The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Trevor Georgie, President & CEO of JSM Sports Entertainment

Episode Date: September 20, 2025

Jeff is joined by Trevor Georgie, the CEO and President of JSM Sports Entertainment, who shares insights into his time as the Sea Dogs' General Manager, including their Memorial Cup victory, and the transition to his current leadership role.#TheSheet #JeffMarek #SaintJohnSeaDogs #QMJHL #Hockey #MemorialCup #TrevorGeorgie #AlexisJoseph #FirstOverallPick #FutureStars #HockeyTalk #JuniorHockey #CapeBretonScreamingEagles #2025QMJHLDraft #2027NHLDraft #HockeyProspects #SeaDogs #JSMsports #HockeyNews #TDStation #HomeOpenerReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the meantime, I'll give him the Royal Wave and welcome him to the broadcast. No stranger to these parts or anywhere around junior hockey or NHL for that matter. He sent a lot of players to the show. He is Trevor Georgie. He is the longtime general manager, now president of the St. John Seedogs. He joins me now. Are you nervous before game one? Tonight is the home opener, the curtain, razor, et cetera.

Newfoundland had there, a big one yesterday. Today, eyes on the Seedogs. They face off against the Eagles. Are you nervous now or have you done too many of these? Good question. I'm not nervous, just excited, really excited. This is the same location where the boxes were during the Memorial Cup. And I can tell you that those games, I was probably, not probably, definitely a lot more nervous.

But now for this season, so much work goes into it. Just excited. Yeah, I want to ask you about the week, too. And I do want to get to Memorial Cup 2022 and the coaching decision and the people that stuck their hand up to coach. a team that ended up winning the Memorial Cup. But before we get there, like, walk us through a week. Like, walk us through this week leading up to tonight. Like, right now, as we do this interview live, in your mind, is everything put to bed?

Is everything on the trolley tracks and everything is ready to go smoothly? Or are there still some things to do? Like, give me a snapshot of your week here, Trevor. And the week's been very, very busy. The team, the business team, the hockey team, everyone's been working really, really hard to get everything ready for home opener, about how much you prepare over the course of a full summer, and we had a long summer, and unfortunately long summer.

We never want summers to be that long. It kind of got a big reward who's going to be joining us here in a couple of moments because of it, though. We definitely did, but there's always a lot of things to do right till the last second. This week has really been, just keeping everyone focused on, we always talked about the purpose, like why we're all here, and just getting everyone focused on the purpose, and whether that be, you know, hockey op staff, players, our business staff, it's just getting everyone, okay, let's just focus on why we're all here

and the purpose of the whole season. And let's now, yeah, let's just make sure we're dialed in. You'll talk to the kids before the game or you've already talked to the kids? I spoke to them yesterday. Yeah, I spoke to them yesterday. I usually, I try not to, in terms of a group setting, I don't like to have too many of those. I leave that to Travis.

And I've always been like that. I'd rather our coach and Travis, our coach and general manager have that conversation with them. But certainly, like, once a year at the start and then probably a couple times throughout. But we had a really good conversation yesterday. The group's dialed in. They're focused.

And our message is always that we're all in this together. It's a process. The goal is to win a champion. Not everyone is willing to do what it takes to win one. You have to do today what others aren't willing to do to have what others won't one day. And we talked about this earlier. Every franchise says they want to win. Oh, yeah.

It takes a lot to do. Do you know how? And so, yeah, we had a really good conversation yesterday. But on game day, no, that's not my place. And I let them do their thing. I mentioned the reward that you got this year. And that's Alexei Joseph, who's six foot four, two, 15, six foot three, two, two, I mean, we're sort of fudging numbers. I said he's a large center and a highly skilled.

And as much as, you know, the early conversation about 2027, you know, revolved around Landon, DuPont, here's Alexia Joseph saying, hold on a second here. I know we're a ways away from 2027, but already people are getting excited about Alexia Joseph. I'm excited to watch him play tonight for you guys. What should we know? He's going to come on the program here in about 30 minutes or so. What do you think we should know about Alexi Joseph? And when did you first get eyes on him? Yeah, I mean, Alexi Joseph has been a name within this region for a long time.

