Shaun Newman Podcast - #12 - Duane Perillat

Episode Date: April 24, 2019

This week I have Mr. Duane “Diesel” Perillat in the Studio Diesel has played just about everywhere  - Minor Hockey Lloydminster, Yorkton, Tisdale, Moose Jaw & Prince Albert  - WHL  Portland, Prince Albert & Prince George  - SJHL Melfort, Kindersley & Weyburn  - Pro Jacksonville  We will discuss all this and more

Welcome to the podcast. Thanks guys for tuning in again. I want to give a thanks right away to the Weekly Bean and Harlan Lessig. I mentioned it last week that every week we come out with the new episode on Wednesdays, and they put it in the Weekly Bean that comes out each week. So if you pick one of those up, you can take a look at the upcoming week's guest. They're distributed in Lloyd Minster, Moose Jaw, and Kinnersley. Next, I want to give a shout out to two guys.

They've been following me right since the start. So Evan Priest, it seems like every time I hop on Snapchat, when a new episode comes out, he's driving somewhere, he's taking a Snapchat of it and giving me good feedback. He's been enjoying them. So thanks Evan for listening. And Chris Ross, he, right at the start, any issues I seem to have or little tidbits. He's been helping just leaving me little messages on Facebook on whether, you know, mics having issues or anything he notices from that side.

So I appreciate all the help, guys. Really appreciate you listening to every episode. If you don't currently subscribe, if you're on any of the listening platforms, Apple, iTunes, Google, Spotify, that kind of thing. Search Sean Newman Podcast, and then there's a subscribe button. So click on it, and that way every time I bring on a new episode, it notifies you. You can get notifications on your phone. If you're on social media, I love it if you guys share, like, comment, anything. Like I say, I try and get some shoutouts on here right at the start of the podcast now for the people that interact with me.

I love it. And so like something you see, by all means, let me know. And then this week we have Dwayne Diesel Parallad on. He is a goaltender who is from Hillmond, grew up playing his minor hockey and Lloyd Minster. And after that, he's been all over, whether it's the dub, pro, senior. He's got a very interesting story as a goaltender who's been. been pretty much everywhere. So without further ado, here we go.

Okay, folks, welcome to Sean Newman podcast. Tonight in studios, I have Mr. Diesel, Mr. Dwayne Perlatt, the man himself, the man, the myth, the legend. We've been sitting here gab and now off air for probably damn near an hour and trying to make sense of where you've all gone and where you came from and holy man, you got quite The story. I better preface this by, I apologize to all the Leafs fans because they just lost game seven against Boston for like what feels like forever. They just keep doing this to themselves. Diesel's not a guy who follows the NHL, so he's going to offer me probably very few comments on this, but I know there's going to be some Leafs fans crying tonight. Boohoo. So, I don't know, where do you want to start? You want to go back to the early days?

I like to start in Hillmont because that's where I love Hillmont. I was born in 1981 in the Lloydminster Hospital. My parents lived on an acreage out near Ray Fultimer and subdivided a piece of land off Nelson Kosh. We lived there until I was six and we moved to town to be closer to the work. workforce for my parents. And then, but Hillmond always had a, it kind of set an impression in my, in my mind. As it should, Hillman's a special place. Yeah, Hillmon's a special place. That's all I can, that's all I can say about it too. Yeah. So did you, you started your, did you start skating in the old Hillmon rink, the Silver Dull? I started can skate in, I want to say

in 1985 or 86 in the old Silver Dome did two years a can skate play dressed up as a smurf one year and I think a first nation's person and cowboys and first nations persons but that was my intro to skating I wasn't very good I was on my sister's figure skates yeah and the only other skating I had done before that was on the slew of across the road from us on the Fultemeyers dug out. The boys out there always had the ice cleaned off. They were a few years younger, so they were a few years older than I was. Yeah.

I got to ask, because you have such an illustrious career as a goaltender. Did you start out as a goalie? No. I think it, well, I've found an old picture one time of me with a goalie stick propped up against the fridge. And when I was about, I don't know. one years old and I don't know I was probably 50 pounds my then that was a big chubby kid if you don't know Dwayne he is what six foot six foot even oh six foot even yeah how much you're weighing in now uh 250 right now 250 right now

250 we we at some point have to go down the road of how much weight you lost because when I came back from playing hockey you were three I was three probably 100 when you come back and I had a rough few years and it just kept on and I think 10 pounds a year for a few years and at 330 pounds I decided I enjoyed looking at my old face better than I look at the one that I was currently looking at in the mirror so I wanted to make a commitment and I wanted to gain some respect around some people I didn't think that it could be done. I lost 120 pounds in a year. Yeah, and you were like, kept her off. And you were dancing, man. You were just like twinkle toes. Yeah. It was like I was, it like I had shed 120 pounds. I was like I was jumping every step of,

every step was a leap. And I could, I could jump side to side eight feet at a time. It was a, an unbelievable feeling. You go from, I'm just trying to like equate this. You went from 3.30 down to 2.10? 2.10. Rip steel and sex appeal. And the only one

who could enjoy it was my wife. No kidding. Lucky gal. Yeah. I bet you you had to go buy all new clothes. Oh yeah. Like three times over. Yep, I did. Yeah, I did the old weight loss

a picture thing where where I hold my pants out and you could fit two of me inside of that waistband. It was an incredible feeling and it was just so much fun getting the positive comments back. Our friend, our friend Ken was excellent at that. He's, you know, you can't leave a room without, without Ken giving you a positive outlook on the rest of your day. So he had a lot to do with keeping my mind focused during those times. Yeah, yeah, like, what else did you? So you lose all that weight. Obviously, you can walk up the stairs,

you can probably exercise longer. You could just do a lot of things, right? Yeah. But what was like some of the coolest things that came from doing that? Well, I gained a love of gardening and doing yard work. I absolutely detest working out in a, gym and running on a treadmill or or just pushing a bar up over my head is not my idea of fun.

I've been kind of blessed. I got a body that kind of puts on weight easy and if I put my body to use in ways around the yard or or at work, I can burn off a lot. lot of calories just doing everything yeah yeah every every every every every every step I take is it might burn three times as much calories as as Dustin Newman would isn't that the truth yeah Dustin could sit and eat bags of unhealthy food if if he would I don't I don't think he's the type but he uh he and I do not have similar body types let's say well it's cool it's cool to see it like to be able to watch somebody transform from 330 to 210 was pretty cool right yeah like it's almost surreal to watch somebody lose that much weight yeah i feel like uh i was telling you guys

earlier that i i've never liked to be pegged as as one thing i uh i didn't want to be just the shot put guy i didn't want to be the hockey player yeah i was never going to be the best at any of those things. I wanted to be known as the guy who could do 10 things that you just kind of look and say, hmm, wow, I didn't even know that was needed to be done. Well, maybe we should get back to it then. Yes. We were staring at it all before.

I didn't lead us down the rabbit holes I do from time to time. So you're living in Hillmont. You're going to school there then? Went to school in the old Hillmont school for kindergarten. Yeah. And the year or the summer after kindergarten, my last day of school, they were backing up trucks and and wrecking balls and they were tearing down the school as we were walking away. And so that summer, we transitioned into Lloydminster. And Hillman School was just a memory for me. Yeah.

Yeah. We lived in a trailer court in Lloydminster Right near I want to say Oh it's the junior high that Morgan Man Ah Yeah, it's north east layer E S layered

E S layered Yeah there's a trailer court back by the soccer fields in there Mm-hmm I uh we had a trailer in there for about 10 months lived a winter through there. Finished a school year at Neville Goss, and we moved to a house near Winston Churchill and J.C. Park. Now, you mentioned during this time you're not always playing hockey.

Actually, I think you said you quit hockey. Yeah, I was in Can Skate and Hillmonde, and then when we moved to Lloyd, it was kind of transition. I don't think I played hockey the first year. Was that because he didn't, well, heck, this is asking a lot of a memory. Do you remember was that because you didn't enjoy it or were there other factors at play there? Nobody in my family's, my mom was a daughter. She had a sister and that was, they didn't have sons.

So they didn't play hockey in her family. And my dad's family, way too many kids, way too far from a town to be playing hockey. So my family didn't know anything about hockey. I probably went and watched Danny Faltmire go and play hockey one day because Phyllis was babysitting. And I know it caught my attention. Definitely down at the old Silver Dome. Watching Kid Scotty team play against our Hillman guys.

and I don't even think I was cheering for the right team, but I thought Danny Falemeyer was the best player in the world, and I probably had the wrong guy picked up. But I learned a couple things down at the old rink. It was a great place to go and be commune with people. The community was always there, and if you needed support, there's always somebody to support you down there.

and I forgot where I was going with that one. No, you're right, though. That's been, well, since I've been growing up, right? And I didn't play all my minor hockey and Hillman by any stretch of the imagination. But Helmand, that's been one of the special places about Helmand or special things about Helmand is the rink. They've always had a rink and it's been a gathering spot, right, for everybody to come out and cheer on the young kids all the way up to senior hockey, right?

It's just a festive, happy place where everybody kind of goes together and, I don't know, it's just, it's got a good feeling, a good vibe in a place like that, right? Yep, yeah, some places just the smell can make you bring a smile to your face. And that was one of those places. It smelled like chopped up plywood at times. It was just danky and wet, but it smelled like home. God, I love the old Silver Dome. The old Silver Dome, I just remember being as a kid wanting to sneak up into the rafters up way high where the bats lived,

and you'd find a mazillion pucks. I don't even think that's a word, but whatever. It was a crap ton of pucks up there. Or the upstairs dressing rooms, you could pull off the chunks of wood. You could see down into, right, they let the heat. They cut holes in the floor, and then, so kids wouldn't go falling through, I assume. They put piece of plywood over it. But when teams went up there to dress, all the heat,

came from the floor so they'd pull these big chunks of plywood open so that the heat could get through right and i remember being a kid my parents must have just hated me going up there because i can just i can see my son doing it now right and dropping things and harassing whatever team was underneath uh would have been way too many good times oh i'm sure one of those vents went into a bathroom or into another team's dress rooms you're dumping dumping water down the vents on to other teams that's right and then of course we can't forget right across the street is the good old swing and tit I mean, who can forget that? Yeah, it started to get bad when everybody at the rink had a key for the bar.

And it didn't especially have to be open for you to go in there and make yourself at home. The swinging tit for people who don't know, that lovely name is the old name of the Hillman Bar or the nickname. I don't even know if it wasn't like it was post anywhere, but that was what everybody called it, right? Yep, it was originally the Hillman Farmhouse. and it got some, look at it one way, it's a, it's a fun nickname, look at it another way, it really divulges a lot of what happened in that building some days.

You got a fun and storero, you got a favorite memory of that place? Oh. Because you must, like, that must have been in your heyday, because by the time I was 16, and I may have been served in that local establishment, and they knew it, but that's my, right? We went there and Sean Newman, how old are you?

19. Sean Newman, how old are you? 19? Okay. Just sign up on the sheet over there. And I remember it was self, right? Like instead of them serving you a drink, you'd go pour your own drink and mark on a sheet how many you'd had,

right, and pay at the end of the night. Yeah. Yeah, some people would put their bottle caps in their pocket or something like that and only got five bottle caps. Yeah, I must have had five beer. Yeah. Yeah, exactly, or about a round of five or whatever. Yeah.

No, I don't want to dwell on any of the questionable memories there. That's for different than locker room talk. But I had a lot of great memories. I have a lot of good memories of going down from school and ordering a farm host burger at lunchtime. Which was fantastic. Which was two huge. burgers on an open-face bun.

Yeah. And it come with ham and hamburger and bacon. And every vegetable and it was delicious. It was a burger, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then you get another plate of fries and the gravy. Yeah, no, lots of, lots of good friends' memories down there.

Getting away from school and being a bad kid. do you don't think you do i don't think he'll man's ever seen a bad kid i've told that uh mrs amandrewd a couple times i don't know there's a few questionables in there yeah well the i don't think we've had anybody that uh that i wouldn't consider a friend i don't think fair enough yeah um yeah no anyway we'll uh get back to that well i was saying i'm staring at at my sheet. I'm looking at, okay, so you're in Lloyd. Yeah. You go from and I'm going to just, you go

from peewee and I'm going to add in a little bit of Bannam there and then you can fill in the blanks. But you go from Peewee House Hockey to getting selected in the Bannum draft. Yep. Yep, that was exactly how it went. I... Right, like that's... I'm not saying that, maybe that happens all the time.

I don't know. But I can safely say that, well, I don't know. I can't safely say, but that feels like that doesn't happen all the time no I yeah a lot of happy accidents had to happen I guess along the way and and some people might call them sad accidents which way you look at them um my six years in Lloydminster Lloydminster were a little bit turbulent and my family broke up after I was in grade six or so so after Adam age and up until that point I play Pee-wee or House League all the way up. Play with some fantastic hockey players.

Jordie Duggan. I play. Well, anybody in Lloydminster, our age who went to the NHL, I played with as a novice and an Adam player. Curtis Glenn Cross was on my novice team. He was the goalie of our novice team. But, so our first.

family breaks up. I stay one more year in Lloyd Minster and my mom says she's moving away to Yorkton my brothers and sisters get the choice or we all get the choice of which parent to stay with. Yeah. Right. Like I mean, it's not it's not something you want to ever wish on anybody, but I think we were our parents asked us to make an adult decision and and they were okay with anything that fell. I've asked my mom how that went down. It's not anything she could really put into words. It's just you got to let life roll.

Yeah. The ups and the downs. What a tough decision for how old would you have been? I was 12 at the time. What a tough decision for a 12-year-old to have to make, though. Yeah. But, yeah, the people have to make them when they're six. They have to make them all of you.

It's a unique perspective, right? It is. I think that my parents did the right thing by putting us in, like, some counseling courses as kids. We were in, like, a team of counseling once a week. We knew not to blame ourselves, but some of us, I have two siblings, a brother and a sister. So one of them, he just wanted to be playing his Lego games, and my sister took it really, really hard, rightfully so. We all take it different ways. But anyway, make a long story short.

