Halford & Brough in the Morning - Boo-Yah For Buium

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, including a big Canucks win yesterday which was the first in the post-Quinn Hughes era (3:00), plus they talk more about the Hughes trade and the pieces the 'Nucks got in return (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.

Whoa. Wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose a fucking Canucks? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Garland to the brush side of the goal goes back. He had to four-hand stop by March Street, but he scores on his own rebound. It's just a really different feeling that I guess you will call it the noise. What you said is gone. Kick is away.

The fans just told you. Jason Myers with his sixth field ball of the day. And boom goes to dynamite. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Bradford. It is Brought at his Sports Net 650.

We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios. and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Ada, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.

Halford and Bruff, in the morning is bratsy by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to 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.

Visit them at 1170, Paul. Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio. Now is the time to maximize the benefits of custom orthotics before the year runs out. Visit kintech.com. My, oh my, what a weekend. So profound that we had to come in here on a Friday night. Friday night. Yeah, just to break down the Quinn Hughes trade. I'd be curious to know where everyone was when they found out that Quinn Hughes had been traded. Where were you offered? I was in the kitchen eating hummus and crackers over the sink. Oh, okay. Yeah. Dog? Hey, Doug, where were you?

In the shower? You were in the shower? Yeah. And you had your phone in there or something? All that can be over is, oh, my God. What about you, Lattie? I can just woke up from a nap or something. I don't even remember.

Yeah, I was at an elementary school play. That's right. Beauty and the Beast. Did you fall to your knees at an elementary school play when you heard the news? No, I was like, I was like, hmm. Okay. Why is my phone going off every 11 seconds? Yeah, I was like, first of all, I shouldn't be checking my phone during the elementary

school play, but I did once, and I'm like, I don't have a, I don't have like a beep or a buzz or anything that goes off. So I just kind of opened up my phone. I was like, oh, my God, something is happening. I'm going to drop an F-bomb in the audience. So despite the fact that we did a show on Friday night, going two hours on the Quinn Hughes trade, we still have a lot to get into on the program today,

a ton to cover from the weekend. We do have a guest list as well. It is the Duick Morning Drive brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 7 o'clock. Mike Tanier is going to be our first guest. Our first guest will be an NFL guest. It was a very eventful and very newsworthy Sunday in the NFL. We'll go through the Seahawks gutty win over Philip Rivers and the Colts yesterday

and an absolutely awful day for the Kansas City Chiefs. All that and more with Mike at 7 o'clock. 7.30, Gary Mason is going to join the program, columnist from the Globe and Mail. I assume now that any time the Canucks make a major trade of significance, it has to be preceded by a Gary Mason article. Those are the rules. I don't make them up.

That's just what happens. Every time he writes an article. on the Canucks is like, oh God, who's out next? It's like a, it's a bell, basically. Like, you know what the trade is coming. They have rung the Gary Mason bell. Gary's going to join us. Gary Mason Bell.

That's it. Gary's going to join us at 7.30 to talk about Friday's massive Quinn Hughes trade and the aftermath. That's coming up at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Satyar Shah is going to join the program. Canucks talk host, Canucks pre and post game host right here on SportsNet 650. A lot of Hughes talk, obviously, was sat. But we'll also go through some of the new guys on the.

team who helped the Canucks beat the Devils 2-1 yesterday in New Jersey in a matinee affair. Sat's going to join us at 8 a.m. for some Canucks talk. More giveaways this week on the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Starting with every day this week, a $250 gift card to Golf Town. Holidays are right around the corner and Golf Town is the perfect gifting destination for the golfer in your life. Caller number five at 730 this morning, 604-280-0-650. Speaking of calling in, It is the penultimate day, the second to last day, of Halford & Brough's 12 days of Christmas. We will do giveaways today and tomorrow. By the way, on Friday, we forgot to mention it.

We gave away a signed Trevor Lyndon jersey, a real Vancouver captain and a real Vancouver captain's jersey. We gave away. Wow. There's going to be some slander today, just so everyone. We're already here, eh? This is how we move on. You are dead to me. This is how we move.

We did the night of morning. That was Friday. That was Friday. Halford and I are bad breaker uppers. As soon as he scored that going like, I now hate this man. Yeah, Friday morning is always followed by Pettiness Monday, which is about what you're going to experience on this show. Anyway, we give away a sign Trevor Lyndon, Jersey, courtesy of our friends of pastime sports and games on Friday.

