still young too. And it was like, where's the opportunity here ever? And then, of course, happy Boolean got hurt.

And same thing, I still got called up. I still was on the bench for like, I don't know, 25 games or something before I saw any ice time. JD just played forever. And then, you know, it was finally I got a chance to get in there. And I wasn't very good. I struggled a lot. I mean, we obviously weren't a good team, but I was a huge jump I wasn't ready for. And it was kind of that, you know, I don't regret anything or because the struggles of that team and how bad we were.

You know, that allowed them to give me time because, like, we weren't trying to make the playoffs. We weren't playing for anything, really. So it was like, why not just let them play and figure it out? And so, like, after, I think it was after the trade deadline, Tom Rennie came and said, you guys are going to split the rest of the game. You're just going to rotate. It doesn't matter who wins, who loses. You're just going to rotate. And so then that was kind of cool where it took me a long time to get my first win. And then after that, I think I went four and two in the last six games. And that really set me up where then that off season, they gave me a two-year one-way contract.

And I'd kind of beat out Deloree during that season. But if we hadn't been that bad, I wouldn't have had that opportunity because it took me 11. eyes to get my first win. Like, nobody's just going to keep putting a kid in there if you're like, if you're, if you're trying to make the playoffs and I'm over, you're not going to keep putting me in there. But fortunately for me, I had the opportunity to grow and grow into being able to play in the NHL with the amount of time that I was given because of this situation.

It's funny because you sit down and it's like anything in life. You talk about a certain time of your life or your, in this case, your career. I guess there was a couple years there. It's like a three-year stretch. I'm in the East Coast League. I was looking at California, Florida, North Carolina, Mississippi. I mean, it's a crazy league. Then you're off to the AHL, which is great, but it's still the A.

Those are years of your life. Is your confidence kind of taking a beating? Because you're living in Springfield. It's a long way from home. And it also has to at times feel like a long ways from where you want to be in terms of your career. You're watching a, they sign Happy Bullen. Okay, well, I guess I'm waiting a little bit more. And like you say, Deloreers play and whether he's playing well or not, he just continues to go in the net.

There's that uncertainty of wondering, I think it's going to happen. Is it ever going to happen? How unflappable was your confidence then? Yeah, it's, that's really it. It's hard to keep, like, it took a while for it to become frustrating. But there was times you just see, because guys get you know even just players and stuff they'd randomly get called up for a couple games and then sent down and they're all kind of getting his opportunities and and then again it was like it was just always deloree like would you always it was always him that got called up and and again like bucky i love bucky you know i had him had him in edmonton

as well but i didn't love him that year at all um he was i jd was just his guy it didn't matter didn't matter what happened. And so like that part was frustrating because then anytime somebody even just a small injury for a couple games, it was just automatically JD all the time. And then the following year just went through the entire year without anybody getting hurt. So there's no call-ups. And so again, like I said, I hadn't even touched an NHL bench. And this is now my fourth year playing professional hockey. A long time.

I hadn't even got a phone call. Yeah. And so, yeah, like that year it was. did start to kind of creep in where it's like like when you know I was I was an RFA going in it was I was on my option year and then was going in to another RFA year and it was like when when when's of at least a chance yeah play you know I but again looking back all great things I played a ton of hockey in Springfield got a ton of shots you know playing playing three and threes I I I just

a fair share of playing all three in a weekend. I can't remember the exact number of games I played the one season, but it was like, I think I want to say 62 or 65 out of like 70 something. So like all of these things, though, they help you learn and they help you. They're all tools that you get that help you when you get to the NHL, when you finally get to where you want to be, the grind, the back-to-backs. When I got traded in Minnesota here, I played seven back-to-backs in a row. And like, that's unheard of.

But I'm just like, I used to play three in three. back in the day like three and two and a half we'd play seven seven 30 and three o'clock in the afternoon on the bus and like but you learn all these things and and you just you know you learned it to be mentally tough and to be physically tough and and not complain and just work and get through it and you know all that stuff that you got to do kind of comes back to help you down the road yeah it's easier in hindsight when you know you're going to get there yes exactly well you just you always have to believe and I always did uh there That was probably, and I always say it's like this naive thing that I had since I was a kid.

I was going to play in the NHL. That's what was happening. And I always think back to my brother, I asked him, it was way too old to be asking him this question. I should have known by now. But I was like, hey, Dave, what team are you going to play on when you play in the NHL? He looked at me. He's like, I'm talking about it. He's like, I'm not going to play in the NHL.

It's like, you know, how hard is to play in the NHL? and like it was like caught me off guard because I was again too old did not know this but I would just thought that when you played in the NHL you just got to pick whatever team you wanted to play on because that's that's what everybody got to do and he's like I'm not going to play in the NHL and I'm not even close to good enough and I was like oh I am and like it just that's kind of how I went about everything I was just like oh I am and that was kind of was all the way through all the way through leading up through junior through the dress and I just that's kind of was all the way through leading up through junior through the dress. through my pro years, I just was like this had this naive thought that I knew I was going to play in the NHL and looking back on it, thank God I did, because if you don't, there's a lot of things that you can think about and a lot of things that you can worry about needing to fall into place instead of just going and playing hockey and really, I was just going and playing hockey. I just, I had this thing that I just knew was going to get there someday. and man there are a lot of things that had to fall into place for that to happen though yeah and it's that

oh 910 season happy booleon is in but has the back surgery yep so then you come and it's you and deloree at that point basically holding the fort and pat quins your i wouldn't call it holding the fort it was the two of us yes we were both on the roster yeah yeah you're getting you're getting you're getting a big big paycheck for the first time on a regular basis oh that was that was nice I couldn't believe. I was like, I remember the first time I got called up for like two days and I just couldn't wait to see the paycheck.

Yeah. The DM's nice. Every two weeks for this. This is nice. Yeah. Any Pat Quinn's stories? It was kind of a, because you had Tom Rennie and he's the associate,

but Quinn's coming in and that whole thing. I just remember those, those Oilers teams. It was a circus every time they came to town. Oh, man. Pat Quinn, he was, uh,

what a first coach to have. And I mean, obviously, Pat was getting older at the time that I was there. So I don't know if he was as sharp as when he was. I know he was a phenomenal coach. But I was a huge Pat Quinn fan. So, like, it was kind of, it was crazy for me, you know, with him coaching the Leafs and the Canucks. Like he was, like I said, I was forced to be a Leafs fan for my brother. And Kujo was there.

