A Hollow Award

It's human nature to want to celebrate being honoured for achievements. No one will deny an award they're given and it seems like no one ever will stop another from singing one's praises. I should point out that not all honours are made equal as we know that the Oscars and the Razzies are on opposite ends of the entertainment spectrum, so it would serve everyone well to remember that patting one's self on the back for being honoured may not be the best idea. I say this in the wake of the NHL being named as Sports Business Journal's "League of the Year" on Wednesday because as much as they deserve recognition, there are still issues underneath the business layer that need solving.

The NHL has been boasting about record revenues and increased attendance and television numbers every year for some time now, and it seems that the Sports Business Journal is finally recognizing these benchmarks. A lot of that has to do with "a long-awaited return to international competition" and a "strong working relationship with the NHL Players Association," but the "12-year extension of its Canadian media rights agreement with Rogers Communications" was also cited by the publication as a major reason for the honour.

What concerns me is that Sports Business Journal didn't even get the terms of the Rogers' deal correct. Alex Silverman wrote,

The problem is that the value of the entire deal through 2037-38 is $7.7 billion in US funds. With Sports Business Journal reporting that the deal was worth $7.7 billion "annually", they have significantly and carelessly overstated the value of the deal by billions of dollars. The actual deal works out to being approximately $642 million USD annually for the NHL, so the Sports Business Journal overvalued the deal by $7.1 billion annually by their report. Details matter.

With the Sports Business Journal already recognizing the 4 Nations Face-Off as the SBJ Event of the Year last year along with having the Florida Panthers as Sports Team of the Year, the Sports Business Journal recognized the success of the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics as the reason for the NHL seeing "its best U.S. viewership in more than a decade". If that's the case, shouldn't the Milano-Cortina Olympics be recognized for its part for these great TV numbers?

In fact, the NHL should get zero credit for any Olympic involvement and the resulting benefits from the Olympics because of how long the NHL refused to participate. It was the NHLPA who demanded Olympic participation in the latest CBA negotiations, not the NHL. Taking credit for something that they were repeatedly criticized for not doing is entirely dishonest, and the Sports Business Journal should be fully aware of these facts. Somehow, they decided to ignore them.

I'll give credit to the NHL for working with the NHLPA more closely to improve relations between the two sides, and both sides deserve equal creit for extending the CBA through to 2030 before it was even close to expiring. However, that work wasn't entirely all the NHL's doing, and the NHLPA deserves as much credit as the NHL for keeping that labour peace. Again, the Sports Business Journal should be aware of this fact, but they seem to only credit the NHL for the CBA peace.

On the surface, the "League of the Year" seemingly didn't do much, so recognizing them for not being stupid doesn't make them smart. It only makes them less stupid. And yet there are other problems facing the NHL for which the Sports Business Journal didn't account.

In celebrating "its best U.S. viewership in more than a decade," the Sports Business Journal didn't speak of all the regional broadcasters who stopped showing games due to financial issues. The FanDuel Sports Network isn't broadcasting the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs due to filing for bankruptcy, both RDS and TVA Sports will stop French broadcasts in Quebec with TVA Sports' issues going as far back as 2017, Rogers Sportsnet announced increased costs for national and regional broadcasts, and teams such as the Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights, Florida Panthers, and Utah Mammoth have all gone with cheaper over-the-air stations and their own streaming services for regional games. Talk about record TV viewers all you like, but the NHL is failing here with no way to recoup lost regional TV revenues.

Home attendance numbers will likely begin falling as well as ticket prices continue to climb. The Carolina Hurricanes are already priced out of some fans' budgets in these playoffs, the NHL's worst team is raising season ticket prices again, 2026 Stanley Cup Playoff tickets have exploded in price across the league, and some of the most expensive tickets in all of sports went up again this season.

With ticket price increases clearly outpacing the rise in income levels for fans, the NHL as a gate-driven league is on the precipice of seeing less fans come through the turnstiles due to how out of whack their ticket prices are. And I haven't even mentioned merchandise, concenssions, or parking yet. This, more than anything else they're facing, should be the most serious concern for the NHL to address.

The NHL is welcome to celebrate the Sports Business Journal's "League of the Year" award, but it should have been a little more humble in recognizing and giving credit to riding the coattails of some remarkable events and an incredible partner in the NHLPA who, I'd argue, did more to help the NHL than the NHL helped itself. There are still massive problems on the horizon when it comes to TV and ticket prices, so it's not like the NHL radically changed the sporting world in 2025 based on the Sports Business Journal's criteria.

You don't get credit for being smart when you're only less stupid.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 694

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back tonight to do a full autopsy on the results of the World Junior Championship that recently wrapped up in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. There's a lot to discuss about Canada's finish, the overall attendance at the tournament, and why this tournament seems to be on the decline, but our hosts will take a shot at all of that tonight in a conversation that is sure to stir up some emotions and chatter among listeners. In short, it should be a good show with lively discussion once more tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Despite this lonely fan wearing one of the best jerseys in all of sports, Teebz and Jason will discuss why Canada seems to be falling back into the pack when they were hockey leaders for so long. After that conversation, our hosts look at the attendance problems that are becoming more apparent with every passing tournament, they have some Spengler Cup news, they discuss jerseys and capitalism, there's another outdoor game in 2027, and there was a player who passed away yesterday whose NHL record will likely never be touched. It should be a show filled with discussion and maybe a few fireworks as we dig into Canadian culture 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.

