OverDrive - Montour on his Olympic aim for Canada, his fit for the team and the Kraken's search to improve

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

Seattle Kraken Defenceman Brandon Montour joined OverDrive to discuss his viewpoints of playing with the Kraken, Seattle looking to make the jump, the aim to crack Canada's Olympic roster, how he'd fit on the team and more.

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Hey, guys. How you doing? We're doing well. Doing extremely well. How's your summer been? What you've been up to? Summer's been good. It's been, you know, obviously longer than usual. But, you know, the body has had time to heal, which is always nice. And we're up north, actually up in Muscoa for majority of it, other than a little couple trips, couple weddings, but mostly after that, it's all been up north, so it's been nice. How's the new training group up north there? I know Sam Gagne's got, he's running something, Bo Horvats around.

Like, who are you training with? And how's that been? Yeah, we've got a bunch of guys. Probably, I mean, depending on, you know, it's up here, it's more relaxed. So guys come and go. guys come and bring groups of other guys but there's probably a solid 10 or 15 or so of us that are you know regulars are here most of the summer myself and adam henrique actually training together most days our trainer comes up

and trains us into or like to get together up here three four times a week and yeah we have a great setup and gag has obviously done a great job of setting everything up with Muscoquahawki and we can leave our equipment and, you know, they wash our gear, sharpen our skates, whatever we need. They make it as easy as possible and, yeah, they've done an extremely good job the last couple of years, setting that up. With Brandon Montour, we played at the World Championships this past summer and nine points, I mean, you fared extremely well at the tournament. I know it didn't go the way you guys wanted to as a team, but do you feel like, did you have a mindset,

going into that tournament or a goal that you want to leave a good taste in the mouths of hockey Canada with the Olympics looming, and you feel you did that. You did that? You accomplished that with your performance there. Yeah, I mean, I think anytime, especially when your season end so early, you get an opportunity to play for, you know, Canada, you know, the players that played in the tournament, you know, grateful to play again, or with Nate and Sid and TK,

list goes on the guys that you know you played with and it didn't work out the results didn't weren't there but uh we enjoyed ourselves the opportunity like i said to play with those guys and play well and again i think at this point in my career uh the management with team canada and you know the rest of the league knows kind of what i bring and um a type of player i am i think just with that you know being around them um being able to play with those guys and and obviously management that I haven't been able to meet over the years. I think that helped. And, you know, that was one of the bigger reasons of, you know,

having the opportunity that we have now is to be in that tournament and thought we did a good job at kind of representing. You had a really good first season with the Seattle Cracking. You scored 18 goals this year, and I'm sure, you know, you wanted to put yourself on the radar for the Four Nations team as much as possible. Now, you don't make the team, but, like, are guys who aren't playing in that tournament at the time, you guys watching those games and thinking, like,

holy moly, this is, like, this is some of the best hockey that we've ever seen. Like, did guys who didn't make the team really enjoy watching what was going on out there? I think, you know, everyone probably tuned in, you know, the amount of texts that we've shared over, you know, that span of, you know, biweek and stuff like that, everyone watched. But again, like you said, to get the elite of the elite, and we haven't had that in so long perform and play against each other and obviously nobody really knew how competitive was going to be

but I mean obviously for us we knew extremely entertaining obviously the best of the best and you know it didn't disappoint that's for sure well like what would it mean to you to become an Olympian like you know performing under Canada at the world championships is one thing and a massive accomplishment but does the Olympics provide you know something a little extra yeah again i think team canada just whenever you get the chance to play for for them uh for the

country obviously olympics is you know something that you know not i guess a lot of people have on their radar you know in a sense but the opportunity to be an olympian and be in the olympics and tiny experience the whole thing as a group um would be pretty extraordinary and you know i think um looking back at the four nations i you know was hoping my name was at least involved with it. Obviously, you know, going into Seattle as a new team and a new face in that organization wanted to obviously do my part and help that team.

I think it obviously helps when your team is, you know, successful and playing in big games. So, you know, I think hopefully we can start off with that, have a good start to the year, and then, you know, the Olympics should be, hopefully, you know, it's something that we look at, you know, when the time comes. But to be an Olympian would be amazing.

And hopefully I, you know, could show and have the opportunity to do that. In the meantime, you'll obviously, you know, be playing again for the Seattle Cracking. You signed a long-term deal there. You know, you look at the roster, and it's pretty clear that they've tried to assemble players that have won before, right? Like, there's you, there's Chandler-Stevenson, Jaden Schwartz. You know, you go down the list. there's guys that have won Stanley Cups, Vince Dunn, you know, how much of your winning experience do you bring to that locker room as you try and, you know, move this thing along in Seattle?

Yeah, I think a lot. I think, you know, when you win, you experience the highs and lows. I've been a part of winning teams that, you know, obviously have been all the way and lost and obviously won as well. I think that's huge for the young guys. Again, last year going in, I knew a lot of the faces. And, you know, after the year, we're definitely underachieved. Nobody was happy with the results we had. I think any time you don't make playoffs.

But I think for our group, there's much more than that. You know, I think we could get into the playoffs and, you know, surprise some people. It's just a matter of executing. And obviously, we did not do that really at all last year. And, you know, how the year goes. It's long. It's draining, but you get on these, you know, losing swings and you're out of the playoff picture pretty early.

It's tough to kind of keep that, you know, motor going. And I thought as the end of the year went, we got a little bit better, but again, I think we underachieved as a group, the faces that we have, the players that we have, the guys that we brought in with Mason and Ryan and a few other guys will definitely help us as well. but the new coaching staff as well. I'm excited to work with them. You know, Lane and his group seem like they are excited and ready to go and systematically on page with, you know, how our team operates.

And now it's just a matter of us getting there. And, you know, again, surprising guys and surprising each other. I think that's the main thing is getting the confidence with our group, the young guys and the older guys. And I'm excited to see what we can do. With Brandon Montour, I'm not, you know, sure. if you care all that much of what's going on at the U.S. camp, but I know it raised a couple eyebrows to see a young kid like Lane Hudson

who had 66 points in his rookie year in the NHL not get an invite to the U.S. camp. Does that surprise you considering someone who got to watch and play a couple of times on the ice this year? Again, I haven't really looked at the roster, to be honest with you, but, again, I mean, I don't know what they see. I would say for him not being invited to that camp doesn't mean he's not going to make the team

I think he's still push and play well and turn some heads and no matter what come to that time when they decide on the roster you never know who they're going to pick or who gets heard or there's so many things that can happen but again the kids obviously super talented obviously on the smaller side So I don't know if, you know, that plays any factor in the way their selection goes.

But, again, you know, Montreal should be excited about having a player like that. And hopefully it continues to keep getting better and helping that team for sure. Really appreciate taking time to join us today. Good luck at the camp next week. We'll be ruined for you. Absolutely. Thanks, guys. Absolutely.

Brandon Montour, defenseman for the Seattle Cracken, Stanley Cup champion. an invitee to the Team Canada orientation camp. The biggest songs in the world. You've heard them countless times. Now, learn the details of how they came to be. Join Ruby Carr for Encore, the stories behind the songs you love. New interviews and newly unearthed archive footage make for a fascinating weekly deep dive. Stream Encore, the stories behind the songs you love.

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