Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 345: Featuring Bayne Pettinger + Terry Ryan

Episode Date: July 27, 2021

On Episode 345 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Bayne Pettinger and Terry Ryan. Bayne joined (43:05) to discuss the recent news about Luke Prokop coming out, being an NHL agent, his time with Hockey Canada and tons more. But first, the guys open the show talking about the Seattle Expansion Draft. The guys then talk tons of NHL news, including the Seth Jones trade to Chicago, all of Philly’s moves, the NHL draft and more. Biz then sits down with Terry Ryan (02:29:23) to tell some funny draft stories and to check in with one of our favorite guests. The guys wrap up talking the weather and RA rants about Jeff Bezos.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 345 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney. For my friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the Postal Sports Podcast family, what is up all very, very busy week in the NHL? Two drafts, bunch of signings, trades, buyouts, retirements, the Kraken are finally coming together. But let's check in with the boys first. Producer Mikey Grelli are you in new york city right now buddy i am in new

york city but i got to spend the week at lake winnipeg beautiful lake in new hampshire my parents just got a place up there congrats to them i'm a huge boat guy so we spent the whole day saturday on the boat got to watch the draft there friday night so much needed family time it was nice though boys fucking making that that scrilla. I got the lake house. Look at you guys. The Grinnellys are raking it in from the greatest bar. The greatest bar.

The greatest bar doesn't make a dime, but yeah. Nice. Works hard. Not a big deal. Can't beat New Hampshire Lakes this time of year. I was just up one myself in New Hampshire, but let's go to Biz Nasty, Paul Bissonette. You're not in your usual homestead right now. It doesn't look like it i'm in la i love la california

what a weird naked gun what a weird 24 hours so i'm doing uh i'm doing something here with a hockey player can't mention who a little special uh thing but uh i saw a guy take a shit on the sidewalk today i went out for dinner last night. The waiter accidentally gave my credit card because I was sitting at the bar. He gave it to somebody else. They signed out of their tab. So I was waiting. Hopefully they would return it today. They went and treated themselves to lunch with my credit card.

So I finally had to cancel it. And what else has happened? Oh, so right. You think, sorry, do you think they knew it was like yours this afternoon or you think they're just like thinking it's theirs still? No, I'm assuming they also have like a blue credit card and they haven't thought twice about it. And I mean, I think that if you're going to, you know, if he knew, we probably would have made a more expensive purchase than eating at this restaurant and charging 30 bucks this afternoon.

So hopefully he fucking recognizes at some point. But I guess nothing you can do now. I just don't want to have to cancel it, and now I got to reach out to all these people that I paid. Oh, dude, I know. I know I just ruined your day. Buddy, even thinking about having to get a new card and then registering the card with every fucking app

and every website, your online shop, and all that kicking the dick action, I'm happy for you that it's coming home, baby. Yeah, what do you mean coming home again? Are you getting the card back? No, no. I had to call and kick. Oh, so you have to do all that stuff?

Yeah. Yeah. I know. How did we not cancel this podcast, dude? That is the biggest kick in the crotch. The littlest shit rattles you. And the only reason I wanted to actually tell the story was was to upset you so witt's gonna have the worst podcast going and it's gonna be a long one because we got a lot of shit

to talk about i guess the only other crazy thing i saw in the 24 hours i've been here so there was this massive lineup in west hollywood and uh i was assuming there was like a merch drop or something clothing related no there's this there was this food truck that they sell coffee, 90 minute wait to get a cup of coffee with 90 fucking minutes. I took a video of it. I coffee like, well, that's the thing. I went up to the hand job. I went, I went, it's got a, it's got Columbia special in it.

It was our race food truck. No, but I went up to the front and people were like taking pictures with the plastic cup that they had it in, not a special cup. And I said, it was a worth the way. And the girl was like, no, not really. And all these, all these like teeny bopper, tick tockers are just line up to drink this coffee. So this world has gone absolutely mad. And, but I tell you what, it was a good day shooting with my friend, former or not former current NHL player.

And I have to leave it at that because I can't spill the beans. But we also what's that? I was to say maybe the guy in that video is the one who got your card and then he bought a coffee with your card. And that's why you saw a video of him taking a shit. I mean, you kind of skipped over that. So some guys just stand in there, drops his, and just takes an absolute smash on the top. Yeah, yeah. Oh, he sent the video to our group.

I thought it was random. I didn't know you took the fucking thing. No, no, I took it. I was like, I caught it. Deuce in the wild. Because you know when you tell someone that you saw that, they might not believe you. It's like, no, yeah, a guy legit just dropped a deuce.

Oh, my God. I'll take it for the next time. Oh, dude. yeah a guy legit just dropped oh my god next time i was getting oh he looks like like a normal human he's like he's not dressed like a homeless guy no no that's that's the craziest part about it you have like a nice shirt on with a nice pair of jeans and yeah yeah what's up i think that's i think it's becoming so common where people like yeah people just drop their drawers and take a massive shit on the street but yeah this is like west hollywood just a different type of place and uh and i've got to experience quite a few things in the last 24 hours now there was one other thing i was going to mention but you cut me off there already with your theory that the guy who stole

my credit card was the one taking a shit in front of me not a bad theory and he got the coffee he mentioned yeah i tried i tried to tie it all together there oh is that what you're trying to do yeah maybe the coffee is what caused them to shit i think that was the joke oh okay i'm talking over my head i don't know how that got over oh you know what i was going to mention was that's not the only content we captured in the last couple weeks we ended up having that uh the the battle of the grill for Budweiser come out. Me and Witt went head-to-head in a barbecuing competition, and I tell you what, I'm going to hand it over back to you to intro Witt to talk about the most captivating part of that video.

Last but not least, the Witt dog, Ryan Whitney. What's new with you, brother? Not much, guys. It's great to be on, and like Biz said, I mean, I don't ever remember this much stuff happening in the nhl like in the month of july it just seems crazy now granted it's an expansion draft involved but it's news galore daily by the minute by the hour so i'm excited to chat getting to the video check it out budweiser uh sponsored me and grilled me and biz doing a little grill off it was a blast to do i won obviously i'm really getting better on the grill i'm very happy it showed on the video too i i think

i i really presented that me that meal with a little flair for you and i and i won not that i didn't mention that the biggest issue being how the fuck ra holds a fork if you have ever even seen somebody hold a fork like this you probably never eat again because it's disgusting it's not caveman would be like what are you doing man i don't know how you holding it like that because a caveman might hold it like you know like caveman style it's bad explanation but you know what i'm talking about i'm showing these guys right now we're just full fist around a spoon or a fork ra goes between the middle and the index finger. So if you see me

on YouTube, he's basically like how you would put keys in between your knuckles if you wanted to punch someone and get them with the key. And then he's bringing the chicken up into his mouth and then his other fingers putting the fucking chicken on the fork. It was just a gong show.

R.A. was a great judge because he deemed me the winner, but I've never in my life seen anything like that i'd rather watch somebody take a shit on the street than see somebody hold a fork and eat like that and i also think i also to get back to your little uh intro biz i don't i don't know off the top of head, I cannot think of one thing I would wait 90 minutes in line for. I don't know. Can you guys just – are you guys – I'm not a big line guy. I guarantee R.A. has been a guy to wait for a TV on Black Friday in the scraps. No, no way.

Busting into a Best Buy throwing elbows. No, he actually waits in line when William Sonoma drops their new fork and knife silverware line so he can hold the fuck hey you guys been out to you me enough you know i don't really hold my silverware that day i was kind of doing it like a little kid holding holding them in each hand like that so then i just continued to do that i normally don't hold my silver like that i thought it'd be we kept funny for the content oh it was fucking hilarious i mean that was that's what everybody was commenting about that was the talking point. Yeah. I thought they would have showed the clip. Maybe it's in the outtakes of me just eating a garlic, like straight up eating garlic cloves.

That was savage. I couldn't believe you did that. You did that and did even bat an eye. Now, I mentioned a caveman. I'm pretty sure caveman. We were in New York City. Caveman probably didn't have utensils, so that was probably another stupid example by me.

No, because a lot of people say, like that was probably another stupid example by me. No, because a lot of people say you're eating like a caveman, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were whittling away some rocks or sticks to maybe make something to help them pick up food, right? When they were cooking meat

in an open flame, they can't just grab it off the fire. They must have had something. You know, a spatula in the caveman days might have been just a little different than we imagined. So I don't think that was that dumb of you, Biz. We're not historians, but, you know, there's some theories. We'll have to look into it.

R.A., what do you got going? One more thing I have. I actually like, this is from another podcast I've listened to in the past, and every week they do my occulpa. Is that what it is? All right. Me a couple may a couple.

Yeah. See me a couple. Excuse me. I messed up the pronunciation of that. But I kind of almost think we should start it because we fuck up so many things in the pod. We'll be almost nice occasionally to just start off. I have one. R.A. said the lines of the song don't worry be happy

and i said bob marley i thought i thought for sure it was bob marley that i so did i i don't know i just thought of of bob marley and singing about uh don't worry about a thing you know and it just but don't worry be happy is not bob marley and there are some bob marley stands out there who let it be known to your boy witty that i am foolish for thinking he would ever sing a song that they that they claimed to be that bad so i mean my mea culpa and i i got called the original it's bobby mcferrin who sings this don't worry be happy and i got called though because i didn't catch it because I actually was goofing on you. And neither one of you has caught it out because when you say worry, you say worry.

So I was like, don't worry, be happy. And what do I say? You don't say worry. You say worry. Like, like as if it was spelled W-E-R-R-Y. Worry. So I says, don't worry. I was making fun of you.

Is that not how you're supposed to say it? It's I mean, hey, I'm Alaska to make of the way people pronounce words, but it's worry. And you say worry. It's just one of those little quirks you have like we all have. So no one even caught that I was goofing on you. But because I was concentrating on ranking on you, I didn't even catch you say Bob Marley. So I got fucking shit on for not catching you fucking up and saying Bob Marley.

Bob Marley fans, and I love Bob Marley. Great music to listen to to I really enjoy it but I would love to be able to get a true poll of how many people here don't worry be happy and just immediately think Bob Marley I'm not the only one I would say 50% of people

I didn't even bat an eye at it and of course RA your demographic would have been all over you now they were I want to stick on the music subject I thought it was and of course, R.A., your demographic would have been all over you. Yeah, they were. I just want to stick on the music subject. I thought it was a pretty interesting week with all the antics that Kanye West is up to. I know, R.A., I don't think you're probably the biggest Kanye West guy. I keep scrolling when I see his name. Yeah, so I love more so of his old music.

I think he's a true and true artist. I mean, some of his albums are some of my most like my favorite ones i'll listen to even front to back obviously his stuff from the early beginning like you know graduation and all that stuff but he's dropping a new album when he did a seven song listening party at the atlanta falcon stadium i think it's called the mercedes ben stadium and he's not quite done the album apparently he was supposed to drop so every time he drops an album it's like an event so of course doesn't come out when it's supposed to but i think it was twenty dollars a ticket and about forty thousand people ended up showing up to the stadium just to listen to seven of his songs and that's when you know dude you're big time oh yeah

yeah and he was wearing all this uh all his red clothing that he's going to be dropping with the gap because he ended up collabing with the gap and they're going to be releasing clothing. So he had this big poofy red jacket on. He won't show his face. That's the mode he's finished the album, he's living out of the stadium to finish it. So they had a soccer game there the other day, and he was just like scrolling around watching the soccer game. So he's taking a page out of the Red Deer Rebels book, and he's living up in one of the boxes. What do you think Arthur Blank's charging him for rent to stay at the Mercedes? It's Mercedes Stadium, isn't it, R.A.? It is.

Yeah, Mercedes Stadium, Dome, whatever. Yeah, you could stay here. It's just $400,000 a month. The thing that's crazy is that if he hasn't released the album and he's willing to have the watch party for the first seven songs, was he not worried that people are going to record it and then all of a sudden, you know,

songs are dropping before? I think it builds the hype for the actual album drop and that's that's also part of it now i mentioned that uh that poofy red jacket i'd imagine they're gonna sell a gazillion of those because he sold a gazillion silly shoes that he made so he's just got so many hype beasts and like he you know he's obviously impacted a major part of of the culture at least people who love the rap music i mean you're now like you're a little younger like anytime anything kanye pops up i'm intrigued by what's going on i think the whole of the culture, at least people who love the rap music. I mean, Grinnelli, you're a little younger. Anytime anything Kanye pops up, I'm intrigued by what's going on.

The whole internet stopped. The whole internet stopped once the clip started coming out about that watch party. When Jay-Z jumped back on a song with Kanye West after their beef. Jay-Z was there? Jay-Z jumped back on a song with Kanye, and they've had that whole beef. So it was like it that that made

the internet break for a little bit and apparently he recorded the the the part of the song that he did at like 4 p.m and then like sent it to him and then he was able to drop it that night so i don't know all right two chains was backstage recording vocals right before the show right before the show went on two chains was backstage and they were editing shit so we could put it in the song so so there's a probably a large amount of people that are listening right now who are hockey fans who aren't kanye fans and who are just ah i get it he's a polarizing figure you either love him or you hate him and i just figured i'd mention him off the hop considering we were talking about music that's but all right what's your overall opinion i know he's he's a very polarizing guy i mean honestly i really don't i've never i'm not familiar with his music i know it's a wicked old

guy take i just never really listened to his shit i i really don't have much of an opinion on one way or the other i i can't say i like him i hate him i'm just i'm pretty neutral on him i mean i don't i don't have i'm not a fan of his but i i just i'm indifferent man yeah i kind of i kind of disagree biz a little bit i don't think it's like a love or hate Kanye. I think I'm in the same boat. A couple of his songs I love. I think the guy's a little cuckoo for Coco Puff. But in the end, you know, I don't really have that strong of an opinion about him.

I will say, I think part of taking away his past music success and how big of a deal he is in the rap game and the music industry, I really do think part of it is that people never know what he's gonna do next next and and and i know there's probably tons of stuff out there that that would give people reasons to dislike him but the only one i can think of as a totally uh unbiased like fan is is what he did to taylor swift that was a scumbag move when he ran on stage and said, you shouldn't have won. That was kind of tough. Look. Or when he said he made her famous on a track.

He did? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's done quite a few. And I was talking to my buddy. Who made more money in music, Taylor Swift or Kanye? Oh, well, I would say maybe music, Taylor. But clothing. No, no, I just meant music.

Yeah, yeah. He's got all of it. So I was talking to my good friend, Jeff Jacobson, by the way, happy birthday to him. He just had his birthday. Happy birthday,

buddy. He described the best. He's kind of a natural contrarian where it seems like he'll go against the grain on most subjects. It just in order to kick up the, so I don't know. I'll leave it at that. And I don't know if we're going to get the hockey right about now.

All right. Yeah, we can get there shortly. First, we do want to mention we have a pair of guests coming up today. We have NHL agent Bane Pettinger. We have spent some time with him, got some great stories, his whole backstory as well. And we get the living legend himself, Terry Ryan, joins us in a little bit. So we got a pair of interviews.

While we're doing birthdays, I know he doesn't listen, Biz, but happy 78th birthday to Mick Jagger today, Monday the 26th, 78 years old. He's been doing this stuff for almost 60 years. Let's see, what else? Oh, yeah, make sure to hit your local liquor store and grab some new Mickey-sized Pink Whitney. Got about six more weeks of summer, so make sure you stock up for all your pool parties

and all your cottage rippers. The extra smooth taste makes it the best drink from the pregame to the after party. Pink Whitney. And the big news, boys, last week, the extra smooth taste makes it the best drink from the pregame to the after party pink whitney and uh the big news boys last week everybody was waiting for the seattle expansion draft i know we had the entry draft as well but i think there was a lot more anticipation for the seattle draft uh and i think they kind of went about it a different way a lot of people had their mock drafts and it didn't really go the way most people expected they had to pick 30 players

they also took seven in the draft itself they ended up taking 15 forwards 12 defensemen uh three goaltenders uh they get nine guys making under a million dollars uh they still get a few restrictive free agents so they can just let those guys become unrestricted and almost they had to pick these guys because they had to pick every guy from every team i think they're not even going to probably sign some of these guys uh right now at the cap they're just under 51 mil. They still can spend up to another 31 million. Free agency starts Wednesday. Let's go to you first.

What was your take on the whole expansion draft itself? All right, a bunch of different takes. Now, before we get into the player news, Dr. Evil, Frank Cerevelli. Oh, my God. evil Frank Sara Valley. Oh my God. Amazing, amazing ability to completely ruin the expansion draft for the NHL. Now,

having said that, if you don't know what I mean, he broke every single pick. There was absolutely no suspense. Every pick was known before the actual event that night in Seattle, which was pretty good. I mean, you know, I think it was cool.

Have Eberle was there. Giordano was there. A few others that I'm forgetting. Kevin Weeks literally hit every square inch of the city. Yeah, exactly. Weeks, he was chucking the fish. Marshawn Lynch was making picks. But I do not at all, at all blame Frank.

Frank was doing his job. He's a journalist. And I've heard, and I don't know if this is true, but I've heard that the NHL was very upset now that's not shocking I think they might have talked to Sportsnet TSN ESPN maybe and said guys you know keep this quiet well Frank does not work for any of those companies he's uh I think he's with the Daily Faceoff now I don't know if he's the owner or he basically is the big dog there he's an enormous name in terms of breaking news in hockey

along with lebron drager you know all the big names elliot bobby margarita bobby margarita who's just chilling now you know he's probably crushed at 6 40 on a monday nailed every single pick in the first round so he's doing his job right it's on the nhl you fucked up you had the draft you had all the teams had to submit the names at 10 a.m the thing didn't go on till 10 hours later what'd you think was gonna happen so i don't know and i understand that they had to do it in advance because they had to get guys into seattle and there was a an issue in terms of like getting the people there that they wanted there and it wasn't enough time to have it all be live i understand but you cannot at all blame frank the guy's doing his job he's

breaking stories he's a reporter. He just happened to really ruin the NHL's day. Well, and on top of that, though, if you're a fan where you wanted it to be a surprise, just stay off social media. I mean, same goes for TV shows. Same goes for movies. Like, if you think you might see a spoiler, just avoid the apps. Yeah.

And Biz, with one of his top tweets, for anyone not on Twitter, as Frank broke the 20th selection of the Expansion Draft happening that night, Biz retweeted, don't ever bring this guy to a gender reveal party. Because he'll be like, it's a boy. And Seattle signed Eberle to a four-year extension. I dug into the icing. It's a boy. R.A., so R.A., what was your opinion on how it all came out? Were you in the same boat as Witt where you're like,

guys, he's just doing his job? Oh, 100%. Everyone who was complaining about him, I'm like, this is his job to get this stuff and turn it over to people, get the sources to tell you shit, and then you tell the public. Now, he's not beholden to anybody. Like Witt said, I'm sure the league partners were probably asked to not tweet that shit out but what he did was 100 his job i think it's on the nhl for for having such a huge window and where the member clubs were giving him this information i mean he didn't make it up people from the teams were giving it to him so

right i got no problem or there's a source within the pa i don't necessarily i'm definitely thinking there were some teams telling him but right he might have just got a master sheet. You're right. He could have just got a master sheet from one source. Now, the funny thing is that it's like a scene out of Mission Impossible. He's like in the database. I'm just thinking. And then he catches the sweat, the beat of sweat. But I will say, though, you know who's Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do- try to torture him to get him to what do they try to get him to say uh mercy just say mercy

say mercy and it'll all end it'll all end no he wouldn't one of the most emotional scenes and you see as he's screaming it you see his buddy it's just an amazing movie braveheart alzheimer oh sorry how happy was frank because he's like wait a minute nobody else is breaking anything like he's like, wait a minute. Nobody else is breaking anything. He's like, this is unbelievable. I get to do every one. I don't have to worry about anyone stepping on my toes. Hey, and then he kind of dropped, Mike dropped it when he's like,

everybody have a great expansion draft tomorrow. Or tonight, excuse me. Felt like tomorrow. That's how long the rollout was. It's another thing I thought. People are expecting all these side deals or trades like Vegas did years ago, and it seems like all the other GMs learned their lesson

because there were absolutely no side deals, no trades. Seattle just took a lot of guys, I think, off the radar that people weren't expecting them to take. Whit, I know you wanted a follow-up. Yeah, it's a good point by you, R.A., and I think there's a bunch of different factors now part of it is teams smartened up right teams got taken to the cleaners in 2017 there was no um you know there wasn't going to be like a shea theodore available right teams had

enough time in advance warning after what happened with vegas to kind of really lock up players and make sure they wouldn't lose certain guys i I was still very surprised. I think was there, was there no side deals? There wasn't even one. Oh, Pitlick, Pitlick ended. They ended up moving him. That was after though. Yeah. So that was after. So the one thing is I think teams were definitely aware of what was happening. I also think, you know, when, when Francis is calling, it's almost like scary in a sense of like, what is he going to try to do to us here? He's trying to figure out something. So I think in past and what happened in Vegas teams did learn now what we'll

see after Wednesday or tomorrow for everyone listening after free agency is they might, like RA said, not sign some of the guys they pick. They can still make deals. They can still take on enormous cap hits and get a bunch of draft picks in return for teams looking to get out of cap misery and just get rid of some guys to create some more room for themselves. So I don't think by any means

Seattle's like wheeling and dealing is over, but it was very surprising to not see those side deals. I think just because of what everyone expected after the last time this went down. Yeah. Yeah, it just seemed like both sides kind of learned. And then, and then of course,

you know, 30 million in cap space, they're going to be able to do a, and there's probably still some guys that might even get bought out or traded for really cheap. I mean, I think people are probably most surprised that they didn't pick up Tara Sanko.

Would that be one? Yeah. I think Tara Sanko was surprising. I think James Van R riemz like was surprising they could have had dushane or johansson now for me looking at their draft unless on wednesday you hear about uh landis kog signing there or um dougie hamilton say like another big ufa it just looks like they are really really focused on three to three years from now yeah and

totally not even trying to win now where i don't even necessarily know if vegas was trying to they just realized a couple games in they were a very solid club but i think in looking at their selections and how it's gone on they are not interested and they understand this year they will struggle and maybe next year they'll struggle and they're all about the future which makes more sense you know that wasn't going to happen like it did before, and now you understand, all right, this team's building towards these next three, four years. I feel like they got something up their sleeve. They're still not playing another game for three months.

I mean, they got, like I said, almost $31 million cap space, and I love our boy Chief, but when he had that blog, they're tanking for next year's draft or something. It's like, come on, man. They just had their expansion draft. They're not going to tank for a pick. I mean, I don't think it's a generational talent coming along, like a Crosby or McDavid down the pike.

I just think they probably have a few things up their sleeve that we have no idea about, namely, like unrestricted free agents that they can sign Wednesday morning. Oh, G's hopping in here. What do we got here, G? Oh, hold on. We got G. I think some people would argue with you.

