Halford & Brough in the Morning - Are Canadians Still Crossing The Border For The NFL?

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with The Athletic NFL's Tim Graham (1:23) about if Trump's anti-Canada rhetoric will affect the league's product up north this coming season, plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Music Music Music Music Music 703 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brough Sportsnet 650. Halford, Bruff, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Bruff of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's

first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program. Tim Graham, senior writer for the athletic covering Buffalo sports, is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off our two. Our two of this program is brought to you by Jason Hominuk at jason.mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money,

then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. I am joking of course, let him do exactly that. Visit him online at jason.mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. To the Power West Industries hotline we go, our next guest as mentioned is a writer for

the athletic, author of a recent piece, can the NFL overcome Trump's anti-Canada rhetoric? The bills are banking on it. Tim Graham joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning Tim, how are you? Good morning. Thanks for having me on. I'm doing well. Yeah, thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So spend a fair bit of time in the intro laying out to the listeners what the piece was about and what we were gonna cover here. You had a very pressing question right at the start talking about how the NFL craves Canada more than ever, but are Canadians in the mood to play along? Let's get right to the beginning of this.

What was the inspiration for deciding to write this piece and digging into this story, Tim? Just hearing from Canadians who live in the area, Canadians who work here, Canadians who are friends of mine, and being on the border as Buffalo is, you know, Buffalo in so many ways is suburban Toronto. It's almost, it's the opposite of the rhetoric, right? The 51st state rhetoric, you know, Buffalo, Buffalo probably should be annexed by Canada. It would probably be more appropriate. And it's just, there's just so much when it comes to the border that people

have in common, right? You know, Tim Hortons is local, Labatt is a, is considered a domestic beer in places like Detroit and Buffalo and, and Seattle. And so it just, my curiosity got to me and I went to the Buffalo Bills website and they have a page on their website about Bills Backers bars and I went to the Canada page and I said I'm gonna start on the western part of the Golden Horseshoe and I'm gonna work my way up to Dorado and back down against you through St. Catharines. And I went to seven Bills Backers bars looking for any Bills fans who want to talk to me, locals. And it was just,

it was eye-opening to me to hear what people said. And I think that the upshot of it was is that the bill or that the, not the bills necessarily, but the NFL is too strong. That's when it comes to the principles of sovereignty and, and how offended people are, and rightly so, I agree with them, that when it comes to hockey, and the NBA and baseball, well, we don't necessarily need to cross the border. But I got the strong sense that when it comes to the NFL, they're probably gonna cross the border. But again, we don't know that. We don't know that because anything can happen between July 15th and the start of the NFL season as we've come to realize with the US government as it is and the White House in general, that anything could be said

or done or enacted that's going to make things even worse. But it seems as though that obviously Canadians are very upset. But when it comes to the NFL, they might be willing to cross the border anyway. And I guess the Bills aren't exactly in a position where, you know, nobody wants to go see their games right now. They're one of the best teams in the NFL. They have the MVP at quarterback. So for them, this comes, if you want to talk about, you know, the situation, it comes at an okay time

for them and they're also building a new stadium and there's going to be excitement for that as well, right? Absolutely. And there are different dynamics at play for Buffalo than there are for Seattle and Detroit and to a lesser extent, Minnesota. The Vikings have been trying to make inroads into

Canada also, even though Minneapolis is a lot farther away from Winnipeg than these other markets that we're talking about. You know, we're talking mostly about the three border towns that I referred to earlier, but you know, there is so much that is attractive to Canada about the, from the NFL teams, you know, they want to tap into Canada. It's been sitting there for a long time. And part of the reason for that is because Buffalo has not been able to do it or been unwilling to do it over time. Now we had the Bills Toronto series of 10, 15 years ago.

That was a disaster. It was a PR disaster. It was a logistical disaster. The games were awful. Rogers Center is just not a great place to watch football. And it was, it was, it was unmitigated disaster. And Toronto has also been the boogeyman across the border for generations of Bills fans, because as soon as the founder of the team, Ralph Wilson died, the team certainly was going to be moved probably to Toronto. Now Terry Pugula comes along as a white knight and saves the team.

And that has created a lot more, uh, ease. And of course, a $2.2 billion US stadium being built creates a lot of ease. This team is not going anywhere now, but there was this uneasy dance that was always done in flirting with Toronto when it came to corporate money, trying to entice fans to become season ticket holders because Bill's fans had it in the backs of their minds that Canada held a sledgehammer behind its back as it was coming across the border and it was going to take the team eventually.

