Halford & Brough in the Morning - Canucks Fans Are Already In Off-Season Mode

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason discuss a busy weekend in sports (3:00), including a pair of road losses for the Canucks that might have sealed their fate this season (6:00), plus they debate the main causes for what has been a very tumultuous Canucks season (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.

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-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-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-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-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-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-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-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-da-da-da-da-da-da- We call for Fetty carries left-hanging to the Vancouver zone, gone around forward to the net, he scores! It's a good hockey team, that is a chance to win a cup, but I thought we were heading up really well. Over to Crosby, one-timer, he scores! An overtime game-winning goal! The Great H has 890 goals! Good morning, Vancouver, it's 6.01 on a Monday. Happy Monday everybody. It is Alfred at his breath.

It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming live from the Kintec studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Ladi, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Alfred and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, four parts. We are 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. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics working70 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio Kintec footwear and Orthotics working together with you in step. Got a big show ahead on a Monday We're gonna spend about 90 minutes recapping the Junos from yesterday Talk a little Anne-Marie talk a little Michael Buble. Lattie and I won a Juno. Yeah, I heard from one of our intros

Yes, best jingles. Yeah. Yes the new category. Bracket sports division. Yeah, nobody else was nominated, strangely enough. What did Anne-Marie get? Lifetime achievement award? I think her- She still isn't making hits, is she? I think her and Michael Buble had very pro-Canadian speeches. Oh, I see.

At the Junos, a pro-Canadian speech? I thought it'd be anti-Canadian. Didn't see a comment. Thought it'd be pro-Trump. Yeah. What a stage to do it on. We won't be going over the Junos. We'll be talking a lot about the Vancouver Canucks after a very, very disappointing weekend for the Vancouver Canucks to finish out their six game road swing.

We have two guests today on the show and only two guests today on the show. It's gonna be mostly Halford and Bruff, but it's seven o'clock. Manny Malhotra is going to join the program. Head coach of the Abbotsford Canucks, the hottest team in hockey brackets, non-St Louis Blues division, nine straight wins for Manny and the Abbotsford Canucks. That's crazy with all the guys playing for the Canucks too. I know. When you consider the amount of guys that he's lost

and then the usual roster shuffle that they have just normally in the American League. The fact that they've been able to rip off nine straight wins, they got a five one win over the Barracuda of San Jose on Saturday. We'll talk to Manny about that. Manny and the Abbotsford Canucks were prominently featured during Sunday's broadcast of the Canucks Jets game,

talking about some of the young prospects there. Ty Mueller can ask him about him. So we'll talk to Manny at seven o'clock. A lot to speak about with Manny as the Abbotsford Canucks at least are on their way to the playoffs. So we'll talk to Manny Malhotra at 7 o'clock. And then at 8 o'clock this morning, the second of our two guests, Satyar Shah is going to join the program. The Canucks, as mentioned, finished their six game road swing with a 3-1 loss in Winnipeg yesterday afternoon. They finished their trip with a 2-2 and 2 record.

It was okay. There were some gutsy efforts, but ultimately not nearly enough points to keep whatever playoff hopes they had legitimately alive. It's pretty much over for the Vancouver Canucks now. They'll need to run the table, and even then it might not get it done. So it's a tough weekend.

So let's get into, what are you doing here? So let's get into that with what happened hey did you guys see the game last night no what happened I missed all the action because I'm moving we know how busy your life can be what happened? you missed that? what happened?

what happened is brought to you by the BC construction safety alliance making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools or resources and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Did two guests throw you off or something? Couldn't run the back in reverse order? I was going to run the back in reverse order.

Okay. But then we didn't. Sat at eight, man, he's at seven. So the Canucks lost a wild one Friday against Columbus. It was entertaining to watch, but disappointing result, just getting a point out of Columbus, especially when you had a three nothing lead.

And then Sunday against Winnipeg yesterday, they played well, lost to a better team. I think that, that, that is basically the story at the end of that one. And, you know, Halford, like you said, two, two and two on the road trip, not terrible, but the results, they needed more results because of the situation they were in.

And I think you can be impressed with the efforts that the Canucks gave on the road trip. And, you know, Rick Tauket said he was proud of the team and I think the players were proud of their efforts. And I think some of their younger players showed pretty well and we can talk to Manny Maholtra about that, but you also got to be willing to face reality with the team and the team and the team players were proud of their efforts. Uh, and I think some of their younger players showed pretty well.

And we can talk to Manny Mulholland about that, but, uh, you also got to be willing to face reality with how Vancouver season is likely to end. And the reality is that they will play eight more games this regular season and that will very likely be it for them. There are lots of reasons why this season is likely to end without the playoffs.

At the top of mind, the most obvious one is the, well, if you want to call it that, you've heard it before, the rift between Miller and Pedersen that led to Miller's departure. Plus the fact that neither of those players, top six centers, played up to their ability this season. Uh, there were also injuries. A lot of injuries.

Most notably to Thatcher Demko. And we can talk more about the goaltending situation later, but Hughes, Hronik, Besser, the newly acquired Hedl and Elias Pedersen also missed games. And that is something that for the most part didn't happen last season, at least until late in the season when they ran into some injury problems with Thatcher Demko.

