Empty Netters Podcast - 78. Frank Vatrano on Making the All Star Team, His Journey to the NHL, and Binge Watching Entourage

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

 The boys sit down with Frank Vatrano to hear his RIDICULOUS college hockey story, how his dad snuck through the border to see Frank's first goal, and what it means to him to be an all star. Frank wants to be part of the solution in Anaheim for the long run. Plus, you can't miss the talks about his family restaurant, watching Entourage, getting a Rolex from goalie Bob, and singing Star Is Born karaoke! SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuf52MHW1O7guPMzsMvv2kA FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/empty.netters/?hl=en FOLLOW US ON TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@empty.netters (0:00) - Intro (1:15) - Interview start (2:14) - Frank hates the Patriots (4:04) - Boston College to UMass (9:00) - Journey to the NHL (14:40) - First NHL goal (17:06) - 2024 All Star Experience (19:40) - Franks upbringing (21:45) - Work Ethic to make it (22:33) - Up and coming Ducks (25:03) - What it like to be traded (26:48) - Troy Terry is Frank’s Favorite (28:09) - Pass, Shoot, Score Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up, babies? We got a little bit of a surprise for you today. Yeah, it will, a surprise this time, regular event moving forward. Yeah, surprise today. Yeah. That will be a, not a surprise. Yeah, it'd be cool. It'd be normal. It's not a surprise, but it's still, it's going to, it's recurring. But it's delightful. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Nice. It's a, suppleitful.

Suppleitful. Listen, we are releasing interviews we do as a separate episode. So you guys can get hockey talk with us every Wednesday. interviews every Monday, and the first one, if you were following the story, you already know, we were down in Anaheim interviewing East Long Meadows' own Frankie Vitrano. Such a beauty, such an awesome dude, happy to call him a friend for life now. So, we're going to get into this interview for you right now. Enjoy this hang session with Frank Vitano, hanging out at their practice facility in the locker room, unbelievable stuff, unbelievable guy.

You're going to love it just as much as we did. And then like Chris said, Wednesdays, normal episodes come out, you'll get all the hockey talk and all the buzz. But for now, just sit back, relax, and enjoy this sweet session with Frank Vitano. All right, today we drove down to hang out with an East Long Meadow native, UMass alum, U-17 silver medalist, U-18 gold medalist, former Boston Bruin, Florida Panther, New York Ranger, current Anaheim Duck, the only duck in franchise history to score a hat trick at the home opener, an NHL all-star and inexplicably a New England Patriots hater. Frank Vitrano, welcome to the interview.

Thanks for having me, guys. Great introduction. You know more about me than I know. Okay, so I have to read this to you. I'm going to read it to you again because I know you know, but we found this on NHL.com about you right before your winter classic game in 2016. for Toronto, who grew up a Boston Bruins fan living outside Springfield Mass in East Longmeadow is expected to get the opportunity to live in experience he never could have dreamed of by playing for his favorite hockey team at Gillette Stadium, home of his favorite football team in the 2016 Bridgetown NHL Winter Classic.

That is a lie. Fake news. Yeah. Do you even remember doing that interview? No, I don't. I just remember just obviously playing the Winter Classic was unbelievable playing at Gillette, like playing in front of that many people. but not a NFL fan at all.

Play fantasy, and the only reason I watch some games is to watch how my players are doing. That's the only reason to do it, honestly. Well, you know what? I actually think it was cool payback because when you were playing for the bees and you felt like people were just cheering for the Pats Highlights and the Jumbotron, you got to go into their house and get everyone to cheer for the Bruins. So, yeah, it kind of worked out. Yeah, for sure.

It's a great move. Before we jump into all the NHL stuff, I want to talk about the Vans. Tell people what's going on here. Yeah, so Vans is based in. Anaheim, the headquarters are here, so they do a good job at giving us shoes and kind of creating the last year they let me and a few of the guys go in and create our own shoe and kind of see what they do behind the scenes and how much detail actually goes into the shoe and how many different shades of white, how many different laces, what your eyelids would be, it's crazy, it's kind of

endless. And on Sunday we're kind of modeling them off. There's two different pairs that we're wearing and there's a black pair, yellow, and kind of the vintage ducks color and all orange pairs so hopefully fans can get their hands on those before they sell out yeah going quick i got to scoop the vintage one do you remember what your custom one looked like obviously my custom so i'm more i'm black gray white i wear all neutral colors yeah okay expand out so we did uh these mid tops they were uh white black a little bit of gray and like sway they're they're pretty cool um we put the district five level on there how fuck yeah damn the ogy ducks movie yeah hell yeah that's sick we got our numbers on there. So yeah, that was pretty cool to do all that stuff. That's money. Yeah, I love it.

Okay, I want to get into college hockey because we're big hockey, guys. You went to UMass, obviously. We're all from the New England area. But you have a bit of a tumultuous college career that I don't think a lot of people know about. So I want to hear about it because you committed to BC, which was your dream school when you were younger. Then a wild situation happens that I'd love to ask you about. But then you go to UMass, then you can't even really play for a couple of years. So what the hell happened? What was the deal there? Yeah, not many people know the whole true story of what happened. I mean, people even forget that I was committed to BC.

