Spittin’ Chiclets Episode 657: Featuring Keaton Verhoeff + Tom Dundon

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. The course is calling, and your Chevy Equinox can take on whatever the day throws at you. Stylish and ready for anything, Equinox handles your commute, weekend trips, and even those last-minute tea times. Easily load up your clubs and gear with plenty of cargo space, plus hidden storage under the rear floor to keep things neat. And with a big standout touchscreen, the Equinox puts all your tech right where you need it. Bold and confident, Equinox looks just as good on the road as it does down the back roads. From the first drive to the final putt, Equinox is built to do more so you can focus on the game. Football season's here, and whether you're grinding your way through the week or gearing up for kickoff, there's one ride that's always game-ready. The Chevy Silverado. There's a reason Chevy is called the heartbeat of America, and Silverado keeps that heartbeat strong. Whether you're towing, hauling, or tailgating, Silverado lets you do it. Silverado lets you show up strong and tackle any task. With best-in-class standard torque, the most functional bed, and the advanced tech that's football guy approved. Check out offers on the 2026 Silverado at Chevy.com. Me and Ryan have been officially welcomed to the jungle that is Bosco Sports. I brought it towards the Coyotes, and I asked them if it was okay if I joined the Spit Chicklets podcast full-time. Ryan Whitney's got a pink Whitney out there now. Ryan Whitney's a sandbagger. Get that on camera. And he can't. He's a song man. Case is a full-time member. Marley just got an assist from Chris Bates. Whoa, we're buzzing right now. Song. What is up? Welcome to episode 657 of Spittin' Chicklets. Hey, Chicklets fans. We're going to take a quick break for a message from one of our partners. It's Fran from Chicks in the Office. The weather is getting cooler in Abercrombie's fall. Drop has everything I need for the season. The best-selling A&F Sloan-Taylor pant is a closet staple for me. I'm always wearing it to work events, happy hour, anytime I want to be a bit more dressed up. And the viral Dylan dress is easy, one-and-done perfection. But my fall uniform will always be denim paired with a Henley sweater, a bra-free top. It's comfortable, effortless. It just never fails. Find your fall capsule at Abercrombie. Shop in the app, online, and in stores. All right, now back to the show. But we got bigger news, boys. Just crazy. We thought it'd be a crazy offseason, or we planned on it. I think, you know, Grinnelli's taking victory laps, but the Kachuks had maybe the greatest couple days. For a fan, Brady and Matthew are playing together. Walt gets inducted into the Hall of Fame. Father's Day? I was sitting on the couch, and my Breeze brother, Ty, is sitting there, and he's like, Brady Kachuk got traded to the Panthers. I'm like, what? What? I'm like, let me see. I thought it was Franck Cervelli. I go, what? And I said, who tweeted it? I look, ESPN. I couldn't believe it. I was just like, it happened. And we heard about all of these, you know, requests, and Dylan Larkin, and the state of the league, which we're going to get into, that's crazy. And Brady, out of nowhere. So, Biz, I got to throw it over to you first. Like, where do you want to start with this? Well, it's going to be a big conversation, because I think it's just, it's going to start to snowball, and it's going to, you know, it's just going to keep snowballing and snowballing. I think, like, the Larkin stuff you mentioned, Hellebuck's names come up. I think that we could talk about the, you know, the American influence, and maybe, you know, some of them sick of their situation north of the border in that regard. Why'd you look at me like that, Yance? Don't put it on the Americans, all right? Well, the gold medal team. No, the gold medal team's changing the league. They're changing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not, that's not even. As they should. Keep in mind, we're talking about a story. I love it. Because these guys are getting what they want. So, all right, sorry, but I interrupted you. No, no, no, buddy. It's a spider web. That's one element of it, right? It's like, I believe we're entering the super team era. Like, I think that now you're going to see, like, six to eight teams entering every year where you're like, this team has a chance to win the cup. Most people would be like, oh, that's the way it is every year. It's like, ah, not according to, like, Merles and Bluntman and other people who are like, let's be realistic about who can win a Stanley Cup. But guys, you know, jumping ship a little bit earlier. I feel like hockey guys notoriously, you know, you kind of fall in line and you, you stick it out through your contract for the most part with certain teams and you'll, you'll come off as like unloyal and ungrateful if you request a trade where it's like, I don't feel like it should be like that anymore. And if a guy wants to get out of there, he should be able to. It's also why I'm a firm believer in these, uh, four to five to maybe six year deals to where. You know, the, the end is coming soon faster. And I guess you're not looked upon as bad if you're leaving with like a year or two left on your deal. Kind of like you saw with Quinn Hughes, leave teams in a good spot. Um, but yeah, I, I, uh, I think we all saw this coming though. Yeah. You probably knew about this before anyone. I said it during, when did I go on Merles is, uh, the game notes. That was the trade, the trade deadline show. But the thing with Brady, I think, I think he. He handled it the right way. Like he didn't come out and say he wanted to get traded. It was kind of let it, let it be thought by other people. Other people brought up the conversations. I think I didn't like the way that Ottawa treated him after the four nation, uh, after the Olympics, when he got back, I thought as in the city and the fans, yeah, the fans, the, like the ceremony that they gave them. Like you look at some of the other ceremonies that guys got when they come back after, you know, the video messages and everything. I thought the one in Ottawa, they did for him and, uh, Jake Samuels. I think it was one of those things that Florida knew that he maybe wasn't happy there and they went over it. And, and man, did they go get out there and get them? Didn't have to lose any players to Ottawa. They just got rid of, uh, Sam Eskevich. And then, you know, you both see a roster like that. It's an absolute home run of a play. Like you look at it now with all the, the baggages, Florida now, like all these teams are trading their first round picks. Don't care about it. They're in the wind now. They don't, then they might be setting up the next GM for a tough, uh, hall when, when they take over, but he'll be living in Florida. He'll be all right. Yeah. There's there, they're setting their teams. They're setting their teams up for the next five, six years to, to be contenders. And I think if you're a fan of those teams, you're happy. Um, I got to ask this question. Do you think it would be naive to think that, um, the way that, um, American players who won a gold medal when they got back to Canada were made to be felt about how they, they celebrated how proud they were to be Americans? Do, do I think it was bad? Yeah. Like you feel like the reception. And, and yeah, every, yeah, I think we could, I think we can all agree on that. Like what's your, yeah. And I don't, I think a hundred percent, but I don't think that was the deciding factor in this. No, no, no. But, but, but you could say that it was, it was just at that point, just kind of like, really like this is, I I've played as hard as I can here that we can go so many different ways with this because I could see Ottawa senators fans being like upset. I, I get it. I get it. Right. Like, yeah, I feel bad for them to a certain degree. I feel bad for like, they, they've loved this guy. They've heard this noise for a long time and they've, they're like, no chance, no chance. And then, you know, they've had, they've had star players leave there before and request to be traded out. And like all of a sudden, you know, this happens. And to me, there was no surprise there. And I'm so happy players are now, it's crazy, but players now have way more control. If you're starting to run the. Asylum. You're not start. No. Starting to was like a couple of years ago in the pod. They are. Yeah. Okay. That's fair. They're, they're, they're now being run. I still think there's like a little bit like a, it's like, it's like 70% and it's not fully, it's not, we're not fully NBA yet. Okay. When, when, when Larkin gets traded, Hellebuck gets traded. Um, Wierenski's name was out there. Wierenski's name's out there. When those, if those three or two of those three go, all right, we're at the point. And, and funny enough, it's the United States Olympic team. And these guys, I mean, just them winning the gold medal and then the league and the content, this gold medal team has given us. Release the group chat. I love. My favorite team of all time. These guys. And, but, but I, I, I get this, the fan side. It's, it sucks. But if these guys are in control now and you're good enough and you, I could see people being disgusted, but if you can do. What you love in a place that makes you very happy, where you want to be, and you can control that, who wouldn't, who out there with a job wouldn't do that. Yeah. You're listed biz. You're on a team, no doubt, but all these guys have given a long time to these teams. Yeah. Oh, I agreed. Yeah. I thought, yeah, I thought Brady and Matthew specifically, it's not just like, Hey, same with Hellebuck. Like if he wants out and he wants to go to the States also heard that he was not happy about the reception. and everything that happened there. That's the reason I brought it up is how much I was going to. I'm glad you did. I would have. Yeah, it was bullshit. And it was like, turn off bullshit. And it's it's one of those things, too, where maybe they see that other players don't want to come to those towns and play for those teams. And they're like, OK, if I'm going to go win a cup, I have to go somewhere else. So they're not it's kind of it's where they're like quitters. They look like quitters to the fan base is like he's a quitter. If they're not to that, I can see how they say it. They're not they want that. He's playing with his brother. They want to go live in nice places. But can you not say see how fans are? He quit on our team. That's just kind of the. I don't agree with it at all, but that's what he fights. But I like that they don't care. They can they can eat that shit. And they know while being there. I mean, Matthew wasn't. How long was Matthew in Calgary? Four years. I would have thought more than that. Five or six, six, six years. Either way, these guys gave like for sure. They played as hard as they could. People are all over Brady that Carolina was on the no trade list. He fought stall the first puck drop of game one. And then you see all this stuff come out. Oh, his teammates wanted him out anyways. And it's like all the stuff that comes after. Well, that's the same. Those are probably the same ones starting the all mark stories. And part of the reason he probably wants out or booing the United States. Yeah. Get them and crush them after he won the gold medal. Yeah, right. But the bigger discussion is now that you've been on the super team thing. But then you see Ottawa, who's like making traction, right? They lost in the first round, but the team's on the right path. Halsey said that was their toughest series, didn't he? Did he? Maybe he did. I don't know. He did. Keith, you're correct. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, outside of Vegas, obviously. Right. Right. But like, yeah. Okay. But they. They all of a sudden have draft picks. The fans are like, well, that guy's our captain. He's running around killing everything. He can score like. And we have draft picks and everyone's saying, all right, well, now they can go get somebody else. So then Jason Robertson's name is mentioned. And then you hear, well, he doesn't really want to play in Ottawa. He doesn't want to sign an extension. So I mean, you're now Alice to Ottawa. Come on. Yeah. But that's. So what I'm saying is all these teams, these guys are going to. We got Dallas. We got Florida's. We got. I mean, Vegas. We're going to have Nashville. You've been calling Nashville there. Guys are just going to choose to play there. So if you can figure out a roster and depth pieces and you're in third, third and fourth line players like these teams are going to be dominant. Taxes, weather, like where you're. Why would you're living? It's not. You could play golf during the season. If any guys enjoy the game. Not dealing with media. It just so happens like you have to group in the fact that like a lot of these teams that are down there are managed very well. Like Zito, Tampa. You've got Brees, boy, you got, um, uh, no, you got, uh, you know, in the rain, Billy, everyone has Minnesota on their list that they want to go Billy G. Yes. So, so that's a good, I'm glad you brought up Minnesota. Cause like, that's not the best weather, obviously an incredible place to play. And, but it's because of the way they're ran in their organization. I do. It's, it's naive to not think the no state tax and the warm weather is, is something that's drawn them in, but there's essentially, you know, five to eight teams that are not on these, no trade lists. I go talked about it. He said it. So that's why I think that we're entering the era of where like a lot of these good players are going to gravitate towards certain places until something changes. I don't know what that is. Is it going to be, um, you know, the media maybe calms down a little bit as it is not as intense. Uh, taxes or a way to balance them through the CBA, um, the way that those organizations are ran. I don't know. Like they're, they're, they're, but another thing about the Brady, if we want to change out of that topic, he makes 8 million, I believe that's a very, I think for two more years, the very tradable contract, like you're looking at other guys around the league who I think like, yeah, like Pedersen needs a change of scenery. Well, guess what, man? If you didn't fucking bend your team over first. For, you know, 11 and whatever, I'm pretty sure you would be in a happier or winning situation right now, but you have a bit of an anchor there. So I think that for not only Florida sake, who's up against the cap, um, it was easy for them to make that work and, and, and they got what, two years left. So, um, and like, let's go back to fuck, dude, this guy gets to play with his brother. How sick would that be? That's the house. Is that going to start the, you don't think the, the accusers are going to see that and say, where the fuck we teaming up now, boys? I know it ain't going to be in New Jersey. Suck on that Pasha. Well, it's interesting guys. Cause it is starting right now because like you do have the NHL draft this week and there's a big discussion right now between the rock brothers who these are two kids who they played the WHL this past year, but everything that's coming out is they want to be drafted together. They want to play together and it's, it's already starting before these kids get drafted and it's, these kids aren't necessarily superstars either. It's like mate one's middle of the first round. One might go second round. And I asked, I'm like, is that a red flag that these kids are, you know, these kids don't have the superstar status that the Chuck boys have. And they're already saying, Hey, we want to play together. It's like, this thing, shit's already starting. They're just saying we're way better when we're together and we're just telling you. Well, that's like the Sedins, right? But you're, are the, are these guys on the same line? Are you saying like one's drastically better than the other? Yeah. So they play in medicine hat right now. One is better than the other. So one is predicted to go around 14 to 17, I believe in the first round, the other one is. Is predicted to go in the second round. Jason Bukala came on game notes and he said that Bukala and he said that one of them is, is dependent on the other one, but one is the other one is not dependent on him. So it's, it's, it's tough. It's a tough situation. But before we get to that, so we're not going to go like hardcore breakdown of the draft. That's why we have guys like Merle's and army who were able to interview a Bukala. Who's like, he's the, one of the best around awesome guy we get to hang out with. Um, when, um, when not only with the, or the trade deadline, um, and game notes is on there and you can watch that whole interview with him and find out what the, you know, the drafts looking like where, you know, where guys slip to where guys might've jumped to. Uh, but going back to that, yeah, like that could be a situation where a team's and even maybe there's, it's hard though, in the NHL, it's not like if you're a second rounder, you're like, Hey, don't draft me. I want to go play with my brother. They're going to be like, shut the fuck up, dude, take your per diem pack and fucking get out there and do the beep test. You fucking know, no more testing, but wait, I was going to ask you this. Do you think just because the American guys winning that, you know, winning the gold medal, like they got that taste of winning and now it's like, okay, like for us to, and you realize it in hockey now, like to get your name in engraved in history, like you have to win a mug, like you gotta be one of those guys to go out there and win. And I think that these younger American guys that just went over and got the, got us a gold medal. I think that they're realizing that and they tasted victory and now they, all they want is it. And look at every player Larkin he's put in the time, even Larkin even signed a, I would say it was a pretty team, team friendly deal. I would lean towards more than that, than him, Rob and the bank. So another tradable contract that looks great for what the next six years or like how many years he has left Wawrenski. Well, he's put in his time in Columbus. They haven't been able to. Figure it out. He's given them time. So every guy that you're mentioning Hellebuck, I mean, he's at the top, maybe playoff performances haven't exactly been there to warrant him, but nonetheless, Vezna's. I think that with all the names you just mentioned, right, that could have happened years ago and guys just never would have done it. And at one point, once one guy did it and another guy did it, it was like, Hey, I'm, I'm not sitting silent. I don't want to play. Shout out to Matthew. Yeah. Kind of. Yeah. You got it. We go down and okay. Then Matthew wins. That's the guys are like, then they just, he just won two in a row, went to a finals before that. It's like, all right, so I can go down with what, where I see myself. I know these guys, the Olympics, like I said, the team team that broke the league, there's going to be like a Netflix documentary, the gold medal team that had the players take control in the NHL again. At the end of the day, if you're a GM in the NHL and Bill Zito calls, you do not pick up the phone call. You're going to get, well, that's kind of like, but they want it, but that's kind of, yeah, it's like they're saying, get me to Florida, Florida. Like there's a lot of, here's a lot of, um, what is the word I'm thinking of? Well, here's a lot of, uh, like more control than you think leverage. Thank you. G in the chat. Um, yeah, but it's, it's a crazy. And then if Detroit needs like players back, which you think auto is going to get a player now, but. If they traded Larkin for a similar package, I'd be like, oh man, just two captains for draft picks. That that's upsetting as a fan of all the money. It go, it goes back to leverage or control. Like he's giving you a team with three, three on it. Like, you know, and like you're getting three first rounders. Like, I know it's not ideal, but if you have a good GM, like you can turn that into something. They, it, what's hard about Ottawa. And I was talking to Jeff before. I hopped on, he's like, I still feel like they're in wind. now mode and it's like yeah but i think that the players and your personnel dictates that like what do you think jake sanderson's saying right now yeah what do you think timmy stew's saying right now you think all these guys are gonna stick it out now and wait that's the crazy part of all this is if one guy leaves these teams and all of a sudden the the entire core is kind of like all right i'm out that's when we get this thing would get nuts yeah and i guess that would hurt canadian markets not chirping canada i'm talking weather yes media is nuts but nobody's i don't know maybe maybe i'm crazy i don't think a lot of american guys are like they'd rather be drafted by an american team i'll say two things on on on behalf of like the canadian side of the podcast i do think that from a is that an insult sorry to interrupt you is that i'm not i don't i hope you don't take that as me chirping not at all buddy i was gonna say it would be naive to not think that that i don't want to say it's a listen there it's a privilege to play in a country where like they want hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey right it's a privilege yeah but like look at what all mark dealt with this year before like the like oh he's not playing in a must-win game here like that's some of the shit that you might deal with north of the border like the whole like like my was born in chicago the way that i felt like canada responded and especially to the players that went and were proud of that i'm like what are you guys what are we doing here like why are we dragging this into that and it fucking drives me bananas like i love my country and i love canada and i get why maybe some of them don't agree with what's going on down south of the border but at the end of the day like put that who gives a fuck it's not they just want to play for their country that they're proud of right so i think when you lose when you lose that and you lose the plot a little bit and along with the media thing it may have consequences and i think that we would be naive to not consider that as part of like a i always use the pie graph if you're not saying that that's 20 25 of the pie graph i think along with like the taxes element around with the the organizations may aren't maybe aren't being as well ran like we just talked about those other teams that have those advantages well they seem to have pretty good fucking management like tulsky southern market carolina like you could easily throw him in that fuck he's top three now baby yeah most handsome man in the carolinas um colorado mcfarland who was in colorado is now moving to nashville like where are all the best guys yeah yeah so now if you're a top pick and turn into a top player high level at any position and you get drafted and you can say to yourself hey if i want out of here i'm out of here the minute i want to be out of here yeah that that is as as much power as i can ever remember a player having they always could have they never did it and now we're in a time where they're doing it yeah exactly i know we didn't mention matthews well he's if well we got to get to radish it feels like they're doing everything they can and they've made a few good moves and got very lucky with the lottery ball where all of a sudden they i'll stick by it i still think they could be a playoff team next year you guys thought i was crazy when i said that i think they're a playoff team i think you got to see what else that they bring in this year like i think there's a lot a lot that they have to do to be a playoff team i mean not a lot but like to be a contender there's a lot more that they need to do i don't i just meant i think that they could sneak into playoffs but is there anything more around this brady conversation i mean we do feel bad for the fans but like i think you're i think you're a i was getting a few like oh dunking on me um twitter stuff after his press conference at after the season where he's like oh we're not going anywhere we're committed to win here and it's like okay okay that's people are rattled about that what i if it wasn't going to be made public which he did that i think to hopefully or to help the team i'm guessing what else is he going to say another thing regarding brady and matthew and we talked about the leverage and stuff like that i think that's going to be a big thing i think that's going to be a big thing i think their their teams got to benefit off of them being open and honest about it like they just got three first rounders they got to get hubert o and um and we either weeks right like they they they had an opportunity to at least get something back in return like i know marner's situation completely different and he exercised his rights and his contract and wanted to stay and see it through to the end but they weren't able to get anything so it's like well like i you know you can point the finger and blame these guys but at least they let your team have um you know some some collateral on the back end of it and they can go move off of those assets to get other ones like cal how many didn't calgary get two first round or or two second rounders for weger or something or maybe first and second whatever they got but nonetheless is there anything else you we missed on that no i i just think if you're a sense fan you just hope that the core that you still have there you know talks to one another and they're like hey listen it's now it's on us we go out there we try to figure it out we try to be the reason why guys want to come here and play or whatever but you just got to hope that and i think that they have those guys there they have the right amount of leaders they have guys that have been there for a while so i don't think this is like a total you know that they're going to be the in the last place of the league next year i think that i think that they have the right pieces where they're going to be okay and i think at the end of the day brady's in a better situation he gets to play with his brother um and and i think that it's going to be fun as hell to watch him down here in florida i mean that's if all mark wants to come back their top nine the the whatever the picture is i'm like that's their top three lines all rested so we haven't gotten to florida yet we guys want to talk about them now yeah i guess you could lead into that because you look at the forwards i just brought it up but they don't have a they don't have a goalie right now no and it seems it just seems like bob is he is he going to be somewhere else I don't know, man. I honestly figured he'd be signed by now if he was going to be staying. It's one of those things for me. He's made enough money. He's at that age where, I mean, obviously he won a Stanley Cup a year or what's it, two years ago now? Whatever. So I think for him, it's like, listen, I