August 1, 2023 • 43 mins
It wasn’t just an ice rink on every corner and growing up in Montreal that put Eric Lacroix on the ice at age 5. His affection for a stick and puck was also influenced by some guys who hung around his house like Patrick Roy, Michel Goulet, Pierre and Sylvain Turgeon. There were about 2 dozen of them, stars or up and comers, who were represented by Eric’s sports agent father, Pierre.
So hockey was everywhere and Eric was good at it. He was drafted by the Maple Leafs in 1990 and made his professional debut in 1993. Soon after that, he was traded to the LA Kings where he roomed with Rob Blake, played with Wayne Gretzky and his coach was Barry Melrose. Life was amazing in LA. Until he was abruptly traded to the Colorado Avalanche, where his dad was now the General Manager. Once the shock wore off, Eric embraced his new teammates who had just won the Stanley Cup. He had success on the ice and all was good… until it wasn’t and he asked Pierre to send him back to LA. A quick decision Eric regrets making because Los Angeles wasn’t the same and neither was the rest of his NHL career.
After hockey, Eric spent time on coaching and front office staffs with a few teams including the Avalanche. These days, he runs a hockey camp, a foundation and does TV work for Altitude. He is also husband to Jill and dad to three active kids, including two hockey players.
Hosted by Susie Wargin
So hockey was everywhere and Eric was good at it. He was drafted by the Maple Leafs in 1990 and made his professional debut in 1993. Soon after that, he was traded to the LA Kings where he roomed with Rob Blake, played with Wayne Gretzky and his coach was Barry Melrose. Life was amazing in LA. Until he was abruptly traded to the Colorado Avalanche, where his dad was now the General Manager. Once the shock wore off, Eric embraced his new teammates who had just won the Stanley Cup. He had success on the ice and all was good… until it wasn’t and he asked Pierre to send him back to LA. A quick decision Eric regrets making because Los Angeles wasn’t the same and neither was the rest of his NHL career.
After hockey, Eric spent time on coaching and front office staffs with a few teams including the Avalanche. These days, he runs a hockey camp, a foundation and does TV work for Altitude. He is also husband to Jill and dad to three active kids, including two hockey players.
Hosted by Susie Wargin
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I was just like, Okay,I need to go, which I did.
But looking back at it, Imade a mistake. I should have
listened to my dad forget about Pierresaying don't wait, let me send you
to where it would be a betterfit than just saying I'm going back to
LA. But I said no,I'm going back now. He called Dave
Taylor back the GM in LA andsaid just take him back. Welcome to
(00:22):
Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired, a weekly podcast featuring conversations with professional
athletes who have experienced being cut,traded, fired, and or they're retired.
I'm your host, Susie Wargon.This episode's guest had hockey and grained
in him from day one, notjust because he was a French Canadian growing
up in Montreal, but also becausehis dad was a sports agent for some
(00:44):
of the biggest names in hockey.So not only did Eric Laquoise start playing
hockey at age five, he grewup with future Hall of famers like Patrick
Waughan Michelle Goulay just hanging around hishouse. Eric followed in his brother's skates
and kind of bucked the Canadian normby coming to the US for hockey and
school and he only knew a fewwords of English. Needless to say,
(01:04):
his English got real good, andso did his hockey. Eric was drafted
by the Maple Leafs in nineteen ninetyand made his pro debut a few years
later. Then the trade started,including one to the Avalanche, and by
that time his dad, Pierre,was no longer an agent. He was
the GM in Colorado. There werea lot of good times and some tough
times with his dad at the top, and Eric learned some lessons the hard
(01:26):
way when he asked his dad fora trade. He stayed in the league
for a few more years, butlooking back, thinks he could have stayed
longer had he handled everything a littledifferent. Eric is much better with that
story and so many others. Solet's get into it, ladies and gentlemen.
Eric Laqua traded fired retired podcast withSusie wargin Erica. How are you.
(01:49):
I'm doing great. Thanks for asking. It is good to have you
here. We've had a couple ofyou have a crazy schedule. I thought
I had a crazy schedule, butwe've tried to schedule this a couple of
times and we're finally here, soI'm very excited. I'm excited to be
here. Like you said, it'scrazy days in the summer with everything going
on, and I really wanted tohelp you out and be here, so
I was not going to cancel allthis time. Thank you. I appreciate
(02:14):
it. All Right, let's goback to your beginnings in Montreal, that's
where you were born. Sometimes Ithink it's hard for people in the US
to understand what hockey is in Canadabecause it's everything. Did you play other
sports or were you just a hockeyguy from the get go? Obviously my
father being an agent at the time, so when I was born, my
dad was an agent for people thatdidn't know before becoming the GM of the
(02:38):
Quebec Nordieks that eventually moved to Colorado. Right, he was Michelle gulays age.
Yeah. Absolutely, and he's beena guest on the podcast. Very
good things to say about his agent. I've known good forever. I was
a little boy and he was inmy house, so yeah, that was
fun. So I grew up inhockey, right, We're a hockey family,
and obviously up here being an agent, it was huge in our house.
And like you said, Michelle gulePatrick uh Pierre Turgeon. They're just
(03:00):
got inducted into the Hall of Fame. Hockey is so big back in Montreal,
so that was our sport. I'mthe younger, youngest of two,
so my brother was always playing.How old were you when you started playing?
Yeah, I'm gonna probably say wewere about five. You know,
like everybody back you know in thatarea, Yeah, yeah, everybody played.
(03:21):
There's there's rinks outside, there's rinksevery corner. I mean, it's
crazy. It's everybody plays hockey atsome point. And that's what we did.
And you know, it's a greatchildhood. And um my brother decided
to go to prep school in Massachusett. Was very unconventional, being from Montreal
to mecca of hockey and to goto Boston and uh, you know rebel.
Yeah, it was a rebel.So I kind of didn't want to
go in and I just kind ofwent. A couple of years later followed
(03:44):
him, and we took the differentroute. We took the US route.
Everybody was my dad being an agent, but what are you guys doing?
What are you what are you doingto your kids? And and for us,
it was more about education and somedifferent than prep school. Back he's
so fun and and that's what Idid, and it kind of, you
know, evolved where my senior year, I got drafted in the NHL and
I was like, well, maybeI can make a career out of this
(04:05):
and was going to college and theyear after which I did, I went
to college at Saint Lawrence University andthen for about a year and a half
and then I turned pro. Torontomay Police is the one that they got
rights in. Yeah, so Iyou know, then I signed and uh,
you know, kind of a differentroute for a kid from Montreal,
but like I always say, there'sno right or wrong. There's no books
(04:25):
on how to get to the finaldestination. And it just worked out great
for me. So how is yourdad with that though, with both you
and your brother taking a different route? Yeah, which was awesome. And
I give credit to my brother becausemy aunt had gone to prep school.
My brother was really tight with myaunt and she always said, hey,
listen, go to prep school inthe US is awesome. And the movie
(04:46):
Dead Poet Society was big, andthat's that was my brother. He was.
He loved movies and loved that andhe was like, I want to
live something like this, and that'skind of where the idea came from.
And we were lucky enough that ourparents gave us the opportunity to live something
like this. And it's not easy. I mean, we didn't speak English,
or my brother and I when weleft, and you didn't. No,
no, we're a French family.So that was my introduction to English.
(05:09):
I had no idea like I'd neverwritten more than three words in English,
and so you get emerged in prepschool and it was fun. It
was an unbelillable experience. And ouroldest max Is graduated actually from there last
June. That's thirty thirty three yearslater than me and maybe thirty five years
later than my brother. And thenour youngest Tie wants to go there in
(05:30):
a couple of years, so we'llsee if we can keep the tradition going
there. So it's pretty awesome.That is neat and how neat for your
dad doing what he did to beable to go get your own wings and
do your own thing exactly. Andthat's why we were fortunate and very lucky,
and first and foremost, it's asacrifice for the parents, because my
wife and I lived in three yearsago. Letting our oldest boy leave Colorado
(05:51):
here and go to Boston and whichwas awesome, but it is a sacrifice
because you're not there every day.Today is a little different in then with
social media and devices and all thatstuff. With me back then, I
had to call home at noon onSunday and that's that's what I had to
do because my mom was waiting bythe phone, and that's how it worked.
(06:11):
And then now it's a little different. I probably drove my son nuts
the last three years where if youneed something, just check it in a
lot check it in. So butit was awesome and and just for anybody
that's all there that's an Avalanche fan. And we were lucky enough too because
the COVID year was the first yearof our son there and all the rules
in Massachusetts were so different than NewHampshire. And a long story short is,
(06:31):
in order to play hockey you hadto find a billet family because you
couldn't stay on campus because the campuswas closed in a sense that if you
were on campus, you weren't leaving. So if you were playing a sport,
that means you were leaving. RayBourke was Max, our oldest son's
a billet dad fort for the wholeyear Oh my gosh. So it was
awesome. Again, hockey is sucha small circle. And my dad ended
(06:55):
up calling Ray and he's like,hey, we need a family and he's
like, no, no, wedon't need a family. I'll do it.
He lives five minutes away. Hisdaughter went to the same school two
years ago, but so Ray washis billy dad for the whole year,
driving him around then living with them. It was awesome. That is really
neat hockey takes care of hockey thatit is a very very tight community,
and you almost have to be becauseof the way the sport is. And
here we don't have rinks on everycorner. We don't have so getting ice
(07:18):
time and then driving it five amto go to ice time and having being
able to cartpool and you get reallyclose with people you do. And we
lived it obviously with our oldest andnow we're living it with our youngest,
Tie and me. Our daughter wasa gymnast. It's a little different,
but it's still all the time,thirty hours a week, goes crazy,
(07:39):
but yeah, and that's where yourfriendships are formed, right with the other
families and the kids and everybody atthe house or at their house. It's
everybody house one another. So thehockey community or the sports community in general
is awesome. And then let's talkabout your career, because you have a
lot of connections that you've made becauseyou were all over the place in your
career. Eric, So, asyou said, the Maple Leafs, I
(08:00):
had your rights in nineteen ninety Youmake your pro debut in the ninety three
ninety four season, spent a littlebit of time with their AHL affiliate before
that. Yeah, so I youknow, spent the first year I played
in American League and it was Newfoundland, the furthest point east on the map
if if you know geography. Itwas fun. We were young and a
lot of guys ended up having careersin the NHL, and and by my
(08:20):
second year I got called up,which was nice, and I played that
LA. It was awesome. Itwas It's a lot of hard work.
And we were at the small airportconnecting in Halifax, you know, from
Newfoundland because we were in that Maritimesdivision, and Mark Crawford was former Avalanche
coach, was my coach and theminers new kidding. Yeah yeah, small
world, right, small world.And then I remember Mark calling me over
(08:43):
and we were just on the layoverand he's like, you know, so
I thought I was in trouble orsomething. I don't know. Gave me
another plane ticket. Right back thenit was the hard plane tickets. And
you know, I said, you'regoing on this flight. You're going on
that flight at the fly to Anaheim. Such a long flight. I was
gonna say that as long as Iguess from the east to the west.
And then uh so you got along flight there to just remember who helped
(09:03):
you out, you know, growingup and all that kind of stuff.
