Week 2 - Part 2

[Music] 4P97, welcome back to the second half of week two's worth of material. Today we're going to have a guest lecture and I also want to remind you that you have two articles to read as you will be responding to in your critical engagement and your audio responses and you'll get your question for your audio response at the end of this lecture with Corey. So today we're going to be joined by Corey Locke, who is currently an assistant coach for the Guelph Storm, director of player and coach development for the Burlington City Rep Hockey Club. He's formerly a national hockey league player, an American hockey league player, a CHL player. He twice won the Red Telson Award, the league's most outstanding player in the OHL, I should say, two years in a row and had an absolutely prolific scoring career in the American hockey league as well as the Canadian hockey league. Perhaps most notably during his time in the CHL, Corey Locke scored 151 points in one season for the Ottawa 67 in 2002, 2003. A record that still stands to this day. He was drafted in the fourth round by the Montreal Canadians and the 2003 entry draft, 113 overall and had a long and distinguished professional career both in North America and internationally. We're going to start this week with Corey because it's an interesting sort of look at the way the professional hockey operates. Now we have a slideshow that demonstrates the various structures of the league and Corey's experiences are very quite unique in that he essentially has played in every single type of league that you can play in and he played at a very high level in all of them. So when you're listening to Corey's guest lecture here, certainly yes, he's got some wonderful experiences that he's willing to share with us, but also keep in mind the journey that he's went on and where he's at in his professional career right now. He's speaking to us as a 38-year-old who's trying to get his career on track as a coach and a director of player development, but keep in mind the long journey that hockey often takes us on. It's one of the more remarkable things about the professional hockey industry is this long and protracted journey that players can be taken on throughout their playing careers. And before we get started with Corey's guest lecture, I do want to again note that I've been listening to all the audio responses. I really appreciate listening to them and I really appreciate the work that you're putting into them. Make sure that you are making reference to the slides themselves to the guest lectures as well. That will of course affect the availability of your ability to be graded highly for these responses. So make sure you're made your responding to the course content and not simply may perhaps just sort of sharing your independent thoughts on this subject. No, those are welcome as well, but I do need you to ground them in the course materials when you are giving your audio responses. So with no further ado, here's a discussion that Corey and I had a couple weeks back about his playing career. Pointed by Corey Lock. Corey, thank you so much for joining us. Hey, thanks for having me. Corey, if you could, could you explain your position in what you do in hockey right now? Yeah, I'm the executive director of the Burlington Eagles hockey club in Burlington here. It's a nonprofit organization where we have roughly 36 teams from AAA AA and single A teams right from the ages of you seven all the way up to you 18. Fantastic. And if you could, could you give me an idea of what your first experience playing hockey was? What was your earliest memories playing the game? How'd you get involved in hockey? Well, my mom always tells a good story that I would want to play hockey when I was five years old. So they bought all equipment, signed me up for hockey and got dressed and they put me on the ice and I cried and I didn't want to play and they pulled me out and then that was it. And then the next year later, I asked to play again and they were a little reluctant to do it again as I went through it, but that I loved it. I guess it was a whole wonderful experience, but my mom and dad told me about one of the stories I was an offensive player when when I when I when I played, you know, through my junior career and professional career. But I guess my mom would say that I would go just stand by the net and I would just wait for the puck and I would never back check and I would never go out of the one end and the coaches would have to carry me like to put me in the right spot and I would just go right back to the net front. So I guess I knew where to score goals and I guess I had to learn the other side of the game as I got a little bit older. And you knew exactly where you were as a player from young age, right, age five or six for sure. I like scoring goals and I guess I knew where I had an act of being around the net to do that. When you were playing hockey, what point do you remember thinking yourself, you know, I'm pretty good at this. I might be able to do this for the rest of my life. You know, I think when you're a minor hockey, when you get to the round this you 16 triple A, you 