Well, those fears don't exist anymore. So the bills are now comfortable enough to go into Canada, Toronto in particular, where 60% of its home territory is based in Canada because of the 75 mile radius around Orchard Park, New York. That's a lot. I mean, that's just not a lot of people. because of the 75 mile radius around Orchard Park, New York. That's a lot. I mean, that's just not a lot of people. I mean, that's just the corporate money, as you know.

And it's been sitting there and Detroit was aware of this and Seattle was aware of this. And we can get into the whole thing about the global markets program that allows these teams to go in their market throughout the entire country. But it's just been sitting there waiting and the bill still organically have 11% of their season tickets are sold to Canadians.

So it is a massive bit of Bill's business and yet they haven't done anything to really make it stronger. And so I could see that that's, that's why the bills want to do it now. They're finally in a place because of Terry Pagula as the owner and the new stadium, etc. They don't have to worry about fears or the PR aspect of talking to Canada to upset their local fans. But at this time now, it's now that the Bills are ready to make this, to reach into Canada. Canada is just clearly upset and raw and probably not as willing to come this way

as they were in the past. So Tim, when you talk to, when you went around and talked to people, there'll probably be a lot of people that were like, yeah, this doesn't affect me at all. I'm a Bills fan in Canada. I'm still gonna go to the games. You know, we're getting texts into our text line from, from people that, you know, I'm a

season ticket holder for the Seahawks and I haven't heard anyone say that they're giving up their season tickets because of this. So in your story, who has been affected the most by this? Well, we're still kind of projecting a bit. And I agree that, yeah, you're nobody's giving up their season tickets for this. And the bills are in a situation now where they're selling PSLs for the first time.

They've never been sold in Buffalo before until this new stadium. So coming next year, you know, people are buying these PSLs by all reports. According to the bills, 18% of the waiting list, which is even higher, seven points higher than its current season ticket base, 18% of the waiting list for PSLs, if there are any unsold are Canadians. So there's still an interest, there's an investment that's been made. So yeah, there's a financial commitment, a heavy, when it comes to the National Football League, a heavy financial commitment. It also includes the

transportation aspect of it and in depending on the teams, not all are the same, but when it comes to tailgating, you know, you have plans, you have to set up a lot to be an NFL fan. You have to plan way in advance. So I can understand why nobody's giving up their season tickets. That doesn't mean they're not going to sell their tickets to somebody else and wait for things to cool down so that way they can start coming to the game in two years or three years or whatever, or when it is more palatable and not as un-Canadian as it is right now to cross the border. And that's the thing.

It's not the NFL. Nobody's upset at the NFL. There is this very real phenomenon of it being un-Canadian to enter the United States, to spend money in the United States in tourism. So again, as I said at the very beginning, the NFL is still too big, I think it is, it is too attractive. It is too entertaining. People just, you can't go to an NFL game in Canada like you can the other sports.

So you have to cross the border if you want to root for your favorite team. And I think it speaks not, not any less of a Canadian's patriotism to want to come to the NFL. It just speaks to the to want to come to the NFL. It just speaks to the behemoth that is the NFL that it, the rules don't necessarily apply there, but we don't know. So again, that's where I'm saying we're projecting a little bit. We can take all the data that we've seen about sports that normally do make Canadians cross the border. I took a look at the data for,

crossing over the border when the Toronto Maple Leafs played the Buffalo Sabres. Way down, way down on all dates going back to 2018. I was checking, you know, all those dates and we could take a look at each bridge, each of the four bridges that come from Canada into the Niagara Buffalo region. And it plummeted, you know, 30%. And that was to come see the Toronto Maple Leafs play in Buffalo, which is usually the most popular game for a lot of these travel companies that come from Toronto into Buffalo. And it's Wayne Kretz is the, the owner of a Bill's backers bar who also operates one of these tours, sports tour operations. And he was the lead to my story. He had to cancel his trips because it was of the backlash that he was getting,

not only from people who were saying, no, I don't want to go. So he was stuck with all these tickets that he couldn't sell to the Leafs at Sabres game, but the bad PR that he was getting on his Facebook page, how dare you offer this trip was what he was getting. So I interviewed, you know, the Toronto Raptors, their play by their, their, their analyst and who's from Buffalo lives in Lewiston he can literally to borrow the to bastardize the Sarah Palin line he can actually see Canada from the backyard and and Jack was saying you know it's just it's amazing you know to be in the arena for Raptors games and to know that you know and to feel and talk to these fans who would

normally come across but they're just not anymore now that's an NBA thing too so it's just who has been affected not NFL fans yet we have yet to see really what they're going to do but as I interviewed executives from the Lions and the Seahawks they are concerned there are plans in place to to borrow their phrase quote you know meet fans where they are concerned. There are plans in place to borrow their phrase, quote, meet fans where they are, unquote, if they're not comfortable crossing the border. So it is an issue.

