09/18/23 - Admirals Center Ice

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello and welcome. It's Milwaukee AdmiralCenter Ice with Mike wil Drohowski. I'm
Aaron Sims and we're back at it. Starr Hiatus is over and here we
go. It's hockey season once again. Absolutely, you know, it's it's
time. It's the Tom Petty,It's Christmas all over again. It's it's
hockey season all over again. Christmasin the air. You can sleep with
the windows open, and it's justbeautiful and oh my gosh, this hockey

(00:23):
time. It is hockey time.Camps are going, Mike Babcox in trouble
like all the all the things thatis happening. We're gonna have Calailey and
Scott Nichol join us a little bitlater on in the show, but we
wanted to start off with basically,how was your summer And by that,

(00:44):
I mean think of this team.Let's go back to June. This team
made it as made it further thanthey have since the O six playoffs,
losing in the championship to Hershey backin two thousand and six. This team
lost to Coachella Valley in six gamesin the Western Conference Final. This season.
I don't know if it still hurts. I always maintain you remember the
losses more than the winds for whateverreason. Like I think you can grind

(01:07):
on the losses. The winds youcelebrate and you kind of you have the
memory. But I think losses likeyou start you think about Minutia and that
sticks out to you, and maybeyou don't you certainly you celebrate the winds,
but you know, you try tomove on from that and say,
wow, what a year. Likethink about all the players that came through,
especially around the trade deadline around Marchfirst, and all the new players,

(01:30):
and how you had to retool becauseeverybody was recalled the Nashville and and
then to go as far as youdid. It's it's pretty pretty fantastic.
I thought, I thought it wasan incredible year. In fact, I
pretty much I spent two days beingreally upset. And other than that,
I mean, you look at ourteam and how entertained and some of the

(01:52):
best best hockey games I've ever seenduring that playoff series, I mean,
you know, I mean the CoachellaValley series included, I mean, the
only thing I'd heard a little bitas I thought I felt that we lost
me. We left maybe a gameor two on the table against Coachell.
Yeah, I agree, I agree. You know, I thought that they
were primed to steal a game early, certainly one of the first two,
and you know, at the endof the day it didn't happen. So,

(02:15):
you know, but I thought theteam put an incredible effort. I
thought it was an incredible effort.It was it was so much fun.
And you know, you look atthe team last year and the balance up
and down, I mean in playerscoming and going and going up to Nashville
and coming back down and all ofthis stuff that happens in the American Hockey

(02:35):
League as we know and as welook at I mean, think of Tommy
Novak starting the year here last year, a point of game guy goes up
to Nashville and he becomes a pointa game guy with the Predators. Right,
Luke Evangelista was supposed to go upfor a game. He spends twenty
four games up there as fifteen points. He's had he played one more game,
he wouldn't be eligible for Rookie ofthe Year consideration this season, right,
I mean, that's how you know. And in one of the first

(02:58):
games you and I are watching,John Hines has him on the ice at
the end of the game with inan empty net situation, You're not out
there if the coach doesn't trust you, whether it's four or against, if
he doesn't trust you, exactly right, and he's out there playing like his
second game. And the fact thatNashville soul at the trade deadline right and
still almost made the plan, yeah, exactly. I mean with playing predominantly
with guys that were on our roster. Yeah, I mean, that was

(03:20):
the most impressive thing in the wholeseason. I mean, I mean,
I guess I'm fascinated to see whatdirection the organization isn't gonna go with Barry
Tross up there and and some ofthe things that could happen, you know,
and a dripped on effect we leaveout, we leave out Parson and
I mean, you know a guythat was our you know, one number
one centerment early I mean one upwhat nineteen games into the season, it
was nine, I don't think,like we had that trip to San Diego

(03:44):
and I think he and Jankowski bothleft at the same time there like it
was a school day game in Rockfordat the beginning of November, and we
never saw him again. Exactly Markcame back obviously in the playoffs. But
yeah, it's really uh pretty muchpretty crazy. You think of you know,
the Gordy Greens, the Matthew Santos, the you know, Marcus Nurmi

(04:05):
started off so hot and then hegot hurt and didn't come back. But
I mean, you know, hisfirst some big five games, some big
goals, first twenty five games inNorth America, fantastic. Yacolm condoleyk was
the main state. He gets hurt. Yeah, you know these guys,
some of these Condo leak in particular, he would expect him back. You
know, Cam Housinger shows up onthe team, another big another big goal

(04:29):
there. Yeah, I mean youlook at me, look at some of
these guys that came in, werereplacement pieces, and in Cam scores a
huge goal in Manitoba yep, yep. And And what bigger goal than Stasney's
goal at the end of Game fiveagainst Manitoba last year in the playoffs.
Had you ever experienced anything like likeyou? But what a roller coach roll
a minute five remaining and they scoreda tie up the game at one and

(04:50):
overtime is coming, and then twoMoose players collide and of all people at
Spencer Stasney jumping into the play andgetting the game until until that Stasney goal.
My one of my greatest playoff momentswas Tony Hrkers, of course batting
the puck in over of course,over the Chicago goalie. And at that

(05:10):
point, you know, I saidto myself, and that was a one
nothing game, right, yeah,yeah, I said to myself, you
know what, I think this couldbe our year when that happened, and
the same thought happened came through mymind when when Spencer scored that goalie.
Yeah, you know what, that'sa game that sometimes we've not been able
to win the playoffs, right,and now we got that. You know,
they came back and tied it.We scored to win the game.