Those injury problems have kind of kept occurring for him, unfortunately, but last season they were very healthy and that made a big difference. The lineup was able to stay somewhat consistent. One thing that doesn't come up too much is the overtime record. Canucks lost 11 games in overtime this season compared to just five wins. Switch that around, flip it around, say it was 11 and five A playoff spot or close to it right now. Uh, and then I would say a number of the off season additions didn't pan out. And even though the Canucks were able to move on from the likes of Vincent

D'Arnais, Danton Heinen, and even Daniel Sprong. And of course, Carson Sousi had big struggles. They still played a significant number of games this season and they were not part of the solution. The defense, uh, earlier in the season was a problem. And then it kind of flipped around because they robbed Peter to pay Paul to fix the defense. And then all of a sudden you're looking at the

forward group and going, oh, I don't really like this forward group. To make a long story short, a lot of things went against the connects this season. Some of them beyond their control, some of them not. They aren't officially done yet yet but I don't think it's too early to talk about what they're gonna do this offseason and we've already got some texts into the Dunbar lumber text inbox and Scott and Suri asked what changes do

you realistically think the connects will do this offseason so a lot of you are already into offseason mode and I get it. There's still eight regular season games left, but man, St. Louis, I don't know if they're going to lose again. Minnesota probably had too much of a cushion to catch. And by the way, there's still Calgary in there anyway. Uh, if you've got any questions or comments, text in on the Dunbar lumber text line.

Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and runaway warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at dunbarlumber.com. To Scott and Suri, what changes do you realistically think the Canucks will do this off season? Realistically, I think there's a lot of changes that they could do. They could change coaches if they don't come to together on an extension for Rick Taukett. Although, and we talk about this, there is realistically a chance they force them back on that option according to what Thomas Drantz has

reported, they could trade Elias Pedersen. Is that something that appeals to you or is that something that scares you? They could trade their Leis-Peterson. Is that something that appeals to you or is that something that scares you? They could trade their first round pick. They could trade one of Leckermackie, Willander, DPT, maybe plus the first round pick. If they want to meaningfully address the center position, you want to bring in a 25 year old center

who can maybe be a 2C or even a future 1C, ain't going to be cheap. Nope. What are you going to give up to you? What are you going to get up to get it? Uh future one C ain't going to be cheap. Nope. What are you going to give up to it? What are you going to get up to get it? One thing I'm pretty sure they won't do tank, rebuild. There's zero chance of that.

They're not going to do that. So, you know, you got to give to get in the NHL. Probably won't trade Quinn Hughes either. Probably not. Probably not Andy. You never know. Probably not. Probably not.

But I think there are lots of options on the table as there should be after this season. Yeah, the autopsy this year is going to be one of the more interesting ones in recent memory because there's either going to be, there's either gonna be the slicing and dicing and when you're all done with it saying, well, a lot of stuff conspired against us

this season that we can't envision happening next year. They need to find some sort of happy medium. I think we talked about this last week a couple of times between icing a team that can achieve when everything goes right and then icing a team that doesn't achieve when a lot of things go wrong. There needs to be more of a contingency plan in place. The center position, I mean,

it seems glaringly obvious that they're going to have to give to get to try and get a center into place. Like they're going to have to probably part with one of their young prize prospects in order to get a guy back. That's going to be able to do the thing that we're talking about, which is compete immediately and not rebuild and not reload and not tank and try and draft the young guy that you can build through the ranks. They're going to try and go out and they're going to try and based on this management group's history, make another big splash in the trade market,

which is something that they've done throughout their time in Vancouver. They've made a lot of moves to address pieces, but as you've pointed out, a lot of that addressing has been the old Rob Peter to pay Paul or vice versa kind of deal. Yeah, well, I mean, that's kind of the only way you can do it at times. Well, and now, and now Paul.

Especially if you don't have- Paul or Peter. One of them would be the prospect group now. You're robbing the prospect group. You're robbing the future to pay for the present. That's what it's going to be next. Yeah. Danny in Brookswood, Texas, boys, this mostly just makes me even more

frustrated that we didn't trade away assets at the trade deadline. Yeah. I mean, even if you weren't impressed with the return that you're going to get for Brock Besser or Pew Souter, I mean, you kept those guys and you know, they did score some goals down the stretch. Besser had a few really good games. And Pew Souter has been unbelievable.

Even just to watch him do this. But now, you know, are you going to bring those guys back? I don't know. I hope they bring Souter back you know, are you going to bring those guys back? I don't know. I hope they bring Suter back. Well, they might have to bring Suter back. I mean, down the middle is a big time issue. I guess it depends what they're going to do

with Elias Pedersen. I tend to think they're going to keep Elias Pedersen, but I have time for any conversations about them moving on from him. And if they do, maybe they bring back Suter at least as a stopgap for a little while. I mean, the fact of the matter is I don't even think this is a hot take. I think, you know, I'm not saying that Pugh Suter is a better hockey player than Elias Pettersson, but he has been this season.

It's not a hot take! He had that or an ender ready. He's been a better hockey player than Elias Pedersen has been this season. And that is good for Pugh Suter, an absolute indictment for Elias Pedersen. You know Pedersen's minus 10 this year? Yeah. Here we go with the plus minuses again. And he's surprised.

Oh, Pedersen's minus 24. Every time I look at him, I'm like, I don't even know how you got to minus 24 on this team, but he's minus 24. Anyway, the plus minus talker aside. For me, that's like the number one thing. Once the regular season gets done, you know, obviously Rick Tocket, what they're going to do with him is a big decision, but, and I'm pretty

sure for Rick Tocket, if you're talking about the decision that he's going to make, and he said this on our program, so this isn't me saying anything that's new or me just making it up. They're going to have to have a big sit down with Elias Pedersen and as Tauket put it, dive into this. Like, Hey dude, are you in or out?