And again we didn't have the cellphones back then, but still I made
a few phone calls and teams areso nice. Obviously everybody does that in
the NHL. But it was nicethe next day and warm up getting on
the ice for my first game,and I could see my parents on the
ice, you know, because theteams had invited them for like like a
lot of teams do. And itwas nice to see them and it was
(09:24):
fun and it was exciting times formyself for sure. And that is the
year before your dad takes over asthe president and GM of the Nordeeks.
Yeah, so he's still an agentat that point. Yeah, it was
my agent, and uh, youknow, you said Michelle Gulay and Patrick
Hi and bunch of Hall of famers. Yeah, you know, of course
I was players like myself. ButI guess it's that weird having your dad
as your agent. Yeah, itwas. It was awesome. Pier was
(09:46):
a great agent. He had agreat reputation around the league, and he
was but he was ready. Hewas ready for a new challenge and and
that's when he took on the challengeto become the GM of the Nordecks and
really a team that was up incoming and they needed some leadership and he
brought that and obviously only lasted ayear or before the team franchise. You
know, the franchise came to Denver, which was life changing for our family.
(10:09):
And obviously we called the city home. And you know, over the
years and I married a girl fromhere, and our kids were all born
here. My mom still resides here, and so even my mom's sister and
the cousins and I mean everybody,everybody moved here. So that's cool.
Colorado exactly, Denver became our homeand it's been a great journey. That
is really cool. Eric. Allright, so you're with the Maple Leafs
(10:31):
your pro debut ninety four, thenyou have a couple more years, do
you go kind of up and downa little bit? Yeah? To be
honest, like I was young,and they had an old team. They
had gone to the Western Conference finalsfor a couple of years in a row,
and really a lot of veterans onthe team. And the lockout was
that ninety three ninety four, Ibelieve. Anyway, the lockout started,
not ninety four ninety four, andI did not have to clear waivers,
(10:54):
and I got a phone call andsaying do you want to go? I
had made the team out of trainingcamp to Toronto, had signed the lease
on an apartment downtown Toronto, andthen they asked me a week later,
like would you like to go playin the minors? They didn't have to
clear waivers because my age was stilltoo young, and I said sure.
So I went down to Newfoundland forone game, and then then I got
the phone call that I'd been tradedto the Los Angeles Kings. And to
(11:16):
be fair, like, at themoment, you feel devastated because it's been
a couple of years, You're tryingto make the team and you want to
prove them right that they drafted youand this is the team and did you
think this is the end of theworld. And I remember being devastated and
just being so mad, and youfeel rejected and you feel that you know
they don't want you, and whydon't they want me? And you start
(11:37):
analyzing and same thing. So Igot a phone call from the Kings saying,
you don't have to clear waivers,would you like to come play in
Phoenix? So then I got onthe flight from there to Phoenix and it
was like, oh my god,A lot of time to think about there.
And it was great because I wentto Phoenix in the lockout and it
was fun. My whole high schoolroommate from my team in Boston there was
(12:00):
on that team. So yeah,I was awesome. And then so it
was fun to go Runners. Yeah, Phoenix road Runners. So then and
as soon as the lockout ended,Barry Melrose with the Kings was our coach
with the Kings, and Barry hadtold me, like he listen, when
the lockouts over, you're coming upwith us, and kept their word,
and I was excited and I justwalked into the dressing room. I didn't
know anyone in Los Angeles and firstguy that came out to me it was
Wayne Gretzky and he introduced himself andhe's like, I'm Wayne Gretzky and like,
(12:24):
no crap, all right, andI remember and it's another for Avalanche
fans or whatever, like Barry Molrosepicked me up at the airport and you
know, went to practice and practicering was in the valley there near Van
Nuys, and I had no ideawhere I was. And practice ended,
and I remember Barry Mose was leavingand I'm like, where do I go?
(12:46):
You know what I mean? SoI so I asked him, I'm
sorry. So I'm like sorry,coach, Like I'm sorry to be that
guy, But where do I go? Like I which hotel am I at?
Or which He's like, oh no, no, no, You're gonna
stay with Blakey and Rob blake formera defensive So I remember going to blake
and I'm like, hey, Iguess I'm I'm staying with you and he's
(13:07):
like, oh, I don't know, no one told me anything, but
sure, come on in. Andthen ended up being almost three years with
him, so it worked out great. Yeah, but it was like it's
a little different back then, andthen Berry picture up at the airport and
then he tells you you're staying withRob Blake and you have to go talk
to him. And then Rob Blakehas no idea what I'm talking about.
But then we had a great friendshipand it was awesome. I ended up
being with him for a few yearsuntil I got traded to Colorado. So
(13:28):
yeah, he was my housemate.That's so funny. Well, and then
Rob Blake comes here too, andso you guys have their relationship here as
well. Okay, so then youtalk about the trade from LA to the
Avalanche, and your dad is hereby then, yea, and they had
just won the Cup and you comein. Then what happens with that trade?
It was weird because in LA wehad gone through a transformation that year,
(13:50):
the ninety six season. This isa year Wayne Gretzky got traded to
Saint Louis and Marty mcsoley, YarriCurry Hall of Famers. That Rick Talk
List goes on, we didn't havea good season and they were going young,
and everybody got traded. Me beingyoung, Rob Blake being young.
We got called in the office saying, hey, we're gonna need you guys
a leadership. Guys are young andwe're gonna you know, not that I
(14:13):
was a good player. I'm notcomparing myself to Rob Blake. Rob Blake's
a Hall of Fame or I wasnot. But I've had a couple of
good seasons in LA And we wereyoung, and we were the only two
young guys at the start, andthen all of a sudden we became a
younger team. So they called usin. They wanted us to show some
leadership, and so I was reallyexcited. I really liked it. We
lived in Manhatan Beach. It's Idon't know if you've ever been there,
(14:33):
but it's it's paradise young as itwas fun and volleyball and it was awesome.
And then all of a sudden,being around the game for so long,
my dad being an agent, Iunderstand at the end of June is
the draft. And we didn't havecell phones back then. But I remember
being at the house and Rob wasvisiting his parents in Toronto, and the
(14:54):
phone rang in the house and wewere in the hot tub in the bag.
It was like mid afternoon, andyou know, the afternoon, and
my buddy said, Sam mcmasteristers GMwith the Kings at the time, wants
to talk to you. So Iwas like, all right, let me
talk to him. I think it'sRob Blake calling me from back home and
it's messing around. So I'm like, hey, sammy boy, and I
(15:16):
you know, being like really stupidto be my general manager. Looking back
afterwards, I was so embarrassed.And then he kept telling me, you
know, this is a serious conversation, and I'm like, okay, I'm
sure it is, you know.But then it clicked, you know,
I'm like, oh my god,it's the end of June, the drafts
going on, and I recognized hisvoice. Rob Blake is not that good
of an actor, you know.So I was like, oh my lord,
(15:39):
like, oh my god, Igot traded, and you know what
I mean, Like knowing now,I'm like, oh man, I got
traded. This is no but Ican't. They just called me in a
couple weeks ago telling me like,you know, so I was like,
wow, I recognize. I kindof blacked out, and sammcmaster kept telling
me, well, you know whereyou're going, and I was like then
finally I stopped him, and Iwas so disappointed. Now I was hurt
(16:00):
from Toronto, right, you know, now this is more like, this
is like I'm heartbroken because I lovedbeing in La king I loved it.
I loved the way things had gonefor myself personally, and I love the
way that it was going to goin great friendships. She was like,
Rob and you know, now You'relike again, like, you gotta be
kidding me then, but he kepttelling me, you know where you're going.
And that's when I kind of stoppedhim and didn't raise my voice,
(16:22):
but so you got to stop tellingme where? I like, where am
I going? And he kept tellingme again, well you know, well
you know, and I'm like,what do I know? And he said
Colorado Avalanche and I was like,humh what, Like I'm trying to process
this and it's really not connecting.It was weird. It was it was
surreal, said thank you, seeyou later, and that's how it ends.
(16:45):
Right, that's the end of yourrelationship with your team. It's the
weirdest thing because it's over on aphone call, and then called Blakey right
away and then said, oh mygod, I got traded. And then
you know, over the last coupleof seasons, he was a little disappointed
because his close friends that you know, I've been on the team, I've
been traded, and he was like, oh my god again. And then
the phone rang right away and itwas Mark Crawford that was not all the
(17:06):
coach of Yeah, was my coachand the mineers and he's like, hey,
listen, we made this trade,and you know, Michelle Gulay was
part of it obviously being player personnel, and we made this trade. I
don't want you to think this hasnothing to do with we make trades here
where there's eight of us, andwe asked them to step aside, and
we said, this is what weneed, this is what we're looking for,
(17:26):
and you're you're the guy that wewere able to acchoir and don't worry,
it's gonna be all good. AndI was like, all right,
well, you know what, it'sperfect. You know what I mean,
thank you, And then I rememberhanging up, and you know, then
probably cried for a couple of daysbecause you know, it was tough,
and you're like you're building those roots, those relationships and it's hard. And
then but looking back, I'm like, oh my god, this is unbelievable.
(17:48):
These guys won the Stanley Cup,and yeah, it's gonna be a
weird situation. And it was wholebecause of my dad be in the gym,
you know, so it's it's hard. And well, the guys were
so awesome. It was never anissue, you until he became an issue.
But it was awesome. I gotto come here and you're talking about
a championship team and obviously guys thatgrew up in my house, like Patti
(18:10):
wa and you know, Sylvan Lafayand I mean the list goes it was.
It was surreal for me to bepart of that group with Joe and
Peter and had to be Oh mylord, I mean, you know,
Denmark, faud Valkmen, I mean, the list goes on, Sandy.
So that team was so unbelievable andI felt so privileged to be part of
it. And the team was attheir prime and it was a love affair
of the city of Denver having won. And you know, the first year
(18:30):
they just got here and everybody waslike this team. It was fantastic.
So it was awesome and it wasa great time to become an Avalanche.
And and I remember talking to latePeter McNabb at the start of training camp
first day, came talk to mebecause he had played for his dad and
New Jersey Devils. That's right wherethere's only a few of us in the
history of the league that I've playedfor their dads. I do believe it's
(18:51):
three. Peter was different. Itwas at the end of his career.
Me was more like, okay,I'm like twenty four, twenty five now,
it's more like earlier part of mycareer, even though I'd been in
the league for a few years now. It was still a little nerve racking.
But the guys were great, andthen as soon as training camp started,
felt right at home. And hehad a great season that first year.
Yeah here, yeah, it wasgreat. Yeah, it was my
best. It was great. Itwas still new for a lot of the
(19:14):
players, meaning what do I meanby that? Like, we all lived
at the Breakers, this complex onLeidsdale. They were like because guys had
gone in the year before I boughthouses. I think Joe was the first
one that bought a house. Sowe all lived at the Breakers from you
know, Forsburg, Chi Val Chimiski. Then Marsh myself, Renny Corbett lived
with me because again he was oneof my Dad's. There are a couple
of parties that went on. Yeah, but we were all so tight.
(19:37):
We were so tight. We arealways together and it was fun and yeah,
of course Wednesday night at the Stampedeand you know what I mean.