So I watched so many, so many Leafs games in their playoffs and everything, Pat Quinn was a coach. So for him to be the coach for me, like I thought it was a coach. coolest thing in the world. And Pat was super old school, like really old school. So he just, you know, he, he had his quirks. And, I mean, my first, well, I didn't play at all for like 20-some games. And then the first time I got in there was, it was hockey night in Canada in Vancouver. And so I just, normal day. I didn't expect that I was going to play anyway. Well, they scored four goals in like the first six minutes and Vancouver is good and place is going crazy. My family was there and I'm just like, oh God, I remember the second goal went in and kind of get like a little nervous pang and

then the third one goes in and I'm like, oh my God, this is like three minutes into the game. And I'm like, okay, so he doesn't put me in after the third one and I'm like, I know if I get another one I'm going to go in. So I'm sitting there and I'm just like trying to be as small as I can on the bench. And so they score the. the fourth one. And like, I don't think he, I really don't think he wanted to put me in, but I was just like, looking around like this. Like, yeah, please don't. And then he's just like, dover, get in there. And I'm like, oh, I mean, I must have just been as white as a ghost. So that was my first action. And then a little while later, I, again, my first start,

you think you may be like the day before maybe, like, you know, I don't need, you never want to give a guy like, you never want to be like, hey, you're starting next week. Like, there's no point in doing that. Um, maybe the, um, maybe the day. day before might be helpful though. So again, I show up for morning. We do our morning video. I'm already half dressed so that when the video is over, I throw my chest pad on. I'm going out to the ice to do the extra work. It's what I do every day because I haven't touched the ice. I'm playing. And as I'm walking out the morning in the game, I'm like almost on the ice. And Quitter, like, pokes his head out and it's like, do you're starting a night.

and I was just like like again just instant like so so nervous and all these thoughts going through and like again maybe a heads up than the day before it would have been okay yeah um gosh so many good quitter stories we went to a uh we went it was st patrick's day and we were a bunch of us we were going out to one of the irish bars

and emminton and we're and we're walking in it was like mid-afternoon or whatever is St. Patty's Day. And we see Quinter walking out. And we're like, oh, oh, no. It's like, duck, get out of the way. Like, trying to somehow avoid what we couldn't. We couldn't avoid them. And so we just kind of walked past and like, Pat, how is he doing it?

And how is it in there? And he walks by and he's like, oh, not a goddamn Irishman in that place. I think he's walking. And then we walked in and we're like, I don't know if you knew that was us. Like, I don't know, I don't know if, if, you like, you're just some guys going to have a drink. I don't know if you, like, put it together that we were who we were.

Yeah. And we're like, all right, I think we escaped one there. Oh, he's, you know what? He was just such. I thought it was cool because obviously he had his, his career and then was away from the game, then did the thing in Edmonton. And then when he coached the world junior team, it was just, that was like found money for him. and that they won and they got the gold medal,

you could just see so much joy in him. He knew that the career was basically done, but to win and be around really young, the young kids as opposed to maybe the pro side, it just feels so much more pure at that level. It was very cool. They have the hockey Canada, the celebration, when they take all the gold medal winning teams,

you would know this, and they give them the rings, and to see Pat that night, he was just beaming. But yeah, that is what a guy. And it's, isn't it funny? Your whole life, you can't wait to play in the NHL, get to an NHL game. So it's the preseason. Jesus, am I going to get put into this game?

Here, this guy's going to get pulled. I'm going to go in. You're like, shit scared to go in when this is what you've been wanting your whole life. Yeah, exactly. It's, you have been wanting it your whole life. And then all of a sudden you don't want it in that moment. You're like, if anything, please, please don't let this happen. Yeah.

So then, I mean, then you're in. You start in 1112, you start the season opener. you're kind of you're you're you're there's no there's really no doubt there's no one really pushing whether or not you want like you say so you were the goalies at the time but you were you were you were you were there now did it feel like you had arrived was it just by virtue of who else who else have they drafted what else is around did you or did you feel like my play and just where i'm at i'm i'm an nchel now i'm here to stay yeah um i mean i i felt like i felt like this start i was an nchler after that 0-9-10 season,

then I got a one-way deal. I think, you know, I obviously got better as that season went on, but it was a good going into the summer. We were in the rotation with Deloree, and I got the second last game of the year. We played in L.A., and then the next day we played Anaheim,

and I got L.A., and we got outshot 55 to 12, I think, and we won four to three. So that was like my best game of the year. Yeah. And then we went in the next day in Anaheim. We lost eight to one. And so that was kind of the final ticket that I punched.

And then I got a two-year one-way contract. So then the next year, that's when I kind of felt like I made it. I knew going into camp that I was going to be on the team. And then that season, but Habe was the starter, of course, and I was back up. And I kind of slowly started to chip away during that year of just playing a little bit more and playing a little bit more. But I think the moment that starting that 2011, 12, getting the start in the home opener was kind of, it was a really cool moment because I had kind of chipped away at it the year before. But then coming into camp still is still like me, I just assumed Habie was a starter. And I was just going to kind of keep working and keep grinding away and getting more ice time.

And I had a good camp and I was prepared for camp and preseason was good. good. And we were playing Pittsburgh in the first in the season opener, which obviously was a very tough matchup and they're important games. And so when Tom Rennie told me that I was getting the start for our season over, that was kind of a, that was a pretty cool moment for me because that was a choice that I was the starting goal tender at the time. And is that the year, this is 1112, you get that season opener, but then the start is a little shaky, four winning just four of your first 13?

No, that was probably the year I got traded. That would have been, no. So that was probably for 13, 14. Okay, because I was just looking, because then you go on a tear you win, 16 of your last 17. Oh, maybe that was it. I don't know.

Yeah, you're the four. The left, maybe that is right. You're the guy. You've taken over. you've played more in the net than anybody else. You have a great strong finish to the season. And then it's the work stoppage to start the next season.

