Halford & Brough in the Morning - Are The Canucks Elite?

Episode Date: December 9, 2024

In hour one, Jason and guest host Jamie Dodd look back at a busy weekend in sports (3:00), they talk a pair of 'Nucks games this past weekend that resulted in a win and a loss (6:00), plus they discuss the Juan Soto signing as well as some hockey news with MLB Network & Amazon NHL's Adnan Virk (26:45).    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.

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Good morning, Vancouver. Happy Monday, everybody. Welcome to Halford & Brough here on Sportsnet 650. Still not the full compliment of Halford & Brough, but we got one of them back. Jason Brough, back in studio.

I'm Jamie Dott, of course. Brough, what's going on? Good morning. How are you doing, buddy? Nice to be working with you again. Yeah, it's very nice. What was that mooch thing about? I don't know.

Was that from Friday? You described something as three inches thick. It was a food question. It's captured for posterity. Yeah, perfect. I don't have no idea. I don't know what you guys were thinking. It sounds like a mooch hit, all right.

Sounds like a mooch hit. How are the dogs doing this morning? Oh, God. Doing well. Yeah. You asked me a question that was different from alfred yeah oh okay sorry sorry if you don't hey dog good morning good good morning laddie good morning hello hello all right there you go that feels way better i've learned that as well if you've

changed the script at all they get very uncomfortable you deviate even slightly things go haywire they do not care for it one bit they short circuit in there if you try to say anything other than good morning. It's because they've been checked out for like a year. They just know they have to say like good morning and then Vladdy goes hello, hello. His catchphrase. I take naps or brush my teeth. All right. We are coming to you live here from the Kintec studio.

Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet, what are you waiting for? Oh, wait, no, you do it! Oh, man, I screwed it up already. That's alright. That's alright. Oh, boy. Well, to be fair, you did all of it on 13th Friday. So I'm still in that mode. We'll get it next hour. Anyways! Don't ever step

on my toes again. Do not do the frickin' Kintec read. Kintec feeds my family, buddy. Out of the rough, brought to you by the delari family of honda dealers experience the delari difference today visit your nearest delari honda dealer today hour one is brought to you by north star metal recycling vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal north star metal recycling they recycle you get paid 1170 powell street uh here's what's coming up on the show today it was a very busy weekend there's been a couple of canucks games since this show was last on the air of course nfl sunday big one soto news of course as well so

at 6 30 adnan verk is going to join us from mlb network nhl network he's also the host of amazon prime monday night hockey so lots to get into with adnan did the jays get soto from MLB Network, NHL Network. He's also the host of Amazon Prime Monday Night Hockey. So lots to get into with Adnan. Did the Jays get Soto? You're never going to believe this. No, they did not. Oh, I bet they tried really hard. The highest profile free agent on the market?

No, didn't come to Toronto. I bet Soto definitely, did he fly to their training facility or anything like that? I bet he really strongly considered it. Oh my God. Yeah. All the articles yesterday are like well they it was a good idea but they struck out on swiss soto now how are they gonna pivot it's like

well i hope they had a lot of plans on how to pivot i hope they weren't counting on one soto because we went through this last year guys and it didn't work out then uh either of shohei otani i will say i had zero like i got suckered in by the Shohei thing last year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We all did. 100%. Yeah. Zero. Like, not for a single second did I ever think Juan Soto was coming to Toronto.

The victory for the Blue Jays fans was that he didn't sign with the Yankees. That's right. Yeah. Got out of the AL. Got out of the AL East. We'll take it. The Jays got used again, though. They got used.

Whatever. You got to live with it at a certain point. If he goes to the Mets, that's fine. All right. So 6.30 at N-Verc. 7. Mike Tanier, that's fine. All right, so 6.30 at Nenverk 7. Mike Tanier, our NFL insider, to look at everything that happened in the NFL yesterday. And at 8 o'clock, Satyar Shah from right here on Sportsnet 650.

We'll talk to Sat about the latest happening with the Canucks. So working in reverse, 8 o'clock, Satyar Shah, 7 o'clock, Mike Tanier. 6.30 is Adnan Virk that's what's coming up on the show before we do any of that let's tell everyone what happened hey did you guys see the game last night no what happened

I missed all the action because I was we know how busy your life can be what happened you missed that what happened what happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit bccsa.ca. Canucks split a pair of home games over the weekend on Friday. We don't have to get into this one too much. It's a while ago now, but on Friday, they overcome a brutal, brutal first period to beat Columbus 5-2. Yesterday, they lose 4-2 in the afternoon against Tampa. Canucks scored first thanks to Quinn Hughes, eventually fell behind 2-1, tied it up in the third,

but then Jake Gensel scored late on the power play after a too-many-men call in a pivotal situation to give Tampa the lead for good. Yeah, two odd, weird games that sort of represent the Canucks' season to date. Against Columbus, they won, which, you know, as you mentioned, is good. But their start was so dreadful that it's impossible

to ignore how badly they got dominated by a not-very-good team playing its second of a back-to-back. You know, if you tuned into that game late and you looked at the shot clock in the first period, you'd be like, what were the shots like 16-2 at one point? 17-2, I think. 17-2.

This is Columbus. And, you know, I realized that Columbus was playing on their second of a back-to-back. So sometimes what happens in those situations is actually the team that played the night before still has their legs and they still have their instincts. They just played, so they can sometimes get off to a good start. While the Canucks, they're coming back from a long road trip.

