Remenda coached hockey before he joined media
The Journal’s Joanne Ireland finds out that Sportsnet broadcaster used to watch film with San Jose Sharks coaches
With Edmonton Oilers’ wins so few and far between, it has become a pastime for fans and the media to play general manager.
More player moves have taken place within fan bases and media huddles than on the actual transaction wire, of course, but it fills all those days leading into the NHL entry draft lottery.
Drew Remenda, the Oilers’ game analyst on the Sportsnet broadcasts, takes a different avenue.
“I play coach,” he said. “GM is above my pay grade — so is coaching, now, too — but I play coach all the time.”
Before he moved into the broadcast booth with San Jose, Remenda was an assistant coach with the Sharks, a job that came on the heels of his coaching stint at the University of Calgary.
Along the way, no one had more influence on Remenda than Dave King, who played with Remenda’s father for the Delisle Bruins in Saskatchewan’s old Wildrose Hockey League.
“Then I was his stick boy when I was maybe 12 years old. He was coaching in the (Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League). ... He (eventually) got me to Hockey Canada.
“He’s the reason I am where I am, without a doubt. Without Dave I don’t have a career in hockey,” said Remenda.
Here are five other notable nuggets you might not know about Remenda:
1 During the previous six seasons as the Sharks’ broadcaster, he would spend hours in the video room with San Jose head coach Todd McLellan and his assistants. That’s been one of his biggest adjustments since he slipped into the Sportsnet booth.
“The difference is getting used to being arm’s length away. I know I’m part of the Oilers as far as the broadcasts, but I work for Sportsnet. In San Jose, even though I wasn’t part of the team, I was part of the team. I worked out in their dressing room. ... I had free rein. That was my building.
“I’ve known Patrick Marleau since he was 18 years old and I’m still close friends with that coaching staff. That’s the biggest thing. I’m now media.”
2 His favourite guilty pleasure when he’s sitting on the couch with the television remote in hand is Family Guy. “Not even close,” he said. “In fact, many of my references, when I’m in a conversation, will come from Family Guy.”
3 Even when he was working in California, his home base was his hometown of Saskatoon. But these days, when Remenda commutes back and forth whenever there’s a break in the schedule, he now drives.
“That’s why I had to trade in the Mustang convertible. It was my mid-life crisis car, but this summer, I went, ‘You know, it’s not going to make it back and forth to Edmonton.’
“I prefer the drive. I really hated flying so much. ... I pretty much knew every route to Saskatoon from San Francisco and San Jose.”
4 Remenda has gone down the trail that tempts superstitious natures, but he says those days are behind him.
“The biggest thing for me is just be prepared ... and I don’t put my suit on until I have to go upstairs, just because I don’t like to crease it. I just need to make sure it’s pressed perfectly and that the tie has the dimple.
“I used to be superstitious when I was coaching at the University of Calgary, then we lost in the national championship. I went to perfection that day with all my superstations, so I thought to myself, ‘Well, I guess that doesn’t work, does it?’ ”
5 Drew and his wife, Michele, have three children: Jordan, his 23-year-old stayat-home daughter as he affectionately describes her, and twin sons Donovan and Davis. The 18-year-old Grade 12 students both play football and referee hockey. Donovan was named after Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey, the world’s fastest man in 1996, when the twins were born. Davis was named after Dave King.