Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. #200 - Glen Sather

Episode Date: September 6, 2021

Player, Coach & GM this man has done it all. Coached the great one & traded him as well. We dig into his early years along with some of the things he's learnt along the way.    Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500

This is Glenn Healing. Hi, this is Braden Holby. This is Daryl Sutterin. Hi, this is Brian Burke. This is Jordan Tutu. This is Keith Morrison. This is Kelly Rudy. Hi, this is Scott Hartnell.

Hey, everybody. My name is Steele-Fer. This is Tim McAuliffe of Sportsnet, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Monday. It has been a busy, busy ride on this show over the last, you know, a few days. We've been rattling off some episodes, which pushed, Episode 200 a little quicker.

And, man, I'm excited for you guys to hear this one. I've been trying to track down Mr. Sather for some time. And I know a lot of people were wondering if it was going to be the great one. Still working on that as well. But for number 200, I thought hearing the bench boss, the man with the plan, would be a really cool story. And, you know, we've been all over the map lately with professors, lawyers, Daniel Smith was just on, and a lot of doctors, COVID talk, that type of thing,

and I thought, man, it'd be nice to get back to a little bit of hockey, a little bit of sports, a little bit of, you know, some fun stories. And this one sure has a lot of them. I mean, I don't know if there's anyone more prolific. Well, there's certainly in his company, but Glenn Sather is a man in his own realm. But before we get to him, let's get to today's episode sponsors, Carly Clause and Windsor Bywood Builders of the podcast studio table, and I was just creeping, creeping, on their Instagram,

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And if you're heading into any of these businesses, let them know. You heard about them from the podcast, right? Now let's get on to that T-Barr-1, Tale of the Tape. He played for the Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers, St. Louis, Blues, Montreal Canadiens, Minnesota, and Norris, and was the... player coach for the WHA Emmington Oilers. With the Oilers, he would win four cups as head coach and a fifth as the general manager. He's ranked 19th overall in NHL regular season coaching wins.

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997, and on December 11, 2015, Saither's banner was lifted to the rafters of Rexall Place. I'm talking about Glenn Sather, so buckle up, here we go. Hi, this is Glenn Sather. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today I have the legendary Glenn Sather sitting across for me. So first off, thank you, sir, for A taking the time and letting me in your home and for sitting down to share some stories. Well, fire away.

I'm all yours for 10, 15 minutes. Well, I guess I kind of asked when I first got here. You know, all the stories I heard about... kind of where you grew up and that kind of thing. Were you a Wainwright boy growing up? Yeah, my family moved to Wainwright. I think I was 12 from Viking. And my mother had a dress shop.

And my father was a carpenter. And I really started to play hockey and biking, but most of it was played in Wainwright as I grew up. I was there for, I guess, until I left to play for the O'IKings. So I was there six years as a game. kid and shot ducks and hunted all around there and played hockey in all those little towns and Viking and Tsar and Kinsella and Lloyd Minister and Hardesty, all those little towns that are around there. When you go back to those days, who was the town that was the rival that

you loved playing or hated playing? Well, just about all of them. But I was pretty young. So there wasn't any real rivalry until I started to play senior hockey when I was 13 for the Wainwright Commandos and we got into the provincial championship for the Battle River Hockey League and I got picked up by Hardesty to play after they beat us out and they had a really good player with the name of Johnny Galka who I became good friends with later on in years but I'd hunt ducks with him and geese. And every fall when I was in Ebbenton, I'd kind of arrange our schedule

so that I'd get three or four days off and spend it around Wainwright and Viking and all those little towns because we knew all the farmers. And I'd give them tickets to the exhibition games and they'd give us access to their fields and tell us where the geese were landing. And so I did that for, I don't know, 20 years.

It was fun. Did you, you know, trying to find team bonding moments. Did you ever take any of the teams out to hunting? Yeah, I took quite a few guys out to Hardish. I took Gretzky and Messier and Anderson and Martin Jelena, who was, I think he's still a coach in Calgary now. I assistant coached, but I had lots of those guys out there

and took a lot of them fishing to the Arctic. and the idea that I always had is they're better off to be doing something the outdoors and spending time in the bar or chasing girls and give them some other interests in life, and they all seem to really enjoy it. So that it was fun. It was a good bonding situation to be with them. You know, I hate to fast forward too far, but I've been wondering,

you know, like I said before, I got to sit down with Grant Fier and then Marty McSorily and different guys throughout the game. When I stare at the Oilers and I hear the stories of the glory days, you know, your first decade behind the bench with them, different stories of the culture there always pop up, right? I always hear the story when a team, or when a new guy came to the Oilers, somebody'd pick them up and show for them to wherever they're staying,

and if they need a place to stay, they could always stay with them. If they needed a vehicle, they'd give them pretty much a shirt off their back. Yeah. And I've always been curious, did that come directly? from you? Was that a group decision? Who instilled that culture early on? Well, I'd hate to take credit for it, but I think that because I was the president, the coach, and the manager, and assistant trainer, that I knew that, you know, from my experiences of playing and playing for the Bruins, and Teddy Green was that kind of a guy, and I knew that the closer you got to the players,

the better they were going to play for each other and for you. So when Wayne came to Edmonton, he stayed with us for three months, I think. And I had a lot of the players stay with us or come for dinner with us. And then it just sort of spilled down when the team got a little more mature. They would take that role over the older players. And they would take care of these young guys. So it seemed to work well. Everybody bonded and everybody had a responsibility to each other.

And the city of Evanton was a great place to play. The people were terrific to them. I would find out where they were at night, where they shouldn't be, and the next day they'd be in my office, and I'd say, I don't think it's a good idea for you to be hanging around these bars. And then the players would discipline themselves, and they were young, really inexperienced with life, and they were trying to figure out which way they were going to go themselves.

So it worked pretty well when you have somebody looking over their shoulder And I had people call me to tell me what was going on all the time and worked pretty well. You know, one of your, one of the rules that I'd read about you was number one rule, and maybe this changed over time, I'm not sure, was don't embarrass the coach and that you should be the first call all the time. Was that something you learned through your playing days? You know, you played a lot of games in the NHL for a lot of legendary people. Was that instilled in you through there? Was that kind of a rule you made up on the fly?

Oh, I made that up. And it was, you know, if you can imagine having all those young guys that are trying to figure out what kind of a person they're going to be and what they're going to be like for their own kids when they have children. And I would say the best guy to call if you get in trouble would be to call me because I could help you. And the other teams that I was on, there was times in there where guys would call their agent.

