What Ryan Pike read, watched and listened to in October 2026

After a few games in the last couple days of September, the National Hockey League season kicked off in full force in October. As such, it was a busy, busy month when it came to the Calgary Flames. And Calgary Wranglers. And junior hockey. And college hockey. And over the course of that chaotic first month of the year, everyone tends to read, watch and listen to a ton of different things.

In the spirit of British novelist Nick Hornby’s old “Stuff I’ve Been Reading” column from The Believer, I’m sharing the best stuff I consumed every month that didn’t otherwise lend itself to writing about here on the site.

Here are the most interesting things I consumed in October.

Yes, I’m biased because Danny’s a friend and colleague. But damn if he didn’t nail this discussion with St. Andrew’s College head coach David Manning, who was already a Flames fan before two of his former players – Jonathan Castagna and Aydar Suniev – joined the Flames in October.

The NHL’s collective bargaining agreement and salary cap have a lot of complexities, and one of them is really hammering the Toronto Maple Leafs right now. Over at PuckPedia’s superb Substack newsletter, they get into the NHL’s tagging rule and why it’s hampering the Leafs’ ability to make roster moves.

Finally, over at Daily Faceoff, Matt Larkin looked a the crazy new world of EBUGs – emergency backup goaltenders – that are now full-time employees for each NHL team.

We’re obviously deep into new arena mode here in Calgary, but down in San Jose, they’re in renovation mode as they try to extend the lifespan of the SAP Center. So how come they’re going with that approach rather than a new build? TFC Stadiums, who do really good videos on stadiums and arenas, did a breakdown.

Speaking of arenas, the Dallas Stars are in the middle of planning for a new home just north of Dallas in the suburb of Plano, Texas. The funding scheme for the new arena, which is slated to redevelop a mall site, is fairly convoluted, with a portion of the municipal bond repayment tied to excess funds from the local school district that would otherwise be redistributed to poorer Texas school district. The boys over at What Chaos! dug into the situation.

Well, a theme is emerging in terms of things I found interesting in October. So, Las Vegas has Allegiant Stadium, and it’s massive and busy and a big success in terms of what it was built to do – host the Las Vegas Raiders and big events. So how come it’s become a bit of a money pit for the local government? (Spoiler: It’s because of the nature of how it was financed.) MegaBuilds has all the details.

Finally, a fun local video from realtor/video-maker Connor Finlayson, who dug into that one block on 7th Avenue by the convention centre and why the old buildings seem to be lingering around indefinitely.

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