Shaun Newman Podcast - #21 - Jantzen Leslie & TJ Lloyd

Episode Date: June 19, 2019

Jantzen & TJ both grew up in Lloydminster and played together all through minor hockey culminating in a trip to the Telus Cup.  Jantzen was selected 15th overall in the Bantam draft and played 4 years in the WHL. TJ went undrafted and just finished his 3rd and final year in the AJHL becoming the CJHL defensemen of the year. We discuss all of this and more on today’s episode   

Welcome to the podcast. First off, I want to give a shout-off to Harlan Lessig and the Weekly Bean. They continue to publish a little article on who's upcoming on the podcast here, so thanks to Harland. You can pick one of those up in Moose Jaw, Lloyd Minster, and Kindersley. Next, I got to give a shout-out to Northman Coffee. They're a local coffee company in Lloyd here. when I first told Tanner I might be taking a hiatus from drinking on the podcast.

He approached me with some Northman coffee, so he gave me a bag of Mielner, and what I love is the back of it. It says, Mielner forged in the heart of Canadian prairies and infused with the essence of thunder. One sip of this medium roast coffee is like getting smacked in the mouth with a lightning bolt of flavor, minus the obvious complications of getting smacked in the mouth with a bolt of lightning. This said that Almighty Thor himself began each day with a light of the light of the lightning. They said that Almighty Thor himself began each day with a horn of this delicious brew. Maybe you should too.

And I would recommend you go and try some. He gave me, I think he called it a frost giant. It's a cold coffee you had. Holy crap, it kept me up all night. And you just don't seem to get coffee like that anymore. So if you're in town looking for a new coffee, check out Northman. Quite delicious stuff. I got to give a shout out to Sean Hill.

he tracked me down at golf tournament on Friday and sat and just I guess I obviously didn't know Sean from a hole in the ground so while you're listening to this Sean you were bang on you approached me and appreciate you talking to me and listening you had nothing but good things to say about the podcast and I appreciate all your feedback and hopefully here as we move along we can discuss some the things you brought up next Susan Plant the principal of the the Lashburn Elementary School that we were in last week with Murray McDonnell. She said, thanks for sharing your passion with our kids.

It was a great experience to watch your conversation. One of my favorite moments was listening to Murray McDonnell described how rugby rewards courage, an aha moment for me. And I would really suggest if you haven't listened to the Murray McDonnell episode, go back one and tune into that one. He was phenomenal, like an unreal guy to sit across, and he just talked about coaching and, and teaching different players and managing people,

and it was really entertaining to sit across and talk to them with. So if you got time and you haven't listened to that one, go back an episode and catch up on it. If you're looking for anything about Sean Newman podcast, social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, we're all over it. So by all means, look us up. Sean Newman.

Sean's spelled with a U, not a W and not seen. So, Sean, the right way. Now, for this week, we have T.J. Lloyd and Jansen Leslie on the podcast. Both Lloyd boys born and raised here. Jansen was selected 15th overall in the Bannam draft and honestly has some really cool perspective as he played four years in the dub, and he's currently playing for Reddier College. And just listen to him to talk about the different things that he experienced in the WHL is really cool. and then T.J. Lloyd went unselected in the Bannam draft,

would eventually play for the Spruce Grove Saints, winning the AJL and championship in his second year. This year he was named the AJHL and the CJHL, defenseman of the year, and is going to be heading off to Bowling Green Division I here coming up in this upcoming season. So they sat down with me for a little over an hour and a half, and it was a blast, and I hope you guys enjoy.

So without further ado. Well, welcome to the Shawnee Podcast, boys. Thanks for having us. Yeah, absolutely. It's pretty cool. I'm sitting here with Janssen, Leslie, and T.J. Lloyd. Tegan Joseph.

Yes, Tegan Joseph, as we've been joking around. Just so guys and women and people, kids, whoever's listening to this, so I can get used to your boys' voice. I thought we'd do what I did with Bryce and Jackson. Say your name, and then, oh, favorite movie from the Bucson. boss, if you got a quote, throw it in there, and we'll see which ones do you guys pull out.

Well, my name's Jansen Leslie. All the time on the bus we'd watch. Step Brothers, Wolf of Wall Street, just stuff like that. But Step Brothers has too many quotes to even count. I'm probably going to think of one probably through the podcast and I'll keep quoting it. But Step Brothers is probably my favorite movie. My name's T.J. Lloyd and my favorite bus quote would have to be Who Lakes Chicken We Do? and that comes from our Adam Tier 1 championship team back in the day with Johnson Leslie.

You're quoting Adam Tier 1? That's where we're starting with this. All right. That's when the boys got their first taste to win. Our group had their most ever since and kind of carried on since then, I mean, not a bad resume we put together. When you wrote out the questionnaire and you wrote down after, Adam tier one, I thought, well, this guy's got a memory.

I'm going to go all the way back there, but you've been winning ever since. Hey, I mean, I was winning with the same boys back then that I did growing up. So, I mean, it's pretty cool, and I think that's why we're all pretty close and I have a really good friendship. So did you guys play, well, I mean, Adam would have been a little different in Lloyd because there would have been several teams. But by Peewee, then it was pretty much the same team all the way up. Yeah, a couple of teams. I think T. T.J. played on the U-16. Yeah, I played Adam D.E.

AA and then U-16, but then we played together both years, P-U-E, and then our second-year Bantam, then our second-year midget, and had a lot of fun doing that. You didn't play Bantam, AAA? My second-year-I did. Second-year-a-day, second-year day. Yeah, we had a good team that year. We ended up losing in the Western Finals to North Shore Winter Club, but they're in double overtime, so I was a stinger about oh well.

Yeah, well, I mean, you still got to Westerns. That's a feathering your boys' cap. Yeah, because I don't even do that anymore. I was making fun of my little brother, because he always, uh, trying to point out how he's better than me, but then I'll say, well, how many times have you gone to Westerns

or something like that? And I actually just found out they took that away. They don't even go to that anymore because all the academy teams are... Really? Yeah. I think our record was like 30 in the one

that year or something crazy like that. We just rolled through the league. It was awesome. We didn't lose to teams. We should have lost to either. Like, we lost bad games because we just were going for points. Oh, well.

Yes. Some intercompetition in there, hey? Yeah. Were you guys, who was coaching you that year, Peewee? Our second year was... Or Banam, sorry, Banam, Baner. Banham, yeah, it was Travis Clayton we had as our second year coach. Oh yeah, he did both year, that, and then he moved up to midgett with the year.

Yeah, he came with us and, yeah, we were very successful under him, and then as we moved up to midgettied, he kind of followed up with our age group there, so it was good. I haven't asked yet, but I should go back. How did you guys get your starting hockey? Were you skating as a little gaffer, or did it take time? I know you come from I think Jansen you have quite a few siblings I didn't even

Whereabouts you in a pack of that I'm the oldest so oh you're the oldest yeah I've got Two younger brothers Javin and Mazden And then a younger sister McKenna Javan and Mazen both play hockey Javan's actually gonna be suiting up for the junior A Bobcats this year Oh cool As a 16 year old

Mazden You know what He's got a choice to make So he played underage Bantam So this is technically his third year phantom, so he's not sure what he's going to do. I actually probably shouldn't be saying any of that because I'm not sure what his choice is going to be. You haven't really said he's just got a choice to make. He's better than me and my other brother put together, but I hope he doesn't listen to this.

My little sister, she's going all different sports. She plays basketball and the school. She does track. She has a lot of school sports volleyball. She's going to be going to UBC this year. I'm not sure if she did any sports. Family of athletes. Yeah, yeah.

So when did you get your start? Do you remember? I started right when I was like three or four. I was skating. I did can skate and all that. I broke my leg when I was four, I think. And then right after I got it off, I just popped back on the ice and started skating in.

So I've been playing and skating for quite some time. Are you both directly from Lloyd or just outside of Lloyd? Yeah, I'm from Lloyd, and then my dad actually played junior hockey for the Humboldo Broncos, and that's where my mom's from. So he was a goalie there, and he put on some successful teams in junior hockey. But always was a goalie, which I was never going to get into that. But when I came along, he popped me onto skates pretty early. He just had me out on Bud Miller.

And I actually joined my second year initiation, and then kind of loved it ever since. He coached me growing up, so that was pretty special. And then he had an outdoor rink for me in our lakeside, Lakeside on the Alberta side there, so I was fine. I'd have the boys over, and it was lots of fun. I just had a ton of fun playing hockey and Lloydminster. Yeah. Did your, Janssen, your parents ever build you an outdoor rink?

Oh, yeah, actually, we didn't start. God, the reason I ask is I got a little boy who's just turned three, and you can't, you put him on skates for like 10 seconds, and he wants him on, gets him on, then he can't stand up, then he loses his mind, kicks him off, and he just wants to run around his boots. It'll wreck your boot. backyard but it's totally worth see we had a we have a little we live out in a acreage just outside a lot just by tons of fun out there all we always have the boys

over it's tons of fun mini stick battles oh man nights got crazy over at the leslie house growing up we have we have like a cement pad out back and that's where we made our outdoor rink so it doesn't wreck grass or anything but we only made it for two or three years we haven't made it lately because we'll always just well there's well we're always busy we can't just pop back out and use it it well now like i mean ice never goes out as growing up when i was a kid we had no ice in lloyd so like if you wanted to skate um well heck i shouldn't even say that in the wintertime you have ice that's when all the ponds were frozen that's what we're kind of talking about but um ease of ice

like to go and get ice there wasn't this many rings in lloyd at the time hillman was a hill one where i grow up it had natural ice boys so on a warm day she'd be the roof would be sweating on ice and it wasn't a very fun place to skate and you'd rather be out on the outdoor rink. I'm always curious when guys get their start if they started right from the beginning and just loved it or if it's something that at a older age all of something they grabbed onto and got really good at fast kind of thing, right? And the parents' involvement too. It sounds like you guys were kind of nurtured from a young age if you wanted to play they were there for you. Yeah, exactly. That was awesome.

How about I know I talked about it last. last week with the boys. What did you do in the off season? Like in the summers, were you always strictly hockey? I mean, I played a few sports growing up. I just kind of started with soccer and then got into baseball, lacrosse, a bit of ball hockey, and so I had fun doing that. And then, I mean, I kind of started going to the gym in the summer around pee-wee, I guess.

So then it kind of starts almost turning into like all year around. And that's what it is for a lot of kids now. And that's why the multiplex has to keep the ice in because kids are kind of most training, you know, 10 months of the year, almost taking maybe two months off after the hockey season. But, and that's just kind of where it's leading to now. Yeah, I mean, I, when I was very little, I think the highest I got into baseball was mosquito. I played soccer the year before that, but I didn't really, I didn't really play any other sports. I bet you sucked at soccer.

