42 - Kyle Wellwood

as always is. Step in Heck. John Collin. And Kyle Wellwood.

And this is for real. Yeah, that's Kyle Wellwood's actual voice. This is not a vocal impression. Yeah.

We said we had Jared Leedow on a couple episodes ago, and it was just like a friend of mine. What? That wasn't Jared Leedow. No, it wasn't.

Jared Leedow. Oh my god. So this is actually Kyle Wellwood. I severely misinformed a lot of people.

Yeah, I really thought we were getting the inside beats on how the performance of the Joker really took shape. But Kyle, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. This is honestly insane.

We put a word on Twitter right before you arrive that you were going to be on the show today. And none of our listeners believed that we were telling the truth. I honestly am sitting right next to you. I can hardly believe that I'm telling you the truth right now.

Thank you very much for coming on a really good show. Yeah, for sure. I wouldn't miss it, guys. This is your first podcast appearance, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, it's my first appearance. I haven't listened to one yet. So you'll have to send me a link after. Oh, I highly doubt you would be here if you had listened to one.

And I will say that I made that joke earlier when you got here. So it's not exactly unique. Well, you didn't have to say that. The listeners didn't know that.

I figured I should get that out of the way right now before you buried me after that. No, I wasn't going to bury you. I never do that. I'm always super nice to you.

If you insist. But I guess we have to do a few things right out of the way. Yeah, we do. Yeah.

And that is within the first 15 minutes, we are contractually obligated to mention that if anybody out there is looking to buy tickets to a concert or event of some kind of sporting event, perhaps, particularly with the playoffs now underway, the best place to do that is the SeatGeek mobile app. So download the app to your phone. They've got a full listing of concerts and events. You always get the best price, no hidden fees of any kind.

You can sort it by the best deals in terms of what tickets are most undervalued and use the promo code real good at checkout when you do that for $20 off your first purchase when you use the promo code real good at checkout. And I think this will be the most professional SeatGeek spot that we've ever seen during the entire run of our contract because we're all just trying to get it out of the way so we can get to talking about hockey with none of them Mr. Kyle Lullo. Are you a fan of SeatGeek Kyle?

Do you have heard of it? No, I haven't. I haven't. OK.

That's OK. Well, one of the questions I don't want to spoil it, but it is coming up in the mailbag. Somebody said that they took 45 minutes to deliberate on what the best question to ask you would be. And they settled on Kyle, Kyle, which do you prefer SeatGeek or StubHub?

I like StubHub, my friend. I used up. I have Nick's season tickets. So I had Stella Munson's up, but I never heard of SeatGeek.

So I'm glad I know it now. Yeah, you can use lots. You have Nick's season tickets? Yeah.

How many of those games do you go to? I think I've been to one. OK. Nice.

I got him. Eight years ago, my friends were all ticket brokers. When they played college, hockey. And I like the next, and I always want to live in New York one day.

So I said, OK, he'll get him. And I always sell him. And I give him the people who are in New York that I randomly know and who visit. Perfect.

So if I want to go to a next game, I know where to go. Awesome. Email me. Email you the tickets.

How many games in total have you been to? Next games. One. Oh, it was forever.

OK. I was asking this year. It's one total. One total.

I've been to Madison's courseworkout in 20, 30 times. Well, yeah. No, I've only got to go to one game. Did they win?

I don't think I finished the game. I was there for the recorders. That was an obstacle. Yeah.

Like, was that the first time you'd been in Madison Square Garden as a non-player? I had been a healthy scratch a few times. Oh, wow. I've been in the stands before.

I've sampled the popcorn. Yeah. Well, were you hoping to make New York your post-plan home at some point? I still do.

Yeah, it's my favorite city. So I'd like to live there at some point, probably in my 70s or 80s. I see some stick up. Maybe they'll be good by then.

Yeah, exactly. You're making some serious cash. That's the plan. It's a long-term retirement.

I'll be front row, hopefully. At that point, I'm going to really enjoy the city and everything that has to offer. Yeah, exactly. Well, you are living in Vancouver now that your NHL playing days are done.

