Saskatchewan Rattlers GM Barry Rawlyk on Up and Down Season, Future Outlook, and Recruiting!

the general manager of the Rattlers Barry Ric joins us today Barry I appreciate the time are you out with the club in Ottawa are you back home where you joining us from today R it's always a pleasure to be on with my favorite sports media personality thanks for having me uh yeah I'm in Ottawa right now um just completed our team shoot and uh uh we're going to be heading over to the arena in a couple hours okay well thank you for the kind words I appreciate you Barry and listen you know me a long time I'm not going to bring you on here and Grill you or or Hammer you but I've been at the games you started off with the best record in franchise history and now missing the Playoffs what happened in between I just explain it to us Rattlers fans if you don't mind watching from the outside well it's really a convergence of a whole bunch of things I think um you know obviously the transitional nature of our roster this year was really not helpful to us uh particularly all kind of coming together exactly at the same time uh you know losing a player with quality of Jaylen Harris who was having an MVP season uh up until the point that um he departed for a contract in China was obviously one of the things that we had to overcome and um obviously the loss of the players to the summer league was was difficult and you know tie then with a couple of injuries but at the end of the day you know that's the nature of the CBL it's somewhat transitional in terms of The rosters you have to expect some of those changes and you know unfortunately for us this season a lot of that just kind of came together they're all at exactly the same time which uh certainly hurt us um you know I think it was a learning process for our coaching staff over the course of the Season you know lar Larry abne came into the league and you know I think he discovered a lot about about the league and and um you know just the nature of of the style of play is a little bit different than what he was familiar with in the G league and I think it was a real learning curve for him and you know as time has gone along he's you know he's told me that he's he's learned a lot of things along the way and you know unfortunately some of those uh came in the way of some very painful losses you know I think a critical turning point for us was uh not the previous game in the in Winnipeg with the game before that with the going a 10-point lead going into elim time and losing that game that really turned our season in the wrong direction and you know unfortunately we kind of spiraled from there and not we're not able to recover yeah there's there I'm going to get more deep into this but I I think you should know this I saw you at one of the games when you guys were rocking it out of the gate and I said to Lee Jenna your president who's responsible for all this Talent he goes it's Barry it's all Barry and he goes and Larry abney's been great the head coach I looked at that Jaylen Harris I said he's like lonel Messi playing in the MLS scoring five goals a game this is too easy for jayen Harris that's what I saw he was unbelievable maybe the best player of the league seen would I be right well that wouldn't be out of the ball part to be to be able to say that you know he's you know obviously there's some some very good talent in this league and I mean you see some of the things that Justin R Foreman's doing in winneg right now and he's you know he's a guy that we brought into the league last year so you know there's there's some significant talent in this league and um again as I said losing a player of that caliber is is difficult it's something you need to be prepared for but when it happens rather unexpectedly um you know it's really difficult to to find another player of of that elk well you know you're in year six is a league and I'm just wondering I met uh Richard Petco the owner of the sea lions at another game or the river lions at another one of your games this year and are you guys going to have to sit down as a league and say what are we going to do because it looked like this you saw the positive vibe in the crowd Barry everybody was excited um how do you I don't remember a story like this this isn't a new league how do you deal with this in in the Years coming forth where you could actually build something because I would think it' be very difficult the landscape right now well you know it's it's very interesting and you know having you mentioned that I'm very grateful for our for our fan base we have a very loyal B fan base and I do have to mention Lee J I think he's done a tremendous job on putting us on the right track this year um off the court he and his staff worked extremely hard in order to to build a culture to build a you know an environment in which uh a foundation that we can build on off the court you know the question is how do you bring some roster stability to to the uh to the league and I I know that all the the Zars of the league so to speak Mike moreli the leadership there Richard Petco they're all uh you know they're all having some discussions surrounding that I think one of the long-term goals in this league is is is obviously ownership of the teams and we are still a league owned team