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If I Had a Nichol: Talking Prospects with Scott Nichol · Predators Official Podcast

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I was the only guy for a long time.
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I did all our prospects. Now I have Nathan Gervy, Rob
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Skadarry. We just hired Mike Kadar as our
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strength and conditioning coach for our prospects, which I don't
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know how many teams have that. And then we also have Rob
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Skadarry that does our our DS coach.
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And then we also have Mark Borowicki who's kind of our
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player development at the pro level because we are a little
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bit of younger team who are going to have some movement of
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young guys coming up and coming down.
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And sometimes that's a little bit of a mental warfare with
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some of those with some of the young guys.
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So he's a really good sounding board for that somebody to, you
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know, not just go through video, but just go take him for a
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coffee, have dinner with them, stuff like that.
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So that's the player developed. So I kind of oversee that, which
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I love because I get to see our young kids coming in and then I
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can build or we can build a team in Milwaukee to surround our
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young players. Welcome back to another episode
1:07
of the Predators official podcast, streaming on your
1:10
favorite device. Watching on your favorite
1:13
device, wherever we're coming to you, we appreciate it.
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It's great to be back alongside Max hers from Fred's radio, Cara
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Hammer, the Fred's TV. I'm Brooks Bratton from
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nashvillepredators.com and another jam packed show for you
1:26
this week. Two weeks into the season, the
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Predators return home to begin A5 game homestand, a season long
1:33
homestand at Bridgestone Arena. We'll get into that in a moment.
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Brady Martin heading back to the Ontario Hockey League, the Sue
1:40
Greyhounds. We'll hear from Predators GM
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Barry Trots, as that move is. We've got a great interview with
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Predators assistant general manager and Admirals general
1:49
manager Scott Nickel. He was kind enough to sit down
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and discuss some of Nashville's top prospects, so looking
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forward to that. Nick Purbeck's The art of a
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nickname. Jordan Tutu, our biggie.
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Awesome person of the week and a fan question as well.
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So much to get to, so let's jump right in.
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But first Max and Cara, lovely to see you as always.
2:08
Nice to see you, Brooks. I hope you enjoyed your two days
2:11
off before we kicked off this home stand because I don't think
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you're having anytime off until you guys hit the road for
2:15
Sweden, right? 12 games in 20 days.
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We've got some back to backs. You're at home, you're on the
2:21
road. Get the coffee going, I guess.
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It's it's a lot of games. We heard Andrew Burnett after
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Monday's practice say, hey, like, let's not mess around and
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screw around after practice on the ice.
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Let's get off the ice, conserve our energy because they're going
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to need it. I was talking to Brady Shay in
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the room after that practice. He's like, wow, how many games
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do we have? A lot, a lot of games, basically
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every other night you're playing, you're playing back to
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backs. So we're all going to have to
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conserve our energy and we're not even playing Max.
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How are the vocal cords holding up?
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I think, OK, I think OK, you sound great.
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The home load management for me is very different than the road
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load management because on the road I'm doing play by play and
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I think that's a lot more, I don't know, I had a lot of
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strain on the vocal cords at home, pregame show,
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intermission, post game play into the crowd.
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So I think the home games are a little easier on my voice so,
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but it is a lot of home games this week.
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So we need to see you guys all at Bridgestone Arena this week
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and this weekend. It is.
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It's good to be home. I got to find time to rake my
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leaves at some point. But we'll, we'll get there.
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It's part of being a homeowner. Enough about that.
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The top story as we record on Wednesday, October 22nd, Brady
3:33
Martin, the 18 year old rookie, obviously made the team out of
3:35
training camp. He played the first two games,
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did not play on the Canadian road trip.
3:40
He was in there on Tuesday night against Anaheim.
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But on Wednesday morning he has returned to the Sioux Greyhounds
3:46
of the Ontario Hockey League, three games with the Predators.
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He did not reach that nine game threshold that we'd mentioned.
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So he still has a three-year entry level contract and his
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name did not burn that first. And again, to re emphasize also,
4:00
he cannot be sent to Milwaukee. I've already seen a couple of
4:03
people saying why couldn't he go to the Admirals?
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He can't by rule. He was either going to be here
4:08
in Nashville the whole season or he was going to go back down to
4:11
the Ontario Hockey League. So he does end up going to his
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junior team, the Sue Greyhounds and Predators General manager
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Barry Trotz addressed that decision and what he saw from
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Brady Martin. So we're first going to play you
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a clip from Barry Trotz on Wednesday morning.
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Just his thoughts on why the decision was made and what he'll
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look for from Brady as he heads down to the zoo.
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We'll play that for you here. Well, I think more than
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anything, you know, he's done an excellent job.
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I mean, he's an 18 year old gun on our starting roster showed
4:45
really, really well. Just that I think when you look
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at the long term for him, he needs to play a lot more
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minutes. He needs to have the puck a
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little bit more. He needs to be, you know, a
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dominant player at his level. And you know what, he's got
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great opportunity hopefully with being the in the mix with Team
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Canada for the World Juniors is great experiences.
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So everything was positive. You know, we talked to Brady, we
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spent a lot of time with Brady, has spent time with him in on
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the road trip. He's really positive as he would
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say, you know, I know we're expected to be on opening day
5:19
roster and he made it. And so that's really positive
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for for him as a as a young player for us as a franchise.
5:28
You know, I think there's only Matthew Schaefer and maybe Mesa
5:32
still in the in the mix from this this year's draft.
5:35
But you look at he's competing against guys that are 567812
5:40
years older than him. And so really good experience.
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I mean, he as much as he learned on the ice, he learned off the
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ice about the the preparation, the grind, the travel, the
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buildings, you know, So I think it's a really positive
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experience. Talk to him about going back and
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there is going to be an adjustment period for him, but
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he's got to take everything he's taken from here a preparation
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focus, you know, being he's going to be a leader with his
6:15
team, the details of the game, trying to improve, being a pro
6:21
on and off the ice and taking care of himself all the time so
6:28
that he can be at his ultimate, you know, potential to succeed
6:34
physically and mentally every game because it is a grind.
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The game takes a lot out of you. And he said that, you know, even
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though they're one of the biggest things is how hard you
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have to play that you cannot take a breath.
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We're in, you know, and junior once in a while he can take a
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breath and he says you can't take a breath here because they
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make you pay. It's a very unforgiving league.
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And so the experience of that and him even saying that and
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adjusting his game, like you didn't see him running through
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guys that were 45 lbs heavier than him or anything like that.
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He, he adjusted his game to control guys positionally, all
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that. So he's got a good stick.
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There's lots of, lots of good things with them.
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So, so he's that, that that move essentially, you know, sets us
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up for, you know, some of the other guys in Milwaukee to
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potentially be called up. And then before we react, I want
7:31
to play one more. I asked Barry what he is excited
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about now that he's gotten a taste of what Brady Martin can
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bring to this lineup from the time they drafted him in June
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until now. Why should we be excited for the
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future and what Brady Martin can bring?
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Here's Barry Trotz on that subject.
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Well, it's sort of the whole package.
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This this is a a, a player that that is not afraid of the
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moment, like he's not he's not afraid of going up against top
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guys. And you know what some guys are,
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but you know, just like every, every, you know, with Brady, you
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want players to thrive and not just survive.
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And you know, he's got some some things he's going to have to get
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bigger and stronger and all those things.
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But the the mind of the game, how he thinks the game, all that
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is, is in a really good place. So we're really excited.
