Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Booyah. And it's time for the game sports podcast. It is your host David McCaig junior, bringing you another special edition upload powered by 91 n. That's 91 network and this edition is sponsored by Flawless roofing sureseal Incorporated. And before I introduce my co host and guest, here's a quick message about flawless roofing that you need to hear.
Special shout out to the producer of this segment, Alex Flood. You know, we all appreciate you here on the game in 91 n. You make these special editions perfect. Or should I say you make them special? Yeah, I had to start right away with a pun. That's awful. But I'm gonna go get right now. Go get. Let's start off with the show like that. Absolutely. To the co host joining yours truly here tonight on the Game Sports podcast. He is a general sports and analyst on the game and he's an overall analyst with 91 and he's been around for well over five years with the game and it's been, he would like to say a long five years maybe. But I think it's been a short because we've been having fun together. And I must add, he is an EA Sports NHL 24 legend already. Okay. Alex Parr. Parsi, my friend, how's it going?
[00:01:13] Speaker B: I don't know if you've ever done an introduction that hasn't made me cringe in like the last 15 straight shows. I don't know why you always make me want to vomit and then throw it over to me. But that last part was true. Hell yeah. I already hit Michigan's left and right in NHL. So I'm ready to buzz here.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: I'm ready to go. There is one thing I got to make sure it states you're not in the zoo anymore. And that's very upsetting. So the lan parties are going to be a little bit different this year.
[00:01:39] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Sports podcast now getting to our guest for this special edition. Upload you. He's Manitoba born, played in the WHL, the AHL, the NHL and the ECHL. He told eleven games the NHL with the Philadelphia Flyers and the Nashville Predators with being drafted in the 9th round by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2004. And he is a HL Calder cup champion in the 2012 2013 season with the Grand Rapids Griffins. This former professional hockey player had no problem dropping the gloves. Okay. And if you're on the other side facing off against them, good luck. Let's bring him in. Now retired former professional hockey player and left winger, Tristan Grant. Tristan, thanks for coming on the pod here today.
[00:02:21] Speaker C: I greatly appreciate it. I'm glad we could finally connect after the many months of cat mouse. So it's good to be here.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: You know, I got to take a little bit of blame for that because I did something called I just decided to get married in that couple months and decided to go on my honeymoon. So I think, you know, I apologize. This has always been priority, though. It was a hard decision between the three.
[00:02:41] Speaker C: I understand. Yeah. Sometimes we get stupefied when we do that. So love that.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: Now, before we get into our topics, obviously I have a post opener, but I usually have one, but I'm gonna have to have two for this because there's somebody that couldn't join us for this. Up for this? Upload an episode. Easy for me to say. And you know what? I gotta read it off the text. Yeah. Because as everyone knows, we don't follow a script. So I'm gonna read it word for word from a text message from Brendan Brooks. He said, quote unquote, ask grant about the retirement for Jeff Hogan and was a cool experience to watch a friend, a teammate get his number retired. First off, poor grammar, because that's his exact terminology. He said was cool. So I'm asking you about Jeff Hogan's retirement, and if you thought it was a cool experience watching a friend's number get retired.
[00:03:33] Speaker C: No, that was pretty cool. Yeah, it was the first time I met Brooks. He obviously heard his name before, and I think even at times, he probably share the ice at one point during both their careers. But, yeah, it was pretty. It was pretty cool because Jeff. Jeff Hogan and I both came in at the same time, and we're kind of at somewhat similar stages of our careers. And Jeff was always good for me. We're obviously, you know, there's Jeff, there's me and Brendan Evans and Nathan Page. We're like the four kind of older guys of the, you know, the leadership group of that team. So we had a lot of respect for each other, and, you know, you know, any day of the week, we would have each other's backs. And it was really exciting. I think it was the right thing to do for. For Grand Rapids to retire his number. He did. He did a lot of good things. He was a great leader, and, you know, he belongs up in the rafters.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: It's a cool, cool thing to get your number up from the rafters. That's a. That's an experience in itself, right. That's. Doesn't matter if it's the OHL, NHL minor hockey. It's just something, you know, you did something. An impact on that team, on that league, whatever it may be. It's really cool.
[00:04:41] Speaker C: No, so it is pretty cool. I have. I never had a choice of retirement, but my hometown in Nipple, Manitoba, after we won the. After we won the Calder cup, we had.
They put a banner up over the front entrance of our rank. It's. It's a. It's a little bit smaller than the Shane Stanley cup champion one, which is totally with. Which is totally fair.
But up there, I'm up there a little bit. A little bit higher. A little bit smaller than Shane ID. So it's a no. But it's obviously great. It's a great honor. You know, everyone that's had success and from my hometown, you know, their pitchers up in the. In the arena and, you know, I remember when I was a kid as well, you know, you see, like, you see players that you looked up to and, you know, obviously brings a reality that, you know, you could do that as well. So, you know, it's always special and, you know, this kind of reminder of, like, your hard work and how people appreciate it as well and, you know, just a lot of respect. So it's just always great to be a part of that. Whether it's your number or a great team, it's yours. It's. It's always. It's always a cool experience. It is.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: And it's. So.