He is a true 6'4 because I remember on draft day when he came up on stage and he got his hat. Very few people to Scott McCain stare at eye level. Yeah, Scott's a big guy. He's a big guy. He's the owner of St. John Seedogs from the legendary McCain family. And so he was staring at him right in the eye. And, you know, you see those lists. we've all seen the list when a guy's listed at 6-4

and they're actually 6-1 and a half or 6-2. He's a true 6-4 and muscle, like all muscle. I think all the fans can Google and look up Alexi and see that he had nine points in whatever it was, three games at the U-17 camp and read all about him. A few things people won't know but I think are important to the story of Alexi Joseph. He could have most thought that last year in the Q draft,

he could have got exceptional status and gone first overall. and they opted not to do that. They didn't want to do that. They want to take their time. Why was? I just pause on that, too, because I'm curious now with, you know, between the NCAA situation, we're going to get to that and potentially what's happening here with 19-year-olds

and the American Hockey League, we're all wondering, is junior hockey going to start to skew younger? Is it going to be more of a 16 to 18 leagues, all three leagues are going to be 16 to 18 with more 15-year-olds? If there's anyone that looks both physically and many, because he's a very mature young man, ready for it, it would be him. He's a curious decision not to apply for it. Yeah, I think it's a player from the bit of got to know Alexi and his family.

They are very process-oriented, take our time, do it the right way. Let's not make waves. They're a very easy family. And I think Alexi, I know Alexi had grown up on values of hard work, you know, do the right thing and be patient. And I give another, I give an example on, you know, players in their contracts. And everyone has like stick exemptions and things like that. And, you know, Alexi kind of early on was like, just because I have whatever it is in my contract,

that allows me whatever it is that little extra is, you know, I don't want it. I don't want it. I want to make sure it goes to the, you know, whatever, I don't want to be different. I just want the other guys to get. get the same. And yeah, I think those are a few things on character and on the way he was raised that have to be underlined. You're not going to find that on lead prospects. You're not going to find that online. But I think to understand Alexei Joseph is to understand the confidence he's got, but also the humility. You know, it's, and listen, he's one of the main reasons

my fans are going to watch the Sea Dogs this season and everyone's going to be following him for a couple of years here. You know, this has turned into over the years. A real Cadillac, Cadillac franchise in the QMJHL. It's a destination place for players. It's one of my favorite ranks to be at. I think it's my fourth or fifth time here. And just before the program today, wandering around and looking at the, what do you call them? The pillars of fame.

And just reminded about, you know, sure, like, the Hubertos will be there and Shabbat will be there and Hoffman will be there, et cetera. But like Thomas Yirko, I haven't thought about Thomas Yerko in years. Stanislav Ghaliev. I haven't thought about Stanislav Gali. that Brett Galant, like, there's a lot of other players that were significant contributors to this team. That went on to some, you know, some fame in the NHL as well. From your tenure here, and I believe you started in 2013 or 2014. I started a bit later.

I started in 2016. Oh, 2016. Okay, so then one year after that, you went to the Memorial Cup. But since you've been here, like, when I say, who are the names that pop for Trevor Georgie? either headliners or other players that you thought, maybe, yeah, I thought this kid was going to make it. Who comes to your mind? Because there's a real long list of sea dogs that made their way to the NHL.

Yeah, it's a long list. And even the guys that before I wasn't privileged enough to be here when they were here, we've built great relationships over the years, and we have our alumni weekends. Memorial Cup in 22, I remember Jil Cotto, the commissioner at the time, commenting how we do alumni, like right, We had, I think, 50 alumni here. Really?

Yeah, 50 alumni here, and they all came to take part in it and enjoy it. And when we were, I remember after we beat Schoendingen in that game to punch our ticket, you know, Shabbat and Boko and all of them are down in the locker room, you know, high-fiving the guys. And I think that's really special when you see that lineage and that the generations carry over. I think that's really cool. Oh, I mean, there's a lot of memorable guys over the years. I think of Boko and Mama, you know, who could have forecasted him at whatever it was, 41 goals as a 20-year-old in the league and, you know, even in the pro, he's faced such

