The Hockey Show - Episode 671

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, returns this evening with a middle-of-summer show where we're going over a couple of weeks of news. None of this will be breaking news as we work towards an exciting August, but there are news and notes in all of these stories that our hosts will bring forth. Perhaps one of the cooler things they'll do today is give everyone an update on former U SPORTS players in terms of where they've signed this summer, so make sure you're listening for that. It's going to be a busy show with news and notes on where players have signed along with a few other stories, so be ready to roll tonight for The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Like Ralph Wiggum in the image to the left, Teebz and Jason will get things rolling by discussing the two recent signings by the Winnipeg Jets as some key pieces are back, look at a key aspect of the Samberg signing when it comes to future planning, and discuss when the next big signing may happen. Beyond that, the two hosts will discuss a fantastic summer for one WHL player, a Swedish player going home, Mason West's big decision, Colorado making a jersey faux-pas, North Dakota's jersey choices, the NHLPA's tarnish in defending players, and they'll run through all the U SPORTS signings. Buckle in for a fast-paced show with lots of news and anything else we can squeeze into the hour tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The UMFM website's streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store. It's a solid app.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard! And because both Teebz and Jason are on the butterfly app where things are less noisy, you can find Teebz here and Jason here on Bluesky!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason chat big signings, salary crunches, flying high, coming home, big decisions, bad fashion, poor statements, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: July 31, 2025: Episode 671

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Better Opportunities

I've never played professional hockey, but it would seem that with more and more leagues investing in players, facilities, and growth that there are going to be better opportunities for players who are seeing the prime of their careers dwindle away in the minor leagues. Make no mistake that players who skate in the AHL still make pretty good money to play hockey, but playing minor-pro hockey means that other priorities may influence where a player plays. For Winnipeg Jets/Manitoba Moose forward CJ Suess, that opportunity came up this summer as he'll leave Winnipeg for a second time to join the Penny DEL's recently-promoted Dresden Eislöwen for the 2025-26 season.

Drafted in the fifth round of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft following two solid seasons with the USHL's Sioux Falls Stampede, the 31 year-old Suess played four seasons with the Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks where he continued to show his improving scoring talents. Following a 28-point rookie season, Suess managed to hit double-digits in goals in each of his next three seasons while never scoring less than 25 points. His senior season saw him notch 22 goals and 43 points in 40 games. It seemed he'd be a good addition to the Moose.

His first few seasons with the Moose were derailed by various injuries as he never came close to playing a full season, but he did manage to his double-digit goal totals in two of the four seasons he wore Moose colours. He also managed to skate in four games with the NHL's Winnipeg Jets, but scored no points in that cup of coffee with the big club. Regardless, he was viewed as a good foot soldier who went to the dirty areas on the ice and battled for pucks on every shift.

After a short stint in the San Jose Sharks' organization where he played one more NHL game with the Sharks and 46 with the Barracuda, Suess returned to Winnipeg where he signed a two-year deal and skated with the Moose as a veteran player. 21 goals and 43 points over those two seasons showed that he was still an effective player, but the opportunity to be an NHL player seemed to be gone.

Perhaps that was one of the reasons for the change as it looks like Suess will get more of an offensive opportunity with the Eislöwen than perhaps what he saw at the AHL level in Winnipeg.

"CJ is a fast player with a good transition game, wit, and a drive to score," Eislöwen sporting director Matthias Roos said. "Throughout his career, he has repeatedly earned the opportunity to show off in the NHL—most recently at an age when others have actually passed that step. This mentality, coupled with his quality, will take us further on and off the ice. From the NCAA, he is familiar with the large ice surface, which will suit his game and productivity."

There were no financial terms disclosed by the Eislöwen about Suess's contract, but one has to figure that he'd receive a lot of the perks that we see for players who play in Germany - rent is covered and free transportation at the very least. Suess will also get a chance to see most of Germany as the Eislöwen travel the country to play games, but the opportunity to potentially travel to other places in Europe also exists. Frankly, the perks alone may make the DEL better than the AHL when it comes to older players weighing options!

"I'm very excited about my new role in Germany and with the Dresden Eislöwen," Suess said following today's announcement. "My discussions with the organization immediately gave me a good feeling. I want to use my experience, my pace, and all my energy to help us succeed as a team and make the fans proud."

With Paul Stocker, Karl Gärtner, and Malte Barthold signing development contracts this season, they may start the season with the KSW IceFighters Leipzig in the German Oberliga. Needing some additional firepower, Suess will fill that role nicely for the Dresden Eislöwen while bringing a bit of a power forward game to the team. As he said, Suess's experience could prove valuable for the Eislöwen as well, so this seems to be a good fit for former Moose forward!

While the German name "Suess" often is spelled "süß" and pronounced "Soose" like "loose", the meaning is one of "sweet," "pleasant," or "agreeable". While the contract might be agreeable, the experience in Germany might be pleasant, and the opportunity might be, colloquially, sweet, I'd expect CJ Suess to show everyone that he's none of those things to the opposition when the DEL season opens!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Kid Gets A Shot

Every year in U SPORTS men's hockey, there are a handful of players who look like they're a level above everyone else. They make split-second decisions with the puck that usually results in good things, they skate effortlessly up and down the ice, and they always seem to the in the right spot at the right time. That's how Alberta Golden Bears forward Jakin Smallwood played the game, and he won't be touring western Canada this season with the University of Alberta because he's moving on to bigger things. Announced today by the Panthers, Penny DEL team ERC Ingolstadt signed Smallwood to a contract for the 2025-26 season! The Millet, Alberta native will suit up in Germany next season!

Smallwood really hit his stride in 2021-22 in his final WHL season with the Winnipeg Ice where he scored 25 goals and 68 points in 68 games as he anchored a right-wing position in the top-six. He would finish fifth in scoring for the Ice that season while helping the Ice to a 53-10-5 record and first-overall in the WHL. The Ice would rip through the Prince Albert Raiders and the Moose Jaw Warriors in five games apiece before the Edmonton Oil Kings downed the Ice in five games.

Smallwood, though, decided to take the next step by enrolling close to his hometown as he joined the Alberta Golden Bears. Under the watchful eye of former NHLer Ian Herbers, Smallwood exploded onto the Canada West scene with an incredible rookie season where he scored 16 goals and 35 points in 26 games to earn himself the Canada West Rookie of the Year honours. While the Golden Bears fell in the Canada West Final to the Calgary Dinos, Smallwood and his teammates would head to PEI for the U CUP National Championship where they played extremely well in the tournament, but came home with silver medals after falling 3-0 to the UNB Reds in the final.

Smallwood's 2023 kept getting better as the summer hit because he'd finally get a ring while putting one on his soulmate! Smallwood married Caitlyn Mourits in June 2023 in what was described as a beautiful ceremony, and they'd add another member to their team on July 17, 2024 when they welcomed a baby boy to the world!