(05:32):
This is our year, oh baby. And yeah they didn't. It wasn't.
But that's okay. There are asalways players come and go, coaches
come and go. Dave Rook isno longer with the organization, but the
other three coaches are Carl Taylor,Scott Ford and Greg Rollo. They will
be back a new goaltender coach goaltendingcoach named Jason Barron. Players Tim Shaller

(05:53):
won't be back, Jimmy Huntington signedin hersheet, Zach Sanford signed with the
Coyotes. Isaac Ratcliffe is going tobe in Chicago, as is Cole Schneider,
and that's the one they're like,okay, cool. Schneider has been
the captain of this team for acouple of seasons, third all time scorer
in the AHL history for the Admirals. It's going to be weird not having

(06:15):
Cole Schneider around, especially, Imean, we look back fifteen years,
especially when you play Chicago so manytimes. Darren Haydar when he left Milwaukee
went to Chicago. It's it's strangeto see a guy who was such a
big chunk of your team go playfor the arch enemy and what Chicago was
doing for people who do not knowChicago. And by the way, Devin

(06:41):
Cooley also gone. And those arekind of the bigger names coming in.
Among others, Troy Grossnick once again, cal O'Reilly, a guy named Jasper
Weatherbee who split time last year withSan Jose and Grand Rapids, and there
are others too, and we canyou can go to the website and look
all of those. But what's thisChicago team is doing? This year hasn't
been done in for a long longtime. In the American Hockey League,

(07:04):
the AHL is a developmental league andhas partnered with the NHL obviously, and
each team the Admiral's partner with theNashville Predators. Minnesota has the Iowa Wild
all of these things. Everybody hasa team. Well, this year Carolina
and Chicago where the team's Carolina Hurricanesand the Chicago Wolves. They've been partnered
the last few years. They couldn'tcome to an agreement, so Chicago is

(07:25):
going independent, meaning they're paying theirown players, they are paying for all
the travel, they're paying for everything. The coaches. Bob Nardella is the
head. I mean, Bob Nardellais maybe mister Chicago. Well, he's
certainly, he's in the coronation,he's in the court. He's now the
head coach. It's when was thelast time do you remember that? I

(07:46):
know that's not since we've been inthe American League. No, no,
not since we've been in American No. No, it's just and I have
no idea before that, I don't. I mean, it's like, I
mean, it's basically putting together anHL team very much so. Yeah,
but you have to again, butyou have to follow those rules, right,
five veterans and all of these things, and it's still a developmental league.

(08:07):
So like Chicago went out and signedKeith Kinkaid, veteran goaltender, to
be their goaltender. He along withAdam Shield, who played parts of the
last couple of seasons with the TexasStars. Well, Kinkaid here the other
day signed with New Jersey Devils,so he ain't gonna be there. They
have in Chicago Isaac Radcliffe, Colschneider, Matt Donovan is a former admiral.

(08:30):
Corey Conacher is a former admiral.Yeah, exactly. And it's a lot
of players that you don't know muchabout. And it's it's I'm interested in
the pitch that Wendell Young or whoeveris in charge of the acquisitions gives to
players because you obviously you want tomake it to the NHL, and I
suppose if you star there you canget that. But it's it's it's certainly

(08:50):
an uphill move unless you're a veteran. I remember a few years ago they
had I think his name was JeffHamilton, played for Toronto, played played
in the NHL. He ended upplaying a handful of games for Chicago and
then he signed with Toronto. Hewas there on a on an HL deal,
but he had the option to gosign somewhere else and he ended up
with the Toronto Maple Leaves. Butit's it's different, and it's gonna be

(09:13):
real interesting to see does Chicago forbidplayers for I mean, let's say you
know that someone calls Chicago and says, ay, so it available. I
mean, I can't imagine, imaginehow Why if you're a player, why
would you sign that way? Right? Like? Why if that was the
contract presented to you? Like,I'm sure you know they're not going to

(09:35):
stand in the way if somebody wantsMatt Donovan to play defense for them in
the National Hockey League, they wouldn'tstep in the way. Because now if
they are independent again next season,who's gonna want to play there? Everybody
everybody's goal is to get to thenext level, right, It's real,
real interesting to see what's gonna happenwith Chicago. And you know, the
Admirals will see them a dozen timesonce again in the regular season, so