I guess it seems pretty obvious as to why you might want to choose here. But when you have options like New York, I guess, why did you choose Vancouver to make your home in the end? Well, I met my wife when I was playing hockey here. So I'm from Ontario.

And she's from here. And from Windsor, Ontario, where I was living in certain life, meaning her and her. She wants to live here. It's pretty easy to pick Vancouver or Windsor.

So I was going to say, yeah, that's not much of a contest, particularly. Yeah, so I'd like that with having some in-laws here now and some friends and family from before. So that's good. Well, I'm sure people are wondering how we got you to come on the show.

And I'm personally wondering that also. Regardless, the connection is, and we won't even bother to explain how we are connected to him. But the person who personally reached out to you and invited you on to a real good show was Cone from Sum 41, who I believe is the bassist from Sum 41 of him not mistaken. But never mind how we know him.

How do you know Cone from Sum 41? I'm not even sure how we met now that you mentioned it. But when I was playing in Toronto for the Leafs, I can't even know how we ended up hanging out quite a bit. And he had a friend who was a cop too.

And we used to party together every once in a while. And Cone, I found out Cone lived two blocks away from where I was. So we got together every once in a while and kept in touch through email. Just one of those things where you're the same age and famous in Toronto at the same time?

Yeah, I think it would be like living in Yale town and going to the same venues, some clubs and venues and running into each other and trading contacts and then realizing you'd live next door and hanging out. So that small celebrity scene in Canadian cities overall? Probably. I'm not sure.

You don't count yourself as a Canadian celebrity? Even when you're playing for the Leafs in Toronto, though, that's got to have some clout. You can probably walk into a restaurant without a reservation when you play for the Leafs, can't you? I think you can.

Yeah, well, you don't want that, though. Most people don't. I don't know. You never tried it.

I did it for sure. I did it every single time. I was 20 years old. Yes, I always had my Leafs card on me.

And if I didn't get in the door right away, I'd pull it out and I would complain. Don't you know the fuck I am? Yeah, nice. That's awesome.

I'm a Leafs fan. Just so we like these two are Canucks fans. I'm a Leafs fan. And I was curious how it felt for you to play for the Leafs teams that had the worst jersey font of all time.

You guys had that like comic sans on the back there almost. Now that I saw that old clip we had a tasco let me go in, I do remember the old jersey fonts. Yeah, it was like huge. Like it made me look even smaller.

Now that I've watched an old YouTube clip, I look really, really small. You had an eight-letter last name. And it took up more than the back of the jersey. Like it was comically large.

Yeah, horrible. I know I had one of those Curtis Joseph, I think. And then I sold it. But I was like, I don't want this.

I mean, Koojo, good guy. He played well there. He did. That was the font, though.

But yeah, the font was a real problem for me. I'm very font focused. Just in general, that's my kind of my life philosophy is like font focused. So yeah, I just couldn't deal with it anymore.

Well, I feel like he might be too shy to mention it himself. But I'll bring him up on Stephans behalf right now. Kyle, you are at least his favorite Kanaka of all time, if not outright his favorite hockey player ever. So this has just made things a little bit awkward.

No, it's true, though. Like, I am a celebrity. Yeah. Well, after the episode, now I know for sure.

Yeah, exactly. When you get the call to be on a real good show, that's when you know. Well, I mean, yeah, I'm a smaller guy. And I don't play hockey.

I play ball hockey. I play soccer and stuff. And so it's always nice to see a smaller guy succeed in a big league. So I thought that was pretty cool.

And yeah, me and my dad absolutely loved you. And we always said, we judge Kanak's fans based on how much they liked you as a Kanak. And if they didn't like you, they're going to be more on it. Thank you.

Yeah. Did you, was it weird for you? Because we were kind of going through thinking about different questions to ask. And speaking of favorite players, it seemed like, especially when you were in Toronto, you were one of Don Cherry's favorite players, for sure, on the Leafs used to bring you up all the time.

