Scruffy’s This N That

1 – TRADE DEADLINE: The contenders made their final moves and now the push to the playoffs begins in the NHL. Brad Marchand to Florida? The Leafs giving up a first round pick and Fraser Minten for Brandon Carlo? The Blues couldn’t find a buyer for Brayden Schenn and the Canucks couldn’t find one for Brock Boeser? As it always is, trade deadline day in the NHL and the days before it have been crazy. 

At the end of the day, the Panthers showed they are more than ready to defend their Stanley Cup championship and that the Hurricanes have egg on their face after trading Mikko Rantanen to Dallas.  Is the trade that sent Rantanen to Carolina going to go down as one of the worst trades we have seen over the past 20 years? Did Peter Chiarelli have anything to do with what went down? 

How Carolina could acquire Rantanen for Martin Necas and picks and not be able to sign him to a contract extension thus sending him to Dallas is one that the hockey world will talk about for a while. Is Carolina really better after what went down on Friday? No way! Nothing against Logan Stankoven, who is a very good player, but he is no Martin Necas and the first-round draft picks are a nothing right now. It is an epic fail for GM Eric Tulsky who tried to put a positive spin on it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tulsky is out of a job if the Hurricanes don’t make a long playoff run and I don’t think they do.

2 – HAPPY ANNIVERSARY:  Did anyone bring a cake to Mosaic Stadium to celebrate Craig Reynolds’ 10th anniversary as the President and CEO of your Saskatchewan Roughriders on March 1? Reynolds has many detractors but is the negative talk thrown his way deserved? In some cases, yes and in some cases no. He certainly is no Jim Hopson, but then again who is? That isn’t a shot at Craig either. 

As I have said many times, I have no problems with Reynolds. In fact, I think Craig probably has more of a problem with me than I have with him — at least that is what I’ve been told. Any interaction I have had with him has been professional and courteous on both sides. If I ever needed an answer on something, he would most times let me know what that answer was. 

Have the Riders won a Grey Cup under Craig’s watch or been to the big game? No, they have not and that is a burr under the saddle of many in Rider Nation. You don’t think it is a burr under his? He hasn’t been perfect and there is no picture of him holding the Grey Cup but to me he gets a passing grade. I am sure a few of you will disagree which is fine. What grade are you giving him?

3 – RANKING THE STARTERS: I was asked by someone the other day just where I would put Trevor Harris on a list of the nine starting CFL quarterbacks. Great question! Sorry Rider Nation, but I can’t put him at or near the top due to age and his inability to get a full season in. There is no doubt he can play, but there is more to it than that. Without further adieu, my QB rankings as it stands right now would be 

1. Chad Kelly

2. Nathan Rourke 

3. Vernon Adams Junior 

4. Zach Collaros 

5. Bo Levi Mitchell

6. Trevor Harris 

7. Tre Ford

8. Davis Alexander

9.  Dru Brown

How would you rank them as it stands right now? 

4 – SALARY CAP NEEDED: If you are a baseball fan, you might want to be prepared for a long wait when the current CBA ends after the 2026 season. There is a long way to go before we get to that point, but I can’t see baseball happening in 2027 as there will be a battle to institute a salary cap. It is needed when you see the outrageous amount of money that some teams are spending. For instance, the Mets spent 333.3 million payroll last year. The Associated Press reported this week that the Mets $1.36 billion in spending from 2021-24 outpaced what the Marlins, Pirates and Rays spent on payroll from 2004-2024.  

The New York Yankees ($310.9 million), Los Angeles Dodgers ($270.8 million) and Philadelphia Phillies ($249.1 million) joined the Mets at the top of last year’s payroll leaderboard, with L.A. winning its first full-season World Series since 1988. The Athletics ranked last with $66.5 million spent in payroll during the franchise’s final season in Oakland; the Pirates ranked No. 29 in payroll at $87.3 million. I don’t know how baseball gets itself out of this mess, but it is a mess that needs to be fixed. It is likely going to mean a work stoppage, but it might be the only way.

5 – PETE ROSE: I shouldn’t even have to type this. Baseball commissioner (and the worst one in all of the pro sports) Rob Manfred is considering a petition to have Pete Rose posthumously removed from Major League Baseball’s ineligible list. It means baseball’s career hits leader, games played leader and plate appearances leader who won three World Series with the Reds could finally get into the Hall of Fame. 

Why this change of heart from Robbie boy? Well, it would seem as if the orange-haired runt in Washington that is trying to destroy the world must be a fan because he said he plans to issue a complete pardon to Rose who made gambling bets on the Reds to win while he played and managed them. 

This just in: PETE ROSE SHOULD ALREADY BE IN THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME! Yes, what he did was inherently wrong but look at some of the others in the Hall or who are trying to get in and tell me they had a squeaky clean career. 

