Halford & Brough in the Morning - Bring On South Africa

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss the latest baseball news with MLB Network's Adnan Virk (1:38), the boys look ahead to Sunday's World Cup Round of 32 matchup for Canada versus South Africa, plus they chat about yesterday's NHL signings (26:00). 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.

It's time to chat with Adnan. It's Adnan Furkees on the show. We're gonna talk some baseball and take a trip to the silver screen. That's right, it's time for Adnan. Yes, Adnan Furkees joins us now. We'll head out to the ball game and talk about all the films he sees see. 7.03 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody.

Halford, Bradford, Braves, Sportsnet, 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is braddy by Sands and Associates. You're drowning in tax debt. If you are, Sands and Associates can often reduce your debt by up to 80%. With no upfront fees, visiting today at Sands-Trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program. Ednanavirk from MLB Network is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 2. Hour 2 is brought to by Jason Homonock at Jason.

If you love, give me the banks more of your money. Then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason. Our mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios. Step strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. Guests on Sportsnet 650 call in on the ABLE Auctions hotline. Email sales at ABLEe auctions.ca to get your business assets sold and your building cleared.

Let's go now to the Able Auctions. Hotline, our next guest joins us every week here from MLB Network. It's Ed Ann Verk here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. your presentation of angry outer liquor. What up, Adnan? I'm doing great. Mike Chase, I love the fact that you guys are the epicenter of the world right now. Everyone is watching the World Cup, and of course, Vancouver

yesterday had that Canada match. I wish we'd had won. I haven't cheered for a tie so hard since Flyers, Islanders, Patrick Division, like, 1989. I'm like, come on. Just give us the two-two tie. Come on. That's what I're pulling for. But thank God Canada moves on. I have to say that you guys, and I apologize,

this may be like a comedian repeating one of his bits, but I have no issue with people using soccer, analogy in relation to soccer, meaning if you're saying on the pitch they have to play better rather than feel, I'm okay with that. What I have an issue with is when people start using these terms in other sports. The other day at MLB Network, I kid you not, a guy said to me the METC to play with

more pace. And I said, what the hell are you talking about? You mean run faster? Oh, okay, that's right. More pace. You know what? I've seen this happen before. It always happens during a major international competition, be it the Euro or the World Cup, and it seeps into our

collective country. Don't worry. It goes away as soon as the World Cup is over and they'll be back to speaking normally about baseball. Hey, look, okay, so on the weekend, we got a group text from Adnan and it read best win of the year, J's are back. Now, things haven't gone super swimmingly well for the JCP,

but let's go all the way back to Saturday. What inspired you so much to send this text? I know, I rarely said group text to you guys, but I was locked in that game, it was on MLB network and so I felt compelled in the delusion and hysteria of the Blue Jays, coming back from a 5-0 way to text you both.

Listen, it's what my friend Tim Kirchian is to call a circle game. He goes, every year you can look at five games and say, this defined our season, either in a positive way or in a detrimental manner. And I think that game to me felt like, oh, my God, this is how you turn it around. You've done 5-0 for God's six, you're rallying 5. Louis Barlin has been the team's MVP. The guy's been tremendous for that. I mean, should be an all-star.

And obviously, Kaz Okamoto, I mean, leading in power categories as a rookie, he's on pace for a 30, 35 home run, 90 RBI season. I just thought against the Cubs team, which is above average. So again, the Cubs have slipped certainly after a stellar start for themselves, but I thought that's the kind of win that can galvanize a team. If you get to 500 around the 500 mark of the season, things can take off. So perhaps I was just caught up in the drama of a great Dan Shulman calling

Okamoto's home run, but that's why we felt compelled to text to you guys. As it got as well since, they've got to go get some bats. Offense not nearly good enough. Well, you mentioned I posted Schulman's call to the same group threat after that. And you could tell that he understood the magnitude of the moment as well. Because, I mean, it's getting early late. We're mid-June. And last year it was around July where the J started to take off.

And you want to see some signs or semblance of it. Of course, you know what happens after that game is they get rained out? Can I just add something to it? It's not like making the playoffs is an acceptable level of achievement. This is a team that was so, so close to winning the World Series last year. and they were hoping this year that they could get over the hump and actually win it. So even if the Jays sneak into the postseason because the AAL is mid, like fans of the Toronto Blue Jays were expecting a team that could contend for the World Series.

And right now they seem a long way away from that. No one's going to make a better point than Jason brought today on morning radio. But that is the essence of the issue right now, the Blue Jays. The amount of people, Jay, that say, well, just get in. I'm like, what do you mean just get in? So you're an 84 win team, really? The third walker, that's a notable to you. Does anyone believe that that team as presently constructed?

If they win 83 or 84 wins and sneak in as a third walker, are going to do any sort of damage. Would they even win a best of three against, wait for it, the Chicago White Sox right now, or against perhaps the Cleveland Guardians? Do you think they'd win that series? Probably not. After that, do you think they'd beat the Yankees? Probably not.