And their agents really didn't know anything about them other than getting their contracts done. But I knew just about everything about all those young guys, and it was helpful for them that they knew that if they had a car accident or something happened to them or something happened, one of their kids, we could always call on people in town to help them. We had one player that had a car accident at the University of Alberta on one of those roundabouts,

and it was slippery and greasy, and he went around the corner too fast, slid in a couple of cars. And I said, well, get out of your car and get a taxi and go home. So by the time he got home, I'd call the lawyer, and the lawyers told him what to do

and went down the police station and told him he had an accident. And he might have had one or too many beers. So by the time he got home, he was fine, and he banged his head, and I won't tell you who it was, but he banged his head, and they went down to the police station and filed a report, and there was no publicity, nothing happened. Legally, he shouldn't have left the scene of the accident, but he had a bit of a concussion, and I just was afraid he was going to say the wrong thing,

to the police, so they saw him right there. So they went the next day to the police station and filed a report, and that was the end of it. simple things that you could really blow up if you're not careful. It's interesting to hear you talk about the young, like your team in the very beginning was extremely young, extremely talented, but extremely young. I expect that being in the National Hockey League

comes with its distractions, and to kind of be a father figure probably helped a lot of those guys mature and have somebody they could trust and look out for them. and everything else as they went along. Well, I always had the hammer. You could always threaten somebody, and there was nobody that they could go to other than me. And that's why that rule came in.

Don't embarrass the coach. And if you've got one call to make, call me. And, you know, there was guys that we traded because certain things had happened. They didn't fit into the culture of the team. And I think we change four or five players every year to try and get better. and better and better and better.

And it seemed to work. The team did get better. And they grew up together and they were responsible together, responsible to each other. And guys like Kevin Lowe, I mean, he was one of those guys that took over leadership role with Gretzky and Lee Fogelin and Randy Gregg. There was a lot of good leaders in that team.

So it became easier as they got older. You know, in your playing days, and then obviously with coaching, you've been around what they deem now on the term the generational talent, like once in a lifetime. Well, you've got to play with Bobby Orr. I'm a defenseman.

And any time I get to sit across from a guy that has played with, I don't know, some say the greatest of all time, I'll leave that one aside. I don't need that argument. I'm curious, was he as good as they say he was when you were on the ice with him? Bobby was a great player.

I mean, he really changed the game for defensemen. And the way he could skate and handle the puck and maneuver and check guys when they really didn't think anybody could check him because he could get in quick and get out. I was at training camp in Boston when Bobby was a rookie. And he was so much faster than everybody. Eddie Shaq tried to catch him one day. It wasn't even close.

And Andy Shaq was a fast skater. But he was quick and smart. and a great guy. In fact, he played in the hockey game in Banff one summer for us against the Drumhiller miners. And we had several guys from the hockey school that worked here. And we played in the game, and Bobby was Bobby Oar. I mean, just dominated the game, having fun.

And he had a lot of fun when he played. Yeah, I wish there's, you know, once again, I'm a defenseman. And I grew up like, you know, know, in today's game, like Kail McCar playing for Colorado, he's doing things on the ice, I never dreamed a defenseman would be able to do. For a lot of years, you didn't want your defenseman to do what he does. And man, can he dance on the ice? And the Oilers got probably my favorite defenseman I've ever watched live and Duncan Keith

coming to play for him next year, and he had some of the best footwork I've ever seen. But you got to coach another guy that they say was, maybe revolutionized the game of Paul Coffey. As a young guy having played with Bobby Orr and seeing what he could do and then getting to see what Paul Coffey could do, was he, well, I know he was as good as everybody told it, but I mean, what were your thoughts on sitting behind the bench and watching him do what he does every day?

Well, Paul was a great player. You know, he came to his first training camp in Evanton, and Barry Fraser was the guy that found him. him. And he was all over the map to start with. But he had such great acceleration. I mean, in two strides, he'd be full speed, just like Bobby Orr. I mean, those two guys skated the same Dunk Keith. He's a great player as well. He's 38 now, I think. 37, I think. 37? Yeah. So he'll play three or four more years, just the way he can move and skate and he's smart and Paul was like that as well and unfortunately Paul got traded you know when

he said I had a few good years left in his life after a contract dispute with the owner and I hated to trade him but sometimes there's nothing to do about it you know owners have got all the gold the gold rules you know I'm sure this has been asked of you a million gazillion times you can put a number there but you've had to make some tough deals in your day. Obviously, the great one was, well, I don't know if there's a bigger trade in the history of any sport of Wayne Gretzky leaving after winning what he did here. That must have been a tough day, I assume. Yeah, it wasn't a lot of fun.

I found out about that. You know, we were in the Arctic fishing with Harry Sinden was with us, and Pocklington was there and all kinds of really good people. And Harry said to me, you know, there's a chance that Wayne's going to be sold. I said, no, I haven't. Peter's never said anything to me about that. So we get back to Evanston, and the next day we played in President Ford's golf tournament at Beaver Creek.

And he told me that night that he was, selling Wayne to LA for 15 million. I said, it's the biggest mistake you'll ever make in your life. And I said, I know what happened with Boston when they traded Bobby Orr to Chicago. I said, there are season tickets. People just disappeared. I said, the building was half empty the next year.

And it was a tough thing to happen, but, you know, Peter had some problems he had to solve, and money helped solve some of those things for them. And unfortunately, it was the end of Wayne in Ebbenton and he went on to have a good career in L.A. and St. Louis and then New York. But I often wonder how many Stanley Cups we could have won in Evanston if we had a kept Nick Sorley and Grusonisky and Wayne. And we won one cup we didn't win it the next year, but we won one a year after that because there was still a lot of great players in

Evanston. But it was never the same without Wayne. It was tough for those players. Well, I would assume the year after, or the years after, like you say, it would never be the same. You have, well, the best player ever sitting in your dressing room. And from the stories I've heard about Wayne, he's a team first type person. And to remove that, I would assume that first year would have been, I don't know. I mean, you still got the moose. Like, you still got Mark Messia. You still got one of the greatest leaders of all time sitting there.

And Kevin Lowe, for that matter. But regardless, that would be, well, you're missing a friend that you've grown up with. I mean, you guys have been, that group had been together for almost a decade, which is almost unheard of in pro sports. Yeah, especially today with a salary cap the way it is. players become great players and then pretty soon the team can't afford them they have to have to have to trade them to refill their rosters with young kids but uh you know the years that we had that good team in evmonton there wasn't a salary cap we just didn't have enough money to keep all those

guys the salary started to go up and people started building new buildings and having the sky sweets so they could generate more revenue and of course the players they wanted to be paid more because some of the teams in the US were paying them. At that time in Evanton, we were still paying the guys in Canadian dollars. So your competition to keep players in Canada was affected by the you know the exchange rate between the US dollar and the Canadian dollar. And the league started to recognize the problems that the Canadian teams were having and they started to subsidize some of the cities in the West like Calgary,

Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg wasn't in the league then, but they got in a year later when the league was giving us extra money to try to compete with the U.S. market. And then what happened, I think Brian Burke was the first guy to pay the players in Canada with U.S. dollars, and then that sort of changed everything. And you couldn't keep people. Like some of these guys would see the money that kids in the U.S. were making. we just couldn't compete with them. And then, you know, as time went by, Peter ended up selling the team or lost the team. And some new owners came in, 26 of them. In fact, I think there's

some guys from Lloyd Ministry had a piece of that team in Evanston. They certainly did, yeah. And then it was sold again. Now Darrell Kates has got it, but, you know, that was 20 years ago. So things have changed a lot in the league. Yeah, well, things were changing a lot in the world. Like things just, the speed of which change occurs is just faster and faster and faster. It's, every day there's something new. And the NHL is certainly not immune to that. That's, you know, one of these days I'm just waiting to wake up and there's going to be a team over in Britain or something. Like, you know, Seattle coming in, they got 32 and I think that's, I don't know, from a fans point, from everything I've heard, that's where they want to be.