18, age 15, 16, obviously the OHL is a big, a big goal and it's talked about because that's our, you know, the highest level you can play in Ontario for for junior hockey players and teenagers, I guess. So when I got drafted, I played a season of junior and a new market in my hometown and then I went off to auto on played and I would say in my second year I had a really good second year in the OHL 18 year old year and I think that was when it was like hey, maybe I could, you know, you know, the wish of just being a professional hockey player or playing at the highest level. That dream became a little bit more reality and more of a goal to be achieved than maybe just a wish as a childhood dream. And, and, and, or I think you're being a little modest, you know, maybe some of us here have had good years before you at 151 points in a season in junior that is far beyond a good year that is an outstanding like historically good year. Can you speak a little bit about how your life changed during that season that did it feel hockey has sort of shifted from you a little bit during that season. So my first year I went to Ottawa. I got hurt six games into the regular season. I took a clean clean body check. I probably weighed 150 pounds at that time and got hit by a guy that was 220 and a lot bigger than I was clean hit nothing wrong with the body check. I was just separating my shoulder and cracking my collarbone so as out six, six, seven weeks. So, you know, coming from junior A and then making the transition to the OHL. It's a big, it's a big step for anyone. And then I get hurt early on. I had a good start, but I just got hurt and it happens and, and, you know, I came back and I had a really strong finish and I think having a having like a strong finish to that season. I had a good playoff and that kind of gave me the confidence for next year and, and to be honest, and that 18 year old year, I think I connected with a teammate named Matt Foy. We had a great connection and we had such great chemistry and mother line me for the majority of their squad, Shepherd. And we had a fun time at sharing the pocket, wanting to produce offense, but not caring who scored and who that assists. It was just let's keep driving offense and trying to score as much as possible as a team and as a line. I think that's what things kind of took off and it was, you know, obviously really enjoyable year and, you know, had to get over some early setbacks. I think having some success later in my injury season led into a lot of confidence going into my 18 year old year. Also, I got to play under one of my good friends as Zen and Kanaka. He was a captain. He's a St. Catherine's Niagara on the lake. Boy, and he was a captain as when I was 17 and he was 20, he really took me under his wing even when I was hurt. He would he drove me places where you would hang out. You know, he I looked up to him and he was our leader. He was our kind of first line center and, you know, I just I wanted, you know, I learned a lot from him and I learned how much pride he took in playing for the 67s and being a leader and being a guy that. You know, you know, was carried on every night and that he know he I learned a lot from him and, you know, I tried to take that in because he left the following year and there's a there's a gap to be filled and I'm glad I was able to kind of fill those shoes. I started yeah believe even as you know, now works for the ice dogs perhaps even I think he's in currently the consultant. Yeah, that's in terms of learning how to be a professional. When do you feel like you first started to learn maybe you can take us through the draft process if that's a part of the answer this question, but was it during that 18 year old season when was the first time you started to feel like, you know what I am a pro hockey player at this point. Yeah, I played for an auto welcome back to auto I played for a legendary coach Brian Kilroy hockey hall of Famer and spent the majority of time coaching in the auto was 67s for, you know, 30 plus years and he treated you like a pro when you were when you're when you're 16 to 20 you really did, you know, he demanded you come to the rank and work and. and perform, but he might have gave you a little bit more leeway or outside the rink. That kind of made you have to grow up a lot quicker and make good decisions. So I think I learned it in junior, and then when I came into Pro, I think, with having a, I guess, a little bit more freedom through my junior experience, it kind of helped me, you know, become a pro a little bit quicker and understand, you know, what was needed and, you know, expectations and how to prepare and, you know, what to do to get myself ready and kind of help the team. So, you know, Brian Killer, I owe a lot to him 'cause, you know, he taught me how to be as consistent as possible. You know, he would always tell a story that he brought me in and said, hey, you gotta be as good. You know, we played on Friday nights and we got 10,000 fans at the time, and he said, you gotta be as good on a home night on Friday as you are on Sunday afternoon in a place like Brampton or that doesn't have very many