S1E7 - Coaching - Beyond the Bench w/Adam Huxley

Subscriber-only episode

Adam Huxley skates his way onto the Pod this week as we talk about his career as a semi-pro hockey player, and his transition to coaching. We go beyond the bench to explore his company, Huxley Hockey Conditioning, and what it takes to compete at a highest levels. 

Hux also talks about his time on the ice, and the work he's up to helping to train elite athletes from junior right up to the NHL. We'll also discuss how focused systems and coaching can provide that leg up in the game, in the draft, and in business. 

Seth and JP take some time to explore how coaching in sport and business align, and we're joined by a special long-time-listener,  first-time-caller Derek Pfisterer on the Podium as we talk hometown sports heroes. 

So fire up those earbuds, strap on some skates, and don't forget to hit subscribe. 

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Transcript

Seth Anderson: 0:00

Welcome to Episode Seven of The Biz Dojo. This week we chatted with Adam Huxley, founder of Huxley hockey conditioning, head coach of the Wainwright bisons, nor of the Northeast Junior B Hockey League and former journeymen HL hockey player.

JP Gaston: 0:15

Yeah, Adams got some pretty good insight into what it takes to get there himself. But also with all the coaching he's doing. He gets some great feedback from the people who are going through the program and can develop the program to help so many people get where they want to go based on that feedback. So he's kind of got a little bit everything.

Seth Anderson: 0:32

Yeah, and somebody who's really focused on I mean, I would describe it as paying it back. I mean, he had a lot of opportunity afforded to him as a young hockey player. He had the opportunity to play in the W HL for several years. So he knows what it takes to make it at that level. Following that, had obviously an opportunity to play in the AHL for many years. And we dig into a little bit of, you know, the various teams that he played for and some of the experiences he had at that level wasn't quite able to make it into the NHL, he did play a handful of preseason games with the Edmonton Oilers. But you know, I think what we we gathered from our conversation is that failure, inability to make it to the final stage is something that drives him now, in his support of others trying to make it to that level.

JP Gaston: 1:16

Yeah, I mean, it's every kid's dream, right? Like, I'm sure, I'm sure you had the same dream, you were probably too busy making lists, but I'm sure you've had the similar dream, you know, playing in the driveway, you've got your, your softball outfielders glove on as a goalie and here we using a player's stick. Just getting tennis balls rifle that you if you're in that or if you're, you know, my older brother, you're the one standing in the driveway, just rifle in tennis balls at your brother, where we're just oversized baseball glove,

Seth Anderson: 1:48

my brother would never really play with me, we had very few sporting interactions, actually. But I do remember. And it's funny because Adam talked about the Las Vegas Golden Knights because he spent many years playing there for their AHL team, the Wranglers prior to the Golden Knights existence. And to your point, I'm making lists, I remember being in the driveway at around the time when they did that big expansion with like the predators in the wild. And all those teams came in the league, and mapping out all the players that they would draft and pick from the various teams. So I yeah, I was in the driveway making lists, that was a real thing.

JP Gaston: 2:24

Watching the other kids play off, you were trying to manage the road hockey kids plan out on the street,

Seth Anderson: 2:28

there were no other kids, we were on the hobby farm with the Rams, and the goats and the pigs and whatnot. And so they were watching me make lists in the driveway by myself with a with a net that was made out of fence posts.

JP Gaston: 2:41

Well, that's a we, we actually talked about that too. That's where a lot of these kids came from before, right? Like it used to be straight from the farm straight into the league. And there was no in between. and now there's all these stages in the middle for for development. And there's these camps that exist. And a lot of the players are going through camps, like is, and a lot of pro players are now doing camps exactly like his even with him to work on these skills. I don't know if they have list writing skills, but you know, certainly the playing skills,

Seth Anderson: 3:10

I could absolutely run a camp on the list. Right. And I think that is that is something I'm pretty proficient at. But, you know, you're 100% right. And, and, you know, the way that hockey has gone, you know, he you think about back in the day, or I don't know, probably even before so you could go straight from the farm and, you know, get the right opportunity and go, you know, maybe potentially playing the NHL, but now you know, you've kind of got to be involved from a very young age, you've got to be going to those camps, you've got to be it's a it's an all year thing, huge investment from a from a parent parental perspective to put a kid through minor hockey, especially to play those in those elite programs. And it's honestly just not feasible for the majority of Canadian families to even think about that type of an investment both in money and time to make it to that level.

JP Gaston: 4:04

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, it's every kid's dream, we didn't really have like blades of steel was big when I was really little. And there wasn't really you weren't really thinking all these guys have names you just you know, you picked up the skinny player or the fat player or the medium size player. But now like kids really dream about this stuff. They can put themselves into video games and be that guy or they can play the people they want to play they can watch hundreds would not this year, but usually they can watch hundreds of games on multiple channels at any given time. And it's just it's snowballed into this such as huge thing and every kid wants to be there, but so few make it and it requires so much commitment.

Seth Anderson: 4:42

Yeah. I'm not sure JP at the end of the day if every kid wants to be in the NHL anymore. You know, I think the world is evolving. I think, you know, you see a lot more kids that are interested in a variety of sports. And and obviously the investment that it takes to make it to the NHL is so huge. I think it's just It's become unrealistic for a lot of Canadians, however, you know, when you talk about the development process, which I think can be applicable, you know, to any sport, Adams really on the forefront in the hockey space and really, you know, you look at a relatively small geographical area, or, you know, sparsely populated geographical area up in that Wainwright region, and the amount of talent that is coming out of there. And it's not just him, you know, there's some other great programs out there that are, you know, supporting these kids and helping to, you know, get them to the next level, it's pretty impressive. It's pretty impressive when you know, you've got a handful of guys that are either in the NHL being drafted to the NHL, getting opportunities in Europe and NCAA and the W h. l. You know, it's pretty, it's pretty cool that, you know, what one one or two programs can can really pump up the talent when, when they, you know, work together and put their minds to it.

JP Gaston: 5:54

Yeah. And in a program that, like you were saying earlier, actually involves the whole community. It's not just hockey kids showing up, like, you get into some of these big cities. And I think that you just get kids showing up to play hockey. And out there, it seems like it's more of a community investment.

Seth Anderson: 6:13

Yeah, the community angle is huge, especially in a place like that. And obviously, I had some experience there for, you know, four or five years when I was working with with the team that he that he now runs the winery, bisons and, you know, the whole community has to get behind a team like that for in order for it to survive, you have your local sponsors, you have your volunteers, and then you have your player pool largely comes from from that area. And, you know, it just just doesn't work without that. So, you know, to see a thriving Junior hockey program, I know that they're under 18, under 16, you know, they're there. They're double A and triple A programs, or I guess they don't have a triple A program anymore, but their double A programs are doing or have been doing well in recent years. So yeah, it takes a whole community to kind of come together and make it a success. And, you know, they're lucky to have someone like Adam, who, you know, has the experience of, you know, playing at a high level of hockey to come back and support on that front as well.