Sometimes that team is a little sleepy in their first home game, but there's a limit to that. There's a limit to that, right? Like there's a limit to that excuse, and it just got so bad. But, hey, you know what? Good on the Canucks for finding a way back into that game. Elvis Merzlikens helped them with a poor decision, and then, you know, their talent showed off, and they won. They won the game.

So that's good. Against Tampa Bay, they started fine, but their lull came in the second when they got into penalty trouble and were outscored 2-1 while getting outshot and they were outshot 18-5. They did find a way to tie it in the third when Tyler Myers, of all people, was behind Tampa Bay Nets for some reason and fed Sherwood out in front of the net, and Sherwood scored. So once again, they found a way to stay in a game despite missing a number of key players,

and they were playing a really good team in Tampa Bay. But as you mentioned, too many men. They killed them late in the third. I cannot imagine a more frustrating way for Rick Tockett to lose the game, especially considering all that he harps on line changes. And there was a miscommunication. And, you know, those things do happen once in a while. But, oh, that was a bad time for it to happen.

Against that power play. Yeah, the Lightning took the lead on the power play, and that was pretty much it. But here's Rick Tockett afterwards talking about the Lightning's top players were the ones that got it done for them on special teams. Yeah, I liked our five-on-five play. Special teams won the game for them, and they're best players. But I thought five-on-five, we were fine.

Just obviously unfortunate. Can't have that too many men. And then that's it. The Kucherov show, there you go. So that's the way then that's it. They, the, you know, the Kucherov show and you know, there you go. So that's the way I look at it. So still no JT Miller for the Canucks. We'll wait and see on that.

We thought that Thatcher Demko might start one of these games against Columbus or even Tampa Bay. Didn't happen. He did back up Kevin Lankanen. So now we look ahead to Tuesday against the St. Louis Blues at Rogers Arena. So the Canucks are definitely still in it in terms of missing key players.

But I did some crowdsourcing on social media after Sunday's game. Because I have to be honest, I don't have a good handle on the Canucks this season. There are some seasons where I'm like, yeah, I know what's going on with the Canucks. I know what they're good at. I know where they're struggling a little bit. But I think this year has just been so, I don't know if weird is the right way to put it, but there have been some unusual storylines that we've gone over numerous times

from Thatcher Demko's rare injury. Unique. The poplatias, which we all learned about. You know, JT Miller's absence. I thought Petey's slump early in the season was a bit odd. Um, you know, and his slump last season was a little bit odd. Did you mention that on air at any point? I've noticed, but hey, you know what? I haven't been able to talk about Petey much, but I might talk a little bit more today about him.

Um, you know, not to mention things like're great record on the road versus they're not so great record at home i i i don't get that i don't know what's going on there i don't know if that's just a coincidence or there's something concrete there's a concrete reason for that but i wanted to ask the listeners that like what's what do you make of this team and i thought i'd go some through some of the themes with you um and i'll run them by you and see what you think about them so the first theme is actually one that i agree with it might be the one that i agree with the most the canucks should be commended for building a 14-8-4 record given all they've been through from Demko to Dakota Joshua to Miller to Hronik. That's a massive absence for them.

They are grinding for results right now, and that's all you can ask of them. What do you think of that overall theme i think that's totally fair and i'll just give you a little preview here because i i can see some of the ones that are coming and even look like the contradictory ones i agree with almost all of the things that the listeners pointed out and i think that encapsulates what a weird season it is right that you can agree with seemingly totally contradictory or like in opposition things and points about the Canucks. But yeah, the point that look, okay, they're, they're still, it's not as if they're out

of the playoffs, their top three in their division, right? They're solidly there. The playoffs are not at risk at this moment because of the record at all. Maybe you can say, okay, because of the process, you're a little concerned about it. But I even look at that game yesterday, right? And if you had said in august what do the canucks look like without jt miller or philip pronick in the lineup it's like well they're probably going to struggle that's probably not going to be pretty and it's like that was the

case last uh yesterday right so when you consider all of the absences have we seen good versions of jt miller and elias petterson in the lineup at the same time this year? I don't know that we have, right? So maybe one or two games. So yeah, that's really, really challenging circumstances. So I think there's a lot of truth to the idea that, hey, it could be a lot worse than what it is right now. Here's another theme that came up. The Canucks cannot beat good teams. Their schedule has been, for the most part, quite soft in terms of the opposition. And if you're looking at teams that are likely to make the playoffs, the Canucks have probably lost to them this season. Yeah, I think the only one that you can really hang your hat on is beating the Kings on the road. Was that their best win of the season?

Kind of got to be, I think. The Kings are on a five game winning streak right now so they look like pretty much sure things for the playoffs so you can say that's a win over a playoff team but like in California trip might have been their high point of the season in terms of performance in a win the other one that stands out to me is the Ottawa game before it got away from them late but like Ottawa's not that good so yeah okay well that was the game they were missing guys and then they lost Hughes from for of it. That was impressive. That was a fun game, too. Yes. But you're right. Ottawa's not a good team, so it doesn't really address

the fact that the Canucks can't beat good teams. Are the Canucks elite? Would you say? No! No? No? You'd say no? Even with all their injuries? Say everybody's back. They got their full roster. Are the Canucks, as it stands right now, elite?