I think some people would say that they believe that Shane Wright or Conor Bedard is a potential franchise-changing player. Well, Bedard's not next year, but Shane Wright is. And I don't – It's funny. I talked to somebody in the front office of an NHL team, and I talked about – Good luck beating the Coyotes out of that one.

Oh, Jesus Christ, the Coyotes. We'll get to them later. We got to talk about tanking and the idea of tanking and the idea is that you know we got to get better we got to just lose now to get better in the future and understandably you you do become great in this league through the draft you've seen Tampa you've seen all these other teams do it through the draft but the whole thought of tanking is hard because what it what it the problems it presents is the culture of losing and the culture of never understanding like battling in games and trying to win and getting some success and having young guys feel success and the growth of becoming a good team and then all of a sudden man yeah there's there's some

home runs and drafts but you never know and all of a sudden if you're tanking and you're tanking i'm not saying edmonton was doing it on purpose, but where are they at dude? And look how many fucking first overall picks they've had. So the idea of tanking is so scary to some fan bases. Cause it's like, it's not even a guarantee. It is not a guarantee.

You'll be good. So I think our is right in the sense that there's more to come. And after free agency, it'll really change, but we'll see because if they are really bad all year, they don't make any more moves. We could see a team that really struggles and ends up getting that first overall pick with ease.

And that's the other thing. The new lottery system, it's not even a guarantee at all. So I'm with you, R.A. Fuck Chief. I'm not going to go that far. And also, too, they did sign three free agents, guys who could have been unrestricted by Wednesday, but these guys wanted to stay in Seattle.

They got picked by them. They decided to stay there. Jamie Oleksiak, five years, 4.6 mil a year. Adam Larson, four years, 4 mil a year. And goaltender Chris Dredge, three years times 3.5 mil. I mean, he became a number one goalie, I'd say, this year. You look at their top four D, Giordano, Oleksiak, Larson, Soucy. These guys are bonafide NHLers, man.

I mean, I don't think this is a total scrub team by any chance, especially when we see what they do up front. I've got to hop in there. And Penny Oleksiak, shout out to her for helping Canada win a silver medal. So quite the week for that family. Nice little contract for Jamie as well. I've got to talk about edmonton i ended up deleting the tweet because i felt a little bit bad yeah i'm a tweet deleter deleted a tweet man

yeah i was i was just like i basically was i was basically asking if holland was still working for detroit with some of the moves he's made like saying maybe it's an inside job and then i wrote hashtag eyes are planned but maybe a little i know i know terrible was it worth the delete or yes yes or no no i think eyes are hashtag eyes are planned just should that's enough to keep it should live because i haven't heard that well i just you make that up no no no that's been going on because he's been fucking lighting everybody up as far as trades are concerned and we're going to get to that later but oh he just bent carolina over and just. Okay, we'll talk about that later. But guys, losing Larson, I mean, oh my goodness.

We talk about how hard it is for them to get free agents. Getting Duncan Keith with Larson, that's an improvement. Now you're basically just swapping him out where Larson's, as far as at least proven over the last couple seasons, that he is a little bit superior in play, not saying Duncan Keith can't go there and get back to where in what we know of Duncan Keith. Right. And then they ended up in the draft trading and, you know, goaltending. I don't want to say goaltending has been an issue because I think Smitty had a great year last year. I think that they, he did somewhat of a good job in walking

in for a very low number of this uh the next two years though two years a little surprising but they they have the 20th pick walstead who was labeled as the number one goalie in the draft he ended up becoming the second goal he picked he's at 20th and what do they do they trade away the pick and then he ends up getting picked up by who nashville ended up getting him 20th? Help me out here, G. You're the draft specialist. I believe it was Minnesota.

You have the best goalie in the draft available. That's maybe been an issue, or at least you have the dress moving forward, and then you end up moving on from it. And I think Kosa was the other kid. I believe his last name. He was the big goaltender,'6 out of Edmonton. Maybe more upside, and that's who Iserman ended up trading up and picking, shockingly, Vasilevsky 2.0. But this Wollstead was probably the most NHL-ready of the goalies

being able to be selected because he was playing pro over in Sweden. And if you look at his highlights, people are saying, man, this guy is as calm as they come. Kevin Weeks was – and I get it. It's a first round draft pick. We don't know what's going to happen, but just some of these moves. And now you hear, you know, he's going to throw seven years at Hyman, who is beloved in Toronto. But I mean, at seven years, you're going to have to lock him in for 5.5 a year.

How's that going to look in three, four years? I mean, I of what we're talking about no that nowadays they're like signing these deals thinking about three four years it's so different yeah and and that that could be a deal we got we got away from seattle i got a couple more things to say but that could be a deal where it's like we gotta we gotta do something for mcdavid that's right and that's what it comes down to because it's desperation because they do have to overpay free agents. And,

and like I said, Hyman's provided a lot to that Toronto lineup. He's a, he's a honey badger, but I mean also like, I mean, you're giving five and a half million for seven years to a guy who had one goal in playoffs last year.

Yeah. And the thing about Lars, yeah, he had a good regular season. Well, I might have a good regular season playing with Marner Matthews. Fuck. Fuck it. Carried away. The thing thing about exactly the thing about larson you can't you can't really

blame holland that they had that dough for him and and he just didn't want to be there anymore you know that's a guy who doesn't he didn't want to be in edmonton he wanted to be somewhere else so in a sense like you really you really can't blame ken holland for that that was his decision his his choice to be there. I don't want to be here anymore. I mean, they could offer him even a little bit more. We don't know. And that's why I deleted the tweet.

My apologies, Ken Holland. Also, with Logo Boy, Hingham's Matty Benitez, first ever draft pick, Seattle history, taking number two overall. This kid is a dead ringer for Gary Goldman, the comedian. Did you see his interview? You know Gary Goldman, the comedian. Did you see his interview? You know Gary Goldman, the comedian. He looks exactly like him.

Tell me where he's from. So he's pretty good on the mic already, and I think his mom was even in Broadway. So he's got some experience in talking publicly, and I thought he sounded great, but I don't get the reference, though, with the Goldman. I don't know who that is. He's a comedian.

He's been around for a long time. I don't know when his last special was. What's he in? He's a comedian. I don't know what movies he's in. He comedian. He's been around for a long time. I don't know when his last special was. What's he in? He's a comedian. I don't know what movies he's in. He's just done a bunch of stand-up specials, like on Netflix. He's been around for probably 25, 30 years. I figured you'd know him of all people.

He's a local guy. North Shore guy, not a South Shore guy. Oh, I don't know North Shore people. Oh, okay. I've actually never seen that person. Geez, to show us the picture, but that is Matty Beneers. So, great call on the Doppler danger, R.A. We got to shout out Emily Kaplan.

She was doing part of the draft breakdowns about the prospects and some fun facts about them. And this Beneers kid's a big Dr. Pimple Popper fan. He actually went to – I think he's going to get into dermatology. I don't know how long he's going to stay at school, given how good he is. I mean, it sounds like in a couple of years he might be NHL ready, especially with the fact that the University of Michigan is a fucking NHL team right now.

Do you want to talk about that? We went over Owen Powers, who ended up going – or Owen Power. I call him Powers, like Austin Powers. He had a pretty funny uh draft video with uh grandma getting excited in the front row and then i i don't know if it was his old man or his grandpa who accidentally like kind of gave you a tit grab i know i don't know was that his girlfriend or his sister no idea yeah just a tit grab in celebration by no means on purpose i don't think no no definitely a funny accidental a funny accident

to get to witness very happy for that guy buffalo goes with another defenseman and their first overall pick it was rasmus daline before um quickly about veneers i think that it's been said everywhere ron francis was really into trying to find guys who played the game the way he did now i mean that's near impossible one of the all-time greats but this guy is fucking awesome he skates like the wind he has offensive ability he plays on the other side of the puck i just got the chance to watch him at world championships the most oh my god he now granted this year's world championship was by no means like one of their top you know the top players weren't there and things like that but fuck this kid is awesome and i think a lot of people looked at kent johnson who columbus ended up taking who played at michigan

as like the number one center available um but in the end they went with veneers i think francis sees a little bit of himself in him and i love the pick yeah they said far and above the best two-way center in the draft has an unbelievable motor we had we did a Pink Whitney draft show with Shane Doan. Whit was unable to attend because he had prior engagements, but we figured, hey, why not hop on and shoot the shit? Because Shane Doan's kid actually ended up getting drafted by the Coyotes in the second round, but he did a good job of breaking down some of these top picks.

I think we talked about the top 15. So if you guys could head over to our YouTube channel, you can check that out. But yeah, he said that he looks a little bit mike madonna when he's skating because he's got the jersey flapping in the wind now people don't he ain't fucking mike madonna he's got a long way to go to being one of the best american-born players ever but uh some some definitely some high praises for the second overall pick and guys for the top five out of Michigan it's insane I don't think we're ever going to see that again no there's no way that I'll ever I I'm I'm not positive there's no way

that's happened with a junior team right you know juniors built a little different right you're not going to have that many studs like that age on one junior team considering there's a draft and in college you can choose where you want to go but wow, wow, if Michigan doesn't win it all next year, they're the biggest bunch of scrubs I've ever seen. The Fab Five. They also have Pat Brisson, son, who was picked in the first round last year. They have another player who was picked. I think their goalie was a high pick last year too, right?

Is that – yeah, so – So we're giving them wagon status. Now, Ann Arbor is a great town you know they got a football program that's pathetic now but still a top football program known around the country it's a great school nonetheless the other funny thing about benears i meant to mention is he was committed to play at harvard um and then the ivy league so pathetic they canceled all their sports last year so So the kid's like, I'm a top draft prospect. I got to go somewhere.

So he went to Michigan late. But what I was going to say about Michigan is it's a great town. It's a great school. It's an awesome, awesome arena. Yost Arena is sick. Great atmosphere. And that team is just built to dominate this season. Because never before, like you said, Biz,

have you seen this many top prospects on one college team? Yeah, I know we weren't supposed to dive into the draft, but that goes without saying. Our ADD took over. And last thing to throw it back to you, R.A., regarding Emily Kaplan's comments about him being a big Dr. Pimple Popper fan. Have you ever seen any of those videos? No, I refuse to watch them.

I don't know why anybody would want to watch that stuff. Why are you laughing, G'd rather so foul i don't i'd rather hold my fork like ra does than watch that show i don't hate the pimple poppers i don't mind it's like there's a lot of fans because you're so used to popping yours exactly i would i would rather watch that guy that video of the homeless guy shitting in la that you showed her i would rather watch that in the loop and watch one pimple get popped yeah it is so gross. You're going to watch a few fucking pimples pop if I get in the ring with Jake Paul, too, that fucking guy.

I think this has to happen now. This might happen. This might actually happen. I think it has to happen. You can't let him talk shit that shit about you. What did he say? All right, you're going to be my Pauly. What did he say?

Paul responded? No, no. It was someone in the office who said that Biz couldn't beat Jake Paul. Who? They didn't say who it was. It was the Viva La Stool thing. Oh, my. Who released it then?

Viva La Stool just anonymously quoted someone in the office. Oh, you cowards running that fucking Twitter feed. You didn't say who said it? I mean, whoever said it probably didn't want to have their fucking name named. So that's probably why. The only reason I want to fight this guy is because I think that what they've done. Three million. Yeah, well, that too.

What they've done to disgrace the game of boxing is a joke. And I want to fucking embarrass them. I want to put them right on their ass, both of them. And hopefully I could start with Jake, Dr. Pimple Popper himself. Ding, ding, ding. Ring. Oh, ding, ding. Ring. Oh, one last thing. Oh, no, we're talking draft later.

We're talking draft later. Do you guys have any other Seattle thoughts that you wanted to share? I don't know. I'm going to move on. Yeah, I just think overall the biggest names, Giordano, and then I think Eberle and Yanni Gord, I'd mention as the other two guys that really, you know, you notice very good players. Yanni Gord's going to make that team two guys that really, you know, you notice very

good players. Yanni Gord's going to make that team legit. I don't know how long he'll be there. I don't know how long it is until he's a UF. Oh, no, he just signed a long deal. So he's got a while there. So that's a great player to have. You feel for him a little bit.

I mean, he's got his two cups, but he's going to be in one for a little bit on a team that probably will struggle. You know why you kind of feel for him a little bit? Well, I guess it goes no state tax to no state tax, but it'd be decent if he only had one year left. That way he can at least either, if he likes it, sign a bigger ticket maybe. But yeah, now you've already signed the deal.

You just won the two cups at the place that you love, and then now it's like, well, you don't get to play with those guys that you won with anymore. So, well, hey, our buddy Alex Killorn didn't get picked, so you know he's fired up. Yeah, that's why we our buddy Alex Killorn didn't get picked, so, you know, he's fired up. Yeah, that's why we got him on the show. He just wanted to announce the whole world, don't even think about it.

That was pretty funny. Whit, you just mentioned, actually, you both mentioned Emily Kaplan from ESPN. Last week, this news actually come out Monday, right after we taped Nashville prospect Luke Prokop announced in an Instagram post that he's gay. He's the first player under NHL contract to do so. He's a 19 year old defenseman was taken in the third round of the 2020 draft.

And he said on his Instagram, I'm sorry. He said to Emily, I was lying in bed one night, had just deleted a dating app for the fourth or fifth time. And I was extremely frustrated because I couldn't be my true authentic self. And that moment I said, enough is enough. I'm accepting who I am. I want to live the way I want to. And I want to accept myself as a gay man. And the organization of teammates on social media have been great supporting him.

And Biz, I know that had a part of the reason why you wanted to bring on Bane this show, right? Yeah, Luke actually reached out to Bane because Bane ended up coming out in 2020. And he's a longtime friend of mine. And I think most of our friend group was aware but as he's going to mention in the interview and i don't want to give too much of it up you know he explained you know the whole process of having to go through it and and you know and of course with luke reaching out to him and and bane taking the steps that he did in order to announce it publicly and people will ask sometimes like oh why does this need to be

news well it needs to be news to make it comfortable for the next person to be able to announce it so then the next person can feel comfortable being them true selves so it was it was great to have him on he's worked with hockey canada he's a friend of mine and we just guys we think it's an important subject and you know we didn't reach out to luke because he's probably been doing a lot of media and you know we want to probably let him like, you know, rest a little bit after this. Although he did go on 31 thoughts with Elliot Freeman and Jeff Merrick, two of the best in the business. They had an interview with him. So go,

he did, excuse me, go check it out there. And I really hope that you guys enjoy Bane and his story as well. Yeah. And, and for Luke, if, if people are out there actually saying, why does this need to be news? You, you have a P for a brain because I am I don't know this kid, but like so happy for him. And forget like the sports aspect of it. It's more I feel so bad for any person who is gay and isn't able to live their true life and be honest with their friends and their family, because that must be such torture for people. So any single time you hear a story about somebody coming out,

I do think it's worth reading and hearing about it because you're literally witnessing somebody become more free in themselves and their life. And I can't imagine how amazing that feels for that kid. And it took a lot of balls. I wish it didn't take balls, but it did. And hopefully in the future, because of guys like him

and because of guys like Bane within the sports world, hockey world, whatever you're talking about, it'll become easier for people who are gay to come out and announce who they truly are. So I was very happy to see that news. And before we throw it over to Bane, I just want to remind everyone that this interview is brought to you by our friends at Body Armor. Today's athletes deserve more than just your grandfather's tired old salty sports drink with it's full of artificial shit enter body armor it's made with potassium packed electrolytes antioxidants and b vitamins plus no artificial sweeteners artificial sweeteners are trash for your

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Amazon Prime. Go there now or go to drinkbodyarmor.com for more info. So now we want to thank Bane Pettinger very much for joining. And here he is. Well, with unrestricted free agency lumen and a pair of drafts within a few days, we thought it'd be a good time to bring on an agent back on. In addition to rep and players at CAA Hockey hockey our next guest also worked for hockey canada for nearly a decade as his teams racked up some serious gold in various tournaments thanks so much for joining

us on the spit and chicklets podcast bane pettinger how's the summer going buddy it's good i'm back in toronto now for you know the crazy week here a free agency expansion draft yesterday and the NHL draft tomorrow night and Saturday. Busy time for us in the agency world right now. What do the agents make of all the insiders busting out all the basically breaking all the stories and ruining the

expansion draft? Yeah, I don't know why we needed to watch last night, but it was good. It was Frank and all the guys yeah i think i put that one on the nhl though they had 10 hours to uh you know pretty between when they submitted and i don't know what they expected the media to do they're doing their job you know but also when you look back they obviously had to get those guys in for the stage you know the geos and the guys from toronto and stuff to get them in for the big hoopla last night on the lake but it

looked awesome there i love the the octopus on the yacht. That was, I think the highlight. They should have done the expansion disco that a late night, late night release. You would have fucking been there. Oh yeah. I wondered what those guys were doing after last night, once they got off the stage, if they were going out with Marshawn and Gary Payton and those guys.

Do you notice, do you notice like clients of yours and guys you work with around free agency they start texting calling you more they start feeling the anxiety of what's going to happen big time yeah free agents you definitely know who is a free agent and who's locked up and getting their signing bonus on july 1st so uh it's uh what's up bainer how you doing bro yeah just chilling yeah and then the other calls are all work. Wondering where are we playing next year? When are you getting me a job?

And what have you done for me lately? So, no, it's all good. Yeah. So, R.A. didn't mention it in the intro. I figured I'd take it over. One of the major components to getting us on this podcast today was Luke Prokop. He ends up being the first active player under contract to come out as gay, following the lead of some other guys

who have done it before him. And I know that you were a main component and a guy that he talked to in order before he did it because you last year during the pandemic ended up coming out as gay as well. And from a guy who worked for Hockey Canada for a long time and who's involved with the hockey community, it was probably a difficult decision.

And eventually you did and you saw the outpouring of support. So we figured it was such an important issue to discuss because, you know, you see even sometimes online people are like, well, why did they feel the need to do that? And it's like, well, because, you know, it's hard. It's not easy, right? Almost some of these guys feel like they're, you know, living a, it's, it's hard. It's, it's not easy, right? Almost some of these guys feel like they're living a lie to a certain degree. And, and by doing so,

it ended up helping other people in the future end up coming out and living their true life. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I, you know, my story, when I heard Luke's story, obviously, you know, he reached out about a month before it came out and he said that my story, you know, kind of inspired him there. So that was humbling in its own right to have Luke reach out his agent, Jerry Johanson, to say that he saw my story in November through Pierre, very similar storytelling with an article in The Athletic. And then obviously TSN and media follow up, you know,

I'm a pigeon compared to him. He's a signed NHL prospect. I'm just a team service guy that booked buses and now an agent, but you know, for Luke to do that at age 19 is, is unbelievable. I came out at 33 and you know, I wasn't ready. You know, when I look back at 19, I was playing junior hockey and riding the bus with the boys and, you know, thinking, you know, I don't know what I was thinking, but for him to do that and champion it at his age and the, and the microscope that he's under, you know, a high WHL draft pick, a third rounder signed prospect. This is Luke's job, though, right? He gets a paycheck from the Nashville Predators, you know.

So I think it's it's tremendously courageous for him to step up the way he did it. You know what he's going to be is kind of like a beacon for players, because when I came out in November the the main question people always ask me was when's a player going to come out you know it's great we've got officials we've got NHL executives we've got an agent now when's a player someone in the locker room that's around the boys that can change that culture and um for him to do it so suddenly obviously after the Raiders player with Carl you know and then and then when when Luke came came out, it's, it's fantastic. So I helped out. I had a little conference call with some of the Nashville Predators boys just

to prep them for it. You know, they're going to get some questions from media of, you know, dumb questions. Would you accept a gay teammate? What do you mean? Would we accept them? If he can help us win hockey games, who cares? Right. And that's the biggest thing is that Luke wants to be an NHL player. doesn't want to be that gay NHL player so you know what it is a big deal and it needs to be celebrated because you know if if Luke worked at RBC or a media outlet it wouldn't even be a story but it's because he's assigned NHL prospect and what he's doing to break down barriers in the game and just you know humanize it is is admirable at his age.

And I'm happy to help out in any way. That's very well said. And I'm curious, you know, did you go through a lot of times where you thought, I don't know what they'll think if I come out and tell them the truth? And if so, it must have been incredible to see the amount of support you got from guys you considered and became true friends with once you did come out. Yeah, it was always keeping my personal life separate from my hockey life you know I had I thought I had both of them sorted out I was going to multiple Olympic games world championships world juniors you go on the road for a month and you're hanging out with the who's who of hockey and you're like this is awesome and you win a gold medal and you're like this is great and then you come home and you're kind of like huh I'm tired of the question of why don't you have a girlfriend you know why you know you're

you've got everything going off the ice you know I say off the ice you know in the game what's going on with your personal life and I kind of just you know through my 20s I was exploring and unsure and then finally you know everyone thinks COVID was horrible I actually thank COVID because I got get to go back to the island where I'm from in Victoria and be with my brothers and my parents for four months and really just put the noise away, you know, put the cell phone down of, you know, put the, you know, the pressures of we got to go here and then it's another weekend here in Scottsdale or it's another here and you're pulled in a billion directions and you always put it on the back burner.

So for me, you know, 2020, as much as people hate it, for me, it changed my life. You know, I was able to go back and reset and find out who I am and what's important to me and, and really project that and had some, you know, conversations with my family and saying, Hey, I really think that I can do something with this. And, you know, I'm ready to combine those worlds. And that was, you know, a blessing for me. And it was the best day of my life.

You know, when Pierre did that article on November 5th there to get that out there and just shed a massive weight off my shoulders and really say, who cares? And it's 2021 now. And if anyone does have a problem with it, that's on them. And I love how society has shifted to that that it's no longer the like oh you have to be quiet and we don't do that in hockey and you know guys like myself and guys like Luke you know with his announcement it becomes the well the naysayers or the trolls on Twitter the DMU or whatever they're the ones that are wrong it's not us that are living our

truth and I think that's the most important part. How important just looking back, we talk about trailblazers in this aspect, in this conversation, Brendan Burke obviously was one of the first guys to come out. He came out while he was in college, ended up being, you know, the reason why they started the You Can Play project. And of course, unfortunately he passed away in 2010, the car accident and Patrick ended up taking that and, and as well as

Brian and a few others and and basically trying to eradicate homophobia homophobia in sports in general yeah that was a big piece for me I remember uh where exactly I was Brendan was only a year younger than me he was an 88 I'm an 87 and I remember watching it on SportsCenter with James Duffy there and saying wow this kid is gonna trip this kid is exactly like me you know we're the same age I'd love to meet this guy one year you know one day and obviously you know tragically passed away but I met with Brian before before my uh big announcement and I showed up three minutes late he gave it to me for that but uh I went over for a couple beers I just cold texted him one day and said hey I'd love to just pick your brain he sent me his address right away in Toronto I I showed up and he said, Hey,

I'm going to be on a zoom. So just make yourself at home in the backyard and grab a beer. So I was on a call. And so I showed it was a five o'clock meeting. I showed up at five Oh three. And he's sitting in the backyard watching the birds and goes, you're late. And I'm like, Oh, okay. You told me not because there's a zoom on. I was like, okay. He's like, first rule. Don't be late. If you played for me, you'd be fired or traded.'m like okay well good thing i'm just telling you i'm gay

just trying to have a beer dude yeah seriously he was bird watching and i said berkey that's a different type of bird watching but yeah oh that's a good story oh my god so when you when you talk about hockey canada that's a good story. So when you talk about Hockey Canada, that's an amazing job because every year and every tournament, Canada's the favorite. And it's just been like a powerhouse. You said it's World Juniors. You said World Championships. How did you begin there?