[00:05:52] Speaker C: It's.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: I love that part of the game where you retire. If it's at the Stanley cup banner, if you win a championship banner, if it's a number, it's either way, it's a cool little ceremony to add to the game. It really, overall is. Now, the other part I want to get to in the opener is talking about your retirement, which I think is really fitting to this topic because we're talking about number of retirements. We were talking about off air, how you were just coming back from hot yoga.
[00:06:14] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: So obviously, you know, the retirement must be going quite well. But I want. I want to give you the floor instead of doing it at the end. I want to give you the floor. But what you're doing now, anything you want to promote or if you're doing any coaching, if you're just enjoying retirement or if you're doing a podcast, maybe what's going on in Tristan's life during retirement right now?
[00:06:34] Speaker C: Oh, man. It's just like, it's. I don't know. It's an undying grind. You know, I got. I'm divorced. I have two daughters.
I'm a general contractor. I'm trying to get fully licensed and everything, so I am busy doing multiple different projects. You know, I've done, like, three bathrooms so far this since early July.
Currently do a kitchen right now. I got a deck I got to finish, another fence I got to finish. I'm pretty busy with that kind of stuff, so I've been doing some more commercial stuff for the past, but I just hated it because it, you know, I was a foreman, and it was just turning out to be an adult daycare of the people that I had to work with and everything. And it was just like, I can't do this anymore. It's just like, yeah, you know, we've all had teammates in the past, and, you know, some. Some of them are better than others, but, you know, just like these. These type of workers, it's. It's kind of the generation. The world that we're in right now is. It's like no one really wants to work.
The level of professionalism is definitely lacking, and it's just, at times, it's frustrating. So I made a decision that I was just kind of better off just kind of going on my own and, you know, make my living that way. And I'm really liking it because it brings a lot of creativity.
I still enjoy working with my hands, so it's, you know, it's. It's. It's. It's good. And I'm on my feet and I'm active, so it's, you know, some days are. Some days are tougher than others, for sure. But being. Being in charge of your own schedule and everything is.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: It's pretty lucky that the big thing, overall is trying to see what you're doing after. There's a lot of friends of mine that did stop playing that. Yeah. After they played in Europe, they came back. There are police officers, or they fire. It became something that was around the public service line. Right. You're probably the first person telling me that after playing that they wanted to be a contractor.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: Full on honesty.
I just learned. I just learned this year how to truly put up drywall and money. Okay. I'm not gonna lie to you. I'm an office guy. Human resources. Okay. So that I have an office job. I didn't go that route, and it's.
[00:08:56] Speaker C: It.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: To be able to do that, I had to renovate a lot in my own house, and I've had to. I kind of wish I was able to do it myself, but, man, I.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: Struggle to build bathrooms.
[00:09:05] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I actually tried. I actually tried doing insurance. Probably like a year after I retired, I had a guy that contacted me. He was a big hockey fan. He was from New York City. His name was Mark, Mark Keaton. He was a big guy at the massmutual. And I really tried, but that. The time, he was just so terrible. Like, I. I haven't taken a test since, like, grade twelve. So I studied my ass off to get this insurance license. You know, after I failed the test, like, twice, I. I tried a third time and I passed it, and I sold a couple policies and everything, but it was like, don't know. I'm not a good salesman. Like, it's tough. People don't want to buy policies that, you know, about you dying. It's a very tough product. It's a very tough product to sell.
And with the timing as well, the pandemic started, and it just kind of put an end to it. So I had, I just, I had people to take care of. I still have people to take care of. You know, I got pills to pay and everything. So it's something that I've just always been able to do. I've always had, like, some, some really good ingenuity. I've always been, like, a do yourself or kind of guy. So I could turn wrenches. I could, I could use power tools and everything. So it's been kind of like a natural fit.
Drywall sucks. I do a lot. I do a shit ton of drywall, and it's absolutely terrible. Like, but when people ask me, like, they want to do, like, all new drywall, I'm just like. I'm just like, oh, man. Like, how do we avoid this?
Do I, do I? Do I, like, overcharge this by, like, 50% so they don't do it.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: So my friend's car, give him a call. He's gonna dry a wall.
[00:10:54] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. So I know I work kind of rambling around and everything, but that's kind of how it is. Yeah. Like, I didn't know what I was gonna do. I was. I was in a huge panic when I retired, and I was lucky. You know, my work ethic hasn't. Has a change. You know, growing up as a kid, I come from blue collar family and everything as well, so. So those are like, roots are very deep. And me and getting up and going to work every day wasn't, wasn't. It's still not an issue, so. But that's why I'm doing the yoga. So it makes it just a tiny bit easier to get out of bed in the morning.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: Yoga. I tried it once like I told you, it did not go that good for me. Yeah, I've had the mic for a little bit. I'll pass it to you. People don't want to always hear me. They're here to hear you.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: Okay, well, I'm going to follow up with that yoga question in a little bit, but, yeah. You were speaking about working with your hands. The reason why you're on the show is because you used to punch in a lot of guys teeth. You're talking guys, like a couple guys that came on the show, actually. Nasty John Morasti and Luke Gazdek. What about some other guys you fought? Mike Brown, Elon Lou cheats. You fought some real heavyweights. When you look back at your career, which are some of the fights are most memorable to you.