Today, again, it's a secret as always. Caller number 5 at 8 a.m. 604-280650. We'll win Halford & Brough's 12 days of Christmas. Okay, there's a big rundown. It's the morning drive brought to you by the Duac Auto Group. We got a lot more to get into. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? 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 them online at BC, CSA. dot CA. We will start with the actual game on Sunday because of course it was the first game that the Vancouver Canucks played since

the Quinn Hughes trade and it was the new guy Zeeve Bouillon and his first game is a Vancouver Canock goal and an assist. Thatcher Demco 25 saves on 26 shots facing the Canucks 1 in the post Quinn Hughes era with a 2-1 win over the New Jersey Devils on Sunday. Yeah, no Hughes, no Pedersen

no problem. Pedy was out again He's on retroactive IR. It wasn't a dominant performance by any means. The Kinect kind of jumped on a New Jersey team that has apparently had a habit of bad starts. But they held on. And it was nice to watch a team that didn't appear morbidly depressed. There was some, there was a different feel to it. And I think the head coach Adam Foote afterwards said so.

He said the story was starting to affect the team. team. And how couldn't it? Do we have any audio from the game? It was a, it was a, it was, honestly, like, okay, so I know that a lot of people think, and this is probably true, I probably agree that the best thing for the Canucks is to lose a lot of games down the stretch. But yesterday I found myself cheering for the Canucks way more than I for most of this season just because of the guys that were out there? I think yesterday was one of those games where you're rooting for the team

and you're rooting for the guys and you're hoping even though big picture it might be more beneficial to lose as many games as possible that meant something. Now I'm not exactly sure what. I know I'm on the radio and I talk for a living and I should have a word to describe it, but I'm not sure exactly what it was.

But in its individual component parts it was definitely important for the three guys making their debut to get off on the right foot and have a good start. Zeev Boullium certainly did. Yeah, right. Buoyam, two shots on goal in just under 20 minutes of ice time. So no Quinn Hughes 30 minutes for him yet. Yeah. I say yet. I thought Rossi

had some moments as well. Rossi played 1816 as sort of going in as not even the de facto but just the one C. You know what I was. You know what I was. You know what I hope he is a bit like is Zuccarello. I've always liked Zuccarello and hopefully he can be that creative type of player if you go back to his junior stats

he played for I think the 67 6-7 in Ottawa and and he had 120 points one season and the next the second highest score had 90 so he was clearly the guy and which was why he was what ninth overall in the draft he was a high it was a high pick that's that's now on the Canucks and still only 23, I think, or 24. Yep, and the other new guy, Liam Ogre in the grand age of 22, played just under 12 minutes in a very, very complimentary role, as most will be expecting over the next few days. But collectively, I thought there was a certain level of dig in and pushback

and a little bit of defiance from the team, although they were under siege and they only managed to put one shot on goal in the third period. So they still got some of their old characteristics there. We had two great goalies, Thatcher DEMCO and Tyler Myers. Tyler Myers made a really nice save at the end. But you're right, they did dig in, and they were sacrificing, and they were under siege. And without Queen Hughes, I think we're going to see this team under siege a fair amount down the way. Now, we can talk more about what's coming next for the Vancouver Canucks and how the roster looks and whether or not

with a center like Rossi, which is something they've been looking for for a while now once Elias Pedersen comes back and if that's your damn go stays healthy, like is the tank in jeopardy? We can talk about that later. But I do want to go back a little bit and talk a bit about the timeline

around the Quinn Hughes trade because with what's being reported, it all checks out with what we saw on the ice. And I know there were some people that thought, oh, everyone's making too much of a deal about Quinn Hughes's body language and whether or not he was giving up on plays. You know, it was a long shift.

He was tired. But Hughes reportedly... Of being a Canuck. Yeah. Hughes reportedly told the Canucks he wasn't going to resign around U.S. Thanksgiving, which lines up with some of those body language issues that we saw in games against San Jose, which I believe was on the Black Friday.

Yes. And Colorado, which was a few games later. And again, body language. I don't even like the body language. Like for me, calling it body language underplays it. He was giving up on plays. And there are some plays where you're kind of like, yeah, he was tired. And other plays where you're like, man, there's something going on there.

That wasn't normal. You know, that wasn't normal what we saw. And it's why people made a big deal out of it, despite others trying to downplay it. And I actually wonder, the way Hughes went out, does it affect his legacy? see in Vancouver. You're good, Halford, you're good at turning on guys as soon as they leave.

And what do you think about that puck hog being in Minnesota now? Oh, you mean... I'm good at turning on guys too. Are we talking about Quit Hughes? Is that the guy that we're discussing now? Quit Hughes? Okay. Quix. He knows

he used to have a coach Rick Toquit. Yeah. I also want to add that this endeavor, he's made a lot easier by the fact that he now plays for the Minnesota Wild, a team that, quite frankly, I've never liked, and I don't think I ever will. If he had gone to a team with some semblance of likability, this might have been, leave it, even the slightest bit more difficult. Some people were like, does he look good in a Wild Jersey or bad? I think he looks dumb. Yeah. It's a dumb jersey. Boring? Boring? Yeah, yeah. I mean, they look pretty good

