Halford & Brough in the Morning - C'mon NHL, Do Something

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss the latest off-season NHL news with Sportsnet hockey writer Luke Fox (1:16), they look at the Canucks prospects pipeline and where it ranks around the league (18:24), plus they rank youth sports from a parenting perspective (26:17). 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.

7.0.7.0. on a Tuesday on a Tuesday. everybody. Halford for Sportsnet 650. Alfred and Brother of the morning is bratsby Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80%. With no more interest. Visit them online at Sands dash trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program.

Luke Fox, NHL writer for Sportsnet, is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour two. Hour two is brats by Jason hominock at Jason. If you love giving 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. Down Mortgage. We are going to be live from the Kintech studio, Kintech, footwear, and orthotics working together with you in step. Let's go now to the Power West Industries hotline. Our next guest, as

mentioned, NHL writer for SportsNet. Luke, Luke, joins us here on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Luke, how are you? Pretty good. How's your summer going, guys? Good. We're back in the saddle after a few weeks off in August. Not much has happened in August. We didn't miss a whole awful lot while we were away. So we're waiting and waiting and waiting, and so too are a few key restrictive for agents across the NHL, who I thought would have been done by this point, but still aren't. Let's start with a couple of them.

We'll begin, you know, actually a couple of guys that have ties either directly or indirectly to the Vancouver Canucks. Quinn Hughes, brother, Luke Hughes in New Jersey. What's the latest? What's the status of Hughes, the RFA defenseman, with the Devils? Well, it seems every year we get one of these situations where the fan base is starting to get a little nervous because training camp is just around the corner and Luke Hughes who is you know young top four defensemen um should be a piece of new jersey's core for years and years to come of course his brother jack is is already locked up there uh at one of the best contracts probably

in the whole NHL um and he's still unsigned and because he didn't have arbitration rights there wasn't that pressure point that comes in early August of salary arbitration. So it's the classic game of chicken, you know, the player and his agent are holding out for a bigger dollar figure and the team is trying to low ball them. And the next real pressure point becomes training camp. Does he show up on day one? Can they sort things out much like Minnesota sort of things out with Marco Rossi? a few days ago can they sort it out before camp and avoid the the circus that accompanies

you know you don't want to say hold out because he's not under contract but a standoff for sure and we saw last year it was jeremy swayman in boston and that definitely had a negative effect both on swayman and the bruin season and when the devils are a team that you know probably took a step back last year wants to be back in the conversation of contending in the metro, they need a guy like Luke Hughes locked up so it would serve the player and the team best to get this sorted and not have a distraction before camp,

but we're still weeks away, so this could linger a little bit. Does Luke want to go long-term like both his brothers did because the good part of going long is you get a lot of money and total money, and, you know, you have to worry less about getting injured. But on the other hand, some of the guys that signed bridge deals after their ELC is they can really cash in on a third contract. And you kind of don't want to be known as the guy

who's playing on one of the best contracts in the NHL like Jack and Quinn are. Yeah. And like imagine the conversations Jack and Luke have had, right? Like Jack is in for $8 million, which at the time someone offers you, you know, stability and $8 million a year. Like, it's hard to say no, but does Jack have regrets signing that deal, which is one of the more team-friendly deals now that the cap is spiking and it's supposed to take these great leaps every summer going forward. Now that we're out of the flat cap era, Jack's going to be underpaid. And he's probably had conversations at the dinner table with Luke.

Like, man, maybe you'd be best to take a bridge deal. Now, my understanding is Tom Fitzgerald wants to lock. Luke up long term, which makes total sense. I mean, look what we saw in Chicago, Frank Nizar last week. The guy has, I think, 50-some games of NHL experience, and he signed for seven years, 40-some million. Like, GMs are trying to get ahead of this spiking cap by getting guys long-term, whereas, you know, players, if they're smart and bet on themselves, they might be wise to go shorter term,

wait for the cap to rise and then negotiate the percentage of the cap when you have even more leverage. This kid's only 21 years old. He's a top four defenseman already. It might serve him well to go short term. And I think that's probably where the sticking point is. Not only can they not agree on dollars,

but they probably is a difference in term as well. Okay, let's turn our attention to Anaheim here. What's going on with Mason McTavish and the Ducks? Yeah, well, I think the big thing here is that Pavarbeek draws a pretty hard line. He's a really tough negotiator. We saw it with Trevor Zegris. We saw it with Troy Terry in the past.

