Halford & Brough in the Morning - Could The Canucks Circle Back On Suter?

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with NHL insider Frank Seravalli (1:16) about what could be a busy summer of trades, following a lacklustre Free Agency period, plus the boys tell us what they learned (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.

Music Frank! Sarah Valley! Frank! Frank! 702 on a Wednesday, happy Wednesday everybody, Halford Routh, Sportsnet 650. Frank! Halford and Routh of the morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. This is them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program. Frank Ceravalli, our NHL insider, is gonna join us in just a moment here to kick off hour two.

Hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominuk at jason.mortgage. 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 him online at jason.mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics

working together with you in step. To the phone lines we go the Power West Industries hotline. Our next guest is a presentation of angry outer liquor. It is Frank Ceravalli NHL insider here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Frank, how are you? Pretty good. How you guys doing? Hope you guys had a great time today. Yeah, thanks. It was good We had a pretty good day. We missed the Brock Besser signing by about a half hour though, when we got in our cars and by the time I got home, I was shocked when I saw the text.

As a matter of fact, the first text I got, I thought it was a prank, because I had little to, I mean, not little, I had no optimism, no hope, no thought that Besser was going to resign in Vancouver, especially to open free agency on July 1. So I guess a two-parter for you, Frank, how shocked were you when you heard the news?

Or did you know that this might be coming? No, jaw on the floor. And to be honest, I think Brock Besser and his camp also very surprised. I mean, this call came in quite literally in the 11th hour, Eastern time to circle back to Brock Besser. They had tried to engage him again last week, I'd say sometime around the middle of the week. And it was a kind of non-starter. And at that point, point the thought process and at least from the

teams that I had been talking to around the league I think that there was somewhere in the neighborhood of ten teams that were trying to get their hands on Brock Besser and he never actually formally made it to market that they were in the last that last hour they were just grinding on what a new deal would look like and they put something a lot of things changed but the biggest change is that they put a deal on what a new deal would look like. And they put something, a lot of things changed, but the biggest change is that they put a deal on the table with term that was acceptable. Which team do you think was frustrated

that Besser decided to return to Vancouver? It seems like there's a lot of teams out there that didn't get their needs met. Yeah, that's the thing. I would say there was a lot. I mean, there was, there were even a surprising swath of teams. Like, I had heard at one point that the Pittsburgh Penguins were going to be a team that was going to try and make a push for Brock Vestor. And I was like, what?

And sometimes some of this ends up being fiction, but the point being there was look I think the Canucks are the biggest admission of this truth is It's so incredibly difficult to add to your top six this market this summer That that's why you see a Vander Cane and a Canucks uniform That's why Connor Garland gets reupped at the first possible moment. That's why you come a Vanderkeen and a Canucks uniform. That's why Connor Garland gets re-upped at the first possible moment. That's why you come back to Brock Besser in the last hour before free agency, because the Canucks

otherwise couldn't think about accomplishing their goals for the off season because those players just aren't available and or the acquisition cost is too high. Yeah, it is. It's totally understandable the way things played out for the Canucks. I mean, in a lot of ways, Besser is a lot like Brad Marchand, who a lot of people were wondering if he'd be able to stay in Florida. Um, the Panthers managed to keep all their free agents and that leaves a team like

Toronto looking for a winger because correct me if I'm wrong here though. The Panthers managed to keep all their free agents and that leaves a team like Toronto looking for a winger because correct me if I'm wrong here though, I think the Leafs had their sights set on signing Brad Marchand and now they've lost Marner and yeah, they got a third line center or fourth line center back in Nick Wah, but they've lost a top six winger and a really good one and they haven't replaced him. Yeah, there's a lot of teams that are waking up today on July 2nd, holding the bag, that they just didn't get what they needed. And that's why I think it's going to be interesting to watch the trade market over these next couple of weeks, because whether you're Edmonton and you

didn't get the goalie that you want, or you're the Leafs and the forward or pick, pick a team. There's a lot of. And top frustration and anger that they weren't able to make things happen. And you know what happens when that happens, teams begin to push and get a little aggressive and crazy that that might spark things on the trade market. Where are based on your dealings and talks from around the league? The twenty twenty six draft, because we saw this year the picks of the twenty twenty five draft didn't hold as much value as previous drafts

for a multitude of reasons. But some of it, I think, had to do with the draft class as well. Going into next year with the McKenna sweepstakes, have you gotten a sense that teams might be more intrigued or more willing to take on futures and by that I mean picks in the 26 draft as opposed to this year's Yeah, I think teams are definitely more interested in those Potential lottery picks and hey, you never know when you go and acquire a team's first round or what it will end up being