I know. Yeah. Early, dude, like sophomore. I committed to BC in October of my sophomore year. I remember I narrowed it down. I went to go visit BU and BC. I always wanted to go to BU. And then my parents, like, just go see BC the next following weekend and make decisions from there. And then went to BC.

I fell in love with it. My cousin played there. He won two national championships. So there's a connection there. Huge. What campus or like, I like, coach? campus feel. Okay, yeah.

BU is kind of in the city. It's right in the heart of it. And I just like the campus feel. And B doesn't really feel like it has a campus, right? No, it's just like, it's just like, come out. Oh, no, yeah, it's all spread out. In the chest and hill, you're living in the mods, you're chilling. Yeah, BCU is great.

And I loved it there. So, yeah, I committed there at 16 and I went to the national development program two years, and I wasn't the best student in high school. So obviously with college and NCAA in clearinghouse, if your GPA is low, there's a sliding scale with your test scores in school. So the first thing. the first time I took my ACT, I had a 2.1 in GPA. Hell yeah. Hey, D stands for degree,

which is good enough. I think like the, I think like you have to have over a 2.0, like GPA is the past. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I need to score really high on my ACT scores. So I took the ACT the first time. I got like a 14 on. I think you get like a 13 for signing your name. Yeah. B.C. obviously knew about my grades in my senior year and they're like, yeah, look, like those test scores you got aren't going to be good enough to get you through Clearinghouse. So you're going to have to take another test. Yep.

Took another test. My scores jumped to a 24. Hell yeah. So I called BC. I was like, hey. And wait, but you didn't take the SAT. You took the ACT. I'm getting there. Okay, okay. Getting there. Yeah. Yeah. So I took the ACT. Yeah, I got a 24. Call BC. Like, hey, like, I got a 24 MAC. I think that scores are good enough to get me in school. Like, yeah, that's great. But because of the significant jump in your scores, like the NCAA, not the NCAA, the ACT might question your scores, but if you don't hear anything, just we're good to go.

Like, congratulations. You're accepted. Yeah. Then it's, I think you, there's like a cut off that. I think it's like May something. There's a cutoff day to sign your NLI. Yeah, yeah. So this was like May, this is before I even knew the rule, but it was like mid-May at this point. ACT questions my scores. Oh, wow.

I write back a letter. They were like, you can either sign up and take a test in front of someone or you can write a letter saying why you did good, why you did better. Yeah. So I wrote a letter. Like, yeah, I'll take the letter. I wrote a letter back to I'm saying, why I did better. This is I studied this, this, this.

They denied it. So I was at the point where like, I have to take the next available test. So I take the SAT. Yeah. PC knows the whole situation was going on and you guys knew this is going to happen. So I called them. I was like, hey, I took the SAT. I got a 1550.

What do I do? Those scores are good enough to get into school. Like, we'll see you in October. Nothing goes by all summer working out and skiing. I get to school in September. And I remember I was doing classes, did, you know, rookie initiation, all this stuff. Yeah, like you're practicing with the boys. Yeah.

Feeling comfortable with the school. And I got called off the ice one day and, you know, what happened with your ACT scores. I was like, I told you guys about this in May about, you know, a significant jump and I was like okay no problem another day goes by I get called by my coach there um he's like so did um what happened on your ac t scores I was like well I just did better he's like no I know you cheated I was like I didn't cheat he's like he cheated in a few sections like if you come forward and say you cheated like we'll get you out of it I was like okay I cheated on a couple of sections all right like okay wait wait did you or yeah oh yeah

I cheated. I cheated. I didn't on the SAT. ACT, I did. And I was a young kid at the time. Stupid mistake, you know what I mean. But yeah, so in order for that, so like I said before, like my ACT and all those scores, those scores were in too late. So my plan was to redshirt at BC for the year, which sucks, but I was like, that's fine. Yeah, you're in. I'll be able to practice team. But in order to do that, NCAA was on board with it.

BC admission. I had to go through BC admissions again. Okay. I tell them what happened. So I was in a meeting. It was me and Jerry York. Right. I went to National Shafers at school. Has more people than anyone at the school. I go in the meeting. It's like 8 a.m.

I go into the meeting and, you know, he's kind of stayed my case. Like, I wasn't even there for more than five minutes. And before I could even get 15 words out, the guy was like, you can't stay at this school. And I was like, wow. Jesus, dude. That's it. I went back to my dorm room. I packed my dorm room in an hour.

And thank God my cousin was in Boston at the time. Yeah, wow. Picked me up, went home and kind of sorted things out. And then in, um, so my transfer penalty was starting. starting right away. So I had to get new school by January. So this happened in October to start my transfer penalty. So that was in 2012-13. That was my freshman year. So I transferred in UMass January of 2013. And then I still had to go with the NCAA because they were hit me with, there's a transfer penalty. Yep. So I was, and then they hit me with the cheating penalty.