What was your end to Hockey Canada? Like how much did you have to work your way up to go where you were before you became an agent? Yeah, Bob Nicholson actually who was the president at the time introduced my parents so he played beer league with my dad for with my dad in victoria and took my mom to prom in penticton um and he says he took her twice and i don't know who failed grade 12 bob or my mom but uh yeah so bob i was in university in calgary i was 20 years old entering my third year university and

I sat Bob down I remember going over to his house my brother was playing for the Washington Capitals at the time and I couldn't afford the uh the 20 bucks a month for center ice so I went over to his house to watch my brother's games and I said hey how do I get into hockey camp I love the sport I played it you know what what do I got to do and finally I heard I think I harassed him enough that he got me a job doing income tax receipts uh he's like sure just I think he told HR just give him something to do so I went in during the day I was taking night classes and the first day I show up and they're like hey uh I said great where's my office they said it's over here it's the old ticket office and it was a storage locker so I had to empty it my first day and then I started playing beer league

hockey with the Bob Nicholson's the Johnny Misley's the uh the Brad Paschal's the Scott and it was a storage locker. So I had to empty it my first day. And then I started playing beer league hockey with the Bob Nicholson's, the Johnny Misley's, the Brad Paschal's, the Scott Salmon's of the world. A job opened up in player development. So Paul Carson, I was pretty much a glorified hockey coach with a university degree for two years. My parents were phoning me saying, what are you doing?

You got to get your life going here. You're literally teaching Peewee kids crossovers and you've got a university degree. Like let's get it going here, big boy. And then a job opened up with men's national teams. I was a coordinator. My first world juniors was 2013 in Edmonton or 2012 in Edmonton, Calgary, and then slowly moved up the ranks to be kind of the senior team service guy. So the lowest I would go would be world juniors. So everything men's worlds, World Cup of Hockey, Olympics. And, you know, I owe everything to Hockey Canada. It was the amount of people that I got to work with and meet. And truly without them, I wouldn't be where I am today

with the player relationships, which is what the agency world is. But also the staff, you know, John Cooper is at World Championships too. You know, I've had George McPhee to Brad Tree Living you name it anyone that's come through Joel Quenville Barry Trotz uh you name it any player or anyone that's come through the senior program at Hockey Canada I've had the pleasure to work with and I truly that's how I learned was just there's no there's no law school or med school to be an agent, right? It's all relationships. So my school was being at hockey camp. That was my, my internship was, was going and you lose a gold medal game. You know, I remember sitting there crying in Malmo, Sweden. I'm like, Oh my God,

we lost. And my boss came up, he goes, Hey, at least we get another shot next year. You know, for the 19 year old players, they're crushed. Right. And I'm like, yeah, you're right. We're already fighting for next year, you know? So you get a couple shots a year. Oh, my ace. Oh, so it wasn't your junior B career that got you the job at Hockey Canada?

No, that was short-lived. Thankfully, just quickly on that, I was playing for my hometown team, the Victoria Cougars. And we'd take warm-up. Our coach at the time, who's a good friend of mine now, would make eight of us take warm-up our coach at the time who's a good friend of mine now would make eight of us take warm-up and he wouldn't tell us we'd prepare all day and uh and then healthy scratch someone afterwards so you're like just tell me if i'm not playing i was six foot four 225 pounds my brother was playing in the show should be on the road some

sort of like minor league contract and i actually uh the boys did fill the net and i actually toe picked and went into the end boards and knocked myself out and they like rolled me over and i had the paul korea fog visor and uh the trainer came out was giving me the smelling salts in warm-up and uh i get back in the room i'm on the trainer's table they're doing this flashlights in the eye and the coach comes in and goes Bader you're not going tonight and I'm like oh yeah really oh shit so after after that and uh a few western league offers but all they wanted me to do was fight um I said you know what guys I'm gonna get on the other side of the game and go to school and it was uh the best thing I ever did to join hockey canada now you know just got certified

about six months ago with the nhlpa to you know be able to talk to gms and negotiate my own deals and you know it was the best thing i ever did i still thank that coach i said thank god you didn't bring me along because i still would have been gutting it out the coast or somewhere and uh you know sometimes you just gotta the young right page of 18 call it a career on the ice and warmies jesus so you didn't grow up dreaming of being an agent you just kind of came a little a little The young right page of 18, followed their career on the ice. In Warmeys. Jesus. So you didn't grow up dreaming of being an agent. You just kind of came a little later, spur of the moment? Yeah, I always wanted to be in hockey.

You know, I didn't know what path that was going to be. You know, I thought about being a lifer at Hockey Canada. You know, not to sound, you know, cocky or anything, but when you've done six world juniors, you're kind of like, okay, what's next? You know, everyone, I think it's human nature to always want to do something more you know you can win as many titles as you want but you're like okay what's next you know and NCAA came calling after uh we got we lost in the quarterfinals in 2019 in Vancouver to Finland and um I got a call the next day from Pat Brisson and JP Berry saying hey hey, let's go for dinner. And, you know, the rest is history.

I grew up thinking you always had to go to law school or be a lawyer to be an agent. But obviously, that's not true. What is the criteria to get certified by the NHLPA? What's that consist of? With the PA, they do a pretty deep, like, reference checks, credit checks, make sure you're not a criminal, make sure you're not, you know, everything. Sorry, R.A. Yeah, I'm out. make sure you're not a criminal, make sure you're not, you know, everything. No, it's not, it's not like a written exam or anything.

They sit you down for an interview and you know, luckily, you know, by the time my interview came out, I was or by the time my interview came, I was already out of the closet. So I think they wanted a gay agent and, you know, diversity. And it was kind of played in my favor, but yeah, it was, it was cool. And, you know, to, to be a gay agent and you know diversity and it was kind of played in my favor but um yeah it was it was cool and you know to be a certified agent is kind of a nice checklist you know in the old you know rolodex to say that you know i've done that and i still have aspirations i do miss i do miss the team side of things you know the the chasing a gold medal when you're you're with

the players and it's semi-fininals or it's a gold medal day and you get to know these group of players. But that's the good thing and the bad thing about Hockey Canada is that you never have the same team twice. It's not like you're going through an 82-game season and it's like, okay, you know what, we can lose 10 and we'll still be fine. Someone may get traded or, hey, see you guys next year at the locker room cleanout. When you do a 30-day tournament, whether it's a world's an under 18s, a world cup of hockey, you'll never have that same group together again.

And that was the special part of like, you have, you know, some continual pieces like a Ryan O'Reilly or a Braden Shen that came every year to men's worlds when they weren't in the playoffs. So they were the, they were the staples that I remember. All right. Would send me a text in February and say, where are we going this year? You know, that type of thing.

That's what it was with the Sabres. Yeah, that's what winning wasn't very fun with the Sabres. But, you know, those are the special times. You look back at the tournaments and you think, oh, who was the coach there? Who was our captain? And, you know, they all kind of blend together. And I see you've got your Olympic, you uh you know thing there and it's one of those silver medal you know that was that uh vancouver yeah tough one i was i was at the roxy watching

that game in a ski suit for one piece so oh so you weren't so you weren't working yet yeah because you said i think 2012 right so uh yeah going back to your first experience at World Juniors, who were the young guys then that you were getting to know? Yeah, my first one was 2012. We had like Shifley, Dougie Hamilton. It was at Edmonton, Calgary. They were the returnees. Strom, Vicentine, Harrington.

Those were the guys. And then I kind of came up through the ranks, like through, you know, U18s through 20s through Worlds was, you know, the McDavids, the Reinharts, the Domis, the Darnell Nurse, you know. And it's interesting when you have them at U18s and it's like, boys, no alcohol, no nothing. If I see you with anything, a chew, you're done.

You know, and then we go to a Men's Worlds and it's like, beer's in the locker room. It's actually encouraged. And you're like, I just played world juniors this year. Yeah. Oh, I got everything set up in the room, guys. It's all set. Oh, it's completely different. You go from being like basically the teacher to then all of a sudden you're the, you're, you're the morale guy trying to line things up,

even for like the bars in town. Yeah. World juniors. You go from like Norma Texan protein shakes in the stall to men's worlds. You go, there's a bottle of rum and a cold beer waiting for you in a slice of pizza. That's the post game. yeah world juniors you go from like normatex and protein shakes in the stall to men's worlds you go there's a bottle of rum and a cold beer waiting for you and a slice of pizza that's the post game so of course getting to know these guys pretty closely i know the one story the 2015 in prague after you guys ended up winning gold i'll let you take over from here yeah that was a that was a good one we had a dream team that year sid came over over. We were in Vienna for pre-comp, and we had Bernese, we had Sagan, we had Giroux, we had a really good team. And then Sid lost out, and I think, I don't know who it was too, maybe the Islanders or something, and I got a phone call saying, hey, Sid wants to come over. And I said, you guys are joking, right right why would sid want to come over like we're in we're going to prague and he goes no he wants to come and complete the triple gold club he doesn't have

a world championship yet and we're like okay so sure enough sid comes over i roomed him with drew just because i wanted to see them after those battles i said hey we picked him up at the airport and i said you're rooming with g he goes really i'm like oh yeah as soon as sid came as soon as sid came over it turned into as you know wit you know you know as soon as Sid came over, it turned into, as you know, as soon as Sid comes in the mix and he goes, I'm chasing triple gold, the boys kind of tighten it up a bit. But you look back at that roster, our young guys were like, Nate McKinnon was on the bottom pair.

Schenner, Burnsy, Hamhues, Barry, trying to think there. So when we went out to the bars and they had this diplomatical rum this awesome rum and burnsy loved it burnsy and jake muzzin were like all over it so we're heading we're nine and oh we were rolling through the tournament we beat the checks in check like something crazy like the boys were dominating and there was actually a bonus that year some insurance company put up if if you sweep the table and go 10 and O, you get a million dollar bonus. So we were like eight, no. And then we went to the semis and then we match up with Russia and the finals.

And so we're nine and O and I'm like, boys before the game, I'm like, you got a million bucks on this game. Right? So we go, Burns he comes up to me on the morning skate. He goes, Hey Bader, we're going to win this one. Can you go get a case of diplomatical rum and put a bottle in every guy's stall i'm like sure sure that's kind of a weird request for the team service guy but i'll go get a bottle of rum for every guy and so we go we win and we spank russia in the final is the least stressful gold medal game i've ever been a part of i think you know we were I think at one point in the tournament in the round robin we were down like three nothing to uh to Sweden after like one Todd McClellan came in and goes like after one he goes I'll bag skate you guys

if you guys don't turn this around and they just turned it on and we won like six three or something like they're like we don't want to get bag skated like sure boys like let's get out there so anyways after the game um there's nowhere to go in Prague so we just sat in the locker room till about 2 a.m had the trophy in there the cigars going obviously everyone had a personal bottle of rum and uh as you can imagine the pirates come out and there was a bit of a slip and slide set up uh throughout the throughout the locker room and a few of the players started going and then all of a sudden the Vaynerchuk started and I'm like well I don't know we just swept the table we've

got the big bonus check like it was like uh the golfers tournament checks you know like Waterbury open right yeah Sid had to go up and like get this check and we had this massive check in the room for a million dollars and he's like do we take this on the plane home so the the bainer chant started and um yeah i'm i'm i easily give into pure pressure so i uh geared down and uh slipped through uh brent burns his legs after going in the shower and grabbing the trophy and it was i remember i came to the hotel my suit was all soaked doing beer and champagne and finally the families were waiting for us i i didn't realize that that the families were waiting up for us at the hotel and we did about a three hour celebration in the locker room after what do you mean there's nowhere to go in prague

not on that night it was a monday night and we had the families all set up yeah yeah yes it's just more celebration as you know world championships there's about the two weeks before and then team canada of the round robin and then team canada actually brings the families As you know, World Championships, there's about two weeks before, and then Team Canada of the Round Robin, and then Team Canada actually brings the families in for the last week. So it's tighten-up time. You know, guys are reintroducing themselves. Guys see it at the rink only.

Yeah. Guys are reintroducing themselves, asking for room changes. It's, you know, everyone gets pretty serious once the families come over. Did you have any trips? I mean, you must have had a bunch to Russia, World Juniors, World Championships. World Championships. That was probably my favorite team and our captain. It was just a workhorse team in 26.

So after Prague, we went to Russia. And where we did our pre-comp was back to Prague before Russia. So we were like, we went back there because the guys had so much fun the year before. So like, oh, Rye and Schenner and them were like, well, we got to go back to Prague before Russia so we were like we went back there because the guys had so much fun the year before so like O'Rye and Schenner and them were like we got to go back to Prague you know it's a reunion tour so we went back for like four days played the Czechs in an exhibition game and Corey Perry got knocked out of the playoffs and he calls and goes I want to come over I want to chase the triple gold club like Sid did last year he goes there's one problem I don't have a passport I go sorry that's gonna be tough to get you over to Prague and then into Russia so he actually drove up to LA to the

embassy got like a custom like three month passport that he got literally within like half an hour at the embassy it was like a white label it's like something I've never seen he showed up to Prague and wanted to play that night he flew, landed at like 5 p.m. We were playing the Czechs and Paris was like, I'm ready to go. Like, Paris, you just flew for 14 hours. You're not playing tonight. Like, we've got enough bodies. He's taking warm-up, yelling at us.

He's like, I'm good, boys. Let's go. Let's go. And so we head back to – after that, we head into Russia. And you guys know Russia is just – it's the Wild West. It is from a, especially in my role at the time, team services, you try and set stuff up and it is jungle rules. Like it is. Yes. Yes. Mr. Pettinger, we have it set up for you, you know,

and then you show up and there's no meal and you're like, what were, what do you mean? I was like, they're like small problem, no meal. They go, that's Russia. Yeah. And you're just small problem okay but throughout that whole tournament it was just a it was a workhorse team you know we had marshy we had gallagher we had you know dolmy um i'm trying to think connor came he was a young buck there because that was after his injured season um when he slid into the boards there so he'd only played like 50 games or something in the league and then he came over as a young buck um and we had morgan riley reinhardt uh i'm trying to think they all kind of blend together but yeah russia in general i got one story there where so we russia if you

ever been to saint petersburg it's all islands right so it's all like little like it's all bridges over to little islands so it it's not like a downtown city. It's actually unreal, too. Oh, St. Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to. And we were there in the springtime. It was unbelievable. As my role with team services, the boys are like, well, Bainer, you've got to set up something for the fellas.

We've got to see what Russia's all about. So I'm like, okay, okay. Then they're like, but we've heard about these bridges that go up on the islands. They literally, if this is connecting in our hotels here and the and the night pubs over here between certain hours they just because the shipping channels are right downtown so the city was built out but it's so archaic that they have to have these bridges up for certain hours so like bayner make sure you make sure you check out what time the bridges go up we don't want to get stranded at the bar like I'm like, I'm on it, guys, you got the right guy on the case here, and so I go, and I'm like, yeah, from 2 to 5, 2 a.m. to 5 a.m., the bridges are up, so if we're

at the nightclub between those hours, we're going to be stranded until 5 a.m., so they're like, you sure, like, yep, I double checked it with our team host, I, you know, I verified it. So we go out after a game, we had the next day off. So we got the team bus and I'm like, boys, it's not, you know, it is mandatory. So guys, even that weren't drinking, like I remember Brad Marchand did his shoulder or something. And he's like, Hey, I'm on painkillers. So I can't, I can't drink, but I'd like to be out with the boys. Are you sure the bridges go up at 2 AM? I'm like a hundred percent Marcy.

I got you. So we go to the nightclub, me and our team security guy, and it's like 140. We're running through the nightclub. Guys are paying bottle service. And I'm like, boys, we got to make the bridge load up on the team bus. So we're guys are, you know, there's a bunch of a bunch of females in the mix. And sure enough, we get everyone on the bus at like 150. And I'm like, hey, we're good. Show up to the bridge at 155. And I'm like okay we're good show up to the bridge at 155 and I'm like what like what do you mean here they're like yeah we just decided to do it early I'm like so now I have the whole team chirping me saying oh Boehner I thought like you cleared us out of there like it was last call like ugly lights on and now we're sitting at this bridge and some guys are like should we swim

and I'm like no we're not swimming across the St. Petersburg river. And so we, we came to a conclusion. I said, well, boys, we've got two options. We can sit here and everyone can pass out on the bus or that nightclub was pretty good. And we can go back there until 5. AM. So we put the team bus back right out to the nightclub, loaded back in guys just slid right into their pockets of auto service. And we stayed till the sun came up and walked in right for team breakfast. And the gm i think it was tree and tree living and george mcphee were looking at us like you guys just out for a morning walk and we're like yep just checking out the

sites the whole team pulls up and walks right in for breakfast it was hilarious going to see the bridge oh from that from that our coach at the time who who was Billy Peters, got asked about it in the media the next day. And so we had the day off. So he gets asked in the media, they go, I heard Team Canada ran into some trouble with the bridges. And Billy goes, sorry, I don't speak Russian. And just didn't answer the question. It was blatantly in English.

Just completely dodged it. It turned into, just to wrap that, it turned into a bit of a team slogan. and i went and got a painting of bridges up and we put it in the trainer's room and then when we won that year we beat uh finland in the final our rings actually um have bridges on it from saint petersburg so it became a bit of a a team motto for the bridges up and still any anyone that i see from that team or you know remembers the bridges i think the next day the management went out and said, we don't believe you, and they got caught too. So I said, boys, I'm not lying here.

The bridges go up at a certain time. We don't know when. Did you end up doing any high kicking on these trips? Because I was talking to Jeff Cullen before this, one of our local buddies from Victoria, and he was reminding me some of your antics in order to create the morale. And one thing you're famous for, and you end up ruining a few pairs of designer jeans a year,

is your high kicks. Yes, I've done eight stampedes in my day when I lived in Calgary for Hockey Canada. So the Wranglers aren't exactly the most flexible jeans. Biz, I've actually done a few stampedes with you. So let's be careful what road we go down here. But yeah, I've been known to uh stretch the hamstrings a bit and uh there was actually one time at Cowboys where the boys I think Benny Jamie Ben and a few of the boys were in town and um you know things were it was a bit of a day fade

and the bouncer came up and said hey you guys got to tone it down here and I just asked him I said hey put your hand as high as you can like so he's this is like this big bouncer and he's like this and I go if I kick it we get to stay you can't kick us out and he goes okay sure that's fair there's no way you're gonna kick my foot like standing here I'm a six foot four guy so I go I stretch it out do the whole warm-up you know like I'm like uh that Jimenez there on the green just warming up the hamm hammies. And I go and I high kick it. And he's like, you guys can stay. Like, perfect.

And, of course, you know the Ben boys from the Iron as well. Who's the crazier one of the two? Depends what day. I would say. Jamie's under the radar. He's very under the radar. Jamie, if you get him around, you know, he's a lot like Connor and them. If you get him around you know he's a lot like Connor and them if you get him around people that he trusts for sure Jordy's got a kid now

I would say Jamie for sure but Tyson Barry you talk about Island Boys Tyson would definitely lead that charge for us and all three of them are my clients so it's awesome though it all ties back right like when I first got certified I asked those three as my close friends I said hey will you guys leave your agents and come with me and help me start my book and my career and all three of them were non-hesitant um I want to come with you Boehner and I want to I want to help support you and get your feet off the ground and right now I'm you know with Tyson and with Jordy they're both UFAs so trying to get them jobs so they just go okay it was all nice when I committed to you now get me some work what's the most exaggerated

like uh stereotype of an agent of course everyone watches entourage she's ari gold like are there that many shocks in the water as people think in the agent field yeah i think that i watched i actually watched it on a plane yesterday jerry mcguire i said i i almost said that earlier yeah grateful yeah jerry mcguire just like you know that the cockiness you know and that's what i'm trying to change a bit is be a bit more relatable to the guys, you know, be a bit more their friend that doesn't have to be just talk when the contracts up, you know, and I'm more of the less is more actually get involved with their lives. And, you know, it's more than just taking your commission when the contracts up. And that's what I'm trying to kind of change is be more of a friend. You know, like I look at it as like a real estate agent. You know, everyone has a choice in who their medical doctor is, who their real estate agent is. There doesn't have to be this animosity amongst agents. It's all the player's choice. You know, the market's going to set the deal.

You know, it's not like I'm going to come in and all of a sudden get Jordy Ben $10 million next year. You know, it's going to be the market sets that. It's whoever the player is comfortable with. And, you know, I'm leaning on my past relationships with players through Hockey Canada to try and gain more clients, you know, because I think that's important because some guys think, you know, agents are kind of stiff and, you know, the Jerry Maguire stereotype, you know, and I'm just trying to break that down and be more of just a buddy,

you know, that can manage your business and manage your brand and not just talk when your, your contracts up and take your points and run. When you say brand too, it's so different now with Instagram and how many different people or how many different ways people can get paid. How different is for you trying to learn on the fly? Like, all right, we can really make money away from the game. Yeah. That's the thing. Like, you know, learn on the fly, like, all right, we can really make money away from the game. Yeah, that's the thing. Like, you know, as I said earlier, the contracts kind of set themselves, you know, how many points did you have? What's your age? What's your injury status? You could give a range. Hey, we may get an extra signing bonus in there. We may get an extra year,

but really the difference maker is, is the endorsements, you know, what, what can we do? It depends what market you're in, obviously here, you know, but here we've got Morgan Riley, you know, John T we do it depends what market you're in obviously here you know but here we've got morgan riley you know john tavarez in a in a toronto market you know is it that easy to get those guys deals in columbus no but you got to play and that's i think that's the difference maker for for all agencies is what can you because we're cold calling companies right whether it's gatorade or you know acura or you name it guys want car deals you know what the richer they get the more free stuff they want right so it's uh it's hilarious that way that you know and that's our job is to you know whether it's a Lulu sponsorship or you know uh you know I bring

deals to clients all the time and sometimes they laugh it off I remember I had a shawarma deal and you know for for a couple grand and what's a shawarma? Is that a burrito? Yeah, one of those Middle Eastern shave-off-the-stick things. And I was like, all you gotta do is it was for Morgan Rielly. And he's like, I'm not really a shawarma guy.