[00:12:07] Speaker C: Yeah, there's a lot of.
Yeah, a lot of. A lot of tough cats, for sure. A lot of guys, like, out of my league, probably.
And it showed. It. You did good. You.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: I watched you. I'm not gonna lie. On lunch today, I was having a. I'm gonna. I'm not gonna add a potato salad.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: And I had a yogurt and a fruit. Okay. Last time ever hear me say this on the show.
[00:12:30] Speaker C: But.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: But I watched with Nasty Morasti. Okay. And obviously, as Alex said, we've had John on the show. We've had Gazdik on the show. I've talked to Brown, or we haven't had the chance to have Mike Brown on yet. But, you know, we've had some heavyweights on the show. The other one's Trevor Gillies. We've had some heavyweights on the show. And let me say the fate, my favorite fight that you had was definitely to the luch, each one, but probably brastis. I loved that fight that you had against Morassi. That was a fucking tilt. It was great.
[00:13:02] Speaker C: I actually watched.
I get these people that randomly send fight videos all the time, especially people, the new people I meet, you know, they find out, you know, what my background was, is like. And they're like. They're kind of like, intrigued. You're like, what's this? He's like, I don't know. Like, you can search my name. You'll find, you know, there's a couple goals on there as well. Like, I scored some goals, too. Like.
But yeah, I don't know. Like, I remember, you know what? I was thinking about that because you. You know, John tagged me on Facebook not too long ago.
I think it was about that fight, preseason fight. And actually the story about that fight.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:47] Speaker C: Barry Trost before the game is like, they're playing this morassity kid. Like, I was like, yeah. And, you know, like, I'm like, yeah, I know who he is. Like, no, exactly. Is like, it's like, I fought him in, I fought him in juniors as well, in the Western League as well when he was in Tri cities.
But Barry's like, don't, wherever you do, don't fight this guy. And I'm just like, I'm just like, what else am I going to do in this preseason game show that I, that I, that I'm going to, I'm trying to make this team? I just kind of got, like, handcuffed. Like, it was kind of ridiculous. Like, I was just like, okay, like, what am I supposed to do here? Like, I didn't care. Like, I was gonna go fight him, obviously. Like, I didn't care what Barry says. Like, sure enough. And like, it was, it was a great spirited fight. You know, it was a good fight.
John John was a really, he's a tough guy for his statue, and he's one of those guys that you just kind of keep punching them. And he's, he's tough. He's a tough, he's tough, tough kid.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: So, yeah, he's kind of showing his little mohawk nowadays.
[00:14:55] Speaker C: Little Mohawk, yeah.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: I mean, he's showing his flow and his everyone shores. He, right.
A friend of the show as well, Terry Ryan. That shows.
[00:15:06] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: I love seeing that on there.
[00:15:09] Speaker C: It's really, no, it is, it is a great show. I kind of promote it because a lot of people, a lot of new clients I meet, they catch my canadian accent quite quickly and, you know, so they, I was like, oh, what are you doing down here? Well, they asked, well, they're always asking, are you from the up? As they know I'm from more north of the up. So, yeah, so then I kind of get the story is like, why I'm down here? And, you know, it's just like, oh, I play professional hockey and da da da, you know, kind of goes on and on. So we always talk about the, always like, oh, have you seen a letter? Letter Kenny? I was just like, yeah, you know, like, that's, you know, probably every person, every small town can say, like, they have a group of friends that are identical to that. So that's how it is in Canada.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: You know what the big thing is when it comes to being in the role of an enforcer. Like I said, we've had the opportunity to talk to a good number of them on the show, I would say probably about seven. Six or seven of them. Were those enforcers? I mentioned them to you, including yourself, and I never asked none of them this question. I don't know why because I think it's such a good question. Toot my own horn. But what was your approach to a fight? What's going through your mind? Like, what was your approach? Did it matter about who you were fighting, or did you not even think about who you're fighting? You have the same approach. You're like, all right, a stance, a particular stance, or you wanted to have 1ft in a certain spot. Like, look, when I played junior hockey and, yeah, I brought it up. I did part, brought it up. When I played, I had some fight, but I wasn't a fighter. I was a. I wasn't him, but I like to model my game after him was Tyler Kennedy. When I played two ways, two way guy that wanted to skate hard and try to, you know, wasn't good on the PK, though. I was off. I was way too offensively minded.
But when I had a couple fights and it was me fighting, it was just like, all right, I just got to protect myself and just go, you know, I had one lineup fight and I got.
I got beat. I got. I got punched pretty good in the face. So that's why my intention was, I ain't lying up. I'm grabbing and fighting. I'm just going to grab and go, because if I line up, I'm gonna look like a fool. So what was your thought process? You know, line up for that fight? What. What approach did you take? I don't know.
[00:17:19] Speaker C: Like, it it. I'll be on. I'll be completely honest. You. It caused a lot of stress and anxiety for many, many years. I remember even in junior. In junior hockey, you're young and, like, you don't really know any better, and you're just full. You're so full piss and vinegar that it doesn't really.
I don't know. You don't even realize, like, what kind of position you're putting yourself into.
