Halford & Brough in the Morning - Coaching Staff...Assemble!

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason discuss the new Canucks coaching staff hires from yesterday and how they might help Elias Pettersson regain his form (3:00), the boys talk the 'Nucks interest in Marco Rossi, plus they do some Ask Us Anythings (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.

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Good morning Vancouver! It's 6.01 on a Friday. Happy Friday everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford at his brough at EsportsNet 650 and we are coming to you live from the Kintec studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford at Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for net help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com.

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 you get paid visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver We are coming to you live from the kin tech studio kin tech footwear and orthotics working together with you in step I got a big show ahead on a Friday Yet again first hour of the show all Halbro one hour of uninterrupted Halbro the guest list today begins at 7 o'clock Haley Salvian from the athletic. She covers women's hockey and the NHL.

Maybe we can focus on both, but our primary focus is going to be a deeper dive into the free agent signed by Vancouver's PWHL expansion franchise earlier this week. We can look ahead to the upcoming expansion and PWHL entry draft. Apparently it's a loaded 2026 draft for the PWHL. Haley will join us at seven o'clock to talk about all that. 730, It's the Moge. Yes, It's the Moge.

Bob the Moge Marjanovic is gonna join us ahead of the BC Lions season opener. CFL started last night, Jason. Did you catch the stamps and the riders? It was Ottawa and the riders, I think, wasn't it? Wasn't it the Red Blacks? You're right. It was Drew Brown at quarterback. My apologies. Red Blacks.

It was the Red Blacks. It was Drew Brown throwing for over 400 yards. I saw a lot of empty seats in Regina, I got to tell you. Well, it's early still. It is early. Yeah. The announced attendance was 25,000, but there must have been some sort of hoedown that everyone was going through. Something or other. You don't expect us to go to this game, do you? So we're right on it. You know what's happening. We're very much on point with our CFL.

A hoedown evening? Very much on point with our CFL coverage to start the show today. I got the opponent wrong and Jason said there was a hoedown. Lions opener tomorrow, Snoop concert tomorrow. Also, and when we talked to Moj at 730, was unaware of this, Moj is pretty friendly with new Canucks assistant coach, Brett McClain. So we'll talk to him about some insights that he has on the newly minted Canucks assistant

coach. We'll get into that and what happened as well. That's all coming up at 730. Eight o'clock, it's Rick Dollywall. Noted Dollywall handler, Jason Bruff will explain what we're going to talk to you with Rick. Yeah, I think we'll talk a little bit more about the new coaching staff, but also here's just how Rick puts it to me in the text message.

Trade talks, and I will mention how Lekker Mackey is hurting the Canucks in trades. Ooh. And he's not really producing, is he? Not so much during the Calder Cup playoff runs. So okay, we got some topics to cover with Dolly Wall at eight o'clock today. Now, at eight thirty on a Friday, normally it's what we learn and ask us anything for all of our great pricing, including the one hundred dollar gift card to AJ's pizza on Broadway.

But today, today at eight thirty, new head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, Adam Foot, is going to join the program. I understand he was on the station yesterday, live from a Blue Jays game. What's it called, Laddie? He was working from dome. Now that's not Laddie's fault. That's a marketing slogan from Toronto.

He didn't dad joke that one. That's something where you play hooky during the day and instead of working from home, you. Work from dome. It was his first game in 20 years He said he hadn't been in a long time. It's great. I know during his zoom conference So I don't know where in the world Adam foot on all the way still out there Yes, I don't know what's going on. I don't know where Adam foot's gonna join us from today

But he will be joining us at 830 he did the zoom conference at the Jays game As I understand like on his phone like we're watching the game right now. like them already yeah I'm not a ballgame guys I'm not gonna let you gonna have to repeat all this so yesterday the Canucks announced of course that Kevin Dean Brett McClain and Scott Young have all been added to the assistant coaching staff so we'll talk to Adam Foote about that at 830 and a whole lot of other things as well. So here's the plan. Get your, what we learns and ask us anything's in right now because we're still giving away a $100 gift card

to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. We'll just sprinkle in the ask us anythings throughout the program and then we'll announce the winner later in the show. Hashtag it AUA Dunbar Lumbertex line is 650 650. You can quite literally ask us anything the best one Will win a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza on East Broadway. Okay, so that's the guest list working in reverse 830 it's Adam foot 8 o'clock. It's Rick Dollywall

730 it's the Moj and then 7 o'clock. It's Haley Salvin. That's what's happening on the program today laddie. let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that?

What happened? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. We will begin with your Vancouver Canucks.