adversity and he's done such a great job of it. Just brings such intimidation. I think intimidation is still very much a part of it. Especially in the Metropolitan Division. Yeah, right? That's like the old Norris Division we always make the joke is the Chuck Norris division. Now that's the Metropolitan and everybody has a gunslinger. You need a little bit. You feel a little bit more confident with guys like that and Boko. I mean, obviously Matthew Joseph and Thomas Shabbat and Joe Vallano, Matthew Heimor, who, undrafted so many times, finds a way to have a nice career in the NHL. Lots of guys, I think, of the 2022 group that we had, you know, five guys that we drafted

and we stuck with all through the cycle until they won. It was rocky. Like, it's tough to win and it's tough to go through those growing pains. But, yeah, there's a lot of guys. There's a lot of guys over the years that have added a lot to the organization. And I always tell our players, and it's the truth. just because you aren't on that your name's not engraved on one of those cups

doesn't mean you didn't help us get there because they leave so much behind we have veterans we have guys last year a guy like Nate Tivy that's in Quinnipiac this year Nate didn't have a chance to raise a banner behind us he didn't have a chance to have his name engraved on a cup but one day when it does happen those that were here during his time here

will have gotten you know little pearls of wisdom that are going to help us achieve that You know, I spoke to Kyle Dubus earlier on this week, and one of the things that I sort of glibly brought up with him, just to make him feel old, was that his first client, when he worked at Uptown as an agent, Kyle Clifford had just retired. Two Stanley Cops, like, a really successful career. Like, Kyle Clifford got, like, the most out of his career. And I'm walking around, I'm looking at the pillars of fame. And Nathan Bullioux is one, who is a defenseman here for the St. John Seedogs. His nephew, Ryan, is a 2010.

My 2010's played against him for years. Probably going to be a top 10 kid in the OHL draft this year. Are you at the point of your career now where every single season, something happens and you're like, I'm not 29 anymore? Yeah, yes. Absolutely. You know, when I first joined the team, I was 27. My wife, Devin, at that time, was 22. Like, we were pretty close to the player's ages that first year.

And then further and further, you know, you feel a lot more like, you feel a lot more like mom and dad as the years go by. But, yeah, I didn't know that about Nathan's... His nephew. Yeah, Ryan, nice defenseman. He plays London Junior Knights. Great for him. Really, really good player.

Well, maybe with all the different transfers between leagues, maybe one day he's a St. John Seedog, don't find me for tampering. We're not suggesting that. I don't think he's going to be waived through the Ohio when he gets her. I don't think anyone's going to do that. All right, can we do some junior hockey catnip? Sure, yeah, let's do it. Junior hockey catnip.

Okay, so these are, like I've always, I think all of us are fascinated in the trades that never happened in the NHL. I always feel that it is a general manager's obligation when they are done in the NHL to tell the stories of the sort of, you know, alternative narrative of the NHL. Trades that we were close almost happened, you know, Pollock and Torrey are taking the Denny Pot-Pot fan trade while they already have, have taken that to their grave and we'll never know who the players involved were in that conversation. But are there any names you can share with us players that were almost sea dogs? You know, once upon a time, I can still remember everyone think of that Jack Eichel was leaving BU to go to St. John. That was the year the Prospects game was in Niagara and everyone thought it was going to be McDavid versus Eichael. Obviously, it didn't work out that way, but are there some names that we would recognize that you almost closed on as GM of the C-Dogs? Katnip for junior hockey fans.

Let's go, Trevor. Sure. 2016, 2017, that run, we had a Julian Goetia and Callum Booth and Simon Bork. There was a European player in Gatineau that was having a great year. It was Yakov Trennan. Oh, yeah. He's in Nashville. Tough player.

Yeah, and I thought that, that was one that I thought that we were going to be able to do. And it just, it never came. They had really good imports that year. They had him and Abramov, Vitalia Abrov, together. Oh, wow, yeah, yeah, yeah. Couldn't get that one done. I thought that we had something. It was those weeks and months of talking about it.