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I'm excited for him. I mean, he's going to be a a
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core player for us for a long time and he's got the right DNA.
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He's got a great work ethic, as we all know.
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I think he's a very humble kid and and a realistic kid.
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I shouldn't, you know, As for him, he there's, he doesn't
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have, you know, sometimes a young players see themselves in
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different, different ways. He's he's a very grounded and,
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and understands what he needs to do and where he wants to go.
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And he's got an inner confidence that in a fire that is
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undeniable. OK, guys, so there you go.
9:07
Barry Trotz addressing the move for Brady Martin probably wasn't
9:13
going to end up being here the whole season anyway.
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I don't know that that was necessarily a surprise that he
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ends up going back down. I had some really good
9:20
experience up here, but it was clear that it's best at this
9:23
point in time that Brady Martin goes down, is the star of the
9:27
show down there in the Ontario Hockey League with the Sue
9:29
Greyhounds. That's what's best for his
9:31
development right now. And the Prez.
9:33
You're looking forward to seeing what he can get out of that
9:35
experience. Yeah, I think Brooks, this whole
9:40
experience for Brady Martin was a major net positive for him,
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for the Preds, for everybody. You get a little bit of a taste
9:49
of your guy. He's not fully NHL ready this
9:52
year. I don't think anybody would
9:54
dispute that at any point in this whole process.
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We heard at the draft, we heard in pre season, he's probably not
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going to play this entire season in the NHL, but I think
10:03
everything is in place for him to really compete for that
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opportunity next year. Now you got three NHL games.
10:09
He got his first NHL point. He played with the big names in
10:12
preseason and in the regular season.
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He traveled with the team. He's worked with all the skills
10:17
coaches. And now, as you said, Brooks,
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he's going back to the zoo to play for head coach Terry Crisp.
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Oh, sorry, I'm about 40 years late on that. 1A, Crispy.
10:26
You'll get them right? Could you imagine, though, if
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that was the coach? It would be incredible, but
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shout out to Crispy Legendary in the zoo, as he is legendary
10:35
anywhere. But yeah, there are big things
10:36
ahead for Brady Martin this year.
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I will leave it at this. The Sioux Greyhounds have not
10:41
yet announced a captain for this season.
10:42
Their captain from last season is playing college hockey at
10:45
Notre Dame. They have not yet announced the
10:47
captain for this season. They're already playing games.
10:49
Brady Martin hasn't been there. And also world juniors.
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I think Martin could play a big role with the world junior team.
10:56
And Barry Trotz specifically called that out today as
10:58
something that's a big opportunity I had for him.
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But I like the way you put it, Brooks, the star of the show up
11:02
in the Sioux. And I think Martin can really
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excel there. But we saw the reasons why the
11:07
Preds drafted him. Yeah, there are other guys with
11:10
a lot of skill in the draft. And I think the thing that
11:12
separated Martin from the guys around him, specifically Porter
11:15
Marton and James Higgins, who went right after him, the
11:18
intangibles. And we saw Martin.
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I think he's a potential captain in the NHL in the future.
11:24
I think that's what Barry Trotz loves about him and I think the
11:27
way that he works, the in addition to his skill, being in
11:31
the right position, making the right play, we saw that really
11:35
pop and that actually was the area where I think he was most
11:39
ready to play in the NHL. And that to me, is what was most
11:42
promising. In addition to obviously he's
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the 5th overall pick for a reason.
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Yeah. I think also, too, Brady Martin
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is a guy that we know that he's going to go and put in the work.
11:53
And you learn so much from other guys who are young, still
11:57
starting out. I mean, let's look at Luke
11:58
Evangelista as an example. He told me this summer he spent
12:02
so much time endurance training because last season while he was
12:05
playing, he realized he was getting gas when he was stuck
12:08
out there on longer shifts. This is a guy who played a
12:11
regular season and then coming back over the summer, he
12:13
realized I still have to put in the work to try to be successful
12:17
in this league. And I think that's just
12:19
something that an 18 year old is going to learn along the way.
12:23
Exactly, And and we talked on this in earlier episodes, but it
12:27
is very rare for an 18 year old to come right from the draft and
12:31
stick with the NHL team the entire season.
12:34
This is not an unexpected situation.
12:37
But Max, you mentioned it and you heard Barry Trott say it as
12:39
well. There are so many reasons to be
12:42
excited for what's to come with Brady Martin because of what we
12:45
have already seen from him up here.
12:47
You mentioned that leadership. I, I think the thing that I've
12:50
been so impressed with every time that I've talked to him
12:53
over the past few months about how he views just being a leader
12:58
and being a part of a team. The wherewithal, the mindset
13:02
that he already has as an 18 year old on that subject is
13:05
exactly why, as you mentioned, probably going to go back down
13:09
and at least be a leader on his team, if not the captain, and
13:13
why he's got a pretty good chance to probably do it at the
13:16
NHL level someday. So you combine all of that with
13:19
all the other intangibles that we've already seen.
13:22
There's a lot of reason to be excited for the future with
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Brady Martin. So it was great to have him here
13:27
for a few months. Love to get that experience
13:31
early on. He'll go back down, he'll have a
13:33
good season in the zoo. And at this time next year, who
13:36
knows what we're talking about when it comes to Brady Martin.
13:39
But yeah, that's the decision that was made today for the
13:43
Predators. And we'll see what happens in
13:46
the future with #44 and gold. But certainly a very bright
13:50
future it is. We'll jump to this real quick as
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we get back home. We touched on it, but the
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Canadian swing, the Predators ended up with a 1-2 and one
13:59
record. They won in Ottawa, but then
14:01
losses in Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg and then returned to
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Nashville on Tuesday night to begin a season long 5 game
14:08
homestand against Anaheim. That didn't go Nashville's way
14:12
either. They lost five to two to the
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Ducks. It just was not a great game
14:16
overall. And we hear coaches say all the
14:18
time you're maybe a little bit worried sometimes coming back
14:21
home off of a long road trip. Whatever the case might be, that
14:25
was kind of the case for the Preds last night.
14:27
And Kara, you saw it first hand and it just it wasn't what the
14:32
Nashville Predators wanted to put forth as they came back to
14:35
start this home stand. Yeah, tie 22 in the middle of
14:39
the second period, I I felt like when I was talking to Luke
14:43
Richardson during the intermission, the associate head
14:45
coach, he said, we're playing a little bit too loose.
14:47
He's like, you know, Anaheim is a team that's really going to
14:49
bring the offense to you. And he's like, we, we got to get
14:52
back to our structure. We need to hunker down.
14:54
But unfortunately, we just never saw that.
14:56
We brought it up on the last podcast and the power play
15:00
continues to be an issue for this team. 2 for 24 on the
15:03
season and and I think that was a little bit in their heads.
15:07
We heard it from Ryan O'Reilly postgame.
15:10
He had a great answer talking with me, taking a lot of
15:13
ownership for the loss. You know we're a lot better than
15:16
what we showed tonight. You know starts with myself
15:18
leadership group. We have to make sure the group's
15:20
ready to go better. And, you know, obviously myself
15:22
too, have to be a lot better in areas.
15:24
And that wasn't last night, though.
15:26
We, we know it. You know, we're going to get
15:27
back to work here. We're.
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Yeah, just the mistakes killed us.
15:31
You know, we weren't whether we thought it'd be easier tonight
15:33
or something. We have to get back playing that
15:35
hard game and, you know, build our game out from there.