fans. So, you know, he maybe is to be as consistent as possible. And I think that's one of the biggest things that, you know, if you wanna have some success in any professional career, you have to have some consistency and you gotta buy into what works and you gotta stay with it. So, I owe a lot to Brian Killer, for sure. - Take us through the process of the, when you were drafted. I mean, what was that like? I mean, you're a player and again, offensive dynamo. I mean, those are unbelievable numbers in junior. Did you expect to be drafted? You know, what was the draft process like? What was sort of the lesson that you learned coming out of the draft? - Do I remember, you know, everyone wants to be drafted. You know, everyone wants to hear their name called as permanent NHL club. And I was no different. I wanted a really good year going in my draft. But I was also in a very strong draft class. And where, you know, Central Scouty had me ranked is kind of exactly where I went. So, I can't really fault them for where I got drafted and, you know, they did their job. And they were probably, you know, I'd probably agree that they were banged on where they went. Obviously, I wish I would have went higher and maybe got some different opportunities because you go a little bit higher. But at the end of the day, you make your own opportunities. And, you know, the draft is, you hope someone calls your name, you hope someone takes a chance on you. And you hope that you can deliver on someone, you know, thinking that you can be a professional for that organization. And, you know, there's so many hockey players around the world now. There's so many countries that have improved their development programs and are producing high-end hockey players in the challenge to be drafted and the goal to get drafted and to achieve that. You're just fighting with more and more players around the world that have the same goal. And, you know, you gotta be, you have something special if these teams are taking a chance and trying to add you to their organization and their program. - Right, and this begins a very long and successful professional career in hockey. What was the first lesson you learned in sort of the, because we start to feel like a professional perhaps thanks to the guidance of Kilian Ottawa. But what's the first sort of like, wow, being a pro is sort of a different kind of step. What was the first time you started experiencing that after being drafted and maybe after moving out of junior? - Yeah, I think so, so my first year was a '04. I was drafted by Montreal Canines and their firm team was in Hamilton, Ontario here. So, kind of nice playing Ontario, close to home. My dad were around, came watching me a lot. My brother was around at the time and then a lot of buddies went to school and in Ontario and that were close that I could still see and maybe that I didn't get to see when I was in Ottawa. So it was kind of, I kind of lived the best, you know, best of both worlds where I could still see family and friends and play kind of close school and professionally. But that year was the lockout year. The lockout ended, it didn't end, sorry, and it went the whole season. And I think it was eye opening that year because there were so many guys that came down that would have been in the NHL, so many young stars. That would have came down in the reality of, wow, like, your playing for keeps now, like in junior. Kind of everyone's, you know, kind of in the same age group for the most part, 16 to 20. You go to school or you go to university, you do, you know, school visits, you do, you're doing something during the day, you're practicing at night. Some guys might have girlfriends, maybe not, but like, there's no wives, kids. You're not providing for a family back home. You're not paying for a mortgage, you're not doing those things. And I think once you get the pro and you see somebody older guys and some that are, you know, of veterans that have gone through and trying to keep their jobs and wanting to continue to play. And I think that was kind of eye opening was just, it was a different culture. It was just a different time and it was just a different situation where you made your grow up quickly. You had to learn quickly, you had to learn on the fly, no one kind of prepares you for this to be honest with you. You kind of just have to throw yourself in and learn how to do it. And I think it was just eye opening where there was so much talent in the league, but at the same time, everyone's playing for keeps and it becomes a job. It's a job and at the end of the day, hockey's a business. I'm sure you guys talk about this on a daily basis. It's a business and you have to perform whether your player coach GM, there's something that you always have to battle through and achieve in their pressures. - Absolutely. Can you speak up? You said mentioned that hockey is a business and you know, someone you're extremely experienced in the sort of business aspects of the hockey industry. Do you have any memories of the first time you really started to realize maybe it wasn't something that happened to you that maybe you saw around you? I mean, really