I did. I was terrible at soccer. That's why for school soccer, I was a goalie, because I just wanted to sit there and, you know, jump, ball, not run. I hated that. No, but I was,

I was worked out around peewee as well. And Kujo, the gym here, he didn't even have a pee wee group. I do with Phantom. Now he's got one,

all the way. Doesn't he have lessen or lower than pee we too? Yeah. No, now because everyone's starting to specialize really early.

Like really early. He's a great program going on in there. So he does. He attracts a lot of kids there. That's, Curtis. Johnson.

Yeah, that's right, Johnson. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like, crazy to think at a young age, you're already specializing, right? Like, I can assume there's a lot of kids out there that at that age don't even know if they want to play hockey full time, right? But in order to keep up, you pretty much got to start doing everything everybody else is doing. Yeah.

I mean, our friend group, I guess, like, we were almost like that, but we always just had a fun time doing it. Like, we'd always be going a shinny in the summer, and we just had, like, a really fun competitive group. Well, you guys got a special group, right? Like, I mean, that group that comes together doesn't come together like that every five years, let alone every year, right? Like, I mean... Yeah, because, I mean, we've pretty much known everybody from about Adam, Adam on, Adam Peeway. Yeah, same teams and pretty much like Adam, Peeley, Bannum, Major.

Well, yeah, once you started tearing, right? Yeah. Then you all get put in together, and then, I mean, especially after Adam, because I think Adam still has four or five tiers. one teams, don't they? Yeah, yeah, but you'd even have your friends on the other teams and you'd play against them and it would kind of just be fun playing against them. And then now you go up and you now realize these are the guys you're going to be playing with.

We had a 99 spring hockey team coached by Kyle Taft. That's kind of what brought us all together. We had a kind of time fun. It was most guys' first experience being introduced to the spring hockey. So he went to tournaments and, you know, hit him in the watersides at the hotels. Just have a ton of fun doing that. Then when you're winning, it makes it even better. Lots of fun times.

That was the first time we had tap as a coach, too. Yeah. Speaking of tap, you both work with Tapper? Yeah, I have for the past. Oh, gosh. I guess kind of since that. Are you outskating the summer then as well? Yeah, just started up last week,

so I mean, getting back to it pretty early here. Yeah. And I was trying to pull it out of Bryce last week, and he was like, I don't know, maybe once in a while. Is there any time that Tapper's taught you something? And, you know, it's kind of like, oh, yeah, I kind of get it, whatever. then on the ice you actually do it and you're like, oh, that's what he's talking about.

I'm talking about like in a gamer, we're not going to give tap for that much credit. That guy, yeah, like he has a different approach of things, but I mean, it all seems to work at the end, and it generally does come together pretty nicely by those skills, you got to kind of retain them throughout the year in order for them to work, but I mean, they're pretty awesome. He runs some pretty good groups there. Oh, yeah, like we were talking about Opaer, once upon a time, I came out and helped with that, and some of the stuff he was doing. And I mean,

everybody, lots of people are starting to do it. I remember you doing crossovers tearing up the circle. Oh, yeah. I was sitting right there, I remember. That's because my crossovers are so good, right? Yeah, quick boots. Quick boots, baby. Well, you must have quicker boots

because to be voted the CGHL top defenseman in the year must be an honor. Yeah, that was definitely very cool. I mean, a lot of credit to my teammates on that and having a great support system around me. It was fun. getting a slow clap from across the table. Thanks, Lester.

You're welcome. I actually want to talk about the Bannab Draft. I mean C.J.HL. Top Defenseman, that's cool and all, but let's talk about the Bannabrath. Oh, no. Dark Deney. I still got you on that one. I know a lot of hockey players when they're older look back on the Bannab Draft and realize, you know, like, I mean it means something, but it doesn't really mean a whole lot. Kids are not even close to fully developed at that time. But as a kid at that age, you kind of, it's a weight on your shoulders thinking about it. And then if you're not selected or you are selected, it can lead two different ways or it can lead to the same stinking thing.

And I thought maybe we'd start with Jansen and your experience with it. Yeah, so, I mean, I remember it was very, it was a big thing. Like you had to get drafted. It was huge. Everybody was, there was pressure going into. it even when we were going to our team alberta zone camp the northeast camp yeah the northeast

house executives are coming in like posting like powerpoints and stuff about their league like it was real yeah and i mean every player of the game was sponsored by a w hl team so like it was a big thing like you had to you had to get drafted you had to focus on and then now looking back that draft doesn't uh it doesn't really mean anything i mean uh it's great you want to be drafted and i mean it means you're recognized early, but if you look at the OHL or the Q, they do it a year later when you're able to play, so you get drafted and you can play, whereas the WHL does it as you're drafted, you have a year to develop, and then you play. And a lot of stuff happens in that year. I know I had a pretty poor midget year, I think, the year after too, because I mean, you have

that goal of getting drafted, you reach that goal, and you're like, perfect, I'm on top, I don't need to do anything else. But that's kind of a huge, huge downfall, I think, because now you look at it. I didn't even pan out with Everett. I think I played two or three months with it and then came back to our midget team because you reach that goal of getting drafted and you don't, you almost get a little, what is it, complacent? I think is the word I'm looking for.

You're just like, perfect. I'm good now. everything's... I don't know. You were still putting the work, though. Yeah, but that's a lot of that is

this kind of the skill and everything I was going off because I was always that defensive guy so it was a big heavy game but I put up a lot of points the year before in band. It was a big year and it helped out that we had all the team

the team we did. But looking back that that draft doesn't really mean anything because you have that one, you have that year, right after you get drafted that you can't do anything. Yeah, I think they should move it back a year until after your first year. Yeah, I do too.

They do that in the Quebec in the OHL and look at some of the teams that they're able to put together and they're sending to the Memorial Copp. Yeah, and you look at the guy, no one's ready to play in that league when they're drafted. Maybe the odd one or two, the first overall picks, like Ty or Kale, even that fifth was ready to play in that league. Yeah, some local guys. I definitely, I think it needs to go back year because you're not ready to play. you have to develop that extra year.

And I mean, even you look, what is it, five years down the road now, TJ wasn't drafted, and he's the CJHL top defenseman in the league. And I think that not being drafted might have helped you because I remember how upset you were about that. And you immediately started the train game, living in the gym, right after that.

Yeah, it was upsetting not getting drafted. I mean, just a little disappointing because you're working hard. And, you know, I was proud seeing a lot of my friends getting drafted. Like, it's an exciting time. Like, the Western Hockey League's a very big thing. But whenever I just remember getting some texts, and it was actually one from a local guy. It was Andrew Kep.

And he played some games with Oil Kings and went on. He had a, you know, was a very good player, good and very good in the Western League, but decided to go other things. And he just texted me and he said, hey, like, it's not like the end of the world. Like the NCAA is like a great opportunity, wish more could be presented to it. You know, you kind of just open that, whatever, and then go into the summer and just work hard, but then you kind of start learning about the NCAA, and it's a pretty cool route.

It just kind of gives you more years to develop, so that's what kind of led me to Spruce Grove there. So after Midget went and played three years in Spruce Grove, some junior hockey, and then next year I'll be going to the NCAA to play Bowling Green. So, I mean, looking back, it was definitely probably a good thing I wasn't drafted, because, like Johnson said, it's the B-Hall and End all at that time, and I would definitely would have signed if I got the opportunity. presented to me, but, so it's kind of... Well, boys, I wasn't taking in the old Batham draft either.

And I remember it being a little spur on my side, but I mean, I probably wasn't good enough back then anyways. Man, you turned out awesome, so it's all good. Well, I went the same... Similar road, similar road you did, right? But Division 3, you're going to be Division 1, and I certainly wasn't the CGHL defenseman of the year. Yeah, I mean, I, looking back, I think I might even looked at the NCAA.

I probably should have. I mean, that was my, honestly, going into camp, that was my plan. I was drafted 15th overall, and I thought, you know what? I don't really care. I want to go to school. And you get to camp, and then everything's the razzle-dazzle. You'll get, you get caught up. It looks like they have a little bit of fun at college.

I don't know, though. Yeah, it did. Oh, you're going to have some fun at college. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, T.J. Lloyd takes on Bowling Green. Captain Morgan's guy. Yeah.

No, it's different, right? Like, playing junior, I can't speak to the dub because I didn't play in the dub, but playing Junior A is a lot of fun. Oh, that's awesome. You get everybody at the same age with, you know, if you're working, you're not working very hard, and you're at the gym all the time, and you're playing hockey, and that's what you do, and you have a lot of fun. And then you get into college, and now you've got to worry about classes.

And, you know, I'm not sitting here saying, looking back on it, college wasn't like it was this crazy thing because I found something I was enjoying and I think we were talking about it off air jansen you found something there at college as well and once you get into something it's easy right it's a fashion you go do it um but it's different because now you go from playing what are you guys playing 60 games in the AJ yeah yeah it was 60 game schedule but I mean playoffs are best of seven right and what do you what did you guys play in the dub oh 72 it was 72 but they just changed to 68 or something and you're going to go to college and you're going to play like it's like 25 yeah and a couple exhibition games

I know so it'll be a lot of more time for for working oh which like is a smaller guy like it'll be kind of good to yeah some of that stuff instead of just being on the ice all the time so yeah well and I don't know what you guys play at Reddner how many games are you playing oh we got like 18s we play them four times so what like 32 or something yeah something around that my co playoffs are best of three yeah it's just and our our playoffs was the best of shoot, I want to say best at two total point. Well, I mean, it's outrageous too because WHL, we got five days. It was a long Christmas break.

You'd go home the 18th or 18th at the latest, and then you'd come back. You'd play the 27th. And then this year, I think I had a 40-day break in between our last game, because they give you all December off to its finals. You can't play within the finals. That's right. 40 days off. Yeah, you didn't know what to do it.

yourself no it was it was crazy you're studying and then you go home and you're like I don't have to go back the 26 anymore this is this is fun yeah looking back that I recommend junior hockey to everyone like it's such an awesome experience I had such a good time and in Spruce Grove this year you know you meet guys and you spend so much time with them it's crazy like you know like not not too much is going on so you show up to the rink with them try pick them up on the way or drive with them there and then you go to practice you're at the ring with them and then after you don't know what to do so you go hang out with So it's Vaughn and I actually got two buddies heading down there, local guys, one from Irma, Logan Ganey,

and then one from Wainwright-Parker-Serratky, and they'll be going to Michigan Tech next year. Oh, nice. Yeah, I'll be playing against them, and they're coming down this weekend, so I'm looking forward to seeing them. Have you gone and taken a tour yet? Yeah, I went last August, like August 20th, I think, and I'm moving in this year, August 17th, so kind of like that similar time of year there. Oh, man, I miss college. I miss college.