How was that? Did you ever hang out with Don? Or was it ever just people would tell you after? Like, oh yeah, you talked about how awesome you were on Hockey on Canada again.

Well, being from Ontario, I certainly knew that he was talking about me. And I also played junior, my best friend at the time, from Kingston. And he would deliver firewood to Don every once in a while, too. So that is the most Canadian I've ever had.

Yeah, my hockey player. That's what he told me. Going over to Mr. Cherry's house to split some rounds in the backyard.

Yeah, at least that's what he told me. It's your phone. That's how I got on. He'd say, so nice.

Your phone just blowing up every time, though? Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, it's a different culture in Ontario. They're very Lee focused.

And especially the Saturday night on Cherry, minute and a half he gets, if you get mentioned. Especially in Windsor, where most of my cousins and uncles all worked in the auto plants. It's a big deal, so for sure. Did you grow up as a Lee Sven or?

No, I like that. I like Red Wings. Occasionally, Pittsburgh or whatever team was good at the time. I'm mostly like players, though.

I would like players who are good. Yeah, who was your favorite player growing up? I think LeMue, I really liked. Mo'Gillen, he was probably my all-time favorite just for style.

I thought he had the best style. OK. Did you find it surprising to get that kind of love and admiration from Don Cherry, though? Because of the prototypical Don Cherry.

Couldn't a kid play or let he preaches every week? You're not exactly that kind of player. I don't know. I don't know.

I think Don kind of like having a small, Canadian kid at center that had some hands. And there's not a ton of us. So I think he wanted me to succeed. I think one of the things, too, that he brought up a couple times was that, and you were pretty notorious for this, that you almost never celebrated your goals.

In fact, sometimes you would score, and it would look like you got sadder. What was the reasoning behind that? I mean, I honestly can't remember a goal where you flat out celebrated huge. I don't know.

It's been since I was a kid. I think even at like five, six, seven years old, I think I scored too much, and people get mad. And I get confronted after the game by parents and other people. So I think I literally was like, I still don't celebrate.

Like, I play in the alumni, and I still find it odd to keep scoring up, so I just stop after a couple goals. So you just feel like, so part of it is like you just kind of feel bad for the other team, or are you just kind of, I don't know. I really don't know. I haven't even figured it out, but it's not so embedded that it's like an automatic thing.

I'm like, I've scored. I'm happy. He's got a second one. I'm like, I'm less fascinated right now by the mindset of being like, I'm drum about scoring a goal, and more interested in what kind of mindset you need to have as an adult to go yell at a six-year-old kid for embarrassing my son.

It happens. It depends where you're from. I think around Windsor at the time, it was pretty normal, I think. I was going to say, I think Windsor, that's probably a super normal.

Like, if you didn't yell at the kids, it was probably a problem. Because now they'll have signs in the rink being like, oh, don't fight each other or whatever. It's just a game. Everybody remained calm at all times.

Yeah, and in Windsor, it was like the old days of smoking, non-smoking. There was a fighting section and a non-fighting section. There was a lot of different age groups. I would play against five or six years old and seven years old and you'd switch back and forth.

Every once in a while, and then they would get mad, because they didn't think you were playing, then you can play and they'd lose. And they'd get all the upset on the bench. Like, they had some control over the six-year-old's play as a coach. Yeah.

Do you have a crazy parent story? I remember it because I grew up in a small town in Ontario also. And we had a parent actually jump over the glass one game. He was mad at the ref, but it was this beautiful moment.

He was kind of a drunken, whatever. And he legitimately climbed over the glass, like it was the top rope at wrestling, like the undertaker would go over the top rope. And then he jumped down onto the ice. And I think as soon as he hit the ice, he was like, oh my god, I'm on the ice at my son's hockey game.

What am I doing? And then he just climbed back over the glass and walked out of the river. So that was the best one for me. Was there any crazy things like that for you that you can remember?

I think it was all crazy. I think that was like a regular turn. It was just like looking back at some of the games. They were all like that.

