Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. 136 - TSN's Darren Dreger

Episode Date: December 14, 2020

Originally from MacNutt SK. We discuss his road to becoming one of hockey's most trusted insiders. We talk about his love for curling and if he quit today how he would love to be back around the sport he loves.   Let me know what you think   Text me! 587-217-8500

Hi, this is Brandon Holby. Hey, this is Tanner, the Bulldozer Bozer. Hi, this is Brian Burke from Toronto, Ontario. This is Daryl Sutterin. Hello, everyone. I'm Carlyagro from SportsNet Central. This is Jay On Right. This is Quick Dick, quick, tick coming to you from Tough Moose, Saskatchew. Hey, everybody, my name is Theo Fleary.

This is Kelly Rudy. This is Corey Krause. This is Wade Redden. This is Jordan Tutu. My name is Jim Patterson. Hey, it's Ron McLean, Hockeynet in Canada, and Rogers' hometown hockey, and welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. We've had a great one on Taprey today, folks.

Before we get to it, let's get to today's episode sponsors, teaming up with the Lloyd Minster Region Health Foundation for the Lloyd Minster's gift to the health, which is happening on December 15th, Tuesday, December 15th. It's a live stream 12 hours, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Facebook or YouTube, search Lloyd Minster Region Health Foundation. I'm telling you, I put in a ton of work over the last week, getting this thing ready.

We got an amazing lineup coming in for 12 hours. There will be no replays. Last year we had a replay of a couple of pre-records. Let me tell you this. We have about 55 to 65 different people from the community coming in to talk about what we're doing and share some stories and have some fun and all the money is going to a good cause. We're raising money for the Lloydminster Hospital and continuing care.

So that's December 15th, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Facebook or YouTube. So make sure you pay attention. That's this Tuesday. Clinton, the team over at Trophy Gallery, championship belts, custom medals, diecast signage, name tags, engraving on Yetis and Brewmates,

business awards and crystal and glass. They ship Canadawide, trophygallery.ca. If you go there, they got over 5,000 products. Use the promo code, Newman for 15% off. Any sport, any time, from bodybuilding to hockey, visit trophygallory.com.

Carly Clawson and Windsorpegallery. I would have signed back on with the podcast builders of the podcast studio table. For everything wood, these are the guys, whether we're talking about mantles, decks, windows, doors, or sheds. When you want quality, stop in and see the group at Windsor Plywood or just hop on your phone and take a look at their Instagram page. Give them a call today. 780875-9663. HSI group there, the local oil field burners and combustion experts that can help make sure you have a compliance system working for you. The team also offers security, surveillance, and automation products for residential, commercial livestock, and agricultural applications.

They use technology to give you peace of mind so you can focus on the things that truly matter. Stop in today and visit Broditor Kim at 3902-502-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2. Or give them a call at 306-825-610. Clay Smiley and the team over at Profit River. They are the retailers of firearms, optics, accessories, serving all of Canada. They specialize in importing firearms from the United States. Hard to find Calibers, rare firearms, special additions. Check them out at Profitriver.com.

Gartner Management. I signed on with Wade this week for 2021. The podcast ain't leaving the beautiful new studio. We're going to be here for 2021 for sure, hopefully onwards. He's a Lloydminster-based company specializing in all types of rental properties to help meet your needs, whether you're looking for something similar to this, or maybe some 6,000 square foot commercial space. You need a little room to move, so to speak.

Give way to call at 780-808, 5025. Shout out to Read and Write and Miss Deanna Wander. Mrs. Deanna-Wanler, that is. For building the SMP billboard, if you're looking for outdoor advertising, Read and Right is the place to stop. If you're heading in any of these businesses, make sure you let them know you heard about them on the podcast.

I know COVID's got restrictions all over the place on us, but if you do see them out in a boat, folks, let them know. If you're interested in advertising on the show for 2021, visit shan Newmanpodcast.com in the top right corner, hit the contact button and send me your info. We've got lots of different options, and I want to find something that can work for the both of us. Now, let's get on to that T-Barr-1 tale of the tape.

Originally from McNutt, Saskatchewan. He did the play-by-play for the Brandon Week Kings, the Manitoba Moose. From 1998 to 2006, he hosted Hockey Central on Sportsnet. since July 2006 he's been with TSN and he has become one of the best hockey insiders there is. I'm talking about Mr. Darren Drager. So buckle up. Here we go. Hi everybody, this is Darren Dregor.

Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Well, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today. I'm joined by Mr. Darren Dregor. So first off, sir, thanks for hopping on. Hey, no worry, Sean. As you can see, I've gotten rid of the TV attire. And this is Darren Greger in my home office slash studio,

probably 99.5% of the time. Well, first off, I guess, how are things in your world adjusting it? I say the new norm, but geez, we've been in this now for, it's been a long time. It's been, you know, eight, nine months, I suppose now that it's kind of been, we've been kind of in this. So how are things going on your end? seems that's probably where we should start as well-being, I think, has been on the top of my mind a lot lately. Yeah, and I think that's fair. I think that, you know, you speak for most of us when

you say that and all things considered, you know, in the Dregor world, all things are going well. You know, I'm fortunate enough to, again, be able to have the home studio. So we can almost do everything that we would normally do. We can do virtually here for TSM. We've got insider trading, which, you know, airs Tuesdays and Thursdays on SportsCenter and on TSN.C.A. You know, I do that's hockey with Gene O'Retta a couple of times a week, multiple radio shows over the course of the week, and that's the professional side of my life. Personally, what's different is I have two children. I've got a almost 22-year-old daughter, Katie, who's in fourth-year university at Ryerson.