I mean did anyone see the New York Rangers falling off as Precipitously as they did after winning a president's trophy? Probably not. Maybe Chris Drury. Yeah. And so that's, that certainly is, is in the back of a lot of people's minds. I think that's also a big reason why we've mentioned this before, but how teams that are expected to be at the bottom of the standings are closer to it, you're not going to see those teams prepare offer sheets. And not that there's really much left to even pick at.

Will Cooley ends up signing a very reasonable deal with the Rangers. The Carolina Hurricanes tried to flex a little bit of that muscle. And that's why they ended up prying Keandre Miller out of New York. But because teams, like you'd have to be a team like Carolina to even be incentivized to make an offer sheet, because you know that your team isn't going to be in that spot where you could be in the lottery conversation. And it's not just Kevin McKenna, by the way, who is, I think, nearing in on, on a decision here on where he's going to play next season, Michigan state and Penn state being the front runners.

Um, this is a very special draft class in general. Keaton Verhoff, I think he's going to go number two as a six foot, four, six foot, five defenseman played in Victoria, now going to North Dakota. Like he would be the number one clear consensus, number one pick in any other draft. So this draft in particular, you're talking about five to six players deep

of franchise potential level players that just changes the conversation. And yeah, if you, you know, teams that weren't interested in futures might suddenly be now that the 2025 draft is in the rear view mirror. I want to ask you about a couple of centers. The first one is Marco Rossi. Bill Guerin said yesterday that if anybody signs Rossi to an offer sheet, they'll match. He says he'd prefer to make a deal with Rossi,

but do you expect now that- He'd prefer to make a trade for Rossi, by the way. You think, okay, well, what do you think's going to happen there? Well, it's a really simple equation. The wild want to be a good team next year. And so they've had, and Vancouver was one of the teams that put their first round pick on the table. They've had multiple teams attempt to offer them futures to get Marco Rossi. They, they can't just take Rossi out of their lineup and expect to compete.

Um, down the middle, they're, they're they can't just take Rossi out of their lineup and expect to compete, um, down the middle. They're, they're already thin at that position. So they also view him as an RFA as an imperfect player and they're not, it's not like they're going to bite the bullet and sign them long-term. That's not their thought process. What they might have to do if, if a good trade doesn't materialize is go back and negotiate a short-term bridge deal that keeps them in their lineup and or punts this conversation

to next summer. What they're not going to do is allow an offer sheet that provides them with exactly the same type of futures that they just said no to because they wanna make their team better. They're not trying to create a hole, particularly at a time when you can't really go out and fill it. And not only that, I don't even really view him

as an authentic offer sheet candidate because I mean, how could you possibly make the AAV and Pysing enough? You'd have to go like yeah eight eight set you know it gets divided by five so it's it's difficult but like you have to go like five years times seven or eight million for the wild to say no and that's you're probably just making a bet yourself that you're not comfortable with. Pugh Suter, why didn't he sign yesterday? Good question.

I don't know. My guess is that in the thin center market that there were teams that were interested but probably not with offers that are all that different than what the Canucks can do. And I think there's still a door open for him to go back to the Canucks because of what he was able to accomplish there, that would make a lot of sense. Yeah. I mean, do you think given the needs for players, NHL players around the league, do you think a guy like Dakota Joshua would be easy to move? Yeah.