It felt like too intense. Well, let's talk about your NHL career a little bit fast forward through the years out of Windsor and then towards the NHL. Talk about it a little bit there, how you're like a guy who you wouldn't think that Don Cherry would appreciate your game. But maybe it's just having a Canadian kid on the Leafs at a time where they were very European.

And I guess Don's kind of like that. I definitely think that could be it. I think even on defense and in goal, I think we had a lot of Europeans. And they hadn't had any real young players from Canada either.

The other first round pick was Alex Dean at the time. Yeah, Andrew Baw before that. So I think he was sort of championing them to go Canadian. You became the poster boy of that moment.

So I got to be the poster boy, yeah. Did you feel like beloved by the fans there? Or did you feel like because of your skill set, you're a very easy going guy. I could see people kind of giving you the gears that you're not passionate enough or gritty enough or whatever.

Did you feel appreciated? I think I felt appreciated. But again, to me, it's a lot. Haven't been being, if you're playing hockey, and then somebody's talking about you and everybody really cares.

But you don't. And you hear about it constantly. It just feels like everybody's awed. You just go what it is and go about your day.

Like you mean you didn't care about it in the sense of like, you just don't really care what other people think? No, it was nice. Right. But it wasn't that important.

Right, I see. As far as what my life was like. You know, it was nice. Yeah.

But whatever. It's going to have 100 people calling me and calling my family and everything. But that's cool. It's good the first three times.

Jesus Christ, you call it again. We all have TVs, Dave. I wanted to ask you about your number, actually, because it's kind of an odd, well, it's an even number. But it's like a weird number to use.

Why did you choose number 42? Well, in training camp with the Leafs, they give players and prospects camps numbers 40s, 50s, 60s. And mine was 42. It's just a stun.

They just keep giving it to you. And unless you say, I want it to be my number. And at the time when I got called up, it was Matt's, I think I hit in the eye the first game of the season. And so they called me up.

And probably the only jersey they had available was the 42. So they gave it to me. At the time, I played as 97 for four years in junior and junior B and in the minor. So it was 97 for eight years.

And then 42. They just gave it to me. I was thinking Jackie Robinson. I knew that's a different sport.

I mean, there's a ton of notable 42. And you just never requested another one, because you never thought you were going to stick or what? No, I mean, it didn't matter that much to me. I was 97.

I wasn't going to pick that one. It's kind of nowadays it's sort of normal. I think for guys just go, oh, give me 91 or something. I got to refer to this player.

Yeah, exactly. It would have been maybe too flashy, I guess. At the time, yeah, it was like, the better I was 99. And Griskey was 99.

And in between that, you're not putting yourself in. You're going to get a phone call from Ronald. Jeremy Roanock being like, hey, kid. No, no, no.

Exactly. Well, yeah, I can imagine also probably being called up to the Leafs, such a storied organization. It would have been tough to be like, I don't. Yeah, fuck you.

I don't want that number. Give me a different number. What do you say, right? Especially that van.

I think nowadays you do. Right. Hey, where's my locker? Where's my gloves?

I should have been here at the time. Yeah, no, you're just kept your mouth shut. Yeah. Well, that leads to you.

I had a ton of older veterans on the team, too, at that time. And you mentioned Matt Sundine. What was he like? Because I think he's one of those guys now that's starting to, kind of like similar to yourself.

Or he's at the time maybe wasn't as respected. And now looking back, the Leafs haven't had really a star player like him since him. I mean, you can maybe make an argument for Kessel, but not the same type of player. And I feel like he's being more appreciated now.

What was he like as a teammate? He was the best teammate I ever had. At the time, I didn't know. Right.

You're saying. But he would invite all the players, their wives, everybody over to his house three times a year. And host everybody. You have a catered.

And he was single. He's a single guy. Inviting everybody's wives and girlfriends over to this stuff. And always took the guys over.

Team males paid for everything. And the same thing in Vancouver. He just never said a bad word about anybody, regardless of who he was playing with. And he didn't connect with the people he was playing with too often.

Well, yeah, exactly. He didn't have this team. That's when Wugill was there. He really liked it.