They finalized their coaching staff yesterday. Newly minted head coach Adam Foote has a bunch of newly minted assistants. Former Chicago Blackhawks assistant coach Kevin Dean, who we knew about, he is officially on board. American hockey league coach with the Iowa Wild Brett McLean joins the fold and former teammate of Adam Foote, both in Colorado and Quebec, Scott Young also joins the coaching staff as well. He was in a player personnel role

with the Canucks prior to this. Yeah, what do you think about these hires? They're certainly not the first names that came to mind for me, and Scott Young having been in a player development role or player personnel role or whatever, not on the bench for quite a while. I don't know, it suggests to me that I think there was a lot of pressure to find guys. I don't mean it that way. Obviously, there was a lot of pressure to like find guys, you know, I mean that that sounds I don't mean it that way like obviously there was pressure to find guys because they had to hire them But I don't know how easy it was to to find candidates

Okay, the first thought that I'm not criticizing these at these ads, but I'm like Brett McClint You're getting the guy out of the Iowa wild to run this power play like what? So the first thought that I had was with a first time NHL head coach behind the bench, logic would dictate that maybe you would add a very veteran, very experienced coaching staff where guys had previous head coaching gigs or at the very least had been head coaches at different stages of either the national American junior, whatever they're light on former head coaching experience, which I thought was kind

of interesting, but I don't put a lot of stock or thought into that coaches or coaches, right? You can poke holes in any hire, right? If you hire a bunch of guys with veteran head coaching experience, the critics are going to say, ah, they're just they're hiring a replacement for foot as soon as it goes south. And if you hire ones with no head coaching experience, you're going to say they cheaped out and they didn't hire the higher price, more veteran guys. So you look, you can poke holes in any coaching hire that you want. I think that I'm very intrigued specifically by Kevin Dean,

because his name appeared on the radar. I think about seven to 10 days prior to his hire as a guy that was lauded for doing good work with defensemen. Now, I know everyone's going to say, don't worry about the defense. It's the forward group and the power play that's going to need. Yeah, that's the most. I'm going to say. Yeah, but just it's almost like when you talk about getting good players on the team, regardless of position,

I think getting good coaches in the door, regardless of who they're gonna work with is a good thing. But yes, I will allow and I'll set the table for you. There are gonna be some questions about this forward group and then who's leading this forward group and who's in charge of doing things like the power play. Well, I just wanted new ideas coming to the organization from outside the organization. Scott Young,

I don't know, maybe they didn't go to him for any advice last season, but he was in the organization. So the only, offensively speaking here, right? The only guy who's new to the organization is Brett McClain, correct? That's correct. Offensively speaking. So Brett, you better have some ideas. Yep. Now I am mostly on the side of, you know, it's the players, stupid. Like, I mean, I always kind of laugh a little

bit when you've got talented players out there. And, you know, as Drance was saying yesterday, everyone runs a one three one power play and the players aren't getting it done. So everyone's going to like the power play coach is like, the players have been playing hockey for a long time. Um, there are the ones that have to execute out

there and a lot of these guys have been playing on the power play for a long time in they're the ones that have to execute out there and a lot of these guys have been playing on the power play for a long time in the NHL and I don't know if there's anything too, too much that you're going to teach them to be like, I have never heard of that before. You know, like that's crazy. But, you know, that being said, I think, you know, a while ago, the Canucks did have a good combination when

Newell Brown was the power play coach, but they also had the good players. I don't know. I think for a lot of us, it's hard to really judge these things because we've never been in a power play meeting before. Sure. Or we've never been in a meeting where a coach is teaching offense. One of the questions we should ask Adam Foote, write this down, is how much can a coach influence offense?

Yep, that's fair. Again, defense for sure, we all know about structure. This has been the thing forever. You can coach defense, but you've got to leave it up to the players for offense. Now, some people disagree with that. And I know that there are philosophies and attitudes that you can put into players that will influence the offense. You can say we're a conservative team or a risk taking team or, or whatever. But like, you know, once you get into the zone, I think a lot of the

times it's on players to make plays. So on the subject of the offensive side of the puck, the Canucks in the same release yesterday announcing the new hires, also officially confirmed that assistant coach Jozef Fakowski and defensive development coach Sergei Gonchar along with video coach Dylan Crawford will not return next season.

So yesterday was a pretty significant shakeup with regards to coaching staffs, both behind the bench and up in the press box. Let's play some audio now. We've got Adam foot from yesterday's zoom call from the dome. I do want to start with a foot on defensive coach, Kevin Dean, how this entire hire went down and how he's able to lure them. Both the clips are a little bit longer. Very verbose. Adam foot looking forward towards our eight 30 segment today. Here is Foote on the defensive coach Kevin Dean

and how the whole thing went down. The deep coach is a great question. The defense coach is really what I wanted to deal with first. You know I'm gonna just tell you guys how it went down so there's no speculation but obviously Luke Richardson who I played with in Columbus and and a friend of mine, was a guy that was still going for head coaching position. And Dean was under him in Chicago, but also Dean had history in Boston. And as a penalty killer and a defense coach, I always liked how Chicago filled penalties. And I was wondering what that connection was.