Let me see that. Yeah. It depends a lot on how those guys are performing when they're back. Cause you can get that to go back, but if he's not playing like an elite goalie, right? How do you define elite? Well,

hanging with the very best teams in the league, as you said, they struggle against, well, you got to do more than hang, right? You got to, you got to beat them soundly.

To be elite. For me, elite means like you got a chance to win the Stanley Cup. Yes. So I don't even know. Which they did last year. They were one of the best teams in the league last year. But did you ever think they could win the Stanley Cup?

Yeah. Oh, okay. I didn't. Okay. General optimist. I just, you know, yeah. But listen, it's a debate you could have. I just you know yeah but listen it's a debate

you could have I have time for that they were one win away from getting to the semifinals so obviously

they had a chance to win the Stanley Cup but I just I never thought they just they never struck me as like wow

these guys are dominant like they could like 2011 dominant yeah 2011 like I remember thinking about 2011 like, these guys are dominant. Like, they could have. Like 2011 dominant. Yeah, 2011. Yeah. Like, I remember thinking about 2011. Like, wow, these guys are really, really, really good.

These guys do everything well. I guess I just never quite got to that point last season. Although last season was awesome and very fun. And it did make me wonder, you know, like, oh, my God. Like, maybe they'll do something. But I just never really felt it in my bones. At any rate, here's another theme. And I don't know whether you take this as a good or a bad.

Maybe it's a mixed thing. Without Quinn Hughes, they would be totally screwed. The contrast when he was out of the game, and I mean the four-minute power play was a disaster, just completely flat. And then the long stretch of even strength where he was out of the game and i mean the four minute power play was a disaster just completely flat and then the long stretch of even strength where he was out of the game still yesterday in the first period and nothing was happening right and they showed it on the broadcast and they're really just struggling to break out the puck and they couldn't get anything going and then almost as soon as he came back and he played three quick shifts in quick succession. It was night and day from how it had looked,

even just in like a five or six minute stretch without Quinn Hughes before that. And then he opens the scoring, obviously. So if there was one thing you asked me to say for certain about this Canucks team, it would be that Quinn Hughes is super elite, right? And Quinn Hughes, the people people that we'll get more into this right that the people that are worried that they're going to fall out of a playoff spot my counter to that would be if Quinn Hughes is healthy in the lineup you're never gonna go on for a month where you have like a 300 points percentage or something you know what I mean because you have

Quinn Hughes and he's not going that's just not going to happen when you have a player of his caliber that that if there's one thing we can say for absolute certain about this team it is the greatness of quinn hughes and you're right there's a dark a dark side to that right which is that they are so reliant on him and if he misses any stretch of games it would get ugly in a hurry but obviously it's a tremendously positive thing that you have a player who is like single-handedly capable of winning you games keeping you in games and helping you rack up points even in challenging circumstances um so here's a text that came in to the dunbar lumber text line 650 650 and if you want to text in and have your save feel free to do

so uh metro vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and reno warriors for over 50 years. Visit them on one of their three locations to serve you or online at DunbarLumber.com. Here's a text. The Canucks are like Petey right now. Getting results but cannot dominate anyone. Something always looks off. I agree with that. It's a good text.

And brings us to another theme and again i did some crowdsourcing after the lightning game just to you know see where everyone is on this team right now because it has been an unusual season pd is playing better but he's still not at the level of his contract, and he's still not getting enough shots off. So Pettersson in his last, let's just look at him in December, his last four games, six assists in four games. Pretty good. No goals, five shots.

Yeah. No shots against the Tampa Bay Lightning. And I think we can all recognize that Petey is playing better than he was at the beginning of last season, or sorry, at the beginning of this season, at the end of last season, and in the playoffs. We can all agree. And that's great.

It's great. You got to show some progress. The one word I keep using to describe Pettersson, and it's not a compliment, is deferential. He always seems to want to pass the puck off. And I'm not talking about shoot, shoot, shoot. I'm talking about attack, you know, and you can attack in a number of different ways.

You can attack by a number of different ways you can attack by uh shooting the puck that's one way for sure um you can also attack just by trying to beat a guy and we've seen it a little bit more him trying to take on guys one-on-one but i still see and this really i think shows up on the power play where he's just a guy that you pass it to if he's open, but he's going to pass it back to you. He doesn't even pretend to fake a one-timer. You know, if Ovi's out there, for example, or anyone who's good on the power play, right?

They're setting up to shoot. They're getting their body in position to shoot now it might be that they get the puck they're set up to shoot and they lift their head they're like all right i'm not gonna shoot because i'm just gonna get this blocked but the threat is there with pd it looks like he's just there to accept a pass and then he's going to give it back i mean the canucks power play at times is like let's pass it around on the outside and then quinn will just finally get fed up and it'll just be like all right i'm gonna move my feet at the top i'm gonna open up a shooting lane i'm gonna fire it on that that's our power play yeah right and and

and and and and look it is again i i've been one of Pedersen's loudest critics, and I make no apologies for that, and I'm willing to say that he's been better. I mean, look, he's getting points, right? And that's good. That's important. But I still think he's playing not even close to the level of his contract. And if you say, well, that's the Canucks' fault for giving him that contract, I'm like, come on, you've got to play up to the level of his contract. And if you say, well, that's, you know, it's the Canucks' fault for giving him that contract. I'm like, come on.

You've got to play up to your level. Look at what Rick Totten had said last night after the game, and I think it was probably directed less at Tampa Bay than it was at the Vancouver Canucks. Their top guys came through. Kucherov, point. You need more than one. You can't just be Quinn Hughes doing everything.

