STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – The war of words between the CFL Commissioner and the CFLPA over the union’s appeal of the Simoni Lawrence suspension is nothing, if not, hilarious.  Here we have a team encouraging a quarterback with a troublesome medical history of head injuries; to continue his playing career despite the high risk of being seriously hurt.  Then we also have an organization representing this injured player (and offender) who thinks a two game suspension, for what is an obvious illegal hit, is too harsh. There’s some hypocrisy here on both sides.

2 – It’s long been an issue for me to see sports unions advocate for the dregs of their membership; but this is also the most common complaint about unions, in general, that I hear from people.  There has to be a happy medium somewhere. I could never figure out why the NHLPA was totally fine with Matt Cooke getting 2-3-4 game suspensions all the time. Why are NHL players totally alright with Brad Marchand licking people?  Just because the NHL didn’t suspend him doesn’t mean the PA can’t step in and do something.

3 – Once upon a time I was a union representative at a broadcast company I worked for.  I bet I was the worst one ever, from a union’s perspective. I was on the job for about three days when another employee came in to my office to show me he had been written up for an infraction and he wished to grieve it. I said okay let’s take a closer look. Within a few minutes he admitted to having committed what he was accused of and so I told him to take his medicine and be a good boy so that he didn’t get more letters on his file. Then I went down to the General Manager’s office and told him we weren’t grieving the incident and that he would only see me in the event there was a situation where a bargaining unit member was treated unfairly.  It seemed to work. The credibility of the union went up, in management’s eyes, because we only opted to work on cases we believed were wronged and not every single one where a dispute with management arose.

4 – Did I read that right that they can’t even get together and have the appeal hearing before July 9?  Bush league.

5 – PK Subban has been traded again, this time to the New Jersey Devils for lottery tickets.  I am puzzled as to why his act runs its course with teams. To me, he’s a salt of the earth person based on the image he has in the media.  He’s an excellent defenseman too and I don’t understand why two teams have chased him away.

6 – Is there an easier thing to do in pro sports than rebuild?  How hard is it to do what the Toronto Blue Jays are doing now and what the Toronto Maple Leafs did when Brendan Shanahan took over?  Raise your hand if you could ignore the roster as it rots and sinks to rock bottom, draft the most obvious players available to you in the offseason, and then sit back and see what happens.  Literally, anyone can do this. And, yet Shanahan has more job security than anybody in the NHL. He’s passed on Ryan McDonagh, Erik Karlsson, Jacob Trouba, and now Subban. He’s given big money to Patrick Marleau (who they dumped on the weekend) and John Tavares (the most obvious free agent ever to hit the market) when both were the biggest fish in the ocean.  The Leafs have done precious little to aid the roster and give themselves a real chance at a Cup, yet fans are fooled into believing they are on the right track. I’m not so sure. Their best players will no longer be on super cheap contracts. You could make a case Tavares was an unnecessary signing and is preventing them from going after players like Trouba and Subban.  No, Kyle Dubas isn’t really running the team. It’s Shanahan. Dubas is just the fall guy for whenever so that Shanahan gets another extension.

7 – A straight up swap of Trouba for Nazem Kadri would have made way too much sense.  Toronto needs the defenseman. Winnipeg needs a second line centre and some sandpaper.  It would have helped both teams. The Jets, by the way, were an under .500 team for the last 45 games of the season.  Their talent will be less in 2019-20. I predict they miss the playoffs. Window closed.

8 – I love reading the tweets of hockey experts who salivate over the future of certain clubs and the embarrassment of riches collected.  For example, Colorado is going to have the best defense ever assembled by 2024 with the great players they’ve chosen. The reality is we have no idea if these players will be star NHLers or not.  I’m sure the media said the same thing about the Avs when they nabbed Chris Bigras, Duncan Siemens, and Cameron Gaunce. And, oh they had Calvin Pickard in net. I’m sure back in 2011, the Avs were going to be excellent bets to win it with these studs by 2017.  Ooops.

9 – We have to keep things in context when looking at drafts.  If you go back to 2014, David Pastrnak has been the top goal scorer from that year and he went 25th.  Viktor Arvidson went in the 4th round, 112th overall and he is behind only Pastrnak and Leon Draisaitl in goal production from that draft class.  You could also make a compelling argument the best player from that draft year was Brayden Point, 79th overall to Tampa. So, let’s not get carried away when drooling over the picks and let’s remember you don’t need to tank either.  Sure, it makes things a lot easier but it’s the cowards way of competing.

10 – Yes, the Edmonton Oilers are a laughingstock.  But, if you go back through the archives, the fans were pleading with their GM to shake up the chemistry and deal Taylor Hall for a solid defensive defenseman.  They wanted more size and strength in the line-up and Milan Lucic was available. Fans also demanded Jordan Eberle get run out of town after his disappointing playoff.  Then there was the lobby to get Cam Talbot acquired and signed because he showed all the signs of being the next great netminder. The GM listened to all of these requests and made every one of them a reality.  Every one of them has proven to be a mistake. Lesson – don’t listen to fans.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance reporter/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1985)