I was honestly, my mentality of going to was just like, I didn't. I didn't really care if I broke a nose or I got a tooth knocked out or even get knocked out.
I just. My biggest fear going into fight was losing the fight and letting my teammates down. That was the absolute, like, kill shot if that ever happened. And it. I was a good enough fighter that I could protect myself. I didn't take too many beatings throughout my entire career.
So I was a pretty skilled fighter that way.
But, like, the anxiety of, like, the possibility that I was going to lose, lose a fight was like, it was like a sickening feeling. And then the moment that I knew that I either clearly won the fight or it was just a great spirited fight or I just kind of survived, then I got. I get to go. The penalty box or the dress room was like, this. A sigh of relief for me for, for so many years. So obviously with, like, the websites they had, like, you know, they've had those, you know, websites for. Yeah. You know, you had to do your homework. You always had to do your homework. So you learn and you fight guys. Like, I remember when I first turned pro, like, in Philadelphia, like, you, that, that whole, like, that whole division of like, Hershey, Wilkesbury, Norfolk, like, it was, it was like a slugfest. Like every week, every week going out and every team had like four or five, like, guys that would chuck them. So, you know, you would learn. You would learn. You would have to learn quick. Like, what are these guys attentees and, you know, what are their strengths and what are their flaws? And, you know, there's a whole different sideshow and game plan to that.
And it took, it took a lot of energy. For sure. It took a lot of energy because if you didn't take care of yourself, ain't be prepared, prepare for yourself, you're. You're gonna get hurt. So.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: Especially when you're going at someone who knows what they're doing, fighting like, or someone who's a scrapper. Right? That's if you. Yeah, exactly. I'll let you go again. You know, I've had, I took over a few of that. Again, I'll let you go the next one.
[00:20:06] Speaker B: What about making your NHL debut? You want to take us through the day? You got the call and everything that was going on from the moment, you know, you found out to the moment you were on the plane getting ready to lace him up and go, you.
[00:20:17] Speaker C: Know, in Philadelphia, there was no plane.
The fathoms, the phantoms and the flyers were in the exact same. Oh, that's right. Yeah.
The rings are the same thing. So I don't know. Like, I think it was like maybe the second week of the NHL season, Paul Holmgren came down and he kind of told me. I was just like, and I was just like, you're gonna play this Friday or whatever it is. And how is this? Like, all right, here we go. You know, it was pretty like, you know, after, you know, so they just kind of grab my hockey bag and pack it up and they walk through the double doors and like, oh, hey, I'm here. So like I was already like in my underwear and everything and that, that's how it was in, in the Philadelphia flyer system for. I don't, I don't know, for a lot of years. I know before, before it was like that before I got there and I know it was there for a few more years after I left as well. So that was kind of a um, interesting like trend transaction that they had. It was, you know, I guess it worked. You know, everyone lived in the same area so no one really had to spend any time in hotels and there wasn't any travel time. You know, no real emergencies to like, you know, there is other places that I played that like guys were in warm ups and then they had to get undressed because they had to go to the airport because they got called up and they had to fly away or something like that. So that obviously still happens with every other team. But you know, it was pretty exciting. I had a, I had a really good summer prior to that. I trained extremely hard. My roommate at the time was Raleigh Cote. And we were doing some, a lot of like clean living and, and just kind of working our asses off and just kind of punching the clock every day. And yeah, luckily paid, paid off. So I, ironically I end up playing my first NHL game against Atlanta and that's where Shane was playing at the time as well. So like to, to new neat kids are playing like together in the very first, my, my very first NHL game. And my parents flew down and my uncle came down as well. And uh. Yeah, it was a pretty, it was a pretty neat experience.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: So I bet that's you can always have that banner story about them too. You can always.
[00:22:37] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: But one thing that I noticed in the NHL, obviously to be straight, you score goals in the a and the w. You score our goals. Obviously didn't get one the show, but you did get some helpers.
[00:22:47] Speaker C: Do you remember your Jeff Sanderson stole my goal?
[00:22:51] Speaker A: No, I want to know about that.
[00:22:54] Speaker C: Come on. I remember this. I remember this because I remember, I remember the sequence very well.
I remember I got some shit pass in my feet and I kicked it up just like behind my leg and kick it up to my thing. I dangled this guy at the blue line.
I dish it off to defense but I continue to drive the net and I get this big fat rebound. I think it was Jager was the goalie in Anaheim.
And then I. I cradled it and I backhand it.
I elevated it, hit the crossbar and it came right down on the goal line and it was starting to go in. And Jeff Sanderson just kind of like. Yeah, just kind of stood right there.
I I'm. I'm pretty confident it was on his way in, so. But, yeah, that's. That's what, that's. That was my, that was my almost. My almost my goal. But, uh.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I didn't touch it. You should have.
[00:23:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I know.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: I know.
[00:23:57] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I was. I did. I, like, I did. I didn't really care at the time, you know, like, looking back now, I was like, I wish that. I wish that zero was on the other side now.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: But you do know fucking Jeff Sanderson on this show.
[00:24:10] Speaker C: Fuck, yeah. No, no.
[00:24:14] Speaker A: If we do get him on, Tristan's coming back on to call him out.