She wrote her L-SAT during the pandemic and has applied to multiple law schools across Canada. So she's here online, you know, trying to complete year four online from home. And my 19-year-old son Mason, who is a student at Guelph University, he's in his second year. And he too is working from home. And on top of all of that, I didn't confuse my family enough. we actually sold our house and bought and renovated another house this summer in midst of a global pandemic. So that's kind of, Sean, that's how I, you know, keep my sanity to be frank by occupying my days

with whatever is going on. You know, personally, it was a renovation and throwing myself into a general contracting type of role. And then professionally, you know, there's still lots of hockey talk, I would say, around the NHL and with the upcoming world juniors focusing on that as well. Well, a busy guy. That's, that's what I hear. I chuckled myself because in the podcasting world, I started this in February 2019. The listeners get to hear this probably once every couple weeks. I tell this story, but when I started in February 2019, I was doing one a week and really enjoyed it, but I work full time. I got

three kids, four and under, so I'm a different type of busy from your two older ones. And then when the pandemic hit, instead of like, well, I guess I'll sit at home. I started cranking out like, well, two a week is what I release. But I've been working with the city here in Lloydminster. And we've been doing anywhere between two and four a week. And it's a way to, but it's a way to keep my mind occupied. And I find that that's something a lot of us are starting to focus on now because you're starting to see some people, me specifically friends close to me that, you know, the mental side of

it has become a really, a really big thing across our country. But I mean, even further than that, Darren, across the world now, right? Like, I mean, everybody can't escape what's going on worldwide. Yeah, it's a very fair point. And the mental health side of things is obviously very real. And I've felt that. I've struggled with that at times. And, you know, even to go back to my home renovations, you know,

Normally, I grew up in Western Canada, so I spent a lot of time growing up on the farm in the machine shed. Is it McNut? Well, that was, that's kind of, we had a farm near McNutt, yes. So I went to elementary school in McNutt up until grade nine. And then I shifted over to Langeburg, where I went to high school. And I played hockey all the way through in Langeburg and, you know, again, the prairie lifestyle. You spend a lot of your days outside, particularly when you're working on a farm. I mean, that's pretty obvious.

So when we bought this new house, it's not like I didn't have the room in the old house, but we bought this new house and we knew we were doing the full-scale renovation. And the garage, which is attached to the house, it's a nice three-car garage. I thought, you know what? I'm going to pimp this baby out. I'm going to pimp this thing out because I need a safe environment for, my small bubble of buddies. And really it's it's primarily it's three, no, it's four dads from minor hockey teams of my son played on over the years, right? So I did that, man. I like I pimped that

garage out. I've got a big screen TV on the wall. I've got a furnace in there that keeps that thing as warm as I needed to be. Did the floors, put a fancy fridge, the whole nine yards. And, you know, afterwards, I'm thinking, okay, well, am I just being selfish here? Like, am I just absolutely being? Yes, of course, I'm being selfish. But it gave me peace of mind knowing that moving forward, because look, the restrictions in Ontario, as they are in Alberta, but Ontario has been very restrictive for a long, long period of time. We're not officially in lockdown mode where I am in the region that I am, but it is still very restrictive.

So you have to maintain that very tight bubble group. So I thought, look, I mean, we have to have somewhere in the winter where, you know, we can still socially distance, but we've got the big screen TV and we can watch football on Sundays. we can watch whatever the sporting event is. We watch the masters, for heaven's sake, on there. And I very much look forward to that experience every couple of weeks, where, you know, three, four fellows get together in my garage. Again, you know, we do things as safe as we possibly can.

We may crack a beverage or two, watch some sports, and that's how I get my mental health fix when I need it. Well, listen, you don't have to explain your garage to me. You're looking at what I've built, and I built this in the middle of, at the start of all this. So I know exactly what you mean. You need a happy spot. You need a place where you could go and you kind of, you know, the phone goes off.

And you kind of forget about the world for a little bit. And I've been saying a lot lately, Darren, that, man, at times you get annoyed with the amount of chatter about specifically the Emmington Oilers and specifically Connor McDavid because for some reason, fans like to have the argument, whether he's good or not, which, hurts my brain and you switch that away. And then when it goes away and all you get is what's currently going on, man, all I want back is sports. And having a little bit of NFL football right now, I mean, NFL finds a way to get through all of this, don't they? Like they are an absolute juggernaut.

Yes. Yes. In answer to your question, no question about that. And obviously the NFL is an empire and juggernaut is the right word. I guess what I kind of remind myself on a weekly basis is, you know, if the NFL had been going, you know, during its off season and the number of tests that we see on a weekly basis, you know, we're surfacing or if, you know, we, there would have been public outrage.

There would have been shock in awe. We'd all been going, how can they still be playing? I mean, this number of personnel or players are testing positive, yet they continue. you to forge through. But they, I think we've all kind of grown accustomed to that sort of positioning by the National Football League. And, you know, I think they've been as responsible and some would argue that they haven't been, but as responsible as they have to be in postponing games and, and doing all of these

things. But I'm not going to lie. I'm still surprised that the NFL, given the size of their rosters, the number of people that simply have to be involved to put on an NFL game, let alone a full-on production on Sundays and the varying games of the week, et cetera, that they've been able to do it and have done it for the most part without significant interruption or a first full-scale league pause. So it started this week, Sean, I reported that I wasn't specific to the NFL, but I'll share this with you and our podcast listeners slash viewers.