So it was it was fun,It was great. It was a great
time. But it was still newfor the city of Denver. We didn't
have a practice rank. We weregetting dressed at McNichols and drive our cars
with no skates to du I remembergetting pulled over on the Highway I twenty
five with I was driving Patty Wassfully geared on the right side, Joel
(20:00):
Sacking in the back, Mike Keenin the back. Cop pulled us over
and he did ask for a licenseand registration and I was like, well,
I didn't remember. The guy hadno idea. Still it's new,
right, you're talking about like ayear. He didn't has no idea.
And then Patrick and he's like,does it look like we have our license
(20:21):
and registration? The guy's thinking likeis it Halloween? Like what is this
like it was? And then herealized it's like, oh my god.
Then you know what I mean.So it was crazy. It was fun
times. I think we laid thefoundation pretty good, the guys that were
here originally, and you know,it was nice and it meant a lot
to be an avalanche. It meanta lot to be an avalanche for me
obviously with the relationship and uh,you know that that was a tough day,
(20:44):
probably toughest day of my life,I would say the day that I
left here, you know, becauseI didn't think it was necessary. I
didn't think that it needed to happen, but it did, which is fine.
And then traded back to the Kings, right, well, it happened.
I didn't get traded back to theking. So I walked upstairs and
in my dad's office and I said, okay, I'm going back to La.
(21:06):
I was telling you earlier. Iwas heartbroken when I you know,
when I got traded, and Isaid, and my dad was it was
very honest with me, and obviouslythere's a lot of tears that it was
weird with Charlotte Graham too, andyou know the staff was in there too,
and I said, listen, that'sI don't want this to be a
spectacle, like I'm going back toLa and this is what I want to
do. And my dad now forgetabout here, my dad. You know
(21:27):
what I mean. Now, it'slike, okay, maybe this was a
mistake back that which I wasn't,you know. I mean it was I
listen, I met my wife here, and if I'd never been here,
I wouldn't have my wife the threekids. So it's awesome. I never
looked back at it as a badthing. And I got to play with
these guys, which was amazing.But that day I was a little disappointed.
(21:47):
It was a little mad. Iacted on maybe a little too quick,
telling my dad I'm going back toLA. You were frustrated enough.
No, no, well yeah,I mean it's a long story, but
it's not a problem until it becomesa problem. You know. We started
the season oh six and one,Bob Harley was a new coach. Something
happened. I didn't do anything,guys didn't do anything. I don't know
(22:07):
what. It was just one ofthose balls that just kept rolling and it
went down the hill and it becameimmedia thing and I was just like,
okay, I need to go,which I did. But I made a
mistake there looking back at it,I made a mistake. I should have
listened to my dad, forget aboutPierre saying no, wait, let me
send you to where it would bea better fit than just saying I'm going
(22:30):
back to LA. But I said, no, I'm going back now.
And he called Dave Taylor back theGM in LA and said, just take
him back it just give me abag of hocks and no offense any At
the end of the day, Ithink a contract was trade. I don't
remember who. It was. Nooffense to that player, That's not what
I'm saying. But it was justlike, oh, well take him back.
And it was just wrong of goingback. It wasn't the same.
(22:53):
There was a reason why you gettraded too. Now you're going back,
and it's a little forced or whateverit is, to try and recreate what
you had before. It didn't work. And I went there and I spent
maybe thirty games or something like that, and it was just awful. I
don't think I had got one point. It was brutal, it was bad.
It was a bad situation, andI struggled with the fact that I
(23:17):
had been hurt, emotionally hurt,and I couldn't get past it, and
I was trying to and I wasn'tblaming anyone. I was just trying to
get out of it and I nevercould. And then that season, I
you know, again, I hadjust gotten engaged or married that year or
something. So anyway, Jills fromColorado and it was funny. She went
to see you and there's a Coloradogirl. And next thing, you know,
we packed our bags. We goto LA. Next thing, you
(23:37):
know, a couple months later,we packed our bags go to New York
Rangers. New York Rangers was greatbecause it just let me start fresh a
little bit down on and it waswearing Gretzky's last year, which was my
teammate in LA, and I gotalong well with Wayne. It was awesome
to go there, and it wasfun to at least be part of some
special at the end of the year, which was his last game, and
so it kind of made a toughyear, like really tough year, made
(24:00):
it at least the last game memorablesilver lining in there. And and then
we came back here in the summers, and you know, obviously you ended
up always having a house here andthis is home for us. And it
was a tough year. That soundslike if you were able with the Rangers
for three years. Yeah, Ijust went to Ottawa for your final year.
Yeah, I never recovered from thatday. If you look at people,
(24:22):
look at stats nowadays, you goon those Hockey dB or League prospects,
and you'll see there's a big decline. And I just never recovered from
that day leaving here. And I'mnot blaming anyone, you know, that's
fine. I mean, you gotyou got to find a way to get
through it. And then I justI didn't do it. As a player,
my game suffered. I wasn't thesame. But what I tell kids
all the time, especially kids atour camp nowadays, is be a good
(24:45):
person, you know, be agood teammate. And it kept me in
the league three four more years justby being a good teammate, by being
there for the guys and never complaining. And until he became okay, you
know, maybe I want to dosomething else now, Maybe that doesn't make
me happy anymore, to be thegood guy. And that's how I ended
my relationship. But Ottawa we lost. You know, I was getting straight
(25:06):
at there the deadline. Then welost four straight in the first round.
We were the number one team theyear there as won the Stanley Cup.
I know one a lot of peoplewere saying Ottawa versus Colorado in the finals,
but we never got out of thefirst round in the East. We
lost four straight to Toronto, ournemesis. And and for me, like
a role player, you know,I knew my contract was over, that
we needed to have some team successin the playoffs for me to probably you
(25:27):
know, get another contract. Didn'thappen. So that summer was tough,
and it's kind of waiting. Nowyou're married, and you know, I'm
like, okay, did you haveany kids on the way yet? No,
No, Max wasn't born yet.He was born a year after so
so we were just kind of waiting. And I told Jill, I said,
I'm gonna get ready for the season. If a contract happens, awesome.
(25:48):
If it doesn't, I'm ready tomove on. And it's funny how
things work. I remember meeting BobHartley at the mall. It was now
September, and I was not gettingany offers. Ottawa was giving me somebody.
They wanted me to wait and giveme a two way and go playing
the minors. I want to go. You know, I've been ten years
at that point, in like nineyears i've been in them. I didn't
want to go back and yeah,and Bob said to me, well,
(26:11):
Dave Reid was going to take thejob here as assistant coach slash video slash,
you know, add to the coachingstaff. And he didn't take it,
And oh my god. He justcalled me and he's going back to
Toronto. They're starting this network calledNHL Network and read are still doing that,
by the way. And he's like, maybe you know, do you
know anyone? And so I lookedat him. I'm like, well,
(26:32):
I'm just about to call it quitstomorrow because it's September one. And and
I had told Jill that, youknow, I was gonna give it till
September one to see and if not, I was gonna try to do something
else. Then he's like, whoa, there's pure no. And I'm like,
well not really, that's you know, business is business. If you
look back, like I said,I didn't know how I was traded.
Today, people assumed that I kneweverything. I never knew anything. My
(26:53):
dad was very close. Uh everyonewasn't the guy that got out there to
the media what was happening now hedidn't. Then, dude, no one
knew anything. So my mom ormyself, so it doesn't matter. So
but Bob was like, who'll bringthat up to Pierre? And then the
next day Bob calling, He's like, well, would you want to do
this? And that's kind of howI jumped on. So I never really
had a transition there from retiring tojumping on that coaching staff. And then
(27:17):
we went to Sweden and nine toeleven hit and it was surreal, it
was crazy, and but then youknow, we're able to come back here
and start a family, and youknow, I was like, all right,
let's get into the world of hockeysis what I know as the same
schedule. So it was an easytransition for many years. But you literally
see Bob at the mall, atPark Meadows at par Medosa. It's true
story. It's true story. Whatif you hadn't run into him that day?
(27:38):
You think about how different your wholeretirement trajectory could have been. Yeah,
that's crazy. And then I waslucky enough obviously with learned from Pierre,
and you know, Craig Bellington wasthe year after, and Billington was
more like same thing. You know, we called it our Harvard education of
the National Hockey League, and hegave us the freedom to learn from all
(28:00):
the fast all the assets of thehockey operations, from scouting to developing,
to ticket sales to marketing to youknow, we were lucky enough to touch.
It's very knowing how everything works,because sometimes people at the top have
zero idea what everybody else is doing. And we were lucky to learn and
then to fly and to see.I realized that yay, coaching is not
(28:21):
probably not what I want to doin a sense that young family Mary probably
have to move cities. Right.You want to get into coaching, you
got to get into miners and goand do it again. And I was
like, oh, maybe that's notthe avenue we want to do. So
it's more like developing and you know, management, and that's kind of what
I jumped in, which was niceand would you like the most that you
did because you did video coach ordirector of Hockey ops scout and then eventually
(28:45):
you go back and you're the vicepresident of Hockey Operation. It was fun
and what I know is the DNHLlevel, So I'm more an an NHL
guy and I raised my hat toamateur scouting and that is an art.
Those guys are unbelievable. That isnot my forte. I I don't know
how those guys do it to lookat a sixteen, seventeen, eighteen year
old and know that you know,it's easy to pick the conor mc david's
(29:07):
or right but Dard, but it'snot easy to pick the diamond ind or
off. It's not easy to projectand it's all projection. And I remember,
just talking about these guys, Ifelt so like in all of those
guys me, I'm more an NHLguy where you're in the action for trades
and for you know, with thecoaching staff, and that was my what
I enjoyed the most. I lovedit. It was awesome. It was
(29:29):
fun, and you got the highsthe lows. You still get the wins
and losses, which is it isaddicting. It is, and then you
miss it when you're out of it. Did that fill what you had as
a player? Ye? Did it? Yeah? A lot of times people
will say you can never find anythingthat fills what you had as a player.
No, it did, and itdid interest and then for me it
was more. Now we had threekids and I was juggling with how to
be a good father, good husband, and still. And I'm not saying
(29:52):
people can't do it. I justI was struggling with it. Hard to
juggle your juggle and work, andI just needed to get some time away.
And that's when I left the Avalanchethe year Patrick came in, and
it was more it was me.It was I need to get away.
I need to go spend time withmy kids and regroup a little bit and
figure things out and then get backstronger afterwards. Which good. Did you
(30:14):
recognize that? That's hard to recognizeit was? And sometimes we came because
you get out of the wheel,it's not that easy. And you find
that out later on that it's notthat easy to get back in the wheel
where you think it's it's very easy. It's not. But looking back at
it, we went to Vegas andthat's my parents said, had a residence,
so they were spending a lot oftimes, you know, Denver in
Vegas, and so that's why wechose Vegas. And Stefan Yelle former teammate
(30:38):
right of mine, and we marriedsisters and you did, yeah, funny,
so your brother in laws. Yeah, So we moved to Vegas all
together, the wives and the kids, and oh my god, and then
my brother ended up moving to Vegasand you know, so next thing,
you know, we had a biglike you know, a'mount of family in
Vegas and it was great and youknow, you hockey, and we loved
our experience in Vegas. It wason. Then it was time to get
(31:00):
back to Denver, and you know, which we did four or five years
later. But and we've been heresince. So there were fun adventures and
we've never been afraid to pack upand go, and that's what we've been
Now you're probably here for a while. Yeah, yeah, this is home
for us. And yeah, Jill'sfrom here and the kids were all born
here. And when we made thatdecision, our world was going to start
high school and then we had onein middle school and the elementary school kind
(31:23):
of keeping the same kind of like, okay, no, let's absolutely ground
ourselves somewhere. I want to goback a little bit, Eric, to
with your dad as a player whenhe was at GM and then when you
also worked in the front office withhim. How different was it in each
of those scenarios and were you ableto separate family from business with him?
