John-Michael Liles

14 years in any professional sport is an eternity, especially in the very physical National Hockey League. John-Michael Liles grew up in Indiana and by the time he was in high school, it was apparent that hockey was his sport. He played on some elite teams during his teenage years and after high school had a successful college career at Michigan State.  

During his time with the Spartans, he was drafted by the Avalanche and was a Hobey Baker Finalist his senior season. Shortly after his college career wrapped up in 2003, John-Michael was playing with the Avs affiliate, the Hershey Bears. A few months later, he was in an Avs uniform and scored his first NHL goal in October of 2003.  

He'd spend several years playing solid defense for the Avalanche, becoming a fan favorite and racking up points and goals along the way. Good times rarely last in pro sports however and in 2011, John-Michael was traded to Toronto. A few years later, he was traded again, this time to the Hurricanes… just minutes before he was set to play for the Maple Leafs in the Outdoor Winter Classic. He’d be traded one more time (Boston) before retiring in 2017.  

These days, John-Michael is back to being a fan favorite on the Avalanche broadcast team on Altitude Sports. He’s also a husband and girl dad to two daughters.  

Listen to John-Michael’s story and conversation with @susiewargin on the Cut Traded Fired Retired Podcast. Links to listen on your favorite podcast platforms in the @ctfrpodcast bio!

To learn more about the host Susie Wargin, visit www.SusieWargin.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I kind of knew that it was happening before warm ups,
but I just said, hey, I'm going out to warm
up still because it's an outdoor game winner classic. And
I lined up from across from Kyle Quincy and Drew Miller,
who are buddies of mine, and they're like, how's it going.
I'm like, hey, I just got traded, and they're like,
they're dying laughing because it's you know, we're warming up,
and they're like, no way.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
And you couldn't play in the game, right because you
got traded.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Yeah, I couldn't play in the game.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
And then I took the equipment truck to the airport
afterward and jumped on a plane to Washington, DC to
meet the Hurricanes.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
Welcome to Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired a podcast featuring conversations
with professional athletes and coaches who have experienced some or
all of the words in the podcast title. They've been cut, traded, fired,
and or they're retired. I'm your host, Susie Wargen. Fourteen
years in professional sports is a long time, especially in

(00:51):
the very physical National Hockey League, where the average career
is about five seasons. John Michael Lyles is an Indiana
boy who fell in love with hockey early life, and
he was pretty good at it. He played on a
few high caliber teams through high school, and then his
career continued to blossom in college at Michigan State, where
he was a Hobie Baker finalist and was drafted by

(01:11):
the Avalanche. He started out in the minors for the Avs,
but didn't stay there long. In fact, just a few
months after finishing his senior season with the Spartans in
two thousand and three, he scored his first NHL goal.
John Michael would be a staple on defense for the
Abs for several years until he was traded to the
Toronto Maple Leafs in twenty eleven. He would be traded
twice more to the Carolina Hurricanes and the Boston Bruins. Eventually,

(01:35):
in twenty seventeen, he called it a career. Shortly after retiring,
John Michael began working on the Avalanche broadcast team with
Altitude Sports and has become a mainstay during hockey season.
He's also a husband and a doting dad to two girls,
ladies and gentlemen. John Michael Lyles.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Cut traded fired, retired podcast with Susie Wargen, John.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Michael Lyles, How you doing.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
I'm doing well. I'm doing well.

Speaker 4 (02:03):
I will be transparent on this. You and I sat
down over a year ago with my portable equipment that
did not function correctly, which after we did a fabulous interview,
it was great. I realized that my computer recorded through
the speakers instead of the microphone, and so it took
me a while to tell you that I screwed up,
and you were so nice about it.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
And then here you are again.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
So we're in Denver now, So this I know.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
I didn't have to come up to Bail to get
you this time, so it was good.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
All right.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
So let's just start back at the very beginning with you.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
And you've had so many cool things throughout I mean,
your entire career and then also with what you're doing now.
You're still so involved with media and we see around
all the time, which is really fun. So born in
Indianapolis and grow up there and start with the Wings
minor league team, right, yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, Indy Wings. Yeah yeah, the youth hockey team there.

Speaker 4 (02:54):
It was hockey kind of your first love or did
you have something else? And how'd you start playing?

Speaker 1 (02:58):
You know, I started playing so neither of my parents played.
My dad and my grandfather loved going to the semi
pro games in Indianapolis, and so because of that, I
would go with them, and I just started skating.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
I was.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
No. I mean, it's definitely grown as what I would say,
but back then it was, you know, it was pretty minimal.
You know, we were kind of the only travel team
at our age group in the state. I was fortunate
we had a great group of parents and kids, and
we actually had a number of kids off of those
teams that ended up playing college hockey and some pro
as well, and so yeah, it was kind of it

(03:32):
was weird, but that's you know, sometimes how it works out.
But we would travel pretty much every weekend in Michigan
or Chicago or Toronto or anywhere to play games against
really good competition. And you know, a lot of that
comes back to the parents and how involved they wanted
to be in terms of, yeah, like we could stay
in Indiana and probably play a few teams around here,
but we want to see if these kids can play

(03:53):
against the best competition and be good.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
They were all in, Absolutely, they were all in.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
I mean, we would travel pretty much every Friday and
come back every Sunday, every weekend.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
And that's not cheap either.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
No, it definitely wasn't cheap.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
So yeah, I mean, my parents were amazing and the
parents on that team were amazing. And for me growing
up in Indiana, I'm not gonna say hockey was my
first love because I played a bunch of different sports
growing up. What else do you play baseball and then yeah,
just I mean a few other things. I played golf
in high school, but baseball was kind of my first love,
yession catcher, and I just I loved playing baseball and

(04:28):
that was I loved.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
I mean, you know, Indiana, like it was.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
I don't know, I feel like so often now everybody
plays things year round, yes, but for me it was
nice because I played hockey in the winter and then
I played baseball in the summer and mixed in golf
here and there. But that was kind of you know,
and all my friends played basketball or football, so like
I was, I mean, it's funny. I was thinking about
this the other day. When we moved from Indy North

(04:51):
to Zionsville, my best friend had a basketball court in
his barn in the hayloft.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Like if that's not Indie and I don't.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Know what it is, definitely basketball country.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
And so it's an old barn and it was the
old like wood planks. It's not like an updated, you know,
sport court or anything like that. And there were pillars
and there was hay all around the outside in the hayloft,
and so it was super cool because we would play
one on one there, you know, and two on two
all night into the you know, two, three in the
morning all the time. When I was in middle school,
and I just remember going back to that, it was

(05:24):
like I never played basketball on a team, but I
played so much basketball with my friends stall street ball exactly, yeah, exactly,
and it was like you just grow up and that's
what you do. And so yeah, I mean I played
every sport in that way, but yeah, baseball and hockey,
and hockey kind of took over just you know, when
I went to prep school, it was like I was