JP Gaston: 7:12

Yeah, I think I know that we've got a number of folks that are from different backgrounds and different industries, it's one of the joys of this show is that you're going to get some perspective from a bunch of different places. And I think when I think through this sort of sports analogy, which I know, you have a lot of experience in, I have a lot of experience in the important thing that I've taken from these sorts of conversations and for my career in sport, has been that you always need to keep working on something, there's always someone better than you. And maybe there's no one better than you and one aspect of your game, but there's someone better than you at something else, and you need to go and work on that. And then while you're doing that, someone's going to get better at that thing that you were really good at. So you need to go back and work on that. And you just this constant improvement is so important, and in any industry, but so much more important in striving to become some of these sort of elite athletes in sport. And that it, it becomes such a programmatic approach. And it's an interesting conversation to have to kind of walk through those steps along the way and, and think about how that applies to your daily life. Even if you're not in those sports. One, one

Seth Anderson: 8:22

breakthrough on from my perspective, I would say was realizing how much synergy and to borrow a corporate buzzword, maybe we'll use a couple here in the next bit, but how much synergy there is between you know, leading and managing, coaching, whatever you want to call it in a sports environment, to a business environment. And I found you know, there's a lot of transferable things that occur. Some of the things that stand out to me, you know, on a day to day basis, it doesn't matter whether you're in an office, or you're you're with a hockey team, or even at home, for that matter. Communication is key. Some of the things that I can think of that come to mind, particularly in a sports world, you know, you can't avoid confrontation, at the end of the day, that is going to occur no matter what 100% of the time, when you're running a sports team, whether you're the guy making the lifts, or you're the guy writing the drills, or you're the guy you know, doing the water bottles, inevitably there will be some type of confrontation that you will have to deal with. And you know, a lot of it is just in how you deal with it, right. So some people shut down, you get that fight or flight. Some people get, you know, overtly aggressive and maybe say things that they don't mean at the time because, you know, that's just how they react to it. So one of the things that I've learned is just, I really try to take things in in the moment and try to be as assertive as possible, like you don't want to just wait for things to happen and be reactive. But also like, really try to fully understand what's happening before you react to something. So, you know, to me, you know, inevitably you're going to come into contact retention in any walk of life when you're in a leadership role, and communicating effectively becomes very key. So, you know, you drop back to a podcast we had a couple of weeks ago with Carolyn, you know, I think hand in hand, my journey as a leader went through, you know, coaching and hockey, writing lists and hockey, also, you know, then becoming a leader in a business setting, being able to effectively communicate and not being afraid of confrontation, finding tools such as, you know, giving positive feedback, positive ideas, you know, a little bit of structure to that made a big difference, I think, in my effectiveness. Today, as a leader, a lot of the roots of that were planted within coaching hockey. Previously,

JP Gaston: 10:43

yeah, I think similar for me, and in my experience, in my younger years, and even up to today, like, one of the things that I commonly talk to my teams about is, everyone's an individual. And I actually use a sports analogy when I have these conversations. But when you're building a team, you're not expecting every single person in the hockey world, you're not expecting every person on your team to perform at the level of Sidney Crosby, you're going to have your Sidney Crosby's, but you need your second liners, your third liners, your fourth liners, you need the people who are actually going to make up your whole team, and every single one of those people need something different, you can't have the same approach with everyone in it. And to your point, it all comes down to communication, and how effectively you can work back and forth with those people to get them to where they need to be and for them to give to you the feedback and information that you need. And I think one of the other things that we talked about a lot in this podcast that I think can get lost in the business world is that, that sense of community, right? Like, I feel like you can have a great product in any industry. And if you don't have that sort of core community that surrounds it, and supports it, and that you get feedback from and that you know, you work, whether that's customers or internally with your team, if you don't have that community around it, and, and you're not giving back to them and working with them. As great as your product might be, it's never going to reach the potential that it could have.

Seth Anderson: 12:08

Yeah, that's a that's a great point, you know, community is key and trust, right. Like, you'll be surprised to know that when we were doing the pre pre game for this pot a little bit, I wrote down a list of things that some leadership lessons that I learned, you know, particularly through sport, that transfer, transfer into the business. And one of the things I you know, kind of touched on was team building. And, again, I when I made that connection to, you know, in the workplace, building a team is very similar, you know, you need all the same components in a workplace that you do on a hockey team, right? Like you, you need talent, right? At the end of the day. most successful enterprises require talent, you have to have some level of, of people with skills that are, you know, directly gonna execute on whatever it is that you need to do. So obviously, when you're recruiting and you're in a leadership role, it is your job, or at least part of your job, to find the right people to do the right role. And where that's, you know, trip me up in the past building teams is, you know, you try to go and accumulate as much talent, as you can see, recruit a lot of really, you know, smart people, educated people, people that have done great things. But if there's not a role for them on a team, if it's not clear what their responsibilities are, and let's just say all of a sudden, you've got four or five first liners, and you've only got, you know, two or three positions open. You know, just like an eye in a hockey team or any other sport, you end up in a position where you know, someone's not getting enough scope or enough opportunity, and bad things start to happen really quick, like

JP Gaston: 13:51

kills your culture, right? Like and same on a team like you, you can build this amazing culture. And it can be shattered in an instant, if you're just hiring based on skill. Or if you're just filling as many, you know, top line players as you can from your first line down to your fourth line, you get a second or third liner who thinks that they should be a first liner and won't take no for an answer. All of a sudden, you've got this thing happening on your team that's pulling everybody down.

Seth Anderson: 14:18

You know, that segues into my time with the bisons and we touched on it in the pod the last year. We had a great year and I still look like I said another pod I look back on the year I think about it. I don't know if it's every day but certainly more more days than not in a year for the last five years. I will think about something to do with that team. And we had a lot of great players. A lot of great kids a lot of you know and I'm super proud of, you know, what we accomplished? What we came up short and and so when I think back at like what I could have done differently, and then there's there's a long list but you know, one of the things in this vein was that the team building and wanting to get as much talent as possible and having access to probably more talent than the most of the other teams in the league had because we built up some good relationships with Junior teams, we had good credibility with some kids who had good connections. And then there came a point where it was almost too much. And, you know, we had a situation sort of near a deadline where we had an opportunity to bring a goalie back and the goalie we brought back was a great kid. But I, you know, he got another opportunity right away. So we had to make a decision to cut a local, a local kid was a backup goalie he was he was 18, he was he was, he was not the best goalie in the league by any means. But he was a solid goalie, he knew his role, he was happy to be there, he would have done anything to kind of stay there. And, you know, I think it was a little bit arrogance on my part, you know, not really thinking of the team as a whole at the moment or, or maybe being overconfident. And I guess that's the same as arrogance. And, you know, bringing in this other goalie and making the decision to cut him and, and one of the things that hurt us down the stretch, especially when we got to the finals was our starting goalie ended up having to play, you know, pretty much for like three months straight, because the goalie that came to us ended up leaving after that, because he got a junior a opportunity and, and we just, we were never able to pull together another goalie to kind of split that time down the stretch and give our starter some some break. So anyway, it's it seemed like a minor thing. At the time, it seemed like a no brainer at the time. But of the all the things that happened that year, that's one of the things that I look back on and go like, that was a mistake. And that was, you know, just trying to get, you know, amass as much talent as possible, but not necessarily thinking about the impact of the greater team, and what the roles and responsibilities of every team member were and whether they were going to be good with those roles.