College was a lot of fun. I mean, I like playing more games than, like, you know, every week you're playing and you're kind of more into it. Not that you aren't doing that at college, but I think college is a shorter window, right? Like, you don't play for nearly as much of the year, that kind of thing. It's just a little different. Yeah, but, like, it's cool how, like, how intense the games get on, like, campus in because they kind of build up during the week. And then it's Friday night and it's let's go, right? So it's going to be fun, especially when, like, those rival teams come in.

So it'll be awesome. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's cool. I was thinking we should probably go back. We jumped across some big years there. I thought we might go back to your midget year. For Lloyd Minster specifically, you're the only team to go to a Tullus Cup. And the amount of talent that that group had, since we'll call it Adam for T.J. here,

the amount of talent that you guys had on that team that year was, well, ridiculously impressive. Yeah, I remember coming from U-16 this past year and knowing that I was, probably going to go play midgey. Like we went to a few AJ spring camps, but you know, coming back more than likely I was going to go. And I remember just at tryouts and then kind of hearing just like that some guys are going to be coming back. So all of a sudden I think we got like Bryce back and then we got Zane Franklin back.

And then you know, like our team was pretty loaded up. And like we kind of knew that we had something special there. Like this was going to be a really fun year. Like I mean early on the year we started talking about telescope. I remember and we kind of had to catch ourselves and be like, Like, that's still a far time away. But, I mean, and it was awesome. Like, I remember that Max tournament that year,

and that was a ton of fun. It's seven days, and you're playing every day, and once, twice a day, and we ended up losing the final in the saddle dome to the flames, which we beat every other time, but then it suck. And then, yeah, winning league, that was... How many people at the Max Cup watching you boys? That lower bowl was, like, three-quarters full, I'd say, hey?

Yeah. Was it a cool atmosphere to play in, or was it kind of, it feel kind of empty, or you're, I mean, you're in the saddle, though? It was a very cool atmosphere I didn't feel empty at all Like you can't see the second bowl in that rink anyway When you're on it was like our first time in a really nice rink there Yeah, it was it was very nice what was being

What were the dressing rooms like? They're awesome Yeah they had like brown stalls and all of them They were they were pretty sweet They're the way rooms for the NHL teams Yeah that's what I thought it was Because they've got In that same area they have three or four rooms

and they're all, I think they're all used by NHELOE teams and there's a little coaches dressing room specifically for the coaches about size of six people. Yeah, so that was a cool experience of us coming from Lloyd Minster, Alberta there. It's pretty awesome. Yeah, no, no kidding. How about, how about, like, the shenanigans in the hotel? I've heard a few different stories.

Oh, man. Me and Lessey got into a wrestling match at the rocks there. I remember that. There's three guys to a room, and it was, two beds and a cot or whatever. Didn't we wrestle for the bed? No, did we just wrestle just for fun?

Yeah, like it was fair. It was fair. Ash and Oaks was just there in videotape and whatever. That was good at them. What else? Water leaners were a big thing. Yeah,

did you know, we flooded the second floor hotel. Like, we caused like $500 of damage from all the leaners we did. And like you'd walk down the hallway and you'd hear the squish underneath your feet. I did not do it. Did you? You didn't, hey?

No. I didn't. Okay. Well, I did. So did Brace. I'll throw them all under the bus right now. Well, I'm going to safely say you aren't the first and you will never be the last

team to do leaners. That's been going on since before my day. I just think it was pretty impressive that we flooded a second floor of a hotel. Remember that candy shop at our Telisk Cup hotel? Remember? After every game, we're just loading up from the candy shop. Oh, that was so awesome. Out east, that was like our first time.

Freak lunch box. Yeah, freak lunchbox. box. They stayed open for us one time we called them. That was out in St. John's? Yeah. Grispampsis. Yeah.

No, we were staying in St. John, yeah. But the rink was in Chris Panches. Yeah. How was Teles Cap? It was awesome. I mean, kind of that, we just fell short in the semifinal game, but I mean, like, I don't know. That sucked that we were never able to win at all with that group, but looking back,

like, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Like, so much fun with those guys. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I mean, we meet them the day before, and then, semi-final. It was a weird balance. They got a balance that one. They went on a... Honestly, I think right after it happened, I forgot

about it. Yeah, I did. I put that away, but it's tough because, I mean, that 99 group, we did. We went so far in a lot of things, but we'd always go back in the extra sick 2000s there too. Yeah, Water Smith and Santazzo, Hilsenegger playing up with us. Like, oh,

my, there's some really good players. I work with Hilsen Degger's dad. Oh, Tim. Yeah, he's awesome. Guys of beauty. Yeah, our moms were taught together, actually, at St. Mary. Oh, yeah, that's sweet. I'm always curious, and I think it's good for younger kids, if they ever do listen to here. What did you guys have to sacrifice in order to move on to the next level?

Do you think you sacrificed anything? Was there extra work put in, that kind of thing? And we'll start with Jansen. Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of extra work put in. I mean, you sacrifice a lot. You don't have the same social life. have if you were a normal kid. You have your group of hockey buddies, but you didn't really,

you never really went out. I mean, I remember pretty vividly guys would start going out in grade seven. And I thought that was, uh, nuts. It was just pretty nuts. Yeah, but I mean, you, you don't, you never joined that thing. I mean, we made, like a lot of other people our age were doing, eh? Yeah, yeah. And I remember a lot of the, uh, school dances, uh, you didn't get to go to those. I mean, they were just a little. Yeah, they're fun to go. Yeah, they're fun to, Yeah, they're fun to go to, but you sacrifice a lot of the social life, you put in a lot of work, and it's a lot of pain. I mean, not pain as in your hurt, but pain is in, you're putting yourself through a lot of stress training.

Yeah, adversity. And just the stuff you got to do, I mean, Kujo is great for that because he calls it the pain cave, and I think I use that every time. Once you start hurting, a lot of people quit, and he's there to make sure that you go through the hurt because that's when you actually gain the muscle, and that's when you get a lot better. And there are quite a few times where after a workout with Curtis, you'd be laying on the ground thinking you're going to puke and cry.

Yeah. Halfway through it, you didn't want to finish it, but he's there. It's a lot of extra work that you've got to do. Yeah, I remember, it's kind of tap and, like, I mean, Kudra, I guess could drill that into our heads early. Like, I mean, because they played junior hockey. They were well aware, like, that other kids, like, it starts early. Like, you've got to sacrifice some things.

So, like, I mean, they worked us hard from a young age, nothing. I mean, we couldn't handle, but like make sure that we had a good work ethic and distilled that in all of us. So that was good. But I mean, yeah, like Johnson said, it's a lot of the social life. Like, I mean, instead of maybe going to the lake early, you're going to a workout and you got to continue going to those because, you know, everyone else your age that's trying to get where you're going is doing the exact same thing. So, I mean, it's good, but I mean, a lot of guys like it. And I, like, that's what makes a lot of guys successful, I think. Yeah.

Tapper had that quote to the, what you do in the dark shows up in the light. Yeah. Yeah, that's the one. That's a good one. Yeah, it was, and it's... Well, that's, I think that he told us that in, like, pee-wee, and I think that's stuck. That's probably been my favorite quote, my whole life.

And that's what I think is, every time I want to quit or don't want to do something, it's okay, if I do this now, it's going to be a lot better when it comes time for me to show what I've got or... Yeah, we had so much... Whoops, we had so much time doing that, though, like kind of, like, training and working hard together. It was honestly so fun

Like it was never like a chore We never were like bagged out going into the season Because we were literally just kind of having fun together Pretty much year around and working out And we kind of knew like Like if this would be our reality for the rest of our lives Like this would be awesome What else could you ask for right?

Well that's what everybody searches for at work As a group of people you want to show up to go to work with Because that's they I mean You can make the worst job But with the right people seem like a lot of fun Oh, yeah. Right?

It's all about the people you're around. That's right, yeah. I mean, you even speak to that. I mean, being on a couple teams that rebuild, like we, I didn't really have a chance at playoffs. I mean, Saskatoon, we had a good chance, but we kept, we'd drop a couple games that we needed. We were two points out of playoffs, I think, by the end of the year. But you wanted to show up to the rink every day just because you had the guys joking around. And it's really important.

Yeah, the culture of a team means a lot. It's really important. that you make it fun. That's another thing Tapp taught us is only the best guys are going to show up and enjoy playing every day because they just, they have the skill to make it fun. They go around and they, they're that good. It's fun for them. But you got to find little ways to make it fun when you're the third, fourth line guys that are, you have to work your bag off just to be in the lineup. But you know what? All the little things you do with the guys makes it fun and it makes it not like work. Yeah. It's important for every team to kind of have that. And that's why we were

successful kind of and Lloyd growing up and like with spruce like what I like liked about them when kind of deciding where to go is like just their their culture was awesome. Like I know that they won, you know that they worked hard and know that they like all enjoyed each other and like had a ton of fun. So and I mean I really experienced that the three years I was there. My first year under Mike Ringrose as a rookie in the league like it was just the older guys who are just so awesome to the young guys and just like you know BS and all the time. It's a lot of fun. on then your second and third year we had a new coach and he brought a little bit of a different culture but it was kind of all about the players and you know we kind of got to write our own culture

and everyone followed it and it wasn't a problem like like our team didn't even have curfew but that's because we were responsible and had the trust with each other like we're going to do this away from the rink and everyone's going to have a collective buy and and that's why we were also successful in spruce grove so i mean like just the the team buying and like the team love and growing up that we had in lloyd and what i had in spruce is the reason why i think I was able to play on some successful teams, which was pretty cool. Here's a fun stab for you on Spruce, Spruce specifically. Since 2009, they've made it to nine finals.

That's nine out of 11, and they've won it five times. I mean, even... That's pretty friggin, they're doing something right. Oh, yeah, it's awesome. Every guy knows if you're going to Spruce Grove, you're going there to commit. It's the same thing with Brooks, and there are always those teams in the AJA or the BCHL that you look, Can you say if I want to go to college, this is the team that I want to get on.

Spruce was always one of those teams. Yeah, I remember, like, the older guys from Lloyd, like Tyler Bush, Austin Hunter. I knew, like, Connor James or whatever. Like, they all said how much that they enjoyed playing in Spruce Grove. And, I mean, so it was a pretty easy place to pick to play. I got to ask, was Lloyd ever considered? Yeah, it was. But, I mean, they had the, next year was their RBC year.