I'm like, I don't really care if you're a shawarma guy. Just take him. Hey, I'll be a shawarma guy. Fizzle take you. Fizz, you waited down New York last last month oh yeah ra brought me there at about 4 a.m in the morning that was delicious mind you at that point i don't think i had taste buds but uh oh man that's that's good stuff hey so go ahead oh i was gonna say going back to russia i think well you were in sochi and and you were as well right how was that

whole experience getting there like that was some of the places weren't even ready yet yeah so I've been to Sochi four times actually I was there for a test event before San Diego of Russia it is the San Diego of Russia it is extremely tropical people like think that you're going to like Moscow where it's all gray like it was t-shirt and the Olympics t-shirt and shorts, uh, palm trees. Like, honestly, it was like San Diego. And, uh, so I went, I was pretty lucky. I went there for you 18, um, in 2013, which was a test event for the Olympics and we won and we never win that tournament because that's the tournament that, um,

is only players out of the CHL playoffs. Right. So we're kind of a riffraff team we're like oh if you get knocked out come and it's the u.s program full-time program that's their like stanley cup final so u.s had won like five in a row but we went over there we had a bit of a secret weapon with a double underage named connor mcdavid that came in and had back-to-back hat tricks and absolutely tore through the tournament and that was kind of his hockey Canada coming out party and uh I remember like walking to the rink and it was like literally it was just a rink that was it like there was like dirt around it and like stray dogs and then when I came back a year later for the actual Olympics and it's now like where the stray dogs were is now like a security tent and there's an f1 track going around and i'm like what is going on here right it's just like the amount of money that they threw into it when i left there in april for and the olympics were 10 months later i said there's no way they're

going to be ready like there was literally the security was a it looked like a puppy we're like i don't even know if that thing sniffs drugs or what it does or just greets people and so we went back for obviously for the olympics and it was like full on and then i went back a year later um for a trial for the or a couple years later for when we had that non-pro olympic team so we were trying to find players in the khl and we started with an august tournament in sochi and there was a the f1 track where the entrance was they turned it into a complete amusement park and uh it was crazy to see like the lead up before the Olympics the actual Olympics then a couple years after the Olympic Village they turned into restaurants and you know

there was some stuff that was abandoned and I had heard they were packing up one of the rinks like the women's venue and just literally de-piecing it and moving it to Moscow and yeah we're doing that with the Coyotes facility. We're going to move it from Glendale to Scottsdale. Me and Whit talked about the game plan, putting on a truck and wheeling it over. It should be right downtown Scottsdale, real close to the W there, just so you can roll out of there. Hey, when you would go to these tournaments,

would you have to room with anyone? Because I've seen videos of you snoring. And let's roll the clip for everybody. This is not normal. You guys have that. Let's let's roll the clip folks. Hey, Banner. Banner. Hey, Banner, are you asleep?

Hey, Banner. Hey, Banner. Now explain that, Banner. what like what's happening there tell me you had 400 drinks i won't i won't snore shame that's why they call you elephant liver that's what ellie was digging up we actually put that uh on the team boss heading to the game the next day and had the guys guess what that was we're like guys what do you think this sounded? And guys like came up with suggestions. They're like, it's a dying sea lion. It's a, you know, it's an elephant that just got shot with a dart gun. It is like, I don't know.

That was one of the Ryan O'Reilly guitar nights where at men's worlds, we were in a herning or silkenberg Denmark, and there was nothing to do in silkenberg denmark and ryan o'reilly this was about his fifth worlds in a row and we're in denmark and he buys one thing about all rise other than being the coolest human i've ever met um the factor he is literally the nicest and coolest human i've ever met and i mean that yeah he buys so every world he bought a guitar so the first thing when we get to paris or we get to denmark or you know prague or saint pete's he asked me he said where's the nearest guitar

shop i want to go and buy like a fender or something to have a souvenir so i'm sure the guy has hundreds of guitars so that was one of those nights we were in denmark and he was just plucking away singing and you know those those little moments for you you kind of have to pinch yourself that ryan o'reilly is serenading you with the tune and um i think i had a couple glasses of wine that night and uh or i decided to bring out his his phone and film me snoring there which is now uh quite epic around the hockey world oh my goodness can he shut it off right oh yeah all right can play so i got a random question but you're so dialed in with hockey canada and it just reminded me when you mentioned mcdavid came in as a young underage or under 18 i saw that connor bedard and you've moved on you're in the

agent but how about this kid is he like is everyone within hockey canada now saying he's like the next one yeah i actually went down once we went into a third lockdown here, I don't do well in lockdown. So I, I'm a bit of a, I don't know if you can tell a social butterfly. So I, once Toronto announced the third lockdown, I said, I'm getting out of here and I phoned Benny and asked him if I could come down and stay with him. And he said, yeah, you've got six bedrooms to choose from. He's got a seven bedroom shack with only him in there.

So I went down there and oddly enough, under 18s on there uh in plano texas while i was there so i got to go all the scouts were down there everyone was down there in april um remember when women's worlds got canceled and they were talking about moving it all to texas because under 18s were there so i phoned my bosses and i said hey we're heading into another lockdown here do you mind if i go down to texas for the month i got both vaccines down there and then went to all the team Canada games and was back in a rink having coffee and it was like normal world in Texas. And yeah, it was great. But that Bedard, he's a player. He's nasty. I look forward to seeing him and just the next crop, you know,

Shane Wright, you know, and those are guys, I never worked with them in hockey Canada. My kind of era was crop, you know, Shane Wright, you know, and those are guys I never worked with them in Hockey Canada. My kind of era was the, you know, McDavid's, Reinhardt's, those guys, Morgan Riley. And, you know, it's funny to see when you have guys at under 18s, world juniors, world championships, and now, you know, hopefully, knock on wood, they go to the Olympics here to see, you know, how many guys that I've worked with there

from when they started. You know, it's funny to see the progression there. But as far as Bedard, I just look forward to seeing what he can bring there. I think in that bubble in the dub there, he had unbelievable numbers and was pretty nasty down in Texas there. So I really look forward to seeing what he can bring to the Hockey Canada table and hopefully get some more golds because it's been tough to come by. The whole hockey world is catching up.

We just keep coming and coming, and that sounds ridiculous, but we're, we're, we just keep coming and coming. And that sounds ridiculous, but we keep coming. That was, that was one of the hardest parts when I switched over to the agency was I was so ingrained in my mind that the Swedes and the Americans are the enemies and now they're clients, you know, like Jack, I remember I did world juniors and it was Jack and Quinn in Vancouver. And I was like, Oh, we can't talk to them. And then I got hired by CAA, and Jim Hughes works for us. He's like our player development guy. And then, you know, I'm meeting Jack and Quinn and getting to know them and going to their house.

And I'm like, these guys aren't that bad. Maybe the Canadian, you know, maybe they are some friends, you know. So it's letting down that Canadian guard when you work at Hockey Canada for 10 years and you just have it ingrained in you. But, you know, worldwide there's's some amazing players and, you know, it's great to see, you know, the game and, you know, what Germany's doing and what, you know, the great Britain, even at the last men's worlds and just how the hockey world is kind of coming

along. And it's not just, you know, Canada, USA or Canada, Russia that, you know, I think there was something that, you know, it has been five different world juniors winners over the last five years which goes to show you the the level of competition and where it's come from team canada needs the land orca back and for the morale we're bringing back the high kick for the olympics to open up the ceremonies yeah we need those we need to be carrying the flag doing the high kick yeah something's wrong something they need some morale because it's getting too static. Bane, I read that you played rugby,

and right now you 100% look like a rugger with the hat on backwards and the hair coming out. But how crazy is rugby culture, the songs, shoot the boot, all that wild stuff? You must have took part in all that shit. Yeah, it's crazy that the two sports I picked also involved heavy drinking. But other than that, no rugby was awesome. I went to high school in Oak Bay on the West coast there in Victoria,

where it was seasonal and kind of the rugby Canada headquarters. So when I showed up in grade eight at six, three, 200 pounds, I didn't really have the option to not play. So, you know, played in high school, luckily enough, played for team Canada. We were in Dubai for a U 20 world championships, which is like the equivalent of a world juniors got to play um you know in a world champion dubai we played our games at 10 at night because it was so hot over there um and that was when you know 2006 dubai was booming

you know i went to a little man-made island there i remember you know the palm tree i remember taking a boat tour out there going up to that that tower or that hotel that's shaped like a sail um you know where tiger hit drives off of but yeah my rugby days were uh you know they were awesome the camaraderie is very similar to hockey you know you're it's kind of next man up you know check your ego at the door um you know really put your body on the line for your teammates um and even you know thinking here some of the on the line for your teammates. And even, you know, thinking here, some of the guys I played with are now going to be at the Tokyo Olympics here starting on Sunday.

So some of the guys I did some Rugby Canada stuff with. So it's cool to see the two sports. And actually in 2016 or 2017, we were in Paris for world championships and the Rugby Sevens was on at the same time. So I, the manager for the Rugby Sevens team said, hey, why don't we come to a Team Canada game? And I actually linked it up that the Rugby Canada guys came down to the locker room after.

So we've got Mitch Marner, Ryan O'Reilly, and some of the top Canadian rugby players. We sat in the locker room for a couple hours and just had some beers and exchanged stories. But it was a huge thrill for obviously the rugby guys, but also for the Team Canada hockey guys. I think it's almost like musicians and hockey players they they they um you know idolize each other and i think it's a unique kind of relationship that way with other pro athletes that you know they they can bounce ideas off each other and training and and

all that so it's cool that those kind of my my rugby and my my hockey worlds kind of collided in paris there and uh we were able to get them together for uh for a quick hot stove down in the locker room i had no clue about rugby guys and then i i met all these guys from victoria and next thing you know we're throwing a party 40 dudes we called it elmas we got one guy butt chugging vodka it like it no it savagery man i live next to him up school absolute savagery my front lawn every other day do you ever shoot the boot bane oh yeah i played uh so after high school i went actually went to wales and played semi-pro and uh like rugby it was like cheap money but i needed to train somewhere and i i remember we were in cardiff playing a game and it was like

oh bainer you're not you're not gonna get in like don't worry like my team was I was way out of my weight class for the level of rugby I was playing they're like you're gonna sob someone gets hurt you'll go in so our guy goes first play of the game gets takes a hit knocked out they're like hey kid you're in I'm 19 playing in this like men's league and I'm like oh no so I go I take a run off the scrum half and I go in this big Welsh prop and he lifts me up and just sees my nose was off and I'm like nose connected to my ear and I'm like what it starts a line brawl because my team was like oh you can't touch the Canadian kids like that and uh sure enough after the game he goes hey I really the Welsh guy comes up in a horrid accent hey I really shouldn't have done that let me go buy you a pint

and I'm like well why did you do that like I'm. Let me go buy you a pint. And I'm like, well, why did you do that? Like, I'm literally, I got like gauze up my nose. I'm like, was that necessary? But then right after, it's as soon as the game's done, it's like both teams go to the same bar. You tell stories. Oh, that was a dirty hit on me, you know? And it's just, you know, sometimes hockey's like that.

You know, but really for sure, the camaraderie is just it's second to none and it's a fantastic game i consider it the nfl without the pads and uh longer longer plays there's no 15 second breaks and minutes of commercials but going back to the prospects we talked about uh shane wright and uh bedard who are some of the undercover guys in this draft because when this episode comes out it would have already happened who are some of the undercover guys in this draft? Because when this episode comes out, it would have already happened. Who are some of the players that we should be looking for? Is this a CAA plug? Yeah, let's talk about some of the CAA guys. Carson Lambos, a D-man out of Winnipeg that had a bit of a medical issue,

so he wasn't able to play at U18s. I think he's going to slide a bit, but he's a mean D-man out of the Western League. We could, without bragging, we could have four or five of the top 10 with CAA, which is unheard of for an agency between Beneers and Power and Luke Hughes, the third Hughes brother. You know, so we as an agency, you know, it's great to see because you meet these kids when they're young and, you know, 14, 15 year olds. I know you talk with Coop, but it blows my mind how young we have to recruit sometimes. It's one of the things that I don't really love about the game. And especially here in Toronto with the GTHL, Sweden has it right that Sweden has a law through Swedish ice hockey that you can't talk to a kid until January 1st of a 16 year old year for representation.

And I think that's fantastic. And we should push that with the NHL PA because I'll get tips from someone will call me and say, Hey Vayner, you got to see this. Oh nine. And I'm like an old nine. I'm like, come on. Like guys, little Johnny's 11 years old. I like, who knows if he's going to be six foot four or a player. Like they're like, Oh yeah. He's Bud Kilmer shooting them up before a tight tournament fucking get out there kid yeah he's 5 2 90 pounds i'm like don't tell me those stats but i wish i wish we followed in all seriousness i wish we followed sweden's lead and uh you know yeah put in some regulations around that like ncaa you know

ncaa you can't just change it a little bit right they made it a different rule yeah but how the ncaa does it where you can't approach a player until a certain age range or something i think we should do the same for for agencies because i'll go up and see a 13 year old at a game and he'll be like hey guys hand out a business card it's a lot of hey who's that parent and i go and introduce myself and it's like, Oh, we've been talking to someone for two years. I'm like, you've had an advisor or an agent since you're 11. I'm like, what have they done for you between novice Peewee and Bannum? Like, come on,

you know? So that's one thing that I would love to see changed. And I think it's got to, you know, Pat Bresson and JP are really pushing it with the NHLPA to, to get that in there because it is, you know, one of the, one of the things of the job that I don't like with how young we recruit. And what was happening with college too, is, you know, the guys don't necessarily develop the way you thought they would. Right. And like there were scholarships being taken away.

And the other thing for you is it's true. Like what if the kid ends up, you know, at 16 instead of 13, he's kind of taking a step back. So I think that'd be a great rule to actually go into effect. Yeah. Well think about how many late bloomers, like I played with guys that were sick at novice and you're like, you know, now they're pumping gas and it's like, you know, and then a player that goes and plays, you know, undrafted or a Jamie Ben that goes in the fifth round, you know,

drafted out as junior aid and wins an art Ross and an Olympic gold medal. Like, how are you for us to play in the projection game and and especially in the agency world i'm not trying to project if you're going to be a you know one step is to be a good junior player i'm trying to project if you're going to be a pro right because i don't collect a paycheck until a pro deal is signed so like for me to predict at age 12 or 13 is this kid going to play in the show it's extremely hard to do yeah that's fucking crazy anything that we didn't cover that you want to tell i mean you got tons of stories in the vault we don't need to get anybody in trouble but anyone that we didn't bring up

no i think we're good like as long as you guys are i think it's been awesome i hope uh you know it's been great pain no joke yeah i I think it's awesome. I didn't bury anyone. I want to make sure that we're, we're making sure that the Luke Prokop thing is the real reason for it and that we're giving him the respect he deserves. And, you know, maybe just on that, like the outreach that I've seen from the NHL, you know, the team, social media and from, you know, everyone. And the biggest thing for me that I've learned not to go back to that and get all serious, but is, is humanizing it right and i think that's the biggest thing if you can tie to someone

if you don't tie to a cause it's it's an eye in the sky right if you if you if you say oh that's great we you know let's donate to breast cancer if you haven't ever had someone affected by it then i don't think that you're that tied to it right whereas like now me on this pod you know people go okay you know i didn't know i don't know anyone that's gay so i still make gay jokes you know that's so gay so it's like what do you mean by that you know and i found that through my journey i'm i'm now educating my clients you know my clients parents my co-workers my buddies i don't have to be the language police at all times of being like hey we don't we don't say the f-bomb here you know and i think once you can say the F bomb here, you know?

And I think once you can put a face to it, so, you know, say you guys hear something, you know, because you reached out to me when my story came out and, you know, now maybe when you hear something, you go, Hey, what do you mean by that? There's a lot of other words to say that that's brutal than saying, Oh, that's so gay, you know? And now maybe with Luke, you know, maybe someone goes, maybe they're a national Predators fan or someone in

the locker room or I don't know but now you can say okay there's a player that's gay you know here's an agent that's gay and if you can put a face to it and humanize it then it's not just a shot in the dark and it's not just a pipe dream you know what I mean one of the comments in the athletic article you said for about 10 years you were one foot in one foot out and the reason why i wanted to bring in the podcast not because of all these amazing stories and what you've accomplished in the hockey world but because of like this like internal struggle you were going through and like there could be people who are listening to this podcast who are dealing with the same thing where maybe they feel like they're you know maybe they're tied into sports where they feel that it's not going to be as accepted where you saw the outpouring of support that not only that Luke got,

but that you got, is it Scott MacArthur? Another, another one. Yeah. He works for sports net up here. He's a radio host of Leafs Leafs morning and stuff. So yeah.

And, and, and he ended up coming out before you and I'm just like, did he help with, with the fact that you ended up coming forward as well and, and even other people before you. Yeah. I remember sitting here and

watching his story come out on Twitter and you know it wasn't till my move to Toronto that I got out of Calgary kind of the you know the cowboy wild west town of uh thinking I had everything sorted out and I could just bury these emotions it wasn't till I came to Toronto and saw a real diverse city and you walk down King Street or church street and there's the, you see the whole spectrum and it's awesome that everyone just really doesn't care, you know, and in my story, it's just, you know, we're always taught in the hockey world to, to, you know, suck it up. And the team is bigger. You don't bring your issues to the rink, right? You don't, you're having a tough time with your wife, your, your,

your knees sore. Well, you know what, suck it up under a cup and you got to get out there because what's more important is the team. And I think that that was ingrained in me at a young age, but it's okay to be an individual within the team. And, you know, we're always taught to, you know, it's the logo on the front, not the name on the back, which is fine. But at the same time, when you do, and this is what I told Luke, you know, when you do come to the realization that you want to, you know, be self, quote unquote, selfish and worry about yourself, you really have to stop giving two shits about what other people think of you.

And that's where I, you know, really hit a point during COVID where I just said, you know, and always my point, my not coming out was, well, what if, what if, what if, what if? And it was all what ifs and you have to have a point where you just stop giving two shits and you go I'm going to worry about me and my happiness and find a partner and if someone does have a problem with it that's their problem and you have to kind of put yourself first which in hockey we're not taught to do that right we're taught to say you're you're one of 23 players get in line suck it up you know we don't bring emotions we don't bring personal life into this but it's it's okay to to be an individual and and be your true self and you know I I always say I said biz you

don't walk into a room and say hey I'm Paul and I'm straight and have a girlfriend so why do I need to walk into a room and say hey I'm Bane and i'm gay right when you when you think about that of you walking into a room and that's the first thing you announce people would be like what are you talking about like what are you on that's the frustrating sweet dude uh that's the frustrating part about maybe the social media aspect of it of the response of like yeah we don't care like this doesn't need to be told where it's like no but it does because you don't really understand what these guys are dealing with and what they're doing for the next wave of player and or person that needs to let this out and stop essentially living this lie right and it's like yeah for them to come out whenever they want whenever they choose to but it's like it's it's more than that

that's why they that's that's why you did it that's why scott mccarthur did it that's why luke's doing it they're not necessarily just doing it That's why Luke's doing it. They're not necessarily just doing it for themselves. They're also doing it for the next person so they can feel comfortable. Yeah, so now there's a kid maybe in Red Deer, Alberta that goes, oh my God, I wanted to play in the Western Hockey League, but I can't because I'm gay. And now Luke Prokop's done that.

So if you never have seen something done in front of you, you don't know that it's possible. Right. So now hopefully it just makes the road easier, you know, and hopefully it's not, I hope in 10 years, this isn't a story, but right now in society, we're so far behind in hockey that we have to celebrate it because hockey isn't there yet. Right. Hockey is not there yet. And I think it's up, but it takes guys like you guys to amplify it and not just, you know, it know whether it's you know a funny story that luke prokop you know who he got

a call from two days ago elton john i kid you not elton john reached out to his agent and he saw it on cnn and said he got a phone call hey luke it's sir elton john and i'm like oh man like that's how you're like i didn't get a call and i raised like mick jagger calls me once a week dude it's sick i said to luke i said pass on his email i love it get some tickets out of it yeah hey one thing that tyson berry said is that he said when you when you were there in toronto with him he said you'd be coming out to every group so you could open up a fancy bottle of wine to celebrate and Tyson's like hey man if you just want to bust open a fancy bottle of wine you can just do it you don't have to you don't

have to use that as the excuse yeah Tice was Tice's and his wife Emma have become great friends and I remember they rented Padre's place and we were over there having drinks one night and oddly enough I think Tice knew you know biz you you know people know yeah we knew yeah but it's it's up to you when you wanted until someone owns it you know like until you're ready to present that yourself you never want to out someone i know people that are gay that i would never out because that's the most horrific thing ever to not control yeah and really by coming out it means that no one can use my sexual orientation against me. Right now, no one I've had people come up and threatened out me when I was in the closet.

It's the worst feeling ever. Right. And people just want to take jabs and people want to. It's like cutting you down. So now by coming out, I've removed that. Hey, sure. Call me gay. I already told the whole world I'm gay. So use something else against me. Call me a bad guy. Call me a bad agent. but it's not i'm not you're not going to tear me down because you're calling me gay and i think when you can control your own narrative i think that's huge yeah we didn't care we just wanted to see the high kicks i think your text your text to me was i don't care who you're with but uh yeah it's all good i'm uh, we appreciate your time, man. This is great. Thank you very much, man.

It's going to resonate with a lot of people. Yeah, I appreciate it, guys. I hope it's good. And, you know, I appreciate you guys, you know, taking this, you know, and talking. Obviously, stories are fun. But with Luke and, you know, what it means for the hockey world and, you know, the reaction that we've seen.

And I just think, you know, I hope one day we aren't talking about it. But until that day, I really appreciate you guys amplifying it and using your platform and followers to, you know, strike, stick on these important issues. Absolutely. I mean, all that lead on those tickets for Elton John, I'll be joining you. Oh, I'll be Elton. I'll be front row. I said, Luke, you gotta be in Nashville. I'll just come down and make sure everything's all good with the media and

we'll check out Elton. I think he's doing one, one final reute. What is it called uh your final toy he's done it like five different times but he calls it i saw him in toronto i saw him in toronto last year and he's definitely on the back nine if not the 24th hole so he uh he's i think he just knows now he could just probably play a mixtape it's like going to a dj show and he'll sell out 18 000 and he's like why wouldn't i you know he's got to pay for his flower budget i heard he's got like a hundred thousand dollar flower budget every day you know his husband's canadian hey from colonna oh no way david yeah his husband

they met and he's i think many years younger than him but he's a canadian guy so they've got some colonna and bc ties there with old elton. So maybe we'll get a retirement place beside Webbs or Pricer or one of those guys. Let's get him at Stampede. Now we're talking. Now we're talking. All right. Well, Boehner, thank you once again, my friend. Thanks, guys. Really appreciate it. Thanks so much, Boehner. Appreciate it.

Enjoy the weekend. Big thank you to Boehner and Pettinger. And I was actually texting with him afterwards. Now, were you playing in the game where TJ Oshie had the shootout when it was USA versus Russia? No, that was in Sochi. I was in the Olympics prior in Vancouver. But I remember watching that.

