Bruce Dowbiggin
Taking Ownership In The NHL Can Be A Thankless Task
If ever there were a sign of the world turned upside down it would have to be the bidding war currently driving the value of the Ottawa Senators over a billion dollars.
Granted there is an arena involved, but the concept of the market in the Nation’s Capital being worth that much is stunning. A city of 935,000 with little or no industry besides IT and government lucre, no media impact and lying two hours away from the Montreal Canadiens heartland seems to defy economic reality.
But we are reading about Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds, rapper The Weeknd and Snoop Dog heading groups said to be interested in the team. (Reynolds’ recent success in buying English football club Wrexham and seeing it promoted to the next division has been the Ted Lasso story in real life.) Other prominent names are being mentioned daily.
On the surface this is good news for all seven Canadian NHL franchises, although the Maple Leafs, Canadiens and Canucks are well capitalized already. For owners of the other teams in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg, however, the notion that their owners could cash out and make substantial profits is tempting. Would they do it if they couldn’t see a championship in their lifetimes?
Contrary to what the public believes, owning an NHL franchise is not a barrel of laughs, hanging out with your hockey heroes and hobnobbing with Gary Bettman at the owners’ meetings. As the expression goes, success has a million fathers but losing is an orphan. So fans should not presume that Canadian NHL owners faced with fans’ scorn and media sarcasm might not look at the billion-dollar Senators deal as a good time to make for the door. Especially those owners who long ago lost the lustre of fandom.
Being a Canadian owner is a worse torture. In my 2014 book Ice Storm we recorded the advice Francesco Aquilini received from a friend with experience of the media when the Aquilini family dove into ownership of the Vancouver Canucks.
To paraphrase, the advice went something like, ‘If you don’t like having your name slurred, your judgment questioned and your intelligence doubted by people in grocery stores, don’t do it’. Alas Aquilini went ahead and bought the Canucks. After almost reaching the Stanley Cup in 2011, it has been a long ride to the bottom for the team.
When things go poorly, owners are never sure who to trust at that point. League sources all have agendas and don’t want to you to improve. Media just want a hot story about despair and disillusionment. So invariably they turn to the community, more specifically some former team hero for advice. In Aqulini’s case it was Vancouver legend Trevor Linden who helped convince the Canucks owner to abandon the established plan developed by president/ GM Mike Gillis and adopt one from a player with experience in the optical and fitness world.
It went as well as you might expect. Monday, the Canucks learned that, despite a truly brutal season, they will not be in line at the draft lottery for Connor Bedard. This is not to pick on the Canucks. Many teams are experiencing the syndrome. If Toronto is swept by Florida MLSE ownership is likely to go looking for a new plan, jettisoning the Kyle Dubas/ Sheldon Keefe regime.
Certainly some of their players may make for the door, heading to warmer climes in tax-free states where no one recognizes them outside the rink. For instance, what happens to pending UFA Auston Matthews if Toronto face-plants this round? Will he stay in Toronto or head closer to his U.S. roots in a tax-free state? As we wrote last month the Calgary Flames saw that happen in the case of UFA Johnny Gaudreau and coming UFA Matthew Tkachuk..
“As the July 1 free-agent deadline approached, Gaudreau announced that, despite an enormous eight-year $80M contract offer from the Flames, he would test free agency. The star winger claimed he wanted to go home so his wife could have their baby in the USA. As such it was believed his preferred venues were Philadelphia or New Jersey or even the New York Islanders.
Calgary hoped against hope for a reversal of that decision, but Flames fans quietly fans resigned themselves that he wanted to be nearer to family. To their shock and surprise Gaudreau would only travel as far as Columbus, Ohio, to find a new home, taking $15M less than Calgary’s offer to play on the Blue Jackets, a team with few real hopes of playoff contention.
Things were about to get worse for the Flames. Gaudreau’s linemate Matthew Tkachuk told Treliving on July 20, 2022, that he would not sign longterm in Calgary after his contractual options were done in 2023. To buy time to create a deal for Tkachuk the Flames announced they were taking him to salary arbitration.
