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NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 10, 2009

Gary Roberts

DAVID KEON: Our guest is Tampa Bay Lightning forward, Gary Roberts. Thanks to Gary for taking the time to join us. At this time, Gary will make a statement. And then he'll be available to answer your questions. So at this time, I'll turn the call over to Gary.
GARY ROBERTS: Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining me on this call today. I'm officially announcing my retirement from the National Hockey League. I feel extremely grateful for having had the opportunity to be part of this great League, and I wanted to say some thank yous.
I have been very fortunate to be part of a terrific organization, and I want to thank them for all they have done for me. I've had amazing teammates over the years, many of whom are great friends. I want to thank them for making me a better player.
I would also like to thank my coaches who showed faith in me and let me be part of their team. To the equipment trainers, strength coaches and medical staff, a big thank you. I recognize that I was a lot of work. Many hadn't seen a medical file as thick as mine. I have great respect for the jobs they do.
To you guys that have interviewed me and supported me over the years, thank you as well. And to my family, my agent Rick Kearn, and my other friends, a special thank you for always being there to support me, year after year through the good times and the challenging ones.
The game has been so good to me, and I'll always be very grateful for having had so many years doing what I love to do.
I'm ready for questions.

Q. Congratulations on a great career. How much did it mean to you that your last game was played at the Saddledome?
GARY ROBERTS: Well, it's fitting, you know. My daughter called me and said, Dad, I'd like to be at possibly your last game in Calgary. I didn't realize it was going to be my last game of my career.
So I flew her out to Calgary, and she was there for the weekend. We had a chance to spend the night together, having dinner, and then she came and watched the game with some other close friends from my Calgary days.
So, actually, it was for me it's a little emotional. Calgary's got a big place in my heart. Obviously, winning a Stanley Cup there is my best hockey memory that I can remember. So very fitting, and thankful, actually. If it was going to end that way, that it ended where I won a Stanley Cup.

Q. Did you ever fathom that when you came back from your neck injury that you'd play this many more years?
GARY ROBERTS: Well, I always said when I came back I'd take it a year at a time, and I felt every year was a bonus year for me. I never fathomed I'd last this long.
So a lot of thanks to a lot of people that helped me through all those years, and like I said in my statement, the training staff, the medical staff, I had a fairly large medical file that kind of traveled around with me. But a lot of people had a part in helping me prolong my career.

Q. You were the last man standing?
GARY ROBERTS: I was the last man standing, I know.

Q. You were, do you take any pride in that? All those other guys, the beast, and your buddy and all those guys, they fell by the wayside, and you just kept hanging in there. Kind of an end of an era?
GARY ROBERTS: I had a call from Brad last night and I didn't get a chance to call him back. But his message was I was looking at your stats and you played two more games than me. So I guess you're my senior.
So, for sure, you know what, every time I came to Calgary I always peaked my head in. I know they closed that section off. I had a second to peak my head in and look at the team photo and reflect on the great memories I had there, and the teammates that I played with.
And, yeah, I take some pride in the fact that I was able to last as long as I did. But probably because I took so many years off. I played ten years and then take a year on off. And play a few years, take a year off. So I was rehabbing, but I was getting some rest along the way also. So I was fortunate, for sure.

Q. I'm wondering what some of your friends like Nieuwendyk and MacInnis now in management in the NHL. I mean, obviously you've just announced your retirement, but any thoughts about your future now? And does it involve the game?
GARY ROBERTS: I love the game, absolutely. I played for 20-something years because of it. I'm going to take some time right now to kind of reflect. My wife is due. I have two beautiful children along with one more on the way, due the end of may.
So I'm going to take some time here with them. Then I'm sure at some point I'll be back in the game. But I'll take some time here to just, you know, I think the biggest thing for me is the travel, it's the one thing that affected me more than playing the game.
So I think I need a break from that at this point more than anything else. But I am sure at some point I'll be back in the game.

Q. I was just on the phone with Cliff Fletcher before I got on your call. And he had some great things to say about you. But he wanted to chuckle at your first pro camp?
GARY ROBERTS: Why did I think this wasn't going to get by.