You know, the NHL was and still is considering, you know, maybe pushing back the opening of training camps in the national hockey until after the holiday. So you're talking about late December. You're talking about early January and at this point because of the discussions with the PA that makes sense. And one of my sources said to me as I was working on this story earlier this week, well, we expect some pretty scary news coming out of the NFL this week.

And I haven't seen it yet. I don't know what that news is. But, you know, those leagues pay close attention to one another, right? And so if something bad like a forced pause were to happen in the National Football League, I think that that would very much enact a reset button for all major sports, where everybody went, okay, the NFL has tried, you know, somewhat miraculously, I would say, to forge forward, but now they're not able to do that. So maybe we better pump the brakes here and just, you know,

let the second wave of the pandemic run its course until our health officials and medical experts tell us, okay, you can resume, but we're going to tighten things up. That hasn't happened in the NFL. Here's knocking on wood, hoping that it doesn't happen. But if it were to happen, I think that there'd be a significant ripple effect. Yeah, well, you're talking about the biggest. I love the NHL, but the NFL, once again, is a juggernaut. It's the biggest.

It is just, and it's a behemian. And so if they take a step back, it makes sense that every other sport is going to rethink their go-forward plans. That's an interesting thought. It's one of the things that I think a lot of people just look forward to having something on the TV to kind of lose themselves in, so to speak. You know, and if that gets taken away and everything gets taken away, geez, I mean, that's, that's a scary thought. You know, I've been wondering this, go back to you, Darren. I was doing the math. I'd listen to an interview of yours, you know, and the study of Darren Drager on the way into this podcast.

And you said somewhere between 10 and 15 of these you do in a week. Now, I'm not meaning specifically podcast, but just. just like sit downs, whatever. I was doing the math on that. That means in the last 14 years since you've been at TSN then, you've done somewhere over 10,000, and that's probably light. 10,000 sit downs, like just spots.

Like it hurts my brain. So I got thinking, I'm like, A, you're a hockey insider. You're a sports insider. Geez, you do an exceptional job. Let me put a feather in your cap first most. I mean, like you, now that, Bob is hung the cape up.

I mean, you're next in line, in my opinion, but hey, that's just one guy's opinion out in small town, Saskatchewan. Now, in all those interviews of 10,000 plus, has there never been a question asked, or has there never been a question asked, never asked, that you've wanted asked? Like, is there something that's sitting there that you talk an awful lot about hockey, current events, insider knowledge, breaking down each Canadian team. I mean, like what you do is fantastic.

And the fact you can do it across all of Canada is even more impressive. Yeah. That's a lot about the NHL, the sporting leagues. Is there something that Darren Drager has never been asked that he would love to be asked? Well, professionally, there is something that, again, hailing from Saskatchewan, this won't come as a surprise to you. But I would like to be asked if I weren't focused and immersed in hockey, right? Professionally speaking, and personally, I mean, hockey's been such a big part of my life.

But if I wasn't professionally, you know, stuck with hockey, what other sport would I be covering? Well, then if you weren't immersed and professionally, so to speak, hockey. What would you be it? What would you want to cover? Curling? Curling? I kid you not. I kid you not. And I know I can tell a big of a surprise. Well, I should back that off by saying in Canada, curling is a big deal. But I mean, on the grand scheme of things, curling is not a big deal. And I know I got some people yelling at the radio right now. I get curling is a big deal. But I mean, we just talked about the NFL for 15 minutes. I mean, there's some other sports that would be interesting. Give me your love of curling. Let's hear it.

Well, okay. And again, we're not talking about the finances that go into this. I mean, there are lots of people who do great work covering curling that, you know, if they were covering the National Football League or baseball or the NHL, obviously they'd probably make more money. I don't know. I should clarify. I wasn't talking about money. I wasn't meaning money. Why go to the NFL? I just mean Yeah. The, no, I wasn't meaning money. I need to clarify that. I wasn't worried about money at all. So the love of curling is interesting to me.

So, you know, again, you mentioned McNutt, Saskatchewan earlier, and going to school there and then into high school in Langenberg. And, you know, I vividly recall, you know, the school sports, including curling. So, you know, when we weren't play, well, we were playing hockey at night and we were curling. I mean, that's what you do in the winters in small town, Saskatchewan. There's nothing else to do. And back then, we didn't have video games and all that nonsense. And I think we had maybe four, maybe six channels on TV. So you had to do something to occupy your life. And I didn't play a high level of hockey. I got to a point in, I guess it was midget, where, yeah, I

had some SGHL interest, but I just knew that I wasn't going to go anywhere in hockey. And I actually turned out to be a better curler than it was a hockey player, which would surprise no one who grew up with me. But then I got into the business, and I worked at GX-94 in Yorkton and did a little bit of everything there. You know, I covered hockey, covered agriculture news, the whole gamut. Then I moved to Brandon. And before I was calling games in the Western Hockey,

the game is play-by-play voice of the Brandon Weekings. Again, Sean, I was doing everything, man. I mean, I was doing full-on curling reports. Now, that's what you have to do in small town radio. I mean, they're sponsored money-making type of project, so you have to do it. But all of a sudden, you know, the station started sending me to the briars. And then when the world championships were in Canada,

I was covering world championships. And that's a real interesting and tight fraternity of those who cover curling, especially here in Canada. I'm going to throw a name at you. And I used to travel all the time with this gentleman. What a good duty he is. His name is Resby Coots. That's quite a handle, right?