More recently, in 2022, I think even cycles, just like we were talking about earlier, we talked about like eight years of birth. Zach Balduk, who was in her. Muskie and then end up going to the ramparts and boarding with them. I thought that we had something. We did a lot of deals with him a lot. Honestly, I think that sneaky,

that was one of the best moves of the summer by any general manager. Nice player. He's a great player. Yeah, really great player. It was exceptional in junior. And the other one, I think, of that 22. Actually, I have a sheet. So at home, when we think of roster composition,

Actually, I have a big board with just sheets and sheets and sheets. And it's all different possibilities of roster composition for trades and all that. Yeah, I keep them from the cycles. So actually, I have the one from 2017. I have the one from 2022. And it's in storage. And some of them will go back and go, boy, was I right or boy was I wrong on that. Oh, my God, I thought we were going to get.

This I thought was going to be our top line. And that wasn't the case. But Hendrix Lepier was one, too. Oh, Shakutomi. He was in Chakutomy. Washington First Rounder. Washington First Rounder. I thought that we would have him.

Him and I know William Dufour were very good friends too. We acquired Dufour that summer. I thought that Hendricks, I thought we had a really good offer. And maybe he had a lot of conversations on him. And I was, I thought I thought him too. Those would be the three, Trennan, and then Hendricks and Balduk. Hendricks Laupier, hands down, the best, like the best interview that I've ever been part of. At the Combine.

I remember when he left, we all looked around the room and said, someone's getting a media star. Like, just get this guy to the end. Like, one of the best personalities, delivered well, funny, engaging. Like, a good player, too, of course. But hands down, all the interviews that I ever did at the Combine, Hendricks Lapier was number one. Really nice young man.

Oh, yeah. Really, really nice young man. And did everything right to junior, like really, really great young men. But it all worked out. are three guys, those are three guys for sure. I thought, you know, let's get the, let's get the jersey pressed. Okay. The elephant in the room, the NCAA situation. I noticed this past week that you announced on your social media that Olivier Duon is going to clerks. Yep. So you're not running from this. I know that there are some people in junior hockey that

want to pretend that this fight is still happening and it's not. Where are you at right now with this new relationship. We're not even beginning, really, the first season yet. So we don't know what it's going to look like. But where is Trevor Georgie's mind on it? Yeah. We're player first.

So if a player wants to, like Olivier that wants to pursue that, wants to go to Enceble? Then that's what he wants to do one day. We'll support him. Like, who are we to tell a player that the decision that they're making is not the right move for them?

Like, it might very well be the right move for them. We're player first. So if that's what they want to do, we're happy to support them through it. We're happy to work with them on that. We'll have in conversation with NCAA teams frequently. We have a number of players that we signed over the summer, too, that one who's at Tampa Bay Camp is committed to Providence. Ryan Donovan, Sir Alex Donovan, Ryan's dad, is committed to Denver.

Great. Yeah, great. Open-minded to it, good with it. We want players to achieve their goals. And if part of that, part of their journey is the NCAA, then great. Is it complicated? Does it change? You know, we follow the cycle. If you look at 2011, 2012, tear it down, rebuild.

Five years later, 2017, Moro Cup. Tear it down, rebuild, 2022 Memorial Cup. So now, you know, in terms of the cycles, definitely complicates it. You know, the math is a bit different. You can't forecast. We're going to have that guy at 19 and then we'll trade that guy at 20 and we'll restock the picks. Definitely changes the formula. And Trave and I talk about this all the time.

time, but how it's how it's changed. However, it's great. Great players have great options. We've set it out, and I think you've got to work with them. You know, you've got to work with these programs. They're great programs, and we have a great program, and both things can be true. You know, we can be a great developmental option, and they also can be a great developmental option. You know, both things can be true, and we'd rather be partners than adversaries. Is it, and you sort of winked to this already in your conversation with Travis, like I, one of my thoughts here is how, if you're, because you've gone through this process before here at St. John, when you're bidding for the Memorial Cup, one of the things you have

to demonstrate is we will have a team that is Memorial Cup worthy. This year the Memorial Cup is in Colonna. Next year it will either be in Kitchener or in Guelph. How do you, how can you make that promise of performance when kids now can go, and now there's the sort of looming specter of maybe 19-year-olds going to the American League. When you asked that question, I had flashbacks to our bid presentation

and Coley Campbell just absolutely shredding our plan of... Oh, he did? But he was asking all the right questions. He was poking holes and looking and we were prepared. We had the right... Clearly he liked it enough because they ended up awarding it to us, but you know, it makes

a lot tougher. Makes it a lot tougher to forecast. Like, you know, we have, you can't just pencil in or put in pen. Hey, a guy, if he's not playing in the NHL, he's going to be here at 18 or 19, you can't do that. And it makes it a lot more complicated. I think that when your window, when your window is there, even if it's a bit early, I think you've got to go. I think you're going to have to go. But what if you, the interesting thing about that is, what if you find yourself in a winning window, but the following season, Saskatoon kind of found themselves in this a number of years ago at Brayton Chen.

