Carter Hart To Vegas? + Golden Knights Kick Reporter Out | SDP

Carter Hart To Vegas? + Golden Knights Kick Reporter Out | SDP

think this is interesting. Um, and it’s not, you know, with this show, we always want to have as much fun as we possibly can, but this is not the most fun story, so I’m just going to warn you ahead of time. Um, CJ mentioned on the CJ show today, uh, isn’t it has not come out yet, but we know that he has mentioned it. No, it’s out. Oh, it’s out now. Okay. Yeah. You’re listening to this in the afternoon. Yes. Well, that’s what I mean. As of this recording, it has not come out. No, no, that’s it’s out, too. Oh, is it? Okay. Well, it is out in real life. I’m going to retweet it. It is looking like Carter Hart is going to sign in Vegas. Okay. Mhm. Um Mark Lazarus went to Carolina and went to Vegas to talk to the organizations about um what it would be like if Carter and Michael Mloud signed there. And it’s looking like that. It was looking like Carolina as of yesterday, Frank Curvali was saying Carter Hart and Michael Mloud had made progress on the Carolina front. So it’s interesting now to hear that TJ saying actually it might be Carter to Vegas. Uh so um Mark Lazarus of the Athletic talked to uh Rod Rod Brendmore and Brendmore said, “Well, obviously that’s news to me. Rumors are rumors. Every time there’s a player out there, there’s they always say that our team’s involved. I haven’t given it much thought, but any player that comes in here would be welcomed with open arms. Uh that’s the only reason we’re bringing someone into this family. You got to treat them like that. Uh you’re talking about a hypothetical, but that’s how I would approach it. So, you know, good good answer, right? Yeah. On the Vegas side, I’m going to read directly from the athletic article here. Um, Mark says, “On the other side of the country, the Golden Knights took a different tack. The team declined to allow head coach Bruce Cassidy to speak to the athletic one-on-one after learning of the topic. Several minutes later, before Cassidy began a news conference, the spokesperson pulled an athletic reporter out of the room and told him to leave the team’s practice facility immediately.” The Athletic’s press pass for that evening’s preseason game was revoked, so they couldn’t even go to the game. The spokesperson said The Athletic had quote ambushed Noah Hannifan during the routine locker room media interviews that morning and that the team was not quote comfortable allowing the reporter to cover the game. Now, maybe that’s why uh there’s no reporters there after game 32. They’ve all been banned. Hannifan, for his part, showed no irritation at the questions. And if you go in, I’m not going to quote Hannifan’s answer because it’s a hockey answer. It’s not that exciting. Um uh the point is and this is you know we don’t there’s not much in terms of a meaty story sometimes I look at things and I’m like well that’s a five or six minute topic and I think that’s what this is but I do find that extremely interesting that you know if Vegas is serious about um hiring these people that’s what it is or hiring Carter Hart they are going to have to face questions like this and wherever you stand on this topic it is a question reporters need to ask and so I find it very interesting that they would boot a reporter. And I asked some people and everybody that I know that works in this profession has never seen this happen ever. Never seen it in sometimes in case as much as 25 years. Never seen it. Uh the one incident I can think of of credentials getting revoked like it needs to be serious and for listen if someone asking about a player is enough for you to revoke their credentials and kick them out of the building. Maybe you shouldn’t sign that player because you got to be ready for you got to be ready to handle those questions. You look at the Ducks with Quinnville. They’ve had to answer those questions. Let let me let me use, you know, uh the the words of many who are confused by this. Hey, they were acquitted. What’s the problem? Ask away. If there’s no problem, what’s the problem? Evidently, there’s a problem. Yeah. Now, there was another quote uh cuz Noah Hannifan wasn’t the only player. Dude, I’m so happy I left when all the [ __ ] went down. Howden’s June 26, 2018 text message said, “Haha, man. I when I was leaving, Duber was smacking this girl’s ass so hard. Like, it looked like it hurt so bad.” Oh, sorry. That was actually Vegas Golden Knights player Brett Howen uh in a text that for some reason they deemed inadmissible at the trial. Reunited. And it feels so good. Come on. You’re getting the team back together. They were acquitted. What’s the big deal? let everyone ask questions. Right. Well, I don’t understand. That is the thing. If you’re going to do this, you have to be prepared to answer questions. Well, and it’s a genuinely stupid thing that they did. Uh because I don’t think we’d be talking about it today. Uh Jess. Yeah. Though I think uh when you remove a reporter, you’re acknowledging that the questions are sensitive, right? they are acknowledging that there is an issue there and they’re admitting, hey, there’s going to be media around this signing. So, them being unprepared for that uh when the rumors are out there and clearly CJ has sources that cuz things are happening and behind the scenes. So, it’s I guess it’s not surprising knowing how Vegas has operated that they are unprepared for something like this. Well, so here’s the question. You know, we the the the famous Tyson Barry quote on Chicklets where he’s like, you know, game 32, no one’s going to be in the locker room waiting for you to ask the questions. Yeah. Uh this is the kind of thing where I know the PR staff uh is pretty good in Vegas. They’re going to have to be prepared for and maybe they’re just not prepared this early in the season. That’s what I was thinking like is it, you know, other than local coverage, they probably are not getting hockey doesn’t get a ton of national coverage in the States, right? It