I was just, yeah, I was just fortunate, right? I always think, like, you're fortunate to count. I had five siblings, and my parents stayed together. And they went through their troubles. I'm certain of it. Oh, yeah. I know nobody makes it out without being a marriage. Now that I've been through a marriage, 10 years,

I have a lot of respect for anybody who can do it for a few years, even. Well, I actually think at times I go like, I'm waiting for those years, right? Because I'm in year, oh boy, I shouldn't have brought this one myself. I am in year. This August will be year. It goes so fast, doesn't it? Doesn't it? Yeah.

And we got two kids, a third on the way. Yeah, and yeah, just imagine how fast you think your married life is gone. All of a sudden, your kid's going to be 10. You're going to go, holy crap, I just played five years of hockey. No kidding. They all just went together. They can't tell one from the other. No kidding.

Absolutely. Yeah, no, I'm fatherhood's been the biggest game changer for me for sure. Absolutely, right? Like, I mean, I didn't, you can't, you can't plan for it. If I, you can get a dog, right? Like a dog kind of. I, I, I don't look at my dog the right way, I guess. I'm teasing, I'm teasing.

It took me a couple of years to get used to the kids. My wife would probably tell you, I didn't really jump right into fatherhood. She told me she was pregnant, and I said, well, that's good. I'm glad. I'm really happy for you. I gotta go, I'm work. Well, I'm, uh, you know, like, uh, here's something about me when it comes to, uh, pregnant life.

I, when Melon's been pregnant both times, I get, I get, like, antsy. Like, I'm like, uh, new kids coming. Got to get some, got to get my nightlife or got to get some time with my friends out of the way because like when that kid comes, I'm, I'm nailed down. Yeah. And so then, uh, I've gone, I don't know, sometimes I wonder, I'm, must have married the best woman in the world, right? She just deals with so much shit.

And I don't think it's like, it's not terrible stuff. But at the same time, like, we all come with our baggage, right? And so actually, I was just saying to Ken here before we walked in that after this weekend coming up, we're going on the brother's road trip out to Vancouver. And when I get back, I'm going to take, I'm not going to have a beer until I got a week in the middle that the wife swears I have to have a beer or two because her brother gets married and one of my best friends from college gets married. She's like, you need to go have a drink with these guys and celebrate, right?

Absolutely. Yeah, or else you're going to be the weird guy. That's right. Maybe. I don't know. I might be the weird guy already. I'm going to take... I'm going to take the rest for pregnancy off and enjoy the experience of, you know,

because you've got two kids and pretty soon it's going to be a third. And like you say, fatherhood is just an absolute whirlwind. Yeah. And then pretty soon, you know, five years will be down the road and they'll be in all types of sports. And I'm sure you're in the middle of that right now because how old are yours now? I got an 8 and a 10 Right? Yep

Like I don't even know I'm going oh yeah Like I know But I don't know I'm a whirlwind of three And three and one and a half Yeah No it's going to be

I'm under the impression It's just going to be a whirlwind Until they move out And then You're going to wish that they were back again There's no way to keep up with us Unless we've all quit work Or something like that

Isn't that right Yeah Oh, yeah, no, that's a beautiful, you have a beautiful family now. Oh, no, well, you're right back at you, right? Like, that's family life is a lot of fun. Marriage is tough, though, when you have kids and work and everything else, right? Like, it's a lot of responsibility. It's a good responsibility.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, you never, you never know what you're made of until something like that's on the line you have to be feeding people and putting a house over their head for 18 years. You kind of gut check there. Absolutely, right? Yeah. Yeah.

You want to call in sick to work, but you're not going to call in sick to work because you don't need it, especially while I look at right now the oil patch and Lloyd and everything else, right? It's a scary little bit of time. I mean, Jason Kenney just got voted in, right, conservative Alberta, but I mean, that doesn't take us out of the woodwork anytime soon? No, it doesn't make our oil any easier to get at, cheaper to get to the markets.

It doesn't help us a lick right now. Yeah, I'm not, I was never good enough in the oil patch. I never truly figured out what it was, like, what all took place in there. So I knew I was the low man on the totem pole and the oil field. Newsflash. I went in 2008 and I thought, huh, I know that the RM might hire a guy to like bang posts on a fence line. At least I know how to do that. I was going to say newsflash. None of us know what we're doing in the oil patch. We just

roll with it. Yeah. No, I really enjoyed meeting the people and stuff. like that in the oil patch great friends and stuff like you made along the way a lot of those guys I think that they become bonded as teams just like we do in hockey

absolutely yeah yeah well I think I where I currently work I always get out oh how's your job how's you know like are you enjoying it that kind of thing and my response is I love the guys I work with I got this great group of guys that are you know

as fate would have it, they're all my age or relative to my age within a five-year span. 85% of them all have young kids and they're having young kids and are all in the same stage, and that's a lot of fun to be around, right? They're all going through the same shit you're going through, right? Yep. And to see a guy's look on his face after he's been up all night feeding a baby or what have you, you're just like, I know what that's like, right? Oh, crap, that's coming a way.

You need a hug. I'll get you a coffee this time. You stay down. So shout out to the Baker boys because they're a lot of fun. I really enjoyed working with them. Yeah. Okay, well, I guess now you put me on the spot. I got to say, hi guys at the RM, RM 502.

No, I love my workplace. And I tell you what, I think working with the guys I work with helps make me a, helps me in my relationship with my wife and makes me a better father as well. I've learned how to, you have to deal with people and become like small teams to make the things work in a place. And I think that that's worked as an advantage in my home life and my work life. My wife makes me a better person and my boss makes me a better person. Now you're winning brownie points because that's exactly right, right? Like, yeah.

Well, that's what I'm looking for now. Yeah. That's what I'm like, so you move to Yorkton. Yep, move to Yorkton with my mom. And by the way, welcome to a Sean Newman podcast.

We just stray off the beaten path all the time. I apologize, right? That's what I do. I go down rabbit holes and then all of a sudden you pull yourself back out of it. So you're in Yorkton. I'm in Yorkton.

I tried out for the AA Yorkton Terriers Pee We team. And it's between, I'm doing really well. I'm showing that I, can do I can play with the higher caliber guys in Yorkton. Are you goal tenor at this point? Yes, that was my second year, uh, Pee Wee, which was my first year full goalie.

My second, my first year at Peewee was, uh, I played probably 10 games out in the house league and, uh, 10 games in goal. Yeah. So, yeah, instead, I didn't want to sit on the bench and in house league and not, who's going to watch a goalie and host league play. No kidding. I wasn't away, not in the Archie Miller rink when it was wind blowing through a 40 mile an hour. Oh, the Archie Miller, how cold is that rink?

Yeah, they were still chicken wire on the, on the end. I remember playing in there getting hit into the chicken wire. Yep. Yeah. And they had square nets, which I could not figure out. They had their nets were just rectangles, square corners. Everything about that place was weird, and it looked like you're walking into a jungle when you're walking into a dark hallway. And yet now it might be one of the nicer rinks in Lloyd.

I've heard. They've done an amazing job on that place. Yeah, I've heard a lot of people that are proud of that place these days. Yeah. And rightfully so, hey, Lloyd's, they're serious about their hockey, you know. Those rinks are full there. But, yeah, excellent to see. We have, look how many people they have to look up to around here.

Yeah. So, back to Yorkton. So it's your first full year then of goaltending. Yeah, my second year of peewee is going to be my full year of goaltending. Goaltending. I had been bought my first set of pads. Did you buy them new or did you get them? They were used, I think, from Topps Sports.

Okay. Or Shep's, I can't remember exactly. But I got some pads and they weren't brown ones. That was the first set of pads that I wore that weren't brown and filled with deer hair. These ones were black plethora and filled with foam. I laugh because the first set of pads I ever wore in Helmand, you'd race down to there after school for practice. And the first person down there used to get to put on the pads in novice. And you'd lift up them old.

storage things, I don't know what to call. And all there was in there was them old brown pads. He strapped those on and they were heavy as a kid. Like you could hardly move. Yeah. I'm pretty sure that the Lloydminster minor hockey had cricket pads for goalie pads for the young guys. They just strapped on your legs. It just looked like you had sausages strapped to your legs or something like that.

It was hilarious. But it was the only time I've ever. ever seen that as in cricket before. Oh man and them are some ugly pads in cricket. Yeah who's who's looking when it's keeping from breaking a bone. See you don't make Pee BVAA then? Yeah well I story of my life I play the first month or two through the training part the their goalie they're counting on breaks his Achilles. He was kicking a football at gym class and broke his Achilles tendon rolled up behind his knee. And so I get to play a little bit longer with the double A team.

In Yorkton. In Yorkton. As the first time, first year goalie. And I'm doing okay. They have a good goalie, but I'm holding my own. and so that team had Jared Stoll on it and had probably about five other future NHLers. On the Yorkton, on the Yorkton, and the Yorkton, AA, P-WET team. And they got a first-time goaltender playing his first year.

Yeah, that team the next year, their first year Bantam will go on to win Bantam Western Canadian Championship. Oh, holy. Yeah. and the goalie from the pee-wee team goes on to play forward for that Bantam team and scores the winning goal in like double overtime to win Western Canadians. No kidding.

Yeah. Do you remember his name? Yeah, Trevor Secundiak. He was my roommate in Jacksonville. Paul! He wants... What? He made it to pro hockey

and he was my roommate. And he scored the first goal in that ACHL, and his name went in the Hockey Hall of Fame along with his stick. No. He went from goalie and B&BAA, scoring the Western Canadian game winning goal. That guy, and he's a pro golfer now. Unbelievable. Yeah. I know way too many amazing people for me not to be kind of weird.

I try to be a little bit like every one of them. I have so many awesome friends. So like your first year playing full-time goal. Full-time goalie, yep. Are you doing anything to like, okay, I got to kind of get better? Like, are you doing anything or the coaches helping you? Are you just naturally just learning kind of the ropes? No, I think what happened was I was new in Yorkton and living, first,

time by myself. It was my mom and her boyfriend in a house and I was alone. I get all the, I get all the focus that I need until I don't, of course, in my opinion. And then I get upset at the stepdad, but I think that I had what it took to focus, hey, okay, this is what I want to do. I'm like I'm this is I'm maybe hyper focused on it and I'm going to get just as good I want to show these guys that I am good enough to play there and I wanted the guys in Lloyd to find out that oh yeah this guy went over to another town and he got to play double A because his name didn't matter in this town. Because I always had that feeling around Lloyd Minster that oh it was just my name not being able to get me around.

That's a 12-year-old saying that, by the way. But it seemed like it was always going to be the same guys playing the tiered hockey and Lloydminster. So when I moved away, I'd just got to go and go and I wouldn't let anybody tell me no. That's cool, man. Yeah. So, okay, so you're playing Yorkton.

The goalie snaps as Achilles. You get pulled up to the AA team. Now you're playing with Jared Stoll. Yep. And that team. Yep. And his dad was the coach. Yeah.

And his dad is, I believe he's a really highly touted coach and maybe probably player ahead of him. But Jared is a phenom. He was a, he was playing up. He wasn't even supposed to be in Peewee yet. And he played up with us and he like, he led the leagues and stuff like that. Yeah, well. Oilers fans will remember having him here in Emmington. He was fun to watch.

And then obviously he wins his cups in L.A. And, I mean... I was happy for him. He had his ups and downs. He had fun. It sounds like he's had a really fun life. Yeah. Up until now, I wish him well.

When I was playing at Nate, I got to hang out with him with the Oilers a few nights. And as nice a guy as you could think, It's that brotherhood of hockey. He remember he pulled me out of a crowd. Apparently, you got to come hang with us. All right. Jump in a limo with 18 oilers.

What was that like? I am no way should be hanging out with people who like to be dressed up that fancy. I probably had craft dinner and whiskey on my t-shirt that came up. of a beer box and they're all wearing thousand dollar suits. There's nothing wrong with craft dinner and there ain't nothing wrong with a beerbox t-shirt. When you go to the bar without cleaning it off your shirt that's it means to say something about what

you're there for. I'm there for the beer. You got free beer? I'll take a Pilsner please. Fun times. Going to a party, coming from a party. You know we were talking? Off air that You're playing in Yorkton And then you find your way back to

Well, Lee and Karen. Yeah. So I fell in after the hockey. Folks who don't know Lee and Karen, but now you move back to Helmand from Yorkton, right? You go to Yorkton for like a year? Yeah, I spent about 10 months in Yorkton.

And after the hockey season, I started hanging out with some people who were. into my crowd and getting into some trouble. I'm missing school and I was in risk of failing grade eight. Yeah. I had some tough love at the school. They put me in a classroom by myself and I just had to kind of,

I had to make up the grade before the end of the year without the teacher's help or without being in class. Maybe the class was, I was getting distracted maybe by class people. I don't know. I got, so they put me in a basement and told me to figure out the math book. And I did. I know I'm really good at math. That's just myself saying so, though.

So, no, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I thought I needed to get out. She She offered me the, um, um, um, um, chance to come live with them. Because I, I'd, I'd pull my weight around the farm and stuff when I'd come out. I was always eager to, I, I, was, I was, I was, I was, It was like I said, I had Hillman impressioned on me at a young age and Tangle Flags area, especially. So I asked if they would still take me, and their daughter was moving out. Their oldest daughter, Alana, was graduating. So the day she moved out, I moved in. And I started school in Hillman the next fall.

And you get to move in with one of the guys. that I admire most in Bradley Simons. Yeah. Yeah, he was always, he's always been like a brother to me. We get along. He knows me better than most people, I would say. He seemed, he, uh, what, he, he understands that, uh, uh, I don't know, I don't know, we can cut that part.

I forget where I was going. No, no, that's all right. You move back to Helmand, right? He looked up to me, and it meant something to me at that time. Yeah. So you move back to Helmont. You're getting in a little bit of trouble in Yorkton, so now you move back to Helmont. Now you're under your aunt and uncle's watch.