And so I will agree. And I think that probably it doesn't, it probably doesn't get noticed too much at the box office because Americans will buy these tickets anyway you know so these the games aren't going to be that the attendance isn't going to be hurt for three really good football teams especially for the Bills and the Lions but it's not going to be hurt these games are still going to sell out but I think that there are going to be a lot

of Canadians who just don't want to compromise their principles when it comes to what's happening geopolitically. Let's just end on this note. Does the Bills new stadium and the fact that things seem so stable under the ownership of Terry Pagula, which might be weird considering we talk a lot about the Sabres and the instability of the Sabres under Pagula. That's the topic that really we could drill in. I mean, I guess pun intended because I could have changed the word because the guy makes his money in fracking, but we could drill into why one team

seems to have it together and the other team doesn't. It is the same ownership. It is crazy. But I wanted to ask you, does it close the door on the NFL in Toronto? Because Toronto could support an NFL team. I know that Bill's series didn't go well, but they would be sold out on season tickets every day. And they have a potential owner in Ed Rogers, who just so happens to own my company.

He wants to own a team, but would the Bills put up a big fight? Well, that's a great question. Would the Bills also have the standing to put up a fight? The Bills being what they are. I think if the NFL decided that Toronto was in play, I don't know that the Pagula family is like Jerry Jones or the Maras or, you know, Robert Kraft. That could be a 31 to 1 vote among the owners about whether or not we're going into Toronto. And whoever's going into Toronto is going to have a lot of money, right? I mean, any new owner is going to have a gazillion dollars. And you could make whatever payment you need to make

to the Buffalo ownership to say, we're coming in on your territory, because there are overlaps. The Bay Area used to have it, Baltimore and Washington, the two New York teams, there are teams that coexist within the same home territory. So yeah, I think it could work. Now, I also like, and I referred to him earlier, Jack Armstrong with the Raptors. You know, nobody I think knows more about this dynamic than he does. You know, being the Raptors, you know, nobody I think knows more about this dynamic than he does. You know, being the Raptors' longtime broadcaster, he's a Bill season ticket holder, and he's constantly talking with members of management, MLSE, ownership, all these things. I mean, this guy is educated. He thinks that without, and it's referenced in the story, that if the Bills-Toronto series

isn't such a catastrophe, that Toronto has its own team right now. Not the Bills, but its own team in some way. And it's because it's just too unmistakable, it's include the MLS, excuse me, the MLS, that doesn't have Canadian traction. It's amazing to me that the National Football League of all these leagues hasn't been able to figure it out to get into Canada. So the bills really set it back. Well, it was really, I'm sorry to your employer, the Rogers experience, but it was also the bills that gave up too much of their power in those games. They basically sold the games off and said, okay, you guys run them as you want.

It really upset bill season ticket holders or fans period. But also there were people in Canada that found the experience to be either way too expensive, the games weren't good, and we can go through the whole thing. Well, the bills were terrible then too. The bills were no good, right. They'd even put in a good opponent and then people in Buffalo would say, well, why are we losing this game against this good opponent? Or there was one season where the playoffs were on the line.

And why are we giving the Dolphins game, which is a good matchup at the time, why are we giving the dolphins game, which is, you know, a pretty, is a good matchup at the time. Why are we giving the dolphins to Toronto? That's a game where the dolphin should be at a competitive disadvantage playing outside an orchard park, not under a dome. And of course the dolphins, you know, do what they do, but yeah, it is, it is, it's an incredible, it's incredible that not only is there nothing right now in Canada, no team, but there's no plans to even have a game.

All these international games being played all around the world. And I interviewed NFL Canada for this story and they say we don't even have any plans for a preseason, nothing. The stadiums are an issue though. I think the stadium is the big thing overall. I know they played that game up in Winnipeg a little while ago. That was another PR headache. Yeah, I mean they could do one in Vancouver at BC Place, I suppose, if they wanted to. And I suppose they could go back to Roger Centre in Toronto again if they wanted to. But I think the one thing, I mean, obviously the NFL has to decide on this, but getting

a stadium, an NFL stadium built in Canada seems just like a massive task unless it is entirely privately financed because we're not as open to publicly financing these things. Like how much public financing went into the new Buffalo Stadium? 800 million, 800, 850 million. That would be a real tough sell in Canada. Well yeah, and it's a tough sell everywhere. It's not as easy as it was in the United States because people are finally, and I say people, I guess it's the public because the politicians want to get re-elected.