He sees the front office is having leverage in these RFA situations, especially when there's no Arbites. And he likes to press. He likes to wait them out. And, you know, there's certainly been some phone calls probably from your city saying, is this guy available? We need a young center. Centers are just not on the market,

but I can't see Burbeek trading McTavish. I could eat my words, but I just don't see it making sense. He's a young, up-and-coming center in a league that prioritizes that position. He fits the timeline of the ducks trying to take a step. I think this is just a case of a GM playing hardball

with the player because this is when he has the most leverage. I would be shocked if they don't eventually get a deal done here. I remember Troy Terry got his deal done at the player media tour, right before the player media tour in September. That's right around the corner. So I think maybe in the next two weeks, we see something here with McAvish and the Ducks. Yeah, I'm kind of with you, and to be honest with you,

my eyes have just kind of glazed over. Anytime someone has mentioned Mason McTavich's name and connected it to the Canucks, I'm like, well, why would the Ducks do that? and what could the Canucks possibly come up with in order to make that trade? We're talking about a 22-year-old who's a third overall pick in the draft who's been, you know,

has he been amazing as a young player? No, but he's been pretty good. And the ducks are a team that I think is on the rise. Like, why would they trade these guys? So I guess my question for you is, are any of these RFAs that you're talking about likely trade candidates because I don't think the devils are going to trade Luke Hughes either. No, I don't think they are either. The only one I wonder about is, and he's a bit

lower down my list, is Luke Evangelista, just because there seems to be, you know, I mean, right now the sides are apart. And I think they see that they can't agree on term. Very Trots, wants to go longer term. Kind of similar situation we mentioned with the Q's. It's like I think the front offices are like, we see a player we like, we want to go long term. Evangelista's rep by Judd Moldaver,

who kind of broke the mold in the Austin Matthews RFA contract, you know, a bunch of years ago when he went shorter term. And that effort is to try and do the double dip. Of course, Evangelis is not on. Matthew's level but I think it's a similar theory the cap is spiking let's push for shorter term and maybe then we get paid a second time in three years down the road say and then trots has just just has a track record of making lots of changes the predators are coming off a horrific season

they might be a little bit more into shaking things up again you know I would still say that he probably re-signed. I don't, I think most, I think trade season has kind of passed us, to be quite honest. But if I had to single out one guy that is more likely, it's probably him. Did trade season ever really even start, though? Yeah, there wasn't much. There wasn't much, was there? How disappointing was that in large?

Because not only did a lot of the general managers, like, not get what they wanted to do in free agents. So they all seemed like they were talking up the prospect of all these great trades that we're going to materialize after the draft went by without much incident and after free agency without much incident it was a general managers themselves that were talking this up i remember getting all those reports out of the combine saying that every general manager there was saying oh you know this is the summer of the hockey trade we've all got caps based and we all want to do things and then it almost seemed like collectively none of them did a thing no it was the same with

free agency like i think the the greatest example was brock bestor it's like everyone thought he was going to sign someone else and he just just stayed put. Everyone kind of just stayed so many guys just ended up staying put. You know, Marco Rossi, I thought for sure was going to get moved. There was so much chatter back in June about, you know, he doesn't fit the mold of what Minnesota likes and, you know, young up-and-coming center, how many teams would want to get into bidding for a guy like that. He ends up resigning for three years. And yeah, there's certainly a lack of trade activity. And the other thing was it was supposed to be the summer of the offer sheet, right?

Like, because there's a little bit of buzz about Doug Armstrong breaking the mold and, oh, now that he, you know, an old school guy like him did the double offer sheet with the oilers. Are we going to see more offer sheets? But with the spiking cap, I think teams are just like, we have more money to play with just to match and just to keep our guys. So it's funny because, you know, I write for the website and anything to do with player movement trades, trade rumors. you know, offer sheet rumors. That stuff draws the most fan interest and fan eyeballs. But the NHL as a league seems to have the least amount of actual player movement. It just seems to be a lot of talk.

Well, there was one big player who moved this offseason, and that is Mitch Marner, who left the Toronto Maple Leafs. Did Leifes fans expect more when it came to replacing Mitch Marner? Yes. I think they were hopeful that Brad Tray Living would go out and get a top six forward. I think Tray Living was hopeful he'd go out and get a top six forward. Number one on his list was Brad Marshon. And when he decided to stay in Florida, he's like that kind of ship sailed. And there just weren't that many available.