He was amazing and the guys willtell you guys like Patty Way, guys
(31:47):
that were so accustomed to him becausehe was their agent and then he was
their manager. Says it's a littledifferent. There is a line somewhere,
but but Piero's all about family,and the guys felt it obviously me being
family for real like it was,but it was well done. Like going
back. We all lived together atthe Breakers, and we'd go and my
mom would cook us dinner and wouldkick my dad out to be like,
(32:07):
you gotta go somewhere else, andso all of us would go back.
My mom would be watching Wardsburg andso we'd go hang out at the house
for hours and we'd be like,Hugo shoes, shoe somewhere else. And
uh so he was good. Butit was the one thing that Pierre was
family, Pierre at the heart.But he was able to make the hard
decisions and just go back to theRob Blake slash Adam Deadmarsh trade, right,
(32:29):
the Marsh babies being in the hospital, right, that we're born prematurely,
and um, there are tough times. There are things that you don't
want to do. And remember mydad like telling me all the time because
now working with them, you're seeingall the intricacies of you know, management
and all that stuff, and it'simportant for as players. You think you
know everything because you're playing the game, but we don't know anything. You
(32:49):
don't know how anything works. Anduntil you live it, then you start
learning and then you're like, ohwow, those aren't easy decisions. For
example, trading someone and Pierre wasalways hard, like he would have to
take a breath and you know,breathe a little bit and then okay,
and go send whoever's got to gopick up that person, bring him his
office. And for example the Denmarksting was really hard. And then years
later, I mean they were goodbuddies and everything, it was all good,
but they were talking about those thingsand the Deddie understood a lot of
(33:14):
things. So like afterwards by beingcoaching here with the Avs and and being
tight with my dad again and butit was more like, hey, this
is not easy. No, thebusiness part and then the human part it's
very hard. It's hard to marrythose. It's hard, and I think
he was the master at it.He was really good. And even after
a game, if if you're comingdown from the press box with him,
because you know, we were inthe same box upstairs and one of the
(33:36):
staff and and it's a tough loss, and you're like, oh my god,
you can hear him like, youknow what I mean, like oh,
being mad. And then but thenwalk in the coach's office and it's
just like whoop, new faces on. Hey, guys, it's all good.
This is our first loss in eightgames. You lose one out of
eight, you're gonna finish first.Overall, it's okay, see you tomorrow
(33:57):
morning, grab your jacket, walkout, and then keep going on the
hallway. But the guys in there, the coaches that are so disappointed to
that night because it's an emotional highand emotional low and it's hard and it's
feelings and you're like, oh mygod, it was a tough loss.
And then but then they hear heknew the message to give it the top.
All of a sudden, they're like, Okay, it's not so bad,
you know what I mean. Andthen go home, and you know,
(34:19):
it's I think he was really goodat that. And it's hard to
do because I've seen it with differentmanagers. Oh I'm sure it doesn't go
well. It doesn't go well.It's not the right time so, but
he was really good about that,and it was fun to see him in
action. It was fun to seehim organizing trades and you think it's you
know, especially nowadays it's with Xboxand you know, you make trades,
(34:42):
and you think it's that easy,right, It's it's not easy. So
it's and it's and you have tolook at everything every angle and they take
months or weeks or you know,to come to fruition. But you think
it just is one day, andit's not. It's it's fun to watch,
but it was a pleasure to obviouslyplay for him, and those were
the greatest, you know, yearsof my life for sure. Did you
ever talk to him about that daythat you went into him and tell him
(35:05):
that it was a mistake? Ithought, you wish you hadn't done it?
Yeah, no, it's hard totell our parents. And I was
like, yeah, you know what, you're right, Yeah, yeah,
But then it was it's a soresubject and so we never really got to
talk about it again. But itwas more like, hey, I years
later I was able to talk.I didn't talk about it for years with
teammates or anybody. Year. Itwas hard for me to talk about but
(35:27):
I remember telling him my day,like, hey, I messed up,
Like it's on me, and thenright away we're done. And now we're
done. Yeah, And he waslike, no, no, no,
it's my fault. And I'm like, no, no, no, it
wasn't. I was going to doit. I'd do it all over again
the same way, except my exit. I would do it differently, you
know, where maybe if I wouldjust breathe a little bit, maybe I
would have a more successful career forthe last five, six, seven,
(35:50):
eight, nine, ten years.It probably cost me many years of my
career. My just that quick decisionof too quick of a response, too
quick of response. Needed to reflectmore and let things breathe a little bit
and then come back and you know, okay, have a clear mind on
it. You were too reactive inthem. Yeah, it was too it
was too quick. Yeah, liveand learn. And I sure learned that
day. I bet you did.All right, So tell me a little
(36:12):
bit more about what you're doing now. You're doing a lot of TV work
and also a lot of work withcamps. I mean you are busy.
Yeah, we're busy. So abunch of us former Avs or NHL players,
like David Clarkson, Johnny Mitchell,myself. We have the drill House
Sports Performance Center, which isn't afront of family sports and where the Ferris
Wheels used to be and all thatstuff, So we thank you. It's
(36:32):
great. Yeah, I have littlekids to go there anymore, but you
used to. Yeah, great placefor hockey players obviously, So we have
our gym in there for it's morehockey specific, and we have teams that
go in their local teams during theseason and during the summer it's our summer
camp and we have a little wehave NHL guys to seven year olds,
so they're all separated into groups.It keeps us busy and it's fun for
(36:53):
the whole summer. And so wetried to bring something special here to the
area that we felt was needed forme. It was more about as well.
At the start was more try tostart a foundation for in Pierre's honor
when he passed away a couple ofyears ago, and it was, you
know, the local hockey Foundation,and we would like to do a lot
more. We're just starting. It'sa lot of work and then, uh,
(37:16):
but we're getting there. It's beenbusy, it's been fun and uh,
you know, we have a nicelittle pictures on the wall upstairs and
family sports. This is nice.So it's a daily reminder that you know,
we're trying to make it and wherehe's gone, but not for God
absolutely, and then the TV work. Yeah, yeah, and it's you
know, unfortunately, Peter McNatt passedaway last year and obviously it was unexpected,
(37:39):
and in Mark Ryecroft had done agreat job for so many years now,
they asked him to go fill infor Peter upstairs with Mos and that
created a little bit of hole thereon the pregame and post game and intermissions
and with Kyle Keith and so acouple of us kind of you know,
decide to help out. And sowe tried to fill in as much as
(38:00):
we could last year and it wasfun and you know, do you enjoy
it? Yeah? I love it. I like it. I'd done it
in Vegas my last year there beforewe came back to Denver, so i'd
something had done for a full year. I like it. It's it keeps
you involved in the game, keepsyou busy, and it keeps you in
a sense like familiarizing with the leaguein case, you know, if you're
(38:20):
ever going back to you know,who knows. I'm still young and maybe
going back to full time work.So it keeps you alive. And this
is what I know, right dNHL, This is what I know.
So I it's your comfort Yeah,that's my comfort zone. And it keeps
you fresh, and it keeps youin current, you know, with all
the teams and players. So I'vebeen fortunate yet. All right, last
question, Eric, and you've alludedto this throughout your whole talk. When
(38:40):
you do talk to as you said, you talk to kids, and you
talk to others that are maybe gettinginto the league, what would be your
advice to them when there are thosevery disappointing moments that you have when you
were traded or when you go inand tell your dad, I'm going back
to LA. What do you tellpeople on how to kind of work through
those and then get back to abetter place. Well, I always tell
kids. And obviously now having Max, our oldest son playing junior hockey this
(39:06):
year in the new team in Greeleythe NHL there, the Colorado grit and
then he's going to Boston University ofthe year after twenty four twenty five,
Y's a goaltender, so high endhockey. My dad was real close with
him on the mental aspects of thegame, which is never easy. So
his friends and everybody that I encounter, I always tell people the same thing,
control the controllables. There's nothing youcan do in pro sports that you
(39:30):
start analyzing, you're done. Andit's so true. And that was one
of the things that made me becomea hockey player from watching my dad's clients
back then, which how come thisguy didn't make it and this guy made
it? First of all, rightplace under right time is huge. Yes,
attitude is so important. Everybody's talent. Everybody works hard. You don't
(39:51):
get a cookie because you work hard, like it's expected right. Control,
the control of it is probably thehardest thing to do. And that's what
I tell my son's friends that areplaying at those those hockey like don't analyze,
well, we have eight defensemen andthere's two more coming up. You're
done. As soon as you startdoing that. It's too hard. It's
too hard to mental aspects. Ittakes over. Then oh, your brain
(40:12):
shuts down your body. Next thingyou know, you're not being yourself on
the ice and or any sport.You're doing. And so that's what I
say, is control the controllables.We all end up being beer leaguers.
It just depends when. And atthat time you can analyze all you want.
Oh my god, we don't haveenough d's to play tonight, and
you know what I mean, Andit's for fun and it's midnight and you're
going to McDonald's after the game.So but in the meantime, when it's
(40:35):
serious and you know those leagues,you got to control the controllables, and
you can't. There's nothing you cando about it. So control your attitude,
your effort, what people think ofyou, or what a coach thinks
of you. There's nothing you cando. So all you can do is
work hard and be a good personand the rest will fall into place.
And if it's meant to be,it will be. And if it's not
meant to be, it's not meantto be. And if you just can
(40:58):
live with that, then you'll beall right. I love it. This
has been awesome, Eric, Thankyou. What a great story and just
so much. There's so much toit. And you are you're still young.
Do you think you'll ever get backinto maybe an NHL situation as far
as front office type work, yeah, I mean, obviously, when we
came back to Denver, I wasfortunate enough to jump in with the Calgary
Flames and which was awesome. Itwas a great situation for me because we
(41:22):
were in Denver, didn't I couldbase myself out of here, which was
nice. And then COVID hit.COVID was tough. Obviously, like the
loss of my dad does it wasa COVID accident, right, Yeah,
I mean, which was tough.And then working in the front office with
a Canadian team was really hard.I didn't cross the border for over two
years and you're sitting it's funny withthe zooms and everything, but it was
(41:44):
one of the casualties. I gotto the point where it was so hard.
Yeah, and you're sitting there andyou don't, Yeah, you don't
feel part of it because you're not. Yeah, you're on the zoom,
but you're like, hey, hello, Yeah. I mean, and it's
hard. And I'm not blaming theguys there, but they were in Canada.
I was not, and there wasonly a few of us in the
States. And like I said,it's been over a few years that we
(42:04):
got we were in the office andit's hard. And that's when I was
like, again, maybe it's timeto just take a break right now,
and then, you know, takecare of family stuff here and which I've
done now the last two seasons andlucky enough to stay involved with it because
of Altitude gaming to the opportunity todo the games and watch games. And
but we'll see, we'll see.I mean, I'd love to get back
into it. We'll see if theopportunity comes or if it's the right fit,
(42:27):
right timing right for us. Yeah. Absolutely, all right, this
is awesome, Eric, Thank youso much. I appreciate your time.