This is not last season. When they beat the race, probably not. So I'm completely with you. This whole fallacy of, well, the American League is so bad, 84 wins get you in. But that's not what you want. You want 90 wins. You were 94 wins a season ago.

How could you possibly be pleased or, you know, accepting of a 10 win decrease? So I think that's the biggest problem right now facing this team is that just when you say, okay, a couple steps forward. Here we go. They take a couple steps back. There's still a sub-500 team. I can't take you seriously until at least you're a 500 team. The Blues are not that. We're speaking to Adnan Berg from MLB Network here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.

I think we're like contractually required to ask you at least one Vladdy Guerrero Jr. question every time I was actually going to like there it is. This will be the week. No, no, I wasn't going to do it. I wasn't going to do it. Well, like this, the guys that were covering for sportsnet.com and on the broadcast as well, they've all noted the frustration level internally and externally with Vladie seems to be growing like I, you know, it's very, the whole season's been very mid. They haven't been bad enough that they've played themselves out of it.

every time that you think that something's going to turn the corner, it just kind of reverts back to being a 500 baseball team. But with Vladdy, every day, every passing day, it seems like the internal pressure where he's feeling it grows a little bit more and more. Now you're starting to see it a little more demonstrated, I guess is the right word for, where the pressures are starting to show that he's not hitting the ball, he's not driving the offense. And there's guys around him that are doing it.

I think maybe, not a lot of guys granted, but maybe it even compounds it more that he knows there's something. something to give. We've seen it on the biggest level, and it's just not happening right now. There are some questions about his swing, where that's at, his confidence level and everything else. I'm sure there's a technical aspect from a mental approach, though. Frustration seems to be mounting. A thousand percent, Mike. I looked the other day as OPS Plus is 100. For the uninitiated, that means he is exactly a league average player. I mean, that is pretty astounding to me, considering you're one of a $500 million contract. You know what it's like with all these

contracts. You know, they just get Janice. He's 32. They go, well, they'll be good for three or four years, then for that, who cares? So similarly, he'll be a lot. It's like, well, give us five great ears. After that, well, we'll figure it out. You can't strip this thing off year one with these kind of numbers. And as I told you guys before, what Albert Poole said to me, line drive hitter that hits to all fields. He's not hitting, period, any field. He's in 277. That on base was over 400. Remember, it's now down to 360, which is still good, but no longer great. And the slug is atrocious. I mean, that's, that is shocking how bad. That's, that's, that's, I'm Andres Jimenez levels.

I put that in perspective for him. He's at 372 in terms of his slugging percentage. George Springer's at 379. He's been a real problem this year. So, yeah, Vlad is going to keep hearing these whispers. And we should keep talking about every single week because he is the straw best or is the drink. I mean, he has to be the star for this team. They're not going to go anywhere without Vlad Jr. being productive, period.

You can't say, well, eight other guys will step up. I'm like, no. He's the fulcrum of the offense. He's the focal point. And you've seen his ability to carry the team. Certainly against the Yankees, you know, real baseball classic moments like that. So it's a mystery right now.

And as you said, Mike, most importantly, I think the pressure is getting to him. I think previously it was like, well, he's kind of blocked out the noise, do what he can. Now it's unavoidable. Now wherever he goes, whether it's visiting teams, the home people are, hey, what's wrong with Vlad?

What's wrong with Vlad? That's going to be a question that keeps getting posed until he figures this out. Okay. I want to ask you about the Milwaukee Brewers, which is something you don't hear very often, but I do. The Milwaukee Brewers are, to me, the Houston Texans of Major League Baseball in that when the playoffs start, they're always there, but not for long.

And I just want to know if this Brewer's team, is there anything about this current Brewer's team that makes things different and makes things, makes one believe that they could actually get over the hump, beat the Dodgers, and get to a war. World Series and maybe even win it. Two words, Jacob Mizorowski. Maybe that's the difference this time around. They've never had an ace quite like this. They've had great starters. Brandon Woodruff, they had Freddie Peralta, had Corbyn Burns, but they never had a guy quite like

Mizorowski and brought that game when he had 15 strikeouts and one hit. Like that is about as good at pitching for us you'll ever see if it's awesome. So to your point, if you're going up against the Dodgers and we know the Brewers, you know, it's an inconsistent offense. A little punch and Judy come playoff time

and all of a sudden they're tossing out Glass Now and Snell and Otani, and here we go again. Well, can you match them pitch for pitch? And with Mizoroski alone, it's a get a terrible effect. You go, okay, well, five games series, he's pitching games one and five or games one in four and short rats. We get a chance. We wouldn't miss the starts and we can win this thing. So I think he's that important. He's that much an equalizer because offensively, they still don't have the stars that stand out.

