Mike Benton is joined by Everett Fitzhugh and Al Kinisky on the Apr. 24 season finale of Kraken Weekly at 32 Bar and Grill, along with one-on-one chats with goaltender Joey Daccord and GM Ron Francis.
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(00:00):
Mike Everett's al for Cracking Weekly theseason finale, We've hit the finish line
edition in Remember Fans, I wantto mind you as well. Every goal
this season, once again is adonation of fifty dollars to Seattle Children's Hospital
courtesy of Hearts Plumbing and Electrical.And so far the Kraken have scored two
hundred and fourteen goals this season andthat means Heart's Plumbing and Electrical will donate
(00:22):
ten thousand, seven hundred dollars toSeattle Children's Hospital. That's the final total.
Once again, terrific work, myfriends, Heart's Plumbing and Electrical.
We care more again. Back atthirty two Bar and Grill for a brief
Coach Shell Valley update. Playoff timefor the Firebirds to gain a first round
by forty six fifteen six and five. Their record points at one hundred and
(00:46):
three, first in the Western Conferenceunder Dan Bilesma. As they're looking pretty
good here to defend their Western Conferencetitle. They'll face the lowest seed coming
out of the best of three roundsto open the first round up in the
Calder Cup playoff. So that nowbrings a question, guys here, who's
got the most on the line herein the playoffs, Shane Wright twenty two
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goals, Ryan Winterton twenty two goals, Logan Morrison forty one points, sixty
four games, or Riyker Evans witha bulk of the year at the NHL
and back now in Coachella. I'mgonna take the lowest of low hanging fru
is there is for me. It'sShane Wright. I mean, this is
his opportunity to I think, takehis name out of pencil and put it
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into penn in terms of being onthis roster, in the middle of this
roster, in the thick of allsituations next year for Seattle. In the
case of Riker Evans, if you'rehealthy at the end of your regular season,
which I believe he is, whywouldn't you go play with Coachella.
Why wouldn't you go help them wina championship. Why wouldn't you continue to
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get more reps down there. Idon't think it hurts him to go from
the NHL level down to the LHLlevel knowing that you're coming back in the
fall. So yeah, I wantthem all there. I want them all
playing regular shifts, getting ready fortraining camp in the fall. Oh Hey,
by the way, guess who wasa net for that run of the
very end in the hockey world lastseason? That was Joey Decord. And
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that Joey Decord was also front andcenter in front of forty seven thousand fans
for the Winter Classic right here atT Mobile Park, a signature win in
cracking history. It happened this year. The question now bears how much more
can he take on next season.Here's our chat with Joey Decord. Joey,
thank you first off for doing thisbefore you finally get out of here
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and enjoy the fruits of your laborfor this summer. So I think I
begin with this now that this seasonis over and you've gone through the highs
and lows of it, what wordsbest applied to you as far as what
happened this last year. Yeah,honestly, it's it's an interesting season because
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I feel like I feel disappointed wedidn't make playoffs. I think we're all
disappointed at the end result as agroup, and I think I think we
you know, we we worked hard, and we we did, we tried
everything we could. It just didn'tgo ourway. And it was just one
of those seasons where it was justit wasn't from a lack of effort.
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It just for some reason, it'swe weren't getting the balances. It wasn't
going our way, and sometimes that'sjust the way it goes. I think
for myself personally, you know,I was. I was super excited to
get as many games as I did. I think anytime anytime a goalie can
get as many games and consecutive gamesas I did, they'll tell you that
they always feel their best when they'replaying a lot. So that was awesome,
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and I'm just grateful to the organization, the management, coaches, players
for having the trust in me toplay as many games as I did.