So I got a year and a half suspension from the NCAA. God. So I sat out 2012-13. I practiced with UMass. 13-14 sat out that whole year. And then the following year, 14, 15, I played one year left and sign it. Yeah. Dude. I did play hockey for two years. Yeah. Obviously everything has worked out wonderfully.

How wrecked were you when that happened? Like when you were packing up that dorm room at BC, were you like, my life's over or were you? I look. I think back to that time my life and I was just, you're so naive. You're 18 years old. You're like, I'm going to play in the NHL. Like you're just like, I'm going to play hockey. Yeah.

It doesn't really, you know, I'd never really thought about like, holy shit, this is a huge deal. Like, I'm not playing hockey for two years. like who knows how I'm going to be in two years when I play. Yeah. Yeah. And I never thought that way. I mean, now if I think about it now, that gives me so much anxiety to think about all that stuff that happens. But like I said, like, you know, I have no bad blood with BC. Like everything happens for a reason. And, you know,

I'm fortunate enough to have a great support system with my family and everyone who helped me get through it. For real. You know, UMass was great for me. You know, I got to go there and play big minutes right away. And Boston, you know, I give Boston so much credit for taking a chance on me and to sign me and, you know, like you said, everything happens for a reason. Yeah, for sure. God, unbelievable. Dude, that is like, it's honestly, again, it's one of those things where I love being able to smile about it because things have worked out so well because of your resiliency, your hard work, your family, all the stuff

like that. But it's like my heart's beating out of my chest because I'm with you. Like thinking about it at our age now, it's like that is the most anxiety-inducing thing I could possibly think of. And then you're right, it's like when you're at UMass and you're not even getting to play still. He must have been like, what the fuck is going on? Yeah, I was just practicing and doing all that stuff. And, you know, you're practicing hard all week, especially in college. Like, practices aren't easy.

And you're doing all that work for nothing, really. But I was so fortunate enough to be so close to home, too. Yeah, true. 30 minutes for me. So when the guys would go on the road on the weekend, I would just go home and hang out with my friends. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what made it very easy for me.

For sure. Jesus. So then, like you just said, you insane rise, right? So, like, you imagine one year. get the offer from Boston, decide to leave, which I imagine wasn't, well, probably a reasonably easy decision. Yeah, I always, because, you know, going back to, like, even the NHO draft, like, I was ranked 88th in the final Central Scout.

I'm, like, you know, interview with 15 teams, and thought I was going to be drafted. I didn't care what else draft, I just wanted to get drafted. And, you know, I thought I was going to get picked, and I didn't. And that's on me, too. I wasn't really a guy that was in great shape, and I think that really, I always had the tools and all that stuff. I wasn't really taking care of myself off the ice with fitness and one. And I didn't take too much pizza.

So obviously once that happened, I got to school, you have to take that stuff, especially in Boston. Oh, my God. You know, they teach you how to be a pro on off the ice. And if you're not to their standard, you'll never play. So, you know, that's a perfect team for me to sign to because they taught me, you know, what you have to do in order to play in this league. Yeah. So, yeah.

So you sign there, light up the HL, immediately get called up. I think it is, you'll know better than me, but it was like 13 months from you. your first NCAA goal to your first NHL goal, which is fucking ridiculous. So tell us a little bit about just what that felt like, how quick that all happened. And specifically, I want you to tell our listeners the story of your dad and your mom's brother-in-law when you call them like, hey, I'm playing in Montreal. And they go across the border. It's actually funny. I never even thought of my dad was like, I think we did a little segment during the winter class.

It's a piece of my dad. He likes collecting all the puck. So I think in one calendar year, I have my first college goal, my first HAL. goal and my first NHL goal. Yeah, like what? Yeah, which is crazy to think of. You're probably the only person on earth that has that. I'll never forget the call. Flash from that B.C. dorm room to that. Yeah. You know, that's crazy. I'll never, I'll never forget when I got the call because I remember we just did our body fat in Boston. In Providence,

they would come down in body fat. Yeah, that's just once a month. And me and a few of the boys were at the Providence Place Mall, getting Chinese takeout food because we're just spoiling ourselves. I got a call from Bruce Cassie, be like, hey, you're called up. You're going to play in Montreal. be ready to play. It's a fast building. And I remember I called my parents right away. And my dad was like, I'm going. You know Uncle Bearer going. I was like, we don't have passports, but we'll find our way through the border.

They got through the border without passports. I don't even know if they have birth certificates. But, you know, I remember my dad was talking to the, you know, the guy at the border and was like, looked up my name. He was like, oh, your son, 12 goals, 12 games, H.L. Playing against Montreal tonight, huh? He goes on this legend, go on through. Isn't that epic?

Of course, the Montreal border guard is like, yeah, Frankie. If there's any border that you know is going to be dialed in in the HL stats, it's Montreal. So that's a huge win for dad. God, I love that so much. And then I saw he said, because you score, you know, right away. And then he forgot to turn the international plan on his phone and got $600. He got $600.