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 talk bad systems, bad attendance, improving tournaments, bad jerseys, good jerseys, bad events, unbreakable records, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: January 8, 2026: Episode 694

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 686

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back tonight to venture down rabbit holes that no one really enjoys exploring despite the necessary conversations found there. Out hosts were lucky enough to chat with a big player in the world of pulling back curtains on the game of hockey, and that interview will happen tonight. They'll also talk about a few more tough-to-hear stories that deserve some more coverage as the show takes a serious turn with tough topics and discussions thanks to the topics tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason had the honour to sit down with TSN Senior Correspondent Rick Westhead earlier in the week to discuss his new book, We Breed Lions published by Random House Canada. Westhead's book opens up conversations on all the dark parts of hockey like sexual assault, rape, hazing, bullying, the "what happens in the room stays in the room" secrecy among teams, alcohol and drug abuse, exploitation of power and intimidation, how people turn a blind eye to the listed crimes, and how teams cover up any illicit activity committed by anyone associated with the team. After that 30-minute chat with Rick, our hosts will look at what happened on a high school team in the Pembina Valley earlier this year, have a discussion about a specific U SPORTS team who seemingly did nothing despite the complaints made by players, and how we all need to stop being embarrassed about discussing these difficult topics. It's a show of tough, but necessary, chatter about the culture of the game 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 the incomparable Rick Westhead before having their own discussion about the dark culture of hockey and examples of this unsavory culture exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: November 13, 2025: Episode 686

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

TBC: We Breed Lions

In the last few weeks, I have found myself reading more books about hockey. Part of that reason is due to the guests we're featuring on The Hockey Show, but I've been rediscovering my love of reading as I learn about different topics within the stories about hockey. I've been lucky enough, since starting Teebz's Book Club, to find books that are impossible to put down due to the writing and the topics contained within the covers. Our book today is one of those books as Teebz's Book Club is proud to review We Breed Lions written by Rick Westhead and published by Random House Canada. Westhead pulls no punches as he analyzes Canada's hockey culture and how we, as a country, act shocked when crimes happen within hockey like the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial when the warning signs have always been there. If one wants a sobering view of the game we hold so dear, Rick Westhead's newest book will deliver that in spades.

From his Penguin Random House biography, "Rick Westhead is TSN's Senior Correspondent and a two-time winner of Canadian sports writer of the year, presented by Sport Media Canada. Canadian Journalists for Freedom of Expression recognized him in 2023 with the Arnold Amber Award for Investigative Journalism. Westhead breaks news of consequence and has won six Canadian Screen Awards for his original features for various TSN properties. In 2025, he was recognized for his 'fearless reporting' by The Hockey News in its list of 100 People of Power and Influence in hockey. Prior to joining TSN, Westhead served as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star, where he reported on the ground in countries including Afghanistan, China, and Saudi Arabia." Rick and his family live in the GTA with his family, and plays pick-up hockey when he's not investigating a new story for TSN.

It shouldn't be surprising that We Breed Lions begins by talking about the 2018 Hockey Canada sexual assault case as Rick Westhead put in long hours uncovering and investigating claims made by both the plaintiff and the defendants. In doing so, Westhead uses the opportunity to pull back the curtain on the hockey system in Canada in the chapters following as he examines and exposes criminal behaviours and abhorrent activity at every level throughout Canada.

The staggering amount of questionable behaviour that is revealed in We Breed Lions should have every hockey parent, every league convener, every coach, every general manager, and every player asking how the game has failed so badly. The number of people in the game of hockey that Westhead interviews in the book who corroborate the allegations made should have everyone worried about the state of the game. We Breed Lions will be a "must-read" book for years to come if one hopes to see any change in the game.

The topics covered by Westhead in We Breed Lions are all problems known to hockey fans, but ones that no one brings up. He covers sexual assault, rape, hazing, bullying, the "what happens in the room stays in the room" secrecy among teams, alcohol and drug abuse, exploitation of power and intimidation, how people turn a blind eye to the listed crimes, and how teams cover up any illicit activity committed by anyone associated with the team. Westhead makes it clear this happens from the NHL level right down to minor hockey, and he speaks to many former players, coaches, and executives who make it clear that all of this is happening in hockey today.

It's not all doom and gloom in We Breed Lions, though, as Westhead brings forth examples of hockey where people are doing good. There's an excellent story about Sweden and how their hockey culture is tied closely to family. It's a chapter that gives one hope that hockey can still be good, and it's reinforced by the Alliston Hornets and their head coach Travis Chapman who are trying to teach young hockey players about overcoming weaknesses, respect, camraderie, and being a good teammate without using fear, intimindation, and shame.

Frankly, it was hard to read some passages that Westhead included in We Breed Lions, but these passages are the catalyst to changing the culture. Murray Walter, a lawyer in Swift Current, spoke to Westhead of the 1989 sexual assault allegations against Broncos' players Brian Sakic and Wade Smith. Walter told Westhead,

"Athletes were protected by community leaders because they were good hockey players, because people thought they were special. This case was amiscarriage of justice, and even today, no one has really had to stand up and be held accountable. As soon as [those] players were charged, people in our community who had influence started pulling the strings to help the players. At one point, a guidance counsellor at high school whose husband was on the board of the Broncos called this young girl into her office and tried to convince her that these [players] were nice boys who wouldn't have committed sexual assault. Imagine."

How sickening is it that a female guidance counsellor is downplaying the idea that these two players couldn't have committed sexual assault because they "were nice boys" to the victim of that sexual assault? Yet stories like this are told throughout We Breed Lions with only names and locations being changed. The protection and secrecy afforded to hockey players because they play hockey would have most FBI and CIA agents envious. And yet it happens every day.

Honestly, there are many words that I could use to describe We Breed Lions - compelling, powerful, sobering, explosive - but the one word that keeps coming to mind is "necessary". Westhead has made it clear that the crimes and repugnant behaviour in and around the game of hockey have gone on for far too long, and it's time for a major change. I suspect many still in the game will deny the reporting done by Westhead, but he brings all the receipts in his conversations with those people he interviewed, and they often reveal more than just what was asked of their observances and experiences.

I cannot say enough good things about We Breed Lions, and it really should be on everyone's bookshelf across the planet if one has any vested interest in the game of hockey. The topics that Westhead brings to light are difficult to talk about in any circumstance, but his willingness not to turn away from difficult discussions and to keep these topics in the public's eye is why he is Canada's premiere investigative journalist when it comes to hockey. I don't have enough space here to go over each and every chapter of the book and sing Westhead's praises, but because he has tackled these subjects with honesty and integrity while writing about them exceptionally well, it should come as no surprise that We Breed Lions is absolutely and entirely deserving of the Teebz's Book Club Seal of Approval!