(05:44):
good at hockey, and all of a sudden it just
kind of rose to the forefront.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
So talk about that, you go to prep school.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
Well before that, when you were like fourteen, you played
on the Quebec International pe League Hockey tournament.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Right.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah, there's some unfortunate pictures floating around from that. Yeah,
but that I mean, the the Quebec Tournament is a
really prestigious tournament and we were fortunate to get in
and play, and there's a team from Denver that goes
every year. I believe that I think represents the ABS,
which is super cool. And for US, Florida was relatively
new at the time, and so we actually represented the

(06:16):
Florida Panthers. Somehow there was a connection where we reached
out to the Panthers as, hey, we want to represent
the Panthers in the NHL Division and I think we
got permissions. We had like Panthers uniforms, and people loved it.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, it was. It was super cool.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
And I remember going there and just yeah, like there's
crowds that you don't see it.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
Yeah you're fourteen, Yeah exactly. Yeah. Yeah, So it was.
It was amazing, great trip. You know.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
It was one of those things, like looking back, you know,
one of the cool things that just sticks out in
your memory.

Speaker 4 (06:44):
Well, sure, and helps build on everything else that comes
with what you do. So when you go to prep school,
you go to Culver Academy as a freshman, I found
this interesting. You were given the Artillery battillion. You were
the best member of the.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
Mean I was very So it's a culver military academy,
so it's marching something like that.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
It's just it's it's it's military, and what it is
is that it really is about growing the entire individual,
not just athletically, not just academically. Leadership comes into it
as well, and so for me it was I really
enjoyed the military aspect of it and my freshman year.
You know, I love playing hockey, which is why I
went there because it's an amazing hockey program, but the
military aspect really spoke to me. And I was only

(07:26):
there two years. Ended up going to the US national
team after for my junior and senior year. But my
brother went there for four years. He was a regimental
commander at one point, like and he went to the
Naval Academy. So it resonated with our family, is what
I would say. He was a lot more dial than
I am and a much better person. But somehow I
snuck in there and won that award, I guess.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
But there's something to be said for that though, And
that probably worked well for you in pro sports because
knowing a schedule and being on time. As an athlete,
you have to do that. If you're if you're on time,
you're late.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yes, it's it's so true. Yeah, it's so true.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
And I would say that one of the things that
I dealt with, and a lot of guys that go
into retirement deal with, is all of a sudden, you're
not on a schedule, and you've been told kind of
where to be, what to do, what to where. You know,
what body fats have, how strong to be, how fast
to be, every since you're like fourteen years old essentially,
and so when you transition into retirement, it can be

(08:20):
very tough to kind of have this you know, you're
almost floating in the wind a little bit, and even
right now waiting for hockey season to start. Now, my
kids are back at school and you're kind of, you
know now in full time doing TV for the ABS,
and I'm like, I need something to do, right, So
it's you know, you're you're like, Okay, what do I
do today? I have all this free time, My girls
are in school, my wife's you know, going to do this,

(08:42):
and well, all right, Michael, Yeah, so yeah, you can
only golf, Yeah, you can only golf so much. You
can only work out so much, and so yeah, it's
it's still hard.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
It's you've been retired for many years.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
I've been retired for many years now.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
But that I think part of that is, you know,
going back to the military asst is, you knew that
your bet had to be made, you knew that you
had to have your shoes shined, you knew that, you know,
your clothes all had to be folded, your homework all
had to be done, and that was something that I
really liked. Is just that kind of regimented aspect of
the military academy.

Speaker 4 (09:14):
So does Aaron give you a lot of chore lists
and things like that you just do.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
To you just do them.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
I'm a little I'm a little crazy. Yeah, I'm a
little o C D.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Like it's yeah, it's uh but I mean yeah, it's
like she she leaves and comes back and things are done.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
Things are done.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, I mean yeah, but listen, it's I don't I
don't like dive into the laundry too much.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
She usually does the laundry. But I mean, like I'm
you know, I'll clean, yeah, yeah, I'll do the dishes,
I definitely, yeah, mow the yard. Like that's I. Yeah,
I grew up. I had a lawnmowing business.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
So I'm still mow the yard to this day and
do all the landscaping and everything.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
It's it's uh you, it's impressive.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
I credit my mom. My mom's a little OCD in
that regard, so it apple didn't fall too far from
the tree.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
That's so funny.

Speaker 4 (10:03):
All right, So, as you mentioned, in the last two
years of high school, you're with the USA Hockey Development
Program and you go to Michigan. Then at that point
and you start getting recruited, you go to Michigan State.
How many other colleges were beating down your door because
you were getting pretty hot at that point.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, it's interesting looking back.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
My dad saved all of the letters from all the colleges,
which is really cool to see. And you know, I
would say most of us on that team were pretty
heavily recruited. I knew early on that I was going
to stay kind of somewhere in the Midwest, and so
I ruled out Denver University, who I actually knew, Steve Miller,
the assistant coach, and they, you know, they kind of
chatted with me a little bit early on and for me.

(10:43):
I you know, my grandfather was super involved watching me
play hockey all the time, and he didn't travel, he
didn't fly, He would drive only, okay, And so I
kind of knew that I wanted to be closer to home,
but not too close, essentially, And after kind of whittling
down through a number of different places, it came down
to Notre Dame in Michigan's eight and Notre Dame was
an amazing place, super close to home, maybe a little

(11:04):
too close, And so Michigan State was a really good
fit for me and it ended up working out really well.
I had a great four years there, made some amazing friends.
It definitely helped me kind of make that next step
to the NHL. But you know, even at the like
when I was at Culver in the US program, it
was never I never really thought about playing in the NHL.

(11:24):
It was like, really, yeah, you're just kind of in
it and you're just playing, and then you know, Michigan
State you're playing. I got drafted after my freshman year,
but even that, it's like, you know, somebody told me
the easy parts getting drafted. It's making it to the
next level, it's sticking. And I never really thought about
where I would end up or if I would play,
and so it was kind of when I signed that contract,

(11:45):
it was it was. It was one of those things
where you're like, oh man, this is now a job,
and all of a sudden you're in it.

Speaker 4 (11:51):
So when you sign that contract, so you start at
Michigan State nine nine nine rights and then the ABS
draft you in the fifth round in two thousands. So
when you sign that contract back then, I mean that's
way before Anni l and all that stuff was coming around.
You could still play because you played another three years and.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
They just had your rights.