just won you a Stanley Cup. I know I might be getting older. He wants to get paid what he's deserved. But it's also like, hey, listen, man, you won two Stanley Cups here. You made a ton of dough. I think it's time that you give that back and maybe sign a two-year deal at five million bucks. I don't know. Like as in two and a half per or five? No, no, five a year, I think you'd give him, right? Yeah, I think that with where he's at in his career, he has the leverage to where he could fucking prosper. He could probably go somewhere and make like 30 million over the next four years, maybe more. I think if you've already made what he's made, legacy is more important at this point. And like, fuck, buddy, play half the amount of regular season games and then just start ramping up and gearing up for playoffs. Like, you know, you're comfortable with the group. I feel like this move is a message to him being like, hey. Hey, man, get on or get you. You're either on or in or in the way. Like, you know, we don't we don't if you don't you don't want to be part of this. Everybody who's there is making less than they should be. Everyone. Right. I mean, maybe maybe Matthew is being fairly compensated because he hit it at the perfect time. He makes like what? Nine and a half. Barkov obviously is very underpaid. Forsling's underpaid. Eckblad took a discount. The list goes on and on and on. Let's not forget to like six years like they have. They have no goalies on their roster right now. And the guy that they could have had for a league minimum just want a Stanley Cup to like. So if they played it right, like they could still have bossy right now. Yeah. Baby, come back. No, bus. He's making. I think bus. He's making what? One five the next three years. One eight, I believe. Right. Or is it one eight? Yeah. One eight. A little. You might be right. Under six. After that performance. Do you guys agree? You might not like it, but do you agree that we're headed to the super team era? I like that guys have a say. I really do. I mean, like Whit said, like they're putting in their time. They're given these teams, you know, close to 10 years. We already went over that. I know. That's what I'm saying. That we're going to see more super teams. It's still hard. It's hard. It's still hard. I think. Yeah. All right. So I just read this. Kiprio said today that Dallas is Larkin's preferred destination. All right. Yeah. So if you Dallas is going to load up, get Dallas is on the list. It was the Eichel comment. Yeah. Well, one of the five, five teams that are never on a no trade list. What is it? Dallas, Vegas, Florida, Tampa. Now you got Nashville. Now, maybe before. Now guys will go to Carolina. No problem. You saw Brady put them on the list. Minnesota. Who else am I forgetting? Would it be in the super in the super? Montreal. I would consider Montreal to really. Okay. Yeah. Cause there's, it's not just so they're the, so they're the anomaly in Canada for a few reasons. Like if you're American, you go there, half the people, like you can't even understand. They don't speak your language. They speak in French. it's not so french like quebec where you can like get around and operate and you're a god building sold out every night it's unreal team which in management like they got it all right that's that's the anomaly in canada and i think that people will say i want to i want to go there regardless of being american and and where we're at now yeah and they're a young team with guys that are coming up they're still making not a ton of money yeah they're they're going to be good for a while and i i would prefer watching i want to see eight wagons getting to the to the to the second round of playoffs and just going at each other obviously colorado being one of those super teams that's going to be looking to add and you know they're going to be right there again but do you think people considered minnesota this year going in a super team quote no but no but because of what they've set up and what they have right now they're billy g is looking at it the way the same way zito is like what what the fuck are we doing just dipping our toe in for a 10-year stretch i don't give a fuck let's win some stanley cops and then let's be dog shit in five years and maybe zito's like hey peace out i'm gonna go do this jump on this wagon too like there's gonna be a little bit of loyalty lost here but who gives a fuck yeah like oh yeah it's lost already but let's rip here because when the gm when the gms were trading guys it wasn't that's the other part i know you could just get sent packing yeah now now a bunch of guys get the you want to you want to stop it it's up to them getting rid of and not handing out no move clauses boys let's watch and that's it and let's let's watch best on best i want to watch the best players against the best players if they didn't have the no moves guys would be traded more and then the gms don't get you know like the the heat that the players get when they get asked for a trade it was wild and yeah i think it's probably yeah there'll be more to come there'll be more come drafts coming up so we knew we'd just been hearing it was gonna be uh it was gonna be a crazy summer um g you know g you called he'd go to jersey so you knew he was leaving but keith you called florida you were on all right all right i thought i thought dallas during the season then if it didn't get done we changed it yeah we did get us a good interview we talked about not doing um like the full draft breakdown like bukle on game notes did but we did get keaton erhoff on who is a top rated defenseman some say he slipped in here but it's so volatile nowadays with these young guys easily a top 15 pick why are you laughing right now what'd you what'd you say his name was is it keaton erhoff verhoff verhoff verhoff you were thinking of the old canuck yeah old canuck sorry oh you've never fucked up a name no no no it's funny because we just literally just had him on yeah but yeah speaking of fucking up names i'm hearing robertson is going to detroit there you go there you go rob that's your guy fuck robertson for larkin you heard it here yeah he was great we had him on for like an hour a great interview i think he's a top five guy after that interview though yeah same same we got him there butterfly boy i mean how it is where'd you want to talk about next i was even talking about keith kachuk when that's what i was just we said yeah i might as well now yeah what a couple days for the kachuks it was only a matter of time i i thought i thought this was the year he was getting in i thought rod the bot i thought he was getting in but once i saw keith kachuk and then i saw you the most goals by a player not in the hall of fame i think that was a buchigras tweet i said oh my god he's been tweeting this three four years the time's gonna come i think ronick was the guy before him who had the most goals who wasn't in or they're around the same so kind of nice how they go in at different times so they can each kind of get their flowers and although it would have been fun to see them both up there at the same time but yeah but the the list of guys that went in is awesome and it's like crazy now the guys we played again carrie price no doubt that was just i guess it was his second time um up to go into the hall of fame which i thought he'd be first ballot but i gee correct correct me if i'm wrong on that i thought because he went out on uh injured i thought his contract kind of just ended oh carrie price yeah yeah yeah you you had to wait till it ended and like officially file or whatever it was um quickly to go back to walt though like obviously the goals are the goals um like cool stories i never got to play with him but he played in phoenix with shane doan and when shane doan was our captain um when like our first road trip we went on to uh to edmonton and calgary there was this red guy on the road with us yeah and i'm like i'm like i'm like who who is this guy with popcorn all over himself in the weird wheelchair outside the locker room let's go boys and yeah let's and and that was a tradition started by walt and i don't know if it was passed down to another guy um to walt but he would you know they the calgary edmonton road trip he would come on the road trip they'd give him money from the per diem packs to you know help the guy out and i think he would go to the rip joint in calgary with the trainers when they when they when they did the stop in calgary right so obviously like you know red was probably dealing with a lot of stuff behind the scenes and and in his personal life but walt was able to provide that escape and shane doan carried on that tradition i've heard stories of walt where there would if there was homeless people outside the hotel when they were done with the pre-game meal he would go he would go gay come on in and let there's fucking all these filet mignons and chicken breasts and and and potatoes whatever it is buddy you name it we got it we're spoiled brats never hungry league the never hungry league and he would allow him to go eat um them to go eat and in some cases i've even heard that he would allow him to go to his room that them to go to his room and shower and like get a in a proper shower so these are the types of things that warrant you to be in the hall of fame along with the goals and that's why i guess i was so surprised that it took so long because those are the things that matter and what our game is truly about keith yeah 100 one of my all-time favorite red stories is when he came from calgary to edmonton with us and we got him a hotel room with and the next day we're sitting there we're like red how was it he was like oh it was great he was like just next time do you think uh you guys could get me a room with a tv in it but it was in the bureau like you know how you have to open up the bureau the armoire yeah the armoire we're like red you had a tv it was in he never opened it never opened sitting there staring at the fucking raw dog in the trip that's a different one for calgary the only hotel room in the history of the world without a tv he thought he had but i was in the i was in one with no phones but that's because in wheeling they took him away from us so we we didn't make long distance call and and uh because the team was so cheap oh that's i thought i was staying in a prison block yeah and another keith kachuk story um i think i've told you guys this but his dad and my grandfather were firemen together and um i didn't obviously know him that well he was older my dad knew him and stuff but when i was drafted by phoenix he calls me gets me set up calls donor he's like take care of this kid he's like you know a family member but obviously i wasn't but just that type of guy and he uh he actually let me live in his house for the first first year so i lived in his house in grayhawk grayhawk he had a car there for me just like an all-time guy and a guy that i was a kid that he didn't even know and or know what my deal was he just opened up his doors and you know that just shows what type of guy he is and the whole family to be to boot yeah he was just a guy growing up he's from power forward played at bu came just unreal penalty minutes scoring fight like fighting just animal for so long so for like that was like my peak hockey watching years right keith kachuk running around and i look that's when i like i first saw the old coyotes what's the is it the kuchina yep yeah he looked great in those back when they were back in the day there and it was it was a long time coming i wonder if they like start wearing or not wearing but you know you you think if jr and walter like what's take what's taking so long almost then both of them are in now those are two guys as as an american that's like all right great i'm very happy for them they did so much for the game here yep um i uh considering you just said that though like you wonder if you're ever gonna get in and like i've never like these guys are so much better at hockey than i like i ever was so i i personally wouldn't tie my identity down to like a guy who's like a guy who's like a guy who's like a guy who's down to like that and and being in the hall of fame because like there's nothing else to prove like you scored over 500 goals you know like the resume speaks for itself but if you were that good and you put that much into it like you feel like you should be acknowledged and another name that hasn't been yet is rod the bod now i don't know if they're what they're planning on for some sort of special celebration or or how they're going to eventually break it to them but this guy needs to be in the hall of fame because like there's nothing else to prove like you scored over 500 goals in the fucking hall of fame guys there's nothing in hockey that he hasn't done now at this point he's done more than like most guys who are in the hall of fame at this point there's no chance he doesn't he he it just would have been legendary this year right after the stanley cup 20 years after captain being captain i do you think he's upset by it i don't oh buddy after winning the cup no chance right i mean upset uh maybe a little surprised but not even i wouldn't think he would even think about it twice i just won the stanley cup if i get in i get in i you hope he's thinking that way because like you said what else i've i've done i've given everything i've had to this i've won as a player and a coach now i'm sure i'm sure they're just sick of answering the question you know it's like yeah yeah they they know they deserve to be in i'm sure at some point it's going to come for him but like for him to answer the question every year especially now like the years that they don't get in having to answer those questions so i think for him it's like i'm just sick and tired of answering these questions just put me in already any other achievements for for like i mean um the world cup of hockey was a huge moment in the 96 in the states so he was a part of that um but it would be fun to get him back on like once uh he's got some downtime maybe we can even get them all for a bagger they should they should put a mold of his hammer and his balls and nutsack in in the fucking hall of fame for he's kind of like rod where it's like not only did he do it as a player yeah rod did as a coach but i mean he birthed two savages who are now playing in the nhl who are fucking breaking the mold and demanding out of canada yeah they gotta i don't know if the schedule is out yet this year but they gotta schedule that game for when florida is in toronto so the boys can be at that ceremony oh yeah well the league scripted anyway they'll do yeah that's true the league scripted part you've been on that you're the morals of saying the league scripted at this point um the pecorine and uh carrie price very similar numbers i think they both have exactly a 9 9 17 save percentage throughout their regular season history they've played around the similar amount of games i think carrie price has them by a little bit on games played really maybe i'm wrong there but he's got a little bit more on wins he's carrie price has a little bit more on wins but pecorine actually has surprisingly like 50 less losses so his winning percentages is through the roof um no stanley cup between the two of them yep uh how many vans between them i think that carrie's got two and peke's got one yeah but you think you remember i mean because carrie price like in all of our times played against both those goalies but there was a five year stretch where he was the most dominant player and like all those polls that would come out if you could have one player in the league on your team who would you choose and everyone always chose him like he was such a game changer and it's one of those things in montreal they just didn't surround him with enough talent to win like he obviously did his part what he could do obviously he's going into the hall of fame so that says everything but that's one of those things where he kind of you know they they missed out on his prime there in montreal when he was just so good for so long and they just didn't put the teams around him like lundquist probably went went a little bit further in playoffs overall yeah i view them as as similar like they were so dominant and they carried teams that weren't as good as how far they ended up playing into the year what there was the cup finals you know they they were just incredible but yeah overall the team wasn't was never good enough but both of those goalies i thought yeah they're in for sure uh berkey went in which is awesome awesome uh do we mention the heart for um price you want a heart oh is that in the group chat that we talked about yeah yeah same same year as the vesna so wow he has the high high end over peke is it peke is how you say it pekka pekka um but i scored on price he won the ted lindsey too wow yes so but then i said same year same same year yeah same year same year he won vesna heart and ted lindsey yes wow 2014-15 and they won the jennings as well holy shit a year like that you mean he won the jennings yeah halak played three games yeah it's like hey no verhoff did earhoff hey so it went like this it went it went carrie price is a little bit above and then you had pekka or pecky renee and then i scored on pricer and then boom they were dead even oh shit i forgot about that i scored on him that was like then that humbled him dude thank god it already got announced because they might not let him in i know if they've remembered that scrubbed it off the internet gone how about when we sat down with bergeron all right what was it 10 days later numbers going to the rafters at the garden 10 days after that a hall of fame call like this guy and everyone was just waiting for it right when right when it could happen for him it was just time and i i the fact we got to sit down with them was great but we didn't weren't able to ask about either one of these things so that kind of drives me well we still we're going to bring him back on we got to talk olympics he's got the comeback yeah come back and the comeback yeah and the comeback but we talked about it remember we didn't want to like bring it up almost like uh out of courtesy to him no because he would have been like oh i hope i'm in yeah so modest right so so this is more from g um he was nominated bergeron 12 seasons in a row for the selkie he won it a record six times when was the last time somebody was up for a major nhl years in a row probably connor for the heart who connor for the heart he's been top three 12 years in a row no i'm saying like in that range like i i thought you meant more of like like even double digits yeah and berkey biz berkey do you remember when he came on with us in toronto gee look up what year it was he gave an unreal interview he had tie around undone classic furnace face oh he's sitting there and he's just holding court just dumb what year was that it was 2020 he also told the nail yakupov draft story so you're still scrolling tiktok now and that still goes viral to this day it's insane it was the worst draft meeting he'd ever had yeah he's so opinionated he's so good for media along with everything else he did in hockey but if if you guys wouldn't have stopped that interview i would still be there listening to him oh oh yeah for sure and he'd still be telling us i love guys like that it kind of reminded me of uh uh when you had your old gm in florida when we sat down with oh dale talon dale talon like just these old school guys that remember everything yeah challenging guys the fights behind the barn like it's crazy crazy world berkey also i mean he gave some legendary press conferences oh remember i'm talking about the sadeen saying like it is not swedish and it's not like it's not like it's not like it's not like i hook you or punch you after the whistle something like that where he was making hilarious lines in the middle of the playoffs then he started talking about truculence he's on the ducks he makes them he made them just killers that ducks team that won it all would beat the shit out of everyone and he loved that he'd be up there with his dip in there going nuts and then always an unreal interview and given quotes it was um it was it was great i mean he was the gm of the olympic team i got to play on and i made it after paul martin got hurt he's the man to play for like he is i love berkey i'm very happy for him juice reminded us when he uh he got in that scrap in the minors um with fedorov's brother and he loved it didn't he berkey was like what do you mean he fought him he's like i hate you know i don't think he was the biggest fan of fedor it was a fedorov's brother and then he signed him to an nhl deal i think that week um so he just he was salt he's salt of the earth he's the man he's the man and just a guy that loves hawk i remember at one of the olympic uh tryout things in the summertime i was checking into the hotel lobby and he stopped me and we literally talked for like an hour and a half just about hockey what's going on so just one of those guys that bleeds the nhl and you love having those guys around i was honestly shocked that he wasn't already in the hall of fame i would have if you had to if i had to guess i would have said i thought i thought he was already yeah so that's when you know it's time um bring it over um was he the one who traded for pronger at the draft yeah in hartford and that's right i mean and he pulled off the sedins yeah that's right well i wonder what what did they trade for to get that other pick that was in boston right 99 draft i'm trying to think of where he yes yeah did he poach murray's draft did he poach prongs from edmonton that's i think he did oh am i thinking they drafted him it says here that he was acquired in exchange no i think that it was loophole lot of slav smeed uh and then a package of picks yeah he was in why was he thinking early on yeah that was the play when he got him yeah yeah yeah the hartford uh no hartford i don't think he was maybe he was there because he watched him in peterborough it says right here draft day 1993 brian burke pulled off a slick draft day move trading with san jose to jump up to select chris pronger at number two there you go witty there you go he's done it all that guy so he got him twice i think it's fitting that he gets inducted on a year where we're probably going to see some squirrely shit at the draft. And he is one of the GMs that is most known for. It's scripted. It's all scripted, ladies and gentlemen. Fucking beautiful. Yeah, no. We're going to send Cindy Curley as well. R.A.'s coming on. He's going to tell us more about Cindy Curley because we've got to give everyone their flowers, right? 100%. Absolutely. But league news. Shout out Merles. Darren Radish is now a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Goes over signs eight times eight and a half. Do I have that correct, Biz? I know that's not your squad anymore, all right? Don't give a fuck. Man, this guy signing this deal at his age in the game, unreal. Awesome. Unreal. Talk about just having this dream season, couple years right as you hit UFA, when you've grinded the entire way just to make it. That is a story that's probably pretty inspiring to a lot. I mean, it's a story that's probably pretty inspiring to a lot of people. It's a story that's probably pretty inspiring to a lot of people. This guy is still grinding right now and playing. I think he helps a ton. I don't know why people have. Oh, for sure. People kind of dog it a little bit. Like, oh, he's all offense because of Kuchel. He has a cannon. I love his game. I think he could do very well in Toronto. If, you know, Matthews is there and Nylander and McKenna on the power play, they could do the same thing. At the same time, I do think there's a time when the fans of the Maple Leafs are just going to bury this guy. It's just like the defenseman that the Leafs get that obviously gets a little bit older and then they turn on you quick. We've seen it. We've seen it with all these different defensemen for the Maple Leafs. With that, if that happens, I wouldn't be surprised at some point in the deal, but great for him. And I think he's going to continue to light it up. But if you're a fan, if you're a fan of the Leafs, like he's the number one D-man right now, UFA, right? Like, you got to be happy your team's going out and getting a guy like this. He just had an understatement. Unbelievable year. He put up big numbers. It's one of those things that if you're a Maple Leafs fan, you have to be happy with this and know in a few years he might not be the player he was last year, but at least your GM's going out and trying to get some pieces for your guys to stay, want to be there, win some games. So I like the move. Like you said, it might not age as well as some other contracts, but at the end of the day, they're going out and trying to get players to make their team better. Well, that and like you're literally fucking having to trade Matthew is if you don't better your roster. I think that was part of one of his asks, as it should be. And like, I know that the title of what they wanted was a puck-moving defenseman. Don't exactly know if that's how you would describe him, but he's got a big bomb of a shot. He could play on the power play one, and he's a better puck-moving defenseman than the majority of the guys they got, right? And yeah, I think it better slots other guys on their back end. You still have Oliver. You still have Tanev. I mean, you know, the Riley, Morgan Riley's contract is probably the worst contract they have. But once again, like he's a leader there, they love him, and it better slots him having Radish on board. So I couldn't be happier for the guy, like you said, being that age and having never really cashed in and getting his money. I'm curious to know another example of that, maybe over the years of like basically making nothing until you finally cash in at 30, where all of a sudden you pop off. It's a hard to, what's another example? That is not common. That is not common at all. So you're happy for him in that regard. But the good news is, is the cap's going to be 130 million bucks. So if you're looking at to bolster your lineup and get a defenseman of that caliber for what would it be, like 7% of the cap by the time it's 130 million? Yeah. Not that bad of a deal. Not. If he's getting 50 points and he's getting 15 goals a year, like on those 50, 60 points, 100%. And if he's not excellent defensively, it's like, all right, well, you take the good with the bad. We need other guys to have that, to have that part of our defense, right? Like Gauss despair almost. Yeah. The only other question I have is what was the offer from Tampa? Like what could he have gotten to stay? Would you assume that he would have been offered like eight times six and a half? I don't, I never, I never, I never assume on that stuff. Remember the deal like Stamkos wanted and they didn't give him that. You don't know what they're offering. They could look at you as not just him, but any team could say he's kind of a product of our system. Love this game. Love what he did