Petey is going to start performing at an even higher level than he has in the last little while. Well, and I think that text that said, pointed out the similarities between Pettersson and the team, right? Because, you know, as you're saying, like, look, he's producing, right? And that is commendable. And there's something to be said for a star player getting their points and getting their production, even if they're not at their best.

And I think the shots thing is a really good point, right? That's one of the things that still has to come back for Pedersen. There's a positive side to that, just like there's a positive side to the Canucks continuing to rack up wins and points and results and hang in the playoff race without being at their best. And then the other similarity is, can you point to a signature performance from either the team or alias petterson right because star players they'll go through stretches where yeah they're mostly just

racking up points and they're not necessarily you know putting their stamp on game after game but then they'll have games or they'll have a series of games a week of games or 10 days or whatever where they're dominant where they are you know it's a four point night and a game breaking play to win it in the third period and we've seen that from Elias Pettersson and we have not seen it yet this year he doesn't have a signature game where he's taken it over and done Quinn Hughes type of stuff to help them get a result to help them get a win and it's the same thing with the Canucks right they don't have a signature statement win that we can point to and say, when they're at their best, that's what they look like, and that's why they're going to be an elite team.

We're waiting for those statements from both the team and Elias Pettersson. Obviously, that's related. If Elias Pettersson was putting up those types of performances, there's a good chance the team would be too. So there's a few more themes that we can go through later in the show. Do we have some 32 thoughts audio we do there was some miller discussion on 32 thoughts on the last podcast okay let's hear it they're getting closer to his return and both publicly and privately like jim rutherford has come out

publicly and said we're not trading this guy and he's annoyed at all the speculation he thinks it's wrong sometimes what's said publicly is not the same thing as what's said privately but privately that's what they have indicated to people too they're not trading them Miller has not asked for a trade and I think what Vancouver wants to do is you know Miller, Miller's been out, Demko's been out, although now he's getting close to starting. Forbert's been out, and I know they like Forbert a lot. I think they want to see their team with everybody back. A, they want to see how is Miller doing after everything here, and what does our team look like on the ice and then I think

they'll start making their decisions on where they're going and what everything looks like they just want to play they want to play they they lost to Tampa they had a bit of a tough loss on Sunday too their record has been really good against non-playoff teams, not so great against playoff teams, but all you can do is beat who's on your schedule. And I think they look at it as we've kept our heads above water through a lot of craziness, and now we're going to see what we look like with everybody back.

So four games remaining on this homestand and some interesting teams coming in. St. Louis, which made a coaching change, is on Tuesday. Florida, the defending Stanley Cups, Cup champs on Thursday. Saturday is a visit from the Boston Bruins. And then Monday, next Monday, a week from today,

is the Colorado Avalanche. And their highly talented players and highly suspect goaltending is coming to town. So those are going to be four interesting games. We'll see if Demko starts any of them. We'll see if JT Miller is back. We'll see if Derek Forbort gets back into the lineup. We've got a lot to discuss on a Monday on the Halford & Brough show.

I am in, Jason Brough. Jamie Dodd is filling in for Mike Halford. Adnan Virk is going to join us next. We'll talk a little bit about the big Juan Soto signing. We might have a little hockey talk too because the New York Rangers had a very interesting weekend. Lots of stuff happened with them, including the trading of their captain, Jacob Truba.

Mike Tanier is going to join us at 7 o'clock. We haven't even mentioned the Seattle Seahawks, who had a very impressive win over Arizona. The Hawks have now won four in a row. I did not expect this when they went into their bye week, not playing well. But now they are favored, dare I say, to win the NFC West, and they are playing some good football.

Offense looked good. Defense looked good. Offensive line looked good. Whew, that's encouraging. Charbonnet actually had holes to run through, which is rare for the Seahawks. So that's a good sign for the Seahawks. Lots of sports talk to come up on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. Gonna talk some hockey. And take a trip to the silver screen. That's right, it's time for an end. Yes, and then Berkey joins us now. We'll head out to the ice rink. And talk about all the films he's seen.

All right, welcome back to Halford Abrupt here, Sportsnet 650. I'm Jamie Dodd filling in for Halford. Half an Abrupt brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. 1170 Powell Street. Also brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today.

Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. 650-650, that's the Dunbar Lumber text line. Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and reno warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at DunbarLumber.com. Keep sending your thoughts in. But right now, as you heard uh it's our pleasure to chat

with adnan virk from mlb and nhl network host of amazon prime monday night hockey uh adnan how's it going i'm doing great jamie jason uh i'm here at a hotel in dallas for the winter meetings and the rumors were all last week that juan soto was going to sign last week thank god he didn't wait until we all landed so thank you to ju Juan Soto and Scott Boris. MLB Network was live at 9.30 Eastern as the whole baseball world was abuzz with this gigantic, gigantic deal. We'll get to the baseball and hockey

in just a second, but just as an aside, thank God I still love that jingle that Andy has done for me. There's nothing worse being, I find particularly in the deep south in America around Christmas time, last year the Winter Meet meetings were in Nashville. Just omnipresent caroling and extensive decorations. It's about as gaudy as it gets.