You know, Bryce Terrain is a good player. William Contreras, a great catcher. Jake Bowers is out of a nice season. There's still no guys that really overwhelm you. an excellent, fairly benign, you know, no-nonsense bullpen. But this is what they've done, as you said, for years. Last year they had 97 wins, and I could not find one person, one person who went, one analyst who goes, yep, I'm calling the brokers doing it.

I was like, nope, they're there for gazes. They're a good team, or they're not as good as the other teams, and that's exactly what happened. So I hope it's a difference this year for the good people of Milwaukee. You know, 82 was the last thing they're even in the World Series. So that's the thing. You've had sustained success in terms of winning the Central. And every year you go, well, it's now the country.

or the ranch or whichever other team. But the Brewer is still standing at the top there. But are they better than the Dodgers as presently constituted? No. But Ms. I do think could be that kind of an X factor because he's that special. Tell me a little bit more about him because there are not many pitchers that can throw 104.5 miles per hour. He's 24 years old.

What was his story growing up? Where did he come from? Yeah. Yeah. Miserops, he's a fascinating story because he's the kind of guy where, you know, normally you hear these guys from a while away just how good they're going to be and then sometimes they kind of sneak up on you so i feel like we were hearing with stephen strasford for years where he came up and certainly that's been the case with other guys that get jacca to grow up mr rosska i wouldn't say

slipped through the cracks but it was kind of a late bloomer like when he got called up last year there was a little bit of buzz but it wasn't like those other names that i mentioned and then all of said it was eye popping and then it got ridiculous there was a big backlash why because he only had five or six starts he made the ulster gave you know this is ridiculous and people were so mad and rightfully so i thought it was a joke myself. And Rob Manfred, they're going, it's all about stars and sizzle and people like this kid and whatever. But the arsenal is so imposing. And I think at the other day, you can look at certain pitchers, Jay, and go, I appreciate this pitch. So, you know, there's nothing better than a Bert Blatt 11 curveball or a Dave Steve slider or, you know,

Clayton Kerserset. But when you just say, hey, man, go ahead and hit it. I'm going to throw this thing as hard as I can. You try to hit this thing. That start he had against Martin Perez two starts ago, he had 54 pitches above 100 miles an hour. I've never seen that before. I normally if you hit triple digits, it happens five times, or it's a roll of the Chapman throwing 15 pitches and seven or eight of the 15 or 100. I've never seen a starter throw 54 of 97 pitches for 100 miles on a number. Like, it's average as 100.

Like, think about that. If someone says to you, I'm sitting 100. And after that, if I really get some giddy, they go 103, 104. I honestly, I've seen some great pitchers. Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, never seen that kind of velocity from this young man. And, of course, you always worry,

what if he gets hurt? The same thing you remember with Paul Skeins. Well, all these guys that could have. especially that kind of pressure on your elbow. But he's a great straight. He's a baby-faced assassin. As far as it's away from the field, at least you know about schemes.

He's got a very pretty girl for everyone knows but Livy Dunn. Mr. Rowski, he's a low profile, right? He's in Milwaukee. He's not out there on social media. He's a pretty chill guy. Just happens to throw triple digits. Is there any room for kids coming up now to, like, if you, it would be like,

I pitch a bit like Jimmy Key. Like, I've kind of, I got a pretty slow loop, looping curve ball. Are those kids getting You know Like crossed off the list Before they even have a chance now? They are

And that's what's depressing to me Like truly it's not called throwing It's called pitching Like there's nothing better than a kid Who figures out Hey 2 1 count throw this pitch Waste a pitch Whenever people try to tell you

They might find baseball boring I said well it's not a passive game But if you're actively falling along And saying like a video game What pitch should I throw here What location should I throw here Well then the game becomes fascinating And a true pitcher is not just saying fastballed on the middle.

He's going, okay, fastball, now go curbel, now go slater, don't change up, whatever it can be. And that's the part of the game that you really love. That's why I always loved it, Jamie Moyer. I'm like, this guy is throwing 89 miles an hour on his heater. Like, to me, that's remarkable that you can have success in the game like that. But those guys are absolutely being phased out. Now we just have the scouting combat at MLB Network.

You did not see one guy who was not throwing at least 93-94. And again, I love smoke. I love some of that volatility. But yes, we're getting away from those great pitchers. It just always be a crafty left-hander. For some reason, you can never find a crafty right-hander, but you can find crafty left-hangers everywhere. Those guys, sadly, are being phased out.

And then, always fun to catch up with you. It's a very busy time in sports for us, so we've got a bunch of other stuff to move on to. But always good to catch up with you and talk a little baseball. Even Milwaukee Brewers Baseball. I'd be the first time we've talked Brewers' Baseball. Hopefully more to come. Thank you, boys.