But other than that. But then when Johnny Paul was his line mate, he's like, OK, well, that's thanks a lot. Yeah. Yeah.

And he didn't say where. He kept playing. And he always performed. And he was the best power player I played with, too.

He was so strong on the puck. And he could play the half wall. And you can come at him because he could shoot it from there. Yeah.

But from a standstill, he didn't move very fast. He would take a one step in and shoot it. So he was really fun to play. She was on the other foot when he comes to Vancouver, though.

And suddenly you're the guy who's been in the room for a few years. And you're welcoming him into the room. I guess when you're a player like Matt, you're not really too nervous during a new locker room. No, no, he wasn't that nervous.

But I think he was happy to see me. We had hung out on the Leafs. We were power play lineys on Toronto. That worked really well.

Actually, I think at the time, having him on a Canucks really helped guys like the younger guys like Kessler and things like that, even the sedins. Because now he came in and he would play in practice and things with so much strength. Like in power play practice or something, on half wall, he would shoot it as hard as he could, even if the fence man's going to stay in there, anything. And at the time, I practiced and things like that.

You just sort of didn't do that. But he just did that naturally. So then Kessler and some guys started playing a little harder, even in practice, and they started shooting it harder. You could really see them sort of pick it up a notch.

Talking amongst themselves, kind of looking at him and being like, oh my god. Yeah, well, he was 6'5", 230", and he would play hard every time. And unless the coach said, OK, don't block this shot, he was going to do it, right? And the coach would have to say, OK, well, we're not going to have the fence man in this practice.

So it was good. He also looked like a vampire. So there was also that. That's tough to get in the way of that shot.

You're like, oh boy, it's a lot to take in. I know you can't comment on that. I just wanted to make sure you're good. He's my friend.

No, I'm good. I've got all kinds of questions. I guess we talked about what you felt appreciated by the fans. I guess more importantly is what you felt appreciated by your team.

And you are one of the rare players who went into a situation that all players seemed to try to avoid, come hell or high water. You went to arbitration with the Canucks and went through a meeting with your general manager. I think it would have been, was it Mike Gillis, or was it Gilman at the time? Was it the AGM in there?

Gillis was the GM, but Gilman was the guy who was in the meeting. Yeah. And how does that feel to kind of have to be in the same room while someone who's like ostensibly your boss is running down all of the reasons why you're not good? They had lawyers in the room doing it.

And none of it made any sense. So it would be like having two lawyers argue about something they don't know about and having a judge that doesn't know either. They would bring up some random stuff. And you can't say anything.

So it was pretty amusing to see how those things get settled. But yeah, it was bizarre. Just like stat categories that you've never heard of or? Random stats on between playoffs and nests and face-offs and this that.

It just didn't nothing adds up when you're trying to compare different players. Because they try to compare you to different players. So they find things that you're not even remotely like somebody. But that's your comparable because of some weird stat.

Do you remember who you were getting compared to? I don't remember. It's hard to say because at the time, I think I had 18 goals or something. And it was hard to compare because everybody makes a lot of money at that range.

So they had to argue not. Because I think that's the thing. They're not really comparing you like you're saying they're making stretches. They're not trying to compare you to the player.

They're trying to compare you to the player's contract. They'll find contracts that they want you to have of players that are not the same type of player. And then that's where they're having to make those ridiculous. Or not, we don't even play remotely the same game or whatever.

Yeah. And at the time, it was I think the contract difference. I think I ended up asking for $1.25 million. And they offered $1.225 million before arbitration.

And I had already gotten there. And how am I sitting there in Toronto? And I think I'll mention there's somebody said, like, are we going to do this over $25,000? You want to sit through that?

And my agent at the time thought I was going to get $1.4 million based on arbitration. So I was like, well, no, I thought I was going to get more than this. I don't want to go to arbitration. I got to want that.

So I ended up going. Well, you're pushing in. And I got less. I got one, too, instead of.

So they offered me more than I got an arbitration. I was like a double whammy. It's kind of interesting, though, because I would never, I mean, we're fans. We're outsiders.