He was funny because the Ritz and where we stay in Montreal is unbelievable. I'll tell you he had the robes on and all that stuff and just really enjoying the perks of being the NHL. Yeah, he remembered everything except the fucking international plans. Greg. Yeah. Exactly. When you look at that, you know, that whirlwind of that year, like you said, that calendar year of those three, you know, huge milestone goals, were you able to process it at all? Or did you just feel drunk the whole time? Or you're like, Jesus Christ, like, I'm doing this. Now I'm doing that. Now I'm in the NHL, the ultimate goal.

You're in the moment, right? I think when I retire and I'm done playing and kind of think of all this stuff. I think you can really enjoy it a lot more when you're retired. But when you're in it, you're in it. Yeah. You can't really sit back from relax and think about things. You kind of can. And focus on that stuff when everything's done. But no, definitely a cool story to tell people. I mean, it must have been insane being in Montreal your first game with a tuck. You can't draw it up. You can't draw it in because I was a Bruins fan growing up. I remember back in, you know, 2000s when Montreal owned Boston the playoffs,

my heart would be broken every single year. And, you know, it was cool too because it was the pretty winter classic game. So we were all wearing tukes and warmups. Oh, wow. It was a really cool experience. Yeah, it's amazing. So we're on the topic of milestones. This year you get named as an All-Star, unbelievable moment.

And I feel like with you, I want to hear about the whole experience in Toronto. We were there as well. Cool stuff going on everywhere. But how cool was it for you finding out from, you know, come off the ice? I think at practice, right? And Rebecca's here with Ophelia with the one Zion that says you're an All-Star. Did you know? Was that like a true surprise?

Yeah, I mean, I had no idea because I don't know how the picks go for the NFL. We had young guys in this room and guys. this room. For sure, definitely. More deserving to be there. And, you know, I don't know how they do, how they pick. I don't know. Sometimes they don't base it off of stats and all this stuff. But I didn't even know when they were picking the team, to be honestly that. And then obviously when I walked in the room and saw my baby.

Did you read it right away? Or were you just like, I just saw it on ducks on. And I was like, why would my wife and baby be here? Yeah, did you put it together? I kind of put it together. No, that was awesome. And just for them to tell me she's been there since day one and support me. And, you know, it's obviously awesome.

Now we have a baby and to enjoy it with her. Obviously, she won't remember. but she'll be able to have some memorabilia and some cool sweatshets that got made for her and the pictures. But just enjoy that whole weekend was for my family. Like I wanted to spend as much time with them with my best buddies. My best buddies all drove down and got an Airbnb. And, you know, there's my huge support system too. Like from home?

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. My brothers were there. One of my brothers could make him just had a baby. But everyone who was there since day won my whole life who supported me were there to enjoy it. So it was great. That's awesome, man.

Yeah. Obviously, your first. star game, the mecca of hockey in Toronto. Were there any highlight memories? Even it was just stuff like, you know, with the core crew going to dinners or stuff like that. Just going to dinner with friends and family was awesome and just kind of seeing everyone like, you know, we're hanging out at the hotel and Wayne Gretzky's in their time. Drinks was his family and his buddies. Yeah. You know, I think being in Toronto, it brought everyone close together and everyone that's part of the NHL alumni guys were playing. Obviously, we're there. Everyone was involved with one other.

And I think the way they did the celebrity coaches was cool. And meeting Justin Bieber, who I loved growing up and still loved to this day. and they all got and take pictures of him and talked to him a bit. That was really cool. I really love this question. We're good buddies with sway on the Bruins. I always think it's such a cool element when you guys get together like that with all the other players from other teams. It kind of goes back to that the travel days and, you know, camp days when you're with a bunch of different guys.

Was there anyone that you played with that you hadn't played with before, whether it be at the national program or other teams that you're like, oh, really cool guy. Like fun to get on the ice with them? So I played against Kutrov when in Florida. I think I played that. Christy time. Yeah. Three season, really. And then we were just in the room, and I talked to him for like 20 minutes.

We were just talking hockey. Yeah. Obviously, I don't know him very well. Yeah. The best player in the league. So I would just chat with him for 20 minutes, but it's super nice guy and just kind of just talking about hockey. It was great.

But I got the chance to play with him and makes the game easy. Yeah. For sure. What you think about his skills conference? I loved it. That was that level of output. He was the villain in Toronto. I mean, I wish he scored on that.

Me too, dude. In the shootout. That would have been great. You were saying the same thing, because he was like waving before he even went. I was like, it was great. It was great. Oh, my God. Dude, you had, I mean, you had a great, we could go to the tape.

The MVP of that game was, that was rigged. Yeah. But we obviously, you know, we love you. And when you got that first tuck, that absolute cheese bar selfie was unbelievable. Like, you know, like, I know it's the All-Star game and you guys aren't buzzing around that hard. But when you get that puck in that situation, you're like, I'm getting an All-Star. You want to get one. You got a score.