I mean, I think he would be easy to move? Yeah, I mean, I think he would be easy to move. I think Teddy Bluger would be easy to move. I think there's a few guys that they could certainly find homes for and find some decent value in. But at the same time, one of the things that obviously Rick Tocket valued and I'd imagine in a very similar vein that Adam Foote will value is that competitive juice in your bottom six that you really need.

And so I don't think that they're itching to do that, but I think that's an exit ramp if they need one. We're speaking of Frank Saravalli, our NHL insider here on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. I did want to ask you about Bowen Byrom. It was interesting because the Sabres made a bunch of moves yesterday, including getting the Ryan McLeod thing sorted out. But a bunch of people, including Mike Harrington from the Buffalo News said, well, this is all fine and great, but they need clarity on Bowen Byrom and they need it sooner rather than later.

When do you expect that clarity to come into focus, Frank? To be honest, I expected it to come into focus like 10 days ago. I, I don't know exactly what their thought process is, what they're waiting for. I think the market for Bow and Byram has been relatively soft. And the reason for that is not because people are casting dispersions on his game, just because A, the defense market was pretty flush and there was a number of players out there that could fill a similar void. And B, it's not just the acquisition cost to get him out of Buffalo,

it's then you have to sign them to the contract and that becomes a two part, very expensive formula. So there, I know the Sabres have left the door open to re-signing them. I don't, I can't imagine that that's actually going to happen. It would have probably already happened to this point. And it's going to be up to someone to step up to, to make it happen. Cause I also, in a similar way to Rossi, like I don't, how could you possibly present an offer sheet that's truly a poison pill to the sabers?

Like they've got tons of cap space. Uh, yeah. I mean, Byron might be like, I'm not signing any offer sheet because the risk is that the Sabres match it and now I'm stuck in Buffalo. So, um, his best bet is probably to just try and wait for a trade or maybe even, I don't know, could it get to the point where he just refuses

to, to go to training camp? I'd be surprised. I don't think that's really in his nature. I think it'll get solved before then. Uh, okay. Nick Ehlers, where do you think he'll end up? So I've had my focus on two teams, Carolina and Washington. I think he was the big fish that the caps were really focused in on at this free agent period. There may be another team or two, but I think that they went into this with a really curated short list. And it's actually really funny because there were a couple of teams.

I know that had called his agent yesterday when the market opened and said, Hey, we'd like to talk about Nick Ehlers. And apparently it was like a 32nd conversation. It was like very polite, but it was like, no, no chance. Thanks for calling, but we're good. I respect that. And so, yeah, it was, they were laughing because they actually both the GM said both him and his agent were laughing because they were like, it just made life easy. Like there was no dance. Yeah.

And with that, I'd expect that he's got some real good offers, like knows that he's getting a good deal. And it's really just about finding the right fit for him. He's a very introspective contemplative guy. And I think the couple of things that have been on his list, chance to win warmer weather than Winnipeg, which is everywhere. And with that, also, maybe if possible, a market that is a little bit less intense and focused than Winnipeg because he's played in it and that's all he's ever known. But like we're talking literal polar opposites in both weather and

environment that maybe the caps are that sort of middle ground and the canes are the total polar opposite. Let's stick in Canada, go to another Canadian market, the stemming Calgary. What's going on between Rasmus Anderson and the flames right now? Well, they exchange numbers and they're not close. And so everyone is under the understanding that Rasmus Anderson's days as a Calgary flame are numbered. The question is how many numbers are on that clock? Is it a hundred and some leading up to next year's trade deadline? Or is it in the teens, as in over these next few weeks?

Sure. So there's been lots of interest. The Golden Knights, the Stars, the Kings, a lot of teams have shown an interest in this right shot guy who is kind of a guaranteed double digit goal scorer from the back end that really kind of had a down year. And so the beauty of Rasmus Anderson, particularly for any of those teams that are capped is 4.55 for one more year.