15:37
And so it's, we all know, we all can all feel it there.
15:40
It's very frustrating. It's disappointing, but we're
15:42
going to be fine. We're going to get back to work
15:43
and we're going to improve. We're taking a lot of ownership,
15:45
but for you guys, what's missing?
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Well, I think that that confidence, you know, I think
15:50
offensively I think we're kind of little frustrated.
15:52
But you do power play. We're not, you know, putting it
15:54
in. And so that frustration, yeah, I
15:56
kind of search for it a bit. I know for myself, you know,
15:59
maybe try to get on the offensive side a little bit to
16:01
search for it, and that ends up in the back of your net.
16:02
So it's, you know, again, 2, as a leader, you have to lead the
16:06
way the right way and do the right things, and the rest will
16:09
follow. But yeah, we have to shake the
16:11
frustration and get back to, you know, what we do.
16:14
We have success. And that's, you know, starting
16:15
around, being hard to play against, taking care of the
16:17
puck, making it tough on teams, and then the rest will come.
16:20
Do you look at that as being at home, an opportunity to take
16:23
advantage of the next four games at Bridgestone?
16:26
Yeah, absolutely. You know, we talked about we
16:27
want to make this a hard place and for a reason came out flat
16:30
and and didn't have that. But you know, we're going to
16:33
adjust and we'll come back next game and establish that it's,
16:36
you know, that's the chance. That's how we win games.
16:37
It's good. We're going to have to play hard
16:39
and and make it tough on teams. And yeah, like I said, it's a,
16:42
you know, a good opportunities coming up here.
16:44
Well, you guys factor, I mean, you can't expect anything less
16:47
from him. He is a leader.
16:49
He's vocalizing it there. He he was very clear that it
16:53
starts with him and the the offense.
16:55
It simply needs to get going. It does, and that's a
17:00
frustrating part of what's going on right now for the Predators
17:02
and for me. And guys talked about this, like
17:05
sometimes you have games like that.
17:06
You obviously want to learn something.
17:08
There's always something to learn, but sometimes you just
17:10
have a game where you want to flush it and you're going to
17:13
have games like that. Whether it's Game 7 or it's Game
17:15
77, you're going to have bad games.
17:18
That was a bad game on Tuesday night for me.
17:21
Move on from it. To me, it's all about the
17:23
response against Vancouver on Thursday and for the rest of the
17:26
home stand. So, you know, I'm not.
17:30
Yeah, there's things to correct against from the game against
17:32
Anaheim, but it's in the past. Let's move on from that.
17:35
To me, it's all about what is Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, What
17:39
do those games look like? How do you respond the rest of
17:41
this homestand to show what kind of team you can really be?
17:44
That's what I'm looking for. So I, you know, again, Anaheim,
17:47
whatever it is, what it is, what are we going to see on Thursday
17:51
against the Canucks? That's the biggest question for
17:53
me as we move forward in this homestand.
17:55
Well the rest of the homestand is against four really
17:58
challenging teams for various reasons, Preds and Canucks.
18:02
I'm expecting playoff hockey like 2 years ago when these
18:05
teams get together. Two teams that are really
18:07
hungry, two teams that missed the playoffs last year.
18:10
Kiefer Sherwood's first game back in Nashville.
18:13
He is the Canucks leading goal scorer right now through seven
18:16
games and you know he'll be stirring it up as he always
18:19
does. And then over the weekend, I
18:21
think the Kings are a good team. They have some really high end
18:24
scoring. It'll be Andre Kopitar's last
18:27
ever game in Smashville, so last chance for you guys to see him
18:30
on Bridgestone Arena ice. Then Sunday night the Stars are
18:33
really, really good. They have Miko Ranton in and
18:36
then next Tuesday the Lightning, who are a good team as well.
18:38
So I think it's been back-to-back games that I have
18:41
absolutely nothing good to say about for the Preds after they
18:44
failed to close out the Canadians and things have got to
18:47
change, that's for sure. I think one thing we can make
18:51
clear, and we all heard it last night and Bruno was very adamant
18:55
about it, this is not last season.
18:57
So if you're looking at this team and you're looking at a
18:59
couple of losses and we're only eight games into the season and
19:02
you're on your phone tweeting, hey, it's not last season.
19:08
I think the Preds still have a chance to turn it around.
19:10
I think they have the right group to do it.
19:12
I think it's just getting their system back in place and, and
19:15
finding a way to win. And I think one of the things,
19:17
and we just heard it from Ryan O'Reilly, they need to take
19:19
advantage of playing on home ice.
19:20
They need to make Bridgestone a tough place to play in.
19:23
And I think if that's something that hopefully we're going to
19:26
see. Absolutely.
19:28
So it's early and the Predators know that, but they also know
19:32
that they can't afford to get in too big of a hole, so they're
19:35
looking forward to getting back at it Thursday against
19:37
Vancouver. I think there's that excitement
19:39
to get back at it, too. That's, you know, you often say
19:42
sometimes in the NHL, if you don't like the result one night,
19:45
you don't have to wait much longer to try to get back at it.
19:47
And the Preds are going to have plenty of chances to do it, as
19:50
you said, Max and Kara, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday,
19:53
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Monday, Wednesday, you know,
19:56
it's just going to keep coming, right?
19:57
And then we're going to be in Sweden before we know it, so.
20:00
A lot of games coming up, that's a lot of days.
20:03
Now I'm questioning the schedule.
20:05
I think you said every day of the week twice I'm going to be
20:07
busy. Again, I'm concerned that I'm
20:10
not going to have any time to do any yard work, but that's the
20:12
way that it goes. So the friends will find a way
20:15
to get back at it, and we're looking forward to seeing how
20:18
they respond in the next little bit here.
20:20
Certainly coming up, we're excited for this one.
20:23
Max and I had a great chat with Predators, assistant GM,
20:26
Milwaukee Admirals GM, director of player development, former
20:29
Preds player titles out the wazoo.
20:32
It's Scott Nickel. Coming up, if I listen to the.
20:34
Predators here. Great title.
20:37
Great. The mind of Max hers.
20:38
Ladies and gentlemen, if I had a nickel, you're listening to the
20:40
Predators official podcast on ESPN 102.5, The Game and
20:43
YouTube. Welcome back to the Predators
20:51
official podcast on Nashville Predators YouTube, ESPN1O25, the
20:55
game and your favorite podcast platform.
20:58
My name is Max Herz from Preds Radio, joined by Brooks Bratton
21:01
from nashvillepredators.com. And our interview guest this
21:04
week, former Predators player and Predators assistant GM and
21:08
GM of the Milwaukee Admirals, Scott Nichol is here.
21:11
Scott, thanks so much for joining us.
21:13
Thanks for having me guys, appreciate it.
21:16
Always a pleasure to talk to you.
21:17
Scott and Max just named a number of your titles.
21:21
You've got a lot of Fred's, assistant GMGM of the Milwaukee
21:26
Admirals, director of Player development, former NHL player.
21:30
You get a lot of important titles.
21:31
So I'm always curious, in a role like yours, can I give us a
21:35
little bit of a lowdown? What's it like to not only be an
21:38
AGM for the NHL club, but the GM for the AHL club?
21:43
Well, you hire good people, right?
21:45
You have good people around you. For start, I guess start with
21:49
player development. I was the only guy for a long
21:52
time. I did all our prospects.
21:53
Now I have Nathan Girby, Rob Scuderi.