We don't know anything in the first place. But you always assume that it's kind of like, I would assume that your agent is speaking on your behalf. But I would imagine that like, Gilman is making that case himself instead of just passing off a bunch of stats to a lawyer. I don't, he doesn't even pass the stats.

I think the lawyers, like the NHPA argues for the player. Yeah. And they have to hire their own lawyer agency to argue against a random judge. And it's not.

And nobody even really, and you're sort of expecting not even a go. So I didn't even know the date, really. It was like the night before. And I was like, oh, you got to go up to arbitration tomorrow.

It's nobody's really thinking it's that big of a deal. Yeah. And the judge, you said, it's like not even a hockey person? No idea.

It's just no idea. Yeah. It's like a traffic ticket. And two people arguing what happened that weren't even involved.

It's like two environmental lawyers settling a divorce. Yeah, exactly. Well, they never recycled. So that's, I mean, I think the wife should get everything.

Because he just threw his glass bottles right in the trash. Yeah. Because I would assume that that's difficult to have to sit through. You're an employer outlining all the reasons why you're expendable, basically.

It would be if it was your employer. But it's lawyers. And it's not really making an argument. And it's not even making sense.

It's numbers versus numbers. Yeah, it's numbers and comparing you to different players who randomly get selected because of the criteria that they looked at. I don't know how long they prepare on these things. I think they just click and find a stand.

Okay. We'll see that. We're a suit. So that didn't sour anything after the fact.

I don't know the fact that you probably felt like you should have taken the offer in the first place. Yeah. Yeah, I should have took an offer. Yeah.

I should have said, okay. You know, at the time, I thought it was getting more. And they had already tried to release me that year, right? They put me on waivers twice.

Right. They picked me up on waivers, put me on waivers. And then, we got me on the team. Didn't say I was going to stay on the team.

So I was living in a hotel for most of the year and then ended up scoring enough that I played the whole year. So, you know, I was happy to get any contract. They were pumped to have me, you know, at the time. So anything that I've never tried, they can release you if they don't like the deal.

There's lots of things. So you don't know, right? Yeah. I feel like you're a guy who, like a lot of people who are into like advanced statistics and puck possession and those kind of shot metrics really appreciated at the time because, you know, despite not being what people think of as like a prototypical defensive third line center, you just push plain to the offensive zone, which ultimately is what you're supposed to do.

And then a lot of those guys who probably really appreciated you at the time have grown up to be, you know, go from bloggers in the city to guys working for teams now around the NHL, whether it's Toronto or Florida. Do you feel like your game was almost like ahead of its time? You could have had a longer career if you just started like three years later. Does that make sense?

Yeah. For me, if I got to play with the right players, I would have made more money and had a better career. So, you know, it depends what position you get on the ice. You have to do a job with the team.

So if you're with the sedines and you also have another good top six, I think we had some team with Kazzler and Demetra. If there's a deal to draw, just take the draw and go throw up the other teams goalie and put the other guys out again, you know, it's pretty simple. You're going to win it most of the time if they're constantly doing that. So it depends what team you're on, what situation you're in.

Sometimes you have to focus on the power play and just wait for your power play because you're five on five games, not that good. So it depends. I just feel like the way the players are assessed in the game is kind of shifting towards a little bit more of an analytical approach. They probably favored you more than it did at the time.

And like for example, when you couldn't find another NHL home at the end of your stint, did you feel like that was not right, basically? No, because I would be able to change my game a little bit depending on my situation. And they're usually looking for specific things, specific element that they're missing, a tall D-man that stopped the fourth check or a right handed person to play the front of the net. They're looking for a specific thing that they can count on.

So they were hard to put me on a box and exactly how they would use me because I ended up, even when I made NHL, I had to find my own, I was playing fourth line and trying to find my own way on the team to help. So that's just running your way in a play and getting playing time. You didn't feel like you still had more to offer when it was the end of the line for you? You couldn't believe that there wasn't an NHL team out there willing to take a chance on that.