Speaker 3 (12:07):
Basically, yeah, they have your rights. You had an age change. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
I got an agent my senior year, after my junior year,
I think, and we had conversations with the ABS about
signing after my junior year, and I just I wasn't
big enough or strong enough. Still, I had a good
year my junior year. I had a really good year
my senior year, which definitely helped me to get ready.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
For just a Hobie Baker finally.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Well, and I mean we had a really good team
my freshman sophomore or junior year. Senior year wasn't as good.
We lost Ryan Miller, who was a Hobie Baker winner
and amazing goalie, and anytime you lose somebody like that,
it's always going to be tough. And so senior year
was great though, in the sense that it really put
a lot of It made me kind of build as
a player and as a leader, and you know, my

(12:50):
deep partner and I had really good years and it
kind of prepared me for what was to come next.
And it's funny like going back and Eric Laquah was
in town for our alumni event the other week, and
we were chatting and he was kind of my point
person with the ABS when I was playing at Michigan State,
and so he would come and watch me and chat
with me. And when I signed out of Michigan State,
I went played in Hershey and played the last five

(13:12):
games of the regular season, and then our first round
in Hershey. The Avs lost in Game seven to Minnesota.
Eric Lacros said the plan had been if the Avs
had won that round then gone to the second round,
they were going to call me up and play me
in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
But it was just, yeah, it was one of those
things where you're like, I never even thought that would
be a possibility, And it's just funny going back and
hearing some of those things from twenty plus years ago.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
So yeah, no kidding, Yeah, what a different experience that
would have been.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
It would have been a real different experience. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Instead, I got the whole summer to train and come
into training camp and try and make.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
It almost better.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Yeah, it actually works out really well. But yeah, you
never know how things will play out.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
You just found that out a couple of weekends ago.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
And you found it out, yeah, a week eight days ago,
nine days ago.

Speaker 4 (13:58):
Yeah, okay, So in let's see, you end up signing
a two year deal in March of two thousand and
three with the ABS. Like you said, you went and
played for the Bears. You make the roster then were
you surprised?

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Were you?

Speaker 4 (14:10):
Or was it just kind of You're just going with
the flow of this is how things are going, because
it doesn't always happen that way, where we just play
a few games in Hershey and then get on the
regular roster.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
I kind of just came in a training camp and
you know what, I was an undersized defenceman, especially those days,
you know, there was a handful of defensemen that were
maybe five 'ot ten and so it was like, Okay,
I'm going to come in, I'm going to try and
make an impact and hopefully, at the very least they
have to think twice before sending me down. And that
was kind of my mentality, is, you know, come in

(14:40):
in really good shape, try and make as much of
an impact as I can, and you know, make them
have to make a decision. I was fortunate, I would
say fortunate for me, not fortunate for other guys, but
Dj Smith, who's a coach in the NHL now, but
he was one of the defensemen that was essentially slotted
to be on the roster. I was probably going to
be the seventh or eighth defense if anything. And he

(15:01):
got an eye injury, you got hit with a stick
or a puck in camp, and he missed the rest
of camp and at least the first part of the season.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
So it actually kind of opened up a little bit
for me.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
And I think, you know, a lot of succeeding in
professional sports is not only talent and drive, but some
of it's luck and that opportunity and opportunity exactly. And
so it was fortunate for me for that to have happened.
Unfortunate for him to get that eye injury, but it
was one of those things where I was able to
kind of seize the opportunity and make the team and

(15:31):
make it enough of an impact to stay there for
this year.

Speaker 4 (15:33):
You got to be ready when those come about. So
you get your first goal. Then October of that season,
what do you remember about your first goal?

Speaker 3 (15:39):
In Minnesota?

Speaker 1 (15:40):
It was a national televised game, so my parents got
to see it, which was really cool. Yeah, a lot
of people back home got to see it. And yeah,
Bates Spataglia passed the back door to me and I
just essentially a wide open net. And yeah, I mean
those are the ones you don't forget.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
No kidding, Oh, that's super cool.

Speaker 4 (15:56):
And then that year you have ten goals, thirty four points,
highest point for a defenseman in Avalanche history.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
Does that still stand? Oh gosh, no, I didn't think so.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
No, No, for a rookie. No, that's I mean, I
think Kale's slapped out.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
Oh yeah, yeah, I think there might have been a
couple guys that have beaten that by this point, but
kal KALs pretty much got everything and if he doesn't
have it, he will have it soon.

Speaker 4 (16:18):
Because there were a few others you notched some things
along the way. Yeah, I mean they I mean that
was you know, in the early two thousand. Yeah, We've
had some pretty good players exactly.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
I was happy to have held a few things at
least for a couple of years. And you have a
guy like Tyson Barry who played in our alumni game
just retired. I mean he was a tremendous offensive defenceman
and he and I actually played together in that game
two number fours on the blue line, which people.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Thought the same number. I know, that was funny.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Well, we just said it was like, what do people
know you as if we got to have multiple numbers.
I mean, people are still going to appreciate that. Yeah,
you're not going to have you know, Dan Heinolt Where's
thirteen and you've got somebody else that wears thirteen. Dan
Hein It's not going to wear another number. People know
him as thirteen, right, So you know Forrestburg's at twenty one.
Those are the easy ones, and we just we made
the decision that we were going to duplicate numbers and

(17:06):
be okay with it, and I think fans appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
And guys did too. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (17:09):
Well, since you've jumped ahead to that, let's let's talk
about that alumni game because that was so much fun.
It was Avalanche alumni against DU alumni, and.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
Magnus Arena was packed.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
Yeah, I mean almost a sellout, which guys didn't really
expect because you guys have been doing alumni games for
a very long time. You'll go to tell you Ryde
and Brack and things like that, but this was like
the first big one here in Denver and you were
a big part of that. It was just so cool
to see all the guys come back together.

Speaker 3 (17:36):
Well and it was. It was cool, and you and
I talked about it.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
I mean, just the kind of the history there, the
DU guys that came back in the Troy Terry's and
the Tyler Bozak was the on the bench.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Oh my gosh, that just made my heart.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah, I mean it was. It was really cool just
to have those guys be a part of it. DU
was amazing. They rolled out the red carpet to help
us put up that event. You know, you got to
give credit to Kyle Keef and Julie rathyard director for
the amount of work they put in altitude for covering it,
and the fact that we had almost you know, I
think it was like sixty two hundred people in Magnus

(18:10):
and everybody was involved. The game was I mean, you know,
not just the score seven to seven with a seventh
round shootout, but just the Yeah, the pace and Pete Forestburg,
you know, Peter Forsburg flying in from Sweden for it,
Joe being apart footy urge. I mean, we just had
you know, Max Laqua playing a net. I thought that
when we were yeah, when we were doing the rosters

(18:30):
and starting to try and reach out to guys. I'm
the head of the alumni, so I kind of a
lot of times it falls on me to you know,
send out, hey, can you join us for this. I
for example, Pete, I reached out to him and he goes, yeah,
He's like, I'm gonna bring some buddies and we're gonna
do a golf trip though too while we're there. And
I was like, sweet, I'm like, I will set you
up at every course of you want to. And so
he played golf. He got in Wednesday night, we played golf. Thursday,

(18:54):
we did a drop in men's league game. Him and
I on Thursday night, which was hilarious. Yeah, at Selizuber
and so he was like, he's like, hey, I want
to skate once before the Alumni game. He skated a
few times back home, but he's like, I want to
skate when I'm in town. And I was like, okay,
we can do this on Thursday afternoon. It didn't work
out timing, so we did a drop in Thursday night
with Guy's free It was hilarious. It was so funny.