[00:24:17] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: I could have had. I could have had that ready.
[00:24:21] Speaker B: Get a video official and a lawyer in.
[00:24:23] Speaker C: I know, right? Yeah, exactly.
[00:24:27] Speaker A: So obviously you played in the show. So obviously we did talk about how you got drafted. I want to know your draft story.
You know, obviously everyone has a different draft story. We've had people tell us about meetings with GM's, where they were, how it was. Obviously, it's diff. It varies for around per round, where you go, how your experience is. Sure, but doesn't matter what round you go. Zetterberg went last in the draft. Look at his.
Right. But what is your draft story? Where were you? How did it happen? How. How excited were you? What was going on?
[00:25:00] Speaker C: What year did I get drafted in? 2004.
So I was told. I was 20 years old at that time. So I was going into my last year, junior hockey, I believe, was. I know, I forget now.
[00:25:15] Speaker A: Your stat line. It seems that way, but that's. I could be wrong.
[00:25:19] Speaker C: No, because I would have been 21 into my last couple months of junior hockey. So.
So, yeah, I. My parents used to own this rental company.
We had, like, all the giant tents for weddings and parties and stuff like that, the big canvas tents and everything. So that's what I would do during the summertime. I would go and pound steaks all summer and, like, in the blistering heat, the Manitoba summers. And it was a lot of hard work. I think my agent text me the night, the night before, and he's just like, hey, you might. You might get drafted tomorrow. I was like, all right. Okay. You know, like, at this point, I already had. I had a tryout with the Vancouver Canucks the summer, the summer before as a free agent, I'll show a little. Tell a little story about that, because I was playing junior hockey in Vancouver, so I played for the Vancouver Giants. So they gave me kind of this courtesy, like, tryout. So 40 kids go to this rookie camp, 20 make main camp. So as undrafted guy, I make the top 20, and I go to main camp with all the big dogs, like Naslin, the Sadeen, you know, Pertuzzi, Brad May was there, like, some big dogs. And I was like, I was 18 years old, and I was just like, okay. Like, this is. This is kind of a big deal. So I end up.
I end up playing the inner squad game, and I played.
I played on the line with the Sadeen twins in the intersquawk game.
[00:27:01] Speaker A: No.
[00:27:03] Speaker C: Yes, I did.
[00:27:05] Speaker B: How did that go? What was the game like? Do you remember?
[00:27:07] Speaker C: I think I ringed one off the post, like, my first shift of the game. Like, I forget. I don't know which. I don't know which Sadeen Twitter was, but he gave me this great pass, and I rimmed it right off the post.
Anyways, not knowing, like, knowing that I was going back to junior. I was trying to get a contract.
You know, Mark Crawford was. Was the coach at the time. He had. He really liked me, and Brian Burke was a GM at the time, so.
Yeah, so, you know, I kind of hand out my. I forget what my agent was at the time, but I get my. He gets my agent, my information and everything, and a couple weeks go by, and Ron Delorme was a guy that. He lived in Vancouver as well, so he was all. He was a scout for Vancouver Canucks, and he was always at her games, so he talked to me. He's like, hey, Brian wants to do a deal, but him and such and such, they're button heads with your agents, so he's not gonna do a deal with him. I'm just like, oh, great.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: It was just like, you almost want to represent yourself.
[00:28:16] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: Fuck him.
[00:28:19] Speaker C: He's gone. Yeah, exactly.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: Like, what was your agent looking for that they weren't giving you? I mean, you probably would have just been happy to sign your name on the bottom line.
[00:28:28] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't know. Exactly. Like, you know, I don't know Brian personally. Like, I think Brian's a pretty, like, I don't know. I think Brian's a pretty, like, sturdy guy. Yeah. And he probably doesn't take any shit from anyone, so, you know, something could have been miss said, but I really don't know the story.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: It was probably the private jet that your agent was fighting for.
[00:28:50] Speaker C: Good. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I wish I signed them because that would have been, that was before, like, the first, um, the first CBA, uh, negotiations that definitely limited. That was like the last year of, like, the signing bonuses and everything because I remember, like, a lot of guys I was playing junior hockey with, you know, they're truck, they're getting trials, they're getting contracts for like, three, $400,000. Like, there does these handout money back then because there's no cap or that.
[00:29:22] Speaker A: Um, when you being a fan of original 16, that like, par and our pie, par and ir, when there was no salary cap, it was beautiful.
[00:29:33] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: And all of my, but now it's.
[00:29:34] Speaker C: Not like that anymore, but, um, you know, so I remember the day I got drafted.
I don't know. It was early when I got the call.
I had, like, I had, I had this, like, diesel truck loaded up to the gills that weighed 20,000 pounds because I was gonna go set up tents all day and my agent called me and, hey, congratulations. You got drafted by Philadelphia. And I was just like, all right, that's, I'm super excited. And then I think I worked a 16 hours day that day in the blistering sun.
You, I, that wasn't, like, the only day I did that. But that's, that's just kind of how, how it rolled. Like, my parents had a business and I was the oldest son, though, this child, and, you know, that was part of my job and that's just what I did. There was no, like, I don't know, there was no, my parents did throw a party for me and everything. It was great, but it was just kind of like the first step and I was, I was super excited, but at that time, I still didn't have a contract, so there's still a lot of uncertainty of what was going to happen and, yeah, I don't know. It worked out. It worked out for sure, you know, because I don't know that a lot of guys were probably like, hey, I just got drafted today. Now I'm going to go.