Thanks for having me. Thanks Eric. I would pay good money to see
Eric Laqua, Patrick Hua, JoeSakic, and Mike Keane all sitting in
a car and I twenty five gettingpulled over by a cop with Patti wa
in full goaling gear and that wouldhave been awesome. Hey, you know
what, that was a very goodinterview and extremely insightful. Take time with
(42:50):
big decisions. New episodes of Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired come out
every Tuesday. Please follow and downloadthis podcast wherever you listen to podcasts,
and you can find out about newepisodisodes by following on Twitter and Instagram at
CTFR podcast, as well as thewebsite CTFR podcast dot com. By the
way, on the website, thereare links to the major podcast hosts,
links to individual episodes on each picturethat go on the slideshow, as well
(43:15):
as my contact information. If youhave feedback or suggestions, I'm your host,
Susie Wargin. Thank you for takingtime out of your day to check
out this episode and do me afavor. Until next time, please be
careful, be safe, and bekind. Take care
I was just like, Okay,I need to go, which I did.
But looking back at it, Imade a mistake. I should have
listened to my dad forget about Pierresaying don't wait, let me send you
to where it would be a betterfit than just saying I'm going back to
LA. But I said no,I'm going back now. He called Dave
Taylor back the GM in LA andsaid just take him back. Welcome to
(00:22):
Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired, a weekly podcast featuring conversations with professional
athletes who have experienced being cut,traded, fired, and or they're retired.
I'm your host, Susie Wargon.This episode's guest had hockey and grained
in him from day one, notjust because he was a French Canadian growing
up in Montreal, but also becausehis dad was a sports agent for some
(00:44):
of the biggest names in hockey.So not only did Eric Laquoise start playing
hockey at age five, he grewup with future Hall of famers like Patrick
Waughan Michelle Goulay just hanging around hishouse. Eric followed in his brother's skates
and kind of bucked the Canadian normby coming to the US for hockey and
school and he only knew a fewwords of English. Needless to say,
(01:04):
his English got real good, andso did his hockey. Eric was drafted
by the Maple Leafs in nineteen ninetyand made his pro debut a few years
later. Then the trade started,including one to the Avalanche, and by
that time his dad, Pierre,was no longer an agent. He was
the GM in Colorado. There werea lot of good times and some tough
times with his dad at the top, and Eric learned some lessons the hard
(01:26):
way when he asked his dad fora trade. He stayed in the league
for a few more years, butlooking back, thinks he could have stayed
longer had he handled everything a littledifferent. Eric is much better with that
story and so many others. Solet's get into it, ladies and gentlemen.
Eric Laqua traded fired retired podcast withSusie wargin Erica. How are you.
(01:49):
I'm doing great. Thanks for asking. It is good to have you
here. We've had a couple ofyou have a crazy schedule. I thought
I had a crazy schedule, butwe've tried to schedule this a couple of
times and we're finally here, soI'm very excited. I'm excited to be
here. Like you said, it'scrazy days in the summer with everything going
on, and I really wanted tohelp you out and be here, so
I was not going to cancel allthis time. Thank you. I appreciate
(02:14):
it. All Right, let's goback to your beginnings in Montreal, that's
where you were born. Sometimes Ithink it's hard for people in the US
to understand what hockey is in Canadabecause it's everything. Did you play other
sports or were you just a hockeyguy from the get go? Obviously my
father being an agent at the time, so when I was born, my
dad was an agent for people thatdidn't know before becoming the GM of the
(02:38):
Quebec Nordieks that eventually moved to Colorado. Right, he was Michelle gulays age.
Yeah. Absolutely, and he's beena guest on the podcast. Very
good things to say about his agent. I've known good forever. I was
a little boy and he was inmy house, so yeah, that was
fun. So I grew up inhockey, right, We're a hockey family,
and obviously up here being an agent, it was huge in our house.
And like you said, Michelle gulePatrick uh Pierre Turgeon. They're just
(03:00):
got inducted into the Hall of Fame. Hockey is so big back in Montreal,
so that was our sport. I'mthe younger, youngest of two,
so my brother was always playing.How old were you when you started playing?
Yeah, I'm gonna probably say wewere about five. You know,
like everybody back you know in thatarea, Yeah, yeah, everybody played.
(03:21):
There's there's rinks outside, there's rinksevery corner. I mean, it's
crazy. It's everybody plays hockey atsome point. And that's what we did.
And you know, it's a greatchildhood. And um my brother decided
to go to prep school in Massachusett. Was very unconventional, being from Montreal
to mecca of hockey and to goto Boston and uh, you know rebel.
Yeah, it was a rebel.So I kind of didn't want to
go in and I just kind ofwent. A couple of years later followed
(03:44):
him, and we took the differentroute. We took the US route.
Everybody was my dad being an agent, but what are you guys doing?
What are you what are you doingto your kids? And and for us,
it was more about education and somedifferent than prep school. Back he's
so fun and and that's what Idid, and it kind of, you
know, evolved where my senior year, I got drafted in the NHL and
I was like, well, maybeI can make a career out of this
(04:05):
and was going to college and theyear after which I did, I went
to college at Saint Lawrence University andthen for about a year and a half
and then I turned pro. Torontomay Police is the one that they got
rights in. Yeah, so Iyou know, then I signed and uh,
you know, kind of a differentroute for a kid from Montreal,
but like I always say, there'sno right or wrong. There's no books
(04:25):
on how to get to the finaldestination. And it just worked out great
for me. So how is yourdad with that though, with both you
and your brother taking a different route? Yeah, which was awesome. And
I give credit to my brother becausemy aunt had gone to prep school.
My brother was really tight with myaunt and she always said, hey,
listen, go to prep school inthe US is awesome. And the movie
(04:46):
Dead Poet Society was big, andthat's that was my brother. He was.
He loved movies and loved that andhe was like, I want to
live something like this, and that'skind of where the idea came from.
And we were lucky enough that ourparents gave us the opportunity to live something
like this. And it's not easy. I mean, we didn't speak English,
or my brother and I when weleft, and you didn't. No,
no, we're a French family.So that was my introduction to English.
(05:09):
I had no idea like I'd neverwritten more than three words in English,
and so you get emerged in prepschool and it was fun. It
was an unbelillable experience. And ouroldest max Is graduated actually from there last
June. That's thirty thirty three yearslater than me and maybe thirty five years
later than my brother. And thenour youngest Tie wants to go there in
(05:30):
a couple of years, so we'llsee if we can keep the tradition going
there. So it's pretty awesome.That is neat and how neat for your
dad doing what he did to beable to go get your own wings and
do your own thing exactly. Andthat's why we were fortunate and very lucky,
and first and foremost, it's asacrifice for the parents, because my
wife and I lived in three yearsago. Letting our oldest boy leave Colorado
(05:51):
here and go to Boston and whichwas awesome, but it is a sacrifice
because you're not there every day.Today is a little different in then with
social media and devices and all thatstuff. With me back then, I
had to call home at noon onSunday and that's that's what I had to
do because my mom was waiting bythe phone, and that's how it worked.
(06:11):
And then now it's a little different. I probably drove my son nuts
the last three years where if youneed something, just check it in a
lot check it in. So butit was awesome and and just for anybody
that's all there that's an Avalanche fan. And we were lucky enough too because
the COVID year was the first yearof our son there and all the rules
in Massachusetts were so different than NewHampshire. And a long story short is,
(06:31):
in order to play hockey you hadto find a billet family because you
couldn't stay on campus because the campuswas closed in a sense that if you
were on campus, you weren't leaving. So if you were playing a sport,
that means you were leaving. RayBourke was Max, our oldest son's
a billet dad fort for the wholeyear Oh my gosh. So it was
awesome. Again, hockey is sucha small circle. And my dad ended
(06:55):
up calling Ray and he's like,hey, we need a family and he's
like, no, no, wedon't need a family. I'll do it.
He lives five minutes away. Hisdaughter went to the same school two
years ago, but so Ray washis billy dad for the whole year,
driving him around then living with them. It was awesome. That is really
neat hockey takes care of hockey thatit is a very very tight community,
and you almost have to be becauseof the way the sport is. And
here we don't have rinks on everycorner. We don't have so getting ice
(07:18):
time and then driving it five amto go to ice time and having being
able to cartpool and you get reallyclose with people you do. And we
lived it obviously with our oldest andnow we're living it with our youngest,
Tie and me. Our daughter wasa gymnast. It's a little different,
but it's still all the time,thirty hours a week, goes crazy,
(07:39):
but yeah, and that's where yourfriendships are formed, right with the other
families and the kids and everybody atthe house or at their house. It's
everybody house one another. So thehockey community or the sports community in general
is awesome. And then let's talkabout your career, because you have a
lot of connections that you've made becauseyou were all over the place in your
career. Eric, So, asyou said, the Maple Leafs, I
(08:00):
had your rights in nineteen ninety Youmake your pro debut in the ninety three
ninety four season, spent a littlebit of time with their AHL affiliate before
that. Yeah, so I youknow, spent the first year I played
in American League and it was Newfoundland, the furthest point east on the map
if if you know geography. Itwas fun. We were young and a
lot of guys ended up having careersin the NHL, and and by my
(08:20):
second year I got called up,which was nice, and I played that
LA. It was awesome. Itwas It's a lot of hard work.
And we were at the small airportconnecting in Halifax, you know, from
Newfoundland because we were in that Maritimesdivision, and Mark Crawford was former Avalanche
coach, was my coach and theminers new kidding. Yeah yeah, small
world, right, small world.And then I remember Mark calling me over
(08:43):
and we were just on the layoverand he's like, you know, so
I thought I was in trouble orsomething. I don't know. Gave me
another plane ticket. Right back thenit was the hard plane tickets. And
you know, I said, you'regoing on this flight. You're going on
that flight at the fly to Anaheim. Such a long flight. I was
gonna say that as long as Iguess from the east to the west.
And then uh so you got along flight there to just remember who helped
(09:03):
you out, you know, growingup and all that kind of stuff.
And again we didn't have the cellphones back then, but still I made
a few phone calls and teams areso nice. Obviously everybody does that in
the NHL. But it was nicethe next day and warm up getting on
the ice for my first game,and I could see my parents on the
ice, you know, because theteams had invited them for like like a
lot of teams do. And itwas nice to see them and it was
(09:24):
fun and it was exciting times formyself for sure. And that is the
year before your dad takes over asthe president and GM of the Nordeeks.
Yeah, so he's still an agentat that point. Yeah, it was
my agent, and uh, youknow, you said Michelle Gulay and Patrick
Hi and bunch of Hall of famers. Yeah, you know, of course
I was players like myself. ButI guess it's that weird having your dad
as your agent. Yeah, itwas. It was awesome. Pier was
(09:46):
a great agent. He had agreat reputation around the league, and he
was but he was ready. Hewas ready for a new challenge and and
that's when he took on the challengeto become the GM of the Nordecks and
really a team that was up incoming and they needed some leadership and he
brought that and obviously only lasted ayear or before the team franchise. You
know, the franchise came to Denver, which was life changing for our family.