against the Bruins. They look fantastic, but we'll ignore that. I mean, I was, as long as I'm doing sports for a living and I understand that there is still a component of this this is supposed to be entertainment and fun when you're with us you're with us and when you're not with us you're against us like that just goes across the board

that is a universal truth right so now that Quinn Hughes is a member of the Minnesota Wilde one of the more unlikable teams in recent memory in the national hockey league and I got a lot of different instances over the past 20 years that I can point to yeah I have no problem

having fun with the quit Hughes moniker and all these sorts of things. Now, I will say this, the events leading up to his trade, I think that those will, over time, as more and more details come for, then we're getting a lot of details and we will get into them in a second here. Once the picture is fully painted, I'm with you. I'm going to be very curious to see what the rest of the fan base's response is. because here's what we know right now. We'll throw to some audio for this,

including Elliot Freibin's 32 thoughts overnight, which had a lot more detail. American Thanksgiving is when he sort of officially told the team, I'm not resigning this summer. And then things move pretty quickly from there. And then as you mentioned, the aforementioned body language issues, right? I think it's the way it's being described

is he didn't exactly ask for a trade, but that's kind of semantics. And I think his play on the ice, frankly at times that was a trade request or the resignation that he knew it was coming and he's like well I'm just going to go out here

and kind of do whatever like there was no one was denied and then just kind of look at my possession stats I had it for four minutes I'm like yeah a lot of guys were open I like to classify it

as wearing the frustration and disappointment on the outside there was no effort to try and internalize it there wasn't and let's go now to Fridge so this is from 32 thoughts This is talking about the timeline, the American Thanksgiving thing, and how quickly things moved after Hughes told the organization right around American Thanksgiving

that he was not going to sign an extension this summer. Elliot Friedman from 32 Thoughts. And I believe that the real true countdown clock began sometime before U.S. Thanksgiving, Quinn Hughes finally informed the Canucks. He was not going to be resigning. and I think at that time his agent Pat Persan and the Vancouver Canucks said

this is going to get out it's time to move so did he make a formal trade request people swear no that did not happen however once he said he was not resigning everybody worried that that would get out and it was time to move

okay we've also got Now, there's a couple interesting things here. I was really curious on Friday, and we didn't get all the details of it, what the other packages might have looked like because Hughes, in his audio, speaking after Minnesota 6-2-win over Boston last night,

which he scored in his debut, he talked very much about him and his agent Pat Brazahn working with Jim Rutherford to find a place where he would be, quote-unquote, comfortable. So everyone understood that there was a lot of suitors for Quinn Hughes at this. moment. I was trying to figure out on Friday what some of these other deals looked like. Someone floated the parameters of what a Washington deal would have looked like. It involved

Connor McMichael. There was Detroit and there was Carolina. I think Freege has more. Did you want to jump in here? No, no. We can play Frege audio, but I do want to talk about one thing afterwards. Okay. Here's Frege on what he believes were some of the other offers given to Jim Rutherford in exchange for Quinn Hughes. A couple of the teams. First of all, Detroit, And, you know, as I said, I think there was, there was always a match there if the two teams wanted to do it. You know, it takes two to tango. You've got to get it done. But you looked up and down to Troy's roster and you said they could do this.

I heard that really didn't get far because there was something Vancouver wanted from Detroit. that the Red Wings would not include. And I don't know this, but I have wondered if that was Edvenson. I don't know it, though. But I just heard there was something that Vancouver said would have to be in the trade with Detroit that the Red Wings were not willing to do. And so I don't think it ever got as close as I thought it could. my suspicion is Edvenson.

I just don't know that. The other team I'm kind of wondering about here is Carolina. As I wrote on Thursday night slash Friday morning, I think Carolina is a team that when a star player, like they've got that philosophy. When a star player is available, they're in it. They want a star and also they recognize that when a guy like Quinn Hughes becomes available, how often does that happen?

So we better get in there. That's kind of their philosophy, which I think is a good one. I don't know what it all was, but I heard they gave it a real shot. I don't know how close they got, but I think they gave it a real shot. I heard Carolina was legit. So I don't know if Quinn was given a choice on where he wants to go, but clearly they were working with him to get him to a situation

where he was going to be happy. Yep. And you might ponder the question, why did they care? They didn't have any trade protection. They didn't have to work with them. And I think maybe there's some semblance of you do right by your former captain.

Sure. But I also wonder how much this has to do with agents. Ah, yes. Pat Brassan. Is he a power agent? Yeah. You just, you know, like, you want to have a good relationship with a guy like Pat Brasson because you might have to work with him on some other stuff later, and he might be like, eh, you know what, I had a client once that you totally screwed, you sent somewhere he didn't want to go, and he's a superstar, and that's going to affect my relationship with you.