Oh, yeah. So, I mean, like, they were a little bit older. And in Spruce Grove, they just, like, I guess I had a chance to make that team. Like, not really, maybe if I would have played Unreal. But, and it just seemed like a good fit at the time. And I knew I was going to get some games to affiliate with Spruce Grove. So it just made sense when I got enough if I'd be able to affiliate with the Bobcats or whatnot. And, yeah, it worked out well for me.

I forgot about that because, I mean, a lot of the guys on our major team were affiliating with them. We're affiliating with them. But they didn't want to commit to them because they had the RBC Cup, the next year and they knew they were going to sell out for it. Yeah, they had a very good team that year. It was very difficult to make it. You make it to the finals against West Colonna. You got a really good team.

Yeah, unless you're like playing against the RBC champion of Brooks Bandits was something else. Let's talk about Brooks for a second here. That team was something else. Oh, man. You get to witness it first hand all season. Yeah, like they were good. I mean, we beat them. Like they got smoked their first game of the season to nothing.

And like, you know, like that. And you're going, oh, fresh meat. Yeah, exactly. And then they, they don't lose a game for, like, I don't know, like going like a 23-game win streak. They come to the Fierzy, the Grand Ferry, in our home barn. And we beat them. We ended up scoring like 30 seconds left.

So we were kind of buzzing after that. And then, yeah, the season goes on. I think it was February. We maybe went down to Brooks or January, and we just got spanked by them. But, like, it was like we played very bad. But then, yeah, and then whatever playoffs go on, we end up having a really good playoffs.

We sweet Bonneville. We ended up beating Sherwood Park, which is, which was cool because they were first in the north and we were third. And then we get to the finals there against Brooks. And they had a little bit of troubles in playoffs. They lost more games in playoffs than they did in the regular season. So we go to Brooks and we're optimistic. Like, I mean, we were playing good. We got some, we got Ryan Peckford from the Western League who helped us a lot.

And we were healthy at the time, which we had injury problems the whole year. And then we go to Brooks. And the first game, it's, I think, yeah, it was one one or whatever. And they end up scoring with, I don't know, like a minute left or whatever. So we lose that one, which suck. But we're like, okay, if we could come away with a split and put up a – like, that would be not bad going back to our barn. And then the next day we end up going to double overtime.

We're losing double overtime. And we had a chance to close up that game and just like losing two close games against a team like that, like, oh, like we were in tough. Then we came back to Spruce and we just weren't able to put together our best games. And like that's when like they kind of – their depth really showed. I mean, like, wow, that team. I've never seen like a junior A team like just close off space like that. Like it was like they,

they were just very well prepared and like they ended up winning the Iversy Cup, which didn't surprise me at all. Like that would have been the best junior team I played against in my three years. Yeah, well that might be one of the best junior teams ever. Oh, yeah. Right? Right? Like they in, yeah, like a lot of people say like not a lot of all burdens or whatever,

but I mean like what they did with, it is within the rules. I mean, so. I don't know. I don't get too bent out of shape about it. I mean, I, sitting Lloyd here, boys, and I'd love to see nothing but 23 Lloyd guys on the team. But I think probably all Lloyd would like to see Lloyd hang a championship banner. Now, if that happens with two Lloyd guys or 20 Lloyd guys, if you're going to win, they're

going to take 20. But if it's just we're going to win and it's going to be two Lloyd guys, you're going to want to win, right? Yeah, they have a new coach coming in. Yeah, Johnson's brothers soon enough. Yeah. Shoot. Nigel DuBeg.

Yeah, Nigel do it. He's doing some cool things around there, I think. So, I mean, like, are they good? I'm supposed to be getting them on here in the next month or so. Okay. So we'll dig on him a little bit and see his thoughts. I have a guest coach one year. That'll be good.

He's structured. Yeah, he's structured. He does a lot of community stuff. And I remember, I don't know who was saying that too, but he's a, it's a community guy first. Yeah. And you get the community around the team. You get some fans. And then it's, I like what he's doing.

Yeah. I see a lot of the Lloyd Bobcats now in the community, and Javon's been doing a lot of stuff around town. I mean, that's good. Introduce it to them early. Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. It was one of the coolest things I had my first coach and junior

and Larry Wintoniak, who's with Kinderzley now. He's an assistant there, runs a gym in Kendersley. That's what he was huge on, is going out, and we were in the schools every single week. And, like, it's fun. It's fun. And the kids love you, right? Yeah.

Like, I mean, that was some of my favorite stuff to do. And I remember they, we had Edmonton's, Kevin Rodombsky, he came in and he told us these, we did a lot of season ticket stuff. We did signature Sundays. We did every Sunday after the game. We'd sign signatures. We were hurt. If physically you could do it, you'd sign signatures in between periods because those, those people, they buy the tickets. They're what pays for our equipment.

They do all that stuff. So yeah, it's huge to One of the coolest hockey experiences would have been playing in the Pacifics here in our Midget team like just because you know you play that all year and like we had like good fan support for Midget

I mean not bad like what you said but then like once our playoffs started heating up there and once we got to Pacifics and it was to go to the telescope a team from BC came and just like going out for warmups and seeing your hometown absolutely packed like oh that was that was so much fun I was sitting in the stands for that game

you feel unreal that was the most electric of a game I wanted one of the most top three I think the most and it was in midget. So fun. Didn't take much to get up for that game? No, like, wow. I had shivers that whole game.

You'd make, you'd make a minor play, like you'd hit somebody, and then you'd hear, oh, or the crowd go, and you're like, yeah, I did that. Yeah, let's do that again. Just superstars, man.

But, like, just the other community was awesome. When we scored those games, I, well, that was the first taste of having a crowd like that. Yeah. How about training camps, boys? I'd sent out in the questionnaire, we've all been through the training camps.

Obviously, you guys have experienced a little newer age training camps than I went through, but any fun times or what was it like, nerves, that kind of thing showing up to your first training camp? We'll start, sure, with James. Here's a first overall. Probably high expectations. My first training camp, for some reason, I had so many people that wanted to fight me

and I don't know why I thought I was nice You're number 15 overall He's walked into the room You got that face None of the guys that played on the team the year before But guys that just were trying to make a team And that was rate about 2014

Did you answer the bell? No, never Well, when I was 15 I did in preseason But that's another story We'll get to that later But for Got mugged by a Russian That guy was huge.

You fought a Russian? You can't give me that and then just disappear on it. Okay, well, I'll tell you then. I ended up a guy, I was having a pretty bad preseason, so I thought, you know what? My face punched in. Yeah, might as well get punched in the jaw six times and break a nose.

So the guy hit me behind the net. I think it was against Victoria. It was Victoria. Vladimir Bobilevel was his name. And the guy, at the time, I was probably 6-1, 170 pounds. And I thought, you know what, I'm a heavyweight now. 170, that's nothing. And then I look at this guy's stats after he's 6-3-215.

And I asked him to fight because he hit me and we were way behind the play. And I had my stick between his legs. So I just pushed him instead of out. The fight lasted a lot shorter than the story. Yeah, yeah, it did. Said, okay, well, are we going? And the guy's like, yeah, we'll go. So we dropped the gloves.

And I undo my chin strap because I thought that was the cool. thing you had to do and then I look at this guy and he had murder eyes and I thought no oh no I've never regret it looks like a refrigerator I've never immediately regretted a decision as quick as I did with that so I thought okay it's too late now and he grabs me and punches me at the same time which is a skill that is I have not learned yet still and he cracked it first and I grabbed him and I started swinging I maybe hit his helmet two or three times and he grabbed my jersey so hard that the fight strap either ripped or popped off or something because the jersey came over my head so i was like oh no refs will get in here soon so i'm down in a turtle and i have my arms covering my face it's kind

of like that and he hits my arms three or four times and then it stops so i'm like okay fights done this is good i open my arms up and then no rapes wasn't in there yet he hit me one more time right he punched me so hard in the nose i had two black eyes and a broken nose and that's one punch two black eyes from one hit i didn't think that was possible but uh we get to the trainer's room and i'm leaking there's blood everywhere and then finally he's like okay well blow your nose and i blow my nose into a towel and they looked like jello because it was all clogged in my nose there's i of course i was laughing like an idiot too because when you get punched in the face, you have the adrenaline, and you're like, I'm never going to die.

This is awesome. I want to get punched in the face more often, and then three days later, you're like, I'm never going to do that again. But basically coming out of it as I thought I was invincible being 15, and a guy quickly showed me. We get to laugh at his pain, but did you ever fight, TJ? No, those gloves were glued on. glued on.

Yeah, I need to beef up a bit, I think. I should mention the listeners. How tall are you? 5.8. 5.8. Yeah. I'm 5.8. I'm 5.7.

Yeah, but you two are both probably 58 wide, too, with your shoulders. Sure. Pretty beefy. Yeah, you got a good off-season. Is that a compliment? That is, yeah, that is a compliment. Yeah, yeah, I'll give it. That's how you want to take you.

Well, I'll give you one fight story. My junior days when I went out to Ontario. We were in Ontario. Dryden, Ontario. I went through a string of fighting, because I thought, well, back in the day, you had to fight to make the team. So I went through a string of fighting three or four guys over six feet.

It was like 6-1, the next guy was 6-3. My tallest guy fought was 6-5. I actually did half-decent at him because he couldn't pull himself back up. I pulled him down to my level and whatever. I fought this one guy, and I thought I was getting the better of him, but then I realized he was a left team as soon as he made the switch. My brain couldn't find him.

I mean he hit him in the face once and I was like yeah you need to grab on but by that time my face was becoming mush real fast right like you smack me four times I was leaking everywhere well and you it's all have our bad ones that we want to forget it's easy to say like oh I needed to grab on but when you're getting punched it's you don't think it's all primaline I mean I've had well that's Mike Tyson everybody has a plan until you get punched in the face yeah right I had a I had a string of three games in a row where I fought and I fought five times that think in my career because we weren't doing well in Saskatoon. One of my buddies was a 20-year-old and he said, Jansen, I need you to do one thing before my career is over because we had like five or six or ten, ten games left, I think it was. And he gave me ten games to fight and do the Tideomi finger twirl. He said he just wanted to see somebody to do it.

So I find it. So I, this was one of my best buddies on the team. So I thought, you know what? I'm going to do it. For him, I'm going to do it. For him, I'm going to do it. So I fight a guy, again, way out of my weight class. Every guy I fought, except for probably Franklin, was out of my weight class.

And I bought Zane when we were in Saskatoon. We talked about before the game and everything. But no one would, anyone I'd ask, that was my height or less, didn't want to. And you couldn't ask, yeah, that was huge, man. You couldn't ask a smaller guy because it just, you don't want to. He didn't want to get beat up. Yeah, you don't want to. What did you just say?

