I know there likely aren't a lot of people across Canada who keep up with ECHL signings, but it's always cool to see a former U SPORTS player getting his shot with a professional team. For some, they've gone to the ECHL before landing in U SPORTS, but former Golden Bears defender Aidan De La Gorgendiere went full circle with a stop in the ECHL before playing with the University of Alberta followed by a jump to the NCAA with the University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks. He signed with the ECHL's Tahoe Knight Monsters this week which is awesome, but I have a more serious question: what will his name look like on his jersey once he gets into a game?
I ask this because there seems to be different fonts and capitalization used depending on the team for whoch De La Gorgendiere has played. Obviously, that's a heckuva last name, but it's the "De La" that seems to be changed whenever he moves to a new team. With what seems like zero consistency in the capitalization of his last name's surname particle, let's take a look at how Aidan De La Gorgendiere's name has appeared over the span of his hockey career so far.
Aidan played prep hockey at Yale Hockey Academy in his hometown of Abbotsford, BC. I didn't read every scouting report, but everything I could find online suggested he was a smart player who looked for offensive opportunities while not shying away from the defensive side of the game. What was harder to find was an image of how his name was spelled on his jersey, but the good news is that I did find a video where I grabbed a screenshot.
Team Surname Particle: DE LA
As shown, Yale Academy went with standard block lettering all of the same size across De La Gorgendiere's shoulders. There's absolutely nothing wrong with how the name is displayed, and the name looks uniform above his #22. If this was how his name is displayed moving forward, I wouldn't be writing this article so be ready for some changes to how the surname particle looks.
Aidan's work at Yale Academy got him noticed by WHL scouts, and the Saskatoon Blades wanted him as part of their team as they chose him fifth-overall in the 2017 CHL Bantam Draft. His parents are both from Saskatoon so he was excited to head to the Blades despite growing up in British Columbia.
Team Surname Particle: DE LA
Saskatoon introduced De La Gorgendiere at a press conference in their locker room, and you can see the name on the back of his jersey has the surname particle with a half-sized "E" and "A" compared to the rest of the letters. What makes this weird is that Saskatoon appears again below.
Aidan's play got him noticed by Team Canada as he was invited to Canada's U17 camp where he would eventually be placed on Team Black for the 2018 U17 World Challenge. In five games at the tournament, he had two helpers as Team Black finished in fifth-place with a 5-3 win over Team White.
Team Surname Particle: DE LA
This is standard Team Canada block font, so I didn't expect there to be any variations on how De La Gorgendiere's name would be displayed. Yes, this was the best photo I could find, and that's certainly him as there were no other "De La" players on the Team Black roster. In fact, Canada didn't have any "Dela" players either, so this made narrowing down De La Gorgendiere in photos easier.
Aidan's time with the Blades lasted five years plus one game as an underager in 2017-18, but he was a solid player in the WHL. Over those five seasons, he scored 22 goals and 133 assists in 248 games while adding three goals and 18 points in 28 playoff games. However, he would go undrafted by NHL teams.
Team Surname Particle: DE LA
I don't know if this was a team decision with respect to how names were displayed on jerseys or if De La Gorgendiere made the request himself, but you can see he was back to standard block lettering as a player. Again, there's nothing wrong with a uniform name in an easy-to-read font across the back of one's jersey, but we're not close to being done with this examination of Aidan's name.
Having not been selected by any NHL teams in the entry drafts, Aidan decided to make the jump to the professional ranks by signing with the ECHL's Atlanta Gladiators in 2023! He didn't play a lot as he dressed in ten games where he scored one goal and added four helpers, but he got a taste of pro hockey!
Team Surname Particle: DE LA
We're back to the half-sized "E" and "A" with respect to how Atlanta displayed De La Gorgendiere's name on his jersey. Being that he was only with Atlanta for ten games, the sample size is very limited, but it appears there was no change to capitalize his name like we saw with Saskatoon above.
After parting ways with Atlanta midway through the 2023-24 season, Aidan would land at the University of Alberta where he suited up for the Golden Bears! In 38 games in Canada West, he'd score eight goals and 37 assists as he was part of a solid Golden Bears team, but they fell in the Canada West playoffs in both seasons, not qualifying for Nationals in both seasons.
Team Surname Particle: DE LA
The Golden Bears went with the uniform block letters for De La Gorgendiere's name. What's funny about Alberta's uniforms is that De La Gorgendiere's name almost covers the entire shoulder yoke stripe on the back of the jersey. I often joke about long player names stretching from elbow to elbow, but this example was almost shoulder to shoulder!
With the NCAA opening its doors to former CHL players, Aidan made the jump to the University of Nebraska-Omaha where he joined the Mavericks in Division-1 hockey. In 33 games, he had three goals and ten assists as the Mavericks skated to a 12-24-0 record before falling to North Dakota.