(09:58):
we will have plenty of opportunity tosee how it plays out, including the
season opener. Absolutely, you know, it's pretty exciting, and I mean
we've got a lot of guys thatcan potentially be back. Last year,
yeah exactly, the defense was prettymuch holly intact exactly right. Yeah,
and then you throw in a fewyoung guys, you know, Jack Matier

(10:20):
or Luke pro Cop. Where dothese guys fit in when you have right
as of today, as of aswe're talking, Gross McEwen, Grivel del
guys, O Stasny and Willisby shouldall be back. Keathon Thompson and yes,
Kethan Thompson is back. You know, don't and don't take that one
lightly because how huge was Keaton Thompsonnot only in the playoffs, but how

(10:41):
big was Keith Thompson's big goals bigice time? Ye, I mean when
we when we had when we hadmultiple defenseman up in Nashville. He he
I mean he really really carried thetorch well on that back. Yeah,
no doubt, no doubt about that. We We have a lot to get
to still, we need to takea break when we come back. Call
O'Reilly will join us. You're listeningto Milwaukee Admiral Center Ice. Welcome back

(11:03):
to Milwaukee. Admiral Center ice withMike will Jahowski. I'm Aaron Simms,
and as we talked in the firstsegment, really excited to have this guy
back. He ranked seventh all timein the American Hockey League and assists the
history of the American Oleague roughly eightyyears, seventh all time and assists up
there in points, up there ingames. We know him extremely well,

(11:24):
and I had the chance which totell him my first year of doing this
oh five oh six, I wasso lucky in the fact that come the
playoffs, maybe the two smartest playersthat I've ever dealt with. We're on
the ice together with Darren Haydar andour guest here right now, no question,
right, no question. He's rightup there, one of the all
time greats. He's call O'Reilly,and he's coming back to Milwaukee this year.

(11:46):
Cal It's great to talk to you. It's exciting to have you back.
How are you. I'm great,Thanks for having me, and I'm
obviously super excited to come back toan organization and team that I started with.
And I'm just super excited. Andyou know now that we're almost about
ready to get going. It's it'sit's real, and uh, I can't

(12:07):
wait to get going. Woad canattest to this a few years ago,
when you were playing with Iowa andyou're playing the Admirals in the playoffs and
you're scoring slapshots from the top ofthe circles in the postseason and and killing
the Admiral's dreams of finally winning aroundin the playoffs for the first time in
years. I spent a good couplethree weeks talking to me off the ledge,

(12:28):
talking you off the ledge. Yes, but also like, Okay,
we're gonna get Caw this off season. We're gonna we look at what he
did. We're gonna get Caw thisoffseason. And it didn't happen, and
I was crestfallen that we didn't sign. And I know free agency is a
huge deal, but we got younow, and I'm excited. Uh.
Scott Nichols said this, and yousaid this too. You got you.

(12:50):
Guys have talked over the years tosee if that avenue was open to come
back to Milwaukee. Yeah, sowhat's happened a couple of times, and
I'm you know, I wish itwould have happened sooner, but you know,
I still feel I have a lotto give. I could still play,
and I'm so happy that it's finallyhappened. It's just it's very exciting.
Fourteen years of a fourteen different teams, in eighteen years of pro hockey.

(13:16):
What do you wish you knew todaythat? Sorry, what do you
know today that you wish you wouldhave known eighteen years ago? Oh gosh,
how quick it goes? You know, Like I think, as you
get older, you learn things andwishing you look back and wish you would
have done things different. I think, more so for myself. I did

(13:37):
get to the NHL staying there whatI had to do, you know,
I was I was young, andI think maybe if I was done some
things differently, I could have playedlonger than NHL. But but saying that,
I'm not unhappy with my career.I've been so many places, so
many different organizations, and I'm playinga long time and I'm extremely proud and
glad I can keep doing it,especially with back where it all started for

(13:58):
me. How much do you think? And you said, do some different
things. But but the injury yousuffered years ago obviously was a big thing.
And once you have an injury,then it's kind of a game of
politics, right, like you haveto just you're trying to find the right
fit in an organization, and ifthey don't know you, you better be
three times as good as the personthey have. Would you agree with something

(14:20):
like that. Absolutely, And youknow, when I came back from that
injury, it took me. Ittook me about a year, i'd say,
or maybe more to kind of findit again. Just it was.
It was a tough injury and amajor surgery, and it just took some
time. And you know, bythat time I was getting I was in
I don't know when I would havebeen but a little bit older. And
yeah, you go to the organizations, they'll have other guys, so you

(14:41):
really really have to to play well. And I did get some opportunities,
you know, in Buffalo, Iplayed a lot, and you know,
but it happened. But yeah,absolutely, I was. It's tough.
Yeah, you're just we're one ofthe handful of guys who's been an incredible
noble playmaker in animals history, oneof the top playmakers. And you know,

(15:03):
you really pride yourself on that overshooting the puck. And I know
we've had that discussion before that,you know, some guys that you know
just play away and score goals andyou take a lot of pride in your
playmaking. How much how much haveyou worked at at your passing skills and
your puck puck control skills over theyears. Yeah, I mean ever since
we were young, Me and mybrother and my dad would do stuff us

(15:28):
since we were young. You know, we spent a lot of time playing
ball, I think ball hockey androller hockey when we were kids. Is
is So it was so great forus because he literally played every day as
long as we could, and youknow, especially in the summers, and
I think that's where you learn alot of your skills and hockey sense and
stuff like that. And I thinkthat helped both me and my brother.