JP Gaston: 16:47

Yeah, I think, you know, hindsight being 2020. And actually, hindsight is not always 2020. But in this case, you know, it is, I think that's sort of what hucks brings to his coaching and into his programs is, he's been through it, he knows the mistakes that he made along the way, he knows the things that would have got him to those next levels. And he talks about it in the pot, and he tries to instill the things that you know, he's learned in his time, but also the things that he's learned from the people that he has coached or helped coach or the insight that he gets from, you know, some of the the college level and Semi Pro and pro athletes that he works with, like, it's, it's all of that information combined, just trying to make that next generation of kids just that little bit better, that little bit better, until you can get it just right. And it's never going to be just right, like, you're never going to have the perfect solution. because things are going to change. And you're going to have to learn and you're going to have to adjust your game.

Seth Anderson: 17:42

Yeah. And that hits home. And in a lot of ways, I don't think there's a better feeling that I've experienced anyway, then helping someone find or see something in themselves that they didn't know existed and you being a leader or a mentor, you know, you kind of see you know, what's there. And I've had this happen both in the business world and in, you know, the hockey world. And you see the components, right, they show up, you know, I don't know if soberly is the right word, but they, they work hard, they ask the right questions, they're visibly interested in what you have to say they take coaching, they want to get better. And when you when you find these people, and they're not always easy to find, but you know, they may self doubt, they may not be sure about where they're going or what their next step is. And when you can just give them a little bit of positive encouragement, you can give them a you know, just an opportunity. That's all I ever tell anyone that I mentor or that I work with one on one. I'll give you an opportunity and let's see what you do with it. And there's no better feeling to me than when someone takes that and then they run with it. And then you know, they take it the next step and they run it 100 miles further and all of a sudden, you know, they're doing stuff they never even thought they were capable of and then that's a lot of what Hawkes is doing right like I don't think when he came back to Wainwright four or five years ago he was thinking you know I'm going to start a hockey Academy and you know we're going to pump out NHL errs by the by the handful out of a little town like Wainwright like I would be surprised to believe that that's that that was the goal. But that's what's happening and it's because they're doing it the right way. And he cares about the kids and and he knows the recipe for success it's gonna help them get there and he knows what to look for. And you know what, what kids bring to the table that's going to be successful in his program. So you know, I think hopefully, hopefully people can get some something out of this interview that not just applies to sport but you know, when you go back to work and or you go back to your business or whatever it is that you're doing, look for that potential in that person look for, you know, you may not you may not have been looking for it before, because we all tend to get wrapped up in our own stuff. And they maybe we don't notice it, but you know, there's little signs out there that somebody is looking for that to take that next step but they may not verbalize it. They may not come to you and say hey, I want to be on your succession plan or, or you know, because that's that's a hard thing to do. And it's kind of an awkward thing to do for people and they may not know what to do. But I think we as leaders have an obligation to look for it in people and then try to bring it out. And because at some point, somebody did that for us. And and I think it's a great thing if we can pay that back and we'll make the world and the business world, the sporting world, whatever a better place as a result.

JP Gaston: 20:22

Yeah, that's a great point. And I think we'll we'll just jump into it. Here's our chat with that.

Voiceover: 20:29

Today on the pod. We're talking to Adam Huxley, founder of Huxley hockey conditioning, head coach of the Wainwright bisons and former NHL hockey player will talk about the importance of communication, diversity and coaching and being a part of the community. So welcome to Episode Seven of The Biz Dojo.

Seth Anderson: 21:01

Welcome to the dojo this week, we've got Adam Huxley joining us are really happy to have you on the show this week. hucks. And how we've been kind of going through this is just getting a little bit about your background. And I think, you know, you've got a really interesting story how you sort of went through the, I would say journeymen, Semi Pro hockey player and had a little bit of taste to the NHL life, I think and some preseason games and, and then sort of coming back to your hometown and getting into coaching the local junior team. So maybe just start us out with a little bit about your background and what that journey was like for you.

Adam Huxley: 21:34

Well, journey is the word. You know what I went, if I could give one analogy was you got to go get lost to find yourself sometimes. And I believe that's exactly what I did. You know, I was probably going on the round passing in a small town. You know, this sounds crazy to people now. But you're drinking at 14 and going to parties and doing this doing that, you know, dealing with all this stuff that you probably shouldn't be at that age and you know, probably when I should have been working on my skills and stuff considering I was an entrepreneur but you think that's the life or whatever and, and you know, I'm going to Notre Dame really focused on what I wanted to do like I was adhere to Bantam. Now. Second year, Bantam. So imagine this, there's CAD me there's triple A, there's double A, there's tier one, and then there's tier two. So you're like five down on the totem pole. So as a second year, Bantam, which back in the day would be a 15 year old now. I was playing tier two Bantam. Three years later, I played in the western Hockey League. So going to Notre Dame really focused my mind on what I really wanted to do. It's a really weird mix. Like you got your serious athletes that are going to go somewhere you got your kids that are trying to get to that level and then you got kids parents, instead of sending them to a straight up military school or juvie. They send them there thinking that that's a better option, or that's going to halfway house for them. It's but at the end of the day, it helped me focus I met some cool and I you know, I look up dozen people that I kind of met on the staff side, and then they really helped me like one of my dorm leaders who played for the Junior 18 was the captain, awesome guy. You know, I just meet some cool people and the people that care actually come on, do this kind of stuff. There's so many people that wanted me to fail. To be honest, I use that as fuel anytime I was in a fight or anything like that, I think about those people. And you know what, and I took that same mentality when I go and train. That's how I pushed myself through a hard day or whatever. But anyway, so I you know, and then I ended up going to melfort at 16 years old. And then from there, I went to Saskatoon. And then from there I went to Seattle. I ended up in Calgary system and ended up in Las Vegas. But right after my junior career, as I never really talked about this, I went to Alaska, which was awesome. A guy from Wayne, right of all places that grew up there until his they're all 15 I don't know, you'd have to ask him Ryan bast. He actually signed a big ticket with Philly back in the day. But yeah, he the Beastie Boys, amazing guy. So like, again, I got to meet some cool people up there. But then they ended up being our bitter rivals for the rest of my career when I was in the coast, but um, but ya know, that was a stop. And then I went to Vegas. And then I was pretty much all over the place.

