Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. #166 - Bob Strumm

Episode Date: April 19, 2021

Originally from Saskatoon Bob has 40+ years in the hockey industry from his early days as the GM of WHL teams Billings Bighorns, Regina Pats or Spokane Chiefs. We discuss his year as assistant GM of the Detroit Redwings & some of his crazy stories from having another manager come out of the crowd to fight him or finding a young Barry Trotz.    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. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Monday.

I hope everybody's doing well. Hope you had a great weekend. I know as I sit here recording this Sunday night, it's trying to snow, and that can pretty much take a hike. I want no more snow. Let's get into springtime in that warm weather because it feels fantastic, and I feel like we've been cooped up for, well, it seems like a very long time. Now, today's episode, we've got a cool one on tap for you today.

Before we get there, let's get to today's episode sponsors. Carly Clause and the team over at Windsor Plywood, builders of the podcast studio table for everything wood. These are the guys. Decks season is upon us, and Windsor stocked up with their micro-pro Sienna-Brown treated lumber. So if you got any back-air projects on the go, stop in and see the group at Windsor Plywood.

Or do what I do, hop on your phone and take a look at their Instagram or Facebook page and see all the latest projects they're helping put together, right? Their phone number, if you want to give them a call, 780-875-9663. Mortgage broker Jill Fisher. Now, obviously her name says it all. She probably serves the areas of like Mr. Bonneville Cold Lake and Vermillion,

and she's looking forward to working with you for all your mortgage knees. We just signed our paperwork. We're locking back in. It's a weird time. Like, don't take the advice from me. I'm not the right person to take. That's why I'm talking about Jill Fisher. Find somebody who is a professional in this and get their thoughts,

but it is a weird time. I don't know about you, but if you're uncertain about your mortgage or maybe options you have, give Jill Fisher a call 780872-2914 or visitor at jayfisher.ca, and she'll get you straightened out. Clay Smiley and a team over at Profit River, they specialize in importing firearms in the United States of America. They pride themselves in making this process as easy for all their customers as possible. The team of Profit River does all the appropriate paperwork on both sides of the border in order to legally get the, firearm into Canada and into your hands. Also, they take care of registering the firearm and transferring to your PAL and FAC before shipping them by mail, courier, or bus to wherever you are.

Just go to Profitriver.com and check them out today. They are the major retailer of firearms, optics, and accessories serving all of Canada. T-Barr-1 transport since 2002 for more than 19 years. The team at T-Barr has offered excellent service putting the community first. They're located in both Lloydminster and now Bonneville. They can cover all your heavy hall needs. In their fleet, they have tank movers, 45-ton pickers, one-tons, flat decks, Texas Fed, windst truck, and highway tractors. For all your heavy hall needs, give the boys at T-Barr a call 780-205-1709. Jen Gilbert and the team for over 45 years since 1976, the dedicated realtors of Colwell Banker,

city-side realty of Sir Lloyd Minster and the surrounding area. Star Power is what they're providing their clients with seven-day-a-week access. services a priority because they know big life decisions are not made during office hours. That's Coldwell Banker, Cityside Realty for everything real estate, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Give them a call 780875-3343. And finally, I've got to give the SMP billboard now located, I figure I've waited long enough, close to the airport. So if you see the fancy work of read them right, outdoor advertising, you're looking for some signage, maybe you're looking for a company logo, et cetera.

This is the group, Mrs. Deanna Wander is the lady who takes care of me, and she does a fantastic job. Gartner management also is a Lloydminster-based company specializing in all types of rental properties to help meet your needs. Whether you're looking for a small office or 6,000 square foot commercial space, give way Gertner a call today, 780808 5025 and if you're heading in any of these businesses make sure you let them know you heard about them from the podcast right now let's get on to that t bar one tale of the tape originally from saskatoon scotchardtun as a young man he was diagnosed with colitis essentially ending his playing days this did not stop him he spent two seasons as the GM of the billings longhorns another seven seasons with the regina pats in 1990 ninety one season he was

He was the assistant GM of the Detroit Red Wings. From 1993 to 1999, he was the GM of the IHL Las Vegas Thunder. And for a decade, he was the director of pro scouting for the Columbus Blue Jackets. I'm talking about Bob Strom. So buckle up, because here we go. This is Bob Strum. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast.

Today, I'm joined by Mr. Bob Strump. So thanks off, first off, for hopping on. My pleasure, really. Well, Jerry Pinder is the guy who I interviewed Jerry a while back and he reached out and gave, you know, hooked us up here. So he's been telling me some wild stories and I look forward to hearing a little bit of Bochabob. Oh, my goodness. Well, yeah, I don't know where I don't know where to die. The bucket list is pretty short now after many, many years in the hockey business and a good life.

Yeah, for sure. Well, let's start at the beginning because in talking to Jerry, he said you were a very talented hockey player, but something to do with internal problems that you didn't have this long crazy hockey life. Can you give me a little more information than that? Well, yeah, I played when I was young. We had great teams coming out of Saskatoon, won a provincial championship. I was on a team with Cliff Coral and Keith Magnuson, who both went on to play for the Chicago Blackhawks. We all, in those days, there was no draft, Sean. So, you know, once you signed a C-card, it was called in Saskatoon, minor hockey,

then you belong to the Chicago Blackhawks, 13, and we won the provincial championship. But, you know, at that point in time, I got extremely, extremely sick. As a youngster, I went down to 69 pounds and missed a year of high school. and eventually went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota with my dad, because nobody knew what I had. And at that point in time, the male clinic is like a factory. They give you a number and don't get up and with the wrong number, you might get the wrong test. It's a real deal down there and a little bit scary as a kid, but they did.