you find yourself in a winning window, but the next season, you're hosting the Memorial Cup. That's not a good spot to be in. Well, in one sense it is because you have that window, but then you know, like, the big prize, the next season, this is going to complicate all of it. It's tough. I'm a strong, strong, strong belief.

Philosophically, we've always had the real lows and the real highs. And you're going to stack the deck to make sure you give yourself the best chance to win the Moral Cup. Yes, it's nice making the third round. Yes, it's nice making the finals. We don't raise banners for third rounds. We don't raise banners for making the finals. You don't have lifetime memories and you don't have rings and cups for being competitive.

It's boom or busts has been our model. This really complicates it. And I think if you're planning to host a Memorial Cup, you're probably planning around players that are going to be key pieces at 17 years of age and 18 years of age. And not the 19s and 20-year-olds because it just gets murkier and murkier the older they get. Right. Did you ever think they were going to get to this place? I never did. Not as quick as we did. Definitely not as quick as we did. There were whispers, there were whispers, but 18 months ago in some circles in junior of this is, I think this is coming. I remember Elliot and I talking about it on the old pod and we were ridiculed by people, like colleagues in the media who have now had to eat their word.

But I remember it was like, and we kept saying, like, it's not coaches. are going to make this decision as lawyers that are making these decisions and this is going to happen. Oh yeah, absolutely ridiculed like on like in front of the camera and behind the camera openly mocked. I think you should name all of them right now. How long do you have? Get the names, get the, put the names out there. How long do you have? Show the list. But I was we had we had, we had, I think it's unfair for a player at 15 years old and their family have to make a decision like that. And it's interesting.

It's changed the landscape completely. And I know that even there's a few agents that over the last, you know, again, 18 months had kind of given us a wink of, hey, I think this is coming, which is interesting. Like they clearly knew something that the rest of the world didn't. And you clearly knew something that the rest of the role didn't. Broken clock, right twice a day. It's all that was, blind squirrel, all those cliches, you always hear. everything is changing really quickly right now.

Like this is the most interesting time in junior hockey. This is the most interesting time. If you're someone that follows, I'll maintain this for a while now. If you're someone that's interested in, you know, the draft and development and young players and next wave of, this is the most interesting time in the history of organized hockey. Hands down.

And things seem to be happening really quickly. Since you've been with the Seedogs, which as you mentioned, goes back to 2016, what are some of the more profound changes that we may have all missed? Like, in your role as a manager, whether it's relationships with fellow general managers, with players, with agents, like, is there something you can point at and say, it's profoundly different than when it was when I started? yeah there'll be a few there'll be a few things so i'll start with what has not changed agents um agents have major major influence on everything that happens in hockey when i when i joined the league i remember a few gms whether they're trying to actually help me or or give me you know hey got a little advice for you kid um when i started i remember a few of them saying you know agents are the devil um they ruin the business this is other gm other gms

like agent don't don't you know here if i can give you a piece of advice um they're selfish they're the devil, they ruin the business, just do what you want to do. And having come from a background of working in other professional sports organizations, it's like agents actually have a lot of influence. I quite like working with them. Oh, you're a Wasserman. I was a Wasserman. And I quite like them. They're obviously, your goals are aligned. You want your client to do well. And so we decided to build relationships versus burn them down. I think that's been really helpful for us. And I think most of the agents we deal with are considered friends after all the years of of doing deals together.

What has changed? Players have changed in their dynamic. You know, our group in 2017 that went to the M-Cup in Windsor, you know, we, you know, there were a lot to handle, make sure they were home and, you know, at home and bed in time. Sure. And, like, you have to really rein them in. They were social. They got along great.