I'm going to go burn 15,000 calories all day and, like, tell, yell at kids all day and tell them what to do and deal with stressed out brides and grooms because they're worried with their tents can be set up in time for their wedding. So, like, that's what is kind of happening. So that's kind of my story.
[00:31:13] Speaker A: No, that's so I like the part where you said that you work 16 hours on your draft day. I might have to call that the title of the show. Yeah, 16 hours on his draft day. You know what I would have been doing on the draft that would have been happened. I would have been bad, bad thing to say, but probably booze in my face off in celebration.
[00:31:30] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Like, I eventually did that for sure multiple times. Like, I'm not going to deny as I'm not like I was leaving it, living a clean life.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: No. But two more topics that we want to get to, and I'm going to get to let par go to this one. Obviously, you want a championship when you're playing the American Ocule League. Very big part. And then I'm curious to know, before we let you go about a certain hot topic in hockey now that's seems to be dividing the hockey community a different way because of the differences of opinion, I think more so it's on the pro side, but we'll, that's just the teaser part of what I'm going to ask you. Par, we have to ask him about his championship victory with the Grand Rapids Griffins winning a title, winning, winning everything that year.
[00:32:16] Speaker B: Yeah. When you guys went into the first game of the regular season, was there that feeling in the locker room that like, hey, this is a special group. You know what? Maybe we can do some damage this year, or is that not something you don't want to get into your head?
[00:32:31] Speaker C: No, absolutely not. That's not really, really thinking because that was a lockout year. There was still a lockout at that time. So there was a lot of talent in that league at that time. So there's still, there was like an overabundance of talent in the minors. There's a lot of guys that had to spend time in the ECHL that they probably would have been otherwise been in the America League, I think, you know, it was my first year in Grand Rapids.
I was familiar with Grand Rapids because I was obviously in Milwaukee for a couple years and I was familiar with, you know, the rink that they had, and it was a great place to play fan wise.
I didn't know anything much about, you know, the organization, except I was a huge Red Wings fan, like in the mid nineties and everything. Like, I was a huge, like, I jumped on that bandwagon. I wore number, I was a defenseman before I played juniors, and I was number 16 because I was like Constantine. I was like, I was trying to, like, mimic his game to a tee. I was like, I was like, running guys. I was like, I was kind of like, that's why I wanted to be so, you know, to be part of that organization was, it was, I had the opportunity, then I was just like, all right, let's go with it. And, you know, at the same time, Jeff Blatchell, it was his first year as a, as a coach there as.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: Well, and he's crossed the border from us. We're sue Ontario. He's from Sioux Michigan.
[00:34:01] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly.
[00:34:02] Speaker A: So, listeners. Yeah, sorry to cut you off.
[00:34:04] Speaker C: No, no worries. So I knew we had, we had some, some, some good guys. We had, we had some young talent to come in, too. You know, Peter Morazic was, came in that year.
Luke. Glenn Denning started the season in the ECHl that year.
So did, so did Peter Marasic.
Yeah. And, you know, that year Glenn played in the, then came up to the America League, then played in NHL. Like, that's, he played it all three year leagues that year, which, which is pretty amazing, but I think we started the season like two and five.
Like, it was just like, oh, man, like, thing. I'm like, oh, man. Like, am I going to be, I'm going to be home again, like May 1, you know, like, and I wasn't really looking forward to that because I was in Oklahoma City the year before and we lost in the conference finals. So I was kind of, like, amped to kind of do it again and everything. So it just turned out we had just a, it's probably the greatest group of guys and players that we had.
We obviously had cliques. We had, like, the czech mafia over here, we had, like, the older veteran guys over here and we had, like, these young idiots here and there and everything, but we, we just, like, everybody kind of understood their job and we just had, you know, it's, it's pretty crazy looking back in it now. I was just like, how many fortunate bounces you need and how many things need to go your way? But we had, we, we went through a lot of good teams as well. But, uh, yeah, that was, that's definitely a special moment in my career. That was a lot of fun. That was a lot of fun. And, uh, I'm happy that I'm always, I'll be always, you know, kind of connected to that group of guys because it was a lot of fun. It was a lot, a lot of winning, a lot of, lot of partying.
It was, it was, it was a good time. It was, it was a really great time. I think we played. I think we played 100 games in total that year.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: Nyquist, you had Tatar, Brandon Smith, those some other guys. And I was a night quest. Obviously he's with Nashville, still Tatar. Colorado, you know, Glendennings, still with Tampa.
Hopefully they blitz that. Obviously marasic is in Chicago. I'm not going to lie. When Marasic was in Toronto, I did chirp him a lot. I'm going to say teammate of yours, he struggled a lot in Toronto.