Yes. So this is first year of Bantam now, just so we're kind of in the timeline. Yep, first year Bantam. Grade 9. And you start playing with Midwest? Yeah, I, well, as a young, youngster, my dad was the, trainer and bus driver for the I mean yeah we had this pulled out didn't we

yep the Lloydminster junior B bandits and in 1993 they went to Selkirk Manitoba and won a Western Canadian Junior B championship and I had I had been watching with very keen eyes for the

two years that my dad was helping with those guys how those guys progressed and I thought those guys hung on the stars I'll have to take a picture of this lineup and maybe the pamphlet or something and put it out on Twitter and Facebook and stuff but there's some cool names sitting in there right like Warren Noble still refs me in Sask Delta right now

right I had no idea and I probably say stupid things like this all the time not have an idea what good hockey people have played or Jason Benjamin was on the first hitman team I ever played for He was the defenseman, well, the best defenseman when I came in And at the time, right? He played a year or two of us, I think. Yeah, we love Benji. How about a young Bart Redden?

Young Bart Redden. Yeah, like that's, oh man, Corey Dallon. I mean, I could go down all the list, right? Like the entire group of them is just, that's cool. Yeah. Well, so I get following Junior B and Bart is my favorite player. And so they tell me, oh, Bart's from Hillmont. Did you know that?

No, and I didn't know that. He's got a younger brother. He started the year with us, but he's playing Junior A. Okay, well, I think that the Junior Bs can kick with snod of the junior A's any day. I'm a Junior B fan. Yeah. Wade may agree with me. It was a pretty good junior A hockey team and a pretty shitty shitty junior A hockey team.

Yeah, back in the day. Yeah. But Wade was unstoppable. He was going no matter what. So I loved those guys, and I had heard that their dad had started this team. Oh, the Midwest Red Wings. The Midwest Red Wants. And actually, if you listened to the podcast with Gord a few weeks ago, he actually talks about that.

Yep. That he was one of the original guys to help push that. That's right. And the season before they started that team, they had a combined team with Paradise Hill and Hillmond, maybe a few other guys thrown in. But that picture was front and center at the Hillmond Arena right between the, what, where you get your burgers and your five-cent candies. Yeah, isn't that right? So I stared at that thing probably.

Like the rest of us. Yeah, 30 hours in my lifetime. Yeah. And just memorize the faces. So that's why you want to go play Midwest though? That was because Reddons had started that team and Newman's. Yeah. Oh, that's a really cool story.

Yeah. Yeah. So I got there and not expecting to make this storied franchise team. Yeah. And the Maidstone, or the Midwest Red Wings. And then you do make it. I make it. I couldn't believe it.

It was just Karen and Lee, like I was going to be, there was no hockey left in Hulmon. It was like, I think there was only like, peatom, Tom, Thum, novice and Adams sometimes. Yeah. And so it was getting pretty lean. Yeah. And there was nowhere for me to play hockey. I couldn't go to Lloyd. I didn't want to go to school in Lloyd.

I wanted to be in Hillmont, so it's made stoner. I'm going to Pea Hill. So how did you like playing for the Red Wings? I was so proud. I was so proud to be a Red Wing. And I'm not kidding you. I wore that jacket until I was out of junior for sure. Not until Colby Tenney made the Midwest Red Wings.

I give him my Midwest Red Wings jacket. I love that to you. Yeah. Yeah. Are they still going? Well, it's tough to say because it's not one single organization. It's 10 organizations over 15 years or whatever, I'm sure. Because there's Midwest girls hockey team that has nothing to do.

Like, there's no one office for Midwest. It's just whoever pulls together can wear these. jerseys, I guess, is how I understood it. I was looking through your timeline, and I hope I'm not speeding us up here, jumping around too much, but you play for Midwest, and is it your second year, Midwest, when you play for Kent Stanforth? Yeah, so after my first year of Bantam. Wait, I should preface this.

Is that the year you go in the Bantam draft? That's right. So your first year, you don't think you're going to make the Midwest Redway. You make the Midwest Redwigs And then you can carry on to make Or go on in Bannam draft Yeah, I went in the fifth round of the W.HL. Bannam draft after my first year in Bantam.

And I had never heard of the... I've heard, I had heard of the PA Raiders and the Saskatoon Blades, Swift Current Broncos. But I thought they were just either A.A. or or another junior A. I had no idea. So when this Portland team,

I get a call from, or my dad gets, he says, you've been drafted by Portland. I don't know what that means. I don't know where Portland is, like Portland, Maine. There's a Portland Pirates team. And he's saying, well, this guy's going to give me a call. Scout gives me a call gives me the rundown and my grandma's over the weekend later and I tell her that turns out I've been going to I've been drafted for hockey and I'm going to Portland, Oregon.

It's like, uh, like military? She heard her and her husband thought I was going to go into the Army being positioned on the Pacific Coast. You know, we were talking about this before. off air and we were talking about if I knew you know at that age the Bannum draft whatever I would say that okay A I didn't know exactly the Bannum draft and everything but I was clued into like this is my year to go in the Bannum draft I'm probably not going in the Bannum draft but this is my year to go in it I can't even remember who went I think maybe tag and reverse maybe yeah maybe there's one other I can't I can't remember many guys going

in it to be honest yeah yeah the fact that you get drafted and You're like, I'm going, going where? And then your grandparents are? Yeah, that's fun, man. That's priceless, man. It was, it was, oh, just error after error. It's just all comedy for me. You've got to look at the fun things, man.

You get drafted by Portland. Yeah, so after a few phone calls, I get straightened out what this means and if this is a real thing, because. Well, here there's a team that wants to take me away. I'm not living with my mom. I'm not living with my dad. Where do we send mail for you? Who do we phone call?

No kidding. Yeah. So we've wiggled and we jiggled and we, they asked me to be out in Portland the next spring for spring camp. So do you remember, okay, so for spring camp, did your dad drive you out there? Did you fly? My dad drove me out there. the Winterhawks hold the training camp in Kimberly, BC, and they take over the mountain, the condos on the mountain,

and we train in their junior B, rink and Kimberly. So what was that like showing up for that? It was incredible because I had no idea. I'd been to Maidstone. I'd been to a camp and Maidstone before. That's no knock on Maidstone, right? Nope. They showed up, and there was 25 kids in the Maidstone camp.

I was just as nervous as when I showed up. Kimberly and there's six foot four guys with NHL, the Tampa Bay Lightning Pants on. Who is that? Who was there at that time? I can't think of who had the Tampa Bay Lightning Pants on. He may have been a European. Yeah. Yeah, I can't remember for sure.

Brandon Morrow showed up with his Dallas Stars stuff on. Yeah. It was just... I was all in awe. He went on to have a pretty good career. Yeah. Yeah. The best leader I've ever seen in my life.

Oh, yeah? And he cared about everybody on his team. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, beauty guy. Did you, um, so you have no idea what you're walking into. No, no idea what I'm walking. Did you?

My dad tells me that I should be wearing a suit when I walk in to meet the coaches. And like the general meeting. when you first walk in. Anybody who's been to a spring or fall camp or anything like that knows that you show up in your shorts and flip flops and your backwards hat and you may wear a collared shirt if you're golfing that day. But mostly you look like a surfer most of the time. My dad thinks I should be wearing a crested shirt and suit and just really make an impression.

If I do that, I'm going to have to burn it off of myself. The eyeballs looking at me in the middle of this room, this brown nose. So did you wear a shirt? Nope. I wore a shirt. I don't even think a collared shirt. It's flip-flops and shorts.

And it walked in there. So did you train? Did you do anything? I, I, back then, I was kind of young and gullible. Still gullible, just older now. Yeah. But they said come to camp in shape, you should be able to run two miles in less than 20 minutes. Jeez, that isn't that's not baddest at all.

Well, that was your start. I think you had to be under whatever 10 minutes or 12 minutes. I'm not a runner in 2 miles and 20 minutes. I can do. Yeah. My fastest mile ever was like 559. Yeah. So, yeah.

No, you can do two. miles and 20 minutes that's all you need just get the blood so were you doing like were you working you said you didn't like working out were you working out were you running were you I don't think at that point in time there was ice sitting in Lloyd

or anywhere you could go skate no summer hockey back then right Saskatoon had had one or two rings open year round I think the university once stayed open in Saskatoon if you really were hardcore yeah but you weren't doing that

Not yet. No. But I would run down to cautions and back from Karen and Lees. I'd run to mark out the grids and run two miles. Or Bradley would ride his bike beside me. Curt and Green Tanny's kids would show up on their bikes. Or they wanted to see how fast I could run so they'd be running beside the car and seeing if I could break 30 kilometers an hour or whatever the heck it was.

That's cool. Oh, yeah. There's always some fun thing to do to make you think you're not working out. That's right. Yeah. So you go through the spring training camp in Portland. Yep. I go through the spring training camp.

And that is an eye opener, I assume. It was. Like I said, you walk in and there's guys who are going to NHL camps and just come back from NHL camps. How old are you at this time? 16? 15. 15. 15.

15. Yeah, it's giving my first count Going there And there's guys talking about shaving In their back and stuff like that You guys kidding me I'm still trying to freaking grow a mustache They're shaving each other's backs

And uh In their off time Talking about millionaire things But Oh I've made lots of good friends out there One name That really stuck out to me during those training camps was a player and his brother was a goalie

and his brother was about to make the team and oh shoot now I'm gonna blank on his name Jason LaBarbrae Jason LaBarra he was an NHL goal he was an NHL goal for a very long time I think he even played for the Oilers didn't he he may have finished his career I think he had a cup of coffee with the oilers he I think he had a he had a he finished his career possibly with oilers, but a lot of time with L.A. and New York Rangers, I believe. Okay. Excellent fella.

Guy couldn't, he was the backup goalie when I come into Portland and moved himself up and put himself in place perfectly just to be the next big goalie because he had the size and he just had to work on his angles. He had the right people showing him. Showing the ropes. Show him the ropes. The guy who was the goalie ahead of him, he had all sorts of fanfare, but no size,

and he couldn't make it out of the HL, but probably 10 times the amount of try and talent, but it's the big guy that wins it. So he taught me a lot of things about. about goaltending. Labarbara did. Yeah. Yeah.

He had the mechanics of it early and showed, he let that on to me. So, but his brother was my best friend at camp. That's how I get to know him so well. Oh, cool. So you don't make it that year? I don't make it. I go into camp. Have you ever been into a camp and you go, you say, oh, coach, you know, I had an excellent camp.

for taking your time with me. And he's, oh, are you leaving? It's like, oh, I thought you were sending me home. That's what this was about. He's like, well, yeah, no, you should go play some hockey this year. If you wanted to stay a few more days, you're welcome to stay a few more days if you want to go. They won the Memorial Cup that year.

Yeah. I just sent myself home. What do the ring Bags pack for crying out loud You had a cool story though You were on the ice when they were getting the Memorial Cup Right? Yeah, yeah when they got their rings

The season after Oh the season after, right Obviously yeah yeah yeah Yeah so in front of 20,000 fans We got to play While they got their rings Their rings Yeah

They give us fake rings They give us like lead rings That look like the real ones Yeah Did you keep them? I don't think so I think When they were in the Memorial Cup

Did you go watch any games Or where was it at that year Spokane? Spokane I was in Spokane And I was playing hockey I was finishing the year In Moose Jaw

Okay well let's go there Because you're okay so you're 15 Not to Moose Jaw After you leave Portland Sorry let's go from Maidstone So I'm in Bantam double A Yeah Get drafted to Portland

Right Come back after that year I go to play midget double A. So I don't play my second year of Bantam. You jump a year up. I jump a year because that's what all the cool kids did that I looked up to. The kids off the bandits, there's a kid named Corey Woke. He was like Bantam age playing with the Bannets.

Not kidding. And so you jump a year. I want to play. I'm looking at the bandits is where I'm going. Right. Like, Bannets is my dream team. Yeah. And so you jump up a year to play midget.

Yeah, because the guys were going to be heavier shots. Yeah. And a bit faster. Still playing a lot of the same teams, same areas. But I think the midget had a better, probably had a better chance of going further in playoffs is what I was really thinking probably at the time. Yeah. And so that's where you run into Kent Staniforth, right?

Ken Stanforth as a coach there. He's just come back and he wants to start having family and takes on a coaching job in Maidstone. Yeah, that's cool. I didn't know anything about that. Yeah. So he ended up driving me to and from games a few times. And we got, he got to know me like somebody who travels with me, does. Yeah.

If there's something on my mind, we're going to talk about it. Yeah, let's give her. I don't think embarrassment's going to hold me back. So, yeah, I played with those guys and have a good year and make some good friends. And that's my, I can't remember that's the first year I played with Darren Nasby, or if I played with him the year previous. Your previous? Yeah.

Got a lot of good Walberg hockey players. Do you graduate out of home on that? Yes. Wait a second. We're grade 10. Yeah, we're grade 10. I'm skipping years again. So, okay, so you play, I'm thinking midget, but you're actually ban, I'm playing midget.

Yes. So you play your midget with the Midwest AA Red Wings. Yeah. And then from there, you go back to Portland camp? I go back to Portland camp, and I spend a bit of time down in Portland, and then I come back up. What do you think of Portland? It's the prettiest place I've ever seen It's beautiful there

Yeah Portland is amazing What do you think of the billet life Because I mean you I'd been living with billet since I was 14 No kid 15 I guess that that year was the first year Does it as a parent now

You're got a 10 and 8 year old Like they could in theory They could be in six or four years be doing that You don't scare the bejes is out of you It does, but I had such a great experience. I think that I've become a more rounded person by living with lots of different people. It would be a very hard decision, but I think that that is best for everybody to get a different viewpoint. You've got to be able to see the world from different views, and you can't really do that, just living with the same people over and over again.

easy to say for me because that's what it took for me to be where I was going and I took the best parts out of that and I tried not to take the negatives but it can be very very tough as well so you were fortunate enough to have good bellets almost the entire time I did have some that I don't want to talk about

they were they thought I don't know if they thought they were funny or something like that but they treated me like dirt and the guy who was the vet. The vet was always the best guy. I was a lowly rookie. They treated me like a rookie the whole year. I don't mean to pry.