You want to be a 32 team, 16, 16, and away you go. Yeah. And from top to bottom, man, the NHL is as competitive a league as there is on the planet, let alone in North America. And it's been really as a fan, it's been enjoyable to see the progression. Although I grew up in the era of a little more fisticuffs, you know, growing up watching, well, McSorley was there for sure. but guys like Probert and Domi and I'm missing a whole whackload of them, but there was a little more aggression in the game, I think. And now people always argue what is better,

but you lived through the days. Your playing days must have been, you had over 800 penalty minutes in the NHL. You were not a man to back down from, well, tough situations, shall we say. Well, the league has changed a lot. you know, when I played, hardly anyone wore a helmet. So there was a certain amount of respect. Did you wear a helmet? No.

So there was a lot of respect between players that were aggressive. I mean, you didn't cross-check a guy in the head because you knew somebody was going to cross-check you back in the head or get even. And it was a certain amount of respect. And then I think the helmets and the face masks came in to protect the players. But the game changed. Concussions became a real problem around the league.

When we played, we didn't even know what a concussion was. I mean, I remember seeing a guy by the name of Brian Watson, who coached in Edmonton for a few games. We were at training camp in Pittsburgh together, and he went down to block a shot, and the guy crossed-checked him from behind, and he slid with his face down towards the guy, puck hit him in the mouth, knocked all his teeth out,

got up, skated off the ice, played two days later with no teeth. I mean, I'm sure he had a concussion. He's the toughest guy I'd ever seen play. And he died about a week ago or two weeks ago with pneumonia. But he was a real good character, great guy. That's, you know, I've been fortunate enough to interview. I was saying some of the old boys and Jerry Cheever's had won.

Dennis Plonich was another. And to hear the stories of the old game is fascinating to, you know, I can't imagine. I never grew up not wearing a helmet. And Skip always talked about the respect with people not wearing helmets. Did you ever think, though, when you were walking down a shoot on a goalie and they didn't have anything cover in their face, that they were just absolutely nuts? Well, they did wear face masks. Chevers wore a face mask, and we used to put stitch marks on his,

Yeah. We had a white face mask that he would wear. And, I mean, the guys would get hit, and those things were, they fit right on their face, not like they are today. And if you saw Bobby Hull shoot or Makita, shoot, maybe you're too young to have ever seen those guys play. But, I mean, they shot rockets.

And you got out of the way when they were going to shoot that puck. And lots of times I'd see achievers. He had blood in his face just because he got a shot in the face. and there wasn't enough protection. And talking about Skip Craig, I remember one game he played and we played together. He ended up fighting this guy

and named up fighting this guy and named after the best of this guy. He was like 6-4, 2.30. He was the biggest guy in the game then. Skippy was a tough little guy, I'll tell you. Well, I do have to give a shout-out to Skip because I was, like I was saying,

before we started, skips, Skip's one of a kind And he Well, helped facilitate this, didn't he? It seems anytime I I give him a call,

he's always got time for a phone call And which reminds me I got to get him on the links Because he's offered that too To go for a round of golf with him So shout out to Skip Because he is one of the best And he's a guy that I get to see

You know around town And everybody talks about Yeah, Skip's a great guy. Not a very good golfer, but a real good guy. You'll probably beat him. When you get Grexky, when it's, what is it, 78, Gregsky comes in, and did you know right away, like this is, I don't know, Sidney Crosby, like this is the guy?

This is, like you knew him right away? Well, Pocklington called me and said that Nelson Scalbany owned the team in Indianapolis and said that he was going to move Wayne. And we happened to be playing them a couple days after that. So I watched their practice in the morning. We practiced right after him. I was there watching. And I thought Wayne was one of the players' kids on the ice in the morning. And how old are you been?

He was, I think, 17 at that time. Okay. And he was like every other 17-year-old, you know, tall and thin. I think maybe he was 5-11 at that time, about 155 pounds. And the Knicks, that night we played against them. Wayne scored two goals, one from behind the net. He went around Dave Dryden made him look. silly and Dave Dryden played for the Oilers and then the next goal he scored

the owner around Paul Schmere was pretty good defenseman for us and scored a second goal and I called Peter that night and I said do whatever have to do this guy has got eyes in the back of his head and he's smart and he's quick and he's gonna grow up so we made the deal to get him and I think we got two or three other guys out of that team as well Peter Driscoe was one and that was the story

I mean Wayne just grew up and became what he is today great player you mentioned that when he came you had him live with you for a little bit I always bring up Crosby I mean for my generation he was the most talented player on the ice and honestly

today he's still unbelievable to watch and he lived with maria lemieux and i know there's a lot around like uh insulating them giving them mentorship helping them adjust that type of thing ace bailey was a man that uh wayne lived with was that i know you played with ace yeah was that something you guys talked about or was did that just happen on its own well i needed somebody to live with them next year and ace was a scout for us and after Wayne left our place, he moved out after a couple of months,

and he boarded with another family in Evanston. And we went through that season, the next season. I talked to Ace, and Ace was going to be in Evanston, so Wayne moved in with Ace and lived together. They became great friends, and when Wayne was sold to L.A., he asked Ace if he could come with us, and Ace came to me and said, I'd like to go to L.A. to be with the Kings, with Wayne.

So I let him go. And then, of course, Ace died in the plane crash in 9-11. And a terrific guy. I knew Ace when he first came to the Oil Kings in Evanston. And I think he was 15 or 16. And he couldn't make the Oil Kings then. But he was a talented young guy, full of piss and vinegar and great, great character.

So unfortunately he died, the plane wreck. Yeah. He's going to L.A.'s training camp that day. Funny, the way events, where they lead and where they don't end up, you know, like Wayne gets traded and asked for Ace to go along, I actually didn't know that part. And then, of course, that leads to where it leads. And how would a man ever know that? And that's the funny thing of life, I guess.

Yeah, you never know. Just in the wrong place or the wrong time. If he hadn't wanted to go with Wayne, he'd probably still be alive today. But that's just the way fate is sometimes. You never know what's going to happen. Are you a guy who believes in luck? Do you make your own luck or do you believe in luck? Well, it's, I mean, guys always say on the ice you're really lucky sometimes.

Well, you're lucky because you're in the right spot at the right time. And, you know, guys used to talk about Wayne, how could he make that path? He was just lucky to make it. No, he wasn't lucky. He knew exactly where everybody was on the ice and where they should be and where they're going to go to. And Wayne used to say you pass the puck to where you're going to be, not where you are.

And that's the way we played. And it was, there's some luck involved if you can, you know, you can drive across the street sometime and the car just misses you. Well, why didn't hit you? Maybe you're walking too fast or walking too slow to get hit by the car, but you know, you're aware of your surroundings and you kind of make your own luck in a lot of places. I struggle with luck because luck seems, uh, luck seems too easy.

Like, oh, you're just lucky all the time. It's like, well, no, you've got to put yourself in the right position. Yeah. You got to, and then you got to recognize the opportunity for what it is. and then obviously take it, right? Yeah. Everybody associates luck with, I buy a lot of max ticket, and I'm lucky because I won $70 million, but that's a very small percentage of luck out there.