Yeah. Resby Coots. And if you want to Google Resby, I mean, he is vintage. curling when it comes to curling journalism. And we just got to be good friends. I learned a lot from Resby and just in a, you know, just in a, the inner workings of curling and all that. I fell in love with the game.

I really truly did. So as ridiculous as it sounds, I always tease the people, Brian Mudrick and company at TSNN. I see, just watch your back. You watch your back because I come from a long line of curlers and I've got a curling background. If I ever get bored, I'm in my early 50s now, Sean. If I get bored with hockey, don't be surprised if I find a way to, you know,

wedge myself into the TSN curling coverage group. So you're curious then. You love it so much, right? Obviously, that's the, I've asked that question before, Darren, of, uh, if there's anything they remember to ask. Most people can't give me much. They're like, ah, you know, like obviously that one, I like that's. So my question then to follow it up, obviously, is so if you could transplace yourself, go back, go back to your 20-year-old self, you're doing all these different things. You obviously have a love of curling.

Now, maybe I'm wrong on this. And maybe Rezby knows better. Maybe Resby told you. But when you go back there, if you had stayed with curling and become the very best at curling, just like you're the, I'd argue now one of the very best of hockey. Wouldn't the money have followed or is it just, it's not possible? No, it probably would have, but I think you'd have to diversify. Like I think of a colleague of mine, Bob Weeks, right? You know, Bob Weeks is noted for, you know, his coverage of golf for TSN, right? And the multiple shows that he does, he was just part of the TSN panel covering the masters in Augusta. But he's got a rich curling background.

and, you know, he's spent a lot of time covering curling over the years. So, yeah, I think you have to be able to diversify. It doesn't matter what industry you're in. You've got to be willing and able to change with the times. But I look, I, again, Resby's getting a lot of airtime here, but I recall driving from whatever event back to Brandon, Manitoba. And this was the time where I had the opportunity to, to, I got to think about which station it was, but I could go full time into hockey or I could

stay doing a little bit of everything. And he was hesitant. He was like, look, man, I, you know, curling is such a big part of your life and you're good at what you do and covering and all those things. But at the end of the day, you know, you, you've got to follow a path. And, you know, if you think that your path is going to lead you higher up the broadcast food chain, whatever that is through hockey, then you have to pursue that. And that kind of resonated with me to a point. You know, and, you know, then I moved from Brandon into Winnipeg, and it was CKY, Winnipeg at the time. And there again, I had the best of all worlds. You know, it wasn't too long before the Winnipeg Jets left the NHL version and went and became the Phoenix.

coyotes, I was the play-by-play voice for the Manitoba Moose, which was the international hockey league team in Winnipeg at the time and loved that, but also had the opportunity because of all the great curers in Winnipeg to, again, cover the briars and the world championships locally and whatnot. It's just as my career developed, Sean, especially when I moved to Edmonton out of Winnipeg. When I became host of the Edmonton Oilers in 1997, I was only there for 10 months, 97 through 98 and then 98 I moved to launch CTV Sportsnet in Toronto. But when I got a taste of working very closely with the NHL, I'm not talking about covering the jets like I did in Winnipeg.

I'm talking about having to be, you know, at practice every day, getting to know the players, getting to know the team personnel, traveling on the planes with the Edmonton Oilers, and just being immersed in that world, man, I fell in love with it in a hurry. And then just the gathering of information in the National Hockey League because it's so immense and different now with social media. But back then, you know, there was so many good stories to tell that I just, I fell in love with hockey and very quickly everything else just seemed to get pushed to the wayside only because there's only 24 hours in the day and I I didn't have enough time to do it all.

Well, I should first let ease off the curlers. I enjoy it. I got to be very clear here. I got three older brothers, Darren, and you just became probably Dustin, one of my older brothers favorites now because he loves curling. Love, loves, loves curling. I on the other hand, suck it curling. I am probably the worst curler.

I'm just terrible at it. It's a hard sport. People don't realize that. They think you just jump on the hat. No. Hell no. And it's smart. Like when you watch the game, the top levels, man, there's some strategy there.

It's a great. That way, I can agree. It's a nice, grab a sipping beverage and sit and watch it on TV. Or, and I do this with golf. On Sundays, the beauty is you can fall asleep. You can gnawet off for 45 minutes or so. wake up. Yeah, you might have missed. Somebody got a deuce, you know, this in the end before they blanked, all of that. But you don't feel like you've missed everything when it comes to golf.

