The Hockey Show - Episode 725

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back in the UMFM studios with all sorts of hockey stories that need discussing and examining. There are a handful of stories that once again cast shadows onto the sport, and we're not about to shy away from these stories because they have to be made part of the normal conversations if we're going to make a difference. There will be some tough stories to hear tonight along with our normal chatter about dumb stuff, so get yourself ready for The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason will discuss a disturbing local hockey hazing story that saw a player lose his suspension appeal, an OHL team billet on trial for terrible crimes, Hockey Canada's acceptance of a decision made on five of its former players, the insanity surrounding the USHL franchise that is supposed to be expanding into Phoenix, an AHL team likely moving, an NHL getting radio back, the same team having its TV broadcast get worse, the horrible ending to a contest, and anything else we can squeeze into the hour! It should be a fast-paced show, so make sure you're set and ready 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 about unremorseful players, criminal billets, codes of conduct, arena problems, relocation foreshadowing, radio noise, TV noise, bad jerseys, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Phoenix: Bad For Hockey?

As a retirement community, Phoenix, Arizona seems ideal. It's warm, there are lots of days of sunshine, and there always seems to be something to do while not being too far from other major centers like Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Phoenix, however, has had its share of problems when it comes to being a hockey destination as the WHA's Phoenix Roadrunners lasted from 1974-77, the IHL's Phoenix Roadrunners skated from 1989-97, and the Arizona Coyotes played in Phoenix from 1996-2003. As you can see, no one had a run that lasted longer than eight seasons inside Phoenix's city limits, and now it seems like the USHL will join the list of short-live Phoenix hockey franchises that tried and, ultimately, failed in the Arizona desert.

I'll tip my cap to Craig Morgan who is still covering hockey in and around Arizona as he filed an outstanding story on his Substack about the new USHL team set to play in Phoenix beginning in 2027-28. As you may recall, the Coyotes left Arizona for greener pastures in Salt Lake City, Utah after they couldn't get an arena deal done inside Phoenix, and now it seems that this expansion USHL venture is running into the same problems that the Coyotes found in Phoenix.

"I'm talking to various people to find a permanent location that does not exist," USHL Phoenix franchise owner Ben Robert said to Morgan yesterday. "To me, to have a metropolitan area that is the (10th) largest in the country and only have one mid-sized arena is kind of mind-boggling. So I'm talking to various people to see if there would be an opportunity to build one."

If you're thinking that this story sounds familiar, welcome to Phoenix. The Coyotes exhausted almost every possibility when it came to finding land for a new arena complex before being sold, and now we have another franchise owner looking to build an arena for a significantly less-profitable team in the USHL. Yes, the arena would be smaller, but the land needed for building said arena still hasn't materialized. It's almost like Phoenix isn't a hockey market!

"It's going to take a lot of heavy lifting," Robert added. "But we're looking for a permanent solution, while all the while looking for a temporary solution to play in while it is being built."

Read that stement from Robert again where "while looking for a temporary solution to play in" should jump off the screen. The USHL Phoenix franchise is set to begin operations next season, and they still don't have an arena secured for home games? What kind of farce is this? How is the USHL, as a league, ok with this information?

Making matters worse, "Robert said he needs to have an arena solution by mid-October, with the goal of building a venue in the 4,000-seat range," meaning that he's looking at a two-month window to get the USHL Phoenix team's affairs in order. As per Morgan, "[s]ources at Mullett Arena confirmed that Robert has not contacted them and there is significant doubt that the team would be viable and be able to afford using Mullett for a year or two" while Ice Den Scottsdale "doesn't have the ice availability or capacity needed to host the USHL team" and "the new Fire 'n' Ice facility in north Phoenix" has seating for just 800 people in its largest rink.

Based on this information, it seems USHL Phoenix is dead-on-arrival.

Everyone seems to believe that Ben Robert can solve this problem after he oversaw the building of Ralston Arena in Omaha as the owner of the USHL's Omaha Lancers and the Videotron Centre in Quebec City as part of the NHL expansion team there. What people don't remember are the details of those arena builds, sepcifically the one in Omaha where the USHL has a franchise and operates successfully.

Ralston, Nebraska had an "abandoned downtown golf course" in its suburb, and it was looking for some sort of development there. It didn't take long for Ralston to put the question to voters in a special election, and, in 2011, they voted to allow the arena to be built. $32 million and 15 months later, Ralston Arena opened for the first time.