It went for naught. Tkachuk phoned GM Treliving and told him he wanted out. “Matthew did not have an appetite and would not sign with the Calgary Flames long term,” Treliving said. “He outlined the reasons for this. … Ultimately (he) made the decision and informed us that being a Calgary Flame long term was not in his plans.” There were real concerns that the hole left in the Flames’ roster by the defections could be irreparable.”
Irreparable they were, despite a blockbuster trade for Jonathan Huberdeau and signing UFA Nazim Kadri. Huberdeau’s production collapsed, Kadri seemed lost, coach Darryl Sutter and GM Brad Treliving were fired and Tkachuk is now leading the Florida Panthers to a shock sweep of the Leafs in the second round off the playoffs.
How that shakes out in Calgary is up in the air. But if the Flames’ aging ownership group gets an offer from The Weeknd it can’t refuse, don’t be surprised if the club winds up under new ownership. And that ownership eventually ends up somewhere else.
Sign up today for Not The Public Broadcaster newsletters. Hot takes/ cool slants on sports and current affairs. Have the latest columns delivered to your mail box. Tell your friends to join, too. Always provocative, always independent. https://share.hsforms.com/16edbhhC3TTKg6jAaRyP7rActsj5
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx
Bruce Dowbiggin
The Pathetic, Predictable Demise of Echo Journalism
It can be safely said that the 2024 U.S. presidential election couldn’t have gone much worse for legacy media in that country. Their biases, conceits and outright falsehoods throughout the arduous years-long slog toward Nov. 5 were exposed that night. Resulting in the simultaneous disaster (for them) of Donald Trump winning a thunderous re-election and their predictive polling being shown to be Democratic propaganda.
Only a handful of non-establishment pollsters (Rasmussen, AtlasIntel) got Trump’s electoral college and overall vote correct. Example: One poll by Ann Selzer in Iowa—a highly-rated pollster with a supposedly strong record—showed a huge swing towards Harris in the final week of the election race, putting her three points up over Trump. He ended up winning Iowa by 13.2 points (Selzer now says she’s retiring.)
Throughout, these experts seemed incapable of finding half the voter pool. By putting their thumb on the scale during debates, the representatives of the so-called Tiffany networks and newspapers signalled abdication of their professional code. Their reliance on scandal-sheet stories was particularly glaring.
Just a few lowlights: “the brouhaha over a shock comedian at a Trump rally calling Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage”. Unhinged outgoing POTUS Biden then called GOP voters “garbage”. So Trump made an appearance as a garbage man, to the snarky disapproval of CBS News chief anchor Nora O’Donnell.
Then there was Whoopi Goldberg on The View predicting Trump will “break up interracial marriages and redistribute the white spouses: “He’s going to deport and you, put the white guy with someone else… The man is out there!” Media ran with this one, too.
Worse, disinformation and lying reached such a proportion that Team Trump turned its campaign away from the networks and legacy papers down the stretch, creating a new information pathway of podcasts and social media sites (such as Joe Rogan, Theo Von and Adin Ross) that promise to be the preferred route for future candidates looking for non-traditional voters. A few prominent media owners sought to save themselves by refusing to endorse a presidential candidate, but the resulting tantrum by their Kamala-loving staff negated the effort.
In the past, poor performances by the Media Party might be dismissed or ignored. But the cataclysmic ratings drops for CNN and MSNBC paired with collapse in sales for blue-blood rags such as the New York Times, Washington Post and L.A. Times spoke to the public’s disgust with people they’ve always trusted to play it straight.
(Now Comcast has announced it’s spinning off MSNBC and its news bundle to save their profitable businesses. Staff members in these places are now panicking. As such the new administration promises to be indifferent to the former media powers-that-be as Trump mounts radical plans to recast the U.S. government. )
As noted here the disgraceful exercise in journalism was cheered on by their compatriots here in Canada. “In the hermetically sealed media world of Canada, natives take their cues from CNN and MSNBC talking points both of which employ Canadians in highly visible roles. (Here’s expat Ali Velshi famously describing on NBC that the 2020 George Floyd riots that burned for weeks— destroying billions in damages while resulting in multipole deaths— as “generally peaceful”.)