We Breed Lions was released on November 4, 2025, so you can find it on bookstore shelves and library shelves right now, assuming that there are copies remaining. This book would be a perfect Christmas gift for your older hockey fan and is absolutely must-read material for all hockey fans! As a warning, the material contained within the covers is of an adult nature and there are some expletives used at times, so this book is strongly recommended for older teens and adult hockey fans. However, the book is a phenomenal read, and We Breed Lions by Rick Westhead is highly recommended for your bookshelf!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

There Was Hockey Tonight?

If hockey was played at any level tonight, I wasn't watching. A bad case of Blue Jays Fever has set in at HBIC Headquarters, and their battle against the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight was the only game I was watching. Call me out for my lack of hockey passion on this one, but Canada's only Major League Baseball team being in the World Series on Canadian soil playing against a team that has been portrayed as "invincible" in the postseason is must-watch television for me. Combine that with the fact that the Jays rocked the Dodgers with a nine-run, twelve-batter inning led by Addison Barger's pinch-hit grand slam above, and it's not hard to understand why a lot of Canadians were checking phones or ignoring hockey altogether on this Friday night. I was one of them.

Normally, I couldn't care less about the World Series as stats have shown that, from 2003-23, "[t]he average World Series winner throughout this time period spent 29% more than average on payroll and earned 22% more than average in revenue." It's hard to outspend teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, and Red Sox, though, so most MLB teams start behind the eight ball every season. As that Reddit post shows, only the 2003 Florida Marlins were the biggest financial underdogs to win the World Series from the time period evaluated. And that World Series win happened more than two decades ago.

Repeat winners in MLB don't happen often for a variety of reasons, but building a winner happens less now than constructing a winner.

As you can see, the only team who didn't make the playoffs from the top-five teams in salaries this season were the New York Mets, and they missed a playoff spot after losing Game 162. In short, they were one game away from making the MLB playoffs along with the other four teams, including the Blue Jays, this season. The teams that construct their rosters by spending big dollars seem to always have a shot at the postseason as the trends prove year after year.

As a guy who lives in what would be considered a miniscule market for Major League Baseball, this is one of those moments where I appreciate that the NHL imposes a hard salary cap on all teams, especially those who play in massive markets like New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles. I know agents dislike it and players would prefer it to be gone to maximize their earning potentials, but it has allowed teams like the Winnipeg Jets to build a competitive team without worrying about being outspent. Parity makes the game better.

Some of you might be saying, "Parity is artifical and doesn't make the game better, Teebz," and I see your point. However, human failings in recognizing talent, awarding bad contracts to non-impact players, and trading players who have yet to hit their full potential aren't problems with the cap system that the NHL has. That existed before there was a cap, and it will continue as long as the NHL operates.

I being up the salary cap, though, because both of these teams have strong hockey ties as the Los Angeles Dodgers are owned by Mark Walter who also owns and operates the PWHL where there is a hard salary cap for teams. The Toronto Blue Jays, of course, are owned by Rogers Communications who also own the largest stake in the Toronto Maple Leafs who operate under a hard salary cap. Both ownership groups are fully aware of how a cap system works in sports.

As Jeff Passan wrote on September 18, 2025 on ESPN, "MLB wants a salary cap, and between now and Dec. 1, 2026, when the current collective bargaining agreement expires, those two words - which owners regard as a necessity and the MLBPA as a profanity - could presage the fate of the 2027 season."

Something about Passan's words have a familiar feel to them.

Passan continued, writing, "MLB's argument for a cap starts with shrinking the economic disparity to foster fairness regardless of market size and revenue. Payroll correlates more strongly with winning in baseball than in any of the capped sports, and this reality alarms league officials."

Look, the NHL can be the example where no one is asking for fairness on the ice, but they are asking for some sensibility when it comes to contracts and free agent talent. We've seen star players in the NHL leave money on the table for a chance to win a championship while other players have cashed out maximum contracts when offered. What's key in all of this is that teams in smaller markets have a shot at retaining talent and adding new talent alongside those teams who play under unlimited revenue streams thanks to their markets.

Passan also nails the fan experience in the salary cap era, stating, "fans don't follow their teams for profit-and-loss statements, and the belief among those in favor of a cap is that lessening financial disparity will improve competitive balance. Certain data points support this idea. Teams with top-10 payrolls reach and win the World Series significantly more often than lesser spenders. Smaller markets - which, in almost every case, likewise carry smaller payrolls - are practically nonexistent at the end of October."

In terms of the MLBPA's stance, Passan also points out that the best team in baseball this season, the Milwaukee Brewers, carried "the 21st-highest payroll in the game". He adds the "Tampa Bay Rays made the World Series in 2020 with the 28th-ranked payroll, and the Cleveland Guardians reached the American League Championship Series last year with the 23rd" and that 16 MLB teams have won the World Series in the last 25 years - more than the "NHL (14), NFL (13) and NBA (12)". Essentially, The MLBPA will tell you that parity exists.

So who do we believe? The NHL has battled through the growing pains of the salary cap to find itself in a fairly good place, but agents and players will tell you that their salaries are still being artificially capped. The owners, meanwhile, will tell you that the league is stronger with less owners claiming bankruptcy and falling into financial danger thanks to the system being used. Fans will tell you that the hockey is great and that games are competitive.

So who should fans believe as we near a potential CBA war? Well, it seems the cap benefits the owners the most when it comes to asset growth. Passan spoke to "one longtime labor lawyer" who told him, "That if the costs are fixed, the franchise values will go up."

Before we light torches and grab pitchforks, though, all of this is simply academic right now. The CBA will expire in 2026, and that's when the positioning will begin on both sides. It seems inevitable, but it sounds like there is a labour war coming in baseball just as it did in hockey, and we might see an entire season lost on the diamonds before play resumes just as it did in hockey. That won't help anyone in or around baseball, but hockey has been more stable as the salary cap era's wrinkles have been smoothed.

