Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 130: Featuring Stan Bowman

Episode Date: December 3, 2018

On Monday's episode, the guys switch it up and have Chicago Blackhawks Vice President and General Manager Stan Bowman on the podcast. Stan joins to talk about some of the trades he's made over the past few years and basically goes in depth on why he made each one. Stan also responds to some of the negativity he is receiving from Blackhawks fans, but first he opens up with what it was like growing up being the son of Scotty Bowman. The guys also touch on some NHL news around the league including the Tom Wilson hit, some beef Grinnelli got in, the William Nylander signing and much more.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello everybody, welcome to episode 130 of Spittin' Chicklets presented by New Amsterdam Vodka. Let's say hello to the gentlemen this fine Sunday, going into Monday. Let's go to Ryan Whitney first. What's going on, buddy? What up, what up, boys? We're special recording on a Sunday morning for Biz, early Sunday afternoon here on the East Coast.

So I appreciate you guys helping me out with this and not doing it at night. So what's going on? No sweat, man. Up early watching Davey and Goliath this morning. Let's say hello next to Biz Nasty. Paul Bissonnette, what's up, brother? Boys, I know you fucking fans were chirping me about the Yotes, you know, just heading on the downward, but three wins in a row now.

Three in a row. And that was a decisive victory against St. Louis last night. So the Wagoon is back. And shout out to Golly Goose. Got his first goal in quite a while last night after a sick dish from Clayton Keller. Oh, that was nuts. He danced to the end. That was dirty.

And last but not least, our producer down in New York City coming off a stint on the Long Island Uniondale last night, Mikey Grinelli. What's up, buddy? Fun time at the Islanders game Saturday. Yeah, I mean, I said it to you before I came on, R.A. It was absolutely insane in that place. I mean, it sucks because the coolest part was the National Anthem, and I was getting beers when that happened, so I'm an idiot.

But it was an absolute blast in there, and to sit next to Frankie Borelli for it all was crazy. Yeah, I pounded the Islanders because I figured right. You know, crazy atmosphere. They're coming back. I'm going to take them. And they went down to nothing.

I was sending them texts. I'm like, your team's a joke. Fuck this team. But what a comeback, big win for the aisles back at the Coliseum. It's going to really suck having to go back to that shit bag place in Brooklyn.

But Grinnelli, how much of a dump is the Coliseum? That place is a shithole too. Oh, it actually wasn't that bad. No, it's not. No, it's not. They redid everything. They redid the hole inside. They redid all the seats. Oh, really? Yeah, they redid everything. I was asking for it.

Okay, alright. The old place was... I mean, it's definitely not the best NHL arena I've ever been in, but it wasn't as bad as I think it was previously. I don't really understand why they redid the seats in the inside. Aren't they tearing that thing down? Yeah. What a fucking waste of money, man.

I don't get it. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. And now if you're a player on that team, how do you go from that atmosphere, like playoff-like atmosphere, back to Brooklyn with a fucking jumbotron not even centered on the ice and shit. Oh, yeah. In the same way I pounded them last night, I'm going to just pound whoever's playing

when they got to go back to Brooklyn. Guys are going to be like, are you kidding me? But still, pretty cool for Islanders fans. They seemed fired up. The only good thing about playing there were the Ice Girls back in the day. They had some of the best in the league. They had a couple that would spray this perfume on themselves, and they would go by the bench and, oh.

I'd be like, God, please get benched. I'd be skating my next shift with a heart on. Please get benched. Please get benched. Skate behind me. Oh, yes. Wasn't the visit a locker room at the Coliseum awful? Isn't it like a high school locker room?

They actually had kind of redone it. I think I never saw like when it was real bad. I mean, I know when I first came, it was like this. Remember the Penguins old visiting locker room? That place was like an MDC rink. You were playing in Medford. But hey, we do want to bring up the point that we have a special guest today, and that is the GM of the Chicago Blackhawks, Stan Bowman.

So we kind of previewed that we had a GM on. This was big for us. We had about an hour and what, an hour and ten minutes with him, Mikey? Yep. We also got a good pushy crusher 6969 out of Biz in it. Yeah, you know, when Biz is asking a current NHL GM if he has burner accounts, actually, I'll let everyone else listen to the question. But either way, we really appreciate his time, so that'll be coming up soon.

R.A., what are the happenings around the league? Well, yesterday was the deadline for William Nylander to sign. The 22-year-old finally signed with Toronto, practically the last minute, per Jonas Siegel's piece in The Athletic, I just want to give the guy proper credit, Nylander called Kyle Dubas a half hour before the deadline and said, do you want to make a deal? At 4.52, the Leafs had a signed copy of the deal. Good thing they didn't have business internet.

Could have ran into a real issue there. Both of you guys. So, yeah, so he literally called it. It's just kind of like, you know why couldn't this have happened you know three or four months ago uh and i got some info from uncle bob mckenzie here i used some of his tweets basically it's a six year 45 million dollar deal the actual dollars because of the proration because he's starting late is 41.77 million is what he's going to get but six years 45 mil uh the cat pit is going to get. But six years, 45 mil.

The cap hit is going to be a big cap hit this year because of the way it's structured. And then it's going to be 10.2 million this year and then 6.969 million for the final five years. So, I mean, it doesn't seem like a number that's – they couldn't have come to an agreement a few months ago. So what's your take on it, Whit? I said the same thing. I saw the deal.

I saw it got done. And you started seeing a lot of well-respected hockey names, journalists say, I think something's getting done today. So I wasn't that surprised. But I was surprised in the sense of you saying, what the hell? You guys couldn't do this? This was the contract?

This is what we waited for? Everyone the entire time was pretty much saying around $41 million to $45 million over six, seven years. I mean, I'm shocked it took this long. It makes me think the kid just wanted to chill for half the year. Let me just relax over here. I'll just have a little joyride, skate in Austria, wherever the hell he was skating.

But 45% of the entire contract, I think, is paid to him in the first year, whether it be signing bonuses or the salary from the first year. So good job by the Leafs. I feel like it's a win-win, which is kind of silly considering they both stood their ground for so long. But the Leafs got their guy at a reasonable number, and now the Leafs, who are wagging, they've won four in a row, and they look incredible. Austin Matthews, Jesus Christ. He hasn't slowed down since the injury. But now they have Nylander, so the Leafs are looking for real.

Yeah, 42.5% of that deal is going to get paid off in the next seven months. I mean, this is kind of a state tax situation where now all of a sudden... I know you fuckers are going to laugh when I said that. Hey, I should get an alarm. I should get a big state tax.

Yeah. We'll get, we'll get the silly season horn from Bud, Budweiser Canada going every time I mentioned that, but no, on a serious note is these rich teams have the ability to pay these guys a lot of money up front where it gives them more flexibility down the road. And, and for those, I guess how do I explain this for people who are wondering what the fuck I'm talking about, is if there's a market that doesn't have a lot of money,

they're going to... A lot of cash flow. Cash flow. Like three years into this deal, once, let's say, the Leafs pay off the signing bonus, then a month into the season, they can get this guy and pay him less than what his cap hit would actually be uh towards that they're his new team but uh um james myrtle had a good point he said the leafs

should do that with every contract going forward and anything to give them greater flexibility in the future and it's just an advantage for a team that has a lot of money uh on that note i think that william nylander has a fucking huge set of balls on him because I saw a couple tweets saying that he had some big balls big time I mean man he essentially got what he wanted

because he waited all the way to the fucking final minutes and you know I was never getting mad at either party here I know people who are attached to Leafs Nation probably get a little bit more emotional about it. But you had a GM who was looking out for the greater good of his team over the overall, and you had a player saying,

hey, listen, I know what my value is, and this is what it is. So people get so caught up in it, and they're like, listen, if I'm him, I would have signed that thing a lot, a lot earlier. And another thing that was weird about it too, is like, like he did get, I would, I would imagine that his number he was asking for was probably a little bit over 7 million. The money that he lost not playing the first two months of the season would have probably just made up for that in the eight year span anyway.

So I don't know, maybe, maybe it was a case in point where he wanted the structure where he was getting a shit ton of money up front and i mentioned that actually that instagram live i don't know if you guys checked it out is fuck what what's your money guy making you a year plenty i would say let's say eight percent i mean all of a sudden eight percent's a good year yeah i mean if you can get eight percent a year that's you know look at six seven kind of guaranteed right well all of a sudden this kid gets you know 42.5 percent of his entire contract in the first seven months christ man i could i could organize his money and make him a good five percent for crying out loud so i think it worked out for both parties that The Maple Leafs are, to me now, the team to beat.

Especially considering in the West. Wow, really? Considering in the West, all the other teams, the heavy hitters, just beat up on each other. And by the time they get to the finals, they're just so gassed. So, R.A., how do you feel about it? Man, it's a huge

addition. This is the team that's second in points in the NHL, and they're adding a player of his his caliber and they're just going to make him that much better uh i think the fact he picked up the phone at 4 30 in the afternoon it tells me ultimately he just wanted to play hockey and try to win a cup you know he didn't want to get tied up i mean what what would how would it benefit him sitting out a year in no way at all he's just going to lose prime prime time of his career so i think he realized he's assigned now or have to wait till the sun wait until the summer he really didn't have much leverage i mean other than sitting out and you know getting him locked up for a shade under seven million a year great move for the leafs i mean you know if he's producing at this level and keeps progressing i mean he's

going to be an unreal bargain in a few years uh and it gives him the security kneeling it gives him the security he was seeking he's still only going to be 28 years old at the conclusion of the deal, hypothetically still in his prime, and have another huge contract potentially down the line. What else I had? Oh, also two guys. It doesn't seem like – it seemed like years ago teams were trending away from paying guys based on potential,

but it seems like general managers are kind of going back to that. Like, okay, this kid looks like he's going to be good. Let's lock him up now where they kind of got away from that for a while, but it looks like they're returning to those ways. You almost have to. I mean, because in a sense, you have to bet on yourselves knowing how good this kid's going to be. And if you see some parts of his game that you love

and then you see some parts you don't love, that's when you have to decide how long-term of a deal do we want to offer this kid? Because we're going to end up getting throttled by him at some point if he lives up to what we think he can be in terms of the players he can be player he can become so teams have to make a decision and and i think that it works out great for both both both parties because players are looking at it now i guess if you're old school you could argue well these kids are young and they're getting so much money maybe they shut the mill like ryan whit But no, Ryan Whitney battled injuries.

He didn't really shut the mill. But you got to wonder if a lot of these guys are, you know, driven enough to become set for life at 23, 22, 24 years old and then be willing to put in the work to become the player that they're getting paid to become. I mean, a lot of times the money that guys are getting thrown at them, it's not for the player they are now it's, this is going to be what you're worth.

So it's going to be up to the player, but I do agree. Our teams are certainly showing and that's, that's all workings of the cap and figuring out how to kind of beat it and work ways around it and, and lining guys up and lining their pockets earlier in their career. I do feel that maybe that in the next CBA that should be addressed, though, as far as how they're structuring deals because teams that have a lot of –

Probably will. Teams that have a shit ton of money do have an advantage. They're going to have to structure it where they're paying them – they can only pay them up to a certain percentage in the first few years of that contract because that's an advantage. It's an advantage to the CBA, and it's being manipulated by teams that have dough. Regarding your comment, yeah.

I mean, you're basically telling a stud moving forward, hey, you're not going to have any bridge deal years where you're not making significant money. We're going to get you into making significant money. You may have to sacrifice some in the long term. But to me, it's a gamble on, on both ends. Like I would personally,

I would never get greedy about it because I'm like, damn, I'm not getting a bridge deal. And all of a sudden out of my entry level deal, which I'm assuming if you're getting an eight year deal or a six, seven year deal out of your entry level, you've probably hit a few bonuses along the way in that entry level too. So you've already made decent money.

I would say Nylander was making what one and a half to two in his entry level deal. He had back to back 60 point season. So I'd imagine there was some bonuses that, but yeah, I mean, it goes down to a GM not wanting to have to be the guy to overpay somebody where you're like, Hey, listen, I'm going to risk a little bit off the top here. And if he scales up to where we expect him to i get him a bar a bargain in the i want to i want to say maybe the i mean you're lucky enough to get it in the second year but like the third fourth fifth and

sixth year of this deal if this guy becomes a point of game player at seven million you're fucking laughing hey and then especially at that time if you have him locked in for 6.9 average and he's a point-of-game guy, think about how much leverage you have in trades after that. Not only is he a good cap hit, now you can get your stud defenseman. And, I mean, that's a story for another day. I feel like – I do feel – I don't know Neylander. I've never met him. But he has the look of a cocky, cocky kid, which I guess you got to respect.

And I feel like the entire time he was telling his agent, I'll call it 4.30 the last day. We'll get this done. He's like, I don't know. You could just tell the entire time nothing really bothered him, or at least from what I saw. And then he made the call like you said, all right, okay, let's do something. I'm set now.