here. But we, we believe that paying that money in different areas will help our team. I don't, I'm just, you know what I mean? You have no idea, but I know for Toronto, I thought it made a lot of sense. You know, Merle said, I was like, wow, you know, he could go there. It looks good. It looks like there was a lot of effort to make them better. Matthews. You just, yeah. You just wonder where all the, all that's going on, where he stands, but you're showing him something. Right. And now you have a guy with a cannon on the power play. Yeah. He's got, he's going to help your team. And also I feel like when we came into the league and I know the league's a lot younger now, but I feel like the guys became free agents at like 31 years old. Yeah. It took longer. It took longer. By the way, biz, when was the last time the Leafs had a defenseman with a cannon for enough? You could say, but radishes is heavier than his. And then Riley never has been a big shooter. Like back to Cabriolet. He wasn't a big shooter. They got a, I can't think of a guy running the Toronto Maple Leafs power play with a cannon. McCabe, Brian, Brian McCabe, the planet, the Brian McCabe. Did McCabe shoot as hard as radish? He had a, he had a cannon, not as hard as radish, but Cabriolet was sliding him one time. He was ripping one time. He actually had. He had over 20 a few times. Yeah. I said, I'll, I'll, I afraid he, I don't even, I think he played in Toronto. I think he has too. You guys asked for another situation of where of a guy like didn't make a lot of money until he turned 30. It's actually kind of ironic because Bobby McMahon signed this week. I mean, his first contract, $763,000 next contract, 134,000, I mean, $1.35 million just signed for $5.75 million at age. There's an ally afraid of he kind of, he kind of looks like radish. Yeah. Oh, he's drafted by a little bit. Yeah, he does. Kind of you're right. Biz radish has to bring out the skullet and, uh, yeah, I afraid he had 22 goals. One year, 21, one year, uh, with the Leafs. And then obviously went on to Washington. His career high was 25 ripping darts. What a guy. Hey, so Tampa, like, uh, what's the kids desk do? He was playing really well for them. That was came over from Europe. There might be a. There might be a guy that's on Tampa running the power play. That's kind of coming out of nowhere. And we're like, Oh, that's Tampa. They just keep churning these guys out from the minors and draft picks. So, but if you're, if you're a Toronto and you know that she's saying, or they signed John Carlson, that's that in there. Okay. I didn't hear that one. But if you, if you're a Toronto and you know, Tampa is an offering him or whatever, he hasn't signed there. That's not close. Like, are you like, Oh shit. Like, why are they not signing him? Yeah, like a team that he was on, I think that it goes back to what went said. They're just looking like, what makes the most sense? Like if we can, if we can plug and play and put a guy who's doing 75% what he does, and we're paying him one third, the price is a hard cap league. We got bigger fish to fry and talk about product of your environment. Like, you know, they got Gensel, they got fucking, they got six guys there and one guy they were missing in playoffs. That we tend to forget was Hedman. So all of a sudden they get Hedman back and it's a different story and maybe he's, he's missed a little bit less. Does Hedman have, Hedman's got a pretty decent bomb. Doesn't he? Not like he's got a bomb. Yeah. He's just a little half clappers. A hundred. But yeah, it's, it's a good move for the Leafs. Like he can't, you know, there, there, there's been a lot of, despite that they were getting dunked on that Marner went off and, and, you know, did what he did and they missed playoffs and they were unravelled and had the fire GM or, um, and, and coach to get first overall and to sign the biggest sought after free agent defenseman. It's been a, been a good turnaround so far. Yeah. But who gives a fuck about the Leafs, right? As, as you got a statue in the, in your background. No, that's Wendell Clark. That's their, turn it around then. Turn it around. Yeah. You should probably throw it. Yeah. He's got it. He's got to actually turn that around. Yeah. And he's got. I like the fact that you see the odds. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And surprise them because he had the Bissonette jersey on because he knew we were going to be there. He drew this for me and sent it to me. That looks like AI, how colorful it is on the black and white. That is incredible. It's amazing. Pretty nice of the guy. He wrote me a letter. I'm not going to read the letter. We don't want to be here all night. But pretty nice gesture from the guy. Unreal. Speaking of nice gestures, I can't believe I forgot to. We didn't really catch up at the beginning of the show. Happy Father's Day, boys. Thank you. Happy Father's Day. So funny enough, we had a great day. Although, unfortunately, Big Dan, he wasn't feeling good. So we didn't get to see him. Got to see him in a couple of days. Keith, Big Bud, was he just chilling all Sunday? Were you talking to him at all? Yeah, I was chatting with him. He was flipping out that his peacock wasn't working to watch the U.S. Open. So it was always something. But yeah, obviously great to chat with him on Father's Day. All the fathers listening, too. Happy Father's Day. Yeah, you guys are the best. I got to spend mine on a lacrosse. Lacrosse field in the middle of New Egypt, New Jersey, just marinating in the sun. But it was great. You know, watching the kids play on Father's Day was an absolute blast. So I bring this up because we want to shout out the dads. And I forgot to at the beginning. But my dad. I'm a little envious, boys, of you guys. Buddy, you'd be you'd be an incredible dad. I'm a little envious. I saw the post. If you ever choose you want to have kids, you will be you'll be breeding. Right. And then you'll be training. But you'll be an incredible dad. You'll be a demanding, unreal dad. So but it's funny. What was yours like with your kids? Like, what do they do for you? Do they wrap you a present? Do they make you breakfast? Oh, no, no, no breakfast made. But just, you know, wait, walking in. Wyatt woke me up early. Happy Father's Day. Gave him a huge hug. Riders down there. Happy Father's Day, Dad. I'm like, I'm kind of the king of this house. And do no wrong. And it was just awesome. Like, it was an awe. We went and hit baseballs. We went. They went swimming. I played golf, obviously. What did Cal say? Oh, Cal says, hey, Dad, he he Cal's a big, big dad. That guy. Big time. That's huge. Me and Cal. But listen, I brought this up because my dad gave me a gift to give you on Father's Day. And I said, funny enough, you never know. Right. But he said, this is for biz. DVD. From Blockbuster? Blockbuster tag on it still. That there will be blood DVD from Big Dan Whitney to you. So I have this. Dan, what a legend. There will be. Do you have a DVD player? I don't even think I have a DVD player in the house for that. Do you have like a PlayStation? I think those things do those. No, I don't have any video games. I don't try to play video games. I do feel a little bit left out. I feel like G's going to end up having kids before I do. Fish. Fishy might be trying now. He has a kid. Fishy is a dad. Oh, yeah, that's dumb. Yes, he had one a while ago. Yes, that's right. Oh, God. It doesn't matter how long ago. You're still a dad. No, I know. I just because I just got, you know, he's with his new girl. And yeah, fuck. I fucked that one up. At least we're not live. Yeah. But that was that was me drawing a blank. What do you mean? G's got a kid because the Corgi. Or were you talking about Fishy there? Fishy. Oh, Fishy. Fishy. This is when the CT really kicks in. Maybe why I shouldn't. A lot of just trade talk. A lot of the league being flipped on its head, buddy. What was your what did you did you talk to your dad? Oh, yeah. I call him first thing in the morning. I think I called the night before, actually, but he was sleeping. Yoli answered on the. Yeah, I just told him he's I said, Dad, I said, you're you're the best dad. Like you were so like, you know, he he was so supportive. You know, raise me the right way. We talked to the Nancy Gruel. Story last pod. Like he was, you know, he imagine you had the dad who was like yelling at the instructor. It's like, no, he was just like, you're a fucking idiot. Get in the car. We're going home. Thanks for wasting my time and money, you asshole. But just like driving me everywhere so I could like play hockey and live on my dream. I asked him, I said, like, did you really enjoy it? He goes, oh, he goes, those are my best years of my life, which was nice to hear that he was also getting enjoyment of hanging out with the other dads and and getting to live that. So it was cool. I just kind of we talked about him. Being a dad and, you know, his joys of it. Just thank them for being an unreal dad, for putting skates on my feet, working at the plant, you know, it's crazy that you just you don't really I guess you don't really realize till when you're growing up, at least. How they're just doing your parents are doing everything for you constantly. Yes. The whole lives. There's a whole life. And then, you know, luckily, I was lucky enough to have that. And then you learn like this is what you do. Like, but while doing it is unreal, like all the car rides that would seem like you're going to do, you know, you're going to have a lot of fun and you're going to have a lot of fun and you're going to have a lot of fun and you're going to have a lot of fun. That's some of the best time. And like, yeah, that's just the memories I have. So it's it's it was awesome. It was awesome. Unfortunately, like I said, my dad couldn't come up, but I'm glad you called your dad. Big Bud just wanted to watch. Do you have heart to hearts with your dad? Like, yeah. Well, you. Yeah. Yeah. You have very close relationship. Yeah. Very close. Very close. Big dance. The best. Yeah. We're very lucky. He and I, I know your dad a little bit busy. It matters. So I just and this is Mother's Day. So it just matters so much now being I don't know, being raised the right way to like you're saying, because like you need to have accountability and you need to understand some things need to be done. But to live in a house where there's so much love and kids run around, it's the it's the best, the best. You you do mention that your father was very stern, though, growing up. And yeah, he would like I'm probably considered stern, but I don't think. I'm as stern as he was. Yeah. He'll say I have. He'll say I have. I have a bad memory. You guys know my memory. It's not good. Bill, do. But like, when did that switch go off where maybe he became more of a friend than a father? I mean, that's a great question. As you get older. What was it for you? When you have your own kids. Kind of. Yeah. When you have kids and then even then a little bit still like. Yeah. Isn't it so funny seeing our dads like the way that they act with their grandchildren too, as opposed to the way they acted with us? Like they're just they're completely different. Like my dad. Yeah. Like they like their grandkids. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. They say I love you to them. Yeah. They don't hit him with a belt. Oh, I guess I just the conversation just went off the rails for a great reason, though. Fathers, they talk because of the gift for you. So that was very tell them. Thank you so much. That's so thoughtful of them. And. And when I was talking to one of one of the coaches of my girls lacrosse team, his his girls both play D1 lacrosse. They're now playing in the women's professional league. And he was like, and I know everyone says it, but he was like, don't blink, man. He was like, these things go way too fast. Like, enjoy it so much. Like, I know you're sitting on this field probably being like, I wish I was out golfing, but just enjoy every minute of it really is the best. You I mean, you were taking your daughters around playing lacrosse. For Father's Day, right? Yeah, yeah, we tried. We were in Albany, New York. Then we went from Albany to Vale, Colorado for a tournament and then Vale, Colorado to New Egypt, New Jersey. So and for half of it, it was just me and Lola, which was awesome because you get one on one time with, you know, usually it's the four you or the three you so to get that one on one time was amazing, too. Going back to your childhood, your father probably helped you a lot in the hockey category. Was he as strong? As strict as Witt's dad? I would assume not because, like, I think it's safe to say you were a bit more of like a bad kid than Witt. Is that fair? Yeah, but wouldn't that be the opposite? I think I think he gave up at a certain point. He just gave up. No, I'm saying like, like, if you're like, like Dan was like more stern, therefore, you're probably like a better, more in line kid. We're like some of these stories I hear about, like from Yancey. Yeah, but he didn't care. He didn't. I was like, I listened. I was like, I got to do what my dad's saying. Keith was like, I'm not doing what my dad's saying. Yeah, it was bad. One of the worst ones. We had a tournament in Marlborough and he was like, you're coming home with me. Your grades were shit. And then I just ran out of the rink and got my buddy's car and left. And it was before cell phones and everything. So he had no idea. He's looking around this rink with there's like 10 rinks up there. He's walking around, had no idea where I was. But I knew I was going back to school. So I wasn't going to be home. So I could just go to school and he, you know, I wouldn't, I wasn't going to catch the hands from him. And when you finally saw him next. Not good. Not good. What was the most you ever got disciplined? Did you ever get the belt or the, or a spanking? The worst one was when I was at Milton high, my grades were really, really bad. And he, he, he, he suspended me from the hockey team. I didn't get to play for two weeks, which in high school, public high school hockey, you only play. I think we played like. 17, 18 games. So to miss two games was a lot. And I think that was kind of one of those things where it's like, okay, you at least got to show up to class and do your thing. If you want to do what you really love in the hockey department. So that, that was a good life lesson, but it sucked at the time. I remember when like my games were going on, he didn't even let me go to the games. I was just sitting in my basement crying, like pissed that I wouldn't be there. You're letting your teammates down, right? Not being there. So that, that was a good life, life lesson that he, that he taught me. I'm sure he didn't want to suspend me from the games and not let me play, but it was the right thing to do. Last thing I'll ask is I would imagine that that's the probably the hardest part about being a father is when you have to discipline them and like they hate your guts and as much as you love them you know what's the best thing in the long run i mean i don't know how your daughters are yans but with your kids are they're kind of like at that age now or rider seems like he's he's very easy and yeah why it's a little bit more like maybe gives it back to me but cal's giving it back to both of us more than anyone yelling around he's bossing us around dad water i gotta i'm like please he's getting the pleasing but he's the one that's really running the show but yeah i mean i think yeah you just wonder look oh am am i doing it too much sometimes does it just like parenting's hard it's amazing but it's hard i think i don't know i'm doing my best as keith is and everyone out there they're just doing your best but being a good parent's like difficult you know there's times that it's you're you're just so focused on all the kids where then you you know you realize you gotta really stay on things for yourself for your wife it's it's it's amazing hard work that that's why i guess you always hear the saying like you know being a good parent takes a lot of time and effort and so you love it but there are times that you're like yeah i'm showing up today i'm not missing that game i don't miss anything when we're not traveling and i could be doing other things which some people love to do and i just choose to be around my kids yeah keith said it goes fast it's an amazing thing it's crazy it's crazy you think of things that were six months ago they it's i don't know yeah you got another last one this biz is dr melfi what's the other last one i was just gonna ask like how much time um are you spending like like reflecting on what you talked about where you're like you know am i being hard enough am i being too hard like is it like do you pretty much all day for me i'm like yeah like like oh what am i what what do i do what did i say to writer before what do i need to say to him what i'm gonna do with why what or where are we going with cal like you're pretty much just all day like kind of judging yourself and trying to like make the best decision with the kids you're on you're on your you're buzzing around biz it's like you when you're like getting deals done like you're on your toes the whole time legit you're on your toes all day parenting do you ever do you ever be like all right i'm just gonna like we can be silent here he doesn't need to hear my voice and yeah i'm not always just what do you think i'm talking like i i stopped i don't know i meant more so when they're like you you were saying like before games and after games like you ever just kind of let them oh no i writer and i yeah writers we i'll just i've gotten way better just being very positive and just writer have a lot of fun and he does a good he does a good job of trying things like it takes him a little longer like at least with hockey and other some other things like until he tries it then he tries it he gives it his best effort and i just tell him sometimes like you got to make a better play there but i'm like you were trying your hardest on the way back trying to get it so in his in his own head he's like hey you got to make a better play there and then like in reality he's like what the fuck are you doing i yeah i think we're up one goal late you're throwing a pizza up the middle what are you right i'm checking for the live barn camera i'm like where's that what the hell are you doing oh shit uh yeah great little great little side discussion there i love well i think that there's a lot of like a lot of dads who probably listen to the show a lot of them i hear when i'm on the road they listen to it with their kid that's one of their bonding experiences so great yeah great great to hear what you boys are up to and yeah maybe eventually when i when i dump a few in one i know your messages are ridiculous no it's all kind of coming together right i went to the hockey school got the itch all of a sudden the father's day post got the itch oh fuck you'd be an unreal dad i've gotten a few breeders in my dms a couple d1 athletes really former former i was gonna say this isn't live yeah former no i mean we can keep that but i clarify former uh the the hurricanes boys they ripped up the parade rip and rod the board shirt off that was that was legendary this week i think did you see the look he gave carrier when he ripped his shirt off i was like oh boy not the guy not to mention delore is up there signing a contract extension kulski whips out the contract the pen that was uh that was wait a minute i didn't see this clip they did it on stage on stage yeah buddy i i did herbie hancock shut down a lot of the social media the last like three four days just to kind of fuck can i get a break once in a while absolutely i didn't see that i hope to see that clip come out um last thing i was gonna say though is uh is bortuzzo robert bobby or tuzo love the combine idea for like the breeder like do like a like a busy combine where we maybe get 15 20 girl i was just throwing it out there if you guys are down to like help me organize as i've been on the i've been on the look for breeders for you this this seems like uh it's gonna be a netflix show i mean i could see this dropping as a netflix show well they do ones for uh busy blue what's the farming one they do farmer's wife yeah farmer's wife they do like certain i'm just like i want straight up athletes like i want my kids signing a contract just like delore but like out of my future wife's vagina so i was out of the vagina signing deals i was thinking about the athlete biz are you gonna be like what's the mom's what's the mom gonna be doing after she gives birth is she gonna be like living with you guys and helping you what like who's gonna be taking care of this kid when like you have to change the diaper go to the doctors go to the dentist sign up for school who's doing all that i always said that like the reason i'm waiting is like i want to be a present father like i like i i'm i'm what no i'm not like that what do you mean he said jeff yeah like he's gonna organize everything i'm like you're texting jeff what's little what's little business what's little business schedule after school i don't know ask jeff um but i will i will i will want to do it the way that my parents did it i won't have like i want to be a present father that's why i actually like if we're talking honestly here i don't think i would be running the same schedule as i am now if i'm going to be a dad i just like you said that you you could never i there might be people who do that as dad maybe with older kids i would never do that you would never be home no but some people have to do that some people are home a lot that's that's hard people are doing that people are traveling a ton for their for their job and that's when you fuck i didn't see my kids for their first eight years yeah you're right yeah but i mean you when you came home off the road you got to see them like you were there like every every night like yeah home um but yeah yeah i yeah for sure i i think that like you like you guys know anything i do i kind of go balls to the wall in and that i i think being a dad balls deep to the wall balls deep will be definitely one brush it um but that's it we can move on yeah we can move on to the listen the oilers they re-signed jason dickinson they re-signed connor murphy okay i actually want to save all that for the after july 1st because i kind of consider this and the fact it's like not being off like it's not so yes that that is i knew that was coming from you uh shout out how well i know you yeah not you know the most jump off the i mean florida get florida beat the oilers two years ago they get brady kachuk but dickinson and connor murphy great players right third line center good players let's see what else happens over july 1st with nurse so we're gonna save that right like if they do a swap of nurse and all of a sudden they're bringing in larkin well then i'll start giving you the double wrister oh yeah and i'll get the oilers the oil tattoo below my eyes from u.s to canada and finally before keaton verhoff jonathan taves officially retires um what a story for him to come back that kind of he had done it all he had done all that almost um it could describe him even better like he loved the game he climbed to the top of the mountain as the captain of an original six team three times all of a sudden it ends quickly he's not ready and then he comes back gets that final year um it seems like he just like needed that right for his soul almost with what he went through after the game so biz and keith you guys played against him i saw a clip actually of him scoring today game five ot against you guys do you remember the game or the round that's cute that's cute we beat him in six we won um first round yeah thanks mikhail is took mikhail bodger you were up 3-1 in that game in the series yeah yeah wow okay so maybe not the best example of all he accomplished there in a losing season it was a sick goal though um but what do you guys got uh for me it's just unbelievable career from what he did from the moment he came in he turned that franchise back to uh a winning franchise where they needed to be got them their championships um you know he'll be a mount rushmore chicago blackhawk for the rest of his life um yeah i do think he's going to be a good guy i do think it's real cool that he came back got to play for his hometown team finished that year after a couple tough years of not playing and you know no one knows where his head was at and know whether he thought he could come back and play or not so the the determination by him uh to come back i think it just proves what type of player he was i don't think anything was ever really handed to him i think he earned everything like if you look at him and kane like kane was you know the skill guy who it looked like the game came easier to him and then taves was one of those guys that worked for every inch uh on the on the ice so ultimate competitor hated playing against them would have loved playing with them um you know true gentleman of the game too like always there you saw him you'd see him uh in chicago like the visitor's room would was right next to the uh main locker room the blackhawks locker room and he would always be out signing autographs for kids taking time so i think he's just one of those guys that's just a great ambassador for the game and um you know we talked about the hall of fame earlier with keith kachuk and i would imagine he's going to be getting his name called in in a couple years well said bonnie um yeah um obviously unreal that he got to play in winnipeg um before it all ended um yeah like we talked earlier about like a hockey player being attached to your identity well you're probably looking at a guy where that's the case given with like what he accomplished right like he the pinnacle and the highs of the highs for him is like you won three stanley cups as a captain and as a leader and as an unbelievable player for an original six franchise you got to win a gold medal for your country like i think he's won at every level uh world juniors as well um just an absolute stud and lived up to every expectation he ever had of him and then obviously you know like you know what's the father is a father clock or father time time father time catches up to you and you're not the same player and i don't know i don't know what happened to him i i heard rumblings of like long covid and and covid affecting his life and i don't know what happened to him i i heard rumblings of like his health and him not being able to return to like like physically to the way that he was before it um maybe i'm off base and it was something else but either way he needed time away to go do some soul searching and i am praying that we eventually get him on and hopefully it's a an hour and a half two hours sit down to just drop dive into what we'll just tell him it's like 30 minutes and we won't let him 100 just like patrice bergeron like hey just come by and say hi we're here in boston walk the door next thing you know yeah he's in a you know yeah he's in a he's