Go, Canada. See you, buddy. Thanks, Adnan. Adnan, Berg from MLB Network here on the Halpert and Brough Show on SportsNet 650, a presentation of angry otter liquor. Before we move along here, I need to do the one to watch, brought to by Limitless AV Vancouver's most trusted audiovisual integration experts. Now, I always love a good underdog story. And today, the tiniest nation to ever qualify for a World Cup and to get a World Cup point, while unlikely, still has the potential to move on to the knockout round. Curacao taking on Ivory Coast today with a chance to go to the round of 32

odds are heavily stacked against Curacao. You'll remember they opened with a slim 7-1 loss to the Germans in the opener, then rebounded with a kind of unforgettable draw against Ecuador and that was the one in which their 37-year-old keeper, Eloy Room, made 15 saves

in a nil-nill-nill draw. Now, Room's going to probably have to do something similar against Ivory Coast today. Ivory Coast are huge favorites. They're expected to be the wrong. runners up in the group. Germany's already won the group. But if Curacao and it's a 1 o'clock kickoff, if they can somehow, somehow get a result today, they could squeak their way into the round of 32, which would be an amazing accomplishment

for a country, which I believe has a population of 158,000. So that's your one to watch today. Essentially, if you get four points, you're going through. Correct. And you're a third place team. You are going through. But they need to get the win today because they're on one point, right? They won't get through with two if they get another draw.

But then it becomes a question of, does Ivory Coast get through on their three points? That is your one to watch, brought to you by Limitless A.V. Specializing in seamless video conferencing solutions and hybrid workspaces, book your personalized tour of their experience center today at limitlessavie.c. Okay. Ryan Johnson, the Canucks General Manager, is going to speak to the media after our show, I believe around 9.30 this morning.

Nothing specific on the docket. This is a traditional pre-draft availability by the general manager. The draft is tomorrow. If not for the World Cup, we'd have spent a lot of time on the draft. Happy draft Eve, everybody. Good thing we had most of the season to talk about the draft. Brian Johnson is surely going to get asked about the busy trade market and whether or not the Canucks will want to join the fray at some point.

Man, in the wake of Frank Sarah Valley's hit yesterday, I'm hoping that Ryan Johnson gets asked about Philip Heronic and the future or lack of future for Philip Heronic in Vancouver. According to Frank, the Canucks don't plan to trade Heronic and, in fact, might even make him captain. And I know that that kept everyone busy on Sportsnet 650 yesterday and on social media. might want to ask about what else are you been up to because the Canucks still need to hire some coaches in Vancouver

Mani Mahotra needs a staff and Abbotsford needs everything Abbotsford needs a head coach so They got a GM. They got a GM, right? So Ryan Johnson will speak to the media this afternoon. So we'll have obviously something to say about that tomorrow but the rest of the station will be talking about Ryan John comments all day.

Yeah, and it's, you know, we had this conversation at length yesterday, and I know A-Dog, you were very upset. You had too much juice, and you were all riled up about the heronic situation. I was very correct. Yeah, and the lack of...

Very, very correct. But it was more about the lack of things that have happened so far, too. Like, that was... That was a upset part of it. Yeah, yeah. And I'm trying to balance our want and need, and desire for stuff to happen with the fact that sometimes this group is shown in early days of this management group, but they'll get there. It's just maybe they'll do it quietly and more methodically.

But I think the urgency is not so much coming from like, we want things to happen because we're impatient children. Well, the A-Dog is, but we see what the market is doing. Yeah. And. But it doesn't mean that the deals are closed. because everything happened on Tuesday. No, maybe.

But right now, everyone is in a trade and mood. Yeah. And the draft is this weekend. And then free agency is July 1st. So there's only a few days to get a bunch of stuff done because then people are like, you know, you get a few straggling deals that come in after free agency or sometimes there's a big trade later in the summer.

But often people just go on vacation too. Well, I did joke yesterday. It feels like everyone wants to get to Musko. early this year because everyone's trying to get things done this week. Now, that being said, you know what oftentimes is the busiest time of the draft? It's not on the floor on the first round. It's the morning of the second round. It's when all the general managers kind of let the dust settle from the opening round of the draft. I mean, how many big trades have been consummated on the Saturday morning of the draft? Remember the J.T. Miller trade to Vancouver happened

in like the first moment of round two of the draft? I always used to like to watch you at the draft when we used to go there and cover them because Halford would just go up to the fence that separated the media from the general managers and the scouts and everything and he would just like watch general managers

talk to each other and he was on that beat right like that was my beat. Yeah, I remember I got the Ryan O'Reilly trade by like a minute when he went from Buffalo to no, when he went from Colorado to Buffalo I think because it was Joe Sackick and Adam. What was his name? Murray, Tim Murray.