(15:48):
And then I've always worked on andyou know, I've always also worked on
shooting more and my shot over theyears, because like I think, every
coach has told me to shoot thepuck. For cal Oiley joining us,
it's Milwaukee Admiral senterrise. But whatyou said there, and I go back
to what I had said about youshooting and scoring from the tops of the

(16:08):
circles against the Admirals when you wereplaying with Iowa. That's one of those
things though, man, Like everybody'slooking for your fastball and that might be
a dandy pass or something like that, but if you can throw the curveball,
which is shooting that puck, andI think one of those things,
As Wildo said, what do youwish you knew? That's one of those
things that as you get older,you get you start to become that threat

(16:30):
and if they take something away,then you've got another option exactly. And
I think that's definitely something that wouldhave maybe helping me when I was younger,
and I think I'm trying to I'vegotten better at that. I think
two years ago or scored more goalsamericanly than I did any year because I
had to shoot more. And sothat's that's definitely something that I try to
do and hopefully next year I canI can do both for us. You

(16:52):
had to shoot more. What werethe guys playing without sticks or what?
They didn't have the sticks on theice? What was going on? Yeah,
no, I don't know. Ijust we had a tough time scoring
goals that year. So I wasI try to take it on myself to
shoot a little more, and Isup to get more behind the coolie.
Yeah, Hugh, Hugh Jessem andus still always telling me when he first

(17:14):
got to town and he met youand and you went up to him,
or maybe it was Lane that wentup to him and said, keep your
stick on the ice because it's gonnacome right to your stick every time.
Yeah. Me and me and Hughhad some great, great couple of seasons
there together. I love playing withhim. Yeah, yeah, nice to
have, nice to have that bigbody. I mean, you look back,
my goodness. It's been roughly thirteenyears since you played for the Admirals,

(17:37):
but I know you were here thissummer checking out the area. It
was. It was really weird toobecause Kelsey Wilson happened to be here that
week and Grant Lewis was here thatweek and it was wild. I don't
know if you got in touch.Scott Ford obviously was a team eight years.
I don't know if you guys allgot together or not. But how
different you played with Iowa a fewyears ago here? But how different is
our things? Yeah, it seemslike it's grown. But like just driving

(18:02):
in and like seeing some people.I went into the arena and Stall Harris
and John and I don't. Idon't think Charlie was in But just a
lot of memories came flying back towhere it all started for me, and
so many great marriage and memories.And I always tell people one of them,
I had a lot of fun playingin city. Just the organization and
the town is great to live in, you know, you had brewers,

(18:23):
bocks, lots to do, andI always enjoyed my time there. So
when we were back with just alot of memories and I'm excited to move
there with my family now and callthat home. You were kind of like
fourdo and the fact that you werefamiliar with with you had friends outside of
hockey, you had you would spendsome time here in the summer. Not

(18:45):
a lot of guys do that,especially when they're young. They all head
back. But you, you didthat a little bit. You took advantage
of it when you were a youngerplayer. I did. Yeah, yeah,
I did. I say extra longin the summer and skating MSL with
all the engineering school guys that Dthree. I used to know all those
guys because I had skate with themevery day, and I really summers.
It was just great there. Yeah, Okay, now, you've been around

(19:07):
for a while, the old veteran. You know, I think back to
your first year with the Admirals anda youngster, and and now you've taken
the leadership roll on on on theteams you've been at later in your career.
And who did you learn from?Who were the leaders that you learned
from when you started pro hockey Andwhat can you give us a leader to
to the younger guys in the room. Yeah, I mean I was fortunate

(19:30):
plays a lot of a lot ofolder guys, like especially when I came
up from junior and they went onthat that long run and lost to Hershey,
I didn't play every night, butI definitely gotten some games, and
that was I was huge as guyslike hey, darn Gamash. I think
Alex is Alex Berry. Yeah,rick Berry, Yeah, rick Berry,

(19:52):
rick Berry, rick Berry, that'sBerry Brookie. And I still get to
see Sheldon because he was coaching againthis last couple of years in Wilkespire.
But just guys like that. ButI really really admire Hay Dark just the
way how smart he was. Watchinghim when I was so young, I
think was really good for me becauseI could I could see similarities in my

(20:15):
game, and I wanted to belike him out there and how smart and
smooth and just always in the rightspot. And I think he really helped
me. It's such a it's sucha funny thing when you watch a player
like him, because everybody, andespecially now, I mean, as you
have grown and gotten older, thegame is go, go, go,
go, go hard four check hard, pressure of all of this stuff,

(20:37):
right, like, you better beskating twenty five miles an hour at all
times, north north north. Butthere is a place for a guy that
can slow things down and get everybodyto drop back and see the ice and
all of these things. And it'sit's it's it's pretty cool to see.
It's hockey. It's the cerebral partof the game. Yeah, exactly.