So they're not going to do anything that really upsets the public too much. But yeah, I mean, good luck. Are you going to get public money in California for a new stadium? Yeah, that's where all the teams move. Right, it's amazing. Yeah, you're right. And Canada, I think, is smarter in that regard than,

well, in many regards. But we don't have the NFL. That's true, but yeah, how badly do you want it? And that's the thing in Toronto, with and real estate, the way it is there. But that's the thing where, but it was, it was there and it has been there. I'm talking about years ago or a couple of generations ago that, that, you know, there were some awful stadiums that teams were playing in not that long ago. And of course the NFL has changed quite a bit.

And, and now even Levi's stadium, you know, this was just a report last week or the week before Levi's stadium, which in my mind is brand new. That stadium stinks. The Niners play. It stinks. It's brutal. But it held a super bowl and now it's getting hundreds of millions of dollars

in renovations, but it's just Cleveland. Now Cleveland to me, and I know that it was a while ago, but that's a that's kind of an expansion team with a brand new stadium. I'm using finger quotes on brand new, but it's you know they're obviously building a new one. So after this 30 years when the lease is up for the bills in this 2.2 billion dollar palace, you know in 30 years, well maybe that's when.2 billion palace, you know, in 30 years, well, maybe that's when Toronto gets its team, you have 30 years run up, but is there going to, are they going to build and that they're going to go back across the street to where the

current stadium is and build yet another one? Because that's what the NFL does. It's not, they're not just happy with one new stadium. It's every, every few decades, you're going to need to build them yet another one. And that's how the St. Louis Rams end up losing, you know, two two teams over the course of the past 50 years. Well, I did want to ask a follow up about how one owner can have such a successful football team and such an unsuccessful hockey team.

But now we're out of time. So, Tim, I want to say sorry, go ahead. The curse of having me on as a guy. Well, it's a double curse. I wasn't going. That's the curse of having me on as a guest. Well, it's a double curse. I wasn't going to say blessing and a curse because that would assume that there's a blessing to it. But I do go on for a bit.

So I am a tad verbose. The blessing part is that now we have to have you back on the show. So what we're going to do is we're going to bid farewell now and thank you very much for taking the time to do this today. And we will give you a call back sometime soon so we can talk about that other dynamic in Buffalo sports. Thanks for doing this today, Tim.

We appreciate it. Take care, guys. Thank you. Tim Graham from the Athletic, senior NFL writer out of Buffalo here on the Hellford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. I love me some stadium talk. Stadia.

That was the only thing that I have held onto for, I think it's about five years now, the first time I ever heard it. And I'm still enamored by the term. Stadia? Yeah, I like calling it Stadia. Okay. Makes me feel regal.

I just like stadium. Did you remember we went to Levi's Stadium? It's pretty boring. Too sunny. Too sunny is the problem. Oh yeah, I think that was the problem there. I got pretty sunburned. I had to sit in the shade and there wasn't a lot of shade.

I'm not an architect, but based on my understandings of the renderings, they built the stadium wrong. They didn't take into account the sun. And the sun hits the stadium 24 hours a day, which is amazing. It's a marvel in a lot of ways, but it's not great. Thomas Drantz tweeted yesterday,

it may be mid-summer, but Canucks management isn't off to the cottage just yet. Drance hears the club is monitoring a couple of the UFA options still on the market. Says no surprise given their recent history. Yeah, they have brought in some players, Puse Suiter, Daniel Sprong, all were late editions. Uh, Drance mentions that the Canucks need to move out cap dollars first and they're

actively working to do so. On the other side, we'll go through some of the potential players that the Canucks could be looking at. If you want to text in some what we learned into the Dunbar Lumber text line, 650, 650, we've got guests at 8 o'clock and 8.30 Mike Awe from the BC Lions and newest connect Chase Stillman at 8.30. So we got to do all that in the next segment of the Halford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. 50. It's what we learn time It's what we learn time On the show

733 on a Tuesday, happy Tuesday everybody, Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are an hour or two of the program, and yes, we're doing what we learned early. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Homonuck at jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage,

then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason.mortgage. Strange, right? You're listening to your favorite, well, one of your favorite AM talk shows. Well, a talk show. A talk show. And normally we do- You listen to the only AM sports talk show. Maybe.