And when I got this position, I looked under and creeper and got a great relationship with Joe Sacco and obviously, Shorams played in Boston. And I know Seth Jones from Colorado area and everything that I learned about Dean is I liked it more and more and more. And we actually opened up the relationship real early and we spoke almost every day throughout the World Championship and you know he did a great job with Garley

on that PK and Garley was hopping over the boards as the first PK unit guy over there I think he gained a lot of confidence and this was his first year Garley with us you know Rick trusted him and I asked Rick if he could kill one. Rick puts some trust in Garley and myself. I thought Garley did a great job filling ponds this year and he's just going to grow from being with Dean and a little championship, having success and winning that championship. So I loved that with Dean, I felt like the, you know, with our defensive anchor along with our goal-tending and, you know, with our defense, with the anchor along with our goal-turning, and, you know, if things aren't right,

or we're in, you know, a hostile environment, or I always believe the D at the anchor and stay stable until we get control of the hockey game. And I believe this personality and the way he carries himself with that comp demeanor is what I was looking for. I felt like he's gonna be himself, but I liked I was like myself as far as the Tom Demeter and

being strong back there and the things that shaky and he's got a ton of experience and The way we spoke about the game felt like I've known him a very long time and you know, I knew within the second or third phone call that this was the guy for us. And we just said that, you know, communicate and open up this relationship where he would feel comfortable. And I'm very excited about him being down that side of the bench and letting him do his thing. And I think he'll do a great job with our D-Corp. So the new coaching staff is together.

Um, there's no carryover from last season except Adam Foot, but he's in a much different role. Yeah. Um, Foot has already acknowledged that his role will have to change a little bit since he's the head coach now, he can't be the, uh, the glue guy anymore, that's Scott Young now. He's, he. That's Scott Young now. He's the glue guy. He's the glue guy. So Foot can't be the good cop who's like, I heard talk yelled at you, you're still a good person. Don't worry.

Let's go get a beer. Yeah, yeah. He'll be the one having the tough conversations with players and he mentioned that before. My relationship, he said, with Quinn Hughes, for example, is going to change because I won't just be dealing with the defense and I won't be, again, I won't be like the good cop that you go to when you need like, not a hug, but maybe a hug if you want a hug. Sure. He loves hugs. Now here's a little news for you. Mike and I both heard that Adam Foote had a good meeting with Ilias Pettersson recently. It's true I did hear it. Apparently Foote was pretty impressed with what he heard from Petey.

He said that he sensed a bit of added maturity, which is a good sign. Obviously it doesn't mean anything if Pederson doesn't put in the work and doesn't come back a much more prepared player, assuming he is back with the Canucks, but we all wanted this to get off to a good start. And from what we've heard, the relationship between Elias Pedersen and Adam Foote is off to a good start. Which was probably priority number one, I would say for Adam Foote coming into this job was,

there's a lot of repairing that needs to go on there, both physically for Elias Pedersen, probably mentally, and then a relationship with the coaching staff period. And part of this is, yeah, Rick Tuckett's gone. And I think it was fair to say that they maybe didn't see eye to eye all the time. Rick Tuckett and Elias Pedersen. So the next coach probably was going to have to mend fences there, even though it doesn't make sense, like it wasn't his relationship to fix,

but there's still that residual hangover effect of whatever happened with the previous coach. I just hope everyone involved sees this as a fresh start. And that includes Elias with the coaching staff. And that includes Elias with his teammates. Nobody is going to forget about last season. But another thing we heard is that Pedersen just didn't think Taket really liked him, which might've been true.

I don't think it's breaking news that Taket was more of a JT Miller guy. I kind of got that sense. And by being a JT Miller guy, Pedersen might've felt, well, that's my enemy over there. So maybe my coach isn't a PedT Miller guy, Pederson might've felt, well, that's my enemy over there. So maybe my coach isn't a Pederson guy if he's such a JT Miller guy, but foot knows he's going to have to get Pederson on board with him. Tocket and Miller aren't there anymore.

And I don't think it's in anyone's interest to keep hammering away at the team's highest paid player. Now the media and the fans are going to say what they're going to say. But as far as the organization, I think they should probably, and I think they will, you know, do their best to go like, okay, this guy's been beaten down enough. And it didn't work. It's time to start building them up and reminding him that he can be a great player.

Everything we've heard about Pedersen is that he needs to feel the love. Uh, you can still throw in the odd dose of tough love because that's what coaches do. But when you're dealing with a personality like Pedersen's, you can either try to change his personality, which ain't going to work. I always thought it was so ridiculous. I want to hear more from Petey in the room. It's like, you're not going to. Because it's personality, that's who he is. Or you can work with his personality.

personality, that's who he is. Or he can work with his personality. It is a very interesting dynamic, because there are some people that will say, you need to be like this to succeed in the National Hockey League. And there's a handful of guys that are the culture carriers when it comes to that. Crosby, McKinnon, McDavid, the steely resolve,

the dogged determination. Obsessed with the game. Right. The flip side of that coin is that not everybody can be those guys. As a matter of fact, only a handful of guys can be those guys. You have to kind of toe the line

between picking up some of their characteristics and traits, but also allowing each individual player to find their own path and be their own person on the way to success. Like, trust them that maybe your way will work now, especially when you've already signed the guy to a long-term contract. But it goes back and forth, right? Like if, if your idea of I'm going to find success through chocolate bars and potato chips, or like, maybe you want to change your diet up like those kind of things.