With the Blue Jays winning 11-4 tonight, they're now three ways from a third World Series championship, but it's still a long road to walk. The Dodgers won't roll over after one loss just as the Jays didn't after losing the first two games in the ALCS to Seattle. The good news is that there will be a World Series trophy awarded to one of these two teams this season unlike the last time a dominant Canadian team went into the MLB playoffs in 1994 when labour unrest under forced the World Series to be cancelled. RIP Montreal Expos.

For the next week, I'm going to enjoy this run by the Blue Jays as much as possible. Yes, there will be a war over a baseball salary cap on the horizon, but the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers should provide a solid finish to the 2025 baseball season. If baseball is going to nuke a future season to try and bring some sort of parity among all teams in all markets, both MLB and the MLBPA should be talking to their hockey counterparts about what's good, what's bad, and what still needs to be fixed in hockey's labour situation.

Afer all, it's not perfect, but it works.

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 663

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, returns tonight as we're down to two or three teams in all the remaining North American leagues still playing hockey. Canadian teams are still skating in those series, so there's a shot that at least one championship will head north of the border in professional hockey. Our hosts will look at that and more after two more Survivor: NHL Playoffs exit interviews as we're down to the finalists in the contest once again, so be ready for some laughs and chatter tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason will send Elliot (Dallas) and Barry (Carolina) off Survivor: NHL Playoffs island as we hear their exit interviews, leaving just GM Jared and Will to battle over who will take home the grand prize. After those chats are done, our hosts will look at the NHL coaching carousel finally wrapping up, who is still alive in the AHL and ECHL when it comes to a Canadian championship celebration, the QMJHL introducing a new tool for its clubs, the NHL State of the Union address by all the big wigs, the PWHL straying outside its lane once again, and anything else we can get inside the hour! Get settled in because there's a lot to cover 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 send Elliot and Barry home before chatting about new hires, staying alive, new tools, scheduling woes, league business, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: June 5, 2025: Episode 663

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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Russian captains with Scottish accents aside, Captain Marko Ramius, played by Sean Connery, stated the line shown in the image in the Hollywood adaptation of Tom Clancy's book, The Hunt for Red October. While he was talking about his crew's chances of surviving their escape and defection from the Soviet Union, one could have also applied those same odds to the IIHF's impending decision about reinstating Russia and Belarus into international ice hockey competitions in 2025-26. That decision was announced yesterday.

After meeting yesterday regarding reintegration, the IIHF announced that "the IIHF Council believes it is not yet safe to reintegrate the Russian and Belarusian National and Club Teams to its championships for the 2025-2026 season. As the current security conditions do not allow the necessary requirements for the organization of tournaments guaranteeing the safety of all, the IIHF must maintain the current status quo until further notice."

I'm not sure anyone would be surprised by this announcement given that Russia is still bombing Ukraine while Belarus cheers on their Russian neighbours, so this decision seemed like a no-brainer to most people. Had the IIHF reintegrated the two countries, I'm not saying that anything bad would come to its players or staff, but why would the IIHF want to risk any sort of liability if something did happen?

Dominik Hasek continued to be outspoken against the Russian attack in Ukraine, and I respect that he's speaking honestly and openly about his feelings over Russia's and Belarus' potential reinstatement to international hockey. On Twitter, he wrote,

"Until the Russian army leaves Ukraine and Russia takes full responsibility for all the lives lost and maimed and for all the damage caused during the war in Ukraine, no Russian athlete is allowed to compete. Every Russian athlete is unfortunately an advertisement for terrible Russian crimes. If these athletes, such as Russian hockey players, could play, it would cost a lot of human lives, including Russian ones. And we must not allow that. Human life is more than, an athlete's career."

You don't have to like Dominik Hasek as a player, but he's showing that he understands how the political machine in Russia uses sports and sporting achievements to bolster their messaging about how Russia is the greatest country on the planet. He's also showing intelligence by putting the safety and sanctity of human life above sporting events and athletic achievements. Like him or not, Dominik Hasek has a point that is difficult to debate.

Some of you will read this and have that mantra of "keep politics out of sports" running through your head. You're welcome to think that if you want, but that's not how life works. Sports is a microcosm of society, so you can see the very fabric of life sewn into sports. I'm not here to tell you who to vote for or which politicians are better or worse than others, but it's hard to keep politics out of sports when politics uses sports as a marketing tool in Russia.

In any case, it will be another full calendar year before Russia and Belarus will be reconsidered for reintegration into IIHF-sanctioned events as the first opportunity to discuss the matter will happen in May 2026 at the IIHF Council meeting ahead of the IIHF Annual Congress. My hope is that Russia will realize its wild miscalculation and withdraw from Ukraine sooner rather than later, but that seems like a pipe dream at this point after everything Russia has sunk into their siege of Ukraine. So much for "three days", right?

What shouldn't be forgotten is that the IIHF was a lot like Ukraine yeterday as they denied Russia and Belarus once again. Once again, we have proof that sports is a microcosm of society.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Business Of Women's Hockey

Since the news hit yesterday of the PWHPA acquiring all teams and assets of the PHF while having all contracts for players voided, I've seen a lot of anger and finger-pointing within the women's hockey world. While the players and staff who are affected by this acquisition have every right to be angry, this is how the business of hockey works. It happened in 1979 when the NHL acquired the WHA, and it's happening in 2023 with the PWHPA acquiring the PHF.

I won't deny that both the teams and players of the WHA and the PHF got the short end of the stick when it came to those acquisition deals because they were the ones being acquired, and we need to remember that fact when it comes to hockey being stronger as one unified league rather than two competing leagues. Taking the emotion out of the equation helps one digest this business deal in that it wasn't about which league was better or which gave the fans what they wanted, but, instead, this acquisition puts women's hockey in North America on solid ground for the first time in a long time.