Yeah. We're chatting. And that was the tell. They would talk on the floor and then one of them would make their way. Would they shake hands after? No. They just have a knowing nod to one another. And then what, but they have a wink, wink in a gun. No, the tell was it. So NHL Central And they were like, that guy is staring at us. Let's make this happen. NHL Central Registry. We're both getting uncomfortable. Listen to me, you Jackals. NHL Central Registry had a table on the draft floor. Okay. So when you made a deal, you'd go.

up to that table afterwards and it was very old school. Like everything was done on paper. You had to fill out a chit. There was, yeah, there was rotary phones everywhere still. But that's how you, that was the tell. It's two general managers would meet and then one would go to Central

Registry. And it doesn't happen as much anymore now it's all. So wouldn't the tactic be to just hang out at Central Registry and just be like, hey, what's going on? No, they put it. They would put it away from Gen Pop. So you couldn't actually you could see them make their way over there, but you couldn't camp out. It'd be funny if it was right in the middle

of the floor. But to your point, that's changed now too, because the draft format has changed. Right. And everyone's not on the floor together anymore. So do you think the draft is going to move along quicker? I was going to ask David Amber about that yesterday, but I didn't want to be rude. I know. I really hope it does. The last draft

was tough to watch. Now, I really hope it moves along. Friday evening is the draft. The Canucks right now have two picks, right? One at third overall and one later on in the draft. So I don't want to have to sit there for like six hours to be able to watch that Canucks second pick.

They could do away. They could do away with the amount of interviews that each kid has to do after he gets drafted. I think they're going to. I think you're going to see a little bit more of a streamlined approach. They could honestly take some lessons from the FIFA referees. They're moving things along. Our friends at VGH Plus hometown heroes lottery need your support to help change lives and save lives. BC's bravest answer the call.

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It's Kinnock 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. 733 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough for the morning is brought to you by Sands. and Associates. God Dead. If you do,

reach out to Sands and Associates during regular business hours and they'll go back to you within 20 minutes. Visit them online at Sands dash trustee.com. We are still in hour two of the program,

midway point of hour two. Hour two is brought to by Jason Homonock at Jason. Mortgage. The most metal of all the mortgage brokers. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason.

Dot mortgage. Two quick notes on the soccer front. The managerial. front actually before we move on. We got to get to these NHL signings from yesterday, the Benson deal and the tuck deal and everything else. But one, A dog asked me at the break,

is Alfonso Davies now going to play for Canada in the round of 32 against South Africa? It's a fair question because the manager, Jesse Marsh, while yesterday telling everybody that Alfonso Davies was actually just a decoy against the Swiss. And by the way, I think part of having a security successful decoy is not announcing that you have a decoy.

I'll leave that alone. Yeah, he had a bunch of like bushes around him, which was weird. That's what threw me out. I think the idea of having a decoy is not to let everyone know you have one. I think it's a big part of decoy. It's going to say that. Again, South Africa, he should say, yeah, he's not going to play, but then he burst off the bench. That's a decoy.

That's a, yeah. Is it a decoy? Anyway, so Marsh did say in his media availability yesterday that Alfonso, was going to play against South Africa and he was ready to go. I don't know what that means anymore because it's kind of been a hollow gesture in the past. They're playing

games. They're playing games and I don't think it's to anybody's advantage anymore. Other managerial thing. Put this in your back pocket for when you have a question to ask in a post-match or post-game media availability. If you go to a Kinex game this year, you can use this one because I got a feeling

it might come up. yesterday after South Korea lost to South Africa, the Korean manager, Hong Myung Bo, was asked by a Korean journalist if the squad had food poisoning because otherwise, the performance made no sense yesterday. That's really good. Well, it's been known to happen to Mexico, right?

Right? It happened to Canada. It's got... It's got... Asked that for every Canucks lost. Did you guys have food poisoning? So, kudos. So there's this Twitter feed called Korean Football News and shout out to them for the screen grab that they got from the press availability. It is the most blank, angry stare from the Korean gaffir that you can imagine.

So the backstory there is that they benched their star, Jungman's son, who of course used to play for Tottenham and now plays for L.A.F.C. For kind of reasons unknown, he hasn't been good this year for L.A.F.C. He hasn't been good in the tournament, but he's the most famous Korean football. or he is to Korean football what Ronaldo is the Portuguese football. And they didn't start him yesterday. And then in a panic move, brought him off the bench.

And everyone's kind of saying, like, did you dramatically overthink what you were going to do yesterday? Like, why not just go out and play all your guys and get the result against South Africa? Now they're in danger of not making the 32. Yeah. But that's a great question.

Does your entire squad have food poisoning? Because if not, this performance makes zero sense. Anyway, let's talk about some of these NHL stories from yesterday. There's a lot going on. what was the big one for you? The Alex Tuck deal has to be the most stunning to me. So for those that missed it,

Alex Tuck, formerly now of the Buffalo Sabres, was involved in a sign and trade in which he is now a member of the Washington Capitals. So the caps have been busy boys. Eight years, 84 million for Tuck,

who I will remind you, is 30 years old. The Sabres, in part for facilitating this bad boy, get a 2027 third round pick and former Vancouver Connect, David Kompf in exchange. But the big story here now, the Washington Capitals get Jordan

Kairu and Alex Tuckham back-to-back days and suddenly that top six forward group in Washington, you know what it is? Washington's not accepting that you know, they've never accepted a rebuild. And they made some pretty good moves and good draft

picks to fend off a rebuild. And I also think, you know, they're preparing for life without Ovechkin. I don't know if he's going to be back next to he's 100% back next year. You think so? With this, with this move, yeah, they're giving it one more kick of the can. For you think so? Yeah.