And I know you've said you want to stay here, right? I know you signed, but what are we going to get out of you? For real. I think Freach called it a come to Jesus moment. And just ask him, hey man, what do you think went wrong this year? And how are we going to fix this? Because this isn't doable again. For me, he's the number one reason why the Canucks are in this situation right now. Not in the playoffs?

Yes. Hmm, I'd push back on that. Okay, push back then. Well, I would say- He's the number one center that played like, at best, a 3C. Right, but you can withstand, I mean, it would be the equivalent of a player being,

you can withstand one guy not going, and not having Hughes for 14 games this year. I'm not saying he's the only reason. I'm not it would be the equivalent of a player being, you can withstand one guy not going and not having Hughes for 14 games this year. I'm not saying he's the only reason. I'm not saying he's the only reason. I'm saying he's the number one reason. I would say that the health of this team is the number one reason that they're not in the playoffs this year.

They were not designed to withstand Hughes missing 14 games, Frohnick missing two months, Demko missing, God, like three quarters of the season. They weren't. This is a management issue as well. It's like there are some teams that are built to withstand injuries. The National Hockey League injuries happen all the time. A lot of people make contingency plans for them, but they this team was not built

in a lot of ways to like color outside the lines and paint outside the margins. Like if they kept everything nice and tight, everyone stayed healthy, everyone listened to the coach, there were no riffs, it would have been a ... You just said a riff. I say the number one reason is the locker room strife. That's my ... The number one reason for failure this year. Hey, you know what? You're allowed to present that as an option. Locker room strife, pour this team apart, and that was the start of the end.

They've got a lot of injuries right now, including to Elias Pettersson. I thought they just played pretty well on this road trip. You said they're not designed to be like, I thought the young guys played really well on this road trip. They got their entire complement of blue liners, they got Demko back. It's a big difference.

Yeah, Demko was a, Demko's had big reasons. I'll grant you that. We'll get into the Lankton thing later. I think we can all, whether there's a number one reason or not, there's a lot of reasons. Yeah. Right?

Yeah, yeah. It's a good debate. But for me, and you know me, I've been picking Bon Pedersen for a year and I've been right to do it. And they got to figure out what happened. And I've been right to do it. And I've been right to do it. I mean, well, no, no, no, but how many people- I bullied him right into submission.

Okay. And it was a good bully. My mother took my car keys away for talking to a woman. She was right to do it. How many people last year, we're going all the way back to last season here. We're saying he's gone, don't worry. He'll turn around. He'll turn around. It's just a little slump.

Players have slumps. He'll turn around. He'll turn around. And he hasn't fully turned it around. A little bit better. A little bit. But yeah, but like he did a 180. He's gone back like 40 degrees or something like that.

Right? He's not pointed in the right direction quite yet, but he's just not pointed in reverse. And everyone thought while they traded Miller, be like, this is it. He's going to be back baby. Everyone thought last season like, oh, it's the playoffs. Oh, once he got his contract done. Right?

Like, and, and so what I'm saying I'm saying is the Canucks need to figure out what's going on with him. That's for me, that's like the- See, I'm already on that, on that. Cause if I'm talking, I'm like, I don't want to come back if we're going to do this again. I cannot do this again. And if my number one center isn't going to be

a number one center, he's not going to play up to his contract, then I don't want to do this. I don't want to go somewhere else. That's why, I mean, I've been one step ahead of you on, like when you're talking about, they're going to have a real heart to heart and a sit down and they're going to try and get the answers. My response to that would be like, you already have your answer. Like the last 12 to 16 months is your answer.

I would find it shocking that anything either side could say or promise or swear in a stack of Bibles by is worth the words and nothing else. Like there's actions, there's actionable moments, which is the value that you take from them. And then there's words, which are often empty. Like I don't think there's any promises, there's any like, we're going to all find a way to get this thing back on track. I think at a certain point, and I think they've already reached it, that you just have to move on.

And part ways, it doesn't have to be this awful, ugly, messy divorce. Yes, it does. It doesn't have to be. Well. Doesn't have to be. Uh, IMAAC wrote in his column, so it's, this isn't just me picking on him, but he said,

overall, the last four games, two, one and one, 15 goals scored were an interesting test case for life without Elias Pedersen, whose absence could become permanent if Canuck management decides after the season that the key to resetting this team and its leadership is trading Pedersen before the no move clause on his 92.8 million dollar US contract, uh, which activates

on July 1st. So. It's all right there in plain view. Yeah. You know? I think the leadership thing is, is also, uh, uh, um, something that you have to consider with Pettersen, right?

He wears an A. It's very unlikely you're going to strip them of that A, uh, and keep them. So I don't know. It just must be, it must be for, for the team that's supposed to follow the leaders, right? If you've got a player that is getting paid that much money and is wearing an A and is clearly not

playing up to his potential and there are, there is talk of him not coming into the season prepared. And, you know, it took until like March until Rick Taukett was like, wow, we're, see, he's doing some things, right? Like, what does that do to the group? You know, what, what is that? How encouraging is that to the group?

How, if you're trying to build a culture, how hard is it if your number one center is not all in? And you know, you, the listener can say, well, it's not important, but I guarantee you that the management and the coaching staff says it's really important and they will within three, two, one, bring up Sidney Crosby. Yeah.