Yeah, exactly. It's not like the goal is trying to let me. score. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. But yeah, no, uh, that felt good for sure. You want to go with it. You got to go on all the way there. You got to at least get something. Dude, I screamed. That was the phone. We were like in this suite with like our NHL credentials with a bunch of people you're supposed to be, you know, you're not supposed to be buying. I literally squealed. I was like, oh, Frank. And then it was the most unbelievable shot I've ever seen. Yeah. It's fucking awesome. Okay. I want to ask you about some work ethic questions. So we read that, you know, you would,

you said that you spent a ton of time in the gym in the off season. You love, you feel like you can relax there. And you've really had the same program. Your whole, since you turn pro, you know, I've been doing the same thing. And I also know, I think most people know that love you. Um, your family's got the pizza place, Antonios. And very famously, you're the only, only brother that never worked there. But just watching what your family did, putting in the work to get what they want and instilling that in you. And thinking about your journey, going back to fucking playing goalie street hockey with the brothers, you know, to the college thing to here now. And, and I know you were that band off and the prove people wrong.

So I'll stop there. Just talk to us about the people in your life growing up, watching the work ethic that they had that made you, you know, the guy and the player you are today. You know, I always say if it wasn't for that restaurant, I wouldn't have been able to put through hockey. I was so fortunate.

You know, where I lived grew up, the hockey wasn't the best with development. And so, you know, I had to drive an hour. I played in Marlboro. I played for the minimum flames my life. So, you know, I was fortunate enough that my parents own their own business and, you know, worked on top of me playing hockey, and they were able to take time out of their day

to drive me an hour to practice. every day and hour plus for games. So, you know, the little hole in the wall pizza shop provided for me my brothers our whole lives. And, you know, until this day, they still work very, very hard. They're in there every single day. And my dad always says when, you know, the owner's not there. That's when things aren't running smoothly. So he's always there as much as possible. And, you know, just work ethics, everything. I think you got it. Like even my dad didn't start their business, but that shop, he had to earn everything to get it from his dad and to see that he was, you know, fortunate enough to take, take that over from him and grow it to what it is today. So, you know, you know,

You know, like I said, I'd never work there. I worked there for 20 minutes. Yeah, yeah. My dad fired me. What were you doing? You're sweeping? My dad told me to pick up the phone. I said no.

And then he told me to speak to parking lot. I said no. And then my mom gave me 20 bucks and I left. I mean, honestly, good thing you were bad. Good thing he didn't want to sweep the parking lot. You wouldn't be sitting here right now. Yeah, you'd still be there. Exactly.

Yeah, that's so good. Yeah. Not bad at all. I used to go there when I wanted 20 bucks. Yeah, right. Eat a piece of pizza and get a 20. Thank God hockey worked out. How come goalie didn't work out?

Your brother's just cheesing you all day? I love goalie because you're always in the action. Yeah, true. I always mess around with Gib was like, hey, Gib, you want to put my gear on today? I want to play goal. But, no, I just loved, I was always young, so they always needed a goalie, so I just wanted to be with the older guys. That's how you fit in. So, no, I loved it.

You're always in the action. Yeah, no. You have the outcome of the game in your hands. Yes, damn straight. I like that attitude. I was always the goalie, because you had the, if you weren't playing well. Yep. You weren't winning.

Yeah. And then tell us quick about, you know, what's the off-season workout program looking like? Yeah. So I work out. Actually, I probably skate and workout a lot. So I'm usually Monday through Sunday. Oh, damn. So every day.

I don't really try and take a day off. Yeah, like I should probably try and take a day off. But I have so much anxiety with me not doing enough. Yeah. You know, I'm in the wait room for an hour. I'm in the wait room Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. Okay. And then I skate Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

And then usually Wednesdays, Friday, Saturday. Saturday, Sunday, I go, I got into running since early on in my career. Really? So I try to run at least 50 miles a week. Oh, Christ, I'm going to say a day. I was like, dude. I was like, Jesus, dude, calm down. Miles minimum and then just try and total up the miles.

How the knees, dude. Good. You sure? I don't know. These are good. These are good. Okay. So, yeah, I like that.

Yeah. It's good stuff. Yeah, I've seen it translate on the ice, just feeling good with the wind and stuff. So I keep doing it. Yeah, whatever works. Yeah, whatever works. Yeah. Try and stick with it.

