Newfoundland and Labrador skip Ty Dilello a student of the game and its history

Newfoundland & Labrador skip Ty Dilello delivers a rock while playing Manitoba-Dunstone during the Brier, in Kelowna, B.C., on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

KELOWNA, B.C. — Many athletes at the Montana's Brier will try to limit the distractions once play begins by turning their phones off, avoiding social media use and minimizing their online activity.

Not Newfoundland and Labrador skip Ty Dilello.

The 31-year-old Winnipeg native was busy over the last week at Prospera Place but also quite active off it. An author of eight books, Dilello is a hockey and curling historian who uses his downtime to make calls, set up interviews, follow NHL trade deadline buzz and do research for various projects.

"I always have some kind of hockey history project on the go that I'm working on," Dilello said. "I'm always trying to interview as many old players or old families of players that I can. I enjoy it a lot."

Dilello's book, "Golden Boys: The Top 50 Manitoba Hockey Players of All Time," won the Ed Sweeney Award from the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019. The book looked at 50 players who shaped the history of hockey in the province.

Dilello works as a sports reporter with the Carman-Dufferin Standard, a small community newspaper in southern Manitoba.

The return of the Winnipeg Jets to the NHL in 2011 — the year he graduated high school — helped kick-start his writing career, which has included freelance work with NHL.com, The Hockey News and contributions on Substack.

"I started a Jets blog and it got a decent following," he said. "Then I got my first freelance work with the Bleacher Report and the IIHF. That's really when it started."

A voracious reader, Dilello estimates he has hundreds of books in his collection.

"I was always intrigued about old stories about old players," he said. "I was always more interested in stories about Bill Mosienko, Turk Broda, Terry Sawchuk than I was about stories from today."

His ninth book, currently in the working stages, will look at the history of the New York Americans, a pre-Original Six team that had an intense rivalry with the Rangers before it folded.

Dilello's sporting pursuits were focused on tennis as a youngster. He played at the junior ITF level — a match against a young Milos Raonic at a local tournament was a highlight — and got into a couple main draws on the main ITF circuit.

Dilello was a once-a-week curler until he reached adulthood and then started to take the Roaring Game more seriously.

"I thought I'd get into curling and I started doing that," he said. "I never would have thought I'd be here at the Brier just getting into (the sport) so late. I was definitely a late bloomer but I was able to stick with it and grind. Here we are."

A history major at the University of Winnipeg, Dilello reached the podium twice at the U Sports national playdowns, taking silver in 2018 with J.T. Ryan and bronze in 2015 with Kyle Doering, who's serving as an alternate this week with Manitoba's Reid Carruthers.

Dilello also played at the Canadian mixed curling playdowns last year with Ryan Wiebe. When that team split up, Dilello joined the St. John's Curling Club side as an import player with vice Ryan McNeil Lamswood, second Daniel Bruce and lead Aaron Feltham.

McNeil Lamswood is the lone player with Brier experience. He served as an alternate on Brad Gushue's team in 2021.

Like hockey, Dilello's love of curling history also runs deep.

While in town he connected with Mike Riley, who skipped a Winnipeg-based team to a Brier title in 1984 and now lives in Kelowna. Riley had previously played with Mike Mahon, Dilello's coach and stepfather, and more stories were shared.

"For me, I'm just all about trying to preserve some of this history ... I like documenting that as I've done with my hockey and it has carried over into curling too," Dilello said.

Newfoundland and Labrador took a 1-6 record into its final round-robin game Thursday against Alberta's Kevin Koe.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2025.

Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press