You didn't want to get beat up. lose your pride. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I didn't want to lose my pride, but his name was Barrett Sheen, and this guy now has, he was in 99. I thought he was in 98.

98, is it? Yeah, he, he was in Okotocs at the start of the year. I thought he was 20-something when I fought him, but he's literally a year older than me. He's huge, and I, the one thing I learned from breaking my nose is you have to be the first person to punch, so I punched this guy three times as hard as I could,

right in the chin, Everyone. And then he pulls me and I stepped. Yeah, and I stepped on his stick. So I step on the stick and I hit the ground and I go to stand back up with the ref. Apparently if your knee touches the ground, you're done. So he separates us and I'm like, okay, I'm the only one that punched him. I punched him pretty hard.

I win that fight. So I'm skating back to the box and I look at the bench and I see the guy that told me this, he gets right over the bench and he's looking like, he's waiting for me to do it. So finally, I put it up. I think, I don't know how. I just went like this. Did the spin with the thing? Yeah, the crowd went nuts.

He curdled over the bench and was laughing, and no one knew what he was. Lally's laughing at. But he, I came back to the bench. He's like, what was up with you and Beck told, like, the guy couldn't function for about two minutes after you did that? He was just crying over the bench laughing. But it's, I don't know, fighting is a different feeling. Like, it's something you can't. There's no other rush like it.

Yeah. Yeah, and you're in it, and you're like, the adrenaline hits you, and it's a mixture of fear and excitement, and you can't do it in the ACAC, and you can't do it in real life. So it's just a, oh, you're going to bowling green, never mind I was going to say. You know, lots of respect for guys that do it, though, man, holy. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I remember I got obviously rocked this year, and I just dacked, like, buried.

And, like, my buddy just went right out of him, shed his match, and just like it was very nice feeling. I'm not going to fight them, but hey, it's glad you. Thanks for doing it. I had that same thing in Everett. I was 15 and I was called up right after New Year's for a quick five-game stint because that's what you were allowed when you were 15 while you had a team was five games. And we're in Saskatoon and a guy dumps the puck and I go back.

to get it and a guy crushes me from behind like I've never been hit harder straight on and this guy puts me probably through the boards and I look up I'm bleeding like my cage so worse as a defense woman so I just buries the puck in the pocket you're just going back like trying to shimmy the guy but well I had a cage on too and so I look up but I didn't know who hit me and the first person I see is chased and braid so I grabbed braid like he did it and he punches my helmet off I'm like okay never mind Sorry, Brader. Sorry, Brader.

Punts in the face. That's the best. Brader, stop. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And I find out a guy actually fought the guy that hit me, and I think his name was Armor or something, Garrett Armour. I can't remember. You couldn't see.

Tons are getting punched in the face or fadedly. Maybe we should move on to something other than fight stories, ain't none of us are that success. No, I'm serious out. But the guy, long story short, the guy that fought, the guy that hit me from behind. He ended up looking like Lenny the shark. I had a side-by-side somewhere on my phone and his nose was just a bad because he fought left. He didn't know he was a left. He switched up and like you said, you can't, you don't know. He'll get you. I got to make sure that we get

billets on. I always like to have you boys talk about your billets because people who billet are pretty special people. I'm sure you guys have had good ones. Start with you, T.J. if you like. Yeah, sure, so I had a billet house my first year. I was living and I was just by myself. It was good. I mean, they had a cool outdoor rink near the front of their lawn there and I had a spot in the basement. So it was good my first year,

but I just remember I kind of wanted to experience living with a roommate. And I spent a lot of time over at my buddies, so I was Logan Ganey. And so the opportunity kind of presented itself because they have two billets that I could live with them. So that was my decision. It was hard leaving the billet family. I just kind of wanted to, you know, go live with Logan. And then, so I was living with the Niebuhralls, and they were out in Stony Plain,

and the rink was in Spruce. It was like 10 minutes from the rink, and I got to live with Logan. And they were a great family. I mean, they loved hockey, great support. Like, they're at every game. They're coming on the road. They have two kids, cash, and he's into hockey and lacrosse and all that kind of stuff. And then there's a great-eight girl named Kela, and she's really into horses.

But, I mean, yeah, like those people, they provide you with the house when you're not there. And, I mean, someone to lean on because it is a long time away from home. So, I mean, it's such an important part of hockey. I think it's something that I'd like to give back to when I'm older. When you're older? Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. All right.

I've had more billets to count because I was up and down and here and there. Side to side. Yeah. So my first billets I ever had were Pat and Janet Hawes in Everett, and that was when I was 15, and that's when I was staying just a little later than training camp. And my roommates were Logan Aisman and Ivan Nicolish, and he was a Russian.

and they were out the partying What are Europeans like to live with? So much fun It's outrageous We'll get into Europeans later Since T.J. I should maybe just let T.J. I should maybe just let T.J. lead the question period here on the bill at saying.

He's curious. He's curious. I'm curious now. Do you know something? I don't know? What's living with the European like here? No, nothing with Europeans. I only live with him for about a month,

but they were They're a different breed. They're just funny, especially the Russians, but they'd sit and talk with me. They knew I was nervous. They felt that I was nervous, but they...

Was a 15-year-old? As a 15-year-old, yeah. They knew it. They were probably... They were excellent billets. They had walls lined with Gatorade, so as you're walking out, they have shelves, just with Gatorade.

You walk down the garage, you pick out Gatorade, they have snacks. It was a different system they had there because they've been billets for so long. But I moved then to Cary and Barry Crispin in Everett. Bryce lived with them at. actually with me when we were both there.

We ended up both getting sent back. But they were really good. They're an older couple. I lived with. I got traded to Saskatoon. Oh, and I forget their first name. Cindy LaClerc and I forget the father's name, but they were temporary billets of mine.

They were great. They were vegan, but the dad was happy because he wasn't. He had finally had reason to cook a steak and eat meat with him. I live with Lois. I don't think I ever learned her in her last name because everyone just knew her as Lois. She... Griffin. No, but then I moved.

While you're talking about this, it brings back a rush of memories on the first time I made it to my first billet house. Do you have any good experiences back then back in the day? I had great. Great billets. I lived with Robin and Janet Lane and their three kids for three years. They were fantastic. I talked about them on here all the time. They were my second family.

They took care of me and came to my wedding when I got married. I was all in Dryden. They were in Dryden, yeah. Yeah, and I married a woman from Minneapolis, so we got married in Minnesota. They drove down for it, but they were fantastic. Well, yeah, Bill, it's become your second family, and I mean, I'd be upset if I didn't mention my last two, too, because they were most of my full-time ones when I finally, like, made it onto the teams. Is that Jill and Jared Brown, well, first I'll get Kathy and Chuck Gibson, they were in Warman with me,

and they were great. We'd always go to their place and play Smash Brothers, and that's where we hung out, because they were in Warman. We were just out there. And then Martinsville is just about five minutes down the road from that. I had Jill and Jared Brown, and they're their second family to me.

I stopped by whenever I'm Saskatoon to visit. That's awesome. Yeah, they were great. And then finally in Edmonton, I had Ray and Sheila Lehman, and every time I go through Edmonton, now I stop by. They're a second family and they're friends to you, and you never forget them.

That's cool to build that right. relationship with them and have it. I mean, like, I bet mine will come down and watch some college hockey, so. Yeah. No, it's, there's special people. I mean, athletes are, I mean, on the flip side, right? Like, I've seen, I was saying to the boys last week with Bryson Jackson, like, on one side of it, you, there's, like, great billets, and then there's bad bellets. You always hear a couple stories of, like, some shady stuff or whatever. I've never ever witnessed it. I've always been fortunate enough. And on the flip side, there's always, like, the great hockey player that comes to live with you and then there's always the ones that get shipped off pretty quick because

they're doing some shady stuff and that was my first roommate my first roommate was out of my i went down in ontario when i was 18 and within like two months he had moved on to a new billet house and you know yeah it was just a different uh they got to follow the rules that's right that's right yeah yeah and so it goes both ways but there's so many good ones out there right like i mean Welcome somebody, a young kid into your house and take care of them. And those years specifically under that stress and everything else is pretty cool for a lot of people. So it's nice to get a little bit of a shout out to them here while you boys are on because, I mean, you lived with them for quite a few years.

You bounced around. Everywhere, but way more good experiences and bad. They're always great people. They're willing to welcome you into their home. And they know how much stress you're under. so they're really good with it. I know parents are going to be nervous because they're sending their kids away to live with someone new,

but if any parents listen to this and is worried about it, I'd just tell you, don't worry. These people are, they're always great. They welcome your children to their homes with open arms. They'll, they're great. They'll always make sure that they're well-fed and taken care of. I was going to ask you, T.J., you've written on your questionnaire about playing for the end,

the World Junior Challenge? World Junior A Challenge, yeah. Yeah, what was that like? And where did you play? You played two years in it? Yeah, so my first year, I got, like, invited to the camp in December, or November, I guess. Camp was, like, start of December, I think,

and it was pretty, like, you go there, and it was, so we were Team Canada West, so all the kids that play in the leagues from Manitoba to BC. Yeah. And, you know, like, there's, I think 16 defensemen were there, and, like, obviously they keep seven. And the camp goes on just a standard trial process, But it's they take away your phones and they you know like it's pretty strict and it's all about the team

But like starting to build that culture and I ended up making the team that year and headed out to Truro out east and Where? Truro Truro Truro Truro T R O Truro I was I thought it's near Halifax near Halifax It's like it's awesome and like they have a really sweet rink and I mean so like the top there's the USHL sends a team and then there is Swiss And I forget who else but anyway I ended up playing the USA and the final, just a packed bar and ended up winning gold. And that was cool. Like, you ended up on like the hockey Canada page and whatnot. And the following year, I was a returning guy and

went to cap and ended up making the team again. And I actually captained that team, which is pretty cool. Did you? Yeah. Yeah. The tournament was in Bonneville. So, you know, it was easy for me. I remember that. I was working up north when that was going on. Yeah, easy for my parents to come to that. And we ended up losing the semifinal. And so, I mean, we ended up winning bronze this year. So I had some really good experience. It was with hockey Canada. So you, you, you play. Like the USA Chel makes one team. Yeah. And then you guys beat those guys.

Yeah. So there's team Canada to West, team Canada to East, Russia, U.S., and then Switzerland, and then Czech. So those are the teams that were in. And it's like it's a junior age challenge. But like Russia this year had some guys from London. Like they were good this year. Like they had a, like I played with some pretty good kids on that team.