So good for the Leafs and good for their fans because they are a club and a half right now. Yeah. It wasn't like he was sitting around eating ramen noodles, like living paycheck to paycheck by any stretch. And Biz, you just mentioned trade. He does have a modified no trade clause in the final year. And it's only the final year because he wasn't eligible for a no trade clause in the first five years due to his age. So that's something, you know, keep an eye on if Leafs say, oh, yeah, we want you here. But if they still need a top tier defenseman at some point, and, you know, I guess he's still potentially trade bait. A couple of the notes, too, just on the deal.

The way it's structured, again, we're just talking about how they got to kind of play with the money a bit. $24.3 million of it will come in the form of signing bonuses over the life of the deal and only $20.3 million of it will come in the form of signing bonuses over the life of the deal and only $20.7 million in base salary. This year, he's going to make $6.77, which is off the prorated $10 million, adding a $2 million signing bonus. So he's going to make $8.77 this year. Yeah, he's doing all right. And then next year, he's making $700K. The signing bonus is $8.3 million next year. And then the last four years of the deal, the base salary is only $2.5 million,

and the signing bonus for each of those years is $3.5 million. So, you know, they just finagle the money so it works and gets under the cap, and this is how we get here. And, boys, before we move on, I just want to congratulate every non-Leese fan for getting through this because, obviously, it's taken up a lot of the hockey world talk, and I'm sure you people are sick of it. So let's put it to rest.

It's better than if you're an NFL fan and you just listen to these scumbags just beating women and stuff. So our holdouts are a little better than your domestic violence, complete rats in the NFL. The NFL is the real sick league. That place, whatever, we'll go into that later. Boys, quickly, I don't know, Ari, your next topic, but I just wanted to mention, shout-out to the Buffalo Sabres fans.

The streak ended, but those wagon shirts were flying off the shelves, and those are the best T-shirts we've ever released as well, I would say. They are awesome. Yeah, kudos to Grinelli. Oh, speaking of Grinelli, I need to know, regarding the whole Buffalo thing, we're not going to talk about the team. I want to know what was going on online with you and this Jimmy Murphy guy.

I actually follow this guy. I follow a lot of media people because I'm always interested in what other people's opinions are and what they have to say so I can argue with them. But so what's the story here? Some people who don't have Twitter or who weren't paying attention that day are probably going to want to know the details, but you got into it with this Jimmy Murphy guy

about your Buffalo Sabres. Yeah, I mean, essentially the guy called Jeff Skinner overrated, so I said no, he's not. I called him out for it. And then when the Sabres lost, he tried to come back at me. And I mean, the way this guy works, R.A. knows this

guy. R.A. knows how he works as well. He does this for attention. He knows we're the big boys. So he comes barking up my tree because he knows we'll get him a couple Twitter followers. I reached out to him after. Behind the scenes, he's calling me a Twitter tough guy. I messaged him and I said, fight me in rough and rowdy. Let's battle this like men.

How old is he? How old is he? He's like 40. And he's calling me a tough guy. I offer you out. And he's saying me a tough guy. I offer you out. And he's saying that, oh, I'll see you on the ninth floor of the press box and you won't be saying this to my face. And I'm like, all right, well then let's settle this like men and let's fight and rough.

And let's make some money at rough and rowdy. You used to work with this guy though. You used to work with this guy. Yeah, I did a podcast with him right before I joined Chicklets. That must have been a monster podcast. I got him his fucking last job. Fuck that guy. Yeah, I did a podcast with him right before I joined Chicklets. That must have been a monster podcast. I got him his fucking last job. Fuck that guy. He's a clown. What a little

weasel this guy sounds like. He's a clown. So does he want to fight you or what? No, he said no. I have had major health issues the past two days and I've been in the hospital. I'm not going to deal with your little high school boy shit. He'll school bullshit. He's in a couple months. Yeah, I said, hey,

we'll tee it up right before Whitney and Riggs. Right before you guys play your golf match. And it's a little crazy considering his comment was Skinner was overrated. Skinner doesn't have a big cap hit. I mean, no one really talks. They traded draft picks for him. He's got 20 goals. Yeah, he's got 20 goals.

So, I mean, if anything, it just looks bad on him for making the comment. Now he's trying to justify it. This is probably good for him, though. Listen, I don't like getting in media risk with the other media guys. I don't really care enough. We live in our own little bubble on this podcast. You know, we got fucking Pink Whitney's we talk about. We got R.A.'s Simpson jokes.

Hey, by the way, I want to go at you for that internet crack. Your internet's worse than mine, you piece of crap. I don't know. I think it's been – I think Rinelli will agree. I stepped it up. I finally got things working. It's been fine the last few days. Oh, by the way, go ahead, Biz.

Oh, no, no. I was just going to – I wanted to finish up with this Jimmy Murphy guy. We don't have any ill will towards him, but you think he's coming after you because he wants the follows? I guess so. I thought I was friends with the guy before and then he's calling me a Twitter tough guy and he's calling me all this shit.

I said, let's just fight. Let's settle this again. I'll be your ring man. That would be awesome. Hater. What a hater. Hey guys, before we go any further just want to talk to you for a second about quip when you think of the perfect gift this holiday season you probably don't think of an electric toothbrush but the quip electric toothbrush is one of the most gift guided gifts of the season and here's why it's perfect for everyone with the mouth and

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Quip looks like a big-ticket tech gift with the stocking stuff for price starting at just $25. And if you go to getquip.com slash chicklets right now, you get your first refill pack for free with a Quip electric toothbrush. But you don't have to tell your giftee that. That's your first refill pack free at g-e-t-q-u-i-p.com slash chiclets uh by the way shout out to all the pink whitney uh people out there i mean did you see the battle the battle shots i guess it's called it's like the old game battleship but you drink shots i mean that's after my time i never seen that in college but they were doing shots a couple guys used it for their

secret santa and they actually printed out the Whitney labels, the one that Buddy Bernardo made. So, shout out to everybody who's still drinking the Pink Whitney's, the New Amsterdam Vodka. Everybody's happy with what's going on, so keep pounding away and drink responsibly. Yes. Love it. Hey, how about the

Oilers boys since old Hitch. Old Hitch shows back up in the league behind the bench, just chirping at people. And the Oilers are 4-1-1 under him. Just buzzing. Big win last night against the Vegas Golden Knights. McDavid's goal.

Are you kidding me? This is a complete joke. I just wish the Oilers were on a little earlier because I love watching them play because of that savage. But Hitch has them going, so shout out to the Oilers who are buzzing around. Guys, I don't know how many times we talk about it, but to me, McDavid's the greatest hockey player to ever be born, just as far as his sheer – I know people – Oh, Gretzky.

Listen, I fucking love Gretzky, and I love what he did, and obviously he's got all the records. But what McDavid could do on the ice in today's NHL has never been seen. Are we all in agreement? I don't know. I think Sid Early was the same thing. I don't know. I'm not ready to say that.

I'm not ready to say what you're saying. I think when Sid came, it was like, holy shit, what is this human being? Is this a creature? Is this a real-life person? How is he doing these things? And the same is being said for McDavid. Are you saying the most talented player ever or the best overall hockey player? What are you saying? He goes out there and he dominates.

In today's NHL, it's like where like you don't see that like guys you know yeah nobody's skated with him nobody has skated like him especially with the puck we said or the one time Horkoff gave me shit Horkoff told me that and then I said it and he's like you didn't even give me credit you scumbag wit not surprised yeah Scotty Bowman compared his initial step to Bob Buehler, his speed. I think that's the difference. As good as Crosby is, he doesn't have the speed and the size that McDavid does. Just to piggyback on Hitchcock, I think we've got to give a shout-out. We've been talking about Finnish goalies a week or so

ago. Mikko Koskinen kind of come out of nowhere. He was a second round pick of the Islanders back in 2009. Right now, Edmonton has-round pick of the Islanders back in 2009. And right now, Edmonton – He's in the KHL for a while. He's been lighting it up. You know, 8-2-1 with Edmonton this year, 2.16 goals against them, a 9-2-8 save percentage, two shutouts.

So, you know, Hitchcock obviously cleaned things up, but we've got to give props to the goalie as well. Yeah. Okay, let me rephrase my statement because I'll probably get smoked for, you know, saying – I kind probably get smoked for saying this. I kind of know what you're saying. He's probably the most electrifying. And when you watch him, every shift you're like, something's going to happen.

And to me, he's the best ever regarding that. Like Sid's a little bit more structured in the sense where he's – what do I say here? Well, Sid does a lot of his damage like on the walls down low in the offensive zone, whereas McDavid, for me, what you just said is true in that when he swings low in the neutral zone and gets a pass at full tilt, right away you're like, here we go. Here we go.

You actually kind of move forward in your seat and spill some of your pink wine or your pink Whitney or your red wine on yourself. Yeah. So yeah, I'll, I'll retract my statement. Not the best ever yet,

but I would imagine he's there if he can, if he can sustain this for another 10 years of what he's doing right now, to me, obviously the point thing will never be touched, but to me, he's the best ever. If he can do that, the point thing doesn't,

I mean, when you're playing against goalies back in the day that we're wearing black ice fucking uh goalie pads and and like stood up and we're doing kick saves and guys were scoring from outside the blue line like it was nothing i don't know i might be digging myself a hole here that's right it's early in the morning biz you gotta wake up a little right yeah and and with that that probably means it's time where we're going to throw to our interview with current GM of the Chicago Blackhawks, Stan Bowman. Here we go.

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The GM of the Chicago Blackhawks, three time Stanley Cup champion Stan Bowman. Thank you very much for joining the show. Glad to be here, guys. Looking forward to it. So we're a little nervous, and people probably think, wow, you're actually interviewing a GM? You're not just talking trash about old locker room stories. But we're actually nervous because you're our appetizer.

If we crushed the interview with you, we might get Scotty on here, no? Hey, you never know. He likes doing stuff, too so uh if this one goes well you just might get him i actually wanted to get in that quickly before we get into the current state of affairs and your you know professional career with the blackhawks i'd love to know what it was like being a seven-year-old running around the montreal canadians locker room with your dad just winning cups and more real well you know it funny. I look back at those days and, you know, I almost thought that that's the way it always went.

You know, when you're a little kid, you don't have really a frame of reference. So from the time I can remember, I was around hockey and the Canadians were just such a dominant team. I mean, they would win. I remember that one year they won 60 games. I mean, it was like, it was an unbelievable record. I mean, they would win. I remember the one year they won 60 games. I mean, it was like, it was an unbelievable record. I still think, and then actually my dad's Red Wings team is the only one that beat that record years later. So, you know, he's been part of some

special teams over the years. And as a kid, you just sort of soak it up and you absorb it. You're around it all the time. And you don't know that it's unusual for a team to have that much success until you get older and you kind of look around and see how tough it is to win. Stan, when you were, you know, hanging around the, like what said the forum, were you cognizant? I know you were just a little kid, but did you have any idea just how big of a deal those guys were? And like that, you know, they were this dynasty going on or were you just kind of an oblivious kid? Like when did, when did you finally realize, wow, dad, dad has a pretty big job here and he's kind of a big deal? it wasn't till later probably we moved to buffalo um so in

the late 70s i moved to buffalo and you know once i was probably 10 12 13 years old and you know the buffalo teams weren't as strong as the montreal teams and then you started to look back and look at the record and realize they had so many hall of fame players there and you know you were sort of blessed as a kid to be around that and just to see you know the city is crazy in Montreal for the Canadians and you know I think I remember back to those days you know just every everybody plays hockey in Montreal as a little kid you know it's what you do when you come home from school is you play. We had a backyard rink, and that's kind of where I learned how to skate,

and it's cold there, so you can make the rink early and you can skate on it every day after school. It was something that my brother and I did, and I remember those days like it was yesterday. Yeah, I mean, I know we see a lot of pictures and video of like players today, kids skating around with their teammates. Is that something that they allowed you to do? Like were you able to wheel around like Steve shot and Gila Fleur and,

and you know, Kenny Dryden back then, or was that kind of frowned upon in the seventies? A couple of times I did. It's funny. You mentioned Steve shot. Cause for whatever reason, he was my favorite player. Like they had all these guys on the team that were probably, well, they were more famous than him and it seemed like everybody liked LeFleur and uh for some reason I was a Steve Schutt fan he was my guy and as a little kid that was like the guy I was always looking up to well this is usually an interview where we ask

guys about guys wrenches in the locker room but but I guess we've got to skip that step today. Did you play at all growing up? Were you a big hockey guy? Yeah, I played. I mean, I was a decent player. I played all through high school, and then I went to Notre Dame, and I didn't – actually, an interesting story. So I was a young kid. I was a Pee Wee and Bantam player.