The Leafs have next to no trade ships. They have a young up and coming forward. Easton Cowan, who the team has been loathe to trade. You know, they had an opportunity to trade them at the trade deadline. They parted with Brazer Minton instead. They're betting instead that Cowan can take a step. He's cheap, but he still has to prove it at the NHL level.

He still has to make the team out of training camp, quite frankly. But they're giving him a chance because outside of that, it was free agency or bust because they have no trade chips. They spent all their draft picks. They spent most of their top prospects chasing the cup in years past. And the cupboards are getting pretty bare. So free agency was the play. Marchand was number one on the list.

When he stayed, they didn't want to go for Nick Eelers. And I'm not sure Nick Eilers wanted to sign with another Canadian team. And then the options just dried up. So bands in Toronto feel like Tray Living did okay with the hand he was dealt. You know, they're happy with Dakota Joshua. But again, they got some third liners. You know, Nick, Nick Waugh out of Vegas, you know, Joshua. They take a flyer on Matthias Michelli, but there's no bona fide top six forward.

And there's still time. I would expect trade living to explore that market before the next trade deadline if the leaps are still in the running and they should be. Who's the focus going to be on this season in Toronto? Because it was obviously Mitch Marner last season. Who gets the spotlight now? Yeah, unquestionably, Austin Matthews. This past spring was the first time in my memory where the,

the view of Matthews began to turn a little bit more. I think part of that is him taking the captaincy from John Tavares, so the spotlight goes on him a little bit more. He was battling injury. His goal total fell way off from his usual standard. He wasn't in the running for the Rock of Richard, and some of that can be blamed on health. But now with Marner gone, he's got to drive that line

by himself. He doesn't have his number one setup man that he's had his whole career. So I think the focus will be firmly on Austin more than ever this year, both in terms of how healthy is he? How is he driving that top line without Marner, who's been his running mate, his whole NHL career? And can he get back to being that frightening sniper that he was two seasons ago? How healthy is he, do you think? he says he's fine so you know you take him at his word

the suspicion is it may be a back he's never confirmed that and I'm sure the rest of not playing contact hockey for months has made him feel fine but let's see how he is after a month of battle drills

and you know go through October in two weeks of the NHL grind and someone's giving you a little cross check here or there, a guy takes a run at you, or gives you an extra whack, how are you then? So I think it's a little bit of wait and see, but by all accounts, you know, the rest has served them well, but the pressure is really going to be on the captain this year. Do you think the Leafs might be a team that some of the teams who missed the playoffs last season in the East, they look at and go, well, maybe there's a spot if the Leafs fall off.

for us or is that I mean they did finish with 108 points they were clearly a playoff team they won their division but I'm just wondering I'm just wondering where momentum is headed with this team yeah and it's a tough division

especially at the top and no one in the division is you know claiming rebuild Montreal is trying to take a step Ottawa feels encouraged after making the playoffs for the first time and forever Boston feels like, you know, last year was a bit of an aberration and that they seem determined maybe not to make the playoffs, but at least be a bit more relevant than they were last year. I think Buffalo and Detroit are still, you know, a ways away, but Tampa isn't willing to go

away. Florida basically kept their whole championship team and is already talking three-peat. It's going to be tough. and, you know, you subtract Marner and you wonder if the Leafs are that team that maybe takes a step back. I wouldn't necessarily pick them to win the division, but their defense is mature and reliable. Their coach, I think, has got the team to buy in

and they play a pretty safe, predictable system that wins a lot of close games. I'm not predicting them to fall out of the playoff pitcher. But if you're Ottawa or you're Montreal, all, for sure, you're saying this team's lost its engine, its leading score in Mitch Marner. Maybe they're ripe for a takedown. And the other thing with the Leafs, the question mark is the health of the goalies. They got a great tandem in Joseph Wolle and Anthony Stolars, but they need to stay healthy. Both battled health issues last season. Luckily,

they kind of spelled each other off and they both weren't heard at the same time. But that's area that, you know, if they don't get the goalie help, that could hurt them big time. Luke, this was great, bud. Thanks for doing it. We really appreciate it. All right. Keep filling that content for August. Thanks, buddy. You went a long way in helping us today.

Luke Fox, NHL writer for SportsCet here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Speaking of filling content, the athletic is doing its NHL pipeline rankings, Corey Prondman. So that is essentially

ranking the prospect systems. The tubes. The pipes and tubes. The pipes and tubes. And the Canucks, Corey Promen just published us today, the Canucks rank number 22. Nice. In the NHL.