The rest of luck is something you help create and facilitate. Yeah, there's, who knows about luck? I mean, I remember when I met my wife for the first time, I was coming back to the rink in Boston, and I was giving the guy a ride that played for the Celtics and we saw this pretty girl on the side of the road had a flat tire in a car and she was trying to figure out of how to do it so I stopped, changed the tire for her and

you know we're married a couple of months after that, I'd been together 52 years now. What? Is that luck or is it wasn't meant to be? Is it fate? What do you think? I think it was kind of fate. but it was some of it had to be luck as well.

Who knows? I mean, I could have gone by that car or taken the different direction to get home. You know, it's funny. So I had Brian Burke on. Brian Burke, growing up, wasn't a hockey guy. And then they're moving. They get trapped in a snowstorm.

And one thing leads to the next, and hockey and all of a sudden, you know, everybody knows Brian Burke's crew, but it's a snowstorm. Yeah. You're talking about a flat tire. I, uh, My wife is from Minnesota, and when I was playing hockey in northwest Ontario and got invited to go down and check out some schools.

And so I went down to the school in upstate Wisconsin, and I was supposed to drive back that night. And up until that night, I was like, yeah, I probably won't come here, right? And a giant snowstorm came in, and then the first day on campus, who do I meet? My future wife. And I don't know what to put with that. other than that's the beauty of the universe, I guess, because no one can ever put a finger on exactly what that is. But every man I talk to, every woman I talk to,

they have moments and instances like that where it's just like, what was that? I don't know. I can't explain that. Right. Can't. Some things are better off just to leave alone, accept them. So I don't know how you can explain that stuff.

I mean, it's like Brian Burke's son got killed in the car. accident. And unfortunate, wrong place at the wrong time. Things just happen. I'm curious how you played 10 seasons in the NHL. Your last one is with the Minnesota North Stars. What brings you to the WHA?

What brings you to Emmington? What brings you back to your homeland, so to speak? Well, I was at the stage of my life. We had a couple of young kids, and we had home Bamp. And the manager of the team offered me a one-year deal to stay in Minnesota. At that time, the WHA was spending more money and giving you a longer contract. So I came back to Banff, and I got a call from Joe Crozier, who ran the Calgary team, and Bet Gwitlin, who was running the Edmonton team.

And so I talked to Crozier, and he says, well, yeah, give you a one-year deal in Calgary. And Depp said he'd give me a two-year deal in Ebbington. So I went to Ebenton, and because I was running hockey schools here, and Bepp had played for Boston, he called Harry Sin and asked him about me. So Bepp said, I'll make you the captain. I said, we already have a captain in Al Hamilton. I don't want to be captain. He said, you're going to be captain, you're going to run the practices,

and I'll run the games. So that's, but I had already been coaching kids here in BAMP for 10 years. And, you know, I liked that part of the game. I like the changing attitude that I could bring to that team. And we started to play like the Oilers in the NHL. We didn't have enough talent, but we went to the finals that year, and Winnipeg ended up beating us. Hedberg and Nielsen and Schoberg and Bobby Hall.

They beat us in Winnipeg. And that year we ended up going to Sweden for a bunch of training camp exhibition games. And I went to watch a midget team in Sweden. And they played just like the Winnipeg Jets, like a lot of the teams in the NHL play today. And at that time, really nobody in the NHL played like the Oilers. because we had guys interchanging positions and doing all sorts of things that were a little more creative. And that's where it got started,

watching that team in Sweden. That's how you decided on how you guys were going to play? Well, that's how I decided how we were going to play because the Winnipeg Jets beat us in the finals. And then after I saw that Swedish team play, I said this is the way we're going to play. You know, in those days, left-winger stayed in the left-side, right-winger on the right side, and the centerman came back deep into the corners.

I kept Wayne out of the blue line all the time, and Yari Curry'd be the guy to get the puck out of the corner, and Paul Coffey would give it to him, and that'd be it? So that's how we started to develop that whole system. You know, in today's NHL, everybody talks about how important the draft is, right? Like you need good draft picks. You need those young guys come up. Salary cap, obviously a huge player in that, right? You need those guys filtering up through your system.

I was doing, you know, I wasn't born until 86, Glenn. So, you know, when I talk about the glory days, supposedly I was in the building one night as like a two-year-old, right? Mom and dad, I got four siblings, so there's seven of us would come up and watch the Oilers play. and you can imagine a family of seven, but I had to chuckle. I started looking at you guys as you're drafting, and there was three years in a row.

I mean, let's put aside the fact you get Wayne Grexky in a trade, right, the greatest player of all time, whoops by that team. But then in the draft, you get the first year in 79, you get Kevin Lowe in the first, Mark Messier in the third, Glenn Anderson in the fourth, In 1980, you get Paul Coffey in the first, Gary Curry in the fourth,

Andy Mogan, the seventh, and then the next year you get Grant Fier in the first, and Steve Smith in the sixth. And then a couple years later, you get S. Ateacon in it in the fourth. Like, your guys is drafting for roughly five-year period was off the charts. Everybody always talks about Detroit, you know,

in Zetterberg and Datsuk and even Lydstrom, for that matter, and guys they picked up later on. But I never, you know, like, dreamed you'd have Lowe, Messier, Anderson the same year, coffee, curry, Mogue in the same year. That is almost an embarrassment of riches, so to speak. Like, that is just, I don't know if that's a good fortune or if Barry Frazier was an absolute genius.

Well, Barry was a great scout. And, you know, we had lots of arguments over players and lots of debating with the scouts. and we didn't have a big scouting staff. There was, I think, five scouts. Barry worked his butt off. And we had a guy in Europe, and he was finished. And that's how we ended up with Curry, and we ended up with Tickinen. But Barry was over there back and forth to watch these guys.

He worked really hard at it. I played against Messier, so I knew what he was like when he was 17. I saw Kevin Lowe in Quebec. He was the captain of the Quebec ramparts, or I think they were called the ramparts. And it just happened to be that we were in Quebec playing the Knicks of the day, so I went to watch a junior game and saw Kevin Lowe. I said, this guy's going to be a hell of a player.

And then when we got it through the expansion, Brian Watson, myself, and a guy by the name of John Short, at that time was a PR guy for Edmonton. And we had a stack of contracts to go through every player in the league. And teams had their protected lists, but we looked through all the contracts. We were there for four days looking. And there was no computers, and everything was by paper. And we spent the days in there studying who might be available and who was going to be available.

And I had been out of the league not very long as a player, so I played against a lot of these guys. And I knew Messier actually from playing St. Albert. I knew his dad. I played against his dad. Doug Messier was the first guy that ever knocked me out in the game. And I was playing for the Oil Kings. I was 17 went across the blue line and boom.

This guy hit me with an elbow. I didn't do that again. But it was a good lesson to learn. But when you've been a player and now you're in charge of picking players and coaching them, your background helps you a lot in deciding who you want as a player. And Barry was a scout in the WHA.