Maybe you're- You're being forced to listen. Maybe you're thinking, hey, wait a minute. This bit usually happens at 830. Is something off? What is amiss? What's wrong? Nothing's wrong. In the eight o'clock hour of this program,

we have Micah Away on linebacker for your BC Lions. And then at 8.30, the newest member of the Vancouver Canucks, Chase Stillman, is gonna join the program. So in light of those two athlete interviews, we had to do what we learned at 7.30 this morning. So Jason kind of te to do what we learned at 7.30 this morning. So Jason kind of teased his, what we learned prior to going to break. Maybe, just maybe the connects will provide us some more slow summer news.

Because it sounds as though they're still looking at a couple of guys left in the unrestricted free agent pool. What's going on here? Yeah. And there have been reports that a name like Dakota Joshua could be moved, assuming there's a taker out there. The other name that could potentially be moved

according to reports, although they don't make as much sense to me as Teddy Bluger, you better replace him with an upgrade because you need centers right now and Teddy Bluger is a center and he's also a big part of the penalty kill and they've already lost a big part of their penalty kill in Pew suitor. So I imagine if the Canucks are trying to move out cap space, the number one guy they're trying to

move is Dakota Joshua. Um, maybe another name that gets thrown in there once in a while is Nils Hoeglinder. I'm not advocating for it. I think Hoaglinder could be due for a bounce back, but, uh, you know, he has been discussed at least. So who's left? Who is left?

Now, if you want to go to sportsnet.ca, um, there is a writeup of the top 10, UFAs still available. A fantastic website. And number one is Jack Roslovich. And this is a name that we heard a lot of. Okay. Heading into free agency, and I'm a little surprised that nobody's picked him up,

because everyone needs a center, and he's a center. And he actually had a pretty good year last year in terms of scoring it. 22 goals for the Carolina Hurricanes. But it just seems like he's one of those odd man out guys who probably him and his agent are like, okay, that didn't go well, but we need to regroup here and teams will try and make some moves. And don't worry, there are still some teams interested in you. His cap hit last season was $2.8 million.

If I'm Roslovich, I'm probably looking for closer to what Pugh Souter got. And that was 8 million over two years. So a cap out a $4 million. Um, you know, he's a right shot center. So, but he was also scratched for some playoff games for Carolina. So, um, we'll see, uh, where Roslovich ends up. He'll definitely get signed by someone.

I know Toronto is a name that's been, uh, tossed out there as a possible landing spot for Roslovich. The other guy that I heard the Canucks might have interest in is, and he's number eight on this list at sportsnet.ca is Michael Carconi. And he was with, God, I want to say Utica? Was he in the Canucks organization at that point? So he was a member of the Utica Comets. Right.

Yeah. Was he a Utica, was that an AHL contract that he was on though? Oh, for sure? Yeah, I remember. Or was it just a Halford, yes, I'm not 100% sure. I remember when writing a lot about the Utica Comets and the variety of guys that were playing down there. And he seemed pretty far off NHL radars

to the point where I remember going through that roster up and down and left and right, and not thinking that he would one day be a guy that would be, I mean, he's a full-fledged NHLer now, and there was a lot of other guys on those teams that were ahead of him in the pecking order. It is quite remarkable.

I know he had some really good runs with the Arizona Coyotes and then... Yeah, he went on a crazy... For him, he went on a crazy scoring run with Arizona. Didn't he have like 21 goals or something? And that was kind of how... He was on a bit of like a shooting percentage heater. Yeah, and maybe he's somewhat unsustainable. Okay, so getting back-

But the thing about him, by the way, the thing about him is he's speedy. He's fast. And he actually plays with a bit of an edge. And I still think that this management group wants to add more speed because look at what what, they're the same team essentially. Bezser's not gonna make them faster. I think one of the reasons they were so, so on Pugh suitor was his lack of speed. They've brought in a Vander Cane, and it's funny, you hear some people that are like,

ah, he's not as fast as he was. And other people are like, no, he's still pretty fast. So we'll have to see on a Vander Cane to see if he adds any speed. But if you were to replace Joshua with Karkoni, you would get a big time upgrade in speed, although you wouldn't have the size of Dakota Joshua. I'm really, really puzzled by trying to handicap what the market's going to go, what it's going to do from here. Right now you see a handful of sort of, I guess you could