They were out all together. And it was always the whole group going out. In recent years, I mean, whether it be COVID or just the kind of the changes of taste of that age group, you almost would be like hey like spend time together go go do things socialize that's changed for sure like you're much much less frequently having to rein a team in you're actually kind of trying to encourage them like hey like go hang out together go do stuff so that's changed a lot I think the maritime's division is going to be the toughest division in the CHL over the next 10 years and the reason I say that is so I think if you look at

the influx of players from the United States which is which is great You have so many, you know, if they go into the Western Hockey League or the OHL, I mean, they're all English markets. And I think those players will want to, you know, markets are different in terms of size and low geography and all that. But generally, they'll go to one of those teams. In the QMJHL, there's, call it, if there's 20 players coming from the U.S. in the QMJL, I think that there's, you know, the Maritimes are all like English markets that I think that are more similar to, some of those U.S. cities where we get them from. So I don't, I think that the teams, you know, if 20 are coming, I'm making up a number. But if 20 are coming, I think that 15 are sprinkled across the maritimes and five, the rest.

I think we'll see. That's my thoughts on it. Further to that, the name that pops out to me when you talk like this is Noah Hannafin. So Noah Hannafin in his draft year, the Quebec ramparts had his rights. And I remember talking to his representatives at the time. So is he going to go? Is he going to go to the Quebec ramparts? And the answer back was, if it were a different team in a different location,

no knock against the ramparts, but this is his draft year. He'll have enough stress on him to begin with. You don't want to throw another issue, like a language barrier and a culture shock issue on top of all of it. It's just too risky a decision for our client to make. So he's not going to go. You think the Maritime's Division has an advantage there? with American players.

So I think it has an advantage with a very specific audience. But I also think that there's, you know, geographies of interest for Francophone players of playing in areas within Quebec. So I think that, I don't, I think it works both ways, but I do think with the, with this new change and this influx of, of players from, from the U.S., I think that I think will be a very interesting division to watch

for the next, for the next 10 years or so. Memorial Cup 2022, Gardner McDougal, The legend, the winner, comes in behind the bench after an early exit by the Seedogs to guide the team to a Memorial Cup win. How many other people put up their hand? I seem to remember, like, there were a number of names that are like, this is juicy. There were a lot that put up their hand, and I would say there was probably a half dozen of really qualified, like really impressive candidates. Yeah. Garner, in terms of the ones we really honed in on,

Garner was the only one that had not coached in the National Hockey League. And that was ultimately what we landed on. But I asked some really impressive names. And we had, we had, yeah, we had reached out to Bob Hartley. We had reached out to and spoken with Dom Dues Charm, who we had a, we'd done the Valeno trade back when he was in. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we did that deal.

At the time, it worked out great for both. It was, we got three firsts and two seconds. And those players, most of them that we use of those picks, were actually on that Memorial Cup team. And it was like, Dom, what a roundabout way? Like, you had Joe, and you're getting the benefit of these players. And so I had known Dom, I reached out to Travis Green and engaged interest on that.

Ultimately, Gardner was, you know, a great motivator, was it a fragile group like you need like someone to come in and lift the guys up was that an issue at that point they'd been beat up in the media oh yeah they've been beat up blame us you know yeah I have the list too I've got a list you got a list okay great you know they're beat up in the media they're beat up even like locally you know there's a lot of disappointment around it and rightfully so we're really disappointed with that outcome it was an unacceptable outcome and the group needed a motivator and Gardner Gardner came in and did that

and he could fire up any of us to go through a wall and perform and he's able to do that with that group and he gave them confidence in it. We had a really good hockey team. If you look at our second half, I think we had a 15 game and a 13 game stretch. We didn't lose a game. We were just

really, really good. We had just and part of that you have to lose, you have to climb a mountain. You have to start small and keep going. With the COVID season, when our group was 17 and 18 coming into their own we never got those years because the season was can the end was canceled then the next year was like a shortened kind of COVID bubble thing and then the guys

are 19 going well win now what do you mean win now so they I think I in retrospect it was the best thing and the worst thing for us because they had to feel what it meant to lose before they could really understand what it was going to mean to them to win that's it that's interesting I mean that was such a that was such a cool moment as well Like, I'll remember Windsor in 2017, and the Spitfires beat the Eriotters. I know, sorry, it brings up a sort of moment I get it. But you guys are great that year, won the President's Cup. If I hear Isley Brothers shout one more time.