Without prying too much into Jakin's personal life, his 2023-24 season wasn't as productive as he scored eight goals and 28 points in 28 games as Alberta fell to UBC in the Canada West semifinal, but, as stated above, he might have won the year with the addition to his family. In 2024-25, Smallwood would only score three goals and nine points in 17 games as Alberta fell in three games to the Mount Royal Cougars in the semifinal. Obviously, he had some decisions to make with a young family beside him when it came to his 2025-26 season.

That may be the reason for the move to Germany as Ingolstadt announced the signing of Smallwood today as the final addition to their roster for the 2025-26 season. While I'm not saying that Smallwood couldn't have played for Alberta this season, it's very possible that he can play hockey in Germany while completing his fourth year as a Business major abroad. In this regard, he's be doing what he loves to do and getting paid for it, enjoying European life with his wife and son, and he can earn his business degree. That's not a bad year at all when all things are considered!

He'll also be joining a very good team that has the likes of Kenny Agostino, Austen Keating, Morgan Ellis, and Matthew Bodie on it, and Smallwood will only make them better. Sam Ruopp, who played at the University of Saskatchewan, is one of the team's defenders, and Devin Williams, who spent one season at Acadia University, is one of the netminders. Ingolstadt led the Penny DEL in points last season, and it appears they're loading up for another run with the addition of Smallwood to their squad! I think he's going to do well!

It's easy to cheer for the guys who put the work in at the Canadian university level, and Smallwood certainly was a key piece of Alberta's success. He has a knack for scoring which will help Ingolstadt aim for a Penny DEL title, and I'm hoping his time in Germany will be an incredible experience for his entire family! Best of luck to Jakin, Caitlyn, and Henry as they begin a new chapter of life in Europe!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

We're Not Doing Logos? Ever?

When the University of North Dakota rebranded from the "Fighting Sioux" to the "Fighting Hawks", my thoughts were that the new logo would work nicely on various uniforms and merchandise as it's fairly well-designed. Yes, the "N" dips down a little lower as seen above, but it's not a huge deal when it comes to the overall aesthetics of the logo. What strikes me as odd, though, is how the North Dakota men's hockey team refuses to use the logo in its prominent place on the chest of the jersey.

UND unveiled their 2025-26 uniforms today, and there's a distinct lack of Fighting Hawks logos on these jerseys for some unknown reason.

I'm not here to criticize North Dakota's design choices as I already said my piece on the "Nodak" jerseys in 2021. I'm still not a fan of those jerseys, but the white and green "North Dakota" jerseys just feel generic whereas the Fighting Hawks logo could be used to give the jerseys a little identity. Give me something to like, "Nodak"!

It appears that North Dakota will use the Fighting Hawks logo seen above as shoulder logos for all four jerseys for this season, but that's where secondary logos go. Your primary logo is your brand, and it should be shown prominently. It's why Ferrari puts the Prancing Horse logo on the hood of the car. It's why McDonalds puts the golden arches out front of its restaurants. Your logo is what people recognize instantly for your brand when they see it, so having just a wordmark where a logo should be feels entirely incomplete. And boring.

That last sentence is how I feel, so how would the team look with the Fighting Hawks logo on their chests? Here's the comparison to decide.

Personally, give me the logo every day on those jerseys and twice on Sundays. The jersey on the right looks infinitely better than the wordmark jerseys, and the logo starts to become instantly recognizable as the University of North Dakota. That's the entire point of putting the logo on the jersey as the logo carries the name and the principles of both the hockey program and the university.

Next year will mark the ten-year anniversary of the University of North Dakota unveiling the new name and logo to the public, and I'm not suggesting that North Dakota should take steps backwards. They clearly spent money - apparently, $49,500 - on researching and on designing their new logo, so you'd think they'd be slapping it on everything and anything in order to get their money's worth out of the Fighting Hawks logo. With men's hockey being one of the most popular sports at the school, why aren't they using it on their jerseys?

What may muddy the waters somewhat is that Brianna Berry, former head coach Brad Berry's daughter, owned the trademark on "NODAK" through a Minnesota entity named NODAK LLC. That's the same "NODAK" that North Dakota uses, and North Dakota and Berry were trying to come to some sort of agreement for the university to own the "NODAK" trademark as of a 2022 report filed by The Rink Live's Rob Port. Late that evening when the story broke, the university and NODAK LLC agreed to transfer the "NODAK" name to the University of North Dakota in a non-financial acquisition for the university to own.

With North Dakota owning the "NODAK" name, it's understandable why that gets used on their jerseys, but it doesn't explain why the primary logo isn't used on the chest and is used only on the shoulders. UND football uses it on their helmets, UND women's volleyball uses the "Fighting Hawks" wordmark and the Fighting Hawks logo, the women's soccer team uses the logo, and their track-and-field teams use the logo as well. The only team who relegates the logo to secondary status on their uniforms is the men's hockey team.

This season won't be the first where the primary logo hasn't appeared on the chests of the North Dakota men's hockey team. They haven't worn a primary logo prominently on their chests since 2012 when the Fighting Sioux name was retired. In the four years it took to come up with a new logo, the hockey program used the state's name on their jerseys, but have continued to do so even after the university had acquired its new name and logo. For a university that needs an identity, none of this makes any sense when the University of North Dakota men's hockey program is known nationally for its success.

Whatever the reason for not wearing the logo is, it seems that no one is speaking publicly about it except me. Frankly, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, but it just seems odd to me that the university has a number of other teams using the logo on its uniforms, but the nationally-recogized program isn't. If people don't like the logo, that's on them, but acceptance of the logo would come with seeing it used more often and on winning teams like the men's hockey program.

Maybe I'm the only person who believes this, but a hockey jersey needs a logo on the front. Whatever your feelings are on the Fighting Hawks logo, it should be on the front of their Hawk-ey jerseys.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Movie Review: Happy Gilmore 2

It's likely not a stretch to say that I've watched the 1996 film Happy Gilmore more than fifty times since it came out on February 16 of that year. It seems to be on television every now and then for a weekend movie series, and it's still pretty funny today. In saying that, I had some time this morning to kill as I working on something else, and that gave me the opportunity to tune into Adam Sandler's newest romp on the fairways in Happy Gilmore 2. The early reviews I had read on Saturday evening were mixed at best, so I wanted to see if the jokes were still funny, the cameos were still as good, and the stars of the show continued to score big on the golf course. Was Happy Gilmore 2 a solid laugh after thirty years, or would this long-awaited sequel be a shank at the bottom of a fairway pond?

Let me be quite upfront in saying that I wasn't expecting any Academy Award-winning acting in this movie. Based on how the first movie was panned by critics everywhere who seem to forget that comedies aren't supposed to be life-changing dramas, I was hoping that Happy Gilmore 2 would continue to score some goofy laughs while bringing cameos from the golf world into Happy Gilmore's golf-by-mistake world. Instead, I found myself surprised by the film.

The movie is filled with flashbacks to the first movie and to the time in between the two movies as the story builds. Julie Bowen's Virginia Venit plays a large part in the plot, but not in the way that one may think. I won't spoil the film here with key details, but Bowen's inclusion in the film is a welcome presence, and I wish she was actually used more than just in the way she portrayed her character.