(10:09):
And obviously we called the city home. And you know, over the
years and I married a girl fromhere, and our kids were all born
here. My mom still resides here, and so even my mom's sister and
the cousins and I mean everybody,everybody moved here. So that's cool.
Colorado exactly, Denver became our homeand it's been a great journey. That
is really cool. Eric. Allright, so you're with the Maple Leafs
(10:31):
your pro debut ninety four, thenyou have a couple more years, do
you go kind of up and downa little bit? Yeah? To be
honest, like I was young,and they had an old team. They
had gone to the Western Conference finalsfor a couple of years in a row,
and really a lot of veterans onthe team. And the lockout was
that ninety three ninety four, Ibelieve. Anyway, the lockout started,
not ninety four ninety four, andI did not have to clear waivers,
(10:54):
and I got a phone call andsaying do you want to go? I
had made the team out of trainingcamp to Toronto, had signed the lease
on an apartment downtown Toronto, andthen they asked me a week later,
like would you like to go playin the minors? They didn't have to
clear waivers because my age was stilltoo young, and I said sure.
So I went down to Newfoundland forone game, and then then I got
the phone call that I'd been tradedto the Los Angeles Kings. And to
(11:16):
be fair, like, at themoment, you feel devastated because it's been
a couple of years, You're tryingto make the team and you want to
prove them right that they drafted youand this is the team and did you
think this is the end of theworld. And I remember being devastated and
just being so mad, and youfeel rejected and you feel that you know
they don't want you, and whydon't they want me? And you start
(11:37):
analyzing and same thing. So Igot a phone call from the Kings saying,
you don't have to clear waivers,would you like to come play in
Phoenix? So then I got onthe flight from there to Phoenix and it
was like, oh my god,A lot of time to think about there.
And it was great because I wentto Phoenix in the lockout and it
was fun. My whole high schoolroommate from my team in Boston there was
(12:00):
on that team. So yeah,I was awesome. And then so it
was fun to go Runners. Yeah, Phoenix road Runners. So then and
as soon as the lockout ended,Barry Melrose with the Kings was our coach
with the Kings, and Barry hadtold me, like he listen, when
the lockouts over, you're coming upwith us, and kept their word,
and I was excited and I justwalked into the dressing room. I didn't
know anyone in Los Angeles and firstguy that came out to me it was
Wayne Gretzky and he introduced himself andhe's like, I'm Wayne Gretzky and like,
(12:24):
no crap, all right, andI remember and it's another for Avalanche
fans or whatever, like Barry Molrosepicked me up at the airport and you
know, went to practice and practicering was in the valley there near Van
Nuys, and I had no ideawhere I was. And practice ended,
and I remember Barry Mose was leavingand I'm like, where do I go?
(12:46):
You know what I mean? SoI so I asked him, I'm
sorry. So I'm like sorry,coach, Like I'm sorry to be that
guy, But where do I go? Like I which hotel am I at?
Or which He's like, oh no, no, no, You're gonna
stay with Blakey and Rob blake formera defensive So I remember going to blake
and I'm like, hey, Iguess I'm I'm staying with you and he's
(13:07):
like, oh, I don't know, no one told me anything, but
sure, come on in. Andthen ended up being almost three years with
him, so it worked out great. Yeah, but it was like it's
a little different back then, andthen Berry picture up at the airport and
then he tells you you're staying withRob Blake and you have to go talk
to him. And then Rob Blakehas no idea what I'm talking about.
But then we had a great friendshipand it was awesome. I ended up
being with him for a few yearsuntil I got traded to Colorado. So
(13:28):
yeah, he was my housemate.That's so funny. Well, and then
Rob Blake comes here too, andso you guys have their relationship here as
well. Okay, so then youtalk about the trade from LA to the
Avalanche, and your dad is hereby then, yea, and they had
just won the Cup and you comein. Then what happens with that trade?
It was weird because in LA wehad gone through a transformation that year,
(13:50):
the ninety six season. This isa year Wayne Gretzky got traded to
Saint Louis and Marty mcsoley, YarriCurry Hall of Famers. That Rick Talk
List goes on, we didn't havea good season and they were going young,
and everybody got traded. Me beingyoung, Rob Blake being young.
We got called in the office saying, hey, we're gonna need you guys
a leadership. Guys are young andwe're gonna you know, not that I
(14:13):
was a good player. I'm notcomparing myself to Rob Blake. Rob Blake's
a Hall of Fame or I wasnot. But I've had a couple of
good seasons in LA And we wereyoung, and we were the only two
young guys at the start, andthen all of a sudden we became a
younger team. So they called usin. They wanted us to show some
leadership, and so I was reallyexcited. I really liked it. We
lived in Manhatan Beach. It's Idon't know if you've ever been there,
(14:33):
but it's it's paradise young as itwas fun and volleyball and it was awesome.
And then all of a sudden,being around the game for so long,
my dad being an agent, Iunderstand at the end of June is
the draft. And we didn't havecell phones back then. But I remember
being at the house and Rob wasvisiting his parents in Toronto, and the
(14:54):
phone rang in the house and wewere in the hot tub in the bag.
It was like mid afternoon, andyou know, the afternoon, and
my buddy said, Sam mcmasteristers GMwith the Kings at the time, wants
to talk to you. So Iwas like, all right, let me
talk to him. I think it'sRob Blake calling me from back home and
it's messing around. So I'm like, hey, sammy boy, and I
(15:16):
you know, being like really stupidto be my general manager. Looking back
afterwards, I was so embarrassed.And then he kept telling me, you
know, this is a serious conversation, and I'm like, okay, I'm
sure it is, you know.But then it clicked, you know,
I'm like, oh my god,it's the end of June, the drafts
going on, and I recognized hisvoice. Rob Blake is not that good
of an actor, you know.So I was like, oh my lord,
(15:39):
like, oh my god, Igot traded, and you know what
I mean, Like knowing now,I'm like, oh man, I got
traded. This is no but Ican't. They just called me in a
couple weeks ago telling me like,you know, so I was like,
wow, I recognize. I kindof blacked out, and sammcmaster kept telling
me, well, you know whereyou're going, and I was like then
finally I stopped him, and Iwas so disappointed. Now I was hurt
(16:00):
from Toronto, right, you know, now this is more like, this
is like I'm heartbroken because I lovedbeing in La king I loved it.
I loved the way things had gonefor myself personally, and I love the
way that it was going to goin great friendships. She was like,
Rob and you know, now You'relike again, like, you gotta be
kidding me then, but he kepttelling me, you know where you're going.
And that's when I kind of stoppedhim and didn't raise my voice,
(16:22):
but so you got to stop tellingme where? I like, where am
I going? And he kept tellingme again, well you know, well
you know, and I'm like,what do I know? And he said
Colorado Avalanche and I was like,humh what, Like I'm trying to process
this and it's really not connecting.It was weird. It was it was
surreal, said thank you, seeyou later, and that's how it ends.
(16:45):
Right, that's the end of yourrelationship with your team. It's the
weirdest thing because it's over on aphone call, and then called Blakey right
away and then said, oh mygod, I got traded. And then
you know, over the last coupleof seasons, he was a little disappointed
because his close friends that you know, I've been on the team, I've
been traded, and he was like, oh my god again. And then
the phone rang right away and itwas Mark Crawford that was not all the
(17:06):
coach of Yeah, was my coachand the mineers and he's like, hey,
listen, we made this trade,and you know, Michelle Gulay was
part of it obviously being player personnel, and we made this trade. I
don't want you to think this hasnothing to do with we make trades here
where there's eight of us, andwe asked them to step aside, and
we said, this is what weneed, this is what we're looking for,
(17:26):
and you're you're the guy that wewere able to acchoir and don't worry,
it's gonna be all good. AndI was like, all right,
well, you know what, it'sperfect. You know what I mean,
thank you, And then I rememberhanging up, and you know, then
probably cried for a couple of daysbecause you know, it was tough,
and you're like you're building those roots, those relationships and it's hard. And
then but looking back, I'm like, oh my god, this is unbelievable.
(17:48):
These guys won the Stanley Cup,and yeah, it's gonna be a
weird situation. And it was wholebecause of my dad be in the gym,
you know, so it's it's hard. And well, the guys were
so awesome. It was never anissue, you until he became an issue.
But it was awesome. I gotto come here and you're talking about
a championship team and obviously guys thatgrew up in my house, like Patti
(18:10):
wa and you know, Sylvan Lafayand I mean the list goes it was.
It was surreal for me to bepart of that group with Joe and
Peter and had to be Oh mylord, I mean, you know,
Denmark, faud Valkmen, I mean, the list goes on, Sandy.
So that team was so unbelievable andI felt so privileged to be part of
it. And the team was attheir prime and it was a love affair
of the city of Denver having won. And you know, the first year
(18:30):
they just got here and everybody waslike this team. It was fantastic.
So it was awesome and it wasa great time to become an Avalanche.
And and I remember talking to latePeter McNabb at the start of training camp
first day, came talk to mebecause he had played for his dad and
New Jersey Devils. That's right wherethere's only a few of us in the
history of the league that I've playedfor their dads. I do believe it's
(18:51):
three. Peter was different. Itwas at the end of his career.
Me was more like, okay,I'm like twenty four, twenty five now,
it's more like earlier part of mycareer, even though I'd been in
the league for a few years now. It was still a little nerve racking.
But the guys were great, andthen as soon as training camp started,
felt right at home. And hehad a great season that first year.
Yeah here, yeah, it wasgreat. Yeah, it was my
best. It was great. Itwas still new for a lot of the
(19:14):
players, meaning what do I meanby that? Like, we all lived
at the Breakers, this complex onLeidsdale. They were like because guys had
gone in the year before I boughthouses. I think Joe was the first
one that bought a house. Sowe all lived at the Breakers from you
know, Forsburg, Chi Val Chimiski. Then Marsh myself, Renny Corbett lived
with me because again he was oneof my Dad's. There are a couple
of parties that went on. Yeah, but we were all so tight.
(19:37):
We were so tight. We arealways together and it was fun and yeah,
of course Wednesday night at the Stampedeand you know what I mean.
So it was it was fun,It was great. It was a great
time. But it was still newfor the city of Denver. We didn't
have a practice rank. We weregetting dressed at McNichols and drive our cars
with no skates to du I remembergetting pulled over on the Highway I twenty
five with I was driving Patty Wassfully geared on the right side, Joel
(20:00):
Sacking in the back, Mike Keenin the back. Cop pulled us over
and he did ask for a licenseand registration and I was like, well,
I didn't remember. The guy hadno idea. Still it's new,
right, you're talking about like ayear. He didn't has no idea.
And then Patrick and he's like,does it look like we have our license
(20:21):
and registration? The guy's thinking likeis it Halloween? Like what is this
like it was? And then herealized it's like, oh my god.
Then you know what I mean.So it was crazy. It was fun
times. I think we laid thefoundation pretty good, the guys that were
here originally, and you know,it was nice and it meant a lot
to be an avalanche. It meanta lot to be an avalanche for me
obviously with the relationship and uh,you know that that was a tough day,
(20:44):
probably toughest day of my life,I would say the day that I
left here, you know, becauseI didn't think it was necessary. I
didn't think that it needed to happen, but it did, which is fine.
And then traded back to the Kings, right, well, it happened.
I didn't get traded back to theking. So I walked upstairs and
in my dad's office and I said, okay, I'm going back to La.