And I'm not saying that pertains to anyone in this particular situation, but you guys all get what I'm saying. You do have to rein someone in at certain points, but one person's reining in can be another person's like constriction. Like you're confining me too much. Like I need to be able to do these things the way I want to do it. The X factor in all of this is that Pedersen does have sort of an ace up his sleeve

because he's been highly successful at the NHL level before. So he can point to that and say, look, I know how to get to the level where I'm scoring a hundred plus points in the league. Maybe part of it is. I think the problem is that he's never actually come out and like said that. Do you remember talking about it was like, I'd

love it if he'd just push back once in a while. He kind of just like got lectured and he'd be like, and that's another thing would change. And that has to change. But that's another part of it too, is he's not going to be that guy. Yeah. And you have to know it.

He's not going to be like, he Yeah. And you have to know it. He's not going to be like, he there's probably a reason he wasn't given the captaincy and there's probably a reason he doesn't do a ton of media availability. He doesn't like it and he's not comfortable with it. Do you try and voice that upon him and say, this is what leaders do? Or do you say we have other guys that can handle this in the room? Yes. That's what they need to do. Yeah. They need, they need to this whole, and it's not acquiescing to him. It's not allowing him to get away with things

it's more just like It's like you said like Not everyone's sydney crosby It it's really difficult well, not everyone's rick tocket either and not everyone's rick tocketett either. And not everyone's Rick Taukett. Right? I mean, Taukett had very clear and distinct views of how the game should be played and how much you should be invested into it, right? And how many times did Taukett allude to Crosby, right? The ultimate competitor, the ultimate obsessed with hockey guy.

Yeah, and you had mentioned Nate too, and it's like, you know, McKinnon is not the same personality as Petey and Petey never will be that guy. All I'm hoping for in this is a fresh start. Let's start now. Just, and just like, I, I don't know exactly. And, you know, I've never spoken to Peterson.

I don't know how to get through to him, but whatever Tauke it was doing, even though I like Tauke it as a head coach, it didn't work. So try something else. Try a different approach. And I think it starts with just building the guy up. Like he's been told enough that he needs to work harder. Sure. All that stuff, he's been told enough that he needs to work harder. Sure. All that stuff, he's been told enough.

And the organization itself has done a pretty good job of running Pettersson down. And a lot of them was just honesty, right? It's just how they felt. They're like, this guy needs to prepare better. Yeah, the last 16 months haven't been good enough. Right. And agreed. If you don't agree that he needs to be better, then, well, I don't know. This must be the first time you've ever watched hockey. But that doesn't mean that this can't be a different approach going forward.

Just because what you said last season was true and honest, I don't think it's necessarily a good thing. Let's say he comes to camp and it's not perfect. Okay? Let's say he comes to camp and it's like, oh, okay, well, I still wish it was a little bit better. They have to think long and hard about whether they want to hammer away at him again. Don't you think? Yeah, I think that that approach is probably come and gone. And if they're going to put any positive spin on it in the aftermath, it's going to be, Hey, everyone goes through adversity in this league. When we talk about McKinnon, you can talk about the year where his team finished with

like 38 points in the standings and he was the leader and the highest paid guy and one of the worst teams in recent memory. And he talked about it. It's being a low point in his career. Everyone has them. And we tried this approach. It didn't work. It broke you down, but in the end it will ultimately, ultimately make you better because you've gone through that adversity. Now you can't go through it again though, right? Once you've learned your lesson,

and that goes on both sides, once everyone's learned their lesson, you have to have learned from it. And learning means not repeating, and I don't wanna call it mistakes, but not repeating the behavior that led to, let's be frank, terrible results across the board. Last year was an abject disaster

for a lot of different people involved. And in the aftermath, JT Miller was gone and Rick Taukett was gone. Right? Two of the main figures involved in everything that went on last year are gone. Who remains? Pedersen. And Pedersen's goal now is to take that adversity, build from it, and have a much better campaign starting this year.

Um, text in, it feels like we should be expecting him to be more of a quiet leader like the Sedines Barkov, almost any Euroleaders, haha. It's just different. How about you don't expect him to be a leader at all? You just expect him to be Elias Pettersson. Just be a good hockey player, man. Yep. Like you can, you can go into the room and say,

and say nothing. And then I suppose you could say like, I lead by example, but like you don't even have to do it. Just be a good hockey player, man. And leading by example, like is he the first guy on the ice and the last guy at the ice? Like just be a good hockey player, man. Because we've seen it before. We've seen you be a good hockey player. So I think for the coaching staff, for the organization, just find a way to get back to how it was before.

