He may consider himself "just a nobody from Centerville, OH", but Nate Leaman has gone from humble beginnings hockey-wise to being one of the top coaches in college hockey. He tells us about his journey from learning how to skate at 13 to an unlikely junior and college playing career to realizing his passion was not environmental science and volunteering with Shawn Walsh at the University of Maine during their national title run in 1999. After taking "the job nobody wanted" at Union so he...

Parma native Alex Nedeljkovic starred for the Cleveland Barons and represented the U. S. at the U18 and U20 levels before going on to great success in the Ontario Hockey League and the American Hockey League. He earned Goalie of the Year honors at both levels and guided the AHL's Charlotte Checkers to the 2019 Calder Cup championship. "Ned" saw significant action in the NHL this season with the Carolina Hurricanes, posting a 15-5-3 record with a 1.90 goals-against average and .920 save...

The Athletic's Aaron Portzline previews what has the potential to be a wild and wacky summer in Columbus as the Blue Jackets juggle a coaching search, free agency and the draft along with negotiations (or trades) with several core players. No shortage of topics for the veteran hockey scribe!

At the risk of beating a dead horse, we will convene a panel of (TBD) high school coaches from various levels of the competitive spectrum to discuss the need for an alternative format for the high school post-season in Ohio. We will try to come to a consensus on a specific format to propose to the OHSAA. Potential guests: Our own Tim Sullivan (St. Edward), Pat O'Rourke (Saint Ignatius), Kyle Botos (Avon), Kevin Fisher (Perrysburg), Tim Pennington (Olentangy Liberty), Kevin Brown (Toledo...

The Wooster Oilers and Columbus Mavericks are two of six franchises that have joined the USPHL in and around Ohio in recent years. We check in with Wooster owner Marty Kerr and head coach Jordan Roemer to talk about the Oilers' return to the ice in 2020-21 and their plans for Year Two. Nate Handrahan took over behind the Mavericks bench last year and tells us about the players he has been signing - including many Ohioans - for the upcomign season.

Former Cleveland Baron Andrew Perrott 13U player Andrew Perrott saw his fourth season in the Ontario Hockey League wiped out by COVID-19 but was outspoken in the need for the league to return to play. After heading to Slovakia to play pro hockey, he has returned and is part of a group of junior players organizing a pre-draft showcase in Erie, PA (May 31 - June 13) for 2021 draft-eligible players and players who lost their final season of junior hockey to the pandemic. He is the son of former...

Greg Gutterman is the head coach at Beavercreek High School. The Beavers are the two-time defending champions of the Southwest Ohio High School Hockey League and also host the "POD" Tournament along with Archbishop Alter. The POD Tournament ("POst-District") gives teams in the SWOHSHL - and "White" and 'Blue" teams from around the state - an opportunity to conclude their season in a competitive environment they do not experience in the OHSAA District Tournaments.

It's a landmark episode #50! We'll look back at some of our favorite clips from the podcast and just generally BS about The Year That Was in hockey

We check in with Seanna Conway (Gilmour Girls U16), Darryl Noren (Ohio AAA Blue Jackets U18) and Patrick Metzger (Team Ohio U16 & U18) before they depart for their respective USA Hockey National Tournaments.

Spencer Cox grew up in Westerville, OH and played for the AAA Ohio Blue Jackets before heading to Culver Military Academy. He talks to us about his COVID-impacted development path, which took him through several twists and turns through Tier I and II Junior Hockey this year before he landed with the Chippewa Steel of the North American Hockey League, where he was able to secure an NCAA commitment with the fledgling DI program at Long Island University.

Chris Bergeron has been a fixture in Ohio hockey going back to his time as the captain of the first Miami University team to win a conference championship and go to the NCAA Tournament. He played pro hockey in Toledo and Cincinnati then went on to play an important role in the "Golden Area" of Miami hockey as an assistant coach before breathing new life into a Bowling Green teetering on the edge of extinction. Now in his third stint in Oxford - this time as the head coach of the RedHawks - he...

Joe Battista is a Professional Speaker, Success Coach, Owner of Pragmatic Passion Consulting, and Author of “The Power of Pragmatic Passion: 7 Common Sense Principles For Achieving Personal and Professional Success.” Joe, a former ACHA coach at Penn State and VP of Hockey and Administration for the Buffalo Sabres, was instrumental in securing an NCAA Division I team and a new arena at PSU. He is also currently the Vice President of Business Development and an Executive Coach for the National...