So momentum would be good. It'd be nice if we could just keep things on the rails here. And that was another good one season end or two with it. We were in Vancouver. This was going into the lockout. But that year, it was a contract year again. That was an RFA. And so we were playing in Vancouver for the last game.

the season obviously we've been out of playoffs since November at this point since game 20 but this is like Taylor Hall he's this is that the start of his all Ryan Whitney Alishamski yeah we we still had a bunch of the guys and so we're in we're in Vancouver in Vancouver was won the president's trophy this year right and so obviously we go to Vancouver it's the last game of the year nobody cares for We're just waiting for the summer to start. So, you know, some guys go out and they have a night and you knew what was going to happen. I was like, personally, I'm like going into a contract year, I'm like, it's one more game.

Just like take care of yourself, go to bed and finish the game. You can have as much fun as you want after. Sure. But I mean, obviously didn't care if anybody else went out. That was my choice. So, and then in the morning I saw some of the guys and I was like, oh, boy. Fellas. This was going to be a tough one tonight.

And I'm like, last game of season contract year. Yeah. And so we're at the rink. And it was between Vancouver and the Rangers, I believe, for the president's trophy. And if the Rangers won earlier on, then Vancouver needed to win to get the president's trophy. And if the Rangers lost in Vancouver didn't need to win, and I'm sure they wouldn't, like, the Cedines wouldn't have played. They would have been a completely different story.

Well, sure enough, the Rangers win. And so I'm like watching this Rangers game and it's out east. So it was on well before and I'm watching this Rangers game. Like just like hoping to God they didn't win. Of course they win. So I'm like, great. Now we're getting foot on the gas from Vancouver like out of the gates with a very dehydrated team. And I got, I came to the bench for the first TV timeout and they were out shooting us 17 to 3 at the first TV timeout.

And I remember happy he was on the bench and he was like, Are you okay? Okay, and he's like, he told me after the game. He was like, that's the first time I ever thought I was going to have to go in just because you were getting so many shots and they were going to take you out. Like, I've never been that was like in that situation before. So we ended up losing three nothing, but I had a really good game. So that was a nice lead up.

And then I got a two-year deal for three and a half. Yeah. Yeah. That was another like, you want to go. back to like the the WHL draft where like I had no idea what what my contract was my agent said three north of three I was thinking like 1.2 yeah and he started talking about three and a half and I was like what yeah career yeah I was that was crazy um so that was that was great and I was super excited for that contract and then wasn't getting paid it because there was a lockout

yeah but then I had a great season coming out of that shortened season you know everything was tracking in the right direction. That was probably my best year, even though it was a shortened year. And I think I had a 921 say percentage that year. Yeah. You know, I mean, we can't go on forever,

but I mean, obviously I could. It's just being close to it, you just remember, well, Dubnick, first rounder of the Oilers, and he played some games, but it didn't work out,

so they moved on. I mean, your numbers along the way, 921, 914, what, the last, now the last year, the year that you get traded, things didn't go well,

and I'm not sure specifically I can ask you about it, but I feel like Devin Dubnick was a better Oilers goalie than I remember the stories about him being written. Is that fair? Or what's your takeaway on it?

Yeah, it's great. I go back to Evanton now, and everybody was like, oh, we should have traded you. Like, you were great when you were here on bad teens. And like, I mean, that it's, it's, that's how I felt,

you know, like, my numbers were okay. My numbers were pretty good considering. And I felt like I was getting better and better. And that was kind of the most important thing is I felt like I was each year, each season, I was growing, I was getting better all the way to that,

to that shortened season. We're at 9-21. And we kind of pushed for the playoffs that year, like as long as we had in the entire time I was there. And then, you know, all the changes after they fired Ralph Kruger, which I was upset. about because I thought he did a great job and it was the best that we had played as a team and the closest we'd been as a team. And that was his one season as the head coach and it was the

best season we'd had. And McTavish came in as a new GM and he fired Ralph right away, which kind of, I think, you know, bothered everybody that was there because we all loved Ralph. And again, it was the best season we'd had. It was the closest we'd been as a group. Everything was starting to like we were starting to see progress with this young group yeah uh and the group of guys that we had you know i was still a young goalie um but we had taylor hall and nuge and everly jason shaltz and and all this group and we finally started to see it come together a little bit and then he comes in and he fires ralph so that kind of bothered people a little bit and then you know i don't think mack t liked me much uh i don't think he liked me much when he was the coach when i got drafted

and it was pretty obviously he didn't like me that much when he came as a GM as well because shortly after that all the trade rumors started coming up and all these news articles coming out about trying to trade for Bernier excuse me trying to trade for Corey Schneider and then it felt like he was trying to trade for anybody that could put on a pair of pads that wasn't me and it was frustrating and confusing to me

because here I am coming off of the best year that I've had in my career with a sign a deal sign a deal. And now it's like you're trying to trade for anybody that can play goalie. And then, you know, he tried to do damage control after the trades didn't work and talk to me and said that he was just trying to get somebody to push me. And he likes that I like being in Edmonton.

And he wants me there for a long time. And then I'm like, okay. Yeah. That's tough. Actions louder than words, right? So, you know, that was like that kind of kick started a pretty not not the best. narrative going into that season. And then, you know, I, there was a lot of expectations for a team because we had

taken steps. But then we had a new coach. And, you know, I think Dallas is a great guy. Yeah. I think that he's, he's a good coach and everybody that's had him likes him. I don't think that he was himself when he was with us. I don't either. And I think he's said as much years down.

Yes, I think he's admitted that too. And, you know, I had a chat with him the day I got traded and he sat down. we had great conversation and I was like, why don't you talk to me like this when I was on your team? Yeah. Like, you know, and I, so, but that, hey, that happens. Those are learning things, but, but that's why, like, for me, I'm, I look at everybody that's played for him before and everybody loved them. And so it just, that was a learning experience for him that he tried to be somebody that he wasn't. Yeah. And it sounds like, you know, he's gone back to who he is, but yeah, it does. So we had that and then we had, we had higher expectations that,

but we weren't that good of a team. And so we had these like expectations that were above what we actually were. And then I put all this pressure on myself and was frustrated with what happened in the summer. And the first like five games were an absolute nightmare. And my stats were buried in the ground. So I started to play better and actually leveled out a little bit. But I mean, at that point it was over. And, you know, they brought it in Briss Gallow.