You don't have to say any names, but wouldn't you say they treat you like dirt? What do you mean? They didn't always call you, or they didn't always buy you the same groceries. Maybe they didn't, if they were having family time or something like that, They didn't know what's called me.

I just got treated. Yeah, I got treated differently than the other. That'd be tough to live in. I would talk very highly, but I only billeted for three years with the same family. And we were talking last week with Cowboy. We were talking about it.

And they just became like my second family, right? They were amazing people. Still are amazing people. Still got to run into them this past year. and still the same people. They're unbelievable, right? And I was very fortunate to find people or get placed with people like that, right?

The Lane family. So we're talking about playing midget out in Midwest. Sorry, folks. We took a little quick little pee break slash, it's hot in this podcast studio tonight, so Sean now has his pants off. I'm sitting in my boxers currently, and let me tell you,

I feel 100,000 times better. So that's all. visual for you this is why we don't have video on right now it's just uh my lovely voice serenading you but you're sitting there playing midwest red wings you're getting coached by kent staniforth midget um you say it's a good year right you're up as a banam kid now playing midget so after that midget year you go back to portland i go back to portland training camp and this is where it starts if it isn't kind of a twisty-turning story right now this is where it is really twisty turning, right?

That's right. So you go back to Portland. I go back to Portland, go through training camp, have another good training camp. I may have, I used to like to play the puck a lot and maybe set a guy up for a hit every now and again. He thought that a goalie wouldn't protect himself, but I had to lay out the big guys out there.

And I may have hit the first round guy. And I didn't... Who was that? His name was Ken Davies. Ken Davies. Yeah. First round draft pick? He was the first round draft pick.

And you laid him out? Yeah, I laid him out behind the net in like a scrimmage game. Yeah. And he was upset. And I think his agent may have told somebody about it. But anyway... So what happens? Is it just cut you then?

Yeah, no. They said, hey, good camp. You go to these couple guys. These are where we'd like you to play. If you can get on here, get on there. So they're the ones you tell you to go try out in, well, I think you say you're in Tisdale. Yeah, actually, yeah. They wanted me to play in the Saskatchewan League, and I didn't want to go to Battleford.

And a PA, I wasn't too sure about. And I had some family, or my mom's boyfriend had some family up near the Malford area. and they were very nice to me when we were together, and so I'll go up near those people, and maybe I could stay with them while I play hockey. Well, I go up there and I end up staying for a little while, and that was the first time I got introduced to staying with Billets. Yep.

Met a nice family named the Abbots. Dale and Brenda, I believe they were. Yeah. They had a log house on the outskirts of town, and they were kind of new to billeting as well. So we were a good match for each other. I stayed in Tisdale and went to school there.

The school and the hockey rink are right attached to each other. And there's another case of they kept three goalies on late through the year. After, I can't remember if it was because of an injury, or if we were just kind of that close, but they kept me until after the Thanksgiving break, which is pretty late for keeping a goalie who should go find up another place to play. So I stayed in Tisdale until after the Thanksgiving break, come back to Lloyd after getting cut from there.

and I have no idea what I'm going to do. Start making phone calls to the midget team and Maidstone again, see if they're going to go. They said if I'm, depending, they're changing the living rules, so I might not be able to play in Maidstone, but I might have to play in Lloyd, you know how minor hockey rules kind of change. Yeah, so I really was in kind of limbo there.

and all of a sudden my dad said, well, you can't go in, you can't be just not playing hockey and not going to school. So he took me to the Lloyd comp one morning and I got registered for school. I was going to start going to school in Lloyd, and I thought my hockey career was just going to be, oh, it was just a quick flicker and I was done. But I got to, I went to school for the morning classes at the comp, went home for lunch.

My dad said, there's a call for Moose Jaw. Do you want to go play Moose Jaw? Damn right. I left for Moose Jaw that night. So, yeah. Your schooling must have taken a beating man. Yeah, I wasn't always, it wasn't always number one anyway.

It was a good thing that I have a good memory, I think, because I was able to just kind of fake my way through. If I had to write an essay or whatever, It always got handed in late. But if it had to do with something I could remember on a test, I could do it. Man, like, to go from, so you're in Tisdale. So what's that? I'll call that August, September, October.

Then you come back to Lloyd. Now you're going to get registered in Lloyd. And then all of a sudden you pick up and now you're down in Moose Jaw, right? Down in Moose Jaw. And no qualms, they say you can stay, but we got to bail it for you. We'll get you Everybody on the team goes to the Catholic Catholic High School

And you ever been in a Catholic school before? Never been. What was that like? Different. Yeah. We had some teachers who really took the Catholic faith to the classroom and we had other ones who

they were just happy to be teachers and didn't matter where they were. But yeah, no, the difference was noted there. So what did you think of Moose Jaw? I'd always been interested in Moose Jaw. That's where my mom hails from. Oh, okay, okay. My grandma's family's from southern Saskatchewan

moved up to North Battleford when my grandma was youngster. My grandpa's family is from Paradise Hill. When my grandma and grandpa get together, They go to Moose Jaw, and my grandpa works in the mental hospital down there. Oh, man. Yeah. I don't remember what my grandma did, but they're down in Moose Jaw, raised two girls down there. Everybody moves back to Paradise Hill and Hillmond area after they get married after the girls grow up.

So my grandma and grandpa moved to Paradise Hill. Karen gets married to Lee ends up where they're at. And my mom gets married to my dad. And they end up in Lloydminster. Right. Quick shot out to Hillmond. Yeah. So you're playing.

So I go to my mom's hometown. Yeah. Start playing thinking, yeah, my mom's told me also. My mom loved high school. She had so many good high school friends. Still goes back on like yearly. does all the reunion stuff.

Right. So I was excited to go. I've heard all these stories about Moose Jaw. But hockey wasn't going all that well. I don't know if I wasn't in my mental state or something like that. I felt maybe I was feeling shuffled around or stuff, but I was just kind of playing mediocre, not good enough to really stand out on a midget AAA team.

I was quite off in the backup. Found a girlfriend, first girlfriend I ever had down there. And all of a sudden, hey, Dwayne likes to play hockey. Oh, well, it has something to do with Dwayne's happiness, I think. So I end off strong. my midget year down there. And I got a call late in the year from a team, the Brandon Wheat Kings. They said, hey, we're coming to Moose Jaw, and our goalie just got hurt or sick or whatever.

Can you back us up a game against the big Warriors team tonight? Yeah, you guys know I'm not like that good. I'm on Portland's, like, protected list, so I don't think they'd... Oh, no, we've already talked to them. They said, yeah, no, this would be a good experience. So, like, Brandon shows up one night, and I got to go skate around with the big boys in a league game, not just exhibition game. So my first real exhibition game, or my first real game...

Dub game. the Brandon Wheat Kings. It's a, it's a mystery. How all the stuff falls together. It's just like. Yeah, so, but back at those times, they were doing, in Moose Jaw, they'd do her, they do her good. They, they'd have, like, hot, hot stoves and stuff.

It was just like after a football game, there'd be fans huddling around a dressing room in the basement, and they'd all. I'll be kind of arguing about different points of the game. And they did this good. They did that good. The coach should have done this. It was, and they used to,

they'd do the warm-up separately, so one team would go out for 20 minutes. Then the other teams. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you remember that. I'm a way up on your club podcast, Sean. Yeah. So you remember then being where they had separate warm-ups.

They'd send one team out, they'd do their warm-up, and then they'd send the other team out, later and they'd do their warm-up? Yep. How was that getting ready for a game? It was weird because you'd, you, uh, road games were better than home games, because home games, you'd go out first.

And then you'd have to sit there for 40-quarters of an hour and, uh, you can just get undressed again. Yeah. So, uh, you'd have to refocus after warm-ups and keep riding the bike and stuff like that. It was a mess. Oh, yeah. Yeah. couldn't have been cheap to keep the like they they must have just blow money everywhere back

them just to put the show on right yeah and you say you talk about this hot stove where the fans are down it what do you mean by that no the moose jaw warriors used to put it on so they'd have the games on every game is on the radio okay so and then in intermissions they'd have an intermission show okay and just like hockey night in Canada but over the local radio. And after every game, they'd have a, like, a hot stove or a round table of pick the five old players or what have you. Or what have you.

They'd get five guests in and discuss the game. And it was really, it was really, it was an experience to go to a Moose Jaw Warriors game or really any of those games. Any of those games. Yeah. Yeah. They try to make it the experience as close to the big time as good as they could. That's really cool.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, well, look what we try to do in Hillmon. We try to give them the best experience possible that we can offer, just with a little Hillmon spin. That's right. Well, that's absolutely right. No, that's our...

I couldn't say it better. You're exactly right. That's what we're trying to do. Yeah, make it our own, but, yeah. So, yeah, I get to play... You just keep throwing these gems out. I know. I know.

I get to play one game with Braddon. And you just, you know, like, you just... You just flick on a switch almost, and all of a sudden, you're this goaltender that they just get to call up. That's how it felt, too, because I didn't feel worthy to be down. They're like, my dad spending like $300 a month paying the billets for me to stay down there. And he gave me a car to wheel around an old Ford tempo. Oh, wow. But that's, I don't know, that's what it took.

Yeah. I didn't, it definitely wasn't conventional my ride. Anything but. Yeah, but I wouldn't change it. I get lots of different perspectives on events. Well, you're about to pick up into some like, if you competed in one of these things, you'd be considered like lucky or on a good team or whatever.

But you go, okay, so you go from playing Moose Jaw. And then from Moose Jaw, you somehow wind up in grade 12 playing for the PA Minto's, right? Midget, AAA. Yeah, yeah. So from that year where I ended off strong in Moose Jaw, I ended up going to the Portland Winter Oaks camp again, have the strongest camp I had, and I make it, I'm on the team. So you make Portland? I make Portland.

With the third goalie. We're still going to battle it out for a while because LeBarber is having some knee problems or he's going back and forth to New York or whatever. I forget what the reason it was. I was flying back and forth at the end of the year to go Portland and PA because they were going through goalies so fast. So to start the season, I start off in Portland.

I'm there until after New Year's again. They're Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, they say, listen, PA has phoned me. They said they can give you 60 games this year. Yeah, we'd be dumb not to send you there and let you get some. Yeah, you're just going to be getting like 10 games here,

and you're not going to, you're not going to, We got two 16-year-olds that are going to play 10 games each type of thing. So I went and P.A. is hosting the Air Canada Cup this year. Which is now the TELUS Cup. Sure. Yeah. Midget, well, essentially, Midget, AAA. National Championship.

So what that means is no matter how you kind of finish out, you're going to be hosting this tournament. Well, no different than a host for the Royal Bank Cup or what have you, right? Like you're walking on a team that's going to get national luck. You're going to have all the scouts in the world just sitting there. Yep. Yep. So Portland thinks that's a good opportunity for me. Either it's going to develop me further for their use or it's going to make me better trade bait.

Right. So I go and I'm playing in PA, AAA midget. And start playing in a few tournaments. And of course, my confidence. confidence is really high. I'm coming from a W HL team. I'm going to play midget triple A. My confidence is, well, I was just robbing NHL or I'm going to, this is going to be a cakewalk. But as always, you can have rec hockey games that just make you pull your hair out sometimes. Hockey is a weird sport where anybody can score any time.

So, play, playing in tournaments with the Mentos there. We have one big tournament. That's an international tournament. Yeah, we're talking about this, yeah? Yeah, in November. So that would have been like 1998. And what is that called again? They called it Ice Mania tournament.

Ice Mania, that's right. So I think it was about a 16-team team tournament, a couple from the U.S., a couple of European teams, like a Slovak traveling team and a Czech traveling team. And they all come to PA and we play games. Man, our team's doing okay but not great. And I ended up winning some award at the skills competition that they had at it. Feeling pretty good about myself. And all of a sudden, yeah, oh,

I need to fly back to Portland. There's been an injury. So what does Portland just pay for you to hop on a plane from our Saskatoon? Yeah, they pay my billet to drive me to Saskatoon. And they'd fly me to Portland. First time I've been on a plane. Somebody just dropped me off at the airport and said, you've got to go, you find a gate that says Portland,

and then you go. You must have thought you're in the big time. I thought I was going to get lost in the, in the world. I thought I was going to get left in Denver airport somehow. Yeah. Never been an airplane before. They dropped me off at the airport. What did you think of your first airplane ride? I thought it was cool. Yeah. They had to rent a hotel room for me for four hours because it was going to be a wait between. They were just to watch them somebody spend money on you.

Yeah. Like it's not like it doesn't matter. It feels good for your confidence, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And I was just taking it in. I'm by this time, I'm loving the ride. I'm going with the flow.

Everything's just, everything's just an experience. So I fly down there, spend another two, three weeks. And then the goalie situation. straightens out again. I come back to PA and it's time to go to the max tournament. I got to ask, before we get in the max, I'm just, my brain's having a hard time. So you're bouncing back and forth. So you go Portland for a few weeks and then you're back in PA.

What the heck are you doing with schooling at this time? Because this is your grade 12 year, right? That's my grade 12 year. Yeah, grade 12 year. How do you, do you even, are you showing up to? classes? I don't remember. That's the best I can tell you.

I don't think I had real strong grades, but I was keeping it together. How can you, though? Like, you can't even beat yourself up about that? Can you imagine walking into Portland going, well, I'm only going to be here a couple weeks, right? I mean, and the teacher's back there aren't going to know any different, right? So, like, I mean, unless you get on a run and all of a sudden you're, you know, staying with the big club.

Yeah. But the writing's probably on the wall. You know, as soon as a guy comes back. healthy you're getting sent back down yeah yeah yeah i was really considering myself just i'm a tradable commodity it's starting to to come into focus there but uh no were you hoping for a trade then were you hoping like no i love portland so much i thought i was really hoping that somebody else would would say that they wanted more time or something like that yeah i love portland but things changed after the coaching day and they had a coaching change after they won memorial cup their coach

went down uh to nashville who was that brent peterson um excellent excellent coach and does an excellent job for nashville still i believe i asked way to say hi for me one one time down there yeah um just because that guy was he never he never coached me as a as a team on a team but uh he had a lot to do with me continuing on my path. You give me that confidence. Yeah, cool. So then you get sent back to PA. Oh, and now we're just going to go to a Max Cup.