So please get me the hell out of Texas when you can. Well, Juan Soto can afford some gaudy decorations now. He can afford about a thousand different houses, in fact. Crazy big contract. I always bring it back because i am old now i'm like i remember dave winfield signing a 20 million dollar contract like there will never be a bigger contract than that 20 20 million dollars and now we're talking about contracts that are nearing a billion dollars in total money. Just your thoughts on him choosing the Mets over the Yankees. I don't know if he actually seriously considered the Blue Jays,

but the Blue Jays did not get him. Steve Cohen and the Mets did. Yeah, all along, Jay, I thought it was going to be either the Mets or the Yankees, and I never really moved off that. There was a late push from the Red Sox, which I did take seriously, although I have a dear friend, Mark Askin, our producer on Prime Monday Night Hockey, who's a gigantic Red Sox fan. And he's, like, texting me breathlessly saying,

oh, David Ortiz says he's going to the Red Sox. I'm like, well, that's like if I said Derek Jeter says he's going to the Yankees or Mike Piazza says he's going to the Mets. I'm like, you know, I like David Ortiz, but I don't think exactly he's John Heyman or Joel Sherman or Tom Perduccio I just saw in the gym. So I think most of the baseball world knew the Jays were the longest of shots because, as I said to you guys all along, why Toronto? Like, you've got to give me something else better those other places don't have.

So the most money to me was always the Mets, and I always said, this guy's a mercenary. He's already won his World Series. He's never won an MVP, but, like, he wants to know where the money is. I'll never forget, guys. After the World Series, we're talking minutes afterwards, when Soto has asked about his pending free agency, I think the majority of players would have said,

hey, guys, not now. Like, we just lost the World Series, and I love being an A.K. I love Aaron Judge and Aaron Boone. We'll get to that another time, but that's not where my head's at. He said, hey, I'm open for business. Get Scott a call, and yeah, I look forward to it. He's all but the money, which is fine, by the way. I have no issue

with that. He's earned it. He's an incredible player and he wants to go where he's going to get paid. So to me it was always the Mets. Now I thought the Yankees, again, you get this hysterical Yankee arrogance slash bias, where I hear these Yankees fans are like, wow, he just wants to be a Yankee. I go, no, he doesn't. He doesn't care.

The pinstripes are not worth money. Unless the pinstripes are worth $15 million, he's not going to go there if the Mets give him more money. Now, before I make him sound completely selfish, I just read one of the New York Post articles about it, and I do think this was important, the way that Steve Cohen blinded and dined him. You know, most of the teams that met with him, you know,

they went there and had their little entourage. Steve brought him to his mansion in Beverly Hills. Like, he has apparently a giant theater, and he brought Soto and hisined him. You know, most of the teams that met with him, you know, they went there and had their little entourage. Steve Brown to his mansion in Beverly Hills, like he has apparently a giant theater, and he brought Soto and his entourage. And there was apparently a story that Juan was upset early on in his Yankees tenure. An overzealous security guard restricted some members of his family,

his chef, his slash driver, et cetera. Now, eventually the Yankees apologized, Juan forgave them, et cetera. But apparently part of the pitch was like, Steve called and was like, hey, this is a family affair. Like, you can go call Francisco Lind apologized, Juan forgave them, et cetera. But apparently part of the pitch was like, Steve Cole's like, hey, this is a family affair. Like you can go call

Francisco Lindori and call Pete Alonso. You can find out how we treat our star players. I didn't make 18 billion by not having good social skills and I treat the best people the best.

So I think it doesn't, is it coming to the money? Of course it does. And by the way, Jay, it blows me out of the water. Like all along, we all remember

he turned down 15, 440 from the Nationals. And then it was a little bit of an underwhelming spot with the Padres. I remember people saying, well, you ain't going to get 440 now. No, no, he got another 325 on top of that. Like that's just stunning to me. And I remember telling you before the playoffs saying John Heyman had pulled 14 different baseball executives. And the cumulative was 14 for 560. The lowest was 10,500. The highest

was 12 for 660. That was pre-playoffs. He had a great postseason and added another $100 million to the bill. $51 million a year for Soto. And last thing I'll say, of course, I could go 20 minutes on this. He's an incredible player. To be clear, he might be the best hitter in baseball, but he is a bad defensive outfielder, gold glove finalist

be damned. He is a bad base runner and he's 26. Like in five years, he's going to be a DH. I wouldn't do it. To be clear, if I was the Yankees, the Blue Jays, and they said, do you want Soto for $765,000 or you can spend $600,000 elsewhere? I'll spend the $600,000 elsewhere. I'll go get

Corbin Burns, Max Reed, Anthony Santander and away you go. I find the other interesting part of this is, okay, it's great that the Mets got him, but for the Yankees to lose the number one free agent on the market, who ends up signing the biggest contract in professional sports history, not just losing him, but he goes to the Mets. And, you know, I mean, when I was in high school, like late 90s, early 2000s,

there was a big free agent on the market. It's like, well, they're going to the Yankees. There's not a lot of mystery here. The Yankees are going to get the guy if they decide they want the guy. That's how it always worked. It's just, it's remarkable to see how much that has changed. Is this the kind of thing that can seriously even damage the Yankees brand in New York, losing this player to the Mets specifically?

It certainly hurts a little bit. The Yankee brand is as strong as it gets, Jamie. 27 World Series, anywhere you go, anywhere in the world, you see the Yankees sat, it's iconic. But absolutely, there's something to be said for the fact, as you said, he was the number one guy. He was your guy. He was a great Yankee.