The narratives of Russiagate, drinking bleach, “fine people” to Hunter Biden’s laptop— long ago debunked down south— are still approved wisdom in Canada’s chattering class. Especially if America’s conflagration election can be used to demonstrate the good sense and judgment of Canada’s managerial and media class.
The clincher for star-struck Canadians was the overwhelming Kamala love from the Hollywood crowd. Virtually every high-profile actor/ singer/ writer embraced the woman who was parachuted into the nomination in a coup— even as the same glitterati raved about anti-democratic Trump. From Beyoncé to Bilie Eilish to Bruce Springsteen, their support was been a winner in Canada’s fangirl/ fanboy culture.”
Talk about backing a loser. Which leaves us asking what to expect from formerly respected media in the upcoming (it will come, won’t it?) defenestration of Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh, probably in spring of 2025. One Toronto Star piece might provide a clue to the bunkered approach of Canada’s globalists. “Europe is leaving Donald Trump’s America behind. Should Canada do the same? As American democracy dives into darkness, Canada is facing difficult choices.”
CPC leader Pierre Poilievre has made it abundantly clear his thoughts on the bias of media. To save billions, he is making a major overhaul— even closure of CBC (not Radio Canada)— as a campaign pledge. He’s also said he will remove the slush fund now propping up failed establishment news organizations that employ unionized workers bent of crushing the Conservatives.
His scorn is obvious after watching media’s reverential treatment of Trudeau’s fake “murdered” Rez children stunt or the silence accompanying PMJT’s sacking of his indigenous Justice minister Jodie Wilson Raybould. Lately, a deadpan Poilievre humiliated a callow CBC reporter quoting “experts” by asking her “what experts?” Her unpreparedness leaves her floundering as Poilievre calls her question another “CBC smear job”.
Perhaps the classic Poilievre humbling of a reporter occurred in 2023 in a Kelowna apple orchard when a reporter seeking to score points with his Woke colleagues saw the bushwhack rebound on him. After numerous failed attempts at belling the cat, the local reporter played his ace card.
Question: Why should Canadians trust you with their vote, given … y’know … not, not just the sort of ideological inclination in terms of taking the page out of Donald Trump’s book, but, also —
Poilievre: (incredulous) What are you talking about? What page? What page? Can you gimme a page? Gimme the page. You keep saying that … “
No page was produced and the cringeworthy interview collapsed.
Needless to say, the reporter was absolved by his water-carrying colleagues. Here was Shannon Proudfoot of the Toronto Star: “Kicking a journalist in the shins over and over then turning the exchange into a social-media flex is telling on yourself…” Venerable CBC panelist/ Star columnist Chantal Hébert echoed the pauvre p’tit take. “Agreed”.
For these press box placeholders it’s all too reminiscent of the acid-drenched style of former PM Stephen Harper, a stance that turned them to Trudeau cheerleaders in 2015. Which is to say we shouldn’t have high hopes for balance when the writ is finally dropped.
Poilievre has several more ministers (Melissa Lantsman, Garrett Genuis) skilled in exposing media imbalance, so we can expect full-blown pushback from the paid-for media from the usual suspects when Trudeau finally succumbs to reality. One drawback for the Conservatives could be the absence of national podcasters such as Rogan or Von to which they can pivot.
But make no mistake, However much Canada’s press corps denies it, the public has turned away from Mr Blackface and the politics of privilege. They’d best anticipate a rough ride ahead.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
Bruce Dowbiggin
CHL Vs NCAA: Finally Some Sanity For Hockey Families
In forty-years-plus of covering sports you develop hobby horses. Issues that re-appear continuously over time. In our case, one of those issues has been pro hockey’s development model and the NCAA’s draconian rules for its participants. Which was better, and why couldn’t the sides reach a more reasonable model?
In the case of hockey the NCAA’s ban on any player who played a single game in the Canadian Hockey League created a harsh dilemma for hockey prodigies in Canada and the U.S. Throw your lot in with the CHL, hoping to be drafted by the NHL, or play in a secondary league like the USHL till you were eligible for the NCAA. Prospects in the CHL’s three leagues — the OHL, QMJHL and WHL —were classified as professional by the NCAA because they get $600 a month for living expenses, losing Division I eligibility after 48 hours of training camp. The stipend isn’t considered income for personal tax purposes.”