I mean, you could also argue that they found his replacement. And Tucker replacements for him, right? So can I run through something for you guys really quick? Consider how big and how physically dominant this capital's team is right now. Okay, so Alex Ovechkin is on the quote unquote small side at six foot three. Yeah. And he's, I mean, he's listed at 238, which is generous. That's pretty generous.

Tom Wilson, big dude, right? 64, 225. Strom 64-200. Pierre-Luc Dubois, 6'4-220. The Protis brothers, 6'5-250 each. Tuck is listed, I believe, at 6-4 as well. Yeah. They are a gigantic forward group.

But here's my thing with Washington, and there are a few teams like this. Do they have any hope of winning a Stanley Cup? They seem to think so. I think it's crazy. I'm asking you. I'm asking you. They seem to think so.

I think it's crazy. Yeah. I think if you're loading up. Who's the best player on their team? I mean, when it's that hard, right? Yeah. You're kind of like. Well, Ovecich.

I mean, but. Ovechkin's not the. best player on their team. He's not even close anymore. But he's the best player. He's not the best player on the team. But he was. He was their leading goal score and leading point getter last year. Still not the best player. Jacob Shikrin? Might be. Might be.

Right? Like I... No, Vetchins in the conversation. Okay. Okay. He was their leading goal score and point getter. Okay. This kind of illustrates your point. How many goals of those were power play goals? Yeah. 18. 14. 14.

In any rate. Like, there's a couple of teams out there that are that are like this where you're like, hey, way to fend off the rebuild. Good job. You're still a competitive hockey team that might make the playoffs and you've got no shot at winning it. I think about Boston. Where are they in the east rate of the fourth best team maybe?

They're not better than Florida. They're not better than Carolina. I don't think they're better in Montreal. Are they better than Buffalo? And you need superstars to win Stanley Cups. I mean, Carolina might be the one argument against that. but Carolina has got a lot of really, really good players in their primes, right? And they play a specific system.

So I don't know, maybe they look at Carolina and say, well, if they can do it, we can do it. But also, and I do not apologize for this statement. Carolina had luck on their side this year. Yes, they blew away the competition, a competition that did not include the Florida Panthers. Yeah. And next year it will. And next year it will. Yeah, I don't love what Washington did here.

Credit to some of these teams for just trying to win and saying like, we're not going to, we're going to try and make some smart moves. And we're going to try and trade our way to an improvement, right? But I still mostly believe that you build around these elite players and that gives you the real hope of being a championship. In a lot of ways, when you sign these guys like Alex Tuss, and Jordan Cairo and Pierre Luke Dubois. And, you know, you've got these guys locked up long term to, like, okay contracts.

That tuck one is tough. The, oh, the Kyru one might not age that well. At least they didn't sign that, though, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, the cap it's only eight. But, like, they made a decision to do this with tech. Are you locking into mediocrity? Probably.

Or even, or even, we're locking into slightly above mediocre. Yep. Yeah, you are. Like, I didn't love what they did yesterday. I get why they did it, but I wouldn't agree with the process. Like, $10 million a year for Alex Stuck until he's 38 is wild work to me. Why did he choose Washington? Probably because they gave him $10 million a year. They were determined to get him, clearly.

They paid a lot for his negotiating rights. So the Sabres weren't willing. We're not even on negotiating rights. He signed and traded. So the Sabres weren't willing to give him that. I don't think so. I wouldn't if I was Buffalo. I think you could spend that money better elsewhere.

Right. Okay. Speaking of, they spend the money better elsewhere. Signing Zach Benson to a seven-year, 52.5 million dollar deal. My boy, my boy. Yeah. Average Aavie of 7.5 million for a guy that had a great season last year. It would really been pretty consistent for them since breaking in as a rookie at the tender age of 19. I think the sabers on the back end have some elite players, starting with Ross Miss Dahlene.

but I still wonder about their top six. Well, I think they're keeping the powder dry for a goalie, maybe Hallibuck. Well, I'm talking about their top six. Like, is Tage Thompson a one C that you win a Stanley Cup with? Maybe? There were times when I didn't notice them enough in the playoffs. Again, I go back to- And this is all very difficult.