21:57
We just hired Mike Kadar as our strength and conditioning coach
22:01
for our prospects, which I don't know how many teams have that.
22:05
So he focuses on their their strength and conditioning, of
22:08
course, but has a relationship with their their strength coach
22:12
wherever there are, wherever they're at.
22:14
If it's Michigan State or you know, if it's in the zoo or
22:17
something like this, make sure they're doing the right work
22:21
workouts that what we what we like.
22:25
We want to develop more speed, more explosive, make sure
22:28
they're all kind of do on the same page.
22:30
So and then we also have Rob Skadarry that does our our DS
22:35
coach. And then we also have Mark
22:37
Borowicki who's kind of our player development at the pro
22:40
level because we are a little bit of younger team who are
22:43
going to have some movement of young guys coming up and coming
22:46
down. And sometimes that's a little
22:48
bit of a mental warfare with some of those with some of the
22:51
young guys. So he's a really good sounding
22:54
board for that somebody to, you know, not just go through video,
22:58
but just go take him for a coffee, have dinner with them,
23:01
stuff like that. So that's the player developed.
23:03
So I kind of oversee that, which I love because I get to see our
23:08
young kids coming in and then I can build or we can build a team
23:12
in Milwaukee to surround our young players.
23:15
You know, so for instance, last year we signed Daniel Carr,
23:18
who's a HLMVP to American League deal and he is a, you know, he's
23:23
a very skilled player, but he plays the right way.
23:27
You get to the hard areas. You you saw his goal is over or
23:31
his game-winning goal against Texas.
23:33
It's right in the blue paint for a skill guy.
23:35
He's got some a little bit of jam to him.
23:38
So we thought that would help, you know, bring in like a
23:40
Matthew would if he was with us or Camel or even Cole O'Hara,
23:46
where you got to get to the hard areas to score, not just on the
23:49
perimeter. So that's how I like to see
23:51
because I have a relationship with our young guys, our
23:54
prospects, and then we can kind of field.
23:56
We've had really nice success in Milwaukee building like
24:00
insulating some of our prospects to, you know, get their skill
24:04
set out. What what's their good?
24:06
Like if someone's of a really high hockey IQ, you want to be
24:11
able to put them with a player that can can think on the same
24:14
wavelength. And then for the day-to-day
24:16
stuff in Nashville's great. You know, I watch the games
24:20
here, travel a little bit with the team.
24:23
I have a really, you know, it's it's great to be be around our
24:26
guys because then we see some of our young guys like Ozzy Wise
24:28
Black come up and we've had a relationship with him.
24:31
So it's busy, but it's hockey 24 hours a day and I love it.
24:36
And I don't know if what I'd be doing, you know, it's just kind
24:40
of morphed and grown and more responsibility.
24:44
But like I said, I have great people to that I work with and
24:48
our coaching staff in Milwaukee. Ryan Costello, he's in
24:51
Milwaukee. We promoted him to assistant
24:53
general manager a couple of years ago, which he is like
24:56
he's, he does like all the travel, all the per DM, all he
24:59
does. He's the the boots on the ground
25:02
guy for Milwaukee. So he helps me out a lot.
25:05
Well, you just touched on that as far as far as traveling a
25:08
little bit with the Preds back in Milwaukee sometimes to give
25:11
fans some perspective, you are in Nashville right now as we are
25:14
obviously, but what is kind of the balance of you're in
25:18
Nashville, you're in Milwaukee, and how much does technology
25:22
help you be able to do your job? You're able to watch every
25:25
Milwaukee and Nashville game no matter where you are.
25:29
Yeah, so my day-to-day is get up in the morning and talk to Carl
25:34
Taylor, who is our head coach in in Milwaukee.
25:36
What the line up with practice looks like.
25:38
We'll talk again after practice. How was practice?
25:41
Many injuries. And then if we have a night of a
25:45
day of a game, it's almost the same process.
25:48
I'm probably in Milwaukee maybe two months of the OR two weeks
25:51
of the month. Sometimes I'll just fly in for
25:53
the weekend to watch the games. And then sometimes I'll have
25:56
like last week, I was there for a week, which I, I really enjoy
26:00
because then I get to just kind of hang around, sit with the
26:03
guys that before practice, mingle with them, can take them
26:07
for lunch or a coffee and build that relationship.
26:09
I just don't want to be the, the GM that just flies in, watches
26:13
games and flies out, right? I think for development and
26:17
bringing these young guys are up is it's all about communication
26:21
and relationship based. Like I think we, it starts as
26:24
soon as we draft them. We, we have development camp and
26:29
we start building the relationship there.
26:31
And then once we, once they're drafted and then our development
26:35
team takes over, we go watch them at in college or junior and
26:39
usually their parents are there and then that's we build a
26:42
relationship with their parents as well.
26:43
So we're all in it together. It's not one message from the
26:47
parents and one message from the coaches.
26:49
It's we because the kids have a lot now.
26:51
They got skills coaches, nutritionists, they got skating
26:55
coaches, they got agents, they got parents, they got their
26:59
coach where they're at. So we want to make sure the the
27:02
messaging is consistent all the time and I think that's how they
27:05
can grow and improve hopefully relatively quickly.
27:11
Well said. We're getting an inside look at
27:12
the Predators player development process, strategy and structure
27:16
from assistant GM and former Preds player Scott Nickel here
27:19
on The POP Scooter. Let's go through some guys one
27:22
by one, if we may. A group of five guys, all of
27:25
whom high level prospects who are with the Milwaukee Admirals
27:28
first right now. First up, Matt Wood, who just
27:31
made his AHL debut at the start of this season.
27:34
He seemed like he was on track to make a big push to make the
27:37
Preds roster before an injury in preseason.
27:40
How's his health, first of all, And what's the launch of his AHL
27:43
career been like for Wood? Yeah, I'm sure for him super
27:46
disappointing because he did have a great pre season, good
27:50
rookie tournament and then he got hurt and he was hurt for two
27:53
weeks or 2 1/2 weeks kind of lead into the season.
27:56
But he started on a roster so which is a big check mark
28:01
because that's that's the first time he's been through, you
28:05
know, rookie tournament, the first time he's ever been
28:08
through a main camp before exhibition season.
28:11
Like that's a lot for a young kid come in, it's plays a lot of
28:15
hockey. He's not used to that much
28:17
hockey in in September and the begin of October.
28:21
Then he got healthy, came to us. He's played two games for us.
28:25
He's figuring out figuring out pro hockey.
28:28
He scored a beautiful power play goal off the flank, one timer
28:31
short side. It's we all know his power play
28:36
skill set, his play making skill set, the size he just has a
28:39
knack of the puck falls him around.
28:41
For a big guy, he doesn't get a lot of notoriety on how well he
28:47
in these small little area games, how he does be able to
28:50
slip pox and gets pucks through. And just like a young player,
28:54
it's like it's all the other stuff that doesn't show up on
28:57
the score sheet. It's the wedging pucks to get
29:00
the puck out. It's standing over pox,
29:02
protecting pox, knowing the system, not turning your back,
29:06
not swinging. So those are always the the
29:09
nuances of a young player of college or junior coming in.
29:13
But he's doing great. He's he's in that mix with all
29:17
those probably the five guys I'm going to talk about that are of
29:20
our they're all fighting for a little bit more responsibility,
29:24
a little bit more ice time. But the best thing is they're
29:26
all the same age, relatively the same age.
