Hello everyone and welcome to The Show! I'm your host Jordan Nugent-Hall and today prospect goalie Mike Verminski stopped by, you may better know him as "Sex Panther". We got the exclusive scoop on what goes on in this players life.

Here's the transcript of the interview:


Verminski deliberating an answer

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Hey Mike and welcome to The Show! Its a pleasure to have you here today. Our first ever goalie guest on The Show!

Mike: I'm honored to be here!

Alright, let's start the interview now. I've heard that you have the nicknames of "Vermy" and "Sex Panther". What other nicknames do you have and how did you attain these nicknames?

Mike: My last name is Verminski and you know how the hockey guys are. Chop a name in half and add a "y". It's your hockey nick name. Sex Panther came up one day in the locker room after the third or fourth time I wore my new gear. It's all black like a panther and one of my buddies just chimed in with "Hey Sex Panther nice job out there" and it stuck.

As for other nick names, I've been jokingly called sieve, swiss cheese, sievegalov, you know the usual burns against a goalie after he lets in a goal haha. Those aren't serious though.

We're more than likely less than a week from this years NWJHL Draft. Are there any specific teams you would like to go to and why these teams?

Mike: I haven't really picked a team yet since I don't really have any say in where I end up going. I'd like to stay on the eastern part of the country so either the Falcons, Impact, or Hitmen in no particular order.

There are so many great professional goalie so that begs the question, who in the SHL and NHL are your idols? Who do you try and model your play after?

Mike: To be honest I haven't been around long enough to really start following an SHL goaltender. It takes a bit for me to really become infatuated with a player. Out of current NHL goaltenders the ones I really enjoy watching and try to model my game after are Jonathon Quick, Cory Schneider, and Pekka Rinne. They are all fun to watch and use different styles to get the job done. My all-time idol is Patrick Roy. He's the first goalie I remember being obsessed with and that's why I wear number 33 on my jersey. The first pair of pads my parents bought me brand new were blue and white Koho's just like Roy had.

What is your aspiration as a goalie right now? Is it to win the Four Star Cup? Crack a starting line up in the SHL? Be drafted first round in either the SHL or NWJHL Draft?

Mike: All of the above haha. I want to achieve as much as I can during my career.

Since we're all interested about what a sex panther does, could you walk us through a day in the life of Mike Verminski?

Mike: I usually wake up around 6 or 7 and have a light breakfast before heading to gym for a training session that usually lasts a few hours. After that I'll grab some lunch and make my way over to the rink. At the rink I spend a good hour or so stretching to improve my flexibility and decrease the chance of pulling something. After stretching I hit the ice for a pick-up game with some other prospects. I wind down with a ride on the stationery bike before jumping in the shower and heading home. Depending on the night of the week I'll spend some time reviewing tape of previous games to see what I need to improve on to achieve everything I want to in my career.

Where did the idea of all black gear come from?

Mike: I was in desperate need of new gear because everything I had was over ten years old and was slowly falling apart. I got sick of making weekly trips to the local shoe/leather repair place who is an old hockey player great at fixing all kinds of gear. I didn't want to drop $1500 on gear matching one team then move on to another team and look like a moron with the wrong colored gear. I figured black or white would be the way to go so I could wear the gear for years to come. After looking around I just loved the way the Bauer Rx8's looked in black so I pulled the trigger and got the pads and matching gloves.

Last couple questions here, where do you think you will be drafted in the S10 NWJHL Draft? Why do you believe you will be drafted in this position?

Mike: I think I'll go somewhere around the 9th-11th pick overall. It's unlikely for goalies to be picked in the first round, but because of my high level of activity on the board and constant desire to improve my attributes I don't think I will slip much further than the end of the second round.

If you could play with any other SHL player, who would it be and why?

Mike: I'd like to play with Green. I've known him for a long time through Social Media since we live on other sides of the world. He recruited me for this league and it'd be fun to be on the same team as one of my friends.

What other player/s in the league have you become friends with?

Mike: I think just Green. Cyan Winters is another high rated goalie prospect and we go back at forth each other once in a while, but it's all in good fun so I'd have to add him to the list. Maybe Ask as well.

Are you a superstitious guy? What kind of superstitions do you practice? Do you do them routinely?

Mike: Well you know how the saying goes "you have to be a little weird to be a goalie"? It's definitely true. It starts before I even leave the house. I follow the same routine every time no matter what. Pack my gear the same way, put it in the back of my vehicle the same way. If I played well last time out I'll listen to the same music on the drive there and sit in the parking lot until the song ends before I get out. It doesn't stop there..

I take certain pieces of equipment out of my bag in a certain order and lay them in the same spot every time I'm going to play. Before I start getting dressed I fill my water bottle, I don't let anyone do it for me. Once start getting dressed it's always left side first. Left sock, right sock, left leg into under armor, right leg into under armor, etc.

I do the same pre-game stretches on the ice before every time I play in the same spot on the ice. After that it's business as usual for warm-ups until the buzzer sounds...I won't get out of the net until I make a glove save, but some of my teammates have caught on and started saucing pucks to my glove just to get me out of the net haha.

Last question Mike, what is your favourite meal to eat before a game?

Mike: I don't have a favorite meal, but if I had to choose one I'd say just your standard spaghetti and meatballs with a slice of garlic bread and some water.

Alright thanks for being here Mike! It was a pleasure to interview you

Mike: Thanks for having me it was a lot of fun!

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Conclusion:
It was a real pleasure to interview this guy and I hope that he succeeds this year in the NWJHL. If he keeps up this work ethic he'll be a real good goalie and I can't wait to see the great things he's going to do.

Draft Projection: 10th Overall