Yeah. So, yeah, Max Cup. Everybody's talking about the Max Cup, and I can't settle down to straighten around which country I'm in or which time zone. I had three days off for Christmas, and my dad drove Christmas Eve, or Christmas

night we had to be in a hotel in downtown Calgary because we were playing boxing day. Right, and if you don't know that the Max Cup

is an invitational midget tournament in Calgary and I was talking about this for Shanker. Like, it's probably, I mean, the Air Canada Cup, the national tournament,

this is rivals it almost, right? Like, this is the best teams from midget teams from all over the world get invited to it. I forget how many teams are in it. 20 fruit.

I should have the catalog from the game or from the tournament out there. We can check it afterwards. Yeah, but anyways, it's a very, very good tournament. Very prestigious. Yeah. And so you, okay, so roll into this thing. Yeah, roll into that thing.

And our team were touted because we're hosting the Air Canada Cup that year. So everybody wants to kind of test us where they know that we're, they're supposed to. to build a team for the host. But we're just kind of average. Every now and again, we just spurred out and have excellent games. We can't ever tie it together.

You threw it back in Yorkton, you played with like a guy like Jared Stoll. This team that's hosting the Air Canada Cup, who's the guy? There isn't a guy. There's not a guy. Really? Yep. There's a guy who ends up being a tough guy in the dub. There's a little Frenchman from PA.

Not much of people who even played the next year. Oh, really? Wow. And so how about the Max Cup? Do you remember who was in the Max Cup at that time, like the big name? I couldn't tell you who we played against. No, okay. No. I always thought that would be nice to look at those names again,

but I always think that our draft year wasn't the strongest year. and nobody was looking in that. What year was your draft? 98, 99. I think it would be like my NHL draft year would be 98-99-ish. I think the Sedeans went second, third. The year the Siddins go. Yeah.

Sorry, I'm typing in the phone because now I'm curious. Yeah, I'm curious. Well, and we can keep going. Yeah. So you go to the Max Cup and then you... We go to the MAKS cup and then you... We go to the Manx Cup and we do just okay. We don't make it to, or I think we may have lost out in the first quarter final,

which is a good showing to me. That was a win. It showed us that we could play against the good teams and stuff like that. On our way home from that tournament, we get a phone call. at the front of the bus. The bus driver had a phone, a bag phone. Yeah. They said, that's where our team was.

And we said, oh, we're like, Oyan. Oh, well, your goalie has made us so fond on to the All-Star squad for the tournament. Can he show up at the rink tonight? We're in Oyan. We're not coming back. She actually made the All-Star team? I made the All-Star team for the Max, and I didn't get to go. No kidding.

Yeah, but, like, all full of stories like that, man. You were talking about your draft here. Okay. So you weren't kidding. It might have been, it was a weekier. A billion saying that, man. Seddians are the only ones that really stuck up. Man, did the Canucks ever steal a trade there, right?

Because how good were the Sedin's? Right? Yeah. So first overall that year was Patrick Steffen. Cidine, that's the year Vancouver trades and gets, they got now the two, three picks. So they pick Sidene, Sidene. After that's the guy you were talking about. Woodoff Air was Pavel Brendel.

But after that, right, fifth overall, Tim Connolly. And then after that, man, you go down the road and it is Yan, Yenny Rita, I recognize that name at 13, but you just keep going, Bear Jackman at 17, Nick Boynton at 21, right? Like, these aren't big names. Bear Jackman was a manchild. Martin Havlet at 26. That's the first round, right? Like, you were a kid?

Yeah, that's not a strong, I mean, Siddins are first ballot hall famers, right? They're going to be in. Yeah, they're incredible. Hockey. They should be there just on like a hockey building. They've showed people how hockey should be played, my mind.

A team changed for them. That's huge. So would you have played against this? Siddines then at all? No, I don't think so. I think that by the time I started playing European teams, they would have been on a higher up. But you mentioned Pavel, Pavel Brendel. Pavel Brendel. Perville Brendel was one of the best players I ever played against in the WHL. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just sick, insane hands. But it turns out that he's, he likes to party. I don't know.

He probably plays in the KHL or something. If he plays hockey anymore, I don't even know. I haven't heard his name since like 2000. 2017-18, he played, well, that's last year. He played in Sweden. Yeah, he was touted to be like the next Lemieux. Yeah, and in NHL totals, it says he played 78 games and had 22 points. He showed up 120 pounds overweight for his first game.

camp at New York or something like that and they told them to go home. No kidding. First round pick or first round pick they told them to go home. Yeah, fifth overall. Yeah, just showed up freaking heavy. Hearsay, of course. That was the rumor through the leagues. Okay, so you play in air, oh, no, actually, so Max Cup, you haven't got to the air camp.

Haven't even made it through that year. Yep. After the Max Cup, we get home from PA, or home to PA. And that's like January 1st of 99, I would guess. Yeah, January 1st, 99. And by January 10th or 15th, we were headed to Hull, Quebec for another international tournament. Fraggman. Yeah.

That was a while. and that was another week-long one. But then for like a midget team, like to, I'm so far removed from minor hockey right now, but to like do all those major tournaments, like that's a special year. Yeah. Yeah, somebody had to been fundraising for years ahead of that. No kidding, right? Yeah, you can't do that with minor hockey many times.

So Hockewback, then you host the Air Canada Cup. Then we host a Canada Cup. Are you winning any of these? We do mediocre through all of those. I think we win half. We make it to the playoff or round robins or whatever. And now you've been on a, I'm assuming you're not busing out to Holcombaback. No, that's a plane ride.

So now you're starting to experience the plane trips more and more. Yeah, that was, yeah, holy smokes. I get to fly with other people this time. Yeah, maybe somebody's going to show me how to, maybe how to actually act in the airport. Yeah. But no, we go to Hall and it was a different world again. I'd never been out to Quebec or out east and eastern Canada before. And I love the history out there.

I could stay out there for days, I'm sure. But when you want to order food, you don't want to talk to. You don't want to go through all that every time. They either like you or they don't, depending on your accent. So I guess it's not racism, but it's... You know, it's funny when we were biking, we went through Quebec, and I never had any issues. The French were overly nice to me and Dust and Lori at the time, right?

Like, they were, everybody always talks about exactly what you're talking about. I never got to, I've never experienced that. I've only been through Quebec once, so, I mean, yeah. Who knows, maybe I had horses, you. That's because you guys were a couple of polite bikers, and I went with a group of hockey players. Well, you're on the road a ton. Give me some goddamn orange juice.

You've been on the road a ton, right? So I got to ask, like, what's the best prank you ever pulled on somebody in a hotel room? Or on the bus trip, or anything down that road? The guys in PA got me one time soaking my under, my underwear and my socks and stuff like that. I soak it in water, wrap it in tape and put it in the ice buckets, like an ice machine.

I'm trying to unwrap your gitch and put on cold gitsch for a game. And coach is yelling at you to hurry up. Did you guys ever do leaners or anything like that? Those were more baseball things that I did. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah, I love.

did a little bit traveling around with baseball when I was younger. Greg Payne was one of my coaches, and any time we had a pain around, it was always going to be some excitement. I love those guys, man. They just about had me convinced to go try with the twins a couple years ago. They said, Kevin's playing and Stanger and everybody. like that. Yeah.

Yeah. It'd been so long. They said, I remember you hitting balls. I was like, yeah, yeah. But I quit to play beer league, and now I'm not even good enough to play beer league balls. What, on the bus trips, or plane trips, I guess, it doesn't matter. Did you have a favorite movie? I always, I like to throw that.

Was there a favorite movie you liked watching, or were you a guy read or stared at the wall for all I care? I did a lot of reading to tell you the truth. Okay. Yeah. I don't remember if I had the subscription to Reader's Digest or if it was my grandma, but I always had a box of Reader's Digest everywhere. Reader's Digest? That's where you...

Only goalie. It's taking me until an hour and 37 minutes for you to pull something and go, only a goalie would say that. Readers Digest? Readers Digest, man. They're great, great magazine. Here comes Dwayne on the bus with his box of Reader's Digest, right? Yeah, yeah, well, and until Maxim Magazine's come out.

Then it was, there was a whole lot more Maxin magazines. And, hey, well, these guys in New York are playing with, like, phones that talk back to you and everything like that. Don't kidding, right? These city kids. Yeah, we'll stick to my 70-year-old stories from the Reader's Digest. But they fill them with comic stories and stuff like that. And I was always a sucker for reading a funny story. I always wanted to just make up a story and put it in there

and see if I could win the 50 bucks for entering. You know, it's stupid as a day, but I remember the contest, right? Because Reader's Digest used to be in, like, the doctor's offices and all over the place, right? And every once in a while I'd read it, but I kind of fathom a guy bringing that on the bus. I bring a box of them. Those road trips are long, man.

I heard they were talking a funny story about you getting left in the bathroom. I don't know what year that was. Oh, this is a good one. Yeah, and right around this time period, it was when I was still with Portland. Yeah. It was after they had won the Memorial Cup. Yeah. I was playing an exhibition game with him, and we traveled to Seattle.

and my seat partner was Marion Hose's brother, Marcel. Marcel? Yeah. And so when it come time to get back on the bus and go somewhere, they'd say, hey, everybody got their seat partners, like the guy you're sitting beside. Well, the guy I was sitting beside didn't speak English and he decided not to speak up when I wasn't there.

I was in the bathroom and the restaurant. and the bus drove away. So what did you do when you come out in the bus? I had to run and find a pay phone and phone the lady. The only phone number I had for the Portland Winterhawks was the lady who I phoned like when my schooling need to get when I needed to get something for school or if I needed some supplies or something like that. So I phoned her and I said, I can't believe this happened, but

I'm at this restaurant in Seattle and the bus left like half an hour ago. And she said, no way. Anyway, it took about three hours to get a hold of the bus driver. Playing phone, right? Playing phone, yeah, there's no cell phones. There's no cell phones at that point in time. And the guy, they were almost back to Portland. They turned the bus around, come back to get me in Seattle.

and drove back again my name was mud do you remember a guy named harold sneps he played with uh he was our coach uh that he was an old n hl guy and he no nonsense right what in the actual he was just beside himself I should not have come back to get you. This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. I was like, well, now you're getting to know me, I guess. This shit happens to me all the time. You know, he's razz, Marcel, freaking, Osa. Like, hey, man, might speak up.

Unrazzable. Unrasable. My brother's Marcel, or Marion Hosa. And I, I'm going to the show right after him. He's like, stupid Englishman. Oh, man. We got to, okay, okay.

Let's hop to. I don't want to jump too many things. Yeah. You end up going from Midget into playing, oh, God, I don't even know how to jump to it, right? Like, you go from Midget going to the national championship. What was the national championship like? The national championship was intense.

How many fans are watching these games? Not many. Really? Yeah. There was a few, it was probably more scouts than the stands than fans. Really? Yeah. Our home team fans got a few.

But, yeah, it was pretty quiet for the most part. Yeah. But they made us, the thing used to be, there'd be one company that sponsored it. So everybody would get a, new helmet and a new visor. I-Tech sponsored the helmets and the visors or something. So everybody's wearing the stupidest I-Tech helmet that's the latest version that

year. And we all had to wear jerseys that weren't our own. Our jerseys were supposed to represent like our region, not our team. Okay, yeah. And so we were wearing Edmonton-Oyler jerseys from 99 with an Air Canada Cup logo on it. and I believe the team that won were wearing like Colorado Avalanche colors. They were Regina Packed Canadians. And they were wearing a different jersey.

I thought it was a silly thing to do. I'd like to see your team represent it all the way through. Yeah. But that was one thing they decided to do. So we all had to get used to this new equipment to wear. They used to be calm and practiced. Now I don't think it is as much anymore. Yeah.

But, so that was our thing. They're painting the ice of different color, and you get new board logos. They blank out all the old logos on the boards with a sticker, and you get all new national advertising and stuff like that. Like, you start to think you're pretty special. Yeah, no kidding. There's a lot of people working around you just to make your event the best it could meet. and it always sunk into me

that there's so many, it took so many people to put on all those things, especially in Saskatchewan. Other places, hey, they might have enough people that those positions can be hired out. Saskatchewan doesn't have that luxury. Yeah.

And I'm sure where you played junior hockey, it was the same. Everybody's volunteer just for, to get the, to further the community. Yeah, absolutely. Well, it's a big chunk of the community, right? They're having those teams there and involved and everything else.

Yeah, big source of pride. So you go from Midget, AAA, all these big national stage tournaments, to Portland trading you to Prince Albert? Yeah, I go take the summer off. I go to Portland training camp, and the writings on the wall. I'm third man down again. As a 17-year-old? As a 17-year-old. No, you would have been 18.

Yeah, 18-year-old, that's right. That's right. Yeah, 18-year-old. So right at the end of training camp, I go down to Portland, and right at the start of the regular season, get traded up to PA. So that was the first year I took a vehicle down to Portland. Yeah. And it's a 1981 Buickla Saber, not the best on fuel.

but it's a beauty card it's a story in itself it's just a huge boat did you drive by yourself uh mostly i may have had a partner from kimberley to portland quite often we'd carpool with each other or whatever yeah so i can't remember if i had somebody with me or not but driving from after the trade i had to get to pa in like

48 hours so they said they give Portland gave me some gas money and sent me on my way and said good luck and I tried to drive straight through and couldn't do her through the mountains that late at night so I ended up stopping and bam sleeping in a car making it the rest of the way the next day oh I that that that road trip taught me a lot about myself as well You don't sit in a car by yourself for 18 hours and not go crazy. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah. I used to drive to drive. Well, I drove to drive many a time, right, three years in a row by myself. And you go through such lows and highs and lows. And sometimes music is the greatest thing in the world. Sometimes you just can't turn it off fast enough. Yeah, well, when radio stations only reached eight miles out of town. This technology is way awesome.