29:28
And they're, they're peers and they're, they're growing and
29:30
pushing each other. Scooter, how about a guy like
29:33
Reed Shaffer, A fellow Ginger, which I appreciate, but a guy
29:37
who creds fans maybe aren't overly familiar with.
29:40
He was acquired in the Matthias at Home trade, has dealt with
29:43
some injuries, but he's a guy who looked good in the Prospect
29:46
tournament and a name that I think Preds fans should know.
29:50
Yeah, I agree. I think he had a fantastic start
29:53
last year. I think he had maybe eight or
29:55
nine goals and he only played 15, maybe 16 games.
30:00
So he was, he probably the Preds fans probably would have saw him
30:04
at some point last year. He went down with an injury, you
30:09
know, good and bad. But he you look at him now, he
30:13
looks like a man, like he's 64. He's filled out and he had a
30:17
whole year of a whole year of training, a healthy summer.
30:21
He could have maybe came back with us if we would have went to
30:24
the Color Cup finals like he was right there.
30:26
But then he had a whole summer of training getting back and he
30:31
is a a profile that we don't really have.
30:34
You know, he's big, he can skate, he's physical, he can he
30:36
has some good skill and touch around the net.
30:38
You saw scored a really nice goal, I think an exhibition
30:41
against Carolina. He cut the seam and went
30:44
quickly. He shot saw his release quick
30:46
shell shot shelf. So I'm excited about him.
30:49
He's in that same mix as the guys we're going to talk about a
30:52
little bit different profile then say Matthew would, but you
30:57
need all those kind of different profiles.
30:59
So he's just starting. He didn't play much last year.
31:03
His second game against Texas was much better than the
31:06
Rockford game. He got in a little bit of a
31:09
tussle with Mackenzie, which he should probably should have got
31:11
a 5 minute major for fighting, but for some reason they only
31:14
gave him two. But I'll mark that down as a 5.
31:17
So he's trying to he's trying to instill a little bit of an
31:20
identity to him like a power forward type type of player that
31:24
won't back down. So he's in a good spot.
31:27
Give him some time and maybe November, December he he gets
31:31
the gets going. Well, you also Scooter neglected
31:35
to mention with Mark Borvietsky's job, he's in charge
31:37
of teaching fighting technique to all our prospects as well, so
31:40
we'll let Boro grade the scrap there.
31:43
Yeah, You know what, it's not. I know it goes on social media
31:46
and like all this guy's Neanderthal, He's teaching these
31:49
kids how to fight. It's more of like there's no
31:52
more fighting anymore. Like there's three fights in in
31:56
OHL. There's no fights in the Quebec
31:57
league, so it's not even fight, it's just protecting, giving
32:01
these kids some confidence where to grab in case something does
32:05
happen. Because you see it now you get
32:07
one big hit. And that's what we want.
32:09
We want him to be able to go through people, but we also want
32:12
him to be able to where to grab and where to protect, protect
32:16
himself. And he's a big, strong kid.
32:18
So it's more that giving these kids confidence that they OK, I
32:22
can play my style and if something does happen, then I'm
32:25
going to be able to protect myself and just, you know,
32:28
rather than just swing from the fences because they they don't
32:31
know. It's in the old days.
32:33
He used to practice in junior in the American League.
32:35
It's it's not that anymore. So.
32:38
But yes, Boro is a good resource for sure.
32:42
And the last prospect we'll go through is Tanner Molindyke with
32:46
Milwaukee making his pro debut as a defenseman in the AHL.
32:50
He didn't get to fully participate in camp.
32:52
He missed some time with an injury with the big club.
32:55
What has his AHL beginning been like?
32:57
Yeah, it's tough with he like defenseman.
33:00
What they named the award after him in Saskatoon, the tenor
33:04
Molendeik Award, which is the best defenseman.
33:07
So and then he got traded to medicine ad at a great, great
33:10
season there. They went to Memorial Cup
33:13
skating smooth. He's like skates like he's on a
33:16
hoverboard. He got hurt the first practice
33:19
at rookie tournament, so he didn't get to participate in
33:22
rookie tournament. So he missed a big chunk of
33:24
rookie tournament and then he missed him a week or so of main
33:28
camp and played a handful of couple X exhibition games.
33:33
It's it's almost a little bit like Matthew would.
33:35
It's you see his skill set. He's like transitions.
33:39
Proxy's dynamic on the blue line sees the options power play,
33:43
Penley kill. It's just getting all his, you
33:46
know, first touches when he goes back for proxy, doesn't have as
33:49
much time and there's better skaters in the American League,
33:52
in the NHL, so they're on them a little bit quicker.
33:54
We have him paired with Anders England in in in Milwaukee to
34:00
give him a little bit of space, give him a little bit of
34:03
bravery, give him some time to be able to wheel the net, to not
34:07
not be nervous of someone coming down on him.
34:10
And so you put him with a veteran guy, which can hopefully
34:14
give him some confidence, plays on our power play unit with
34:18
Oysterly there and then off goes on the other unit.
34:21
So he's two games in the thing that sucks about the American
34:24
League the first two weeks of the season we we played two
34:27
games. We played two games in 14 days.
34:31
So, so we're off to San Jose this weekend and then we start
34:36
getting into the kind of the, the grind of our season and get
34:39
these kids some reps They're tired of practicing and which is
34:42
not, it's not a bad thing because these kids have never
34:45
lived on their own. Like we talked about their on
34:47
ice development. It's so much in the American
34:50
League is off ice development because they're living on their
34:53
own. It's actually comical to hear
34:55
these kids talk about getting an apartment because they've never
34:58
got an apartment before or furniture or anything like that.
35:02
So a lot of it's off ice, you know, development, and then once
35:06
they kind of bring it all together, then they're ready to
35:09
go. Scooter, we're running short on
35:11
time, so I'll we'll finish on this and I'll throw out a couple
35:13
of other names as I ask you this question.
35:16
Zach LaRue, who did not make the opening night roster, starts the
35:20
season in Milwaukee. Joachim Kemel as well, who it
35:22
was up here sent down to Milwaukee.
35:25
Two names that I imagine we could see back here in Nashville
35:28
at some point this season. But how do you know when a
35:31
player like that is ready to be called up?
35:33
And what is it like to make that phone call to tell them?
35:37
Phone call, that is. The best part of my job is
35:40
making that phone call. Absolutely love it.
35:43
I get so excited. And they should.
35:45
It's the National Hockey League. There's only a very small minute
35:49
percentage of hockey players that make the NHL and both of
35:52
them have come down great attitudes.
35:56
Zach was probably our best player, one of our best players
35:59
against Texas. He had a golden assist.
36:01
And what I love about Zach is he knows his identity and he played
36:06
to it where like perfect example is maturity where we're down six
36:13
on five. He's out there six on five.
36:16
He has an empty net and he passes the puck over to Marino
36:19
for Marino to to score in the empty net or if he is focused on
36:24
I got to score goals to get to the NHL, he would he would have
36:28
took that shot. So he would have two goals
36:30
rather than a golden assist. So I that's a little thing that
36:34
I look at. He's growing.
36:35
He's maturing as a player and as a person.
36:38
And Cammy came down there at a couple assists first two shifts
36:43
he blew guys up. So he's not your you kind of get
36:48
you're like, oh, he's just a shooter.
36:50
But his all around game is growing and so is Zach's all
36:53
around game. And that's that's the process
36:55
of, you know, coming up, going back down, coming back up.