I had chronic ulcerative colitis, which was a serious disease at that time, and never really regained any athletic ability that I'd had in the past. I did come back as a 20-year-old and play junior B hockey for the Saskatoon Max in the Northern Saskatchewan Junior League, but I was so bad my dad wouldn't come and watch me play. So I had deteriorated. to that point. And at 21, I got into coaching. You know, I got into coaching juvenile hockey and midget. And from there, a career on the other side of the bench formulated. And I've been in the hockey business 45 years, you know. I've had an older, older brother with Clytus. He got it at 18. So we know all about the trips to the hospital and what that can all do

to somebody. It's not, even now, it's nothing to laugh about. A dozen operations later, I can sympathize for sure. Yeah. So from 21 you mentioned then you hop into the coaching world. So hockey was in your blood. Did you ever think of like, I don't know, picking up a job in the oil patch and slugging it out that way? Or were you just like, you know what,

I think I can do something here in the hockey world? I'd rather use my brain than my brawn. That's my bottom line. But actually, I did go through a period of time for about three years. after I got sick where I never went to a hockey game. I was so distraught and upset that, but my dad was scouting for the Vancouver Canucks at that time. And the junior Quakers in Saskatoon had had some beauties,

Bobby Schmots, Bill Orban, Lee Bannister, that crew of tough guys that were fun to watch. And then, of course, Jerry, who was a real good friend, they changed the name to the blades. And, you know, I kind of lived my hockey life through Jerry. was a terrific player. Really treated me well. We're real good friends to this day. And so I got back in it. Yeah, no, I get the bug. I got the bug. I love to hockey. I mean, hockey's a passion. You either have it or you don't, you know. And so I ended up, the interesting story was there was

a juvenile league in Saskatoon, and they weren't sponsored by the high schools, but they were named after the high school. So I went to Aden Bowman High School. And, And the group that was representing the boys that were representing the Aden Bowman area was such a bad group of kids that or teenagers at that point in time, I guess, that they were going to disband the team. They were going to kick him out of the league. And I went to the president of the Saskatoon Minor Hockey Association and said, hey, look, I will, you know, I'll take this team over. I'll straighten these guys out. And so we were on probation. And it was a terrific experience.

I held my first couple of practices outdoors to see who would show up and who wouldn't. And lo and behold, the best player on the team didn't show up. Let me turn my phone off this. I have politics. All good. And so he finally showed up. When we went indoors, he finally showed up to the next practice.

And I said, what are you doing here? And he said, I'm on the team. I'm your best player. I said, you're not my best player. You're not on the team. And he said, you'll regret this. And I said, well, whatever. We're just trying to put a team on the ice.

And lo and behold, we did end up playing them in the playoffs. He went to Evan Hardy, actually, and we ended up playing him in the playoffs. and we ended up playing them in the playoffs and they beat us. But in the process, we did have a good year. We did make the playoffs, a good bunch of guys. We had simple rules, three rules, simple. And, you know, that's where it kind of kicked off from there. And Eddie Sinald was a real good friend of mine

because he played fast pitch for my dad, the Saskatoon College Lads. Eddie was a heck of a first baseman. And I ended up, you know, I worked at the Sasteroen Star Phoenix newspaper to pay my way through university. And I did stats for the Western League. And I actually researched the Western Hockey League record book. They had no records in, I don't know, 69, 70, 71, whenever it was, the league had started

in 67. They had no records. I said, Ed, Ed, what? Like this league is going to move forward with no records. Most goals, this, that, that, that's goals. So I went back through the microfilm of the Saskatoon Star Finan, the first five years of the Western League and researched the record book for them. And to this day, they now have it.

They wouldn't have it if I hadn't had done that. And when they moved the Western Hockey League head office to, Calgary in I want to say 76 I think it was 75 maybe Eddie Eddie was the president and he hired me as his assistant

and the career was launched from there they put a new team in the Western Hague in Billings, Montana I believe it was 76 or 77 and Eddie was instrumental

on me getting the GM job so at age 29 I was a general manager in the Western Hockey League. Well, I got, I got to rewind you back here. You, you just gave me almost the starting to the Mighty Ducks movie where Coach Bombay goes to District 5 and takes over the group that nobody wants. What were your three, what were your three rules? Let's see.

Rule number one is, you had to be on time for practice and for games. rule number two, if you couldn't play the game, you had to let me know the night before so I could bring up a replacement from the midget team. And rule number three was you couldn't say the F-bomb on the bench. So by the end of the year, the boys were good. I was the only one using the F-bomb on the bench. They were finding me left and right, the boys. And it turned out pretty well. we had a couple times where guys didn't show up one time or or didn't let me know ahead of time.

I didn't play them. I said, you're not playing tonight, period. That's it. And the guys were good, you know, it was fun. It was the time of the long hair. And, you know, the hockey was pretty physical, lots of fun. We ended up, yeah, we ended up having a heck of the year. And it was, it was, it reinstilled the bug in me for, for hockey, you know,

I miss playing tremendously. I loved the game. And from there, I stayed with it. I helped in a couple of, I was working nights at the newspaper, so it was very difficult after that to coach full time. But I was assistant on a couple of midget teams that were in the league, the league down from the Juneau League. And then I worked for Eddie.

And, you know, I always had a passion. for the game and a knowledge of the game. As I said, he was instrumental in me getting the GM job in Billings, and it was launched the rocket with no experience. Away we went. The best thing I did, the best thing I did by far was when I got the job in Billings, I, you know, obviously I was looking for a coach. And there was a guy named Dave King, who was a friend of mine.

teach in high school at Aidan Bowman Collegiate, believe it or not, coaching the football team there. And he was coaching junior B hockey in Saskatoon. And Kinger and I, Kinger was a terrific organizer, terrific coach at that age. And so I hired him as my coach in major junior hockey in Billings. And Jerry Brisson, who was the GM coach in Winnipeg at the time in the preseason predictions in the Brandon newspaper,

Bruce Penton was the writer's name, Jerry Brist and said, well, I don't think Billings will win many games. They got an ex-newspaper guy running the team and a high school teacher coaching. Well, guess what? We went all the way to the league final

against the newest minister, Bruins, and Dave King won coach of the year in the Western League, and launched an unbelievable career as an international coach, an HL coach. That was a dark throw that on a bullseye. You said Dave King was coaching high school football? Kinger was a beauty. Trust me.