That's how you got that contract. You know, Pedersen is probably, he's never going to be like, there's another thing, like he'll be like the Sedines. The Sedines are the hardest workers ever. You know, like they're still running fun runs and marathons and cycling and doing all this crazy stuff. Maybe Petey's just never going to be like that.

Phil Kessel's never going to be like that. But he's got immense talent and there's still value to be given there. I'm just hoping, again, this is a fresh start. My eyes as one of his main critics are just like, like I'm, I just, I want to see something. Sure.

You know, and like, I hope this is a fresh start for Pedersen because I want to actually praise this guy. And it's why I brought up this conversation that he had with Adam Foote because I'm dying to report positive things about this guy. I really am. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a whole bunch of stuff, but recently, like what I found out again,

is that he had a really good conversation with Adam Foote and we can ask Adam about this when we have him on the show. And he said, you know, like I'm not gonna put words in my words in his mouth until I ask him, but from what I heard he was left very impressed with Pettersson. Got a lot more to get to in the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Speaking of reports in the Vancouver Canucks, the Canucks are reportedly interested in Minnesota Wild Forward Marco Rossi. We can talk about that on the other side of the break. We can also get into a wild game. One of the NBA finals last night,

Pacers stun OKC and the Aaron Rogers saga is finally over. Well, this chapter anyway, as he signs a deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers, that's all coming up in the next half hour of the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post-game show.

Listen 4 to 6 PM weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 6.33 on a Friday, forgot it was Fiesta Friday here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hola amigos, Halford & Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates, VCs first and trusted choice for NetHelp with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. No guests this hour, it's just us, Halford and Bref and the dogs. Hour one of this program 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 Pile Street in Vancouver. Couple things to pass along here. Some administrative stuff, not nonsense, this is important. We are giving away our final $50 gift card to Whitespot for the week today. It's going to be the same way we do it every day. Caller number five at eight 15 this morning. The phone number here, six Oh four two eight Oh zero six 50. That number again, six Oh four two eight. Oh zero six 50 call in at eight 15 this morning.

Be caller number five and you will get our final giveaway of the week, the $50 white spot gift card, white spot BC spot to celebrate all of life's big and little moments. A reminder, we are still giving away. Yes. The $100 gift card to AJ's pizza on East Broadway. That goes to the best ask us anything of the day. And because we have Adam foot at eight 30 this morning, where we normally do ask us anythings, we're going to be reading them throughout the show.

So get them in now for your chance to win. Hashtag it. A U A ask us literally anything. It does not have to be about sports. It just has to be thought provoking and compelling. I have a question for you. Okay. What do you think the white caps are feeling when they hear that Fiesta music nauseous? What happened with them? They all get food poisoning. That was a good trip down there. are feeling when they hear that Fiesta music. Nauseous. What happened with them?

They all get food poisoning. That was a good trip down there. I don't know if it's food poisoning or some variant of the norovirus, but they would have. Would that explain their performance if they had got it before the game? So they drank the water. They're all drinking out of a garden hose in Mexico City. Oh, no, that was a mistake.

Hand up. That was on us. They're all drinking out of a garden hose in Mexico City is gonna go no that was a mistake Sending all of our players to the local well was not the idea This happened The year prior when the Columbus clue crew clue when the Columbus crew Went to Mexico to play in the same tournament so if you're a fan of conspiracy theories or just coincidences, it's fair to suggest that the white caps, because it was such a poor performance may have been feeling the early onset of a either, yeah, you know,

widespread food poisoning or virus that is gone throughout the club. They canceled training yesterday. They shut down their media availability. They released a statement to the media in lieu of not having any media availability. I don't know what they're gonna do today. I don't know if they're gonna play on Sunday because this was already a team that was missing nine regulars

because of various international call-ups in this international window. And now with a bunch of guys got the scoots, they might just have to punt on the game entirely. So we'll see what happens. Yeah. Okay. That was a nice thing to add in right after our two food giveaways for the day. Gift cards of plenty. Okay. Um, let's talk about Marco Rossi. Let's do it. Let's play the audio from yesterday because venerable Minnesota wild beat writer

Mike Russo from the athletic was on with Dodden Drance during Canuck stock yesterday. We were able to trim this down to what? Two minutes and 40 seconds of audio. We couldn't trim anymore because it's so meaty, so girthy with information. Here's Russo on the Canucks reported interest on Marco Rossi. I definitely hear through, you know, really good sources at Vancouver really likes Marco and is very interested in Marco. Now, does that mean it via trade is needed?

Offer sheet, wonder the other who knows? Um, uh, I do think that, uh, he's a tremendous player. Um, I, I think that wild fans are really confused how it's gotten to this point. Um, that the wild who in 25 years have essentially drafted and developed, uh, three top six centers in history and Koyvoo, Eric Sinek and Rossi are now going to finally have this 23 year old that has 60 points this year, 24 goals, had 20 goals last year, all rookie team, and now they might trade them.