36:58
They feel more comfortable their second or third time around.
37:01
And both of them great attitudes and they they want to get back
37:06
here just like all those other guys.
37:08
So all super positive. Scott, thank you so much for
37:12
your time. Enjoy the rare California trip
37:15
with the ads. That should be some fun to San
37:17
Jose. Yeah, it'll be.
37:19
It'll be great. Yeah.
37:20
They got a good team, good young team.
37:21
They've been in that rebuild for a little bit, so they got some
37:25
high end prospects down there and so do we.
37:27
So it's going to be a really good young, young, skilled game
37:31
and we'll see how it goes. That is Scott Nickel, Predators
37:34
assistant GM, director of player development, general manager of
37:38
the AHL affiliate Milwaukee Admirals, and of course, you
37:40
know him as a former Pred himself.
37:43
We'll take a break. Come back with more after this
37:45
on the Predators official podcast.
37:54
Welcome back to the Predators official podcast, The POP I'm
37:58
Brooks Max Cara alongside as we continue along.
38:02
Thanks again once more to Scott Nickel for having a chat with
38:05
us. We look forward to talking him
38:07
more throughout the season because I don't know about you
38:09
Max, that could have gone on for a couple of.
38:10
Hours, Yeah, we wanted to ask about every single player in
38:14
Milwaukee and we didn't have anywhere near enough time.
38:18
But yeah, we could. We could go all day.
38:20
And I, I think the, the coolest thing to me, Brooks is hearing
38:22
about the structure. And it's not like like Brady
38:26
Martin. As an example, Brady Martin got
38:27
sent to the OHL today. He's going to have Predators
38:30
personnel checking in on him, not only via phone, but in
38:34
person quite frequently. Nathan Girby, who is the foreign
38:37
development coach, will go and meet with him and skate with him
38:42
in the OHL in Sioux Saint Marie, Ontario and in various cities on
38:45
the road as well when convenient.
38:48
The new name that Scott Nickel brought up, Mike Kadar, who was
38:52
an NHL strength and conditioning coach for a long time, is now in
38:55
what is a pretty rare position. As Nickel told us, he is a
38:59
strength coach for the prospects and I think Brady Martin will be
39:03
his number one pupil as he tries to get to an NHL level playing
39:07
weight and strength for next season. 100% I yeah, really good
39:11
stuff from Scooter. I actually rode in the back of
39:13
an Uber with him from the airport in Edmonton to the hotel
39:16
last year, which as we know, if you've been to Edmonton, it's
39:20
about a three hour ride from the airport to downtown.
39:22
So if I ever have that opportunity again, I'll be sure
39:25
to record our entire conversation, play it on the
39:28
show. Wanted to mention this real
39:31
quick. I had a chance to sit down with
39:32
Nick Perbix, Fred's defenceman who has been pretty great these
39:36
first few games for Nashville. Scored a couple goals that's not
39:39
usually expected but I love talking to him where as a
39:43
defenceman he prefers to not be noticed.
39:46
And I wrote a story on Nashville predators.com.
39:49
Would love for you to go check it out.
39:51
But just some really good thoughts from Purbex, his
39:53
defence partner Brady Shea on what makes them successful.
39:57
But especially Purbex, I love it saying that.
40:00
If I come off the ice and somebody says, hey, I didn't
40:03
notice you a single time out there, he said.
40:05
That's a pretty, he said that's a pretty darn good game.
40:07
So good stuff. From like the article, the art.
40:10
Excuse me, the article was great, so everyone should go
40:13
read it. The more we get to know Nick
40:14
Purbeck's, the more I realized he's really just a very normal
40:17
guy who became a six foot four NHL defenseman.
40:21
He's a high school hockey player.
40:22
Oh yeah, I got a college scholarship and like, stuff just
40:24
keeps coming. Oh yeah, I'm in the NHL.
40:27
He didn't change his jersey number because he didn't want
40:31
his family to have to buy new jerseys.
40:33
So that's why he's #48 which is not a very common NHL number.
40:38
And a new trend that is developing on Fred social media
40:42
is Nick Perbix Watkins in his walk in in Winnipeg.
40:46
They have pictures from various concerts at the Winnipeg arena
40:50
all over the wall. And he saw one of Taylor Swift.
40:53
He did a double take, like, Oh my God, that's Taylor Swift.
40:55
And Andy Bender from the Fred social media crew captured on
40:58
video and it was quite funny. And then on Tuesday, the marquee
41:04
inside Bridgestone Arena that they take everybody's pictures
41:06
in front of said, may the Force be with you.
41:08
Nick Perfect walks in, looks at it and says to the camera,
41:12
direct address, is it Star Wars night?
41:16
He's just a normal guy. Became an NHL defenseman and we
41:19
love him so read the. Art, I love the Winnipeg
41:22
reaction. Like Taylor Swift's been to
41:24
Winnipeg. What?
41:28
When did that happen? No, we love Winnipeg.
41:30
We love Winnipeg. It's a great spot.
41:32
Do we? So, yeah, Nick Purbeck's the
41:34
permanator, as Ryan O'Reilly told us.
41:37
So we had we had actually a really cool conversation with
41:39
Ryan O'Reilly after Monday's practice.
41:41
It was Anne Kimmel as well from Penalty Box radio was there
41:44
asking about nicknames Factor Carrie, you mentioned it in the
41:49
first segment. It's one of the best nicknames
41:51
in the NHL. He got it all the way back when
41:54
he first started in Colorado. And a big show at the time was
41:58
Bill O'Reilly, The O'Reilly Factor and said I know he threw
42:02
out John Michael Lyles name, I think Paul Stass.
42:04
And he said were a couple of guys that gave him the Factor
42:07
nickname. And it's just stuck with him and
42:09
everybody around the NHL kind of knows him as Factor.
42:12
But he threw out a few other good nicknames.
42:14
We mentioned Nick Perfect, the Permanator.
42:16
He said he's creating the The Romanator Bundt cake for Michael
42:22
Bunting. Of course Juice is always a
42:25
favorite, but I think Factor it's tough to beat because Max's
42:28
you and I have talked about the bar is pretty low for hockey
42:31
players. Usually you just throw AY or an
42:33
IE at the end of someone's name, but Factor is up there for sure.
42:39
Factor I've always also always like like the human eraser.
42:42
We've heard that, but but you're right, Brooks.
42:46
It's it's always AY at the end. Brooksie, Maxie Jonesy.
42:52
Hammer, I think people just call you your last name, Kara.
42:56
I'm just I'm thinking I'm just Hammer, which was Dan Ham
42:58
Hughes. His nickname was Hammer.
43:00
So I always felt like we needed like a like a hammer and hammer,
43:03
but Steven Stamkos stammer. I don't know Max.
43:07
Any other ones I seem to be missing here?
43:10
I don't know about from the current team.
43:14
Yeah, I, I, I formalize O'Reilly to me, he's Mr. Factor.
43:19
I don't know. It's a respect factor for Mr.
43:22
Factor respect. Yeah.
43:24
Respect. Well, we brought up the the time
43:26
that it was Scott Hartnell and Ryan Hartman here and they were
43:29
both Hartsy. And what do you do when there's
43:32
two of them? I mean, obviously the
43:34
goaltenders right now. First it was juice and then
43:37
Ottoman came in. Yeah, Otoman came in and said,
43:40
well, I'm juice too. So it's kind of become juice and
43:43
big juice or big juice and little juice.