Yeah, Sirius was, oh my God, I couldn't imagine a better thing for driving when Sirius come out. Yeah. Well, now we got podcasts, right? Like, me and you talk about this a lot, right? Like, now I don't even listen to the radio hardly anymore, right? I listen to strictly podcast conversations. And when I get tired of, you know, banter like this, then I switch over to a guy talking about history. If I get bored of that, then you switch over to something else, and there's just hundreds of thousands of them.

I'm getting more out of podcasts than I did out of any schooling. Isn't that the truth? Yeah. They're teaching it in a way that we're hearing it for, like, the first time, or relearning it. Like, I don't know, it's, it's so much easier to learn right now. It may be life experience helping out, too. Oh, definitely, definitely. But I was saying, I was saying, oh, it had to have been a couple weeks ago,

but I was saying like this right here, this getting to sit across from somebody and do this conversation thing, A, I get to like, I get to learn so much more about a human being than I ever could just sitting and having a couple beers in the dressing room after a hockey game. Like you just don't get this in depth about it, right? How many years did we play together? That's right. I've known you since you were too young to play. That's right. And we've never sat down like this and just had a, you know, let's talk about it.

Let's see where this goes. And it's like every week now I get to do this. Once a week with a new person that has like a unique perspective. And it's like surreal. Every time I sit across from somebody, it's just like, it's just, I enjoy it, really look forward to doing it. But now you can sit and listen to like, well, 100 different people if you want over the course of a couple months, do the exact same thing with people you would have never dreamed of here. Yeah, I get to listen to some of the world's most brilliant people speak about things that really

matter. And it sounds to me like the world, in their opinion, is becoming a better place, which makes me excited. You don't always see it or feel it. The news is... When the news is always negative and everything like that. Don Henley song, Dirty Laundry. Yeah, yeah.

Like, I mean, that's what the news is, man. That's, at times, it's tough to watch because all they report is all the negative stuff going on. It's hardly ever anything good. Yeah. I've been enjoying listening, even going and getting my news on podcast because, you know, there's not the ads halfway through. You don't get a six-minute newscast. You get a newscast. It's a half an hour, and they'll tell you the ins and a half an hour.

and they'll tell you the ins and outs and why and kind of a little bit of history too. Yeah. Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. That's actually pretty cool. I'm super in, probably too far into podcasts. I'm going to have to do it as a part-time job or something like that. Like I said, I'd love to help you out. If they ever need any ideas and stuff like that, I think of you do such a good job at this

I appreciate that. It comes so easy to you. As I sit across from you and my boxers and I'm just... Hey, you've got to be comfortable with your guests. And your guests got to be comfortable with you. You're not going to scare me off that easy. It's always an experience coming to the studio. I got to make it memorable for you, right?

Oh, yeah. It's going to be memorable. Memorable for sure. So let's talk about... Okay. So let's talk about PA then. You get traded, you take your road trip, you land in PA. And if there is one thing, I have heard about your career, not specifically from you,

but from everybody else who talks about you. They talk about this PA team and how many NHellers come off of it, how good you guys were. We just couldn't put it together in the end. Yeah. We had a team that lost in the finals. I believe it wasn't the WHL finals, but it was probably the West Finals a year before. And they didn't lose many people.

And I come in there, and they just average. They have the best team on paper other than the Calgary Hitman. Who's the guys you're talking about? Scott Hartnell was the captain. Nick Schultz was the assistant captain. Oh, yeah. Milan Craft was an assistant captain, and he was touted to play between Lemieux and Yager with Pittsburgh.

Okay, yeah. That's starting to ring some bells. Yeah, he was, he was, they had him penciled in there for like two years, and I don't know what happened if Lemieux quit or if Krafty never, Just materialized, but he didn't know. He didn't like being away from home, I know, that much. I wouldn't surprise me if he lit it up. Where is Kraft from?

Craft is from Prague, Czech Republic. Oh, Czech Republic? Yeah. And so I wouldn't be surprised if he went back over there and kept playing because, see, I don't think he ever was comfortable in North America. Yeah. Which I'd understand. I probably wouldn't be comfortable over there.

in his position. But he was, he was one of those guys, his work ethic. And it was kind of contagious. Yeah. He just like, it was like a Russian fighter. He, me shoot bucks. You stop bucks. You're not going to stop many of my bucks.

Yeah. But, I, my personality, I'm always hanging up. out with the weird guys or the outcasts or something. And quite often it was the Europeans who are the outcasts. Yeah. So I spend a lot of time with those guys and pick up a lot of, pick up the funny things that they see about Canadian life and stuff like that. I thought that was always awesome.

What is? Yeah, well, my perspective is I was never, I never seen the true world until I was like 30 years old. Like, I thought the way we were raised in our area was the only way. Like, everything's church and everything, it's very conservative. It's not the way around everywhere else, and you've got to learn to fit in everywhere you go, I guess. Hanging out with the Europeans, what did they think was the funniest about the Canadian way? This sticks out in your mind.

Hmm. Hmm. What are things? Nothing really jumping out at me right now. I know that after Kraft had signed his NHL contract, I asked him if we'd go for subs after, like go for lunch. And I always had to buy the frickin' subs. I was the one who was making $125 every month or whatever it was.

He was frugal. Yeah, he was frugal most definitely. Yeah, I don't know if he spent any of us. signing contract or other guys they'd buy a car right away or something like that yeah yeah and he wasn't doing that he was wearing like hand me down clothes and shit was it cool to go to a team uh well hartnell you would have played with him back in lloyd i played i played more ball with hartnell and lloyd uh but i did play on like an novice team or something like oh yeah yeah you're real young when he first moved to lloyd uh will they come from was it ittonia or something like that okay

They're from down Wainwright area originally, I believe. Okay. You know more than I do, obviously. Yeah, no, so he come and like novice and this guy's good. Look at this red head and play hockey.

Yeah. And his brothers were awesome to watch as well. Those are the guys who we always got to look up to because he was the only one who had really older brothers in our age group. Yeah. You were talking off air, that PA is when you get your first win as a starter in the dub.

Yeah. Against your old team, right? Yeah. It took for me to win a game in the WHL, it took for me to be in PA. And I think it was my first start with PA, but it was down in Portland. I never played until like October. Yeah. Yeah.

So it was a long wait. What was that like starting your first game in the dub? I pretty well cried through the whole thing, I think. It was very emotional. I love Portland, and I thought I should never leave there. You're a strange breed. Yeah. Oh, yeah, no, I got to listen.

I mean that in the fondest way. But I can't imagine. You're in your first game when you're sitting there tearing up in the neck. Yeah, oh, yeah, there's guys in a breakway. I'm trying to freaking look through a tear. It happens in Hillman, too. though. It just get caught up in the moment sometimes.

It's a very emotional game. Oh, Craig. So you're on this PA team. I'm on this PA team. That is that good. That is this good. And they're ranked and everything like that in the national press at the start of the year. And it just doesn't come together.

You could tell right away it's not coming together. They try big trades. They traded for about. six people from red deer at one point brought in like some Ross Lupus Chuck and like some really high talent guys

and just didn't mesh I don't know if it was coaching or if it was in the dressing room what's what's your favorite team you ever played for and now I think I may have asked you that I can't remember but it can either be the year you did the best or just the best

group of guys because the meshing thing uh i heard uh i was listening to a podcast actually random enough uh view from the penalty box i think it was it's an old ex-nacheller and he had a thing on there he was talking about uh one of his favorite teams and he said he played on teams that were very talented but there were individuals off the ice and it translated into individuals on the ice and i heard that i was like that right like i've been on teams like that where you don't come together off the ice and it shows on the ice right yep So for you, did you have a favorite team that you played on where you just, you walked in the dressing room and maybe it was just the greatest group of guys,

or maybe you guys translated that into winning something big? Because, I mean, if there's one thing that you've gone through, you've played in, like, amazing places, and you've played for amazing situations, but you haven't won a lot. So is there a team that sticks out where you're like, that group of guys or that team or that? Not until I join a team in junior afterwards, like in the junior A ranks. Is there a team that really jumps out to me that is an actual team? That's Malford?

That was Weyburn. Oh, that was Weyburn? Wayburn, I had never seen a team gel like that. Those guys would all kill for each other on that team that year. It was very cool to see. but they were winning too they were serious competitors

yeah they they had as a junior A team in 99 they probably had four guys going in the NHL draft and that that was unheard of back then they had a goalie go to L.A really good players just to warn you we're at two hours right now

how you don't yeah oh I'm fine I could talk forever but I know that this could get pretty long to listen to. Well, you know what? We could break it into two pieces. I talked to Evan Preece gave him a shout out today. And he always tells me he's like, people either choose to listen to it all or they choose

not to. Yeah. If it doesn't feel, if it doesn't feel uncomfortable to you, I'm happy talking. I just, man, there's like four other things I want to get to. So if you're sitting there and you're doing fine. I'm doing fine. Okay. Well, okay.

Yeah, we got, we still have exciting things to hit. Well, okay, so you go, okay, PA, just a highly-towed team, doesn't go anymore. Yeah. When, at what point do you go to Malford then? Okay, so during that year where I'm in PA, there is a third, one of the goalies comes back from Montreal and the NHL. And do you remember him? Yeah, Evan Lindsay. I can't say I know who that is, so I'm assuming.

He's very popular for, he went in the draft twice. He went to Calgary and didn't sign. Went to draft to Montreal the second time. Okay. Now, Montreal wanted him to play and play lots. And you were mentioning something about that, where Montreal would kick in money or something or something? Yeah, yeah, they were giving PA some money.

year or I guess that's a hearsay again but the theory is that they wanted him to play and get lots of minutes to so they could get their money's worth so essentially he was they were kicking money into the PA so they would start a goaltender yeah yeah that sucks for you it sucks for me but I wasn't I wasn't doing a whole lot to help myself I was I thought I was working hard but I wasn't I was really happy to be in Like, I was really happy to, after I found out about the WHL, okay, my WHL is my goal. Like, that's where I want to be. Okay, well, I get to, I reach my goal.

And now what? I can't foresee myself getting further. I can't, I don't see myself going to the HL or NHL from there because I'm not getting the games. I don't, I don't see a way to get my foot in the door. and I think my coach Kevin McClellan that year really kind of called me out on it says yeah are you happy to be here damn right so I'm happy to be here he's like well that's not what it takes he's like you have to you have to want to be you want you you can't be happy to be here you're not going to go on from there and I think I was just happy to be there so I

play out my time there. Did you ever have, like, did you ever even give any notion to, like, maybe going in the NHL draft, like maybe being selected or you just didn't play enough games? I had dreams of grandeur, but I knew that nobody had talked to me. I think that if I possibly would have had a, if I would have went to PA with a, somebody who's going to represent. I needed somebody who knew hockey to represent me, and I couldn't represent myself,

and my parents couldn't represent me, because we were just, we were hoping for Junior B great, and that's what we were looking at. When this happened, it was just, hey, let's take it. I mean, it's just, like, I just think, like, you know, when you talk about all these different national stages you put yourself in,

And whether it's fate or random chance or whatever, you get national stages over and over and over again. And not only you don't have the winning team on those stages, but you get personal accolades on all the national stages, right? Like, that's pretty cool. Yeah, I thought it was awesome. Right. I thought every time I made it to a national championship, I thought it was going to be my last one. And I kept every little piece of scrap paper from it and the table settings from the banquets. I got them all in a box in here, so I think you were going to attest to that.

Yeah, I can't. I saw a bunch of them before. Lots of it's really cool, right? Like, I mean, it's just, for me, when my draft year came, I just, I just knew, right? Like, I knew from when I was 14, right? And I never got a letter to it. We were talking about letters and how you had all your old letters, and there's some cool ones in there, right? At one point, I had all my letters, but they were all junior A letters.

I never got a dub letter. I never even got an opportunity to go out there. and I don't know. I'm a small guy, right? I've always been a small guy. And so for me, I just kind of, from an early age, it felt like the writing was on the wall. And maybe that was the wrong mindset to have, but at the same time, that was the mindset that I remember having, like, the writings on the wall. If I'm going to continue to play hockey, it's going to be through junior A and maybe you get college and maybe you do this.

And I found my little path through hockey. I was actually just saying to a guy who has a younger kid who's playing hockey, right? Like, that's a wonderful thing about hockey is it doesn't have to be NHL or bust. There's so many different paths that you can go with hockey. It's such a wonderful sport that way, right? But here you are sitting as a guy who's played on the national stage for several years, right? Hell, you're one year in midget. It's unbelievable.

Yeah, yeah. You know that many national stage tournaments. Yeah, it was. You just know the scouts are sitting there, and they're seeing you get an accolades. So I don't think it's that far of a stretch to jump to, like, did you ever, but it doesn't even, cross my mind. It would cross my mind. I think that the guys are looking at me, but I know

it's not the right guys or for the right reasons. I wasn't great in school, and I wasn't about to take my SATs because I had already played what, three separate seasons. Who are you talking about?

Colleges in the States. I'd get lots of letters from colleges. Any specific? Like Yale and MIT were the two that I remembered. Man, did these guys not like phone a teacher or anything like that? They just send you a letter and ask for money or what is going on here? Dwayne Perelet, the Yale graduate. Yeah, that'd be something.

I want to be an MIT guy. Yeah, I don't be an astronaut. Oh, God. Oh, yeah. Some people would already call me an astronaut. Where we were going with all this was your, PA, they bring back a goalie. Yeah, I play, they need to find a trade for the middle guy because they can't, they can't,

they don't want to screw this guy. He's, he's good trade bait. Yeah, everything else. Or he's going to be awesome. So while they're looking for a trade for him, oh, go help Malford out. They're going to, they're needing a little hand. So they loan you to Malford? loan me to Malford for a road trip or something like that.

And I made a lot of friends out there like I do. I go into a room and I make the best of it. And hey, guys, coming. And plus, I was always willing to have beers with the guys. So, hey, here's another guy to kick in with beer. And I got tight with those guys. I thought it was, I thought, oh, my God, just like, I'm just never going to make it. I'm just destined not to make a year in the dub.