And you know, I got gota list of things I'm ready to work
on the summer. I'm excited toget back to work and and get back
at it next year. Yeah,you mentioned your workload. You mean you
didn't play in any more games thanwhat you did for for this last season
as well. How do you feelabout the amount that you could get on
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a consistent basis as compared to thisyear or do I feel that you can
take on more if you need to. Yeah, honestly, I try not
to think about it like that Itry to take it game by game,
and that's the easiest way to doit. I think anytime you start to
look ahead and look at game totalsand things like that, you can start
to get ahead of yourself. Some personally, it's just about coming in
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next season as healthy and rested andprepared as I can be. And yeah,
just hit the ground running and continuewhere we left off. I maybe
have a guess as far as whatwas the win of the year for you,
and I may have three guesses.In the first two don't count and
man to do it was something aboutbeing outside as well, But for that
kind of win in the Winter Classic. You mentioned earlier on how much it
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means to play for the city ofSeattle, and here so many fans chanting
your name in Unison. Why doesit mean so much to play in the
city. Well, it's truly aspecial sports town, and you know,
I feel so grateful for the waythat we've been supported. I don't take
it lightly for the serious honor andresponsibility is to represent the city each and
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every night, and every time wego out there, our team and myself
person thing, we're leaving it allout there for the city. Because that's
who we're doing it for. Soyeah, that that night specifically was incredibly
special for myself, my family,our team, the entire city and to
have that kind of you know,I don't know necessarily the right word that
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that big of an achievement and andbig stamp kind of on on my hockey
career so far. For me personally, it was incredible and a day that
I'll never ever forget. How doyou feel this summer can work best to
your advantage with what you want tobe as far as the next step in
a goaltender technically, but also howmuch it can help you with rest and
your own body as well. Definitely. Yeah, I've I've had a couple
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of short summers, you know,I went far in playoffs with Charlotte and
then last year obviously Coachella. Yeah, so to have an opportunity to get
healthy, get rested, get areal full summer of training in Obviously we're
not happy with why we're getting thatlong of a summer. We're disappointed to
not be playing playoffs right now,but I think it has its advantages as
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well, and I'm gonna try tomake make the most of it and come
into training camp next year, readyto go. What can you say about
the guy who's sits next to youin the dressing room every day, Philip
Grubauer and what he's been capable ofas well. Yeah, I mean,
Gruby's an awesome guy. He's beena lot of fun to interact with each
and every day. He's a he'san awesome goalie. I feel like I've
I've known him for a couple ofyears now, but this year, being
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my first year with him, Ireally got to learn a lot from him
each and every day. He's obviouslybeen in the league a long time,
so just trying to, you know, follow him a little bit, pick
up on some things. You know, he's he's got a wealth of knowledge
throughout his time and I just tryto notice that. And uh, he
played awesome this year. Honestly,I think it was really fun to watch
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and see him see him play well. He obviously had the injury and miss
a lot of time, and youknow, he worked his boat off to
get back after that, and youknow, especially after he came back from
that injury, he was terrific inthat second half of the year. So
happy for him to see him playso well. You know, I heard
about the news from a few daysago with what's happening in Utah now and
couldn't help but think from the experiencethat you got on a short term basis
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NHL goaltender back in my little arena, that's down thing in the past,
unfortunately. I mean, where doesyour mind go as far as maybe what
you're expecting with seeing hockey in Utah, but also some disappointment with what Arizona
is losing with no more of theCoyotes out there. Well, first off,
I'm just super glad that I gotI got to play in that rink.
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You know, me and Josh Donare the only two Sun Devils that
will ever get to play in theNHL, you know, in the NHL
in Mullet. So I'm super likerateful that I got that opportunity. That's
that's really cool, you know.Now with it going to Salt Lake,
I think I can speak from experiencethat it is really cool being part of
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an expansion franchise and a new Iwent to a new team in Arizona State,
I went to a new team inCoachella, I went to a new
team in Seattle. Going to thesenew franchises and new programs. Is it's
really cool And I'll kind of drawon what coach powers. The head coach
at ASU always talks about is whenI was getting recruited and looking at colleges,
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everything in college hockey's about tradition,right your North Dakota's, your Minnesota's
Boston College. These schools all havethese immense and historic traditions. But when
he was talking about me coming toASU, he was like, hey,
you can be our tradition here.So now when you look at a city
place like Salt Lake or Utah,there's going to be a group of guys
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that get to go there and startthat tradition and be a part of the
tradition there. And I feel superlucky to have been a part of three
expansion franchises and been a part ofthe traditions there as well. So I
think it's a great opportunity and it'scool for the league to see growth like
that. Finally, change always affectsevery roster at the NHL level, and
depending upon how much of it happenshere, word travels fast amongst guys across
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the league as far as what itmeans to play in different cities, what
would your message be to anybody elsethat you might know who would think about
coming to play here and what Seattleis all about? Honestly, I'd say
that it's just it's an incredible placeto play. It's an incredible place to
have a family. The support thatwe get from the fans is unlike any
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other, and I think that's provenevery single night, every single home game
is an absolute blast. Getting torepresent the city is a true honor,
and I think anybody would be luckyto play here, and I know I
am. Joey well deserved for theawards you picked up, the three Stars
honors along the way as well,and for what could be coming here as
far as a bright future. Thankyou so much and have a great summer.
(09:48):
Thank you appreciate it all right.There was ever a personality that was
so dialed in for this entertainment business, it is that guy. Big thank
you to Joey Decord here for joiningus, the guy who was playing a
big part with helping get him uphere, placing him inside the depth chart.
Plus many more GM Ron Francis anda lot to cover here in the
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oncoming days with this roster continuing toevolve, but also evaluation of the coaching
staff that is happening and a bigdecision coming from what he said of the
media in about a few weeks fromnow and then offseason work on the roster
or scoring goals right now is thebiggest pressing need here for this lineup.