in a suit we got him tied down to the couch but um but like i would just love to hear about the whole journey and and where it got to and and how he was able to come back and go through another year because like what he did man i don't know is there might be a hundred players in the history of the game that have been able to do and accomplish what he did it maybe it's maybe it's way less yeah 50 and um what a special career chasing that then you'll never like you'll just never have like feeling like that again which is probably a little weird to know what a young it's hard like like wow i that every year i was doing i was chasing it it happened three times then in gold then then the olympics and then all of a sudden it's over so yeah you're saying there's struggles for every pro athlete or people who finish long careers doing anything but to be that good at it and not many big games it's times like i i buddy the the prime of my life was when i got to win a calder cup especially on the way that it all ended and like i you know um and multiply that by a billion is what it was and and we laugh about it but like you're like the endorphins and the things that you're going through and the feeling that you're having in your brain as far as euphoria you're never going to touch that again or at least you you you're hoping that to achieve it because that's what life's about and i just think that given what he gave the game and where he was for for him to get to end on his own terms and get to do that back home he deserved that and um i i look forward to hearing about the whole journey and the whole story and and congrats to him on a hell of a rip man what a what a what a journey what a journey yeah incredible i'd love him on your right um well caves was a former uh player at the university of north dakota and now it's time for keaton bearhoff hey chicklets fans we're going to take a quick break for a message from one of our partners being lucky you should be meet the new lucky one sweet tea from miss peaches the vodka drink that's positively doing good made with real tea and real vodka non-carbonated 100 calories and here's the scoop their new sweet tea is the only vodka based sweet tea on the market simple ingredients in a smooth full flavor that makes it taste just like the real sweet tea best part every can helps rescue dogs find their forever homes as they work to a goal of donating one million dollars to dog rescues in 2026 so if you love true sweet tea this one's a no-brainer pick up a lucky one sweet tea today and give back one can at a time all right now back to the show hey chicklets fans we're going to take a quick break for a message from one of our partners being lucky you should be meet the new lucky one sweet message from one of our partners. On game day, get subs stacked high at Jersey Mike's like the number 13 original Italian loaded with meats, cheese, and toppings, or the number 56 big kahuna cheese steak with grilled steak, peppers, onions, and mushrooms topped with jalapenos and melty cheese. Get your sub fix on game day and order in store or the Jersey Mike's app. We're already rolling with, this is, this is the start of the interview. Oh, we're rolling. Oh, we're rolling. Maybe you can intro him, but we've been rolling. Sorry, Keaton, what's going on, bro? Not much. What's up with you? So where are you right now? I'm in Fort Saskatchewan. So I'm in, uh, I'm in Alberta right now. And that's where you're training. That's where you're skating right now. How many guys you have around you pro or college or junior? Yeah. Um, well, yeah, I grew up, grew up here, skate here, work out here, um, there's probably about 15, 20 guys. Like our gym from like eight 30 till 11 is pretty much all pro junior guys. So, um, our eight 30 groups, like a lot of, uh, European pros. Um, and then the, the nine 30 group is a lot of kind of, there's some pros, some college guys. Um, and then 11 o'clock goes like junior guys. So, um, it's pretty packed with, uh, some high skilled guys in there. So you're in the 11 group. Uh, yeah, I would, this year I went to, uh, nine, 30. Uh, yeah, I would, this year I went to, uh, nine 30. Um, and then 11 o'clock goes like junior 30. So I'll work out with like, work out with my cousins there. Cause, uh, Colton Kirby are in that group. And, um, it's like Zellie to like old and Zell wiggers there. And, um, yeah, it's a good group. Like your cousins with the docs. Yeah. Yeah. Buddy, do you ever, did you listen to Kirby's interview with us years ago? Like that's why he has a publicist three years, three years ago now he's a clown. So he's the best. I love him. So I was going to ask you though, before we get to the docs. So you were born in Sask and then like raised in Alberta and like move there for the cocky reasons. No, I was, I was born in like Fort Saskatchewan. So like so many people get a mixed up, but like it's in Alberta. Oh, that's where I'm from. I think who, uh, Scotty Upshaw. Yeah. Right. And for it. So it's like just Northeast Edmonton, like 20 minutes, like Cologne, Germany, kind of like that. Sure. Go for it. No, I thought that I was releasing a Cologne and it just turns out he was from Cologne, Germany. And these guys made sure to remind me. So you're not from Sask. You're from Fort Sask, which is in Alberta, which is in Alberta on the North Saskatchewan. I should know this. Fuck. I've driven. I've driven. Well, you're so high up in your diesel F nine 50 that you can't even see the signs. What's it here in prairie land. What's it like there? Prairie's flat. I mean, it's not as bad as Sask, but like, it's pretty Sask. You still kind of have a prairie's farm. Like my grandpa's a farmer. We own a fuels and fertilizing company. Um, I think you look everywhere. Everybody's like a farmer. So there's not much else going around other than fields. Have you noticed an uprising ticks this year? No, not much. They're everywhere here, bitch. Okay. That's why I was wondering. So Canada, um, uh, one of those things called whatever turns into a butterfly, caterpillar, those things. Oh, okay. That's a good problem to have. That's way better than ticks. Just beautiful. Those don't give you a Lyme disease. We bought a thing where you bring a key and you can do this. You can, we bought five, you know, caterpillars. They turn into caterpillars. They're inside a big net. You have, then they turn into butterflies. Then you go outside and you release them outdoors. You could do something like that. It helped your draft stock. We did it helping the environment. So I get caterpillar butterfly game. Comparing them to ticks is crazy. Yeah. We don't need any more caterpillars here. You look everywhere there. There's millions of them. It's insane. No, there's like you drive down some highways. There's no trees anymore. What was your summer job there before you started? Yeah. Wrangled caterpillar. Yeah. Caterpillar wrangler. No, I, uh, I worked on my grandpa's farm all the time growing up. He mostly made me chop wood though. Like he loves cutting down trees for whatever reason. So I'd be sitting outside for hours, just like making mulch, cutting trees into firewood and, um, stacking the firewood up. That was just cutting down trees. Um, just makes more work, but he liked it. Let's see your four. You must have big arms and forearms. And you probably look like, uh, was it Gordie Howe who had that famous? He's got some forearms on him. It looks like Craig Biggio. Nothing like you're busy. Nothing like you though. Hey, so what's the backstory of you living in Ray Whitney's old house yeah um well I used to have it even kind of there's um I don't know he lived here forever like he's owned this house forever but never really lived here um and then when he finally sold it we were looking for a new place and moved here so like the biggest thing that people recognize is there's the what 06 Carolina um Stanley Cup champions logo out on the basketball court back there so um that's like the biggest most recognizable thing here there's also some random stains on the couch that he left here we're not sure about but well his wife dummies him on that basketball court for sure yeah and the couch and that couch he was talking about um I want to one quick quick question about the firewood would you also sell the firewood would you guys like set it up on the side of the road and like hey five bucks for like a bushel of firewood or whatever not too much um like sometimes but lots of times we just stack it up in his farm and like our family would come and grab it whenever they need firewood building caterpillars homes that would last year so every farm boy that we talk to it seems like they want to play hockey because the farm life is harder than playing in the NHL and was that kind of the case with you seeing how hard your grandfather's working and other family members I mean probably not as much I think um a lot of other people on the farm life are a little more uh farm boy than I am but uh I think for me it was just seeing my family members and um seeing them get into hockey and then me kind of obviously just wanting to follow I mean like kind of talk about my cousins um seeing them go through what their journey and stuff like that really uh obviously made me want to get going and my whole family played uh played hockey and it was kind of just in my blood to start I think how much older is Colton than you are uh he's five years yeah he's uh an old three I think so those guys were just they were just giving you beat down you were eight year old Keaton chasing them around 13 15 yeah big time they uh yeah they dummy me a bit I think they kind of had a bit they gave me a bit of that bigger brother um bullying on that from them made me tougher though so I'm thankful for it but uh me and Colton really got into it we got into it a lot like Kirby was a little more reserved and uh kind of had some smarts to him uh and would have beat up an eight-year-old but Colton had no like yeah oh he had a soul yes he would like I would do something dumb he would do it he would just go from there and we would get super competitive and uh just I don't even know whatever it was we would be we'd be arguing was it them who said that you were uh dog at ping pong or was it the the reverse of that like I read something about ping pong how maybe they used to just dummy you and then pelt you with the balls and all of it yeah that's probably them they like to throw it around a bunch but uh no they're they probably were I'm not like I'm pretty good um like we always we play this game um most like Christmas and whenever we get together we'll go down like like you know sting pong obviously right no no like you play ping pong at every point you lose you lift up your shirt and you turn around they whip it like they hit it as hard as you can at your back and see uh like what what kind of well you can leave um so we'll go three-way sting pong where you're sprinting around the table like hitting the ball over back and forth is when uh sting pong's on the line that's like so Canadian Prairies it hurt I know we're up there playing sting ping pong I was roommates with Steve Dixon and uh um Dan Carcillo and they bought paint ball guns and they would paint ball gun me from about 50 feet away when we were playing in the American League but this is like it was coming you're working to that you're starting with the pink smart you're smart you're in the minors how have the interviews been so far have you had any crazy like old guys in there like like asking you questions no not not too bad um there's never like anything that's really um too crazy I mean they're all pretty like pretty tamed I'd say and I mean there's a couple random ones here and there but um for the most part they've been pretty good um they're obviously all kind of just trying to do their job so um it's fun to to talk with them and see what kind of questions they ask the other guys too but it's been pretty good for the most part what do you mean just from like talking to them or like in some cases you're in the room with them yeah like just sometimes like whenever like we're in scrums or something like that when the like reporters are in the room or whatever it is um seeing some of the questions they ask I mean it's it's kind of it's the best when they you're standing by one of your buddies and uh they ask them a question about you or something like that or they ask or you're doing an interview and they ask questions about them so just kind of some of that stuff but most parts have been good I was talking more about like your personal meetings with teams or is that something that's going to be left for like maybe when you're in Buffalo or have you done quite a bit with individual teams yeah no well we did all that stuff to combine um they were good uh every single team like every every team's kind of similar but different um they have that kind of their own spin on it but um for the most part it's they're all good like every single team's kind of ask you those standard questions and they have their kind of curveballs that throw you every now and then but um it's it was fun it was cool to talk to I mean you talk with scouts all year and then uh you get to see the GM so it's pretty fun you ever get one where you're like yeah real original like you heard it from every other team or like any any moments because we had Gronk on and he thought the worst um interview he did with the team was actually New England because by the time he got uh got with them he'd done so many of these interviews where he's like I just didn't give a flying I didn't give a flying F like I was like I was like he wasn't he sleeping on the table I think he said he fell asleep at one point and don't do that I asked him about a route and he's just like I don't know man just throwing me the ball so did you have any any maybe moments where you were like ah that was probably wasn't my best interview or like you were just fed up yeah I mean I think there's some where you get in there and you kind of start like you start like stuttering a bit you've been there at it for like six hours you're kind of your your words are almost not even like they're not coming out the right way and then you just start going like and when you get you know you go you go bad one way you keep getting worse like you're not gonna get out of the hell it's your words it's worse and more believe me I know that's a panic yeah that's like any of us on a rant on this show and all of a sudden where's this going yeah and there's 300 000 people in Canada listening I'll get into the next thing you know I'm working at a butterfly convention on your farm yeah exactly I'll take a first overall on sting pong but I don't know about the NHL exactly so who was your worst interview if you had to say a team I don't know where you would redo it's just what team would I don't I don't think I'd want to redo with any of them I think okay I respect most of them are pretty good um it I kind of figured it out a bit as you go on but uh yeah no reduce they were they're all good and even when you do mess up they just kind of sit there and look at you a bit and you're like ah here we go but what team impressed you the most great question yeah thank you yeah um I don't know I can't like I thought Toronto was unbelievable yeah I don't know if I can uh answer that one with the draft coming up here okay okay this is coming in giving us the X it was too good of a question all right everyone has to get an X as far as asking a question Jan's got the first one congrats okay okay well this one won't get an X because how do you know the first time that I heard about you was man uh are you familiar with Bob Stauffer you know Bob yeah yeah I've I've seen him every now and then okay so Bob came on here and um you were on his radar early and all of a sudden we're hearing a lot about you dominating the WHL and you decide to go to college right McKenna did it and it was new and how did that come about how hard is it to go to college and was it harder than you expected it to be yeah um I mean 100 percent um hot like the hockey's hard but it's fun too like I mean you get to college and um you're hanging out with your your like best buds all the time and you go to school you go to class with them you go to the rink with them um so the hockey was hard it was fun it was competitive though like I think for me kind of go back to my year in Victoria um I finished up my year and um I'm kind of obviously the the opportunity to go over to NCAA switched um at Christmas that year um so I think a lot of guys had in the back of their head but uh as kind of the year went on I wanted to finish up my playoffs and end up going on a visit to North Dakota and Michigan and um both unbelievable places good coaching staffs and um but kind of North Dakota felt like a place for me um it kind of reminded me of home a lot and also kind of having the coaching staff there and the people there to support you um was was pretty amazing I mean you can't can't say enough about the rink there as well so um that was a that was an added bonus but uh no that kind of was a the big decision into for me was want to play against those bigger guys um I obviously really wanted to mature my game out and round it out a bit to become a more uh well-rounded defenseman that uh isn't just gonna whatever be a guy that puts up a million numbers but someone that helps the team kind of winning those one nothing those two one games so um that was kind of the biggest society factor for me and we talked about it when uh you know McKenna's kind of stock was dropping a little bit and we commended you guys are going the harder route right you could have stayed in junior and you know played the easier game but then you go to college you're playing against men so we we commended you guys but uh I'm looking to get my second X here what was the NIL deal that you got from uh how much you know a lot of great question yeah um all the support from the fans the the play oh my god this guy's dialed people there um no we go to north you go to north dakota to play for for the north dakota hockey team um the numbers are really irrelevant it's obviously an added bonus we all have now with nil and the opportunities to get with it um they're they're pretty it makes it definitely an added bonus of going to college um but uh it was it's enough our coaching staff says it lots um in the media his usual answer is uh it's enough for the players to to not live like a broke college student and uh be able to enjoy enjoy their time and um focus on hockey and not be stressed about other things what was it like playing in victoria whit kind of glanced over and he went right to the to the u.s hockey you know it's kind of naturally what he does it's like hey hockey i love it um it was unbelievable uh we had obviously we kind of were we were a good team that year um we we lost and to spokane the second round and obviously spokane ended up going to the the finals there and i lost the med hat but um it was a it was a it was a great year um the guys they're unbelievable coach staff is unbelievable i think victoria is one of those underrated up-and-coming like hockey spots in the western league um the team's really starting to kind of put it together and figure it out a bit and um all the way from our management to our coaching staff like we were treated so well there uh we obviously it's a bit more of a travel for getting on the ferry and a bit of a grind but that ferry rides money though oh yeah i love it lots of people like lots of people don't like it coming into town like when they especially like the guys like that play in colona or vancouver or stuff like that they don't like it but like i love the ferry because you could go like it breaks up your trip a bit and you're not laying on the ground and you're not laying on the ground and you're not laying on a packed bus packed in there like saturdays especially being a rookie like you're sitting there like jammed against your buddy but on the ferry we had that we had a nice spot to go nap or whatever you wanted to do kind of play some cards um so i love the ferry victoria is an unbelievable spot would you crush the white spot on every ferry ride yeah yeah we would we uh we would get in there and uh i think our goat depending on the day like if we were traveling on like game day most guys go with the the pasta um but the chicken fingers were always uh we're always a fan favorite oh yeah this is your spot this is where i live i live i live in victoria in the summertime that's your houston it's one of the best oh you're saying is that like my canadian version of houston's yes i uh no it's just kind of like on the ferry it's just nice and convenient that they have like they'll make you a fresh burger fresh sandwich and like fresh fries are coming out right as you get on like it's it's pretty money it's a it's a it's a great place to live too like what a beautiful community unbelievable yeah like so so nice my billets are unbelievable as well like um my billet dad used to play college golf so we had a golf simulator like a hot tub at my billet house and um it was unbelievable um i mean everywhere in victoria is so nice too like the weather especially coming from alberta like the weather in victoria you kind of you get there and you i think it snowed one day that year and um other than that like you're like golfing you're not freezing it's awesome yeah it's a hidden gem i did you end up playing vgc at all no i uh i didn't my uh my billet dad and his dad were members there i believe but i never got out there i was i was in school when i was like i was still in high school when i was there so i never all the guys were getting out on the course and um us high school students were kind of slaving away in high school and grinding out there yeah worrying about his grades just how were you as a student i was good how are you how are you it's still a student oh yeah yeah i had to worry about it for uh for college i had to worry about it for college so um no i uh i was pretty i think this year i was a 3.6 or something like that i believe so what was your funniest class at north dakota because i heard that there's some hilarious ones yeah i was just i was waiting for that question for that wait for that question to come um well i was this is a funny story actually i was in esports so you heard it tell you right uh bush we went uh we went to video game class first day there's five of us in the class um we show up and there's the class is like 11 people and we show up the first day and the guy's going over the syllabus and going through some stuff and um we get in there and and we're all like hockey players that don't have the best gaming like like we're talking guy the teacher what's your favorite video game we all said like i don't know fortnite like nhl we say these answers and these kids in these classes are saying like some games that we've never heard of and we have zero clue what's going on and then the guy starts uh ranting on about uh what kind of what's going to go on in the class and uh we went home that day and went to a kind of our academic advisor and uh said we can't do this class this is going to be too hard um so we dropped the esports class because it's going to be too hard we end up getting out of esports and we're like oh my god we're going to be in esports and going into uh a sports event planning planning tailgates and stuff like what was that we planned a final project we planned a super bowl so um we were pretty good i mean we picked nashville as our super bowl spot before the nfl announced they were going to nashville so must have been pretty good what do you mean you planned it like how do you like fake planned it was they knew everything like we had to pick the venue pick the halftime performer uh who was your halftime performer bad bunny we did yeah we did zach bryan it's in nashville had to yeah you gotta yeah so um no we did zach bryan and uh what else did we plan like you kind of you had to plan some how you're gonna like get advertisements stuff like that how people are gonna watch and it was a it was a big thing like this project took like five months of work so yeah it was impressive i'm surprised you didn't pick morgan wallen yeah that was our other option we didn't pick morgan wallen we didn't pick morgan wallen we had a more we didn't we had one one person in our group didn't like morgan wallen so i i think he's i like i think that's sturgill simpson like i wouldn't let morgan wallen hold uh sturgill simpson's jockstrap wow you ever heard of sturgill simpson if you listen to sturgill simpson oh oh fuck here we go why are you yelling at him just because he hasn't heard of him because he called it a hot take and he hasn't heard him yet well yeah that's probably why it's a hot take because i'm interested you might have just you might be dipping to the second round after that comment oh okay right around what you would drafted then i was a fourth i was a fourth yeah you're giving him you still got him beat you still got him beat okay so you're you're a little bit of a chirper right there mr whitney jr with that bum chin all right let's go baby fucking go that's an insult to him and a hell of a compliment to me if he's like a comparison all right how was like the northeastern i mean not jesus right north dakota experience in terms of like you go there you have one teammate from victoria that went with you is that true is it cole reshney yeah all right so you guys are just taking this all in together and then all of a sudden you got the weekend parties in the fall games get going quick you must have been pretty thrilled once you got there in terms of the the social life away from hockey yeah um i obviously hang out with your teammates every single day and go and hang out with them on the weekends as well um we all go there and um start of july so we're there like oh the lie tell um when the school year ends so we kind of we spend lots of time together but um no it was super fun like um just kind of being there with them and me skate workout all week and kind of do all that uh all that stuff on the weekdays and get to working and then get to have some fun with your teammates super fun uh it's a cool spot for that kind of obviously in the summer it's uh pretty nice so we get out and golf every now and then and um it was just it was a good time there and then when the games kind of start you really get uh focus in and um obviously gets a little more a little more serious a little more tight um but it was fun especially go with cole like he he's an unbelievable guy and um like unbelievable player as well i mean he's he's a guy that makes his teammates better but um go to go with him and have him i mean i lived with him for a long time and i as well so um like being around him all year and getting all him was was pretty amazing what's your plan for next year obviously you're young 18 you just turned to what three days ago happy belated birthday but um is your plan for next year to go back to college or kind of whoever drafts you let them tell you what they want you to do highest better yeah um well i think kind of