In short, land was available, the city was motivated to develop it, and the price tag was just low enough for Ralston to spend the money. The problem, though, is that there are sorts of extra costs and amenities that hockey teams need, and it seems the City of Ralston didn't budget for any of that. Or ice resurfacers. Or a scoreboard. Those things are kind of important in hockey arenas.

Based on today's economic forecasts, Ben Robert is talking about a $50 million investment into junior hockey in Phoenix - a place where the NHL couldn't thrive. He wants to build a 4000-seat arena for a team who may not draw many fans in a city where the Coyotes couldn't make hockey work successfully. Make that make sense.

I have no issue with Ben Robert's ambition for this USHL expansion nor will I fault him if he's willing to gamble $50 million into an arena project that may not have a hockey team in a few years. Those decisions are entirely on him, and he'll have to live with those decisions even if it means his bank account heads towards insolvency. But not having an arena to play in while this arena dream is being formulated is complete insanity, and it points to an inconvenient truth about the Phoenix hockey market: Phoenix is not a hockey city.

Just because there's a TV market there doesn't make Phoenix a hockey market. Based on the lack of arenas and the current state of having no arena to play in, this USHL Phoenix team seems like it will be relocated before it ever plays a second of hockey in the USHL.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Shudder Island

Let's be honest right off the bat here in HBIC and say that this is the day that all of us have been waiting for since the New York Islanders announced their contest where anyone - fans, fashion designers, blind people, or players themselves - could design the Islanders' third jersey that they'll wear during the 2027-28 season. Today marked the day that the Islanders unveiled their eight finalists in their jersey design contest, and there was high hope that the new jerseys would be the best Islanders jersey in history. Of course, I may have set the bar a little high, so let's see what the Islanders gave us.

I'm going to look at each of these jerseys through an objective lens being that I own both a home and road Islanders jersey, a home Fisherman jersey, and a Stockton Thunder "Heritage Hockey" jersey from 2014 when the Thunder were an Islanders' affiliate. I'll also be conjuring the ghosts of the Bridgeport Islanders and that Islanders' Reverse Retro jersey when looking at the candidates, so let me be clear that I want to see original designs for this third jersey!

Without further adieu, let's check out these potential third jerseys!

NAVY LIGHTHOUSE: For as much of a fan as I am of the lighthouse logo, this jersey feels woefully incomplete. The lack of a shoulder yoke seems like an easy fix, but the teal colour isn't needed as a stripe. These are decent, but they could have been more.

JERSEY SCORE: ★★★☆☆

ORANGE LIGHTHOUSE: When did the Islanders become the Edmonton Oilers? Sure, there are minor differences, but this one is automatically disqualified for being an Oilers knockoff and for the awful 2014 Stadium Series shoulder logos. No orange jerseys.

JERSEY SCORE: ☆☆☆☆☆☆ (extra empty stars for awfulness)

NAVY FISHERMAN: This is the 2022-23 Reverse Retro, but the hemstripe is now a modified wave stripe. I do like the lighthouse shoulder patches, but the name and number fonts leaves a lot to be desired. These jerseys need more colour and contrast to have that Fisherman logo pop off the chest. On this jersey, it does not.

JERSEY SCORE: ★★☆☆☆

ORANGE FISHERMAN: We finally got some contrast, but there's just way too much orange here. I wanted a Fisherman jersey, not a beacon on the ice. Is that hemstripe supposed to be a wave? I'm getting Edmonton Oilers vibes off this jersey as well. Not good.

JERSEY SCORE: ★☆☆☆☆

NAVY NY LOGO: This jersey is all sorts of awful and it starts with that garbage logo. The contrast on the stripes is good, but no shoulder yokes nor shoulder patches make this jersey feel incomplete. As such, this jersey can show itself out of the contest. Hard "no" from me.

JERSEY SCORE: ☆☆☆☆☆

ORANGE NY LOGO: I should have said off the top that all Stadium Series jerseys in NHL history have been total garbage, and this proposed jersey follows those ill-conceived jerseys with only two colours, the awful NY logo, and a terrible orange base colour. Let me correct myself: this is the worst jersey of the bunch by far.

JERSEY SCORE: ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ (lots of extra empty stars)

NAVY WORDMARK: Where the heck is the logo? It's a stupid nickname jersey, not a New York Islanders jersey. Was the designer making knockoff jerseys for Wal-Mart and Target? The stripe contrasts are nice, but this is not an NHL-calibre jersey by any measure.