He coached the Aiden Bowman Bears in the high school football. And Kinger, I mean, terrific guy. Don't get me wrong. But he would, Evan Hardy, Bowman, that was the big rivalry. And Kinger would take his team to the stadium, Gordon Howe Park

was called, and he would take them early. And he would have his team warm up at the wrong end. And then Evan Hardy would come over the hill, screaming, hollering, ready to play. Oh, my goodness, Bowman was in the wrong end. Oh,

there was a cuff of him. Oh, well, we'll change. We'll change. Sorry, David's. He'd say, well, my fault, boys, boys, that's going to, he would get inside the other team's head before they came even started. He was a beauty. I knew Dave well. We were good friends. And the friendship to this day has lasted. And he's had an unbelievable career.

And, yeah, he was a big, you know, a little, little, nicely, nicey, Dave King. He had all kinds of tricks up his sleep. That's a great story. I just on how to, you know, I always wonder how coaches figure out little tricks where it just throws the other team off their game, right? Because you could just imagine being the team coming over the hell. All right, there we go, boys, walk in. It just everything's focused on not what you're supposed to be.

I've got to take you back now. You mentioned early on your dad scouted for the Canucks. I know in your career, you had a huge. into your career was in scouting. Is that, like, did, is that something you always wanted to do then, like watching what your dad did growing up? Or did he teach you some things along the way? Or you just kind of fell into scouting? I would say I just kind of fell into it. But I did want to, I wanted to play in the NHL my whole life, even after, you know what I mean? Straightening with a miracle God, you know? And so it was an opportunity for me to play in the league. Like, that's the way I appreciate.

approached it. And I was running the, I was GM of the Las Vegas Thunder here in the international league for six years, a new team in the international league. And they put an expansion team in Las Vegas in 1993, the international hockey league. And I applied and got the GM job of the Las Vegas Thunder. We kicked the door in for pro hockey here, which is now a tremendous success in the national hockey. And I was GM for six years. And I was GM for six years and then Doug McLean, who had gotten the GM job of the Columbus Blue Jackets in the National Hockey League, the expansion franchise. He hired me as a professional scout in 99. And then in 2002, I became the director of pro scouting for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

I worked for the Blue Jackets for 12 years, traveled all over the hockey world. You know, Moscow, Stockholm, Helsinki, you name it, and all over North America, American League, National League. Did about 200 games a year, 125,000 miles a year. And what a life. You know, you're hanging out with Mark Howe and Pete Mahavlich and sitting next to Brad Park. And it was like, for me, honestly, it was like playing in the league. So it was a, what a thrill. What a thrill. And I did that until 2013. And then most recently, I was the chief hockey officer for Avenue Sports, which was owned by Bill Gallagher. And he had teams in, he owned the Portland Winter Hoc in the Western League,

and had a team in, in Los Angeles League, in the Swiss League, Swiss Men's League. So I oversaw that for 11 years. And today I'm unrestricted free agent. So just enjoying the COVID caveman life and watching, you know, about 20. the NHL games a year on TV, a week on TV. I haven't had a haircuting over here, so it's looking a little scruffy. Well, Mr. Pinder had said, you know, you're a wealth of knowledge on taking over teams, starting teams from scratch, how to build a team.

Hell, he said you even wrote a book on it or wrote a short paper maybe on what a team should look like in the very beginning or what to go after. Any of that, true? Yeah, actually I do. I have a three-volume 800-page collection of information on how to build a franchise. I've had calls from different guys to use the information to get jobs in the National Hockey League, and I help them where I can. I helped Doug when he got the job in Columbus.

I most recently helped Bill Armstrong, who got the GM job in Arizona. and yeah, it's just a, it's a map. I actually, I consider myself an architect. You know, that's what I am. I build teams. And, you know, I started the Billings franchise in the Western League, went to the league final the first year, went to Regina after two years,

and they had finished last in the East, hired Brian Murray as the coach. We won the league in the first year. And then from there, went to Spokane and rebooted that franchise. Well, we'll slow down for a second here. I want to go back then to let's start with Billings, right? You talked about hiring Mr. King. What was the next thing you're like, okay, well, you know, you don't have the 800 page volumes sitting there. You have, you have, you're fresh. You're a 29 year old kid. You're sitting there. I just hired a high school guy. What am I thinking? And what were you, what were your next steps? Like, I mean, it just didn't. Did it happen? Like you snapped the fingers and boomer. Were you across Canada trying to pull in kids,

where you in the United States? Like, what they gave us, we got eight players from what they did was, what the league did was move the Calgary Centennial franchise to Billings. And then started a new team in Calgary. So we got eight players off that roster. They got the rest of the player list and whatnot in Calgary.

and so yeah it was it was a challenge but we ended up we ended up we ended up we ended up getting del chapman off the sastoon blades who was going to go to university and then king or knew him from the junior B team so he talked them into play and he was our leaning score we picked up a couple of players from the regina paths and we made we made a trade with portland brian shaw was the chairman of the board at that time. And he actually, when he came to Helen and Montana for me with me when I got my papers to work in the United States. And he said, you're not going to be very good.

I said, I'm aware of that, that we have a challenge. He said, I'll give you seven players for Doug Look here. And he'd had Dougie before in Portland. And that turned out to be a godsend force. Five of those players played. and so and one of the most goaltender named Kim Thomas and who had an unbelievable year force and yeah we just um I had a good feel my dad had always coached basketball fastball not hockey but different teams and I had a real good feel for the synergy and chemistry of the team it's it's not it's not the 20

best players it's the best 20 collectively and yeah we put it we put pretty good team together we started a little bit slow, but started Roland Kinger was a heck of a coach. And, and, uh, we needed a bit of sandpaper on the team. So we made a trade with Victoria for a guy named Brent Gogol, who lives in Calgary to this day. And he, he set the league record, 513 minutes and penalties still stands today. That's a career now. And, uh, way we went. Yeah, it was, but I had a good feel. And I had a good feel for the league because I'd worked with Eddie in the league office for a year, the player lists and the rules and everything. But we knew we had a challenge ahead of us when we held a kind of an open house at the Yellowstone Metro, the rink in Billings.