And he was playing over me. and you know I knew the writing was on the wall. I did up numbers myself over this stretch because again, like I said, those first five games were like a write-off for me. So my numbers looked horrendous. And I, Briss came in and he kept playing. And I went to Dallas and I said, why is Briss playing every game? And I showed him like in the last, my last 10 games and Brizz's last 10 games.

and we were essentially the same, if anything, I had a little, little bit better stats, but negligible, not something that you'd argue, but essentially the same. It's like,

okay, so why is he playing all these games over me? When, you know, I'm supposed to be like, the guy, like you just signed them randomly to a one-year contract.

Yeah. And we have essentially the same stuff going on. Why is he starting over me? And he didn't have an answer for him. me and that's what I knew it was coming from somewhere else. Yeah. And so I knew that the ticket was punched out of town. I just didn't know where yet.

Still a shock when the news comes. It's January 15th of that season. So you get to January and then it's off to Nashville. I would think that's hard. The team that you've been drafted by. And then like you say, it feels like we were going a direction and then changes are made. And now you're almost, you're having to fight inside your own home, right?

I got to try and convince the coach and the GM. And that has to, heartbreaking might be a little over the top, but it's got to be extremely disappointing. It was extremely disappointing, even though you knew it was coming. And that was, that was, you kind of made a good, good point there. It was, it was like, why am I trying to, it's just like, you're trying to prove yourself over and over and over again. And it was like every year, it was new coach and a new GM and a new coach.

And it was like, and then, you know, you work all these years to get, and then you have the best year. And it's right back to like, I got to show up and just like start over again and try to impress a guy who obviously doesn't like me. And it was like everything that I'd ever done was thrown out the window. And then it becomes frustrating. But yeah, when that first call happens and I got it, you know, I knew there was a chance, but it wasn't trade deadline or anything.

So it wasn't like really, you know what's coming. And we were in Minnesota at the time. And I got a call from the assistant GM and he asked me to come to his room. And I was like, oh, yeah, like that's not normal. And so as I'm walking to the elevator, also my phone starts to just blow up. And because that's how quickly everything travels, all the, all the news always reports it before you even get a chance to know. So I hadn't even gotten to the to the assistant GM's room yet to have the conversation. And my phone was already blown up.

I didn't look at it because I knew it put it together at the time. But, you know, that's when I had the conversation with Dallas. It was a great conversation. It went on, but I'll never forget. Like, it was really weird because I went and met Nashville in Philadelphia, so everything was a whirlwind, and my wife was at home, and we had our just one son at the time. And we were already on the road, so we were already in the middle of a road trip,

and then I just go to Nashville, and it's like, like, you call her and you're like, hey, I got traded in Nashville, like I'm not coming home. Yeah. Like, I'm now in Nashville home. Yeah, which is now home. I live in the U.S. and I'm not coming home. Yeah.

So you got to figure all this stuff out. And then I go to bed and like wake up in the morning and like forget that you weren't playing for the Oilers anymore. And you'd be like, oh, maybe I can like get traded back or like sign with them in the off season. Like you have all these weird thoughts. And it's just surreal. And it takes a long time to to realize that especially that first time being traded. Village Honda, day one, an OG partner of Barnburn. and of course a proud presenter for whatever reason of the Pinder report coming up august 23rd it is the fifth annual

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And we're back with more Barnburner. Did you so, okay, new team. Nashville, here we go, right? These guys, they traded for me. Finally, I've got a team that wants me. It was a short stint there as well. what was the Nashville experience? Yeah, it wasn't great.

They were, I mean, listen, when I got traded, I was like damaged goods at this point. I've been beaten up pretty bad in Edmonton. My game sucked. My confidence wasn't there. And so going to Nashville, they were competing for the playoffs. So there's a situation where they didn't have time to play me if I wasn't ready. to play. I didn't play very well in my first game that we lost. And then we got we lost in a shootout in Calgary. Those are the only two games that I played. But I don't know. I, I think Mitch

Corn was there. And personally, I think that he wanted to, he wanted to bring me in and fix me, to say that he fixed me. And so he, he was a little aggressive on me. And, um, on me. And so he, he was a little aggressive on me that way confidence-wise. And again, I always, I always go back and like, listen, I didn't help myself through any of this because I didn't stop the puck. And if I'd stop the puck, then things wouldn't have, would have been a lot easier. But I felt like Mitch gave up on me pretty quick when he realized that the situation that I was in instead of trying to help me through it, I feel like he he had brought me there to try to fix me and then kind of, it was like, okay, he's unfixable and kind of left me alone. And you see,

both sides. There's so much pressure to win. Winning didn't happen a lot in Nashville. They don't have time for a project, but at the same time, it's two games. It's not really a body of work where you can prove to anybody anything. Yeah, it was interesting. I mean, it was like the day

after I got traded there, he went and we went in the video room and he showed me all these video clips and it was like me getting scored on and then like another goalie doing like a similar play, but not really the same play, but making the save. and he was like showing me how all these goalies were better than me. And then after that first game, we were, obviously I was not happy, new team, new teammates.

I didn't play well. We lost. We were in Nashville at home. We lost. I'm bummed out sitting in my stall. He comes over and he starts naming these goalies. And so he'd be like, Corey Crawford, Sergey Robosky, quick and powerful. You, you're not quick and powerful.

powerful. And so he was going through all these goalies and like saying that they were quick and powerful. And then he'd be like, you, you're not quick and powerful. And this is like after just, just like, I'm already like devastated at this game and this loss. And then he came in and did that. I just remember being like after a week of being there. I was like, why did you trade for me? Like you trade for me. Like, and you just keep telling me that I suck. Like, I'm confused. I suck. I can't catch the puck. I'm not in shape. I mean, it was just like, it was like this every day. And I just remember being confused as like, you know, I was 26 years old. And I'm like, why'd you trade for me? Yeah. And then two months later, they trade you away. It is all very peculiar.