I mean, that's a great, great spot to be in. And he's, you know, the flames at the same time are saying, yeah, that's great, but we're not going to get strong armed because we know that if we don't trade him now, we're going to have one of the best players, if not the best trade chip available in March, we're just going to hang on to him. So they're not trading him unless they get a deal that they feel is is like next year's trade deadline value and that might

It's hard to look at it. It might it might linger a bit or might go back to the part of the conversation we had at the start of the segment, which is There's a lot of teams that are frustrated today. I Can imagine like I look at a team like Vegas as we keep it now in the division, right? We go from Calgary to Vegas and Vegas made the big splash with Marner the big announcement with Petrangelo And then if you look at that blue line, there's an obvious need that has to be addressed there I know that they've been tied to Anderson for a while But I wonder if there's another pivot point for Vegas given that they're once again all in with another big splash

But they are gonna need to fix that defense Yeah, but what about Dallas? Dallas too. Like they're a team that's actually, you know, three straight West finals. Their big issue has been defense. And so they didn't have enough bodies one year ago. This year they get steamrolled by the Oilers.

And somehow today we wake up and both Matt Dumba and Ilya Lubushkin are on their cap. Right. The right side of their defense has been a gong show. Cody CC walks. I just don't know how they fix that without bringing in someone of Anderson's caliber. And they've got other moves to make first in order to make that happen. Yeah. And I know that they did finally get the Glenn Gullitzen higher finalized for head coach. So maybe they're waiting for one thing to happen before the next. But again, that's another one that certainly seems like given how the

postseason ended and how much turmoil and how tumultuous it was that there will be changes. Yet Dallas has been. I know that they're better. It's hard to say that they are because they have they added anything of significance. I mean, all it seems to be is minor departures from the team. And in Grandland, I think you'd argue not even a minor one, a guy that was a good player for them last year.

Yeah. And by the way, I thought that was one of the sneaky best deals of the day. People were like, oh, my God, seven million for Grandland. If you've got piles of cap space like the Anaheim Ducks do, that's the way to do it is pay more in AAV and shorten the term. Yeah, I Mean that was what we talked about earlier in the show Like it was very obvious that Anaheim went into day one to be like we're getting grandland No one else is gonna get them and that's how you do it is you give them seven million a year

Over three years and you say it doesn't matter to us because we got tons of caps face. Hey Frank What were I'd be willing to go to eight if that's what it took to get to the player get the player they had like 25 million dollars in cap space who cares? Yeah, and it's and by the way, the other benefit is They didn't give him any signing bonus So let's say he has two good years and then they're not sure about the third one. You could always buy out the last year What are the Kings doing? Great question They handed out 25 million dollars in this year's cap space to A whole lack of players that I don't know. I mean we know are not needle movers

Um that are just supporting pieces and maybe that in the end that bulk of depth makes them better But I think they're really gonna regret a couple of those deals in the last couple of years. Okay, Frank, it is time to bid farewell. This is going to be the last hit that we do this season. First off, I just want to say it's been great getting you on the show every week. You bring a ton of information, a wealth of knowledge to the show. Are you prepared to announce what's next for Frank Cervelli? You're holding that one until maybe a later day. Nice try. I appreciate it. And thanks for the kind words. No problem.

No, I'm not. And it'll be a few weeks before I'm able to share. But in the end, hope that I'm back with you guys in the fall and Looking forward to continuing to talk hockey even though some of your texters and your market don't love me I still love you Vancouver. Well, I hope you don't have to pay any state income tax in your new deal wherever Unfortunately, I do I'd live in a state with income tax I'm not crying about it. All right, buddy Have a great summer and we'll reconnect soon. Sounds good. See you guys. Have a great time. Thanks, guys. Thanks, guy. Frank Sir.

Thank you, guys. Thanks, guy. Frank Sir, Valley. Do you know where he's going to land? Do you know? It's unknown. I did that exact same thing a few days ago. Hey, guys. I was shopping and there was one person in the store. And he said I was leaving. And he was like, all right, see you later. And I was like, there was one person in the store and he said I was leaving and He was like, alright, see you later. And I was like, thanks guys

See you guys. I knew that all the time too. And he was like looking around for someone else, I guess I also loved how you tried to scoop the NHL insider Frank Cervali on his insider It's very funny though. I had to give it a go. It's very funny. Do you have any insider information on you? It's very funny though. I had to give it a go. It's very funny. Do you have any inside information on you? A few people texting in about Dakota Joshua. Unsigned text here, this trading Joshua talk doesn't make sense to me.