And we were expecting a couple thousand fans to show up, maybe 200 did. And the first question was, what's a puck? So we knew that we had a challenge ahead of us in the city of buildings. That's a great story. Like, I mean, obviously Billings is no more in the W.HL at least. Right, right. Even the 500 penalty, like, you come from a time of the WHL that even, I just, I remember tough hockey, but you're talking about,

something different. Like, you must have seen some wild, wild things in your years while coaching and GMing and everything else in the WHO. Yeah, it was a different era. I mean, I've had people say to me, Sturmer, you were crazy when you worked in the Western hockey. I go, yeah, it was. If you weren't crazy, you couldn't work in the league. You know, so it was plain and simple as that. And I mean, when I took over with the vagina patch, I mean, the games against the Sastewan blade started in warm-up, you know. How so, Bob? When you say the game started a warm-up, expand upon that a little bit.

Guys would skate up and down the red line and eventually bump into each other, and you'd have two or three or four scraps, fights right in warm-up. No officials on the ice, no nothing. And, you know, the boys would straighten it out themselves once they got their hair messed up. And, you know, the game would start, no penalties, no nothing, no way they went. You know, it was almost automatic with Saskatoon. I mean, it was an unbelievable rivalry. Both teams had tough guys.

I mean, we had Stu Grimson, they had Dave Brown, take it from there, you know, two of the toughest guys to ever play the game. And supporting cast. So I can't say that I'm necessarily proud of that part of it. at this stage of my life, but it was, I mean, I was in a couple of dustups on the bench. We were playing in Brandon one night, and Les Jackson came all the way down, he was running Brandon. He came all the way down from the press box and came right in, right in the players bench, jumped me from behind. And the way we went, you know, it didn't amount to much because

it just, I told the boys afterwards that they were giving me a bad time because they were there was no punch you're thrown. I said, hey, fellas, you will learn in your lifetime that it's easier to buy a new jacket than it is to fix a broken nose. So it was, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, that's just the way the way it was. Yeah, just a different time, area. You don't, I mean, if that happened in today's world, do you get worldwide coverage of it back then? You'd be suspended. I mean, you'd be suspended for the year. I mean, you'd be suspended for the year. You know, I've been fined a couple of times in my lifetime, a couple or many.

But that was just all part of the, all part of the show, I guess. I don't know. The buildings were full. The fans loved it at that time. It was kind of a gladiator type of mentality. And I know today there's more of a pristine appreciation of the game of hockey than, but there were great players, no, Steve. Great, great, great, great players.

I mean, guys that survived the test, so to speak, and it went on to great careers in the National Hockey League. So it's not like there wasn't some terrific players, skilled players, in the league at that time, for sure. Well, you mentioned Stu Grimson. I mean, there's a guy that had a career in the NHL became a pretty recognizable face. What was he?

I assume he was a giant as a kid. coming towards you. Like the first time you saw Grimson watch through the door, that must have been a memorable moment or no? Yeah, Grimmer. My head scout, Glenn Dirk from the BC area, had seen Grimmer. The Grim Reaper.

I gave him the nickname the Grim Reaper. You gave him that? That's my claim to fame. And he brought him to training camp. And the kid was raw, but he was big and he was tough. And actually his dad was a RCMP officer. And he came in to see me and he said, I'm going to take Stu home.

You know, I know what you got him here for. And I'm taking them home. So on the trip home, I guess they had a conversation. And Stu phoned me for medicine at back in Regina in the office and said, don't give me my, don't give my spot away. I'm coming back. So from there, I mean, he played three years for us. He was one tough cook.

you know, and scored 24 goals in his last year, junior. We played him in front of the net on the par play and went on to a real long career in the National Hockey League. And I'm as proud as Stu as I am of any player ever had, you know, it worked out for him. We gave him the opportunity. He made it work. And he's one of the few players that were drafted twice, actually, in the National Hockey League.

He, Detroit drafted him and then didn't sign him. And so he went back in the draft and the Calgary Flames drafted him. So, yeah, I stay in touch with Stu. He's on the NHL network down here as an analyst. When his career was over, he went back to school and got a law degree. And, yeah, he's a special person for sure. That's a cool story. I got to ask about Brian Murray, too, because I read a couple different articles.

everybody, you know, I come from the hometown of Wade Redden. So, you know, Brian Murray being in Ottawa back then and everything else. And just the way he conducted himself, I, when I got digging into your story and saw, and you mentioned it already, that your first coach you hire in Regina was Brian Murray. I was like, of course it was. Like that's a, you know, you get King in Billings and then you come to the Pats and you get Brian Murray. I'm thinking, man, you hit it out of the park back-to-back times. How did you stumble across Brian Murray? Well, that's an interesting story because I, without mentioning any names, I certainly was pounding the pavement in the west to get what we thought was, you know, a real top coach. We needed, we needed to reboot that

franchise, never thinking we were going to win it all in one year. But I had a relationship with Roger Crozier and with the Washington Capitals at that time. He was the assistant general manager, the former goaltender in the NHL. And so I finally phoned Roger and Peterborough had done a research in the east. They'd lost Gary Green. Washington had just hired Gary Green to coach their American League team. So I said, can you get the top three candidates from the Peterborough list for me? So it was Mike Keenan.

Carpenter, what was his first name? I can't think of it. Doug Carpenter, I'm sorry. And Brian Murray, they were the final three in the attempt to get the job in Peterborough. They hired Mike Keenan. So I phoned Brian. I didn't know him. I phoned him and I said he was going to, he was coaching Tier 2 hockey and he was going to go back to McGill University and coach and run their athletic program.

And so he flew out to Regina and, you know, amid the many stories that we told over two days, we hit it off. And I hired Brian Murray as a coach to Regina Pats. He took the team from last to first and won the championship. And he was only there a year. And Washington hired him to coach Hershey. And from there, he went on to a distinguished career in the national hockey league. I had read a quote you had on Brian Murray. He said he's one of the few guys who I've been associated with who kind of started on the perimeter and worked in.

Most coaches start in and work out. I was curious about that because I was just, I guess I was wanting to know what exactly you meant by that. Well, you know, I mean, a lot of coaches, most coaches start on the details. And Brian was, took our group there in Regina and we had an unbelievable power play. 33% I think it was over the year. Well, when you got Wickenheiser, Veech, Blaisdell, Varga, Flockhart, you got four guys that ended up playing in the National Hockey League, so try and stop that.