(21:06):
I was telling you earlier. Iwas heartbroken when I you know,
when I got traded, and Isaid, and my dad was it was
very honest with me, and obviouslythere's a lot of tears that it was
weird with Charlotte Graham too, andyou know the staff was in there too,
and I said, listen, that'sI don't want this to be a
spectacle, like I'm going back toLa and this is what I want to
do. And my dad now forgetabout here, my dad. You know
(21:27):
what I mean. Now, it'slike, okay, maybe this was a
mistake back that which I wasn't,you know. I mean it was I
listen, I met my wife here, and if I'd never been here,
I wouldn't have my wife the threekids. So it's awesome. I never
looked back at it as a badthing. And I got to play with
these guys, which was amazing.But that day I was a little disappointed.
(21:47):
It was a little mad. Iacted on maybe a little too quick,
telling my dad I'm going back toLA. You were frustrated enough.
No, no, well yeah,I mean it's a long story, but
it's not a problem until it becomesa problem. You know. We started
the season oh six and one,Bob Harley was a new coach. Something
happened. I didn't do anything,guys didn't do anything. I don't know
(22:07):
what. It was just one ofthose balls that just kept rolling and it
went down the hill and it becameimmedia thing and I was just like,
okay, I need to go,which I did. But I made a
mistake there looking back at it,I made a mistake. I should have
listened to my dad, forget aboutPierre saying no, wait, let me
send you to where it would bea better fit than just saying I'm going
(22:30):
back to LA. But I said, no, I'm going back now.
And he called Dave Taylor back theGM in LA and said, just take
him back it just give me abag of hocks and no offense any At
the end of the day, Ithink a contract was trade. I don't
remember who. It was. Nooffense to that player, That's not what
I'm saying. But it was justlike, oh, well take him back.
And it was just wrong of goingback. It wasn't the same.
(22:53):
There was a reason why you gettraded too. Now you're going back,
and it's a little forced or whateverit is, to try and recreate what
you had before. It didn't work. And I went there and I spent
maybe thirty games or something like that, and it was just awful. I
don't think I had got one point. It was brutal, it was bad.
It was a bad situation, andI struggled with the fact that I
(23:17):
had been hurt, emotionally hurt,and I couldn't get past it, and
I was trying to and I wasn'tblaming anyone. I was just trying to
get out of it and I nevercould. And then that season, I
you know, again, I hadjust gotten engaged or married that year or
something. So anyway, Jills fromColorado and it was funny. She went
to see you and there's a Coloradogirl. And next thing, you know,
we packed our bags. We goto LA. Next thing, you
(23:37):
know, a couple months later,we packed our bags go to New York
Rangers. New York Rangers was greatbecause it just let me start fresh a
little bit down on and it waswearing Gretzky's last year, which was my
teammate in LA, and I gotalong well with Wayne. It was awesome
to go there, and it wasfun to at least be part of some
special at the end of the year, which was his last game, and
so it kind of made a toughyear, like really tough year, made
(24:00):
it at least the last game memorablesilver lining in there. And and then
we came back here in the summers, and you know, obviously you ended
up always having a house here andthis is home for us. And it
was a tough year. That soundslike if you were able with the Rangers
for three years. Yeah, Ijust went to Ottawa for your final year.
Yeah, I never recovered from thatday. If you look at people,
(24:22):
look at stats nowadays, you goon those Hockey dB or League prospects,
and you'll see there's a big decline. And I just never recovered from
that day leaving here. And I'mnot blaming anyone, you know, that's
fine. I mean, you gotyou got to find a way to get
through it. And then I justI didn't do it. As a player,
my game suffered. I wasn't thesame. But what I tell kids
all the time, especially kids atour camp nowadays, is be a good
(24:45):
person, you know, be agood teammate. And it kept me in
the league three four more years justby being a good teammate, by being
there for the guys and never complaining. And until he became okay, you
know, maybe I want to dosomething else now, Maybe that doesn't make
me happy anymore, to be thegood guy. And that's how I ended
my relationship. But Ottawa we lost. You know, I was getting straight
(25:06):
at there the deadline. Then welost four straight in the first round.
We were the number one team theyear there as won the Stanley Cup.
I know one a lot of peoplewere saying Ottawa versus Colorado in the finals,
but we never got out of thefirst round in the East. We
lost four straight to Toronto, ournemesis. And and for me, like
a role player, you know,I knew my contract was over, that
we needed to have some team successin the playoffs for me to probably you
(25:27):
know, get another contract. Didn'thappen. So that summer was tough,
and it's kind of waiting. Nowyou're married, and you know, I'm
like, okay, did you haveany kids on the way yet? No,
No, Max wasn't born yet.He was born a year after so
so we were just kind of waiting. And I told Jill, I said,
I'm gonna get ready for the season. If a contract happens, awesome.
(25:48):
If it doesn't, I'm ready tomove on. And it's funny how
things work. I remember meeting BobHartley at the mall. It was now
September, and I was not gettingany offers. Ottawa was giving me somebody.
They wanted me to wait and giveme a two way and go playing
the minors. I want to go. You know, I've been ten years
at that point, in like nineyears i've been in them. I didn't
want to go back and yeah,and Bob said to me, well,
(26:11):
Dave Reid was going to take thejob here as assistant coach slash video slash,
you know, add to the coachingstaff. And he didn't take it,
And oh my god. He justcalled me and he's going back to
Toronto. They're starting this network calledNHL Network and read are still doing that,
by the way. And he's like, maybe you know, do you
know anyone? And so I lookedat him. I'm like, well,
(26:32):
I'm just about to call it quitstomorrow because it's September one. And and
I had told Jill that, youknow, I was gonna give it till
September one to see and if not, I was gonna try to do something
else. Then he's like, whoa, there's pure no. And I'm like,
well not really, that's you know, business is business. If you
look back, like I said,I didn't know how I was traded.
Today, people assumed that I kneweverything. I never knew anything. My
(26:53):
dad was very close. Uh everyonewasn't the guy that got out there to
the media what was happening now hedidn't. Then, dude, no one
knew anything. So my mom ormyself, so it doesn't matter. So
but Bob was like, who'll bringthat up to Pierre? And then the
next day Bob calling, He's like, well, would you want to do
this? And that's kind of howI jumped on. So I never really
had a transition there from retiring tojumping on that coaching staff. And then
(27:17):
we went to Sweden and nine toeleven hit and it was surreal, it
was crazy, and but then youknow, we're able to come back here
and start a family, and youknow, I was like, all right,
let's get into the world of hockeysis what I know as the same
schedule. So it was an easytransition for many years. But you literally
see Bob at the mall, atPark Meadows at par Medosa. It's true
story. It's true story. Whatif you hadn't run into him that day?
(27:38):
You think about how different your wholeretirement trajectory could have been. Yeah,
that's crazy. And then I waslucky enough obviously with learned from Pierre,
and you know, Craig Bellington wasthe year after, and Billington was
more like same thing. You know, we called it our Harvard education of
the National Hockey League, and hegave us the freedom to learn from all
(28:00):
the fast all the assets of thehockey operations, from scouting to developing,
to ticket sales to marketing to youknow, we were lucky enough to touch.
It's very knowing how everything works,because sometimes people at the top have
zero idea what everybody else is doing. And we were lucky to learn and
then to fly and to see.I realized that yay, coaching is not
(28:21):
probably not what I want to doin a sense that young family Mary probably
have to move cities. Right.You want to get into coaching, you
got to get into miners and goand do it again. And I was
like, oh, maybe that's notthe avenue we want to do. So
it's more like developing and you know, management, and that's kind of what
I jumped in, which was niceand would you like the most that you
did because you did video coach ordirector of Hockey ops scout and then eventually
(28:45):
you go back and you're the vicepresident of Hockey Operation. It was fun
and what I know is the DNHLlevel, So I'm more an an NHL
guy and I raised my hat toamateur scouting and that is an art.
Those guys are unbelievable. That isnot my forte. I I don't know
how those guys do it to lookat a sixteen, seventeen, eighteen year
old and know that you know,it's easy to pick the conor mc david's
(29:07):
or right but Dard, but it'snot easy to pick the diamond ind or
off. It's not easy to projectand it's all projection. And I remember,
just talking about these guys, Ifelt so like in all of those
guys me, I'm more an NHLguy where you're in the action for trades
and for you know, with thecoaching staff, and that was my what
I enjoyed the most. I lovedit. It was awesome. It was
(29:29):
fun, and you got the highsthe lows. You still get the wins
and losses, which is it isaddicting. It is, and then you
miss it when you're out of it. Did that fill what you had as
a player? Ye? Did it? Yeah? A lot of times people
will say you can never find anythingthat fills what you had as a player.
No, it did, and itdid interest and then for me it
was more. Now we had threekids and I was juggling with how to
be a good father, good husband, and still. And I'm not saying
(29:52):
people can't do it. I justI was struggling with it. Hard to
juggle your juggle and work, andI just needed to get some time away.
And that's when I left the Avalanchethe year Patrick came in, and
it was more it was me.It was I need to get away.
I need to go spend time withmy kids and regroup a little bit and
figure things out and then get backstronger afterwards. Which good. Did you
(30:14):
recognize that? That's hard to recognizeit was? And sometimes we came because
you get out of the wheel,it's not that easy. And you find
that out later on that it's notthat easy to get back in the wheel
where you think it's it's very easy. It's not. But looking back at
it, we went to Vegas andthat's my parents said, had a residence,
so they were spending a lot oftimes, you know, Denver in
Vegas, and so that's why wechose Vegas. And Stefan Yelle former teammate
(30:38):
right of mine, and we marriedsisters and you did, yeah, funny,
so your brother in laws. Yeah, So we moved to Vegas all
together, the wives and the kids, and oh my god, and then
my brother ended up moving to Vegasand you know, so next thing,
you know, we had a biglike you know, a'mount of family in
Vegas and it was great and youknow, you hockey, and we loved
our experience in Vegas. It wason. Then it was time to get
(31:00):
back to Denver, and you know, which we did four or five years
later. But and we've been heresince. So there were fun adventures and
we've never been afraid to pack upand go, and that's what we've been
Now you're probably here for a while. Yeah, yeah, this is home
for us. And yeah, Jill'sfrom here and the kids were all born
here. And when we made thatdecision, our world was going to start
high school and then we had onein middle school and the elementary school kind
(31:23):
of keeping the same kind of like, okay, no, let's absolutely ground
ourselves somewhere. I want to goback a little bit, Eric, to
with your dad as a player whenhe was at GM and then when you
also worked in the front office withhim. How different was it in each
of those scenarios and were you ableto separate family from business with him?
He was amazing and the guys willtell you guys like Patty Way, guys
(31:47):
that were so accustomed to him becausehe was their agent and then he was
their manager. Says it's a littledifferent. There is a line somewhere,
but but Piero's all about family,and the guys felt it obviously me being
family for real like it was,but it was well done. Like going
back. We all lived together atthe Breakers, and we'd go and my
mom would cook us dinner and wouldkick my dad out to be like,
(32:07):
you gotta go somewhere else, andso all of us would go back.