classify them as mid-tier free agents who are obviously waiting for something. And that something is money opens up in a market they want to go to, a spot opens up in a market they want to go to a spot opens up in a market they want to go to. There's plenty of cap space out there though. That's what I'm saying. Yeah there's plenty of it's not it's not like everyone's up against the cap. Which leads me to believe that these guys are looking more for fit than they are for bag. Or for well no I think they're looking for or they're looking for a nice mix of both. There's money put it this way. There's money to be had. There's money to be had out there. If you're a free agent and you want a job,

theoretically you should be able to have one that pays you lucratively right now. Right, I think that's partly what happened with Souter in St. Louis is they looked at the deal and they were like, are we gonna do better than eight million over two years for a guy that last summer was waiting, I mean the last time he hit this sort of position

was waiting until August to sign for significantly less money. I still thought he'd get more though. I do think that there is, and in light of that comment, I do think that there is something that has to be done across the league to solve all of these questions that these teams have, and it's gotta come through a trade market. It seems inevitable that a trade market's going to

develop here because there's just way too many teams right now that didn't address their issues and their situations meaningfully, and Vancouver's right at the top of that. How does it get solved though without centers? It seems like, I know not every need for every team as a sender, but it feels like 90% of them are. Well, I'll go back to what Jim Rutherford has said on a number of occasions, that they're

probably going to have to make moves that maybe they don't necessarily like, or maybe the fan base doesn't necessarily like. That hockey trades often involve not one team winning or one team losing or one team trading futures for the present. You trade from whatever your perceived area of strength is. Yeah, but nobody seems to have an area of strength that's center.

That's what I'm saying. Right. But some team might have more depth that's center than they do on their blue line and not necessarily in sort of like a good way. Yeah. But, okay. Like I'd say the Canucks would be it.

Like do the Canucks have a good defense as currently constructed? Yes, they do. It's not the best defense in the NHL, but it's a good blue line. And in terms of their dynamic and where they're at, if they were to say, what's our biggest area of strength, it would be our blue line in terms of depth. It's not going to get,

how's it going to get you to center though? They've tried. Well, they might have to up the ante. No. Or package something. Why not? I don't know. Now take, even might have to up the ante. No. Or package something. Why not? I don't know. Now, take, even if we just take the conversation away from them.

Who are they going to get? Take your pick. Do they want to circle back on Marko Rossi and say that, OK, finally we're willing to pay the price for them? Depends how much they like them, I guess. Or they still have to clear a bunch of cap space. It's not how much they like them, I guess. Yeah, or. But I don't see, but they still have to clear a bunch of cap space. It's not how much they like them,

it's how desperate they are to get better this season. I mean, that's what a lot of teams are gonna be faced with, I think. We talked about Edmonton needing to solve their goaltending. I guess you guys had the Adam Gold from the Carolina Hurricanes on, and with all the moves that the Hurricanes

have made this summer, they still haven't found their solution to the 2C problem. Minnesota has still got a problem that they need to solve with Rossi and that they need to have some sort of resolution one way or the other. I'll still be interested. But they can kick the can down the road on that, the same way the Sabres can kick the can down the road on Bowen Byrom now. Yeah, those markets too, I do wonder what the immediate pressure is for the upcoming season. Cause Vancouver is almost in a unique situation there where they painted themselves into a very

desperate corner. So Mike, the urologist from Brockville texts in, um, I think a bunch of teams are just not going to solve their two C problem. And he adds Colorado has had a two C problem for like five years. Yeah. Colorado is not for a lack of trying though.

I mean, Winnipeg too. Do you remember all the two Cs that they brought in? But that is trying to solve the problem. They just didn't solve it, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Colorado's tried how many different guys since Kaudry left? Middlestadt, Coyle, I could probably, there's some that I'm missing here as well. They had JT Comfort that worked for a year and then they lost them to free agency. So it's not for a lack of trying. It's just that all the efforts and all the tries haven't succeeded. They've failed. And that's often the case that you

get into. Because there are so many teams that think that they're either a playoff team or they're primed to improve this season. There's only three teams that I can think of that are like, yeah, we don't care. Pittsburgh, Chicago, and San Jose. So it makes it hard. So if you go to some team that's like,

no, we want to improve this year, no, we're a playoff team. We're not trading a center. So someone just texted in unsigned, all the way from Smithers. Thank you for listening. Is there a world where Pittsburgh trades with Jenny Malkin? They would love some young defensemen. Here's the issue with Pittsburgh.