(20:59):
And that's that's the part of thegame I love, you know, And
when you can can do that anduse your skill in your in your speed,
in your smart story and kind ofslow it down at times, because
there's obviously times you camp. Butyou know, that's just a part of
the game that I always loved watchingplayers like that, and and I've always
looked up to them and tried tobe like them out there. This is

(21:22):
such a strange league, as weall know, every year out half of
the team is completely different. TheAdmirals had their most success since you were
a young man, and that ohfive oh six team best best season as
a team since that oh five ohsix season. I know, winning is
important. How can you get backthere this season? You haven't, we

(21:42):
haven't seen the team, We don'thave any of that stuff. But I
know that certainly in your mind whenyou sign somewhere. Absolutely I saw how
good they did last year, andso I was super happy because yeah,
to come and help young guys andand and help the team. But I
would love to have another shot thatcalls or cup thing. You know,

(22:03):
I haven't won one and been close, and to come to a team that
did so well last year, andI, from what I understand, there's
a lot of guys coming back fromlast year. So uh, you know,
hopefully we can build on that andhave another great year, which you
said your first year, ah fiveoh six, you make it to the
finals? You did? And whatfifteen with Utica? Is that right?
Yep? Utica? Yep? AndI was then I was only conference final

(22:26):
I think one or twice other timeswith Toronto and Wilkes Barre. It's amazing,
right like, and I don't knowhow you felt in two thousand and
six, but when you have that, you can get spoiled, right like,
oh my god, oh oh,it's going to be like this all
the time exactly, And like AmericanLeague, it's just so much turnover and
teams that it's it's hard to consistentlydo that. And I definitely saw that

(22:51):
going to different organizations. You know, you always think you're you're gonna have
a great team, but it's tough. It's tough to win and to have
that strong team, and it's toughto do it again and again. It's
it's it's it's different. It's goingto be the same, but it's different.
I'm I'm sure they've dusted off numbersixteen for you. Here? Is
that the number you're gonna wear?Yeah, I had to go back to
the old number for sure. Whathave you been wearing? I've wearing nine

(23:15):
since Iowa? Have you really?Yeah? I believe Iowa Rochester before?
Yeah, before I was sixteen Rochester, but then Iowa was nine and Lee
High Valley I was nine and Ithink sixteen was taken. So then I
went back to you don't have anyseniority, or you can't offer a gold

(23:37):
watch or a roll X or anythinglike that. I didn't want to be
that guy take it away from someone. Wow, are you kidding me?
They know who you are. Rightto get your cards out. Cal We
can't wait to see you man.Safe travels to you in the family.
And well, well it's it's rightaround the corner. We'll see you soon.
Yeah. Well, thanks, guys, we'll see you soon for sure.

(23:57):
All right. Cala Rye one ofthe all time greats when all of
a sudden done, he's going tobe a Hall of Famer and he's going
to be back in Milwaukee this year. And I'm so excited. You know
him, Troy Grostick, I mean, two of my favorite people from years
past and they're both coming back thisseason. I'm I'm jazzed. Plus on

(24:18):
top of that, the young playerswe had last year, not just great
hockey players, do two really good, real good guys. Yeah, no,
it's it's gonna be great. AndI know they've both found places in
the community and they now they havefamilies, and yeah, it's it's I
mean for you. You you youwere here at a time where players had

(24:41):
families. Like in the independent years, right, you had you had guys
who were in there from twenty eightto thirty three years old, and they
had young families, and you gotto know that that hasn't necessarily been the
case the last twenty years. Alwaysfreaks me out too, And it freaks
me out when you know, yousee the families like I've done social media
or you see the eight My gosh, they're like thirty years old. I

(25:03):
mean I was like, remember thatwhen they were like tiny little right right,
But now, but now it's gettingto that point for me, right,
like I said, you said socialmedia, Like I see Jimmy Olweny's
family on social media. Oh mygoodness, that little girl was up there
trying to take the microphone away fromme at karaoke at the at the Christmas
party, and now she's like ateenager exactly, wild exactly, So it's
it's I can't wait. It alwaysfreaks me out when I see the Alex

(25:26):
Killgenu born in Milwaukee and remember whenhe was born when yeah, right,
when his dad played here, Yeahexactly, it's unreal. Exactly. We're
gonna take a break when we comeback. I had the chance a couple
of days ago to talk with Admiral'sGeneral manager Scott Nicko. Also we'll hear
from Scott Nickol coming up next.You're listening to Milwaukee Admiral Center ICE.
Welcome back. It's Milwaukee Admiral's CenterICE. I'm here in sim's Michael Jahowski

(25:47):
joining us as well, and onthe phone, we're joined by the general
manager of the Milwaukee Admiral's Scott Nicholand Scott, great to talk to you.
It's been we were talking before weturned on the microphone. It's been
a quick summer, but it seemslike we were able to get everything in
and it's been I guess kind ofa joyful summer and an exciting summer as
you get ready for another season.Yeah, I think just we're up here.

