Commentary: Heart & Soul

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It’s Tuesday and that means it’s time for another edition of the Good, the Great & the Ugly!

First the good: What a trip! We celebrated Canada Day with the Moose Jaw Miller Express honouring Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer – and Moose Jaw legend – Rod Heisler throwing out the first pitch at Ross Wells Park.

Then the Millers went out and beat the visiting Edmonton Prospects 6-2 in a rain-shortened affair; the Millers’ third-straight victory which marked the official end of the first half of the season.
It’s been so much fun!

Next the great: There’s no other way to describe it than “great”, that NHL teams handed out over $1-billion in contracts on Day 1 of free agency on Monday.

Now that I’ve seen it from the inside through our work with the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, it’s really not that insane at all.

Players, coaches and some staff are simply hired guns these days. 24 hours after the Stanley Cup Parade, the Panthers were saying good-bye to key players like Brandon Montour, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Ryan Lomberg who signed for millions elsewhere.

Hey – you do your best wherever you are, make some great friends and memories along the way, then it’s onto the next job hopefully for more money.

Lack of loyalty? Meh. That’s not even talked about. This just takes the power away from the employer.

This is the new frontier.

And lastly, the ugly: No one’s feelings are hurt around the NHL EXCEPT in Tampa Bay where franchise face Steven Stamkos got rudely shown the door by new-(ish) General Manager Julien Brisebois.

After four Stanley Cup appearances, two titles and re-writing the record book, Stamkos was offered an over-50% paycut but said no thanks.

Now he’s a Nashville Predator making his $8-million per year, but it’s going to take awhile for him and Bolts fans to get over their broken hearts.

However it’s nothing more than the latest story of a franchise great having a bitter end to their story.

Methinks Monsieur Brisebois is going to find one thing out in short order:

When you get rid of your heart and soul … you get rid of your heart and soul.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm & 5 pm ET on Game+TV, WQEE Radio, Podcast & YouTube Live)