Rick Gotkin has been the head coach of the Mercyhurst University men’s hockey team for 33 seasons. He is the only coach in NCAA history to take a team to the NCAA Tournament at all three levels, and has guided the Lakers to over 500 wins, six NCAA tournament appearances and five league championships. He is a member of the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Ice Hockey Rules Committee, has coached several “USA Select” National Festival Teams, has been a featured speaker at many USA Hockey coaching clinics...

Ohio High School Athletic Association Executive Director Doug Ute tells us how he navigated a very eventful first six months in office and addresses some of the key issues relating to high school hockey in Ohio, including the state tournament venue and creating a second division of competition. Then we had an entertaining roundtable discussion with the four district champion coaches ahead of this weekend's Ohio "Frozen Four" in Columbus.

Ani FitzGerald was born in Shaker Heights and competed for five seasons at Gilmour Academy, leading the Lancers in scoring four times and leading them to a Mid-Am District Championship and the program's first-ever USA Hockey Nationals. She is a three-time USA Hockey National Development Camp attendee and is currently in her freshman season at Northeastern University.

Cole Bell joined the Ohio Bobcats for the 2019–2020 season as the head coach of the Division I team after spending the previous two seasons as the head coach at the University of Jamestown. In his two years at Jamestown, Coach Bell guided the Jimmies to two National Tournament appearances. As a player, Bell played for Lebanon Valley College at both the NCAA DIII and ACHA D1 levels. During his senior year at Lebanon Valley, he was selected to the ACHA All-Star game.

We will look back at which teams took home hardware in the Baron Cups, Cleveland Cup, Blue Jackets Cup and SWOHSHL tournaments, and look forward to the four OHSAA District Tournaments that will be starting up in four three rinks across the state!

The T-Show may be shut down for the year, but Bowling Green's DII ACHA team is back in action. Head coach Jake Rishel and senior defenseman Bobby Edwards join us to talk about getting the Falcons back on the ice during COVID and Edwards' role in getting the historic Cleveland Heights program back on its feet.

A lifelong hockey devotee, Tony Brown's passion for hockey and broadcasting have taken him from Minnesota to Central New York, West Texas, Omaha, Indianapolis, and the great city of Cleveland. A 2010 graduate of the prestigious S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, Brown's hockey roots stretch deep into his native Minnesota, the undisputed "State of Hockey."Brown is entering his sixth season as the radio and television "Voice" of the AHL's Cleveland Monsters as...

Dave Starman has been a college hockey goalie, a coach and a scout at various times in his life in hockey, but he is best known as the voice of college hockey and the IIHF World Junior Championships. This season he called more than half of the games in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference's "Pod" for NCHC.tv and Team USA's games at the 2021 WJC for the NHL Network.

Our panel of fantasy hockey "experts" give you tips on how to start up a league, make the one you are in better, or just make your team more competitive this year. Scott Harrington, Tyler Whidden and Skip Snow are veteran fantasy leaguers with connections to a hockey league that is still going after 26 years!

Rob Sangster us in his 8th year as head coach of the St. Charles Cardinals. He played in the Ontario Hockey League with the Kitchener Rangers and the Ottawa 67’s, was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks and played for the Columbus Chill at the end of this professional playing career. He is also the owner of The Hockey Training Center in Columbus.

Jeff Svoboda has been the team reporter for the Blue Jackets for since December 2018, providing news, analysis and features about the organization at BlueJackets.com. Prior to that he served as sports editor of the Toledo Blade as well as a staff writer at Buckeye Sports Bulletin, where he covered Ohio State hockey for 10 years. He's also a bad D League goalie on weekends.Long-time listener, first-time caller. For the last 15 years Chris Cogan has been at the helm of the Rocky River Pirates...

Join us as we preview the Padua Holiday Hockey Tournament - the Grand Daddy of Ohio in-season high school tournaments with many of the top teams from the Cleveland (Holy Name, Padua Franciscan, Shaker Heights, St. Edward, University School), Columbus (Olentangy Liberty, St. Charles and Upper Arlington) and Toledo (Findlay, Sylvania Northview, Toledo St. Francis and Toledo St. John's) areas. Tournament director Sean Evans will be with us, along with Dave Purpura from This Week News to help us...

Bob Turow is commissioner of the United States Premier Hockey League which consists of 600 teams and 12,000 players at various age levels, including five Tier III Junior franchises in the Ohio Hockey Digest coverage area: the Columbus Mavericks, Fort Wayne Spacemen, Lake Erie Bighorns, Toledo Cherokee and Wooster Oilers.