I don't know, like even today, when you can look back and everything works out fine, it's what, what, what were they expecting to see? What, what mortgage aside from stop the puck, like you said, But if you traded for me two months ago and then played me twice, it's just, it's hard to figure. But the game is a funny thing. And then it's off to Montreal. Why does Montreal trade for you? Well, that was another confusing one.

Obviously, I was just insurance because Peter Boudai was there. What I was told was that they weren't, they weren't super confident in him. as prices back up, so they wanted insurance for me. So I had already cleared waivers in Nashville. Then they traded for me. So after the trade, I talked to Montreal and they said, you're going to go down to, I hadn't played for a while at this point, obviously, because there was an Olympic break too in there.

And so they're like, you're going to go down to Hamilton for the weekend. You've got three and three. You play a couple of the games. And we'll call you on Monday and let you know what the plan is. that was the last I heard from anybody in the Montreal organization. So I went down to Hamilton and then waited for a phone call on Monday and never came. And then I was just in Hamilton, didn't hear from anybody in Montreal for the entire time.

But you were with the Bulldogs, right? Were you playing? With the Bulldogs? Yeah, they were out of playoffs too. So it was, I played a couple games. And then there was three of us down there, Tarkarski myself. and I guess Meyer was his last name, Swiss kid. And so there was, I think there was, I don't know,

however many games left in the season, the coach came in and he said, all you guys are all going to get seven games. There's out of the 21 games since the trade, you guys are going to get seven games. And I was like, this was, I just played a back-to-back. And so I had like played my seven games. There are still two weeks left in the season. So I was like, so.

You're doing math. You're doing math again. Yeah. I was like, so am I done? And he's like, yeah. And I was like, okay. Yeah. So then I just didn't play for the last two weeks of that season.

And then on top of all that, then they tell me I'm a black ace. Yeah. For the Canadians for their playoff run. So I didn't see my, my wife or kid for like 10 weeks at this. point they let me go home for two days to edmonton after the season and they're like you have to come back on this day the day that they made me come back i was on a plane and montreal swept Tampa bay on that day and i'm like why did you make me come back like yeah you give me two days at

home so i went back and then um was there doing black gay stuff skating with five six 19 year old 20-year-old players. Right. Like it sounds it sounds great. It's a playoffs. Yeah. No, I've done that before. I did that. I did that with the Oilers in 06 when I was when I was one of those kids and it was great because it was that. It was exciting and I was 19 years old and all this stuff. And not this time. And so we got the, they got to the second round.

It was just grinding and feel bad saying it. But obviously you're just, you're kind of hoping they lose because I just want to go home. Yeah. And so they beat Boston in games. seven and I just I had enough I called my agent I just said I'm going home I'm not doing this anymore there's no there's no there's no they don't have a future for me I'm not an asset I'm not going to resign here I'm like fourth on the depth chart like I'm not going to see any action so they were good about it I just said you know I got more important things to be doing with my life

right now than then I got a kid at home in a life that I haven't been there for the second half of the season yeah so they were good about it they said no we understand if I went home the day I home, Kerry Price gets hurt. And everybody's like looking like, all of a sudden they look at the depth chart of like who's who's there who's going to play and oh, Devin Dubnick's there. And all of a sudden I'm doing like interviews on Hockey Night in Canada. I'm like, if that hadn't happened, I bet you people wouldn't even have known I was on the roster. Yeah. Any other team, right? You even fly under the radar, not Montreal. No, the day after I decided to go home, I was doing phone interviews with Hockey Night in Canada.

Then I have to explain to everybody why I went home. and why I wasn't there anymore. And so it was just, it was crazy. So that lovely deal that you signed, it's done. You were like five years, NHL, you're an NHL guy. And then it just feels like in the course of months, how do I get back in? What kind of a helpless feeling almost is that offseason

before you then signed in Phoenix? Well, I still, again, that naive kind of knowing that it was going to be okay thing, just kind of kind of came in and and uh it was a little scary uh right towards the start of free agency because i was like you know i've played five years in the league like it was one one bad year like i'm i mean yes i'm going to have to go go get back to playing well and yeah but i'm i was comfortable doing that but i'm like i'm sure there's going to be options and there wasn't options a lot of a lot of teams wanted to sign me to a two-way i just couldn't believe uh the lack of options um that were there and Arizona was the only team that that offered me a one-way deal and it was

I knew it wasn't going to be multiple years from anybody but it was one-year deal um on they were the only team that offered me a one-way contract I think Philadelphia came in late but I had already agreed to go to to Arizona and uh yeah that was there was that scary moment there for a little bit where it was kind of like oh wow this is not not what I expected for teams really have written me off And so I was happy with that. It was a great spot to go to get away from all the pressure, go be able to just play hockey and not have all the media attention and focus on it, obviously being in Arizona.

And then getting to work with Sean Burke. And it was a place that I was familiar with. I'd obviously played against coyotes plenty of times, Tippett, and the coaches knew me, Berkey knew me. So they had confidence in me from the get-go. I didn't feel like I had to go in and do anything. I just had to go back in and play goal. and start having fun and enjoying my time again.

And I was able to do that with the, it was a great group of guys there. And then the coaches were fantastic too. And just started kind of growing my game back and getting my confidence back and getting the enjoyment back in the game. And then also getting to work with Sean Burke was great. Yeah. You know, it's funny because I think back to it now.

And you, with what you were about to do in Phoenix and then in Minnesota, you really raised the stature of Sean Burke. Not that he needed it. I mean, here's a guy. He was a long time NHL goaltender. Everyone knew who he was. But with what you two were able to do to resurrect your game, your confidence, your mental state, the whole thing, because then you go to Minnesota and explode. You've probably been asked it a million times.

And I hate asking guys questions. I get asked all the time. But the relationship, the work, what's done with Sean Burke to basically 180 what looked like where your career was had it. Yeah. So, I mean, in Berkey, you'll tell you too, it wasn't like this, you know, there's not like this magic recipe that he has that he does, but, but for me, it was a combination of things

for me is, is one with Berkey was, it was that he knew me, so he'd watched me play my entire career. So, you know, I knew he had confidence in me. He's very calm guy. He kind of gives you confidence without saying anything.