I'm glad you brought this up. So it's funny because you think, like, the ironcladness of a no-trade clause the inverse of it is like when a guy doesn't have one you're like well this is great the handcuffs are off we're free to send them wherever we want we can feel the best offer it's that is a very naive and rose-colored way of looking at it because as you pointed out you when you're talking especially a player that magnitude um he's almost got his own unwritten no trade clause really in some ways in some ways if you think about it you know it's got i got this guy pat yeah like you're just you're you're wielding the power in a totally different way but you still got it and it's

funny, I was reading an article yesterday from the New Jersey side of things, and one of the things that they talked about is that they felt there's some reporting from New Jersey that they were also in the ground floor and trying to get Quinn Hughes. And that what held them up was the fact that they couldn't move enough pieces out to make it happen because no other general manager

in hockey is given out more no trade clauses than Tom Fitzgerald. They said he's got 15 of them on the books. I think he's got one more than two of the other leading teams. And he gives them all like candy to everyone. They're like, why does Andre Palat have a no trade clause? What was that for? But the interesting thing here is that you can either give them out when you're signing a guy to a contract or if it's a player of significance, you can not give it to him.

And then when it comes time to eventually deal them, you're dealing with that situation anyway, right? Where the agent gets involved and all of a sudden this pool of 32 teams gets narrowed down to 10 or 11. I mean, as far as the return went, I mean, I thought that the Canucks did really well getting the amount of assets that they got in return. They did great. they did great yeah every I think they got the best defensive

prospect in the NHO and quite frankly I'm actually shocked they were able to they were able to get that much because I thought I felt at times they were dealing

from a position of weakness well and if you hear Jim Rutherford talking about talking about it he was like I was worried for months that we were not going to be able to get the deal

that we needed to yeah and look all the it's there's still risk in trading way a sure thing

like Quinn Hughes Zeev Bouillon obviously looks very good Yes He's a great skater Had a good game He's got a lot of swag That's what Adam Foote said

After the game yesterday He's a very confident guy Swagger swagger See I think He's got a nice smile too It was nice to see some smiles out there It was nice to see some smiles out there That's all I gotta say

His ceiling is Hughes or McCarr So I mean the Canucks took the swing on the guy You're on the right Rush to the top Well, I'm just saying, if you're going to trade Quinn Hughes, you might as well get the guy that has the highest percentage chance of becoming that player. Not to say that he will, but I'm just saying they got that guy. Did you say his ceiling is Hughes or McCar? It is.

It is. Yeah. He's the best defensive prospect in the league. By far. All right. I think there's a lot of those. No, he is the best defensive prospects. Like, you look at the top defensive prospects in the league. He's pretty much the number one across the board. And I'm not saying he will be either those defensemen or Norris trophy winner.

But I'm just saying, if you're, if you're not saying, if you're, you're not saying, if you're want to look at the glass half full the Canucks, you know. I think that's the glass full full. Yeah, it's overflowing. Overflowing. Overflowing. Zeeving all over the edge. Yeah, Ross is going to be, he's a good player. He has his limitations as

you know, and that he's going to have to overcome because he's not a very big guy and really helps to be big when you're a center, especially defensively, but he definitely has some talent and some playmaking ability. And then we'll see about Liam Mowgren. It doesn't look statistically like he's off to the best

start of his NHL career and I wonder if they will send him down to the AHL for a bit but we can talk about that in the next

segment because I do want to talk about a couple of things what's next for the Canucks roster wise could there be more trades coming

could there be some demotions to the HL because they had to scratch some guys yesterday just to get all the new guys

into the lineup and they've got poor games left on this road trip before the Christmas break. I also want to, you know, leave you with this from Sarah from Edmonton, so many questions after this weekend, she texts in, mostly I've been pondering the culture one in light of the best player to put on a Canucks jersey in recent years being gone because he wants to win,

what does that say about other players? And Sarah, I'd add, what does that say about the organization? I don't know if everyone heard. I asked a bit of a question of Patrick Alvin on Friday and it was about the culture and it was a pretty direct question and I just said, well, you know, do you think you guys

have a bad culture? And I was surprised a little bit that he seemed so shocked at the question. It was like on our team? I was like, yeah. Because in the last year, you've had two of your leaders, Elias Pedersen and J.T. Miller

have a big fight and one of them had to be traded and then a head coach that you really liked said, nah, I'm going to go somewhere else. And now your captain also wants out. So I feel like that's a fair question to ask. And I don't know if I'm going to be allowed in Rogers Arena for a little while, but... It wasn't that scathing a question.

No, but like I... Well, first of all, no, it wasn't. It was a very straightforward question. It was a very straightforward question. But I think it took him by, surprise. It did. Because it was quite direct. Both things can be true. But I have to say, not toot my own horn here, but I had multiple, multiple people come up to me over the weekend and say, thank you for asking that question because that's exactly how I feel.