just generally doesn’t happen. The Athletic is not a gotcha outlet. They are pretty good journalists. Well, and they’re not some little po outlet either. No, but you know out there there’s outlets that are there and they have a purpose and they serve to to get a get give me one quote. Give me that crazy quote. You see it a lot in politics. You see it sometimes in sports. And I’m looking at this and I’m going I don’t know that you can ask that’s not a hard question to to ask. It’s pretty relevant. And Noah Hannifan in the article had no obvious qualms with the question. No. Now maybe afterward he went to one of the PR staff and he said, “Hey, you know, get this guy out of here or whatever.” But based on what, right? What’s it based on? Or I didn’t like that question. Or here’s the thing. I didn’t like that question. And then here’s how it’s supposed to work. If a reporter asks a question and the player doesn’t like it, the player then goes to the PR staff, unless the PR staff witnessed it themselves, which is often the case, but the player says, “Hey, that made me uncomfortable, or I didn’t like that, or that guy’s an asshole.” Mhm. Then the PR staff has a conversation with you andor your superior. Y and that’s how you handle it. Revoking the credential immediately is insane. Like Jesse, do I have that mostly right? You’re the guy who’s at the games all the time. So I feel like I’m like, isn’t that right, Jesse? No. By by doing this, like they acknowledged that there was a problem. I I if they had just handled this like I think any other organization would where the player gives an answer like Hannneathan did and then the reporter goes to the game afterwards maybe they ask another player a question. This isn’t a story. Like Lazarus would have would have written his article that would have had a couple quotes in there from a couple Vegas players and we would have all read it and we would have talked about it maybe in the the context of Carter Hart going there, but it wouldn’t been a story of them trying to shut down journalism and they’ve created this media storm themselves. So Adam, when you’re like in game 32, I know the PR staff’s good. I don’t know their PR staff. I don’t know that they are I think they do a good job of projecting good. You know what I mean? I don’t know that like I what I’ve seen now from the one moment where there’s heightened pressure on Vegas is them panicking in a way where they’ve made this a bigger deal through their own action. They made it a story. They’ve made a story. And I feel like that’s the opposite of what you should be doing if you’re the PR staff. If you’re trying to protect your players here, you shouldn’t be causing more of a media storm. The Toronto podcast talk about this. Is no one picking up on the theme of trying to silence people and drawing more attention to the things that they say? That’s exactly no one. All right, let’s do it again. I don’t know. I don’t know if that market right now is equipped to handle media like the media scrutiny you would have in a place like this. And it’s maybe not. Maybe And I feel like we all need to be honest and acknowledge that it is different if you were to have the players signed in Toronto versus Vegas. They think they are on this quiet little Tyson Barry said it out loud. Yeah. And the players know it and we’ve heard it from a million of the Florida players, but like when you go to these markets, they think like, okay, we can go there and hide. But when you’re bringing in these players from the Hockey Canada trial, it’s gonna cause more media to be there. And you’re clearly not equipped to handle that right now. and you need to get up to the bar to handle these players coming in. Mhm. Like you guys are a a championship caliber franchise. Um this is embarrassing. You just brought you just landed a huge superstar this summer, too. People are going to be paying attention to you. It’s embarrassing stuff. They So, as I understand it, they asked Noah Hannneathan a question and requested Bruce Cassidy and the team declined, which is which is their prerogative. That’s okay. That’s okay. you then you’re like doing your regular PR thing of shielding in an appropriate way. Like not you can’t earn one-on-one interviews with head coaches just in the preseason. Like I don’t I don’t think Mark Lazer should expect or whoever the reporter was uh that they sent for the his report to go down there and get a one-on-one with the head coach in the middle of prese in the middle of training camp. That shouldn’t be an expectation. But you shouldn’t then also kick out the journalist. kick out the remove them from the building. Yeah. They can’t go to the game. Yeah. Can’t watch the game. Ask about the game. Can’t you know and this is normally so this is what you do like if you’re uncomfortable with it PR staff you go to that reporter and you go hey listen like we’re not going to our guys are not going to answer any questions on players that have that are not here that have not signed here honestly. And that’s all you have to do. That’s not unreasonable at all. Yeah. Like Carter Hart is not a member of the Vegas Golden Knights at the time we’re recording this. Yeah. And he will be in about seven days. Yeah. It’s not unreasonable in the slightest to be like uh we don’t make it a habit of talking about players who are not currently members of the Vegas Golden Knights. Yeah. And a good PR member wouldn’t even like tell they wouldn’t go to the journalists and say that and say they’re not going to answer questions on that. They would prep the players. the players on the answer that it’s like, “Hey, I don’t want to talk about a player who’s not signed.” Then they all just kind of have that line and they can say that and everybody moves on. Well, I’ve heard of things where like uh a reporter will ask the team for comments and the team goes, “Well, cats out of the bag and then the team gets ahead of it and releases a statement.” Yeah. And this um this isn’t even for something even kind of like this, but someone was