But you knew with Berkey too, on the off-eye side, of it is that if you if you did what he what he was asking and worked um and put in the work and that he was going to have your back and so you always knew like in the coaches room and they respected him and and what he had to say but you always knew he's going to have your back so that was just like the confidence that he that he gave me without really doing anything um was a huge part of it and then when it came to to the on-eye stuff it was very simple stuff like he told me um he's like you you need you need to have your feet set. You need to beat passes on your feet. You need to have your feet set.

And then you can stop the puck from there. And wherever that is in your crease, you've got to figure out where you can be in your crease in order to be able to do that. Because obviously, if somebody's a crazy good skater, they can be further out in their crease. Somebody can't skate as while. They're going to have to be further back. Or depending on the game situation in front of you, you've got to be different depths. And so we worked on finding what depth that was for me. I wasn't going to play on my goal line like Mike Smith. You know, Smitty was able to do that because he had such great hands. And then skating wise, I think I skated a little bit better than Smitty so I could be out

a little further. But I couldn't play that deep because my hands weren't like Mike Smith had some of the best gloves I've ever seen in my life. For him to be able to stand on his goal line and just pick pucks off was mind blowing. But it was just finding that spot where I could be in all these different situations. where I could beat passes and beat plays on my feet. And that was kind of the basis

of what we started to do. And then I mean, we really just like, it was just repetitions. Like we did the same stuff every day. And it was just simple like pass here, push stop, pass across, push stop shot. And it was like you say none of that is. And over.

Yeah. Like none of that's revolutionary. It's the rebuilding of your mental state and your confidence. Yeah. Just feeling like you are appreciated. And you're in a. a good spot. That's for anybody in any walk of life, that makes a huge difference. And then were you sad when you find out it's ending in Phoenix? Because it's finally starting to go well.

You're feeling good. Is this another trade where I'm going to go somewhere and not be appreciated and watch things spiral again? No, I was excited. You know, it was funny because going into that season with Arizona, I was like, you know, I kind of changed my mindset a little bit and just, I just wanted to enjoy my time in the NHL and just be grateful that I had a spot in the NHL and maybe, you know, accept that maybe not that I couldn't play, but maybe just business-wise that time had passed that I wasn't going to get a chance to be a starting goal anymore because I was 28 years old and, you know, somebody's not just going to jump and necessarily give me a chance. So I just kind of had this attitude of like, I'm just going to enjoy every time I get a chance to

play. And if I got to be a backup for the rest of my career, I'm going to be happy that I'm in the NHL. And so went in with that and it was great and it took the pressure off and made it it was enjoyable and all this stuff. And then, but then it's like, you start to play and you play well and then he's to play a couple in a row. And then next time it's like three in a row. And then then the it starts to come back. And then it's like, well, no, I'm not, I'm not okay with just being a backup. Like you start to get the itch and you want to play. And, you know, then there were a couple kind of talks with my agent about teams, teams kind of looking around. nothing that serious though and then and then it kind of just happened and again i remember

it was more it was more having to call my wife again and be like sure i'm leaving again like it was it just felt like i mean it just happened a year ago um so that was five teams and just under a calendar year right yeah and uh so that was the hard part there um but then going to minnesota just like that was that's what was kind of great about that situation i just say it was kind of like the perfect storm of going in. And like I was just playing with House Money at this point. Like from where I was going into the season, Mike Smith's there.

Like I didn't know if I was going to even get 20 games with, you know, fortunately for me, he had an off year and was struggling. So it allowed me opportunity to play. But going into the year, I went from, I don't even know if I'm going to play 20 games. Now going into Minnesota, every game I get is a bonus. And I also going to Minnesota, like I knew they were a really good team. so that just wasn't playing well.

Like I played against Minnesota tons. Like this is a really good roster that's just like really struggling right now and the goalies are having a tough time. So it wasn't like going to a shitty team trying to make them good, which I don't think anybody can do. You can obviously make them better. This is going to a really good roster and an opportunity to play for a good team that just happened to be struggling.

So it was kind of like bonus time. So I didn't go in there and like, look, I think they had a 2% chance of making the playoffs. 8 points out, right? When you get there? Yeah. Eight points out of the playoffs. And I remember just being in the media. It was like, oh, Minnesota, a depth, depth move.

But you, because of injuries in that, you are kind of the number one. You're going into play. There's no way you could, no one could have expected how much you were going to play a record 38 in a row. Yep. Yeah. And again, that was the thing. Like, you almost have to, like, if somebody came in, like, you're going to start the next 38 games. And you guys have a 2% chance of making the playoffs.

Like, if all of this stuff was, like, in your head playing these games, like, that doesn't work that way. But I went in and was like, I had no idea how much I was going to play. Because they had Baxter and Kemper, and they were just like, they played very poorly, which is what made them make the trade and not, like, there was three goalies on the roster. So I was just like, I knew they were going to give me a chance to play because they wanted somebody else to be playing.

And so the first two games were great. And then I lost a couple or a lost one. The first one you get a shutout over Buffalo. Yeah. And then we beat Arizona two to one. I think we lost four to two to Columbus. And then I played, then it was a back-to-back Columbus at home in Detroit.

And I didn't play very well in that one. I got pulled in the second period. But we ended up losing a shootout. So we still got a point out of that one. Then it was the All-Star break. So I went back to Arizona to get all my stuff and kind of you just regroup and everything has been a whirlwind and everything. And then going back and coming out of the All-Star break, it was when I really kind

of took off. I knew I was going to be starting out of the All-Star break. And I think we started in Edmonton, actually, and started that one. And then I really started to, like, really play well. And we really just started rolling. And then it was just like it was a week. And then it was five games. and then it was eight and then it was 10 and there was a few back-to-backs in there and then

it got to the point where every game mattered so much and we needed every single point and the longer it went the longer the other guys hadn't played for and there was no there was no time to put in a guy who hadn't played for a month and a half into a game that we like had to win and we were winning every game so it was just like I don't know it just happened without ever really thinking of it and then that on top of having three goalies on the roster and not needing to practice. I never had to go on the ice on non-game days because we had two goalies for a full practice. So I only practiced like twice between, between, I don't know, end of January and like the middle of March. I only practice twice on non-game days. I just do this because we play four times

a week pretty much. I do the same thing. I play the game. Come in the morning. Wouldn't go on the ice. I just do off-ice maintenance stuff. Next day, pre-game skate, play. Next day, go to the rink. Like I was always at the rink all the time, but I never had to go on the ice and practice, which is you can't play 30 games in the row and be taking missiles and practice both mentally and physically going down and getting hit by pucks, just seeing

pucks flying at you on days that you don't need to. But you can't always do that because you can't have full practice without two goalies. So I was fortunate enough. They had two NHL golees to practice when I wasn't, on off days and I didn't have to go on the ice.