I realize, like, if I'm running their GM, it's like, sometimes you're just going to do your very best, and people will say, oh, you don't have a superstar. I'm like, well, tell me something I don't know, but I still got to run this team. So when you say Carolina now, you say they're one- C in the playoffs was the stank the stank oven it wasn't even a ho I mean there one C yeah the one C in the playoffs was was technically a ho but but it wasn't it was stank oven yeah so then you say yeah okay

does this is this an outlier to the thought that you need an elite one C to win the cup maybe maybe right maybe it's maybe the luck factor everything or maybe you can't be built a little differently both Carolina Stanley Cups um how many of they won now two two right oh six and 26 because that 06 Carolina team was the outlier in that you need a number one defenseman. Yeah, Brett Heideken. To win the Stanley Cup. Yeah. Right? But they had the ones, see. They had stolen. But they were

always always the ones that you looked back on and you were like, you know, these guys had this guy, these guys had this guy and Carolina had. Brett Heddington? Hey, Doug, do you want to revisit the Zach Wilson or sorry, Zach Benson trade year? Do you just want to not do it? Because you mentioned

it before the show this morning. Zach Benson? Yeah. his draft class sorry where are you going with this do you want to brag oh brag no I'm good I'm done with the I know I know I'm right and that's not Adag came in this morning he was crowing he's like so

if you had to take a choice right now between Zach Benson or Tom Belander who would you take I was like I take Zach Benson I always say tongue and cheek because I actually like Vlander and I think he's going to be good but I mean I still stand by my original statement saying like yeah I would have drafted Benson but hey it is what it is

especially now on that contract that contract is incredible for Buffalo. Benson's? Yeah. Yeah, I know. Yeah, that was the one that caught me, right? And that's why I'm looking at Tuck's deal. He's a lot of money. Like, he's a good player. Okay. So he's a good player, but that's a lot of money and a lot of term for a guy that may have already played his best hockey in the NHL. It's kind of hard to suggest that he's going to have

better years than what he's had now that he's on the wrong side of 30. Getting paid 10 million when he's entering his age 38 season might look tough. And he's Alex Tuck. Yeah. I mean, I like Alex. He's a good player. Yeah, he's good. So a lot of people are texting and saying, all right, well, Alex Tuck gets a $10.5 million cap hit with looks like a full no move clause.

Where does that leave the PD conversation? Where does that put him? 11.6 is no longer a poisonous number. It's not. Yeah. And it gets less poisonous with every day. Yeah, they should be able to trade him without retaining. Like it seems much more likely now than before.

This is kind of, it's a weird statement, but one of the reasons I don't want them to retain on Elias Pedersen is that I check the Canucks Cap situation almost daily for work. And I don't want to see his name if they trade him. That's important. Like I don't like seeing, very petty and I respect it. I don't like seeing Oliver Eckman-Larsen's name when I go to the Canucks. and, you know, his cap, his buyout goes until 2030-1. I don't want to see Ekman Larson's name. I don't want to see Pedersen's name in the retained salary.

Like, I just, I mean, it's totally silly and totally petty, you know. And you still have another least person to deal with. If, yeah, but I like him. But if the Canucks retain salary on Pedersen and they, in essence, buy something by doing that, like they're not just giving him away, they're getting a first round pick or they're getting, they're getting something of value, then understand why they do that. But if we're going to cut bait with Elias Pedersen, I want it completely off the books. Like it bothered me when I would see Blongo's name. Yeah. you know and then it actually mattered a lot more too

yeah because they were up against the cap is like that that's the money we could have used right that's the whole player it bothered me and um you know i'm a little bit surprised that we're hearing more and more that the connects are willing to retain salary and i do wonder though um after hearing that are the connect's going to operate right around the salary floor like has part of the argument in let's say that Ryan Johnson and the Siddins had to convince the owner to retain on Elias Pedersen is part of the argument that hey we got to get to the cap floor anyway

and we're going to be around there anyway so we got to spend this money and we think that retaining on Elise Pedersen is a good use of that money again you have to spend it somehow Yeah. So you might as well spend this. That's a good point. I never thought about that. Are they going to be cap flooring for a few years?

Probably, yeah. I mean, any good rebuilding team is or trying to be. You don't want to spend a lot of money in each contracts. Unless you're able to get something back for it. Any good rebuilding team is not necessarily operating at the cap floor. Yeah, you take a bad contract back if it benefits you for sure. Sometimes that's the exception. You'll be, I mean, the connects have never weaponized their cap space.

and there are some things that won't change with this new management group. Some things will change, but there are some things that won't. And I think the idea of like, hey, we'll take on this bad contract for draft picks or whatever is like there's something in ownership

as like, I don't believe in doing that. Okay, let's get to some of these other stories real quick before we get to break. Morgan Riley, that trade might come down today. It might happen at the draft, but it sounds like it's been a really slow crawl. Riley has submitted a list of four teams

to whom he'd be willing to move. That's courtesy of Elliot Friedman. SportsNand, I guess another one of their insiders also reported it on Wednesday. All four teams are in the Western Conference. So that jives with what Frank was telling us the other day as well, that he heard that it was going to be a Western-based team.