43:45
I think that works. Yeah.
43:48
Conversation, conversation last night about Tyson Jost.
43:53
He will be on Smashville Live with Max and I later this
43:56
evening as we record here on Wednesday.
43:58
But what's it like being so close to Roman Yosi?
44:01
I mean, it feels like there's a lot of Yost, Yost, Jost Yost
44:06
happening. Every time I have gone to type
44:10
Jost I, I finally fixed it, but just every time for the first
44:14
couple of weeks of here was here, I went to type Jost and it
44:16
just naturally turned out Yossi my I'm so conditioned to hit the
44:21
I instead of the T on my keyboard.
44:23
I think we're finally getting there, but that's a tough one
44:26
that's. A tough one.
44:30
Well, let's continue on. I got with another good
44:32
nickname, Toots. Jordan Tootoo.
44:36
He's going to be back in Smashville, a fan favorite with
44:38
quite a story to share as he returns on November 22nd.
44:42
Of course before the Predators host the Colorado Avalanche that
44:46
night. He's got a new documentary
44:49
coming out simply titled Tutu, and he's again quite a story to
44:54
share. He was known for his in your
44:56
face style. People loved him here, 8 NHL
44:59
seasons with the Predators, but he's also had the share of
45:02
struggles over the course of his life.
45:04
And Barry Trotz, he and David Polio kind of known for having a
45:08
meeting with him essentially saving his life a number of
45:11
years ago back in Nashville. It's going to be a fascinating
45:14
story. Tutu was here in 2019 as the
45:17
Predators honored him almost a decade after he got sober after
45:21
that 2010 meeting. But this is going to be a really
45:23
cool event. So tickets are priced at $22.00.
45:26
They're going to include A22 train whistle for all attendees,
45:29
which we know that was a huge thing here back in the day.
45:33
Proceeds from the event are gonna benefit in Digi Nash,
45:35
which is Nashville Indigenous Arts and Film Festival, and
45:38
partnership with The Forge Nashville.
45:40
Of course, Tutu, the first inook player in NHL history.
45:44
And you can go to nashvillepredators.com.
45:47
There's a story there that I've written that has all the
45:50
information. You can click a link for tickets
45:52
and to get more info. But again, November 22nd, it's
45:55
going to be around lunchtime, I think after that morning skate
45:57
against Colorado, but before the game that night at Bridgestone
46:01
Arena. But again, all the infos on
46:02
Nashville predators.com. And if you're a long time
46:05
Predators fan or a newbie as well, if you get the chance to
46:08
go see and hear from Jordan Tutu, well worth your time.
46:13
I'm really excited, Brooks. I've never met Jordan Tutu
46:16
before. He was, I guess.
46:18
Was he even on the Preds when you began?
46:20
Either of you began. No.
46:22
Team. He was gone.
46:22
He was still in the NHL, but he was not on the Preds.
46:25
Correct. He.
46:25
Was on the Devils in the Red Wings.
46:27
But yeah, I've never met Jordan Tutu.
46:29
I have read both of his books. I think they're both
46:31
exceptional. One was written during his
46:33
career and one was written at the end of his career.
46:36
And I imagine the documentary will include many things that
46:39
are also in the books. And the books were absolutely
46:42
exceptional. So I'm really looking forward to
46:45
this. I will be there again.
46:47
It's the same day as a Saturday home game, November 22nd against
46:50
the ABS. So Smashville Loyal, make your
46:53
plans to join us. Smashville Loyal will have a
46:54
meet and greet opportunity to see Jordan Tutu, get an
46:57
autograph, get a picture. And I would encourage everybody
47:00
to come watch the documentary. And as Brooke said, the money
47:04
goes to a good 'cause that is very important to Jordan Tutu
47:07
himself. I will say I don't know that
47:10
it's going to be the most family friendly documentary.
47:12
There is some heavy stuff in there.
47:13
So just a word of caution there. But obviously well worth it.
47:17
You'll be better for it after she's seeing and hearing Jordan
47:20
Tutu story and hopefully we can get him on the pot he's already
47:23
been on once. For those of you loyal listeners
47:25
that go way back to 2019, you may remember Thomas and I had
47:29
him back on back in the day. So if we can get him, we will
47:32
certainly take that opportunity to have a good chat with Jordan
47:36
a little bit later on down the line here.
47:38
So we will be back to wrap things up in just a moment to
47:40
bring you the biggie awesome person of the week and also some
47:44
fan thoughts to get to. We're coming back.
47:46
It's the POP on one O 25, the game and YouTube.
47:56
Welcome back to the Predators official podcast.
47:58
I'm Carrie Hammer Smackters and Brooks Bratton.
48:01
And this week our big rock star of the week, our very own Teresa
48:09
Walker. There was a great article that
48:13
came out about Teresa Walker. If you don't know this name, she
48:16
is a sports writer for the AP here in Nashville.
48:19
She has been covering the Tennessee Titans since day one
48:23
of them coming to Nashville. She follows the Predators.
48:26
She is an all around amazing person.
48:29
One of the people who were so welcoming when I got here.
48:33
But there was a really cool article that came out with her
48:36
and former Tennessee head coach Mike Rabel that every time he
48:40
would start a press conference would say hi Teresa, hi Teresa.
48:45
Hi Teresa. And I, I thought about this
48:48
because she was just out at the, the Preds game covering her and
48:52
I saw her in the post game press conference and I went and we
48:55
just hugged. I, I don't always get to see
48:57
her. And I was like, Teresa, why are
48:59
you so awesome? So that's why she's our biggie
49:01
person. And Max, you, you know her.
49:03
She's just, she's just an awesome person.
49:06
Yeah, well, Aaron Donik was certainly a huge fan of Teresa
49:10
Walker's. They honestly have a ton in
49:11
common, both amazing moms and amazing female leaders in their
49:16
spaces. So I think Aaron certainly would
49:18
approve of this biggie. Awesome award of the week and
49:22
Sunday morning we, so we returned from Winnipeg, Brooks,
49:25
I think we got home around 2:00 AM after that game.
49:29
And I had been asked earlier in the week to go work TV
49:32
production at the Vanderbilt soccer game on Sunday afternoon,
49:35
which was a great experience and I enjoy doing it so much that I
49:39
did on very little sleep. But it's in the ESPN control
49:44
room at Vanderbilt. So ESPN is on ATV in the control
49:48
room and it's muted. And it's Sunday morning, the NFL
49:51
pregame show, the nationally televised pregame show.
49:55
I look up on this muted TV and I see Teresa.
49:58
I was like, Oh my God, it's Teresa.
50:00
And then they show Mike Vrabel at the podium.
50:03
And I thought, there is no way that they are doing a national
50:07
televised segment about Mike Vrabel always giving Teresa
50:10
Walker the first question. And that is literally exactly
50:13
what it was. And I it's just such amazing
50:16
storytelling by Mike Reese, who's been at ESPN forever and
50:19
does a really good job in print and on TV.
50:22
And when I was producing AT1O25 The Game, not only producing The
50:27
POP, I was also producing Willie Donnick's daily talk show.
50:31
And Mike Vrabel's press conferences were often in that
50:33
time slot, and we would play them live on the air.
50:36
And every press conference started with Mike Vrabel
50:39
greeting Teresa specifically and then giving her the first
50:42
question. And then one time when we had
50:44
Teresa on for an interview, I made this mashup of Mike Vrabel
50:49
showing Teresa some love and played it on the air.