Okay, yeah. Well, he was saying that during the game when Putin showed up, all the cells went down. Like as soon as he rolled into the building, no more cell service. And then ended up as soon as he watched the whole game no one's cell phones were working all of a sudden he took off chopper leaves and all of a sudden the cell phones were back on so what i'm sure a wild experience in sochi for those guys with that guy around i'd be sleeping with one eye open especially for the shit that you say about him on the podcast. Biz, did you say sleep?

Yes. Well, America has a problem. Everyone is exhausted and out of it because they're not sleeping in a bed. That's right for them. And the sleep they're getting sucks. And this problem has a name. It's called junk sleep. Unfortunately, I know about this stuff all too well because sometimes I stay up too late or I work in bed before going to sleep.

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and sleep products out there based on your specific sleep preferences so that you can get your best sleep possible. And we are excited to be partnering with them for this year's Hockey Fest, helping spread the word on how to unjunk your sleep. To unjunk your sleep, go to mattressfirm.com or a mattress firm store today and speak with a sleep expert. And boys, like we said, they're sponsoring our Hockey Fest.

We're going to be in Detroit about a week and a half, right, Grinnelly, for the roller hockey tournament? We will, August 6th and 7th. We said they're sponsoring our hockey fest. We're going to be in Detroit about a week and a half, right, Grinnelly, for the roller hockey tournament? We will, August 6th and 7th. Rumor has it some old bastard's going to be coming out of retirement for that and strapping on the pads again. But I don't know. It could get ugly. But either way, check them out.

By all means, mattressfirm.com or a mattress firm store near you and sleep with a sleep. Check with a sleep expert. I can use a new mattress right about now. All right, boys, the draft, we already tipped our toes into it a little bit, but I said this is probably the biggest crapshoot ever for a draft, given the way the last year turned out. So many guys didn't play.

They didn't get in full seasons. Now, Olin Power did go first, as expected. It was also what you were just talking about, teammates. It was the first time since 1969 that teammates went with the first two selections. It was a Canadian junior team back then. It wasn't a college team. And also Michigan. Michigan becomes the first college hockey team

to have two current players selected at number one and number two in an entry draft. And also we got to mention Grinnelli's brothers. Luke Hughes, unreal. What was it? Fourth overall to New Jersey. He joined his teammate, Jack, who was absolutely bananas. That was a great, great video.

Absolutely. More excited than his brother who got picked. The brothers became the first American trio to be selected in the first round and the first trio of siblings to all be taken in the top 10. And the Hughes boys are just the third trio of brothers to all get taken in the first round, joining the Sutters, Ron, Rich, and Brent, and the Stahl brothers. So a very exciting time for the Hughes boys

and for the Michigan program. Were there any major surprises? Biz, I'll go to you first. I know you watched it soup to nuts. Any major surprises in this draft for you? Well, I got to go back to Quinn Hughes, who's got jokes. He said, roll the clip, actually, for the interview after Grinnell.

So Quinn, take me into the conversation. So after the Ducks made their pick, what were you saying to each other here? I just think we weren't sure um if we're if he was going there or not of course everyone wanted him to go there and um I was kind of just telling him like if you don't go there don't worry about it like the rink stinks anyways so I don't know why he's trashing on New Jersey's building but uh you know he it's a quiet barn, dude. Is that why he said it was trash? I just remember playing there. I don't think the building's trash. I think for being as new as, as it is, it's not great. Right.

Where you notice like, it was kind of like the garden, they built the garden. You're like, what the fuck? It's like two years later, it was like out of style. I think Jersey's could have been a little better more than, though, and probably for their lack of success recently, it's a quiet barn. And going to the old man, Jim, holy shit. You see what these horses are selling their sperm for? What do you think he could get for a batch of his fucking sperm?

Well, my question, you released, you dropped a picture of that super sperm T-shirt. Are we not selling those? Was that just a joke? No, that was just a joke. How are we not selling those? Was that just a joke? No, that was just a joke. How are we not selling those? I was like, Grinnelly, get me one. He's like, no, we're not selling those. That's fake.

How do we know? That shirt was, who made that shirt? Google. I just Googled super sperm. Oh, Google. So now you got Quinn who went seventh. You got Luke who goes fourth. And then was the other one first overall?

Yeah, Jack went first. Oh, my goodness. So they overtook the Stahls as the super-sperm donors to the NHL. Anyway, what do you make of all the draft business, R.A.? It was a family affair. Yeah, it was a great story, like I said, for Michigan and the Hughes. And also, I want to give a shout-out to Minnesota. I don't know if it was the organization's call or Bill Guerin's call,

but they brought on Tom Kervis' four children. Of course, he passed away from a lung battle of cancer. He was assistant GM, and they let the children make the announcements, which is just a nice, classy touch to see. It's, I mean, a bittersweet moment for the family, but if you were watching at home, it was kind of a hot woman moment. And the draft wasn't without controversy either, Biz. Logan, did you say it, Melo?

Melo, the guy who, he renounced his draft rights, but you really can't do that because Montreal basically renounced him, renouncing his draft rights, and they still took him 30. You can't triple stamp a double stamp. Yeah, exactly. Now, in case you're not familiar, he's a defenseman. He was fined in Sweden. He took a photo without consent of a sexual encounter he was having

with a young woman. She ended up calling the cops on him. He wasn't arrested. He was fined. You know, he obviously felt like shit about it. He said that I don't, I'm not worthy of being drafted this year. I need to still mature.

Montreal felt different and they opted to use their first round on him. Again, he's a defenseman and the team had a statement ready to roll right after. So they knew they were going to get, get what do you call it? The shit was going to hit the fan with this pick. I guess I'm not really surprised given what we see with teams.

I mean, teams overlook shit that guys do all the time, and it was a terrible thing he did. I guess it does raise the question of, like, if he went through the courts there, like, does a guy have to be punished for the rest of his life? Can he make a living? I'm not saying right answer or wrong answer, but Montreal decided, hey, we'll help this kid grow.

I know that's a reason teams sometimes give, but it was a surprise because the kid said, don't draft me. And then Montreal goes and drafts him of all teams. So not without controversy. Yeah, I was shocked. What was really surprising is they had other picks. They had second-round picks later on. Unless they really liked the player, which obviously they did because they took them in the midst of a shit storm and they really liked him.

Now, maybe they heard rumors that somebody behind them was going to take him and they couldn't wait till the second round or third round, whatever their next pick was. It's fucking bizarre because to hear the kid actually say, I don't want to be drafted, I don't deserve to be drafted, and them to disagree with him, it is an odd situation. It pissed off a lot of hockey fans, you know, to no surprise, right? You've seen how, especially the way hockey Twitter works, people were disgusted and they were upset at the pick. I was just more than anything shocked because to deal with that and go through that, it just almost seems like it's not worth it

considering he's not a top-end talent. To be a first-rounder, it's a big deal. But if this kid was a surefire top-five pick, it's one thing. But to hear what he said and to know what he did and now quickly just – it was consensual sex, whatever what was going on. I think that there's been rumors circulating. It was the picture taken and the sharing of the picture on Snapchat to his teammates that was the issue.

And from what I've read, the girl really wanted a true full apology that he apparently hadn't given. Yeah, that was the issue. That's an issue right there. He wanted a heartwarming apology originally where I think she was even willing to accept like the fact that he'd made a mistake, but she didn't feel like he was actually remorseful or, and,

or didn't even get one initially. And it, you know, and it took it going public to finally get one that she felt she deserved. Now that's whether she is ever going to come around, given that she didn't get one initially. I don't know, but it guys, I mean, it's, it's, you know, if I'm a father and that's my daughter, I obviously feel very strongly about it and I, yeah,

this is a shitty situation. So I hope that, you know, they can figure it out behind the scenes and, and, you know, they can, she especially can end up getting to peace about it. And other than that, man, yeah, that was that was a bit of a curveball for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Stuff that, you know, it's shitty to talk about, but it's news and we do got to talk about it. And to go back to what I guess he took a picture during the act and then he actually included like her profile from whatever social media account. So, like, if he didn't send that, they probably wouldn't even known who it was, but he included that. So it was like, you know, no question who it was.

And when you say that when you say that, you know, you weren't surprised in a sense that teams will in every sport will sign guys that are not necessarily good people because they're very good at what they do. That is true. Now, what's different in this situation is it's not a guy who's had a ton of success in the NHL or the NFL or the NBA and then he's a free agent and it's like a team's like I don't care it's it's to know what he did and then still any draft pick is a risk and to go ahead and do it is what was surprising you know it it wasn't as it wasn't as normal to me if I saw a team sign uh Pac-Man Jones right or something that some guy who'd been in trouble with the law it was it was like this guy hasn't even done anything yet you're still willing to face the fucking heat so you know montreal sticking to their guns mark bergevin sticking

to his guns but like i said and most you guys say it was it was shocking that he did go in the first round at all in the draft even yeah i gotta tell you that the name of the first round the best name chas lucius that sounds like a 1950s boxer something just an all-time name he went to winnipeg 18 overall um yeah it was i mean i'd say it was kind of a run-of-the-mill draft i mean not to be not no disrespect to the players but once the draft started there were no major moves i think everybody was kind of sitting there waiting for a big trade to happen, but it all seemed to have gone down well before that. All right, let me hop in here real quick. Actually, the third overall pick, we talked about it with Shane Doan

on the Pink Whitney draft show, the pre-draft show anyway, and he talked about the fact that he ended up going overseas this year because there was no OHL going on. So I'll throw it over to that real quick, and if you want more breakdowns of the top 15 picks uh you could head over to youtube and watch it uh mason mctavish um another guy who ended up bumping up because he ended up going over to swiss and playing and uh he wasn't even in the top 10 coming into this year but he went over there great 200 foot center and he's another guy who's got

some uh some bite to his game he was playing with the peterborough peets right yeah he was and he have you seen pictures of the guy yeah he looks like he looks thick he's a man like he's a man like he's no he's shane don't get in draft well yeah but he's got your hair he's got you he's got your hair and beard right now like it's sick he's got a full beard he looks like a a man. Got four kids. He went over to Switzerland. Smoking outside the building before the games. Yeah. Post-game beers. Kicks the coach out of his seat when he gets on the bus.

Hey, bumper back. Throws both hands. The whole package. Just the throwback. Yeah. He went over to Switzerland and had a – it actually really, really helped him because I think a lot of people were questioning his skating and that was probably, and not rightfully so, they just weren't sure about it. And when he got over to Switzerland and played on the bigger ice, he was really impressive and he really bumped up because of18s and he was a man. Like when you watched him play against people his age, it was pretty impressive.

And he's really – he's jumped up a lot. And a lot of people really like him. Hockey Canada really liked him. I know Scotty Salmon and those guys were big fans of his. So they raved about him. So Mason McTavish, third overall draft pick, an absolute man, drinking beer, stealing the coach's seat on the bus, just an absolute brick shithouse wit. Yeah, and Anaheim, a couple years of struggle,

but now you look at Zegers, Drysdale's sick on D. Now you add this kid who a lot of people have, or I've seen it like Ryan O'Reilly mentions, right? And Bob Murray's somebody who likes physicality, likes big power forwards, or I've seen it like Ryan O'Reilly mentions, right? And Bob Murray, somebody who likes physicality, likes big, you know, power forwards. And that kid sounds like he's going to be a legit NHL player. A couple other NHL draft moments that I wrote down was just the celebration from Brant Clark.

He was playing with Barry and LA picked him eighth overall. Not often do you see a player get as emotional as their parents, as, as their parents do usually. Right. And this kid right away, he's just, you know,

he's kind of wiping the tears away from his eyes, hugging his parents and his family. It was such a cool moment to see his genuine happiness coming true for him, you know, and coming out and being like eighth overall pick to an awesome city, a great team in LA, a great team you'd want to be drafted by. I should say that was a cool video.

Detroit went and picked a big D man, Simon Edmondson. I don't know if it's Simone Simon. He's from Sweden. So what they did is they went out and got a monster defenseman to also match Morris Moritz cider. I believe his name is, who was maybe the fourth pick or another high kid. Yeah. German stud. He was sick this year in the Swedish elite league. So you got two bookends on D right. Two young guys. Eisenman knows what he's doing. I really liked that selection build from the

goal out. Other than that, RA you're right. It was a little bit of a, well, I'm going to hop in here. You got, you, you forgot to mention that other Detroit pick. I talked about him earlier, the 6'6 goaltender, Sebastian Kosa. That was a big move in order to move up to number 15. He was supposed to be the second goalie picked, and Iserman had obviously seen enough to think that he is genuinely Vasilevsky 2.0. Just that big presence in net.

You mentioned William Eklund, but the family affair situation, Mike Sillinger's kid actually ended up getting drafted. Cole Sillinger, who was joking around about it on Twitter. It was, who's the guy? Sillinger played for the Blue Jackets at one point, right? Played for everyone. They had to be one of the teams. Yeah, so that's what Kelly Chase was joking around about.

He said he was going over to his draft party and he said, although it sucks it's not live, he says he's one guy that is an 80 chance that he'll be able to pull on a jersey because his old man's got him all in the back from every team so uh the more the more family ties were uh colton dock kirby dack kirby doc's brother of course seth jones brother ended up coming over in that duncan keith trade and then seth Seth Jones signed in Chicago. So that was kind of a happen all around the draft as well. And then Kale McCarris, brother, Taylor, ended up going to the 220th spot. So that was a good day for the family.

That was the day he got his six-year, $9 million deal as well. So Brian Boucher's kid, 10th overall. And then Brian Savage, his son named Red Savage. How dope is that? 114th overall to Detroit. So there was just plenty of people. And of course, earlier I mentioned Shane Doan's kid drafted at 37th, second overall to the Coyotes, who came out of the USHL of Chicago.

Chicago Steel, shout out to that program. That's where Owen Power played the year before he went to Michigan Michigan have become the dominant force in the United States Hockey League I think the owner's got a ton of money he's gonna done a great job in building a premier franchise in the USHL and then the one kind of biggest off the board selection was Ottawa took Tyler Boucher from the national development program they took him 10th overall nobody i didn't see anything pre-draft in terms of having him that high um but that was a selection where a lot of people said it's a dj smith type player in your face pain in the ass prick with some offensive upside so a little bit of a reach there at 10 but obviously ottawa sees something there that they think can

end up being a future stud in the national league. Well said, Whit. Well said. I just mentioned a few minutes ago, a lot of the action was before the draft and the big name to go, Seth Jones. Chicago picked up Seth Jones, a first this year, the number 32 overall, a sixth in 22 from Columbus for defenseman Adam Boatwist, a first this year, which was number 12 overall, a second in 21 and a conditional first in 22. If Chicago wins one of the 22 draft lotteries, the pick becomes the first in 23. And then Chicago went and signed Jones to an eight-year, $76 million extension that kicks in next season, $9.5 million average annual value.

We suspected he was going to get traded. We suspected he was going to get paid. He got both wit as a fellow D-man. Let's go to you first. Wow. Wow is go to you first. Wow. Wow is what I'll say. I want to shout out Yarmulke Kalainen. I think he did a phenomenal job here. I think

I like Boquist and the amount of draft picks that they got for this guy is wild considering he pretty much had the team by the balls. He kept telling them, oh yeah, well, I'm not signing with you guys. And if you trade me to that team, I'm not signing with them. And then the team's not willing to give up

what Columbus wants back. So in the end, it was his brother was in Chicago from the Keith trade Biz had mentioned. He was open about, or I'm assuming he was very open with Columbus about wanting to be there. And the return they got was huge. Now, in terms of Seth Jones,

I don't think since analytics have become a thing, there has been a player loved from the eye test and by the fan who isn't into analytics and hated by the analytics team and department of people who do that for a living, because it is a complete disconnect in terms of there's a group of people telling you and watching a player and saying, this's dominant he's a great defenseman he does it offensively he does it defensively he's huge you can eat minutes he's physical and the other side saying he stinks which is realistically kind of what they say not necessarily stinks but in terms of what he's making yeah his consideration for being a top five top defend 10 defenseman in the league no he's trash.

That's what they say. You read the numbers. You read the wins above replacement is a big one. All these different factors to which it's an argument where you watch him play and he looks great. And people who watch him yet look at stats say he's no good. So the one thing I'll say is it's a fucking cap hit and a half. I mean, that is a lot of money for a guy who's still, what is he, 26 years old?

So you're getting him in the prime of his career, but you are crunched at that number if you're Chicago. Nine and a half is no joke. Is he the highest paid defenseman in the league or no? No, Carlson's 11. Carlson's, oh my God. Dowdy might be a little bit higher. There's five defensemen right around that range,

and Grinnelli could pull them up while you finish your thought. Yeah, my thought is just like, I know this year he was not the player. He was not a $9.5 million defenseman. You just wonder how much of it has to go in with how much Columbus struggled and the loss of all the elite players there and the difference in terms of trying to play against top lines and playing big minutes with a team who struggles does that affect your analytics what they say is no because they look at each player individually and all the stats don't really take into effect a team struggling um i like the player i like the move i think he's a

number one d-man i just think that's so much money and they already have Kane at 10 million. They already have Taves at 10 million. The team struggled kind of immensely over the past few years, right? They've looked nothing like the championship caliber teams they had years prior. And so I do like the move for Chicago to get them. They needed to get a force on the defensive side, but there was just so much money in such a long-term deal. It's going to see

it's going to be interesting to see three years from now where he's at as a player because if he doesn't improve from last year right away you're looking at like this is kind of a disaster of a contract so the highest paid defenseman in the nhl next season eric carlson 11.5 mil drew dowdy 11 mil seth jones 9.5. Roman Yossi, 9 mil. Subban, 9 mil. Pechangelo, 8.8. I'd say the two that I'm okay with are Petro and Yossi. I like Seth Jones a lot from watching him.

I agree completely with your breakdown and the fact that the analytic community would probably trash this deal to the end of time. down on the fact that the analytic community would probably trash this deal to the end of time um i'm i'm interested to see what he can do surrounded by better players and maybe a market where he's maybe a little bit more excited to play in and that's not a knock at columbus it's just like you're under the bright lights a little bit more in chicago and sometimes that puts a little bit more pep in some guy's step is that is that a fair comment yeah yeah no doubt i mean he didn't want to be in columbus for a reason he's going to one of the best cities in the world um to a pretty sick atmosphere to play games in the one thing that got me was it was it was the extra first round pick next year um it was because there's two first rounders right all right sorry i know you read it. It was a first and second next year and then another first, right?

A first this year, a second this year. Yeah. And a conditional first in 22. So two first. What's the condition? It's a first this year, a second this year, and a conditional first in 22. But if Chicago wins one of the 22 draft lotteries, the pick becomes the first in 23. So it's lottery protected next year.

In lottery protected, does that mean top three? I saw one thing that was the top two picks. It wouldn't count only if it was first or second. Honestly, dude, I'm not 100% sure since they redid it. I read it right off cap friendly. It said if Chicago wins one of the 22 draft lotteries. So I'm not exactly sure how many. That extra first rounder, man.

It's like, what? Yeah, exactly. Oh, that was just, that was the, that was the kicker, you know, but you saw what Ristolainen, you saw what Ristolainen and that deal over to Philly got. It's like defense. They just put such a premium on having good defensemen, not at all comparing Ristolainen to Seth Jones.

Ristolainen is also despised by the analytic community and the eye test he passes for a lot of guys. So defensemen, they get huge, enormous return. Look at Chris Coon. It's for me. And you just wonder if Chicago really struggles and even if the pick's eighth overall, it's like they lose that. Then the next year, it was a big deal and a shocking deal.

And I think in the endumbus is very happy with what they got back oh yeah oh yeah and then you see rick nash behind davidson at the draft looking great he's looking good uh and on the other side adam boquist he's in uh let's see the last year of his entry level deal so he'll be a restricted free agent after this season uh i know chief wasn't too sad to see him go, but he's still a young kid. I think he's only, what, he's going to be 21 next month. So, you know, he's still a young defenseman. I think he can still reach his potential, certainly.

I mean, a nice segue here would be talk about Philadelphia. I mean, they didn't stop there either. They ended up swapping Cam Atkinson and Voracek and got rid of Voracek, at least most of his salary. And, you know, you talk about the premium for defensemen, they ended up getting Ryan Ellis a little bit cheaper than they did Ristolainen. But now to back that up, it's like it's hard to also look at a defenseman's numbers when he's been playing with the Buffalo Sabres.

So I think you can maybe keep a fresh mindset while going in to assess that one. But it definitely tells me that i think that philadelphia is looking at at we got a pretty small window here to try to get this thing done in the next two to three years and there's also rumblings that they might even sign yans you know adding that extra layer of maybe security to help bolster their power play you know just i see him starting the year as a six, you know, being a guy who's playing limited minutes, but also helping the power play. Is that a fair comment, Whit? Yeah, I have no idea where he's signing and Philly would be a great spot.

I don't know what's going to happen with him. I haven't heard heard back from him. I think he's got like four texts on return from me. But Chuck Fletcher said there was just a malaise around the Flyers, right? It was like we could not go into camp with the exact same team. So it's more than anything is like culture change. You just got to change what's going on in this room. And it was an old school one-for-one Atkinson-Favoracek trade.

I think Atkinson's a year older than him, but less time on the deal. Maybe put up those deals if you can, R.A., but... No, I got them all right here. Yeah, Philly had a very busy week. They got Ellis last week, like we mentioned. They traded Shane Gostisbeer to Arizona, along with a second and 22 and a seventh and 22. No, no, no, no.

Future considerations, which is basically... Another nothing trade for the Coyotes. They just take money. Pronger, Datsu, Gostisbeer. They also traded robert hag robert hogg i'm not sure you say his name he had one year left at 1.6 mil along with the first this year which is 14 overall and the second and 23 to buffalo for the ristaline and deal we just mentioned ristaline only has one year left at 5.4 mil so that's a pretty risky trade right there i

mean if he doesn't very high price that's a high price to pay for a guy for one year and uh voracek trade this was a head scratcher for me from the columbus side uh voracek to philly i'm sorry yeah voracek back to columbus rather cam atkinson to philly jake's got three years left at 8.25 mil he's going to be 32 in a couple weeks at uh 43 points in 53 games last year cam atkinson is already 32 he's got four years left at 5.875 mil at 34 points in 56 games last year just a curious move from columbus man i mean atkinson's been a pretty solid citizen for them like basically part of their core and they bring him in i would get rid of him rather they bring in jake they're paying almost three million more a year for him i just didn't understand this deal much from the columbus side i think they probably

just want to start off with a clean slate and and I think Philly is getting a very solid player and a guy who, you know, I mean, he's making 5 million. I think he's a 30 goal scorer one time, made the all-star team. If they can get him back to playing at that level with the, you know, his type of grittiness that he plays with. I don't know. I agree with you. The commitment's a long time at that number. But if you're Columbus, you're probably like, hey, at least we can hit the reset button a lot sooner. And they had room cap-wise.