But so he did, he started with the par play, and just a simple breakout and a simple forecheck. And then as the season progressed, he brought the various details of checking, you know, stick on puck, defensive side of the puck when you don't have it, blah, blah, blah, things like that. But, yeah, it was really interesting the way. And we were only maybe 500 after 20 games.

And then we just took off. We won, I think, nine in a row, if I recall correctly, and ended up winning our division and beaten Victoria in the league final. And Grant Fier and the boys from Victoria. and lost in the Memorial Cup. But what a terrific year. Brian, and like I said,

I mean, he wasn't going to be there long. And he went on to a very distinguished, but he lives on today because he is my son's. Godfather. Godfather up there in heaven. And my son's name is Robert, Brian,

Murray, Strom. That's cool. I appreciate you sharing that. Obviously, you thought awfully highly of the man. I mean, all the hockey world thought awfully highly of Brian Murray.

That was very evident in the way people talked about them at all times. Did you, you know, that Pat's team you took over was 1847 and 7, the year before you came in. Yeah. Did you, you know, you had had some success in Billings, you mentioned that. You get Brian Murray, who, I mean, you're hoping the best, I assume. the fact, I don't think you had a crystal ball going, wow, this guy's going to go on to do what he did. Or maybe you had some inklings, but even at the start, it was a 2020 season. You were kind of like, did you at all envision that you guys were going to turn the pats around, go to a Memorial Cup?

And on top of that, Brian Murray was going to become the coach that he became. No, no, even though I have a high level of self-esteem, I don't think that anybody had. No, it just worked out. And we, and we, you know, I mean, there's more than just skill and talent to build a team or whatever you want to call it, to have a good team, have a good group. And, you know, Mike Blaisdell was playing at the University of Wisconsin. And I had talked to Mike over the summertime, and he, you know, was from Regina. And I said, hey, if things don't work out in Wisconsin, this year call me.

So the end of September, first part of October, we'd already started. There was a call come through and the secretary there's a Mike Buzz Dell or something on the phone for you. You want to take the call. There's a game about to start.

I said absolutely. And so he said, hey, Mr. Schum, do you think you still have room for me on your team? Yeah, how soon can you get here? Blazer ended up scoring 71 playing with Wickenizer. So that was a bonus.

And then at Christmas time, Jock Callender was at Providence College. He was from Regina as well. And I had listed him through the stroke of luck. And he came back at Christmas time and said, I'd like to stay. Can you find a spot for me on the team? Yeah.

And so there was a couple of lucky strokes. there at forward. Jocco ended up becoming a real good junior player, won the scoring race two years later in the Westerners. And then we, Brian had brought a couple of defensemen with them from the east that he knew Mike Rainville and John McMillan and this and that. But Brian was a psychologist beyond all psychologist. We, the first day of training camp, we only had eight returning players, two defensemen, three defensemen, I'm sorry. We ended up. We ended up. up with two because one of our veterans was late for we used to put the boys up in the in the in the bowels of the race track right across from the arena and the guy missed curfew and he when he got second day at training camp when he got to the building his bag was packed and his equipment and everything and he went to brian he said brian what's going on he said you're done he said brine right I was only a few minutes late, you're done.

And that sent a message to our guys right off the bat that he meant business. You know, it's a game for men. The boys go home. And Brian was a man. And the guys respected him right off the bat. And he gradually, we had a lot of, the other guy that we got lucky with was Ronnie Flockard. I mean, Ronnie was playing tier two in Revelstoke. And he had played a few games for medicine had.

Western League a couple years earlier, but was real small. And he'd had a real good season in the Tier 2 League in BC. And I invited him to training camp. He'd grown quite a bit. And wow, this was Howie Merenza's soul and another hockey player's body. I mean, flocky hockey. He could dance and handle the biscuit. I mean, I think he ended up somewhere around 130 points as a rookie in the Western

like a 19 year old. And that was the year that there was only six rounds in the NHL draft. So there were a lot of free agents out there. And in November, the Philadelphia Flyers came in and signed him after playing only two months of major junior hockey. And he went on to a real distinguished NHL career as well. So we, you know, we threw a few darts and most of them landed on the board. And we ended up with a heck of a hockey team. Sounds like you're a pretty good dart thrower by this point, though, you know, Like most people throw darts. They don't hit that often.

And you mention you're, you like to think of yourself as an architect and that, you know, there's more to a team than just talent. What, what have you learned then over your 40-some years in hockey about assembling a team together, Bob? Like what is, what is some things, uh, that have become very key to you? Well, you need, you need, you need people that fit into the different spots. It's a matrix, you know. Even at the professional level now with the cap, obviously, you know,

you have to find the right guys to fit into the right holes where the dollars are available. And so, yeah, it's just starting with a foundation, and your foundation has to have some talent. I mean, Bill Belichick's most favorite thing is you don't win with talent, you win with character. and you know so you you I'd been around sports my whole life like I said with my father and stuff and so I don't know I just seem to have an intuition of what fits where and I think in in I don't know 20 some years of association with teams at different levels and different responsibilities not counting

Columbus of course I was just a foot soldier but in in a position of executive I've only missed the playoffs, I think, twice in 20-some years. So it's a formula. It's a one that's been good to me, and I don't know. It just, it's worked. Well, then I got to ask, you know, I'm a diehard Oilers fan. I come from Emmington Oil Country. What do you think of the makeup of the Emmetton Oilers this year with how they're put together? Well, it's hard to win a championship with three or four players, You know, so they've got a lot of holes to fill in different spots, but Kenny Holland's done a good job there. I know, I know Ken. And it's at the National League level where the availability of players is basically through the draft or free agency.