I'm not being disrespectful. That's no, quiet time and my, my source of relaxation on the couch on Sundays. I do it with baseball. Buck in the Toronto Blue Jays. You start out in inning one, inning two, Buck lulls you off. You have a nice little nap. You wake up for the seven, eight nine. It's perfect. I love it. He's got the greatest voice in the world. I totally get that. Now, you bring up the Emmington Oilers. And if I am correct in thinking, you're there in 97, 98, which means, which means you talk about getting to know a team personally and growing to understand guys and everything. But what you leave out of that year is you get to see Kudjo's save. You get to see Todd Marchant score game seven. I'm like 13 years.

year, no, 11, 11 years old, geez, got to do that after. I'm 11 years old. That moment is imprinted in my brain. I'm running around the house. I'm not so sure I was supposed to be up watching that. And somehow, you got to be in the building for maybe one of the most iconic moments in Oilers post Stanley Cup winning. Like that moment is pretty cool. Yeah, Randy Corbett, the saving, you know, against the Colorado Avalanche, right? And Todd Marchand had about 500 breakaways that season. I mean, and in the playoffs, you know, he was tremendous. A bit of a fun story.

So speaking of Langeburg, Saskatchewan, Kelly Buckberger, as you know, also comes from Langeburg, Saskatchewan. And his wife, Carla, is a twin sister of my best friend in the world, Claire, de Kuk. And so, I mean, I've known Kelly and Carla. my entire life essentially. So Kelly is a captain of the Edmonton Oilers at the time. They beat Colorado before going on to take on Dallas.

And I'm doing this live interview into A channel at the time with Kelly Buckberg. And maybe the first or last question I asked, I can't remember. And I said, hey, Bucky, I said, you know, if you think back to the start of the season, and the Oilers were expected to struggle that year, you know, could you ever, you know, dreamt or believed that we'd be standing here together after round one of the Stanley Cup playoffs? And he looks into the camera, looks at me and says, well, I would believe that I was going to be standing here, but I didn't think you'd be standing here with me.

In other words, what are you doing here? You have no business being here. You're from, you know, small town Saskatchewan. I'm an energy. I mean, it was Buckberger fun at me, obviously. But I, that was again, I'm glad you brought that year up because, you know, aside from what I said earlier about being, you know, entrenched embedded with the Edmondson Oilers that season, that was really where the passion for me started to develop at the

national hockey league level and traveling with that team and, you know, seeing firsthand, you know, everything that these players, you know, had to sacrifice, you know, to get through two rounds of the playoffs. We're not talking about getting to the Stanley Cup final. But in Dallas, Sean, that's also where my career took a turn. So, as I mentioned, you know, 1998 CTB Sportsnet launches in Toronto. So I'm in Dallas and Barry Stafford, who's an equipment trainer with the Edmonds and Oilers, comes out of the dressing room. It's an off day skate. And he goes, Gregs, does, there's a call for you in the trainer's room. I'm like, what?

I literally believe I'm being pranked here because, again, I'm a member of the media. I'm not employed by the Edmonds and Oilers. I'm not part of the inner sanctum here. And I'm like, come on, Barry, what's going on? You know, no, seriously, there's a guy on the phone in the trainer's office. I think you should take it. It sounds pretty serious. So, all right, I take the bait.

I go in there, pick up the phone. It's like an old rotary phone, right? I think we had cell phones, but they were flip phones and anyway. So I pick up the phone and I said, hey, it's Darren speaking. And Darren, this is Scott Moore. And at the time, Scott was like, wasn't the president of CDV Sportsnet, but he certainly would have been a vice president of sportsnet. And he was managing all of the hiring of all talent in launching this new national network.

And I go, Scott Moore here from CDB Sportsnet. Tell me something. Why have I never heard of you before? And I'm like, hmm, okay. Now I'm 100% sure I'm getting prank. I'm like, come on, who is this? And there's a bit of a pause. And he says, well, I just told you. It's Scott Moore. And I said, I'm in the trainer's office in Dallas with the Oilers. I said, I got a feeling I've been set up. And he goes, no, no, no. He goes, excuse me he goes don metz gave me your number passed along the videotape of your work and i'd like to meet with you because there might be an opportunity for you here in caronto and then the light went off because i literally had just had a meeting with don metz before the start of the playoff so you know maybe three weeks to a month prior and i said look metz um well connected guy was a big part of a quillot.

I'm not sure if you've heard of that company out there, but you remember the old boys in the bus. Yeah, Dr. Henry. Who doesn't remember that? Yes. Of course, you would remember that. Well, Don Mets produced and shot all of that. I mean, this guy when it comes to, you know,

TV in Western Canada certainly is iconic. So I met with him to say, look, I like it in Edmonton. I didn't love that I was doing everything. You know, I mean, I was literally. working 20 hours a day because, you know, I was sports director for A Channel. So I was doing all the other things that you have to do in a sports department. And I was traveling with the team and hosting those games and whatnot.

So I was trying to encourage maybe a bigger portfolio with the Oilers and less of what I was doing with the local station. Anyway, he said, well, are you aware that this network is launching in Toronto, CTV Sports? And I said, yeah, I've read about it, but I don't know much about it. He goes, well, if you don't mind, let me flip a tape. Scott Moore is a good buddy of mine. And, you know, let's see where it goes. So as soon as Moore mentioned Don Metz, then I went, oh, geez, he's not kidding. And got through the playoffs and, you know, maybe three weeks, month later,

my wife and I were on a plane from Edmonton to Toronto and for the weekend to spend Spend some time looking at everything Toronto has to offer and getting whined and dine by the Sportsnet brass. And we got back. We basically, I put in my resignation and moved to Toronto. So relatively small world. And quick. You moved fast. It's very impressive, interesting, like both.