Over the decades we’ve spoken with many parents and players trying to parse this equation. It was a heartbreaking scene when they gambled on a CHL career that gave them no life skills or education. Or the promised NCAA golden goose never appeared after playing in a lower league for prime development years.
There were tradeoffs. NCAA teams played fewer games, CHL teams played a pro-like schedule. The NCAA awarded scholarships (which could be withdrawn) while the CHL created scholarships for after a career in the league (rules that players getting NHL contracts lost those scholarships has been withdrawn). There were more contrasts.
As we wrote here in 2021, it might have stayed this way but for a tsunami created by the antitrust issue of Name Image Likeness for NCAA players who were not paid for the use of their NIL. When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the issue in 2015 it warned the NCAA that its shamateurism scheme had to change. That created revolution in the NCAA. Athletes now receive healthy compensation for their image in video and digital products. They can also take million-dollar compensation from sponsors and boosters.
Portals allow them to skip from team to team to find millions in compensation. One of the many changes in the new NCAA was its prohibition against CHL players. To forestall future lawsuits costing millions, it recently made hockey players eligible for the same revenues as football and basketball players. Now the NCAA has voted to open up college hockey eligibility to CHL players effective Aug. 1, 2025, paving the way for major junior players to participate in the 2025-26 men’s college hockey season.
Which, we wrote in 2022, would leave hockey’s development model vulnerable. “As one insider told us, “The CHL model should be disrupted. Archaic and abusive.” NIL won’t kill the CHL but it could strip away a significant portion of its older stars who choose guaranteed money over long bus rides and billeting with other players. It’s early days, of course, but be prepared for an NHL No. 1 draft pick being a millionaire before his name is even called in the draft.”
As we wrote in May of 2022 “A Connor McDavid could sign an NIL styled contract at 16 years old, play in the NCAA and— rich already— still be drafted No. 1 overall. Yes, college hockey has a lower profile and fewer opportunities for endorsements. Some will want the CHL’s experience. But a McDavid-type player would be a prize catch for an equipment company or a video game manufacturer. Or even as an influencer. All things currently not allowed in the CHL.”
Effectively the CHL will get all or most of the top prospects at ages 16-19. After that age prospects drafted or undrafted can migrate to the NCAA model. Whether they can sign NHL contracts upon drafting and still play in the NCAA is unclear at this moment. (“On the positive side, we will get all the top young players coming to the CHL because we’re the best development option at that age,” one WHL general manager told The Athleltic’s Scott Wheeler.
One OHL GM told the Athletic “As the trend increases with American players looking for guarantees to sign, does a CHL player turn down an opportunity to sign at the end of their 19-year-old year with the hopes that a year at 20 in NCAA as a free agent gives them a better route to the NHL?”
The permutations are endless at the moment. But, at least, players and their families have a choice between hockey and education that was forbidden in the past. Plus, they can make money via NIL to allow them to stay for an extra year of development or education. The CHL will take a hit, but most young Canadian players will still see it as the logical launching pad to the NHL.
Now, for once, families can come first on the cold, nasty climb to the top hockey’s greasy pole.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
-
conflict1 day ago
US and UK authorize missile strikes into Russia, but are we really in danger of World War III?
-
Business2 days ago
Carbon tax bureaucracy costs taxpayers $800 million
-
Alberta1 day ago
Province considering new Red Deer River reservoir east of Red Deer
-
Alberta1 day ago
Early Success: 33 Nurse Practitioners already working independently across Alberta
-
Brownstone Institute2 days ago
The Most Devastating Report So Far
-
armed forces20 hours ago
Judge dismisses Canadian military personnel’s lawsuit against COVID shot mandate
-
International19 hours ago
Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy Outline Sweeping Plan to Cut Federal Regulations And Staffing
-
John Stossel1 day ago
Green Energy Needs Minerals, Yet America Blocks New Mines