In one season, he put up tremendous numbers. The best offensive season in his career. 41 home runs, massive home run in the playoffs, played well the entire way. And you can afford him. You're the Yankees. You can afford everybody. You have money.

And yet he goes to the crosstown rival? And what's crazy is Bob Nightingale of USA Today reported the Yankees offer was 16 for 760. So think about that. They're offering one more year, so a lower AAV, average annual value, and it was a difference of $5 million. That's wild to me. I would have thought the Yankees' final offer was, I don't know, $650? They're like, we're not going to go above that.

And Steve Cohen's like, I'll blow it out of the water. $100 million plus, we're good to go. Thanks. But the fact that it was that much more painful for the Yankees, we got really close. Like when Brian Cashman got the call from Scott Boris, said, hey man, we're all the Mets. Okay, how much did they beat us by? Five million in one year.

What? That's the part that I found incredulous. It's one thing for the Yankees to get beat if they truly felt like, again, the money could be spent elsewhere. I think it could. I think Willie Adamas would have been great with the Yankees, and he just signed with the Giants on Saturday, so that would have been great for the Yankees. It's probably signed with the Giants on Saturday, so that would have been great for the X.

From a shortstop, you move Volpe to second base, and Jass is in the third. But regardless, does it hurt the brand? Absolutely. There's a ton of Mets fans in the MLB Network. These guys are jubilant. They beat the Yankees at their own game. They outspent them.

They got what everybody wanted. Look at that offense now. Are you kidding? When you start to put together Lindor, Soto, Vientos, if Alonzo comes back, the Mets were a playoff team last year. They're clearly going to be fighting for the division now. It's great. You mentioned the

Jays. You always saw them as the longest of long shots, and I'm a Jays fan, but after the Shohei Otani debacle last offseason, there was not a single second where I thought Juan Soto was going to the Jays this offseason, but obviously, you know, they tried. They made their pitch.

Where do the Jays go from here now? Yeah, I'm completely with you, Jim. I was like once bitten, twice shy. Do I think they made an offer? Yeah. Do I think Scott Boris had a conversation with them? Of course he did. Did Juan meet with them? But I'm like, Scott knows the way the game is played, man. There's no reason he's not the biggest and best agent in the game.

The more offers, the more you drive up the price. And the only way the Jays were going to get him was to outbid him. Again, if you go by the pedigree of winning, I'm going to go Yankees or Dodgers. And my understanding is the Dodgers were involved, but a lot of deferred money. That was one of my favorite parts when I saw the contract. It was like, no deferred money. I'm like, nope. I'm getting my $51 million a year now.

Every two weeks, I'm getting that check for a million bucks. I'm like, yep. That's how Juan Soto wants it done, and that's how Steve Cole wants it done. But if you want to win, you go Dodgers, or Yankees, who made the World Series last year, or Mets. Mets obviously made the playoffs as well, had a nice low run, beat the Brewers. The Jays didn't make the playoffs. You'd have to really buy big on

oh, you can own Canada and play with Vlad and Bo for a year, but then they might leave. Wait, wait, wait, Tony issues. So what does it mean for Toronto? Please spend the money elsewhere and please still be generous and yet judicious. Like to go from Otani to Justin Turner and Isaiah Conner-Falefa is like walking off a cliff. That's a really tough pill to swallow for Jays fans.

But if you tell me this year, hey, our offer to Soto was for a 660. You didn't go. Now that doesn't mean I have to spend $600 million. I understand how that goes. But we're going to give $200 million for eight years to Anthony Santander. And he's a great power hitter who had 44 home runs last year. And that will immeasurably help our offense, which needs power. And we're going to weaken a rival in the Baltimore Orioles.

How does that sound? And we're going to go get Max free. Well, I think it's available for, I would say, $160 million over six, seven years. So he's an excellent starting pitcher, and that fills the void you have from no left-hander because you say Kikuchi's now in the Astros, and all of a sudden you're putting out there Barrios and Freed and Gossman and feeling better about your rotation. So you could make two major impact guys right there.

And do you want power? Again, Pete Alonzo. Now, Pete's more of a first baseman in the age. Obviously, Vlad's already there, but if you don't? Again, Pete Alonso. Now, Pete's more first baseman DH. Obviously, Vlad's already there, but if you don't think you can get Vlad, et cetera. Which brings by, by the way,

the biggest question in the room, the alpha in the room is signing Vlad. Because I've said all along, I kept looking at that Devers deal, which is 10 for 3, 13.5.

Because to me, Devers and Vlad, similar players, you know, cornerstone players, youngish, mid-20s, ton of power, doubles, et cetera.

I think Vlad eclipses it, especially now. After this, I would have told you guys a week ago, I think the Jays could have signed him for 10 for 325 for Vlad. Now, whether or not that's too rich for their blood is their decision, but he's the best first baseman in baseball this past year, and he's going to get that money. After the Soto trade? Are you kidding? Vlad's going to get $400 million if the Jays don't sign him.

There's no question in my mind. He's going to get $400 million if he's not signing the subsidy. There's no question in my mind he's going to get $400 million next year. So I hope they take care of business, whether it's re-signing Vlad or signing Freed or signing Santander or Pete Alonso, they got to get to work.