(10:31):
How we dive into it and lookahead. Here's our conversation with Crack and
GM Ron Francis and Ron. Firstoff, thank you so much for all
that you've done here with us,the information, the hints, the direction
of where this team is going.But how much do you kind of go
back and think of, you know, the highs like a nine game win
streak, but also kind of playthe what if game maybe within your misses
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of this past season. Yeah no, and that's that's our job, right
We've got to go back and evaluateeverything, especially when it doesn't go the
way you hope they can go.So there's certainly bright spots. I mean,
you know, the winning streak andthe thirteen points and thirteen games,
the outdoor Classic to me still Iget chills thinking about that. How much
exciting that was. And we scoredour first goal, you know, ebs
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a thousand game and per ed We'regetting his seven hundred. There's a lot
of positives there. Defensive game,our goaltending was solid, but there's a
lot of also frustration in the factthat we weren't as healthy as we've have
been in years past. We weren'table to produce the offense that we did
you know, last year, andwe weren't able to have the success that
we wanted and ultimately not get intothe playoff. What did that winner classic
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tell you about the state of thegame and the state of this franchise here
in the city. It was.It was absolutely incredible. Like I said,
I've been in the game forty threeyears now as a player and in
management. When we scored the firstgoal, and probably forty four maybe forty
five thousand of the forty seven thousandin attendance started chanting and singing our goal
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song. I mean I turned tomy staff and I'm like this, oh
cool, right, Like I hadchills. It was. It was just
awesome. And to see that kindof support from the people in the city
of Seattle and the crack and fanswas absolutely incredible. Never doubted for a
moment and everything I heard about thecity and how passionate their sports fans are,
but to experience it like that waswas absolutely. Do you still have
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the costume somewhere from when you firstwalked into the ballpark? I do.
I haven't worn it again, butyeah I have maybe Halloween. No,
it was cool. Stuff that wasfils and stuff. That's good stuff.
Yeah, they outfitted you guys verywell with that. Ron Francis joining us
once again here and we had agood conversation earlier amongst the entire group with
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the fixes, the direction all ofthis from the offense to evaluating this coaching
staff, Dave Hackstall as well.So when you get through that process of
the evaluation, ultimately, what's theend game to you with what you want
to see and where this franchise hasto be, say one year from now.
Yeah, it's no different than wedid after year one. It's no
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different than we did after the yeartwo. We take a few weeks after
the season, we discussed things asa management team, things maybe we should
have looked at doing different or whatcan we do different. We sat down
with our coaching staff, we gothrough, you know, things that we
liked in the season, things thatwe need to improve on, whether it's
tactical whether it's individual with players andstuff. You know, we look at
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the team aspect, We look atthe players individually. We do a deep
guy with our R and D team, and then we try and come together
with a plan. Right, it'sthe year one season didn't go great.
We went into the off season witha plan to try and get some free
agents. We signed Breakowski, wesigned Schultz, we signed Jones because Drieger
was hurt. We were able tomake the deal for York Strand, and
we picked up total early on waiversand that changed our second season. You
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know, last season, even thoughwe had success, we didn't sit there
and say we're good. You know, people might have thought that, but
we behind the scenes were trying hard. We had a couple of big swings
that had some big time names.It just didn't happen. And you know,
this year, we're not going tosit here. Obviously, we missed
the playoffs. We're not happy.We're actively going to look in free agency
again. We're actively going to lookat trades and try and do whatever it
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takes to make our team better andmore successful next year because we want to
be back on the playoff. Ultimately, what can a top line guy someone
who can get up and say thateighty ninety point range or score forty goals
or more due for what you alreadyhave in this top six, Yeah,
no, I think anything you canadd to your lineup is huge, right,
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especially if you're doing it via freeagency or a draft capital where you're
not taking something out of your lineup. You know, those guys aren't sitting
around every day where somebody's like,hey, once you take one hundred point
score, So it's a little bitmore challenging if you look at a lot
of teams, you ultimately have todraft and develop those guys, and we
feel we have that pipeline well stockedand in place, but it does take
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time on that. So our goalis to going out there, whether it's
the right free agent, whether it'sthe right trade, something that's going to
help us now, but also makingsure it doesn't block an individual moving forward
where that now our young guys cancan't get in and play and do the
things that they want to do.You know, I don't if anybody spent
any time watching Coachella Valley this year, but a lot of our young guys
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are now in that lineup and they'restarting to play and it was exciting for
me as a GM to watch theother night they're down for to one.
Yeah, Joanni Neman scores to makeit for too. Shane Right scores to
make it four to three, andthen with the goalie out we have Right,
Newman, Winter toon and Morrison onX and they tie it up right.