(26:11):
We got new GM that that tookover July first, and then we
got our new coach and we havea new assistant coach up here, and
we had probably a lot of changesand people, you know, thought we
were going to do. So it'sit's really exciting. It opened up some
holes for some younger guys and theyshowed real well in Milwaukee and everyone's gonna

(26:34):
have a clean slate with the newcoach up here, and I'm excited to
see how some of our younger guysand even some of our guys that were
up and down last year in Nashville, and how they're gonna how they're gonna,
you know, have the games theyhad over the summer, and they're
coming into camp and showcase themselves andit's going to be a real competitive camp.

(26:56):
So I'm looking forward to it.You know, you mentioned Barry Trots,
Andrew Brunette and curious David Boyle hadbeen there since day one, now
Barry Trots, and Barry Trots wasthere basically since day one, although he
left for a few years. Butnow that he's back. Is there any
shift in philosophy with the new coach, with Barry, with yourself, with
Jeff Kelty, with Brian Poyle,with how you want to put together a

(27:18):
team this season, whether it's inNashville or Milwaukee, what you're shooting for.
No, I think we're you know, Trotsy has his vision. I
think he showed that right around tradedeadline. Right before trade deadline. We
all it's a you know, partnership, we all lean on each other.
We have all all our ideas andat the end of the day, it's

(27:40):
Trots, he makes makes the call. But now here we're still on the
same path, the same plan,and it's exciting. We have a lot
of young prospects. We added somegood veteran guys to our group. And
you look at we resigned Glass,we resigned Carrier. You know, no
back We find last year a midwaythrough the season, so Parson is going

(28:03):
to have another another year under hisbelt and hopefully we hit a healthy Forsberg
and yo See to start the seasonso and couldn't finish the season. So
we're we have some pieces for sure. We're it's a little bit of the
unknown because we have lost a littlebit of scoring, But then some of
that ice time gets to go toother guys I get a chance to prove

(28:26):
themselves. So again, I'm excitedabout the year and excited to see how
this all plays out. And Ithink thirty one other teams in the NHL
are probably think the same thing asus. They're excited to get going and
doing all this planning and projections andstuff like that. But the end of
the day, there's always somebody thatcomes in and has a great camp and

(28:47):
always surprises somebody, and there's alwaysmaybe hopefully not too many to have maybe
a step back or a little bitof a disappointment. So that's what pro
sports are all about. When you'reputting together the team from Milwaukee this year,
it was around fifteen players that playeda game in Nashville and Milwaukee last
season. A few of those guyshave moved on. But when those guys

(29:10):
show like they did, when theguys show like they did in the playoffs,
does that affect how Say in March, you might have thought, Okay,
this is how I want to putthe team, but then all of
a sudden, come junior, like, holy smokes, these guys did well,
we don't need to add this playeror this player because we think this
twenty year old twenty one year oldthough fit that job. Now, yeah,
we we haven't oversigned. I thinkthat's that was our selling point to

(29:36):
a lot of the young guys,the free agent guys. Even we signed
Kevin Wall who was at a PennState. He was a Carolina draft pick,
and you went to August fifteen like, we haven't over signed up top
or below, and so it's it'sgonna be you know, last year was
last year. The guys played realwell. They had opportunity and they I

(29:57):
think they really grabbed and embrace theopportunity that they had. But you've got
a new set eyes on you aswell, with a new coach and new
GM. So I'm not going tosay they have to reinvent themselves again,
but they should come in super confidentand with their ability. I think they
they know to the identity what theyhave to play with. And they're also

(30:18):
a year older, so they knowthe training camp, they know the rookie
camp, they know how we runthings here so and they've all been here
for a while so they've been skatinghere altogether. So that's also another you
know, feather in their tapping fororganization that guys came in early and skated
together. They want to show well, so they're prepared and they're hungry and

(30:41):
their spots to be to be madeand no one's going to be given anything,
which they shouldn't be. And Ithink as management and coaches, you
want to have a competitive atmosphere andcompetitive nature and I think that we're going
to see that. Capital's general managerScott Nickel joining us here, it's Milwaukee
Admiral Center. I say what yousaid about nobody's guaranteed anything. I just

(31:03):
referenced this not too long ago aboutjoel Ward coming to camp in Nashville and
when he signed with the Predators.I got so excited because joel Ward is
going to be an admiral and it'sgoing to be fantastic. And I had
people calling me telling me how wonderfuljoel Ward is going to be in Milwaukee,
and we never saw him. I'mnot saying that any of these free
agents that came in now are necessarilygoing to be joel Ward or somebody similar.