Yeah. Oh, that's cool. All those hockey counted events are you mentioned how strict they were. But like I remember we went to. the Northeast Alberta Cup they took the phones away. You went and you made it to the winter games for the 99 year. They took our phones away

they took everything away. You stayed in rooms of four, you were always with the team. Curfew and schedules. That's just another thing. We mentioned what you have to sacrifice but like you go these can't like some of the camps you go to when it's when it's time to show what you got those camps are

they're intense because I remember for top 80 where you were at the Were you at the top 80 camp? Yeah. So you got. I didn't make the team Alberta team, but I got the top 80. You got woken up at the top 80. That's when we were first introduced to like training like, whoa.

What is the top 80 boys? So it's a top 80 is, uh, you go to Alberta Cup and they select 80 kids from 160. From 160, yeah. And they take them to, it's typically been cameras, I think this year now. That is why I don't know what that's called. There you go. I went to the selection camp, but never made it past. Okay, carry on.

It's, they've previously done it in Camrose. Now it's in Red Deer because they built the new center there for the college team. Yeah. I'm actually, I'm actually going to help that future leaders program. Oh, cool, man. Everything you do is, like coaching? Yeah, yeah, because the future leaders program is just to train new coaches and all that. And out of the 20, I think they selected four girls and four guys to do it.

So, but they. Out of the 80, they make it like a Team Alberta team, and then they send it to the the winter game. Yeah. Our 99 years, the winter games, but every other time it's like the Western Canada Cup.

So it's like team SaaS, team. Then like it kind of first introduces you to like the whole hockey Canada thing. And then there's like the U-17 camp, U-18, then for a lot of guys like, we're all juniors.

Like that mean. Yeah, but I mean, even Alberta, they do, they do way more than other places. Because when we go, I went to the U-17 camp

and you talked to guys from Ontario. Our team, Alberta team, we met up and practiced five or six times. We played four or five games. whereas the Ontario guys, they just showed up to the tournament. Competition is competitive when you're representing a place. A place, yeah.

What was it like pulling on Canada, Jersey? That was very cool. Yeah, because I don't know, like never really foreseen myself doing that after not getting draft or anything in the band of draft. And we had a very good team. Like all those guys are now playing Division I college. I'll run into them. Like lots of guys were draft picks in the NHL,

a couple first rounders. So, like, seen that first time. Who were the first round draft picks that you played with? Oh, Jacob Bernard Docker is one of them. So he was playing in North Dakota. He was like 26 to Ottawa last year. Yeah. And then there's a couple, there's a third rounder, Seth Barton, a couple of fifth rounders,

but they're all really good college career so far. And next year there's a guy named Dylan Holloway. And he's really good. He got CJ.HL player of the year. And so he's like a late birthday, but he's actually spending his draft year in Wisconsin. So he'll have a lot of eyes on him. Oh, yeah, cool. Playing for the Badgers?

Yeah. Yeah. He's like a big deal. coming in, you know, like he's like a big recruit. Yeah, that's really cool. That's a new thing coming up to is all the guys that stay back in junior and take that as a viable way to the NHL because I, it happened before, but I don't for me it seems like it's been happening a lot more in the news. Going the junior route through college, you're talking?

Yeah, you're even just straight from junior because Jost did it, Fabro did it. Well, they played a, they played a few years in the NCAA. Yeah, they ended up going to the NCAA, but I mean, I didn't hear about that as much. Oh, no, it's being introduced to this area a lot more, I'd say, just with more guys choosing that route. Which is good, because, I mean, if I were to go back, and I would definitely look into the college road, too. Well, let's talk about that. Jansen, you went W.HL. T.J., you go junior A, and now you're going to go Division I.

What led up to your guys' decision-making on that? Like, was getting taken in the Bannum draft and pointing at you, Jansen? Was that, like, a big part of the reason you went dub? and if TJ, if you would have went that route, you would have continually went dub or were you always set on the Junior A path and Division I and stuff, we'll start with TJ.

Yeah, I mean, I probably would have went to the WHL my first year if I was introduced, but like I mean, right after the drafters, kind of just hear about the NCAA a little bit, you know, like you start looking into it, and it starts to look pretty good, and then at that time, I went to Seattle's spring camp after Bantam and whatever, nothing,

like maybe they had lists me the next year or whatnot, but then like I kind of started, I was happy with my year in U-16, and then that's when I started talking to some junior A teams, like Bonneville, Spruce, and I guess Lloyd Minster and ended up whatever going to Spruce and that led me to, you know, like really wanting to pursue a scholarship, like working so hard for it,

because it's not, like, not too many kids get them out of the AJA. Like there's a good handful, but I mean, like, it's a guaranteed thing at all. So, like, you've got to be one of the, a better player in that league. So, and then, yeah, and pretty much they offer you an athletic scholarship and can add some financial stuff on top of it. So that's why it's important to keep your marks up because you can get more money out of it.

And then, yeah, it's a four-year thing. And you can take classes and you can stay there in the summer and take more classes and train for free down at those universities. And I'll be going to Bowling Green, Ohio, and they actually played in the NCAA tournament last year. So really looking forward to that. Yeah, that'll be a really cool experience for you. Thank you, yeah.

Yeah. And yourself, Jansen? For me, I think the biggest thing that made me, When you're a first rounder, there's no, it's hard to. Everything's presented to you. Yeah, it's all, it's all given they want you there and they make, they focus on you. And I mean, I had, uh, I was the year after Tyson Jost didn't go to Everett, Everett Whiffdon, Austin Matthews.

So being their first round pick, they made sure that, uh, I felt that that was the best place to be. Did you sign right after the draft? I didn't sign right after the draft. I told them I was going to wait until camp. that made them maybe worry a little bit, but I waited until the last day of camp, I think, to stay. But the biggest thing that made me stay was my dad was always saying,

no matter what you do with hockey, you have to make sure you have enough money for school. Because hockey, if you're really good, it lasts you until 40, and that's a stretch. And you can't live off of what you make at 40. So the WHL scholarship program, if they didn't have that, I was going in. AAA. So the scholarship program for anybody that doesn't know is every game, I think it's one game you play in different years.

You get a year of school paid for. So. And that carries across to Redd Year? That carries across to Reddier. Canadian schools. Any Canadian school? Any Canadian school. So whichever the last team you finish with, they accept the years prior. So I played with Everett. And I got two years from them because I play, when I signed, I got one for signing and playing at 15. 15 and then I got one for playing 16 traded to Saskatoon. Saskatoon accepts those two years now. I play with Saskatoon. They only now three years because they got one with them, two with Everett. Max is five, right? Max is five, yeah.

And they've now changed the rule. You don't get one for signing anymore at 15 because guys would get their fifth year when they were 19 and just not come back or even try out as a 20. Yeah, they want them to stay in the league, yeah? Yeah, so I mean, I had four years and go to Red Deer because that's all I really need is a four I'm going for a four year degree so um could you you didn't play your 20th year right I didn't play my 19 year old year you didn't play your 19 this would be my our 20 year old year oh is this year for both of us yeah coming up so I could have played I could have went back to junior

we each could add one more year in junior technically because I was 19 this year really yeah yeah oh I thought you guys were a year old or no 98th were the oldest guys in junior hockey this year no kidding yeah so I'm curious then why not stay in play, I'm looking at TJ right now, why not stay and play one more year? I'm just, I think personally I feel, and you know, like the school feels that I'm ready to come in

and that's kind of what it comes down to and that's the good thing about junior. Like some guys are ready to come as a true freshman, which is right after high school. I graduated last year, so I took a year in between and, you know, got another year under my skin, which turned out well for me and got a lot of good experiences out of it. I'd say

CJHL. So next year... I don't know if we've heard this yet, but this just in, TJ, CGL, HL defenseman the year? No, but, yeah. That's all. No, that's cool. I was just, maybe I was just, I don't remember it correctly. It's interesting to me that lots of guys don't stick their tenure on a team anymore.

They're leaving before their final years. Yeah, I mean, well, if they're ready to go in, like, even, but, yeah, I mean, guys are leaving college, really, like, if there's a deal presented to them, I guess so. Lots of guys leave, but then, like, there's an argument, like, see a lot of, like, NHL players tweet back like she didn't left college like you know could a like there's just you can get so much out of college hockey but you never know if you don't go and jump at that opportunity is still there there's a max any child dealers there's some staring it down the face like that's pretty hard not well even i've i've heard about it a lot more but that's again that's because i was on rebuilding

teams it takes a lot out of guys to be on teams like that but i think quite a few of players i've played with have either just gone to university first chance they get or they have uh stopped all together. I can think of actually three or four guys. Yeah, well, because once you stop playing after high school, like other people your age are going to school, so a lot of guys just, you know, like they're like, okay, got my, now it's time to maybe grow up a better and they're going to, like, they want to kind of catch up to the rest of their, to their peers, I'd say. Yeah, and that was a big part of it for me was I had a choice. T.J. I talked to you at the beginning of the year as I was about possibly joining Spruce.

Yeah, coming to watch. I didn't want to be traded again because that was, that was going to be the fate. Edmonton had just cleaned house pretty much with front office. coaches so that's part of it but then you look at it is if I were to want if I wanted to become an accountant the CPA you have to get a four-year degree two years to become a CPA and then any specialization is another two years that's eight years you stay till you're 21 you don't you aren't finished and working what you want until you're 28 29 so it's a lot of it is just kind of come into terms that you can keep grinding through it, but you have to, you can maybe work and get an

HL deal play for two years, but is it worth it in the grand scheme to be 29? I know. I'm going to tell you the boys this right now. I know 29 sounds like it's old. Take it from a 33-year-old. I still feel very, very young. And those years are going to blow by you. I'm not saying I completely respect to your guys' decisions, right?

I think it's interesting. That's all. I played all three years of my junior, but I never had an opportunity to go play Division I'd come. If it had come, maybe I would have hopped on it the first chance I got, right? Yeah, and me going into medicine next year. Like, I mean, I'm going to be in school for a lot of years. Oh, yeah.

What are you taking? I'm not going to be. You're not going to be. Not medicine. You're not going to be. Dr. Lloyd? Dr. Lloyd? I was thinking that's the first time I've heard that, TJ.

When did you all set this side is. Those science courses are hard, man. Jeez. But no, I'll be taking some business courses. Oh, yeah. The true hockey. That's right. That's right. You got a gift of gab, so you'll be fine. Exactly.

All right, cool. I was wondering your time in the dub. You've kind of alluded to it a little bit, but like how tough is the dub? Travel probably. Is it just the travel? Is it just how much you got to? It's not just the travel, but the travel is a big, big part of it. I mean, it all depends on where you play too. being on three teams, I've seen three different travel schedules, and I'll tell you what,

Edmonton was probably the worst travel schedule I had, solely because you have to play the BC teams four times, which means you have to go out there twice. And then... On a bus, too. Yeah, on a bus. There are no back-to-back games. You don't play teams twice on the road.