Q. He gave the chin-up story, he said you could do, two. Which is a funny anecdote, I don't think I've ever seen a more fit hockey player than Gary Roberts. But what was that all about?
GARY ROBERTS: I was coached under Brian Kilray, who had a huge influence on my career, by the way. One guy before I got to the National Hockey League. But he never really believed in off-ice training. Killer, was he had a strength coach who became my long time friend golden berg who was a strength coach when I got there as a junior player, and he fired him.
So off-ice conditioning wasn't a big thing in Ottawa. You just played hockey, and that was it. And I got to my first pro camp in Calgary being a first-round draft pick, I played like my Lacrosse in the summer, and I played my hockey in the winter.
I wasn't a weightlifter. I wasn't a real fitness guy. I got to camp, and badger Bob made an example of me. At the time I didn't like him much for it. But I thanked him in the end because he had a huge influence on the way that I prepared every year now.
But yeah, I did two chin-ups, and I think the guy was generous. I did one and a half. And he gave me two. So, from then on, I left that training camp so embarrassed at my performance, I said to myself, that will never happen to me again.
I remember going to buy one of those chin-up bars that you put in doorjambs. Whether I was at conditioning camps, skating camps in the summer, I brought this chin-up bar with me. Every time I went through the door I did a few chin-ups. And next training camp, badger Bob came by, and he watched me do every test, you know, chin-ups, dips, push-ups, he watched me do all those tests. And made sure I didn't cheat, and I wasn't allowed to cheat.
I did 16 my next year. And then from that time on, obviously, chin-ups was high on my list as far as training but I can say at this point I'm probably never going to do another chin-up.

Q. Just a couple of quick ones for you. First of all, what will you take out of your time here in Tampa as you reflect back on your career? And did you kind of know last Tuesday when you spoke to us that it was time?
GARY ROBERTS: Yeah, well, I was aware of the situation in Tampa. I knew if I didn't get moved at the trading deadline there was a possibility that I was not going to play another game there, just because when you're out of the playoffs and as a team you're trying to evaluate your younger players I kind of felt they were going to go that route, and I understood that.
But I truly believed I was going to get picked up. I really thought I had played well enough and I was healthy, I'd get one more crack at it. So last Tuesday, I didn't think that was going to be it, but it turned out to be that way.

Q. When Mark left here, he said he'd seen a lot of things he hadn't seen in his career. Did you feel that way?
GARY ROBERTS: I can say we all went in with great expectations. I guess when you have 13 new faces, new coaching staff, new ownership new general manager, you know, sometimes you might get lucky and it might click right away. For the most part I think we all felt would. It turned out to be definitely not that initially.
So, yeah, I saw some things that I hadn't seen before as Mark would say. But I understand that they were in a tough position, too, trying to evaluate and make decisions to better their club. And sometimes those decisions didn't always work out to help us.

Q. I think one of the things that's most remarkable to people who have watched your career is you did come back from that broken neck. I wondered if you would take a few minutes to talk on that. Also, is there a physical reason, do you have any bone problems, knee problems wearing out? Or is it just well, you give me the answer to why it has to be now?
GARY ROBERTS: I knew the Tampa situation, I think, what, 18 games left or whatever it was. I knew they wanted to play the young guys and I understood that. I met with Rick Tocchet prior to this. He told me if I earned the ice time, he would give it to me, and give me an opportunity to basically showcase myself, hoping that a team would pick me up for the drive, the playoff drive.
So I was kind of, you know, I was very grateful to him for giving me that opportunity. And I thought I did earn the ice time and played my 13, 14 minutes a night and felt like my game was pretty good.
So I'm not retiring today because of health issues. I'm had a healthier today than I was when I was 30, my last retirement. So that's a good thing. I feel grateful that I'm going to leave the game, and I'm healthy. Of course I've learned how to train and rehab myself over the years. So I had my workout yesterday and the day before.
I'm retired. I know last time around I didn't do this, and I paid for it five months later. So I'm better prepared this time physically and mentally, obviously, at 42 years old compared to when I was 30.