(19:18):
But it's like, you know, he walked in the locker
room and Guy's like.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
No way, but it is. It's like, you know, it's
just like Hockey's of small community and.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
He just still exudes cool.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
He's just like everything he does is cool that we
were talking about.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
So we went afterwards.

Speaker 4 (19:32):
You guys were all at the Pioneer and my husband
and I just went for like a beer and Peter
was just in the back had his glasses on, and
I just got him like he's like.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
The coolest dude ever.

Speaker 4 (19:41):
He can just walk in sit back there and everybody's
like that Amfort is cool.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
Yeah, he's cool.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
He's hammering a Caesadia and chicken wings just as cool
as you could be, but.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yeah, it was gosh so funny.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, like like the fact that he came in and
played and he he said he had a blast, and
the guys that we have, I mean like hey, Duke
and Coggliano and Helm skating and high Note and it
just it was really cool just to get I would say,
a really cool, like fun cross section of all these
different eras. Yeah, and that was du that was an
AVS alumni and the fans that showed up for it

(20:14):
as well. I mean when we went out for autographs
and there's three thousand people outside, like there were lines,
but not really, I mean it was it was probably
a little bit more chaotic, I think than anybody realized.
And I don't want to say it surprised us, but
it definitely. I don't know that we were planning for
that many, and it's snowballed for sure, And you know,
we had been watching ticket sales the weeks prior, and

(20:35):
you know, the Avs helped us out a ton with
their socials and broadcasting what.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
Was happening on out there.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yes, and it was really cool too because the alumni
game had a really nice kind of tie into I
think the thirtieth anniversary of the Avs, you know, this season,
and so it was like, Hey, we're doing this big
alumni game. They have the thirtieth anniversary season. This kind
of rolls into training camp and the fact that it
went on off as well and was as supported as

(21:02):
strongly as it was, I think is just a testament
to the state of hockey in Colorado and the last
thirty years. And that goes back to Max Laquah and
Eric Laquah and Pierre Laqua and when we weren't able.
Peter Budaye is kind of our regular goalie for the
alumni in a lot of these games, and he wasn't
able to make it. His son was actually going to
a WHL camp and so he's like, hey, I can't

(21:23):
make it, And I was sitting there, I'm thinking.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
I'm like you know what.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, Like, I'm like, well, Max plays net at Boston University.
I was like, what a cool tie in to have
him play in goal and the LaQuan name as part
of it on the ice. Like to me, it was
just I just thought it was the coolest thing for
him to be a part of it. And he played
unbelievable too, because there's not a lot of defense in
those games. Like Maddy Davis played unreal, like he didn't

(21:48):
let Forstburg score on like ten chances first of all,
which is hilarious, but then also you know Max playing
out of his mind too, Like it was just it
was like writing it. I don't know that I could
have writ a better script for that entire weekend.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (22:03):
Well, what was cool too, is like I didn't know well,
actually I did know the lineups. Julie had sense in
the door, but I hadn't looked at it. So I
was there when they did introductions, and then when they
introduced Max, I'm like, oh.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
That's brilliant.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
That's the coolest thing ever.

Speaker 4 (22:15):
And I also thought, like you, I thought, oh, it's
gonna be you know, maybe they'll have a couple thousand
people or something like that. So I told my husband,
I said, you know, I don't know what it's going
to be. Like, you know, we'll leave it this time.
Should be able to find parking. We turn on University
and there's people walking on Booktel and I'm like, oh,
my goodness, there's a lot more people at this than
I expected.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yeah, it was it was, which is great.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
A great problem to happen.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
We were we were kind of thinking four to five
thousand people would have been amazing. Yeah, and we saw
those numbers tick up as we got closer, and then
you know, the ads posted on some socials, We put
out some videos of Joe and Pete being in town. Yeah,
it was awesome. And like those guys all participated in
our golf tournament on Friday with KS Radio, which was
a huge success. And so I would say, like for

(22:59):
year one of this, and I don't think it's a
yearly thing, just given the lift wanting to get guys yeah,
from all over the place. But two, just to kind
of ask that of the fans as well would be
I think a big ask. But I could see it
being an every other year thing or an every third
year thing, and just to see the support that we
got for year one and know that hopefully we do

(23:22):
bigger and better going forward. It was just it was
we all went to bed on Sunday night, I think, well, yeah,
late and tired and just very I think, just happy
that it went so well.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
Yeah, And I think that's a testament to to hockey players.
And no, there's no other sport doing something like this, Yeah,
I mean there just isn't that is It's really cool
that you were able to get on. I don't even
know if there's another franchise doing it like that. Is
there anybody else.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
That you know, there's definitely some franchises out there that
have really strong alumnies and some of the games, yeah,
like the original six ones. Yeah, I mean the Wings
and you know, the Bruins and same thing. Leaves like
when they put on games, they get some pretty good turnouts.
But even like Jim Montgomery, I talked to him. I
played in the dou Hockey golf tournament the day after
our game. I was so exhausted I played. It was

(24:09):
me and Riker and you know, Jim Montgomery. But even
Monty said like, and I played in Boston as well.
He's like, you know, even when the Bruins do some
of these bigger games, they'll get three thousand people and
so like to have this get you know, over six thousand,
I just thought was really cool. And you know, we've
we've discussed different ideas like do you get you know,
c C involved potentially to you know, see if maybe

(24:30):
we'd get some more Colorado Springs folks to come up
and yeah, they know, whether it's a d U c
C game or whatever. Like we're just we're kind of
throwing out a lot of different ideas at this point.
But to know that year one was as successful as
it was and and hopefully things get even better and
even smoother, you know, even more interactive experience for the
fans that come, you know, because I know.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
There's a lot of fan fest in front all.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
I know there's a lot of people that waited in
line and maybe weren't able to get the autograph they
were hoping for. And I told some of the fans
that kind of reached out with some feedback, I said, listen,
we're kind of doing this as we go.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
It wasn't yeah, kind of on the fly. Yeah, it
was a little bit on the fly, like.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
We hope there'd be maybe a couple hundred people in line,
not necessarily a couple thousand people in line.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
So yeah, at some.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Points the game had to start. Like you, guys, there's
guys walking in.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
I was walking in to get my press pass and
there's guys walking in with their skates and a twelve
pack of beer.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
I'm like, oh wait, it's about a half hour until
puck drops.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
E Yeah, no, it's and and the other thing too.
Like with altitude broadcasting, it had to be true. Everything
had to be kind of down to the second.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
I didn't think about that, yeah, because if.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
It wasn't, all of a sudden you're sitting there trying
to fill dead air. And you know, it was very
much like it. Yeah, it was very much like an
AVS game or a Nuggets game, where you know, these
producers and directors are are nailing the timing down to
the second and so to hit a certain time and
anthems had to hit a certain time. And our warm
up was two minutes because we didn't want to, you know,