It takes time. But they do have, you know, Darnel Nurse has become an impact player. And then up front, they've got Nuge and, of course, McDavid Drys title. So they've got a terrific core. And they're trying to fill around. it. Mike Smith has come back at 39 and had a hell of a year and goal, which, I mean, you can't win without goaltending. I had a buddy that said one time, goaltending is 50% of the game. Unless you don't have any, then it's 100% of the game. And you can't win without a goalton. So,

I think the oil is on the right track. I think McDavid and Dreisidl, when they play them together, they're almost unstoppable. The only comparison. as Mariner and Matthews in Toronto. But maybe, maybe, maybe, Bears Ron, Marshawn, and Pastornak in Boston. But, but, but, yeah, they're, they're on the right track. They're going to make the playoffs. They're going to have a run at it because McDavid and Drysettled are,

and nurses having a hell of a year. They're guys that can win games for you, you know. And so, so we'll see. You're, you're, you're in the mix. And the great thing about the, the divisional setup this year is one Canadian team is going to be in the semifinals of the Stanley Cup. So who that'll be whether Toronto will finally find the secret, Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton, those look like the four teams that are going to get out in the north to me.

Well, I had to ask because now that you've laid out your credentials and everything, I'm going, well, I'm curious what he thinks of what Kenny Holland and the Oilers got going on. Speaking of Kenny Holland, speaking of your year, I think it was just a year in Detroit, You were at the Red Wings in the 1999 season when Brian Murray was GM head coach. What did you think if you go back at time to when you're with the Red Wings organization, there was a young Steve Eiserman, a young Kenny Holland who was the director of amateur scouting. You had a probert. I'm sure there's a million others that I could rattle off.

But what can you tell us about being a Detroit Red Wing for a year? well what an experience you know brian had got the job there and as GM and coach and he returned the favor he hired me as one of his assistants and um yeah i basically the main thing i learned was i wasn't ready for the national hockey league it it it you know when you come out of the western league and that's your whole life you have no diversity in now in your knowledge i drove an and down the 401 and watching the Ontario League and the Quebec League and and um got to watch the Detroit Red Wings practice and play on a daily basis. Uh, that was the year that Sergey Federoff affected and the first time I saw him on the ice, I, I thought, wow, they actually make

hockey players like this and that was with the Eisenemings and those guys, but this guy was unbelievable. So it was a great experience. I had, I was married at the time and had three young kids and in all due respect to my wife. She just in the end didn't want to move the kids to Detroit. And I didn't need that much free time on my hands. And so I only stayed a year and went back to Saskatoon. So it might as well, what a year it was. It was regrettable in some ways, but in other ways it was Kenny Holland. I mean, I learned so much from this guy how to run a scouting staff, how to basically set up a list numerous times.

Jimmy Devilano was one of the vice presidents there, you know, GM of the New York Islanders or an assistant GM of the New York founders for four years when they won the cup. So I used to stay at night and talk to Jimmy. and just filled myself with as much knowledge as I could in my year in Detroit and filed it away and it came in handy down the road. Well, I got to, you say when you see Federoff for the first time, you didn't realize God made players like that.

What did he do? I mean, I'm talking about a guy who saw him later on in his career, and he was still fantastic. I'm not knocking Sergei Federov one bit. But when you'd seen all these great hockey players, what set them apart from, you know, everybody in the league? His skates never touch the ice. I've never seen anybody do that before. But no, he was so quick, so fast. Skill at a high speed, you know, that, I mean, today that's what the National Hockey League is all about.

I mean, if you can't skate, unless you're a very special role player, you can't play in the league. and it started with Detroit. Brian was there, I think, for five or six years, and then they brought in Scotty. And, you know, from there, they put the Russian five together. It wasn't fair. But it took them another six, seven years to win the cup, even with those guys. And it was, it was, you know, just to just to see close up,

the skill level of the players. We're in on and on. It was, you realize that the level of play that you'd been watching in junior, no disrespect, great junior players. But this league was a whole other level up and above. And guys find that out when they want to play in the NHL. I mean, good juniors think they're going to play in the NHL. They just do.

I've been around junior hockey players my whole life. And it's a big, big, big, big step. Well, you're going the best of the best from the entire world. No, you're like 100%. The Russians, you know, in 89, the wall came down. So, you know, they were just starting. I mean, I mean, Federov had to defect out of the goodwill games. If that's not an oxymor, he defected out of the goodwill game.

Where's the goodwill in that? And then, you know, McGilmy came over. They hit him away in Sweden or Finland. or somewhere and then he came and he had to apply for living status in the United States and Fedosov went through pure hell to get over to the NHL in his 30s and still was one of the best defensemen in the world and once these guys started coming over then it without question it became the best league in the world by far and you know I guess it maybe started in 72 one day I almost beat the NHL All-Stars in the eight-game series

where Paul Henderson chipped one in the last minute to win that series four, three, and one. But I don't think people had any idea how good the Russians were until then. How about, well, actually, you bring up Scotty Bowman. Pinder tells me you've given some advice to Scotty Bowman or Scotty Bowman, not at all. He never gave Scotty any advice, but I did. I played golf with them in Scotland.

I was on a tour of about 120 NHL players. Donnie Neon on his 50th birthday took a plane of his clients and friends and everything over to Scotland. The agent, Donnie's a good buddy of mine, and I was lucky enough to be one of them. And I played golf with Scotty Bowman and Harry Neal. So Harry, I laughed all day and Scotty drilled me on the, every. player on the Detroit Red Wings list at that time, and I just happened to stumble upon a comment about Pavlbatsuk, telling him that he was going to be a star in the NHL.

And Scotty said, he was just a little tight. I said he'll be a star. So Scotty never forgot that. Whenever I saw him after that, he'd walk by me and just say, Pavel Datsuk. He's got a memory like an hell of it, Scotty. But, yeah, no, and I, I mean, I, you know, again, I threw a dart. I thought, what?

you know, I might as well go for it here. And that turned out to be pretty good. You know, in your career throwing darts, you're damn near 100% bullseys. Now, I got to ask about Probert because Probert was larger than life, shall we say, you know, taken from this world, maybe too soon, was one of those fascinating characters of the NHL. in the Detroit organization, was he the same way? Terrific person. I didn't have a lot to do with some of the guys. I mean, Steve Eisenman treated me with a lot of.