It's hard to imagine Sandler and writing partner Tim Herlihy having to rewite the entire script, but you may have heard the recent story about the duo needing to rewrite the movie after Carl Weathers passed away. It's a bit of a shame because it seemed like Sandler really wanted to give the character of Derick "Chubbs" Peterson a fantastic backstory, but everything changed with Weathers passing away at age 76. Not for nothing, that's a movie that I'd like to see.

Of course, the main rivalry in the first movie returns, albeit later than expected, in the second movie as Christopher McDonald's Shooter McGavin plays a large role in furthering the plot of the movie. McDonald embraces the same undying hatred for Gilmore as he did in the first movie, but there comes a point in the film where the protagonist and antagonist finally work out their differences. How they do that needs to be seen, but let's just say that having Shooter back on the course brings back the biggest part of the original movie. No matter what he does as an actor in the future, McDonald's portrayal of Shooter McGavin may be his most iconic role.

The story of Happy Gilmore 2 focuses on Gilmore's retirement with golf following a major trajedy in his life, and that spiral downward affects his family - four sons and a daughter - in a big way. What is discovered is that Gilmore's daughter, Vienna (played by Sandler's daughter, Sunny), is a talented dancer and gets an invitation to dance at exclusive Paris ballet school that costs $75,000 per year. Needless to say, Gilmore needs to earn himself some big money quickly, and the family, including permanent house guest John Daly, convince Gilmore that he should get back to golf to win that cash.

To do that, Gilmore has to kick an alcohol addiction that was a running gag throughout the entire first half of the movie as anything that Sandler could imagine was turned into a flask. To kick the addiction, he ends up at an alcoholics' meeting where we are re-introduced to Ben Stiller's Hal L. who terrorized Grandma Gilmore in the nursing home in the first movie. Hal is running the alcoholics' meeting, but he seems to have the same attitude as he did in the first movie which rubs Gilmore the wrong way. However, he needs to make it through these meetings to play golf, so he bites his tongue while receiving positive encouragement on his path from meeting attendee Charlotte (played by Sandler's daughter, Sadie).

A chance meeting with Maxi Golf CEO Frank Manatee in a grocery store where Gilmore is working gives us the long arc and plot of Happy Gilmore 2 as Maxi Golf is looking to destroy the traditional game of golf with faster play, obstacles, and a seven-hole course that has all sorts of crazy holes laid out for golfers. Needless to say, Manatee (played by Benny Safdie) and his golfers appear to mimic the same idea that the LIV Golf Tour had in trying to upend the PGA Tour.

From this point on, you'll need to watch the movie because anything else I write could be considered spoilers for what happens. Needless to say, the hijinks and craziness seen in the original movie are brought back in Happy Gilmore 2, and the laughs follow as we see the likes of professional Tour Championship golfers Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy, and Brooks Koepka join Gilmore for what turns out to be an outrageous finale in Happy Gilmore 2.

Honestly, the cameos in this film never stop, and it's almost hard to notice some of them with how fast they seem to appear on the screen. Among the notable people who return from the original film are Dennis Dugan who resumes his role as Tour Championship commissioner Doug Thompson, sportscaster Verne Lundquist who plays himself again, Kevin Nealon who plays Gary Potter again, and Robert Smigel who turns from IRS agent to lawyer. There are nice tributes to the late Richard Kiel, Happy's fan with the nail in his head; to the late Joe Flaherty, the "Jackass" guy hired by Shooter who loves The Sizzler restaurant; and, of course, to Carl Weathers.

If there's one person who had an incredible breakout role, it's Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio - better known as rapper and singer Bad Bunny - whose character Oscar Mejías steals a number of scenes. I honestly enjoyed Bad Bunny's portrayal of Happy Gilmore's caddy, and his efforts were the best of the bunch for those with long cameos in the film. Happy Gilmore's four sons - played by Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Philip Schneider, Ethan Cutkosky and Conor Sherry - are solid comic relief at times. Other notable cameos included Eminem, Guy Fieri, Steve Buscemi, former Happy Gilmore caddy-turned-professional golfer Will Zalatoris, and former NHL players Chris Chelios and Sean Avery! Oh, and there's some guy named Travis Kelce.

There are so many more cameos from famous people, so you'll have to watch the movie to see them all. What I want to stress is that this movie feels like a solid sequel that comes thirty years after the original, and it fits as a Happy Madison production in that it's a goofy, funny, not-to-be-taken-seriously Adam Sandler feature film. No, it's not going to win any Academy Awards. No, it won't be featured in any classic film study. No, it won't be in a Criterion Collection.

Instead, Happy Gilmore 2 is a fun, goofy, mildly-vulgar-at-times look at a hockey-player-turned-golfer trying to fix his life for him and his kids after everyting falls apart that becomes a story of the former golf outcast trying to save the sport that gave him so much... with the help of some people who were there for his first breakthrough thirty years ago. Happy Gilmore 2 brings the same twisted look at golf as it did in the original film, and all of Adam Sandler's friends and family get in on the action. Laugh at it - Happy Gilmore 2 is fun!

Teebz's Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5 stars)

Happy Gilmore 2 is streaming exclusively on Netflix. The movie was produced by Adam Sandler, Tim Herlihy, Jack Giarraputo, and Robert Simonds for Happy Madison Productions and Pro Shop Studios, and was released on July 25, 2025 exclusively on Netflix. Happy Gilmore 2 has a running time of 118 minutes.

Until next time, keep your clubs in the bag!

Maybe Sit This One Out

If you're a reader of this blog, you know that I rarely celebrate the NHL in anything that it does. The billion-dollar money machine just keeps churning out new ways to bleed more money from fans which, at this point, is entirely grotesque, so this will be one of those articles where I'll surprise everyone by giving the NHL its kudos after releasing its statement about the five men involved in the 2018 Hockey Canada trial. It's also the point where the NHLPA showed its character with its statement, and let's just say that no one should be surprised that the NHLPA took the horrific stance that they chose.

We'll start with the NHL's statement who released the following statement on Friday following Thursday's verdict in London:

Whatever you may feel about this case or towards these players and the verdict handed down by Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia, this was the right call by the NHL. Yes, you read that correctly: the NHL made the right call with their statement.

These men are not innocent; rather, they were found not guilty. A "not guilty" ruling by a judge by definition and by Canadian law, means that the Crown failed to prove the accused's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, resulting in an acquittal. Let me restate that the five men in this case were and are not innocent as all five men were in the room and each committed some of the graphic acts in question. The Judge's verdict means the Crown failed in its attempt to prove, without doubt, that the men were guilty of those acts.

Like the men involved in the Chicago Blackhawks scandal, these five men should not be allowed to participate in the NHL or with any of its affiliated teams until there is some serious soul-searching and work done by each of these men. Their lawyers can argue any detail they like until they're blue in the face, but playing in the NHL is a privilege, not a right. With the acts described during the trial that these men allegedly committed, the NHL has every right to deny them access to their league. Actions have consequences, right?