That's, and that's the most obvious one, especially with this group that they're always going to lean on. I, again, it seems like between what IMAX written there and what everyone said, and the evidence that's in front of you that, um, a parting of ways probably makes the most sense. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, now this is

one man opinions only. I don't think they're going to do it. I don't think they're going to do it though. I think they're going to gamble. Well, if they're going to gamble, they're going to lose because there's been too much. There's too much baggage. There's too much collateral damage. There's too much.

I think there's been too much under the bridge. You just can't say we're going to clean it all up. I don't think you can get a fresh start and a fresh slate here. If you want to keep all the other, all the other component parts around. I don't think if you want to trade for them and one of the Canucks gonna get Mmm, they'll probably take another loss on a trade. What does that look like? I don't know. That's a great question Is he worth I don't know. I have no idea at some points like I'm watching him play I'm like I'd rather have the cap space to be honest with you. Well, there's that too. There is that too I mean

we're getting way far down the road here because the management group is gonna have to do this autopsy and they might ultimately decide that trying it and running it back is the better and there's really only two options. I mean, we've discussed this. It's either you move them before July 1 where you've got control of the process

or you say, all right, let's run it back another year and let's see what happens. I would be shocked if given how tumultuous and how dysfunctional this year has been, that there's a huge appetite to run it back in a similar fashion. I just, I mean, listen, if the Canucks decide to keep Pedersen, I'm sure I'll be able to talk my way into being like, oh, maybe I'll have a great off season. And we've seen him at a high level before, but you know, if, if it's game one of next season and the Canucks have decided to keep him and then we see his skating doesn't look good.

He's got no juice as Drantz puts it. He's not moving his feet. Like the feeling that I'm gonna have is just like, ah, ah, ah. I'm like no! Talk is growing out of here, it's about fully grayed. Slick back gray hair for talking. Then you realize.

Chain smoking on the bench. You realize it's like seven more years of this. Which is. And it's just a massive handicap to the team too, right? Like it's just like your number one center making all this cap space. And it's like, I will not be well if that is the situation. But you know, if you're management- More so than you already are. No, I'm not well right now.

But if you're management, here's the thing, right? I have to stay as a fan of the Canucks. If you're management, sometimes you get in these situations where you're like, well, I'm going to gamble because I know that if I trade away Pedersen right now, my chance of getting a number one center back in this deal are slim and none. And I'm not going to win a cup here.

You almost have to like acknowledge that. And I'm probably going to lose Quinn Hughes. So my, for me personally, this is a moral hazard thing. I'm going to keep Pedersen and I'm going to gamble. And I know that if Pedersen comes back and isn't good and the team isn't good, I'm probably just going to get fired. Right. But like, I might as well take the gamble,

but the rest of us, we're in it for the long term, as in our lives, right? So it's an interesting decision to make. I actually think, philosophically speaking, that management could go in the exact opposite direction, is that, especially with Rutherford at the helm, a guy that has traded his way out of problems before will be able to find a way to do it once again.

Maybe not necessarily in practice, but in theory, I would not be surprised if there's not a situation that they don't think that they can fix by working their way with the trades and working their way out of it. Because that's how a lot of the management groups are built mentally in terms of their approach. It's not just like, well, we're just gonna, you know,

keep it status quo and see if it turns itself around. It's we're going to try and change this thing and fix this thing. Well, what about ownership as well, right? So ticket prices are going up a bit next year, guys. We need to put together an entertaining hockey team. We need to make a reason for people to be like, okay, it's more expensive now, but this team is worth supporting. It's worth coming out to see them. I have a question for you guys. You know my answer

What team was more enjoyable to watch the one with Pettersson or the one the last few few games without him? Well, it was last few games. I would say yeah, they played better for here's the thing the crazy part is it and you're a massive Petty fan. I like oh, I like a lot. Yeah, and I still think he will regain most, if not all, of his form. Why do you think that? I just, because he's so good. I mean, I just, I know what it is, is I just refuse to believe a guy can lose that much talent. He's too talented to just never find it again.

Now the pessimist in me, also known as the normal Canucks fan in me, realizes there's also a good chance he doesn't regain his form until he's on another team. I could see that 100% being the case, case is like he gets traded then boom is PD again It's like oh great. Of course. That's how it has it is it is what I Refused to believe it'll be gone forever. It is pretty crazy that in a not necessarily season defining But in a road trip or your season was on the line and the team goes to two and two Very average across the board there were more good vibes from that to two and two, and two, very average across the board. There were more good vibes from that two, two, and two road trip than I think there had been from the previous,

what, 65, 66 games? Oh, scored goals. Yeah, like that's the thing. There were part of it was probably the underdog status, right, like they were just missing so much talent, yet they found a way to pull together and win a bunch of games. But as he played well, man, they found a way.

They played super well. It's not like they were hanging on and just relying on the goal turning. No, they played really well. They found a way to score goals. Outside they were hanging on and just relying on the goal turning. No, they played really well. They found a way to score goals outside of Lankton blowing up in two games. Like Demko looked really good in the game that he played. Like that's, again, and that was a game,

a six game road trip where they went two, two and two. They had two wins in six games. It wasn't like they lit the world on fire, but that kind of illustrates how very, very tumultuous and erratic the previous 60 plus games were because they just never showed that those kinds of characteristics over a regular like stream of games. Okay.