Just how quickly, you know, you talk to certain people. and it takes a long time to get from one place to the next and then maybe it spirals from there. Your career trajectory, I mean, it takes time. I'm not saying it doesn't take time, but I mean, in a general sense, you're moving a lot. You know, you go from a tiny little sastown, then to Yorkton, then to Brandon, then to Winnipeg, then to Emmington, then to Toronto. What, you know, you go from the tiniest to tiny to the biggest of big in Canada. Yeah. Was there an adjustment there?

Oh, a huge adjustment. Huge, Sean. And in fact, I've never lived in Toronto. I've, you know, the greater Toronto area, the GTA is, is technically where I live. You know, it's hard to escape. When you look at the metropolis that Toronto is, but when we need to be, first, my wife and I, Holly and I first moved to Toronto. She was pregnant with my daughter, Katie. And we lived on the outskirts of Toronto, North York. And we didn't live there very long.

About a year or so, bought a house in Ajax, Ontario, again, a suburb of Toronto, and then moved to further out to Brooklyn, Ontario, where I'm at now. And when we moved into Brooklyn, it was maybe five to seven thousand people lived in this tiny little bedroom community, which attracted us to it. We loved it. It's, you know, relatively small town. And now Brooklyn's probably ballooned to 30,000, maybe more, in a relatively short period of time. But we've always kind of adhered to those roots.

And my daughter, again, Ryerson University is essentially downtown Toronto. And so where my daughter has been living for the last few years, of course, we go and visit and spend time with her. And each time we go when we're driving in, I tease my wife and I say, Holly, you know, when I retire, I mean, we should really consider buying a condo down here. I mean, you know, you've got a great feeder. The, you know, the Scotia Bank isn't that far away and go to NHL games. I mean, all the amenities are right here. And she is like, no chance we're doing that. zero chance we're living in a concrete jungle.

So we will always say, and this is not a slight, and I repeat myself, because this will come as no surprise to you and to those who listen to me, I always refer to myself as Western Canadian, even though, you know, again, we've lived in the Toronto area since 1998, both children, born in or near Toronto, they'll probably call Ontario home for the rest of their lives.

I don't know, depending on what their career paths are. But probably a dozen times a year, we get a bit nostalgic. And we start looking at properties in Saskatchewan, you know, Berda, lots of family in BC, Sean. And we're like, you know, we're creeping closer to retirement, whenever that is, whatever that looks like, you know, maybe we should consider making that move. we haven't pulled the trigger in anything yet but uh i just uh yeah it's it's the small town routes and both of us growing up on a farm that uh keep us a sift a safe distance away from

downtown Toronto well I will say this there is something very special about uh small town Saskatchewan but probably small town communities across the planet i don't i don't think it's well actually i know specifically growing up in small town Saskatchewan. There's something special about it, but you hear similar stories about different parts of the world. And I think small towns are just such a tightly knit group there, everyone looking out for each other. And, you know, there's just fun stories. I, you know, I've got to interview quite a lot of a spectrum of people and a lot of them from Saskatchewan. And some of the funny stories that go on in the curling rinks and the hockey rinks specifically

because those are the hearts of specifically the Saskatchewan communities really ties those communities together. But on a bigger sense, all of Saskatchewan can relate with that. That's why a guy like Quick Dick McDick is so popular out here is because, I mean, like the guy just resonates with all of Saskatchewan. And Saskatchewan, you know, we haven't had for the last 100 years where if you want to be, I don't know, Darren Drager, you got to move.

So Saskatchewan is, you know, we're like weeds. We're kind of just spread all over the country. There always seems to be, it doesn't matter who you come across. And I'm surprised by that in Toronto, although less so now over the years, just, you know, all the people who maybe if they don't directly hail from Saskatchewan, like Darren Detition, who's a buddy and, of course, a good colleague of mine, you know, you've got people at TSN and throughout our industry who have relatives. from Saskatchew.

It always seems to go back to the prairies in some way, shape, or form. So it kind of warms the heart when you think of it that way. Now, it is 10 to, we got 10 minutes left. Does that sound about right? And then I should let you go. Yeah, if you don't mind. You've got another meeting set up. Totally cool.

What we're going to do then is we're going to go into, well, actually, before we get to the crewed master final five, I got to ask, because you worked in Brandon. You talk about that being formidable years. While you can see over my shoulder, we all know whose jersey that is. He's from my home town. That's right. He's from Helmont, Saskatchewan, where I'm from. You got to have a fun story about Wade back when he was young.

I assume you were young at the same time, but Wade would have been a young guy, really young. He probably would have been like 16, 17 when he was when he was in Brandon. You got to see him at that time. A fond memory maybe from back then? Like so many. but I would say that the vast majority of my memories of Wade Redden are hockey specific. And that's not to say that, you know, he doesn't have a personality or, you know, he doesn't have a friendly side to him.

Of course he does. Anybody who spent two seconds of Wade Redden knows that, you know, he's a very approachable man. And he's done so many great things in every community that he's lived in. I remember, and, you know, now he's on his way. out of the NHL. He was with the New York Rangers. And distastefully so got sent to the American Heart, to the American Heart,

can't even say it, American Hockey League in Hartford. And one of the first things he did when he got there because he was making his NHL salary, six plus million, whatever it was playing in the HL, was by everybody like laptop computers or something along those lines, something of significance to say, hey, you know, I'm just another guy here. But I recognize I'm making way more money than the rest of you.