I hung out in the dressing room a little bit. I'm a dressing room guy. I could live in a dressing room. I, you know, as long as there were fans on. And so, you know, but I didn't have a lot to do with Probe. He was to himself. but a real special guy and had one of the toughest jobs in the league. He was the heavyweight champion, I presume,

although there'd be some guys, I suppose, that would contest that. But over a period of time, I think everybody would probably agree that he was the toughest guy in the league. Well, Rod Peterson just sent me a message, and he wants to know what the recruiting story with Dale Durkatch was. well i i mean she she uh i don't know how how many details you want there but you know we listed we we i went to uh i went out to notre dame to see him he'd been on a couple of lists and in uh the western league but everybody presumed he was going to college at his size and barry mackenzie

had called me and he said you've got to come out and watch this little guy play so i was amazed at two things one how small he was and two how good he was So I put him on the Regina Pat's list. And I went into, I went into Winnipeg in the summertime and, and met with him and his parents. And they, you know, we were at the, what was the name of the hotel? I can't think of it at the moment. It doesn't matter.

The Viscount Gort. And, you know, we chatted. I had his, I had his jersey on the bed. with his name and number on the back. And I just told him, you can be the best player in the league. And he said nobody'd ever told him that. He told me later that nobody had ever told them that. And, but the funny part of it was,

the Prince Albert Raiders were still a tier two team at that time. And Terry Simpson says that the Volkswagen, they offered them in Prince Albert, it wasn't as nice as the gold cougar that he was driving around playing for the Regina Paths. And his dad had

I said to the deal, you know, is there anything else you need? And he said, well, I need a car. And I said, well, I can't get your car. It's against the rules. But I said, Lorne, that's his dad.

I said, Lauren, I will, you know, why don't you scout for the team? I said to Dale, how much is the car you're looking at? He said, $300 a month. So I said, Lauren, I'll pay you $300 a month to scout for the Reganapatch.

End of story. No, no, no, no breaking the rules. No, nothing, nothing beyond that. And the rest is history. The guy was unbelievable. Did, speak of Notre Dame, was Barry Trots from there as well? Trocci, there's a, there's a good story for you. Trollsey, yeah, they were, he was on his way to Swift Ccurrent.

Swift Ccurrent was tier two at that time too, and he came to our training, asked if he could come to our training camp. And, you know, in the blue and white game, Brian and I were sitting together, Brian Murray, and we had a cut list and a keep list. And at the end of the blue and white game, Trossi kicked the bejeezes. out of somebody, even at his size. And Brian leaned over to me and said, do you think we should move Trots from the cut list to the keep list? And therein, he became our captain. My last year there, Brian, Trotsie was our captain.

And he went from the cut list to the captain? No, well, in three years. Oh, in three years. Yeah, in three years. Yeah. But, yeah. And that's, what a competitor. What a competitor.

He was, we'd, he roomed with Alan McKinness, his first year. We had Al, we brought Al in from, from Port Hood, Nova Scotia.

I did have a wide ranging travel budget. And Al should have been on our team. He should, as a 16 year, there weren't, there were no 16 year olds, basically playing in the league at that time. And he did play a couple of games for us.

And then, he was drafted by Kitchener in the Ontario League and the Western League didn't protect us. I had him on a card and everything to play in Regina. No kidding. Al McKinnis. Yeah. So he ended up playing in Kitchener. They won a Memorial Cup there and stuff.

And he's in the Hockey Hall of Fame. So that was a bit of a, that one hurt. I brought him in all the way from Port Hood. And the Western League just didn't. Didn't protect us on that. Pretty good hockey player. Well, I mean, McKinness is like,

well, you already mentioned it. He's a guy who's in the Hall of Fame had absolutely a rocket from the point. But not by mistake. Let me interrupt. That's right. At 16 years of age,

after practice, 50 from the right side, 50 from the left side, after every practice. He'd line them up and put up 50 pucks from both sides. Yep. So it didn't come by action.

How many sticks did that guy go through ripping 100 pucks of practice at the end? They were redwood trees in those days. No aluminum sticks. These were wooden sticks. He might have to re-tape it for the next practice, but that was about it. Yeah, he, he, he, that one heard. I've seen Al off and on since then. But I did get the league back.

The following year, a guy named Gary Lehman showed up at Notre Dame. And he really didn't want to play in the Ontario League. He'd been drafted by Niagara. And so I met with him and his dad. And there was a rule at that time in the CHA that if you signed I'm trying to think of the name of it, but like a surrogate parent form, a year in advance, then you could switch regions. So I met with Gary and his dad and had a family out at Notre Dame, not adopt Gary,

but certainly sign these forms that they had to sign in order to have the freedom to switch regions. And so the following year, Gary was at our training camp in Regina with Dirkatch and Byers and some of the Notre Dame boys that we had on our team there. And Ed called me and said, Bob, what are you doing? Put Lehman on a plane. He belongs to Niagara. You know, put him on a plane and get him back to Ontario. I said, do you want me to send you the regional forms in the mail or do you want me to fax them to you? He belongs to the regenerative paths.

So we, we, I lost McKinnis, got Lehman. Lehman is with the, in his NHL career was only the second player to ever score 50 goals for the Toronto Maple Leafs after Ricky Vive. And Lehman was an unbelievable player for us. He played forward. We had the hound line the first year, Dirkatch, Byers, and Lehman. And then the second year, we lost a bunch of defensemen off our team. I moved very back to the defense.

This is the kind of athlete he was. I moved him back to defense. I think you scored like 27, 28, 29 goals as a defenseman. And won defenseman of the year award in the Western League. It had never played defense before. So I kind of, it was kind of a, I'll get you. And we left it at that. But I was so upset about losing McKinness that I thought, well,

we'll pull one over on the league's eyes. and, you know, it goes so that. I mean, the brain is always working, John. No, this is, you know, when I got, I should have told the story at the start. You know, Easter morning comes and Skip Craig calls me and goes, you got a pen handy? Yep. Write this number down.