That's exciting stuff for me. Butit's still going to take time for
them to get here. In themeantime, we got to fix what we
have here and our goal is tohave a big summer and try and get
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the free agents or the trade playersthat we can do done so that we
can have a real good year nextyear. The conversation has been growing with
who could take the reins as captainfor this next season. What kind of
criteria in your mind best fits withwho could be wearing the sea. Yeah,
you know, I think it's obviouslya guy that it's a good player
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they can lead through example on theice. I think it's also a guy
that's respected off the ice and inthe locker room by your players. You
know, it's not an easy letterto carry on your jersey. It comes
with a lot of responsibility making surethat that person at the time we make
that decision, has the maturity todeal with that as well. So it's
something we've talked about during the seasonand maybe getting away from the four a's
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and doing that, and it's somethingwe'll continue to discuss this sumthing. Matty
Beniers, who scored a goal inhis last game of the season as well
and for many said, you knowit took strikes defensively, face offs as
well. He said nutrition is thebiggest key for him coming up here for
this offseason. Gary Roberts, whoyou of course know very well, you
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know, works closely with this teamto organize their habits. Wasn't it just
between maybe with how much a playerhas to eat versus what they're you know,
actually eating these days? Yeah,I know it's so Maddy, did
you know a decent last summer andchanging his diet. I think he went
into the offseason probably what one seventyone seventy one came back at one seventy
eight. The challenge for a youngguy and a single guy it's not a
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chef and his busy playing hockey,is to to take the time to get
the right meals and eat the rightway and maintain that during the course of
the season and then you know,unfortunately his case, you know, he
quickly can lose the six pounds ina hurry. So it's a big part
of getting stronger this summer. Notjust putting on weight, they putting on
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the right kind of weight. Soif he comes back next year, you
know, one eighty to one eightyfive, that's great. But if he
can maintain that one eighty one eightyfive as we're going to the season and
through the season, now he hasa chance the following year to get the
one eighty five one to ninety.So that's that's the plan with him,
is trying to get him bigger andstronger, because as you see, it's
there's a lot of big boys inthis league, and the heavier and stronger
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he can get, the better successwe think he can have. What did
this last stint in the NHL forShane Wright, Ryan Winterton and Logan Morrison
tell you about their future? Well, I think the future is bright for
all of them. You know,if you talk to Logan, he's like,
hey, this was great. Itshowed me that, you know,
I can play here, But healso showed me there's things I need to
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work on. Right, I've gotto got to work on my skating.
I gotta go work on my strength. Wins will tell you the same thing.
We forget that with Winterton, whenwe drafted him, he hurt his
shoulder and he missed the first halfof his first season. We rehabbed that.
He came back and played, hurtit in the playoffs, had to
do surgery, missed the first halfof last season, our second season,
and this was really the first pastseason he had a chance to work.
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It didn't happen untill after Coachella,so it was a shorter summer, but
he made huge drives. We fullyexpect him to have a good playoff.
We explict him have a great summerof training, and then we think he
can come in and push and onceyou start getting that push for competition for
jobs, now your team's getting someplace, and we think he's one of those
guys that can push coming into camp, Shane, you know, we think
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has the ability to crack our lineupin training camp. You know, is
it going to be an easy seasonfor him? Is it going to be
you know, start to finish,everything's gonna go great. No, He's
a twenty year old kid, He'sgonna have tough stretches, but you know
we'll be there to support him andhelp him grow and and but we think
the future for this, for himand a lot of our young guys is
extremely great. After going through threeseasons of expansion drafts, opening night,
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the first playoff run, sellout crowd, Still what's the best part about working
in this town? But you know, I just think our fans are incredible.
I've played a lot of places tohave the support that we have.
You know, after the last game, I'm walking and people are shaking my
hand and talking about how much theyenjoy it. I'm out on the street
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and talking to people and they're tellingme how much they enjoy it. I
know our players appreciate that. Iknow our ownership group appreciates that. The
city Seattle is a beautiful city.The fan base is passionate, and you
know, we want to do whatwe can to make them proud of what
we put on the ice and andhave this because we saw how how everything
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gets ramped up even more when weget into the playoffs, and that was
so much fun, and we wantto get back to that again. Oh,
we appreciate your time. You're abusy guy, certainly, especially at
this time of year. I mean, for somebody who wants to get into
hockey, management was the secret tolasting long in this business, you know,
with with with health and career andeverything fix. So it's you know,
(20:22):
I was fortunate to play the gamea long time, twenty three years,
and uh, you know, Igot into the management side, learned
a lot of different things. Asmy my first boss told me, Jim
Rutherford, he said, you neverknow what it is, but there's always
something right that you have to dealwith. And uh, that's what kind
of makes it different every day.You know. I don't think last year
we're expecting things go as easy asthey did. They sure we weren't expecting
(20:44):
things to be as hard as theywere. But that's what makes our job
challenging. And uh, you know, now I got to roll up my
sleeves with my management team and we'vegot to fix this. So, uh,
you know, that's our goal tomake it better for next season for
our fans. Appreciate the insight,Ron, thank you, Thanks, Mike,
appreciate it all right, GM.Ron Francis joining us. Great stuff
here, Everett, now join me. Next we'll get to our poll question
our mailbag segment as well, alongwith we predict the Stanley Cup winner plus
(21:08):
who's got the most to prove nextyear on this Cracking roster your questions as
well coming up here at Cracking Weeklyis on ninety three to three KJRFM.