The Mark Walter Group is backing the investment needed to for the PWHPA to purchase the PHF, and there's no shortage of capital there as Walter alone is worth $5.3 billion USD while he sits as the CEO for Guggenheim Partners which has over $300 billion in assets under management. Walter is no johnny-come-lately to the sports world either as he is the chairman and controlling owner of MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers, was part of the Todd Boehly-fronted consortium that bought Chelsea Football Club, and is part-owner of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks. In short, the man knows sports purchases.

In showcasing Walter's sports acquisitions, when the opportunity came about for the PWHPA to acquire the PHF wholly and completely, it was more than one women's hockey group succeeding over the other despite it appearing that way on the surface. John Boynton, who is part of BTM Partners that managing the Toronto Six, Montreal Force, and Boston Pride, told Erica L. Ayala of Forbes as much.

"It's something that we've wanted to do for more than four years now," he told Ayala on Friday. "From the time that JoJo (Johanna Boynton, John's wife) and I got involved, the objective was to unify women's hockey, to have one league because we really thought that would allow the whole enterprise to move farther, faster. This current situation, we first had our conversations with the Mark Walter Group late last year, more than six months ago."

Yes, you can have emotions whether you're a PWHPA fan or a PHF fan, but it seems both sides finally put their petty differences aside for the business of women's hockey to succeed. In the end, that was always the goal, and it seems that both sides are finally prepared to see that goal through to the end regardless of the bumps in the road they may face.

“You have to understand this is a group of, I'll call it 100 players, who have just sacrificed the last four years, sacrificed the comfort of playing essentially in the PHF because they didn't want exactly this to happen because they believe that having a CBA in place which protects the future players of this professional league,” Liz Knox, a member of the PWHPA said to Ayala.

Madison Packer, a longtime NWHL player and PHF star, echoed the same sentiment as Knox, stating, "We need each other. We need women's hockey to grow in one spot. And some markets have worked for us; some haven't. I think that when it becomes a reality, it's tough to stomach because nobody wants to see anybody out of a job, right?"
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Maybe that's the hardest part to grasp because I don't want to see good people like Tatum Amy, Kennedy Ganser, Autumn MacDougall, Carly Jackson, Venla Hovi, or Sami Jo Small out of jobs in the PHF, but I also don't want see Alex Poznikoff, Kelsey Roberts, or Kaitlin Willoughby making less than they should in the PWHPA. These talented women all desvere to make as much as more than their male colleagues for playing the same sport, yet none had the same opportunities before this weekend.

Like the WHA being acquired by the NHL, the new entity in women's hockey will see less jobs and opportunities before it can grow into more. The women deserve that opportunity because are every bit as good the men who play the game. The new entity will rebound with the announcement of a league of six teams that will play in January with players we all know and want to watch. And before long, six teams may become eight, and eight may become twelve in the same way that the NHL grew.

With any business, stability is far more important than market coverage. Stable businesses with a solid growth plan will eventually move into markets where the business can continue to grow, but that stability also brings other benefits as a sports league. Sponsors, partners, and investors like stability when it comes to risks associated with their money, and having the deep pockets and business savvy of both the Mark Walter Group and Billie Jean King Enterprises at the forefront of this new league should attract companies who are serious about seeing the growth of this league while giving the players new opportunities.

Make no mistake that when this information leaked last night, there was every reason to question the legitimacy of this deal to merge the organizations while the emotional response towards the news ranged from joy to outright disgust. After sleeping on it and reviewing the information today, I can get behind this new entity as long as they reach their goals towards which they claim to be heading. With the PWHPA members voting this weekend on ratifying a CBA on their path to becoming a legitimate union, it seems the players will have a say in their futures as well. Living wages, it seems, will be a real thing with the possibility of earning more in the future.

Everyone has the ability to complain, and one should voice concerns when things seem off. Normally, I find the business of hockey to be cold, lacking morality, and generally bad for fans, but this might be the one deal that makes women's hockey stronger and better despite the loss of jobs and opportunities for players in the short-term. And while I get the fans of the PHF likely won't be happy seeing their favorite teams and players cast aside by the cruelness of the business, the long-term potential for this new league seems uncapped.

Sometimes, taking a step back allows one to gain perspective about how to move forward. Everyone knew that one league was going to prove to be more fruitful than two leagues if and when that occurred. Getting to that point seemingly required everyone to take a step back and look at how to move forward, and it was determined that the best way to move forward was together.

I believe, in business, that's called short-term pain for long-term gain.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Giving The Farm Away

It's hard to justify the Winnipeg Jets continuing to employ general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff. As he pointed out in his season-closing press conference with Winnipeg media, Cheveldayoff feels he doesn't need to justify the bewildering extension he was given considering how the pillars of salt and sand have eroded beneath him with his club failing to make any meaningful gains in the NHL. He claims he's drafted well, but only three players he's drafted since 2018 have played more than 30 games with the Jets, and none have played more than 74. With his latest roster management gaffe, keeping Cheveldayoff around as a "yes man" seems to be True North Sports and Entertainment's only true purpose for having him in the front office.

Announced earlier this morning, the DEL's Adler Mannheim have inked 2017 fifth-round pick Leon Gawanke to a four-year deal, making him unable to skate for the Jets or the Moose for the foreseeable future. With Gawanke's departure, the Moose lose another very good, very capable defender whose skills have once more been overlooked and underappreciated by both management and coaches of the Jets.

Gawanke's last two seasons in the AHL pointed to a defenceman whose stock was rising within the Jets organization. He scored ten goals and 36 points in 65 games in 2021-22, and then doubled his offensive spark by scoring 20 goals and 45 points in 68 games this season. You can argue that his stats may not be "NHL-ready", but he tied for seventh in AHL scoring among defencemen and he finished with more points than Michael Del Zotto, Will Butcher, and Connor Carrick who have all skated for NHL teams for at least one season.

Gawanke will be good for Adler Mannheim, though, so kudos for the Eagles picking up a puck-moving, offensively-minded defender to skate on their blue line. Winnipeg's efforts in "draft and develop" are working wonders for teams not based in Manitoba, it seems, and those players who have chosen to remain in the Jets' depth chart are buried nicely behind overpriced veteran players who apparently enjoy playing one playoff round in seasons where they qualify for the playoffs.