Let's talk a little bit of hockey. The prime game tonight is Anaheim at Montreal, which is, look, let's be honest, that's not an elite matchup, but, but, Adnan, there is an interesting aspect to this game, and that is Jacob Truba has joined the Anaheim Ducks in Montreal. The Ducks are off on a four-game road trip. What did you think of everything that went on this weekend with the another new york team the new

york rangers i never want to miss the prime games but you're right jay we kind of lucked out here at ducks have so i'm in dallas anyways i'll be back for panthers oilers can't wait for the cup rematch in edmonton next week but i was on hl network last week and we were talking to uh alan staple who's a writer for newsday so he covers the rangers extensively and i was you know we're going through new york and i just said, like, what has happened? How do you go from President's Trophy to, like, a real disappointment? Arguably the biggest disappointment right now in the sport. And he said, listen, it's unfair to put it all on the goalie.

Like, Cisnerk has been good, but not great. But really, Kreider has been a disappointment. Zibanez has been a disappointment. And then, of course, Truba. And I said, this is now the fourth straight Ranger captain who has been jettisoned. Like, the last guy that actually just retired as a Ranger captain, it wasn't like, sorry, he didn't retire, he moved on, was Jaromir Jagr. But like these other guys, Chris Drury gets his contract bought out.

Like, the other two were traded unceremoniously. Like, what is it about the captaincy with the Rangers that eventually these guys are worth their welcome? And with Truba, he's got one year left, 8-9. That's significant in terms of he's not worth the dollars, but the good news is he comes off of it relatively soon. And I still think he's a good defense.

Obviously, he had a good season and needed a change of scenery. Now, they didn't get much of a return for him, I don't believe. But for Anaheim, you go, okay, this guy now has a chip on his shoulder. Things were not working out in New York. You go to Anaheim, rebuilding team, blah, blah, blah. Turn things around a little bit. And it kind of is the first salvo for Chris Drury and the Rangers

to say, hey, we're not messing around here. We will deal captains and guys who you feel like integral members. Next up, Chris Crider. Will they actually trade him? Could Zibanejad be dealt? I think it's that first sign to the New York Rangers that clearly they're underwhelming, underachieving, and disappointed in themselves.

And more changes could come. Peter Laviolette, Hotsy, all the rest of it. So, yeah, I'm curious to see how Trouba fares with the Ducks. Nothing will fire up a player more than being discarded by one. And he didn't want to leave from New York because his wife has a residency there. She's in the medical field in New York. So sometimes people say, well, why wouldn't you want to leave? I'm like, well, because, you know, there are families and other considerations.

But, yeah, Trouba the Ducks. We'll see who he there are families and other considerations. But, yeah, trip of the ducks. We'll see if he fares against the Habs tonight. Adnan, really appreciate the time. Try not to let the decorations and the caroling get you too much down in Texas. Oh, it's nauseating, but I'll do my best to drown it out. I did feel the after

shock to that Juan Soto sign, so I thought we had an earthquake here in Texas. Thanks, Adnan. See you, buddy. All right. Thanks, boys. Take care. That is Adnan Virk from MLB Network, NHL Network, and of course, Amazon Prime Hockey as well. Let's go through a few more of these Canucks themes.

And if you're just joining us, last night or yesterday after the Canucks lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, I went on social media and I tried to get your thoughts on the Vancouver Canucks and the season to date. And I didn't say, what's your biggest concern? I didn't say, what are you most worried about?

I said, just give me your thoughts. It can be negative. It can be positive. What do you think about this season to date? With the underpinning theme for me being this has been a weird season and a lot of unusual stuff has happened and the team is inconsistent but maybe they have a right to be inconsistent considering all the things that have happened to them I want to talk about Rick Talkett because Tockett came up a lot in the replies

and one of the themes was the Tockett magic from last year seems to have worn off. They don't seem to be playing with the same structure or confidence in the system, adherence to the system. And on top of that, they're still not generating enough scoring chances. And one of the ideas coming into the season was that they needed to generate more scoring chances. And we heard a lot about we need to generate more off the rush, etc., etc. And to a lot of people that were replying yesterday it sort of feels offensively at least a bit the same in that the Canucks a typical shift at five on five might be okay they've gained the zone they've got the puck well let's just put it back to the point and the point can

fire one on net thoughts on that so, specifically on the rush side of things, doesn't it feel like Taki gets a pass on this because of all the injuries and the absences? Like, hasn't that taken a backseat to you? And instead it's just been like, we got to find a way to get points. We don't have the luxury of kind of working on this advanced level stuff right now

because we just got to deal with the players we have missing in all of this, all of this adversity, and figure out a way to get points and who starts the rush that's the thing the defense so i'm not like of course you would love to see them have successfully evolved their offensive game plan and all of this yeah that would be great but i don't think it's talk it's fault that they haven't been able to i think there's been circumstances out of his control and then as you, personnel issues on the back end, even when

Philip Ronick is healthy and in the lineup, pinning whatever you think is wrong with the Canucks on Rick Talkett. This is one of the things that came up a lot that I don't have

time for. Like the idea that, oh, he doesn't have the same touch as he did last year or they're not playing his system or anything like that. I think he's still doing

a great job in really tough circumstances. And if you look at, you know, the number of shots. He think he's still doing a great job in really tough circumstances. And if you look at, you know, the number of shots. He's also had a bunch of young players in the lineup. Absolutely. Very little NHL experience that he's had to put into the lineup. If you look at things, you know, like the scoring chances against, shots against, expected goals on, like, the ones that natural stat trick tracks,

they're really good. They're just as good, those numbers, as they were when the Canucks were an elite defensive team for the second half of last season. Now, the penalty kill has let them down, especially recently, right? And that's fair. And they lost Ian Cole and Zdorov and Lindholm, who were big parts of the penalty kill. But I think the system, I think, is still in place.