Mike Everett's al for Cracking Weekly theseason finale, We've hit the finish line
edition in Remember Fans, I wantto mind you as well. Every goal
this season, once again is adonation of fifty dollars to Seattle Children's Hospital
courtesy of Hearts Plumbing and Electrical.And so far the Kraken have scored two
hundred and fourteen goals this season andthat means Heart's Plumbing and Electrical will donate
(00:22):
ten thousand, seven hundred dollars toSeattle Children's Hospital. That's the final total.
Once again, terrific work, myfriends, Heart's Plumbing and Electrical.
We care more again. Back atthirty two Bar and Grill for a brief
Coach Shell Valley update. Playoff timefor the Firebirds to gain a first round
by forty six fifteen six and five. Their record points at one hundred and
(00:46):
three, first in the Western Conferenceunder Dan Bilesma. As they're looking pretty
good here to defend their Western Conferencetitle. They'll face the lowest seed coming
out of the best of three roundsto open the first round up in the
Calder Cup playoff. So that nowbrings a question, guys here, who's
got the most on the line herein the playoffs, Shane Wright twenty two
(01:07):
goals, Ryan Winterton twenty two goals, Logan Morrison forty one points, sixty
four games, or Riyker Evans witha bulk of the year at the NHL
and back now in Coachella. I'mgonna take the lowest of low hanging fru
is there is for me. It'sShane Wright. I mean, this is
his opportunity to I think, takehis name out of pencil and put it
(01:27):
into penn in terms of being onthis roster, in the middle of this
roster, in the thick of allsituations next year for Seattle. In the
case of Riker Evans, if you'rehealthy at the end of your regular season,
which I believe he is, whywouldn't you go play with Coachella.
Why wouldn't you go help them wina championship. Why wouldn't you continue to
(01:49):
get more reps down there. Idon't think it hurts him to go from
the NHL level down to the LHLlevel knowing that you're coming back in the
fall. So yeah, I wantthem all there. I want them all
playing regular shifts, getting ready fortraining camp in the fall. Oh Hey,
by the way, guess who wasa net for that run of the
very end in the hockey world lastseason? That was Joey Decord. And
(02:10):
that Joey Decord was also front andcenter in front of forty seven thousand fans
for the Winter Classic right here atT Mobile Park, a signature win in
cracking history. It happened this year. The question now bears how much more
can he take on next season.Here's our chat with Joey Decord. Joey,
thank you first off for doing thisbefore you finally get out of here
(02:31):
and enjoy the fruits of your laborfor this summer. So I think I
begin with this now that this seasonis over and you've gone through the highs
and lows of it, what wordsbest applied to you as far as what
happened this last year. Yeah,honestly, it's it's an interesting season because
(02:53):
I feel like I feel disappointed wedidn't make playoffs. I think we're all
disappointed at the end result as agroup, and I think I think we
you know, we we worked hard, and we we did, we tried
everything we could. It just didn'tgo ourway. And it was just one
of those seasons where it was justit wasn't from a lack of effort.
(03:13):
It just for some reason, it'swe weren't getting the balances. It wasn't
going our way, and sometimes that'sjust the way it goes. I think
for myself personally, you know,I was. I was super excited to
get as many games as I did. I think anytime anytime a goalie can
get as many games and consecutive gamesas I did, they'll tell you that
they always feel their best when they'replaying a lot. So that was awesome,
(03:34):
and I'm just grateful to the organization, the management, coaches, players
for having the trust in me toplay as many games as I did.
And you know, I got gota list of things I'm ready to work
on the summer. I'm excited toget back to work and and get back
at it next year. Yeah,you mentioned your workload. You mean you
didn't play in any more games thanwhat you did for for this last season
as well. How do you feelabout the amount that you could get on
(03:55):
a consistent basis as compared to thisyear or do I feel that you can
take on more if you need to. Yeah, honestly, I try not
to think about it like that Itry to take it game by game,
and that's the easiest way to doit. I think anytime you start to
look ahead and look at game totalsand things like that, you can start
to get ahead of yourself. Some personally, it's just about coming in
(04:16):
next season as healthy and rested andprepared as I can be. And yeah,
just hit the ground running and continuewhere we left off. I maybe
have a guess as far as whatwas the win of the year for you,
and I may have three guesses.In the first two don't count and
man to do it was something aboutbeing outside as well, But for that
kind of win in the Winter Classic. You mentioned earlier on how much it
(04:39):
means to play for the city ofSeattle, and here so many fans chanting
your name in Unison. Why doesit mean so much to play in the
city. Well, it's truly aspecial sports town, and you know,
I feel so grateful for the waythat we've been supported. I don't take
it lightly for the serious honor andresponsibility is to represent the city each and
(05:01):
every night, and every time wego out there, our team and myself
person thing, we're leaving it allout there for the city. Because that's
who we're doing it for. Soyeah, that that night specifically was incredibly