Don't believe me? Here's the breakdown in simple numbers between 2015-2020 as those players should be eligible NHL players:

• The Jets drafted 37 players including seven first-rounders.
• In total, those 37 players have played 2319 NHL games - an average of 63 games/player for all teams.
• First-round selections have played 1602 games - 69.1% of the 2319 games for all teams.
• Only 15 of 37 drafted players have skated for the Jets at some point - 40.5% of all picks.
• Of those 15 players, Kyle Connor has skated in the most games as a Winnipeg Jet at 466 games.
• Of those 15 players, five are currently playing for teams other than the Jets - 1/3 of picks that made an NHL roster.
• Of the 37 players drafted, 13 are still somewhere on the Jets' depth charts.

It's not a matter of drafting well. It's pretty clear that the Jets have had a ton of success with first-round selections as they make up some 70% of games of all the games played in that five-year span. Sure, Laine, Roslovic, and Vesalainen are skating for other teams as I write this, but the point is that first-round selections are fairly safe bets to crack NHL rosters. What should concern fans and management alike in Jets Nation is that 30 players not selected in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft have only skated in 717 games - an average of 24 games per player - and of those 30 players, only eight have logged those 717 games to date.

If the Jets are developing just 26.7% of their non-first-round picks to skate at the NHL level, this is not a "draft and develop" team. It's only a "draft" team because there isn't much development happening when it comes to producing NHL talent. First-rounders are thriving, but the work needed for players selected lower in the draft simply isn't being realized if it's being done at all.

Since this team returned to Winnipeg in 2011, players drafted in the fourth-round or lower have skated in 1512 NHL games. If we remove Andrew Copp, Connor Hellebuyck, Mason Appleton, and Tucker Poolman from that total, fourth-round picks or lower have skated in just 92 NHL games. Of the 42 selections made in the fourth-round or lower in twelve years of Jets 2.0 hockey, just four - 9.5% of picks - have played over 100 games, and two of them skate for teams not named the Jets.

If you're wondering why I'm dissecting the draft history of the Jets when it comes to NHL talent, the problems are compounded by Winnipeg allowing good young players to walk away from this team due to variety of reasons. Most times, NHL teams draft players based on their skills - scoring, defence, and goaltending - and the Jets are no different. They celebrate the scoring skills of players they draft while talking of development, but it should be clear that the Jets haven't learned a damn thing when it comes to the new way of thinking in the NHL.

The Curious Case Of Comrie

If we consider the case of Eric Comrie, a 59th-overall pick in 2013, the Jets simply couldn't figure out what to do with their developing netminder. He'd win games and look superb at times, but he'd also suffer games where stopping the puck seemed more like a challenge than a routine. In three months in 2019, he was waived to go to Arizona from Winnipeg, to Detroit in a trade with Arizona, and back to Winnipeg off waivers from Detroit as he lived out of a suitcase. Chevy again lost him on waivers to New Jersey in 2021 only to reclaim him a month later. It was hard to understand what Chevy was doing with Comrie after all those moves, but it seemed they wanted him based on the number of times they reacquired him.

Backup netminders are paid to win the few games they play in place of the team's starting netminder. Comrie seemingly could do that for Winnipeg as he was 10-5-1 with a 2.58 GAA and a .920 save percentage in 2021-22 while earning the league's minimum salary value, so it was baffling that the Jets allowed him to walk as a free agent by not playing for 90 more minutes in that season to retain his rights as a restricted free agent. Yes, he may have played above his head, but given the option of either David Rittich or Eric Comrie, I'll take the 27 year-old kid over the proven-to-fail veteran.

Yet Winnipeg, needing just 90 more minutes of playing time out of Comrie, allowed him to leave without any compensation for his play in 2021-22. Even if the Jets believed this was an aberration in his career where he'd never have another season like this, teams are always hedging their bets on young goalies. The Jets could have simply qualified him, and then traded Comrie to bring back an asset. All it would have meant was 90 more minutes in the blue paint, and the Jets might have been able to maximize his value. Instead, he signed with Buffalo while the Jets searched for another inexpensive backup netminder.

Too Many Defenders

It wasn't hard to see that the high-priced defenders that the Jets had assembled on their roster for the start of the 2022-23 season was going to push players back down to the AHL, but the one player expected to go was Logan Stanley. Instead, the Jets waived Johnathan Kovacevic in a rather inexplicable move to send him to the Moose only to watch the Montreal Canadiens claim the defender after a solid preseason. He didn't score, but he played physical, had good gap control, and seemed to fit nicely into the bottom-half of the Jets' defence corps.

Instead, Montreal used him in 77 games this season where the 6'4" defender scored three goals and added 12 helpers while only being whistled for 39 PIMs. Earning the league's minimum salary, Kovacevic showed his value by anchoring the defence on the third pairing while providing valuable penalty-killing shifts for the Canadiens in his 16:55 of ice-time per game.

Nobody expected him to be Shea Weber or Erik Karlsson, but he was leaps and bounds better than Logan Stanley ever was. Chevy's failure on this one was not recognizing his mistakes in drafting Stanley in the first round and then sacrificing Kovacevic to keep him on the depth chart. That's just inexcusable.

How About Mikey?

Another player that the Jets mismanaged into a better situation than what he had in Winnipeg was Michael Eyssimont. Leaps and bounds more effective than both Sam Gagner and Mason Appleton in a third-line role alongside Morgan Barron and Adam Lowry, Eyssimont was the player that threw himself completely into his work. His advanced stats were much better than his point totals, but he was expected to cause chaos in the offensive zone with his touch and he often was praised for his work ethic.

Somehow, Eyssimont ended up on waivers as the Jets couldn't find a spot for him in the lineup, and the San Jose Sharks scooped up the available forward where his additional ice-time and play in all situations benefitted him greatly. In fact, he looked quite at home alongside Logan Couture on the Sharks' second line until the Sharks flipped him to Tampa Bay. And when he got to the Lightning, he was given the same green light by Jon Cooper as he had in San Jose.