Up from number 28. There's only one way to go. In 2024. Now, of course, the Canucks have been competing for a lot of Stanley Cups over the last few years. So, of course, their pipeline has been depleted. That's the correlation. You know, when you're making the playoffs year after year.

Year after year and going on these deep runs and, you know, buying at the trade deadline. You got a give to get. That's what they say. We are, of course, being sarcastic. We are? Yep. 22's not bad. I mean, it's not 32.

It's right. It's not great for what the Canucks have done over the last few years. But here's the ranking that Corey came up with. I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with some of this because that's what people do on the internet. Their most recent pick, the first round are Braden Kootz. The center is their number one prospect,

according to Prawnman. Then it goes Willander, Lekir-Macki, Atu-Ratu, and this is one all the way down at five, which I might disagree with, Elias Pedersen, the defenseman,

because I think the Canucks really hold DPD in high regard. It would be higher than five. Yeah, like I would, put him, I would put him above Ratu. Number two, number one even. I'm surprised Coots jumped right to the top of the line there. I guess he's the new kid on the block. He's shiny. Yeah. And

I mean, that's, you know what? As a top five prospect group, that's all right. That's all right. You know, I can see why they came in at number 22. A couple of those guys could be real wild cards this year. Tom Willander. I think the connects expect him to make

the team. Yeah. And then Lekker-O-Macki. I don't know if he's going to start with the team, but he could be an ad halfway through the season. It'd be nice to see someone kick down the door, a young guy unexpectedly kicked down the door and really make an impression, maybe overachieve or punch out of their weight class for what's expected of them. I know it's tough for young players in the National Hockey League, but every now and again, you have seen in different NHL markets a prospect that was, I mean, not completely out of nowhere, but came in with some regard or highly regarded, just come in and say, wow, this is

better than expected. Those are the kind of hits that you really need when you're a middling franchise. I think it's fair to call them a middling franchise at this point. He's not even on the list, to be honest with you. That's really surprising. Yeah, I think that's probably a miss by by Pranman because you know, there's basically a top six prospect. Number six is Sawyer Minio and I'd probably put Mancini ahead of him. Yeah, Mancini looked like he fit fine.

Yeah. Like he looked like he belonged. The Can I have good depth on D for sure. Carol Kudriyatsev Is listed here Old for the list Because he's 23 Possibly I haven't looked into all the details

Maybe the cutoff's like 22 Yeah it could be a technicality or something But I'd agree with you on that too So okay We are up against it for time I'm going to lay out the rest of the show Because we are now at the midway point Of the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650

Coming up we're going to dive back into our conversation That one listener really liked About the youth sports dynamic And what's going on We'll take into fun direction as opposed to the more serious tone. We struck earlier in the show. 8 o'clock, Julio Caravetta is going to join the show

for some CFL talk and some BC Lions talk. He, of course, won half of the dynamic duo of BC Lions play-by-play voice with Bob Marjohnovich, the Moj. So we got Giulio at 8, and then at 830 we're going to do what we learns, both ours and the humanoids. Get yours in.

Dunbar Lumber text message in basket is 650, 650. Hashtag at WWL. And let us know what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. It's your chance to be on the radio in a positive way to contribute to the show, which we always love, especially in the dog days of summer, this being August 26th. And, you know, it's a tough time for sports. So weigh in with whatever you learned in the world of sports over the last 24 hours. Hashtag at W.W.L Dunbarlamour's text line is 650, 650.

You're listening to the Halford & Breff Show on Sportsnet, 650. 7-30-2-2-2-2-2-1-8-2-7-3-2 on a Tuesday. Tuesday, everybody. Halford. Brow, Sportsnet, $6.50. Howell called a sports nut? Sportsnet. Sportsnet.

That's what we are. We're just nuts for sports. Yeah, it's where all the sports nuts go. Yep. Except today. And pretty much the last month. I think they missed it. They should have called it sports nut instead of sports net.

Like way back in the day. The jokes write themselves. It was right there. We could have had like a big guy dressed up with Mr. Peanut. Yeah. Top Hat, Monicle. Talking about sports. but he's a nut.