50:51
Hi, Teresa. Teresa, what's up?
50:53
Teresa, how you guys been? What did you do this weekend?
50:55
Teresa, anything fun? Nothing but watch football.
50:58
And rest. That's fun.
51:00
And afterward, I sent that to Teresa Walker and she made it
51:05
her ringtone, which was a great honor.
51:09
That's great. Well, yeah, Teresa's wonderful.
51:12
Her son and I both have red hair.
51:15
So for the third time on this show, we're talking about
51:18
gingers. I know Teresa and I are both
51:20
partial, but yeah, what a what a great person to choose as our
51:25
biggie. Awesome person of the week.
51:26
It's a fantastic feature as well.
51:28
If you haven't seen it, if you haven't read it, go check it
51:31
out. You'll be better for it.
51:32
So Teresa Walker, why is she so awesome?
51:35
Rock on with your bad self, Teresa Walker.
51:39
Go to. You, and now America loves you.
51:43
As a reminder, you can always use #preds podcasts on social
51:48
media or comment on our YouTube link below if you'd like to give
51:52
us a topic to discuss. And we got something, well, a
51:55
couple of comments I wanted to mention.
51:57
First off, I, I think the username was Tia Bronner.
52:00
Maybe if I'm totally butchering that, I'm sorry.
52:03
But whoever you are, you know who you are because you said you
52:06
love listening to the podcast every week.
52:07
Thank you very much. This is my second full season as
52:10
a hockey and prejudge fan. Welcome to the greatest game on
52:13
Earth. We're so happy to have you.
52:15
One topic I would love to learn more about and get a better
52:18
understanding of is players being traded, specifically with
52:21
free agency. And how much of A say does a
52:24
player have in what team picks them up?
52:27
So there's a ton to discuss here.
52:29
We could probably spend a whole episode on this, but for the
52:32
sake of time I'll just mention a couple of things as far as items
52:36
like this are concerned. So free agency, you've got a
52:40
little bit more of a say. So free agency comes July 1.
52:43
That's when a player is no longer under contract with a
52:45
team. They're free to go wherever they
52:47
want. We see that happen a lot with
52:50
players saying, hey, I'd like to go to this team.
52:52
I'm really interested in that team.
52:54
I'd like to maybe they're they're playing somewhere closer
52:56
to home, that sort of thing. You see that all the time.
52:59
So in free agency you've got a lot more say if you're getting
53:02
traded, maybe not as much. Sometimes players, there's
53:05
things called no trade clauses, no move clauses.
53:09
Players can have lists of teams that they cannot be traded to.
53:13
So that's always an interesting wrinkle that comes into play.
53:16
But I think a great example we just saw it happen in Nashville
53:20
was Eric Holla being traded back to Nashville for the second time
53:24
this past June. And he revealed to us that he
53:27
actually played a role in that trade.
53:29
It was clear that New Jersey wanted to move on, but Holla was
53:32
still under contract. You can't just get rid of him.
53:35
So they were going to trade him and he said, well, hey, I'd love
53:38
to go to Nashville. I love playing for Andrew
53:41
Burnett. They've got a long history
53:43
together as player and coach. That's a great example of a
53:46
player having a little bit more influence and saying, hey, I'd
53:49
like to go here or you'll see it a lot of times too, especially
53:52
older players. I think Ryan McDonough getting
53:54
traded back to Tampa was a great example with Barry Trotz a
53:57
couple of years ago. Barry Trotz saying I want to do
54:00
by right by the player. I know that Ryan McDonough
54:02
obviously loved playing in Tampa, still had roots there, so
54:06
that was a deal that you make happen.
54:07
So it depends on the player, it depends on the situation.
54:11
But guys, I don't know if you have anything more to add, but a
54:14
lot of times players do have at least a little bit of a say,
54:17
especially free agency. Maybe not as much when it comes
54:21
to the trade deadline or just a trade in general, but there's
54:24
certainly a lot of little nuances there.
54:26
Then we'll certainly talk more as the trade deadline comes, as
54:29
free agency comes, as we get later on down the line here.
54:34
So I think the only thing I'd add on that Brooks too, is
54:35
sometimes you, you can find yourself in a situation where
54:38
there is a a veteran player who has put in the time with one
54:41
team, hasn't yet had that chance to win the Cup.
54:44
And you could see them move them to a team that that might have a
54:49
chance to get it done. You know, I, I don't know if
54:54
this is official, but I believe that Pekka was asked at one
54:56
point if he would, he would want to go and he chose not to.
55:00
So so that could be a situation as well.
55:03
Yeah, the trade deadline is a big factor in all this.
55:06
Many players, especially those on expiring contracts will get
55:09
traded from non playoff teams to playoff teams at the trade
55:13
deadline, which is in late February, early March every
55:16
year. And I'll shout out sadly my late
55:20
sports economics professor, the great John Bruman at Vanderbilt
55:23
who passed away a few years ago. But sports economics was a very
55:26
popular class at Bandy and I've enjoyed it very much, which
55:30
should not be surprising to anybody.
55:31
But there is a graph of teams going for it.
55:35
At the playoffs, we'll go straight up and teams not going
55:40
for it, we'll go straight down because many of the best players
55:43
on those non competing teams will go to the top teams and
55:46
that applies in hockey, baseball and basketball and kind of NFL
55:51
where there's not as much trading.
55:54
We had trade. It's just quite interesting that
55:56
people can be traded and I appreciate T asking the question
55:59
because we get so into we're in hockey everyday like yeah, he
56:02
got traded. It's like this human being got
56:05
traded and he has to move and his kids have to move and he's
56:09
now on a different professional sports team.
56:12
So it's, yeah, it's something that's good to take a step and
56:14
think about. So we appreciate those type of
56:16
questions and thank you, Tia. Hope to see you at a game soon.
56:20
Yes 100% and I wanted to mention one more comment.
56:23
I the username IA bunch of letters and numbers so I'm not
56:26
going to try to pronounce it but they just said well done
56:29
everyone from a Habs fan. So not only are we making
56:32
inroads with the Predators fandom, but Montreal Canadiens
56:37
fans? Come on over.
56:38
Nice. Good.
56:39
Content. Maybe doing some pre scouting
56:42
before our game there last week, perhaps by listening to the
56:45
podcast. I I imagine that was probably
56:48
the case. We love your atmosphere in your
56:50
building, we love your poutine, love your hot dogs and.
56:53
We love Biggie's Bar as well. Shout out to.
56:56
Biggie Max is a big thing. They gave me a free hat last
56:59
week. A free hat that you cannot wear
57:02
on the air. Right.
57:04
We would have to redact some of it, but it's a very, it's a very
57:07
nice ball cap. It's a great baseball hat.
57:10
Yes. Thank you to everybody who
57:12
continues to listen. And again, we love talking about
57:14
different things. This is a great example of we
57:17
wouldn't necessarily be talking about trades and free agency
57:19
right now, but that is along the lines of things we are always
57:22
happy to discuss. If you've got questions, we are
57:24
happy to bring you a little bit closer to the game that you
57:27
love, you guys. We love doing this podcast
57:30
together. Another episode in the books.
57:33
Yeah, and we hope to see you tonight on Smashville Live.
57:36
Oh yeah, Cara Hammers Smashville live debut coming in hot.
57:39
All right, thanks for listening, everybody.
57:41
I'm Max Hers for Brooks Bratton and Cara Hammer signing off.
57:44
It's the Predators official podcast.