I write the number down. And then I call on it's Jerry Pinder, and I'd had Jerry Pinder on the show. So, you know, hey, Jerry, how's he going? Good. And he goes, I got a guy for you. I got a really good guy for it. All right. What's the store with Bob? Just write the number down. All right. We'll write the number down. And, you know, and then we chat and line this up. And I was saying to people as I walk in here, I'm like, I'm really not too worried about it. Like, I feel like if Skip and Jerry are saying the same thing, Bob's not going to disappoint. And Bobby, you certainly have not disappointed. You've got some, you've got some great stories. And you've got some great stories. And you've got. You've got some great stories. And you. You've been on the game surface, I guess. Yeah, well, that's the hard thing about, you know, the first one, right, is knowing which stories to go after. And but, I mean, you've been around the game of hockey all your life. And not only just the game of hockey, but some of the best in hockey. Yeah, I've been lucky.

I've been very fortunate. The only award I've never won is the most popular executive award. We just play to win. Well, let's do the Crude Master Final Five, and then I'll let you get out of here. It's just five quick questions. It goes as long or short as you want, but a shout out to Heath and Tracy McDonald, the supporters of the podcast since the very beginning. If you could do this with somebody, right, sit across from somebody and kind of talk to, you know,

pull out some of their stories. Who would you want to sit across from? Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin. Yeah. Well, he'd have some stories. Yeah, yeah, and loves the game of hockey. Every time he plays in an old-timers game or whatever over there, he scores about 12 goals because nobody goes near him, you know.

Would you go near Putin? No. No, and his linemate is Pavel Bure, so good luck. Who's the most underrated player you ever scouted? Oh, my goodness. That is a real, real, real. to think, yeah, it's really tough to pull out one name, somebody that, you know, Stewie certainly would be one of them, grimmer.

But I would say that, you know, I'm trying to think of the kid's name. Alex Hicks was playing for Toledo in the East Coast League as a defenseman. we brought him into Vegas to play for us and was not a pretty skater tall scrawny kid made a left winger out of him played 250 games in the national hockey Hixie

I'll tell you what boy all guts and fury and tough and played hard and that would be at the pro level, that was probably the biggest surprise at the polo. At the junior level, I mean, the guy that they, you know, Dirkatch certainly would be on that list. Ray Whitney would be on that list probably as well. We went the Bannam tournament, the midget, it was a midget tournament at that time, I think, in medicine had an annual tournament. And my scout out of Brian Gross out of Edmonton wanted me to go watch a big kid playing for Fort Saskatchewan.

I believe it was. And at the end of the game, I said, you know, he's okay, but who's the little guy? And he said, that's Ray Whitney. But his dad scouts for Seattle, if he was going to play in the Western League, he'd be on Seattle's list. So that night, I said, there's Fort Saskatchewan play again in the morning. We were on our way to Swiftcrant play. And he said, yeah, nine o'clock, I said, let's go. So we went back to the game, and Whitney was done.

believable. A Dirkatch like player for sure. And I said, we're listening to the guy. So we, Butchie Jorning was my coach at the time. And after the game, we, we drove back from Swiftc Current on the bus to Spokane and about, got in about six in the morning. It was seven Calgary time. I said to Butchie, let's, let's sit here for an hour and call Rick Dirkson and see who got Whitney. And so we sat around for an hour. And I called Rick Dirkson and I said, what teams listed Ray Whitney out of the Medicine Act tournament, he said, you were the only one. I said, the rest of the league is going to regret that. Restle league did regret that. He won the scoring race in his last year by Miles. They won a Memorial Cup.

He played over a thousand games in the National Hockey League and recorded. it over a thousand points. So what would be as good a story as there is out there, you know, for me? Yeah. One piece of advice if you were starting a new franchise. If they brought in a younger Bob and you could give him a piece of advice on starting a new franchise, what would it be? Hire me as a consultant.

Fair. That is a fair, that is a fair piece of advice. A little bit cocky, but that would be my friend. my first sentence. Nothing that, nothing to focus on then, nothing that's tangible. I mean,

obviously hire somebody who knows well. You gotta have a plan. The GMs in the league today, especially in the nationally, don't really see the players. I mean, the players win for you.

You got to know the players. You don't know the players. You're not going to win, period. Okay. If you're a commissioner for a day, Bob, what would you do? Of the NHL? Yeah.

keep the North Division intact, keep the Canadian division intact, the fans love it, guarantees a Canadian team in the Stanley Cup's semifinals every year. Done. And you've held, your last one is you've held multiple roles, you know, scout, jam, owner, coach, you name it. What's your favorite one? If you could be hired tomorrow and go back to any time in your life and you get to pick one of those and take it on, what would you take? What position would you want in an organization?

organization. General manager of the Chicago Blackhawks. GM of the Chicago Blackhawks? That would be my dream job. Fair. Well, I appreciate you hopping on and doing this with me, Bob. I've really enjoyed this hour. It's blown by.

I can't believe it. We've gone an hour in 10 minutes, man. Yeah. That's what happens when you're having fun, as you know. Been great. I appreciate the opportunity to share stories with you and meet you and have some fun with the hockey. Awesome. Thanks, Bob. You bet. My pleasure.

Hey, folks. Thanks for joining us today. If you just stumbled on the show, please click subscribe. Then, scroll to the bottom and rate and leave a review. I promise it helps. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday, we will have a new guest sitting down to share their story. The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you get your podcast fix. Until next time.

Hey, Keeners. I hope you enjoyed that one. I got to give a shout out to Jerry Pinder and Skip Craig for lining that one up for me. It reached out to me back on Easter, and that all came together. I mean, wasn't that a lot of fun. Today's shout out, I got to give a shout out to Wade Martins. Last week on Thursday, he was out at one of the seraphina plants, and came up to me and talked to me a little bit about the podcast, how much he enjoys it, and he listens while he's driving hauling oil all the time.

So shout out to you, Wade, for, you know, saying hello, and enjoying what I do here and to the rest of you guys who are still listening. Appreciate you all, you know, give me feedback throughout all the different episodes. Really enjoy hearing what your guys' thoughts are. And, you know, Wade's already given me a guest suggestion. So we'll see if that comes to fruition and everything else. But it is Monday, so get back to work. We all know the champ's got his feet up somewhere.

Hey, champ, get those feet down. You know, we've got the rest of the week here, all right? The golf course can wait until Friday. All right, we'll get you up to you guys Wednesday. Until then.