He's the legume. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are an hour two of the program with the midway point of the show. Hour two of this program is brought to by Jason Hominuk at jason. If you love giving 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. dot mortgage finally i need to tell you about the bc lions julio caravetta is going to be joining us at eight o'clock one half of the bc lyons play by play team uh bc lines it's another season of hard hits heated rivalries and nonstop entertainment for tickets visit them online at bc lyons dot com and get ready to roar as one i went to get a coffee at the break i was talking to our traffic guy stressful times and traffic land really isn't it always like that in vancouver now obviously with the multiple closures. All the projects that started in summer

and the beginning of summer, they're like, don't worry, we got lots of time. Word on the street from the coffee shop was a couple of these closures are going to be extended into September. Is there a dog days of traffic, you think? Like, you know how like this is the dog days of sports? We're in them.

Is there a slow time? Well, they want to get a lot of the construction done in the summer. Before the weather gets bad. Yeah, there you go. And now, like, Close. We should try and finish this.

Yeah. So yeah, Burnaby's a nightmare. Mm-hmm. The first have exits are all messed up. Kensington exits closed. Apparently, there might get extended.

Look you shaking your head. You're like, politics. As long as the tunnel's fine. That's all you care. That's all I care. I'm sure the tunnel would be just fine. Oh, yeah.

It's always fine. It's always great. It's great. Yeah, it's awesome. Okay. So we were having a conversation earlier in the show with Hannah Kaiser, who is a baseball writer. And she wrote a story about youth baseball and some of the risks and dangers of basically trying to throw the ball too hard at a young age.

Sure. So it made me think, what would be the best sport to want your kid to commit himself or herself to? Okay. First question. So this is like, you want your kid to pursue a kid. sport. Yeah. But are you talking about the entirety, like just every end, every potential end game? Or is this

like, I want to be a pro? Every potential end game. Okay, okay, okay. Every potential end game. I mean, part of that, if you're a person who sees your kid and you're like, dollar signs. Yeah. Then, you know, right? I mean, no judgments here. Yeah. Some judgments. Kids lottery ticket. Right. Throw harder. Or if you're just thinking, like I,

Like, you can't, I can't tell you how many, how many parents come up to me and is like, I don't, I don't want to put my kid in hockey because of the early morning practices. And I'm like, I respect that. Yeah. You got a boundaries, right? Early morning suck. Let me tell you. Also, it's so expensive.

It is expensive. There's lots of other things you could buy without money. Yeah. Serial, video games. Hacky sacks. Hacky sacks. So obviously, it starts with the kid loving the sport. That's obvious because you don't want to put your.

kid into a sport where getting him or her out the door to actually go and practice or go play games is a nightmare. But we are talking about as a parent. Yeah. Which one would you like your kid to love? With the parental responsibilities that come with it. So I'll just go through, I'll just go through some lists here. Let's go.

Okay. Hockey, because we're Canadian and our greatest sports heroes are, for the most part, hockey players. Okay. The cons. Expensive. Yep. Head injuries. Those are prevalent. Cold rinks that you've got to sit in. A lot of cold rinks, a lot of driving around to various cold rinks.

Cold rinks. Okay. You've made a case for and against, yeah. Okay. Baseball is safer than hockey and it's safer than football. You don't have the cold rinks. Yep. The one big con that I came up with for baseball and Hannah kind of, touched on this. So long summer vacations. Baseball is the biggest summer time suck. It just creeps up on you when you get

enrolled. You don't realize it until it's the middle of July and you're like, we've been doing this for months. Also, also the games, the day at the park, that's the other, like some of these sports that are designed to have your child in and out of the activity between 60 and 90 minutes. It's great, right? Show up. Do your time. You're out. Baseball, it's not like. that. No. When they introduce pitching to baseball, you will never have a longer experience in your life. It is impossible.

Throw a strike. Just try. Try and throw a strike. Try. And they try. And then they fail and cry. And then there's a lot of walks. There are so many walks in the first year of pitching in baseball. The games are 16 hours long. You have to bring breakfast, lunch, and maybe a dinner.

So I'm with you on that. So I'll put soccer next. Now I think it's safer. again than hockey and football. There are still head injury issues with soccer, what they call that clash of heads. Yeah, there is. Less so than, less so than...

Yeah, but I certainly agree with you. It's also the world's most popular sport. Like, you're never... You know, you can't play soccer. You go everywhere and play it. Yeah. Can't say that about hockey. Cons, the dreary weather that you sometimes have to watch in.

And like, you look like a bad parent if you're just in the car, right? Or just not going at all. Or just not going at all. And I don't know if this is a con. If you like your kid, it is, I guess. If your kid gets good, he or she might have to move away to Europe.