So you do a one 10-day swing, and then you come back, and then you do another 10-day swing later in the year. You get to the second 10-day swing and you're like... I was just going to say, we've kind of glazed over, bounced around school. How did you guys both fare in moving away and then having to do school? I had a tougher time moving away from home and with that schedule. And then like it's a different curriculum too, but like so you've got to make sure all the classes aligned. But it was tough.

The marks unfortunately slipped a little bit. But I mean, I'll get those back up for college mom. Oh. Hey, you're looking, I've graduated now. I can tell you, I was a 60 slash 70 student in high school. It drove my mother nuts. And then I went to college and I was an A-minus student. I was, I was, I'm not kidding you.

I went to college. My, met my wife there. She whipped me a little bit in shape, but I fell in love with something that I was a history major. And I, it wasn't hard to motivate me after that. I was an A-plus student, right? Well, yeah, once you find something like high school is just the broad, everything. once you find something your marks go back up

because I mean my marks drop near the end of high school because I just You're a smart dude though Like you always had Good marks growing up and like I remember you talking to me

about being like some kind of scientist It was crazy I wanted to be an aerospace engineer Because I love physics And everything about it And I'd listen to like Neil degrass Tyson

videos Neil deGrasse Tyson It was awesome And then I took one high school physics class And I said no No I don't want to do that that's not at all we can start your own podcast about physics and

yeah you know what maybe an accounting a physics accounting slash podcast for the real host about your stream the nerds that wanted to do what i did no but i'll go back to your point on moving away and going to school uh i was 15 in everett and i was 16 and i was planning on staying there so i registered for classes and i'll tell you what there's school down there there is it's different. I was in grade, what's, what's 15? Is that grade 10? That's grade 10.

And I think I had a few grade 11 classes. But their English class is spelling tests. It's not, it's not a grade 10 English in Canada. It's really different. Did you have to take classes during the year? Or during the summers, because I did. Just to make sure I get all your credits, right? Yeah.

Because I had all the school in Lloyd, Lisa Spence really helped me out a lot because she made sure I had everything set in an order. And I actually, once I got traded to Saskatoon, I actually graduated half a semester early just because of how well Lisa and the comp had set. Did you guys come back to Lloyd and graduate then? Yeah.

I went to Holy Rose, you know. Oh, holy. Yeah. So you have really good academic advisors. So that makes sure everything lines up and that you get graduated because, I mean, like there's a lot going on in that. kidding transcript no kidding i can't that that to me has got to be one of the toughest things to do

leave like uh i went to laurenge when i was 17 so my grade 12 years there for a month and yeah your guys uh it was a good place laurenge was a good place i mean you're in the middle of nowhere but the people there were unreal good um that's what it's about that's right but uh going away from home at that time that was tough And I was always happy to come back. I was glad I came. I don't know if I could have, I admire you both for being away for so long through like you're talking your 15, 16.

Like that's your young kid right then. Well, it was nice like being in Spruce like being still close to home mix and parents being able to bomb up or the game. And probably same with you as Saskatoon and Evanton. Yeah, so you know what? Makes it easier. Going from the furthest team away possible to Saskatoon and then getting traded again, rolling the dice and going to Edmonton,

that's a big change because 15 you're 18 to 20 hours away from home a drive or a plane ride. Yeah, so next year might be a little different in the States. Yeah, we have fun. Now that living away for three years, it's good. Who had the best fans that you guys played in front of? Like who is, you can do either or you can do both. You can say.

I see pictures of Everett's fans and they're sweet. Everett, I'd say Everett. Everett? They're fans down there. they're insane. I'm not knocking Saskatoon or Edmund, but ever, that's all they have down there.

They have the Mariners and they have the Seahawks, but they have no hockey down there. I remember playing in the Doyle Cup, and we played against Winachi. They won the BCHL, so we go and play against an American team. And they just cheer for sports differently than Canadians. Like, their knowledge on,

I don't think on hockey was like maybe as high. Some of the, they're there for just the entertainment and enjoyment and stuff. They, did you guys beat them in the? the Doyle Cup? No, we ended up losing. So you didn't make it to a Royal Bank Cup?

Like Van Ashaugh, Chris Van Ashae, he was a CGH player of the year, got injured that series. And it was tough because we, like, again, drop two very close games on the road. And you come back and we win that one, but they ended up beating us in five, which that ultimately sent them to the IBC Cup that year. It was a tough one. That was. We had a good team.

So is that the best fans you played against then? Or like the toughest fans? No, I mean, like, when I, it's just so cool to see your home rink. filled up. I mean, I don't know. Like when I was in Spruce Groven on those playoff rounds and you see all the community like respect and like coming out and then just same within

Lloyd Minster when we played in the in that Talos Cup like it was or Pacific Pacific Cup yeah or the Pacific Regionals. A lot of it is on what game it is too because I mean we'd have those hockey hooky games in Saskatoon where it's... Oh bring out all those kids and stuff. The rink of all yeah. The teddy bear

tosses wherever you played were amazing but all the fans in the States they may not have the best hockey IQ, but they cheer, and they just cheer loud for whatever. Playoff hockey, it's so fun. Like, playoff hockey compared to the regular season, it's the best. I think I had written down on there, in the States, their chants during the anthem or stuff like that.

But Everett, whenever they, whenever the anthem went on for O Canada, oh Canada, summer says loving it, and Mitch Love was there. assistant coach at the time and he was a player there for most of his career and they absolutely loved him so they'd all scream love for the u.s anthem fight is somewhere in there and they'd scream fight like they love their sports they just love their sports and i remember a story i heard is 10 i think the silver tips they either started in 2001 or 2003 i think it's 2003 but they

uh they when they first started out a my a voice would have to come over where the intercom, like an icing would happen and a voice would come on and say the Everett Silver Tips of ice the puck and icing happens when you shoot the puck and they'd explain what's going on to the fans in the first. I think they did that for the first two seasons. It's the story I heard. Still, if you got crazy fans that scream and show it all the time, that's a lot of fun. They're just there to cheer. Yeah. I got some different questions I usually ask towards the end. I won't keep you here all afternoon. But if you could have played one other sport growing up, right,

because you give up so much time playing hockey, what do you think you would have done? Or what would you like to have tried? I would have played basketball. I love basketball. Now I watch it. I honestly might watch it more than hockey, I think. Well, right now, I should have led in, like,

talk about the NHL Stanley Cup finals and the Raptors and the finals. The Raptors are more enjoyable to watch right now than the Stanley Cup finals. Absolutely, yeah. It's not even close. Yeah. I think for me, I think it would have been track and field. I really liked sprinting and jumping. I mean, I liked soccer and baseball and all those other sports,

but, like, you know, I like things that I'm good at. So I like really enjoyed track and field. Track and field. You're one of the quickest guys I know, though. DJ can run. Yeah, my mom runs every morning, so, I mean, got that gene a little bit. I love track and field. The individual competition is, it's just different than a team competition.

You're by yourself. It's a good. You guys golf? Yeah. Got into more the past three years. Yeah, like as a kid, I just temperament was too high, but now the last three years, just learning to enjoy things a little bit more here and just, you know, like if you make a bad shot, it's not the end of the world.

One story about golf is Bryce. He was having some really bad, uh, um, hold. He's a good golfer though. Yeah, he's a good golf for now. But when he just started out, he used some old wood club. and on the Lloyd course he threw one of his either his driver or his wood or something into the water and it was funny because it looked like it was just floating right up at the top and we still bugged Bryce about that whenever we go golfing.

If you were in game seven, Stanley Cup Finals, who would be the one player you'd want sitting in the dressing room with you? It can be anyone. I'd say Shaw, Mason. Would you? I would. I would want Parker, Logan, beside me, my two boys that I played with in Spruce the past three years and played with in Midget, too, growing up. I mean, like, I just love playing with those guys and going to war with them. Cool.

I just don't think Mason would let anyone lose. Yeah, he's a great player. Honestly, the fiercest competitor I think I've ever played with. Yeah, I'd say Mason. We played against some pretty good players, eh? Yeah. And played with in Lloyd. Like, there's some good local talent around while.

It'd be a good time for the Lloydminster Porter Kings to come back in like a few years. Although... I was upset when I heard that they were. Although I see all the teams from the Chinook League or leagues. One of that double A league, though. Well, I don't know what they're going to do because there's been a lot of talk of the Allen Cup being no more. It's too bad. It just got to be too much money, right?

It went away from what the, I don't know if that's what it was before, but from what I remember, it wasn't $100,000 payrolls and stuff like that. It was more local communities, and I'm sure they brought in a few guys, but they weren't paying hundreds of thousands or at least. I guess I can't speak for it. I wasn't there. I doubt you're far off because we played against the LaColme Generals this year. Red Deer did in preseason, and one of the guys I played against for Portland,

Kegan Iverson is a really good hockey player. He had an HL deal. He has all of his years of school, and he's playing on the Lacombe General. So I'm thinking, why are you here? I even asked him that on the ice, and he just laughed,

so I thought, okay, he's getting paid. He's getting paid pretty well to be here right now, especially in their Allen Cup host year. Because I don't know. They have to have something that draws players there. Oh, and they're shelling. They're shelling some money for sure. Yeah.

who is the best player you've ever played against or with? Or one of each. Yeah, so I'd say I'll go first from Lloyd. I'd probably be like, but Ty Smith like that. Oh, like he's very good. Like he was,

what, my 15th of the New Jersey Devils last year? And he was in Spokane. Like, he was, actually, he was his deep partner there in Midget. So that was pretty cool.

Just seeing him up close like that. And, you know, he's just, he's very good. And he'll have a good hockey career there. And then, and I got to keep repeating this.

It's pretty cool that you got the CJHL and, the CHL defensemen of the year off the same midget team at a Lloyd. Yeah, a lot of fun with that's unbelievable. Yeah, it was cool. And then I would say against, it would have to be like, Kail McCar, like you've seen what he'd do with this year. Oh my gosh, that guy is that good on the AAC.

Yeah, he's, he's very skilled and just so. Who did he play with when? Brooks, of course. Of course, Brooks. Yeah, of course. But I remember, again, I got called, when I was playing U-16, I got called up in to play at the midgett triple A's, and I remember they were playing against the Calgary Flames

and so I remember playing against this kid of Midgian like realizing oh who is this guy and then that year he ends up affiliating with the bandits and then whatever goes and does what he. Yeah I mean in the Stanley Cup finals there you're like who is this kid like holy crap playing against

when I was when I was 15 these guys were really good but it was in Portland we were playing them in playoffs and they had Nick Batan and Oliver Bjork Strand, and they were good. And being a 15-year-old defense, there was an injury that had me draw in to the Spokane series,

the series before the last game, and I had to play all five against Portland. But those two were amazing. And every time I touched that ice, it was clock where those guys' legs would go right over the boards. And I thought, get back to the bench, get back to the bench as quick as I can. Did you play Drearsightel or no?