I think after my stint in Vancouver, when I had to go to Russia, I was surprised. And then when I left San Jose, I was surprised that they didn't give me a deal. They assigned me to a tri-out, but I thought I'd played really well there. So I was disappointed that they didn't sign me back.

They wouldn't give me one way deal. And so I was disappointed there and went to win a peg and had a good season. But at that point, you've already played in play. I've moved around a bunch of teams.

And teams are developing their own players at the same time. So there's not a lot of spots on anybody's team. Even if the Canucks wanted to add somebody, name a veteran. It's hard to place them, right?

Yeah. Even though they're better than probably some of the players here, you still wouldn't place them on the team for some odd reason that you make up. Right. You're kind of competing for almost like one spot on every team.

Like, you know, like in the summer going into the fall, every team might have one spot that's open for a veteran or whatever, if that, right? So. And they might not, they want to use it for a young player because they know they're going to have to make a playoffs. So they'd rather have a young player come in and then get the older player later on.

Right. They're like, oh, well, we've got a good top six. We don't need you to play until February. So find somewhere to play and then we'll call you.

Well, you mentioned Russia and we've all heard horror stories about the KHL. You were there pretty briefly. What was that like? The hockey was really good.

Yeah. The people there were really nice. It's different culture for sure. Yeah.

At the time, they were paying really well, right? Like way more than I was could get in North America. Yeah. So I was very fortunate to have that chance of go over there.

Yeah. And I got to play and then nobody called me to play and then I went to Russia and they weren't playing me very much. And then when I came back in January when they released me, that's when a bunch of teams called and they're like, oh, you want to come play? Sure.

It's like all summer long, they wouldn't call. Yeah. If you're in January, they might call you. You know, over anywhere.

Yeah. It's kind of strange too because you know, it's not like you were being showcased over in Russia, right? You didn't build up your game if they're not playing you very much. No, as long as you were practicing somewhere, you know, it's the same.

I think if you look at what Washington picked up like Richards, you know, right, he was skating somewhere. So they're like, sure, as long as you were skating somewhere, you know, you know, you know, you can keep you up to speed pretty quickly. And you know mid season you've had injuries that change the situations for all those teams to do. Right.

And so when they were desperate for NHL talent and we're paying NHL talent as such. And so I think too, there was there was almost kind of like a weird rivalry where I'm sure like probably a lot of teams called because they were like, oh, we've got a chance to take a guy out of the KHL and like take one of our guys back. You know what I mean? And that's exactly what it was.

They, you know, especially if you had any type of moderate scoring success, they just assumed they could put you with any one of their players and like you would be dominating the game or something. But you know, you're all adults out there and unless you're in the right situation with on a good line, you're not going to win the game by yourself. So they had some pretty weird expectations. Yeah, definitely.

And speaking of playing in some different situations, you're going to play collegiate hockey next year for us at you. Why? Well, I think it's just time for me to get back in the game. Yeah, that's absolutely the BC IHL is calling.

Yeah. And I don't know. I don't know what to say about that rumor. It's not real.

No, it's not. It's definitely operating like it was 100% right now. And you guys came in. It was pretty enjoyable.

No, no, I'm not playing any type of hockey except for the alumni on charity events. So if you hear otherwise, it's not true. I feel sad that we had to debunk that rumor. What if they get into the NCAA?

No, I would not play under any circumstance, any type of hockey, except for charity event. Even if an NHL team called, I would not be playing. I am looking at the special release right now from SFU hockey and it is dated April 1st. Oh, I'm a bit of a joke on their part, but how do you feel being...

Do they even contact you to make this joke? It feels very believable. It's April 17th I'm finding about it. No, that's crazy.

I guess maybe Haley Wickenheiser kind of set that precedent. Went back to the University of Calgary at age 31 or 32 and totally dominated. I feel like you're the perfect guy because you're known as this laid back, pretty easy going dude. People are like, yeah, that makes sense.

Maybe he'd want to go back to school and just play a little hockey, mentor some kids, whatever. I wouldn't play. No, I wouldn't play. This is the coach.