So taking that work ethic to this year, obviously, you're having an unbelievable season with the Ducks. And what is it, you know, how have you kind of taken all those lessons that you have with a team like this that's so young, with all these young guys that have been, you know, high draft picks, guys that are really proven themselves and looking to you as an example. Because I thought it's pretty interesting, you know, your whole saga to get here has been so fascinating, so fun to watch. And now seeing you, a guy that, you know, we've loved watching to play, really fighting for

your ice time a lot in your NHL career, start now being a really seasoned veteran on this team with a lot of young guys. What is that like for you? I think the great thing about, you know, Anaheim, the young guys is that no one, no young guys feel entitled because that's how sometimes in this league some young guys feel they're entitled to certain opportunities and guys on our team aren't like that at all. These young guys want to work every single day and it makes it easy for us older guys to, you know, go to work with these guys every day and, you know, they're open-minded. They want to learn too and then we can learn from them. So whether we're doing some skill stuff with them on the ice before

practice they do in the summer, like they're open-minded to anything, which is great. Especially with young guys. Some young guys think they have it all figured out, but you find out real quick that this league is not easy. You have to always make yourself better. You always have to get better at the things you do great, but you also have to work on your weaknesses as well. So if you can master your strengths and then you work on your weaknesses, you can be a great player. And I think that's what our young guys are good at doing. So they've been great. And, you know, we try the best we can to help those guys out every single day.

Is it weird being like one of the big veterans on a team? Because like you're still young. I know, 29. So some people think that's old. Yeah. It's still pretty young. It's very young. I got a lot of years left in me.

But no, yeah, I mean, it's crazy to think that, you know, from how my career started that I'll probably close it on 600 games next year. Dude. It's crazy to think of it. You know, it's been a fun journey. I want to play this game as long as possible. Yeah. Oh, thousands in our sights, babe.

I couldn't believe that, though. I heard you an interview the other day say you were over 500. And I was like, my God. because, I mean, well, obviously, B's fans, I feel like I was just watching you and you're doing it. I think I played maybe 100-something in Boston and then, you know, played the bulk of my games in Florida. Yeah.

Well, I'm glad. It's cool here you say you're learning from each other. I like that a lot. I picture, you know, Z setting up Michigan drills at the practice. He's like, all right, boys. So here's how you wrap this buck around. Yeah, he's got those little good drills. They're like, just passing and tight.

Like, he has a lot of him and he works with that emot. So they have a lot of those little hockey drills that we do sometimes. Yeah. Yeah, no doubt. Okay, well, the crazy time in the NHHs. calendar, obviously, trade deadline this week. You've been traded twice in your career for a third rounder and a fourth rounder. I can't open Twitter now without your name. Price for Frank McFrono's six first round picks. Everybody needs the high scoring winger, the rags want you back, the islanders, the

red wings. Seriously, every team. I swear God, every team's rumored to you. So first of all, must be super flattering because you're like, God, all the hard work I'm putting in is really paying off. But I also know that you just, you know, you control what you can control. But tell us a little bit about what it's just like being an NHL player, waking up every day on the internet, hearing your name flying around this time of year. Yeah, I mean, I try and stay away from it. I usually try and stay away from Twitter and all that stuff during the year. Like you said, you don't really control that, but, you know, it's crazy to think of like your whole life can be upended in one phone call where you have to move your family to another place, but, you know, I don't worry, worry about

that. I'm in Anheim now. I want to be here a long time. I want to be part of the solution here. I want to help these young guys grow, and, you know, I'm comfortable here at the second home. and I love to stay here for as many years as possible. Yeah, and tell us like you were saying before how, because we feel it too, it feels like this squad is right on the doorstep, you know, year or two away. I think we're so close. We have all our younger guys in the lineup and playing their first year's pro,

and it's not easy to ask, you know, 18, 19-year-olds to play 80 games in a regular season and try and have, you're going to have growing pains. And, you know, we've been hit with the injury bug this year, too, and we haven't really had a healthy lineup all year. And it's always the top six guy that's going down. Yeah. And, you know, you've got to play with that.

those guys and try to find ways to score goals. But when we have a full lineup and our young guys have another year under them, I think we're going to be a great team. We're walking around this locker, just before you got here, we're just looking at the names. I'm like, this team is going to be stacked. It's unbelievable. You can feel it too. Yeah, it's exciting.

Being in California, there's a great buzz of Ducks fans and you can see the future's bright. And speaking of the future and the young guys on the team, we saw recently you said that Troy Terry is your favorite duck past or present. And I got to know why. And I want to be on record to us, you know, Ducks team over here, Sammy, we were talking earlier. Troy is so funny.

Funny guy. And I don't think a lot of people know it. So I want to know some funny Troy stories you have. There's honestly so many stories about him that you could just go on and on about it. I could probably be here for another couple hours. But he gets probably the most shit out of anyone on the team. Whether it's him buying a house

or if it's something to do with hockey or something to do with treatment or something to do with his wife, he just does, he hears it nonstop. and he's so good at taking it. And then he has, like, the old man jokes that, like, if he gets the guys going on it, he'll say it, like, four or five more times. Yeah, I love that. He's just so fun to be around because he can take it and he gives it back, and he's just a

joy to be around. I feel like he does have really good self-deprecating humor. And he's an unbelievable hockey player, too. Yeah, so that makes it. And if you watch and walk around, you're like, this guy scores 80 points a year. You're like, no way. Yeah. But he just, the stuff he does on the ice, you can't teach.