And that's where the NHLPA decided to play the advocate for these five players by putting its metaphorical foot inside its metaphorical mouth. Their statement read that the five players...,

Look, the NHLPA can grieve this all they want, but every single NHL contract contains a morals clause that basically says if a player "engages in criminal or unseemly behavior," the team and/or league can punish a player as it sees fit including terminating the player's contract. The team and/or league holds this right to protect its image, standing, and reputation in the event of the player's poor behaviour causing negative impact towards both entities.

The NHLPA will likely argue that none of these players are currently under contract, making them free agents who can seek employment with whatever team(s) wants to sign them, but, as I stated above, playing in the NHL is a privilege, not a right. If the NHLPA wants to grieve this, they can, but the NHL can simply turn to any team that signs any of the five players and invoke the moral clause in that contract to suspend the player once more for the same reason.

In short, the players are damned if they do because they did bad.

It shocked me to see the NHLPA coming out with a bold statement like they made when it came to five players who haven't played in the league since 2022. I understand why they did it, but this should have been done quietly without being a big press release. The public already is trying to make sense how five men, plus a few others, could be in one room with an alleged intoxicated woman, record two consent videos after everything went down, and still have none of them found guilty for sexual assault. For the record, I'm still struggling with the outcome myself as heard on The Hockey Show.

I know the NHLPA doesn't care much for public opinion, so any negativity cast towards them likely won't matter to them. In this case, though, it might have been a better look to simply say, "The NHLPA is working with the NHL to determine the next steps for the five players named in the trial". By keeping their business behind closed doors, the very least the NHLPA could achieve is not looking like a soulless entity devoid of any empathy for the victim.

Leave that for the defence lawyers, NHLPA. They were so good at it.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

A Wish Fulfilled

I never had the opportunity to see Bobby Clarke play the game live and in-person, but watching video of him during his heyday in the NHL makes me realize that he was one of the first true power forwards of the game. While he never shied away from going to the areas of the ice where trouble would find him, he also had more than enough talent to be one of the game's elite scorers during his time. Being a two-time Stanley Cup winner and a two-time Hart Trophy winner is certainly enough accolades to make a case that he's among the game's best players, but Bobby Clarke won another prestigious award in 1975 that seemed to fulfill a wish that his parents had for him as he embarked on his hockey career.

For those that don't know, Bobby Clarke was the 1975 winner of the Lou Marsh Award, awarded annually to Canada's top athlete by a panel of journalists in December. Wayne Gretzky still holds the most wins for the Lou Marsh Award by any Canadian with four, and Maurice Richard was the first hockey player to win the award back in 1957.

Other hockey players to have won the award include Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Guy Lafleur, Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, and Carey Price while Marie-Philip Poulin was the first female hockey player to receive the honour in 2022. It should be noted that Poulin's win was the first under the award's new name of the Northern Star Award "after concerns were raised about racist language used by Marsh, who died in 1936, during his years of sportswriting."

The reason that I point out Clarke's win is that that he became the first Manitoban-born athlete to receive the national honour, and he also fulfilled a wish made by his parents about his hockey career.

As the Winnipeg Free Press article states, Bobby Clarke's mother said that it was his parents' "wish that he do well in hockey because he wanted it so badly." It seems the Clarkes had nothing to worry about in that regard because he had an incredible 1974 where he led the Philadelphia Flyers to the Stanley Cup to become the first expansion team to win the NHL's biggest prize after beating the Orr-and-Esposito-powered Boston Bruins in six games.

His 1975 might have been even better as Clarke was all over the scoresheet in the 1974-75 season, notching a then-NHL record for centermen with 89 assists en route to a 116-point campaign, a second Stanley Cup with the Flyers after beating the Buffalo Sabres in six games, and he won his second Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player. That great 1975 season and year would be capped off with Clarke being named Canada's top athlete as the "runaway choice by sportswriters and sports broacasters". I'd say that's a wish fulfilled!

There's a little trivia for you on this Friday as you now know how the first hockey player to be named as Canada's top athlete was, which hockey player holds the record for the most Northern Star Awards, and who the first Manitoban was to receive the award. And that last one certainly made Cliff and Yvonne Clarke proud!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 670

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back tonight with one major story that dominated the news today as the Hockey Canada trial in London, Ontario came to a close. This obviously has all sorts of implications on the five players who are on trial, but it could have far-reaching effects on the legal system as well. Our non-lawyer hosts will work to break down and explain the verdict handed down today as the trial closes, and we'll see if they can piece together how the verdict was reached. It's going to be a serious show this evening, but our hosts will do their best to make sense of things tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Last week on the show, we teased that a guest would be on, but that scheduled changed as the guest's schedule changed. We're still going to have this guest on in the future, but Teebz and Jason will go in a different direction tonight as they examine the verdict and the fallout from the 2018 Hockey Canada sexual assault trial that wrapped up in London, Ontario today. Regardless of the judge's final verdict, this trial has had an impact on hockey, and our hosts will attempt to make sense of the final verdict. Beyond that, there are a few other stories that will likely be discussed in the second half of the show including Gabriel Vilardi's new contract, a cool story from the WHL, and anything else we can squeeze into the hour! It all goes down tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The UMFM website's streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store. It's a solid app.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard! And because both Teebz and Jason are on the butterfly app where things are less noisy, you can find Teebz here and Jason here on Bluesky!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason discuss the end of the Hockey Canada trial with their thoughts on the verdict and the fallout from the trial before chatting about the Jets signing a key piece, a WHLer with an amazing summer, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: July 24, 2025: Episode 669

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Hockey's "Moonlight" Graham?

There's a phrase that people use that reads "Life imitates art" when real-life events either resemble or are inspired by fictional writing or art. In the Hollywood film Field of Dreams, Burt Lancaster played the older role of Archibald "Moonlight" Graham who, which may be a surprise, was an actual baseball player. His story is told in the movie fairly accurately, and it occurred to me that hockey has its own version of "Moonlight Graham" in former Edmonton Oilers defenceman and current Randy Gregg! What may surprise you is that Gregg, while being a solid hockey player, was also a baseball player!

I was actually looking for some other information online when I stumbled across Steven Sandor's article about Dr. Randy Gregg on edifyedmonton.com. In that article, Sandor highlights the exceptional baseball talents that Gregg while attending university at the University of Alberta as he purused his medical degree. He writes,

"It was 1978, and the Edmonton Tigers were in the national championships. Gregg went on a home-run hitting tear (seven in three games), and the Tigers won the Canadian title.

"'I got kinda lucky,' he recalls.

"He was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, but wasn't picked for the national team. The reason? Because he wasn't attending an American university on a baseball scholarship — he was at the University of Alberta, pursuing his dream of becoming a doctor, and was also the captain of the Golden Bears' hockey team, playing under legendary coach Clare Drake."

It should come as no surprise that Gregg likely was a good all-around athlete, but it seems he had real talent on the diamond. Hitting seven homeruns at a national baseball championship in three games would make baseball scouts sit up and notice that player nowadays, but, as Sandor wrote, Gregg was very serious about getting his education which, on September 13, 1986, he used to its full extent.