Seth Anderson: 24:28

Looking back on sort of your playing career and like you said, you went through a lot of different places. Is there anywhere that really stands out to you? I know, I know. You've talked a lot about Vegas and I know you got into some UFC training and different things in that area that obviously had big impact on your life. But are there some stops along the way that really helped sort of shaped who you are now,

Unknown: 24:50

every single stop is a major stop on the map right? Vegas is number one, just so much stuff out there. And I was not Not only do I cheer for their NHL team, but everyone was skeptical about it, and I said, Man, this is gonna be a homerun if they do it right. And they did do it right. They did it right times 10. And I mean, the rest is history. You guys can do the rest. Everyone talks about all they want to go game their self. It's absolutely amazing.

Seth Anderson: 25:17

Would you say Huck's like, with Vegas? It's not necessarily a coincidence that they've been so successful right out of the gate, like just that whole community. And no, I

Unknown: 25:28

mean, I knew it was gonna be a hit. They didn't have a three letter league there. And, I mean, they tried other thing, but yeah, they didn't have a three letter league. And the people took it and ran with it. This is our prize. And then I think they really started to enjoy hockey, very similar to the Gretzky syndrome in LA, right. I mean, they built a street for like, a little walk up there with all those bars and stuff. If you've ever been to a game, it's like a big tailgate all the way up. I mean, they did it right. And in the inside show, like it's an extra nine, there wasn't one in the league like it. And yeah, I mean, when you come out of the gates, Stanley Cup Finals, losing seven getting six games, or whatever it is, people are gonna be on the edge of their seats, and they're gonna love it. And the NHL did the right thing, setting them up. And I really hope Seattle does the same, because that's my next stop, you know, in junior was Seattle. So I spent a little bit of time in Victoria. That was a dark part of my career. I was times where you, you're like, oh, man, I mean, we're losing team losing culture. After being there, you know, I learned a lot about what not to do. And then from there, I went to Stockton The next year, and I stayed there for like, three or four years. And I was I would definitely say is the massive part of my, my career, my life. You know, my first kid was conceived there. I was with the Oilers for a couple of years. I mean, that's how I go and exhibition games and stuff. But I ended up meeting Nick and Nate Diaz, who are the some of the more that I know, there's some of the best people he ever meet in your life. They just treat their friends like gold, and they accepted me in and I mean, that's the whole story of how we met and everything else. That's a whole nother story. But, um, but yeah, so stalked him meant a lot. But you know, if you've ever been to Stockton, I mean, it is not. It is not a desired location. It's a poor town, it had industry and stuff back in the day, it was probably vibrant A long time ago. And there's none of that there's no economical means there just goes to show you no matter what, where you are, what you are, it's what you make of it. amazing organization. Amazing rank. That was a great stop. Then from there, I went over to Boise, their clock stalls and the assistant coach for Dallas. And they treat you like family right away. And I mean, basically, if you've ever been to Denver or something like that, that's like Boise, Boise is a little college town really clean down in the mountains. So you got to get that mountain thing. But it's not like our winters and great arena, a great place to play so much tradition, they've won the league of ones like, I would say top five destinations in the minors. So I had the the, the fortunate ability to play there. And then from there, I went back to Vegas. Um, so I ended up back in Vegas, and I stayed there for the last three years of my career. And when the team shut down, I decided it was time to shut it down.

Seth Anderson: 28:26

One of the things I wanted to circle back on Adam, you talked about failure, sort of motivating you and a lot of times maybe people were rooting against you or or certainly not actively rooting for you. And, you know, I just look back I'm just you know, having a look at some of your stats and different things here. And I came across this on the Oilers website. And I don't know if you know that this exists or not, but it's prospect q&a with Adam Huxley. And so last season out of Huxley thrilled fans of the ch l Stockton Thunder with his toughness and agitating playing style, playing under an EC HL contract for a team here that was also sprinkled with Euler prospects. admin got to Edmonton got to see plenty of Huxley during the Oh 607 season, the Oilers were impressed enough with his style of play that they extended an invite to the left winger for rookie camp actually took the time to speak with the Edmonton sun on Thursday prior to taking off for Yellowknife and it goes into some questions with you. But you know when I when you see something like that, and most Canadians like I don't know, myself, JP and millions of others, we would have killed or done anything to sort of even be mentioned in an NHL article. And you know, you've got your stats online. There's you know, you had your cup of coffee with some preseason games, but you didn't make it. I mean, at the end of the day, your goal was to make the NHL win some Stanley Cups get you know, do that whole thing. It didn't happen, but it seems to have sort of ultimately fuel the next phase of your life. How does Can you maybe give us a little more depth on that because i think you know your whole company that you've built up now and your coaching that you do that Is all geared towards helping these young, other young kids who have the skill and the will to kind of get to that next level? Well, to be honest with you,

Unknown: 30:07

when I, when I was done, you know, I always was kind of like, hey, what am I gonna do after I really like be on the ice, it's still fun to be around hockey. And just to remember, like cocoa when I was at ages is that what I was like, kind of thing. And wow, it feel that is I learned from my mistakes and how I didn't make it and not having to play the way I play it, obviously, I played a different role that is for everyone. And I got to watch a lot of hockey, and I watched very intently so you know, whether it's types of practices or character in the room, or, or guys, that panned out, or guys that did enter coaches that got their message across and coaches that could enter, whatever I mean, I pay very close attention to all that. And then I'm like, I'm gonna take everything, and I'm gonna apply it to that. Right? I'm gonna apply it to when I start coaching, and when I do this, I applied it to I applied it to everything I do now with, whether I'm coaching or what I'm doing, right. And that's how I relay everything from them to there. Now, as far as fire goes, I want kids to succeed, the better people do. I mean, the more money we make, financially, but that's not what it's all about. I want to succeed through you do. And I don't mean that, like, Oh, I did everything. I don't want praise, like I don't want, hey, you did this. I know, I'm part of that career. I know, I help them. I don't need to know anyone else to know it. I mean, it's good for business, and I promote guys and whatever, but I don't care. It's not my success. This is their journey. This is their story, and I'm glad to help them and be a part of it, but it's not mine. So, but that being said, You know what, we have taken that same, you know, if you had to do to buy business do right, like, you know, I'm gonna, people are probably like, oh, wow, what does you know, blah, blah, blah. Well, now, I mean, we have a player that just signed a three year deal worth six point or $8 million. And we have a whack load of guys that are signed in the America, the NHL that will get an opportunity. We have some high prospects. You have 20 to 30 major junior college pro guys in a town of 5000 and surrounding areas about a grand. So if you want to go per capita, we're an absolute goldmine as of right now.