He's so skilled and just the way he sees the game. Like, you just can't teach that kind of sense. Yeah. Is he the funniest guy in the room? Eh. I like me and Stromer are up there somewhere. Yeah, there you go. You two are a dynamic duo, dude.

My God. Yeah, that is very true. Yeah. Okay. So now we're going to, before we let you go, I'm going to play a game, we play with everybody. Yeah. I'm sure you've seen it. We call it pass shoot score.

It's a ranking system. So we pick categories of stuff you like, and then going to give you three. You rank them pass shoot score. Pass is your least favorite because, I mean, get the sister's cool, but trying to like the lamp. Shoot is your next favorite because puck's your favorite, okay? Can I only use one? one category for each, or can I do. So I'm going to give you, I'll give you a category, give you three things, and then you've got to

pick past street score for those three things. I got you. It's basically fuck merry kill. Yeah. It's not very complicated. Gotcha. But you don't have to kill anything. All right.

Okay. Your first category is music. All right. Three songs. Number one. The Stroke by Billy Squire. Score. Hold on.

Hold on. Confident. That's my goal song. I know. Number two, shallow by Jackson Main. And number three, last night by Morgan Wall. I would say shallow. You talk about the one from the Starsberg.

That's a score. That's me and Nollachari's karaoke. Okay, so you just... Only one of them can be scored. I only do one. One of them has to be scored. You have to rank. That's why it's tough.

I would say score for the stroke. Okay. Shoot for shallow. And then last night would be passed. You country guy? I am. I hear you like Morgan Wall. I like Zach Bryan a lot more now.

Oh, okay. Yeah, that's good. Interesting. Have you been to Country Fest at Gillette? I have not. I've been to all the other. It's at like, Exfinity and stuff. No, it's fine.

It's fine. No, it's an absolute nightmare. Usually they have the, obviously country fest, they don't have it at Xfinity in Hartford. Yeah. Usually like, I remember back in the day, like Luke Bryan, all of them, Jason Aldean. I went to all those concerts and that was really cool. We actually went to Morgan Wall and last year at Stable Center, so that was awesome. Oh, incredible.

We were going to try and go to Zach Bryan at Pecco Park, but it was a day before games. Peckosick, by the way, too, yeah. Okay, wait, hold on. Do you love Starsborn? How did you land on? It is such a good karaoke song too. Sad movie too, but it's a great movie. Great soundtrack.

Who does the Lady Gaga part in the karaoke when you guys do it together? I think I did it. We did it at rookie party in Dallas when we were locked down during COVID, so. Yeah, I love that. It was a good. I wish we got it on video. Step up to the plate. Yeah, yeah, I love that.

All right, next one's gifts, whether it be for yourself or from other people. So here's your past shoot score. The Rolex from Bob plus McDonald's. the 2016 Jeep Wrangler or the Balenciaga slides. And I need to know if you got them. I don't, they're not with me. I should have worn them. No, no, but you did get them eventually.

Okay, okay, good, good. Remember Sammy? Yeah. Yeah, I got them. Was that Rebecca? Did she step up to the plane get them for you? Actually, I told her I wanted them before we saw them at the store. So I had to give them nice, yeah, but I had.

I opened them up on Christmas. Okay. I'm going to say the Rolex score for sure in the McDonald's. Yep. I'm going to say shoot for the Balenciago slides. Okay. And then pass on the 216.

Yep. Do you have the Wrangler still? No. Okay. But you do you have cars. I try and switch. I switch amount more than I should. That's all right.

That's all right. I don't want to put you on blast, but I want to know what you're driving later when we're done recording. Sounds good. Yeah. Because I imagine it'll be gone in like two months. No, I'm in a lease, so I can't break. That's why I lease cars now because you can't break.

Yeah. You know, force your hand. I like it. But listen, that was your friend. That was the first gift to yourself after your first contract. What color? Yeah. White with black rims.

Ooh, nice. Sick. Just standard. Yeah. No, that's solid, though. In Boston. Just get dirty as hell in Boston winter. Perfect decision.

White car. Okay. Next category. Antonio's menu items. Pass shoot score. Buff chick grinder. A custom slice of your choosing. Or the cheeseburger grinder.

Score on the custom. Slice. Wow. And what is it? I just get pepperoni. There's nothing better. I like slices better than actual pizzas. It's way better.

It's way better. I would say shoot on the cheeseburger grounder because that's like actually like their most popular. Yeah. On the menu. Okay. Cheeseburger subs is a very New England thing by the way. Like I can't get that anyway. My dad's like I don't know why this is most popular.

Yep. Yeah. And then I'll say pass on the buff. Yeah. Dude, that's a thing. I'm more of like a chicken cutlet, no buffalo chicken. Same with him. Lettas, tomatoes, onions.

Frank, we got to go out to eat together. There's a lot lined up here. I didn't realize cheeseburger, grinders, and, like, steak tips. Big time, like, Massachusetts, New England stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Really big. It's, I didn't realize it wasn't anywhere else.