Yes. And that's the kicker. So anyway, is that it for Philadelphia? That's it for Philly. But we were just talking about the highest-paid defenseman, and that list hadn't been updated because Kiel McCaw, he signed his big-money ticket. Well, his first updated because kill my car. He signed his big money ticket. Well, his first big money ticket,

he's going to be looking at another one in a few years. Oh, 27. When this one ends six year deal, $54 million. The deal expires in 27, Colorado buys one year as free agency. And I mean,

nobody was surprised that this, this number came in at what it did. I was probably a little surprised. It came in under Jones, but a 9 million a year for kill my car money money well spent kind of a no-brainer for them to do this this is where you will not hear complaints I don't think from anyone just because of his age what he's shown so far if you were to ask me one defenseman that is deserving of nine million dollars a year I'd probably say Kale McCarr right now. Adam Fox is laughing. I mean, he comes off the

Norris and his deal will be coming up at some point. What does this mean for him after seeing Heskinen and McCarr's deal? I don't think people consider him at that echelon. I think it's McCarr, Heskinen, and then Adam Fox. But holy shit, if you have a Norris and who knows what he does next year, Adam Fox is looking at an enormous payday. I think it's a great move by the Avalanche. They still have some questions in terms of Grubauer. Rumor is he wants six times six. They do not want to go that high. They still have the Landeskog issue,

but their number one thought was to get Makar locked up and figure that out. And that was a no-brainer the way they did it. No doubt about that. A couple other deals here oh biz your team getting it done once again uh vancouver got oliver ekman larson and conor garland for uh the co-op they're still playing antoine rossell jb going louis erickson uh as well as a first round of this year which was number nine overall a second in 22 and a seventh and 23. OEL has six years left at 8.25 million.

Garland is a restricted free agent in line for a pretty sizable raise. All three contracts going back to Arizona equal $12 million. They all expired this year. So Arizona picking up some money for some future assets. But Vancouver, Oliver Ekman-Larsen, probably a guy who needed a change of scenery. Had a rough, real rough year last year. He obviously waived his no trade clause to get there.

And Connor Garland, man, he was the heart and soul of that team, I thought, last year. And they didn't want to pay him, or they just let him go. So give a shot. Take care, Biz. Well, I think he was asking for at least $5 million, which he deserved because he earned it. And given with the precedent that they've set on other players

that they've paid, yeah, Garland was far and above, I think our best player, especially when he was in the lineup, he was injured for, for a few games last year, but I think for Vancouver to also take on Oliver and his salary, they did retain a tiny bit of it. They had to give up another valuable asset,

which was Connor Garland. And you know, they, they move on from Oliver and it sucks to see him go I love them as a player I still think he's got a lot of game left he definitely needed to hit a reset button I I hope he's welcomed with open arms there and and and he has a season or seasons much like he's had in the past now as far as Arizona we know it's a full-on blow up they're trying to why you why are you giggling like that?

Oh, it's like – It couldn't be more obvious? The sun sets at like 7.30 right now, and then tomorrow morning around like 6 a.m. the sun will come up, and then Arizona next year will blow it up. You're a fucking asshole. You're fucking disgraceful. Right now it's bad it's it's and i said on the last podcast it's got to get worse before it gets better and i would assume

this season will not be a very pleasant one now mind you at least we get to start by drafting ninth overall this year which we got dylan gunther which was a guy that bob mckenzie had pegged in about the three to six range. And one of the most dynamic offensive players in the draft. He has a great shot. So let's hope that this kid can end up popping off. And this is the actual beginning of the rebuild. Because until they got that ninth overall, they weren't picking until, I believe, 37th.

And, you know, you never really know what you're getting in the second round. So it's, you know, it's yeah, it's been ugly for the last couple of years. We've put ourselves in a bit of a bind. And and hopefully, like I said, the rebuild starts now. And this deal for me, a couple of different things coming from Vancouver. Jim Benning is I'm guessing looking at this like if I don't make the playoffs, if they don't make the playoffs, I'm done. So I have to try to make this team better. He did make the team better, no doubt, with Garland and Ekman Larson. They are a better team than they were last year. The thing with Ekman Larson is he gets the puck on his stick. Beautiful.

There's no issues. What he struggles with is defending. Now, the crazy thing is Vancouver spends a ton of time in their own zone. So if Ekman Larson had been traded to, let's say, like the Islanders or the Bruins, teams with very, very solid defensive systems where you can almost hide players' deficiencies defensively because of how the team plays, Vancouver's not one of those teams. So it's what he struggles at is an issue

for the entire team in Vancouver. So that'll be interesting to see, but he can move the puck, he can skate. It's a big deal, but he's going to need to play better because he's out of the spotlight in Phoenix where nobody watches. He's now going into a Canadian market. He's a high-played player. The pressure will be on.

The fans will be all over him if he does struggle defensively as he has the past few years. So, Biz, I know you say you think he's got a level to get back to, and he will. That question remains but vancouver is better and gillis looks at it like we have to be better i'm gone anyway so i won't even be i won't even be here to deal with this contract in four seasons if it doesn't go well anyway so at this point let's try to get better i love garland that's a great move for

them that help helps out offensively and i do think vancouver is going to be much improved and looking to get into the playoffs. They've got some work to do still. They've got to sign some guys here. That's one of the reasons, of course, Jake Vertanen got bought out. I think they got about $20 million in cap space, and they need to sign Garland. They need to sign Elias Pettersson.

They need to get Quinn Hughes a new contract. So, you know, Benning's biggest flaw i think well one of the major ones has been his his ability to manage the cap and he's always pretty much jammed up on it so we'll see how they're able to to maneuver through this situation but i agree with you with they're they're much improved and a team that on paper they should make playoffs this year yeah in that pacific division they they they are a team that looks to me like a playoff team. I wonder what Pedersen's deal comes in at. You know, you got to think eight and a half, nine, right?

I could see him being the type of guy to get a bridge deal. And I don't know if he's going to be willing to sign that. I know that him and Quinn Hughes ended up getting the same agent. I don't know if Eliias petterson left his agency in order to go to quinn hughes's agent or vice versa but i'm i'd imagine they're working as a team at this point yeah so benning's gonna get the fucking sandpaper finish special from the agency holy shit okay now we have patterson done let's go to quinn the guy's like oh fuck oh we're out of cap space oh jesus uh boys all right we got a few more transactions before we oh yeah terry ryan knows a lot a lot going on uh taylor hall he did end up re-upping him here in boston four year 24 million dollar deal he's got a no move clause and a modified no trade clause

for the last three years uh this seemed like a deal that was inevitable. He wanted to be here. The team wanted him here. I'm not sure if he's going to have his scent to David Krejci or not, but either way, a pretty reasonable deal for Taylor Hall. Yeah, very reasonable. I did not see any unhappy Bruins fans. I'm sure there were some out there,

but Hallsley played phenomenal when he came over. I know that second-round series against the Islanders, he didn't play great, but nobody did for Boston. It was a struggle against that team. And I love the signing. I'm happy for him. I think he, he's always wanted to be on the Bruins, right? When it came down to Taylor versus Tyler, he's kind of hoping that the Bruins had the first overall selection. He goes to Edmonton and in the end, he gets to go to a city and a team that he always wanted to be at. And then when he came over, really enjoyed. So I was happy for him, and I think a very team-friendly deal,

a player-friendly deal, and good for him. Happy. Former roommate. Shout-out Halsey. Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic, he reported today that no dice on Ryan Suter coming to the Bruins. I know every time there's a free agent, every Bruins fan thinks someone's going to come here.

Yeah, Elliott said it looks like Dallas. Yeah, it doesn't look like he'll be here. The Rangers signed Barkley Goodrow, six-year, 21.85 million-dollar deal. Comes out to 3.64 AAV. Modified no trade clause. Of course, they traded for his rights before

he went to free agency. Pretty good deal for the kid. Edmonton signed 39-year-old goaltender. I know you already mentioned this, Biz. I didn't give the numbers yet. Mike Smith, two years, $4.4 million. Detroit signed defenseman Mark Stahl, one year, $2 million deal. He's got a no-move clause as well.

Let's see. Florida traded goalie prospect Devin Levi in a conditional first in 22 for forward Sam Reinhart. Reinhart's a restricted free agent. He made 5.2 million last year. The condition on the pick condition is if the pick is in the top 10, the pick will be exchanged with Florida's 2023 first round pick. I like that deal.

I like Reinhardt. I was shocked to see Ristol Heinen got more in return than Reinhardt did. That was surprising, but that's a nice deal. Along with their signing of Sam Bennett, which was four years times four after what he did. I think it was times four, maybe 4.2, but he came over and lit it up with Florida. He got away from Calgary where he never thought he got his chance to play top

two lines. He was over point per game with his games in Florida and then a point per game in that first round loss versus Tampa. So Florida, with what Tampa's lost and how Florida looked last year and what they've done this summer, that battle for the state of Florida might be a lot closer than people think. So Reinhardt's a nice player. And in the end, Ristolainen's gone and Reinhardt's gone and Eichel's still there and kevin adams comes out and he mentions on saturday shockingly that he will not be uh i don't think he said surprised but uh not be upset at all or or could see in the future jack eichel still being on the sabers when the season starts

now eichel's agents peter fish and uh pete donatelli were were had quotes given where they said uh we're under the understanding he will be traded, you know, making it pretty clear. He does not want to be there. Eichel still hasn't had surgery. He's skating, but they haven't been able to come to agreement because the Sabres don't want him to get the surgery he wants to get.

So a lot of question marks still there with Eichel. And I can't imagine what's going to go down if they end up not trading him. Cause then you look at a player, is he willing to sit out? Is he willing to openly make make make his frustrations public i think he kind of already has but shocking to see him not dealt yet but in the end you got to give kevin adams a little bit of credit in saying i'm not trading this guy until i get what he wants until i get what i want and the ask is astronomical according to every insider in the league and you know buffalo doesn't have to trade him they're not obligated just because the player wants to and i mean he really doesn't have leverage

right now it's not this anything he can leverage against buffalo if he opts not to play then he doesn't get paid so you know you can say you want to get traded but if a team doesn't get the value they deserve back then they'll make you sit there and whatever i mean he's not going to sit out he's not going to kiss away 10 million well i mean i, I guess an option would be he could go on long-term IR because he's still got the neck issue. I don't know. Yeah, that could get ugly. Because, Ari, you say

in the end, like, no leverage. Yeah, I guess, like, if you look at it black and white, he doesn't, but you don't want a locker room where you got your captain and best player, like, not wanting to be there. That's just a disaster for any team that's trying to get out of the doldrums. Right. I just mean, it's not a situation.

He can let like leverage some to his advantage. He basically, I don't want to be here and I'll find me a trade. I mean, that's what's obvious. He's going to happen. Let's see. The Rangers traded forward. Pavel Bucinavich. This is a little bit of a surprise.

He's a restricted free agent. He made three and a quarter mil last year. They sent him to St. Louis for forward Sammy play. who's got one year left at a million and a half he's going to be rfa after that contract and the second in 22 uh buchnevich is a hell of a player for the rangers he kind of looked like he finally come into his own and but they got to kind of pick who they want to keep they're they're going to have a little cap crunch as well you mentioned fox is going to be coming up soon enough uh they need to save some money, put some money aside. So I was a little surprised on this one, Biz, were you? I like Sammy

Blais as a player. I think he's going to provide something good to that New York lineup. I think that they also, as you said, it's all coming down to the money and the long-term commitment. I actually thought that this trade kind of made the most sense out of any trade i saw because st louis struggles scoring they need some skill up front he gives them that his his most legendary moment on the rangers is when he when he fucking shot the shot the gun at the goalie after he scored and then tampa tried jumping him and avery was laughing at him i remember the clip because it was during it was during a lead up

to the winter classic the 24-7. That was funny. That was that long ago? I know. He's been there quite a while. And then Sammy Blade, what does the Rangers need? They need to be tough to play against.

It cannot be a cakewalk with the Wilson incident, everything everyone talked about. They need to have players who make it difficult to go into MSG and play the Rangers. And he's one of those guys.

So it was a trade that made total sense with the skill the Rangers have up front and the money they need to spare to sign future, you know, guys coming up with their deals ending. The deal made a lot of sense to me. Okay. Moving right along. Carolina made a few trades as well. They traded defenseman, Jake Bean,

a restricted free agent to Columbus for a second rounder in 21. Columbus finally replaced Grant Klitschum on the back end with Bean. Carolina also traded goalie Alex Nedeljkovic to Detroit for goalie Jonathan Bernier in a third in 21. And then Detroit went and signed Nedeljkovic to a two-year, $6 million extension. Seemed like short money to get a guy who was called a finalist last year. But like you said, Biz stevie wife uh what's the

word i'm thinking of fleece fleece fleece and that's the word okay so i don't know if that's the correct word because listen i think he's an incredible goalie i think that uh he he didn't have the largest sample size it's evident that this was going to go to arbitration and they were concerned about the number that he was going to be awarded so they figured it's best to just part ways and from what from like what i was reading at least on on social media but from some pretty reputable people is they felt that they needed a little bit of experience in that because it looks like carolina's in the in the time period of where they want to try to compete for a cup now i believe they also have three goalies that are UFAs, so they still got to bring back Reimer, which, well, I mean, yeah,

he's got experience, but I don't think he's the guy who's going to get you over the hump. Do I think that, who's the other one? I'm drawing a blank. Mrazek. Mrazek. I mean, sure. I think that he's a guy they need to bring back.

And who is the other UFA? Well, yeah, Bernier, Reimer, and Mrazek, I mean, sure. I think that he's a guy they need to bring back. And who is the other UFA? Well, yeah, Bernier, Reimer, and Mrazek, the three goalies that Carolina has, all UFA right now. And right, and they got to re-sign Bernier. So I don't know. They got some work to do, too. I know Martinuk's a UFA. I think Fogle's name's popped up quite a bit.

So there's a lot of work to do. But as far as that Nedeljkovic, I like the risk by Detroit because if it doesn't work out, whoop-de-fucking-do, big deal. But for Carolina, I mean, I don't know. He's a head-scratcher. Yeah. I mean, if you're going to give Reimer two, I would have gave Nedeljkovic three. Now, they said that he might have came in around three and a half number

if he went to arbitration. But I think that – I think they thought it could even be higher. Higher? I think there was like – they worried about four. Oh, my boy. Maybe a little bit more. Now, here's the thing, Biz.

He's only played 28 games, I believe. I know, but like you look at what he did. And for me, it was looking that Carolina has looked for years for a goalie. For years. And they had this homegrown talent who played great in the AHL, and he comes up to the NHL, and he looks awesome. And it's like, all right, we kind of got our guy, at least from what we've seen in a small sample size. He looks great. And the issue is Carolina is a full-blown analytics team.

They really are huge into looking at the advance, the macro stats, whatever the words are, and they probably look at it like there's so many UFA goalies out there. Now, you keep hearing from insiders Ronta's name as a guy that they'll look to sign. Now, he seems to be injured quite a bit. Quite a bit? That's the fucking understatement of the year.

I think he's on the fucking IR every other week. It's crazy, man. No, I know. But when he plays, he looks good. But to look at it just like totally statistics wise and not necessarily believe Nadelkovich is your man. It wasn't like he was going to get six million. It was I just was I just I didn't it didn't make sense to me. It didn't make sense to most people I read you know comments from and and in the end Detroit looks good and getting a goalie

that they can rely on with a team that they're trying to turn into winners when you talk about culture and you talk about tanking for the draft Detroit's not into that you've seen what they're doing and they're trying to really build something there and I know they're doing it through the draft but they're also realizing if we can get a young goalie at not a crazy price who we've seen and really think is like a future number one then let's go out and grab them so Carolina really risks their uh goaltending situation in going into the UFA market and being confident they'll get a guy that they think can do just as well as Nadelkovich but that's a big question to be remains be seen. So my only pushback is it was 38 games he's played in the NHL. So that's a pretty tough – that's not a lot of sample size

in order to just hand over. You said it might be in the $4 million range. Well, I don't necessarily disagree with him on that, but I also think that they're in a situation where they don't – it's not like they have all these other amazing goalies lined up that they need to sign. He would be the guy I would probably give the net to start the season. Him or Mrazek.

I mean, if Bernier, whether he signs or not, I mean, he's UFA, I'd be surprised if he ends up in Carolina, but basically it was a third rounder, man. That's kind of a no-brainer. They get a Calder Trophy winner for a third rounder. That's a no-brainer, my Stevie. I'm sorry, call the finalists. I'm sorry. I apologize. I know we didn't.

One other trade. You did mention already, Biz. Calgary traded a fourth and 22 to Seattle to bring Tyler Pitlick in. He's got one year left at 1.75 mil. Just a little house clean. Good player. Yeah, nice little player. All right, boys. I think we should send it over to Terry Ryan.

He's been waiting patiently. But first, we want to let you know that this interview is presented by OCB Rowan Papers, the largest rowan paper brand in the world and has been one with nature, crafted naturally since 1918. So, you know, they've perfected the process for a consistently great session time after time. Now make bamboo your second favorite plant when you try OCB Bamboo Rolling Papers, America's first ultra-thin, slow-burning bamboo rolling papers and cones that have been taking the market by storm. Ask for OCB Rolling Papers wherever you buy your papers and sample the entire line of products.

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He's all the way out in Newfoundland. Is that how you say it properly? Newfoundland, but I'll give you a break, but I don't know if everybody else would. We actually went there for a Newfoundland extravaganza. We ended up taking that one down because I got a little silly that whole time, but welcome back to the Spit and Check What's podcast for the third time. Terry Ryan. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate you guys having me on. I love everything you're doing. Biz, I had my money on you in the barbecue competition.

I struggled. Hey, did you like the garlic aroma? Did you in the barbecue competition with Witter. I struggled. Hey, did you like the garlic aroma? Did you like the garlic aroma? I like where you were going. You tried to talk your way into it. I don't think either one of you guys are big on the grill, I would bet. But, you know, looked okay. Looked better than I thought it would, Biz.

How are you doing out there? I know you just got a visit from Teddy Purcell, who was just back on the island. Yeah, I'm doing all right great to see teddy um teddy and i are pretty good buddies and we share a lot of the same friends so and we went to a huge birthday bash from a guy who just loves the party so it was an awesome time and i'm having a good summer my penny lane's mom is away in labrador working at on a on a fishing lodge kind of resort. So I'm a single dad for the summer, and I got a lot on the go. So it's interesting, to say the least. I'm coaching an under-11 girls' soccer team. So take what you – and I'm running a bar.

So there you go. There's two extremes. Any snapshots so far on the sidelines? I forget the movie that was with Will Ferrell when he had the full-blown track suit going on. Kicking and Screaming. Was that it? It was called Kicking and Screaming? Kicking and Screaming, where he has Mike Ditka as his assistant coach. Oh, yeah.

You ever seen that one, Terry? Or are you more of a Lady Bugs kind of guy? No, no, I've seen it. I was going to say, you know, the first time I was on, I was so rushed and I was so excited. And as you know, I'm excitable. But I know R.A. has a huge love of movies and if you could pass that along he'll probably listen but i really share his love and i love his insight

and i don't think he always gets the credit because you guys don't know what the fuck he's talking about he's talking about classics like taxi driver and the godfather and rocky and anyway i i i i empathize with him because i it's always a tough crowd he's going on and on about like the good the bad and the ugly and you guys are like what the fuck is that anyway when we had terry ryan senior on and what even when i went out there i i got a good understanding of why you know so much about the classics including the beatles who you have a massive love for is you guys usually spend one time a week because he only gets one day a week to booze yeah right terry ryan senior and you guys spend your friday nights watching like old music

videos old the dvds whatever it may be and that's where you kind of got all your knowledge from all this old school stuff is when my dad came back from pro hockey as you know he loves hanging out with the boys so he came back and he retired early he was the first in his family to get a degree so he got it and i mean you can check it out he was wheeling and dealing he had over 100 points in the eye still a prospect and um after having played a full year in the wha and leading it in shorthanded goals so his career was by no means even teetering off yet but he had that degree so he came home and he started playing senior hockey and he still you know i kind of know what it's like but he was drinking way too much like three four nights a week and you know up to like three and having to go to each missing day subbing sounds like my playoff run this year well live stream basically yes yes yes but he was on a time off since two or

three year playoff run so mom just had enough one day and then kicked him out he moved to toronto for a little bit i went to see him he he found himself so to speak quote unquote and he came back and he just said look i love boozing i love the boys and he said uh but i'm not going to give it up for good if you can give me one day a week and if that if i can't do that then we can keep talking about you know never doing it again but that was that was when I was seven years old he's been true to his word and to this day on Fridays he has beers and you know at this point a lot of my buddies I mean a lot of his but a lot of my buddies because it was where we always went and I grew up is he used to be playing senior hockey or coaching

and he let me and my other buddies down there as long as we played records from his collection uh so you know over the years and you know the way up to that point that was the 80s so every record had like a book jacket with it and all the lyrics and i mean that's what i miss about albums and vinyl although they're coming back or they're back i guess but you know what i mean there was a story behind each one and each song and even the order of the songs on each side meant something. Yeah. And we've kind of lost all that. So even though, yeah, I mean, well, we're forced, it was forced on me, but I certainly don't regret it at the time.

I don't think I realized how important it would be. A lot of regrets, just not that one. Yeah, exactly. So one of the reasons it sparked me up to get you on is I was almost chained on. We were doing this Pink Whitney pre-draft anyway party, and we were talking about your infamous story about getting interviewed by Mike Milbury pre-draft. Now, Mike, you'll replay it for us, and this is from the last time I interviewed you back on your home soil there.

So Milbury, anyway, these guys are talking. All of a sudden I hear these footsteps coming in from the adjoining room. And it's Mike Milbury. And he walks into the room and he kind of has an air of authority about him. And he throws down his papers, whatever it was, scouting book on the table. And he's talking. He's standing up. Everybody else now is sitting down. But he is about to take a seat scouting book on the table. And he's talking to me, standing up. Everybody else now is sitting down.

But he is about to take a seat at the end of the table across from me. And he says, yeah, well, I think you skate faster with the puck than without it. Now, I've been talking to these scouts, and they're asking me questions very cordially and respectfully. And he walks in, and he just starts talking. Like, you know, you skate faster with the puck than without it, like some bully in grade 8, and I'm in grade 6 or something. I'm going, oh, yeah, I guess.

Okay. I don't know if that's a cut either or it means something good. Yeah. I think that was good. Yeah, so I'm like, okay. And then he says, thanks, Milps. I wasn't sure and I was still going, maybe he is stroking me off too. But then he goes, yeah, well, I think you got lucky against Wade Belak.

There's a fight on YouTube, I fight Belak, and we only played him twice that year, and it was like Jerry Seinfeld, like when he races and he doesn't want to do it ever again because he won the race. I didn't want to fight Belak again. I fought him once, and it was a great fight, and it was talked about, and of course I don't have a death wish. So he says, if you fight him ten times, you're going to lose nine of them.