And, you know, he knew the league well. He knew the players. He'd been around. Barry's retired and I live in Mexico, but he was a real good guy. And we kind of shared the same philosophy and what kind of players he want, competitive guys with talent. And it worked out well. He was a great scout.

You know, just to go back one thing, we had a big argument over Grant Fier. I went to watch him in Victoria when he was playing junior, and then I saw him in the Memorial Cup in Windsor. And Grant had something wrong with his hand, so when I saw him playing Victoria, he looked awful. And then I saw him in Windsor in the Memorial Cup, and he didn't look that great either. So I'd seen Grant play twice.

Barry had seen him probably 50 times. So I said, I don't want to craft this guy. I said, I've seen him play. He was awful. And he said, I've seen him 50 times. We're drafting this guy first. He's the best goalie that's available, and he's going to be a great player. So after that, I stopped going to watch junior players

and let Grant make those, or let Barry make those decisions. And I saw Paul Coffey play too. And the same thing happened again. He said, we're not taking this guy. It looks like he's afraid. No, we're taking him. He's going to be a great player. So you have to learn sometimes to say out of things

that you're not an expert and let the other people do the things that they do best. That was the relationship we had. It's also a good lesson for kids that are playing, right? You can have bad games and still go on to have careers like Grant Fier. and Paul Coffey. Oh, yeah. I mean, the games that I saw them play, they didn't look great.

And if you don't listen to the people that you've delegated the responsibility to do that role, you're making a huge mistake. So you're better off to get out of the way. That was a good lesson you learned early on then. Yeah, it was good. So, I mean, same thing with Glenn Anderson,

Barry knew him. We drafted Andy Moog, the only guy that had seen him was Jimmy, Nielsen. And he was playing in Billings, and somebody told Jim that, you know, this guy is a hell of a goalie. So we drafted him. Turned out we had two great goalies.

Yeah, what a tandem that was. Mogue and two young guys. Andy Mogan, Grant Fier, 1-2 or, you know, 1-A, 1-B, like. Yeah, pretty good deal. You know, everybody knows the movie Slapshot. Paul Newman, like one of the most iconic movies, hockey sports movies of all time. You were the actual Reg Dunlop. You were a player coach.

Was that a tough thing to do, or did you not mind it at all? Well, I didn't want to do it when VAP came to me and we had, I think, nine games to go on the WHA. And he said, I'm going to go and look at some play. players, I want you to coach the team, and I'd already been running the practices. So I said, I don't want to coach these guys. He said, I'm a player with him now. How am I going to do that? He says, well, you either do that or you sit in the stands. So I said, okay, I'll coach. Well, he never thought that we'd make the playoffs for one thing. We made the playoffs. And we ended up playing Houston in the first round of the playoffs, and

Gordy Howe was playing and his two sons were playing. They had a real good team. Larry Lund was there. Len Lundy was there. I mean, they had a good team. Well, they beat us. And then the next year we have a meeting with Scalbany and Pocklington at the end of the year.

And they asked me what they should do. And I said, well, I said, I'm going to be the coach next year. Bepp can't do it. You should fire him. And he was in the room, and of course he was upset. They fired him and fired Gordy Robson. And then I took over the team,

and they brought in a guy by the name of Gordon. I can't remember his other name. He's passed away since then. But he ran the business part of the operation. I ran the hockey part of the operation. That's the way we went. You know, not everybody would walk in a room and say fire the guy that's sitting there.

But if there's one thing that is quite evident over your career, and I think I've heard you say it multiple times, is you want confident people. You don't mind an ego in a player. That's the guys you look for. Yeah, I like that. Somebody will stand up for themselves and believe in what they believe in and stick with it.

That's the part I like. Another thing that I heard a quote of you saying is you need to hate losing, and you need a coach that hates losing as well. Well, you're going to lose games and you have to figure out why you're losing them and emotionally you have to hate losing. Whether you're playing golf or playing tennis or running a race or whatever you're doing,

if you're competitive enough, you learn not to like to lose but you really like to win. And, you know, winning is, what it's all about in sports. And you can't get depressed and you can't be too upset, but it has to affect you in a certain way that you're going to say,

I've just decided that I'm not going to make that mistake again, and I'm going to play better, I'm going to be better. And the team has to understand that as well. You know, losing is not fun in professional sports. Losing is not fun anywhere. No. Media gets on you, your family gets on you. Nobody likes to lose.

You know, from your Reg Dunlop days, taking over the team, becoming the head coach, getting Grexky, all these amazing players, you don't win immediately. It takes a few years. I can get to a Stanley Cup finals. You lose to a great New York Islanders team. But you knew what was coming?

I assume you're like, we're so close. Were there pieces you added in going into your first Stanley Cup that were pivotal in getting you over the hump, or did you just try and keep that group together and go, we got this, fellas? No, I think that if you look, the guy that scored the winning goal, and in the first game that we played against the Islanders' the second year, Kevin McClellan scored the goal.

And he was a tough, determined guy. And we made a deal to get him because we needed somebody like that. There was certain people that would come in that we liked or watched and made a deal to get for them. I got Willie Lindstrom out of Winnipeg, and he was a great player. There's always pieces that you can add to make that puzzle a little more diligent for everyone, make everything easier for you. And a lot of those players that we brought in, I remember brought Keith Acton in one year. You know, we got Randy Gregg when he was playing in Tokyo.

for a team called Kyoto Bunnies. And I went over to watch him, got there, and his team was on strike, so I didn't get to see him. But I knew him that he played the University of Alberta. And we played exhibition games against him every year. And this big red-headed guy, I thought he was going to be a great player. So I signed him and nobody really knew much about him. And, you know, he was a terrific guy, great player.

So peace is always Seemed to be around if you look hard enough for him. And yet, yeah, if you look hard enough for him, that's a, you pretty much left no stone unturned to go over and sign a guy out of Japan. Well, I knew him because he played in the University of Alberta. And I had to figure out where he was. I didn't know he was in Japan,

and so he started to call around and playing for the Kyoto bunnies. But yeah, you have to work at it. But all the general managers work hard now today. I think that their scouting systems are better, the analytical systems that they use. You know, they have virtual calls daily before the draft happens.

You know, we didn't have all those things. The analytics you can find now, just about everything, and where guys shoot the puck from and where the goalies, they don't block the shots up high their shoulders because they can't get up quick enough. So there's lots of things you can find. You have to use all those things today to make your team better. And the general managers and the coaches use them all.

It's hard work. And generally the guys who don't make it don't work that hard. You can put that to life. I mean, that statement right there goes not only to general managers, but to the players themselves right across the work. workforce and everything else. I mean, that is a truth in itself. Yeah, you can learn not to give up on things if they don't work out the way you expect them to. And some guys just give up too easy. You know, it's too tough to get up in the morning at 6 o'clock

and do whatever you have to do. I'm laughing because we all know guys like that. Yeah. Everybody. You know, everybody knows somebody that had a ton of talent, and they gave up on themselves. You just have to believe in yourself and think positive about life and get on with it. You were a GM for a lot of years. Fans always think they can do it better.