JERSEY SCORE: ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ (plenty of extra empty stars)

NAVY RUGBY: What the hell is this? Does this designer have a vested interest in rugby? The design is identical! This jersey commits the faux pas of having a chest stripe only on one side the jersey and the NY shoulder patches need to be outlawed. If the Islanders were a rugby team, they'd be ready for the pitch! Except they're not.

JERSEY SCORE: 🏉🏉🏉 (3/5 rugby balls)

Assuming that the Islanders received more than 80,000 submissions for their new third jerseys, these eight jerseys are some of THE WORST designs I have seen. And if you were paying attention while reading my scores, how is it that every front-facing jersey is wearing #62? Go back and look because it's not #26 based on the numbers that are visible. How did no one from the Islanders notice that detail?

Based on the jerseys chosen, it's clear that these alternate jerseys will only be worn at home since none of them have a white base colour. Frankly, the Islanders' white jerseys have, in my view, always looked better than the dark jerseys because the Islanders logo pops off the chest and has excellent contrast with the stripes. That was also true of the Fisherman jersey with its mix of colours and stripes, but I don't work for the Islanders when it comes to jersey design.

What I can tell you is that the eight designs above leave a lot to be desired. I get that the colour schemes and logos of the Islanders don't allow for a lot of variation when one is trying to come up with a snazzy third jersey, but there should have been an option for something other than navy and orange base colours. I took the liberty of desiging my own jersey which I kept upder wraps until now, so here's my design that the Islanders excluded from the final.

You might be thinking, "Teebz, those are just as bad as the jerseys above them," and you're entitled to your opinion. My thought process, however, was to recreate the arm and wave stripes in the same pattern as the background of the lighthouse logo, thereby tying the entire jersey together with the lighthouse logo being "on an island" in the middle of the jersey. I tried not to overthink this one.

I just don't see how any of the eight finalists they picked are remotely close to representing Long Island, the New York Islanders' history, nor the future of the franchise. I'd imagine these jerseys aren't one-and-done jerseys, but it sure feels like the Islanders are trying to make that happen with the eight finalists they chose. In any case, feel free to leave your takes in the comments below. I'm curious to see what people think of the finalists, but feel free to add your critique my jersey design if you like. I can handle it.

Based on my love for the Fisherman jersey, my design might be the ninth-best design shown here! Either way, Long Island is becoming Shudder Island with these frighteningly bad third jersey options.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Touring All Of Russia

You'd be excused if you don't recognize the man to the left immediately. That's Russian forward Evgeny Kuznetsov who formerly played with the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes, but has spent the last three seasons in the KHL. In 2025, he teased the idea of returning to the NHL before signing another deal in the KHL, and it seems that love of home cooking will keep him there this season after he signed with Sibir Novosibirsk today, marking his fourth KHL team in three seasons. It seems that he just can't find the right fit in Mother Russia, but he'll give it a shot in the middle of Russia this season as Sibir adds a bonafide star to its roster!

Kuznetsov was admitted into the NHL/NHLPA Assistance Program on February 5, 2024 as he sought help for rheumatoid arthritis for which he was diagnosed pills and injections. He was cleared a month later, but he clearly wasn't the same flashy player as he was with the Capitals earlier in his career. Washington waived him, Carolina claimed him, but he only played twenty games for the Hurricanes.

Kuznetsov would take his talents to SKA St. Petersburg in 2024-25 where he scored 12 goals and 37 points in 35 games, but he was largely invisible in the playoffs. He would move to Metallurg Magnitogorsk in 2025-26, but lasted just 15 games there after scoring one goal and nine points. Metallurg would let him walk to Salavat Yulayev Ufa where he'd find more success with six goals and 18 points in 19 games, but he's missed more games than he's played in the last two seasons. Will that change after signing with Sibir?

At 34 years-old, it's hard to imagine that Sibir Novosibirsk will see a renaissance of the 2018 player that scored 27 goals and 83 points in the regular season before ripping through the playoffs with 12 goals and 32 points in 24 games en route to helping Washington win its first Stanley Cup. He could help Sibir improve on its 15-29-15-9 record (W-L-ETW-ETL) and eighth-place finish in the Eastern Conference, but they're going to need a big year out of the former NHL scoring star.