It's a movie, right? It's because here's a guy, highly touted guy, first round pick, and then the wheels kind of come off and it's maybe over, but then all of a sudden, and it wasn't. Everything feels like I was saying, that three-year stretch feels like, oh, it was, it happened so fast. 27, nine, and two, you showed up,

you took over the net and you didn't give it up, and you make the playoffs. It's truly, it's like a Disney movie or something. Yeah. I mean, like within, so in a, in 365 days from, I mean, you can pick all the parts. The crazy thing is actually I got, I got trade on January 15th from Edmonton. We were in Minnesota staying at the St. Paul Hotel. Yeah.

I got traded on the 14th to. One year later. One year later. Exactly. So on January 15th, I checked back into the St. Paul Hotel as a member of Minnesota. Exactly one year later. But then I go back to the summer or two of having one-one-way offer. not knowing if I'm going to be playing in the NHL anymore.

And 365 days later, I was at the NHL Awards nominated for the Vesna, fourth and Hart Trophy, and getting the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy all within a calendar year. It's such a cool story that, you know what, probably you don't do it because no one would believe it. It seems too ridiculous to put on paper. And not about guys, you talk about in a contract year, you try and perform well? Not bad, son. Not a bad year to be a Vesna nominee and fourth in heart voting.

A nice fat contract from maybe get a one way, one year to a six year deal. Yeah. And it was finally, you know, that job security finally because I'd just been doing one in two years. So that was a pretty crazy feeling. And just getting, it was a special time in Minnesota too. So, you know, it was a place that I was excited to be. I wanted, you know, I didn't, I didn't want to go anywhere else. I wanted to stay in Minnesota.

And it was tight. I mean, we were down to like pennies in the cap. That's why it was, that's why it was difficult to do. But it ended up being a six-year deal anyway because they couldn't do, you know, it was probably the realistic deal that we had was four, was five million for four years. They couldn't do that. they didn't have the cat like it was I mean it was down to yeah that that type cap because they had signed grandin I think in coil a needer rider I think we're all needed to be re-signed as well and so

that's when the idea to have to stretch it out to shrink it to do the six years I think of 4.33 yeah um to get it down that's why it ended up being a six year deal um which was uh yeah it was it was very exciting and then and then again unique challenges after that because then it's like then there's this new challenge where you go into camp. And yes, you have the job security and everything. But now it's like the season before, it's all this bonus time. You know, it's great.

It's cute, right? Oh, look, he's winning all these games. Now you're going to, you know, now you're expected to do this. And you're expected to do it all the time. You're expected to do like, and if you're not, then, then, you know, people are upset. And so there's a whole different mentality. And that's why you see, you know, I see guys where I got,

I got time for him. You got to understand. Like it's a different pressure. Like look at Jeremy Swayman and he comes in and, you know, we're all, we're all human beings. Like that's the same thing with Sway is he's, he's an incredible goaltender. And but, you know, he's playing with, with Allmark and he's got a nice little security blanket there. They're one, two, their buddies, everything's going good. They're two guys.

They're a pair. And now he gets this big contract and now he's the guy. Yeah. And now he's by himself. And now he's expected to do all this. This isn't like, oh, the one. two, you know, everything's great, everybody's playing. Well, now it's just a different pressure, and it's not that you can't handle it.

It says sometimes it just takes a little bit to adjust to it. And it took me a little bit coming out of that to get back to a high level. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself and ended up getting there. But I look at Swam and I feel the same thing. Like it's not that he can't handle it. It just takes a little bit of time to adjust to it. Yeah. You did get there, though.

It's six seasons in all in Minnesota. and then as it happens, players get to the end of their career and, you know, things, it's father time, as they say, he's undefeated. But there was, I think there was maybe potential for skeptics to say, well, now he's got the big, like you say, he's got the big money deal and he's good for short spurts. But can you, I mean, you were an all-star of the next year. You continue to play well. You're right there with either number one or two in all-time Minnesota Wild goalie records.

You're one of the greatest goalies in franchise history. why did it finally, when you look back, was it just, is it the market? Is it maturity? Because you're the same guy. The pads, for the most part, are the same. The same one goes in the same leg, right? But now, here you are. You finally arrived and you're a bona fide NHL star.

Yeah. Again, I think it's a lot of things going to that. I mean, I learned a ton and changed my game. Like, again, going back, going into that. Seasoned in Arizona, I learned some stuff in the summer, and then continue to learn that as well, as far as head position, head tracking. I continue to learn that throughout to the end of my career, which is a big part of that. But again, you know, Minnesota is a good hockey team.

And it's a great city. It's a great state that loves hockey. We still live here now. But finding my game, getting to play, you know, doing that 38 games in a row. and then playoffs and all this stuff is like you take it all in and you learn stuff and you grow and you get better and your game grows and changes along the way without you even realizing it so that stretch of playing all this one it's high pressure hockey two you got a good team in front of you you start to trust everything all this stuff happens and i was growing my game during that stretch without really

thinking about it that way um to where it was it was a great fit and and my game had had grown it wasn't I didn't just magically become who I was, you know, playing in three All-Star games, playing 65 plus a year. You know, all that happened as I grew as I started in Arizona and got traded in Minnesota and all the games I played. I grew into that goalie. I didn't just like discover him.