It's true. Or with the rise of MLS, perhaps they can stay home. But if they want to get really good. Yeah. Might have to move to Europe. Basketball, safe, fairly affordable. Super affordable. Here's the thing.

if your kid isn't tall and if your kid isn't looking like you or she's going to be tall it's really tough to make it even with extreme dedication that one is the most like would you say basketball is the most body dependent of the sports

I think there's one player in the NBA who might be shorter than six feet right I think that's fair to say there's a certain height that you almost have to be that wouldn't rule you out of other sports like football I think people will naturally jump to football but there's really small

diminutive football players throughout short hunting backs and yeah there has been in football too but the funny okay so goal isn't hockey the thing I believe no one under six feet yeah but you can play hockey you can play hockey so for example your former backup point guard in Hamilton She Gilges Alexander Lattie was the starter

SGA was the backup I think people look at him and they're like well there's an example of a diminutive guy who's thriving in the NBA. He's 6.6. Right? He's not small by any measure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But he's 6 foot 6. He's a very tall human. You just think that he's small because when he's on the court, he's beside other.

Have you ever been in an airport when a basketball team has traveled? It is impossible not to stare. It's like you're at the zoo. That's the one thing you and I both noticed when we would go down to some of those March Madness tournaments. Watching a basketball team walk together. Yeah. It is like going to the zoo Very rarely do you get that many Tall human beings congregating

Like Adog you know the walking trees part In Lord of the Rings Where the ants Yeah when I walked out of I was like all right enough of this I'm out of the I'm not interested The best part is I was two hours into the three hour movie So you lasted two hours

Yeah I gave it a shot All right that's enough That was how I was I was like I've seen enough He gave it a shot This is ridiculous It is kind of like watching that though

Yeah But the end's talk Walk super slow You're talking to a basketball player That's true Not like that No but they don't talk like Super slow

They're just tall This is the biggest car I can afford Are you making All people just talk like that That's how they talk All right The final one that I'll list Well not the final one

There's lots of other ones How about golf? One guy said darts Because it's safe And maybe you'd get to play some cool courses with your kid. Like if the kid's going to a tournament, some of you're like, oh, play that course too.

Golf is incredibly safe. Cons. Nerve-racking to watch. Imagine watching your son or daughter compete in a golf tournament and there's like a big putt to make. Like there's meltdown potential too where you're like, I'm kind of embarrassed my kid right now. Wild animal attacks.

And not much of, okay. Like alligators on the course? Yep. That is a massive problem. It's right up there. It's a big problem. And I think not much of a team experience. I mean, you know, to be fair, when you're, when you go play university or college golf or even high school golf, you are on a team.

But for the most part, like, it's an individual sport. You're on a team, but you're still still, I would actually tweak. You've got to spend some time by yourself to practice. I would actually tweak your first con. Instead of saying nerve-wracking to watch for the parents, I would say the amount of pressure that the individual sports put on the athlete. Yeah, it can be really mentally taxing golf. Yeah, because I mean, there's a lot of burnout in golf.

Well, we've had this, you know, this conversation before about the team sport versus the individual sport. There is a lot of pressure on the athlete because there's no one else, especially in golf where, I mean, I guess theoretically, you're not playing against the field. You're playing against the course. Yeah. Well, you're playing against the field too. Yeah, but. Playing against yourself half the time. But you don't, yeah, that's what I'm saying.

You don't really, I mean, I guess you can kind of dictate. what the rest of the field is doing. But, I mean, I guess the most locked in and laser focus golf would be like, this is me and, you know, fairway, rough, green hole, right? That would be the essence of the sport. It was funny when we were talking that. We had Vastik posthal on the show when you're on vacation.

He talked about how solitary a lot of his younger tennis days were because I guess he was living in Vernon. He had to drive like an hour. each way to practice. So there was also that part of it, too, where, like, even if you're on a... Do they have tennis courts in Vernon now? They do, I think they always did. I think it was more of the competition, not the courts.

Strict tennis ban has been lifted. Yeah. Yeah. Good job, Vernon. I think that... They had one of those controversial mares like in footloose. No tennis. Some tennis. Anyway, I do think that the individual sports put a lot of pressure on the young athletes. Look, we're seeing tennis all the time, right?

I mean, the U.S. Open is on right now. I was watching... I was watching Medvedev play the other. Day against the Frenchman, Benjamin Balmsey, who had a big upset in the first round. He melted down. Medved, yeah. And, like, I know it's part of Medvedev schick throughout his career. Yeah, yeah.