Um, you know, it just comes down to, I don't think that Bill Garan really feels that he could function in the playoffs. Um, he's undersized. He doesn't lack courage. Um, he just is undersized. But if you look at all his metrics, Thomas, I know you're into that. I mean, just go to NHL edge and look at where he gets all his shots and his goals. He goes, right? He's a dog. I mean, he is, he is, he's just, yeah.

And he's as determined as he could be. He's a total pro. Um, you know, like if Vancouver gets on there, he'd be extremely, extremely lucky to get them because he's just going to continue to get better and better just because he is such an absolute professional. Um, and I don't agree with the wild. I think he absolutely can function in the playoffs. I think they went in preemptively into the playoffs and just felt they weren't going to function and immediately in game one just threw him on the fourth line, even though

he wasn't the one that really deserved to go down there and he never could get away from there. And now they've really ruined that ability. He turned out a five year, $25 million deal, uh, back in February ish January. Um, and I think that they countered with a shorter term deal. Now I don't think they were willing to sign that bridge deal because they'd be worried that he'd be buried on the third and fourth lines over the term of the contract. So he really wants like, you know, Matt Boldy type money.

I think the good news for Marco is that wherever he gets traded, whoever is trading for him knows they're going to have to pay him in some capacity, whether it's signing that bridge deal, signing him long-term, but he's there because he's wanted. And I think that the, and at the end of the day as disappointed as Marco is as confused about this as he is, um, this is all going to be good for him. If he winds up getting traded, uh, I don't know if it's going to be good for the wild. A lot of pressure on the, on Bill Guerin to get a really good package back.

He's, you know, 23 old centers just don't grow on trees that produce like Marco. And, um, you know, he's going to want no significant package in return. Obviously there's the relationship with both Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alveen there in Vancouver, so that makes a lot of sense. And so we'll see where it goes, but I definitely get the impression that we're gonna see him getting a new change of address here by the end of the month.

23 year old senders that produce like Marco Rossi don't grow on trees. Nobody should be surprised by this news that the Canucks are interested in Rossi don't grow on trees. Nobody should be surprised by this news that the Canucks are interested in Rossi. The Canucks want to add a top six center. They don't want that center to be old. They don't want him to be a year or two away from unrestricted free agency.

And they need him to be, you know, available in a trade. So there aren't going to be many names that you come up with. If there was like a machine that you could just plug all those demands into, I guess there is now. Marco Rossi actually might be the only one that comes up. And this is the, again, like young center that you can have some club control over for a number of years.

He, he can play in the top six. He can produce in the top six and he's available in a trade. I mean, we've talked about this a lot on this show in the past is it's not about what you want when you go shopping. Sometimes it's about when you go shopping, is you can only purchase from the list of items and goods available. It's happened a lot of times.

We've seen countless teams whose general managers have said, this is the off season where we step on the gas and it's our turn in our time to take that step forward. But that step forward coincides with a handful of players that are available in that moment. So oftentimes you're not getting your ideal fit and you end up sometimes, sometimes talking yourself into a guy because he's not the best player. He's the best player available. And that's a big part of this. Well, I think what you're getting at here is, is it ideal that Rossi is on the

small side? No, it's not. But if you need this mythical young top six available center to be big as well, you're just not going to find it or there's something seriously wrong with this guy. He's in prison for five years, but you can trade for him. Sure.

You know what I mean? We think we can fix him. We think we can fix him. I'm not even sure the Canucks have what the wild will be demanding for Marco Rossi. Cause if I'm the wild, I'm asking for the moon, considering all the aggressive teams out there, considering all the teams that are desperately

searching for help down the middle. The Canucks do not want to give up players like DPD or Tom Willander. I'm not sure exactly where things stand with Lekker-Mackie and we're going to talk to Rick Dollywall, but would Bill Guerin be interested in Lekker-Mackie if he already thinks Rossi is too small for the playoffs?

I know Lekker-Mackie is a winger and Rossi is a center and. And Lekker-Mackie is he already thinks Rossi is too small for the playoffs. I know Lekker-Mackie is a winger and Rossi is a center. And Lekker-Mackie is slightly bigger than Rossi, so there's that. But here's another thing. Won't the Wild want an actual NHL player in any deal for Rossi and a good player? Minnesota isn't rebuilding. This is their off season of being aggressive and you can say, well, they can replace Rossi or whatever in free agency. Well, there aren't a lot of players in free agency, although I do wonder if they're going to go after Brock Besser. But if I, if I'm trading Marco Rossi, I'm the wild, I want a pick,

a prospect and a player. Yeah. Because of the demand for young centers. Sure. Even though they've done a lousy job of marketing the player. I mean, this is a ninth overall pick in 2020 that in his first two years in the league has produced it, a pretty good clip. Right. 24 was a 24 goals and 60 points last year in his sophomore campaign.