So we got Manny Malhotra joining us at seven, really looking forward to chatting with Manny about the season he's had down in Abbotsford. Sat's going to join us at eight. We'll talk a lot about what we've just talked about. We got an open segment on the other side, so we're going to dip into the Dunbar Lumber text line.

There's a lot of texts right now. So we're going to flag a few in the break and then we'll come back and read a few. Thanks for listening to the Alfred Abruf show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satya Arshaw, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info,

and even the post-game show. Listen four to six p.m. weekdays, and on demand through your favorite podcast app. ["The New York Times"] 632 on a Monday. Happy Monday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. How can you not be in a good mood when this song is playing? You are listening to the Haliford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. Haliford and Bref of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are 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.

Cole Perfetti's on our TVs here in the studio. He's 12. Yeah, he's got a real baby face. Yep, he also. Derek Former was like, oh, that baby just dangled me. I felt so bad. Did for see that baby dangle me That's his name baby dangles. He I felt forward leaned hard to the right. It was like, oh that's bad

I felt bad like he's he's played well. Yeah, he's done everything you could ask him He just got he got it happens, right? It was a tough one though These young the game right there These young skill guys. Yeah. These young skill guys step into the league and they're dancing around you. That Columbus game was wild by the way. It was kind of fun to watch, but it was also like really frustrating.

Fun was not the word. Fun was fun. No. What is the point of goaltenders really, when you think about it? So let's talk about whether Lankton should have played that game because the connects were in between a rock and a hard place and another rock

frankly, because if you play Lankton, I don't think he was right. Dolly Walls reported that he's been dealing with a hip injury. We've also heard he was sick. But then if you overplay Demko, you can't do that. And if you play Silas, don't do that. The hindsight being 2020, they obviously should have played

Demko in Columbus, got the two points out of that. And then just- But what if you got hurt there, right? Well, yeah, there's always that risk. I'm just saying like Hindsai being 2020, you take the two points in Columbus and your playoff percentage chances, what are they at right now? Andy, you just looked it up nine. They would have been at like 11 if you got that and your playoff percentage chances, what are they at right now, Andy? You just looked it up, nine?

They would have been at like 11, if you got that extra point in Columbus. And then that Winnipeg game was always gonna be tough. They're the best team in the NHL. And now. End of a long road trip to Winnipeg. So if you're not gonna get- It's a good team, man.

And the Canucks played about as close to the best low event game as you can throw at. Money puck odds, 9.7% chance that Canucks make the playoffs. So here's my Mui Calliente take, and I know that the regular season, we're already talking about the off season and everything, but I think we have one more false hope left in us. One more chance for them to pull the football,

for Lucy to pull the football away. I don't think so, man. Why do you think that? Here's what's gonna happen. The Minnesota Wild are going on. chance for them to pull the football, for Lucy to pull the football away. Here's what's going to happen. Okay. The Minnesota Wilder going out. I only play like two games this week. The Minnesota Wilder going out on a three game swing. They do the New York, New York, New Jersey. I don't know what order.

It's not a tough trip. Just listen to me. Okay. They're going to lose all three of those. And the Canucks are going to beat Seattle and Anaheim this week. And that's going to be the last, we're gonna have one more, well, you're saying there's a chance, and then it's gonna pile in, probably when they have to play Vegas, Dallas,

and Colorado in consecutive games, because the thing is. You're still eyeing that Minnesota game, they've got April 12th, this is, you know what? I like your lack of quit. Thank you. You know, someone's gotta keep trying. Someone's gotta keep going. I'm not, everyone understands what I'm talking

about here though, right? I'm not saying that they're gonna do it. I'm saying that they're gonna give us one last false hope that it's still possible. I don't think it's gonna work for me though, but we'll see, we'll see. Because I've watched the last couple of Minnesota games, mostly because I'm like trying to like,

you're trying to will this thing into reality. Yeah, Minnesota's not good. Minnesota is not a good team. Well, they're missing a bunch of guys. They're missing two guys. They're missing Kaprizov and Ericssonak. Yeah, that's pretty important. Yeah, they just don't,

they score less than the Canucks right now. They basically got off to an unbelievable start and they've been a 500 hockey team since. And I know the inspiring coaching of John Hines will surely right in the ship, but they just look like a team that's like run out of steam. I've been following Russo very closely. He's a very good hockey reporter,

Mike Russo out of Minnesota. And he feels like he's got his finger on the pulse of the team. And he says like game after game, they look tired. They look like they're out of energy. They look like a team that got off to a crazy hot start and then just kind of petered out after that. Well, whoever gets them in round one is going to

be pretty happy. Yep. And they're going to make it to the playoffs. Rich and Cloverdale, good morning guys. One thing I think that we have not yet discussed this morning is that in all of the decision making coming up, the Quinn factor is still the number one deciding point.

What would Quinn want management to do? Well, that's certainly something we've talked about before on the show and I don't think we've changed our decision or that you're going to have to talk to Quinn Hughes about what's going on here. And that includes if you can, if you can, you can't sign them to an extension until the following summer, but if you can get some

guidance on what he's thinking. Yeah. Um, and I would say get some guidance on what he really thinks about Elias Pedersen. He was very encouraging. Um, when PD had a good game, uh, I don't know, like a month ago or whatever. And, uh, he said, you know when PD had a good game, I don't know, like a month ago or whatever. And, uh, he said, you know, PD's been through

a lot this year, he's taken a lot of crap. And then he said, he'll be fine. Okay. Well, you know, I think that's like, why do you say that Quinn, you know, how are you going to help, you know, that, that sort of thing, because we can all agree that the best thing possible is for Pedersen to regain his form, right?

