Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – STARK CONTRASTS ON THE FAN EXPERIENCE – TSN did a great job on Saturday promoting the fact that the Riders have great fans and despite there being no game on Friday night, I guess everyone still had a marvelous time drinking beer and eating hamburgers and nobody was upset.  Most of those who went were still there at 10:30 pm when they finally decided to postpone until Saturday.  Go to social media, and you get a much different perspective from people who were upset at the lack of communication and the obvious double standard that exists where it’s okay for some people to do physical activity in the supposed smoky weather but not okay for others.  The Riders did the right thing by offering merchandise vouchers and credits to ticket holders in their accounts but they still came out of this okay.  I can only imagine the limited concessions that were available on Saturday still did very well and people likely had to pay for parking again so it is a bit of a bonus game nevertheless.  Financially, this shouldn’t be a hit on the organization at all.  Also, I just want to say it’s not the fault of the Riders if people got liquored up and acted like jackasses while they waited for the game to be postponed. If you are an adult and can’t control your booze, that’s on you and nobody else.

3 – CFL SHOWING THE KIND OF FAN IT WANTS – No matter how Mickey Mouse the CFL can be, there is a significant number of Rider fans who will always support through thick and thin.  But, there isn’t an incentive in the world that you could give me to get me to purchase a ticket to a Roughrider game in advance after what transpired on Friday night as it’s now evident they will cancel a game whenever they want for whatever reason they want.  As I’m typing this article, I’m watching Hamilton and Ottawa play in weather that is 39-degrees.  We have an actual historical track record of football players collapsing and dying from heat stroke (Kori Stringer) but this isn’t about health and safety.  This is about pushing a narrative and the CFL has been front and centre through most of it whether it be denigrating old white male fans, pushing vaccine passes before the government brought them in, getting behind MeToo, taking part in cancel culture (Garrett Marino), and now postponing a football game over air quality that an ‘expert’ deems to be dangerous.  Remember what happened the last time we were told to trust the experts?  The CFL should just scream from the rooftops that it wants left wing fans and anyone who isn’t as such can take a walk.  Judging by how we vote in this country, it may actually be a winning strategy.

4 – JUNIOR HOCKEY UPHEAVAL – With the BCHL breaking free from Hockey Canada in 2023, the Junior A hockey world has been volatile to say the least ever since.  Things took another change this past season when the NCAA announced it would accept major junior players into their programs and now with word that there will be NIL money available to players, major junior is getting kicked in the groin as it will surely lure top end players away to more lucrative surroundings.  Gavin McKenna is the most prolific so far as he’s bailing on the Medicine Hat Tigers to join Penn State and $700,000 in NIL, which is close to what he’d be making as an NHL rookie and he hasn’t even been drafted yet.  Another announcement that came, somewhat quietly this week, is that the NHL is going to allow AHL teams to roster one 19-year-old on the roster and that is going to further suck away the elite talent of major junior programs.  If that rule was in effect this past season, it’s very likely that Brayden Yager, Tanner Molendyk, and Andrew Cristall would have all been playing pro.  I’ve talked about how the expansion of NFL practice rosters has caused a talent drain in the CFL, well you haven’t seen anything yet when it comes to the trickle down effect of junior hockey and players leaving for the AHL and NCAA.

5 – MORE ON JUNIOR HOCKEY – There isn’t a whole lot that can be done to stop what’s becoming a wild scene amongst junior hockey players but the NHL could enact a rule whereby they deem NCAA players ineligible until they complete all four years of schooling.  That would give some pause to players like McKenna, who would not get to make his debut until age 22 after he secures a degree.  Of course, this also hurts the NHL because they want to get their paws on players as soon as possible but if they cared about the grassroots and the history of the CHL, they’d figure something out to protect their traditional development stomping grounds but I won’t hold my breath.  What’s more likely to happen is that junior programs in Canada are also going to have to start to pay and that’s going to mean fewer teams because let’s face it–Swift Current and Prince Albert aren’t paying guys $250,000 a year.  I don’t know that it’s crazy to think we could see an elite junior league that features the likes of Saskatoon, maybe Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, and so on.  There would then be a Junior A+ league that has Brandon, Swift Current, Moose Jaw, and Prince Albert amongst others; followed by what is currently known as Junior A (SJHL) and then Junior B (PJHL).  