(25:56):
have it. You know, we're circling around for five minutes.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
Two minutes for all the older guys.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
I don't even think there's pucks out there, honestly, So
it was like, hey, here you go, no pucks. Some
guys has had skates on in six months, and you know,
all of a sudden, you got to throw a puck
on your stick or a goalie's got to make a
save and has the period.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
It was a little slow, It was a little took
a little while to kind of get sitt but then
once that happened, I was like, oh man.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
And then when it was tight in the third period,
the pace picked up three pretty good. So I mean,
it's just the competitive streak and every guy DU and
ABS alumni.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
I think was right there definitely got going.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
Everybody saw it late.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
First, the warm up was the first period, besides the
two minutes.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, yeah, we're just honestly, I'm happy that nobody got hurt.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
That was That was the big one.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
That's the biggest feel.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:38):
Okay, all right, enough about that game. Let's go back
to you then. So now we get into your ABS
time lockout four oh five. You end up going over
to Germany.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, So I I went to Germany. I was going
to play there. I was in training camp there. World
Cup was happening back here, and two defensemen got hurt
for the US team, and so they flew me back.
I played an exhibition game and then I played I
think two or three World Cup games. But in the
exhibition game, I had taken a shot off the foot

(27:09):
and it was like bugging me the entire time I
was playing, and they x rayed it right away, found nothing.
Two weeks later they x rated again. It was broken.
So I was here in Denver with High Note and
with Footy because Footy had he hurt his elbow in
the World Cup had to have surgery. High Note had
double shoulder surgery. I'd have broken foot. So we were
all here rehabbing up through Christmas.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
Could you do that at the facility.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Yeah, because if you were injured, that was the only
like because the facility was closed other than guys that
were injured in NHL events or games. So High Note
was coming off surgery after the season, double shoulder surgery,
So that was NHL, and then the World Cup was
NHL as well, So Footy and I were both rehabbing
through Christmas here and then in January I signed with

(27:56):
Isralan and ended up going and playing two and a
half three months over there, which was a really cool experience.
It was Yeah, I mean, you're twenty two years old,
twenty three years old, and you've played one year in
the NHL. You're always kind of looking over your shoulder
because you want to be playing in the NHL. So
what I would say is I probably didn't appreciate that
as much as I should have because I was looking

(28:16):
back saying I've played one year in the NHL. I
had a successful year. I just want to be in
Colorado and playing for the ABS, And so looking back
on it, it wasn't maybe as enjoyable as it should
have been, because it was a great group of guys,
and you know, the team was always fantastic to me.
It was more just I think in my mind, I'm
sitting there looking we're in a lockout. You hear all

(28:37):
these rumors of what's happening. There's gonna be a deal sign,
There's not going to be a deal sign. They canceled
the season. There was some turmoil, I think for me,
just given the fact that I was over there. But
you're always looking back at what's happening here, just hoping
that something gets done.

Speaker 4 (28:51):
And getting the news, and it was amazing how I
just kept going and going, and then all of a
sudden the season is done.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
You're like, whoa, yeah, nobody does.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
And then when they canceled the season, there was a
rumor that they still had like a two week window
they could start it up if they could, so then
all of a sudden you're paying attention even more because, oh,
is there going to be a last ditch effort? To
get this thing going. So it was you know, unfortunate,
is what I would say looking back. I mean the
fact that we lost an entire year, you just kind
of shake your head and say, how did that happen?

(29:18):
But I mean passes the pass at this point, and
it was you know, it was it was still cool
to go over to Germany and play like I had
a couple buddies on the team, so play with them,
and that's cool.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
Yeah, I wish I would have lost it.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
Yeah, I wish I would have been more appreciative of
being over there and being able to kind of experience
that playing overseas versus you know, really having my kind
of mind here more than anything.

Speaker 4 (29:38):
And then five o six when the season does start
up again. You also are on Team USA that year
in the Olympics, in the six Olympics in tour.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
Yeah, I was fortunate enough to make that Olympic team.
And it's yeah, I mean we didn't medal, which you know,
it's hard. We lost in the quarterfinals to Finland, and
Finland had a really good team.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
I think they won silver.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
I think Sweden won that year in six and that
was yeah, that was the gold medal game. But like
the experience to me to be able to wear the
us USA jersey and the Olympics. Like, you grow up
and you want to be an Olympian. It doesn't matter
what sport like, just being an Olympian is something that
you know nobody can ever take away from you. And
so like to have that jersey hanging on my wall
and my basement and my daughter asking about it. Who

(30:19):
plays hockey is? It's just it's cool looking back on it.

Speaker 4 (30:22):
Yeah, in the six o seven season, you were wearing
twenty six up to that point, and we were just
talking about the fours and the twenty sixes and you
gave that up when they brought in Stassy.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
Yeah, Paulie.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
So I think we played like ten games that year
and I was wearing twenty six and I didn't even
know what Paulie was wearing to start that year, but
he made the team. And then Steve Conawaalchuck pulled me
aside and said, hey, and I've known the Sasney family
since I was like sixteen years old, okay, and so
you know, I've known paul Yanni and I mean they're both,
you know, some of my best friends. But at the

(30:53):
time I mean, I didn't.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Realize I did.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
His day Conawalchuck pulled me aside and said, hey, Paulie
made the team. He's been here ten games, he's gonna
stay here. His dad was a Hall of Famer in
twenty six. He's worn twenty six all growing up. And
I was like, you know what, like, yeah, absolutely, Paully,
do you want twenty six?

Speaker 3 (31:10):
And I had been.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
Four all through prep school in college and so Blakey
had left that year four work. Yeah, four opened up,
and so I called Blakey and asked him if he
cared if I, you know, switched to four, and he's
like no, And I said, like, part of the reason
why I wear four is because you wore four. And
PAULI was like, I'd love to have twenty six. And
that's kind of how that came about.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
So cool.

Speaker 4 (31:32):
Any exchanging of money or anything like that, or you
just gave it to him.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
No, he he stocked my bar at my house pretty well.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
So yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah, there's I mean, there's there's a lot of different Yeah,
there's always something. There's a lot of different ways to
do it. And yeah there's sometimes there's like a watch
that goes one way or another. Yeah, but listen, it
was I mean, he was so new to the league
and just you know, being able to kind of say, hey,
like here's twenty six. It's a family number. And you
know Pistol Pete his dad obviously a Hall of Famer
with the Nordicks, I mean few teams, but you know,

(32:02):
he was so good with the Nordicks.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
And for PAULI to be able to wear that with.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
The Abs, I thought, you know, it's it's cool looking
back and knowing that that's how that all transpires.