Seth Anderson: 32:38

I mean, Carson soucy I think we can probably say his name like pretty, pretty regular, big time. NHL are at this point, like,

Unknown: 32:46

sky's the limit for that kid. I mean, he's got the size, the skill, the talent. Yeah, again, like I said, he's, he works hard. And he showed all of you. Like I said, I'm gonna go do I get a personal tech saying thank you. Yeah, maybe. What do I expect him to go and say, Yeah, well, where I train in the summer? And what I do is, is the reason no, but you know, is it probably part of the reason? Yeah, no, but he works off he's had a crazy journey. Do you know, he had a lot you know, he kind of you know, he got a full out degree while playing hockey at a high level. So right there shows you the the determination and everything that guy

Seth Anderson: 33:29

yeah. And I mean, you're a part of his extended network ultimately, like to get to that level, not only to get to that level, but to then stay at that level requires having a network of great people around you.

Unknown: 33:40

Yeah. I mean, some of the older guys have a little bit of a different relationship. You know, it's an open forum. It's like, six, what do you want to do sometimes is what the answers are in talks, what are we doing? Hey, you know, it's not like we're the young guys were, you know, back in the day, it was like those guys, but this is a little bit different. We've been around a lot. This COVID thing, we've been around each other more than ever. So there's a couple times where you need a couple of days away from each other. You know, you've got Mason Shah, you got Bobby McMahon right now, there's a bunch of kids around still and then they've got all our kids that just let the junior a, but in the summer, we literally have 20 to 30 guys that are all in in a high level of hockey, if not the highest. So I mean, it's an amazing thing we've created here and like guys like Seuss, you know, it's a massive benefactor to their success because they're able to come home in the summer to a town of 5000 have a world class training facility there's probably next to non like gets go on ice with the you know, I'm a level four Pro, I'm like three or four from the top. As far as instruction goes for crap. So I guess like, you know, he gets everything in one in a town of 5000. That's like unheard of. So and by having him around, you know, all these Junior kids and stuff. I mean, they get this skate with American League, you know, NHL guys. So they're, they're getting the benefactors of that. And it's just an endless cycle. And then we have some kids that are going into that level that skate with these guys. Oh, imagine a kid like Jagger Farkas, who gets to skate with Carson soucy and compete with them. And he actually does get paid. Right? And then he he's going to go to, you know, be a 16 year old this year in Moose Jaw or play midget like he is right now because of COVID. But just imagine where that puts him competing with NHL HL guys, and he's got to go to midget hockey. I mean, it doesn't, it's a very rare thing. Like in the city that ain't happening. It's crazy. You know, I really liked the town to embrace it a little bit more. I mean, we try to get the ice in here. We have to drive to Viking or wherever. I mean, one day, hopefully they figured out that way. You know, our program alone has 90 kids that are driving in and out of lane, right. So whether they're from you're just close to they're going to shop here, they're going to do other things. On a business side, I hope, I hope one day I can come together because then we would have an absolutely unbelievable setup.

Seth Anderson: 36:08

I was just kind of sorting through elite prospects and looking back on some of these teams and just the the volume of talent that's come out of that Wainwright herb area on the hockey side over the last 10 years is actually unbelievable. You know, you've got Susi Parker MCI, they both went to mini Duluth and won a national championship.

Unknown: 36:28

Yeah, you know, I'll tell you, like, Parker is an amazing kid. And he's a born leader. I mean, you're you're born with that. It's not something you develop chronically. It's, you know, we help guide them or whatever. But at the end of the day, that kid, he works his ass off, and you want to talk about a guy that, you know, didn't pout when he didn't play and all that crap and stuck with the process, and it paid off at the end. That's the guy. sad part is Yeah, definitely, you know, he had to go to Europe, it's a little bit of a tamer game there. There's life after hockey, and you don't want to be threatening that. But he's very being he's very successful over an Oscar right now, I hope he stays there too long, you could play there for 15 years due to make a pile of money and stuff. And the second he doesn't, I mean, he's got a lineup of people try now, because he's such a good person. And he has such a strong worth. And he's got a crazy hockey race. So nothing but good things to say I consider him one of our best human beings slash players to come on here.

Seth Anderson: 37:28

And maybe just pivoting a little bit, you know, we're kind of getting into the community aspect of things. And, and you're a very visible member of the community leading the junior team there. You know, I don't think a coincidence, since you've been involved in the organization over the last What is it six years now, five, six years, almost a 900 winning percentage in the regular season, I think about 864 championships, up to provincials, and a Western title really a lot of really great work. What has gone into that for you personally? And how would you describe your leadership style, because I mean, obviously, you know, the X's and O's, you've you're a journeyman of the game, you're a student of the game, you're constantly learning. But you know, making that real and bringing the leadership to the table, obviously, is a key part to making that all kind of come together. So how would you describe your leadership style and, and how you've broached that.

Unknown: 38:22

And that first year, you know, when I went in there, I had a very, very wrong perception of the people that were in the room. And once I got to see like, holy crap, these guys actually do want to win, they do want to do stuff, they just don't want to have the commitment on playing Junior a lot of them. Then at once I figured that out. It was great. But I'll tell you right now, any coach coaching any level should have to coach a junior v team, you get a psychology degree and a coaching to your own one, because you have to be able to deal with the kid that does not want to be there, or does not want to go to the next level. But can you have to deal with the guy that was at the next level that came down because he doesn't want that commitment. You have to deal with the kid that would die to be at the next level but doesn't have the talent and then you got to deal with the working man.

Seth Anderson: 39:13

But I would even add in there you got to deal with the kid who you know was a hot shot double A player that thinks that he's going to the dub or the NHL or something and doesn't want to play on the fourth line. I mean, you get you get all walks of life.

Unknown: 39:25

We get every walk of life. So to be honest, it's would be a massive building block when I move on and like obviously, my daughter doesn't graduate for a couple years. And the reason I do coach Junior V is because I are still coach theory is because it's ready to do and stay active and whatever, in coaching. But that's obviously not the end goal is not just because of me, but the amazing kids I've had, I've had the fortunate ability of having a lot of success and I don't really have anything to prove at this level anymore. And it's time for a new challenge at some point but we have we host provincials and Next year, so I'm definitely here for another two years, but I had a different perception of these kids. But once I actually learned, like, they're awesome kids, awesome human beings and, and it was then it was like, Hey, I gotta find a way to get everyone to tech here. And I think we did an amazing job that first year, ran into a hot goalie. But you know, every single thing and this is run or journey we've had is comes from a loss the year before. So we lost out in the final and I said, I'm going to take over this team, and I'm going to, we're going to, we're going to go to provincials, and win this thing, right? The next year. That's our goal is to get to provincials, we're going to win this league. And so I learned from my mistakes in the league final and that year, and we won the league for the first time in a long time. And I'll never forget that, that overtime goal. You know, in all my years of playing hockey, I still would say that's the first time I ever really won something that meant something that I put that much work into, during pro I lost in the final. And that was heartbreaking. I mean, with all that you put it in a pro season. And I finally felt like you know what, this wasn't pro or anything like that. But that was an amazing feeling. I'll never forget that. This year, we'll only lose a goalie and 2d as 20 ones, and we keep everyone and we host provincials next year. So I expect our team to be very good the next two years here. And looking forward to the challenge. There's great team over there. And there's a couple of great teams in our league. And there's some great teams in the province. So you know, obviously with COVID, I don't think anyone's hosting this year. But our goal is, you know, do the best we can this year and and then the next year, we're hosting and I don't think anyone's held up the championship trophy on home ice in lane right before at any level. So that that we our main focus,