Q. How about the effort that went into rehabbing a broken neck? That seemed risky and courageous, too.
GARY ROBERTS: It wasn't broken, there's broken and then there's I had major nerve problems that were being pinched off by bulging disks. So basically I had lots of feeling in both my arms, atrophy and weakness. It took two neck surgeries and 18 months of no contact in order on to come back and play.
So, yeah, very, very, you know, at the time at 30, I thought I had done everything I could to rehab myself and try to play. And I kept having the burners really bad every time I got hit. So I ended up retiring, and that was after the surgery. The bottom line was the nerves needed time to regenerate and heal, and no one could tell me how long that time would be.
So it ended up being 18 months, came back to play, and Calgary they're in a situation where Al Coates had to trade me, so, you know, like I say, for me getting off track a bit, but for me coming back from that was a huge, huge challenge, and made me a stronger player and stronger person.

Q. You know how people teams have traded for you to get that kind of character and person in your dressing room. Can you tell us what that meant to you? That seems to me to be an honor?
GARY ROBERTS: Yeah, it is an honor for me to have that. As you're an older player, and maybe your skill level is diminishing, you need to bring something else to the table. And for me, I always think about how I was treated by a guy like Lanny McDonald early in my career. And I watched the way that he, you know, treated the young players and acted on and off the ice.
And I know times have changed, and maybe players have changed a bit, but I really wanted to, you know, I always thought about that when I ran into Jordan Staal or I ran into Steve Stamkos or Sidney Crosby. I thought about the way I was treated about I a guy like Lanny who had such an influence on me, and I wanted, basically, to do the same thing.
So it was an honor to have ab opportunity to play with those kind of players. And, if I have some impact on the way they prepared to play the game, then that's very satisfying to me.

Q. Can you reflect on the Toronto years. Growing up and telling the story about picking up Lanny's stick, in a showdown competition years and years ago? Is what was it like playing in your hometown for all those years for the Maple Leafs?
GARY ROBERTS: Yeah, it was a great experience, it was an honor. You know, I've got to tell you, I was a Hab fan growing up, and a Guy Lafleur fan, that's why I wear number 10.
But once I got to Calgary and met Lanny McDonald, I became a Toronto maple leaf/Calgary flame fan. And yes, Lanny McDonald stick up at a showdown at Mark Marino when I was a young kid. I remember picking the stick up and thinking how does this guy use this thing it's so heavy?
But to have that opportunity, I remember when I signed in Toronto and I was driving down from the cottage, and called Lanny McDonald and said I knew Gary Valk was wearing number 10. And I was never the guy to call and ask if I could wear someone's number when they already had it. Brad McKimmons had a huge influence on me as a young player, he got traded and was wearing number 10 in Philadelphia. He was senior to me. And he came to Calgary and wore number 4 and didn't even ask for number 10.
So you learn from those guys. I thought that was nice of him not to come in and ask me for number 10. So I did the same in Toronto. I called up Lanny McDonald and said would you mind if I wore number 7 as a Toronto Maple Leaf? And he said I would be honored if you wore number 7.
So it was very special to me that Toronto was the only city that I wore number 7. And I wore it because a guy named Lanny McDonald wore it for years. And it really is emotional for me.
But, yeah, I think about Toronto, and I think about the players we had and how close we were. And when you're winning or very competitive, there is no better city to play hockey in.
Of course, you know I don't want to sit here and rate the cities I played in. But obviously, Toronto and Calgary are two unbelievable cities to play hockey in. And I have great, fond memories of both cities.

Q. I was wondering if you could reflect a little on the atmosphere in Calgary during the run in '89 and sort of the celebration there after.
GARY ROBERTS: Well, it's been a while, I don't know about the celebration, I can't remember it. But it definitely I think about the Calgary years when we won the Cup and how close our team was. It was an unbelievable time.
I remember standing on the blue line after we won the cup in Montreal, and standing there beside my buddy Joe Nieuwendyk and saying that was easy. How many more of those are we going to win?
So we're sitting here today, 20 years later and I'm retiring, and I've only won one. So just goes to show you how much you should appreciate and respect your opportunity when you get there. Because you really never know if you're going to get back there again.
But the Calgary fans and the city of Calgary have so many fond memories, and still really some of my closest friends in Calgary that I keep in touch with, vacation with, so it really is a place that is for the most part, my first ten years of my career. I thought I was going to call Calgary my home forever. Then once you get traded once, it's like well, this guy's tradeable or then you move on on to four or five more teams.