I was in the room with you. And I thought it was a very smart, very direct and important question to ask. No, like there was no two ways about it. And I'm glad that you asked it. And I think the response, sure, Alvian looked like you wanted to murder him, but besides the point. But I think it was a good thing to ask And I think that the response Or maybe a lack there of was kind of telling Anyway, we are up against it for time We can get into this on the other side

Reminder if you want to weigh in On what was a very, very, very eventful weekend For the Vancouver Canucks text in Dumbarlemur text line is 650, 650 We got another open segment We can read your text We can get into a lot more stuff You're listening to the Halford and Breft show on Sportsnet 650

Halford, you're good at turning on guys Hello Halford. You're quite good at turning me on. It's Canucks Central on SportsNet 650. From exclusive interviews to insider scoops and post-game breakdowns, we've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m. on radio and on demand through your favorite podcast app. Welcome to Minnesota.

It only took 41 minutes. 632 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody, Halford, Graf, Sportsnet, 650. That audio we heard, that was Quinn Hughes scoring in his Minnesota Wild debut. Yesterday, an afternoon affair out here, 3 o'clock puck drop. Minnesota, all kinds of energy yesterday.

win for them. In Quinn Hughes's debut, you're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Get out of the penalty box of debt and back into the game with a financial fresh start. Visit them online at sands-trustee. com. Still in hour one

of the program, 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. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. I do want to do a couple cleanups from the first half hour of the program.

One, I said Satyar Shah apparently was the host of Canucks Talk. That's not right. He's the host of Canucks Central. That's from Nate and Comox. Also... Wow, Nate. Come on, man. He also pointed out that Liam Ogren is 21 when I said he was 22. Liam Ogren does not turn 22 until January, which is a month away. So, thank you for keeping me on my toes. Nate in Comox. Thanks, Nate.

It's important. Also, Adog said that Zeev Bouillon is the unquestioned top defensive prospect of hockey. Ceilin is Macar Hughes. Peace out Matthew Schaefer. Then I said Matthew Schaefer. I will admit I didn't forget about Schaefer. Just because he's a rookie.

Okay, good. Oh, you just forgot about the first overall pick. The first overall pick. I don't know if you're completely dialed into the rankings. I don't really care about the islanders. The Hurricanes guy. The Keesian, you're not wrong. You Google. So if you Google like top NHL, yeah, yeah, pretty much every project's ring has Zev and

Nikitian is one, two, and you could debate that. But of course, then Schaefer, this year will enter the chat. But nevertheless, he's a very good defensive process. Chat, GBT, GBT, T, uh, told you, that is a great question. That is a great insightful question. Hey, dog is the best. Okay, uh, let's continue the conversation. A reminder, if you want to weigh in, Tom Barlar, our text line is 650, 650.

I want to play some audio from Quit Hughes. This is from yesterday. Following, he did nine minutes of media yesterday. Several people are pointing this out, which is understandable because it was a... Because normally he's just a puck hog on the ice. Now he's being a bit of like a bit of press hog. Micahawk, microphone hog, yeah.

So I'm not going to throw shots at him for doing as much media as he did because it was twofold. It was like his first chance to meet the media period. And it was after a game. But someone just texted in. I apologies for not having the text in front of me. They said, did you notice in his post-trade message to the fan base on social media, Quinn Hughes didn't mention Patrick Alvin.

And I said, I'll take this one step further. We're going to play one of his answers talking about the lead up to the trade out of Vancouver and the amount of appreciation he showed for Jim Rutherford. and Patrick Brissan, his agent. And those were the only, so like... Well, the Ackolini family. And the Ackolini family. Do we have this audio at the ready?

This is Quinn Hughes in the aftermath. On how the deal came to be? Yeah, this isn't the one where he said he knew his last game was going to be against Buffalo on Thursday night. So that gives you an idea of how long this trade was in the hopper. But let's play this clip first. This is... What a legacy game to go out on.

Yeah, it was unforgettable. I actually forgot that what it was. I was like, did they win or lose? Anyway, Quinn Hughes, this is, as his first, game and post-game media availability as a member of the Minnesota Wild. How involved were you quick just in this process and coming to Minnesota? Jim made it sound like he wanted to accommodate you as much as he could. Yeah, honestly, I mean, I don't know how much I'm allowed to say,

but I have the ultimate respect for Jim Rutherford and Francesco Ockeleney and the Akeleini family. I mean, they were first class with everything that was going on, and obviously it was a tough situation, I felt like it was time, and I think Jim did too. But Jim was, you know, Jim and Pat Papperson, my agent, he was, you know, obese, I'm very lucky to have him, but they were kind of talking a lot about places I might feel comfortable. And, you know, Jim was amazing with that.