6 – VENNE JOINS HUSKIES – The Sherwood Park Crusaders announced goaltender James Venne has agreed to join the Saskatchewan Huskies for the upcoming season and this is a classic case of a team taking credit for a player promotion that really is no doing of their own.  Venne is from Saskatoon, so he’s likely no stranger to the evaluators at U of S anyway but Venne also won an SJHL championship as the number one goalie with Melfort in 2024 and my guess is that his spectacular season as a 19-year-old with the Mustangs is what really put him on their radar.  Venne posted a 2.62-GAA and .912-SPCT with Melfort and then noticed a decline this past season with the Crusaders recording 3.63 and .890 numbers.  It’s easy to look at hindsight but with Melfort winning the SJHL title again this past season, had Venne been their netminder, I wonder about what other possible post secondary opportunities may have presented themselves.

7 – DISLIKE THE DRAFT – It’s a radical way of thinking and this would never be adopted but let’s just do away with the NHL Draft.  I’ve never been in favor of a draft system that rewards bad franchises.  To stick Connor Bedard on a dead end franchise like Chicago is not fair.  Bedard should be allowed to sign wherever he wants and before you start crying over a select few teams getting all the players, I remind you that there is a salary cap in place and, therefore, Florida won’t get them all despite their friendly state tax situation.  Winnipeg was able to re-sign Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck, in part, because there simply isn’t enough money around the league to allow the top guys to all join the same 4-5 teams all the time.  This would force competitiveness amongst teams in the league instead of nonsensical 5-year rebuilds where teams tank and seldom win a championship anyway when they decide they are done sucking.  Take San Jose, for example.  They’ve been horrible for six years and while Mike Grier has bought himself a lot of time to be at the helm and not worry about getting fired because he’s preaching ‘rebuild’, the fact of the matter is that they’ve produced just 1 regular NHLer from the 2022 and 2023 NHL draft years combined.  Why should Macklin Celebrini or Bedard be subjected to this fraud?  Poor Jack Eichel had the same thing.  He needed to come across like a jerk and force his way out of a dumpster fire (Buffalo) in order to be on a team that has a good chance of winning on a regular basis.

8 – PAUL DONATES – He may not be the most popular sports figure, but Jake Paul deserves kudos for stepping up and donating $500,000 towards the double lung transplant received by former rival Ben Askren earlier this month.  Askren’s insurance company wouldn’t cover the procedure, which was believed to cost $2-million but Askren’s wife announced on social media that a donor had stepped up to pay.  Paul also helped alleviate the costs with his generous gift as well.  Paul and Askren fought in a crossover boxing match in 2021 and Paul knocked him out in the first round.  It was a fight in which Dana White claimed he’d bet $1-million on Askren winning but no word on whether or not he followed through on making the wager.

9 – UFC FIGHT NIGHT – Heavyweight Derrick Lewis won UFC Fight Night main event last night with a 30-second knockout of the heavily hyped Tallison Teixeira.  Teixeira had an overall record of 8-and-0 and 1-and-0 in the UFC and Lewis stated he was insulted that Teixeira had risen to main event status so quickly and that Lewis was actually the underdog.  Now, there’s talk the 40-year-old Lewis, who is a knockout specialist, could get champion Tom Aspinall as his next fight.  My takeaways from the night include 42-year-old Stephen Wonder Boy Thompson going the distance against the up and coming Gabriel Bonfim in the welterweight division.  Bonfim won a split decision but it really could have gone either way.  Why a 42-year-old man would want to stand in there and take that kind of punishment is beyond me but to each their own.  Featherweight Steve Garcia may be a name to watch in a division that could be wide open depending on what you think of Alexander Volkanovski.

10 – CEBL PLAYER RETENTION – For the last several years I have been a promoter of the CEBL.  The talent level is, vastly, underrated and a few players have made it to the NBA–including Elijah Harkless who played for Saskatchewan at the start of last season.  But, this league has a talent retention problem and I can’t take it seriously until it rectifies this very serious issue.  At the start of the year, Vancouver looked unbeatable but impact players like Tyrese Samuel, Kyle Mangas and Izaiah Brockington are all gone and the roster doesn’t resemble the start of the season at all.  Winnipeg is hosting the year-end playoff tournament but Tevian Jones just left for a better opportunity and Jaylin Williams and Terry Roberts also jetted out to try the NBA G League.  Thankfully, they’ve still got Jalen Harris and Simi Shittu.  Rattler Jordan Bowden scored 40 points last Saturday night to lead the team to a win, but he was nowhere to be seen on Friday as the Rattlers got bounced 94-70 by the Sea Bears in a hapless effort with a roster that, simply, isn’t good enough to compete with other teams in the league.  I don’t know what the players make in the CEBL, but the first step towards keeping them in the league would be to pay them enough that it isn’t worth it to go somewhere else and quit admitting you are an inferior league when it comes to other pro ‘opportunities’.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)