We had good teams, and I got to high school, and I just wasn't having fun anymore. I didn't like my coach. He was sort of a yeller. After my freshman year, I said to my dad, and I was kind of nervous to have this conversation, but I said, I don't want to play anymore. It not fun like you know I didn't know what he'd say because you know he's coaching um this is in Buffalo at the time I think he might have been the coach and the GM and you know to his credit he said well if you're not enjoying it then then don't play and you know I was I was an active kid I played baseball my dad was our coach and I played golf and tennis and you, you know, it's not like I didn't do anything, but I took two years off. And then right before my senior year of high school, I missed it so much. I sort of regretted that I stopped playing. So I got back into it. You know, I played, I played well, you know, I made like an all-star team my senior year,

and I was hoping to maybe play in college, but didn't happen so I went to Notre Dame and played club hockey there and I played dorm hockey and then I joined a men's league like I was back in full because the passion was there and um you know I even if I stuck with it I don't think I would have been a pro player I might have been able to play in college but uh you know the love of the sport kind of came back to me after I took a couple years off. So did you, you probably had a pretty good relationship with your old man then. I mean, obviously he was busy with all the hockey stuff and being a GM and coach, not a big deal. But like, were you guys conversational? Were there a lot of talks in depth?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, obviously mostly around sports and hockey. Like we're really into all sports. I mean, my dad, I don't know that he watches anything on TV besides sports. And it's if it's not hockey, then it's baseball. If it's not baseball, it's golf or, you know, he'll find anything on TV. So that's sort of what I grew up with. And I was a big sports fan in general, but hockey was always dominating our life. And one of my favorite things to do as a little kid was I just would like to sit there and be a fly on the wall. So he'd let me come in. He had meetings with his coaches. And, you know, back then, you know, he did a lot of phone calls.

Like there wasn't as much thing. There was no Internet and whatnot. So, you know, he would call his coaches daily and just talk about the game the night before. And I would just sit there for hours and listen to him. We just listened to him talk and, you know, they make observations about the game. And I think you learn to watch the game differently. Like when you watch it with a coach, they notice things differently than the fans notice, right? They're noticing the details of the game. And, you know, when something good happens, you know, you look 20 seconds earlier, well,

here's sort of what, you know, preceded that. And this is why we're doing well or we're not doing well. So, you know, the thing I remember most as a little kid was, you know, I think my dad, the greatest coach, the reason that I think he is, is because he always had a curiosity for what other people were thinking. And he always sort of took little bits and pieces from, from a lot of different spots. You know, I remember being a teenage kid and after a game, this was when he was in Detroit, actually, he would say, what did you see last night? Like, what did you see in the game? And I would tell him, here's what I think you should do.

And then, sure enough, sometimes, like, the next day, they would change the lines, exactly what I had suggested, and they would change some of the things. And it was because, you know, a lot of times you're too close to it as a coach and you maybe don't see something. And he had friends. He had a friend that was like an electrician that was they used to talk hockey every day and he would say a lot of crazy shit about you know how you guys should try this you guys should try that but every now and then he'd have a good idea and my dad would use that good

idea and i think so he was never afraid to kind of tinker and try things that other people probably, I don't know if their ego would get in the way or if they would think that they have the answers. But, I mean, my dad has no ego at all. It's just about, you know, trying to get better. And I think as a result, he ended up having the career that he did. I could just picture you, though, like, Dad, you got to put Ray Shepard up with Federov tomorrow night.

I could sense it. And they go minus five. He's like, Jesus Christ. What the fuck was that? No, I just, I am.

Yeah. Oh yeah. Or it wasn't a very good skater before he could put the puck in the net. Yeah. Now he's like a plus two golfer. He's got life by the balls, but I'm curious those, those years in Detroit and even the Pittsburgh titles,

I mean, you're in college at Notre Dame when Pittsburgh wins one of them. Then you're young 20s and Detroit's taking these cups. What are some of the celebration nights like for you? I mean, you're just a man being a 24-year-old just with your dad raising cup after cup, no? Yeah, well, yeah, it was a lot of fun back then. The Pittsburgh one, that was in Chicago. So it was my freshman year at Notre Dame.

I had just finished the semester, and I lucked out there because it's about 90 miles from Notre Dame to Chicago. So I came over, and I got to be there when they won it. And all my siblings, they were so jealous. They couldn't go to that game because they were in school elsewhere so i got to be on the ice with them and down in the locker room and the old chicago stadium it was uh i just remember you know the armor joggers spraying champagne in their face and it was uh that was sort of my introduction to the celebrations. And then obviously they had the, the two and later in the nineties, they're, um, 96, 97, uh,

and then 97, 98 with the wings and again in oh two. So, um, it was, uh, there was some fun nights for sure. I don't remember that. Um, you know, I do remember the one time it was in 2002, we were, uh, we had been partying after we won the cup. I was with my wife, and she was pregnant with my son, who's now 16. So she was the only sober one of the group. So we got pulled over on the way home, and the cop comes up and looks and sees all these people that are essentially passed out in the car. But my wife was stone sober.

And then the guy asked her, like, what's going on? We had like four or five people in the car and they were all just sort of out of it. And she said, well, we're coming from the Red Wings celebration. My husband's dad is a coach and I didn't have a drink because she was about, I think, six months pregnant at the time. So obviously we got off scot-free from that one, and they gave us a high five for winning the Cup. So that was one memory from that Cup that kind of sticks out. And now you're calling these guys about trades, like Shani and Iserman.

Is that a little weird, or is just like a lot easier to like call them up and be like, Hey bud, like, you know, proposal or just shoot the shit. No, I mean, obviously it helped. I knew those guys. I mean, when, I remember I went on a road trip one time when I was in, it was like a spring break trip and I was in college and I went with the Wings out west and I was the same age as Chris Draper I think I remember you know I was I was sort of this nervous guy on the bus and you know somebody they kind of put me up to it they said you know go ahead and sit in that seat right there that's where you're supposed to sit so I sat there it

turns out that was my dad's seat he He comes on the bus and he said, what are you doing? And I said, well, that's where they told me to sit. So they would kind of play lighthearted jokes on me that way. I wouldn't say I had a real in-depth relationship with them, but over the years, I saw them enough that

at the parties for sure, but also just being around the team that, you know, I have a good relationship with those guys. And Chris Draper, I know he's a coach now. His son, same age as my son, play against each other a lot. So I see Chris in the rinks quite a bit. So, you know, you have relationships and it doesn't hurt, I think.

You know, but when business comes into play, the friendships don't really matter. Stan, when was it you decided you wanted to be a team executive? You know, you said you kind of played club hockey in college and realized the NHL wasn't going to happen. So, you know, when did you say, hey, man, I want to make hockey, you know, part of my life, make a career out of it?

How did that start, and what was your first job as a team exec? Well, it actually goes back to that story I told a minute ago. After the victory when the Penguins beat the Blackhawks, my mom and I, the next day, we drove back to Notre Dame to pack up my stuff, and I was on that ride home when we just started talking about how my first year was going and what I was studying, and I said, you know, I'd love to work in hockey one day and I'd love to work with dad

and she said oh that was the first time I ever really sort of verbalized it and she said oh like you want to be a coach and I said no I I don't have that like that's not my skill set I can't I can't see myself being coached like it's just that wouldn't work for me and I don't know if it was because my dad was such a successful coach and I didn't want to follow in his footsteps or just I didn't have that skill set so I told her that someday it would be really cool if I could work in the NHL in management and work with dad. And then, so that was, that would have been 1992. So, you know, I graduated in 95. And after that, I went and I kind of wanted to do my own thing right out of school. So I got a job. I was working in the business field, Arthur Henderson,

you know, they, before they got in all their trouble with Enron, it was, it was my first job. So I worked there for like three years in sort of in a their trouble with Enron. It was my first job. So I worked there for like three years in sort of in a consulting role, computer consulting. That was what my degree was in. I studied finance and computers. So, you know, I enjoyed it. It was actually a fun job right out of college. It was almost like an extension of college. Like we had a big group of kids that started. It was, you know, you don't do a whole lot. You're starting out as a consultant, you know, there's a lot of downtime. So it was almost like you were continuing on your college days. So we had a lot of fun.

And I did that for a couple of years, but I remember in the, in the middle of this, probably 1998 or so, I think like, I don't really want to be doing this when I'm in my 40s like it's fine for now and I was I was good at it but there was no passion for it like being a consultant and traveling around different job sites it was it wasn't something I wanted to do as a career and you know I kind of evaluated where I was at and I said if I'm going to change paths I gotta I'd like to do something with hockey that's what I really care about I mean I was obviously a huge fan of the Red Wings and at the time I was going to as many playoff games as I could I would watch them all the time so um I just started sending letters around it was this was about a year later it was like late

1999 I started sending resumes sort of blindly to a bunch of teams and a couple of them responded. And the Black Box, which is where I was living in Chicago at the time, they had made some changes. They were going through sort of a front office changeover. And Mike Smith called me in and said, hey, I got your note. Why don't you come in and we'll talk? So I didn't know Mike. Like, my dad didn't know Mike.

And I didn't really want to go somewhere where my dad just got me a job. Like, I didn't want to go work for the Red Wings, you know. And it just, I wanted to do something for myself. So Mike brought me in and talked about different things. Actually, we ended up talking most. My wife had started a pet sitting business in Chicago like dog walking and cat sitting and so when I showed up at the interview all Mike wanted to talk about was walking dogs because I he was a big pet lover and he was telling me how he had this was

favorite job ever was one summer when he we wouldn't took care of someone's dog and Martha's Vineyard. And he said, so he spent like 40 minutes talking about pets and dogs and how great it is to be an animal lover. And at the end of it, he's like, all right, well, I think we'll find something for you if you want to just come in. We'll make you like special projects and we'll start next week. So I remember I left there and I'm thinking like, yeah, I don't know what I'm doing. But I didn't, at that point, I didn't care. I just wanted to start.

So I started and I was doing more financial stuff to start, like budgeting, statistical work, you know, like skills that I had from the business world that, I mean, I had hockey knowledge, but I didn't have any practical working hockey knowledge. So I started and this was before there was any kind of databases. So I created some very rudimentary programs to track things. And, you know, back then, this is 2000, I started with the Hawks. You know, there wasn't it was a small operation. Like now I look at our front office was so much more advanced than it was then. But so a couple of years, you know,

I kind of worked my way up and then at one point Mike Smith got let go. And so did Nick Beverly and Marshall Johnston and Joe Unetti. They let go of like five guys and they didn't hire anybody new. They moved Dale Talon from the broadcast booth over into like the assistant gm and then in dale and i knew each other you know it's been dale's a big golfer and i am as well and we were pretty good friends um so dale came to me and said look i need your help with some of this cba stuff like i can help you um well actually dale had gone from the broadcast booth to do some scouting so he was to me and said, look, I need your help with some of this CBA stuff. Like I can help you.

Well, actually Dale had gone from the broadcast booth to do some scouting. So he was doing some scouting and then he said, I can help you with the scouting stuff. You know, you got to help me with some of this other stuff as far as the CBA. And so, you know, I ended up doing like probably three or four guys jobs. And at the time I wasn't really qualified to be doing what I was doing but you know our team was struggling there wasn't a spotlight on Chicago back then that there is now I mean so I was doing I was out in the field I was negotiating contracts I was doing the day-to-day logistics of transactions and stuff and Dale was training to be a GM under Bob Pulford and I was sort of training under Dale to learn how to be in the front office so I got a lot of opportunity at a young age to kind of spread my wings and you know when the spotlight wasn't on us so you know we didn't have a great group

there but we were building and you know slowly things started to turn we got you know some some really talented young players and and obviously then you know things took a turn and, you know, slowly things started to turn. We got, you know, some really talented young players. And obviously then, you know, things took a turn and, you know, we had that great run. Stan, when you said you wanted to be involved in hockey, did you eventually seeing yourself as a GM? And this is going to be a two-parter. Do you feel like all those conversations with your old man,

were you absorbing a lot of the knowledge as to why he was making certain moves? Like, were you asking questions knowledge as to why he was making certain moves like were you asking questions constantly why he was doing things yeah i answer to both questions is yeah i mean for me i wanted to be in the management side i i i knew i didn't have that uh skill set to be a coach now if you think back to you know this is probably this is the 90s right um the coaching you know, this is probably, this is the nineties, right? The coaching, you know, the, the personality of the coaches is much different than now. I mean, my dad was a pretty fiery guy and I get a lot of intensity and he was more of

a, and back then, I mean, you guys played for coaches like this, I'm sure, you know, like I think now the modern coach from 2018, that's not, those coaches weren't around back then and i just looked around and i said that this isn't me i i'm not this personality like that if i'm going to be in hockey i'm going to have to be more in the management of the gm side because you know i was more analytical and i kind of evaluate things i'm not emotional guy that way i don't uh and i didn't i didn't think i would be a good coach, but, um, I thought about the skillset you need to have. And yeah, I do, I did remember back to all those things my

dad said over the years. And it was almost like, you know, being, you know, tutoring under the greatest hockey mind ever. And, um, you know, I look back at those days, not only as a little kid, but even, you know, as a teenager and into my twenties and, you know, I look back at those days, not only as a little kid, but even, you know, as a teenager and into my twenties. And, you know, I just learned so much from him and, you know, it's serving me well, even to this day. Hey, Stan, before we get to one more question, I just want to talk to the guys out there about Tommy John. It's the holiday season. Everybody's going to be buying gifts for everybody. I want to give you a few tips. Take care of your loved ones or your friends with some Tommy John underwear. All right. It's the most comfortable underwear on the planet. It keeps men's package neat and nestled. And

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how current coaches are. I think in the old school way of things, the% off. Well, it's funny you mentioned, you know, how current coaches are. I think in the old school way of things, the way the assistant acted, that's kind of how the head coach acts now. You know, it's buddy, buddy is you're the nice guy assistant. The head coach is just a prick. And nowadays it's like even the head coach is buddy, buddy. But moving along, I thought that was a shot at Babcock. That's a shot at all the coaches used to torture me. And the who would come up and say, it's okay, Whit, it's okay. But I'm

curious. So Stan, so you're with the Blackhawks, you start in 2001 and it's pretty cool how you're just, you know, kind of the odd job guy and you're just working your way up. The question I have, and I've always been so curious, is when Dale Tallon was let go and you came on and the whole issue with the qualifying offers weren't set in time. I sent in time, excuse me. I just would like to get your perspective on kind of what happens. Cause I immediately thought, isn't it the secretary who's supposed to send out the qualifying offers? Like how did that all go down? Yeah. I mean, but I don't remember the exact details of it, but yeah, I think at the end of the day, though, when something like that happens, you know, it's ultimately it's, I guess, the manager's responsibility. Although there's a lot of other people that do those steps. Right.