Team Surname Particle: de la
Omaha presented the only lower-case surname particle of the bunch to date, but it's clearly noticeable on the back of De La Gorgendiere's jersey. I've looked at this image a number of times, and I almost feel like, at the very least, the "D" and "L" should be capitalized based on what we've seen with other teams. The lower-case "E" and "A" can stay if that's Omaha's preference, but having lower-case letters for a name is pretty rare.
In my research on De La Gorgendiere's various surname particles, I came across a handful of articles by reputable news outlets that also seemed to put their own spin on his name. WOWT's Clayton Collier wrote a great piece on Aidan honouring his mom, Marla, through a hockey ritual he started after she passed away from lung cancer in 2019. In his article, though, he spelled De La Gorgendiere's surname particle as "de La" which completely threw me for a loop, but then capitalized the "D" and "L" later in the article! Mass confusion!
That last capitalization could have simply been his word processing software formatting De La Gorgendiere's name with a capital "D" as the first letter in a sentence, but Collier started other sentences with Aidan's last name showing the "de La" surname particle. In short, nothing makes sense, there is no consistency to Aidan's last name on jerseys or in print, and I still don't know what Tahoe will do!
The Tahoe Knight Monsters host the Cincinnati Cyclones tonight on "Star Wars Night" at the Tahoe Blue Event Center, so this could be a pretty awesome debut for De La Gorgendiere if he's in the lineup this evening. Tahoe hosts Cincinnati tomorrow as well before visiting the Allen Americans next weekend and the Rapid City Rush to finish the season, so we'll see if De La Gorgendiere plays in any of those games and how his name looks on the back of his jersey when he does.
Might we see a new spin on his surname particle? It could happen! To date, we've had four "DE LA", two "DE LA", one "de la", and a print version of "de La" and "De La". What name chaos will Tahoe bring us?
The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, returns to the UMFM radio frequency and internet streams tonight with a show that will wrap-up a number of things. If you listened last week, our hosts got part-way through one interview while not having enough time to play the second, so they'll clear those off the docket tonight. There's also leagues that are wrapping up which need some discussion and some news from other leagues that will generate chatter. There will be lots of wrapping up tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!
Tonight, Teebz and Jason will finish off the second-half of the interview with Ottawa Charge netminder Kendra Woodland before playing the interview with Charge insurance goalie Kaitlyn Ross to wrap up the chatter about the PWHL in Winnipeg as both were in the city for the Charge's victory over the Victoire. From there, they discuss John Tortorella replacing Bruce Cassidy in Las Vegas, the Toronto Maple Leafs dismissing GM Brad Treliving, the Montreal Canadiens being in a weird broadcasting situation, and they'll go over all the results from Europe where professional seasons are wrapping up this month. There's even announcements for the next two shows! It's going to be a busy hour on the program tonight, so get your ears perked up for 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.
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 more PWHL, coaching changes, management changes, broadcasting changes, European leagues, future shows, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!
Today might be a big day for some, but you won't find any jokes or pranks here! This time of year is where the grass starts to turn green, the leaves start budding on trees, the ice and snow recede to places no one needs to think about until October, but it's also the month where the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs begin. With the latter event about to settle into life on April 18, The Hockey Show is preparing for another postseason of fun where 16 listeners get a shot at claiming the title of "champion"!
We've been teasing and promoting Survivor: NHL Playoffs on The Hockey Show, so we'll re-plant the flag on the beach that says Survivor's NHL Island is open for business once again this year! As we've been talking about on the radio show over the last couple of weeks, our take on a Survivor contest is returning to the airwaves again as we look to crown a winner, award prizes to worthy competitors, and bestow fame and glory on the final entrant standing as The Hockey Show's 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs survivor!
It's pretty clear that UMFM owns no island in a tropical climate nor a boat that will get you there, and our annual show budget of $0.00 says Jason and I will never get to broadcast from an island in the south Pacific. However, if you're aware of the Survivor pools that are run, our contest is based on the same idea where you randomly pick a name of one of the contestants, and that person on Survivor is your person for the run of the show. If he or she is voted off the island, the game for you is over. In our contest, though, we put our own twist on the game so it becomes much more hockey-centric.
Jason and I are seeking sixteen people to call The Hockey Show on April 16, 2025 where each of those callers will choose a number from 1 to 16. Each of those sixteen numbers will have a corresponding NHL playoff team assigned to it randomly. Whatever number you've chosen will reveal your team for the playoffs, and that team becomes YOUR team in a similar random fashion to Survivor pools. All you have to do is be near your phone that evening between 5:30pm and 6:30pm Central Time, call us, and choose one of the numbers on the board to find out what playoff team you'll be rooting for in the playoffs!
If you need a real-world example of how this works, let's say that Jason were to call in and choose #6. We'll flip that card over to reveal that #6 has the Dallas Stars under it. Officially, Jason's team becomes the Stars until they're eliminated or they win, and card #6 is no longer available as a choice for the next callers. Jason will hopefully be cheering as a Stars fan this spring until they're done playing.