Q. I wonder if you ever reflect back on whether you think you've had two careers because of the surgeries in the middle and the retirement? And second question, you kind of alluded to Brian Kilray earlier on. You probably know this is his last game coaching this weekend. You probably have memories of him, not off ice stuff, but what he taught you about the game, I guess?
GARY ROBERTS: Yeah, Brian Kilray for me, you're a young player, 16, underage, I left my home of Whitby to go to Ottawa. And I remember my first season being a 16-year-old, I was the youngest guy in school. And had a couple of scuffles in school with the guys. And I remember them pulling me in, and he had me basically he was sending me back to my home and saying, listen, you're a problem, you know, we basically didn't say it in that nice a way, as you can imagine.
But he basically ran up-and-down me. But thank goodness the teachers and principles went to bat for me. Saying listen, he was only protecting himself, and that was basically the case. So he ended up keeping me. But he definitely put a fear in me to be a, first of all, a good citizen. And second of all, a good hockey player.
So he kept a good eye on me. He was hard on me, and I don't think he's changed in 25 years that I've known him, he's still the same guy today. But if I look back on it, it's my minor hockey Coach Danny Lahaye who was unbelievable to me in minor hockey, and then it was Brian Kilray, and of course my father the three most influential guys in my childhood days before leading up to the NHL.
So I owe Brian Kilray a huge thank you for everything that he did for me as a junior hockey player, and basically keeping me in line is what he did.

Q. I was curious, Brian Lawton had said that they would have welcomed you back had you decided to go in that direction. I was just curious if you felt that door was open to you?
GARY ROBERTS: Well, I think the whole way it came down in Tampa, it's unfortunate that it happened that way. I think that opportunity, that Brian did say that, I can say that the opportunity was it there?
Let's say we never had to get into that point. I was aware prior to the trade deadline that that might happen. And that I might possibly wouldn't play a game after that. So was the door open? Just to say I was aware of the direction they wanted to go, and I was okay with it. I understood the direction they wanted to go through the ownership and through Brian Lawton.
And so I can say once I made my decision that if I didn't get moved and that I was possibly going to retire I can say we never got down that road where I said I'd like to come and practice for a month with the guys. I never asked that question, and didn't get into that part of it.

Q. Was there at any point in time in your career where you almost came back to Calgary as a free agent, or were you almost traded there as far as you knew?
GARY ROBERTS: Well, as far as obviously I heard the rumors leading up to the deadline. I hadn't heard any of that until this coming past trade deadline that Calgary was possibly interested.
Would I have been excited to go to Calgary to finish my career? Absolutely. I would have been thrilled to go back and play there. How close it was, and what I hear are the terms of my contract affected the salary cap.
Obviously when I signed the games played contract last year in Tampa, I didn't think I'd be in this situation where I was going to be part of a playoff team and didn't expect it to cause, you know, me to retire, basically. And not give me that opportunity to play in playoffs because my cap number was too high.
I'm not going to sit here and say I knew I'd be traded to Calgary if my cap number was lower, but at least for them to be interested. There were a few teams that showed some interest. If it worked for their cap. And, obviously, you know, obviously it didn't happen. But I fill think there was some interest out there.

Q. We were talking the last time you were in here, I hate to go back to your pre-super-fit days, but, we were talking about that photo, remember? Your draft photo with cliff when you looked a little, shall we say paunchie?
GARY ROBERTS: Yeah, skinny fat guy back then.