special for myself, my family,our team, the entire city and to
have that kind of you know,I don't know necessarily the right word that
(05:26):
that big of an achievement and andbig stamp kind of on on my hockey
career so far. For me personally, it was incredible and a day that
I'll never ever forget. How doyou feel this summer can work best to
your advantage with what you want tobe as far as the next step in
a goaltender technically, but also howmuch it can help you with rest and
your own body as well. Definitely. Yeah, I've I've had a couple
(05:48):
of short summers, you know,I went far in playoffs with Charlotte and
then last year obviously Coachella. Yeah, so to have an opportunity to get
healthy, get rested, get areal full summer of training in Obviously we're
not happy with why we're getting thatlong of a summer. We're disappointed to
not be playing playoffs right now,but I think it has its advantages as
(06:10):
well, and I'm gonna try tomake make the most of it and come
into training camp next year, readyto go. What can you say about
the guy who's sits next to youin the dressing room every day, Philip
Grubauer and what he's been capable ofas well. Yeah, I mean,
Gruby's an awesome guy. He's beena lot of fun to interact with each
and every day. He's a he'san awesome goalie. I feel like I've
I've known him for a couple ofyears now, but this year, being
(06:31):
my first year with him, Ireally got to learn a lot from him
each and every day. He's obviouslybeen in the league a long time,
so just trying to, you know, follow him a little bit, pick
up on some things. You know, he's he's got a wealth of knowledge
throughout his time and I just tryto notice that. And uh, he
played awesome this year. Honestly,I think it was really fun to watch
(06:53):
and see him see him play well. He obviously had the injury and miss
a lot of time, and youknow, he worked his boat off to
get back after that, and youknow, especially after he came back from
that injury, he was terrific inthat second half of the year. So
happy for him to see him playso well. You know, I heard
about the news from a few daysago with what's happening in Utah now and
couldn't help but think from the experiencethat you got on a short term basis
(07:16):
NHL goaltender back in my little arena, that's down thing in the past,
unfortunately. I mean, where doesyour mind go as far as maybe what
you're expecting with seeing hockey in Utah, but also some disappointment with what Arizona
is losing with no more of theCoyotes out there. Well, first off,
I'm just super glad that I gotI got to play in that rink.
(07:36):
You know, me and Josh Donare the only two Sun Devils that
will ever get to play in theNHL, you know, in the NHL
in Mullet. So I'm super likerateful that I got that opportunity. That's
that's really cool, you know.Now with it going to Salt Lake,
I think I can speak from experiencethat it is really cool being part of
(07:57):
an expansion franchise and a new Iwent to a new team in Arizona State,
I went to a new team inCoachella, I went to a new
team in Seattle. Going to thesenew franchises and new programs. Is it's
really cool And I'll kind of drawon what coach powers. The head coach
at ASU always talks about is whenI was getting recruited and looking at colleges,
(08:18):
everything in college hockey's about tradition,right your North Dakota's, your Minnesota's
Boston College. These schools all havethese immense and historic traditions. But when
he was talking about me coming toASU, he was like, hey,
you can be our tradition here.So now when you look at a city
place like Salt Lake or Utah,there's going to be a group of guys
(08:41):
that get to go there and startthat tradition and be a part of the
tradition there. And I feel superlucky to have been a part of three
expansion franchises and been a part ofthe traditions there as well. So I
think it's a great opportunity and it'scool for the league to see growth like
that. Finally, change always affectsevery roster at the NHL level, and
depending upon how much of it happenshere, word travels fast amongst guys across
(09:05):
the league as far as what itmeans to play in different cities, what
would your message be to anybody elsethat you might know who would think about
coming to play here and what Seattleis all about? Honestly, I'd say
that it's just it's an incredible placeto play. It's an incredible place to
have a family. The support thatwe get from the fans is unlike any
(09:26):
other, and I think that's provenevery single night, every single home game
is an absolute blast. Getting torepresent the city is a true honor,
and I think anybody would be luckyto play here, and I know I
am. Joey well deserved for theawards you picked up, the three Stars
honors along the way as well,and for what could be coming here as
far as a bright future. Thankyou so much and have a great summer.
(09:48):
Thank you appreciate it all right.There was ever a personality that was
so dialed in for this entertainment business, it is that guy. Big thank
you to Joey Decord here for joiningus, the guy who was playing a
big part with helping get him uphere, placing him inside the depth chart.
Plus many more GM Ron Francis anda lot to cover here in the
(10:11):
oncoming days with this roster continuing toevolve, but also evaluation of the coaching
staff that is happening and a bigdecision coming from what he said of the
media in about a few weeks fromnow and then offseason work on the roster
or scoring goals right now is thebiggest pressing need here for this lineup.