Shh, here. Here. That's the best possible thing. And we do have that, I mean, you were trying to sell some hopium earlier about, you know, maybe the Connuck's giving us, giving one last gas. But I mean, the hopium that we're all going to have is off season, off season.

Pedersen has a huge off season. Like he goes into like Rocky montage mode and, uh, you know, starts, maybe he can train in Siberia or something and he's, you know, like, sure, you know, and then he comes back and next season says Ivan Drago and he takes off from there. Um. Drago with a wonky knee, but Drago still, I get it.

Yeah. I mean, okay. No, he's not Drago. He's Rocky. By the way, I'm trying to remember the montage. Did both of them train in Russia? Well, yeah, but Drago had all the scientists. He had all the scientists. He had all the crazy machines and stuff. Pumping them full of steroids. Rocky just had hope. He was doing the ancestral training. Back then, they were like, we were like, look at all the technology the Soviets have. We're going to lose this Cold War.

I must break you. So then it turned out that all the machines were fake. Yeah. It was all just dance. Secondhand parts, they're all breaking down. We're losing focus here. Still, though, I get the analogy. I understand that the Pedersen discourse is probably gonna,

and it's gonna dominate a lot of this. That's why I was like, well, it should. Maybe we can kick the can down the road for a bit. Ah, it should. It's a big decision. Yeah, but they've, like I said, there's only two ways that it's gonna go.

And right, it's March 31st, and really the next big point in this whole thing is July 1st. That's where the next sort of rubber hits the road on this thing. Here's a funny thing to consider. Okay. Here's a funny thing to consider. Well, it's not funny.

Don't preface it with funny until we hear it. Is there like a non-zero chance that PD has played his last game for the Canucks? Potentially. I don't know if he's going to dress for the remainder of this. If there's nothing left on the table. Yeah. We don't even know what's going on with his injuries. Someone texted in and was like, has there been anything on the

Pedersen-Hoglund injury? Like, no. Why are you smiling so much, bro? They're injured. Not smiling. They're injured. That's what we know. Freedom! Certain glean is why they were seeing you like this before. They have to move them at the draft, right? That's the thing. If they're going to trade them, it's got to be the draft, otherwise they're stuck with them.

The tail end of this road trip, there was nobody on the road doing media. I don't think there was anyone in Columbus and I don't think there was anyone in Winnipeg. So you couldn't really like dig in to try and figure out what's going on with the team on the road. All we got was that they sent Hoaglander and Pedersen back a few games ago now. And you are getting a pretty, and we were talking about this at the break, you are getting a pretty good snapshot right now of what life looks like without him and

What guys are doing in elevated roles like if you want to start you want to do house of positivity for a couple minutes a rarity on the Haliford and brush show but Pew suitor has played he's been a fantastic fantastic story this year Like he's good at the end of the year He's gonna end up being one of the year. Like he's good at the end of the year. He's going to end up being one of the three or four most valuable guys on the team, which as you have pointed out, it's probably not great for the team where Suter is one of your leading guys,

but he's definitely, uh, punched way above his weight and has been a fantastic contract and value signing for these guys. Key for sure. What I thought was great on that six game trip, like played very well. I thought Demko's play was fantastic. I think the big thing there is, if he's going to play for the remainder of the season, I imagine that he will. Can he get through it without getting hurt? Because you need some sign moving forward that he's going to be at the point where he can play more than two or three weeks at a time without having another injury. His off season is going to be almost just as important as Pedersen's off season, but to bring

it back to Petey. Kenton Victoria texts in, you almost have, you better get ready for this because there's going to be a lot of it. You almost have to keep Petey for next year. It is impossible to win that trade. You can take a loss on him down the road as easily as today.

If it becomes really bad in Vancouver, he will want to leave regardless of the no trade. I'm going to push back on that Kent. Um, I think if the Canucks have a legitimate offer on the table for Pedersen that they have to seriously consider it because again, there is still that hopium of the off season, right? You can write this off season off as he's a guy, he's maybe learning that

he needs to put the work in, signed his big contract, didn't put the work in. And then we saw the results. What if he quote unquote puts the work in this off season and comes back and isn't a player again? Or what if he doesn't put the work in? What if he says he'll put the work in? We've all done that before, right? Oh yeah, for sure, I'm going to put the work in. And then we don't put the work in. Doing it right now. And then you come back next season, like I think you were in a much worse position then.

It is really tough to sell then. Pedersen would be in control, but I don't even know if that would matter. Then you get into the territory of like untradable. See, we would want this guy. When I was talking about- That's the risk that you're running. When I was talking about my inevitable parting of

ways and I said, it doesn't have to be super messy and everything, you're like, oh it does. When you, if you let it get past July one, that's where it becomes, that's the messy part. That's where you get like. I think it's messy anyway if you trade them away. I think that you can sell this in a way where you say the player needs a fresh start, we need a fresh start

and we don't see this being reconciled here. Here's another question that is something like, if you run it back, are Tauke and Pedersen both gonna sign on to work with one another? Not to say they had a terrible working relationship, but this has been a strain. I don't think it was great. This has been a strain on the coach for sure.