I'll admit that Gregg's professional baseball career was much shorter than Archibald Graham's career, but I'd argue that a Canadian National Baseball Championship is still a pretty big deal. And, if we're putting our cards on the table, 1978 to 1986 means that Gregg did other things in between playing baseball and retiring from sports to be a doctor. That included playing hockey for the Alberta Golden Bears, playing in Japan, winning Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers, and playing for Canada at the Winter Olympics all while taking classes and working in hospitals to get his medical degree.

Take nothing away from his hockey career because it's all sorts of impressive, but it seems like Randy Gregg could have been a pretty good baseball player as well. It seems he never forgot his baseball roots, though, as Gregg currently serves as the managing director of the Edmonton Riverhawks, a member of the West Coast League where a lot of collegiate student-athletes play baseball in the summer. That sounds familiar, and it seems that it's something of which Gregg, a former student-athlete, is proud to promote.

"We're really proud of all the players we have on our team, whether they are American or Canadian," Gregg told Sandor in the interview. "But we love the opportunity of the Canadian kid to come out and play in front of his friends and family in this facility. And, ultimately, if we could have 35 Canadians play for us, we would try to do that."

Gregg is also still practicing medicine as a family physician, and he and his wife, former Olympic speed skater Kathy Vogt, are living life comfortably in Edmonton. They have four children and twelve grandchildren including their son, Ryan Gregg, who played baseball for the Uniersity of Calgary. Their other son, Jamie Gregg, became a former Olympic speed skater, and he married Danielle Wotherspoon, an Olympic speed skater. Add in sisters Jessica and Sarah who were also Olympic speed skaters, and it seems like Randy Gregg was skating on the wrong ice with all the speed skaters in his family!

Joking aside, Randy Gregg had an outstanding hockey career. After turning down tryouts with the Atlanta Flames and New York Rangers following his time at the University of Alberta where was a two-time CIAU champion and the 1979 CIAU Player of the Year, Gregg joined the Canadian National Team program as they looked to the Lake Placid Olympics. That 1980 Olympiad wasn't good for Canada as they finished in sixth-place, but Randy Gregg did meet his wife, Kathy, at those Olympics! I'd say Gregg had himself a successful Olympiad!

You might be wondering how Gregg landed in Japan after playing at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics with Canada, but acquaintences on the Japanese National Team convinced him to join a company team as a player-coach. And if you're wondering how he was interning at Edmonton hospitals to fulfill his medical degree requirements while living in Japan, it seems that the Royal Alexandra Hospital was willing to accommodate his hockey career.

According to Andy Ogle's article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal linked above, Gregg was willing to give the NHL experience two years before focussing exclusively on medicine. Two years, however, became four years with the Oilers before Gregg finally retired on September 13, 1986 as shown in the Brandon Sun image.

Except he didn't.

Gregg returned to the Oilers after Sather begged him to come back for the 1986-87 season, and three Stanley Cups and four more seasons with the Oilers were his new reality. Six weeks into the season, he joined the team and helped them win a third Stanley Cup in 1986-87. He'd retire again in the summer of 1987 to pursue a residency program in orthopedic surgery at the University of Alberta, but would return for another Stanley Cup run with the Oilers following a fourth-place finish at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics with Team Canada.

The Oilers would place Randy Gregg on waivers at the start of the 1990 season, and the Vancouver Canucks claimed him from the Oilers on October 1, 1990. He'd retire once again to pursue medicine, but came back to play 21 games in 1991-92 with one goal and four assists in Vancouver colours. Randy Gregg officially retired from the NHL after the playoffs that season, having played in 474 regular season games while scoring 41 goals and 152 points. He also played in 137 playoff games where he had 13 goals and 40 assists. That's not too bad for a guy who was playing community league hockey in Edmonton while starting university!

For a guy who looked like he might have a long and prosperous career as a baseball star, Dr. Randy Gregg became a star in two professions: on the hockey rink and in the doctor's office. Obviously, the comparison between Archibald Graham and Randy Gregg are nowhere close when one starts looking at the details of both men's lives, but two kids who loved baseball became successful medical doctors after pursuing their dreams including long medical careers.

There are no right or wrong paths when one is pursuing a dream. For Archibald Graham, his baseball dream lasted just a couple of innings. For Randy Gregg, he earned five Stanley Cup rings over ten seasons in the NHL. Ray Kinsella was almost angry at "Moonlight" Graham for giving up on his baseball dream, and Graham might have spoken for both he and Gregg when he told Ray, "Son, if I'd only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes... now that would have been a tragedy."

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

What Did You Do All Summer?

One of the things I remember doing in grade school when everyone returned from summer vacation was having some teacher ask what everyone did over the summer break. There were the normal things you'd expect as kids would talk about trips out of town, playing summer sports, and spending time at pools and beaches, but Regina Pats defender Ephram McNutt might have a story that tops them all. Born in Yellowknife, McNutt's mom was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as he grew up, meaning he lived in towns like Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk where traveling often meant flying. And that's exactly what McNutt is doing this summer once again!

In March, McNutt told Dave Thomas of MooseJawToday.com, "I'm finishing my ground school right now, I'm pretty close to being done. I was waiting for a medical appointment to do my solo and now I'm going to take my federal exam at the end of the month. Then I will do a little bit of in-air stuff and I will have my private pilot ticket."

Yes, McNutt was doing that while playing hockey for the WHL's Regina Pats after being traded to the Pats from the Prince George Cougars. In 52 games with both teams, McNutt scored six goals and 23 assists while aiming to attract scouts with his on-ice skills. However, he may not have to worry about the scouts in the stands for much longer because he's been logging hours through a flight school in Lacombe, Alberta while studying maps in Regina with the Pats.

"He’s got a map that's about the size of a small dinner table that he's constantly poring over with his, whatever the measurement thing is called," Pats Education Advisor Dwayne Hinger told the WHL's Cami Kepke. "He's constantly doing that."

McNutt wouldn't be the first hockey player to obtain his pilot's license when he completes his required training as former WHL, NHL, AHL, and IHL player Jeff Sharples is currently a Captain for Alaska Air flights. Heck, even Mark Messier obtained a pilot's license in 2009!

"I think it's so huge being able to get up in the air,” McNutt told Kepke. "You're seeing a perspective that no one else would see. Even in Red Deer, or at least in Lacombe, you can be in the mountains in a couple of hours in a car, but you can be in the mountains in half an hour in a small plane. Just seeing the perspective, seeing the roads from up above, or seeing a different angle of the mountains or something is just so cool. Even flying over my house for the first time was a really neat thing."

It's clear that McNutt has a passion for flying, but he told Kepke that he sees it "more of a hobby than a career path" right now. McNutt will still pursue his dreams involving a puck and ice, but being a pilot certainly is something he'll keep in his back pocket where he can become a commercial airline pilot and work all over the world.

"That's kind of every pilot's goal," he told Thomas. "They'd love to get over to Europe. They make the big bucks and fly in some pretty gorgeous settings."