JP Gaston: 41:56

and wondering what this cross section of players that you were talking about, and trying to teach different elements of the game, you know, you talked about the different types of players, their motivations, their attitudes. And that's something I think that you you face in any organization. And sports, especially, are a great example of where everyone needs to kind of come together at one time with all of their skills and work together to deliver. What do you do as a coach? I mean, it's got to be hard to run a practice or motivated group on the bench that has such a diverse skill level, different desire, different compete levels, or how hard they've worked to get to that moment. How do you inspire in a situation like that,

Unknown: 42:40

um, you know, put it this way, a ton of one on one meetings, phone calls, texts, sending videos, tons of communication, over and over and over again, repetition at our five or six things that we that we have to do perfect. You know, kind of just reading every situation different. So every single kid has his own his own vices and nod or whatever. And yeah, it's awesome to have the 10 or 12 kids that are no maintenance and they listen, and they're usually farm kids, the dads gave him spankings or whatever. But not every kid's like that you get the opinionated guys or whatever. I mean, at the end of the day, you have to find a way to motivate those guys make them feel like a part of it. And at the end of the day, none of these kids are going to do anything you cannot win everything you cannot be the last team standing in the province or in Western Canada. I need to know that those guys have to want to die for you die for each other die to win. And that's what you have to create and it takes a ton of communicating analysis all kinds of things I send a lot of clips to guys gay we talk constantly you know sometimes they'll watch McDavid do something on the wall and say hey, see how he turned the corner their speed that's why that lane opened up or whatever the heck it is. We are constantly communicating like that. And when we do practice we go hard to kids I train and in pap while most of mine rocky stuff is pretty like you get every walk of life, Matt but that's the expectations are a little bit different right there. But let's go to my elite side of things like my major Junior kids are my college broke kids or anything. Well, the difference is those kids are there. Their work ethics off the charts, their focus is on the Turks because that they want to be there. Right? Like they they embrace the grind, they embrace the thing and then or if they don't, our job is to try and get them to understand that that's how they're going to make it or whatever right where it would Junior me or something like that. Like oh This kid just worked 13 hours today, now you're trying to drag out every last bit of them just to get him to, you know, whatever, right? Tell these kids like we're out in the minus 30 working all day. So how much like your expectation of what they can give you it might be everything they have at the time, you know, working for a living and stuff like that, and they're still coming to the rink. I mean, once you've been around it for a while, you actually have a lot of respect for that. You know, I it's been it's been a great ride. It's been amazing. I've learned so much. And if I ever do anything successful in coaching whatsoever, or long I attribute a lot of my a lot of big building blocks and learning blocks to this level and coaching it.

Seth Anderson: 45:43

What what's next for you hawks with with Huxley hockey, conditioning and pep? What do you got on the horizon? Anything?

Unknown: 45:51

Well, obviously, we just try and keep cranking kids out trying to get kids to the next level. You know, keeping kids in shape keeping kids out of trouble, you know, not everyone's gonna make it right. You know, teaching kids healthy habits, teaching them how to be professional, teaching them work ethic. You know, one of the reasons why we're in business and have kids, you know, necessarily aren't going to play in the NHL are not going to do any of that. Or maybe they're not even playing lead hockey. There's no 500 game going down the street, you know, playing baseball or catch or playing street hockey or doing iPads and iPhones have ruined all that. So parents are like, wow, I gotta have my kid doing some other sitting here whenever. So if we can teach them that work ethic and teach them how to take care of themselves and be healthy and, and give them a good direction. I mean, that's just as important as getting a guided NHL to me.

Seth Anderson: 46:48

And you're still obviously on that train with Conor McLennan getting drafted this year. Very exciting for your program. Who who should people have their eyes on in the years to come? I know you mentioned Jagger Farkas. He's obviously with booth moosejaw. This year, oh,

Unknown: 47:03

man, we got I mean, a pick the level we got guys that are successful at that level. I mean, you have, I'm not gonna name names. You have a Bantam first year, that's rank one or two overall, that comes to our gym, he's gonna be a hell of a player. I mean, we got guys that will go this year in the Bantam draft guy, like he will go next year. You know, we don't have like 10 in each age group, but we have one or two every year, right. And we got some great kids. But you know, I've learned a lot about how to build these kids up, make them keep working. Like we don't just throw them in groups, we make them work for it and make them earn, earn being in those opportunities and whatever. Right. So, you know, I think we have a really good thing going I think we've kind of really figured out how to build these guys up and and that's how it is and yeah, I can't I can't sit here like the fight game. You know, with a boxer you don't just throw them in with the title, there's right away, right? You build up his resume and make him that undefeated guy so that when he does get paid, it's gonna be a big one. And that's kind of how we treat our gym. Right we make the kids work, you know, they start with their age group and work up and as the filter gets smaller and smaller, one or two of them will get through there and become those next upper echelon guys.

Seth Anderson: 48:20

Well, we really appreciate you making the time for us today hawks and wish you the best of luck going forward with both the bisons and H hc bars as he goes.

Unknown: 48:29

We'll just keep doing our thing over here. Pap, pap has absolutely exploded Joe and Nick, I don't even think they I have to book appointments to talk to them. Now. That's how busy they are. And I'm like one of the one of the guys have is is their original and most cutting edge thing you know, if I can tell any parent it's like get involved in pap get involved in rapid in the repetitions. That's how you get any better. It's it doesn't happen overnight. It's a repetition thing, and that's what paps all about muscle memory. I believe in the last last three years they've had over 50% of the first round or pap guys put it that way. Actually the first overall pick three years in a row is pap guy so the the proofs in the pudding on that and

Seth Anderson: 49:13

I think at the end of the day, a lot of imitators out there but real knows real and you know you guys are developing some great not just athletes, but great young men and really cool to see the work that you're doing. Thanks for having me. You guys were great. Awesome, thanks. Take care. This week on the podium. We've got a special guest, longtime listener. First time caller. Level two The Biz Dojo in I believe if that's the correct term at the minimum, I think you're a yellow belt. Is that is that the right? Is that right there? Yeah, yeah, I am. I

Derek Pfisterer: 50:00

yellow belt back in Lloyd, my days of Taekwondo.