Following Jason's call, let's say that I call in next and select #13 as my number, revealing the Carolina Hurricanes. Carolina would become my team until they're eliminated or they win, and card #13 is no longer available as a choice for the next callers. Wash, rinse, repeat until there are no numbers and teams remaining. Easy, right?
If you think you're up for this, you'll need to have your radio tuned to The Hockey Show on April 16 and have your phone close to you. Before you commit, though, what we haven't told you yet is that there's a twist in all of this radio fun. And this twist is where things get crazy fun for everyone involved because you participate!
Just when you think you're out, you're still in the contest until "Tribal Council". You may be wondering how a radio show does "Tribal Council", but we already know your team was eliminated so you've technically been voted off Survivor's NHL Island. However, every episode of Survivor ends with the contestant voted off doing their exit interview, and that's precisely what you will do: you'll deliver an exit interview for your team! We'll call you, set up the quick two- or three-minute chat about your team, and then you're officially done with the contest and sent off the island. Easy-peasy, right?
Some of you may worry about talking on the radio, but I assure you it's just like talking on the phone. In other words, don't think we're going to make it sound weird or anything. But knowing that this is going to happen, what might you say? You're free to talk about how you're disappointed that a specific player didn't show up in the playoffs or how you never thought there would be an upset this early or how you're just lucky that your chosen team made the playoffs. Or you can be like Jacob and talk about your team embarrassed you.
While the CBS version of Survivor promises a big cash prize and whole bunch of prizes from sponsors - both of which The Hockey Show doesn't have - we will be offering up some prizing that aligns with our lack of CBS's budget. There will be some smaller prizes handed out as "challenge prizes" much like the network reality show does, and those challenges that all teams can win in the contest are as follows:
First shutout recorded in the playoffs.
First hat trick recorded in the playoffs.
First goaltender point recorded in the playoffs.
First team eliminated from the playoffs.
First to advance from the second round to the third round.
First team to score seven goals in one game in the playoffs.
First upset of the playoffs.
The first team that accomplishes any of these challenge goals will earn their Survivor player a corresponding prize! We have various hockey books and other assorted smaller prizes to be won this year, but you'll need to earn them through the challenges above. Any prizes won through these challenges will be handed out chronologically while supplies last in the order they were completed! Teams can also earn more than one prize in this challenge part of the contest, so choose wisely when it comes to the randomly-distributed teams! Or choose your favorite number. Either strategy works in this contest!
Just like the TV show, we do offer prizes for the finalists! The grand prize winner who captures the Survivor crown will take home their choice of an NHL jersey plus a few additional prizes! The finalist will get a jersey not chosen by the winner as a runner-up prize, so you're going home with a prize as long as your team makes it through three rounds which is pretty awesome! This year's two jerseys are a 2018-21 Pittsburgh Penguins alternate jersey and a 2021-24 Washington Capitals alternate jersey, so the winner may have a difficult choice to make when it comes to which jersey he/she takes home!
As a new wrinkle to this year's contest, The Hockey Show will also be asking if you plan on supporting UMFM's Pledge-O-Rama event that runs between April 24 at 6:30pm until 8:00pm on May 1. For anyone who enters the Survivor: NHL Playoffs contest AND donates to Pledge-O-Rama, we'll put you into an additional draw for even more prizes! You help us, we'll reward you - it's that simple.
I should also be upfront and inform you that we have some requirements that need to be met before you can participate. The good news is we won't need a medical team available like CBS does for their version of Survivor, but we do have a few must-have REQUIREMENTS for anyone to participate. They include:
You must call into the show on Thursday, April 18 between 5:30pm and whenever we fill all the spots in the contest. If all 16 spots aren't filled within the hour, Jason and I will get creative to fill the empty spots. Don't complain - you had an hour to make one phone call!
You must have a phone number and an email address. If you're calling us, I'm pretty sure you have at least one of these already. If you have neither, are you even alive?
A desire to watch your chosen team's progress in the NHL Playoffs. You don't need to follow them religiously, but it's better to know something if/when your team is eliminated.
Beyond that, this is a fun contest meant for laughter with a few rewards for those who get lucky. It's not to be taken seriously in any way, and it's a nice way for us to reward our loyal listeners with some free gear. If this has enticed you to listen for the first time or come back to the show after not listening, welcome to the show and here's hoping you get into the contest! Just remember, though, that if your team gets bounced, we're calling you for that exit interview. If that scares you in any way, work through that fear... or just win!
Be ready, folks, because this contest always is fun for everyone involved. Like CBS' Survivor, only one person can be crowned as "survivor" in this contest, and we're ready to kick things off on April 16! Here's hoping you'll call in for the best radio contest in hockey!