we'll see i mean um whatever team drafts me talk with talk both with the team and um with my side as well and see what they think's best see what i think's best and see what happens i think um i mean i have two unbelievable choices like you go pro it's it's a good opportunity that uh be happy to kind of jump on and and uh see where that can take me but uh go back north dakota as well and we'll have a good team there and another chance to go back to uh try and win a national championship obviously whenever you're playing you know your goal is to win uh whatever championship you're at but um especially in north dakota with the group of guys we have um that's kind of our main goal and We really are looking forward to doing this. next year if both your goalies went down would you be able to hop in a game as a goalie now i strapped them on earlier this year we had a weekend off um and i threw on on a sunday i don't quite have the flexibility or the movement anymore but uh i was still making some saves i think they're probably taking a little easy on me but uh i could get in there and battle for sure what age did you stop i was 11 when i switched so you were full-time goalie all the time and like what was the day or do you remember the day you were like i've had enough of this shit yeah um i kind of do but like i they're the main thing that kind of i got cut from uh the brick as a goalie i was the last cut or it was one of the last cuts from brick um in alberta and uh there was a in like you ever heard of inline like roller hockey yeah i played i went to narch um we uh went out to there's like this inline state wars and inline kind of um uh junior olympics something like that yeah i played i went to narch um we uh went out to there's like this uh junior olympics something like that yeah i played i went to narch um we uh went out to something like that so i ended up going trying out for this team kind of team inline as a player um and from that i uh played player as at inline and loved it there and then uh started to switch from there wow what an interesting story so had you ever played out in regular hockey like or like maybe when you were like five or six yeah when i was like when i was learning how to play like when i was four or five and like three four five and six like kind of actually i switched when i was six i started playing full-time goalie when i was six so like my my dad my uncle my grandpa like everybody on my on my dad's side was a goalie um so that kind of what got me into it but then um yeah i was like i grew up playing on the outdoor rink that was a big thing for me like i think that's what made my transition a little easier for me was uh just going to like i grew up on the outdoor rink i would go there after school like 3 45 um stay out there till nine o'clock at night just hoping my mom could bring me some some sort of food to keep me out there with me and my buddies so um yeah that's kind of what what i guess made me make the switch a little easier on myself we'll get to your mother because apparently she was a major role in your upbringing but uh going back to being a goalie do you feel like as a player now playing out it's helped your perspective like maybe especially like understanding what goalies are going through and like any other any other thing about the game technically that that you think it helped advance you from missing out on those years yeah i think a bit i mean you get a i think obviously i was like i was pretty young like the hockey i was playing some kids were still learning to skate and like they're obviously so it's a bit of a different game than it is now but they had a muffin like hands yeah so um i think uh it gave me some perspective like sometimes whether we're shooting a goalie or something like that but i think the biggest thing i took from it was just pet keys as a goalie like if i'm a defenseman going to box out someone and i'm flash screening back and forth in front of my goalie like i knew that was something that i didn't like so obviously try not to do that and just little things like that were were kind of my biggest takeaways i think from playing goalie but i mean i was young it was young hockey and so none of like the play style kind of things like that you really carry over i don't think right when you switched back were you kind of like brutal that first year or were you pretty good right away yeah well i i switched um so i i that summer when i was switching i was playing goalie on the weekends for my spring team and then uh like train as a player on the weekdays um so I was okay that next year. I made the Fort Skatch and AAA team there my first year, and so I was solid. I don't think I was a star on the team, but I was there. I was having fun with the boys and got to learn some things, so it was fun. I was just going to ask one quick one. Does it make your shot blocking as a defenseman better from being a former goalie? No, I was a goalie. Very good point. Yeah, I think so. Oh, I got you back to first round. You're welcome. Easy layup question. It adds a bit. There's a couple clips of me growing up where I think I forgot that I was playing defenseman and went back in goal. I had one, actually. We were on six on five. It was my first year at Bantam, and we're in a six on five, and this guy was coming down one-on-one on me with the net, and for whatever reason, I didn't pinch and try to turn the puck over. I just kind of played it like a goalie, and he came down, so I had to go five-hole on me. I didn't. I hit a butterfly and kick-save. It would have made the clip ten times better if we went down and scored. I think we ended up losing, but I did make the kick-save, and the announcer started screaming, like, Verhoff with the kick-save, Verhoff with the kick-save. So there's some funny clips like that growing up, but other than that, I think the blocking shots is kind of just getting in front of him. Two-part question. When you were skating in the outdoor rinks, were you using regular skates or goalie skates? Yeah, I was using regular skates. I had goalie skates for the ice, and then I would use regular skates off the ice. I definitely, like, I think my skates were probably from, like, way before I was born, and my sticks and gloves were both probably from my uncle that were way too big, but it was fun. I had fun out there with my buddies still. One of the clips I saw you, it looked like you were probably, like, 12 or 13, but you looked like you were a foot and a half bigger than everybody else. Were you always much bigger than everyone, and that must have helped you making that transition, just being bigger than everyone, if you were? Yeah, I was. I think I was always kind of a kid that was bigger, especially, like, going to school and stuff like that. I mean, guys around the rink are usually, you have those bigger guys around the rink, and they kind of, they have the size, and they start out in hockey, but then, yeah, I was one of the bigger kids for sure. I always kind of, like, I always was bigger with, like, everything. Like, my feet were always, like, massive, my hands were big, and kind of, that's why I guess I had that always, so I've got to give a lot of credit to my mom and my dad, so. I'd have to think that there's a chance you'd be just as talented if you'd stuck with goalie. The brick just kind of ended your dream, but you probably would have been a super goalie prospect right now. Actually, it's going on this week, isn't it, the brick? I don't know. It is always right around this time of year. It's soon. It's coming. Oh, Gerby texted me, actually. He's going with his two boys. We've got to send him. Do a video of it. It's Nathan Gerby with the Detroit Junior Red Wings. Oh, yeah, he's hardcore, right? Send the boys a video before the brick. Yeah, I think he's got his kids getting up at, like, 6 a.m. doing, like, sprinting hills and stuff like that. I was going to ask you, I got Janz's hat as well, Chicklets University. Now, before you picked University of North Dakota, did you see the Chicklets U video on it? Yeah, yeah, I did. Did that make you, had you already seen the campus, or was that the first time that you saw it? You saw it on the video. No, first, yeah, first time I saw it, it was on the video. T. Shout out to G and Chicklets U. Fish. And Fishy, of course, all the crew. I remember going to my mom when I was younger. She kind of told this story right when I committed. I was like, I don't know when that video came out. Probably, like, it was right after their national championship. I think 2020 or something like that, or 2022 maybe, something like that. Sometime around then, I watched the video right when it came out. And showed my mom to it and told her I was going to play at this place. And obviously, she was like, yeah, sure, you are. Like, you're going to, like, Western, all our families play. If you're going to be that good, you're going to play in the Western League. Like, all our family's done that. And that's where you want to go. Like, that's where you've told me you want to play. And you can't really go to college if you play in the Western League. So, that's kind of one thing that she, that funny story that she brought up when I ended up committing to North Dakota. That's awesome. Shout out to G and Fish again. That's, that's cool. But, like, now with the rules and how they open, like, that must have been pretty, like, thrilling to you where, like, now you see other guys doing it. So, it's not like you're the bad guy for leaving junior. Because I think that this is a perfect way to open things up. Because they can go play CHL when they're, like, guys like you. You're 16. You're a big kid. You're ready to go take that next step. Well, you shouldn't be pigeonholed after two years. You should be able to make that next jump kind of like you did. So, it must have been, like, a great time to kind of be in the class that got to do it. Do it, I guess. Yeah, it was awesome. I mean, it was cool. I think it was obviously a tough decision to leave Victoria. Like, I mean, like you said, it's, like, the town itself is unbelievable. The organization was unbelievable. And our fans were unbelievable as well. We kind of, like, we started building that fan base in Victoria. And so, yeah, it was definitely tough to leave them. But to have the opportunity to go was cool. Like, it was special. I mean, to kind of be some of the first kids to do it, it was definitely kind of a unique experience. I loved it. Don't regret anything. Like, going to North Dakota was an unbelievable spot, an unbelievable spot, an unbelievable choice for me. And Jans and Witt, like, we never really talked about this dynamic. Like, think of how many times in, like, a young player's career, like, even the NHL. Like, let's say Booyam, for example. Like, he gets dealt at a young age. Like, you making that switch, even though it wasn't a trade, you have to experience that change and that growth again, right? Like, you go to junior, you have to get used to your billet parents. And, like, that's a whole process and experience. Like, another level of better hockey. And then, like, you have to do it again. So, it's like you're challenging yourself and your growth, not only as a player, but I guess with life experiences. So, I'm, like, I think it's awesome for hockey. Yeah, it's definitely good. I think it's just going to build, like, it gives guys options. Like, I mean, I've said it lots. Not every kid's going to necessarily go into college at 17, 18. NFC, what's best for you is, um, it's going to be like, it's good for players. I think, I mean, it's a big thing. You got to figure out what's right for you and what you need to develop on and what you need to become better at. But it definitely gives kids options and a step to take as well. Yeah, it's crazy now though. We could save this topic for even another time because it is interesting, but there are so many different dynamics. Was it not true though, Victoria, they must have been kind of rattled when you were leaving. Like, was that hard for you or did you not feel any of that? Or at least there was news, news of them being pretty upset. Yeah, I mean, it's, they obviously were wanting me to stay and play with them. And it definitely took a toll on me too. I mean, being, I was there for a year and a half. I played, when I was 15, I played like 20 games or something like that. So I got used to the place. I loved everyone there. And so it was definitely tough to leave. But I mean, I talk with my GM and talk with my coach from there every now and then still. And they're kind of, I think it just kind of came at a shock for them. I think it was the first kind of start towards kids changing. And I, like I said, like it was such a hard decision. They, that was an unbelievable place. Those, those guys, I owe a lot to them and give my start to junior. And especially my coach there as well, James Patrick, like he really kind of helped me take that step in my, in my career, I guess. So I can't say enough good things about Victoria. So it was definitely tough for both me and them. But like I said, I don't regret it. And so now I kind of have the relationship with my GM and my coach. I, I think they kind of understood the decision. And I mean, my coach went to North Dakota too. So he kind of understood what I was getting into and the opportunities that I would have there. So I think they understood it, but it was obviously tough. At the end of the day, it's about, you can't take it as a slight. It's about the growth of the players. I get maybe like it's comes at a shock. It's kind of like the, you guys are essentially the first class to really do it. They're the pioneers of this whole thing. The way that the, the growth is going to go. Yeah. And the other question I was going to ask you for kids who are in your situation where they're looking to maybe do a couple of years of junior to the, to college, you already kind of touched on how it was harder and stuff like that. Like what were the biggest adjustments and like what, what was like different about the gameplay? Like how hard of a jump was that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's just like, like any jump in level and league or whatever it is, like the details get tighter. You got to be a little more dialed in, I guess to say, but I think the biggest thing for me, like my first game I went and the first thing I noticed right away was I would go back and whether you try to bake, bake to the net and go up the wall and try to make a pass, like there'd be just be sticks and lanes. Like that was the biggest thing I noticed. You go from kind of being able to maybe just make that simple play and not, you gotta, they're just a little bit more detailed. Those guys, like they're obviously older a little faster. And so, yeah, that was the biggest thing. Like sky sticks, getting sticks on talk sticks and lanes, that was the first thing I noticed. - What about the crowds? Like I know me and Biz play junior and I feel like the junior crowds are more like the professional level where they're just there to watch the games and enjoy some good hockey. But college is intense, right? With like, you're playing your rivals, fans are crazy. It's all young kids. It's all kids drinking before games, whatever. So was it harder to play in college games than it was in junior? - Yeah, definitely. There's some harder, I mean, there's some hard rinks in the Western league too. Like you go to Everett now, like they have their cowbells going at seats probably, I think like around 10,000 or something like that. And they have their whole, all their fans have cowbells ringing in your ears and there's some tough rinks to play in. But I told like, I understand what you mean. Like there, WHL is definitely a lot more, like fans are there to watch the hockey. And I mean, like you said too, like the fans. - Any BO? - Sorry? - Any BO, like body order in the crowd? - That's your league biz. - OHL, the Oshawa generals had to release like a statement to tell the fans to like shower and scrub their nuts before coming to the rink. 'Cause it reeked like BO. - I still feel like we imagined that story. It was such a- - No, that was a hundred percent. I think they came out with a follow-up. - Please shower. - So the Western league is a nice smelling building culture. I like that. - Oh, it's clean. Yeah, it's nice. - Sorry. - Rinks smell good and yeah. - All right. - All right, keep going. - Yeah, sorry. But yeah, definitely like with college kids, they're all hanging out, tailgating for the games. Like for us, like we have fans line up outside our rink. I mean, you saw it in that Chicklets U video. Like we have fans line up outside our rink for like a seven o'clock start. They're there depending on the weekend. Like they're there at 10:00 AM, like in the morning. Like they're there sitting there. They have their tents set up. Like no matter rain, shine, snow, like they're sitting there having a good time. So it's pretty fun. I think we show up around whatever, 4:00, 4:30. And you walk past like the whatever tent lines are going into the rink. And it's packed. And they're listening to music. They're having a good time. They're cheering you on as you walk by. So it's a pretty cool atmosphere. - Drinking Pink Whitney nips. You ever had any Pink Whitney there at NODAC? - We didn't have much of that this year, no. I-- - Well, back to the second round. - That's why they made it to the Final Four. - Back to the second round. - Oh, OK. Here's a fun one. - Is TJ Oshie just-- has he got his jersey retired up there? - I would assume. I mean, we had Zach Parise come this year. We do like this thing every year called like the last lap. So he came here. He came in. He had his kids with him. And right before the game starts, he kind of did a lap with us in his North Dakota jersey and stood on the blue line, did the anthem, and all that stuff. Did a little thing for him. So it was pretty cool to see him come in this year. And I mean, obviously-- honestly, it's the guy that you grew up watching, too. So he came in and got his jersey retired. - Did he put any money on the board? - None that night, actually. I don't think. - Oh, wow. - Yeah. - He only made $150. - Holy shite. He better buy you guys a hot tub for the-- or I guess if you guys already got those. You guys got the-- - The only thing not allowed in the NCAA anymore is that. - Hyper-- what? - Money on the board? - No, money on the board. - Oh. - Hot tubs are for sure in the locker room. - OK. So this is probably one that some of the old scouts asked you when they didn't actually think of any good questions. If you could pick an NHL player that is realistic to your body type and how you want to play and set your foundation, what would you say that you-- who would you want to be? Who would you compare yourself with? And who would you want to accelerate to play their game? - I think for me, a Thomas Harley guy. - What did you say? - Vassy. - Yeah, but he answered-- was it Thomas Harley? - Yeah. Yeah, Thomas Harley. That's a guy kind of that I've watched a lot after Four Nations last year and-- - You can snap the biscuit like him? - Yeah, he can rip it around. And he's got good boots, too. I think that's something that I'm working on here. But no, I think that's a guy, just his two-way game, his ability to defend and also create offense, too. I think having your coach's trust and teammates' trust is a big thing. So definitely, I'd say him. - And he just signed the big ticket. Is he physical? - I think he finds his spots. That's a thing for me, too. I wouldn't-- I don't go out and lay an open ice, crunch someone lots, I'd say. I think finding my spots and whether it's angling guys out and use my body protect pucks. But I think he competes. That's the biggest thing, I think, for me, too, is he just competes on pucks, competes in corners. And loves the battle. - If somebody's going at your teammate, though, are you shedding the mitts? Are you not fucking around like that? - Yeah, Western leaguer. - Yeah, I think, when it comes to it, I would. I don't have anything against it. I think if that's what needs to happen, I'd do it. But I think a lot of my style, a lot of controlled aggression and be able to control myself a bit. But definitely, if that's what it comes to, willing to do it, that's what I would do for my teammates, for sure. - How many tilts in last year or in the Western League? I guess it's harder. - It's embarrassing, zero for me. - Ooh. - Yeah, zero for me. I asked a couple guys, but I never got them. - A couple shimmy shakes? - Yeah, I asked a couple. I think I got suckered a couple of times and then kind of tried to start throwing them. But we always kind of, some of our guys on our team would always joke around that, they're like, don't fight. We don't want you fighting right now. Like, I mean, then there's all this bossing games. We don't want to fight. But I think, yeah, I never got in one, sadly, so. - No, no, hey buddy, you're being honest about your assessment. Like, I like that. You mentioned controlled aggression. Like, it's not everybody's game, buddy. I didn't, that's literally all I did and I never even won one. Like, I literally didn't do anything. - But if he starts fighting biz, then guys like you aren't going to have jobs. So we don't need him fighting. - Thank you. - You're welcome. - Thank you. Thank you, Heaton. Appreciate that. Very thoughtful of you. - Yeah. - Anything else, boys? Like any other draft questions or fun stuff? - You're going to be out there, right? In Buffalo? - Yeah. Yeah, I'll be out there. There's a big crew of us. We got 42 of us going out there, so it'll be fun. - Wow. - Oh, Jesus. - That'll be a big crew. A bunch of my buddies are coming out. There's like four of my buddies coming out and then a bunch of my family, so it should be fun. - I got one. If you had the first overall pick, you couldn't take yourself, who are you taking this year? - That's, yeah, that's tough. Are you getting another ax you hit? are you getting another axe i go i think uh i'd go with uh my teammate carls teammate carls next year all right good teammate um they all there's so many options here though like you look at look at the draft like it's a look at those guys i mean you have obviously gab and stenberg and um all those guys up there reader as well like um it was cool to get to meet them actually like that was a fun thing going to vegas with them and i'm kind of seeing them and seeing what kind of people they are was was fun i mean going to the game was a cool experience too but um just being there with them and walking around vegas a bit uh it was a it was a fun uh kind of opportunity to go with them did you get to play against gavin yeah i did i think he tore it just for three because we only play him once and you got to play with them world juniors as well right yeah i play with my world juniors too uh so i knew i knew him a bit but we didn't like albert smiths was in vegas too um chase reed as well so i i obviously played a lot with uh played against gab and played with him at world juniors and played with carson a lot too so knew them a bunch but uh yeah playing against gab was uh was was pretty tough i mean that that year what he was that was his seventh like last year when he's 17 so he was uh kind of he was a different beast there and uh it was uh definitely a tough opponent i'm not trying to stir the pot either it kind of i just came to my mind didn't they health bomb you at world juniors yeah they did somebody was saying somebody was trying to like create a rumor that it was because you left the chl and like i was like is that true though no no no no i ain't digging that much come on i'm not um no they did they scratched me um i mean i was a young guy on the team and uh going into i like there's stuff that probably that was not the reason um that because i left the chl rumor the rumor boys yeah the the chucking rumors we don't do that type of stuff around here i think um it was whatever they uh what they thought best and um obviously i i was happy to be there i was a young guy and um look forward to hopefully getting the chance to play world juniors again this year and see what we can do obviously may take a step in my role and uh obviously kind of look for that gold there all right hey chicklets fans we're gonna take a quick break for a message from one of our partners hey alabama stella blue coffees new canned lattes are here and in a store near you crafted with 100 columbian coffee each can is a good source of protein and comes in two smooth flavors espresso cafe mocha and espresso sweet cream whether you're braving your morning commute or chasing your pup stella blue cans are for those always on the go and for those who care stella blue is more than just great coffee it's about giving back i named the brand after my rescue dog stella who inspired our mission to help more dogs find their forever homes every purchase supports animal rescue organizations so when you drink stella blue you're not just fueling your day you're saving a dog's life try the new cans today head to our store locator on stella blue coffee.com and sign up to redeem a buy one get one free offer all right now back to the show world juniors are in edmonton this year right yeah they are okay were they ever there when you were younger and you went maybe had a memory of going to world juniors yeah um they were there for that like i think we had them like two years in a row when covid when code was going on we had that summer summer world juniors um in edmonton then we had them again so um i remember watching a lot of those games i think i went and watched canada play forget it i think i went watch canada play latvia one year um so i remember watching a lot of those games i think i went and watched canada play latvia one year um so um it was that was pretty cool experience um going there with some of my buddies so it should be fun i mean obviously hope to get the chance to go and hope to make the team again but um it'll be a cool opportunity and cool experience to be in edmonton in front of the fans and my family as well um to kind of have that and uh see what's going on here i got a last one with oh double double you get one question for every x you got okay so i got two no you we talked about your mom a little bit earlier and you know it's known that she raised you uh by herself for a little bit and um you know just you know we're all mama's boys here and we all love our moms more than anything and yeah i just kind of wanted you to give her her flowers here and i saw a clip of you guys playing catch in the backyard and no shade thrown but she had a better arm than you did was she a good athlete and stuff but give her her flowers and how much she means to you yeah um she's incredible i mean she's taught me everything i know as a person um i mean on the ice too the things she's gonna give the characteristics characteristics she's giving me off the ice it definitely helped me on the ice but um i mean she's been incredible for me and my sister uh i mean growing up she she'd take me to the rink her to dance and um she's obviously been our backbone for