And the way that he was deployed in the playoffs gave a lot of people pause, a lot of people pause because he was essentially deployed as a fourth line center. And at that point you're saying, we like this guy in the regular season, but internally as the Minnesota wild, we don't believe that we can win in the postseason with this guy. So that message that you send to the rest of the teams in the NHL. He played Vegas, right? Yep. I wonder if that had something to do with them.

Like Vegas, a pretty big team. Yeah, I mean, I watched this. Granted, I didn't watch a series of. Wild played well. I thought the wild played well, but I did notice that he was kind of a non factor. And it's not like the wild were bursting with depth at center. Yeah. And at certain times you're like, why are you not playing your young highly touted former top 10 pick in a more

advanced role? Now some of this has to do with team identity, right? The wild have a certain way that they want to play. I also think Bill Garan, the connects don't have an identity. Don't worry about it. You can be anything. It can be, you can be Marco Rossi, the Marco Rossi team. You can all be a bunch of little Marco Rossi's that should be the identity. Regular Marco Rossi's. They just let be a bunch of little Marco Rossis. That should be the identity. Or just regular Marco Rossis. They just let the guys be whatever. There's no team identities.

Like, Petey, you do what you want. You wanna slow it down, go East West, go for it. Rossi, you do whatever you want to. I mean, the issue is- Let's see how it works. The issue that they've got- Hi, I'm Bruce Boudreaux, I'll be the coach. I would like to reimagine what we do on the ice.

I think that there's a larger picture and a larger scale conversation here when you talk about painting yourself into corners and backing yourself into them as well and and the Canucks Unfortunately are there right now because of a few different factors the Quinn Hughes thing hanging over everything the You know steadfast refusal to do the slow methodical tear down, rebuild, build it back up. When you have to fix things in a hurry and fix things on the fly.

You know, anyone that works in construction or trades and renovations, you talk about doing the job slow and methodically and right. And, you know, you pay the money and you invest in good people and good quality materials, and it might take longer. You might have to live in your mother-in-law's basement suite for six more months than you expected, but you're going to get the ideal dream house at the end as opposed to we can do this quick and fast. We might cut some corners. It might not be ideal.

You know, your kitchen drawers might not all open, might get stuck, but you'll get to move in faster. Like that analogy is kind of what's going on here because this is not, there's no way you can tell me that this is a perfect fit. No. The Rossi thing. No. The Knox might not even have the right assets.

They might have to overpay to get a guy that they might not specifically, or that might not specifically fit their needs. But he ticks enough boxes where you say, OK, going into next year, which is a hugely pivotal year for our franchise's future, he might get the job done. A lot of people texting in their trade proposals and a lot of them. I'd like to see you try and put things to Bill Guerin.

But one name that keeps coming up, because I said, wouldn't the wild want an actual NHL player as part of this deal? One name that really comes up a lot is Nils Hoaglinder. And I agree that Hoaglinder could be involved in a trade, but I also have heard that the Canucks think Hoaglinder is a real bounce back

candidate for next season. Sure. So like they're going to have to give to get. And Rutherford has said, and management has said, they said it in the press conference at the end of the year. He was like, it was like, yeah, we got to make these trades and some people

aren't going to like these trades, which means they're going to give up something that you don't want to give up. I mean, I don't want the Canucks to give up the first round pick, but I've just assumed that it's gone. I've assumed that the Canucks won't be drafting this year. Um, but I, do I want them to give up that pick? No. Do I want them to give up that pick? No. Do I want them to give up Holgländer?

Not really. Cause I think, I think there's a bounce back in him. I think this season, um, was just hard for him overall. It didn't start out well, but I thought he showed a lot more as the season progressed and even though he's not the biggest guy, I think he gave me a valuable player for the Canucks because he's got talent and he's also got some edge. And I like that and he works hard. That's another thing I've heard.

Like the guy works really hard and is constantly working on his game. Well, let's be real here. If there's two players that may, how should I put this delicately? Find life a little bit lighter and brighter with Rick talk it gone. I'd say the two might be might be the Leis Pedersen and Nils Hoaglander. Yeah, you know, that's possible. Like, oh, sure.

Hoaglander had a really no, it's two totally different styles of player that didn't really jive with talk. It's preferred style but I always felt like Hoaglander got a raw err deal Because he was always working. He was always moving his feet He was always trying you could never ever really question the guys want and desire and hustle It was just under Rick Tuckett maybe not with all coaches but I'm talking it felt like it was always

misguided misdirected yeah bad penalties every time that Hoaglander went right talk it would have been like I wish you had gone left yeah and every time that he stopped he's like I wish you would have kept going and every time he took an offensive zone penalty talk it would have been like I really wish you hadn't taken that offensive zone penalty and now when would have been like, I really wish you hadn't taken that offensive zone penalty. And that one, I agree with talking. He's got a point coach has a point there. And, uh, you know, you talk about fresh starts with Patterson.