and uh I I think going forward uh finding private ownership for the team would would would be desirable and you know allow us to move forward in some areas that we're we're probably behind the curve a little bit with some of the other teams in with right now it's fascinating just more than anything as a Rattler's fan and I go to the games I this is disappointing right so I just wonder how this can be combed in the future you get it but he also mentioned Harris goes to China but with the NBA uh summer league g-league they're on the rise man to the point that I know the Miami Heat won a title the other night in the summer league why has this become such a huge it's always been big in the States but now we're we're hearing about it in Canada is it TV or what is it why is this taking such a major surge ahead well I think you hit the nail on the head you're I mean you're driving in that lane Rod the you know the the media exposure um you know the promotion the sort of the hype that surrounds the summer league is is driven by the media and you know that's out in the public eye it gets into the psyche of the public and you know I think that's obviously really important factor the the exposure uh that you can gain uh through the media is extremely important and um you know we we offer a very exciting product you've been at the games people who come to the games all you know all say the same thing wow that was fantastic I never realized you know everything that's going on here this is really exciting I got to come back um but you know getting that word spread further I think is is important I think if you look to kind of a benchmark they've done a really good job in Winnipeg with with their franchise and what what they've done there in terms of getting that out there to people and um you know they really created something there and and and I and I think honestly quite honestly I think Le's got us on that path it's going to it's going to take us a while to get there it's it's a matter of we've established a loyal found base now it's it's it's a matter of expanding on that and and all these people will play a part in it sorry Barry there's a young Youth Hockey Camp in here the boys just said goodbye to me they're done for the day so I I didn't want to ignore the young hockey players thought you might be waving goodbye to me I wasn't sure no no no sorry Barry no not at all soon though uh it's just funny with Lee because I sat there with him and uh for him to that's Lee and you guys won a championship together so you know what he's like man I'm glad to hear you say that uh all is not lost because I see the pack barns across the country and when when you're not go to the playoffs it's sort of it's a sucky feeling to not be in the postseason it's the the ground swell of the league is not going to be stopped I guess is my point you're you got full buildings you're on National Television on two networks so obviously maybe I'll wind it up with this it's still going in the right direction um just need to find a way to hold on to the players a little more well absolutely I you know that's that's going to be critical for us going forward and I know as we go through our exit meetings here there are a number of critical pieces to to our roster that we would like to retain next year and and there's a few pieces we'd like to bring bring back or or you know or add to and that process is already underway in terms of uh you know looking at some of the talent that's available there and um you know it's quite a quite a tricky process because of course there's going to be a level of players that are that are involved in leagues overseas or whatever it may be NBA camps and opportunities there so you know it's tough to hang on to some of those guys and I I guess on the one side I look at it is you want to try and get as good a talent as you possibly can but the risk that goes hand inand with that is you you risk losing some of that to some other leagues so um that you know that's really the trick in in in the whole process and so we're kind of trying to work our way through that and and hopefully we can retain some of the key pieces to our roster this year and move forward with with building what we're doing next year course well I don't know if you ever knew my dad was a scout in the NHL for 26 years so I get the Personnel game and it's a little like trying to fill out a CFL roster you want good but not too good because this guy's going to go to the NFL fortunately for them he's not going in the middle of the season but uh you know with Elijah harkless and the guys that you've found you've done a great job Barry I've loved following it um that Championship continues to loom thanks for the time here enjoy Ottawa one of the greatest cities in the country and um good luck the rest of the way Barry finishing up the season well we're sure looking for a win tonight and and again try and fall that in Montreal tomorrow and appreciate your coverage here and like I said it's uh you know you're an important Cog in what we're trying to build in in saskin so thanks so much I appreciate that thank you Barry Barry rolic the general manager of the cbl's saskat and Rattlers it's been quite a story and again the games tonight Sask at Ottawa Vancouver at Bramton and Winnipeg at Calgary [Music]