sunk in that, wow, this is a nasty business. - I'm not so sure we're calling one thing. I know today with the salary cap, I think that's pretty crazy where you can't get called up because a team's overpaid other players and the management of money, it's kind of, I think that would be hard as a player being like, okay, there's opportunities sometimes, you know, I know, Vegas at one time had to play short because they just couldn't call anyone up. Like you're down on the miners, you're grinding, you're trying to perform, you're trying to give yourself that chance to get called up and you can't go because the salary cap issues, it's pretty crazy. So you realize it becomes a business and, you know, there's 32 teams in the NHL, you know, there's 32 minor hockey, NHL teams, sorry, you know, there's 20 NHL teams everyone's trying to achieve the same goal of winning at the end of the year and it becomes a business and sometimes you got paid for players, you're overspangled, you know, you make trades, everything's, every little aspect is business oriented to us. - Just speaking to your experience in the minor leagues and you had an unbelievably successful professional career in many different leagues, was it ever, did you ever feel a sense of frustration to be given the fact that you had produced basically at every place you'd ever been in your entire hockey career, including the American League, this sort of business aspect. I mean, you're speaking at a time in which teams were trying to work out what the salary cap was and they were trying to figure out, you know, how best to manage their cap. Did you ever feel like it was hard to sort of keep the determination going or was it, was hockey always something that you were able to find solace in during that time? - I don't think that the determination was never kind of a factor. You know, I enjoyed planning that AHL so much. People asked if I enjoyed Europe or the AHL better. Both lifestyles were great, but I did love North America just because like, you were always one call up, you were always one phone call away from getting back to the AHL or, you know, I hate to say it, but one injury or one situation where you were right there. So the determination, it's always dangling in front of you. So I don't think that was an issue. Of course, if I said there was no frustrations, I'd be lying to you and your group here. You know, obviously you wanna put yourself in the best situation possible to give yourself an opportunity. I got some awesome advice. Jerry Donahue, he's a comedian. I'm sure Jerry D, he goes by Jerry D and sure many people know who he is. He used to be a supply teacher. He used to be my dad's supply teacher. Long story short, you did some hockey stuff, you coach some minor hockey and stuff like that or in some hockey camps and stuff, big hockey background. And we became friends and we still are. And he gave me a great piece of advice when I was, you know, early in my pro career, he said, you just be the best you can be at where you are. You can't control getting called up and you don't have that say, but why don't you just be the best out? what you do on a daily basis and in your games. And then he even took it farther. He said, you know, if you have the puck, be the best passer. You know, if you're in a shooting area, be the best score. If you're playing away from the puck, be the best effect. Like, so I was just such a great piece of advice that I took to harden. You know, I had some success in the A.H.L. and, you know, with, you know, couple championships and some personal awards and stuff. And you always hope those get you to exactly where you are. But I don't think I would achieve that if I was, if I got disappointed or discouraged or the determination would have fallen out of place. And I guess the only time that it did, you know, was really frustrating, but, you know, it's kind of, you know, you make the move to Europe, you know, that's kind of, you know, that maybe the time's coming to an end where that dream of the A.H.L. might not be it. And then you try to, you know, extend your career in Europe and try to do something over there that's worthwhile for your family and in your, the rest of your career and stuff like that. - And can you speak to that jump that you made? And what was that like? How was there a, it was a difficult adjustment to make when you made the jump to Europe because you ended up playing in some very different European leagues that have very distinct hockey cultures and hockey histories and styles of play you've played in Finland and Germany. I mean, tell us about that journey as a whole. - Yeah, I had some opportunities go over earlier to Europe. Some clubs were interested earlier and I stayed in North America trying to, you know, make the A.H.L.R. playing as many games as possible and stuff like that. And when I kind of saw that coming to an end and obviously, you know, there's rules in the American league. There's only so many veterans that each team can have. The league was going younger and younger and there's just less opportunities, right? So going to Europe was to extend my career. And I always kind of knew I was going