Seth Anderson: 50:07

So Derek Pfister Welcome to the show, you're going to help us out today. keeping with the theme of the episode, we're gonna actually go through our top three hockey players from where we live or a town that we've lived in. So I think we've we're gonna see some interesting lists come up, I'm gonna lead us off. And for those of you who know me know that I've lived a few places actually just kind of went through the list, and there is 1-234-567-8910 11 different towns that I've lived in officially. And so I had kind of a tough time narrowing it down to which town, you know, Derek, you've kind of got Wainwright locked down. So I'm going to leave that particular area to you. And I'm going to go through my top three here. So I had a couple criteria, and JP will be shocked to hear that I came up with almost like a see Do you have a list? Well list and a bit of a scoring matrix, I'm not gonna lie.

JP Gaston: 51:09

You have an Excel spreadsheet with every player that's ever played in the proximity to your towns that you've lived in, right? You know,

Seth Anderson: 51:15

if I had more time, that would be a thing for sure, I would have like a weighted scoring to pick the right top three, but I didn't have time for that. But I have landed on four people in my top three. I just I couldn't narrow it down to three. So I'm going to go with four. I'm going to cheat a little bit. My tied for number three are two folks. So the one thing that all of my people have in common is they've all won Olympic or not Olympic. They've all won World Junior gold medals. So there you go. That's the common thread one of the common threads between all these players. So the first player on my list is Kyle chip chera. He was born in the same town as me westlock, Alberta. I'll be it. I didn't live there for very long, but we were born sort of within a month of each other same hospital, I presume. And I think he actually lived across the street from my grandma or his family does or something like that. So that was number three. He actually had a bit more of an NHL career than I thought he did. I remember him being a high draft pick. Good World Junior player drafted by your Canadians. JP Yeah. Although he only had three points and about 2025 games played there. But he did it sounds like a Canadian. Yeah, didn't didn't exactly pan out but he did have a over have like 300 NHL points or something or no over 100 NHL points in 300 penalty minutes. And he's playing in the NHL right now. And you know, not probably the NHL career you expect from when you have a first round draft pick, but you know, respectable. My other tied for number three is Rob Niedermeyer, who was born in cassiar BC, which is a defunct asbestos mining town in the far northern reaches of British Columbia that I lived in from like the age of two till about, I don't know, five or six. And I think he actually probably grew up in the Cranbrook area, but he's technically Born in cassiar. And then the other connection is he played for Calgary and his brother played for the candles blazers. So there's sort of like three connection points there which played well into my scoring matrix. Number Number Two on my list is Devin Dupnik. He was born in Calgary, he actually went to high school with Nate who was on a previous episode. Nate Harper, I believe they went to junior high together or something to that effect. And then he played for the Kamloops blazers, and he went to high school with my wife. So it was another connection point. And then he played for the Edmonton Oilers. I lived in Edmonton for a little while. And I mean, also to the podcast he played with, with hawks in Stockton, as well, so all kinds of connection points there with Mr. Dupnik

Derek Pfisterer: 53:59

I was gonna say, Devon, he came down to Wainwright for Huxley's camp a couple times. There you go. Another so there's another another way connection

Seth Anderson: 54:08

for you another Wainwright connection.

JP Gaston: 54:11

goalies work on their skating. That's probably what's missing from my game.

Seth Anderson: 54:16

And he's a goalie like you JP. So you know, all the all the connecting

JP Gaston: 54:21

that that was one of the columns in your matrix. Are they a goalie like JP I'll put an extra

Seth Anderson: 54:26

that's, that's how he bumped up to number two instead of awesome. And number one on my list, and this is actually because he was one of my favorite players growing up was Nolan Baumgartner, who is from Calgary born in Calgary, played for the Cavaliers blazers two time who champion two time under 20 World Junior Championship gold medalist first round draft pick of the Quebec Nordiques, and he little known actually no sorry he wasn't drafted by the Nordiques. He was drafted by the wall Washington Capitals, but he was actually part of the Eric lindros trade which has, I think been one of the more fascinating trades that I've my inspiration to ultimately becoming the GM of the Wainwright bisons. Derek I would say yes is the Eric lindros trade I have dissected that thing like a million times and now he coaches the Vancouver Canucks which is my favorite hockey team so that that was the or assistant coach under Travis green so that that was my list Kyle chip Chara Rob Mittermeier Devin, dude, Nick and Nolan Baumgartner. And I'm gonna pass it off and Derek, Derek Pfister, like I said off the top longtime listener. Derek and I know each other from our days with the Wainwright bisons, he was the captain of the team and here to walk us through his top three list which may or may not be exclusive to hockey players.

Derek Pfisterer: 55:52

Well, yeah, my na aren't hockey players. I had to go Wikipedia Wainwright hockey players just to get my list complete and I went to Notable people and Wainwright and Molly Norris won the 2008 Knights of Columbus free throw champion. So we're I knew it was slim pickins funding hockey players.

Seth Anderson: 56:14

Molly Norris, can you Congratulations. I thought you might just come in and talk about Ryan Ryan Pfister and his illustrious hockey slash football career.

Derek Pfisterer: 56:25

Yeah, no, brother. He's been the perma aces for the past probably 15 years now. So yeah, he might be on that list too. But no, so I kind of went on a different path because rather than going all hockey players, and then I kind of got too far away. I was thinking because Kevin Martin from LA he's not too far away. And he's married to a Wainwright girl. And then if I'm going that far, then the Sutter's they're really hockey players. They're all in Viking. And the nice part about those two guys is that are well, the whole Sutter family and Kevin Martin is they always came to my grandpa's golf tournament. So I ended up golfing with those guys just small town connections. That was always nice. And then I had a tough time going for my final three because I had a as a hockey player had Ross Perkins he's Wayne reg guy through and through he played in the Oilers from 66 to 75. He was one of the original Oilers and I believe he won the memorial cup when he was in his who days. But at least I got a hockey guy there. But my hop three I went Becky Scott is from vermillion and that's pretty close as it's gonna get. She was Olympic cross country skier. She won gold in 2002. And I believe she wants silver in 2006 waiting for the Olympics. That's as good as it gets for anybody and so she's local. Another person would be Blaine Peterson. He's from amis q&a area, which is just 20 minutes down the road. He's won the Calgary Stampede twice. Oh, sorry, I should say he's a steer wrestling champion, won the Calgary Stampede twice when the Canadian finals four times was the high points twice. And in 1994 he was the world's premier wrestling champion. They won worlds there so I was that's a big one. Then number one is a hockey player and Glen say they're grew up in Wainwright and I think most people know who that is. But he won five cups with the Oilers as a coach and he actually played for the Wainwright I think it was the commandos at the time. Maybe the wrestlers, but it's actually the current team I'm playing on right now. So I'm just five Stanley Cup short of catching up to them.