Q. Yeah, I know you told me the story but I forgot it. Where did you guys go?
GARY ROBERTS: Well, we won the Memorial Cup, and we all went To Daytona Beach in Florida. Then I remember I was at the airport coming back from that trip, and I got on the weight scale at the airport. They had the weight scale to weigh the bags, I jumped in the scale and gained ten pounds over the week I was down there.
And that just goes to show you how I ate and took care of my elf as a junior hockey player, but I think we all did that week. I went to my draft and I do the same. I reflect on the pitchers and say, my goodness, do I look swollen.
So, yeah, I wasn't always, you know a fitness guy. But I didn't look back then, George. A lot of us weren't. Calgary was way ahead of a lot of teams in the National Hockey League back then with Badger Bob. He was so into fitness.
And I remember going to my first Calgary training camp. I was in shock. I walked in the training room and weight room and saw these guys hanging from chin-up bars with plates between their legs and dips with plates between their legs and I'm looking at these guys working out thinking oh my goodness, where am I? What is this? Can't we just play hockey?
And, so, yeah. I think back to those days. And it's good I learned early. I definitely learned early. You know, I was either going to quit or learn to be a more fit person to play in the National Hockey League.

Q. Just a quick follow-up. Winning the Cup in Calgary you said was your best hockey memory. I'm wondering at the other end not winning in Toronto and given the quality of teams you guys had, I'm thinking of '02 when you got Carolina in the conference finals ironically enough for you, was that a tough one to take looking back what it meant to this city in Toronto and the kind of team that you guys had?
GARY ROBERTS: Yeah, for sure. I think back to our Toronto days and how good a team we had. It is a disappointment for me that we had that group of people and we didn't win. Sure we had some injury issues like everybody does in you playoffs. We made it through for the most part of the match. Was out for most of that '02 run, or part of that '02 run.
You know, we played a team like Carolina who was so disciplined, and basically, we beat ourselves in that series, I felt.
But, definitely a disappointing part is that we never won. We were very competitive. We were a 100-point team every year I was here in Toronto. So to have won a Stanley Cup in Toronto would have been the ultimate. We didn't do that.
But I have fond memories of my teammate and the organization and how I was treated when I was here. I can't tell you enough good things about how I was treated by everybody. And, yeah, it was a sad day for me when I left Toronto.

Q. You said Toronto here. Are you planning to retire in the Toronto area, or what are your plans?
GARY ROBERTS: Yeah, I've built a house in Oxbridge, Ontario. About 45 minutes north of Toronto up by Wooden Sticks, the golf course where I'm part owner of. And all our family's up in this area, Stoufville, my parents are up in the Falls Area. My wife's family's in Brooklyn here. So we're all close.
My brother has four children, and young children, so looking forward to some nice family days and I'll probably spend some time watching my nephews in some arenas, I'm sure.

Q. All right, so I'll drop your name at Wooden Sticks, right.
GARY ROBERTS: Yeah, Rob says free pass if I come in today.

Q. Maybe it's one area that's not been touched on. Pittsburgh last year, and I was wondering if you could take me through the playoff run and what you alluded to earlier, sort of how much you were savoring having it been 20 years since the last time, and also with all your years had you ever been prepared for a player so self contained at a young age as Crosby?
GARY ROBERTS: Yeah, I think back to Pittsburgh, I really, it's another city where I really had a great time. I was treated awesome by the fans and the organization. And to have an opportunity to play with guys like Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal and, you know, Colby Armstrong. You know, Ryan Malone, guys like that who I thought I had an influence on when I played there and really, you know, they had an influence to me.
To see the way that they prepared as young players, to see how committed they were as young players. It really kept me hungry and kept me excited as an older player.
So, you know, making the playoffs last season, obviously I came back, I broke my leg at the end of December last year. And missed almost three months with what turned out to be a torn ankle along with the broken leg. So I was coming back to play in the playoffs, and I knew I was going to be a small part of it, because I hadn't played in so long.
But just to get there with that group of guys and how I was treated in Pittsburgh was awesome. An awesome feeling for me. Really rewarding.
To make it to the Stanley Cup finals, and I know we played a tough team in Detroit. But to get there for the first time in 19 or 20 years whatever it was, it was very satisfying. It will be something that he cherish. I was only in Pittsburgh a year and a half, but it felt like I was there a lot longer than that.
DAVID KEON: Thanks, Gary.

End of FastScripts

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