What is the biggest misconception that fans have about a general manager of a hockey team? Well, I'm not quite sure I can answer that question, But, you know, it goes back to what we just talked about it. People watch the game. I think that I would put this guy out in that position at a certain time. But if you're not with the team behind the bench and you're not watching them in practice every day,

there's no chance that you can do a better job in a guy that's a manager or a coach. I mean, I'm not saying that all coaches and managers are terrific at their jobs, but they are good at it. I mean, some of them are better than others. You know, you look at a guy like Lou Lamarillo that's been around a long time, New Jersey forever,

Toronto for a couple years, now in the island. I mean, he works hard. And he's at the rink every day. He's doing everything that should be done. You know, Chris Drury is going to be a real good manager because he works hard. He's got a great mind. And guys like that,

they create their own life because they're willing to do some work that has to be done. We need lots of guys like that in this game today. And then sometimes the manager will be real good, get the right pieces, somebody gets hurt. They don't get as far as they should get in the playoffs. The owner gets upset. Fires a guy, brings in somebody else.

Is that destiny or is it luck like you talked about earlier? You know, your star player gets hurt, you can't make it into the third round of the playoffs. so the owner gets frustrated and changes. You got to believe in yourself this game. Who do you think, I mean, I don't mean to single anyone out, but who's maybe one of the, in your eyes, a GM in the league?

You mentioned Lou Lamarillo, who, I mean, him and Barry Trots, what they've done with the New York Islanders, speaks for itself. Who's a guy that maybe isn't in the game anymore, but was a GM that you had to, deal with that was either, well, it was the best, like was a tough negotiator, but you really respected in the league?

There's been lots of guys. I mean, Cliff Fletcher was a good manager in Calgary, tough negotiator, Harry Sinan, same way, Bill Tori, you know, even Kenny Holland and Ebenton now. I mean, there's lots of good managers around. They're smart. They work hard. Look at Billy Garon and Minnesota. the decisions that he had to make this year, you know, buying out two players that have been

great stars in Minnesota, it needs cap room. You have to change your team because you need cap room. You need draft picks. You need young guys to come in and take those positions. So you can't sign a guy for a 10-year contract for 10 million bucks unless he's a superstar. You just can't afford to keep him that long. So you have to buy a guy out and bring somebody else in. And they're all tough decisions. And, you know, that decision that Billy Garon made this year is, I'm sure, really tough. You know, Preezy was a good player. They're all good players that get bought out.

They go someplace else, get another contract, play another three or four years. That's just the way the cap system works today. You were a player. You player coached, you coached, you GMed, and then you were president of hockey ops. and then a list of other executive titles that don't need to share. What was your favorite? Did you always love playing? Were you at home coaching, or was it your long tenure as a GM that you enjoyed the most?

And why? Well, I like playing because I like the players that I played with in all those teams. And then when I got coaching, I liked it for the same reason because I enjoyed the players. I enjoyed the winning. And I enjoyed creating a team that I was. I thought to win. The managing part is not as much fun because you're always moving guys that you like,

guessing on what somebody else is going to be like when you bring him in if he's going to fit into the system. That part is good, but coaching is the most fun because you're on the ice every day with him, you're in the dressing room, you're on the buses, you're in the planes. You spend more time with the players and you do with your own family. So that part is tough because you had, I mean, a good thing for me, we lasted 52 years to be married the same woman.

And your wife really raises your children. You're around sort of on the outside all the time, but, you know, you have to have a good wife to take care of your family. So coaching is fun. Managing is a bit of a pain in the ass. but you managed for so many years glad i know but it's it was part of the evolution i mean once you get out of managing you get out because the people that you're dealing with are in the same age bracket as you are and then when those older guys move on and bring in other young guys you have to get out of the way to let some other young guy come in and develop his system and his idea because he has a

better relationship with all these young managers. When you're starting to make deals, and let's face it, I mean, when you're getting to be 70 years old, talking to a 17 or 18 year old kid is not the same as it was when you were 22 talking to those guys, or 26. You have to have a relationship with those players in order to get them to do what you think they need to be done. Same as the managers. If you're going to maneuver a manager into making a deal that you want, You have to have a good relationship with him. You know, the deal has to be, you're happy with the deal, I'm happy with the deal. But part of the time is you're talking this guy into wanting the player that you want to trade,

so you encourage him to listen. You're making the deal, it's like a car salesman. You know, you may not want a Ford. You want a Chev, but the Ford guy says, well, this Ford has got, you know, it's got all the bells and whistles, and that Sheb doesn't have it. pretty soon he believes you. You make your deal or you're both happy. They voted, what was this, 2017,

that the 1985 Oilers was the greatest team of all time. You got to coach all those teams. Was the 85-year the best of the bunch? It was a great team. I liked all those teams that won. And to say they're better than the other team, I mean, I guess they had a lot of people vote on this thing. I don't know.

But that was a great team. I went to Evanston for that ceremony. It was fun to see all those guys. There was different things about all the teams that I really liked. To say that was the best team, yeah, it was a pretty damn good team. But they were all good teams. That year in the finals,

I read that that was the first time Teakinen ever played. Is that true? Yeah, we brought Teakinen in. And he had never played in the NHL. We played against Philadelphia. The first game in Philadelphia, they were, Tickinen was doing all kinds of stuff to agitate and bother everybody.

They wanted to kill him. You know, I think we lost the first game in Philadelphia. And after that, we, you know, way we went. But Tickland turned out to be a hell of a player. He was a little off the wall of him. but he was fun to be around. He never understand him, but he was a good player. Who was the biggest character on those teams?

Who was the guy keeping it lively in the dressing room? Oh, Tickinen was good at it. You know, Dave Hunter was good, too. Good sense of humor. Semenko was one of the toughest guys I've seen play, but he had a real dry sense of humor, and he was a lot of fun to be around. Players all loved him.

There was a lot of characters. Marty was a character. Curry was kind of quiet and reserved. Wayne was quiet and reserved, but always very analytical and intelligent the way he dealt with things. There was a lot of characters. Had to have been a fun, like, just to walk into that dress room

and see that group of guys together for that many years and to understand how good you are, but then how, like, just like, tight-knit, The core was. It just must have been fun walking into that dressing room every single night to go and try and win it again. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was fun to be around Teddy Green and John Muckler. We had great relationship. The players all respected them. There was a lot of real good characters. I mean, Teddy was a character. You know, trainers were good. Barry Stafford, the head of the equipment. You know, Kenny Lowell. they were all great guys.

But they all fit into that whole system knowing that winning was the most important thing. You know, you have to give up a lot to be able to win, but it's worth it to give it up to win. And they did. Well, as we, I don't want to, I know you got golf, I know you got other things going on. So I want to slide into the Coordmaster Final Five,

just five quick questions, and then I'll leave you B and let you get on with your, with your Saturday morning. I'm always curious, you're a guy who's got to talk to exceptional minds and people and everything else, but if you could sit across the table from somebody and pick their brain, who would you want to sit down with? Oh, well, I could tell you who I wouldn't want to sit down with.