That was lucky. Not that I beat him, but we had a good one. And I said, okay, but I didn't and we had a good fight. And he said, it's a good thing Damon Lankow played with you all year. You wouldn't have had all those points. And I said, well, it's a good thing he fucking played with me. He wouldn't have had all those points. You know, like we both improved this year.

You're going back and forth. We're going back and forth and now it's getting like he's cutting me up and I'm cutting him up. And there's no punchline. Like this isn't a joke anymore. So he says, okay, tough guy. He said, I'm going to give you a scenario. He said, you're in Tri-Cities and you and that Langkow kid, I think he called his hoodlums.

He said, you and that Langkow kid have been out and you're having a good time and you bring some girls back. And all of a sudden you break off with your girl and you go having a good time and you bring some girls back and all of a sudden you break off with your girl and you go to her house it's 10 to 11 but it's a 10 minute drive home and curfews at 11 but she spreads her legs and says fuck me terry he says what do you do i thought about it i'm like well 10 minute drive home i'm doing the math 10 minute drive and you're not a math guy no well no but i'm thinking about like what i actually would do and I'm looking at myself going 10 minute drive home, curfew's at 11. Girl wants to fuck me, Jesus Christ.

Okay, so I go, I'm gonna, I take a sip of my water that's sitting there and I call him Mr. Millby at this point. I said, well, well, Mike, I said, I fuck her for five minutes and then I

speed home. So he says, get the fuck out of my office. And the other scouts are like, some guys are putting their head down and they want to not laugh, but they're fucking. And I know what's going on. I'm like, that was a fucking great answer. But when I turn around and I look up, the door opens, but it's Phil Esposito. So Phil Esposito's been standing there. I forget that they've played since.

They played with Boston Bruins, I guess, in the late 70s. I kind of forget all of that. And Phil is doing my last interview with Tampa Bay just next door. And so I follow him out. He goes, great fucking answer. And he shuts the door. He goes, why did you say again? And I told him.

He goes, that's fucking unbelievable. He goes, his only question to me, he says he says sit down so i go in the room with him and tony esposito his brother and he's he's obviously he's the gm of tampa so he's scouting for tampa sits down he goes how far apart did napoleon sleep from his wife and i went a bone apart and he said fucking right so he goes terry i'm not gonna draft you you're not a good enough skater i gotta be honest with you he said we're picking fifth So he goes, Terry, I'm not going to draft you. You're not a good enough skater. I got to be honest with you. He said, we're picking fifth, but I'm very interested in Damon Lankow.

What kind of a guy is he? I said, well, you know, he works hard and he often treats the rookies well. He goes, Terry, Terry, Terry, what kind of a guy is he? Would you guys hang out? Does he stick up for you in all situations? I said, yeah, of course he does. He's one of my best friends. He goes, perfect. He said, you just won yourself a good story.

And I sat there. I had a Diet Coke, and I listened to him tell me about the 1972 Summit Series for an hour. He just said, what do you want to hear? I said, I've always wanted to meet you. And I asked him about the Summit Series, about how he slipped, and all the Russians laughed at him, and how he turned that into a confidence booster. I swear to you he took i was interviewing him for an hour and then he let me go and he said perfect and they ended up taking damon

lankhout number five the next day get the fuck out of here yeah but you ended up when we talked today telling me that you had another pre-draft story yeah and by the way i love that and if you ever talk to donor again say hi we used to be pretty good buddies. You got drafted one pick behind him. Did you not? Yeah. So everything he was talking about, I identified with, you were asking him, you know, where was he rated? I remember for me, I thought it was going to go anywhere from seven to 12, but I knew, I knew Dallas were going to take me if, if I, if I land, if I went that late. So I knew it wouldn't slip too far. And with donors, same sort of thing.

I think he said four to 10, you know, we all kind of knew and we were traveling around to do a lot of these pre-interviews so you asked about the second draft story so i'm not sure if they still do it but the washington capitals used to fly people down like a lot of people not just the top five or six that they were interested in, but say, you know, I'd say 40 or 50 players in the draft got flown down at some point. So there was groups of us that went down. So, and people think, you know, I talk to you now,

and they think that that really wasn't on the go then, but there was a little period that it was almost even too much. Like I got interviewed by almost every team. The only two teams didn't interview me were montreal and detroit if you can believe it but some of those interviews quote unquote were like iq tests um and then the vo2 or whatever it might be so what washington would do was was fly you down and they'd have you there for three days and you do two days of testing and then you'd go out for a big dinner everybody right so there was i don't know if donor was on my trip. I think he might've been, and he'll at least know about all this.

And I know I was there with Lankow, Brian Burrard was there. Iggy was there. Oh, wow. And there was the particular player that I'm going to tell you about here. I can't use his name because he asked me not to for my book. There's another great plug. It's my, you can find all this in fightsights, Film, and Folklore, which came out in October 2020. But anyway, this particular player asked me not to use his name

because he's still involved in the hockey world. It's a funny story, he said, just if you can. So anyway, I'm going to call him Lefty Fitzgibbons, okay? So I knew Lefty Fitzgibbons already. And he was a tough cat, I tell you that. He is a tough cat. And we'd actually been in a fight at one point during my career. I don't want to give too much away.

Oh, no, everybody's going to be looking up HockeyDB now, trying to put the pieces together. There's so many, it's going to be hard to figure out. What's his name again? Lefty what? Lefty Fitzgibbons, I'm going to call him. Lefty Fitzgibbons. Get the T-shirts printed, Grinnelli. Yeah. So we go down, and it's a great time.

The draft was July 8th. It wasn't too far before that. So it was probably, I don't know, I'm guessing the beginning of June maybe. So we get down, stopped in Toronto with a few of the guys, had a good night, went down, and again, we're all 18 here, right? few of the guys had a good night went down and again we're all 18 here right so we get down and we know that in the morning i think at nine or ten in the morning i know it's before noon but it wasn't like six and we had to start doing these tests so what it is is we had to go meet jack button craig's father i think he's passed away now he He was a huge scout and he's actually like a legendary

scout. I don't know if his name has gotten lost in the annals of time here in hockey history. I hope it hasn't because he was a real good guy too, a real respectable guy. And we knew we had to go in and meet with him first. And then after that it was an IQ test sort of thing. If a train is leaving

from this point and then another one's leaving from this point, they're going so fast. that kind of thing, like SAT type stuff. Oh shit. And then I know. And then we had, you know, I mean who even wanted to do that anyway, but then it was like, um, I forget, I think they call it the Warshak test. It was like, you know, here's, here's a picture. What do you see? Right. And I mean, every time my answers were like, well, I see a guy who's defending all his teammates, right. Even if it was a,

even if it was a flower on the wall, what am I going to say? What the fuck am I going to say? I see me being home for curfew on time and being a really good example for the young guys. So, so, uh, and then after it all, we had finally had some physical stuff and most of it was like reacting to a to a computer screen but i'll get into that so the night before there's a place right next to the hotel we're staying at and it's it's kind of like i don't know if you've ever been to place jillian's in the states there's one in boston at least there was last time i was there and it's like cool you know it's a fun and games kind of, but you can get a lot of different kinds of beers and stuff. So we went in and again, we're all 18, but we all get fake IDs. And, um, we, um,

we, we sit down at the table and some guys are kind of nervous, but some of us had played, played against each other before. And, you know, so it doesn't take long before we're all hanging out like a hockey dressing room, right. You know, the way it goes. And a lot of us are alpha males and we're that guy in the dressing room, you know, we're biz kind of thing, you know, like in the dressing room. So everybody wants to play the jukebox. Yes, there was a jukebox. Everybody wants to, you know, kind of be the life of the party,

but not in a bad way. So it's awesome. So we're kind of trying to do each other. So this lefty looks over at me and he goes, come on, Newf. He goes, I heard you can drink. He said, any, I almost gave it away. But he said, you know, guys from Miley can put them away a lot, a lot better than a Newfoundlander. You just, you guys are living off that rep because you're so happy. Go lucky. I said, okay. So I said, okay, lefty. So we sat down,

we started with a couple of double rum and Cokes. And I'm like, now we, we got to meet Jack button in the morning, you know? So, and I know Jack, even though he's a legend and everything, he's, I say old school, I'm kind of going into the kind of hockey player he wanted. I'm sure he didn't want us boozing the night before that, but whatever, all of us were on it. You know what I mean? It was like one for all boys. Like you're in everybody. Nobody's got the advantage on the, your eye, seeing the ship, the test.

Totally. And other people went down, and they didn't have that experience. So I was glad. I went with the right group. So Lefty comes over. So I go over to the bartender. I said, I'm going to order something that you've never had before. Bring it on.

Bring it on, Newfie says. So I go over to the bartender. I'm like, listen like listen dude bring over 10 shots of vodka and 10 shots of water and you're going to give the vodka to lefty and i'm going to take the water and i'll pay for it all right now so it's not to be obvious so i do i come over and he looks at me he goes okay noof let's do this and we sat down and i'm thinking like maybe four or five minutes he's getting real googly eyed. Right. And I'm kind of sober enough. I feel pretty good. So we finished him off and he's just buried. He's done. He orders another drink,

trying to kind of be macho. But we go back to the hotel. Now he's my roommate. So we get back to the hotel. And again, I've had 10 10 shots of water i had a slice slab of pizza on the way out he's zonked loaded as soon as we get in the room he passes down face we passes out face down and i'm sitting there watching tv for an hour or two perfect so i wake up in the morning i got my alarm set go in the bathroom i get all ready full on like you know i take a full hour just to get perfectly ready and then i go out and i shake lefty and i say lefty we're late we're late so which we're not we're still an hour early so he gets up freaks out he runs in the bathroom to get ready but he slips on the water and hits his hand on the toilet bowl and now he's leaking he's got six or seven zips over the hour ended up over

the eyes so he's cut and i'm going jesus okay lefty look i was only kidding so he's he's pissed off but whatever i'm his buddy and he knows it's a joke and he goes new fawn lefty nothing new fawn lefty nothing i said okay two really because i got your shit face but anyway here we go so we get there and i no one really wants to go first but i i want to get first i want to get it out of the way i'm the kind of guy if i knew i was fighting i want to happen the first you know what i mean it's the same feeling i hate the weight you hate the weight right like like tom patty said the waiting is the hardest part right so I'm I don't want that so I want to go first so I get in there and I say hello Mr. Button how

you doing and he said Terry I've heard a lot about you your old man was a good player he said I know you come from a good family he said what did you do last night I said well Mr. Button you know I we went out we had a bite to eat so nothing too serious. I got back and I said, I read a bit of the Bible. You know, I grew up in Catholic school and, uh, you know, I'm not going to claim to be like overly religious, but it really brings me down to earth once in a while to read a good excerpt out of the Bible, but let's move on from that, which again was complete bullshit. So we go through the interview and I don't really remember my interview with Jack other than I was asking him about other players.

He scouted a friend of mine, John Slaney, who went to Washington maybe. He's with the Coyotes organization. He's coaching now. Yeah, I mean, legend, right? 30 goals a year as a D-man in the A. And he's got quite a few NHL games too. John went ninth overall. I went eighth yeah so

so let's get back to this jack button so lefty i go in do my interview i come out and it might have been bird someone went in between us and he's just as as we're waiting those 10 or 15 minutes, he's out there. And there's a bunch of guys outside waiting and he's, he's sweating. He's nervous. I mean, he's hung over. You can smell the booze. So I said, I made the mistake. I said, lefty, I went in there and I acted all straight up and Jack, all he wants to do. He just wants to talk to one of the boys. So I said, you know,

take what you will from that so by the time he goes in and we all we got cups up to the we're listening at the door and trying to hear what we can and as soon as he goes in he goes how the fuck are you doing jack wrong wrong wrong wrong the jack same same same lead to the question what did you guys do last night he's like well i got fucking shit face so you are a fucking asshole oh yeah so then then we come out and he soon realizes i mean jack totally was cool with him and everything but he realized halfway through that that's probably not the angle i need to go to but anyway he comes out now i went in and i told jack i said jack that was half my fault right i said i'm toying with him but he

comes out he says lefty or noof two lefty nothing so okay all good i'm like look lefty we're cool we're buddies here and i love you you know that so i'm done for the rest of the time and i'm going to tell them all that it's my fault so um which kind of doesn't happen the rest of the day it happened at the end of the trip but anyway so we're going through same thing lefty's really nervous we're going to do that warshack test or whatever it's called and we got one thing left to do which it was on the computer but it was like reacting to like say there was a ball bouncing on the screen and we were all standing on these pads and we had to jump to the rhythm of the ball bouncing it would speed up it would slow down right and then it would say you know part of the test was like uh say when a red dot comes up and the word blue might come up with red in red yeah i've done that

you know it was all that stuff. But it's a pad. It's like a pad that we're hitting with our hand. Or when we have to jump, it's a pad under our feet. So I went. I remember it was pretty good. A bunch of us went. I don't really remember. Let's say we rolled at between 70% and 80%.

I don't really recall again. But Lefty at this point was so nervous that he's over there and he's thinking about it. And I honestly, honestly, I wanted to let him go first. I hadn't even hatched this plan yet. So, but anyway, and there's a bunch of us doing it at once. So this is like three groups. So my group goes, okay, you know, 70 might've been the best or worse than 80 might've been the best. You know, there's not. So anyway, lefty gets up with his group.

So now we're all behind. So lefty's looking at the screen. Okay. And all the people, the scouts and everything that, and there's only two or three of them there that are looking at the results. I mean, every single scout's not in the room. Jack button's long gone at this point. We're with the people that are doing the physical testing. So anyway, they're not looking at us and all the boys kind of left so me and a couple more just stick around so wouldn't you know what when they do the reflex stuff when lefty's jumping in the air i'm behind him and i'm

hitting the pad with my own foot when he gets mad so he couldn't have been doing any worse okay so so lefty lefty gets like 14 like no one no one got less than 50 like it was so so bad you are fucking brutal man listen you're an asshole and not only that he wasn't a high rated guy most people there were rated in the first or second round so i'm not saying he didn't get drafted either um but you but if they were interested. Anyway, that all happens. That all happens. So I end up telling everybody, look, it's all me. It's my fucking fault.

Lefty's a good buddy and everything. So that kind of smooths itself over. But the next season, we're back in junior, and we're playing Lefty's team. So Lefty, when I'm playing at home, again, I don't want to give it away, but there's a, it's a largely, a lot of people get drafted from the West back then we're playing their team. The first time we're playing them in tri cities, they were playing in Seattle the night before. And I took this one. I can't take credit from an old teammate named Aaron bow.

You might want to have him on sometime. So he's an absolute legend. Ask anybody my age in the league, Aaron Bowe. So Bowe used to do this. So he told me he did it. So I called the hotel ahead of time. There was only one that the teams used in Tri-City at the time. And especially there was a big car show in town.

So there was none available. So I called and canceled all their rooms. I said, this is so-and-so from so-and-so team and you don't need it. I said, like, we're coming in, we're just going to leave and we're going to move and go on to Spokane that night. So they got in and they had no hotel rooms. So as it's about midway through the first and no one really knew what happened. And I looked over at the bench, I go, Hey, lefty, how'd you sleep last night? And he starts thinking about it, thinking about it.

And then he looks up and he goes, no. And he jumped over the bench to try to fight me. And he fell down his face. He got four minutes for jumping over the bench and I never did have to fight. bench and i never did have the fight and you are hey that is like did you ever get any consequence for canceling their rooms no dude i didn't i don't think anybody even knew it people were pissed off yeah i mean i knew i went a little bit too far with that one i knew i did that that was a little bit too far i only told people that I even did that maybe a month later. No one really knew

what I was talking about. Lefty might have assumed it, but I don't think anybody thought I would have gone that far. I didn't hide much from my teammates even. There was only about five of them that knew. But there was a couple. That is as old school as it gets. That shit doesn't happen anymore. And folks, you can hear more stories like that on

Tales with TR. What podcast network is it with? It's with the Hockey Podcast Network. I'm part of that umbrella. Yeah, Tales with TR, you can get it on pretty much every platform that I know of. That's awesome. So we've got to hear the last NHL shift one, and then we'll let you go because we've got to save some of your ones to get you on in the future

as well. Hey, no problem. And I really do appreciate it. It's a great platform and you guys are good buddies. Um, okay. So this one is also in my latest book called, uh, fights film and folklore. And, um, yeah, I guess I'll just start it. So I it's 1998, 99 season. Okay. And at the beginning of the season, there was Scott Thornton, there was Shane Corson, and Benoit Brunet,

all left-handed shooting forwards that were all playing left wing at the time. And they were all hurt. So I got to stay up. I had the feeling I would be sent down. You know how you get that feeling? I mean, I was probably told. I don't really remember. but I remember knowing that, you know, I'm here for a few games. So they kept me and Dave Morissette up. Moose Morissette, real tough guy. Only played a short amount of time in the NHL, but gotten some great fights,

including one I'm going to tell you about. So we're up. So the first four games, five games go by, and I'm warming up. I think I might address for one game. I don't think I got a shift. And the other ones, I'm warming up. But again, I'm not pissed off at this. I'm young. I'm in the NHL. At the very least, I get front row seats to an NHL game.

I was still in that mode, right? And just pumped to be there. And I loved warmup. I just loved it. You know, I get to wear no bucket, skate around, listen to some good tunes in the bell center, right? What's the worst case scenario? I loved warming up in the bell center.

There was nothing like it. You felt like it was already like 75% full and you felt like you were the center of the hockey universe. Totally. And that feeling doesn't get old. So people ask, it must have been disappointing not to play. I'm like, well, maybe looking back, like there was a level of it. I don't really recall.

Like I don't recall having a bad time. And warmup doesn't get talked about enough. You're skating around with NHL players. You're in the center of the hockey universe, listening to great tunes and then going in to get a hot tub and then out after the game they have a great meal and talk to some women i mean really i mean you know first world problems getting upset at that so the game so me and moose and we're figure we're not playing although we're playing chicago and i know Moose might get out there because Probert's skating around, Mark Jansen's, Cam Russell,

that's their third line, and there's three. And I'm not even mentioning anybody else. So we get out there, and Moose and I, we get the feeling, yeah, I mean, we're the grocery sticks, so we don't have a line, right? We're the two extra. So we're playing the clock game. I don't know if you've ever played it you know you just we had 50 bucks on each each spin of the clock so if you know we just pick a number between one and ten and if it lands on that as the last number then you get 50 bucks where you know it's simple enough

so i'm like three four hundred bucks in I'm up. I'm loving life. And Probert comes by the bench and I kid you not, I kid you not. Now I know. Back it up. You're, you're playing, you're literally gambling during the game as to when, when the whistle goes and the clock stops, you're on the bench gambling with one of your teammates, as opposed to what the number is going to be. One of your guests, one of your former guests, David Ling, taught me that game.

Yes. So just to, yeah, we would either. So that would be your booze money for after the game. Totally. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. So yeah, it wasn't the first time I played.

So we were into it. And again, I'm like three or 400 bucks at least up on the clock game. So I'm pretty pumped. But Moose was chirping and he was chirping guys coming by the bench so anyway probert came by the bench and he said hey ryan my my rum and coke gets more ice than you do so and i know that's an old regurgitated line but bob probert was saying it and it just meant something and he was off the booze even then it just seemed really funny so i stood up and you know i know i know moose wants to go and so i'm just like

hey mr probrit it wasn't me everybody laughed okay i've done my thing right i'm george just okay boys hey let's have one after you so anyway who's the dead man who hit me with the salt moose uh vineo comes down and gives him the tap and he jumps over now i kid you not i kid you not i'm watching it with my own eyes it's probably on youtube i haven't seen it in a long time i saw it on a video moose fights probert in front of our bench boom hits him he goes down he's leaking over that's why i can't believe moose only played like 11 games one of the games is this game he took out bob probert right in front of the bench go to youtube after this i hope it's on there at the very least you can look up on the internet when it happened he hit him and he probert goes down to one knee and then he has to

leave the game i i couldn't believe it so anyway the period ends i'm in the dressing room i'm looking over at moose and he figures he's not getting out again i know i'm not getting out i just didn't play for the whole first period so So I look over. I'm like, holy shit, Moose. Are you fucking kidding me? Like, he was trying to keep a straight face, but he couldn't believe it either. You know, we're like, oh, my God. So we go back out on now. We go back out.

So now I figure I haven't got a shift in the first period. And I'm just doing the math. Every time that ever happened, I'm not getting out there again. And I don't know anybody else, unless it goes to like 8-0, but if it stays close, I ever happened i'm not getting out there again and i don't know anybody else unless it goes to like eight nothing but if it stays close i don't think i'm getting out so on the way out i look at our uh trainer um here we let's uh they call him steamer and i go uh steamer can you grab me a couple of chien shows uh but the hot dogs right because yeah you know the way it is when you play hockey you eat at like 11 or 12 and then you don't eat it now it's like eight o'clock at night so i haven't eaten in

eight hours it affects you more if you're not playing in the midst of the game if you're in if you're going you're going you don't even think about it but i sat on the bench too i would get so fucking hungry between periods even but they have the power bars and shit back then obviously at the bell center so you send them up to get you a couple hot dogs well have the power bars and shit back then obviously at the bell center so you send them up to get you a couple hot dogs well i probably we did power bars and stuff i guess there's something close to a gatorade bars but i again i really don't think i'm getting out there though i don't and i'm starving and i love those i love them if it had been anywhere else don't know that i would order a hot dog but the shen shows in the bell center are next level so i'm, and Saku Koivu, I don't know if you saw this a lot,

but he used to drink Coca-Cola in between periods. And I'd never, ever seen that. I know Tara did it a couple of years ago, but other than those two, maybe it's a thing. I certainly had never seen it, but I love Coca-Cola. So I grab one, I grab two, they're in little Gatorade cups, and I throw them in a water bottle. So my water bottle going out there, it's got Coca-Cola. So I grab one, I grab two, they're in little Gatorade cups and I throw them in a water bottle. So my water bottle going out there, got Coca-Cola in it. And I say to steamer, get me a

couple of hot dogs. I give them a $10 bill. So he goes, gets them, brings them to me. This took all of like 30 seconds, right? So by the time the pucks drop, so I got a hot dog right here, right? And I'm hiding it in my glove and I know the game's on Hockey Night in Canada. So I'm taking a bite. I'm doing it. I'm washing it down with Coke. So it's all good. And Moose, anyway, so I start perspiring.

I'm really sweating. And I'm going, man, I don't think I feel good. Like something's going on. And Moose says, what? I said, said well i said i i ate those hot dogs but it might have been after the first hot dog anyway i was just like i'm sweating i go my eyes like my eyes are killing me man they're burning and he goes oh the boys put a535 on your helmet before before the game in warm-up didn't you know it i'm like i didn't i don't wear my helmet in warm-up warm-up is my sanctuary moose i don't wear my fucking helmet and warmup.

And the first period, I guess I didn't get out there. I'm totally dry. I don't, I'm not one of those guys that just sweats, but now the hot dog made me start sweating a bit. So now I'm like, oh geez. And I'm wiping my eyes and I'm starting to get like, my eyes are burning. I've got a five, three, five in there.