You want, you know, he cared about the person. He wanted me to go where he thought, you know, thinks I would be happy. And, yeah. so there's a dynamic that we discussed on Friday's show and I think as we get more details coming out about how this trade came to be it's becoming really apparent that Patrick Alvin has entered what do you say you do around here territory

because on Friday for those that missed it Patrick Alvin did a Zoom call in which you asked about the culture the potential culture problem or perceived culture problem And then he came on SportsNet 650 and did an interview with Jamie and Bick. While all that was going on, Jim Rutherford was also conducting his own individual media availability with select reporters, including Sportsnet's Stan Murphy. So when we got on the air at 7 o'clock, how many reporters were on that call?

Three. Three? And then a fourth joined after. Oh, it was like Murph, IMAQ and Farman? And then Harmon Dial from the Athletic joined right after. So it was exclusive company. We didn't get the invite to that. Did not.

We didn't get the invite to anything, except to come on the air and work for free, which we did, by the way, if our bosses are listening. So. Now that you're bitter about it, right? We're not bitter. I was going to make a joke.

I'm like, we're only doing one hour today on the counter that we did two free ones on Friday. Excuse me. I'm at the theater. Also known as the elementary school play. How many of you are watching? It's Beauty and the Beast, right? How many of you were watching Beauty and the Beast right now?

Anyway, Jim Rutherford, as that clip suggested, as the countless anecdotes that have come out in the aftermath of suggested, and as his media availability suggested, was the driving force, the move maker when it came to conducting the Quinn Hughes trade, which I will remind you, is probably the biggest trade in franchise history. How does that work? He said something like Patrick had a lawn on his plate. Yeah, I was cackling, but I heard that. Patrick had a lot on his plate, so I'm going to take this franchise defining trade off your plate,

and I will just handle that all by myself. Patrick, you look kind of busy right now, so let me just deal with this slight little problem that we have. Yeah, just do the rest of the stuff. I'll handle the used thing. Don't worry about it. It's fine. You keep, I don't know, searching for a 2C or something. You keep doing your thing.

So, yeah, Noon and in Richmond just texted in. Didn't Jim say that Patrick had too much on his plate for this trade? He did. He absolutely did. So when we came in on Friday and played the audio of the Jim Rutherford Media Availability, I was like, this is the guy that should have been fielding all the questions. This is the guy that should have been fielding the question about, is there a culture problem? Why did Quinn Hughes want to leave?

Because you apparently were dealing with this more than anybody, right? And it is a, it's always been an interesting dynamic, the Rutherford-Alveen dynamic. Well, we've always been interesting. We've had guys like Frank on the show that said around the league. people wonder, who should I talk to? And that's a fair, fair thing. Because at times over the last four years. There's a, there's

like a receptionist that's like, do you want to talk about Quinn Hughes or Kiefer Sherwood? Okay, Sherwood's an Alveen. Right. It's like the office thing. Remember the office episode where they ended up having two managers, co-managers? And like Michael Scott was the big picture and then like Jim was the day to day.

That's what this is. This is that office episode. It's very much what it is. Yeah. Now, Alvinian handles day to day. JR, big picture. But it gets a little confusing when the cornerstone of your team, Norris Trophy-winning defensemen and captain, who you could argue is very much in the day-to-day because he's playing every game, is also, that's almost beyond the scope of the day-to-day general manager.

I don't, you know, you know what, I'll say this, though. It's a good return. It is a very good return. And some people, now there have been some people that have texted in and have said, are you surprised or do you think it was, an improper practice to take the first offer that Bill Garen gave. Now, if you have no idea what we're talking about here, Garen, and his media availability said that this was his first salvo,

his first shot fired at the Canucks, but he framed it as, I'm going to put all my cards on the table right away to show I mean business. I'm not going to try and haggle and I'm not going to hold back one of these guys and then later include them. And I think the Canucks essentially set up an auction, just like give us your best bid. And then we're going to choose one.

Now, I'll say this. We probably offered a boo-hum and then Rutherford was like, really? Like, are you kidding me? That's insane. You probably didn't expect that. When that offer comes through, it's obviously going to grab the attention of any executive that's working because it's the equivalent of four first-round picks. And I know two of these guys have already been exposed to the National Hockey League.

So you've got a better idea of what they're going to look like in Rossi and Ogren. But it is, it was a big, fundamentally franchise-altering movement. move for Minnesota. I mean, I dove into Minnesota Wild social media and listening to the reporters and they're like, that's our entire prospect cupboard. There's not much after that. And they're going for it. They're going for it. Yeah. Thank God

at least, you know, one GM has some risk tolerance. It would be very exciting for the Wild. What now for the Canucks though? Reichel, do you remember him? Lucas Reichel? Yeah, he cleared waivers. I don't know what the plan is for him. I'm sure they're trying to trade him.

Petey was put on retroactive IR to make room for the new guys Pedersen could still return to the lineup on this road trip which I imagine they'd have to make some other moves I know a lot of people didn't like that Ratu was a healthy scratch yesterday and I agree that he should be in the lineup continuing to develop but who are you going to take out?