So, yeah, I mean, that's kind of throw stones at anybody. But I think, you know, when when things don't go wrong at the end of the day, it is the top guy, but it's not like any general manager was ever like taking the letters to the, to the post office. Right. So yeah, there was a breakdown in the process there, but I think when that happens, it, it, you know, I, I don't know if that ultimately was the, the end of the road for Dale. I think it was, you know, this is going back in time, but it was sort of a series of things that it wasn't just one episode.

I think sometimes that's the part that gets misinterpreted in the media is that like, it was just one event that caused things to happen and that's usually not the case. There's usually more under the surface for why something like, if they make a change of that magnitude, it's not usually just one event like the qualifying offers. How's your relationship with Dale these days? Great. Yeah. I mean,

Dale and I maintained a really good relationship throughout. I just talked to him the other day. It was a matter of yesterday, actually. And, you know, we have, like I said, we were good friends for a while, like both like to golf a lot. And, you know, he would kick my ass every time we would go play. He's like – He's a stick, I heard. He's unbelievable.

I mean, even to this day, I don't know how old he is, but he can still beat me. And he's a really – he could have been a professional golfer, I think. You know, he was that good as a kid, and he kind uh he's a really he could have been a professional golfer i think you know he was that good as a kid and he kind of stuck with it but um no so dale and i have remained good friends uh throughout the whole process did you feel like the media might have kind of spun it to where there's like a rivalry there or probably so um you know i think but there never was i mean you could just ask dale the same thing i'm sure he would say that that's not the case there never was that because i think you know we helped each other quite a bit like like i said he learned you know some of the specifics and the

the skills that i had and then i learned a lot i mean dale's a fantastic scout i mean he's a great great hockey mind. I've enjoyed, you know, over the years, we used to go to watch junior games together, and, you know, he's really got a unique talent for that. So there never was any kind of rivalry. That was just totally fabricated. But that's not the first time that's happened to me.

People say things that just aren't accurate, and, you know, you, the media doesn't have all the information and sometimes they can't have all the information. And, uh, and as a result,

they kind of put pieces together that make sense logically. And everyone's like, well, this is must be what's going on. But that's why they're all starting burner accounts. All these GMs. Well, not me.

I'm not, I'm never, what's your burner account? Stan the man. Stan McKee the man. Pussy Crusher 6969. I don't know if I'd go for that name, but no. Keeping it political, are we? Yeah.

This is where we're going to get weird. This is where we're going to get weird. This is where we're going to get weird. The gummies kicked in. Whit took a bam-bam when you jumped on, so things are going to get really weird. I'm such a pro. I love it. Stan, keeping the topic on Chicago, we were told you were Pat Kane's landlord when he first broke in, or I guess a billet almost.

Is that accurate? Yeah, yeah. It must have been pretty wild, huh? Yeah, I mean, it all came together sort of innocently enough. So I didn't really know Patrick beforehand, but he's from Buffalo, which is where I grew up. My dad knew of him because, you know, he had been a phenom since he was like

13 years old so he had met Patrick you know a couple years before we drafted him but um so we we draft him and he comes to training camp and you know back then there was still some uncertainty whether he was going to go to London or not uh you know we're going to give the nine game sort of trial and see if he was going to stick in the NHL. So he had been in the hotel since, you know, early September. And, you know, the season started. He made the team, obviously. And so it's mid-October by this point.

And I just invited him over to my house for dinner one night because I kind of felt bad. We didn't have a lot of young guys. It was really Tate and Kane. And then it was a bunch of – we had a more veteran team at that time. So he was just by himself in the hotel. And I think Taser might've went to live with Seabrook or somebody at the time. I think it was just Patrick in the hotel. So I invited him over because I just kind of felt bad that he was this kid by himself

in the hotel for six weeks. So he came over and, you know, I had two, my boys were like two and five years old or something like that. Really, really young. And he, Patrick got such a good, you know, he's almost like a kid himself, right? He was great with them. You know, he would kind of put up with them playing hockey in the basement and stuff while he was there that night and then you know after that I was talking to my wife and we just said you know I kind of feel bad that he's going back to live in a hotel we decided obviously we're going to keep him in

Chicago for the season he was having a great start and he was rookie of the month that first month in October and he was playing really well and I just said hey you know do you want to stay um and he was playing really well. And I just said, hey, you know, do you want to stay? And he said, yeah, sure. Why not? So it wasn't like we planned it out. So, you know, he moved in and, you know, it kind of started the relationship between us. And, you know, he was really good to my kids, something you never forget.

You know, just the way he would, they'd go down there, you know, before bed, and they would kind of just barge into his room, and he's in there just on his computer or whatever. Oh, is that what the kids are calling it? No, they're like, hey, Dad. They're like, Patrick's still asleep. It's 3 o'clock in the afternoon. They're like, ah, they won 7-0 at home.

That's Dave Offen. Dad, whose boots are those at the front door? There you go. He was a good sport. He really was. It's something that we went the whole year. Obviously, he had a great season that year.

Rookie of the year. He built off that start and um rookie of the year and you know he kind of built off that start and and kept it going with the truth to the rumor that you uh kept his uh his bonuses his rent money no no we didn't do that that wasn't so much it i mean he uh closet oh so that was a rumor i'll scratch that one away there that one yeah well so you know then we you know so the you take over as gm and then 2010 happens an incredible stanley cup win kane scores that goal and immediately i'm assuming usgm realizes holy shit like we have to trade a good amount of players from this roster that are big time difference makers when did that i mean i'm assuming i'm assuming you realized it earlier

but when did you kind of understand this is who we want to deal? Bufflin's got to go things like that. Yeah. So that's the story of that goes back even earlier than that. So we hired Kevin Shevelday off. I hired him as my assistant GM and I remember like the first day on the job. So we hired him in the summertime. He was with the wolves and we brought him over. We sat down in August, and we went through the cap situation.

I said to Chevy, I said, here's the deal. We're going to have to get rid of a lot of guys, whether we win the Cup or miss the playoffs. That was the whole thing about it. It didn't matter how we did. Obviously, we were hoping we were going to go all the way but we had to make those changes regardless because of what was happening with our team and players salaries that were going to be changing we looked at it and we knew so it was obviously a sort of a fitting ending that but we knew way back i knew in august that

this was going to happen but i i didn't want to broadcast it to the other teams because you know we had to make some really really tough decisions and i i had to basically call the other gms and in the best way possible portray it like you know no big deal we might move a couple guys just but i had no choice. I mean, we were in danger of being over the cap with no possibility of having a compliant roster. So we had to move these guys, and we had to move them for essentially nothing coming back other than draft picks and prospects. I couldn't take a roster player back because the only reason we were trading

Bufflin and Versteeg and Ladd and Eager and all these guys was because they made too much money. It wasn't because we didn't like any of them. And I think that's, that's probably the one misconception as well. We got rid of all these guys. We had no choice. We had to make a decision to,

to have a compliant roster for the next, you know, October when the season started. So, you know, I was trying to play it cool when I would make my phone calls, but yeah, it was like a day or two after we won the cup, I called all of them and said, you know, here, here's a couple of guys I might be moving. I don't have to move them, but you know, I just might change things up. You know, I'm sure most guys didn't buy it, but some of them, you know, maybe didn't realize the dire situation we were in. And this was a long time ago,

and I don't think there was as much analysis of teams' cap situations as there is now. So it was tough, though. I mean, the day or two after that cup victory, I was making calls to every GM, kind of figuring out which teams were interested in which guys and what could I get back for them. Did any of it vary based on the fact that you had so many guys,

which is not necessarily a bad thing because maybe you got an offer for one that you hadn't planned on moving, but it was too good to pass up where it changed the path of everything? Or did you already have that list of guys you're like this is my core group and then these are the guys i'm gonna move or i guess i'll let you take yeah i think yeah you know i think we we had to make some hard decisions and decide who we were going to keep and who we were going to trade and part of it was also which you know guys had the most interest around the league so um i don't i don't think i'm trying to remember back now i don't think there was one guy that i was planning on keeping and suddenly i got such a good offer i traded him it was more

um we just tried to make the best deal we possibly could and get some futures um but it was a those are hard trades to make when you're essentially, you're talking to another GM and you're, you're trying to paint, play it cool. Like you don't have to move anybody, but you might move, you know, Andrew Ladd or Bufflin and they, you know, I don't know if they believe you totally or not, but I think that's the, the challenge is trying to get any kind of value when you essentially have no bargaining or no leverage no speaking of trades june 23rd 2017 a pretty significant date in

blackhawks history as far as trading you know nicholas shawmason was sent to arizona for conor murphy and organizational death you know shawmason was a known commodity well-liked teammate still at a couple of years left at a cheap price, 4.1 mil, only a little bit more than Murphy. What was the reasoning

behind that move to get rid of such a well-liked, basically a rock-on defense to bring in another guy and, you know, with only a savings of a couple hundred thousand? What was the thinking there?

Yeah, I think it was the, I mean, those are hard trades to make. And I think, you know, there obviously has been a lot of talk about that trade and the Panarin trade and like what the challenge for us is looking forward as opposed to trying to hang on to the past and john merson's a great player i mean he's the ultimate warrior uh i love him as a player it wasn't like when you make a move like

that it's not like you don't like the player or you don't think he's a good player, but you're, you're trying to do what's best for your team in the longterm. And, you know, Murph is, he was 24 years old. He had five more years on his deal at a known number,

which was a lower number. And I think the, the reality was we were going to have to incorporate some younger players eventually. We had an older team at that time. You know, we still had Oduya, we still had some other guys there. So it was the need for us to, you know, turn John Merson, who was a really good player, into somebody whose best days were ahead of him. And I think Murph's been hurt this year, unfortunately, but he's coming back next week.

And I really think he had a tough start to his career in Chicago last year. I think he wanted to do so well, and I think it was a challenge for him because he was coming in and replacing John Merson, who was obviously a favorite. And I think, you know, I'm not sure Murph got a fair shake early. I think there's a lot of sort of, I don't know if we could do that over again and might have used him differently. But we are where we are now, and I think he's really going to flourish.

And, you know, his best days are ahead of him. And I think that's what we're trying to look forward as opposed to hanging on to what was good stan i'm not trying to stir the pot here either uh i i feel that that jarmelson trade was kind of when the the rumors or the talk circulated that there was a little bit of butting heads between you and q because he fucking loved jarmelson a lot to love about that guy he thought he was one of those core pieces and was that kind of a little riff was there a little conflict in that one yeah no I'm glad you asked because I do want to kind of cover that topic because um no Joel wasn't happy that we traded John Wilson I've never said that but to think that that caused like a rift is not accurate in the sense that, you know,

every coach and manager is going to disagree on things throughout the season. I mean, just think, even you guys on the show, you guys don't agree on everything, but it doesn't mean you can't work together. Well, I mean, have you heard R.A. Simpson's jokes? Like, fuck, come on. Come on, Stan, you laugh't work together. Have you heard R.A. Simpson's jokes? Like, fuck, come on. Come on, Stan, you laugh. There you go. It doesn't mean that there's like a rift.