Sure. Who wouldn't you want to sit down? I mean, there's some of these people in history today that have been great individuals and what they've done, and leaders in this country. I mean, I sat with Mulroney one time, and we were at a wedding in New York,

Pock and his daughter was getting married, and Malroney came with his wife. I had a chance to talk to him. He was a great guy, interesting guy, had quite a career in this country. You know, I hate to get political, because it's just not the right thing to do. If you're a politician,

Let the politicians do what they want. We can all criticize them, like fans criticize the coaches or managers. It doesn't mean a hell of a lot if you criticize a politician. It's the people that are going to vote for them and the next vote on where we're going to go in this country. And you look around at what's happened with COVID Canada and how we can't get the vaccines quick enough. And, you know, I just wonder what everybody's thinking about in this country, how are we going to get through the right direction? And I've come back to Canada twice and had to quarantine.

First time I missed Christmas in Banff in 50 years. And there's a lot of people now that are around the world or in the U.S. that are going to travel at some point in time. I live in a resort town in the summer, and you look at the restaurants aren't full. There aren't as many Americans coming here. They can't come. What's happening to the economy in the country?

There's a lot of things that are being affected, decisions that people make. I'd probably like to sit down and talk to Trudeau sometime. And he'd be an interesting guy to talk to. But those are all political things that somebody like me shouldn't get involved with. You know, you can have an opinion. And even voicing your opinion on this podcast,

it's, you know, that's things that sports people shouldn't really do. You know, we're athletes, we develop sports teams, we have a great opinion on that, and we're unknowledgeable about it. But the decisions that politicians make, I mean, they must have people giving them ideas and helping them. So I'd like to ask them, you know, what's your team?

If you have a good scout that's giving you information? You know, where do you get your information from? You know, those are things that I like to think about, but things I don't like to voice my opinion about. That's all fair. The difference between you being the GM and the Amiton Oilers and trading away whoever and fans losing their absolute marbles on it is that's affecting their lives, but not affecting their lives, right?

Right. That's a sport. I love every fan's passion, including my own for our teams, but it's a sport. when politicians make decisions that affect the entire country and your livelihood and the people you love, I think you are entitled to an opinion. Honestly, I'm not saying that it's going to sway anything.

I don't think it is swaying a lot, right? But I think when you live in the country and politicians, I mean, they honestly work, you know, you work for an owner in the NHL. Who are the politicians who work for? I'd like to thank us. Well, yeah, they should work for us. I remember when Trump was, you know, running, for re-election in the U.S. and Bobby Orr supported him.

And he got all kinds of criticism from people talking about, what's Bobby Orr doing? And there was articles written in the Toronto paper about it. Well, he has an opinion. He has a right to decide who he wants to support or back. But if you're a popular person in the sports world and you get your opinions out there, somebody's going to give you a bad time about it.

Because not everybody likes everybody. and it's a dangerous thing to be opinionated about politicians. Better off to keep your mouth shut. Well, I will agree with you on that. I mean, if you don't want to get the public eye all on you, you're better off just to not say anything at all. But in the world we've been living in, I think it's enjoyable when people of influence can voice their concerns,

voice their opinion, because otherwise we're just all kind of quiet and lots of people don't have a big enough voice to even do, make an impact anyways. And Bobby stood up for what he believed in. And people hated him for it, but a ton of people loved them for it too. Yeah, well, that's the risk you take. You know, some love you and someone hate you. So I've always told the players in our teams that say, stay out of politics.

Stay out of the bars. Don't get in trouble. You know, be smart about what you're going to do with. your life. And for the most part, this kind of work. But you've got to be careful. What did you think of Kutraoff, his press conference, and then, you know, he's been enjoying the cup. He's been having a lot of fun in the last little bit, and definitely has no filter when it comes to getting in front of a mic. Well, I think he should have a little bit of a filter on him. I know that somebody in that Tampa team dropped the Stanley Cup when they were on a

boat. And we had the same problem happening at Evanton the first time that team was allowed to have that cup. It fell out of the back of a half ton and I had to take it to Westtown Ford to get it fixed because it broke the wooden base on the bottom. I mean, the players, when they're celebrating, they sometimes go too far. You know, they've had a lot of pressure on them all year. You get through the Stanley Cup, you win, you celebrate. You know, there's a certain amount of respect has to with that Stanley Cup. And, you know, after that problem happened in Ebbenton, the league didn't even know about it for four or five years.

Finally, they figured out they better have somebody that's going to travel for that cup. But you can't protect it all the time. I mean, one of the guys dropped that cup in Tampa, and there was a problem with it. It'll get fixed. But you should be careful with it. I mean, it's, I've seen that cup come into some family's homes. in the hospital in the Edmonton people just think it's like the holy grail.

I get so excited to see it. And there's a lot of respect for it. It's a hard cup to win. And you go through all those rounds to get there. It's difficult. But it's rewarding. And there's a lot of respect that goes with it. There's on this, well, I shouldn't say this

because I don't honestly know all the cups. But in my mind, there's the only, other cup in North America that even comes close to it is maybe the Allen Cup, right? The senior trophy and it's history.

But in saying all that, like the Stanley Cup is kind of the holy grail for Canada at least, right? Like, I mean, I still won't, you know, Glenn, I still won't touch the thing. I've seen it a few times.

I'm like, I don't know where life leads me, but I'm not going to jinx myself by touching it right now. And who knows, maybe that never most everything and when I'm in my 70s 80s I'll go touch the stinking thing but right now I stare at that thing I'm like I'm not I'm not I'll take a picture with it sure but I'm not I'm not touching it yeah well everybody has to have their own opinion about things and I mean it's it's if you get to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto you go in and see the real cup I mean it's there's a lot of great players that have held that cup a lot of history a lot of tradition

blood, sweat and tears, and you think of the teams that win, and then you think of the teams that lost, like the Montreal Canadiens. I mean, they had a great run this year. I was pulling for him the whole way. But then you think about what's it like to lose in that position, how tough it is for those players. And it's tough. It's not easy. And Montreal is a tough city for hockey, and I'm sure everybody respects what they did, but losing, you know, that's a tough thing to swallow in Montreal. They had a great history, had a lot of great teams, and I watched the TVs and Saddle Fleur and Cornwallay in there,

and Patrick Waugh, the one game, great players, and they've all won the Stanley Cup, and they know what it's like if you're going to lose it. I remember when we beat Montreal and that five-game series beat them three times. They had a great team, a lot of great players.

And we beat them two games in Montreal and then the third game in Evanston. A young team was all excited. And then I looked at the bench and the Montreal Canadians. They were just so downtroddened and depressed.

Losing is not easy. And that wasn't even the Stanley Cup, but that was a great team that we beat. Losing is never easy. That's it. It's always a tough pill to swallow. Yeah. You know, you got to play for the Montreal Canadians suit up in the form. What was it?

What was playing? I mean, you played for Montreal. You played for the Rangers. You played for Boston. Three of the original six. What was, what was suiting up for the original, like the original, the original. You talk about history and tradition and the blood, sweat, and tears that go into the Stanley Cup. Well, those organizations are just.

oozing with history and their own traditions and to suit up for those those teams i think of Montreal off the top of my head just because it's Canadian and everybody knows the fore on like you see the tradition they have before Stanley Cup games i mean this year was definitely different um with um no fans really being led into the building but you would have got to have play in some interesting interesting interesting times with a guy like Gila Flour? Yeah, I liked my year in Montreal. I liked playing for every one of the teams I got traded to.