What might be the best part of this whole story is that McNutt is taking advantage of the opportunity afforded to him as the Pats have covered his flight school costs without it counting against the three years of WHL Scholarship monies he's accrued while playing in the league! As we know, a lot of players use their scholarships to go back to Canadian or US universities and obtain a degree, and McNutt can still do that after pursuing his aviation passion!

"That's something I stress to some of the younger guys," he told Thomas about using his scholarship money. "I've played with a couple of guys who took their air brake license and started their welding ticket. And if they don't see themselves as a post-secondary guy, there are so many other options."

I love that Ephram McNutt is stressing the education part of the WHL experience because it's something I believe every CHL player should use regardless of where their careers take them. Clearly, it's taking McNutt higher than ever before as he completes his pilot training, and it's pretty cool to think that the Regina Pats' 2024-25 Most Sportsmanlike Player could earn his wings thanks to hockey one day!

There aren't many kids who can talk about earning their pilot's license over the summer, but one 20 year-old WHL player can. Ephram McNutt's story is awesome, and I'm glad to see he's opening all sorts of doors if his hockey career doesn't quite reach its dreamed-about destination. Hockey can take you far, kids, but there's always a runway when one is pursuing an education as it can take you higher than hockey ever did. Ephram McNutt is proof of that!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

This Reality Is Pure Fantasy

It's hard to imagine that the NHL would ever find a home in Europe simply due to the NHL needing billionaires to fund teams and fans to fill arenas on a nightly basis where the sport is mildly popular in specific cities across that continent. Yes, there are lots of fans who come out for games played in Europe, but a European division in the NHL seems like pure fantasy as salaries continue to climb past the eight-digit mark and expansion costs are astronomical. That's why reading an article from 2010 that made it sound as if it were happening in the next decade is nearly laughable in knowing what we know today. That is, it ain't happening.

An August 22, 2010 article from Postmedia News' Matthew Coutts stated that a "European division in NHL inching towards reality" which, as we know, never materialized. That article is below.

It's not that the NHL wouldn't or couldn't make the jump across the ocean, but it becomes a question of business and I don't think that European hockey fans would appreciate paying over $10,000 USD annually to watch hockey 82 times per season. Yes, you can convince them to do that on a weekend when the NHL comes to town, but I don't think you'd see many of them drop the obscene amount of money that season tickets cost today. Heck, I don't even do that!

Some of the phrasing used by Coutts in this article seems to put the cart before the horse because the option of moving overseas might have been there, but there logistics were never really in place. He writes, "there is little doubt the league has entered into a fill-on flirtation with the continent", "Europe's emerging hockey hotbeds", and "expanding the European market is a focus". There's little doubt that hockey has its place in Europe, but let's not try to sell the shed as a mansion: NHL hockey would be a distant sport in its popularity when compared to football (soccer), F1 racing, and basketball.

According to Coutts' reporting, "NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly called it a dream he would like to see happen within a decade," but we know all the financial problems that some teams have faced over the last fifteen years. The Coyotes are the obvious answer, but we can talk about the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Nashville Predators, the Atlanta Thrashers, the Florida Panthers, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Los Angeles Kings, the Calgary Flames, and the Edmonton Oilers as teams that had significant financial woes. If you can't keep your own house in order, expanding to Europe would be ludicrous.

NHL International senior vice-president Ken Yaffe acknowledged this reality of the NHL in the article, stating to Coutts, "That doesn't mean the ultimate focus is develop a division or expansion into Europe. There are a lot of major challenges to doing that.

"The reality is, we are a North American sports league that is focused on building the strength and viability of 30 clubs across the US and Canada. That is still the primary business and the primary focus."

As we know, that "primary business and primary focus" remained the only thing that the NHL had as a priority as expansion didn't happen again until 2017 when the Vegas Golden Knights joined the NHL circuit. The NHL also added the Seattle Kraken as the 32nd team, moved the Arizona Coyotes to become the Utah Mammoth, moved the Atlanta Thrashers to become the Winnipeg Jets, and shored up ownership in a pile of other cities across the North American landscape. In short, they took care of the business at-hand.

Personally, I don't want to see the NHL in Europe outside of a handful of games. The game played by the British EIHL, the German Penny DEL, the Swiss National League, the Finnish Liiga, and the Swedish SHL are great with the NHL's shadow hanging over them, and it's fun to watch these leagues clash in the Champions League where the best teams can show the world why they should be crowned as Europe's best squad. Keeping that intact makes European hockey unique!

I'm not saying that the NHL will never have a European division of hockey in the future, but the logistic and financial situations to do that are far more complicated than Matthew Coutts makes it out to be. I don't fault Coutts for chasing down a story like this, but framing it as he did in 2010 where it sounds like it's on the verge of happening is irresponsible reporting. It simply was never in the cards.

Let's be honest: the NHL expanding to Europe "in the next decade" could happen at any time just like humans could terraform Mars and be living on that planet in the next decade. It's a great story, but it's a fantasy that has zero basis in reality no matter what the NHL says.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Remember This Victory?

Where were you on Friday, May 14, 2010? I ask that question because it's clearly not May 14 right now, so the 15th anniversary of that date has already passed. The catch, however, is the picture to the left is from that night where the Philadelphia Flyers made a little hockey history against the Boston Bruins. Only two other teams had done what the Flyers did that night in the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs as the Flyers downed the Bruins by a 4-3 score in Game Seven to rally from a 3-0 series deficit to win 4-3 in seven games.

Tied 3-3 in the third period, Simon Gagne scored a power-play goal with 7:08 to play following a too-many-men penalty assessed to the Bruins, and the Flyers capped off a major comeback in the game with four unanswered goals to erase a 3-0 deficit in the game and in the series as they prevailed over the Bruins. To say that this comeback in the series by the seventh-seeded Flyers was historic might be an understatement when you consider Boston had won Game Three by a 4-1 score and looked totally in control of the series at that point.

The only player from the Flyers who is signed to an NHL team right now is James Van Riemsdyk. The only player from the Boston Bruins who is signed to an NHL team right now is Brad Marchand, and Blake Wheeler just announced his retirement to reduce that number to Marchand. It's amazing to think that all of Gagne, Chris Pronger, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Daniel Briere, Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timmonen, and Ray Emery were members of the Flyers that season while Marchand, Wheeler, Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Milan Lucic, David Krejci, Mark Recchi, Marc Savard, Miroslav Satan, Tim Thomas, and Tuukka Rask all skated for the Bruins that season.

Here's the recap of Game Seven as written by Howard Ulman.

It isn't often you see history quite like what the Flyers pulled off on that Friday evening, but they did something only two other teams had done before them in erasing that three-game deficit and winning the series. They joined the the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and the 1975 New York Islanders as the third team to accomplish the feat, and both of those wins happened long before I was part of this world.

It's hard to believe that historic win happened fifteen years ago, but maybe it was less prominent this season with both the Bruins and Flyers missing the playoffs. With neither fanbase and team broadcasters to remind us of that historic win by the Flyers, that piece of NHL history just kind of flew under the radar and past everyone this season. And it's still hard to believe that only two players from that series are still playing in the NHL today!