I think Joel, he knew what he had in John Morrison, and he loved the way he played, as did I. But I was looking forward as opposed to just that next year and i think that's always probably the biggest push and pull between a manager and between a coach which is coaches want to win they want to win tomorrow night they're not interested in even a month from now they don't care they want to win the game tomorrow and they want to they want the best lineup to win the best players because they go game to game. And I want to win tomorrow too. But I also want to – I don't want to sacrifice everything for tomorrow

and then be in a real tough spot. I've got to look down the road as well as where we are today. So, you know, Joel was unhappy about that. But we moved on from it and we had had it wasn't like something that lingered like you like you guys can have a disagreement and be really pissed about it but then like a day or two go by and then you're like all right well moving on like and so there was never any truth to the fact that there was this rift between us like we so i would say for the the number of years we were together, we had very few sort of big-time disagreements. And you have your little things here and there,

but I wouldn't characterize it as a rocky relationship between Joel and I. I know it's been portrayed that way. It's just that's not the reality of it. That's interesting to hear. And you know how the rumor mill goes in hockey. You hear one thing, and it's like the game of it. That's interesting to hear. And you know how the rumor, the rumor mill goes in hockey here, one thing, and it's like the game of telephone. It just turns into something bigger and bigger as you move on. I'm wondering though, you, you kind of glossed over quickly the Panarin trade and that's what a lot of people talk about. Yarmulson was one thing, but Panarin's, you know,

he's been in Columbus and had moments of being a superstar and him and Kane had that, that special connection. I'm just curious, you guys signed him out of the KHL. I was actually playing over there that year and said, this kid is like, there's no question he was an NHLer and probably a star at that. So you obviously loved him enough to bring him over. And then when you moved him, what had kind of changed to make that decision? Was it just money that he was going to make or was it more falling out of,

he fell out of favor with, with, with, with you or Quenville? How did that all come about? No, like that. I'm glad you asked that one, Ryan,

because it, once again, a little bit of misunderstanding there. I think when a, when a player is traded, it doesn't mean that there is necessarily anything negative. Like we just made a trade the other day too. We can talk about that.

And we traded Nick Schmaltz and they think, well, you must, you must've because of A, B, and C. And it wasn't really any of those reasons. But in the Panarin deal, there was no – he didn't fall out of favor at all. I mean, he's a great player. But I think the situation was we didn't have any playoff success with him. And it was not his fault at all. I mean, it wasn't like we lost because of Panarin. But even though our team played well,

sometimes it looks really good. And it's not to say we couldn't have kept him another year or two, but I knew that we weren't going to be able to keep him because of the salary cap. You know, he is where he is now. He's going to probably make 10, 10 plus million next year, which is great for him. You know, I think he's a, he's a superstar. There's no question about that, but with the structure of our team,

we can't afford another guy in that pay grade where we're at. So I'm looking down the road and thinking if we hold on to him, then we could have held him maybe one more year, but then we'd be in the position going into the last year of his deal. I felt we were going to be able to get a player, and Saad is a different player, understandably. He's not as electrifying, but he's a really good player. And we, we did have a lot of success with him. Now it wasn't all because of Brandon.

But I think, you know, sometimes your team performs better, you know, when you have a different makeup, it's not always about just who you get a couple hundred point guys and off you go. That's actually usually not the recipe for the teams that win the stanley cup you know and we're we want to get back to that point you know we're we understand what it feels like to have that ultimate success and our goal is to get to the stanley cup again and win and you look back at those teams we had you know we didn't really have even caves and cane they didn't have uh you know 90 100 point seasons when we won the cup it was it

was we did it through a different way and that's not the only way to do it but i just think looking at the likelihood that we were going to be able to keep Panarin beyond this season, I didn't see that as a likely option. So there was no disappointment. He's a great player. He's so fun to watch. He did have great chemistry with Patrick. But it's not always about just one thing. We're trying to build a team that can win.

And you guys have been on teams as well. You understand that sometimes it doesn't always work with just have trying to get one or two guys and score all the points you're trying to get a team that can be tough to play against by having you know a lot of different ways to win so you know along with with other things going on with the Blackhawks the biggest story this year has been the firing of Quenville and and I'm curious, I know people ask, you know, what was it like to let a guy go? And obviously it's brutal, but I'm wondering in the room,

two guys have been together, been with each other for three Stanley Cups, a dynasty over 10 years. What was his reaction? I mean, I don't know if you're willing to say, but how difficult was it when you're actually sitting there man to man and tell him, like, this is it? It was really hard. It was probably the

hardest conversation i've had to have um and you know i was obviously prepared for how you're gonna what you're gonna say how you're gonna say and um and it was still it was an emotional time i mean we had a lot of incredible moments together and i have a lot of appreciation for the job that Joel did I mean there's no way we win those cups without Joel I mean but by no means do I try to minimize his contribution he was a huge part of it um and I think that's what made it hard I mean it was it was emotional on both our sides and I think you know there's disappointment that I think was fair to characterize I mean he was disappointed but I think, you know, there's disappointment that I think was fair to characterize. I mean, he was disappointed, but I think there's also, happen again, really. I mean, I think the sport has changed.

The game has changed in the last 10 years to think that there's going to be a group together, you know, for that long to have that much success. It's possible it could, but I think it's going to be really unusual. So the fact that it even lasted that long is a testament to, you know, the fact that we did work well together and he was an incredible coach. But, you know, you look at where we're headed and, you know, I just, I made the decision that we needed something different from what we had for a long time. And that doesn't minimize or diminish Joel's value as a coach. It just means for where we're at right now and where we're heading, I didn't think we were going to get there continuing on the same path.

Dan, I know sometimes if a GM is feeling heat, he might be trying to save his own ass or whatever. He might make a move like that, firing the coach. But what was the reason or reasons you actually did fire Joe? What did you tell him the reason you fired him for or reasons? reasons you actually did fire fire joe what did you tell him the reason you fired him for or reasons well no i mean i think as far as trying to save yourself like people ask me that about my job security and i always say like i'm gonna keep working until they tell me they don't want me here anymore and that that's the only way i know how to do it so i'm not doing anything you know i don't do things quickly. Like I don't just jump to conclusions on trades or on coaching changes or anything like that's not my style. So anything I do now is in the long-term interest. And I think we're looking at our team and looking

at what we need. We're not the same team that we were a couple years ago. We have a different group of players. We have a lot of younger, a lot of inexperienced players. And I just think the way that the game is trending right now, we need someone with a different skill set to try to tap into and bring more out of this group. And, you know, for that reason, ultimately that's how we ended up where we are today. And having Jeremy as our new coach, you know,

he's much different than Joel. The way he approaches the game is the things that he stresses versus the things that Joel stresses. You know, his style is, is different. And I think, you know, it's, it's not easy changing in midstream. Like you don't have a lot of time to try to incorporate some things you want to change. And, you know, guys that have been here for a while, it's not easy to change, you know,

they essentially played one way and their habits are pretty ingrained in playing one way for a long, long time. So to suddenly flip the switch and say, okay, we're going to do something different. Now here's where I want to play with limited practices. I think that's sort of what we're seeing right now. We're a little bit caught in both worlds with some of our veterans, and we need to make some progress there. Our team isn't performing the way we need it to. And it's going to come.

Obviously, I would hope it comes soon, but it will eventually come once they can kind of incorporate and it becomes more effortless to play. Right now, there's still some element of thinking too much. And as you guys know, it's really hard to play hockey when you're thinking. And I think, you know, for that reason, we're not seeing the performance and the results that we want right now, but we've got to stick with it. You know, it's been a few weeks since the coaching change.

I know a lot of times when a team, you know, the new guy comes in, the team kind of has, you know, a renewed effort. They're kind of trying to impress the new guy. You know, I've been watching the Blackhawks a little. I've talked to a few other media folks. I don't know that there's been such a significant change with the Blackhawks. I know, what's today's Thursday? The other night, I think it was Wednesday night or Thursday, Jeremy called and said, you know, I'm not new here anymore. I've been here long enough to basically get pissed off and yell at this team.

But, you know, has there been much of a change in the way the team plays if this guy's, you know, getting pissed off at the team already? Well, I think that the frustration is not so much. Like, other than one game, which the other night we played Vegas at home, I thought the effort that night was poor. But if you look at the other games we've played, 11 games, I think. So in 10 of the 11, we've really competed hard. The effort level hasn't been an issue in 10 of the 11 games.

The issue has been some of the fundamental, simplistic things that we've tried to implement. And it's been 10, 11 11 games and they're making similar mistakes and but a lot of it is things we're asking them to do differently than before and it's i think he's frustrated that like guys this isn't rocket science like you played hockey a long time i'm asking you to do some different things but um let's go. Let's figure it out here. It's not that complicated. And I think that was just frustration the other night. It was just, you know, we scored five goals in Winnipeg. We lose 6-5.

You shouldn't lose when you score five goals. But, you know, we're making some simplistic errors, and that's costing us. So the effort level, i can't question that they're into it it's just we're shooting ourselves in the foot and we've got to tighten that up if we want to have better results and stand another trade between the arizona coyotes and chicago blackhawks like holy shit dude you got you must love the guys in Arizona I know everyone asked me if John and Jake and I have some special history together and I really don't I mean I met him we

took over the job but it's not like we're long long lost friends um you know there's no specific reason it's really more random or circumstantial they just you know they have a lot of players you know they've drafted a lot of players, you know, they've drafted a lot of players in the last six, seven years. They've had a lot of pretty high picks. So, you know, they can't all fit there. And I think they've had a desire to move some guys around. And as a result, you know, for us, like there's some teams that just aren't good trading partners because they've been in a similar trajectory as Chicago the last couple of years. And Arizona is in a different mindset.

So I think we're good trading partners from that perspective. It's not like we won't trade with the Red Wings. But for a while there, we were sort of chasing it at the same time. So they weren't good trade partners. But I think it's sort of random. But yeah, we have had a lot of deals with them in the last couple of seasons. Well, Nick Schmaltz was the guy who, you know, did get traded. And you look at his, his effort in some games, it looks like he's going to be a superstar and there's some,

some games you just really don't notice him. I think there is inconsistency. I'm curious to kind of your response. I read a quote by him I brought up last week on the podcast that said, it feels pretty good knowing you're in a good organization that wants you to be here, that wants you to succeed. I mean, to me, that makes it sound like I didn't feel that that was the case in Chicago. What do you think about that quote? uh yeah i'm not sure what nick's talking about there i mean i you know i'm i agree that you can read into that that um and take it that way i mean we certainly wanted him to do well i we you know we traded up to get him in the draft like we we really were high on him and you know he he had a pretty good opportunity he played with kaner a lot so i i don't know maybe he didn't feel that we wanted him but but I don't want to speak for him. I mean, he said what he said. And all I can say is from our perspective, we wanted him to do well. And it wasn't really that we were disappointed in him.

You know, like I said, that's maybe the narrative out there that's not accurate. Like it wasn't that, boy, we got to get rid of Nick Schm nick smalls it was more what we're trying to build up our our depth at forward and we've got a lot of really high-end defensemen on the way in the next year or two we don't have as many forwards so like how are you going to get two good promising players you're not going to get them by just giving them a fifth round draft pick like you got to give something up to get two guys and we we have – I really believe that both Perlini and Strom are going to fit in here as we go forward in the next couple years and help us in a way. Not that Nick couldn't have helped us, but, you know,

we're at a point in our organization where getting the two guys, I just felt was a really good opportunity. So it wasn't so much disappointment in Nick. It was more, how are we going to pull that off? And Nick was a player that Arizona's called us about quite a bit, and we were never interested in moving him. But I think you've got to reassess your team all the time. Like, you know, they called last year a couple times,

and it didn't fit for us at that time. We wasn't looking to move him. But now I look at we don't have as much strength in our young forwards. And I think that the way we can improve our team with bringing in two young guys, how are you going to accomplish it? Well, that's what it took.

Stan, can I ask you about Stromer? Like, what do you see him being? And, and, and it's probably a little bit difficult because you had the end of last season to get a sample size of them.

And then this year, just based off their center situation, he hasn't really been getting those reps on the first two lines so it's like it's hard you didn't really get those matchups like what where do you think he can top off yeah i think he's i mean i really were expecting him to be slide in as their number two center behind jonathan and i think um you know that's part of the situation. They have a lot of centers there. I mean, I know Dvorak's shirt, but even when he comes back, they got a lot of guys in the middle. So, you know, I think for us, we don't have that depth in the middle with younger players that they do. So as a result, I love his skill set. I love his creativity, his passing, his offensive instincts.

You know, I think a lot of people make his skating out to be the issue and his pace of play. I mean, obviously he's not Connor McDavid with the skating. But when he gets up to speed, his skating is fine. It's maybe just, you know, quickness off the mark. But that can improve you know over time so that's there wasn't a big issue with us and that i think you know just watching him the couple games he's played he's made some really nice like oh yeah i would characterize it

like he's one of those guys when he's skating all of a sudden there's a puck bounces loose comes to him he knows that next play he doesn't have to pick his head up, look around, figure out what to do with it. He knows where to go with it right away. That's a pretty unique, you have that or you don't have it. Like it's really hard. You can't necessarily train that into a player. He's got the reading of the game.