I thought that every time I got traded, it was a better opportunity to learn more. And Montreal was, you know, it was the same experience that I had when I went to Boston. And, you know, Milchmidt and Harrison and Johnny Bucic and a lot of great players were there. And Montreal, it was, you know,

it was terrific on there. Scotty Bowen was a coach. and Scottie Bowman must have been young yeah he was not that old he was in his I think his 40s or late 40s okay and you know

I'd played with the Bruins against the Canadians when they beat us and I had a fight with Yvonne Cornway so I'm in Montreal and I are going out for dinner with Cornouet and his wife and

she said to me you're the asshole that broke his nose. And Cornyway laughed like crazy. He thought it was... But that was Montreal. I mean, I was a new guy on their team, and my wife was not French. I'm not French,

and this French couple had a terrific time with him. It was part of the way that they built their team. You know, took the new guy out. A man, I think was assistant coach, her assistant captain at that time. And, you know, became good friends with a lot of those guys. Larry Robinson and Doug Riceboro was my roommate at training camp, and he was a rookie. And he worked in Calgary, played for Calgary, coached in Calgary, manager there,

manager in Minnesota and the expansion team. So those are relationships you build. That's life. Yeah, that's life. And you never know where those relationships will lead. That's the interesting of watching not only your career, but I'll bring Brian Burke back up, for instance, just the people that he played with in the early days and the way it worked out as he went along in his career and where those guys went and how you guys kind of weave together and overlap at times.

And you just never know what a relationship's going to do in the future. Oh, you know, just make sure you build good relationships, good experiences. Yeah, well, dad always says surround yourself with good people. Yeah. And if you do that, I mean, the possibilities are endless. I used to tell the guys, I said, if you're going to hire somebody, hire somebody smarter than you. You can learn something from them. That's a good point.

If you're a commissioner for a day, what's one of the things you would enact in the NHL? Well, I don't think there's as much that I would change. I think Gary Bettman's been terrific. You know, he's smart. He's great. leader. He surrounds himself with good people. I like the direction this league was gone since he's taken it over. I mean, he's, they treat the players well. There's a lot of things that when I was negotiating with teams that you had to give up to get. And Gary had to do the same

thing when he was negotiating a collective bargaining agreement to get the salary cap 50% of players, 50 cents or 50% to the owners. There's things that he had to give up to get. But, I mean, that league is pretty successful right now. And to get through the last two years that they've done, pretty amazing. And I was on a conference call the other day with the league. I'm still an alternate governor with the Rangers, so privy to a lot of that information. And, you know, all the COVID testing they had to do with everyone and the games they had to reschedule. I don't think there's much that I would change. I respect Gary a lot.

I think he's done a terrific job. Yeah, that's fair. It's interesting because under his watch, the popularity of hockey across the world has gone up. I mean, just look at the price of a franchise these days. Like, it's unbelievable. And the skill level of the game is through the roof. And, well, I mean, salary cap comes under his watch and the parody across the league is just, I mean, I don't know of another league that's quite like it. That, you know, how many times now can we say the 16th place team in the NHL comes in and knocks off the one seed and goes on a bit of a run?

I mean, there's no other sport like that. That's only in hockey. And part of that we know as hockey guys. You just got to get into the dance these days. Oh, yeah. And each team has an opportunity to take a run at it. Absolutely. I think the one thing that I would do

because there's 32 teams in the league now, I'd increase more teams in the playoffs. Would you? There's so much parity in the game today that you just spoke about is, why not let somebody else have another crack at it? You know, you could miss the playoffs by two or three. three points.

And you may miss the playoffs because a couple of guys are hurt or something has happened. But if you're that close and you get into the playoffs and you get your players back, then you have a chance to win. And the playoffs, to me, are the best time of the year. You get buildings are full. People are excited. Television's great. You know, they've got a new television contract coming up this year.

I think it's going to be better than the way it was with NBC. So if you had maybe four more teams in the playoffs, you've got another, you know, you've got to have the 20th team playing against the first team at some stage. You might beat them. I like the interest. How many teams did you go to? Depends on how you balance the schedule,

whether you figure you're going to play in your divisions, or you're going to play one against 16 the way it was at one time, and then two against 15 and go down the line that way. or you play your teams in the playoffs that are in the sections that you're in, the players that you're in. You know, we're in the Northwest section. And those teams, do you play just in that division?

Or do you cross over somewhere else and play? Lots of ways you do it. But the managers can decide that. That's a favorite argument. I have the brothers on. We do brothers round tables. I've got three older brothers. And we argue about whether or not,

they should increase the amount of teams in. And so I'm glad you brought that up because now I get to hold that over my brother, Dustin, for the rest of time. Hypothetical for you. Would you rather take over Seattle as a GM with the expansion draft and everything coming up or be hired on to a current team? I think I'd take the Seattle job before I go to a current team. because then you can

pick the players you want. There's a great pool of players that are out there today that are going to be available. So Francis is going to have a real opportunity to build a team in his own mind. If you go to another team that's been

established, you're getting the players that you're left behind, you're getting the draft picks that are not there any longer. You're a little more restricted in Seattle. what Las Vegas did. Seattle could have a hell of a team this year.

It was a great city, new building. I think Seattle will be a pretty nice place. What do you think of the name, Cracken? I don't like the name. Everybody's split on it. Yeah, I know. But, I mean, it looks like a nice logo. Yeah.

Well, they'll probably get to have some fun with Cracken inside the building, I would say. Well, they'll have lots of fun. Yeah. Your final one. I was curious, who was the player you were most excited to see hoist the Stanley Cup? I assume you were excited, you know, the first year for all of them. But as you guys won the five for coaching, but the fifth in there as well, what player were you like, yeah, we're excited for him to lift it? Well, most of those guys are around for all five of them.

The guy that I really liked and admired was Semenko. He wasn't a great player, but he did what he had to do to stay in the league. And I liked what he brought to the team. I liked his humor. I liked him as a person. Not that I didn't like other guys. I mean, I remember watching Mark when he celebrated with his family and things that he did. I mean, he was a great player.

They were all great players. Davy Hunter's another guy that liked McClellan. I liked him. I liked the guys that they didn't have the talent that the stars had. And they had respect for each other. They had respect for the stars. They let them be the star. And they still supported them anyway.

And I liked those guys. Lee Fogan was a guy that I really admire and liked. And there was a lot of them. You know, it was just fun to be around them. One bonus question for you then. What was the funniest thing you saw drank or ate out of the cup? Well, I've seen babies in the cup. You know, I had a couple of black labs.

We had a party at my place, and we poured some water in the cup, and the dogs drank out of it, took pictures. Yeah. But there's been all kinds of situations what guys have done with that. cup. Well, I appreciate you doing this with me, Glenn, let me into your house, like I say. I don't know, this is one I really look forward to and really enjoyed it. And so thanks for letting me come and pick your brain for an hour. You're very welcome. Say hello to my friend Skip. I will do. Actually, Willie is the one that I like the best between the two of them.

Willie is his wife. Well, we're going to leave that in. You hear that, Skipper? Thanks again. You're welcome. 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.