asked. You knew that they were asked. I don’t think it would have taken hours and hours to craft a reasonable I think we just did it. Hey, like he’s not on the Golden Knights. Our players don’t talk about players who aren’t on the Golden Knights. How would how would these players be received? How would any player be received? Yeah. like how would what you could I think it’s a legitimate question but if you don’t want to be asked the question I think there’s easy ways to get around that and they they couldn’t even bring themselves to do that the they just went straight to uh heavy-handed authoritarianism which is insane and a poor precedent for the the beginning of the season. I wonder what the Professional Writers Association will say cuz I remember during CO I think Frank’s the head of it. Um they got all they got pissed with the with the the teams because after co they’re like well you’re we’re not going to allow you in the dressing room because we don’t want anyone getting sick and and the writers association took that as a basically like oh you’re just never going to let us back in which you know they figured out I would love to know what they’re going to do about this because this is this is something where you do as an organization probably need to kind of step in and go this is you know what are we doing here and they probably are having that conver. Yeah. Somebody somebody there needs to ask some questions on like what went down here. And I wonder if there’s going to be some sort of follow-up story from either Lazarus or somebody at the New York Times, you know, just to fill us in on what the Vegas Golden Knights are thinking doing. Well, I I here’s what I think happens here, guys, and you tell me if I’m crazy. I think what happens is that the um first off, he this looks like Cardart’s going to sign there as of this morning. Things can always change, but that’s what it looks like. um they are probably having a meeting this morning going, “Okay, how are we going to what’s the messaging here?” And they’re going to have to offer up some sort of answer for the athletic. They’re going to have to they’re going to have to they’re going to have to answer these questions eventually. How weren’t they ready for this? Well, maybe that can you know what? Here’s what I will give the PR staff cuz cuz it’s possible that the front office is just not communicating with them which PR staffs have to deal with all the time because they don’t want it getting out. And so what happens is, you know, these are very sensitive negotiations. It’s a very sensitive issue. So maybe the general manager aired and left the PR staff to scramble. And should the PR staff in a perfect world be prepared? Yes. But mistakes happen. Yeah. the the the the removing when mistakes happen removing a reporter is an overreaction to it and therefore makes it a story and there that is why you must communicate within an organization and I I I wonder I don’t know but I wonder if that decision comes from above them I I think it was just probably yeah from what I understand uh the the the general managing staff there has a way that they do things and you’re not going to tell them otherwise and they want a cup so it’s hard to tell them otherwise. So I think that’s probably what’s happening here. We’ve never done this before. Why would we start now? Well, it’s a different story now. By the way, whenever anyone mentions Toronto media or Canadian media, if you just replace it with people who talk about hockey, you start to sound like an [ __ ] Yeah. Like, oh, you know, man, this only happens with people who talk about hockey. The Chicago media, Marcus from Yeah. That was Mark Lazarus. He covers the Blackhawks. And Mark’s a really intimidating guy. Another one of Oh, [ __ ] It’s terrifying. He’s That’s that I went to the doctor for my other uh hand because he cracked it when I shook it. Uh into a fine powder. It’s all titanium. By the way, we got a message from James Myrtle who said he had to look up Slender Man. So, uh he’s like what Slenderman was. I got back to him. Sorry. the like this is the Striand effect in in PR. It’s when you try and censor information, it actually makes it a bigger deal and that’s what is going on here in Vegas and I feel like that should be PR 101 and these people should be able to handle this. But like the the moving forward, I’m curious about how the fans are going to react to this in Vegas and if it’s going to be as big a big of a deal as it’s becoming in Carolina as the story’s kind of unfolding with the Hurricanes potentially signing one of the players cuz they’ve made a petition and uh to cancel season tickets if the How many How many people have signed that? Do we know Front Office Sports has 13 or,400 and that was in the Lazarus article? Yeah. So, like there’s there’s clearly a a noise coming from the fan base in Carolina. I wonder if we’re going to see a similar thing with the fans in Vegas. And I’m just curious on what the fans’s reaction is cuz that’s what it comes down to, right? The people care about this team. If there’s actually a revenue drop in season tickets, like there are threatens in a major thing in Carolina. A lot of people I you know what I I uh um I am curious about that too, Jesse. Every state, every region has its own, you know, ways on things. I thought it was interesting that any NHL story would make front office sports because rarely does Front Office Sports, which talks about sports business, cover the NHL because the business dealings are just so much smaller. Anytime you send the FOS, I’m like, I doubt this is a good story. Yeah. Um, so that Yeah, that’s interesting. Anyway, we’ll see. Uh, hey, we’ll see next week how Vegas handles this if Carter Hart in fact signs there.

Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde and Jesse Blake discuss the Vegas golden Knights pursuit of goaltender Carter Hart and how they took a reporter’s press passes away for wanting to ask about the potential acquisition.

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