It's to be the sort of tortured artiste, but you could, you could feel the weight and the pressure, especially in between sets when he's sitting in the chair all by himself, because you're not even really allowed to have any coaching from your, your box and your coaches anymore. You're just got to have to sit there. I thought you are allowed to have that now. it's weird because they can't actually coach you there's there's very stringent rules but like it's very clear that they're all constantly looking to them for like and I think part of it is like emotional support

right just hold me hold me please so I came out with my three worst ones okay okay football for safety reasons okay okay that's fair a lot of injuries in football swimming uh because it's boring there it is there it is there it And I hate indoor pools. You hate indoor pools. I hate the smell of indoor pools. I don't like, I just don't like being. Do you have like a traumatic incident at a pool?

Yeah, swimming lessons. It's called swimming lessons. Everyone did as kids. The smell of chlorine, I'm like, ugh. I mean, part of the issue with swimming lessons is there's so many people crammed into a small. It's loud. There's all the parents watching. Yeah.

And then. Cavernous echo the entire time. And then figure skating for nerves. I think that would be the worst one to watch your kids. kid in. Don't fall, don't fall, don't fall. Well, it's also 99.9% practicing. There's very little payoff. Figure skating. Like, you're on the ice a lot, skating with your friends and learning, not actually competing in tournament. Funny figure skating story, not really, really, but somewhat relatable to this conversation. I went at the 2010 Olympics to watch the figure skating,

the long program. And having only previously seen it on television, I was unaware how many actual competitors there are. They never show you the bad ones on TV. But when you go live, you get to see the ones that finish like 19th in the field of 21. I want to see the Olympic low lights. Yeah. And like where you're there and you don't know a lot about figure skating, but you can still tell they're not very good at it. You're like, she's not great. She's probably not going to finish the top 15. They can't do that. Like, and I guess it's, that's the, the experience is to get there. But I mean, when you see figure skating at the highest level, you really only see the elite of the elite. Right, right.

This was also at the 2010 Olympics. Who was the Russian male figure skating? Was it Plushenko? I think it was. I think so. So we went to the Russia house at Science World. And it was kind of a big deal because they were going to host

the next Winter Olympics at Sochi. So they had the sort of like inheritance of the 2010 games. So it was a big to do their Olympic house. Of Jenny Plushenko. He was a rock star, man. He had more aura. I'm speaking like the kid now.

But he had more aura than all of the hockey players combined. When he walked through science world, there was like a hush tone. Everyone kind of stopped and watched. Yeah, it was like he was about to like throw off his cape and yell at someone. Yes, it was almost like a Vegas show. I'm like, what's he going to do next? Yeah, where are your tigers? The answer was nothing.

He was just walking to go skate. But it was, it was interesting watching him. Like there was a handful of athletes that had that kind of swag and aura and he had it. more so than that was a like a Russian Olympic hockey team with Ovechkin, Kovilchuk. I'm trying to think of something. Yeah, like they had big time stars and they were even in awe of Plushenko. Have you been using ORA a lot? No, just right now because I was trying to come up with the right word.

But that's what he had. Is that the most aura you've ever seen in person? No. Who have you seen? Mike Madano. Dan Nageo walking into a room. It's like, damn, the room just went silent. Yeah, no one could say anything.

No, Mike Medano. Really? Mike Madano had, yeah, we were at, I don't even know if it exists anymore. We were at the Granville room. Okay. And Mike Madano emptied out the Granville room when he got up to leave. Oh, people were just like, all right, well, it's about time to go.

Yeah, it's like, and people just followed him out. He was a handsome dude. Yeah, yeah. Right? And like, everyone knew who he was. Like, he couldn't have been in a better city for it. He's in Vancouver. Like, everyone knew who Mike Madano was.

was. I've seen my sport come up, by the way. Sorry to cut you out. Which sport? That I would want my kid to be in. Slow pitch softball? No. Oh. La Crosse? Surfing. Surfing. Explain. Hang out about the beach. It's fun. You can make some money. You can go to the Olympics. Really? I would be terrified to watch my kid surfing. Have you ever seen surfing in Hawaii some of those big waves? Yeah, but it's fun. Drowning is fun? Sharks? The shark thing is over low and there's no sharks. Adog is always worried at. Animal attacks. I rank every sport based on the probability of animal attacks. Just because there's a movie.