a lot of times and um she's definitely like they used to say a lot with me who's gonna who's gonna walk me who's gonna walk keaton and play like do different stuff with me play outside whether it's basketball or baseball stuff like that um she was always up for it and i i'm so thankful for everything she's done for me um i mean kind of taking me whether it's taking me the rink or playing outside with me and doing stuff like that um she's been so important to me and um obviously like i mean it's i think it's statement with lots of lots of kids but obviously for me i wouldn't be anywhere near i am right now without her um she's given me everything i've gotten and i'm so lucky and grateful for her and every single moment kind of obviously try to do stuff for her and um represent her well so um yeah super thankful for my mom unreal was she the one who was most supportive of you making the transition to become a player too because all your you said it was all your uncles and stuff were all goalies so they were probably trying to pressure you yeah um she's always been so supportive of me like whatever it is um she's there for it and she'll figure out how to help me and what she can do to help me i mean um she was she grew up playing like uh softball basketball like high school sports like that and um so she didn't wasn't much into the hockey world um but she would always if she didn't have the answer to it she'd try to find it um and she'd try to um kind of be my she was always my biggest supporter um whether it was me switching from goalie to player be going to college this year um going through ups and downs of the season too like uh you're gonna there's gonna be ups there's gonna be downs and um i think she's been my my one consistent throughout my life it's amazing last one about your mom if you get to come back for one night if she's cooking you dinner like what's your go-to meal you're like mom i need that meal i'd say tacos from her that was like i i don't even know if she's like the best at making tacos but it's just like you come home and like that was the one thing she'd always make for us growing up was um was just tacos like just have some um ground beef around some salsa some lettuce stuff like that and just have it right right ready to go and um that's i honestly just say like a comfort food you say but um it's i don't know if she's the best to make them but that's the one thing i make for sure biz you know she makes them with caterpillars the caterpillar taco oh yeah oh you think i got yeah i got to six four caterpillars we're gonna have some some hockey parents out there army feeding their kid caterpillar tacos extra protein hey this was awesome dude great personality and and a heck of a player and i wish you all the best and when you're when you're snapping around like harley out there make sure you come back on the pod and uh and rejoin us we'll do i gotta get me on a sandbagger we've been we love my buddies love watching them who who are your guys hey um we've been i'm not even kidding we've watched like 10 the past like five nights it's been insane who are your favorite ones we i love the jays one that one is awesome yeah well when you and when you when you were just you and clement were buddies and go to enemies with that with it that was all time buddy i won't i would have played you you ended up as you ended up yeah i made him yans was snapping he's like buddy if you don't like flip the script here so then that's where i'm like don't worry i got it and then i went shoes off and i'm like oh this guy this guy's still piping drives and hitting yeah hit the middle of the green every time so i'm like i went to the trusted gummies yeah when you started slipping them some guys it was hilarious we had to edit it so it wasn't that bad but oh i was peer pressuring the out of that guy and and the best part of the video is i'm like so i had to like make him uncomfortable taking it because i knew his teammates didn't know it so so as soon as i made him take it i go to these guys to go hey he took it and he's like oh oh and i'm like no no give it like a hole or two and then he had that big shot and i'm like uh i'm like hey boys he took the gummy and then his and then one of the boys goes you took a gummy and i'm like we got him no he was so we got him i think it was schneider's like no you took no no no yeah and schneider's hasn't been the same since i think he's playing in the i think he's playing in the cape cod league right now we got to get him back we got to get him back up mona lisa what other what other baggers did you like we watched the swish one yeah i mean obviously north dakota guys yeah who watched the swish one the other day and seven hour round bro i bet and it it was 120 out there and looks like you started you started 6 a.m right you guys early and you given her too like that's that's compete that's compete that's compete i think they were slow playing us it's our only ever tie yeah well you guys were heat daddy was just i loved how i loved how pissed you guys were all of them too like it was hilarious i'm i was it's more like what's like yo what the fuck's going on here like pace of play and i'm like yeah i kind of agree with you even though i'm dog shit and then that was that was before that was before yans came was that that slow of a round i don't remember being that i remember you guys bitching about it i think it was a six hour round on that par three right was it in a par three and you called it too like you didn't even uh you didn't even like finish it right you tied it right you said we were i was too hung over that's when ra came and puked where i think my yeah puked as the round was and that was oh my god yeah i was did you see wit hole out against gruden uh yeah we watched that that was hilarious too that was that was a fun one with those guys i love anchors coach too like hey coach coach let's go hey coach what about the og bagger with uh with uh nate and sid yeah we flipped that on the other day um i mean you watched a lot of those a while ago too but um we watched and then we watched um what was the other one with uh rask who's it with oh the duker ask and uh who else was in there crew and walls yeah yeah oh the three v3 yeah the best part of that one is tuka showed up and he was all game he was game facing us because he'd already lost one yeah against us and he and he and he was telling them in the car on the way over he's like don't get don't drink too early well they showed up like an hour and a half before the round they're drinking like you know uh i was like oh yeah like we've never drank in golf before by the back nine they were puddles i was like oh and tuka's like i told him i told him i told him in the car on the way over i told him and he was all mad that'd be under the lights for sure that'd be a high pressure moment so who who are your two guys then you would go with that i'd bring i don't know i feel like i got you got to try and bring it here so i mean as you kind of find what about a gin luck considering you lived with them like joe or tish because i live it's like so i live with uh or you want uh jerome which i would have assumed you lived with jerome but you lived with yeah yeah so his boys like you know tish and joe like her is like his kids right so jerome we i remember because he's trying to get to scratch right now he probably is there now but when i was living with him um he would like it drops off at uh like one year after our season was over um five of us joined like this rec league soccer team like soccer team like we were i was the closest guy to him was to heighten me was joe and i think joe was probably i was probably six three at that time and joe was i don't know five ten probably and there joe was the next tallest guy everyone else but what blows like five six five five and um so i look we looked like massive out there and it's just like some rec league soccer that um you run it like we could run down the field and we've never played soccer and you just run down the field and get a couple touches get some get some goals and apples but um um that was that was nuts but uh so you got to kind of like like be around jerome what was jerome like yeah um jerome was unbelievable i think uh he was like yeah i i learned so much from him um he was obviously kind of uh um i mean the type of player he was when he was in the hl you kind of you're a little starstruck when you get around him and then at the rink as a he coached us too right so um at the rink he was yeah that just a different insight like he was a different insight he had a different insight than every other coach that hasn't played 1500 games and he was obviously he was coaching me kind of at the start of my my defense like defense journey so um it was pretty help pretty helpful to have i mean we had patrick weir coach as well i don't know if you remember that remember that name um played in ottawa um and so we we had him too coaching um so he has nhl games and um he really both them really helped me um kind of take that jump as a defenseman and uh figure my stuff out right away and i think that's what i'm really proud of um i think that's what i'm really proud of um i think that's what i'm really proud of um i think that's what i'm really proud of way jerome dude 500 talks did he get the 600 i think he might i think you want i think you had 600 talks nail gun yeah man he was he honestly he would be in my top three who have never i think i gotta go top five list of who never won a cup yeah him jumbo joe lundquist those are my doner of course because i love shane doan um and then who would be the fifth big walt big walt congratulations to him on the hall of fame baby a couple clicks well buddy we did like 10 last questions with you and we've taken over an hour of your time but the good news is you're you're going to be top 10 easily now if not top five because of this interview and you're welcome awesome thanks biz now we got a speed bag in a sandbagger enjoy this week man thank you enjoy it buddy hey chicklets fans we're going to take a quick break for a message from one of our partners stelle blue coffee's new can lattes are here crafted with 100 colombian coffee each can is a good source of protein and comes in two smooth flavors espresso cafe mocha and espresso sweet cream and whether you're braving your morning commute or chasing your pup stelle blue cans are for those always on the go and for those who care stelle blue is more than just great coffee it's about giving back i named the brand after my rescue dog stella who inspired our mission to help more dogs find their forever homes every purchase animal rescue organizations so when you drink stella blue you're not just fueling your day you're saving a dog's life try the new cans today taste the difference and make a difference all new stelle blue coffee canned lattes now available at stelle blue coffee.com or subscribe on amazon for 10 off all right now back to the show biz you got that guy's stock up eating on the rise so um well just like deloria signed a contract on stage i made him sign one where i get a cut of what he makes career earning wise so a lot of contracts being signed today congrats to you thank you good job good job thank you all right boys uh let's see what ra is up to hello everybody welcome to our raise world here on the spitting chicklets podcast what's up gang good to see you again and i'll see you next time on spitting chicklets podcast what's up gang good to see you again and i'll see you next time on spitting chicklets podcast what's up gang good to see you boys a little follow-up for the uh hockey hall of fame announcements i want to give a shout out to cindy curly like you mentioned a few minutes ago with uh the stone mass native she was part of back-to-back national championships 84 85 here at providence college just a little salt to hear also part of the first women's world championship team won three silvers and it's a big day for providence college of course berkey went there played college hockey with my my buddy's dad johnny tibbets way back in the day so i want to give her a shout out and personally uh congrats to berkey he's been a friend of the program and i'll see you next time on spitting chicklets podcast uh guy i've known a long time and i'm very happy for him finally i'm very happy he finally got in so good stuff there and uh patrice bergeron he's the fifth hockey hall of famer to spend his entire career with the bruins uh joining dit klapper bobby bauer woody dumont and milch pit but all four of those guys played well before 1960 so pretty cool that you know you don't see it too often that a guy gets in the hall of fame these days playing all his career one team so pretty good stuff right there uh also man the radish news i think that this is one of the great inspirational stories in hockey uh this guy he was in the ohl for five years he was undrafted played seven years in the ahl i think he played six before he even got a call up and then no now he's got his payday he just stuck with it just a story of you know battling adversity sticking with the game and getting to where he's got so i just want to give him a little shout out there so good stuff uh also we got to give a shout out to linda cone uh she's right yeah she's going to be retiring from espn this she played in over 5 500 sports centers that she anchored 5 500 shows at sports center that she anchored huge hockey fan she's been a huge proponent of our game so linda i just want to give you a shout out for what you've done for our game over the years so friday night she's going to be on the 6 10 and 11 o'clock sports centers also going to be checking with buchi during the draft so just want to give her a shout out for all the stuff she's done oh yeah she's awesome yeah rangers fan right she loves hockey you ever see when she tried out for the florida panthers they that's an unbelievable clip i think portnoy did at the same time yeah i think you're right it was like jimmy hayes and uh authority shooting on them yeah yeah exactly she had a good quote she said what i'm most proud of is that my career lasted long enough for me to see little girls grow up watching sports center enter this business and succeed in it if my journey helped make it the path a little easier for them then that's the achievement i'll cherish most so congrats to linda awesome job in your hockey career and sports center career good she's awesome yeah awesome stuff uh you were correct last week we were talking about uh the hockey night in canada logo and usage of the term uh it's not going to be part of rogers going forward but i guess cbc is apparently going to use this legendary name in some undetermined clearly inferior capacity eventually on their own network so um so yeah it's not going to be moving on as far as saturday night hockey but they're going to be using in some capacity so either way i don't know what they're going to do with that but good luck to them on that regard well it's nice to know i was right about one thing and by the way our a we will be getting interrupted in a few minutes here i do have a a short surprise guest it won't take up too much of your guys time but i think you'll be very very happy and surprised with who it is can't wait what you just mentioned the world cup um i did you guys see that clip that was zlatan and uh with henry terry there they were in the studio it was incredible in the ball like oh my god like i showed that i mean i shared it on all my social media like i mean i'm kind of late to soccer late in life to soccer but that clip was unbelievable just like the nonchalant like nature of what they were doing so skillfully and they clearly are not huge fans of the co-worker alexi lalas i think it's funny it's like a little bit of a bit now and yeah they're carving them but it's funny because it is it's like a guy who played in the fourth league in denmark with like mcdavid and pros you know what i mean where did he play mls he played in the ml i mean he he's a good soccer player but he was not uh european soccer level right and so then he's on there with them and they just carved him carver that's latin's unbelievable though yeah he he i actually did a snake draft one time where we're talking about i think like the the cockiest athletes ever i don't remember the exact snake draft name but i said him and all the stories about how he talks in the third person and he's brought that in a funny way to tv oh for sure i got a funny story about him i was at vancouver like i just had to walk in to take a piss and i like i like walked in and like it didn't look like there was a bathroom anywhere and i like there was like three guys talking and i'm like hey do you guys know where the bathroom is and it was him and his two buddies and they just looked at me doesn't pee and then he like that didn't even answer didn't even he's like basically like shoe peasant like didn't even answer me so he probably thought i was just doing it because i knew who he was but like i was like i didn't i i was like in a rush and i like i was like basically in a piss bomb in the midst of a starbucks oh no and and i was like i think that that was the soccer guy and sure enough it was yeah shout out to zlatan for pigeon tossing me like he does everybody else he played the men's national team back in the 90s when you know they were sort of coming on the scene he was known with his red goatee and hair and playing the guitar and whatnot but yeah he played siri what they call it siri b in italy like for a first you know a little bit of a time then went to the mls so yeah like what's it he's his professional like resume compared to the other two it's like it's like it's like me what you guys compared to way but but he's a well-known u.s soccer play so i get why he's on there yeah but he does seem to like bring in a lot of i don't know the rage and i don't know enough soccer to to break down his analysis but but either way it's been a little like entertaining side side thing either way uh biz congrats on me 37 years without a phone call on father's day so shout out that hey guys let's go let's go you said 37 years yeah well since your first time you got a call yeah exactly out of the nine months good call good call keith yeah no i never really had any major scares but just trying to play off the father's day and that okay and i know my dad he he does watch i didn't post on online because he's not a uh social media guy but to my old man leo peter fruit he's the best uh happy father's day once again you you've you've you've been the best uh fellow by like you know 54 years i've been here so shout out to leo he's the ball are you snipped already yeah oh yeah yeah i've been snipped for a while yeah i got snipped people like wait how many kids you have i'm like zero i'm like trying to keep it like you weren't supposed to lay on the couch for three weeks it was three days three years yeah no i i've been snipped yeah i would uh you know some of us want them some of us blamed it on his back yeah uh also we got to give a shout out to a guy frank the tank frank fleming uh he's been on you know boston for years now no bull ads no no there you go no bull ads he walked for the 1000th straight day on sunday he's lost over 250 pounds which believe it or not is actually more than i weigh uh and the last that's like now all right do we he i know the frank walks are incredible biz has done one um is it has he just walked or has he changed anything else in his life lifestyle i know or anything i'm just walking no janks has been having him do stuff for a long time man janks has him working on his diet like that kid janks has frank so fucking dialed it's unbelievable all right i'm i'm glad you you brought that up that's awesome that's amazing that's inspirational yeah yeah it is nuts too if you just walk every day just walk yeah walk a couple miles every day what do they say 10 000 steps a day is like the healthy that's what you should get that's what you're supposed to be getting yeah just getting a minute like hey y'all i haven't seen him lately because we we don't go down to new york anywhere close to the regularity we used to obviously the gambling and live streams have changed whatever but he's a guy i always kind of bonded with like i'm an old school baseball nerd even if i don't watch the game much anymore so i always appreciate getting together with frank and very happy for him so we love your buddy and we're so proud of you and keep keep chugging along and anybody else who going through anything similar struggle in any way like the there's there's no better inspiration to look to like just sticking to it dude like it sounds like oh who that's easy walking a thousand no it's not it's not sometimes how to do it five ten days in a row so shout out oh for sure and like you know if you are a little bit you know if you're if you're overweight like it could look a little overwhelming at the start where it's like hey man just like start there and thousand days consistency right exactly and you might not look like rod the bud right away by the way my mother watched the the clips the other day saw rod the bud when his shirt got ripped off i was like hey don't go it's outrageous careful business gonna get mad what's that lightsaber you got there well and it is funny too like frank's mortal enemy is the new jersey but like if it wasn't for their f up he he like i mean that doesn't happen he probably doesn't the door doesn't open to his career at barstool which opens the door to this like health change so it's kind of ironic that this is a good call this organization although he probably would have done something else gone viral where dave would have found him yeah and honestly what like i i do wonder too like you know that that that clip was unreal but like if his voice doesn't crack when he goes what's it uh what's the word oh uh unconscionable or whatever like the word that's not the right word but it breaks his voice breaks when he said uh incompetence and yeah and whatever it was his voice breaks and i wonder if like a portnoy if his voice doesn't break in that moment if it becomes like the viral the viral thing it becomes an electric meltdown yeah absolutely good stuff uh all right moving along to a little entertainment aspect movies tv uh a new miniseries drop on netflix it's called i will find you you know the author harlan colbin uh probably a lot of uh probably our dad's like age maybe read the books it's a new miniseries with jonathan tucker my guy from charlestown here that just dropped the other day i'm gonna give that uh a look see it's about a wrongly imprisoned man he gets some late information about his case and goes on the run for that give that a look see this other one biz this is a good one to eat a couple edibles maybe it's called remarkably bright creatures uh it's that sally field uh lewis pullman who's bill pullman's son and it's like another heart warmer sort of crowd pleaser but more importantly it's an octopus movie and sally field she's like cleans up an aquarium at night and she talks out loud you know sort of sort of to herself but there's like a i guess a sentient octopus who who hears her and he kind of voices voice does voiceover for the movie it sounds like a weird movie everybody i've told told about it always watched it loves it it's called uh like i said remarkably bright creatures put it on good stuff does anyone love octopus movies i was gonna say i'm having deja vu he was he was that my octopus's teacher he was like i think he was getting himself going to that one i think and then he's got a new hawk all right but fish is saying it's fish is saying it's unbelievably good we got we got ra's old lady getting getting off to to rod the bot in one room and then we got ra going off to all the tentacles in the other room guy what do you mean boys uh spitting chicklets baby come on here you guys said worse i told you a story about my my sister getting to the woodshed yeah you told that one yeah i figured i'd open up the door here either way funny yeah all right what is it called again sorry remarkably bright creatures sally field you know one of the great 70s 80s stars and lewis pullman his dad bill pullman he was the president um independence day cole meanie great irish actor so yeah give that a whirl uh also this other one i mentioned it before i don't know if you're sorry it's called death by lightning sounds like a boring title i'm sorry a boring topic it's about the assassination of president james garfield and this guy who was friendly with him at first then ended up assassinating him spoiler alert it's out there it's history but uh matthew mcfadyan from succession michael shannon and uh betty gilman awesome awesome show man like you put it on you don't think you're gonna be into it but it's just this crazy part of american history really enjoyed that uh and also boys i dug into the i started digging into the harry potter movies which i never did because the book come out when i was like 25 the first one the movie come out when i was like 29 just wasn't my wheelhouse i certainly wasn't a target audience but i started digging into that movie down i really enjoy it looking forward to whacking out the next seven over the rest of the summer here just you know there's there's eight harry potter movies yeah there's eight holy shit i was like holy shit but you know i'm better who uh yeah i was like something like twitter over there keith but yeah i think i'll just watch that dvd where it got me or dan got me exactly and my classic recommendation for the week it's called in bruges it's i n b r u g e s 2008 movie with colin farrell and brendan gleason you probably remember them from the uh banshees of uh they play two headman they hold up in bruges uh belgium it's a fantastic doc comedy same guy who did write and she's a Vinnie Sharon in the three billboards outside of Ebbing, Missouri, if you saw that movie a few years ago. So, yeah, in Bruges, awesome flick, Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, give it a look-see if you can find it. R.A., I watched The Treasure of the Sierra, Madrid. You did? No. You motherfucker. Actually, well, G texted me earlier asking what the name of it was, so I don't know if that's a set-up. That's why, yeah. So you can, like, sock me out with a shitty sock, or, like, if it was actually legit. I will give it a shot. Which one? The black and white one? Like, see. Oh, that's the black and white one? No. No. See, this drives me fucking crazy. No, I know, and I can understand why it drives you crazy. It's a great movie. Trust me, you won't care. Great movie, I know. But I love It's a Wonderful Life, and that's black and white, so. Well, there you go. It's just, it's just. R.A., the plot, we were reading the plot of the movie. It sounds unbelievable. Yeah. I feel like they should. I feel like they should do a remake of it, in color. See, we should make a deal right now that we'll watch it. Okay. Which movie? On the flight over the pond. The black and white one that he recommended last week. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, what Humphrey Bowe got. Like, what is, let me ask, what is it about the black and white that just makes you just tune the F out right away? I'd rather do black and white than subtitles. I love subtitles. I just got into subtitles. Subtitles are game-changing, but now I do have to watch everything but Subtitles. I know, seriously. They're just there. But seriously, what is it about the black and white that makes, like, you just not want to watch? I just don't understand. I think it's the equivalent of, like, when I show my kids movies that we watched growing up, and then they're like, oh my God, this seems so old. Or how about a clip of me skating in 2007, and you're like, what? On the OLN network. Is that slow motion? Nah. Well, that's a bummer. Boys, how many more recommendations do you got? Because I got a very, very big surprise guest for R.A.'s World. Let's do it. The owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, Tom Dundon, is going to be joining us right now. Oh, wow. How fucking sick is that? Holy shit. How did you line this up? I have no idea. I feel like he's fucking with us. I'm going to go fill up my wine glass, because I think this might be real good. All right. Are you putting a little wine in there? Yeah. We'll keep it rolling. You're having some wine. Yeah, a little vino. What's wrong with that? I love that. I would have had some if I knew you were having some. Well, go grab a glass. We're about to interview the fucking owner of the Carolina Hurricanes. All right. So, all right. Glass of rouge for Mr. Dundon. Thanks for doing this. You're actually the first ever owner to be featured on R.A.'s World, the backboard podcast. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you having me. Great having you here. Yeah. Thank you. Witt's just grabbing a glass of wine, because this was unexpected. We already interviewed Keaton Barry. He's going to be a top 10 pick, so we can just start snapping around now, man. Congratulations on everything. Unreal. What a whirlwind the last, what, two weeks now. Yeah, no. It's been unbelievable. So, thank you. I mean, what's it been like the last couple weeks? Just like the finals and the nerves and everything. You know, it's weird, because the losing just fucking sucks, right? Yeah. But the winging is more like a relief. Yeah. So, I wish. I was, I might, maybe I need drugs or something to get as much high as I get from the lows of losing, because it's, like I say, I'm more just, I was fucking tired of losing, and you get embarrassed, you know? It's like, you think you got a good plan, and it doesn't work, and then you start wondering what you're doing wrong, and I don't know. A lot of times, teams are quitting on coaches, and I saw you just said, Rod Brindamore has a job for life here, and in all that time of you being pissed off, and like, what do we need to change? He was never even a thought. He was never even a thought, right? He was your guy. No, absolutely. Yeah. Like, I don't get sports in the sense that they want to always looking for someone to blame, and, you know, I get criticized for being involved, but because I'm involved, I kind of know whose fault it is, and it's usually Hanley, it's usually mine, and so I don't know how I could blame him if I see what a great job he's doing, and sometimes you just lose sometimes, you know? But it wasn't, it was never his fault. Matter of fact, I imagine. Um. We wouldn't have, I know we wouldn't have all the success without him, so yeah, he's, I, when I hired him, my thought with him was like, you're going to do this, we'll do this together as long as they listen to you, and you'll know before I do if they stop listening, and they hadn't stopped listening to him, and they still love him, and as long as that's the case, then I'm lucky to have him. How happy were you for a guy like Jordan Stahl, for what he's done for your organization, a guy that, you know. When you think of the Carolina Hurricanes, you think of Rod Brindamore, and you think of Jordan Stahl, like how happy were you for him, obviously winning the cup, and winning the con smite, and being the captain of that team? Yeah, it's kind of crazy the way it worked out with all those goals, and so, yeah, because he's, like, it's so cliche, because we talk about how good the locker room and how good the guys are, but these are like the best guys, and he's one of, like, the nicest human beings you've ever met, and just, although I've been a little surprised with how much sort of charisma and. And, you know, how much fun he's had, because, you know, a few years ago, you know, Willie started the storm surge we did, because the Hurricanes were boring, right, and I was like, we need to do something, and they came up with this, and then Willie left, and some of the guys that started it left, and Jordan, I remember Jordan saying, he goes, he says, Tom, how long do we have to keep doing skits? Skits. I think we were, we were at times applauding, at times. Carving it a little bit. Yeah, of course, yeah, but, so, and what can I say, right, Jordan Stahl is like, fuck, how long do we have to do skits, and he just totally disarmed me, I'm like, I guess, no, I like to appreciate it when you do it, but you don't have to do anything, and so, so to go from the guy who was like, how long do I got to do skits, to watching him up there, you know, with all this personality, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't know he could score that many goals, and I damn sure didn't know he had this much charisma. I bet you had no problem doing it on stage, though, at the, at the rally you guys had. Yeah, he was, he was doing the, the, I forget, the Jordan Stahl, you know, the whole thing, he's marching up there, he's been awesome, like, he's, he's, he's a special guy, but the way he's kind of become the face of it all is pretty cool. So when, was it actually you saying, hey guys, I think we're a little boring, and then Justin Williams came up with the idea, we should do this thing after games? Yeah, so, so. You know, yeah, I mean, we were, I mean, let's be honest, right, it was kind of embarrassing, like, I remember when I bought the team, my kids were like, you bought the Carolina Hurricanes, you're kind of a scrub, you know, like, they're making fun of you, and when I, when I first heard about it, I thought they were in Charlotte, so, like, I wasn't, you know, I wasn't, you know, you buy a pro sports team, you think that's pretty cool, but at the time, it wasn't, it wasn't that great, and I knew we would change it, you know, but my whole point was we're in the entertainment business. We're in the entertainment business, right, fans pay a lot of money, it's how the players make money, we got to entertain them, we got to give them, people like winning, right, you, you win, people like it, we weren't going to be doing a ton of winning in the beginning, and so, as we started to turn that around, you know, what else could we do, and we were just trying to come up with different ideas, and, you know, we're moving fans down, and I made them turn the music up, and I got killed for that, because, you know, the old people don't like it loud, and so we're, you know, we're trying to do things, and just kind of talking to Willie about it a little bit. And I go to the first game of that season, we hired Rod, and they won, so I was going to go downstairs, say thank you to everybody before I headed home, and then I find out they do this deal, I knew nothing about it, like, I didn't tell them to do it, they came up with it, I had no idea. Now, after that, I'm like, can we give you some music, can we, you know, what can we do to help you, to help you coordinate this thing, but, yeah, I think, I don't know who came up with it, I think it was Willie, but they never officially said so. You said you didn't grow up with it. With a sports background, like, did you play at all, like, where did this competitive nature come from, where you're like, I fucking hate losing, was it just in business? Yeah, I mean, look, I played sports like everybody growing up, I was, you know, like, that's what I love to do, I play basketball every day of my life, just because it's fun, and you can compete, and I, like, when I had kids, I had to calm down, because I was, I'm not tough, but I'd be willing to fight you if you, if I want to, I just, I want to win so bad, it was unhealthy, and, and, uh, the, the hockey thing was just, I watched the Olympic team when I was, like, nine, ten years old, and the U.S. hockey team was, like, the biggest memory of my life, and so I, it's always like hockey, and I, I lived in Dallas, and the team came to Dallas when I was, like, in college, and so you, you know, you go spend five bucks and sneak into the upper deck, and that kind of stuff, and it wasn't that hard to get hockey tickets in Dallas, right, it wasn't, it was, they were, they were good, but it was still hockey in Dallas. Yeah. So I just, I just liked it, I don't know, I just enjoyed it. Can you compare the wins to anything in your business career, or some sort of other life achievement, or, or is this the pinnacle flyer right here? Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's so pandering and cheesy, but, you know, like, I really like my wife, and getting married to her was pretty cool, and kids is fucking awesome. Check the boxes, eh? And. Just in case she's listening. Just in case. And then, uh, and then, you know, being poor and getting rich is pretty fucking good, too, you know, it's hard to beat this one, you know, it's, this one's pretty good, and, and for all the reasons, you know, Roddy, you know, you love the people, and. it's just it's hard to describe how how happy it can make you when life's pretty good otherwise but this was the thing that was like i don't know what i would do if we had never won you we talk about how involved you are was like broad like were you in the interview process and you're like this is our guy we don't need to go anywhere else is our guy yeah you know so when i so i i showed up in like january and i've been watching this nonsense and i don't know if you guys you probably played against them it's fucking embarrassing right to watch the way the team played and they knew they were gonna lose and and like i remember watching like from afar as i was buying the team like when they played like pittsburgh or washington they might be tied or up one in the third and the other team you know it was like okay enough with you kids and they would just beat us and the culture was just the coach wanted to win two to one i like the coach by the way so i'm not insulting anybody i'm saying it just didn't have that like it just didn't have that thing and so i i watched out for a while and that didn't do it for me and so i knew we had to make some changes and really just change the belief system and rod was an assistant coach and i walked into that um locker room when they were like showing me around and you know i remember forget he's sitting at the desk at the coach's office and the coach's office and he's like what's going on and i'm like oh my god i'm the locker room was disgusting he was like a high school locker room and he turns at that big square jaw and looks at me and i was a little like startled for a second like a little intimidated and i was like man this guy's got a presence right in my brain i was like this guy's got a presence well then everybody says all these nice things about this guy now he's the assistant coach of a terror team right so i'm thinking i want everybody out of here right like the losing stench is like fuck i couldn't do it and then i keep thinking about it and i'm like oh my god i'm hearing what a great guy he is and and you know i start talking everybody trainers staff equipment people you know like parlors i have this reputation is i literally talk to every single scout every single person and the only thing that i came away from that was really good there was everybody respected this guy right and even those there was things that needed to change and then when i talked to roddy about what needed to change he would never say anything bad about anybody he would just say the right thing you're asking the right questions you'll figure it out right which was code for you know this place is shit and then they had the old man's game and fucking rod's team won every year and i like that shit right so every year rod's team would win i'm like i kind of like this guy so i hear all these good things and and then uh we get to the end of the year i only talked to one other coach a guy rod you know rod recommended i talked to another coach which i thought that was pretty cool like he won't say anything bad about anybody everybody loves this guy and he was convinced he could do it right he was like well i was like you know i i don't know about taking the risk on a guy that's never coached before like i had no idea if you could do it i just know you're a good dude and he says he was like they fucking love me in raleigh like i got more risk than you because if i screw this up like i'm i'm a hero around here how to maybe laugh i'm like okay so and so yeah i just i just hired him like i didn't let's be honest if i knew he was this good on our you know like i didn't know i didn't know he i literally think he i've said this before but of all the thousands of people i've hired that i've worked with he's number one by far wow it's uncanny how good he is at this and uh if i i wish i knew i wish i i wish i had figured it out but i didn't know yeah it's a it's it's an incredible story because it was the exact opposite of them for us playing coach days and hating him as a coach because then he does it again you know it's it's a great story but you've mentioned a couple times on needing things to change so when you bought the team you often hear like wow this guy's looking to make a big impact right away kind of through the grapevine right and you were looking at everything you say you talk to every scout you talk to everyone that was your go-to from the beginning like i'm going to be super involved like i i'm not just buying this team like i'm in this thing and because of that always upfront and honest with like all the employees of the team yeah i mean i look i i think i know more about the 2018 draft than any human because i read every scouting report in the internet and our and it's just and i i've just you know when you get when you like everybody if you get really interested in something you can accomplish more than if you're just kind of passing by and i just wanted to learn and i just wanted to understand it i never thought i could i never thought i could watch a player and know more than you guys and i just wanted to learn and i just know or somebody that you know like that would be stupid but if i read information from people who know players i think i can accumulate that information and you know be sort of unemotional about it but so yeah i knew i was going to be involved and um like i say probably more than i should be and i'm less involved now because the people are just better at it yeah delegate yeah but yeah i i um i definitely wanted like the first thing i did i talked to this tippet who was a friend of guy brendan morrow that i played golf with in dallas and tippet tells me about jordan martin up and so we trade for that guy because i wanted a guy with some heart you know that was your first trade you made didn't wasn't it yeah it was our first thing we did and we um and then i was going to do something you know um i remember uh talking to um that pat brisson the agent great guy and he we had a mutual friend somehow and i called him i'm like well what about you know tavaris was a free agent i'm like well what about tavaris he's like tom he's not going to fucking carolina what damn okay that's reaching out you're asking yeah and it was like we wouldn't even get a we wouldn't even get a sniff or things like that back then but now i now we get we get our shot at these guys so so at that point when you hear that you're probably like like the fact that people are like wouldn't even consider us like that just makes you even more competitive to completely change everything around now my next question is what lab did you build eric tulsky in yeah great question yeah so he was there right like so he was in the room as like a analytics guy i'm not sure how much everybody listened to him um because you know how hockey is and just life is right like and you've seen him he's a nerd right and i tell him that i don't mean that as an insult either it's a fucking compliment i wish i was that smart yep um i also said the best looking guy in the carolinas like he's the sexiest man in the carolinas he's got that unique look to him right he does have a unique look i worried he did a podcast the other day and i was like man we got to work on the fucking lighting for you although it's get him a spray tan like wit yeah hey i do it for a living and i still hear that so we can't blame tulsky he's only he's doing math all day how's he supposed to get ready to do a podcast that's right he's not doing a lot of sun that's true but he um yeah he was here and he you know what he does is is there's just no emotion to the analysis of the players so you have at least and if anybody in hockey thinks that they're not emotional they're just naive or lying because i am you are we all are you know like there's some of our guys that i wouldn't trade for anybody and just because it's like there's this relationship that that i wish i could tell you didn't exist when it came to business but it just does and you know he's a lot better at you know doing sort of some of the analysis and and and turning it into the facts now you may ignore some of those facts because of culture toughness fit character but you at least know what the facts are every time we make a decision yeah so knowing how competitive you are now and me admitting to you i said uh they need a superstar they need like a game breaker and all of a sudden last year the rontan and deal happens so i imagine that you know when you find out he doesn't want to sign there you you're you're probably pretty pissed off you you tell us but it's more about getting guys there and then showing them how amazing it is to live there and play there which i'm guessing was part of it like he's gonna see this group and how nice it is in raleigh but i'm kind of all over the place take us through that whole situation oh yeah that you must have been like what the fuck are we and then you get he's unbelievable it's just crazy story yeah no i mean clearly we got lucky the way this turned out um yeah i never we i never experienced someone that once they get there didn't love it and i you know like say it's the guys in rod and and we you know i think we treat the players really well and and uh they treat each other well and we win we fucking win all the time i heard it was the 80 bucks for parking that's just don't by the way i looked at the numbers i we average like 40 i don't know who got the other four yeah i just fucking i fucking wish next year um yeah i did if people will pay it take it out of marty's paycheck exactly no it was only yeah i got i went at 40 but i gotta find out what i gotta find out where the rest of that money is um but yeah i didn't i wasn't upset with him at all i actually thought the fact that they gave us multiple team it's not for everybody right like we're i i i was i get it right he wasn't expecting to get traded he loved it there i think he got blindsided candidly and you know then the the world championship started and by the way the first couple games him and aho are murdering people and can't score like the the analytics on those couple games were crazy and they just didn't score. And I think it all just sort of snowballed, but I, I don't go through, I'm not, I'm not vindictive. I don't hold grudges. I kind of feel like life's too short and I'm not, now I got some people that I'm not probably going to give the benefit of the doubt to if it, if I were in a certain situation, but I'm not going to try to go out and hurt anybody or, you know, I've never said anything bad about some of the people that maybe didn't get along with us or me. Um, but he was in a really tough spot and, you know, it all worked out. And if we tell you, we thought Stan Coven was as good, we're lying, but we wanted him because he's, we wanted him, but we didn't know, like we, we didn't know he's going to play center. Yeah. Uh, I was just going to ask you, and it's kind of a question I've always wondered, like who gets to design the ring? Is it something that you have your hands in on, or is it, you know, you, you, you seem like a great delegator. You have somebody else do it, or is this kind of one of your passions? So I'm in the middle of it now. We're, we're working on it. I was actually frustrated that I didn't get a turn today. I showed the guys after the parade, I took them in just to thank everybody for five minutes. Like I don't ever address the team. When we first bought the team, I, I, we went in there, introduced myself and I'm in essence, like, Hey, we're not good enough. I'm, we're going to get better. You know, the cheesy normal thing you have to do. And I know, I think I've probably talked to the whole team one other time. I don't even remember what it was about. It was probably about something that wasn't, um, me like telling them let's go boys, you know, it was like some business thing. But so after the, after the parade, I brought them in and, and, uh, they had made us a little two minute video of some of the fun stuff. And then we, we got to figure out an airplane for next year. Do we buy one? Do we charter? And then we got to figure out the rings and then the cup moves around and there's a schedule with us. I was just kind of like, thank everybody. And here's the stuff we got to figure out. And showed them a couple of things on the rings and said, look, we're going to send you stats and sayings. You tell us what you want on there and we'll, we'll design it up and do it. But like, I'm not, I don't think I know how to design a ring. I think that's people that know how to do it. And then, you know, Willie Willie's real involved. Justin Williams real involved with, with the organizations turned into a good buddy. And what you guys did to him, was it right? A few years back, but he shanked it on the 17th hole. He's chirping about the bagger. The fact that I didn't get the calls bullshit, but I think you probably won my reputation is why I didn't get it. Cause we went up, we would definitely not have lost to you guys. Well, you mentioned golf with Brendan Morrow. We'll bring the SPF a hundred. You'll be done. Playing a simulator. Yeah. That's probably funny. I'd like to see him play golf, but, but yeah. We had an owner and a sandbagger though. That's next level. That's, we could set this up. Yeah, for sure. We could set this up. You know what we could do is we could do this. We could do this. We could do you and Ryan Smith. Cause he loves to golf too. We'll do an owner edition. No Smith. He's better. So I played in this AT&T pebble beach thing with Ryan about five, six years ago. And he's hit a 20 by me. I don't want to play with him again. Like I, he's good. Y'all play with him. No, I heard he's, I heard he's nasty. Oh yeah. I mean, Clayton Keller go around swindling people on the golf course together. It's an owner player. He's he's real, but no, the ring thing, Willie told me I got to surprise him. So I wanted to get them all involved. Like, what do you want to do? And now he's like, no, you got to throw it out. I'm like at dinner one night. So now you own also the Portland trailblazers as well. And you mentioned you played basketball every day growing up. Like, did you ever think that that was going to be a possibility when you bought the, the hurricanes? Was it kind of always the first dream to own an NBA team? How has that all gone? Yeah. So I tried to buy NBA before NHL and I, I didn't get it done. And then that's how I ended up with the, this team is the banker. When I kept failing. He called me. He was like, I can sell you, I can get you a team. And I said, I thought they were in Charlotte. I didn't know they were Raleigh. He was like, I get you a team. It's Carolina hurricanes. I'm like, what? And, uh, I guess they had a sale fall through. And so they call me and, and so I ended up doing it like quickly, pretty quickly. That's crazy. I got the, I got this hockey team. You might want, you're like, what the hell is that? He didn't even know the city. I had no idea. I thought it's like unbelievable. How much was it? Four 20. Oh, what a bar goon. Eight years ago is four. What a bar goon. Yeah. Well, they were losing, they were losing like 20 million a year. And so I remember talking to my wife saying, you know, like I probably fix this thing, get it down to losing five, seven, 10 million bucks a year, but I'm going to be feeding this thing. And she's like, well, but if you love it, right. Just who, you know, whatever, just, but I never thought it could make, I never thought this. Like I thought, I thought you'd be feeding it and just like, Hey, look at me. I want a sports team. So don't tell anybody you're losing money. All right. You can't bitch about alimony payments. This guy was leaking oil, fucking 20 sheets from the start. I'll be bitching about it for the next 12 years, buddy. It sounds like a bad thing to spend your money on. Hey, what are you, what are you got? All right. I know. I want to mention, you know, like we, we just obviously found out through the Brady Kachuk trade that your place is one of his destinations to, that he'd be willing to be traded to. And I feel like there's, there has been a shift, obviously with one of the Stanley cup. Now, does it feel like guys would be more likely to be traded to come down there? Because I've been down to a couple of games. I was at your outdoor game a couple of years ago and I went down with a friend a few years. It's a, it's a wonderful place to play. It might not be the big bustling city that guys maybe are used to, but I could see the appeal of playing in a place like that, where it's a little more low key. You might know your neighbors a lot more, but do you feel that you guys are becoming much more of a destination now than say five years ago? Yeah, it feels like it. I mean, we're definitely on the list and like, I, I think obviously these get y'all talk to each other. Right. And I think people know they get treated good I think winnings it, you know, I don't think anybody wanted to play in Florida or Carolina when we sucked. And now I did the winnings, most of it, but yeah, I mean, if you, you can join an unbelievable golf course by a great house, everybody's nice. There's not that much traffic. All the cities have cool restaurants now, you know, 20 years ago, I'd have to go to New York if you want to go to a cool restaurant. Now everybody's got it. So yeah, I think, I think there's enough for the young guys if they want to go out and do their thing. I mean, it's not not like some places, but it's okay. And it's good enough. And the girls are pretty, I hear. Oh yeah. Then, then if you want to have a