So my treat. Very giving person. But from a hockey standpoint, Sean, every building that we would go into when I was doing play by play, you know, be it scouts, rival coaches, general managers, media, it doesn't matter who. They all said the same thing. Like, does he play with this much poise and confidence all the time?

And we're talking about a 16-year-old kid back then, you know, as he was introducing himself, you know, to the Western Hockey League. And that never changed. He was unflappable. And, you know, as he honed his skills, clearly he got better and he got better. And he got better and he got better. Which led him to be a leader in the National Hockey League and a terrific NHL player. So I, you know, it's cliche to say that as good a hockey player as Wade Redden,

was, he is, was, is every bit as good a person. But in this case, it's 100% right. And, you know, I'll extend that to the rest of the family. I've had the good fortune of spending time, you know, with the Redden family. They're just salt to the earth people, terrific human being. So I've got nothing but high praise for Wade Redden. Well, before we start with our Crude Master Final Five, do you need a drink? I've been, you have impressed me that you've been able to keep it together without just pause it. You got something? You're all right? I'm okay, but I'm going to tell a quick story because I get asked this, not necessarily on air, but off air all the time, because especially in the pandemic world we're living in now, anytime you cough

or clear your throat, people assume you've got a symptom, right? And I've had dozens of asthma, respiratory-related tests. I've had all kinds of acid reflux, stomach-related tests, and all sorts of allergy tests on top that. I've had a cough and like a slight cough and an itchy, scratching throat on occasion for probably 15 years. No kidding. And I've gone to vocal specialists,

and they believe that it's a combination of things. it's the fact I talk so much, which irritates my vocal cords and whatnot, in combination with maybe food and things that I eat, that sort of thing. But I just want everybody to appreciate that. I'm actually healthy, Sean. I'm good. I just need to clearly. Normally, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The only reason I bring it up is because I can see it. Yeah. Yeah. And I did not know that. I had no idea. I'm glad I asked. Well, a lot of people do. Yes.

I'm glad I asked. You're very astute. Well, here, let's do the Crew Master Final Five so I can get you out on time so you can get to your next one. Yeah, yeah, no problem. Busiest man on the planet here. Okay, so five quick questions. Shout out to Crude Master Transport, Heath and Tracy, McDonnell for Sport and Podcast since the very beginning. Thank you.

Now, my first one, since it's your first time on, is always. Always, always. If you could sit down like this, and I know you guys do the Ray and Drags podcast, and you guys have had some phenomenal guess. But let's say you could have anyone on the planet, past or present, on the Ray and Drags podcast, to sit down and pick their brain like we're doing. Who would you want to sit down and have a beer with?

Arnold Palmer. Arnold Palmer? Yeah. Yeah. I'm far from an Arnold Palmer officianto. I know perhaps more than the basics, but, you know, the king just epitomized class as, you know, a golfer at the top of his field for so many years.

And again, for me, it transcends beyond the game. What are you doing in society? What are you doing in your community? What are you doing to help the world? And everything that I've read, everything that I saw when Arnold Palmer was alive just led me to believe that he was a terrific human being. But we've all got skeletons, right? And we've, we've all got secrets and stories to share. I'm not sure that he'd want a lot of those out there. And I'm just guessing, I don't know what they are, but I was

fascinated, still I'm fascinated by Arnold Palmer just because of the aura of the life that that man lived. So he'd be one for sure. But I, probably come up with a few more. That's an interesting one. That's the first time that guy's been brought up. And you talk about skeletons there and that. I think that's, I think it makes a person human. I think it's endearing to hear about what makes a person. Because as long as it's on a format like this and not just a headline, you can talk about what you're doing in that part of your life. And I mean, people understand, listen, there's nobody on this planet Earth that doesn't have a few of skeletons. Like you said, in their closet and can

understand, yeah, well, that's, that makes sense, right? For sure. Number two, Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. Just had their 50-on-50 fight. Watch it, enjoyed it. Now, if Darren could pull somebody out of the media into a boxing ring, who would you challenge? Ooh.

Well, from a fun approach, maybe Ryan Rashog, our Edmonton-Divor guy. I say that, of course. And look, Rishog's fight card is better than mine. He at least had a cup of coffee in the Western Hockey League. And I've seen at least one of his WHL fights. He did okay. Self-deprecating humor.

He thinks that he got pummeled and he really didn't. But we've traveled so much together that we know how to push each other's buttons better than anyone. So I could have some fun swat in him. around. Beyond that, I like to think I get along with everybody. I will say this, Steve Simmons is a columnist with the Toronto Sun. I interviewed Roger Nielsen years and years and years ago, and it wasn't long after the diagnosis of Roger Nielsen having cancer. And Simmons in his Sunday column, and I can't remember the exact quote. And Steve and I have talked about this since.

and he's a decent guy and he's an excellent call on this, so I'll pay him as due. He wrote something along the lines. I did this long sit-down interview with Roger Nielsen. It was set up by Mike Keenan. And Roger, before we started, said, look, very, very man of faith, like very religious person, right? So he said, can you please ask me if I am afraid to die?

And it's a pretty deep question, man. It certainly is. Pretty deep question. And the reason he wanted me to ask that, again, was just an expression of his faith and that he just believed that as much as he had done in his life, he was going to a better place. And he wanted to convey that message, just how confident he was at the time in his faith. And so I asked the question. Of course, I'm going to ask the question.