He's got the hands and the skill set. Now it's just a matter of taking the next step and you know doing it consistently you know he did it at the end of last year and you know this year i went to watch some of his games and you know he didn't he actually played fine in the games he didn't play a ton of minutes no he didn't he played fourth line center and their line was probably the most effective line when they were going and obviously probably because of the matchups that he had but like to touch on your point about his like you could just tell he has that hockey sense and that skill set where he can slow things down that not a lot of people have you

have to be born with that you can't just all of a sudden get it if he's i think if he's able to gain that extra extra step and maybe a little bit more meanness kind of like taves you know like taves like he fucking wants to win and And you can see that, like he'll, he'll get in there. He'll mix it up. If he can just get that extra step. I think, I think you got a player on your hands. Yeah. Well, and that's what we obviously hope playing with Jonathan, like, you know, Johnny was that way right when he came into the league, like he's a really determined,

I think what makes him such a good player is he's got such a strong will I mean he he wants it so bad and he's really competitive and you know that's something that you can learn from that you can be around that and you see why he's so effective and why he's been such a good player in this league for so long you're right like he when he gets in the battle he finds a way to stay in the battle and you know it's not always pretty but he finds a way you know to keep that puck alive and I think it's like the determination and I think that's something that maybe it maybe that's not a strength of Dylan's right now but I also see a a willingness like the thing I like about about him that I've known him very briefly here is

he loves hockey and I think that I've found that's not the case with every young player like he's passionate about the game he watches hockey 24-7 he knows everything about who's playing well for the Dallas Stars he can tell you you know what stick, what curve they use. He's really into the game. And guys like that, I think you have a good chance when they're around other guys like Johnny, it's the same way, he's really into the sport. Hopefully he can help mentor him. Stan, the team was swept by Nashville in the first round of the 17 playoffs.

Didn't make the playoffs last season for the first time in 10 years. What do the Hawks have to do to return to being a top-tier contender? You know, and despite the three cups you guys have in the last decade, will the fans have the patience for a sort of, you know, on-the-fly retooling here? Well, yeah, that playoff series was obviously a real eye-opener for us. You know, I think. I know.

I bet you guys. I got crushed. We let you down there. Send some of Kane's rent money over. We did. We scored, what, three goals in four games, I think. We got shut out both games at home. I mean, I remember that series well.

I think part of it was we just, we were too slow to sort of take seriously that we might lose. And we lost game one, 1-0. I remember it was sort of a fluky goal. We had a ton of chances. Couldn't score. So, you know, game two, you're still feeling pretty good. You're feeling like, all right, we just got to stick with it

and we're going to be fine. And we got hammered 5-0 maybe or 5 or 6-0 at home. And it was like, wow, now we're going to be fine. And we got hammered five, nothing maybe, or five or six, nothing at home. And it was like, wow, now we're going to Nashville. And it's, it's almost like what's going on here. And I think before you knew it,

we had scored three goals in four games. And it was, you know, that was really, it was an eye opener that, you know, things had to change. Like we weren't just going to come back because we had come back the years

before. And we weren't just going to win because we had won before. you know, things had to change. Like, we weren't just going to come back because we had come back the years before. We weren't just going to win because we had won before. Like, we needed something different. We needed to change. You know, I think we didn't. We were too stuck in just sticking with it. And I think, you know, and obviously last year, you know, a lot of things went wrong last year.

It didn't help that we didn't have a goalie for half the year. But even besides that, we didn't – we just didn't modify our – you know, the game changes. That's the one thing I think people don't recognize and maybe the media doesn't pick up on it quickly enough is the game changes every year right in front of your eyes. Guys that were good players a year ago aren't good. And guys that weren't good are now better.

Like, you know, things change and you have to adapt to them. And the ability to adapt your game to what's working is, you know, where we're at right now. Like, we've got to find a little bit of a different sort of blueprint than we had before. I think we had, you know, we had more of a veteran team in the years past and we played a certain way and it worked great. But it doesn't mean that it's always going to work.

And I think that's where we're at now is we're trying to, you know, change up a little bit and hopefully have some more success going forward. Stan, do you have a favorite Stanley Cup? Would it be 2015 just because you feel like maybe you had more of your fingerprints all over it? Not for that reason, but I do think the 15 Cup, I don't want to say that was such a grind. That was so hard to win that year.

I mean, like the 2010 team, it's almost like just everything sort of went, it was almost like the magical season. Everything went right. And then in 2013, that was the shortened year, and we came out of the gate like gangbusters. We had 24 games without a loss to start the year. So that was sort of like, that never happens. Rarely is the team that is good from day one,

do they end up winning the Cup. Usually, you know, they stumble in the second round or the third round. You know, it's like that never happens where the team, the number one team from game one goes all the way, pillar to post, and wins the Cup. But the fifth team was like – it was just just so it was such a grind i mean that the tampa final was you know in the anaheim series before that like there was just so many so many touch and go games and it's just so many overtime triple overtime games like it was such a grind to get there that

i think when you finally when we finally finally won it, it was at home. We won the first two cups on the road, you know? So I think it was almost like a sense of relief. The first two cups are more like joy. Like, wow, it was incredible. What a, how much fun this was. That third one was just like, Oh my God, thank God. Like this was such a grind. So, you know, it wasn't so much because my fingerprints it was just the kind of the way it all went went about and now you know we've had a couple years

and we haven't had success you kind of realize people don't realize how hard it is to win it's so hard to to get all the way to the cup and then win it. And I remember talking to Peter Shirely after the 2013 final, it was like in the summertime. And he said, you know, we played just as many games as you did. And we had just as short a summer as you guys do, but you guys won the cup. We didn't win anything, you know? And it, and it was like, you know, the way we won that cup too, you know, they had that game, they were sending it back to Chicago for game seven and we scored those two goals.

And, you know, it was, it was just, it was interesting. And it was, it goes to show you that such a fine line between winning and losing. You can be a great team. There's been several great teams in the last couple of years, you know, but that haven't even made the final, let alone won a cup. Some teams have made the final, haven't won a cup. And it's just like, it makes you appreciate how difficult it is to win the Stanley Cup. Well, this is kind of a question I'm always interested to hear from GMs. I've never actually asked another one this because you're our first,

but in the way GMs talk to coaches in the league and after games I don't know how you do it after every game if you talk to your coaching staff or the head coach or after every five games I'm wondering for you do you hear from the owner you know rocky words do you hear from John McDonough the president of the Blackhawks I mean if you guys go on a skid all of a sudden are you hearing from them does it work the same way that maybe a GM talks to a coach? Well, I don't know how it is elsewhere. I can just tell you how it is.

Rocky is unbelievable as far as an owner. I mean, he does not get in the way of anything. He wants to be informed of what's going on. But other than that, he's incredibly supportive. I mean, I've just heard stories that it's not that way. Other places, like, they weigh in on doing this, doing that. Rocky doesn't do that. I mean, he lets people do their jobs. So I can't say anything but great things about him.

And John McDonough is the same way. I mean, John's incredibly supportive. And, you know, even this tough time we're going through right now, I talked to John this morning, and he said, we're going to break through. You've got to stick with it. You know, we're going through right now. I talked to John this morning and he said, we're going to break through. You got to stick with it. You know, we're in this together. I see things turning around.

And I mean, he asked a lot of questions. John probably asked more questions than Rocky does, but there are questions just wanting to understand sort of the thought process. Never, never tells us to do anything. He's not that kind of a guy. You know, so I've heard stories from other GMs just that they don't have that same experience.

You know, for me, I'm fortunate, I guess, to have the relationship that I do with John and Rocky because they've been incredibly supportive. And for me, with the coach, you know, after games, it's pretty emotional. I mean, I'll go down and talk, usually just to kind of find out, are there any injuries, do we need to make any changes, or is anything dramatic? But other than that, I try to wait until the next day.

And I think usually you have a more productive conversation, kind of go through. They've watched the game again, and their thoughts on the game sometimes have changed from what they were in the moment. You know, you have an instinct as a coach that, you know, this guy was brutal tonight, and you might just remember the one bad play, and then you watch the video, and the guy actually did a lot of really good things. One mistake, and you remember that mistake so i think the next day it's just it's a more productive

conversation i think that i found that that's more successful stands you know sports fans are a pretty fickle breed and pro sports is very much a you know what have you done for me lately business you know despite the success you had in chicago do you know, what have you done for me lately business, you know, despite the success you had in Chicago, do you feel the fans have perhaps turned against you recently? I don't know if that's true. I mean, I know there's, I'm sure that there's frustration and you come to expect a level of performance. You know, we've, we've had really strong teams for a long time. And I think, you know, in that, in the process of that, you know we've we've had really strong teams for a long time and i think you know in that

in the process of that you know going back to 2009 10 you know we've we've captured a new fan base like a younger there's obviously that core group of fans that have been there forever and i think what happened was we had this new group and really all they experienced was success. You know, we won in 10 and we won in 13 and we almost won in 14. It was the year we lost to L.A. in game seven. And then we won in 15. So they're sort of only used to a lot of success. So I think it's understandable.

I mean, like I'm a fan of sports, too. And when you're when your team doesn't do well, it's frustrating. So I get it. And I mean, I think the one thing that you don't ever want to happen is for the passion to go away. And even if it's frustration and even if they're mad, at least they care about your team. And, you know, it wasn't always that way in those early years were sort of lean. And I think as a result, you you know even though there's been some tough times lately for sure and I know there's some people that aren't happy with me um you know at the end of the day you got to do what you think is best to try to bring better results and then

when you win everyone's happy you know so that's really what we're focused on getting this thing turned around and getting better results. But I get it. I realize where the fans are at, and I understand. We thought you were just going to start teeing off on them. And I agree with your younger generation crowd because we've been selling a shit ton of those Firestam Bowman t-shirts. So on that note – oh, nothing? Nothing?

Okay, I thought we lost. No, no, no, nothing, nothing. No, no, no, no, no. I'm sure there's a, there's a market for that out there right now, especially with some people, but you look, you can't change what you're doing. Um, that's part of the business. I get it. I've been around it. I mean, my, my dad sort of taught me a long time ago. If you try to do what you think the fans are going to be happy with, you're never going to, it's never going to work because you know,

you can do something that is going to get positive reviews in the short term. But if you don't think it's really good for the longterm, that's what matters because at the end of the day, you got to do what you think is right. Cause there's always people that are going to throw stones at you. No matter, even if you make the best decision, there's people in the, you can go back in time and look at it, but no one ever, no one ever sort of raises their hand and say, Hey, I remember when I was so critical and I was wrong. Look, that decision that I said

was the worst decision in the world, I got that one wrong. People don't do that. They just sort of keep quiet. But when they criticize you and they're right, they praise themselves. Like, I told you so. I told you guys. Look, I said it back two years ago.

I told you this. But if you go back and look at it, they also said a lot of things that were way off, but they don't ever broadcast that. And that's what I get it. You need to reload and win two more Stanley Cups. Sure. Sure. And that's part of it.

I get it. There's no guarantee you would have even done anything if you – we won't know that. So it's something we can debate. But I just – I can't get bogged down with that because that's, that's just not the way I operate. Well, Stan, I think, you know,

people know that to be involved in pro sports, you got to have thick skin. And I, I, I know that what you've done with the Blackhawks, three Stanley cups, that dynasty, we talked about a bunch of hall of famers have been with the team. And so I think the true fans know how special of a run it's been and understand that it can't go on forever. And a lot of times it's the vocal minority.

It's people that are loud and loud about subjects that they're pissed off about. But either way, I think everyone would have to respect you coming on here and answering some of the questions that I'm sure a lot of Blackhawks fans have. And we can't thank you enough, so we appreciate it. Yeah, I enjoyed it guys no problem anytime thanks a lot Stan if you're looking for a fourth line left winger just can't skate or fight anymore or shoot the puck well you know what though Biz you used to play defense we could always maybe use some help back there too like when did you when did you make

the switch there was it it was right after I was a two-time ECHL All-Star with the Wheeling Nailers and then, I don't know, Pittsburgh thought, hey, let's just make this guy a mutant and then I did that for him because I'm a team guy, Stan. Stan, will the team let him wear advertisements all over his jersey

because I think that's what Biz will want to do. Well, we might have to make an exception there because he's got his own brand, and it's a popular one. So nothing wrong with that. But thank you so much, and we appreciate it. And thanks for listening. Continue to listen. Maybe we can get on Taves or Kane.