I didn't get to. My very first game was in PA, the game after he got traded to Colonna. Oh yeah. Coming back from Edmonton. But no, Bjorkshire and Patan, those two are amazing. They shredded teams.

And then they had delay over something on their third or fourth line. That was really good. And then with is, it was tough. because I've played a lot of good players. I mean, there is Thai, there's kale. But I think there's two ways to go vote at one that's going to be ready for the NHL

and one that's just pure skill. Nikita Sherbach was with L.A. and then Montreal, pure skill-wise, he's probably the best player played with. But in terms of actually probably going to make the NHL and stick, his name's Leibor Hayek. He's from the Czech Republic. With New York Rangers, right? He's with New York.

He was in the McDonough Trade. from Tampa Bay to New York, and I think he'll probably be around in the NHL for quite a few years. He's just a workhorse. Yeah, that's cool. Just a Czech farmer. What's the best lesson you boys have learned so far? For me, I just kind of have to say, just, you know,

he's got to enjoy every day. I mean, just like last year, just that humble Broncos crash, you know, like that, that just opens your eyes. things can happen so quickly and just you got to enjoy the people that you're around because I feel like it's kind of cool to see how many people were connected through that and the support. And it's just, you know, you just got to enjoy every day and go about things positively. And that can, I think, help a lot of people. And people just have to talk, you know, communicate with each other, how we're doing,

ask each other that stuff. Yeah. I had one hit close to home this past week. My good friend from Helmand, he's been my defense partner for the last seven years. and growing up with his family since I was knee high, gotten a bad car crash sitting in the ICU in Sastun right now. He just woke up yesterday and started talking with everybody, but he very fortunate so that every day make it count, yeah, and I get that.

You were at that golf tournament for him last year. Yeah, we organized, I talked about it at the start of last podcast. We organized while the accident happened Monday afternoon, we visited or went down and saw him Tuesday, Wednesday we went from we're planning a little senior hockey tournament I still play senior in Helmandon and went from like you know 50 golfers and a couple of all sponsors we're going to go and have a good time and not too much stress to by the end of that day you have a full golfing slate of 72 golfers we went from two sponsors to 30 sponsors we got this online auction

which as of right now I think it's closing in on 60,000 dollars right like it's great support And it's unbelievable. It is unbelievable. It almost gives me chills when you think about it. That day I saw you out at the course. Like the amount of people that reached out and come out and supported that event was unbelievable. You'll hear a story. I always grown up in Hillmont specifically.

You'll hear these stories of Eileen Lindsay's Buns specifically. She's a lady from Hillmont. And she bakes them any time there's a big fundraiser. and they always go for like 100 buns I don't know $2, $3 a loaf and they go for like $500 whatever

they went for $700 that night and we sold the 36 pack of Pilsner for $1,100 I heard about that yeah like that was the support that's going on for brewer right now and it's really cool to see people pull together like that

how about you, Jansen I forgot the question what was that? Lesson what's the best lesson you've learned so far the best lesson there are two or three really good ones i like the what you do in the dark shows up in the light first off because that was something that really helped me out but uh as you get older

and as it starts becoming more and more it feels like a chore there are going to be days where you don't want to go to the rink but there you have to make it fun yeah it's uh when you're losing with the team and something's it's bound to happen it's to be a grind yeah you're not going to win every game. Just do little things. Coaches will see what you're doing. Don't think that the coach is going to be like, what are you doing?

They know it's a grind and they want you to have fun. So that was one thing I was worried about is what are the coaches going to think I'm doing? They're going to think I'm screwing around. But now you find out quick that they know. The difference. Yeah, they got to enjoy it. Screwing around and trying to keep everybody positive. Then finally is if you ever,

Anyone that's a young athlete that's going to be listening to this, it's a lot of stress on you. Don't be afraid to talk to somebody about it because that will all build up. I mean, moving away at 15, a lot of, it was really tough. So don't ever think that you're alone. You can talk to somebody, whether it's just a friend or a family or you need to actually go talk to somebody. I ended up speaking with Dean Beattie, Triune Systems. he's a psychiatrist,

sports psychologist, all that. If you ever have to go talk to anybody, just talk, everyone understands. They know, and they're there to help you, so.

Yeah, that's cool. Yep. Yeah. Okay, two more. Two fun ones. If you had a time machine and you could go to any event, where would you go?

Do you start, T.J.? Uh, oh, I don't know, I'll need some time to think. I'm out of all right? Yeah, you know what? I've stunked you.

Okay, okay. I seen the movie Bohemian Rhapsody this past year, and that gave me chills. So I mean, going to that live concert. The live-aid concert? Being in that crowd,

like that's just one of the few things that come to mind. I'm sure I could think of something better if you gave me a few. Oh, that's pretty cool. I think, like, that would have been, like, oh, I couldn't imagine. I'd go to the Oilers,

six run and do something to make sure Bergeron had a bashed knee before he got on the ice and hurt Rolls. That's poor oiler fans. Oh man. What do you think of Ken Holland? Is he going to pull it together? I've stopped keeping up with the news but I think everything's going to be fine. I mean, you have the best player in the world.

They'll be fine. You can clean house a few times and eventually you're going to get the combination right. A lot of large numbers. Something's about to happen, so I'm hopeful. Okay. Final one. we do a little game called sign, trade, buyout. Three guys.

I know you're a Chicago fan, TJ, so you guys are in a little bit of a predicament right now, so I'll give you the three names. Duncan Keith, Patrick Kane, John and Taves. Who you buying out? Who you're signing, who you trading? That's a tough one. Okay, okay.

Love Duncan Keith. It's probably my favorite defense. Hey, we're kindred spirits. I mean, if it's five years ago, that's totally different, but I think I'm going to have to buy them out. Who! Yeah, he's always over there.

You see Taves this year this year, you've seen Patrick Cain. Hey, hey, all right. I'll let Duncan Keith know you think that of him. Well, no, like, hey, no, no. And then I think I'd sign, I'd sign Patrick Cain. I think he's a second best player in the world behind McDavid, and then I'd get a good piece for... You'd hope you'd get a good piece for Taves.

Yeah, I'd get a good piece. You'd probably have to eat some salary there. Yeah, but, yeah, that's the honest truth. Oh, it's tough to say that stuff. Like a Hey, now you're going to be going down to Bullen Green. I mean, you're not right beside Chicago, but you'll be close enough.

You're going to catch a couple games? I mean, hopefully, like, I got some friends here that used to live in Lloyd Minster, the deck boys, and they actually moved back to the States and they live three hours from Bullying Green. So, I mean, they'll come pick me up, and hopefully I'll get them to take me to a Blackhawks game. I went to a playoff game a few years ago when I was down there visiting.

Did you? Yeah. Was it unreal? It was awesome. So cool. The Mad House. Yep. Unreal.

Chelsea's dagger. Yeah. That's a good, they got a good, you know, all right, I admire you. You at least get to watch

your team win a few championships. All right, Edmonton Oilers, well, we got our own problems. I'm going to give you their last three

first overall draft picks. So, Jesse Polly Arby, Yamamoto, Bouchard, sign, trade, buyout. What are you doing?

Oh, that is going to be the toughest one. I'd sign, I'd sign Bouchard because we need defenseman badly. Can't argue that. I would trade

Pooley Arby because I think that's what you're going to get the most out of. I don't know. Yeah, maybe. Buy out Yamamoto not for any reason just because he's left over. I mean, I've also played against him.

What do you think of playing against Yamamona? He had a sword for a stick. It was pretty sweet out there. But he's so skilled. Yeah, that's the thing. He's skilled, but he's small, but he'll use a stick to... Yeah. Just make himself feel big.

He can hit, too. Yeah, you got what I mean? His stick was... No, I did it. I was like, sword, sword. I think I... Okay, he's down. All right.

I guess what you're saying. He carved you up. Oh, he'd give you shots, yeah. Yeah. But... How bad? Like, is he that small on the ice? Yeah.

Yeah, he is. He looks small out there, but he doesn't gain much. I think he's really good. He's really good. Well, he is really good. I mean, shoot, he's a draft pick in the NHL. He's really good. I just...

You watch them play in the NHL specifically. He's a small guy. That's one of the knocks. And that's a small guy saying he's a small guy, right? That's one of his knocks, but I don't think it's going to be an issue. I don't think his size is going to be too bad. No, the NHL looks like it's changing for little guys to really make a name for themselves. He's got enough compete in them anyway.

Yeah. That's not going to harm him. Oh, cool. Well, boys, I hope you enjoyed this. I really enjoyed having you in. I did. It was fun. Thanks for having us on.

Yeah. And like I told. Bryson Jackson, like after you guys go to Bowling Green another year, Red Deer, right? If next summer at some point you guys want to hop back on, I'll be here. Yeah, I'd happily hop back on anytime. I'd do another one hell next week. Well, thanks for coming on, boys. Best luck in your endeavors here coming up.

I'm excited to see how you doing Bowling Green. Heck, I'm excited to see how you do it, Red Deer and you, boys. Yeah, we're going to have a good team. And how your accounting goes, and your accounting scientific podcast. That's his, not me. I ain't into any of that. I'm also trying to recruit for Red Deer College. So anyone, I know Kobe, more, Chase Stevenson.

I know you're listening to this. So come to Red Deer with me. Anybody else, Jackson, Bryce, all you guys come to Red Deer with. Well, you guys just took me up, and they can just come on here and we'll have a chat about it. Absolutely. We'll call you and we'll get them all. You and I can question them.

We'll think of something good, and I'll say, well, what's the pros and cons of this? And then we'll get them on. Cool, guys. Well, thanks again. You bet you. Thank you. Hey, guys. I hope you enjoyed that.

T.J. and Jansen, pretty cool guys. Wish them the best of luck in what comes for them here in the future. And I look forward to watching them as they move along and see them where it takes. And hopefully at some point here, we can have them back on the podcast. Next week, I'll be joined by Amber Leroux. She's the first ever professional female truck wagon driver of the CPCA. She was a lot of fun to interview. She shared her story with depression and anxiety and what she does to cope with it,

kind of how she got into the sport, what continues to drive her, her training in order to compete at that level. And yeah, just a really cool hour we sat down. And so that'll be out next week, Wednesday. And I look forward to releasing that and hearing your guys' thoughts. Until then.