It's just we were wanting to see that next evolution where they were not just a really good defensive team but also a more dangerous offensive team and that hasn't happened but i'm not putting on talk it that it hasn't happened yet it like you'd have to be i don't know what coach would have taken this season so far and successfully developed them into a much more elite offensive team. Here's another thing that came up. It's good that they're going through this adversity now.

Last year, they peaked too early. So I've got a bit of an issue with this because the assumption that you only have adversity in one point of the season, I don't necessarily agree with, right? Like I'm hopeful that they can get the full lineup back. And that, if you listen to the 32 thoughts clip that we played earlier in the season, that apparently is what the Canucks are hoping to get soon. And they want to see the team at full strength. And let's be honest,

their team hasn't been at full strength at all this season. There have been key absences right from the start. Demko, and you can say, well, Lankan had played fine. Okay, fair enough. They were missing Dakota Joshua earlier in the season,

and he's had to play his way back into form I don't know if he's quite there yet but you know I think he'll get there um and now they're without uh Hronik and they're without JT Miller now they might not wait as long as it takes to get Hronik back in the lineup because that's going to be a couple months But I think everyone's expecting JT Miller to return to the lineup soon. And I think Thatcher Demko is going to start a game soon. Maybe even Tuesday against the St. Louis Blues. We'll see about that. But this idea that because they're going to go through the adversity now,

they won't face any in the end of the season is i think wrongheaded like i i don't think i don't agree with that but i guess i have time for we're seeing how they're dealing with adversity now and maybe that could pay off later in the season but the idea that you know there's there's so much adversity that you go through in a season. So you've spent it all. Get out of the way. I don't really agree with that. No, it can always get worse.

There can always be more adversity. I mean, that is actually the slogan for the Vancouver Canucks. Yeah, exactly. It can always get worse. It can always get worse. Yeah. So I don't really buy this one either. I mean, it all depends on what happens down the stretch and at the trade deadline.

And if they do go out and add that defenseman and you know if they're clicking in february and march and april going into the playoffs and they look like a much better team you know i guess there will be people that point back to this and say like wow they learn from this adversity and i don't know but it will be that as much as they got healthy and made a trade right like that to me that's what's going to change this team's performance is having all their guys in the lineup and going out and adding at least one defenseman it's not the fact that they're struggling right now that that might be a narrative that we talk about but i don't think that's going to cause them to play better in march and april i mean i think

in the back of everyone's mind you're imagining what the Canucks would be like if they were fully healthy, plus they're able to make a trade for a defenseman. Let's just think about that for a second. Miller and Besser together, Petey and DeBrus together, Garland and Joshua together. So in theory, you could really, really like those top three lines. And the fourth line might not be bad either. Plus, maybe you might have Lekker Mackey in the lineup as he continues to develop. He's gone down to the AHL and scored a bunch of goals.

That's good. On the blue line, and we're talking about getting into March and April here, Hughes and Hronik together, plus maybe you've added a defenseman. I think they're going to add a defenseman at some point. The question is, how big an impact is that defenseman going to make? But let's say they add another legit, let's just say, they add another legit top four guy. Three top four defensemen isn't four, but you can get away with it. There's a lot of teams that don't have four top four defensemen isn't four,

but you can get away with it. Right? Like you can get away with it. There's a lot of teams that don't have four top four defensemen. Yeah, there's a lot of teams. The Chicago Blackhawks

won the Stanley Cup once with, they played the wheels off of Duncan Keith, Seabrook, and Jolmerson. Yeah. And the other three guys barely saw the ice. Okay?

And they won the Stanley Cup. And then you get to the goaltending and Thatcher Demko returns and what if he's able to stay healthy and what if Cup and then you get to the goaltending and Thatcher Demko returns and what if he's able to stay healthy and what if he's able to return to the level now what are the odds of all this happening yes maybe low but it's out there right it's not it's not like previous seasons when you would think well what if the Canucks got back to full strength? It'd still be not very good, right? Any individual of the things you listed,

like, yeah, if you stack them all up as a parlay, like, I don't know what the odds are, but it's not, because there's been years past where it's like, what if Pod Colson's a 30-goal scorer this year? You know what I mean? It's like, well, that's not happening, but none of the things you listed are in that round. I see big things ahead for Granlund. What if this guy takes a massive jump? It's like, well, that's not happening. But none of the things you listed are in that round. I see big things ahead for Granland.

What if this guy takes a massive jump? It's like, well, he's definitely not. It's not like we're saying, what if Atu Ratu becomes a second-line center this year? What if they all play to their level? What if they're all healthy and they all play to their level? And they make a trade, which we know this management group loves to do. None of those things are individually outlandish. So I don't know what the odds that they all come off are, which we know this management group loves to do. None of those things are individually outlandish, right?

So I don't know what the odds that they all come off are, but there's at least a path to all of a sudden in March or April looking at this team and they look a lot better than they do right now. Okay, we'll take a break here. Keep your thoughts coming in. 650-650 to the Dunbar-Lumber text line. We'll talk some NFL. Mike Tanner, NFL insider, joins us next here.

Halford and Brough, Sportsnet 650.