A dog plays hockey is like, let's close the boards here, guys. That's why I like hockey so much. There's no animal attacks and ice rinks. One of the odds. You see the condor? It attacked the hockey player. Okay, but that's really rare. You don't usually get wild animals inside hockey rinks.

Can I just read, I want to read a text on youth sports that might be the most honest text we have ever received into the Dunbar Lumber text line. and I love it and I relate to it as well and it's a great text to read because we are at the start of a lot of sports hockey, soccer

so there's going to be some tryouts Jay Texan regarding youth sports I am a complete hypocrite I'm the parent who tells himself that I'm going to allow my son to progress at his pace to encourage him

regardless of how he plays and to have the perspective that this has no bearing on whether my son succeeds at life. I tell myself it's about exercise, camaraderie, and fun. But then after an irrelevant warm-up skate, I'm telling him how much he didn't compete, how timid he looked in the scrimmage, while I bring out the clipboard to show him how out of position he was in the defensive zone. I justify my behavior with thoughts like,

I'm doing this for him, or I only want what's best for him, but it's far more likely that it's having the opposite effect. That is such an honest text. And I can really relate to that, having entered a season going like, all right. You know, there's going to be no big speeches, no expectations set, can't control what's going to happen. So just go out there and have fun.

And if you're having fun, then you're going to compete. It's when the criticism comes sometimes that the compete level stops because a lot of kids they shut her down. It was like, well, I was enjoying this sport when I was getting compliments. Like, oh, you're doing so well

and I saw you play. I wasn't enjoying it when someone said, you're not working hard enough or you're lazy or whatever. And yet, it's hard not to try and control the situation. Yeah, because you can misconstitutional.

strew control with like what jay's talking about like i'm trying to help i'm trying to provide feedback i'm trying to point out these moments and i do see a lot of parents do this especially with like yeah you appear lazy or it looks like bad body language and i'm not going to lie like intervening in those moments probably isn't the worst thing because a lot of kids are totally oblivious to what it looks like coaching hockey i have talked a lot about posture and how to carry yourself sure i mean i It is not reflected well. So it's funny, we had, remember we had Mani Malhotra on the show a long time ago

and he was talking about working with all these young players in Abbotsford, and we really got down to the nitty gritty. Like, when you're working with a young athlete who's in the learning process, what are the some of the things that you look for? And I distinctly remember he pointed out. He said, one thing I liked about Atu Ratu and his approach and the way that he did things was that any time that we introduced

a drill or something new, he would be the one that would jump to the front of the line to try it. He wouldn't hide in the back. He jumped to the front. And I was like, so I was telling my kid about this. And I was like, I think part of the reason that Manny liked it was it showed confidence. But it was also showing the coach, like, I can take the information that you've given me. I can process it.

And then I can go and do it. And that's an important thing for a coach to know. And you're way to see kids lining up at hockey sometimes. It's like, you go first. Yeah, right. Or then they go do it. It was like, that wasn't anything I described. Like you're doing the opposite.

of the drill that I wanted you to do. I don't even know if you listened to anything I just said. And as an athlete, you get a couple of opportunities. Or they make it into a race? Yeah. Like it's the first one to finish this. It's like, yeah, but that's not really the idea of the drill. Yeah, like congratulations.

You finish the drill. It's still supposed to be going on. And so as a coach, you know, your athletes, they get a handful of opportunities to show that they can take the game plan or the strategy or whatever and then go execute. one's in games where the stakes are really high. And another one is this example that Manny was talking about at the second highest level of hockey, right?

These guys are one step below the NHL and he's talking about guys that'll jump to the front of the line and a drill. I think that stuff is instructive. With the parents, a lot of times the issue is they'll take the opportunity, the moment that they see that their kid is doing something that they don't perceive

as working hard or trying hard or being the best, jump in right away. And then all the kids sees it as is punishment, right? is maybe the best time is to try and, you know, have those little life lessons and those little strategies at different moments. Maybe not necessarily right after you see something bad. I don't know, it's just an idea anyway. We're up against it for time.

Praise the good stuff. Yeah, praise the good stuff, right? I like the way that you hustled out there. I like the way that you looked in that moment. You can have dinner tonight. Yeah. Not a lot of it, though. Here's your turtle.

Alive and well. Okay, we got to go to a break. When we come back, Giulio Caravette is going to join. us for some lion's talk. And before we go to break, I need to tell you about JanPro. From warehouses to washrooms and everywhere in between JanPro keeps workplaces tidy, clean and disinfected for a free quote. Visit them online at Janpro.com. You're listening to The Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.