(31:26):
But again, what you say theselling points, like that's one thing
Nashville has done very well dan Ellisyears ago with Pecca staying in Milwaukee.
If a guy performs in camp inthose two three four weeks, he's going
to get the shot at the beginningof Keith for Sherwood, they're going to
get a shot at the beginning ofthe season. Absolutely, I think we
have a really good track record ofthat. We can even go back with

(31:48):
some of the listeners, like nottoo far back with Rocke Grimaldi's your Colin
Blackwell, yeah, you know,like Cole Smith. So I think the
as a player, you want toknow that they're if you play well,
our organization rewards in he beat somebodyout of camp, you beat him out
of camp. Do they stay thewhole year? Maybe, maybe not because

(32:12):
it is such a tough, toughleague, and but at the end of
the day, you want to comein and show well. And like I
said before, I think guys areready. They're trumping at the bit there.
You know, the summer was shortfor a lot of our guys,
but they're they're super confident. Theyshould have some swagger and they should be
very proud of what they accomplished lastyear. But every year is different,

(32:34):
right, so we gotta hit theground running, especially with our new coach
here and upping here. We hadour first ten games or we play some
real hard teams in the first tengames in Nashville, and that's going to
be a a little bit of agauntlet, and I'm looking forward to the
challenge. I think everybody is youthe new coach in Nashville with Andrew Brunette
and and everybody getting there on thatstaff, everybody getting eyes on players and

(33:00):
learning how Bruno wants to play butin Milwaukee it's the same coaching staff.
I don't know how surprised you arethat everybody is back, because there were
jobs open this past summer. Butit's nice to have that continuity with a
team that are with at least theleaders of the team that have been around
for a while. Yeah, theydo a fantastic job, and part of

(33:22):
the American League is to move guyson and from the coaches to the management
to the players, So they admitteda nice job. I think they had
some opportunity and it didn't happen,and we're ecstatic to have them back and
we'll take this can down the roadand have another good season. We'll develop

(33:44):
our guys. But our coaching staffdoes a fantastic job of doing and we're
all in it together. We're connectedfrom Nashville to Milwaukee, from the management
side to the ownership side, tothe coaching side, and we want the
best for these players. And Ithink it just shows our track record over
probably the last I don't know howmany years, and even in the last

(34:05):
probably the last eight years, youknow, well, making playoffs and winning
rounds, and it seems like inthe last maybe three years we've made that
gradual step of winning rounds, producinglots of call ups, and hopefully this
year so we make that next stepand get to the Color Cup final.
Scott Nickel joining us. It's MilwaukeeAdmiral Center, Ice, a couple of

(34:27):
guys I want to touch on,veteran guys and certainly very familiar to Admiral's
fans, and two people in Milwaukee. Call O'Reilly comes back. I gotta
tell you, a few years ago, I was so I was hoping so
much that call O'Reilly was going tobe a Milwaukee Admiral. I don't know
whether there was talks or not,but he is now. I'm very excited
about that, and Troy gross Nickcoming back. I'm very excited about that

(34:50):
your thought process and bringing those twogentlemen back to Milwaukee. Well, for
cal Oiley, he's been on myradar for a while. It's just we
haven't had a chance to to gethim, and this year we finally did.
We signed his brother Ryan up top. And I was looking for Tommy
Novak kind of player for us inMilwaukee who thinks the game flows it down

(35:12):
a little bit, creates by justby putting pucks in areas and if you
look at our group, we're goingto be young up front, and I
just needed some leadership up front,a guy that can carry the carry the
mail and produce and be a threat. And that was kind of my thought
process. I'd like to insulate someof our higher goal scoring young young prospects

(35:35):
with the guy who's been there andknows the game and knows how how the
league works. So I'm losing ColeSchneider. We went to Chicago. I
thought this would be a really goodcompliment to our our forward group and just
with with Goose Grossnick on the backend, help and ask Roff if he's
down here, and we have threegoals as well as our other goalie,

(35:57):
just somebody who's almost the same ilkbecause as Cal who has been through the
wars and the ups and downs andand getting games in the NHL, and
what it takes to get to theNHL, how hard you have to work
in practice, how do you howdo you be a pro? And I
just think those two players are reallycomplement our whole team. And I'm excited
about our leadership group. I'm excitedabout the culture. It's not gonna,

(36:20):
you know, take a hit.We I think we do the right thing,
and we just add more good peopleto our organization. I guess you
could say in a nutshell, youngupfront, but a lot of experience on
the back end. It could verywell be that the same group that was
in Milwaukee last season is going tobe back in Milwaukee this season. It's
pretty amazing, it is. It'suh, we could have your your goaltending

(36:45):
could stay the same year, dcould be very similar with another year under
their belt, and they'll be pushingfor jobs up top. There's spot up
tops, so we'll see where thatthat takes everybody, but our forwards of
young, we could have probably upto five to seven first year forwards and
so that's why it was important tosign the Calo Rise Riley's and Anthony Angelo