And it's been a strain on the player. When Quinn Hughes said that Pee that PD's had to put up with a lot of crap this year, that doesn't indicate to anyone that he's had an awesome time this year. Like, can we all just acknowledge this? That he's probably not had a great year himself. He probably hasn't loved coming to the

rink on a daily basis. I don't know. He seems pretty happy all the time. What if it's like a better situation where like they try and move PD, they don't get the offer that they want and they reluctantly keep him and then go up to the podium and be like, well, we tried to move him, but you should have seen those offers. They were not good. So we got to just keep him, hang on and hope for the best. There's roughly a zero chance they're

going to do that with a guy who's under contract for seven more years. They could do it with better because he was out of contract. For some reason, I imagine the podium at the draft. He went up to the draft with the first round pick. I just want to say. We tried, bud. We tried. Not good. And with the 15th pick, some sweet. Who cares.

So you mentioned Rick Tocket. Would the Canucks really force Rick Tocket back without an extension? Now for weeks, I've been saying there's no way they'd do that. There's no way they would go like, I know you don't want to stay here, but we've got this team option. So guess what? You're staying.

Um, according to Thomas Drance, who wrote in the athletic recently, uh, the club has an option to keep talk it for another season. And the athletic has been told in no uncertain terms by a team that another season and the athletic has been told in no uncertain terms by a team source that the club views target as their coach for next season and intends to exercise that option. The Canucks would prefer to work out an extension

over simply exercising their team option this summer. So number one option for the Canucks, work out an extension over simply exercising their team option this summer. So number one option for the Canucks, work out an extension, bring Tocket back. According to this, number two option is exercise the option and. Strong arm him back. You're coming back.

So here's a question for you. What would be uglier? The Canucks bringing Pedersen back and him not finding his form or the Canucks bringing Tocket back against his will. Could they do both? Yeah, I was going to say do both. Okay.

Like, can you imagine like. They can have their shared. It's going to be a great year. Shared misery. We're both being forced to be here. We bring back, bring. Against our will. Bring out Tocket and like, you know, like the

full shackles and everything. Yeah. Just like, it's like, yeah, he fought to get away from here, but we had to take him down with the Taser and we said, we've got a team option. It's the, this is like, yeah, he fought to get away from here, but we had to take him down with a taser. And we said, we've got a team option. It's a Tom Jones, Simpsons thing where he's like chained to the bench with like, Yeah, yeah. And I'm like, smile for the camera.

Right? Toc is trying to make line changes, but he's handcuffed, so he can't like point at anyone. It just makes it tough to coach. That's what Yogi's there for. What do you think of the situation though? I think that they should, whatever has delayed the talk at extension talks, negotiations or whatever, that delay, that should be, the freeze should be thawed. They should definitely move that up their priority chart and get it done. I think that the Tortorella dismissal in Philly definitely

expedited things. I think that there's no question, no question that that put another layer and another wrinkle into this entire scenario that quite honestly might have been saved until the off-seal. I think Philly was gonna part with Torts anyway, but I think doing it in the manner and the way that they did suggested that there was some urgency on their part. And I think that the Canucks organization needs to respond until if they want to keep him, and it certainly sounds as though they do, you may

as well get down to brass tacks and get an extension sorted out ASAP. Like that should be. But how much, how much has to do with dollars and cents and term and all that sort of thing? Probably a lot of it. Well, obviously. Yeah.

But how much of, okay, the better question is how much has to do with the direction of the team? When you're in Talcott's situation, let's say Talcott was a free agent, right? He's probably going to get money anywhere, right? Yeah. So if it were up to him and there were no options, then the deciding factor would be like if the money is

going to be pretty much equal in any place, the deciding option would be where's the best opportunity for me to not only thrive as a head coach, but to enjoy the experience. Right. And the Canucks would have to make that sale over the other available jobs. It'd be easy to make that sale over Philly.

All due respect to Mitch Kauff and Jet Lachenko and everyone else they've got there. They're years away from being competitive, right? They are. Let's just get that out there right now. Philly's not going on the playoffs for three years. I can write it down right now. Okay. But what's their ceiling versus the Canucks ceiling?

How are the Canucks, who has a better chance to be a Stanley Cup contender in three years, Philly or Vancouver? Probably Vancouver because they have the best player out of either of those teams. Okay. Yeah. That's like that's kind of- Well, you got to make that, you got to make that, you got to make that sale then. That's fine. Just tell them, be like, you're going to get to coach the best defenseman in the league as opposed to Travis Sandheim. If you want to make that argument with them.

Well, then Rick would be like, well, am I? How many years do I get this guy for? And that's, that's gotta be part of your pitch and part of your plan. You're like our number one priority now that you're signed is we are keeping our captain forever. Like are the big three decisions for them, Quinn Hughes, his future, and now you can't really make any decisions this off season.

But again, hopefully you can get some guidance on that PD and Tocket. Yeah. Right. Those are the big three. Are you suggesting. But they're all related in some way. The head coach, the number one defenseman, and the number one center, the three.

Yeah, they are. But there's uncertainty with regards to all three of those, which if your management, you go into the season and you're like, how do I tackle this? How do I tackle this in the right way where we can get everyone on the same page? What if Tocket said- I mean, I know what I would do. Okay, here's the situation. What would you do?