And I went there and had fun, and PA called me back, said, hey, this, we got rid of the guy. We need to make room for it. We do want you here, and I felt real good about that. But I still never forgot my time in Malford because there were such great people there. From the coaching staff, and there was a few players who just had. have that twinkle in their eye, you think, I need to know those people, right? Like, those are, those are special kind of people. You do get a feeling.

I'll give you, I'll give you that. Like, when you walk into a dressing room, there's always a feeling of the dressing room. Yeah. And organization for that matter. Yeah, you can kind of visualize, okay, in six months I'm going to be sitting with these guys. What am I going to know about them? Even when you go far away for hockey, you can do the same. thing, you know, be a French guy in the corner.

Just say, oh, that guy's going to be a spark plugger. He's going to be funny to talk to it after the games. He'll give you a tabernock. Ah, nuts. Well, I went across to Finland. My time of Finland, the first team I went to and I got cut from, it felt like I was in the wrong place. I wanted to play there.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a competitor. I didn't want to get cut. But it was the best thing that never happened to me. And the team I went to felt like Helmand, right? Like, it just felt like, oh, warm hug. You got to follow. You got those things.

Yeah. Yeah, you've got nose. And that wasn't very many words spoken, right? Because they didn't speak too many words of English to me. So it was something that you could just feel almost immediately. Yeah. Just how they dealt with people and dealt with situations. Most teams that I've went into as a training camp type organization or situation,

I could usually tell if I was going to be in the, team after the spring one skate or two skates or whatever you can usually tell if you fit in or not yeah i think uh barring barring some some young guy coming up and just kind of stealing the show from out and from under you yeah you kind of know the deal when you're going to those places that you're going to be here for a while or you're not yeah isn't that the truth yeah so You're in PA, you finish out your year there? Yep, finish out my year in PA. We lose to Swift Current in the first round of playoffs.

And then from there you go to Malford? From there, I take the summer off as usual. I go play, just to come back to PA for training camp, being a veteran. And halfway, we go skate in the morning and go water skiing in the afternoon up at Candle Lake. Yeah. And then after training camp, they sit down. We got to bring up another young guy. We don't want to have two 19-year-old goalies.

So they brought up, I believe they, no, it wasn't. They had Kelly Guard in their program at one time, but that's not who they brought. They traded in somebody. Yeah. Anyway, I got trained. to Prince George. Prince George decides to take a chance on me. So, start in like September 1st or whatever, I fly to Prince George and start up there.

Now, the only person I knew up there at that time, and I didn't even know him, was Aaron Foster. He was a rookie up there, and he was on injury reserve, and he was on injury reserve, and he, he got to drive me around show me the town because we were from the same hometown but we didn't know each other yeah yeah so i got to know aaron well shout out to er yeah big big shout out he was uh he was the only one of the only positive things i found him prince george yeah yeah it was a it was a rough go i definitely didn't fit in with that team uh but that team was an excellent team also dan hamous uh was probably our best defenseman uh i think he played in the all of the pick team with Canada last time.

I don't know where he's at. Short stay in Prince George. Short stay in Prince George. And then you come back to Malford? Yeah, starting to December 2001. Now is that you choosing to go to Malford? Is that getting sent to Melford? How does that work?

No, I was just cut free and clear from Prince George, so I phone Malford. Were you just happy? Yep. Yeah, I didn't get along with anybody there. I did have a great goalie coach there, though. That was the one thing I missed. I think he taught me more about goaltending than any single person. Who was that? Pete Peters.

Yeah. Yeah, an old NHL guy. Yeah. You watch the first rock'em sockham hockey. Is he on it? He's on it. And he takes a slap shot and a freaking right in the forehead from the hash marks. And the rebound goes up and the bin.

It comes back down, flaps on the ice. The guy takes another slap shot. and hits him in the forehead again. Maybe it can knock him out cold. And that's in Rockham'sogam like one. I have to bring that up to him. Yeah, Pete Peters takes the worst slap shot in the head I've ever seen. Just too dead.

Those original Rock of Sockos are the best. Those guys are wearing, he's wearing like a player's helmet. They're barely wearing your helmet. Can you imagine, like, as a tandy, can you imagine wearing no helmet? Or even just those, when I had Harlan Lessig, he talked about form fitting the original goalie mask, right? Yeah, the Jason mask. Yeah. No, I can't believe I ended up as a goalie.

The way I thought that those, like, those things terrified me as a kid. I remember seeing some of the goalies walk around Hillman with those form-fitted masks. And I thought, oh, those guys are murderers. Yeah. But, yeah, good thing we grow up and learn. So going to Melford. I'm interested. I'm a junior guy.

So this dub thing is like formed me. Yeah. And this is where I kind of grow into myself. Yeah, this Melford thing into getting selected, go with Weyburn and all that. It's really cool. So you play in Melford for the year. Yep. Start in Malford December.

So we come into Malford and they haven't won a game or maybe they've won two games before Christmas. And I come in and start playing. at Christmas time and hey we go on a winning streak and it looks good on me but the team's really pulling together and everything like that and just maybe missing one key piece

that's right and we go on to not lose a game in the second half of the season at home and we make a good run of it on the road too and we only lose like two or three on the road we're getting so close to making playoffs that the other teams

started ganging up and taking runs at our guys making sure we can't play all the games coming. That's where I got to learn kind of the ins and outs of how you play that suspension game. And we went down to Swift, not Swift Carp, Kindersly, and they put a line out just strictly for going off the ice. And like everybody had their stuff shed by the blue line.

One guy come and rolled me behind the net. and everybody gloves off. And that single fight got five of our guys suspended, like seven of their guys, but it kept us out of playoffs by one point or something like that. Okay. When we hadn't lost a game after Christmas, we would have went into playoffs and like steamrolled players or teams. It was awesome, but we missed playoffs.

And so we go home like everybody else does. at the end of the year. Is this year in Weyburn takes you? This is the year. So you miss the playoffs. We missed the playoffs. And I got a call six weeks later from a guy in Weyburn. Actually, it was a guy in Malford.

This guy in Weyburn is going to give you a call. Did you know that teams are allowed to pick up a goalie? Which they are no longer allowed to do. Okay. Well, they were allowed to pick up a goalie, any goalie they wished from the league to take with them. to the national championship. Well, to the Anavut Cup first, right? Yeah.

So I got chosen. I was already had a job at work. You know, that's a feather in your cap, man. I felt very proud about that. As a team that just won the SJ, you get to pick up any goalie in the league, and you're going to pick a goalie who hasn't, didn't even play a game in the playoffs.

No, and hadn't played for six weeks. Right? Like, that is, like, frigging unbelievable. Yeah. So are you, so when you get picked up by them, are you dressed as backup? Are you starting? So, I get there after they win, after they win the championship. I'm there like two days later.

Yeah. So they're starting, they're still coming off the party from the league championship, but their coach doesn't let them get too far into the party mode. They're like this Anavac Cup is serious businesses. OCEM Blizzard were coming up against. They're throwing multi-millions of dollars at this team in northern Manitoba. Yeah. And so Ocen, Opasquack, Cree Nation, isn't the Paw, the Paw, Manitoba.

Kind of way up east, I believe, of Flynn, even, on the way to. Churchill, Manitoba. It's a long godway's. If you're not a fisherman up there, you won't survive. So you get picked up by this team. So I got picked up by Weyburn, yeah. And we start playing. I sit out the first game.

The first three games were played in Weyburn. Yeah. And then the last four games were going to be played in the paw. In the paw, yeah. We won the first three. So you're up three O going there. I think we're going up to Paw 3-0. I didn't play the first game, but I backed up the second two games.

Okay. Got an experience. The Weyburn team was, they were an impressive team, like, gelled. And the fans in Weyburn? And the fans were crazy, and Opasco at Cree Nation brought, I don't know. know if they brought buses but they they brought fans and so the building's just buildings packed like sardines and uh we go up three nothing we have to go and win it up there in OCN and uh how is that that's very very tough to do i don't know if they lose games at home if they

didn't they may have went years without losing games at all let alone at home so the atmosphere in there might be a little bit crazy it's a little bit crazy there's no fire regulations. There's over top of where the players come on and come off. There's a bench over top so they can reach over top of you

and kind of give you a tap on the way by and stuff like that. I ended up getting my helmet broke by a flagpole going off for overtime. I had well to tell the story there's Wabron's starting goalie

played the first game gets lit up he they boom Yeah game four They may I forget what this score was But they win handily

Game two Or game five you're talking about Yeah game five Up there They pull him halfway through And I go in And we come back

and we go into overtime. Lose in overtime, but I've played pretty good. Good enough that the guys felt confident having me back there than the regular goalie. Just because I could block out the fans or when the fans started getting real crazy, I'd take off my helm and start waving them on. I felt like a WWF like the bad guy, like a heel.

I'd start tapping my stick and waving them up and stuff like that and singing the song. The guys were throwing chicken wings at me from the top stairs and stuff like that. Anyway, the team liked what I did anyway. So they let me start the next game and we ended up winning in an overtime. So game six, you get the start. Yeah, they give me the start. than I hadn't played in six weeks except for the week out leading up too.

That's unreal. Yeah. Oh, it felt unreal. And I couldn't make, after they scored, I watched him shoot the puck from the hash marks. And it slid underneath 10 guys, you know, the way overtime goals go. And all of a sudden, poop, the net goes,

and I'm like, nobody else reacts for about a second or two. It actually went in, it actually went. And then all of a sudden, my knees went weak, and I just take a knee, and all of a sudden, I can't breathe. So I'm just sitting in the net watching everybody else kind of celebrate and everything like that. And I'm sitting in my net trying on the other end. So I always wonder this, right? So winning is always fun no matter what.

If you've been a part of that Wayburn team from the beginning, I think it would mean more. but at the same token, you're a part of that team for what? Oh, two-week period? Yeah, and I felt so in with those guys. That's unreal. Yeah. That's unreal. Yeah, I felt like...

I can't believe you got to win... Like, I see the medal. I'm looking at the medal, right? I'm looking at the gold medal here of the Annabic Cup, which I did not realize stands for... Let's read this. Army, Navy, and Air Force veterans in Canada. I didn't realize that's what Antibank stood for.

But I didn't realize you're the goal. who wins the final game. Yeah. Yeah, so I got the, I got, I got, I got to go, do a TV interview that night on the ice and OCM. Yeah. And what was the party, did you guys bus home that night? We bused home that night.

We, we, we said, hey, we canceled our hotel rooms. We're going home partying all the way. Yeah. And we did. And so, but we still had a job to do. Yeah. So now, now you get to the Royal Bank Cup. which is in Flynn Flawn that year.

Yep. Which I just had Larry on talking about it, right? You were laughing off air about that, right? So did you start at the Royal Bank Cup then, too? I only started one game. They let their regular goalie start for most of the games. And we ended up losing two Flynn Flawn's team in the semifinals. And that's where Larry said somebody threw a,

Coke can and pegged our coach and knocked them out gold on the ice almost. I was right in the standing right there when that happened. And then, well, it was, it was so heartbreaking. We were meant to, it felt like we were meant to win. We could have kicked the snod out of cameras, but we just couldn't get past the Flynn-Flawn home team. Yeah, and the fans there must have been just nuts. It was insane.

There was, there's moose legs, there was fish. there was hats there was their goalie was I believe he's a local guy Morgan Say I believe his name was he was he was a phenom I think he got most valuable player of the of the year for that he he that's a that's a team that they could it's just he played above what he usually would and then it just it worked out perfect for them that's just yeah that is an incredible story we should let off with that story people are going to have to wait two and a half hours to get to that like that is unbelievable yeah that's a good one that was a fun one um

that i remember a couple years ago that uh somebody one of wayne right player a wayburn player tried to steal moose leg yeah off the ice and there ended up being a riot oh man yeah i stole a moose leg off the ice uh that game but they were too busy worried about them winning that I got to walk off with that moose leg untouched. Lucky you aren't dead. The starting goalie's dad, he asked if he could take it and put it in his bar. He said he was going to get stuffed and put it behind his bar. Just as a memoriam.

Yeah, like a keepsake from that weekend. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, that wayburn team, I always thought that that's as close. I've come to being a team that's like a team brothers. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Although the Hitman have showed me some things in the Border Kings.

Yeah, well. Those guys could pull guys together. I appreciate you mentioned us in the company of a Royal Bank contender, right? And a team like that, like that's special company. Our team has shown me a lot. we, the hitmen play for no money. So that's meant more to me over the years than playing for anything else other than the guy beside you. You can't say that about too many people who just play for the fun of the game.

And it means so much. No, I couldn't agree more. It's been a special treat to play. Senior hockey is just, I don't know, especially, I always talk about the SAS Delta, right? Like a non-pay league and, you know, you always talk about the hearsay and the rumors. Obviously, some guys are obviously getting paid. I mean, you can't get rumors like that started for the most part unless there's a little bit.

Although in saying that, there's rumors always about Helmand, right? And I can just debunk them all right now. Nobody's getting paid, right? Yeah. A part of that squad. I know what's going on behind the scenes. Nobody's getting paid. So maybe there's nobody getting paid.

And that's a special thing for senior hockey. Because, I mean, like, you got guys are working and then hopping off the work shift and straight to the rink and on their own dime and break a stick. And now you've got to go find a way to pay for that and et cetera, et cetera. And then guys got kids and they're still making time. And, like, it's a special time that I find hard to hang the skates up from, to be honest. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's the only hockey in my life in the last long time that's meant anything. After, you know, you're not going to make the NHL.

Hey, you're just playing for you now. That's right. That is exactly right. Yep. And that's what you should be playing for. Right. Playing for money. You know, money's not everything.