family, I it's, it's, it'd be hard to beat it. I'm not saying there's not other great places, but it's pretty good. And I think as far as the rings, 16 and three seems to be a no brainer to put on one of the inscriptions. Pretty good. It's insane. It's crazy too. I was, my, my son was on YouTube and he, my, I have a little 10 year old and he was, he was just on. I started watching it and you see how many good things he's done. Good things have to go your way to do 16 and three, right? Like it's, yeah, it's crazy. How do we win that? If, uh, if I'm curious, cause you mentioned earlier, like, uh, being poor and then being rich is pretty nice as well as winning the Stanley cup. What did you do? What is your business to gain the wealth, to own the hurricanes and now the trailblazers? So I did car loans. Like when I graduated from college, I didn't have a job and, and, uh, I wasn't doing, I wasn't doing anything special. And a friend, a friend of mine worked at this car place and they paid money. So I went over there and, and then sort of left that to start a business, to sell things to carpet car dealers. And one thing led to another is a bunch of really good luck and good fortune, but we'd like started at a kitchen table with no plan. This is the internet. It wasn't really around then, right? Like, and, uh, Were you good with the internet when it came around though? It was that big aspect of the success. I was good with the data. I was good with, with, um, not being emotional about the odds, right? Everything was about the odds. If, if someone was going to pay you back, they got a really low price. And if someone was less likely to pay you back, they got a higher price. And we were good at figuring out that math, right? The business is a really small margin, big volume business. So you just have to have the data and the math, right? And, um, I was always, I was always better than most at that part. Not to pump our own tires, but this is pretty fucking awesome. Isn't it? This is incredible. Well, you're, yeah, you're very, you're very open with like the, the team and your business and I think hurricanes fans probably appreciate that. Like you see tailgates. It's, uh, it's, it's, it's awesome. What's happened there. It's, it's really pretty cause I don't think it's going away. Right. And they had the years where they won and then it went away and now it just seems to be ripping. It's incredible. And it's cool to hear an owner. So down to earth, like this is cool. Like Ryan Smith, you like, it's cool to get to talk to you guys and how you guys have ran your ships and made the right move. And it's a, it's, it's all coming to fruition or it all has another one for you. Cause you mentioned you're involved. If, if Tulsky, uh, here's of a dealer is talking to somebody, he's calling you or is it kind of at the end? Are you, are you having your say within the deal between acquiring a player, signing a player? Cause we've talked to contracts for Jason Blake, Jason, that's his dad, Jackson Blake and, and Logan Stanko. And it's, it's amazing work. How involved with that are you? Yeah. I mean, Tulsky and I talk a lot and and, uh, cause I'm my, I'm just pushing, right? Like you get a young kid that we like, get them done. How do we get it done? Like figure it out, just get it done. He's, he's much better at figuring out what the exact numbers should be. And my whole thing is we got a cap and if we, I'm happy to spend it all. I don't care. I just want to win. But the more things you can fit in the cap, the better your team. And so, yeah, we're, I'm probably pushing him harder than most to, I fucking hate it. If there's a trade and we weren't in on it, or, you know, how did this people find this player? And I'll go back and read the Sky reports. Like what are we missing well you know i'm just pushing but i'm not like i'm not on the phone with figuring out jackson blake's exact number you know i just want to make sure just get it done as soon as we can does this tall ski ever hit you with like a late night meme text or like a like a hey yo you up yeah very any kid die he doesn't really sleep i wonder i like he's like i'm i'm going i'm happy to go all the time and he sleeps less than i do so i don't know when he actually sleeps so yeah he's never he's always available which one of the things i like about him does he ever joke around is he ever like like all of a sudden he's like hey do you ever like anything off the beaten path or is he always not funny no he's not funny flip the robot switch like off for a sec he makes a joke he's actually easy to talk to and like but it's a little more you know and like if he's gonna if he if he's gonna call an agent or or gm he'll like kind of practice on me sometimes and he i'm like i'm like you know the shit like what are you worried about just fucking call him you know he's like i'm literally yeah but he plans on you maybe snapping on him the way another gm would so it's more realistic hey tom i'm literally gonna bend this agent over can i practice on you yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna offer jackson blake 6.1 million and he's gonna take it five no i'm like six that's a lot yeah but he wasn't you know when it doesn't happen right like when these guys don't develop you know no one remembers those stories so i i like the ones where it does work and where you feel bad you're like oh how i get this guy some more dough you know he's so good so we they made a lot of money for winning the cup though they all got a good check well he did pull off the first ever signing during a parade if i'm not mistaken that was pretty good that was that guy's awesome yeah it was pretty wild stuff go ahead sorry oh no i was just gonna say um as somebody who um seems to watch their spending and is frivolous is that the word how excited were you when you won a stanley cup and you were still 11 million dollars under the salary cap no it's crazy we try to spend it a bunch of times um i never ever look at the money like i just to me everything's about is this right or wrong you know are you being responsible the i didn't even know how much the hurricanes made for years until i sold a piece of the hurricanes to buy a part of the nba team and so then i that was the first time i even knew that that what the what the what the actual when you added it up what it was so i never really added up i just you know i think i a lot of what people say about me makes me laugh and my kids will pull it up on the internet and make fun of me and stuff so it's like you you know you can't do anything about people can say and do whatever they want to say and do like what like when you took the t-shirts away from the portland trailblazer fans we didn't take anything away from anybody but yeah i think i anyway the t-shirt thing is weird to me oh no i'm just bringing it up because like yeah like it must frustrate you as an owner when you see stuff online you're like oh it's not true but i'm not gonna waste my time and energy defending everything but his kids chirp him that's great it's unreal yeah i don't i don't um i probably should defend myself some but sometimes it just makes it more of a story and what really good does it do i get to own the fucking pro hockey team and a pro basketball team and like my life's pretty good like if some people want to have their keyboard and write shit if that brings them joy like fuck i'll be there you know they can use me as their you know outlet i don't boys he gets the kids together he's like hey i got some good and bad news the good news is we signed the biggest free agent on the market the bad news you ain't getting any fucking christmas presents this year yeah okay anything i spend i just don't have to give to them so it's like free for me everything that's unreal um aside from like the financial side of it um uh you talk about like the relationship with players like who are some of your most fun ones like maybe your unsung hero and maybe talk even about this run in particular like who are the guys you're like ah he stepped up here in your most memorable moment and i'm like i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't i need the bussy story and the waver wire when you when you grab me you're like you're like you're like oh okay eric who's this guy well no i was so we liked bussy in the summer we end up trading for primo when i say we like them i'm saying what they what i read they write down okay so they write down we like primo we like bussy there's some other guy they like and i know the name i just don't want to say it because not on team and uh and so we end up trading for primo and then i'm nervous as shit that someone's you know i want to have a a good third goalie because you never know and you know freddy's freddy's um me's been up and down and he's getting older and i was like i don't want to be in this situation we got a good team and so we have this whole debate when you put them on waivers you wait till the last day literally we spent hours and hours fucking strategizing about waivers on a goalie and i'm just like fuck it the first good goalie that goes on waivers i got 10 million of cap space just pick them up and i'm like i don't want to be in this situation we got a good team so we pick up bussy and they're telling them hey just chill wherever you are we may not need you to actually we're going to send you back where you were we just need to get our guy primo through waivers and then toronto takes primos we're like congratulations you know come on but now we're carrying three goalies and wasn't the plan right we just i was so scared we weren't going to get our goalie through waivers and he ended up not getting through and uh so then the rest of it's dumb luck right like who knew this guy would win every damn game and he's such a nice person and and uh you know it's like good things happen to good people for sure with this guy well you said that like he's a nice person i feel like that's the whole roster yeah we worked a slave and after like that's the type of guy you want in your community and representing your organization and that like i said goes top to bottom yeah like i say i'm a little it's it's it's probably a little sentimental but like guys like that like he was never playing anywhere else dude when you asked about the gummy i almost lost it like if you know this guy like he's as good as he looks like he is as a human he's ned flanders there's nothing wrong with him he's the best human being and it's all so genuine and legit and like when when we could sign him last year he's just like this is what i think's fair it took five minutes done like it was it was it was so easy and like you would never he's got a no mood clause because i wouldn't trade him anyway so what do i care and you know like when you ask about some of the players like i met spets when he's 18 and so like that's the first person we drafted my daughter was up on stage announced his name and and so i tell my youngest i have a 10 year old but you know he was two or whatever we drafted spets always tell him spets is his brother like oh that's your older brother you know when he was little so yeah there's a bunch of them aho's been here since i got here um i mean and you know aho call me he's like we need to get this guy like he's in right these guys are in if we're trying to recruit somebody like i remember it's like fourth of july last year and you don't know about fourth of july in finland i'm like oh you need to call healers you know like and he's like working no way he said that to you before you guys ever talked to him what's that he had said to you you like partly him being like go go the other way around asked him to call you or sorry sorry sorry yeah yeah yeah i was like what the hell these guys are on it like during the trade deadline i didn't listen to him this year but they'll call me like hey we need toughness we need this we need that and i'm and i was like all the guys this year they're not as good as the guys we got like if we and they were rod made a comment about how everybody was disappointed we didn't make a trade of the trade deadline and and i wanted to but there was just nobody well they're all really so i'm not insulting anybody but i think ours were better okay so that goes back to so will you maybe start hearing rumblings about like even i would have said ah i don't know if you can trust stank stankhoven as your second line center this is first full year at center does that noise creep in and like you said that oh like you tried to acquire like i know like uh troach was a name that was coming up at what point were you guys like no let's just like trust and trust and what we have those both are true we did look at certain things at a certain price and we were willing to do certain things i also call i remember calling stan coven because you watch he's a kid right when stan coven got traded he lived like a mile from me and gillardy the dallas stars owner was his junior coach i mean his junior owner and this kid grew up with all these they have a bunch of great draft kids these guys all came up together and you know you're changing these people's lives that was a pretty good place to live and i you kind of feel a little guilty right you just ripped this kid out of his and so we're putting him on a flight so i went and picked this kid up to take the airport because i felt so guilty he's calling his mom and like they're making plans and so like you you want it to all work out right you wanted to get here and be happy and and uh you know things aren't going in for him so i like you know you hear all this stuff so i go to tolski i'm like okay show me well if you looked at the players that had played 50 games and had the expected results versus the actual results that this kid had he's unluckiest guy on the planet and so I remember calling him and I went through this data I said look of all the players that look like you 95% of them it turns around over the next 50 games just don't it's no big you don't have to worry about it he's actually crushing it but the world didn't know it because he's small he's young and they weren't going in now I didn't know he'd score like nine goals you know like I'm not saying it should have gone that far but we were pretty confident that there wasn't better there's other good players out there but there wasn't better players than this kid that you could just go get that that's pretty cool because I feel like back in at least when I started playing if I would you know you're not getting points as an offensive defenseman or you're not getting on the stat sheet you were you were probably catching some heat whereas in your organization it's like no we're looking at the numbers like you are playing great which that's a dream to hear as a player who isn't scoring or producing I've had that conversation with Svets more than once over eight years too same thing because he's so hard on himself he's kids so competitive and all of them are but you're right in hockey it's this culture of results it's the same reason when we lose I don't blame Rod it's you know when the process is right like I know when the game starts they're all trying their best like that we have we play kind of violent in our own way like those things matter the result you know Rod got criticized for saying we didn't get swept like three years ago because I knew what he meant you all knew what he meant but it's easy for people with their keyboards to insult the guy right did you insult him I think I was just laughing like I know they got swept broad but yeah I mean he used I never did insult him I didn't insult him no chance probably the wrong choice of words but when you go back and look at we've played like 20 playoff series now that was the second or third biggest gap between us and the other team in terms of expected goals but they won and you know it would be hard to think you should do something different if you understand that those games were 80 probability games and we lost them all if we put our it's like the US Canada game you think if they played that 10 more times that results gonna keep going like wow I love that no say it again yeah well it's true they all know it I mean it it was a bloodbath and they just didn't win and so whenever that happens to us I I don't get mad well I get mad I freak out I freaked out on Tulskie earlier this year because we have like four games out of six where we didn't out chance the other team now slaving and all these guys were out but I don't give a shit like I just like fuck that's that's life right and we got out chanced or we were neutral or out chance like four out of six games for the first time in eight years and I couldn't get out of it and I couldn't get out of it and I couldn't sleep at night I was and we won like three of them you know like we're doing fine but that shit drives me crazy if we're not better than the other I want to out chance them every okay I get all right take us through barbachev runs into freddie anderson he's on this epic run and then bussy comes in the most incredible comeback but it ends in heartbreak for you guys what are you thinking about who's starting the next game how like you got to be like at that point in the season what's going on here how's freddie feeling what are we doing so so I'm I'm real involved but not with rod like not on because I'm so fucking nervous that what if I say play bussy and he loses like I don't want anything to do with it so um so I didn't know what they were going to do and it's raw like like and rod trust a goalie coach but um I thought well I knew I knew freddie's knee was I knew what they were going to do just because of the injury more than anything else it's funny because that night we got down I went to vegas and I was like I'm not going to vegas I'd never go to away games I go to vegas and we get we're getting murdered so I left so I left at the end of the second period and I was pissed off I'm going back to dallas fuck this and uh so I'm on the plane and we're taxiing and we score four goals you left that game I left that game that's funny line and uh and so yeah and then we lost anyway so it worked out I got dead by one instead of three but yeah I'm even see it did you think that like chances were they were gonna even if um anderson could go that they would have gone with bussy yeah I I anderson was unbelievable for so long but I think going into the playoffs the first game we would if he would have had one just okay game he would have gone with bussy I mean they they trusted the guy it was it the odds that we would have had those first 13 games go whatever it was 12 and 1 and and not change goalies I would not have taken that bet right it was I was certain they were gonna play both goalies so the fact that it took that long that was a surprise probably to everybody are you sitting alone during the games like in the finals at home are you sitting there dialing are you are you looking like the uh george george mcphee and kelly mccrimmon were remember in the vegas series they're going nuts for calls and goals are you calm no I'm I'm just nervous and uh you know it's half the time willie's sitting next to me I'm I don't like how a lot of people are I have my family and then you know if we have to take care of somebody like someone's a spot you know someone needs a space but I try not to fill it up I'm not drinking during games it's just too nervous I can't hardly eat um but yeah I'm bitching about refereeing and bad plays I'm but like to myself I'm not as demonstrative probably as I I haven't seen it but I heard in their booth it was pretty pretty loud I haven't seen that but no I'm I'm pretty this this like I don't this is fun because you guys do a good job and I think you're really good for hockey and but like I'm not trying to be like I don't I don't love the attention like I'm not the life of the party I don't I like to be with my wife and my couple friends and my kids and you know I don't really I wish I was more social and and out there like that but it would it's not my thing no and that's why we we really appreciate you doing this this is like this is unreal I never expected this much time from you my last one is um you kind of mentioned it when you got there you bought the team you know it was a little bit dead in the building the fans I went there for the conference finals this year against uh Montreal and I was blown away I don't know if it's the acoustics of the building but they are just every maybe missed call they're all standing up and mother effing the ref and they are so engaged and loud and not to take anything away from Montreal but I thought that they were a little bit more animated and crazy than Montreal fans so what do you say to them yeah I mean it's awesome like look they're out there you've seen it right they're out there getting hammered in the parking lot I'm sure that helps and then and then I agree it's the acoustics or something right it's an older building it's super small and then I think on top of that you know it's this self-fulfilling prophecy now we keep telling them how great they are and how loud they are and they get louder you know so I think this whole thing is it's super fun right because we don't have to we don't have to manufacture that you know like it's just there it's just part of it's just part of thing and the other thing that's really good is when we lose because we've lost seven straight years no one gets criticized they cheer for they cheer the team off the ice there's no nonsense like like I don't get the whole thing in sports where people take their heroes and then all of a sudden want to these guys want to win too right and so we don't have to deal with that I think that's the best part of it is there I never had one of my ever been said a bad word to nothing but they love them and they cheer for them and and I think that's a big thing living there and getting yeah there is that we earlier this episode we just talked about the differences of certain cities in the league uh all right we have we have to give you our promise we're sort of I think we're getting rings I'm telling the owner that but we own about 0.3 percent of the Greensboro Gargoyles the year did not go as planned but we're a part of the process right biz we're we're gonna have an Gargoyles player play for the Hurricanes at some point for sure it's easy to make our team call Rod that's a good logo that's pretty cool did you guys want to come up with that we were at that we were oh no we didn't come up with that but the people who really own the team came up with that but I was responsible for putting a guy named Doyle on the team because it's the same name as our mascot and I think he was minus six when I showed up to the game and you talk about those expected goals for uh not exactly in the positive no no are you turning around do you have a plan I think we have a Russian goalie you guys picked decently high that's pretty legit a nice prospect now I don't know he could have been traded this year we do have a plan though uh he's part of we're actually going to take all your players for next season yep and play them in the ECHL you're going to get ours though and they're going to be cheaper so that's good but we're taking all your players yeah we need we need uh we could use if you guys could find us one that'd be nice like my biggest pet peeve is when someone finds a player and it's not us so we need some we need some scouting reports and Rod has to coach all our home games I was just going to ask you quick you mentioned the arena being old like is there any plans of you building a new arena or anything in the works with that so we agreed a couple years ago to renovate the arena and then we have built in we're going to develop office and all this stuff around the arena and we're leaving a spot and we're going to be building a new arena and we're leaving a spot so my guess is this arena I'll get myself in trouble but it's got at least 10 years in it and maybe more but it doesn't have 30 so we'll probably to get on that um my guess is start thinking about it hard in about 10 years and at some point old and charming doesn't keep up and we got old and charming and we're making the best of it and it's fun right now but eventually we're gonna want awesome and new it is a terrific venue to watch a game though i will say that when you're inside the building the sight lines and everything we always get killed about the the uh locker rooms for the road so bad they fucking re-get them i was so pissed i went around yeah that was part of it you guys had yeah we were just brushed up in there and then getting buried by the wind it's nice now in there i don't know why we did that but yeah well they they made a lineup uh you gotta pick two guys three on three scramble our first owner sandbagger we come down there we go to the gargoyles game when we get you over there you could talk to the team that's okay we'll figure out the rides over in bobblehead night yeah i get willie never i get i get willie if i got with me and willie don't lose at anything i don't know just pick it you just all right it's not them where they keep score okay all right we appreciate you coming on congrats on everything it's an awesome story thanks uh and good luck to you good luck to you in the nba as well i got a piece in there that's awesome so congrats on everything thanks for joining all right guys thank you how about how's that for an r-raised world yeah wow exceeded expectations for sure biz yeah all of us great job getting uh air hoff aka verhoff and uh yeah that was uh it's cool to hear like what what's going on right yeah absolutely just a regular guy too like the f bombs flowing too those hurricanes fans hurricanes fans are gonna be just they're listening to that on repeat that is our apology to them forever doubting them maybe in years past criticizing moves yeah i believe that was matthew um but yeah i don't know where else to go from there boys great show all right you got anything else uh no just uh tonight the show dropping on tuesday i'm going to see the strokes across the street of the uh the garden nice i i last saw them at the joint and at the hard rock in vegas 20 years ago so i'm going with a bunch of pals tomorrow night very excited for it so awesome have fun since oasis uh not like a good rock concert to like rock out the world and get a good sweat in and yeah very cathartic stuff rock concerts for me unreal well deserved buddy love it all right um all right everyone thank you so much packed episode thank you to keaton verhoff thank you tom dundon unreal ra great seeing you boys we'll be back next week and and at that point oh no that'll be right before free agency okay so are we coming back on thursday or and no it's one this week yeah okay next time i talk to you guys i'll be in uh in jackson wyoming i'll be fly fishing my dick off candle with my new flishing lures me and gavin mckenna the first overall draft pick to the right hook toronto maple east right hook everyone have a great week love you all bye i bet have it worth breaking but it's taking time and i know you don't let it it's gonna happen it's gonna happen again you you