Sasson and Kemp are definitely options and it's worth noting that Sasson does not require waivers to be sent down I haven't been impressed whatsoever with David Kemp

forget the lack of offense there's nothing there has he even been I know Adam Foote said he's been unbelievable defensively I was just going to bring it up really? You seen that?

Because I saw him ice the puck yesterday at the end of a game totally unnecessarily and I haven't exactly noticed that he's been winning every single dry has been taken. So we had a detailed breakdown of Adam Foote's post-game media availability in text form.

Yeah. It didn't listen to the clip. And at the end, he talks about David Komphe and says, no points, but he's playing unbelievable defense in doing his job. Okay. Now, I have a, again, maybe the coach has a different checklist of things that he wants to see.

Sure. But I'm kind of with you. I was very surprised that Ratu was the guy sat down for that game because I think, I actually wasn't, because if you look at the 12 guys that were in there, maybe the only guy that I might have said, you could take them out was Sassan. Yeah.

But Sasson brings speed to the lineup, and they need speed. Maybe they need a little less now, but they need speed. My question to that would be to what end, though? Like, what are you trying to accomplish here? Well, I think they wanted to get Ogrin into the lineup, too. No, no, I would suggest, if you were to make it between Sassin and Ratu, and it's amazing that we're actually talking about these lineup decisions like they matter. Well, they do long term.

Yeah, long term, I would say it's more beneficial to have Ratu playing games than Sassin playing games. You think Ratu's going to be the better player? I think so too. I think so too. And I think they have more invested in him. Like with no disrespect to Max Sassol. I wonder if Ogre need some more time in the H.L. Maybe send him down and see if he can build some chemistry with his old Swedish teammate Jonathan Lekker-O-Mackie, who apparently is playing really well right now. Yep. Scoring a lot of goals for Abbotsford. What about pulling the trigger on some more trades? That's got to happen now. I actually thought the Sherwood, Drew O'Connor, Evander Kane line was pretty good against the Devils, but I mean, I'm not sure if that really matters at this point. They're like, well, we can't trade one of these guys. They're developing some chemistry.

Sherwood and Kane are unlikely to finish the season with the Canucks. Sherwood will almost definitely be gone. And hopefully for another first round pick. You know, could the Canucks have four picks in the first, and second round, like four picks in the top of 50? That'd be amazing. Right? And that's kind of where we were going on Friday

when we were talking about, okay, this is the first step and they did get a first round pick and return. You got two picks now at the upcoming draft. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Like when we broke down the center position on Friday night, looking forward, and we're like,

well, if Kutz can project to this and Rossi can be this and Pedersen can be that, and I remember jumping in, I mean, like, make sure you have more options. Don't put the entire weight of something on. Get a little wiggle room in there. Yeah. Like you, but the one, sorry, not to keep rambling here,

but the one takeaway was not everything works out sometimes when it comes to prospects. I mean, Minnesota traded away a guy in Ogren who I think they thought was going to be a better player. And he wasn't. Doesn't always work out the way you intend. They don't always sealing out. So make sure you got a bunch of them. Real bread and butter signature stuff for a rebuild. Sorry.

So I mentioned Sherwood and Kane and Sherwood, I hope is going to get them a pretty good asset. and Cain, I hope he's gone if anyone will take him. This is a question that we posed in the first half hour and said we'd get to is the tank in jeopardy with Rossi and eventually Petey down the middle and if Demko can stay healthy. I mentioned that I really wanted them to win yesterday but the best result for this season

is a top five pick in the draft. It doesn't sound right now like they're willing to move on from Elias Pedersen, but maybe it's something they discuss this off season. I'll be very curious to see how Elias Pedersen plays

the rest of the season. Can he take control of the power play a little bit more? Is he going to be the guy or is it going to be Zev Bouyam who refuses to pass to Ilius Spence. Zeeve gonna be willing to pass the Pactaidi?

There was something going on on that power play. There was a dynamic there and it's been going on for a couple of years now. It looked a little zippier yesterday. A little more zippin. A little more zippin. Everyone was involved. Yeah, that's right. You know?

That's right. Everyone was like, oh my, I'm going to get the puck now. Yeah. Now I can shoot into someone shin's pants. Who will be on Pedersen's wings because the options aren't terrific. Kane and Garland have been his. his most common line mates, but this is the key if you want to get into the underlying numbers here.

The one player that PD won't get to play with anymore is Quinn Hughes. And if you go to natural stat trick, as I'm sure a lot of you just love to do at 648 in the morning on a Monday, PD's underlying numbers at five on five with and without Hughes are starkly different. And it's exactly what you think. With Hughes on the ice, PD's numbers look good. Without them, they're bad. And the spread is much more significant than a lot of Canucks. So the counter argument of, well, I'm sure a lot, most Canucks are better on the ice with Quinn Hughes.

