STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS
1 – NHL DRAFT LOTTERY – What a mess that was. Team X holds the first overall pick. The good news is that none of those teams who have sewered themselves on purpose were able to come away with the top choice and the consensus number one player, Alexis Lafreniere. I have no respect for organizations like Ottawa, for example, who tank for draft choices. Nor do I have even three seconds of time for fans who cheer a loser just to get a draft pick. And, there are many of them out there who seem to think always having a bright future is better than taking your chances in the present. One Winnipeg media member was running a poll on what fans would rather see: The Jets win the play-in round against Calgary and go for the Cup, or lose and take their chances at the number one overall pick. Most want them to lose. Sad.
2 – TERRITORY RIGHTS – With Lafreniere being the expected top pick, there is some thought out there it would be fitting if the Montreal Canadiens landed the top choice so that they could have a homegrown star. It got me to thinking, what if we did that for every team in the league? What if we designated each team a territorial franchise player? Once you choose this player, you can’t pick a second one until this player is gone from your team via trade, free agency, buyout, retirement, etc. Hypothetically, let’s say the Toronto Maple Leafs claimed John Tavares as a territorial franchise player back in 2009 when he came out of the draft. He’s theirs until the two sides part company. Six years later, Connor McDavid comes around and the Leafs don’t have a territorial spot for McDavid unless they trade Tavares. I think it would add much needed player movement of star players between teams through trades and it would allow greater interest overall as well as an added wrinkle to how teams are constructed. Almost, assuredly, fixes tanking. Imagine if Nova Scotia had an NHL team. Do you trade Sidney Crosby for the right to get Nathan MacKinnon? Or do you make a different trade to go to the top of the draft and select MacKinnon so that you can have both players? In the Canadiens’ case, what if they had targeted Jonathan Huberdeau out of junior and placed the ‘territory’ tag on him. Do you move him to grab Lafreniere? Huberdeau had 92 points last year and 78 in 69 this year. He just turned 27. Sure, teams like Toronto may end up getting the best player in the league, but you can bet there would be a lot of mistakes made too. What if the Leafs had Steven Stamkos as their territory player and couldn’t do anything with him and lost out on McDavid? I know many of you would hate this idea, but I love it the more I think of it. For teams like Carolina who don’t have a territory player, it just becomes all the more easier to grab free agents or makes trades and leave that slot open until local hockey develops a homegrown talent. Also, some teams may opt to not use it at all even though it’s an option. If you are Winnipeg, do you stake claim to Mark Stone when he’s coming out of the draft assuming nobody better will come along in the next 7-10 years? Tough call.
3 – FRIEDMAN BEARD – I was taken aback by Elliotte Friedman’s beard when I saw a snippet of Sportsnet’s NHL Draft Lottery coverage. Is there a gimmicky reason for this? Does it have to do with the lockdown and he’s on a shaving strike until there’s games to cover? Charity fundraiser perhaps? It looks terrible and I’m sure it’s by design. I hope he’s trying to raise money for something. I really do.
4 – SPORTS MEDIA – Many sports media personalities have been reassigned to Covid and social justice reporting during the pandemic and quite a few have shown how unworldly they are. One of the guys on Tim and Sid (the one who isn’t bald) boasted that he’d watched his last NASCAR race in light of the noose issue surrounding Bubba Wallace, which turned out to be a non-story. Some of the takes on the China-started coronavirus have been full of so much needless doom and gloom it makes you wonder what motivates some of these sports media types to get out of bed in the morning. If they keep it up, they may just publish enough panic porn to generate their own pink slips from the industry.
5 – RESTARTS – Major League Soccer will be the first team sport to get back to business in North America, with its World Cup style tournament beginning July 8. The Canadian Elite Basketball League is slated to begin a week after that in St. Catharines. Count me in for the CEBL if the games are available online. I’m assuming TSN and Sportsnet won’t pick it up and will continue with whatever it is they are running for programming during the pandemic. Major League Baseball’s regular season begins July 24 or 25 and then the NBA and NHL are slated to go at the end of July. Baseball is last on my list to watch. They screwed up big time. If I’ve missed a team sport restart, post it in the comments so none of us miss out.
6 – CFL GO TIME – The Canadian Football League remains sidelined even though virus cases continue to go down across Canada and our two major airlines don’t seem the least bit worried about things as they are dropping their social distancing requirements when travelling. I have a different opinion about the United States because their numbers aren’t hammered down, but Canada has done a good job and if outfits like WestJet and Air Canada are going to be allowed to get back to normal (I don’t think they should, for what it’s worth) then it’s time to give the CFL the green light on an abbreviated season of 9 games, beginning August 1st with stadiums at a set percentage of capacity. I’m going with 40% but I picked that number out of the air. I could be sold on just about anything to be honest.
