MATT BAILEY, MORA, SWEDEN
kids to stake around with the
pros and I’m watching it and
thinking, ‘Who is this kid
buzzing around with these pro
hockey all-stars?’ and it was
a 15-year-old Cody Eakin. At
the time, the league invited
the four best bantam players
to go and skate with the AHL
guys and Cody’s out there
going four-for-four on the
targets and ripping around the
ice and I told Gerry to watch
this kid. So Gerry watched
him and went, ‘Whoa, this
kid’s good,’ and that’s where
it all started. At the time,
Gerry was a partner with
Ritch Winter in The Sports
Corporation in Edmonton.
“Gerry and I got connected
through our pay-per-view,
Hockey Enforcers. At the time,
Gerry represented a couple of
tough guys like Stephen Peat
and Georges Laracque and it
was the lockout year in 2004.
Those guys needed to make
some money and I suspect,
in Gerry’s eyes, he got more
involved than he wanted to
in our project, but he was
instrumental in that event
even happening and that’s how
we formed our partnership.
“Then Gerry said to me,
‘Why don’t you go out and try
to get some guys in the East
Coast Hockey League some
jobs and from that I sunk my
teeth into it. Of course, one
of my very first calls was to
the Danbury Trashers (United
Hockey League). Little did I
know at the time, the FBI was
recording every call I made to
the owner. Little did I know
that while I was making a
deal for Stephen Peat and Jon
(Nasty) Mirasty for $1,000
a game, all of my phone
calls were being recorded. I
was getting a couple of guys
some work and yet the guy
I’m dealing with on the other
end of the line was under
surveillance by the FBI.”
here is now a
documentary
about it. Jim
Galante the
owner of the
Trashers was
not a whole lot different
than Tony Soprano. Like
Soprano, Jim was in the
waste management business
(thus, Trashers) and he was
laundering money
through the
T
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rink in Danbury. In June of
2008, Galante pleaded guilty
to charges of racketeering,
conspiracy to commit wire
fraud and defrauding the IRS.
Wolski, in the end, was simply
a hockey agent’s voice on the
other end of a tapped phone.
But it was the start of
a wild, 14-year ride as a
hockey agent that has never
grown old. At one point,
Wolski represented more
than 100 players. However,
Johannson kept telling him
that “less is more.” Now, to
be absolutely clear, on the
2112 Website, Wolski tells
young players that if they
didn’t play at a certa