If you tell them, we'll chicklet's bump. People will catch fire when they come on this podcast. Maybe they'll want to follow my footsteps. They'll probably be more interesting than me, so they might want to. I'll be a good one to follow. All right, thanks again, man. And Stan, Biz20 promo code for 20% off Eagle Energy follow my footsteps, they'll probably be more interesting than me. I'll be a good one to follow. Biz20 promo code for 20% off Eagle Energy and

Herbal Active. I'll shoot you the message. I'll get right on that. Thanks. That interview was also brought to you by Omaha Steaks. Guys and gals, it's that time of the year again. The holidays are upon us. You want to get a nice gift for your family members. Everybody likes steak. That's why you want to get a nice gift for your family members, and everybody likes steak.

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Enter the code CHICKLETS. Well, thank you very much to Stan Bowman. That's huge for us to get a real-life GM on in the National Hockey League. There's obviously some tough questions that he had to answer. I think we're not the actual hardest question askers in the world. We usually stay pretty light on this, but obviously with the way things have gone for the Blackhawks, you've got to respect him coming on and giving his opinion

on why he made certain moves. Biz, that most recent move, what do you actually think about that? I feel like you love the Yotes in that deal. I do, but before that, were you guys kind of curious to how many notches Kaner had in this guy's basement? 7,000. I kind of wanted to ask. That would have been like the final straw. Like, guys, come on.

We should have gave him like an ultimate. I mean, you had to answer that? Or who's got the biggest wrench in the organization? Dude, it probably would have been that Akeem Alou. Didn't that kid have a wrench? He was on the Blackhawks for a little bit. Yeah, apparently he does have a weapon. Yeah, so what?

I do like the trade for the Oats. I think that the upside on the trade, I think Schmaltz could potentially be a first-line center. I know people in Chicago, after seeing what he's done there this year, are like, oh, no way. You know, he played with Kane, couldn't produce. He's looked very good with the Oats. He's got a couple other dynamic players on his line right now

in Keller and Galchenyuk. He's got four points in his three games so far. I think that he can max out at first-line center. I think that we at least got a second-line center of NHL caliber. Going back, if Strom can scale up, I think that maybe he can be a second line center. I don't think that he'll be a first line center at the National Hockey League level.

That's not a knock on him. I think that's a compliment if anyone could be a second line center at the NHL level. As far as Perlini's concerned, I don't know if he's going to find his consistency in Chicago. I like this trade for the Arizona Coyotes. And you don't need to worry about signing two guys. Now you've got to just focus on the one guy that you like,

and Chayka had Schmaltz on his radar for a while, and finally after a slow start he was able to get him and move two pieces that he wasn't confident that were going to scale up to what Coyotes needed. So I like this trade a lot for the Oats. Credit John Chayka. He's done a lot of fucking good moves since he's been with the Coyotes and does not have a lot of salary to play with yeah it was fun talking with a gm obviously we deal with players all the time a couple other random celebrities we'll get to

later in the week but uh i enjoy talking with him i enjoy getting into his background and doing basically with with a gm what we usually do with a player and and yeah and kudos to him for making himself available to us i know we've been talking to some other media. Like you said, Wits, we're not traditional media. I was appreciative that he came out with us. It was good stuff. I hope the fans like it. Speaking of that, the reason why the

Coyotes won on Saturday night, I ran into Harry Knuckles in the hallway going into the rink. Those knuckles will melt your skull i actually thinks he think he's trimmed him up a little bit he's uh i think he's scaling up towards playoffs he's gonna get get ready for but uh i uh he he said he'd caught wind that his name was mentioned on the podcast he wasn't really kind of loved it i feel like people you know in those types of uh it rolls

when all of a sudden they become a household name and now Coyotes fans are aware of who this guy is and how the team rallied around him when we made our run there. I think it's probably cool for him. He seemed like he was pretty pumped about it. I wouldn't imagine he has social media. I could

picture he probably heard about the podcast. He's like, fuck, man, I got to trim these up. And then he's up in his bathroom and his wife sees it. She just turns around like, ah. She just stays silent. She's just fist bumping. He's finally shaving those fucking things.

Jesus, peanut butter and boogers stuck in them usually. Harry Knuckles. What's his actual name? Harry? No, no idea. We just call him Harry Knuckles. Knuckles. What's his actual name?

Harry? No, no idea. We just call him Harry Knuckles. So people who didn't listen to the podcast where we talked about him, he's a guy who works at the rink. He works security. When you're heading in and you're passing the away team's locker room, he would always give you Knuckles. And I thought I was the only one getting Knuckles.

I thought I was his favorite player. Well, that wasn't the case because one day in the locker room, Bratislav Kuzla was like, hey, does anyone get knuckles from that guy by the away room? And everyone's like, oh, yeah, yeah. And he's like, man, that guy's got hairy knuckles. And the whole room burst out laughing because everyone, I think, thought that they were the only one getting the knuckles.

And sure enough, we rallied around him. And we were, of course, in the locker room before the game. Let's fucking do this for knuckles, boys. Come on. Do it for Harry Knuckles. I fucking love your Eastern accent. When you do Eastern European accents, Biz, those are – Harry Knuckles.

By the way, if you're a guy and you're like 30 or older, you should already have a fucking beard, nose, and fucking ear hair trimmer. I mean, I don't know what he trimmed them with, but I see dudes sometimes with, like, fucking hair coming out of the ears. It's like, bro, you got to fucking trim that. Dude, you had hair coming out of your ears that was, like, touching me when we were back on your couch in the beginning of this podcast. Nah, nah.

Do you manscape all right? Downstairs? No, like, overall. Like, what about? Yeah. No, I mean, I keep my beard trimmed. But, no, I definitely like nose hair, ear hair. Like, what about? Yeah. No, I mean, I keep my beard trim, but no, I definitely like nose here. I hate that.

Like, I'll have fucking 19 days growth on my face, but my ears and nose and even my eyebrows. You got to stay on top of that. Otherwise, you'll look like fucking Andy Rooney. Could you imagine walking in an RA shaving a sack? I'm so adamant about shaving my sack because at least it makes it look a little bigger. I'm like, jeez, a monster bush, all of a sudden you shave it back. I just cut like a half an inch more. Old punch that trick.

I use the clippers where I get it down to like I put the one on it, the one guard, and I trim up my hoop too because, I mean, I'm a bit of a savage. I kind of like getting that old rushy trombone once in a while so i always keep it that's a classy move you don't need a complete jungle down there oh yeah no no still listening actually i won't even say i won't even say who told me to do this i tried it once it's unbelievable but there's a big time back there's a there's a bad thing that happens with it. God, I wish I could say who does this and told me to do it. Either way, nair, right? Oh, jeez.

You nair up your hoop, dude, and then you go in there with like a face cloth, and you just rub it all out, and you just spend time in there, and then it is just a complete smooth cornhole for a long time. The only bad part is I think it grows back worse. Double thicker. Is that a wives' tale? No, it grows back worse, man.

The only way to properly do it, I wish I could get it lasered. I took the words right out of my mouth. I wish you could get electrolysis from your fucking waist down. Well, you can. Imagine getting doggy style up on a doctor's bench getting your asshole lasered. Hey, it's like a kid I know that had a hemorrhoid and he had to get it worked on. Dude, he said there was two

nurses, legit, both mid-20s smoke shows that were holding open his five-hole so the doctor could get in there and work on it. It was the most embarrassing moment of my life, bar none. Two rockets just like, look at this kid. You have to hold his

hoop open? I had some guy shit I had to get tended to. Urology related stuff and I had seen a couple different guys. It's fine. Nothing fucking major. Sure, sure it is. Usually, no. It's fine. Nothing fucking major. Sure. Sure. Sure it is. Sure it is. Usually, no. I was not cancerous or anything like that.

Your second pee hole? To get my nuts checked because I thought I felt the growth in my nuts. By the way, now that we're saying it, if you do, guys should check their nuts in the shower. I'm not even kidding. Okay. Keep going. So anyways, just a little fucking health advice from the boys. This 20 promo code, you can go check out RA's doctor. just a little fucking health advice from the boys. And I went in. There's a 20 promo code.

You can go check out RA's doctor. You get a little 20% discount. No, so I went in to see a new one, and it was a female urologist, and she was a smoke bomb. And I had to, like, drop trowel. And I was like, oh, man, I wanted to make an excuse and be like, oh, it was kind of chilly on the way in here. You know, I was like, I'm embarrassed.

I have a grower, not a shower man. I got embarrassed. I have a grower, not a shower man. I got neither. I'd fucking chuck in a Cialis before I went if I knew it was going to be a girl. Speaking of hoops, I got a little trick I do. Sometimes I put a tub of toothpaste in the shower, and I put a little toothpaste in my hoop area to clean it up. That way it gives a little minty taste, keeps it nice and fresh, and keeps it from getting sweaty and stuff

because you never know if you start grinding on the dance floor a little bit and then you bring the girl home, she might not want to give you the old rusty trombone if she ain't smelling the mint. Maybe I could get some toothpaste infused into my bidet so it's not just hot water. It's also just a little side. You know how the loop they have

in the toothpaste, the cool part that makes it look like you know what I'm saying? Yeah, waves. Yeah, waves. Even if the wave's in the water, all of a sudden, I'm just like a zesty, just hop off the toilet. Yeah. I got to lock that toilet. There's a big party today at my house.

I'm a firm believer though in in keeping hair like i what you guys talked about getting the laser done i think that like you look like a little boy when you're like completely shaven i think i think you need a little bit and then like when you're what when you're you know 50 60 years old and you have no hair on your body it's gonna look weird as shit you You're going to look like Benjamin Button. All I know is my body's awful. Awful body. But it's way worse when it's really hairy. So at least I get a, like,

I get like 0.2 difference in, what's it called when you show your definition? I have a 0.2 percentage improvement in definition with my chest shaved. So it'll remain that way until I really don't care about anything anymore. percentage improvement in definition with my chest shaved so it'll remain that way until i really don't care about anything anymore uh hey wits did you catch yans mic'd up that clip that was uh that we tweeted out he's a beauty you know how much of that they had to like not put i mean if you could ever get keith yandle keith yandle did that go decent that didn't go viral mikey

but that get a lot of uh likes and retweets? Yeah, it got a ton of action. Yeah. So, I mean, God, can you imagine the ones that they couldn't show? That'd be like – they'd have to show that on NFL Today. Just some NHL kid was so funny that they were bringing it into another sport. So, shout out to Keith Yandel. By the way, Tom Wilson, boys. Yeah.

Tommy Wilson. Back in the news. Are We got to do this again? And I want to say, first off, I mean, good thing for the Capitals, he's not getting suspended because he's unreal right now. He's over a point per game, right? And he's dominating, playing on

the top line, just a physical force. He's so much bigger and stronger than everyone. What did you think of the hit biz? Well, yeah, I think the narrative of he's useless is out the window. And I'm actually shocked at how much this guy's scaled up. He's had a bit of a weird career as far as, you know, I think what they wanted from him initially was what he is now. But I think everyone, if he can sustain offensively what he's doing,

I mean, he's worth the money that they paid him. I thought it was an overpayment when I saw the contract, but I mean, he's playing up to that money right now. Are we all in agreement of that? Absolutely. I mean, seven goals, six assists, 13 points in nine games. I mean, fucking. You wonder, though, you wonder with his suspension, you know,

he missed so many games, and he was just skating on his own, and it was definitely with the skill coach. I'm saying definitely, but I'm assuming. You wonder if it just, I mean, I know that that doesn't turn a guy into a point-per-game player where he's at now, but it can't say that for a couple months, all he did was work on skill work and skating, and that's definitely shown a little bit of improvement since he came back.

Now, in terms of the hit, I don't think it was suspension-worthy. They got that right, but it was a little unnecessary. I think that he probably could have got out of the way. I think that he knows what he's doing. Maybe he'd tell you different, but there was a decent enough amount of time. I saw Alex Tange on the NHL Network say it was a long time for him to be able to move out of the way. So I think he probably ran into him knowing what he was doing,

but he also knew he wasn't drilling him in the head. Yeah, that was the one thing I didn't like about it was the distance that he had to make his decision. I know what I would have done tracking back in that situation is as soon as he turned around, I would have slowed up that too or took inside positioning like he did. Obviously,

he still clipped him and he did move his leg and his shoulders came in as if he was trying to avoid it. But I think deep down, he was like, hey, I'm going to not fully clobber this guy, but I'm still going to get a piece of it. And that's based off what I saw.

I don't live in Tom Wilson's head. A lot of similarities in the sense where he was tracking back in the one that he got suspended for in preseason. So he likes to track back really hard, and at that point you can tell he smells blood. That guy was coming back up ice. Another guy was on him. So he's coming off to another guy's check. And the guy spun around.