[00:36:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:36:33] Speaker A: But he's obviously playing the NHL, so not really much to chirp him about, I guess. But there's obviously that team looks special. And every time I think of Grand Rapids, you think of Detroit because it is their farm system. But when you think of Detroit, you think their farm system has always been great. They've not like they've had stars. Eisenman, they've had. Obviously they've had stars, but they always found guys like the Darren Helms about these guys that would come up, be your third and your center, fill in on the second line when Eisenman or Shani got hurt or something and still be good. Detroit was so annoying in the nineties and so annoying in the thousands because it didn't matter how good their roster looked. They had the right guys and they had the depth pieces. And what helped that depth was the American Hockey League was always successful. Like you said, you maybe didn't have that energy at the beginning of the year, but look, if you name the roster off to me, I'd be like, holy shit, that's a very good team.
[00:37:36] Speaker C: Yeah, very good team.
[00:37:37] Speaker A: Right. So. But you had the experience of lifting a trophy over your head, all your hard work must have. You must have said to yourself, you lifted it up. Yeah, it wasn't the Stanley Cup. I get it. But you right below the NHL, right?
[00:37:50] Speaker C: Like, right.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: Very hard trophy to win. You must have been thinking about a lot when he lifted that over your head when you want it.
[00:37:57] Speaker C: No, for sure. Yeah. You know, cuz what I was in 2013, so I was.
Yeah, I was 29. I was 29 years old. So, you know, if you go back to, like, to age 16, so that's a lot of years. That's a lot of years of playing. Like, at, like at a pretty high level that it takes to finally be like the last man standing is. Is a pretty hard thing. So it's.
Yeah, it's not. It's not the Stanley cup. It's. But it's. It's. It's a great. It's a great accomplishment there is kind of like. It does. It is kind of cooler that it was kind of a lockout year. So it is like the caliber was, was definitely higher as well. You know, it's just kind of like the one worth where the fans won. And was that 2004 that the fans won the. How many, like, if you go look at those rosters, like, how many, like, hall favors are, like, in, are in the Calder cup playoffs in that. That year of 2004, it's actually pretty amazing. So, you know. No, like I said, it's, it's, it's, it was a pretty cool accomplishment. There's some great stories from that. Um, and it was just, yeah, it was a pretty amazing ride, to say the least.
[00:39:19] Speaker A: So I bet now you got a ring out of it. You got a trophy out of it. You got memories out of it, though, and the party. And I can just imagine how the party scene was.
[00:39:27] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:39:29] Speaker A: Now, the last topic we'll get to, this is the sad part of the show. We're gonna get to our wrap up portion of it. 39 minutes already. Time flies. You're having fun, Tristan, it's been great. I I want to ask you, I want your hot take, and I know this could be a topic of 20 minutes. We'll keep it short and brief. I want to know your take on the game today in terms of fighting. We know that fighting is Quebec, you know, in the NHL, it's still there. Okay. It's, it's still around in some leagues, but it seems like fighting is starting to get on the way out, which I think is really unfortunate because I think it's a big part of the game.
[00:40:09] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:40:09] Speaker A: I'm a nineties birth year, so I think that's why I'm saying it. Maybe the ten 2010 birth years won't say the same thing because they're not used to it. But when I see kids that aren't hitting now until the under 15 age, that's so dangerous because you don't learn how to hit at a young age, you don't learn how to fight at a young age. You don't learn. It's not as safe as people think it is. And eventually fighting may be taken out of the game. And I think that's unfortunate. That's my take. I want to know your take about the way fighting is trending, the direction it's training on going.
[00:40:43] Speaker C: Well, I'm, I will admit this. I'm glad. I'm glad there's not two. There's not really any guys anymore that have like 2030 fights a year. I've had a lot of seasons like that. Some of my best seasons were when I had 1012. You know, I think that's a really good, healthy number to have. I don't like how they're trying to push it out because, you know, forget about them, the culture of the game. But I think.
I think accountability is a big thing that needs to be, or needs to be, I don't know, probably continued or is amped up. And there's. There's just no. There's just no accountability when you take things like that, because we all know what happens when there's no accountability.
People. People take your liberties on you with it, knowing that there isn't going to be, you know, a punishment. You know, whether that's. Whether that's a suspension or. Yeah, someone might. No one's gonna grab you and embarrass you in front of 10,000 people. So I think.
I don't know. It's. It's.
When. When have you been in a rank where there's been a fight and not everybody's been standing in the arena?
Yeah. Has that ever existed? Has everybody, has there been. I know there's probably people, like, sit around like, oh, I don't like fights. You know, like, yeah, that's fine, just fine. But let's not forget what is on the line at the end of the air. Like, who hoists the Stanley cup. Like, everybody should be willing to put a fist through someone's face to hoist a sunny cup. But I think that's what people tend to forget is, like, there's not only, you know, a legendary status of winning a championship, but there's a lot of money on. On the line, and you need to be a winner. You need to be a proven winner to do that. And fighting is a huge part of that formula. You know, like, every year, the sunny cup winning team is a gritty team. They may not have, like, a guy that's fights 35 times. Like, that doesn't exist anymore, but it's these teams that win the Stanley cup or the last team are all surrounded.
Surrounded and built off team toughness.