And I don't know specifically if it was that question Simmons didn't like, but he said, for any aspiring broadcaster or journalist who wants to learn how to not ask a question or interview somebody, watch this interview that Darren Greyer did with Roger Nielsen. Man, that pissed me off. Like that stuck me right between the eyes. And look, I've been criticized a million times. And I don't even think that's an exaggeration. That 100% comes with a terror.

but that one hurt and so I'd like to take at least two good swipes at Steve Simmons just dating back to that interview which was probably 15, 16 years ago, something like that. Well, I appreciate you asking the question because I think that's, I personally, as you've felt from the way I do my, I think that's a great, I think that's a great question. I think that'd be tough to ask, but a worthwhile one to do. So the fact he wanted you to ask yet, I think is pretty, is pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. Now, we're closing in on time here.

So that's okay. So let's get, what do we got? Three left? We got three left. Okay, I'll be quick. I promise. No, no, no. I don't want you to be quick.

I just want to make sure you get on to your next thing. I don't want to hold you up. So number three is I changed it because now knowing your fascination of curling. Yeah. If you were to go to a two-person curling bonds bill, you had to pick one teammate to take with you. Who are you taking? Well, probably my good buddy, Claire DeCook, who as I mentioned earlier in the podcast, is Carla Bookberger's twin brother. And we've been like brothers, you know, since high school. And he's a tremendous curve. He's been a whisker away from the briar number of times over the

years. So that would be one for sure. But then if you look at it on a bigger scale, These Northern Alberta boy, or Northern Ontario boys, you know, Brad Jacobs and the Harnham brothers, I've spent some time, helped raise a bit of money for charity with them at a golf tournament. Any one of those guys I would happily saddle up with. Wayne Madaugh is a good buddy of mine. Jeff Stoughton, always like Jeff Stoughton. And Carrie Burtnick, can't forget, Carrie Burtnick for my Winnipeg days as well.

So that's more than one. I see him behind you. You've got a bunch of books. I assume that relates that you enjoy some reading. What book would you recommend me or what are you currently reading, either or? Well, I've read a couple here. The Eddie Old Chuck book is fantastic. That one's right there.

I'm not sure you can see it. Okay. Hockey Confidential that Bob McKenzie is pushing is a good one. beauties, which James Duthy is pushing, I'm in. So any book that I'm in, Sean, I enjoy. But you see Nick Kepreos also put out his undrafted book, and I'm in that one as well. So those are the ones that I've leafed through. I haven't read them cover to cover.

Eddie Olchuk's is fantastic, just because it includes his battle with cancer and, you know, the support that he had from friends and family and whatnot. Oh, and did I mention I'm in that one as well. So you just gave me all the books you make a cameo in. That's what you're saying? Pretty much. All right. Your fifth and final one.

What was the worst part of being seatmates with Chris Dingman back in Brandon? He has been on the podcast. He mentioned that he got to be seatmates with you. So it's your turn to fire back at Mr. Dingman. Well, it's pretty obvious his enormous size. I mean, he's been 6, 4, 6, 5, 220, 2, 2, 30, whatever. He's probably trimmed down now since he was like 14 years old. You know, he breaks into the Western Hockey League as a mountain of a man.

You had the Twin Towers there in Colin Clucche and Chris Dingman. Just two terrific young lads. I don't know that I'd laugh so hard in my life than the time that I spent with Dinger and that group particularly on the bus. But, you know, because he was a young guy, he didn't have the benefit of going back into the bunks of the old Wheat King bus. There was like a dozen bunks or so back there,

and they were all reserved for the veterans. So the young guys maybe got to sleep an hour or two, and that was only when the veterans would depart and they'd allow these youngsters to climb into one of the bunks for an hour or so. So you know what that meant. Dinger's, like, buffalo-sized head would be on my shoulder half the time on some of the long road trips. You made a good pillow, did you? Wow.

That and he could eat like a horse. And it was good for me from a health perspective because, look, I'm not burning calories. All I'm doing is calling the games. I mean, I'm not, you know, so we'd stop at whatever the pizza place was on the way home, after a game and load up on the Zah and I'd get the same size pizza that every player got. Why can't eat 12 pieces of pizza? So Dinger would give me the wink every single time. Hey, you make sure you bring that pizza on the bus.

So there's the good and the bad of Dengar. You don't get that big without looking after yourself and making sure that you're eating well. And he ate well because he ate his dinner and half. of mine pretty much every day. Well, thanks for hopping on, Darren. I really appreciate it. It's been a fun little hour sitting down with you. My pleasure, Sean.

Thanks for thinking to me. And thanks for having me. And congratulations on your list of guests, by the way. Not that I'm a podcast snob because I like to help out wherever I can. But I went through your list of podcast guests. I guess the only thing that disappointed me was the fact that I'm like, 52 on your list of NHL interviews. I'd like to

point out I messaged and never ever got a response. So we're going to put that one back on Darren Drager. I did explain and I am so bad with this. I just, I barely can DM people on Twitter, let alone try and manage

my messages on Instagram. Like Instagram for me is a means of showing pictures of my dog and what's going on. So I apologize, but I'm glad we were able connect. Yeah, thanks again, Darren. You bet. Thank you. Hey folks, thanks again for joining us today. If you just stumble on the show and like what you hear, please click subscribe. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday a new guest will be sitting

down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you find your podcast fix. Until next time.