He could help players like last year's leading scorer Anton Kosolapov find a new level if he can bring leadership and vision, and veteran centerman Taylor Beck should give him a playmaking center if he can still skate as well as we've seen. Sibir's not going to hunt down teams like Ak Bars Kazan or Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the Eastern Conference with an addition like Kuznetsov, but avoiding them in the first round should be the target goal for this team this season.

The fun part of Kuznetsov's move to his fourth KHL team is that he's 18 teams away from completing the set. He starred with Traktor Chelyabinsk before jumping to the NHL, has now added three more teams to his resumé, and could conceivably suit up for every team by age 44 if he keeps up his current pace of landing with new teams!

Jokes aside, here's hoping that Evgeny Kuznetsov brings some scoring and leadership to Sibir Novosibirsk while playing a mentor role to some of Sibir's younger players. We know Kuznetsov doesn't have a lot of defensive tactics to share, but my guess is that Sibir wants him to dent twine rather than stickchecking opponents. I don't think he's going to put them over the top in their pursuit of the Gagarin Cup, but Sibir Novosibirsk got their star with Kuznetsov's signing today.

Will the "Birdman" fly again? We'll find out in Novosibirsk this season!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

And Then There Were Seven

Swiss hockey league fans will likely recognize the smiling face to the left as long-time Swedish star Fanny Rask who played with HC Ambrì-Piotta women's team in the PostFinance women's league in Switzerland. Fask had a solid season last year as she finished eleventh in Swiss League scoring, but the HC Ambrì-Piotta won't benefit from her presence on their roster or anyone else's presence on that roster after they decided to withdraw from the PostFinance Women's League for the 2026-27 season. As a result of that decision, the league will operate with seven teams this season after last season's fourth-place team cited a lack of prospects as the reason they would be unable to field a team.

As you may recall, SC Langenthal already shut down its program at the end of the 2025-26 season, and the SWHL-A league decided to promote Lausanne HC Féminin from the SWHL-B league to take Langenthal's spot. The eight-team schedule was released on July 3, 2026 with HC Ambrì-Piotta slotted in for the full season, but it seems things changed dramatically over the last month in Ambri.

On July 30, 2026, the team released the following statement:

"In recent weeks, the club has made every possible effort to complete the squad and create the necessary conditions to approach the season in a serious, sustainable manner that meets sporting expectations. Despite these efforts, it has not been possible to find a sufficient number of players to assemble a suitable squad."

I'm not saying that the growth of the PWHL is hurting European leagues, but seeing one of the better SWHL teams close the doors on this season isn't good. HC Ambrì-Piotta did note in their statement that this isn't the end for the Swiss women's club, stating,

"The club will immediately begin work to examine the sporting, organizational, and financial prerequisites necessary for a potential return to the National League B starting the following season. The goal will be to develop a solid and sustainable project that promotes the players and creates concrete prospects for the future of women's ice hockey in the blue and white."

Um, yay? The Ambrì-Piotta will voluntarily join the SWHL-B as they rebuild, but how do they attract talent to do that if they couldn't attract talent to play in Switzerland's top women's league? I'll let the powers-that-be who run HC Ambrì-Piotta answer that question, but I would guess that there are a pile of Canadian and American university graduates who would have jumped at the opportunity to join HC Ambrì-Piotta if given the chance. But we'll never know now.

As it stands, Lausanne HC's debut in the SWHL-A will be pushed back to September 13 thanks to HC Ambrì-Piotta's absence while the ZSC Lions will have their home-opener postponed until September 20 for the same reason. The full schedule can be found here, but it looks like two teams will have a bye every weekend this season with the empty slots once occupied by the HC Ambrì-Piotta squad.

Losing two teams in the span of four months doesn't make the SWHL-A stronger, and it appears that the SWHL-A will look to backfill these absences in their league by eliminating the relegation playoff between the PostFinance Women's League and the SWHL-B. It seems the top SWHL-B will only be promoted to bring the SWHL-A back to eight teams. Whether or not that relegation playoff is resumed in 2027-28 will have to be seen, but it feels like the SWHL-A is on shaky ground right now when it comes to the health of the league.

Here's hoping that HC Ambrì-Piotta can get their situation sorted out because the SWHL at all levels needs stable teams. Swiss hockey is good hockey and it shouldn't be overlooked, but eliminating teams makes finding roster spots that much harder. HC Ambrì-Piotta should have a full roster, but they'll reset and start over next season.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!