Could There Be a Danbury Trashers Comeback? Jimmy Galante: ‘Never Count AJ and I Out’
On Tuesday evening (8/31/21) I attended the premier party for the Netflix documentary "Untold: Crime & Penalties" at the Danbury Ice Arena. The film is about Jimmy Galante, AJ Galante and the notorious minor league hockey team the Danbury Trashers.
The event was a who's who of Danbury, CT with Jimmy Galante at the center. I was invited to watch the film but I had work on my mind the whole time, plus I watched it earlier in the day.
I wanted to capture an inside look and gather information and see if there were any stories to tell. There were several observations worth sharing and I'll be putting out a few articles over the next few days.
I got a rare opportunity to interview Jimmy Galante on the record so I had to ask the question that is on everyone's mind. Would he ever consider bringing the Trashers back to Danbury? He replied:
"To be perfectly honest, you never know. I've said before, never count AJ and I out. There is always room to talk but right now we're just trying to take it easy and regroup and watch to see what is going on. You know, the tough play that we distributed out there is no more in hockey, so we've even thought about a football team, meaning a semi-pro team. But, we'll have to see. But don't count us out, we'll be back doing something."
I followed up by asking if there was room for the Galante's to team up with the Danbury Hat Tricks and/or the Diamond Brothers. Galante said:
"I never rule anything out, in business I never rule anything out, you never know. Stranger things have happened, but you know, I gotta thank the Diamond Brothers, everybody, they've been very generous, very supportive and you know, I'm glad we've got a nice little turnout here and I want to thank the people that supported us."
The Diamond Brothers (Diamond Properties) are the owners of the Danbury Ice Arena who welcomed the Galantes, the Trashers and their fans to the Ice Arena to watch the movie, free of charge.
Asking about a return of the Danbury Trashers was a necessity, everyone is wondering, what if it were possible? What if the Danbury Hat Tricks and Trashers could work out a deal to make a mega-team? Use the Trashers name and combine resources, why not? That would be kick ass for the city of Danbury and hockey fans throughout the State of CT.
Audio of my brief discussion with Jimmy Galante is in the video player at the top of the page.
I mean, do you really design a brand new team logo if you don't see a possibility of bringing the Trashers back?
The logo was designed by James Luton and it came out great. The Galantes told me they were sitting around the dinner table wondering what Scrappy would look like today, almost 20 years later and decided to get it done. The new logo will be featured on t-shirts, hoodies and more coming soon to the Danbury Trashers merchandise store.
P.S. I mentioned that there were several stories from the movie premier and there are two more coming. We will take you behind the scenes of the premier party for one and in another, we will ask why is Jimmy Galante standing with an FBI agent?