And by the time he spun around, he had the time in order to not do it. I'll say this. I don't think he should have been suspended. If he would have gotten suspended, I wouldn't have been surprised. Obviously, people are up in arms because it just so happens to be Tom Wilson again, as a friend, I would tell him, yo, you're, you're, you're if you're fucking do that one more, you're, you're going to at least minimum get 40, 41 games like Rafi Torres. And then after that, it probably a year. And then, I don't know,

I would have a hard time. How do you get life banished from, I know, I don't think it will ever come to that. It would probably just be a year and then i don't know i i would have a hard time how do you get life banished from i i know i don't think it will ever come to that it would probably just be a year and then another year but to me now it's a little bit psychological i i feel like he's in raffy torres territory where like he just can't fucking help himself and and to me how many times he's been suspended in the last like two years i think you probably have.A., and while you're looking it up, the chances of him from here on out not having at least one or two more ordeals is it's fucking going to happen. It's going to happen.

It's impossible. He's totally under a microscope. And just to anyone listening who's unaware if they somehow missed it, Friday night he was given a match penalty and ejected from the game game for his collision slash interference with uh new jersey devils brett sceney and yeah it because of his reputation he's had similar hits it is kind of like i call it an hit like did i do that you know like not mad at that dad joke it must be because it's so early in the morning and i haven't actually turned my fucking brain on. Wake and bake.

I remember Urkel. I don't hate it because I remember the Family Matters shit. So, you know, Sini, I mean, I think people forgot. Sini was slightly backing up, you know, and it looked like Wilson kind of just kept his straight line. And another thing, too, to the right was another capital. And I think if, you know, Wilson corrects too much to the right, he potentially hits his own teammate.

I mean, he could obviously just slow down. But if he's going to keep going, I think if you're going to hit two guys, you'd rather – I'm sorry, hit one of two guys, you're probably going to want to hit the guy who's not your teammate. Obviously, it's Wilson, so people are clamoring for discipline. The other factor, too, is Sini was not injured. I think it looked worse than it was. And here's the other big factor, too, the size difference.

Sini's listed at 5'9", 1566 Wilson's listed at 6'4 218 you're talking seven inch 62 pounds again per nhl.com and the helmet actually come up and that I think made it look worse than it was because he caught the shoulder and that caused the helmet to pop off and I think it looked actually worse than it was so uh and the DPS didn't even deem it worthy of a call. They just said, nope, that's it. And everybody's kind of moved on. I saw it just kind of on replay. Maybe another game showed it or NHL Network showed it on on the fly.

No, it was during the night, so NHL Tonight. And right when I saw it, I was like, oh, my God, he's getting 60 games because it did look really bad because the puck was nowhere near there and you just see this guy go flying. Once you really took a look, didn't get his head. A fair non-suspension. I'm glad that this

conversation's over because I feel like it's like the Nylander thing where we seem to have to talk. This one might not end. This one might be back. Moving on, boys. Budweiser Canada, Selly's season. I feel like there's been a shit ton of sellies this year i feel like these young kids don't give a fuck what these old people think so they're just gonna keep doing uh fun shit on the ice and we're gonna keep having a lot of things

to talk about uh so the bracket challenge we've been talking about that. We got Patrick Kane now against Stevie Y. And then Bobby Orr and Tiger Williams have moved on. Orr beat Solani, which some Winnipeg Jets fans were fuming about. But I think that's the right call. And then Tiger Williams beat Ovi on the – what did you do? You did like a little internet contest there. How do you call that? Twitter poll. Twitter poll.

Internet contest? Shut up. And I couldn? Twitter poll. Twitter poll. Internet contest? Shut up. And I couldn't say definition. We are so dumb. Well, it's early because you've got to change diapers all day. I know. Honestly, my brain's not on yet. So, boys, who do we got?

We got Patrick Kane and Stevie Y first. I mean, fuck. Now, it's funny because I picked Wayne Gretzky on that one, and then Stevie Y moved on. I regret picking the gretzky on that one and and then stevie y moved on i regret picking the the gretzky when i like stevie y i'm gonna have to pick stevie y over patrick kane heartbreak no offense stan bowman if you're still listening yeah yeah i think he tapped out after the hoop top hoop talk a little while ago yeah this is a this is a tough one man because they were both significant goals um you know, Kane got them to the Stanley Cup.

Stevie Wise got them to the semifinals versus their rivals, the Avalanche, back in 96. I got to go Kane, I guess, just, you know, when we got the explanation, it was a heartbreak thing, and he was, you know, here's your heart, and I'm breaking it. Once we kind of got that information, I was like, okay, that was a pretty clever one. Stevie Wise's clap on from fucking just outside the

red-blue line was phenomenal, but I got to give the edge to Kane with just a slightly. I'm with R.A. Give me Kane. I love the heartbreak. Same. Same here. Once I found out that's what it was, I loved it before then, before I even knew that it was actually meaningful in somebody else's

celebration. So, Eisenman was my favorite. I've always said that, but the cane right there is the winner. Boy, somebody said that Stevie Y got injured on that celebration. He went flying around the net, and then that's where I think the whole team kind of came on. Have you ever been on the bottom of one of those piles, Biz, celebrating a winner? No, never.

Yeah, I know. I was on one when I was 11. But you start panicking. If your knee's bent or you can't breathe, a winner. No, never. Yeah, I know. I was on one when I was 11. But it was... You start panicking. If your knee's bent or you can't breathe, it is kind of a little panic time there. I don't know if he did get hurt, though.

One quick note, actually. We should have brought it up before Biz. When Stevie Y, in the first poll we did, should be noted, he actually stripped Gretzky of the puck when he scored that goal. They had gone head-to-head in the first round. It was Gretz Gretzky of the puck when he scored that goal. They had gone head-to-head in the first round. It was Gretzky who he took the puck from when he scored that goal, too, a few moments ago.

Oh, shit. So he kind of got the upper hand both ways. Yeah, double whammy. Damn. No respect for the great one. And moving on, Bobby Orr, Tiger Williams. I mean, I, fuck. I don't know. I'm going to have to go with Bobby Orr, Tiger Williams. I mean, fuck.

I don't know. I'm going to have to go with Bobby Orr on this one, boys. It's Bobby Orr. We already talked about it. So you can't beat that. You can't beat Bobby Orr. You can't pick anyone but him. Yeah, I mean, Bobby, you don't even have to ask me.

Wow, clean sweep for the Chicklets boys. Oh, everyone's going to be laying into us about our Boston connection, how much we stroke off Boston sports with the herbal act of cream. Pasternak didn't get stroked off. He's not on the All-Star ballot. Pasternak, that one's a little confusing. So, guys, we're going to put up another Twitter poll. We're going to have these two matchups go against each other for the Budweiser Canada Selly Season campaign.

Any good ones around the league in the last couple days? Radulov scored the other night, or Saturday night. He had to have done something. I know we mentioned it last week, but Ristolainen's with Buffalo was awesome. The Millie Rock? Yeah, the Millie Rock. Gotta love it. There's been

nothing since then? What the fuck are these players doing? I'm trying to think, too. Let's go, Millennial. Stop being disrespectful. I can't think of anything. I'm going to look at Radulov right now. Speaking of Bruins biz, did you see we almost had a goalie skirmish

in Boston, Detroit, Saturday night until the referees got involved. The refs had to hold each goalie back. They were both raring to go, but the refs said no dice. I saw the clips of it. I don't know how that even started. Yeah, it was actually a pretty chippy game. Luke Witkowski buried David Krejci, like absolutely buried him. Clean hit.

And then Joachim Nordstrom, who's not a fighter at all, came to his defense. And one of those situations where a guy gets hit clean and, you know, the player, quote-unquote, defends his teammate. I know some people can't stand it because it comes after a clean hit. So there was some chippiness in the game. And then Marchand and Bertuzzi were going at it. And as Marchand was getting to the bench, he's such a little weasel. He fucking smacked Jimmy Howard with his stick.

And then Howard turned around, got involved. And then, of course, Rask responded. He come bombing out. And everyone got all geared up for a fight. And like I said, the referees put a quick end to it. Everybody was bummed out because there's nothing like a goalie fight. It gets the people going.

Boys, let's talk about Shea Weber, man. Two goals on Saturday. How about that? What was that, like a quarter clapper? That was like 120 miles. Fuck, man. He brought the stick back to his knee. It went 98.

Makes no sense. He's got to freak a shot. Well, he just mentioned, you know, the Leafs adding a guy of knee-landish quality to the roster in December, and that's what Montreal's doing. I mean, they're adding a top-tier defenseman, a guy who hadn't played in 345 days between games. He actually went just under you under 361 days between goals.

But you're on a player his caliber, his presence. He just has it, man. When you see him, he's just a big, mean defenseman. Crushes people out front of the net, behind the net. He's a guy that anybody would want to have on the team. And now the Canadians who have already made a lot of people, myself

included, look foolish with their preseason predictions. You've got to think they're only going to get better from here on in. Yeah. Boys, what else do we have to talk about? Oh, one other. Patrick Laine, fourth quickest to 100 goals. That's a pretty significant thing. Before we get to that, I want to talk to our listeners about hymns.

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Go to 4hims.com slash hockey. That's F-O-R-H-I-M-S dot com slash hockey, 4hims.com slash hockey. Wayne Gretzky, obviously the first. Wayne Gretzky, Jimmy Carson, and the tit fucker himself, Brian Bellows, were the only three players to get there faster than him. Really? Yeah.

Wow, Jimmy Carson and Bellows. I never would have guessed those two. Yeah, me neither. Yeah, surprising names right there, but congrats to Patrick Laine. And to finish this off, we mentioned it earlier. The National Football League, you guys, are you in agreement with me that the Kansas City

Chiefs or the NFL or somebody had seen that video of Kareem Hunt before it came out with TMZ and they knew they knew exactly what he'd done and then they just figured out we'll wait till the public pretty much forces us to get rid of him like they're all that much of scumbags

I think. Well, Adam Schefter tweeted out today that the NFL's investigation, they didn't interview either Hunt or the woman he assaulted. How the fuck do you conduct an investigation and not talk to the two principals involved? Listen, man, I've been watching the NFL since I was in diapers. I've watched less and less of it each year, and not even the Brady deflategate stuff.

I know people say, oh, you're a Pats fan. Just the moral deprav less of it each year. Uh, and not even the Brady deflate gate stuff. I know people say, Oh, you're a patch fan, just the moral depravity of this, of this fucking organization, the NFL, the whole lion about the concussions, like just bullshit and all these retired guys. And then this, the way they handle the domestic violence stuff, it's fucking sickening and they hope it goes away and it doesn't come up. And it always does. It always bites them in the ass.

They're just idiots in charge and too many scumbags in the league. It makes you not want to watch the fucking league. And I swear to God, I don't watch nearly as much NFL. And I know I'm not going to have any effect on their bottom line. I'm not a dummy, but just from my own personal perspective,

it's like, fuck, man, I don't want to condone these assholes. And let me say, about Kareem Hunt, how fucking dumb are you? Can you be any fucking dumber? You're going to make millions and millions of dollars. You have the world by the balls, and you're in a hotel lobby attacking a girl because what?

She won't fuck one of your buddies or won't go off with you? Well, the story is she dropped an N-bomb on him, and I think she hit his girl. Okay, okay, either way. Nonetheless, it's dumb on her part, but just tell her to leave. Dude, there was instances when there was stuff going on in bars or stuff where I was like, I got to get out of here because I'm a draft pick of the NHL. I hope to be a professional athlete.

Use your brain, dude, and realize realize i gotta get out of this situation like your whole life's in front of you you have everything to lose and you're so fucking stupid all these guys that get into this shit like dude just walk away like leave early have your buddies deal with something just what are you doing and it's just amazing to see how many of these NFL players are complete and utter morons. You can't even believe it. Just on every issue, every week there's another issue. Like, dude, use your brain one time. Once.

Yeah, you know what it is? These guys, a lot of them, they've been babied and coddled for so long. I mean, you're talking back to 10, 11, 12 years old. A lot of these kids are talented. So they've been coddled for so long that when they fuck up, they always get away with it because people cover their asses because they know eventually they're going to make money. They're enabled as anything.

So when they do this shit, they're so used to getting out of trouble. And then something like this happened, and the guy crapped out. And fuck him. He should get what he deserves. I'm glad I was afraid of my dad. You got to be afraid of your dad growing up. These kids weren't afraid of their dad, fucking morons. I'll say this.

There's nothing that could fucking make me touch a woman. I could walk into my wife getting stuffed by three different dudes. And I'd just be like, that sucks. Like, what could bring you to want to, like, physically harm a woman? Like, even if they're underlying even if they're chucking bombs yeah you can just kind of like grab their arms and like and like just like push them away and be like yo like please stop please stop fucking pounding my face and please stop getting tripled by three dudes oh yeah not good often uh stop punching my nose bigger not not good well said and it's just

yeah it seems to be a a reoccurring problem in the nfl so check out the nhl if you really want to see some true athletes with some respect and honor and appreciation for where they came from fucking loser nfl players nba is too. For good measure. I can love it. All right, boys. I think that about wraps up episode 130. Had a good one here. Stan Bowman was a great guest. I enjoyed the chatter of the contract.

Any additional thoughts, boys? No, good episode. Thanks to Stan Bowman and Pussy Crusher 6969.