7 – BASEBALL SPRINT – Most baseball pundits are trying to sell excitement on a joke of a season that will last 60 games. For me, I’ll take a wait and see approach. It’s entirely possible I’ll be interested in the playoffs because everything else will be done by then (other than NFL, assuming sports isn’t shut down). I’m a purist. There is going to be nothing exciting about managers handling pitching staffs like they are 10 year olds and removing them after two and three innings for no good reason. It’s going to happen. A couple of teams have already said they intend to go with 3 starters and the other two spots will be based on ‘tandems’. I mean if Michael Kopech or Nate Pearson being used as a glorified opener floats your boat as a ball fan, great. It doesn’t for me and it also wrecks the way you play fantasy baseball too and fantasy baseball is the only thing keeping me engaged. Some have told me there is too much money to risk using your starting pitcher for longer than necessary. I feel that argument should be even more reason to keep him out there. As an owner, I wouldn’t want to lose games because my $25-million starter is in the dugout after 5 innings, up 3-2 and then watch the minimum wage bullpen guys blow the final 4 innings. What’s the point of the $25-million starter then? And, don’t forget that relievers are relievers because they aren’t good enough to be starters. Baseball is really doing a good job flushing itself down the toilet.
8 – TOLES HOMELESS – Former Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Andrew Toles is homeless and was found living behind a FedEx building in Key West, Florida this week having been arrested for trespassing. Toles was starting in the playoffs for the Dodgers as recently as 2016 but was said to have always battled depression and anxiety. He injured his ACL in 2017 and was limited in 2018. He failed to show up for Spring Training in 2019 and was placed on the restricted list in May for personal reasons. He was Tampa’s Minor League Player Of The Year in 2013 but was released by the Rays in 2015 for disciplinary reasons. He’s only 28 and is at a detention center awaiting a court date on July 2. The one thing that has come to light in recent years, especially with the hockey stories of Joe Murphy and Matt Johnson, is that professional sports leagues do not do a good job helping people who struggle with their mental well being or even helping them adapt at all to post sports life. My guess is that concussions have a role in this and since concussions are almost always inflicted while on the job, the onus on leagues and teams needs to be greater. Toles has earned $1.8 million in his short career. There is no reason for him to be on the street.
9 – MATT STAIRS – I got a lot of feedback on my Richard Zemlak piece awhile back, so I thought I’d share another story albeit not nearly as lengthy or touching. In fact I’ve never even met the guy. As a 9-year-old boy I used to spend my Sunday afternoons watching a local cable show called Jock Talk with Fredericton icons Ken Scott and Dave Ritchie. Think of it as Pardon The Interruption 35 years before its time. Scott and Ritchie would rave about Fredericton Black Kats (high school) hockey star Matt Stairs. Stairs was putting up about three points a game. I’d slide in and catch the odd high school game but I can’t say I remember much. He ended up being drafted by an OHL team (Sudbury or Sault Ste Marie, I can’t recall) but his focus was baseball. I think he got injured playing hockey too, but I could be wrong on that. Back then, there was also a really strong senior baseball league in the province and Stairs was a stud player on the Fredericton Royals. I played ball myself as a kid so I didn’t get a chance to see him play much (because I was often playing somewhere myself) other than trying to scale the outfield fence (which was pretty much impossible to do) and catch a quick glimpse after one of my minor ball games. Nevertheless, I always felt Stairs’ future was hockey. Easier path for a Canadian, especially one from Fredericton. Boy was I wrong. But, hey I wasn’t even a teenager yet. I’m allowed to make those scouting mistakes. In high school, I ended up getting a textbook that was used by Stairs seven years earlier. Not an easy thing when there are 4000 kids in the school. Anyways, no point to the story other than I think it’s pretty cool to see Stairs is back in Fredericton coaching – hockey.
10 – MORE ON SENIOR BALL IN NEW BRUNSWICK – In addition to Stairs, the most attractive player in the league from a fan standpoint was Spaceman Bill Lee. Former Winnipeg Goldeyes manager Doug Simunic was also on the Moncton Mets with Lee, who actually taught me a deadly pick off move but that’s a story for another day. Pitcher Rheal Cormier, like Stairs, would reach the Majors after playing in the New Brunswick Senior Baseball League. Fredericton also had a big power hitter named Kurt Allen, who was also my Math teacher in grade seven. Kurt’s son Jake plays goal for the St. Louis Blues. Another power hitter, Kelvin Hoyt, has a nephew named Nick Hoyt who played here in Yorkton for the WCBL Cardinals last summer. Small world sometimes, which I alluded to in the Zemlak piece. Jason Dickson (former Anaheim Angels) pitched for Chatham, but he came along after I moved away. There may have been others but those are the ones I recall off the top of my head.
(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)