to go there back to your first question when you do, you think you're going to be, when you had a chance to do this for kind of living, I remember being in Ottawa, I can kind of recall being in when you know my billets, my room at my billets and thinking, hey, I'm going to play in Europe one day and you know, it's going to be pretty cool. It's going to be a different life experience and it'll be fun at the time and it was, you know what? You know, I went over, I'll never forget it because my white gate birthed through our daughter three weeks before we jumped on a plane to go to Finland for the first time. So, you know, doing the dad thing and the fatherhood thing and you know, buy yourself with your wife in a different country where you don't know anyone and you're walking in, where it's just you and her and your newborn. You know, obviously maybe we should rethought that thing. We should have thought the timing on that but in hindsight, I'm glad we did it at first. As close as I am with my daughter and wife and stuff like that, but you know, they're tough decisions, but going to Europe was fantastic and obviously there's an adjustment period. They're definitely wise for me. It was it was fatherhood, it was new culture, it was new league, it was just the way Europeans think and the Hawking do things differently. And you know, it took me some time and you know, just like it took me time when I turned, when I went to Hamilton too, it takes time and sometimes success doesn't come overnight and I've had some good successes in Europe and you know, it's kind of the same as it went in North America, it started a little slower picked up and you know, and then there's always kind of an end to it. What if there are any of these? What are the biggest misconceptions about playing in Europe broadly speaking when you've had such a diverse set of experiences across European leagues? Did you find that there's, and then you've also returned to North America to play as well? So you've sort of seen it all from all sides. Are there misconceptions about the European leagues as a whole or is there a misconception about playing Hawking in your period? - I don't think so. I think there's so much information out there now. Maybe when players were going before my time and then maybe my time there wasn't as much, but there's so much information out there now. There's so many resources or agents or there's ways to view games and understand teams and players and where you'd want to go and maybe where you don't want to go. And I think there's so many resources out there that I think players have the opportunity to educate themselves and kind of pick where not, shouldn't say pick, but maybe focus on where they would like to go or how they would do it and send out a path. And I think sometimes before, and it would be well before my generation of players, you just went over and you probably way more blind to what you're getting yourself into. And I think now with just the information out there and the way people talk and connect and the way people use social media, you can have a really good feel on what's how the city, what's all about the city that you're going to or how the rank is or the travel. I don't think many things surprise players much when it wants you to get over there or before you head over. And looking back at your career from the way you started, obviously a new market towards the end of Ridge River and the way people work over it. How has the game changed in the way you experienced it during that time? Yeah, it's changed, obviously, when I came in, it was a big, obviously I'm talking pro here, like junior to pro, I think when I played through the OHL and early in my career in the AHL, it was a clutching grab league, it was big, it was strong, it was a different game right now, it's kind of gone all speed and skill. And I use that loosely, right? Of course there's tons of skills players when I, early and there's really tough players in today's game stick too, but there has been a transition. I don't think anyone would say there has it, but I think when you took out the red line and you create more speed and you got fours flying around and you know, D have to be much more mobile and there's less cooking, there's less cross check and there's less grabbing on a guide. The game's changed, right? And everyone's kind of adapting now quick it is now, so I think that's what I've seen the most is where there's the speed kills and speeds I guess always killed, but now sometimes it can't even be touched. So obviously even more speed works for these players of today's generation. If you were giving advice to a young Corey Locke or to a player who is, you know, your style of game, your size, your skill level, I mean, what would you tell that same player now if they were embarking on a career at that age that you started your career? Great, great question. I think like if you're talking on I stuff, I wish that like I obviously focused on my play away from the puck as a hockey player. You know, that's one thing for sure. You know, when I was in junior and stuff, I got a lot of leeway and I had the puck a lot and yet did just when I got