All said, Eyssimont totalled a goal and four assists in 20 games with the Jets, but rattled off four goals and six assists in 35 games between San Jose and Tampa Bay, and then added another goal and an assist in three playoff games by the Lightning. It leads one to ask how on earth does Cheveldayoff continually misjudge the talent he has on his roster?

What About Axel?

In a similar lack of astuteness when it comes to asset management, the Jets seemingly didn't care enough to keep forward Axel Jonsson-Fjällby around after he joined the Jets as a waiver pickup from Washington after 23 games. He played in 50 regular season games for the Jets and appeared in one playoff game to end the season with 74 games where he scored eight goals and ten assists. It should be noted that was more than Saku Mäenalanen (four goals, seven assists in 69 games) and Sam Gagner (eight goals, six assist in 48 games) in their entire season of work.

Beyond that, the speedy Jonsson-Fjällby was an excellent forechecker and played hard on the penalty kill when sent over the boards, but I guess making the league minimum was too rich for the Jets' blood and they missed his contract requirement of 75 NHL games by one game in order to keep him as a restricted free agent, allowing him instead to become a Group 6 UFA on July 1.

While his stats certainly won't have all 31 NHL franchises lining up for a shot at signing him, Jonsson-Fjällby is a very serviceable player who will help teams be better. He's not going to win an Art Ross Trophy nor captain an NHL team, but he doesn't have to as long as he plays in his role like he did here in Winnipeg. And the Jets will receive nothing for him if they had deemed him expendable just like Comrie.

Burying The Best

The Jets, at one time, owned the rights of the best defender in the AHL in Sami Niku. Niku was voted as the AHL's best defenceman in 2017-18 as he collected the Eddie Shore Award that year, and it seemed the Jets may have found another highly-skilled offensive defenceman in the flashy Finn. Detractors of Niku will point to his inability to move players from in front of the net or his avoiding physical play while looking for loose pucks as problems with his game, but at no point was he ever seen as an Erik Černák, a Jan Rutta, a Brendan Dillon, or a Jake Muzzin.

Time and time again, though, we saw Niku planted in the pressbox when called up. Paul Maurice opted to dress Dmitry Kulikov over him in January 2020. Luca Sbisa and Anthony Bitetto were played ahead of him. Somehow, Carl Dahlstrom got ice time over Niku. It would be one thing if the Jets were a sound defensive hockey club under Paul Maurice, but they weren't. They were pretty darn horrible when it came to most metrics, so why not add some offence to the mix if you can't prevent teams from scoring?

Sami Niku, the AHL's top defender in 2017-18 with the Manitoba Moose, played 54 games with the Jets in parts of four seasons, scoring two goals and eight assists. The Jets then put him on waivers in 2020-21 order to buy out his contract.

If the Jets believed they could develop a Lidstrom-type defender, they went about it all wrong. If they thought they could get him to rachet up the physical play, they completely missed the boat on Niku as a prospect. He was an offensive defenceman through and through, and it's hard to understand how the Jets missed so badly on Niku.

Confused By Offence

It seems the Jets are falling into the same problem they had with Niku when it comes to Ville Heinola. He's virtually the same defenceman as Niku was - slight in stature, all offence, very little physicality - and it seems the Jets have no clue what to do with him other than bury him in the AHL. He can skate, he has good vision, and he does occasionally turn the puck over when trying to push the offence, but he's never going to be a traditional defensive defenceman.

How long does Heinola stick around the Jets organization? No one can be too sure, but he has 35 games of experience in four seasons so I don't think averaging nine games per campaign is going to make him anxious to return when his contract expires.

Back To Leon

You can probably see why a skilled German offensive defenceman would look at the depth chart - one where he's never been called up from the Moose to the Jets - and figure he's better off playing elsewhere. He's never been close to winning anything in North America as a junior player or as a professional, and he made that very clear in Mannheim's release, stating, "I haven't won anything in my career and I'm hungry for titles. I want to win the championship with Mannheim."

As North Americans snicker at the idea of winning a DEL championship being on the same level as the Stanley Cup, it needs to be mentioned that a lot of European players take extra pride in winning their nation's top league. Whether it be Joel Lundqvist in the SEL, Ilya Kovalchuk in the KHL, or Jussi Jokinen in the SM-Liiga, there's a ton of personal and civic pride in these players returning home to help their clubs win their respective championships. Gawanke seems to be the next young player to follow that thinking with his four-year pact with Mannheim. Hockey is simply viewed differently in Europe than it is here, and I commend Gawanke for going where he's wanted.

There's The Door

Whether it be his trainwreck of a season-ending press conference, his belief that the Jets' core group is good enough when it clearly isn't, his rather terrible draft record that he claims is good, or his brutal asset management within the organization, it seems pretty clear that Kevin Cheveldayoff's time with the Jets should have been over long ago. Quite frankly, it should have been over when the Blackhawks' sexual assualt coverup unfolded, but Chevy somehow eluded the axe in that chaos. In my view, having Gawanke sign overseas with no conversation with management says more than enough about the problems within Chevy's kingdom.

At this point, there's not much for which fans should be optimistic when it comes to next year. If the team was going to purge a number of veteran contracts and go young, they're losing good young replacements quickly. While Heinola and Chisholm are likely ready to step in and be part of a rebuild, the Jets have no goaltending candidates ready to step forward nor do they have a deep enough pool of netminders that they can wait a year or two. In short, a rebuild will be long and painful because the Jets' ability to keep good, young players seems be something with which they struggle. Based on the number of players that have been waived only to excel elsewhere, Chevy's done a helluva job in giving the farm away.

Culture and player issues aside, none of this should surprise anyone. Chevy's been here for twelve years, meaning he's watched three coaches battle players inside the room and through the media while nothing has changed. He's watched his team make one phenomenal run to the 2018 Western Conference Final while spending the rest of the time holding that up as an achievement and justifying his contract through various letdowns and disappointments. As critical as I may seem right now, the NHL is a business that excels when teams are winning, and if the Jets are wondering why their season ticket numbers continue to fall they should look no further than the office with the General Manager's name on it.