It should be noted that the Los Angeles Kings became the fourth team to rally from an 0-3 series deficit in 2014 when they beat the San Jose Sharks in seven games in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so this generation of hockey fans has had a chance to witness this kind of epic comeback twice. However, no one can take the credit away from the Flyers who were the first team to turn the trick in 35 years following the Islanders' win in 1975.

Where were you on May 14, 2010? Hopefully, it wasn't TD Garden in Boston where you were cheering for the Bruins to advance!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Six More Years Of Vilardi Parties

While they may have lost out in the Nikolaj Ehlers sweepstakes, the Winnipeg Jets locked up a big piece of their top-six forwards by inking Gabriel Vilardi to a six-year, $45 million contract on Friday. The biggest return the Jets got in Pierre-Luc Dubois trade posted career highs with 27 goals, 34 assists, 61 points and 71 regular-season games in 2023-24. The Jets are hoping he can replicate those numbers over the next six seasons as the big power forward was a bright spot for the Jets last season.

The 25 year-old forward was a star on the power-play where he notched 12 goals and 13 assists for the franchise, and it became clear as the season progressed that he was a key piece of the Jets' offence. While an injury sidelined him for the first four games of the playoffs, it looked like Vilardi was settling in before the Dallas Stars eliminated the Jets in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

As much as the Jets would have liked to have Ehlers back in Jets' colours, it's hard to argue that 82-30-6 the Jets boast with Vilardi in the lineup isn't something they wasn't to keep going in the 118 games he has in that time, so Kevin Cheveldayoff locked that up with the six-year deal to avoid an arbitration hearing with the forward. As he's improved his goal and point total every season to date, it seemed elementary that the Jets and Vilardi would find a figure that pleased both sides. Those numbers are $7.5 million annually until 2031.

Did both sides get a good deal? The jury will always be out on this contract unless Vilardi averages 30 goals and 70 points annually, but the potential is there for him to do that. His style of play may lead to more bumps and bruises meaning that time on the injured list could be a reality, but it's hard not to like Vilardi's soft hands around the net where he does a lot of damage. If he continues to show his playmaking skills that resulted in 34 assists last season, this could be a contract that no one will question. Again, time will tell.

What I like most about this deal is Vilardi's versatility. He can play on any of the top-three lines and not look out of place, and we know he works well with a handful of players including former Kings linemate Alex Iafallo. If the Jets were to acquire another impact winger to replace Nikolaj Ehlers, they don't have to limit their search to second- or third-line wingers. Vilardi has shown he can play up and down the lineup with his best fit curremtly being alongside Scheifele and Connor. That could change, but Vilardi has shown he can adapt.

This was an important signing for the Jets, and it's one that should keep the doomsday fans from looking at a lottery pick next summer. Vilardi makes the Jets better with him in the lineup, and that's exactly the kind of feel-good signing that the Jets needed. Along with the Morgan Barron signing earlier this week, the Jets are down to just one restricted free agent. If they can get Dylan Samberg under contract soon, the Jets will have had a fairly good offseason.

By no means should the Jets pat themselves on the back because the hard work starts in September. Getting the right guys under contract is always the challenge in the offseason, and there are still a ton of questions about this lineup in terms of who will play where, who will play with whom, and what will the opening night roster resemble.

One thing is certain, though: the Vilardi Party continues in 2025-26!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Time To Be Relevant

If you follow this blog, you know that I'm critical of Canada West and its nine member schools that participate in hockey when it comes to them being relevant in the hockey world. Let's be honest - they're not. No one talks about scouting Canada West for players they can sign, and it seems pretty obvious that only the best of the best are playing hockey at the professional level once their U SPORTS careers are done. So how can Canada West be relevant? Let's discuss.

Uofficially, I have spoken to dozens of people this summer about U SPORTS hockey. For the most part, they know a few teams, but naming specific players, knowing any stats, and naming which schools won the U SPORTS National Championships are questions that were largely met with blank stares. I can't speak for what happens in other conferences as much I can speak to what the experience is like in western Canada, but I suspect that most U SPORTS markets would show the same apathy as people to whom I spoke in western Canada.

How can this change? I'll admit that I don't have any of Creative Communications, business, commerce, or sports management degrees, but I have watched enough sports in my life to know what works and what doesn't when it comes to being relevant. Remember when the NHL was on OLN - the Outdoor Life Network - and people threw a fit because OLN, as a network, had no audience? The NHL learned from its mistakes as it tried to claw and scratch its way into being a popular sport, and now we're talking about billion-dollar deals for the league. That's relevance.

Admittedly, none of these solutions are a catch-all to making the league and its teams more relevant in Canada and across the hockey world, but the trends from other leagues seem to indicate that the current pay-to-watch model is completely outdated. In saying that, let's take a look at five solutions that Canada West hockey could put in place tomorrow that are inexpensive, easy to implement, and will provide greater return when it comes to being relevant.

1. Remove The Paywall

It has become painfully obvious that more leagues who want to gain more viewers are removing the paywalls that prevent people from watching. The SDHL announced earlier this summer that they're going to put all their games on YouTube, we've witnessed the spike in viewers when CBC Sports offers games for free, and other sports have also discovered that more people watch when they can access the games. Allowing people to watch games at their leisure and without committing to a subscription can also mean a boost at the box office as well, and that's something all teams want.

The American Association of Professional Baseball might be one of the best examples of this as the high-A baseball league removed the paywall in 2024 and saw an incredible 224% growth over 2023's viewership numbers on aabaseball.tv. Additionally, multiple teams saw attendance numbers go up as well as more people watching seemed to prompt more people to check out games in-person. If it's working, why wouldn't other leagues follow that model?

And if you thought baseball was the only sport benefitting from YouTube, the PWHL "saw a 2,557% increase in YouTube subscribers throughout the" 2024 season as viewers from 88 countries tuned in to watch the women play hockey. That number dipped in 2025 thanks to the PWHL removing YouTube as an option for Canadians, but the PWHL still boasted a "68% increase in social media engagement across all platforms, including YouTube" this past season. Is anyone still asking why the SDHL is moving to YouTube for the 2025-26 season?

2. Give Me Engaging Stories

If there's one thing that people want more of when it comes to sports, it's highlights and content of their favorite teams and players doing what they do best. Last season, the only women's hockey team who produced highlights after games was the Calgary Dinos, and they were consistent all season long. I'll give shout-outs to the MacEwan Griffins and UBC Thunderbirds who often posted clips of goals and saves on social media regularly, but the other six teams were hit-and-miss when it came to regularly posting game content across all platforms. Note that italicized part because that's important.

NHL teams are excellent at doing it. Most AHL teams and ECHL teams are good at posting clips, and NCAA teams often post game clips. It shouldn't surprise anyone that these four leagues have a lot of followers while the teams who are posting a lot also have a high number of followers. Content is everything on social media, so Canada West should force teams to not only post clips on social media, but produce the entire highlight reel of plays from games. From there, cross-post like mad. Retweet and reshare content produced by teams. Make it so that people have to notice Canada West and its members! After all, 43% of people aged 16-34 follow leagues on social media. This isn't a difficult concept!