Malkin and Crosby seemingly are calling the shots on how their futures go. And then everything else is decided after that. So we had Josh Yohei on the program last week. And he said that his best understanding, and I'm paraphrasing here, but his best understanding is that this is the final year probably of Jenny Malkin in Pittsburgh. And then at that time. Gino and Sid are gonna go out together. Maybe then after Malkin's gone, you can even start to have the conversation about where Crosby wants to play the following year.

Yeah. Which helps nobody. Yeah, I should clarify, like G is going to go out with Sid. So what happens is the big pieces from Pittsburgh, that can gets kicked down the road. What you're looking at at Pittsburgh, and we talked to Josh about this last week is Ricard Raquel and Brian Rust, which are nice pieces, but obviously not the big drivers of where that organization is going to go.

So that jams up the works a little bit as well in terms of what are you going to be able to pry loose from Pittsburgh? Everyone seems to think that the tear down in Pittsburgh and then being the designated seller is going to make the market more robust and flush. But the big, big pieces and the big, big changes that organization might not happen until the following summer. Scott Texan, there's a two C issue in the NHL. Now imagine if they expand.

Well, that actually, that made me laugh. There's a 2C issue. Yeah, I mean. Imagine if someone tuned in right now and they're like, I don't really follow sports. I wonder what sports talk radio is like. 2Cs. Or is it 2C?

It's a 2C show. And a right shot D. Or a 2C show. And especially if that 2C. It's like a song see we need a 2c and a right shot D and especially if that 2c is a right shot Right even better. That's why Jack Rosalvick like I want to yeah, he has to Mean he's not gonna take like a league minimum anywhere. I think he was close to 3 million bucks last year on the cap Yeah, yeah, By the way- He should be getting what Souter got, at least.

Not at least, so go around there. My, for Scott, because this is a good jumping off point where he talks about- There's a 2C issue. 2C issue. That should be the next question for Gary Bambino. Like, what are you gonna do about this 2C issue? We missed the opportunity to ask Marty Walsh about it.

He would have been like, pardon? Um, imagine if they, excuse me, imagine if the NHL expands as expected. I brought this theory up on this. It's not even so much a theory. It's just my thought wandering on this. I do wonder if the answer to all of this is that we see more draft picks fast-tracked into the NHL, more high-end talent guys fast-tracked into the NHL. Well high-end talent guys fast-tracked into the NHL. Well, that's, I mean, we've talked about the possibility, the possibility of Coots cracking the Canucks roster. Now, and I think it's still-

Everyone discussed it, I saw it. They just at least gave it the cursory, like, well, they did sign him pretty quick. I personally, it feels like a bridge too far, but the bridge is built in. Like it's in a landscape where we're just kind of trained to think that you need to. Grow and develop and matriculate and like grow your way into being an NHL player. Fast tracking is in the countless.

And look, there are countless examples here in Vancouver of guys that have been fast tracked and it hasn't gone well. Vertanen and McCann are the two that always come up. It's a cautionary tale. Got that. Right? Vertanen and McCann, that's close to a decade ago now. It is, and I wonder.

It's time to do it again. Right, let's try it again. This time, it might work. But I wonder if the difference between a decade ago and moving forward is the desperation factor and the lack of other solutions. Desperation causing innovation, where you have to try and do it

because there just aren't other options available. If you're talking on July 15th about the prospect of bringing Jack Roslovick in and that's where your league is at with all these teams that don't have a solution to their second line center position, I do wonder if they're just going to say, well, why don't we look in house and see if let's try it, right? Let's give it a go. Players are coming out of whatever developmental vein that they get to the NHL from, they are coming out as closer to being professional than they ever have. And I do wonder if the ability to jump from junior hockey to NCA hockey is going to even

accelerate that growth pattern to where guys are ready to play. Okay, we're going to print off some submissions into the Dunbar Lumber text line right now. We're going to keep reading them over the next hour and a bit. We're going to talk to Micah Alway for the BC Alliance. Next segment, and then after we talk to him, we'll read some more submissions, and then we're gonna talk to Chase Stillman, newest member of the Vancouver Canucks,

and then after we talk to him. We're gonna go home. But we might read some more submissions before then. Well, we learned humanoid editions brought to you by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Homemade dough, premium local ingredients, and authentic cooking methods. AJ's is for diehard pizza people.