And the only one that he got concrete information on was San Jose. So that would be an interesting fit as well. this is a remodel for that entire Maple Leafs Blue Line. I have no idea what that team is going to look like next year.

It's a bizarre mismash of off-season transactions. Bringing in Jim Hiller, adding Darren Radish. It feels like they're just sort of plucking from a bunch of different areas and trying to forget about McKenna too. Yeah, once that happens. Yeah, yeah.

Try to throw something together. I'm not really ruling anything out at this point. I think they I think there's a chance they bounce back a little bit if their power play can go. Because I think Darren Radish is obviously a power play related acquisition. They got to get Austin Matthews back on track.

And I think the power play is the one area where a player like McKenna could really do well early in his NHL career. I think he might struggle five on five. I think he might struggle defensively. But if you give him the top, in the space to operate on a power play, then I think Gavin McKenna could do some pretty special things.

Like, you set him up in a situation where you could have him setting up Austin Matthews for a one-timer, or you could have him setting up Darren Radish to bomb it. I mean, think about the Oilers power play. People always say, oh, the slap shot's dead, the slap shot's dead. I'm like, pretty sure Evan Bouchard? Bushbaum has a few nice clappers.

then that helps the Oilers power play. I mean, the thing about the Oilers power play is you can set up dry sidle for the one-timer for the one-timer down low, and he's an expert at that. And McDavid is so good at setting that up because everyone knows that he's going to be looking for dry-siddle, but he's so shifty that he puts himself in great positions to shoot himself. And then they're like, okay, well, this one's right in front of me. so I got a deal with McDavid and then he's like guess who I'm going to pass it to

dry sidle and then even if dry sidle's covered dry sidle can be like okay well actually you covered me so guess who I'm going to give it to Bouchard. Yeah right and I and I wouldn't be surprised if the Leafs are looking at the Oilers and going like what if we could kind of recreate that with a guy like Gavin McKenna. Yeah.

Okay before we go to break I need to remind you that the Duick Auto Group is the official automotive sponsor of Halford and Brough. Find out why nobody beats a Duke deal and nobody has since 1926. Visit Duke Jam on Marine Drive. Visit them downtown. Visit them in Richmond. Visit them online and the Duick Auto Group.com. Coming up on the other side of the break, we're going to have Thomas Drance on the show. That's a smart decision. Thomas Drans is a very smart man. Smart decision. Just ask them. Yeah. Smart decision. Coin by Thomas Drance, bringing on Thomas Drance is a smart decision from Thomas Trance.

Fist Jam. It's the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, the Obama meme where he's like giving himself the metal. I haven't seen that one in a while. Place with France's face. That is your smart decision brought to you by Crow. Your trusting accounting and tax advisors for over 55 years. Crow smart decisions lasting value. Learn more at chroma-kai.cai.c.

We are, oh, we're early here actually. Are we not? I got a way too quickly here. So I'll just set up what's coming on on the show. So 8 o'clock hour. We're going to talk to Drance. A reminder at 9.30 this morning is we've mentioned a couple times, but we'll reiterate it again. Ryan Johnson is going to meet with the media,

Kinnock's general manager. Now, there's a pre-scheduled, pre-draft, media availability. There's no big news on the horizon, but there's a lot of things happening in and around the national hockey league. And of course, the Canucks have two picks at tomorrow's first round of the NHL entry draft. I believe we're going to take that live if we can here on Sportsnet 650. If not, don't worry, we will be talking about. We are going to definitely take it live. Okay, so 930, we'll be taking Ryan Johnson's media availability live here on SportsNet 650. Also, sorry, no, keep going. Back half of the final hour of the show, it's what we learn time.

You need to get you what we learns in. Text now, Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650, 650, hashtag at WWL and tell us what did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports. There's a lot going on. The NBA is trying to keep up with the NHL and making trades left and right. You see this one now, Lamello Ball is getting traded to the middle. Minnesota Timberwolves. It's a big move for the T-Wolves there.

And of course, Yanisententacuco got traded earlier this week. So there's lots happening across the sporting realm. Get your what we learns in hashtag at WWL and text to 650-650. It's your chance to be on the radio. Do you want to say anything before we go to break? My early what we learned is I learned that the Orlando Pirates are a powerhouse in the South African domestic league because a bunch of the, the players on South Africa play for the Orlando Pirates.

The big club. And I heard that on the broadcast last night and it wasn't really listening. I just heard Orlando Pirates and I was like, what was that in like the USL or something like that? They are not. They got cool jerseys too. I saw one the other day. Oh really?

At winners. Seriously? Yeah. Yeah. That's how you know. There was a South African domestic soccer league jersey. Orlando Pirates. I recognize it right away because I remember the winners.

Yeah. Yeah. They are the most storied club in South Africa. You're listening to the Halpertin Breft Show on sports. that 650.