JP Gaston: 58:45

you're well on your way.

Derek Pfisterer: 58:46

Pretty much all the same fast. Yeah, same same fast. Yeah. But ya know, he grew up here and there's always some funny stories you hear about him and his pranks around Halloween time. So yeah, he's my number one.

JP Gaston: 59:00

Nice those are those are some really good pics. And I gotta say, like, for that area, I would definitely like it's not like you're going to tell someone who's flying in from out of town. Hey, you're going to Viking versus Hey, you're going to go to Wainwright and they're really gonna see a difference. It's the same area.

Derek Pfisterer: 59:20

I'm pretty sure you can see both places at the same

Seth Anderson: 59:23

time. And the funny part is that all the athletes come from a town in between those two called Irma, for those of you who don't know, we could probably have a whole probably like a top 20 List of athletes from Erma.

Derek Pfisterer: 59:34

Oh, yeah. Well, there's lots of up and comers. I mean, lots of up and comers. I have Carson suicides in the NHL right now. There's like Bobby McMahon guys like that, that are still playing in the AHL, like working their way to the NHL, so maybe this conversational change in five years?

Seth Anderson: 59:51

Definitely. You got Mason, Shawn Connor McLennan like there's a whole bunch of guys. So we have five years from now. Well, we'll have this conversation again when you're like a black belt. doujin

Derek Pfisterer: 1:00:02

worked my way to the top.

JP Gaston: 1:00:04

For mine, I actually followed a little bit of a similar path as in more regional, not specific to the area that I was, you know, living in or born in. But I did, I did keep to the Niagara region in southern Ontario because that's where I spent most of my life. I was born in Welland, I spend most of my life in St. catharines. So lots of lots of good options down there. And I did stick to the NHL, and I know that Seth may have informed Derek that it was athletes, and then proceeded to do all NHL players and I also did all NHL players. So there's, there's certainly some athletes that I could have selected, but I feel like these probably get up there in the list anyways. So I'm going to start kind of further out and work my way towards where I was born. So Grimsby, Ontario, and all of these guys were actually born in the 80s. So there's the the 80s connection to so Grimsby, Ontario, just outside of a number of places that I lived between St. catharines. And Niagara on the lake, and I moved up to Toronto for a while so it's kind of in the middle there. It is part of the Niagara region, Kevin B. Exa. Probably one of my favorite sports ness analysts and he's been there a half a weird season.

Seth Anderson: 1:01:23

He's his best in class,

Derek Pfisterer: 1:01:25

like, Yeah,

Seth Anderson: 1:01:27

that's a good one. And he was a great Vancouver Canucks.

JP Gaston: 1:01:30

I gotta say one of my favorites. I mean, it's unfortunately that he was on Vancouver, but a great hockey player who happened to to land on Vancouver for sure. Number two for me. Some folks may recognize this name, some may not. But he was he was born and I believe still lives in. Or at least frequence St. catharines, which is where I spent the majority of my life growing up. Brian bellows.

Seth Anderson: 1:01:54

Oh, no story. You're just jumping right past the Old North Stars. Those were like the best best jerseys around back in the day.

JP Gaston: 1:02:01

Yeah. Well, and he played on my hubs too. Right. Well, I mean, he played on a number of teams. He jumped around a little bit, but mostly North Stars and hab. So and he was a second overall pick. So that's pretty solid, too.

Seth Anderson: 1:02:14

And I think he also won a World Junior gold medal. Just keeping with the trend there.

JP Gaston: 1:02:19

I'm pretty sure that my brother has talked about him a number of times to just like randomly seeing him over the years at different places around the city. So

Seth Anderson: 1:02:27

Oh, that's disappointing. I was just looking and Kevin. Kevin bx only won a silver medal,

JP Gaston: 1:02:33

though. That's, that's disappointing. Well, you'll you'll have to call and tell him all about your gold medal.

Seth Anderson: 1:02:45

Anyway, I know you're excited about your life.

JP Gaston: 1:02:47

I am very excited about my last pick. He was born in the same town I was born in a few years later. So I got things ready for him, I guess I don't know. And maybe one of the greatest commentators on hockey of all time. He is a journeyman hockey player. We've talked about the journeyman Semi Pro i would i would put him in the journeymen category as well. He's flipped up and down a little bit but spent a fair bit of time in the NHL and is just so fun to watch on Twitter is Paul Bissonnette is nasty.

Seth Anderson: 1:03:24

It's a good one. That's a good one. And he definitely didn't do this just so you could hashtag him in the in the in the

JP Gaston: 1:03:32

well no like I'm I'm sure I mean, his first Twitter account was turned off and he had to create Ms. Nasty to Dotto, right so I'm not sure how long even if we hashtag stay up.

Seth Anderson: 1:03:47

No, I like it, though. You ended up with a couple of really, I mean, former players who turned into great commentators and he also won a gold medal so

JP Gaston: 1:03:57

well, and I feel like as I was going through the list, I felt like man, the Niagara region could put together a pretty solid alumni game just from the players who have kind of grown up there or were born there.

Seth Anderson: 1:04:11

Yeah, no 100% not so much in Wainwright although it you know there would be a great young team battle that's for sure. Although some of some of those older guys Derek I don't know like the old bisons like your dad and stuff. I'm sure there was some real talented players that maybe just never got a chance or you know, it was a different time back then.

Derek Pfisterer: 1:04:28

Yeah, I remember dad saying like, Oh, I know Lenny Mark played some good hockey or he's from reason or another Arma guy. He played in the W HL for Kamloops and I believe he went over to Prince Albert and he put up 100 points in the dub and played a few games in the NHL too and I think some of the guys went from junior B right up to like the Oilers camp like it wasn't the footstep to get to it now just a small little jump in Yeah, guys just never left the farm kind of thing.

Seth Anderson: 1:04:59

Yeah, and I mean Even more recently a chance braid. He had a pretty good w HL career plan with Drs. idol and both that he played both in pa he went to Kelowna with him as well, didn't he?

Derek Pfisterer: 1:05:09

Yeah, he did. It sounded like almost he was part of the package. Yeah, he was on that meme cup run right at the end there with them.

Seth Anderson: 1:05:18

Right, right. Yeah. So I mean, lots of great, great hockey players have come out of that area, too. Notwithstanding Derek Pfister, himself, the reporter in the field. Well, thanks for thanks a lot for hopping on. Derek. I know we have another topic that you're passionate about. We're gonna have you back for us to do the top three captains. And we'll we'll all get aligned to make sure we do the same thing.

JP Gaston: 1:05:39

I'm gonna go with Kirk eyeliner. And

Seth Anderson: 1:05:47

All right, thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me.