Yep. That was why I was so hard to stay in shape growing up, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, like, go to this pizza place and get a slice and a chocolate milk. And 20 bucks. Yeah, 20 bucks. 20 bucks back a day used to last year a whole week. Oh, my God.

That would get me lunch every day for the rest of the week. Okay, so your last one. This one's going to be characters from entertainment stuff. I know that you love. Okay. Ari Gold from Entourage. Jordan Belford from the Wolf of Wall Street. Or the Grinch from How the Grinch Stold's Christmas.

Ari Gold score. That's my favorite show, my favorite character. It's the best. I would say, who's the Grinch and who else? Jordan Bellford. Wolf of Wall Street. Which is tough. I would say Grinch for sure because that's my comparable.

Yep. And then pass on Jordan Bellarm. Okay. So I've got a lot of followers. Why? Are you the Grinch? Do you not like Christmas? Everyone says I'm grumpy, but I think I'm pretty happy.

Right, Sammy, I'm pretty happy all the time. I think so, too. All right, so it's not a Christmas thing. It's more of a grumpy thing. Yeah. All right. I feel like Scrooge would be a better nickname. Well, actually, him and Stromer played heads up.

And you remember that? He gets Scrooge. And Stromer goes, you at Christmas. And Frankie goes, Grinch? And he's like, no. And then he pulls up the next one, and it is the Grinch. He's like, you're like, the Grinch. It's like, ah, it's amazing.

What the hell is going on here? I feel like you're not grumpy at all. No, I feel like, what do you think, you do something? Like, what do you think you do that makes everybody say that? Because if you get called the horse enough times, you go get a fit for a saddle. You know, like enough people calling you. Probably because my sense of humor. It's like dry and then I complain about a lot of things that you, you know what I mean?

The little things. I complain about a lot of stuff too. I can relate to that. That's all part of my sense of humor. It's just complaining. Yeah, okay. I like it. All right.

And is there anything better than Gary Busey in Entourage? No. It's like, those are truly the funniest episodes of all the time. That show is unbelievable. It's great. I've watched it probably. It was actually so, that's the show I usually have on before bed.

Oh, still. Yeah, I've watched it like 15 times. It's a big time. My wife just finished it probably like two months ago. I'm like, we're watching full house right now. Yeah. What a swing? What a transition.

I'm like, you watch, you think it's time for entourage? Yeah. Yeah. That's another great crossover when Sagg, it's an entourage. Oh, there you go. I always go watch entourage completely and then watch the movie every time. Yep.

Yeah. Do you have a favorite episode? Vegas comes to mind. put it on the spot right now. One day in the Valley's great. One day in the, when Aquaman comes out. Tree Trippers is great.

I like that. Yes. Chuck Liddell. Great one, Sammy. You got God. You got God. You got God. Polly Shore,

the Playboy Man's nice thing. It's great. I'm going to Joshua Tree with a huge group because of the Tree Tri Tripper episode. It's great. Yeah. And well.

That's actually, the trip one's like actually like one of my least favorite episodes. Why? Because it gives you anxiety because Vince almost does it gives me anxiety too. It is. It is. It is.

It is. It's actually fair. Holy, this is so tough. First of all, this show drives me insane sometimes. Like, Vinnie Chase drives me insane in that show. Because the latter end. Just because the passes he makes on some of these movies, like, man, just go make your...

Bad decision maker. Bad decision maker. And he's always like going. E drives me insane. Do you know what we figured out? Drama keeps me going and Turrell just keeps me going. Yeah. Yes, completely agree.

That show is about E. It's not about Vince when you really think about it. Yeah, you're right. It's like, if you go back and watch the first season, like it's about E. I'm going to watch you at that perspective. Dude, it's cool. Because you're due for a rewatch. We've got to get off full house.

I think that when Vince goes by his Rolls-Roy's. Sick episode. Oh, my God. And then returns it later. All these jerkoffs trying to have 9-11s in this town. And Marvin, Marvin calls. And he's like, I just told you to save money. You buy a fucking Rolls Royce.

Yeah. And then they start smoking weed in it immediately. Yeah. God. I just wish they had left Turtle be Turtle. Like they tried, they needed, they felt like they needed to do too much with Turtle. Like they haven't made something of them. Keep a thing.

Keep a lot of them felt. Yeah. That's what I needed. For sure. All right. Well, Frank, we've taken up enough of your time. You got dirty diapers to change. Yeah, that's true.

But this has been an absolute blast before we let you go. Is there anything you want to shout out or plug? I plugged out the vans that are released on Sunday. Yes. So we are going to make Frank Vitrono the first NHL sponsor. And I'm looking for more shoes in the future. Yes. There we go.

We're going to get you a shoe deal. That's the end of the game here. Yeah. Beautiful. All right. Well, Frank, thank you so much, dude. This has been a blast. And we'll catch you next.

Sounds good, man. We're going to get you down to LA. Yeah. Perfect. There you go. That's speech. Yes.