Dine in or order online at AJ's, that pizza. Justin with what we learned. PWHL Vancouver Seasons tickets go on sale today. Tickets start at 27 bucks per game to watch hockey in the downtown adjacent Pacific Coliseum. That is an A-dog thing, by the way. Yeah, I'm really curious to see how the PWHL team does in terms of season tickets.

I think they're gonna be, I think they're gonna be really. Well, we're supposed to be the best team. I think they're gonna be, I think they're gonna be really. We're supposed to be the best team. I think they're gonna be really successful. Like it helps when you have like the best roster of all the PWHL teams. And it's an affordable ticket. Yeah, it'll be very well. You know, there aren't like 100 games to go to.

It's an affordable ticket. And I think people want to support the league and the team. Yeah, so that kicks off at noon today. If you go to the site, the PWHL site right now, you can sign up for the PWHL Vancouver Insider. You get special access priority. I think you might get it ahead of time, pre-sale opportunity. But if you want to check that out and then it all goes live today,

as mentioned, noon Pacific. Rob and Suri, what we learned, what I've learned, despite the recent disasters in Toronto and Winnipeg, is that it's surprising that Brazil, Europe, Japan, Mexico, and soon Australia will have all had NFL games since a world-class city like Vancouver had its last NFL game in 1998, the America Bowl between the Hawks and San Francisco. There were a lot of games. And that was a pre-season game. Yeah.

That wasn't an actual regular season game, which we're seeing a ton of in the NFL. I mean, that's what makes a massive difference. Is this a real game or not? Yeah, and there were a lot of jumping off points. This is when we talked to Tim Graham from the Athletic and Buffalo about, specifically the Canadian fans going south of the border and crossing the border

to go to like Detroit Lions game, Seattle Seahawks games and of course, Buffalo Bill games. You got to understand. I forgot the textures name. I apologize. But Rob Rob. Part of the allure with the NFL right now, with their global reach, is going to places they've never been before. Right. And there's something, I know that they've done a handful of these places,

but a couple of them it's for the first time. They're also going to massive stadiums. Massive stadiums, yeah. Like they, you know, where are they going this year? Are they going to Madrid? I will tell you in a second. I feel like they're going to, what's the stadium in Madrid called? The Bernabeu? Yeah. I'm not 100% sure,. I feel like they're going to, what's the stadium in Madrid called?

The Bernabeu? Yeah. I'm not 100% sure, but I feel like they are. So they're going to the big stadiums in London too. Wembley, that's a lot bigger than BC Place, and you can sell a lot more tickets for a lot of money. Let's say it's a Seahawks game, right? What is the upside for the Seahawks going to BC Place for a regular season game?

There's none. It's a smaller stadium and you're going to get Canadian money. So this year, there will be, there's a ton of games this year. Tottenham and Wembley are getting games in England. Yeah. They're going to Berlin, they're going to Sao Paulo again in Brazil. And then yeah, the Washington commanders and the Miami Dolphins November 16th

are going to the Bernabeu in Madrid. And that thing just got a huge renovation, I think. Like it is a crazy stadium. And then you want to talk about new ground being broken in 2026, the LA Rams are going to be the designated home team when the NFL goes to Australia. They're going to play a game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, right?

And that's got capacity, I can't remember what it is, but it's- It's massive. The MCG is over a hundred thousand. A hundred thousand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. On the nose, yeah. So it's like double PC plays basically.

And I mean, so that's, I understand what you're saying. Well, you know, wanting to do repeat performances in some of these world-class cities and like bringing one to Vancouver. But the reality is, is the, the NFL has seen the globalization and the success that all the other big North American leagues have had and they want in on the action, right? There's a reason that all these teams have been granted territorial rights to different countries, right? And it's the opportunity to build their brand, expose their game, and have these, as you mentioned,

games in massive, massive stadiums, which are real cash cow. Okay, that's it for the second hour of the Haliford and Brev show on Sportsnet 650. Coming up, we have our athlete interviews of the hour. Micah Away is gonna join us. He is the linebacker for your BC Lions. We'll talk to him after the big win in Edmonton

for the Lions on Sunday. And then at 8.30, Chase Stillman is gonna join the program. He, of course, one of the pieces coming back in the Archer-Selovs trade to Pittsburgh, one of Corey Stillman's sons, the second of Corey Stillman's kids to play in Vancouver. Of course, his brother Riley played here a couple of years ago as well.

So we'll talk to Chase Stillman, newest member of the Vancouver Canucks at 8.30. It's all coming up in the final hour. Don't go anywhere. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.