I totally agree with you on the whole Glender front. I think there's a guy that, you know, I'll say it at times. I thought that talk, it's treatment of Hoaglander was actually more unfair than any of the other players on the Canucks because yeah, he was a bit reckless and yeah, he didn't. I think it was more an execution thing with Hoaglander, but it felt like he was always the de facto whipping boy and he was always the one.

If there was a guy that was going to get called out by name in the media, he was going to be the guy. If there was a guy that was gonna get called out by name in the media, he was gonna be the guy. If there was a guy that was gonna get docked ice time in the third period, it has always felt like him as opposed to the countless other candidates you could have had last year, because there were a lot of guys that weren't pulling their weight last year.

But when it came down to publicly shaming or blaming one of them, it always felt like Hoaglander. So I'm kind of with you on that. I think he could be a good bounce back candidate next year. Okay, let's do some fun, ask us anythings to finish off this opening hour of pure Halford and Brough. Patrick in Langley says, it's sports day at Senator Reed Elementary today.

Shout out Senator Reed. What is your favorite sports day memory? Nothing to do with, I hated the egg carry. What is that called? Is that what it's called? I like the spoon and egg, yeah. Spoon and egg. I like the egg toss.

I was always really good at that. The egg carry? Yeah, I rocked at that. Really? You had a solid base. Yeah, that was my specialty. That egg was going nowhere. Yeah.

I dominated. They were like, let him use the ladle. Yeah, just give it to Ira I don't there's got to be certain old-school Sports day events that are no longer in the curriculum Because I remember a series of very serious injuries from like the three-legged race Oh, yeah, where you wouldn't team up two people with the same athletic prowess. Mm-hmm. It was like comedy ensued, but so did like dislocated ankles.

You know, you'd be dragging one guy along and everything else. Let me ask you something. Yep. When you were in elementary school, did you take PE too seriously? Yeah. Yeah.

I was a big, well, cause I was so into sports. Did you go to elementary school with an all boys school? No, it was, it was a big well because I was so into sports They did you go to elementary school with an all-boys school? No, it was okay It was it was a private Catholic school, but it was yeah mixed gender. I hated to lose in anything I was like California kickball is like you can't just pop it up. You gotta you gotta go for the gaps. Yep What are you doing Jenny? That was the introduction people watch game tape after like look what you did? Yeah, well, okay So what he's talking about is that for a lot of kids that was supposed to be the introduction to a lot of these sports Yeah, we were just so advanced at that point because also we did was watch sports

So we're like get on our level learn the rules in high school where you want to win yeah, and most of them are just like, I don't care. And our response should have been like, yeah, you shouldn't care, it's grade six P.E. You should care more. So when I went to high school, went to an all boys high school, one year P.E. classes were pretty cutthroat.

It was a fun experience. Not for the bad athletes, but for the rest of us It was fun The one year in one of the semesters they introduced Handball, you know the European variety. Yeah, that looks like a fun game, by the way It got way too intense to the point where the entire P department was like we've made a huge mistake they are murdering each other because it's pretty because you can make it pretty physical.

And being goalie in European handball is not fun whatsoever. And it became the point of the day where the guys would get so jacked up for P.E. class prior to that there was this sort of like Lord of the Flies. Guys walking around me going, I'm gonna kill you at handball today. That was a phrase that got uttered

far too often in high school. And yeah, PE class got taken way too seriously there. Okay, it's gym class day for young Halford. What sport do you want them to announce it is? Oh, I mean soccer without question. Soccer? For me it was floor hockey. Every time it was floor hockey

and they brought the nets out into those little gyms, it was like, yeah, same. Okay. It's like finally a sport I can play. Here's the better question. What activity or sport were you definitely like? No, we're wasting gym class with this? Squared dancing.

Please tell me you did that at the all boys school No, we didn't wasn't in the curriculum that year I went to I went to public school for eight nine. Are they still doing square dance? I don't know. That's a good question I know that there's that's so much. Oh That in gymnastics there were a lot of they're like a lot of sweaty palms when they were like Gymnastics. All right, we're bringing out the mats. We're going to do somersaults. I'd be like, why? I didn't mind. What are we doing somersaults for?

I didn't mind gymnastics, because at least there was some athletic component of it. What did you like about gymnastics? Well, that it wasn't square dancing. No, I know. But what part of gymnastics? You've just said there was an athletic component that you didn't like.

What did you? There was a lot of jumping involved. When you get up on the pommel horse And then you knock yourself in the crotch Trying to pommel the horse. Okay, we gotta go to break We got a lot more to get into on the hell for the brush show on sportsnet 650 We're gonna talk a little PWHL Vancouver a deeper dive more analysis after the expansion PWHL Vancouver team signed a whole bunch of players this week ahead of the expansion draft Haley Salvion is gonna join us at seven o'clock. Moj

at 730, Dolly Wall at eight and Adam Foote at 830. Big guest list ahead over the next two hours. Don't go anywhere. You're listening to the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650.