I would potentially make my brother's coaching and he likes it. I still don't think I'll be in hockey, but it's every once in a while. I'm starting to get like hockey a little more again. They've got a quote from you here that says, I've missed the game since retiring from pro hockey and this will give me the opportunity to play competitively again while also getting a great education from a premier academic institution.

So they're really putting themselves over in this fake quote that they've attributed to you. Well, they got you guys. Yeah, they did. They...

I don't know if the arbitration lawyers are still busy or not, but we should give them a call and sue these fuckers. I mean, they're just slandering. They're saying this is a direct quote from you. Bullshit.

Bull on your Wikipedia page. It's like into 2016-17 season. Kyle will be returning to play for some... I like it.

I like it. Go ahead. Whatever you feel. Well, it's been a pretty Canadian episode.

Should we do one of our new segments? Sure, yeah. This is a brand new segment that we started last week and we feel like talking about Canadian hockey. No better person to do it with than Kyle will.

So yeah, boys, I think it's time for loonies. Doonies and clipper-roonies. Last week we heard from a very angry man in Saskatchewan complaining about the weather. In this case, we're going to hear from a CN rail worker.

This was a worker who was on call and I guess he was expecting to be called in a little earlier, got called in pretty late and was maybe not in shape to go into work. We'll hear that right now. It's just a frame of the CP rail call. You're trying to be fucking kidding.

You're trying to mean how it works. You're going to be affected. I don't matter. I can't go.

Fuck, I can't go now. I fucking waited all day to go on. These companies come out. We went in the same way.

We drank 5 million thousand gallons of wind tea. I didn't know how much. I told these motherfuckers. You come out here and I guess I'm the best baddest guy's wedding in me.

I haven't seen them in a while but you know what I'm saying? Fuck's a kill. You're trying to mix in the life with the railroad. You know, like, don't mix with the railroad.

So here we are. I've got my friend out here on the best matters of the wedding and fucking. Now we're fucking going to know you want me to go to work and I can't go to work because I'm on fucking fit. So you gotta show me unfucking fit or some bullshit.

I just tell them I quit. Tell them the shelter job and they're fucking at it. They're fucking fucking at it. I ain't working for the CPD or no more.

So I'll tell you what. Work me the fuck off sick. Wherever you are, I'm fucking coming. I don't like that.

They can fire the fuck me and I will be badly beyond my fucking way because I cannot live like this anymore. How's that? You got that? You're not going to work that night.

Fuck, I don't know. I'm a fan of a shit I got company. If I can see these guys in here, they're going to laugh. You don't know what I'm saying.

I'm a shit I got company. If I can see these guys in here, they're going to laugh. You don't know what I'm saying to you is to book me off sick and fuck on whenever the fuck I look on. You can do whatever you want to do.

If you can hear whatever you want to do, then ain't coming in here. I can hear it. Fuck it. He mates did that most resemble.

Well, I think me and chain up Ryan did pretty well here. We might have said that. Nice. Another fine Canadian heritage moment.

Absolutely. Well, we're trying to get that grant money. We got to get that Canadian grant money. Fire the fuck me.

It's really just a great use of words. That's a great, pretty solid. I like that. Well, I am just scrolling through the mailbag right now because we've had a just slew of questions.

Yeah, we should take it to the mailbag. But before we get there, Stefan, I think... Well, we do have another favorite segment of ours. We do have another favorite segment of ours.

I asked you before we started recording if you heard of Bar Rescue before, if you've watched it. And you've seen bits and pieces of it. Yeah, I remember this show. Yeah, I mean, it's the anger guy and it's the fucked up bars.

Yeah, yeah. So this is a segment we like to call the Taffer Tracker. Yes. And John Taffer is the host of Bar Rescue.

And what we're going to do is we're going to show you our favorite clip from Bar Rescue. And just like to get your thoughts on it. You said before you came on the show, your favorite Bar Rescue moment was that he was at a bar where the owner and one of the servers couldn't stop PD-ing all over the place. Yeah, I don't know if it was the owner or the owner's son, but he was kept hooking up with the waitresses in the back.