Speaker 4 (32:11):
And there's a lot to a number. There's some people
that'll just go, that's just a number, but there really is.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
And it's funny.

Speaker 4 (32:16):
Troy Franklin this year for the Broncos switched from sixteen
to eleven, and he's like, I just feel different. That's
when you were in college and he just felt out
of sorts wearing that number.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
It's so true. I was wearing twenty six because that's
what they gave me in my first camp. I liked
the number twenty six. I mean, like you can kind
of make an argument, Okay, I was four all and
so six minus two blah blah blah whatever, like ye was,
but I just like twenty six. There's certain numbers that
look good, I think on your back and feel good,
and twenty six felt good, and so I just said, like,

(32:47):
I never thought about changing until this, you know, the
Sasney situation kind of came up, but four always felt good,
twenty six felt good, and so yeah, that was kind
of why it ended up that way.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
And also in six oh seven, that's the first time
that didn't make the postseason since they had been here.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
Yeah, it was I remember that one. Yeah, that was tough.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
And we went on like this crazy tear down the stretch.
I think we were like thirteen to two and two
down the stretch to even get close. I think we
missed it by like a point or two points or something.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
It was tough.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
It was not not easy, And yeah, you never want
to be that team that achieves the first year of
not making the postseason ten plus seasons.

Speaker 4 (33:25):
Yeah, no kidding, all right, So then let's go to eight.
You sign a four year deal. Yeah, score your fiftieth
goal then in nine. But something that we didn't talk
about when you were at Michigan State is that when
your shoulder injury kind of came about the first time
and then does it come back same shoulder surgery come
back in the NHL or it's a difference.

Speaker 3 (33:46):
In the US program.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
I had left shoulder surgery, Okay, I had right shoulder
surgery after the nine to ten season. I hurt my shoulder,
like the first week of two thousand and nine ten season.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
We were in Toronto. I think I got hit from behind.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
So I ended up playing that year with that injury,
and I was dealing with another injury that had lingered
from the previous year. So after the nine ten season,
I had shoulder surgery and wrist surgery a week apart.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
I had shoulder surgery and then a week later they
were like, okay, can you can you can you wipe
your butt essentially with your right hand, And I was
like yeah, and they're like, okay, you have wrist surgery tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
So for like two weeks I had I had one.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
I had to keep my left wrist above my heart
that was completely wrapped up after surgery, and then I
had my right arm in a sling because of the
shoulder butt exactly.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
It was, yes, So yeah, I had two surgeries a
week apart that that summer criteria to have a second surgery,
which was super fun. Yeah. I just yeah, there's a
there's a lot of there's a lot.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
Of painkillers that that I had to take at that
time because it was.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
It was not fun. Yeah, that was the sounds not fun.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
Are you at this point?

Speaker 4 (35:02):
Are you living by yourself or you do you have
anybody that can help you?

Speaker 3 (35:06):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (35:07):
My wife now then girlfriend, Yeah, she was around yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
Yeah. She drove me home from my shoulder surgery.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
In stick shift jeep and she had just gotten the
it was she Yeah, her car got stolen and so
we we had got her a jeep and it was
a stick shift and she was still learning and I
just remember her driving me home and it was the
clutch was so yeah that was fun memory pain killers
yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, but it was Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
I mean we look back and laughed.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
You have to yea, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 (35:39):
Fun times, Okay, not as fun a time in twenty eleven.
That's when you get traded to the Maple Leafs. What
happens when you get traded? What's the story there?

Speaker 1 (35:48):
You know, I got traded right, I think it was
the day before the draft and I was back in
Indiana and a bunch of phone calls from my agent,
a few phone calls from Colorado. There's some you know,
some chatter back and forth about because I had no
trade clause, and so it was you know, hey, would
you be willing to do this? And it was you know,
we we we said no. And so in the end

(36:10):
I got traded to Toronto, which my trade list included Toronto.

Speaker 3 (36:15):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so, I mean it happens all
the time.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
They ask if you would waive it to go to
a certain team that's on your not trade and.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
You know, because they're going to get something more for
you than.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
More than likely.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
Yeah, and we said no. And so I ended up
in Toronto and I just met you know, Brian Burke.
I owe a ton to him. He's a great man,
great general manager, and you know, he called me and
chatted with me, and it was exciting. I mean, you're
going from Colorado, which is the only team I've known,
I was drafted by, you know, lived you know, eight
years here playing and you're going to Toronto, which is

(36:45):
essentially the Yankees. I mean, it's the center of the
hockey universe. And it's hard to imagine just how different
it is and the amount of people that are watching
every move and the amount of people that walk into
the locker room after every practice, and I mean training camp,
you know, when the door's open, and Colorado you're dealing with.
I would say, you know, a decent amount of media

(37:06):
in Toronto. You're like, what just happened?

Speaker 2 (37:08):
How many more times people like is it a double triple?

Speaker 3 (37:11):
Oh? At least triple?

Speaker 1 (37:12):
And really, I mean like I thought a barricade had
broken or something the first day, Like I thought, well, yeah,
it was like yeah, mean there was there was seventy five,
one hundred people in there on day one a training
camp and it's like, yeah, like that's Colorado. You'd have
a dozen, you know, maybe twenty ish, And that was
I mean at least seventy five people I would say,
walked in Wow. Yeah, And so it was yeah, it's

(37:34):
it's a it's a different world. But it's amazing. When
you're winning, it is so good and the organization is
such a great organization and the fans are so passionate.
But when you're losing, it is very very hard to
escape and to really kind of get away from it.
And that's I think the biggest challenge as a player
there is you know, if the team's not doing well,

(37:55):
you're not doing well. Like it's there's really not a
lot of places you can go that hockey is in
front and center.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Oh I'm sure. Yeah, somebody's not going to recognize you.
I'd say something, and.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
You can go to the darkest corner of the grungiest
dive bar and somebody will still want to talk to
you about why the power play is not good?

Speaker 2 (38:12):
Can I just be back in Colorado and sitting back.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
In exactly right? Yeah, so yeah, no, but it was.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
It was a really cool experience to go there and
play for the Maple Leafs and put that jersey on
as well. Yeah, just a lot of really good friends
and good guys that I played with and just all
part of the experience.

Speaker 4 (38:30):
And after a couple of years there few well let's see,
how many three years there?

Speaker 1 (38:33):
Right?

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Three years there? Then you get traded to the Hurricanes.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
Yeah, New Year's Day during the Winter Classics.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
That's right right before the Winter Classic.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
Right after warm ups. Yeah, after warm up, So I
warmed up.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
I kind of knew that it was happening before warm ups,
but I just said, hey, I'm going out to warm
up still because it's an outdoor game winner classic. And
I lined up from across from Kyle Quincy and Drew Miller,
who are buddies of mine, and they're like, how's it going.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
I'm like, hey, I just got traded.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
And they're like they're dying laughing because it's you know,
we're warming up, and they're like, no way. And so yeah,
my wife was in town in Michigan from Toronto watching
the game. Had to go back pack up our apartment
in like seven hockey bags and then fly to Carolina.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
You couldn't play in the game, right because you got traded?