For the Eriottors? I can't go to a wedding now and hear Isley Brothers and not Twitch at the Lerner. I remember watching Warren Reichel, you know, sort of count down the seconds on the clock. And, you know, Bundy's pacing. nervous, these anima, like, that's Warren Reichel, right? What were you like? So what I did, so every day, I would listen to, to open up the Moral Cup, one of the songs that was used was spirits.

I got guns in my head, and I woke with spirits. And I listened to that song on repeat the entire tournament and just kept me calm. I remember my wife come in and she's like, is everything okay? Like you're taking a 20-minute shower and it's just spirits on loop. Um, and what I would do is I, so that game day, I remember coming in. Um, we sat exactly actually in this, in this spot. It was actually right here, uh, where our GM boxes were. And I remember, um, drinking water bottles and just sipping and just counting down minute by minute. And I'm like, I need to get through 21 minute intervals here in the last period just to get through it. And just one minute. And then I'd look like, okay, 19 more. Okay. 18 more. Um, I, I, I always took a bathroom break between the, second and the third. I was going to say, holy smokes. Yeah, I was like a bathroom break. And at that point, I didn't even need to at one point, but I'm like, I always take it at this time. I'm going to do it. But I'm also someone that believes, and I told me the team this the other day, like,

I never believe. And people, you know, fans are like, well, you did all you can. You know, like now it's up to the group. Nothing you can do now. I don't believe that. I never believe that. And what I mean by that is I remember saying to one of the fans, I said, that's not sure I can still influence the outcome. And they're like, what do you mean? Like, well, by drinking 20 waters, by playing songs in the shower, for 20 minutes. Trevor. I was losing my mind for sure.

But I said, I'm like, well, if we needed a timeout, you can always control, help influence an outcome. So say we need a time out. I'm like, I could throw a water ball on the ice. Listen, the late Roger Nelson, when he coached Peterborough, Roger would use his timeout early. And he always had a couple of students behind the bench with eggs in their pocket. And if he needed another timeout, he sort of give the nod.

And sure enough, a couple of eggs would hit the ice. And all of a sudden, the Peterborough Pete's had another timeout. Come on. I'll see Travis will give the nod from across the ice. There's some eggs going out tonight. All that's to say, I never came down to that. I would never do that. But I think that you're, I think always in my mind, even when you're close to winning,

you're like, can I do more? Did I do enough? You know, can we, what else can we do to make sure there's a positive outcome? I think too often in life and in anything, you go like, ah, I can't do anything else. But that definitely was playing on my mind. Like, what else can we do in this moment to make sure we raise the cup? I love it. Okay, so Alexei Joseph is standing by here a couple of seconds. One more question for you, and it involves Joe Valeno.

I've always been a fan. I look at the breakdown of how you look at hockey players and the skating and the shooting and the puck sense and all those, like, sigh. He has all of it. Do you think Montreal is the team to unlock Joe Valeno? I think so because I believe in Joe. And I've always believed in Joe, one of the nicest young men you'd ever meet. I think in Montreal, obviously, he's not going to find a GM that knows him more. Kent was his agent, and he was excellent to deal with when he was an agent.

He's doing a great job in Montreal as GM. I think he's going to a team. It's his hometown, and he's got the GM of the team that, you know, knows him super, super well from a young age and believes in him and believed in him when he was a junior. And I think I believe in Joe, and Joe's going to figure it out. I love it. Okay. Who is this billet family?

The same as Alexi Joseph. My next guest. How about that for a transition? Unbelievable. We transition with the Billet family. Trap, thanks. Good luck tonight. Good luck to the season.

I said 16 hours last night every day this week, every day this month. I can't get out my head. Lost all ambitious day to day. Because you can call it a ride. I went to the darkness. mad you try to give me a little medicine I'm like now and that's fine I'm not against those

methods but it's new it's me and myself and how this is going to be fixing my mind I do want a bagger I turned on the music I do want to bang it I turn on the music it's turned up and bad

and you sometimes lose Have been on the days that we're wrong