It was everything that happened beforehand. And now I would guess when you get, why are you still in Minnesota? You probably get a pretty nice house after you sign a nice, a nice big deal you might want to stay there you got kids you got the boys on the go and you have a unique perspective to be able to talk to not just kids but players of any age really about that mental aspect that you know failure can it doesn't mean it's over it can just be fuel if you use it correctly what are what are the things that you do and try and help other players and

other athletes with that mental side well i have my uh my kids obviously that i get to work with and I actually just started a new program called Dubnick Development. And that was kind of a lot of thought that went into it was that part of it. It's a mentorship program that kind of covers everything from on ice to off ice and everything that comes with being a goalie. I did a video. It's very video heavy. There's two different programs.

There's a local program for kids that are. that are in Minnesota that I can go on the ice with, but I also wanted to create a remote program that I could do with anybody in North America. And really, there's no real age thing other than, other than I wanted to work with peewee and hire just because of the concepts I'm giving the kids and also being able to do video

and be able to translate that onto the ice just through video. Obviously, as you get to a younger and younger age, it becomes a little more difficult to do. So I wanted to try to find that age. But, you know, so with the on ice and the video stuff, but everything that comes along with being a goaltender, how to practice, how to get the most out of practice,

how to be a good teammate, how to deal with stuff in the dressing room, how to deal with all of these pressures, and all of this stuff that I went through that we just talked about learning how to navigate this stuff and not just experience it, but come out at the top. and I tell people I've been through just about every up and down you can imagine in a career from, you know, junior, world juniors to first round draft pick, to starting in the East Coast League, to being an NHL starter, to to being a third goalie in the minors, to literally choosing to go home from the Montreal Canadians. Like I've been everywhere and navigated all this.

I felt everything that you can feel. and I want to be able to help other people go through this process. Obviously, every journey is different, but to be able to not just give the kids the on-ice stuff because I can provide that as well, and that's a big part of the program. But to have it a full mentorship program and deal with all this stuff and help the mom and dad,

help the families understand what they're going through, just everything that comes with being a goaltender, I wanted to create this unique program that, you know, I'm only taking eight to ten kids on because it is a full, full program that I want to be able to give all my time. And I'm really excited to get started with it. That's cool. So I feel bad. I bet you need to drink water. Yeah, I know. I don't know what's going on here. I knew it was going to go this way. It's just such a cool story.

I got it. Now, just so where can people find more info on the Dubnick development? It's Dubnickdevelopment.com. So you can visit the website. I worked hard on the website to try to try to explain kind of exactly what the program is. But if you get on there and read everything, there's an application page. Everything comes directly to me. It's me and only me. And for the people that apply, I schedule a phone call, go over the program, everything

that comes with it and just kind of what we explain there and more about the head tracking. and all this stuff. And I know it works because I did this, I did a video program with the guy that came up with the head tracking technique the last six years of my career. So I've done it through the video. I know that it works. You know,

and I love just getting to work with all different types of goaltenders as well. That's one thing I like to really push is working with kids' strengths and understanding that everybody stops the puck differently and not trying to teach every kid to stop the puck the exact same way because we're all built differently. We all see the game in front of us differently and our bodies move differently. So every kid can stop the puck their own way

as long as they're stopping the puck and understanding and just getting the most out of each kid. So apply on the website, Dubnickdevelopment.com. Go check it out. It took me a long time to get that thing done, but I think it looks pretty good. And yeah, it can be the remote program, can be anybody in North America.

That's why I thought it would be cool to open that up to maybe some people back home as well. Very cool. And not a lot of guys would necessarily care to do that. Once the career's over, they could just kind of just fade away or do whatever they want that you want to give back. It's very cool. You've been doing some media work. I know you were doing stuff with Oilers Nation guys with the Nation Network. You've always been very good speaker in terms of that.

Are you enjoying that part of post career? Yeah, it's been great. I started doing stuff with NHL Network and then didn't do much of that this year. and then I kind of started to miss it a little bit. So the thing came up with Oilers Nation, it worked great. It just started with a couple weekly segments and then wanted to expand on it. It's been a blast. We got to ask the UB show now.

And what a fun ride it was in playoffs. They asked if I wanted to do pre-imposed. And I said, sure, I didn't know what I was getting into. And it just was so much fun to be able to go through that and kind of like be invested. and be a fan through it. I mean, I couldn't tell you the last time that I did anything, like watching Stanley Cup playoffs that wasn't your own team where you actually, like, really cared that much about the game.

So it was so much fun to do and just be, like, emotionally invested in a team was really cool. So I've enjoyed that, and I'm hoping to maybe get back on NHL Network next year as well. Continue to do that, and that's a nice thing I can do both of these things as well. but just working with the kids as my kids get older, my oldest is a goalie now, and being on the ice and working with younger goalies, it's just I realize how much I enjoyed it and how much I love helping the younger kids,

and that's where the idea for this program came. Well, I know we were very excited with the run, too. We were cheering very hard here in Calgary, a certain way. Yeah. We had a few different teams to cheer for along the way, but it was quite a ride. I appreciate your time.

I felt like I was going to end up going along with you, but I do appreciate it. It's awesome to see how this ends. July 4th, 2015, we signed the big deal. What happens that day? I'm always curious when guys get their nice UFA, July 1 deal, in this case, it was July 4th. But what does Devin Dubnick do that day?

I didn't do a lot that day. It was a relief more than anything because it was like, leading up to it was like, oh, of course I'm going to sign in Minnesota. And then it was like, can we? And so it was, it was really tense. And then you start thinking, like, well, what if I go somewhere else? Where would I go? And then the whole, like, moving thing comes in again.

I was, I was in a grocery store. I was grabbing a couple of things in Colonna. I was by myself. I just ran down the street. And the text came through that it was done. So I just remember calling my wife, I mean, like, it's done. Yeah. Like, there's no celebration.

I had no one to, like, hug or high five or anything. I was by myself in a grocery store. It's like holding a jar of peanut butter. Yeah. Just signed a $26 million deal. Go back and get some ice cream sandwiches to celebrate or something. Yeah. Everyone's got a different story, but it is all as well that ends well.

Very cool story. Dude, thanks for all your time. Love the story and love what you're doing to give back to the game. Appreciate you. Absolutely. Thanks for having me.