Speaker 3 (39:14):
Yeah, I couldn't play in the game.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
And then I took the equipment truck to the airport
afterward and jumped on a plane to Washington, d C.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
To meet the Hurricanes. How deflating was that, I you know,
I mean, it is what it is like.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
At that point in Toronto, we had a new coach,
we had a new GM. I wasn't playing as much
and so I was kind of there was always talk
that a trade might happen. I had been in the
miners a little bit earlier.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
That year, had gone up and down a little.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Yeah, gone up and down a little bit, and so yeah,
it was kind of one of those things where it's like, Okay,
there's an opportunity here to you know, play on a
new team and hopefully, you know, rejuvenate my career a
little bit.

Speaker 4 (39:50):
But then having it happen at that game, which is
like the big game, and.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
Yeah, it's yeah, I don't know. I had might like
I never saw that jersey that I had. I never
saw it again, Like, oh yeah, I thought it was
in my bag, but it wasn't. That would have been
a cool jersey to have hanging up as the Winter
Classic jersey. I have no idea where the game that
you never.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
Played in, Yeah, exactly, And that happened.

Speaker 4 (40:09):
Sometimes in baseball you'll see a guy and there the
two teams are playing each other, and then he just
goes over and gets which that's always bizarre. Made it
can happen in any of those sports.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
That's wild. All right.

Speaker 4 (40:17):
Then another trade in February of sixteen, you get traded
to Boston.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
Yeah, that one was you know, Carolina, we weren't making
the playoffs. You know, I had had a good year
in Carolina and we enjoyed our time in Carolina. It's
a lot different than Toronto. I mean, you're going from
like the craziest hockey market to definitely a quieter one,
and getting.

Speaker 3 (40:37):
Traded to Boston. I wasn't really sure what to expect.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
You just know, Boston is an amazing sports town, and
I kind of always equated it to like being in
New York. And we went to Boston and we loved
our time there. I re signed there and finished out
my career with the Bruins, and we absolutely.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
Loved it there.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
It was just it was a really really great place
for us to finish my career and the guys that
I met there being in the city. We lived in
the North End, and I couldn't say enough good things
about my time there and the guys in the organization.
It was just it was a really amazing way to
finish my career. Even if it wasn't a Stanley Cup,
it was still just a great experience.

Speaker 4 (41:13):
Yeah, with the good organizations, that makes a big difference.
Retirement comes. You had a concussion, right, does that kind
of help.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
Yeah, that retirement.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
Yeah, my last year in Boston, I got a bad
concussion kind of crash into the board's head, first, and
you know, my wife, we had a one year old
at the time, and she's like, when's enough enough. You're
thirty seven years old almost You've had fourteen years, and
do you need we need to do another year?

Speaker 3 (41:39):
Like is it? You know?

Speaker 1 (41:39):
What are we trying to do? And I had a
couple of offers that summer after the year in Boston
and just really decided that we were done. We were
building the house in Veil, and not many people get
to kind of pick when they step away, and so
for me to be able to say, like, hey, I've
done it kind of everything that I wanted to do,
you know, minus winning a Stanley Cup or whatnot, but

(42:00):
like just knowing that I had kind of left it
all out there and had a good run.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
And fourteen years.

Speaker 3 (42:06):
Yeah, now it was.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
Time to focus on family and yeah, I just enjoy
retirement and ski a little bit and play some golf
and apparently do TV, which yeah, it's so funny.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
Doing more of it.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
Right.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
So, how long I've been with Altitude.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
Well, I've been with Altitude since I retired. Ok.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Keeper and I talked a bunch my last year, and
you know, I met with them when we were building
our house in Veil, and I said, Veil's only an
hour and a half away. I can come down and
do you know, do some games. And I some games.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
Yeah, exactly, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
I mean I that first year I was driving back
at like, you know, one in the morning and snowstorms.

Speaker 3 (42:40):
Oh my god.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
But it was funny, like when I first started doing it,
my wife said, you know what's going to happen is
you're going to do this and we're going to move
back to Denver at some point because you love doing
it so much. And I was like, no, no, we'll
be fine. And you know, we were eight years in
Veil and it was an amazing place. But you know,
the opportunity kind of came up that made sense to
do it full time.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
And now we're back in Denver. Yeah, full time. But
I will say like our time in Veil was so great.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
We had another daughter, and raising the girls up there
for the last eight years that we were there has
been extremely special. And both our daughter Ski and their
little rippers and my older daughter plays hockey and you know,
just just being able to spend that time with them
up there. And now we're in a really good spot
where me going full time, I think timing wise makes

(43:29):
definitely more sense.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
I am very, very.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Honored to be able to be a part of the
Altitude broadcast full time. And sometimes, you know, it's just
it's one of those things you kind of have to
work through the process of I loved doing this for
the last seven eight years, and it makes sense for
me to do it full time with guys like Kiefer
and right there. It's not you know, like I walk
in every day like it's not a job, no, right, you.

Speaker 4 (43:51):
Just have fun and you can tell you guys do.
And I tell people this with our Broncos Radio broadcasting.
I'm like, people like, how do you work so much?
I'm like, that's not work to me, It's funny. Yeah,
do I work and I prep and all that stuff. Absolutely,
But I work with guys that I love, that are
like brothers and you know, we're husbands and all that
other stuff. And when you do that, it makes all
the difference in the world. It is so apparent how

(44:13):
close you guys are and just you can ras each other,
you can do all this stuff and there's there's.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
Nothing, very little is off limits within our broadcast as
what I would say, and I always joke like we're
like ninety percent like kind of goof around, but with
ten percent you know, stats and solid information, and I
feel like it resonates with people. And part of that
was the wine Cave. I will say, like the wine
Cave was people love that and it resonated with people.
And that's actually how you get a lot in the

(44:41):
new house. No, no, no, I we were renting down here,
so I don't.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
Yeah, we'll see.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
I'll lobby for some some sort of wine cave content,
but right now the wine cave is just gathering dust
at the moment, which people don't love.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
They they want the wine cave.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
Yeah, people want the wine cave. They I don't know.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
It's very I would say it like it almost humanizes it,
where like Johnny's had half a bottle of wine and
now he's drinking bourbon in the post game because the
Avs won, and Keefer makes fun of me because I'm
right on the edge of slurring. And but it's it's
fun because like I finished, I walk up two flights
of stairs and I go to sleep and it's not
you know yeah, so yes, it's uh.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
The station and you can't really Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
There's definitely yeah, you can't well, yeah, you just can't
drink at all. What I'll say, Yeah, like you're you're
so spot on. Like our group is very tight knit
and they're some of my best friends and very little
is off limits, which I think makes it, you know,
just more endearing to people.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
It does.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
And we've got a great crew even behind the scenes.
It's just it's a great group and and we have
a lot of fun with it and it's not a job.
I walk in there every day and it's like, yeah,
I'm gonna have a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
I'm gonna laugh a lot.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
And you know, with the Avs being where they are
in this window, with McKinnon and macar and the team
that they have, it makes it even easier to go
to their rank every day.