Extend Tocket, trade Peterson, and go find a center by using one of Tom Willander, Jonathan Leckermacky, you can run a list. No, no, no, no, but you're missing the first step. You got to do whatever Quinn says no first thing no no no you have to sell them you have to sell them on a plan if he says key you have to ask him what he wants and then do it it doesn't work like that though it doesn't work like that there's gonna be he wants to know that the management group like isn't just be like am I running this team now it's like Quinn what do you think of the waiver wire today going to be an in I appreciate it there's going

part of the action there's good if if going to be an inherent. I think he'd appreciate it. There's going to be part of the action. If you decide to move on from Pedersen, there's obviously gonna be like an inherent schism or whatever because they're friends. And Hugh's grown up with a guy in McHaree and he believes him as a player, right? All of these guys know though, that the NHL at the end of the day is a business.

And these moves happen like across the board. Mm-hmm. Right. Guys have had their good buddies traded before. You know what? You get over it. You make other friends, you find other guys,

right? Like I understand that there's that dynamic of it. Sound like, sound like they're 10 years old. It was like, my buddy's not on the baseball team this year and I don't like baseball anymore. Jordan's dad took a job in Toronto. He's not your friend anymore. Okay? You guys can Skype if you want to. Kids still Skype anyway. But the bigger point of this is that I think that there is a path

how I would do it and that's just me and I understand that it's probably much more complex and a lot less cut and dry than what I'm making it out to be. But if they've decided that they want to talk it and they decided that he's their guy, then do it, get it done. Give the term, pay the money, sell them on your plan. Then the next step is start executing that plan, right? Have two guys that are going to help you design it. And that would be your head coach and your captain, right? Have two guys that are gonna help you design it and that would be your head coach and your captain, right?

Work in collaboration with them and figure out how you're going to solve the primary problem on this team, which is you used to have a lot of depth at center and now you have few suitors, you're one C. And honestly, when we get back to, well, how is this organization and how has this management group done that in the past?

The answer is, as you've said it multiple times, robbing Peter to pay Paul. And in this instance, I think, and I'm not sure I necessarily agree with this part because I understand the importance of young prospects in the system. I could definitely see them moving on from either the first round pick of the draft

or one of their young prospects to try and fill that void. I think to fill the void, if you want to meaningfully fill a void. I think to fill the void, if you want to meaningfully fill a void. And someone texted in and said, do you have any idea of any 25 year old centers that they could, I'm like, no, I'm not a professional scout. Like they'll figure it out.

Like I'm sure they have their target list right now. Um, but I think to do that. Probably plays in Pittsburgh. No, they don't have good players there anymore. Uh, to, to meaningfully address that, you might have to go first round pick and one of those prospects. I'm, I'm not. Right?

He's like, if you're a player, well, well, you either, you either address it or you don't. Part of, part of paying Peter is you have to rob Paul. Oh, love the robbery part of it. Yeah. But that's how it works. But if you've got a 25 year old center that you really like and is projecting well, are you

going to give them up for a first round draft pick? No. Are you going to give them up for a guy like Leckermacky or Willander or DPT? Probably not. Cause those guys are still to be determined. They also have a lot of, they probably have a lot of value. Would you do it for both?

Maybe, right? First round pick and a prospect. That's typically, I mean, it might be more than that, to be perfectly honest with you. Like sometimes if you've got a good young center, you go, I want a pick, a prospect, and a player. Yeah. And that's, that's the price. And the connect's like, we have all those,

we can do that. I got another thing from this trip. Some of the, and we can discuss this. We've got an open segment at 7.30 again. We're going to talk to Manny Malhotra on the other side of the break about the Abbots for Canucks, speaking of Canucks prospects.

But like, I mean, have you been impressed with like Atu Ratu's play recently? I think he's been great. Carlson's been good. DPT, I know you love DPT. I love DPT. Yeah. I think he's got a real high upside.

I don't think Ratu or Carlson has upside into the top six. I'm just talking about the young ones. But I really like them. Like Ramaki, I think there's some things he needs to work on, but I think there's promise there for sure. How would you rank them? In terms of, let's do it the positive way, right? Like who's the...

Okay, so the Canucks have three top prospects, I would say, right? DPD, Willander and Leckermackie. I would actually probably rank them like that. DPD, Willander and then Leckermackie. I just really like Elias Pedersen because I think he, um, now I've seen well under play, so whatever. Uh, but Pedersen just like, his skating is really good.

So he just turned 21. He's big, he's tough, and he seems to have like real confidence and real swagger and he's got a lot to learn. Don't get me wrong. He's got a lot to learn. He's still pretty raw, but man, I would be pissed if they traded him.

Cause you know who he reminds me a little bit of? Like he's got a little Oland in him. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. That's what I was gonna say. And not just because he's Swedish and he's a big guy and he played on the Connaughts Blue Line, although those help. I'm kind of with you on that.

I know we're up against it for time. I'm kind of with you on that. There's something about the way that he's answered all of the challenges and has kind of been fast-tracked and the ability to- He seems like a leader. He seems like a leader. But like there's some guys that get fast-tracked

and then when they get to the next stage, they play really conservative because they don't wanna screw up, right? And they don't show their entire arsenal of like abilities in their pack. And he's been able to do that. And that is what has kind of elevated, like the more I watch him, the more I'm like kind of moving

him up the chart of I don't want this guy to be traded at all. I think he's a little bit more about that. I tell you what, we'll ask Manny Malhotra about him. Yeah, that sounds good. We'll ask about his personality, his confidence and how far he's come this year. Uh, because Manny Malhotra, the head coach of the

Abbotsford Connects is going to join us next on the Halford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about CIBC Smart Everyday Banking helps you easily track your spending with confidence. Get $450, $450 Greg, when you make the switch, visit them online at cibc.com forward slash smart.