Manfred and MLB wouldn’t even acknowledge Rose’s death when it happened. There was no moment of silence at ballparks, no statement, no nothing. On the field, Pete Rose was the ultimate ball player — he didn’t have the nickname Charlie Hustle for nothing. 

This will likely lead to Rose getting into Cooperstown in the near future, but the fact he won’t see it because he passed away is beyond sad.

6 – VLADDY’S FIGURE: It would appear as if Vladimir Guerrero Junior and the Toronto Blue Jays are ready to split. I will be shocked if he is a member of the team by the time the trade deadline hits seeing he could not come to a contract extension with the team before spring training started. 

Vladdy let it be known this week that he was looking for a 15-year deal worth around 600 million. That equates to 40-million per season. 

I think that is still an outrageous demand. I would go 13 years/480 million with an opt out at the 5- and 10-year mark.  

The Jays need Vladdy, but he apparently thinks he can get that kind of $$ on the market. Hearing this does your thoughts on number 27 change?

7 – EXCUSE ME: It doesn’t matter now after Mike McEwen crashed and burned at the Brier, but it could have made for great discussion. 

We all know about the lengthy drought the wheat province has had at the Canadian Men’s Curling Championship.  I don’t know if this is true, but Darren Dupont claims he heard someone say this week that if McEwen’s team wins it all that the drought won’t technically be over because McEwen wasn’t the provincial champ and is in the Brier because he qualified through the points system.

Ummmmm, if McEwen and company had won, he would do it wearing a green jacket that says Saskatchewan on it. Thus, he is representing Saskatchewan. There is no ifs, buts or maybes about it.  

As for this weekend in Kelowna, you have Gushue, Brad Jacobs, Reid Carruthers and Matt Dunstone left in what should be a great weekend of curling. I’m hoping for an all-Manitoba final. The Carruthers rink has Regina’s Catlin Schneider on it while Dunstone as many of you know represented Saskatchewan for a couple of years before moving on to his home province. Schneider and Dunstone have never hoisted the Tankard and both are good guys and guys I consider friends so I am rooting for them. I like Gushue, but he has the unlikable Brendan Bottcher with him. What is it about that guy that no one likes? 

8 – TODD JOHNSON: In a story that sadly didn’t get a lot of publicity this week, the U of R Cougar men’s hockey team announced that they were parting ways with Todd Johnson. He was with the team for 12 years. Did he have a lot of success behind the Cougars bench. He did not, but who would? 

Todd put a good program together despite the fact playoff appearances were few and far between. He did his best to try and put a competitive team on the ice, but that is tough when you don’t have the resources that the U of S, the U of C, the U of A, Mount Royal and others have. They can get WHL grads while the best the U of R can do is SJHL grads. SJHL grads won’t beat WHL grads consistently. If there was a level playing field, Todd would have had much better teams at his disposal. He can go out with his head high. As for his successor, I have no idea!

9 – NEW-LOOK SEAHAWKS! One minute, you are enjoying an end of week brew at a local establishment with a friend and the next minute you get a text saying the quarterback of your favourite NFL team has been traded. 

With my mind already wondering what is going to happen with the Seahawks and DK Metcalf now that he has announced he wants a trade, the Seahawks traded Geno Smith to the Raiders. They can have him. Geno put up numbers, but he also made some really stupid stupid decisions especially in the red zone as he had a habit of throwing to the other team instead of his own. It is said the Seahawks are going to try and get Sam Darnold. That will be an upgrade. If they don’t get him, I don’t know who ends up as the number 1 quarterback. There is one guy I’d like to see them get but they would have to make a trade for him. I’ll save that name for another time. 

10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS:

• The Florida Panthers put Matthew Tkachuk on LTIR this week “hoping” he can make a return in the playoffs.  Good to see Bill Zito ripping pages out of that Vegas handbook. 

• The Adirondack Thunder of the ECHL have a country night planned for tonight. Go back to their Twitter feed (@ECHLThunder) to look at the unis and the video promoting the game. If one of the Saskatchewan WHL based teams doesn’t duplicate this next season, something is inherently wrong! 

• Is Randy Ambrosie still going to be the CFL’s commissioner when training camp hits? The league needs to update people on the search! 

• John Cena did WHAT!!! last weekend at the WWE’s Elimination Chamber in Toronto. Those of you who know me know I am a huge wrestling fan and like many others my jaw hit the floor when he kicked Cody Rhodes south of North Carolina and attacked him thus turning heel as he aligned with the Rock. It’s the biggest heel turn since Hulk Hogan joined the nWo at Bash at the Beach several years ago. Of course, it all leads up to Wrestlemania next month in Vegas and yes that move will ensure a sellout and a high buy rate. 

Remember that the clocks change this weekend unless you live in Saskatchewan. It means all your sporting events on TV start one hour earlier. 

That’s all I got! Have a great week!