I know he's one of their only roster assets, but he's on a decent deal. He fights, he's big and he showed before he can play up the lineup, don't trade this guy. Uh, Rocket and Langley, I don't know why we would want to go off a guy like Dakota. I mean, we're trying to get guys like Dakota. And I think he's going to have a bounce back here as well. He showed some come back in the last part of this season.

I just don't want to trade Dakota at this point in time. It's not really about not liking Dakota Joshua. The whole idea is, you know, can you still bring back Pew Souter? You can't. And some people, well, you can't unless you move off of some salad. Yeah, that's the thing. It's not that they want to trade Joshua. No.

It's like, if you don't trade Joshua, say goodbye to Souter. So you got to pick your, which, who do you want? Yeah, it's a tough decision. Who do you want? I think if it even is a decision for the Canucks to make, I don't know where things are with Pew Souter. We could find out this to say he's probably going to have a. We could find out this morning that suitor is going to sign somewhere.

He's probably going to have a better year next year. You would safe to assume Joshua. Yeah. And I think. He'll have a full summer training. Obviously things didn't go his way last year. Absolutely. For multitude of reasons.

And I like the fact that he's big and tough. I mean, I don't think Dakota Joshua is the type of guy that goes out there and like destroys guys with hits on a regular basis, but he's strong on the puck. And he brings, uh, an element that the Canucks need more of, not less. Okay. Uh, we got to go to break here on the Halford and Bref show on sports net 650 when we come back, I think we'll dive into some of what we learned.

And even though we don't have that many right now, a reminder at eight o'clock, we're going to go live to the Brock Besser Media Availability one day after he signs a seven-year extension out of nowhere to stick with the Vancouver Canucks. And then at 8.30, we're gonna talk to IMAC, who will be on the media availability. We'll talk to him about the Canucks getting the band back together

in the article that he wrote for Sportsnet.ca. Some really good insights from Tyler Myers about the room, the collective, it all coming back for another kick at the can. So because of that in the eight o'clock hour, we're going to do what we learned coming up on the other side. Get them in Dunbar. Lumber text line is six 50, six 50.

Tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. Hashtag it. W W L it's your chance to be on the radio. That's coming up next. We are at the midway point of the show. Stick around. We're here till nine o'clock. You're listening to the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet. Six fifty. Hey, it the midway point of the show stick around. We're here till 9 o'clock You're listening to the health of the brush one sportsnet 650 Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas strands get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on sportsnet 650

Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app Now for my favorite part of the show. What'd I say? Talk to the audience. Oh, God, this is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time on the show. 732 on a Wednesday.

Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough, The Morning, is brought to you by Sands of 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 in hour two of the program. Yeah, it's what we learned time.

Hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominick at jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason.mortgage. Oh, I hit the post. Okay. So at 732, some of you diehard Halborough guys out there and gals are probably like, what's happening? Why is this happening again?

For like the ninth time. You're screwing with my routine. Sorry. We got iMac at 8.30 and then at eight o'clock this morning, we have the Brock Besser media availability. So we're gonna do some what we learns right now. And I'm gonna start. So I learned that on a day yesterday, where a lot of teams wanting to remake particular positions

and remodel their teams were left frustrated with the inability to do so, the Rangers and the Hurricanes were both able to dramatically reshape their respective blue lines. We'll begin with the New York Rangers who signed former Los Angeles Kings, demand Vladislav Gavrikov to a seven year, $49 million contract. New York then quickly moved to trade Kay Andre Miller to Carolina. They got defense with Scott Morrow,

a conditional first round pick and a 2026 second round pick in exchange. The Carolina Hurricanes then quickly signed Kay Andre Miller to an eight year, 60 million dollar contract. So what does it look like now? You might be asking. Well, the Rangers are going to put Gavrikov right on their top pair. It's going to play alongside Adam Fox. He's a lefty. Fox is a righty. There you go. The hurricane instant chemistry. Yeah. play alongside Adam Fox. He's a lefty, Fox is a righty, there you go.