So then if you're going to go and completely, like, eliminate that, you know, what are, like, what are. I just. I don't know, what are you. What are you trying to create here? So that's. That's just kind of, like, the biggest thing here. It's just like, no one really, you know, no one should ever be forced to, like, fight, but everyone should be able to have the opportunity to prove that how badly that they want to win and sometimes grabbing someone and sticking up for a teammate or sending a message or getting your team jacked up, you know, after being down a couple goals, that's kind of what it takes.
[00:43:53] Speaker A: To win, and that helps you, and that shifts momentum. And we've seen it so much in the world of hockey, and I, the ty domi era, you think back up. You think of all that. You know, you've seen some. You've had some fights of your own. In the day that we talked about Gazdek, we talked about Monasti, Morasti, Milan, Lucie, who still plays. Those are guys that are pivotal on a team success, setting the tone, and especially on the whole, my side, to get the crowd into it, especially the fan base in Toronto, can be so quiet sometimes, right? So it's good to have someone like Ryan Reeves as an example on that team because it helps change and protect the, let's say, the softer players.
[00:44:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I admit it. Like, I did a lot, too, in juniors, even in pro hockey. Like, right off, you know, as soon as the puck drop, you score off. Like, it was kind of this, like, it's kind of what you did sometimes. But those were never my greatest fights. I was even proud of. I was just like, the best fights is, like, after you ran someone over or you're sticking up for a guy, and when you're in actual, the heat of the battle and you get so wound up that you have to grab someone or someone needs to grab you and, and there's, like, so much. There's just nothing really beats, just like, a passionate, high energy, spirited fight like that. You know, it's one, it's, it's, it's. I'm glad. Like, there's not many fights, like rafters right off the face off. The guys are kind of doing, like, you know, spinning the helmet and everything and, you know, doing the whole kind of show. I was never really a fan of that, but they're. I think there's this crazy. I think. I think our sports gonna be in trouble if they eliminate these, like, spirited and these, these high energy, you know, you know, levels of competition. That's really what it is. So.
[00:45:46] Speaker A: I agree. Hari, do you have any final thoughts before we.
[00:45:50] Speaker B: No, I think that's a, that's a great note to end on you like that. I do, I do. I think. I think that's a heavy, heavy message to let the viewers stink and marinate in their brain.
[00:46:02] Speaker A: So what should the viewers do if they agree or disagree? What do you think?
[00:46:05] Speaker B: Fight Kristen about it. If they disagree. I mean, what else can you do?
[00:46:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I was thinking maybe they comment below or hit like follow.
[00:46:12] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that's probably a little bit easier.
[00:46:14] Speaker C: I think.
[00:46:14] Speaker B: I'd probably rather do that myself too.
[00:46:17] Speaker A: That's a good point. Tristan, this has been a pleasure. It was great getting connected with you finally. I know it took some time, basically patience on my end, so I appreciate that as I had some life events to attend to.
And again, I think we'll have to have you on some at some point again in the future. Even if it's one of our new shows. Even with Brooksie? No, Brooks, he was looking to try to come on to talk bit more that Jeff Hogan and talk a bit more stuff with you there. But we absolutely talk fighting. Your deep, your time in the NHL, winning the Calder cup, you had such a great career, right? You had. You had a great time. Now you're contracting, you're doing hot yoga. That's what someone calls.
[00:46:57] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: Thank you for coming on the show and par. I'll let you say what you like to say.
[00:47:02] Speaker B: No, I think that's Tristan. That was awesome, man. Thanks for coming on, sharing so much. And hey, maybe let's do it again soon.
[00:47:09] Speaker C: Absolutely. Anytime, boys.
[00:47:11] Speaker A: Awesome. Again, that's been Tristan Grant here on the game sports podcast. And that's been Alex Parr. Alex, thank you, of course, for taking the time. Even though you're not in the sue anymore, you're all the way in Ottawa now. At least I get to see you through camera.
[00:47:24] Speaker B: That's why I never brought up anything about the leafs and I've learned very quickly that I can't do that here.
[00:47:29] Speaker A: Yeah, you can't.
[00:47:30] Speaker B: No, I can't. I can't. You should see the looks, man. It's crazy.
[00:47:35] Speaker A: Love it. It'll be. They're just bitter because of all the series as they won in the early.
[00:47:40] Speaker B: Yeah, imagine being so mad at a team and like thinking, oh, they're so bad. But that was like one of the last teams we eliminated from the playoffs. So whatever.
[00:47:48] Speaker C: I digress. I digress.
[00:47:50] Speaker A: That's fun, listeners. If you had a fun time and you want to take part of the show, comment below. You can comment at Tristan and comment at one of us. And if you do chirp Tristan, guess what? I'll give him your at and I'm.
[00:48:00] Speaker C: Just let him know.
[00:48:03] Speaker A: But again, this has been the Game sports podcast special edition. Upload with Tristan Grant, Alex Parr, yours truly, David McCaig. Make sure hit like follow and subscribe if you have been listening on YouTube. Subscribe to the 91 n network, YouTube channel. If you're on Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon, all over the place, that's that. Like that. Subscribe that, follow whatever it is goes a long way for us. So we appreciate that from you. If you could take the time to do that. I'm here to remind you to keep your sticker on the ice, swing your bats, catch touchdowns, drain your threes and shoot your shots. Booyah.