Since there's only one man who has continually said that he's in charge of the team, it's his head that should roll. He made it clear in his season-ending chat with the media that he's the guy making decisions, and it seems pretty clear that he's responsible for the messes shown above. If he's going to thump his chest and take credit for the team's successes as he did with the media, he's also responsible for the mistakes and failures they've experienced. Based on the lack of development throughout the organization outside of a couple of players and based on the number of players he's simply gifted to other organizations along the way, it's time for that man to be dismissed as easily as he's dismissed talented players.

In short, Kevin Cheveldayoff is the problem with the Winnipeg Jets.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Just A Car Wreck

Following the Game Five loss to Vegas, Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness had a fiery response to how his team played in the series and, specifically, in the last game of the 2022-23 season for the Jets. He used words like "disgusted" and "disappointed" repeatedly in response to questions about his team's play, and it seemed Bowness may have been sending shots up the chain towards management as much as he was towards the lethargic and disinterested effort given by the Jets. The players didn't like their coach saying the things he did about them, so it's pretty clear they heard the message that Bowness was delivering despite Bowness walking it back one day later. Today, we'd find out if management heard the message as Jets General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff met with the media.

It would be one thing for the media to sit and chat with Cheveldayoff if there was a clear message as to expectations for this season or any other season. The media could reflect on the expectations set by the general manager with respect to what he hopes to see his team achieve, and there could be discussion on how goals were achieved, how some may have been missed, and what needs to change for next season in order to take steps forward. After all, one of Chevy's most favorite lines is "it's a process", so if you're not moving forward, what does that say about your process?

Officially, after today's press conference, one could be inclined to call it a car wreck. Maybe a tire fire. Perhaps the term "blowing smoke" would suffice. Whatever the case may be, it would appear that Chevy's process is to don the rose-tinted glasses and see nothing but sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows with his team after the disaster they iced against Vegas.

"I'm not sure who predicted we were making the playoffs this year," Cheveldayoff glibly told reporters during his 43-minute word salad. "There's going to be one team that's going to be satisfied with their season this year. There's sixteen teams that would have given anything to be in that same situation as us."

Based on Cheveldayoff's delusional statement above, there are sixteen teams who would wanted to have played two home games - losing both of them as well - and cleaned out their lockers after spending the least time in the playoffs out of any of the teams that qualified. Does he really believe the Pittsburgh Penguins or the Calgary Flames would have been content with that outcome?

"We're not sitting here waving any banners or anything like that," Cheveldayoff said before doubling-down on his rose-coloured view of the team by adding, "But there's a lot of good people in that room that pushed this organization to a good place."

In mid-December, the Jets had the fifth-best winning percentage in the NHL and sat atop the Central Division. When the calendar flipped to January, the implosion that occurred was as inexplicable as it was painful to watch. To his credit, Rick Bowness tried every trick in the coaching playbook to end the bleeding, but the hemorrhaging never really stopped. It was bandaged for about week when the Jets won a couple of games with their playoff hopes on the line, but that wound was exposed by the Vegas Golden Knights once again.

"Good people" are usually more invested in fixing problems when they arise as opposed to waiting until the final week in the season to secure a playoff spot. I won't deny that there will be bumps along the way, but good teams made up of "good people in that room" identify those issues, fix them through practice and video sessions, and get back to playing effective, winning hockey. Rarely do "good people" look lost in their jobs for the better part of two months.

For a team who made a veiled threat about the long-term viability of this franchise in Winnipeg to its season-ticket holders a few weeks ago, it seems particularly odd that Kevin Cheveldayoff is preaching the benefits of simply making the playoffs with a cap-tight team. When Cheveldayoff was asked about accountability in his team, he instead deflected into how sixteen teams would want to be where they were. None of that addresses accountability in his team.

When Cheveldayoff was asked about the core of the team being together since 2018 with respect to the oh-for-five record they have in elimination games and losing seven-straight games on home ice since they went to the Conference Final, Cheveldayoff ignored the statistics and, instead, defended the players who "got us to five of six playoffs". Again, why is the standard simply making the playoffs? At what point does management look at the team and wonder why they can't or won't go deeper into the postseason?

When asked about a lower standard of winning being accepted in Winnipeg, Cheveldayoff spoke about the salary cap and how he's not able to build a dream team, but then blamed injuries for how the season finished. From what I've learned about sports, neither a salary cap nor injuries lead to setting a standard and reaching that standard annually. That's set as part of a team's culture, and it's hard to see that culture when the general manager just keeps blowing smoke.

As Scott Billeck wrote in the Winnipeg Sun, Cheveldayoff's "endless loyalty to certain players in the organization" that either won't be moved due to that loyalty or cannot be moved due to the loyalty shown via the contracts he's handed out "only compounded his team's problems". It was clear that there was a problem in the dressing room when Dustin Byfuglien left this team. It was clear there was a problem when Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic were traded. It was clear when Paul Maurice left unceremoniously. And it's still a looming issue that casts a tall shadow over this franchise.

Normally, culture starts with the man assembling the team. Kevin Cheveldayoff has had twelve years to put some sort of culture in place, but that's never happened. It's always come down to the players and, for a short time, the coaching staff he managed, and the internal friction between some of these factions is what led to big-name players either being traded away or leaving on their own. If there was a defined culture that had been installed by Cheveldayoff, perhaps we're talking about deeper runs than "sixteen teams that would have given anything to be in that same situation as us".

This Winnipeg Jets franchise is a car wreck right now, and I'm not sure if it's worth picking through the wreckage to see if there's anything worth salvaging when it comes to building a team for next season. There are bright spots that one hopes will be part of this team when they're able to take significant steps forward, but any opportunity to convince fans that this season wasn't like the others and won't be repeated next year was killed by the debacle that Kevin Cheveldayoff produced today.

The irony in all of this is that this current car wreck - the lack of standards, the lack of accountability, the inability to objectively judge one's performance - starts and ends with one thing: a Chevy.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!