(37:10):
who's been in the league, buthe'll have a chance the playoff as well
and get games and show what hehas like he's got he's got new eyes
on him, so I'm excited tosee how he goes about it. And
we have we signed jest Or Weatherbe'swho's played in San Jose. I think
he's played like fifty games for theSharks there and bounced a little bit between

(37:30):
Grand rapids and the barracouta last year, so he's going to be hungry and
sharpening his teeth for sure to comein and make a good impression. So
I'm really And then we have somesecond year players that, in my experience,
the first year is is a littlebit of a feeling out process.
And then once they go through thesummer and know how hard they have to
train and work and they come tocamp and it's not everything's not new to

(37:54):
him, I find they make hugestrides as well. So a little bit
of question mark on our fours andgoal scoring, and we did lose some
goals touring last year, but I'mreally excited about our young group. Would
you have to be patient with himearly on and show them our way and
put him in positions to succeed,and someone'll fail a little bit, but

(38:16):
he had picked him back up andjust keep keep pushing forward and forging forward.
A lot of young players, andI remember Barry Trots told me last
year when he came to town,right around the time he was introduced as
the GM and waiting so to speak, that there could be five to seven
first round picks in Milwaukee in twentythree twenty four. One of those guys

(38:38):
he wasn't a first round pick,but an interesting guy in the fact that
he signed. He wasn't drafted,but he signed last November. Nolan Burke
fifty goals last season tell us alittle bit about him, because again,
he wasn't I don't think he's onany Milwaukee fans radar necessarily because he wasn't
drafted. He didn't show up lastyear for the playoff run things like that.

(39:00):
Well, he's kind of a kidthat's just kind of just climbs the
ladder run one ring at a time, you know, like he just he's
slowly under the radar. He tooka you know, took a little while
in junior to get going and thenand then he just popped. Last year
he scored over fifty goals. He'sgot a knack for the net where he's
not a burner, like he's nota speedster by any means, but he

(39:24):
just has that Cole Schneider way abouthim. Or he knows where to go
around the net. Bucks hit him. He's got nice hands for a big
guy, So we're we're excited heis. He's It's probably exactly where he
wants to be under the radar becausethat's where he's been a lot of his
career. And we got out andsigned him really early. I think it

(39:45):
was like maybe November December, outof the OHL and there's a great time.
He's a great kid, works hard, and so he's another another young
kid that has skills, some sizeand has a knack than that that more
excited to see turn pro. Onemore thing for you. Last year,

(40:06):
the team did not have an ECHLaffiliate. I don't know that that affected
the team necessarily one way or another, but I'm curious this year now you
do. You talked about not oversigning. I'm curious, does it help?
Does it? Is it? Areyou indifferent, you know with with
having the ECHL affiliate and having playersthat you know that are in one spot

(40:28):
and getting coaching from one person andall of that. Yeah. I like
the East Coast affilages because it getssuch a in anybody's like, oh,
you're playing the East Coast League.I want to use it as like a
three cheered system. So you haveyour NHL American League East Coast lygue.
It's not into motion to go downto the East Coast League. We all

(40:49):
we've all seen the articles on Tenors, you know of him going down getting
his game wasn't down there very long. But sometimes these kids, it's good
for them to play hockey doesn't dothem any good. I think we learned
our lesson from COVID where you can'thave a bunch of kids sitting out.
It doesn't do their development any good. So they need to go play and
they need to play big minutes.They need to have the puck on their

(41:12):
stick. They got to play inkey situations and they have They're not doing
that with us. I'd like forthem to be somewhere to do that.
So it was important for our organizationmyself to get get it back to the
East League affiliation. On Derek Nesbit, who's played in the Age cohost League
for a long time, he's gota great head for the game. He

(41:34):
communicates very well. I talked tohim probably three times, four times a
week, and he's got a greatplan and good culture. So I'm excited
for that because when the kids,some of the guys go there, they're
all there. They've played similar toour style. They have the same mindset
that we have, so when wedo call him up they can it's a

(41:55):
seamless transition, kind of like withour guys from American League to the end.
So I think it's super important.Scott. I can't thank you enough
for the time. As always,I look forward to seeing you in a
couple of weeks and save travels allyear, but especially in the near future.
Thanks a lot. Thanks, Simpsy, appreciate it. It's Scott Nichol.
We're back in a moment. You'relistening to Milwaukee Admiral Center Ice one

(42:20):
final time. It's Milwaukee Admiral CenterIce with Mike wil Jahowski. I'm Aaron
sim So. October sixth, thefirst preseason game for the Admirals. It
will be at Panther Arena against theChicago Wolves, following night at Chicago's practice
facility, and then the season getsgoing a week later at Chicago. The
home opener will be Saturday, Octoberthe twenty one year at Panther Arena.
That's it, you got them alldown. Let's say everything. Visit Milwaukee

(42:42):
Admirals dot com. Certainly there's timeto get your tickets. Check out the
website for promotions coming up as well. Thanks for listening to Milwaukee Admiral Center Ice.