(10:31):
How we dive into it and lookahead. Here's our conversation with Crack and
GM Ron Francis and Ron. Firstoff, thank you so much for all
that you've done here with us,the information, the hints, the direction
of where this team is going.But how much do you kind of go
back and think of, you know, the highs like a nine game win
streak, but also kind of playthe what if game maybe within your misses
(10:52):
of this past season. Yeah no, and that's that's our job, right
We've got to go back and evaluateeverything, especially when it doesn't go the
way you hope they can go.So there's certainly bright spots. I mean,
you know, the winning streak andthe thirteen points and thirteen games,
the outdoor Classic to me still Iget chills thinking about that. How much
exciting that was. And we scoredour first goal, you know, ebs
(11:13):
a thousand game and per ed We'regetting his seven hundred. There's a lot
of positives there. Defensive game,our goaltending was solid, but there's a
lot of also frustration in the factthat we weren't as healthy as we've have
been in years past. We weren'table to produce the offense that we did
you know, last year, andwe weren't able to have the success that
we wanted and ultimately not get intothe playoff. What did that winner classic
(11:35):
tell you about the state of thegame and the state of this franchise here
in the city. It was.It was absolutely incredible. Like I said,
I've been in the game forty threeyears now as a player and in
management. When we scored the firstgoal, and probably forty four maybe forty
five thousand of the forty seven thousandin attendance started chanting and singing our goal
(11:56):
song. I mean I turned tomy staff and I'm like this, oh
cool, right, Like I hadchills. It was. It was just
awesome. And to see that kindof support from the people in the city
of Seattle and the crack and fanswas absolutely incredible. Never doubted for a
moment and everything I heard about thecity and how passionate their sports fans are,
but to experience it like that waswas absolutely. Do you still have
(12:16):
the costume somewhere from when you firstwalked into the ballpark? I do.
I haven't worn it again, butyeah I have maybe Halloween. No,
it was cool. Stuff that wasfils and stuff. That's good stuff.
Yeah, they outfitted you guys verywell with that. Ron Francis joining us
once again here and we had agood conversation earlier amongst the entire group with
(12:39):
the fixes, the direction all ofthis from the offense to evaluating this coaching
staff, Dave Hackstall as well.So when you get through that process of
the evaluation, ultimately, what's theend game to you with what you want
to see and where this franchise hasto be, say one year from now.
Yeah, it's no different than wedid after year one. It's no
(13:00):
different than we did after the yeartwo. We take a few weeks after
the season, we discussed things asa management team, things maybe we should
have looked at doing different or whatcan we do different. We sat down
with our coaching staff, we gothrough, you know, things that we
liked in the season, things thatwe need to improve on, whether it's
tactical whether it's individual with players andstuff. You know, we look at
(13:22):
the team aspect, We look atthe players individually. We do a deep
guy with our R and D team, and then we try and come together
with a plan. Right, it'sthe year one season didn't go great.
We went into the off season witha plan to try and get some free
agents. We signed Breakowski, wesigned Schultz, we signed Jones because Drieger
was hurt. We were able tomake the deal for York Strand, and
we picked up total early on waiversand that changed our second season. You
(13:46):
know, last season, even thoughwe had success, we didn't sit there
and say we're good. You know, people might have thought that, but
we behind the scenes were trying hard. We had a couple of big swings
that had some big time names.It just didn't happen. And you know,
this year, we're not going tosit here. Obviously, we missed
the playoffs. We're not happy.We're actively going to look in free agency
again. We're actively going to lookat trades and try and do whatever it
(14:07):
takes to make our team better andmore successful next year because we want to
be back on the playoff. Ultimately, what can a top line guy someone
who can get up and say thateighty ninety point range or score forty goals
or more due for what you alreadyhave in this top six, Yeah,
no, I think anything you canadd to your lineup is huge, right,
(14:30):
especially if you're doing it via freeagency or a draft capital where you're
not taking something out of your lineup. You know, those guys aren't sitting
around every day where somebody's like,hey, once you take one hundred point
score, So it's a little bitmore challenging if you look at a lot
of teams, you ultimately have todraft and develop those guys, and we
feel we have that pipeline well stockedand in place, but it does take
(14:54):
time on that. So our goalis to going out there, whether it's
the right free agent, whether it'sthe right trade, something that's going to
help us now, but also makingsure it doesn't block an individual moving forward
where that now our young guys cancan't get in and play and do the
things that they want to do.You know, I don't if anybody spent
any time watching Coachella Valley this year, but a lot of our young guys
(15:16):
are now in that lineup and they'restarting to play and it was exciting for
me as a GM to watch theother night they're down for to one.
Yeah, Joanni Neman scores to makeit for too. Shane Right scores to
make it four to three, andthen with the goalie out we have Right,
Newman, Winter toon and Morrison onX and they tie it up right.