Would it surprise you that the two weekends where Canada West produced highlight reels were the two weekends where The Rundown got the most hits all season long? I'm not saying that the "Headline Sports"-style highlight reels I did were better than anything produced by anyone else, but the numbers on those two weekends speak for themselves. Highlight reels work based on my own observations.

The key here is that social media with engaging content can drive all sorts of metrics for all sports and all teams such as increased visibility, fan engagement, links to other content and material, cross-promotion of a variety of options, promotion of sponsors and supporters, brand awareness, and more. All of this just takes effort and collaboration, and the return on that investment could be huge.

3. Collaborate With Others

There are incredible content creators out there for all sports at the Canada West and U SPORTS level, and neither of those entities even tries to make connections with those outside media sources. The teams often fail at that too as witnessed first-hand on a number of occasions, but failing to even talk to those people who have a passion for telling the stories at team and league levels is a failure of monumental proportions. They're already doing the work - all the leagues and teams have to do is create a link to that work!

The University of Saskatchewan has a prretty good partnership with Pattison Media's HuskieFan app which has some incredible people doing awesome work at telling the Huskies' stories. The collaboration between the Huskies and these media people have resulted in solid content each and every season for the University of Saskatchewan, and dare I say that they are the best at what they do because they let the broadcasters bring stories to life. I would love to see more content from everyone involved, but I don't pull those strings.

Check the exceptional work that the HuskieFan Twitter account is doing with the stories they're producing and tell me why the Saskatchewan Huskies Twitter account has none of those stories retweeted. I often write stories about Canada West women's hockey players who have graduated, and not one school has ever reached out and asked if they could link to it. We feature interviews on The Hockey Show with players and coaches, and not one athletics department nor has Canada West asked for the audio or linked back to it. It's almost like the schools and league try harder to ignore stories than they do promoting them. This might explain why no one ever talks about the teams or players despite their accomplishments.

Mount Royal University offers "the only 4-year bachelor degree program for broadcast students in Western Canada," yet the School of Broadcasting isn't involved in telling stories for their Athletics Department. UBC is affiliated with CiTR 101.9FM and has a soccer show, but nothing about the Thunderbirds. CSJW 90.9 FM in Calgary is a campus and community radio station with zero chatter about the campus sports teams, and only has one monthly podcast about sports in general. At some point, you'd think those three schools might want to see if there's room for a campus-produced show about the sports programs they boast. However, it's silence from the west.

4. Go Get Big Names

There will be those that argue that there are still bills to pay even if you give away the content for free. My conjecture is that the subscription model doesn't work to maximize the profits one could see with Canada West TV, but instead limits the number of eyeballs watching those broadcasts. Streaming is very much a thing now, and the chances of it going away anytime soon seem to be near zero. As such, streaming networks need to find ways to be profitable, and it seems that Canadians aren't against the idea of seeing advertisements on streaming services as a 2022 study stated that "48 percent of Canadian viewers are open to seeing ads in streaming television in exchange for lower subscription costs".

Since we already removed the paywall in my first suggested improvement, let's take the advertising to a new level on a league-wide basis for each sport. Banks, food and beverage companies, grocery store chains, and hotels and airlines are all companies that could advertise on Canada West TV across all nine schools. For example, the WestJet first period would be a good way to work their slogan of "Where Your Story Takes Off" into the broadcast, and the Sobey's third period would emphasize that the game you're watching is "So Canadian" as their slogan says. Running these companies' ads before and after full intermission shows would be some additional engagement for these brands, and I feel like the loss of subscription dollars would be made up fairly quickly and then some.

We're not just talking hockey either. Four quarters in football and basketball, set breaks in volleyball, three periods in hockey, two halves in soccer, and whatever else one can sell to companies can be done. There could Kit Kat timeouts in all sports, McDonalds starting lineups, and more. There quite literally is no limit to the advertising dollars teams and leagues could make with board ads, scoreboard ads, and gameday publications all within striking distance of any of these advertising businesses. The money is there if the teams and leagues are willing to do the work to earn it. As per Nike, just do it.

5. Live Is Free; Replays Are Not

Based on the information about the American Association of Professional Baseball, they seem to be banking on the idea that the live games are where more people will tune into their broadcasts. I cannot disagree with this idea, so follow their lead and charge for on-demand access only. After all, if you had tickets, it's not like you can show up a day later to watch the game. That access will cost you.

There may have to be some market research done on what a price point should be for the on-demand access, but anything more than $5 per game seems overpriced to me. If I missed the free broadcast, that's enough of a penalty to make me rethink where I'm going to be for the next broadcast. Be on time for game time!

Those five things could really put Canada West and its nine member schools on the map once again. We've heard the old women's hockey phrase of "To be it, you have see it" or some variation on that, but it's entirely true of university sports. Whether it's organizing blood donation drives, raising funds and awareness for the Special Olympics, or working with the underprivileged in communities, there are a ton of stories that can and should be told on Canada West TV and through other media, and none of these make it to the final cut until Canada West is considering those players and efforts for awards.

Beyond that, just getting more eyeballs on and people to attend games doesn't take a Brinks truck of money to accomplish. It takes passion, effort, and a desire to tell stories, and that's what all broadcasters, journalists, and bloggers want: a compelling story that features a great human interest moment. The outcome of the games being broadcasted are just scores - it's the stories from within the games and that are bigger than the games that sell the sport and broadcasts. People don't tune into broadcasts that aren't interesting.

The above is how I feel Canada West and, in turn, U SPORTS can reach farther than they currently are, and most of the requirements are simply hard work and dedication. Having passion for university sports will captivate viewers, and viewers will come back if it's interesting. If the people running the show don't have those traits, the broadcasts will be as entirely mediocre as they are now.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 669

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back tonight with the kick-off to our summer interviews! With very little hockey news happening across the northern half of the globe, our hosts use the summer to chat with interesting and intriguing people who make the sport of hockey better. We begin those interviews tonight with a player whose career has taken her across Canada, across North America, and across the globe where she's been a productive scorer no matter where she landed. She's a U18 Women's World Championship bronze medallist, a 2023 U SPORTS National Champion, and a 2025 PostFinance Women's League bronze medallist, and we get caught up with her tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason sit down with former Mount Royal Cougars and Calgary Dinos forward Courtney Kollman to talk about her hockey journey! Courtney grew up in Calgary where she found a home at Edge School before landing at Robert Morris University, playing for Team Canada, returning to Mount Royal, winning a National Championship, joining the Dinos, and taking her scoring talents to Davos, Switzerland! We'll hear about all these stops, playing for Carla MacLeod and Scott Rivett, experiencing Crowchild Classic games, where she's playing next year, and more! It should be a fun chat with Courtney about her career and more tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The UMFM website's streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store. It's a solid app.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard! And because both Teebz and Jason are on the butterfly app where things are less noisy, you can find Teebz here and Jason here on Bluesky!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason chat with one of the most lethal scorers in Canada West history as they sit down with Courtney Kollman to chat about hockey, life, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: July 17, 2025: Episode 669

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!