My mom would be watching Wardsburg andso we'd go hang out at the house
for hours and we'd be like,Hugo shoes, shoe somewhere else. And
uh so he was good. Butit was the one thing that Pierre was
family, Pierre at the heart.But he was able to make the hard
decisions and just go back to theRob Blake slash Adam Deadmarsh trade, right,
(32:29):
the Marsh babies being in the hospital, right, that we're born prematurely,
and um, there are tough times. There are things that you don't
want to do. And remember mydad like telling me all the time because
now working with them, you're seeingall the intricacies of you know, management
and all that stuff, and it'simportant for as players. You think you
know everything because you're playing the game, but we don't know anything. You
(32:49):
don't know how anything works. Anduntil you live it, then you start
learning and then you're like, ohwow, those aren't easy decisions. For
example, trading someone and Pierre wasalways hard, like he would have to
take a breath and you know,breathe a little bit and then okay,
and go send whoever's got to gopick up that person, bring him his
office. And for example the Denmarksting was really hard. And then years
later, I mean they were goodbuddies and everything, it was all good,
but they were talking about those thingsand the Deddie understood a lot of
(33:14):
things. So like afterwards by beingcoaching here with the Avs and and being
tight with my dad again and butit was more like, hey, this
is not easy. No, thebusiness part and then the human part it's
very hard. It's hard to marrythose. It's hard, and I think
he was the master at it.He was really good. And even after
a game, if if you're comingdown from the press box with him,
because you know, we were inthe same box upstairs and one of the
(33:36):
staff and and it's a tough loss, and you're like, oh my god,
you can hear him like, youknow what I mean, like oh,
being mad. And then but thenwalk in the coach's office and it's
just like whoop, new faces on. Hey, guys, it's all good.
This is our first loss in eightgames. You lose one out of
eight, you're gonna finish first.Overall, it's okay, see you tomorrow
(33:57):
morning, grab your jacket, walkout, and then keep going on the
hallway. But the guys in there, the coaches that are so disappointed to
that night because it's an emotional highand emotional low and it's hard and it's
feelings and you're like, oh mygod, it was a tough loss.
And then but then they hear heknew the message to give it the top.
All of a sudden, they're like, Okay, it's not so bad,
you know what I mean. Andthen go home, and you know,
(34:19):
it's I think he was really goodat that. And it's hard to
do because I've seen it with differentmanagers. Oh I'm sure it doesn't go
well. It doesn't go well.It's not the right time so, but
he was really good about that,and it was fun to see him in
action. It was fun to seehim organizing trades and you think it's you
know, especially nowadays it's with Xboxand you know, you make trades,
(34:42):
and you think it's that easy,right, It's it's not easy. So
it's and it's and you have tolook at everything every angle and they take
months or weeks or you know,to come to fruition. But you think
it just is one day, andit's not. It's it's fun to watch,
but it was a pleasure to obviouslyplay for him, and those were
the greatest, you know, yearsof my life for sure. Did you
ever talk to him about that daythat you went into him and tell him
(35:05):
that it was a mistake? Ithought, you wish you hadn't done it?
Yeah, no, it's hard totell our parents. And I was
like, yeah, you know what, you're right, Yeah, yeah,
But then it was it's a soresubject and so we never really got to
talk about it again. But itwas more like, hey, I years
later I was able to talk.I didn't talk about it for years with
teammates or anybody. Year. Itwas hard for me to talk about but
(35:27):
I remember telling him my day,like, hey, I messed up,
Like it's on me, and thenright away we're done. And now we're
done. Yeah, And he waslike, no, no, no,
it's my fault. And I'm like, no, no, no, it
wasn't. I was going to doit. I'd do it all over again
the same way, except my exit. I would do it differently, you
know, where maybe if I wouldjust breathe a little bit, maybe I
would have a more successful career forthe last five, six, seven,
(35:50):
eight, nine, ten years.It probably cost me many years of my
career. My just that quick decisionof too quick of a response, too
quick of response. Needed to reflectmore and let things breathe a little bit
and then come back and you know, okay, have a clear mind on
it. You were too reactive inthem. Yeah, it was too it
was too quick. Yeah, liveand learn. And I sure learned that
day. I bet you did.All right, So tell me a little
(36:12):
bit more about what you're doing now. You're doing a lot of TV work
and also a lot of work withcamps. I mean you are busy.
Yeah, we're busy. So abunch of us former Avs or NHL players,
like David Clarkson, Johnny Mitchell,myself. We have the drill House
Sports Performance Center, which isn't afront of family sports and where the Ferris
Wheels used to be and all thatstuff, So we thank you. It's
(36:32):
great. Yeah, I have littlekids to go there anymore, but you
used to. Yeah, great placefor hockey players obviously, So we have
our gym in there for it's morehockey specific, and we have teams that
go in their local teams during theseason and during the summer it's our summer
camp and we have a little wehave NHL guys to seven year olds,
so they're all separated into groups.It keeps us busy and it's fun for
(36:53):
the whole summer. And so wetried to bring something special here to the
area that we felt was needed forme. It was more about as well.
At the start was more try tostart a foundation for in Pierre's honor
when he passed away a couple ofyears ago, and it was, you
know, the local hockey Foundation,and we would like to do a lot
more. We're just starting. It'sa lot of work and then, uh,
(37:16):
but we're getting there. It's beenbusy, it's been fun and uh,
you know, we have a nicelittle pictures on the wall upstairs and
family sports. This is nice.So it's a daily reminder that you know,
we're trying to make it and wherehe's gone, but not for God
absolutely, and then the TV work. Yeah, yeah, and it's you
know, unfortunately, Peter McNatt passedaway last year and obviously it was unexpected,
(37:39):
and in Mark Ryecroft had done agreat job for so many years now,
they asked him to go fill infor Peter upstairs with Mos and that
created a little bit of hole thereon the pregame and post game and intermissions
and with Kyle Keith and so acouple of us kind of you know,
decide to help out. And sowe tried to fill in as much as
(38:00):
we could last year and it wasfun and you know, do you enjoy
it? Yeah? I love it. I like it. I'd done it
in Vegas my last year there beforewe came back to Denver, so i'd
something had done for a full year. I like it. It's it keeps
you involved in the game, keepsyou busy, and it keeps you in
a sense like familiarizing with the leaguein case, you know, if you're
(38:20):
ever going back to you know,who knows. I'm still young and maybe
going back to full time work.So it keeps you alive. And this
is what I know, right dNHL, This is what I know.
So I it's your comfort Yeah,that's my comfort zone. And it keeps
you fresh, and it keeps youin current, you know, with all
the teams and players. So I'vebeen fortunate yet. All right, last
question, Eric, and you've alludedto this throughout your whole talk. When
(38:40):
you do talk to as you said, you talk to kids, and you
talk to others that are maybe gettinginto the league, what would be your
advice to them when there are thosevery disappointing moments that you have when you
were traded or when you go inand tell your dad, I'm going back
to LA. What do you tellpeople on how to kind of work through
those and then get back to abetter place. Well, I always tell
kids. And obviously now having Max, our oldest son playing junior hockey this
(39:06):
year in the new team in Greeleythe NHL there, the Colorado grit and
then he's going to Boston University ofthe year after twenty four twenty five,
Y's a goaltender, so high endhockey. My dad was real close with
him on the mental aspects of thegame, which is never easy. So
his friends and everybody that I encounter, I always tell people the same thing,
control the controllables. There's nothing youcan do in pro sports that you
(39:30):
start analyzing, you're done. Andit's so true. And that was one
of the things that made me becomea hockey player from watching my dad's clients
back then, which how come thisguy didn't make it and this guy made
it? First of all, rightplace under right time is huge. Yes,
attitude is so important. Everybody's talent. Everybody works hard. You don't
(39:51):
get a cookie because you work hard, like it's expected right. Control,
the control of it is probably thehardest thing to do. And that's what
I tell my son's friends that areplaying at those those hockey like don't analyze,
well, we have eight defensemen andthere's two more coming up. You're
done. As soon as you startdoing that. It's too hard. It's
too hard to mental aspects. Ittakes over. Then oh, your brain
(40:12):
shuts down your body. Next thingyou know, you're not being yourself on
the ice and or any sport.You're doing. And so that's what I
say, is control the controllables.We all end up being beer leaguers.
It just depends when. And atthat time you can analyze all you want.
Oh my god, we don't haveenough d's to play tonight, and
you know what I mean, Andit's for fun and it's midnight and you're
going to McDonald's after the game.So but in the meantime, when it's
(40:35):
serious and you know those leagues,you got to control the controllables, and
you can't. There's nothing you cando about it. So control your attitude,
your effort, what people think ofyou, or what a coach thinks
of you. There's nothing you cando. So all you can do is
work hard and be a good personand the rest will fall into place.
And if it's meant to be,it will be. And if it's not
meant to be, it's not meantto be. And if you just can
(40:58):
live with that, then you'll beall right. I love it. This
has been awesome, Eric, Thankyou. What a great story and just
so much. There's so much toit. And you are you're still young.
Do you think you'll ever get backinto maybe an NHL situation as far
as front office type work, yeah, I mean, obviously, when we
came back to Denver, I wasfortunate enough to jump in with the Calgary
Flames and which was awesome. Itwas a great situation for me because we
(41:22):
were in Denver, didn't I couldbase myself out of here, which was
nice. And then COVID hit.COVID was tough. Obviously, like the
loss of my dad does it wasa COVID accident, right, Yeah,
I mean, which was tough.And then working in the front office with
a Canadian team was really hard.I didn't cross the border for over two
years and you're sitting it's funny withthe zooms and everything, but it was
(41:44):
one of the casualties. I gotto the point where it was so hard.
Yeah, and you're sitting there andyou don't, Yeah, you don't
feel part of it because you're not. Yeah, you're on the zoom,
but you're like, hey, hello, Yeah. I mean, and it's
hard. And I'm not blaming theguys there, but they were in Canada.
I was not, and there wasonly a few of us in the
States. And like I said,it's been over a few years that we
(42:04):
got we were in the office andit's hard. And that's when I was
like, again, maybe it's timeto just take a break right now,
and then, you know, takecare of family stuff here and which I've
done now the last two seasons andlucky enough to stay involved with it because
of Altitude gaming to the opportunity todo the games and watch games. And
but we'll see, we'll see.I mean, I'd love to get back
into it. We'll see if theopportunity comes or if it's the right fit,
(42:27):
right timing right for us. Yeah. Absolutely, all right, this
is awesome, Eric, Thank youso much. I appreciate your time.
Thanks for having me. Thanks Eric. I would pay good money to see
Eric Laqua, Patrick Hua, JoeSakic, and Mike Keane all sitting in
a car and I twenty five gettingpulled over by a cop with Patti wa
in full goaling gear and that wouldhave been awesome. Hey, you know
what, that was a very goodinterview and extremely insightful. Take time with
(42:50):
big decisions. New episodes of Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired come out
every Tuesday. Please follow and downloadthis podcast wherever you listen to podcasts,
and you can find out about newepisodisodes by following on Twitter and Instagram at
CTFR podcast, as well as thewebsite CTFR podcast dot com. By the
way, on the website, thereare links to the major podcast hosts,
links to individual episodes on each picturethat go on the slideshow, as well
(43:15):
as my contact information. If youhave feedback or suggestions, I'm your host,
Susie Wargin. Thank you for takingtime out of your day to check
out this episode and do me afavor. Until next time, please be
careful, be safe, and bekind. Take care
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