That's exciting stuff for me. Butit's still going to take time for
them to get here. In themeantime, we got to fix what we
have here and our goal is tohave a big summer and try and get
(15:39):
the free agents or the trade playersthat we can do done so that we
can have a real good year nextyear. The conversation has been growing with
who could take the reins as captainfor this next season. What kind of
criteria in your mind best fits withwho could be wearing the sea. Yeah,
you know, I think it's obviouslya guy that it's a good player
(16:02):
they can lead through example on theice. I think it's also a guy
that's respected off the ice and inthe locker room by your players. You
know, it's not an easy letterto carry on your jersey. It comes
with a lot of responsibility making surethat that person at the time we make
that decision, has the maturity todeal with that as well. So it's
something we've talked about during the seasonand maybe getting away from the four a's
(16:26):
and doing that, and it's somethingwe'll continue to discuss this sumthing. Matty
Beniers, who scored a goal inhis last game of the season as well
and for many said, you knowit took strikes defensively, face offs as
well. He said nutrition is thebiggest key for him coming up here for
this offseason. Gary Roberts, whoyou of course know very well, you
(16:47):
know, works closely with this teamto organize their habits. Wasn't it just
between maybe with how much a playerhas to eat versus what they're you know,
actually eating these days? Yeah,I know it's so Maddy, did
you know a decent last summer andchanging his diet. I think he went
into the offseason probably what one seventyone seventy one came back at one seventy
eight. The challenge for a youngguy and a single guy it's not a
(17:08):
chef and his busy playing hockey,is to to take the time to get
the right meals and eat the rightway and maintain that during the course of
the season and then you know,unfortunately his case, you know, he
quickly can lose the six pounds ina hurry. So it's a big part
of getting stronger this summer. Notjust putting on weight, they putting on
(17:29):
the right kind of weight. Soif he comes back next year, you
know, one eighty to one eightyfive, that's great. But if he
can maintain that one eighty one eightyfive as we're going to the season and
through the season, now he hasa chance the following year to get the
one eighty five one to ninety.So that's that's the plan with him,
is trying to get him bigger andstronger, because as you see, it's
there's a lot of big boys inthis league, and the heavier and stronger
(17:49):
he can get, the better successwe think he can have. What did
this last stint in the NHL forShane Wright, Ryan Winterton and Logan Morrison
tell you about their future? Well, I think the future is bright for
all of them. You know,if you talk to Logan, he's like,
hey, this was great. Itshowed me that, you know,
I can play here, But healso showed me there's things I need to
(18:11):
work on. Right, I've gotto got to work on my skating.
I gotta go work on my strength. Wins will tell you the same thing.
We forget that with Winterton, whenwe drafted him, he hurt his
shoulder and he missed the first halfof his first season. We rehabbed that.
He came back and played, hurtit in the playoffs, had to
do surgery, missed the first halfof last season, our second season,
and this was really the first pastseason he had a chance to work.
(18:32):
It didn't happen untill after Coachella,so it was a shorter summer, but
he made huge drives. We fullyexpect him to have a good playoff.
We explict him have a great summerof training, and then we think he
can come in and push and onceyou start getting that push for competition for
jobs, now your team's getting someplace, and we think he's one of those
guys that can push coming into camp, Shane, you know, we think
(18:52):
has the ability to crack our lineupin training camp. You know, is
it going to be an easy seasonfor him? Is it going to be
you know, start to finish,everything's gonna go great. No, He's
a twenty year old kid, He'sgonna have tough stretches, but you know
we'll be there to support him andhelp him grow and and but we think
the future for this, for himand a lot of our young guys is
extremely great. After going through threeseasons of expansion drafts, opening night,
(19:17):
the first playoff run, sellout crowd, Still what's the best part about working
in this town? But you know, I just think our fans are incredible.
I've played a lot of places tohave the support that we have.
You know, after the last game, I'm walking and people are shaking my
hand and talking about how much theyenjoy it. I'm out on the street
(19:40):
and talking to people and they're tellingme how much they enjoy it. I
know our players appreciate that. Iknow our ownership group appreciates that. The
city Seattle is a beautiful city.The fan base is passionate, and you
know, we want to do whatwe can to make them proud of what
we put on the ice and andhave this because we saw how how everything
(20:02):
gets ramped up even more when weget into the playoffs, and that was
so much fun, and we wantto get back to that again. Oh,
we appreciate your time. You're abusy guy, certainly, especially at
this time of year. I mean, for somebody who wants to get into
hockey, management was the secret tolasting long in this business, you know,
with with with health and career andeverything fix. So it's you know,
(20:22):
I was fortunate to play the gamea long time, twenty three years,
and uh, you know, Igot into the management side, learned
a lot of different things. Asmy my first boss told me, Jim
Rutherford, he said, you neverknow what it is, but there's always
something right that you have to dealwith. And uh, that's what kind
of makes it different every day.You know. I don't think last year
we're expecting things go as easy asthey did. They sure we weren't expecting
(20:44):
things to be as hard as theywere. But that's what makes our job
challenging. And uh, you know, now I got to roll up my
sleeves with my management team and we'vegot to fix this. So, uh,
you know, that's our goal tomake it better for next season for
our fans. Appreciate the insight,Ron, thank you, Thanks, Mike,
appreciate it all right, GM.Ron Francis joining us. Great stuff
here, Everett, now join me. Next we'll get to our poll question
our mailbag segment as well, alongwith we predict the Stanley Cup winner plus
(21:08):
who's got the most to prove nextyear on this Cracking roster your questions as
well coming up here at Cracking Weeklyis on ninety three to three KJRFM.
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