the pro, but I think I'd say to anyone that's going in hockey or thinking about, you know, going down this professional aspect like enjoy the game so great. I don't know. I'm extremely busy now. I'm involved with our Burlington Eagles organization here where we have 36 teams and I do skill development stuff and with the golf storm. And, you know, I've had to lend some hands on Atlanta. I've had to go coach some of my teams in Burlington. So I'm busy. I'm out a lot of nights. I'm in every single day and I still come home and I watch the watch hockey on TV and my wife's like, how do you do it? Like aren't you sick of it? And I say, no, I love the game. I think I'm a student of the game. I'm always looking for new things to add. I listen to coach's talk, pre-game, post-game. I watch the players, the highlights, the structure, the strategy and I just think hockey's such a great game and I always try to learn. And obviously there's a business side to it too, which I'm learning more about in the role I am with the Eagles. And I got some great board members that I can lean on and are very successful in what they do outside of their volunteer hours with the club. So it's unfortunate. You lean on people, you ask questions and you continue to learn. One last question for you, Corey. Thank you so much for your time. If you could bring one change to the game and the industry itself as you've experienced, if you could change it in one way, how would you change it? Great question. You're putting it on the spot. The one I guess-- No, I know. I'm just thinking because you hear so much talk about it around this all start breaking this. playoff format, I know everyone, you know, this kind of the dog days of NHL hockey season, you know, just thinking as a spectator, you know, you see the same playoff teams over and over, maybe they changed the format of the NHL playoffs. No, I guess that's, you know, that's not the greatest answer, but it's the first thing that gave the mind with all the trade of the dog and NHL all star weekend and all that kind of stuff. I think, you know, that's what, I think you see the same teams playing over and I get the rivalries, but I think, I think, I think everyone, I think with the way the NHL has done it and with all the stars and everywhere with the salary cap, I think we're pretty exciting to see some other players on live TV and maybe even at the games and especially. Thank you so much for your time, Cory. Thank you. We have all 4997. Yeah, thanks for your time. This brings us to this week's audio response question, which is to be responding to the first half-selecture on the structure of professional hockey and Cory's guest lecture that I just shared with you there, as well as responding to the two articles and the general structure of professional hockey. I think that it's a pretty confusing world, the world of professional hockey. I think you probably can see now there's a lot of leagues and again, I'm not terribly interested in having you memorize all of those leagues. That's not really the point of it. The point of it was to demonstrate first of all, if you are a fan of another league, if you're a fan of another sport, you can notice that things are a little bit different in the field of hockey and that difference, that variety in terms of professional options leads certain players onto different career paths than you'll see in other sports. Generally speaking, the career that Cory had is just not really possible in professional football, for instance, that would be American football, not soccer, in that there are many different leagues that you can scatter yourself on and playing for various levels. It's just a very, very unique career path present in hockey. It leads to specific challenges. So that's kind of where I want to go with your first audio response question, which is, how has the historical development of professional hockey in North America impacted the journey of a professional player today? That is again, how has the historical development of professional hockey in North America impacted the journey of a professional hockey player today? In this response, I do want you to consider things that make Cory's journey unique aspects of a professional career that date back to the reading time, both the original six expansion and the formation of the national hockey league. I think there's a lot you could go off of here. I do want you to sort of keep it grounded in the course materials, but feel free to really expand upon with the professional journey as Cory has described here. Next week, we're going to have guest lecturers from Ryan Creeland, who's the ECHL commissioner, and Pete Soberlach, as I mentioned in the first week, so we'll have lots of great content for you next week as well. But I'm looking forward to reading your listening to your audio responses. I can't tell you how delighted it is to listen to all your voices response, actually, even more enriching than the in person because I get to hear all of you respond. So I appreciate those of you for putting some good thought into the audio responses, and I'm listening to each and every one of them. See you next week. [Music]