Speaker 4 (45:59):
Absolutely yeah, and have fun with it while you can,
because as you know, they go up and down.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
Oh yeah, and some downs for sure.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
All right, last couple questions.

Speaker 4 (46:09):
Your name John Michael, and I don't think a lot
of people know that you you really do have two names,
like it is John Michael.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
Yeah, John Michael, John John Michael. Thomas Lyles is the official.

Speaker 4 (46:19):
Thomas middle name. Yes, yeah, yes, And there's a story
behind it.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
My dad is John.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
My grandfather is John, so John senior, John Junior, and
I guess I would have been John the third. My
dad said it was just a pain growing up with
two John's in the house, so he decided to throw
a Michael on there. But everybody still call me John anyway,
So like my mom calls me John Michael. That's about it.
My parents, I would say, maybe my brother and sister.

(46:44):
But yeah, it's like I introduced myself as John Michael,
but I answered a pretty much Johnny or or JM
or JML or I answered to about one hundred different things.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
Well yeah, well, and in hockey, yeah, there are a
lot of nicknames for everybody.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
What do people call you the most? What do guys
call you the.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
Most, honestly, is Johnny Johnny Lyles? Yeah yeah, Johnny Lyles. Yeah,
that's kind of it. There's not like I don't have
the greatest nickname. It's it's just Johnny. But yeah, that's
the story behind it. My dad added Michael. It was
his uncle that he was super close with, and.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
I always thought it was your middle name.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
So a lot of people think that, I'm sure they do,
or people think it's like John and then Michael Lyles
is my last name. Oh so she'll get a lot
in the mister like mister Michael Lyles, like things like that,
or you know, but yeah, it's John Michael.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
So your dad tried to make it better and it
just made it more confusing.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
I don't want to say it backfired, but it definitely
it wasn't as smooth as he had hoped, is what
I would say.

Speaker 4 (47:36):
Quite the transition we were looking for. Yeah, all right,
last question, John Michael. As you go and look back
through your career and you've had plenty of ups and downs,
whether it be all the trades, the injuries, things like that,
and now you've got your girls who are going through sports,
what do you tell people when they're in those kind
of down times on how to move forward and know

(47:56):
that there's something positive on the other side hopefully.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
Oh man, it's funny.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
It is a load of question, but I always joke
and this is it's It's a lot of people hear
it and they're like, oh, actually that makes some sense.
This is hockey related. But it doesn't matter if you
played in the NHL college hockey, high school, or you're
just starting everybody ends up in the beer leagues, Like
it's just this progression, and like I was playing in

(48:23):
the NHL, and I have plenty of buddies that played
college and plenty of guys that played high school, and
we all end up playing in.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
The beer leagues.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
Yeah, and it's like you just have fun with it
no matter how far you go. My brother played at
prep school, he played club hockey at Navy, and I
remember him like being in a rut at one point,
and it's like, hey, if you're not having fun, then
there's not a point to what you're doing, because in
the end, unless you're getting paid to play hockey, like
it should.

Speaker 3 (48:50):
Just be fun.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
And listen, I had plenty of fun getting paid to
play hockey, but it's still a job and you have
ups and downs. Yeah, right, and so if you're not
getting paid, it should just be enjoy for ninety nine
percent of the time. I you know, I remember having
that conversation with my brother vividly because he was playing
club hockey, and it's like, just enjoy it. You have
four years at Navy and then you're gonna end up

(49:11):
somewhere and you're gonna play beer league hockey and I'm
gonna play Beer League hockey, but it's going to be
ten years after you're done playing college.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
And so it is.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
It's like everybody ends up there. And I will say
last summer I was fortunate. My brother is stationed in
San Diego and we had a Bruin's alumni thing out
there with Special Forces guys. Oh fun, so yeah, a
ton of seals, ton of yeah. And so it was
a special Forces group and the NHL alumni group. So
like Miller was in net Kevin Bix, we had a

(49:40):
ton of different guys.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
And my brother got to skate on the special Forces
team because his body is a seal and so they
like playing against him.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
Whatever you Oh, how cool?

Speaker 1 (49:51):
Thirty years after we both played hockey in Indiana and
we're playing essentially a charity game.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
But beer Lea exacts and it's like it all it.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
It's always have fun. If you're working hard and you're
having fun, like most everything's probably going to.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
Take care of itself.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
I love it. That's great.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
But we all end up with the beer. That's it
should my bottle ye.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
My game was too.

Speaker 4 (50:13):
I couldn't believe how when you guys were walking in
with twelve packs and their skates and their stacks.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah it was Yeah, there's there's no
shortage of beer in our locker room.

Speaker 3 (50:21):
I will say that.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
So I will say most guys held off until about
the second intermission, and then it was like I just
kept saying. I was like, I can't wait for this
game to be over so I could just start having beer.

Speaker 4 (50:33):
Oh my gosh, so fun. Well, hey, thank you for
round two of this. I hope you had as much
fun as the first one.

Speaker 3 (50:39):
Yeah, oh it was great. This is Yeah, it sounds good.
It sounds really good.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
It does sound good.

Speaker 4 (50:43):
Yeah, the sound is very much better. See, all the
levels are perfect on my recording here, So we're good
to go. But hey, I appreciate it's great to have
you guys back here, and anytime you need more help,
you know, with alumni stuff. I don't know if you
need it because now you guys are on a roll,
but I'm always happy to help.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
I you know what, I just fun.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
It's a really cool thing to be a part of
because our group shares a really cool kind of common element. Yeah,
great bond to be able to give back to the
community here in Denver. The hockey community as well as
around the state of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region.
Like that's something that our guys. It resonates with our
guys and we love doing it because the game of

(51:19):
hockey gave us so much.

Speaker 4 (51:21):
Yeah, I love it all right, John Michael, thank you,
thank you, Thank you John Michael. Well, if you're hearing this,
you have listened to the entire episode. First of all,
thank you. Secondly, I hope you enjoyed it, and if
you did, do me a favor please rate and review
on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. New episodes of Cut, Traded, Fired,
Retired are released on Tuesdays.

Speaker 2 (51:41):
You can get social with.

Speaker 4 (51:42):
The podcast on Twitter and Instagram at ctf our podcast
and check out the website ctfurpodcast dot com. I'm your host,
Susie Wargen. To learn more about me, visit susiewargin dot com. Again,
thank you for listening, and until next time, please be careful,
be safe and be kind, take care and