Rex or Mark Reckie or one of them guys. So, you know, and again, I'm not mad. I'm just like, Oh God, I'm in the middle of an NHL game. Like, so not only that, they know that too. So the boys are behind me and I thought everybody knew. So I was definitely wasn't going to get out there now. So my, my feet are killing me because I've been sitting out for so long. I got lace bite. So when I say so long, i don't mean that day i mean like this is after a month or two of putting on my gear going out and not playing so ironically you you i got more injured than if i'd been out there playing like weber in the playoffs i mean it's it's

amazing but my total and i don't know if you've had lace bite but it's still awful i wear those bunga pads so i'm there and I'm going to Moose. I'm going, man, they're fucking killing me. He goes, don't worry. Just take them off. I'm like, well, I'll loosen up the top two rungs. I loosen up my skates. Another eight minutes goes by. I'm not playing. We're playing the clock game and then we get sick of that. I think we cut it out at like 500 bucks or something and i've i've won so i'm pretty pumped other than that my eyes are burning and i got lace bite so then moose says well what do you want to be when you

get older and i'm like i don't know what are you talking about so you know we would talk about the weirdest things so then we start going down the list of things i'm like i don't know maybe a lawyer i don't know and probably would like to do that. I go, maybe something in the music industry. Now there's a game going on now. And I'm completely, completely, I'm tuned out of it. So Moose says, I want to be an elephant hunter. And I said, an elephant hunter. Why would you want to be that? And he's like, I swear to you, he's like, well, where are the elephants going to hide? And I'm like, holy fuck. Like, this is an NHL game. And I'm laughing, though. And Moose got away about him. And here he is asking me about elephant hunting. And he got blood all over his hands from just fighting Bob Probert. I just ate a Cheyenne show.

And I'm on the Canadiens bench with, like, Jean Beliveau behind me. At the Canadiens games, it's always the legends are, like, right behind you, breathing down your neck. You know what? It's a weird place like that. So I'm sitting there. Wouldn't you fucking know it? Wouldn't you know it? Ryan McCleary, Koolen, you're up.

And I look over and I thought Vigneault was in on the joke. I'm like, what? And he's like, yeah. So I do up the top rung of my skate. I'm wiping the sweat away from my eyes which is only making it worse and i'm thinking about elephants the last ideally i go on the ice we win the face off and i get the fuck off i get a game played and like 10 seconds of ice time that's the other thing if you don't get out there it's not a game yeah at least i'm gonna get a game

played right so that's all i'm thinking. So I go and sure enough, McCleary Trent McCleary ended up getting his career cut short. Cause he got a slapper in the throat, but I mean, I'm not cutting him. He was like the Rudy Rudiger of hockey. He tried hard. He was a little guy used to hit everything really, really tried hard. And I knew he would fight, but he's not very tough. Patrick Poulin, first overall overall I think or second overall um he was traded to Montreal kind of like Joanne trying to get him going a

little bit and uh and I know he kind of would but he's not a you know I'm I'm a middleweight I'm a something weight the other guys just don't fight that much so I know that of the people going out there I'm the guy with the most fighting experience they're older but i get the most fighting experience so we go out against sure enough jansen's probert russell and i'm going are you kidding me my honestly my skates aren't even done up and i i really can't open my eyes for more than five seconds without blinking so i'm looking and you know the period where the linesman is about to drop the puck and everything goes silent. You can hear anything. You can hear a pin drop, even the fans.

It's just a weird time of sports. So he's got the puck in his hands. It's silent. And Cam Russell, great Atlantic Canadian, who I've since talked to, he says, hey ryan does your coach know you're out here so i gotta say that's pretty fucking good right i hadn't heard that one before and i'm like that is pretty fucking good so i'm thinking now you know what fuck it but as i go to do it i mean russell and i know he's only fucking around but you know i'm thinking what, you know what? Fuck it. But as I go to do it, I mean, Russell, and I know he's only fucking around, but, you know, I'm thinking, what am I here for anyway? So the puck ends up, I don't go right at him and fight. The puck ends up behind the net, and someone falls on it anyway.

This one's definitely on YouTube, so judge as you will. But I kind of get wrapped up, russell comes in he's a big guy but he's not probert you know he probably yeah we know probert's probert so he wraps me up and probert is spinning around you can see probert grab me he looks he grabs again and he's trying to get there and he's not even really that mad he just wants to grab someone that'll fight and i'm going fuck that so russell's in front of me i'm going fuck it we're just gonna go process of elimination let's just go i don't want to fight him so anyway we start going and we're going pretty good and i know that russell

is a tough guy it ends up getting i think like highlighted the night on one of the sports like this is a good fight we're going boom boom and i don't even throw many lefts i go back boom boom boom boom wicked fight it ends he looks at my ear. I go back, boom, boom, boom, boom. Wicked fight. It ends. He looks at my ear. Way to go, man. Good fight. We go over to the penalty box.

He says, hey, from Atlantic Canada, hey. He said, so am I. Wishes me luck. Had a great conversation. And I tell him about my eyes. He's laughing. And then I look next to the bench, and there's a couple of rockets there. I mean, I'm guessing they're probably strippers, right?

So I look at the scorekeeper, and'm like can i borrow your pen and a piece of paper so they give me a pen and a piece of paper and when i write on my hand and the paper i write my phone number and i stick right right in the middle of an nhl game and i put it up on the thing and the girl's looking at me she's not and she goes yeah yeah yeah after the game i kid you not now i figure out after the boys had you know boys had tickets i think jab or pat jablonski or one of them had these girls come into the game i didn't realize that part of it but in any case they met us at a place called da vinci afterwards moose had the big fight i did not know it was going to be my last shift in the nhl but i'm kind of glad now looking back i mean i wish i had a few more hundred games but it was worth,

it was worth not having another couple. You're going to sell a couple more hundred books. Her name was Heather. And, and I closed the deal that night and she's still my friend. Holy fuck. Anyway, that is the story of my last NHL shift. Terry, you are a fucking one of a kind, man. That sure beats me blowing out my ACLs, I'll tell you that.

Hey, G. Hey, Grinelli. I feel like a fucking peasant now compared to Terry. But, hey, we're going to get you back on down the road, man. We appreciate it as always. And tell your old man I said hello. I certainly will. I'll tell him. And he told me man I said hello. I certainly will. I'll tell him. And he told me to pass that along to both you guys.

And by the way, guys, I'll never forget you guys coming over here to Newfoundland. I really appreciate it. And in the future, maybe Teddy, maybe George Street Festival or something like that. We'll have to do a Newfoundland extravaganza part two. And I won't drink as much and I won't smoke as much dope. And maybe we could re-release the footage or at least the stuff that I didn't embarrass myself on. Hey man, I had no problem with it.

I appreciate you guys coming. Thanks for having me on today. It was awesome. Terry, you're also a ball hockey legend. We got the Barstool Street Hockey Tournament coming up this week. Any advice for the Barstool team or any of the ball hockey players out there? And moving forward when the border situation ends up figuring itself out,

you're going to join our ball hockey squad. We're going to need a ringer. I'd love to do that. So are you guys playing on a rink with the regular international rules, or is it you're just like – We don't know that. Yeah, so we're the roller team, but we have a full tournament of ball hockey players.

So any advice for them? Huh. tournament of ball hockey players so any advice for them huh well well ball hockey is a lot harder to play defense than ice hockey because you got to follow people around advice um don't if i had one piece of advice don't waste your energy it's a hard sport and it's the summertime even if it's indoors you're going to have to drink a lot of water and don't waste your energy you mean pink Whitney, right? Pink Whitney. Congrats on that too, boys. That's fucking awesome. It's a number one selling drink at our bar too, by the way.

Oh, what's your bar? TJ's one. It's TJ's pub on George street. During the pandemic, my buddy was, didn't know what to do with it. He owns another couple of bars. So I took it over with a couple of friends and we're doing all right. Of course it's all the, you know, it's all the hockey guys go there it used to be called turkey joes lots of people are going to listen to this they used to play in the ahl and it was the ahl bar turkey joes now it's tj's pub almost the exact same place so we'll be there at george street festival one of these years and we'll have maybe we'll throw a ball hockey tournament there hey

the sky's the limit who knows we can brainstorm buddy thank you so much and we'll talk to you hockey tournament there. Hey, the sky's the limit. Who knows? We can brainstorm. Buddy, thank you so much, and we'll talk to you soon. Love you guys. Thanks. Big thanks to Terry Ryan for joining us once again. It's been a minute since we had him on, Biz. He's certainly an interesting character. First of all, we want to let you know that at Labatt, they don't care if you're good or bad at most things in life.

They only care if you're good at being yourself and not pretending to be someone you're not. And if you are, they don't care if you're good or bad at most things in life. They only care if you're good at beer, being yourself, and not pretending to be someone you're not. And if you are, they're good with you. After all, if you choose Labatt Blue Light, you're good at the most important thing there is, beer. We already know you're good at watching hockey. Be good at beer, too, with pristine Canadian Pilsner Labatt Blue Light. We're going to be working with Labatt Blue all year,

and we have some exciting content coming up. So grab a pack and enjoy. I know there's no hockey left, but that doesn't mean you still can't enjoy some Labatt Blue or Labatt Blue Light. All right, boys, just a couple more transactions and notes to get to. Biz, you already mentioned Vancouver bought out Jake Vertnan. He had one year left on his deal. The buyout's going to cost Vancouver 500 grand the next two years. It'll be a $50,000 hit this year, $500,000 hit next year. We mentioned before there was some sexual misconduct allegations they serviced in May. They're still being investigated by Vancouver police and the team.

Vertnan has denied the allegations. So I don't know how much of this is hockey related, how much is this situation, but either way, he's been bought out. As expected, the Rangers bought out Tony D'Angelo we knew this was going to happen back when they basically kicked him off the team earlier this season he had one year left that's going to cost the Rangers $883,000 for two years there'll be cap hits of $383,000 then $883,000 the second year I would imagine somebody will scoop him up uh also we want to send congrats out to Colorado forward Matt Calvert. He retired after 11 NHL seasons with Colorado and Columbus.

Congrats to Matt and also congrats to Pittsburgh defenseman Yannick Weber, who retired after 13 NHL seasons. He also spent time at Montreal, Vancouver, and Nashville as well. And we want to extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Mac Motzko. He passed away after an automobile crash on Saturday night. He was the son of university of Minnesota coach, Bob Motzko. And he spent the last season with new Mexico of the North American hockey league. Just awful news we got over the weekend.

And we just, again, want to send our deepest condolences to his family, friends and extended Minnesota family. Just, just terrible news to hear over the weekend. We were awfully sorry to hear that. Okay, boys, let's see. We'll get into the extracurricular stuff here. What did you have, Biz?

I know you had some of your wacky notes, as usual, down here. What do you even want to listen to? Well, I was going to say Nicholas Charmelson as well. It's rumored that he's going to be retiring. one of the best defensive defensemen at least of our generation three standing in the past 15 years dude yeah i would say he's definitely up there so uh i don't know if it's been announced officially craig morgan who does all the the beat reporting for the arizona coyotes around our area he he mentioned that he talked to him and that was the case so i guess i'll wait till they make it official.

But if that is the case, a difficult loss for the Coyotes. And, I mean, for anyone in the league, man, I'm looking to add a guy who's just an absolute fucking warrior on the back end. Blocked shots, plays through pain, great example in the locker room, brings it every single night, just an insane work ethic. So if this is the end buddy what a fucking run enjoy it and what and what a tough way to make a living playing hockey like

he did oh yeah just oh i i don't think the the blackhawks win those three cups without him just one of those unsung hero type players you look back on that dynasty and you you think this guy every single night laid it on the line. He blocked shots. He played hard. He was physical. And what you said, Biz, he just showed up and did his work quietly. So in no surprise whatsoever, guys who do know him and have played with him,

he just will just kind of sail away into the night. There's not a big announcement. There's not a pompous, loud retirement ceremony. It's just the way he went about playing is the same way he's leaving. So what a career. I think if there's a Lady Bing award, I think they should switch it up for the Norris and maybe make an offensive defenseman award

and maybe a defensive defenseman award. No? Moving forward? At some point? We've talked about this on the show in the past you know have the body like the best shutdown d-man in the league yeah i mean you know it's i feel like it's been separated over time as like this kind of like you look at the points mind you a lot of these you know a lot of these good young players like the kale mccars and the and the adam foxes these guys can not only play very solid defense but could also drive offensive numbers and including like possession which is also

extremely important but there has to be a you know there has to be some acknowledgement other than maybe a shout out on a fucking podcast for doing 15 years of what he did for crying out loud maybe um maybe the paychecks help. Maybe you could call it Scott Stevens. He could get an award named after him, no? Did Scott Stevens win an Oris trophy? What do you guys think? I'm going to look it up quick. Yes or no?

I would say no. I say no because they got obsessed with the points so much with that award. He's got three. NHL all-rookie team, all-star game. He won the Conn Smythe. He never won a Norris. So let's get the Scott Stevens

Memorial Trophy awarded every year to the best shot down. He's still alive, Whit. We don't want to kill him off. Oh, if it's Memorial Award, does that mean he's dead? Generally speaking, yeah.

Oh, shit, yeah. That's a good idea. Well, he's alive. The Scott Stevens Award, does that mean he's dead? Generally speaking, yeah. Oh, shit, yeah. Sorry, Scott. He's alive. The Scott Stevens Award, then. Yeah, that works. You idiot! Super Nintendo Shamoson, he's probably the most unheralded player on that Chicago dynasty.

I mean, you know, he did so many good things right out there. He was a key part of that squad, no doubt about it. All right, boys. I was going to talk quickly about the Ben Affleck and J-lo business going on online this is an absolute fucking shit show just to circle it back they're actually back up in vancouver because j-lo's shooting and that was actually the the the spot where ben ended to get busted because he ended up taking down a strippers from brandy so they're back together completely rekindled the paparazzi is absolutely flying off and they're just giving the double barrel to Alex Rodriguez right now.

He's playing bongos on her ass once again, like he did that video 20 years ago. That's not a bad dumper to be playing the bongos on either. Jesus Christ. She's 52 years old. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, she did a little Instagram video. I'm still Jenny from the block.

I used to have a little, now I have a lot. She had a couple of kids too, didn't she? With Mark Anthony back in the day. She looks absolutely phenomenal. You were just going to say, you could be my hero, baby. Is that him? No, that's Bob Marley. Fuck you, Mitch. Also, is that him no that's bob marley fuck you bitch um also um also uh i had global warming slash uh

climate change written down because it has been crazy all summer long it's been rain arizona had the most rain in a 24-hour period by double the amount last week trees were falling over because the you know they're not it's not used to absorbing any of the water usually just stays pretty firm 24 hour period by double the amount last week, trees were falling over because the, the, you know, they're not, it's not used to absorbing any of the water. It usually just stays pretty firm.

Right. So it got so heavy with the rain, the trees were just falling over and Pacific Northwest has faced heat waves like they've never seen highest on record in BC. More are just as many, or maybe just a tiny smaller amount, 800 people died in the heat wave in bc that that died from covid the entire time covid was alive and well i know it's still kind of going but during

the the high time so that's just because there's not much uh there's not much ac out there i mean they never dealt with these types of temperatures so there's no reason to put ac in buildings wow so there isn't like a lot of places don't have air conditioner in Vancouver. No, they're like a building that I bought in when I had a condo there, didn't have AC. I would, I would say maybe 50% of the buildings there maybe just because it's,

I mean, back when you look back 30 years ago, it probably got as high as, I don't know, maybe 35 degrees Celsius. Times two plus 30, that's 100. That's 100 degrees. Yeah, we'll have to double-check that.

What? Oh, no, no. Excuse me. No, I think we've butchered the Celsius to Fahrenheit. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's times 2 plus 30. That's a fact. That's my trick.

Okay, sorry. I think I meant to say 25. Times 2 plus 30, that's 80. Okay, so Massachusetts has had the worst July bar none ever since Massachusetts became like a state. I think we had more rain in the first 15 days of July than any July total in the history of the state. So if you try to tell me that global warming doesn't exist,

you're the dumbest bastard out there because the weather everywhere is fucking nuts. Have you seen the floods in China? Did you see the video of these people on the fucking subway in China? Dude, they're standing on this subway train. The water's up to their neck. And people are, I'm sure, drowning. It's awful over there. But there is something going on with weather where now it is warmer.

The months, the seasons have changed, at least in New England area. It's like now it's like September, October is like way warmer. It's just bizarre, bizarre weather. Yeah. What's going on out there? It's fucked up. I mean, global warming is such a simple concept. When you explain it, you could explain it like a two year old in a science class and it makes all people don't believe it.

Yeah, they don't. I mean, oh, it's cyclical. It'sical it's like yeah well what fucking good is if it's cyclical every 10,000 years it sucks when it's happening on your watch because like the planet's suffering for it now you know people tend to say that but they also didn't have the devices in order to measure it back then so how do they know well exactly and there was no i mean there was no fucking industrial revolution 15,000 years ago i mean like everything since then is like we've just been kind of slowly. The cavemen did have forks. We did dog a billionaire recently for giving like,

I think a billion dollars to climate change. And we kind of gave him shit for it. I don't remember who that was. 10 billion. It was Jeff Bezos who gave 10 billion. So, I mean, i think there was things he could have given the money we we towards it mattered a little bit more but i will we'll dog him for something else after but i gotta go on earth i gotta get this last reading cross-country

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You went with Chuck Yeager 60 years ago, and then you came back to Earth. I wasn't fucking impressed. You went where R.A. goes every time he's on shrooms. Big Cat had the funniest line. Big Cat had the funniest line because you know how his rocket looked like a giant dick? Big Cat said he played just the tip with space. I missed that. Oh, that's fucking outstanding.

His self-awareness is not very good. I'll tell you honestly, I think the video of him laughing after mashed up with Dr. Evil doing the exact same laugh was one of the funniest videos I've ever watched on the internet. Have you seen that? No. His interview after, I don't even know what the question was did he answer he's like he put the pinky up to his mouth and then the person mashed up Dr. Evil I was like it's legit him um I wasn't as angry as people were very very upset about this well when he thanked his employees and all the people who buy

him that's kind of like a slap in the face like people don't buy shit from amazon to send like a billion in a space for fucking seven seconds he's like oh i want to thank all my employees who have to piss in bottles because they don't get long enough breaks and customers do it i'm probably gonna get an amazon drone like incinerate my house tonight for saying all this yeah we're toast hey we were worried about putin we should be worried about fucking bezos oh shit he'll be shutting off our cell phones he'll be shutting off our cell phones in no time here just like putin washington post against russia why is washington post in in in the bag for amazon all right you know he owns he owns the Washington Post.

Oh, there you go. There you go. Just one of his little toys. What did you make of Dubas' comments, Whit? I kind of respected them a little bit. And for anyone who doesn't know, Dubas said he believes in this group. He believes this group will win a Stanley Cup. He trusts them.

He loves them. He didn them. He loves them. He didn't say he loved them, but basically he is all in on this team in Toronto and truly believes that they will get it done. And you can dog them all you want. I mean, they haven't got out of the first round in fucking 20 years, but you got to look at,

you look back and look back at the Washington Capitals. And when all those failures were happening, they stuck, they stuck together and they stuck as a group and they the GM there believed in that team and they ended up getting it done and so in a sense of like quick panic and and Toronto media and who knows what happens this year if it's another first round exit but I liked seeing it I mean what else are you going to say at this point? Like, you've paid all these guys. You need to find a goalie to work with Jack Campbell.

So you've got to figure that out. Darcy Kemper. Yeah, that would be nice. But the asking price is apparently enormous. But I just, like, if you're a Leafs fan, I'd rather have him say that. If they lose again first round, okay, talk to me again. But you got to stick to your guns at some point. Like Tampa with – I mean, you mentioned Washington. It's like people used to rip on Tampa all the time too for their playoff fairs.

Yeah, I think – Back-to-back cups. Yeah. Mind you, they were making trips to like the semis. Exactly. They lost in the cup finals. They lost in the cup finals. They had won one with LeCavier and St. Louis.

Yeah. But I hear what you're saying um uh grinnell like with that core group so well i don't know i don't really have much else noted down here you're a leaf you're a canadians fan now no i'm back on the leaves okay gotcha um the one more reminder uh the budweiser battle the grill between you two chuckleheads i was the judge check that out on our YouTube channel if you haven't seen that yet. We have to reach out to Jeff D'Lo because the Dozen Trivia Season 2 has started up.

We've got to get our first game in. We've got to get game ready for the tournament when that starts. So, yeah. Talk much. We'll tell Jeff D'Lo. Make sure you get us on the show soon. Any other stuff, boys? You want to save it for next time?

I know we've been running pretty long. We've ran way too long. Yeah, tons of hockey talk this week. I think that makes some people very happy. I think it makes some people a little disappointed. I enjoy talking about everything, and I think that's clear, as we all do. But so much has been going on, like we mentioned. So

next week, we'll be able to really talk about all the free agent signings. That'll be Wednesday at noon. All the madness will begin. I'm very interested to see what goes on there with Seattle amongst other teams Grinelli's telling me to check out my phone right now so I'll look there also Grinelli say Grinelli said to me street hockey one more mention August 6th and 7th we're going to be in Detroit like we've said very very often you do not have to be playing in the street hockey tournament to come enjoy the festivities. We got beers.

We got food. We got Pink Whitney. And more importantly, on Friday night, the 6th, we have an absolute banger of a party at Shalahi's in Detroit. So I'm looking forward to seeing a bunch of Michiganners. Is that what they're called? They're able to just use their hand as a map of their state. And I can't wait to watch R.A. play goalie because that could be disgusting.

Yeah. I don't know. I'm dread. Yeah, I'm not dreading it. I'm just kind of a little queasy thinking about it. I'm playing in the We Met Golf Tournament. That's a local great amateur event, mass golf runs. Shout out to them for giving me the invitation. Have not played golf this year. Will be very interested to see the scores that the wit puts up. Played this weekend, shot 72 saturday 83 sunday disgusting so definitely some inconsistencies but i just want to get back in the grind of

tournament golf i'm really looking forward to that i'll be able to recap that i know that'll make a bunch of you people disgusted and happy at the same time i love being on the fence you know what you want in life or in our industry? You want half the people to love you. You want half the people to hate you. I think that's right where I'm at with our fan base. So I look forward to playing some golf and being able to fill everyone in. And like we've said, we're going to be taking a few weeks off,

but we have banger interviews coming. I'm really looking forward to those dropping because you guys are going to enjoy them. Absolutely. We've got a few shows we'll catch up on too. I know we texted about and we'll talk about them next week. And also what grinds my gears biz. I know we want to do some

of those. I got a few of those written down, but we'll save them for next week when we'll probably need some shit. So again, we'll see everybody in Detroit at Shillelagh's next week. Have a great week and we'll catch up with you later. It's like fucking people using the crosswalk button. Pricks. All right, guys.

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