You still have to keep your family at home happy, and you have to go to work the next day. And it is. um well so i'm just this is what i'm trying to get across when i was trying to lead you up to this or lead up to the group is it's not like you went and played for three teams and then you uh went and played pro down south and that was it right like you

to keep in track all this is it almost turns my head i can just imagine like i'm impressed that you have such positive memories of it all because i'm like i can't imagine bouncing around as much as you did and coming out of it going you know, I'm glad it's that way, right? Like, I got to play for, well, you're looking at them on the wall, right? I got to play for my junior team for three years, college for four. I went to Finland for a cup of coffee. I always call it a cup of coffee.

It wasn't long enough for much more than that. But one team, right? Wow, two teams, but I got by one and go to the second. And then I've been in Elman now for, I think this is going on eight or nine years now. Right? Like, that's what I've done. I don't, I never got traded or mixed around. I was close.

I was close my one year in driving to getting traded to Kindersly, actually. Larry left Ontario and went to Kindersly, and I enjoyed them and I wanted to follow them, right? But it never happened, and I'm happy it never happened. I'm glad I got to play out my ears in the same places, right? Yeah. But you bounce around like nobody, you're a ping pong ball, man. Yeah. Yeah, and I was always a bit embarrassed about that.

But there's not going to be embarrassed. I'm not these days, but I remember in my early days there used to be a guy who, Every team he played on, he would get the tattoo. He'd get like a little emblem. He got a W.HL in the middle. That guy had four and everybody teased him. I was like, man, that is awesome. I just don't want to tattoo myself of that stuff.

You know me, I don't want to be known as one thing. That's right. I don't want to be just the hockey guy. Yeah, so after that kid, the chance to win with Weyburn, I went back to Malford the next spring and I said, you know, if you guys want to let me go, I'd go back to Weyburn, but nowhere else. That was an experience.

That was awesome. And Weyburn wasn't as strong the next year, and our GM decided that we're going to make a run at it, we're going to try to build the same thing that Weyburn built. We built a really, really strong team for my second year of junior in Melfort. And we kind of did the office. We won most of the games during the year, come close to maybe winning the league championship thing, the President's trophy.

And then we won our first round of playoffs and lost in five to Kindersley, the second round. Now, after that, we were kind of disappointed how the year went. We should have at least made one more rounder to the finals. That would have been satisfied with the finals showing. But the finals that year was going to be between who beat us, Kindersley, and Humboldt. Humboldt had phoned me after we lost out to Kindersley and said, hey, we'll take you with us if we beat Kindersly. We don't want to take Kelly Guard with us.

Okay. Kelly Guard was the guy in Kinderzley who was a, who come up from, he come from playing midget hoss. and kind of got dicked around in the WHL a bit and he got hooked up with Kindersley and Just clicked he fit in with that team and All of a sudden nobody could score on on Kelly guard Yeah, yeah, on the clippers and so the clippers upset Humboldt in the finals and and then clippers phone me and said hey we heard that

Yeah, these guys were gonna take you you want to we want to come skate with us and Damn right. So I go down to Kindersley. I have a few familiar names and faces in the room there. And they're continuing the party from the win. Like they still hadn't stopped yet when I got there. And you know me? I'm going to join in the crowd.

So we partied for another week and then went to play the Anabet Cup. And I think we lost in five games or four games. It was incredible. Like we'd had nothing. They were so happy with winning that league final that they forgot about the next step. Yeah, yeah. That's how it felt. But did you get to play in the end of the Cup that year?

I think I played, if I didn't start a game, I at least went into a game. Yeah. I can't remember if I got to start one or not. Okay, so we just passed two and a half hours. We haven't made it to pro. I want to jump. Okay, so you wrote down a thing that I find really cool. Yeah.

You said, after all this is done. And somehow I'm missing. I just got to put a little side note. You did play in a Viking Cup too, right? Yeah, in my last year, Malfort there, I made the All-Star team, the Viking Cup team, and some other team there. I can't remember what.

Yeah, but the Viking Cup is like S.J. All-Stars go and play the AJ All-Stars who play the U.S. under 18 team who play the, I mean. Finland was one of them and Slovaks. Yeah, I played a lot of U.S. Like, this is ridiculous, right? Like the list of accomplishments you have on your resume is. I thought they were all really cool. Unbelievable cool, man.

Yeah, but not everybody in people who don't know. Like in my family, that's, hey, that's a really cool accomplishment. But they don't know how cool it is. You're in elite company, right? That just doesn't happen to everyone. I feel very blessed to have been wearing. That's cool. And just to take all the positives that it could

because there were a lot of negatives along the way. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I picked up a lot of bad habits. I tell you, when you don't have somebody looking out for you, like a positive billet family or somebody like that, The bad stuff can take over pretty quickly. Yeah. You got to surround yourself with good people.

Good people. Yeah. Yeah. That's the biggest. That's been one of the best things that's ever happened to me. And I just keep surrounding myself with people that are good. Yeah, look out for your best interest. Yeah.

Yeah. Trust them to look out for your best interest. On that note, I like this. You wrote in the summer after hockey is done, right? You're done in your junior career. You're working moving rigs on a bed truck? Yeah. And the bed truck operator convinces you to try and go pro.

Yeah. Yeah, a guy named Kevin. I wish I could remember his last name because I'm sure he'll listen to this. He's from Marshall area. Yeah. Yeah. He was a bed truck operator for Pennistar at the time. Yeah.

I think he's a truck push at BNR. If whoever listens this long, if they know who Kevin from Pennistar back in the day was, you make sure you just pass along to him so you can hear it because that is a cool thing for a guy to convince you to go play tri-pro. Yeah. So how the heck to even get down there? Like, who do you call? Well, I got a call from a guy just on a hunch one time.

He called it. It sounds like he called everybody other, the SJ, who played on the All-Star team or whatever. Yeah. Said, hey, we got, we'll pay your ticket down to Florida. If you come try out for a team in this new league, pretty well give you a spot. What league is that?

What league is that? It was called the Atlantic Coast Hockey League. The Atlantic Coast Hockey League, which only lasted for like two years and then slowly joins into the Southern Pro. Yeah, yeah. At one point, I think they called it the WHA II. Two, that's right. Yeah. So I went down there, played from October till February, got cut at the trading deadline,

and then they stayed down there. stayed down there for a month and tried to drain my bank account a little bit more. Partied. What was the hockey like? The hockey was good, but it wasn't always focused on the hockey. It was a weird league. They made it to try to make it really competitive. They made it a 16-person team.

and you can only have two goalies. That included two goalies. So you had three lines. 5D. Two goalies? Something like that. And you couldn't carry more than that. Once you had like three guys on injury reserve, you could bring one in.

Oh, man. Yeah, that sounds. A lot of rules to follow. And then they were trying to bring guys in and swap guys out. I heard there was a water boy. If you remember the movie Waterboy, Waterboy where they other teams started putting in their you know yeah i just remember the trainer going in and getting absolutely cranked in that movie yeah i heard the trainer suited up for that team

uh our uh yeah he was our trainer he was our chiropractor he he had played he played like div three hockey when he was going to school yeah and he was about 45 years old so he decides to put in a hundred thousand dollars into the team or something like that the next week he's where he's playing with us. He can barely skate backwards. But on that team, there's an ex-N-HLer who decides that he's living in Jacksonville.

Ron Dugay. Okay. Yeah, he was one of the last guys to play without a helmet. He's living in Jacksonville. He sees us struggling. And so he decides to come and help us out around

end of November. And he's going to scrap. It just sounds like Senior hockey in Saskatchewan, right? Like, oh, yeah. Yeah, that's when I knew, that's when I knew kind of hockey was, it's just, it's just, it's just what it is. It's a local thing. It doesn't matter where it is. It's just, were you making only some money doing it? Oh, yeah. I was very happy. I was making, I think, uh, three, three, 25 a week and I didn't pay for the housing.

Accommodations. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I got driven around my buddies. I'd pay gas money. We ate a lot of noodles and things like that. At 9 o'clock, every night the grocery store would start giving away their cooked chickens. So every night we'd be a lineup of hockey players at the grocery store waiting for free cooked chickens and those little plastic containers. And we'd go home and eat that. And then the ramen noodles. We used to do a similar thing in college. That's just working the system, right?

When you're broken. Oh, damn, right. Yeah. Okay. So I got three questions for you. Did you have any weird rituals in that? I always think of Holt B. He's got his little dance he does, right?

Yep. Did you have anything like that in that? I like to skate around the four face-off dots in the one end before the period starts. Like you come out and do a lap. Yeah. That's all it is. is just go or don't cut inside those circles, but go on the outside. And then scrape the ice in the crease,

because that's what the bandit's goalies did when I was watching them. It'll always lead back to the bandits goalie. I could name like 10 of them from when I was a kid. And so I never talked to your post, anything like that? No, no. Not that weird. Come on. Actually?

Well, I just known there's some goalies. just like, you know, rubbing this post. I think of flurry. He always rubs them after, right? They get a post and they rubs it. I was trying to kill some time one time in Melville, and I told the ref the net had got knocked off, and I was trying to catch my breath.

I think there's a couple of holes in the net, and he's like, oh, where? He's checking it. He took off my glove, started poking holes in the mesh. There's a hole there, there, hole there. You asshole! As a goaltender, you rely and are closely knit to your defensive core in front of you. Who's the best defenseman you ever had in front of you?

I've thought a lot about this because I've had some of the best NHL defensemen in front of me. And Mervman and Ray Nielsen are the two. The two that I would pick every day. Really? Yeah. Yeah, if I could have both of them at 35 playing in front of me, they're my Darien Hatcher and who was his Twin Tower buddy back in North Star's days. And when Dallas won the cup.

When Dallas won the cup. Yeah, no, those guys were stronger than any men I've ever met. and true leaders. They'll do. Merv is always good with you, life advice. I've looked up to him a long time. I got Merv coming on the podcast here in May. So I look forward to sitting down across from him

because I looked up to him since the kid. You talked about the bandits. I looked up to, wow, I remember watching them with the Border Kings all the time. So it was, yeah, I get that with Merv. Who is the best? You did a lot of backing up. Why, heck, you just played a lot of goaltending. What was the best goaltender you ever backed up for?

I like Jason and the Barbara because he was, he just had, he had his head on straight. He knew what his strengths were. And worked for him. He's a big, tall, lanky guy. Yeah, he went on to have a career. And he went, he didn't mind being the backup. He was a solid. backup until he needed to be the solid starter.

That's right. And he got to play a lot of different places and see a lot of different things. It was maybe not the illustrious career that Patrick Waugh and Martin Burdier had, but there's very few Patrick Waugh's. Those are the special of the special. That's right. Yeah, but he was one of the best. I remember watching Jason Clegg as a kid.

He made probably the best actual hockey save I've ever. ever seen in my life. And I believe he remembers it to this day. It was a game against Melville. He was playing for Yorkton. He had just come back from Red Deer. And, yeah, I remember watching him play in junior A hockey. Fair enough.

Who is the best player you ever played with or against? Actually, who is the best player you ever, who is the best guy who ever came down on you? And as a goalting, you're like, oh, man, that guy was good. Pavel Brendel was incredible. It always leads back to was Pavel Brendel. He, yeah, he got pucks past me when I didn't think that there was even a chance that a puck could even come near me.

It just, he, there was a few of those guys. Okay. Yeah. Final thing. And I led, you didn't want to do this game, but I'm going to stick it right at the end. Yep. And you got words for it. already because you've already been talking

me after trade, sign, and buyout. But you would rather be trade four because you think trade four is a positive instead of two negatives. He's saying trade and buyout are negative things and sign is a positive. So you want two positive. Okay, so I'll give you that.

So we're going to trade four at the deadline. We'll say we're making a run. So there's trade four, there's sign guy long term, and then there's buy somebody out because they ain't part of the plan. And the three guys I'm giving you today are Kerry Price,

Braden Holby and Mr. Bobrovsky, who you didn't know who he was, which is hilarious. It makes it an easy choice. Okay. Yeah, well,

I was used to the Howard Stern game, F, Mary, Kill. That's right. And where it was, yeah, you either get to F, F the person, marry them,

or kill them. And that's where the idea from the game, yeah, that's where the, I'd like to see the two positive things. Okay, fair enough.

That's fine. So at the deadline, who are you trading for? I would, uh, I'm going to have Holpey on as full stock. You're going to sign Braden Holpey. Yeah.

The locals are cheering. Yeah. Price comes in second because he's a cowboy. So trade for at the deadline, you're making a run. You bring in Kerry Price. Which actually kind of makes sense for you now because Montreal might be looking to move them at some point here. But hey, that's a long, different story for a different day. And at the end of the day, the guy you don't know who just upset, help upset, the best team in the NHL, Sergey Bobrovsky.

It doesn't matter. what his name would have been or where he was from. It had to be those two. Yeah, I was going to say, Holpey's a beast and Price is a cowboy. I got to give love to the cowboy. Well, man, I'd love to keep you on here for five hours, but I mean, I want to do it again. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun, Diesel. I really appreciate you coming in, and I hope people enjoy it.

I've enjoyed sitting across me. You told me some stories that just blew my mind. I had no idea, right? and I've been around you all my life. I know some people are going to have to listen to it a couple times to keep it straight. Probably, I'm sorry, but there's so many things to talk about. That's right. I can make a story at anything.

That's cool. Well, thanks again, man. Really appreciate it. Hey, guys. I hope you enjoyed that. We went for a little while there, a little longer than we normally do, but old Diesel, he's got an interesting career with a lot of different places on the map. sure. This coming week, we're going to do a brother's road trip out to Vancouver and

we're taking the podcast gear with us. So we're going to do another brother's round table in Vancouver. So that's what's coming up next week. We're going to discuss Stevie Eisenman getting signed as the new GM of Detroit. We're going to talk about the Winnipeg Jets done in the first round. The Toronto Maple is done in the first round. The Calgary Flames down in the first round. Oh, how about the Tampa Bay Lightning down in the first round? All these big teams out in the first round. The first round of the playoffs has been absolutely amazing, and so we're going to go a little more in depth on that too. And of course, we're going to have the next edition of Trade, sign, and buyout, which I hope you guys enjoyed. And like I say,

hit me up on any social media. If you like, things you want change, just let me know. All right. Until next week, guys, we'll talk to you then.