It doesn't hold up as much as you think it might. There are stark differences. So we'll see how it looks. I'm not sure when Alias Patterson is going to be back, but the Canucks do have four games left on this road trip before Christmas. I guess Jamie asked Patrick Alvin about Elias Pedersen and whether or not he can be your guy to win the Stanley Cup. That's a conversation they've got to have in the offseason.

I think you can wait on that sort of thing a little bit, but I will say that I'm going to be not only curious to see how Pedersen does for the Canucks down the stretch, you know, maybe it'll be good. Maybe he'll get the puck more. And, you know, when he does have the puck, he can make some really good passes. Still got to work on moving his feet.

But maybe it'll be good for him, especially on the power play. But I also wonder how he's going to look at the Olympics for Sweden. Because the Four Nations tournament, where he went there, and people are like, well, you know, I think this is going to be a great shot in the arm for him. He's going to be around his Swedish teammates. And I think he's going to play really well.

I was kind of like, okay, well, we'll see. And by the end of that tournament, he was barely playing. He was playing like 10 minutes a night. And that has effect on the Swedish Olympic team. Your expectations for him are going to be different. And if he goes to this tournament, assuming he's chosen, if he goes to this tournament and doesn't play all that well or he's not up the lineup for Sweden,

then you're kind of like, oh, that kind of hurts his trade value again if you want to move him. to your earlier question when you asked about, like, is the tank in jeopardy or what does this mean for the tank? A couple things that I'm going to be monitoring. One is where this team's sort of personal FU level is? Because I did notice in the aftermath of the Hughes trade,

Drance asked Demko about it. And Demko was like, I didn't sign here to play with Quinn Hughes. I signed here because I wanted to be a which I thought was a pretty profound statement and I'm glad he said it publicly. It's probably somewhat offensive to be asked. Not intentionally. I'm not saying they.

transest it in that way. But to be asked, like, are you going to leave now that Quinn's leaving? You know, I'm a big boy. These guys all have pride. Like, they all think that they can be a significant difference maker. You need to have that sort of confidence and cockiness and swagger. Someone texted in, Garland is shook that his best friend left as well. He'll be getting traded.

I had an entirely different take on what Garland. So Garland had the post game walk-off interview with Murph yesterday. Yeah. You can tell he was a bit emotional. He also sounded kind of angry. When he got asked about Hughes, he's like, look, I've already talked about this. Like, you've got to understand.

These guys are all hardwired in a competitive nature that most of us mere mortals don't really understand, right? They are ruthless and savage competitors. So when there's any perceived slight, and I think one of them was Hughes wanting to leave the group, I'm sure that hits some of them in a way. Totally. Didn't feel great.

you got to understand when he said I don't want to play here part of it was like well maybe he wants to go with his brothers but part of it was he was pissed off that the team wasn't very good and they were losing and he couldn't drag them out of it if you're a guy on that team you're like hey man I'm working my tail off here

if you're Garland or your Demko Demko's like I was hurt for most of this I'm trying to get back and play we're all part of this thing we signed up to be part of this thing yeah right and by the way I think another interesting quote that I read that I pass along is from Pat Brasson, who had an interview with Pierre LeBron

and the athletic. And for those that thought, oh, Hughes was leaving anyway, I don't know. Because Brasson said, if the Canucks were in a better place, we wouldn't be having these conversations. I agree with that.

And this assumption that he was gone anyway, I think is, like, are you sure? I think it's too convenient an answer. Yeah, if the Canucks were in a contending spot and Quinn was offered an extension this offseason, I think there's a very good chance he would have signed it. I do think that was part of the reason why Rutherford took the tack that he did publicly with the media

around this was he didn't, didn't want it to sound like Hughes was leaving the team, which is why he brought up the brothers thing, because everyone's going to say, well, it's not like he's really leaving Vancouver. He just wants to be reunited with his family. It's a reason and they didn't run him down when he went out of town and it adds to this thing where you want to try and make it seem like the failings of the organization

aren't the reason that Hughes is leaving when let's be real, the big reason one of the biggest reasons, maybe the biggest reason why he wanted out is because the team just flat out was nowhere near good enough when he was a member of the Vancouver Canucks. Okay, we're up against it for time we've got to go to break. Friendly reminder,

this segment of the show was brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. The providers of the Halbro car you see driving around town. Find out why nobody beats the Duick deal since 1926. Visit Duick GM on Marine Drive, visit them downtown, visit them in Richmond, and visit them online at the duik Auto Group.com.

We're going to turn our attention to the National Football League coming up. It was a massive day yesterday. An awful day if you're a Kansas City Chiefs fan. A very interesting day if you were in Indianapolis Colts or Seattle Seahawks fan. There's lots to get into. Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the

Two Deep Zone, is going to join us next. You're listening. to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.