The Hurricanes. Instant chemistry. Yeah, within five games they're like, this isn't working, oh damn. The Hurricanes aren't going to slot Candray Miller onto the top pair because he's a lefty and Jacob Slavin is a lefty. He'll play on the second pair alongside either Jalen Chatfield or Shane Gostis pair.

But Candrea Miller, 25 years old, gets the Max. So it was a sign and trade, right? That's how he got the eighth year. He signed it with the Rangers and then was traded quickly. He replaces not one, but two key components from that Carolina Blue Line from a year ago. Dmitry Orlov and Brent Burns, who were allowed to walk to free agency and will presumably sign elsewhere.

So again, on a day where a lot of teams were left wanting, trying to remodel, the Rangers and the Canes found a way to get it done. I actually like Keandre Miller, probably more than most, including Chris Drury. I understand he's got his defensive deficiencies. I do like the way that he can transport the puck. That's what Eric Tulski said yesterday.

They like the way that he can move the puck. I think it's a it's an interesting move for both. It was pretty obvious last year that the way the Rangers blue line was constructed was they were like, we need a guy that's going to play more just straight defense on our defense. Because Adam Fox isn't yeah offense Yeah, and and Miller just it just wasn't the right you know sometimes is about fit You can be a good player, but if your style doesn't work and actually that's another thing Tulski said is

We're always trying to find guys not necessarily. This is the best defenseman on the market He's got to fit what we want so my presumably I'm thinking like whatever Brent Burns brought to the table last year This is where Drance would come in and be like be like, Rod Bryndemore's stress hockey. It is stress hockey. Yeah. That's what they do. And yeah, they put pressure on the other team. And so you got to be tenacious and you got to be, you got to be fast and you know, so we'll see how that works out. Give us a moocow on that. We're only going to do, I think, one or two more. And then we'll go into the- Ben, that's what we learned.

Do you have a what we learned? Yeah, I'm going to do one real quick. And it's kind of just ahead of IMAX interview. I learned that the Canucks players are pushing back against the narrative. Oh, you read the article. Good. Yeah, yeah. I did.

So there were quotes from both Tyler Meyers and Connor Garland that pushed back on the notion that the Canucks had issues in the room or that, you know, the noise affected them. Um, you know, Garland said, uh, you know, last year, I think carries a lot of noise that isn't warranted. He said, we dealt with injuries right from the start of the season. We had a lot of top players hurt.

We just couldn't get healthy. Then obviously we had a little bit of a distraction as a group. What were we? Four points out with all those injuries. I think we're a pretty good hockey club. And then Tyler Myers, and you already referenced this quote, um, said, I think it's easy to jump to conclusions about what's happening when you're not on the inside during my entire time in Vancouver.

I've never once thought our room is broken. Certainly there was tension, uh, but it doesn't mean that the room is broken, certainly there was tension, but it doesn't mean that the room is broken. So the only thing that I would push back against the pushback is that it was your president of hockey ops that put it out there that the rift between Miller and Pedersen seeped into the room. I mean, you heard Garland in our interview yesterday. I mean, he pushed back about how bad things were in the room. But what I'm saying is this wasn't a fan narrative or a media narrative.

Like it was the president of HockeyOps that came out and said that. So what are we supposed to think? That's all I'm saying. No, I know, but that's all I'm saying. I think that's why these guys are saying this right now. Yeah. I don't think they're gonna say our president was lying. No, no, no.

I think, look, let's be honest here. I'm just trying to deflect blame from us. No, look. Rutherford himself went out there and said, like, whether it's an interview with the Globe and Mail or the end of the season, like, the focus was, he was focusing on it a lot. Like we had a thing last year and he said that it affected the room. So we're like, okay, well, I guess it affected the room.

Right. Last year, Rutherford did a nice job of directing narratives. He talked to the right people, he got his message out to the right outlets, and it was presented in a way where he was able to dictate how that narrative went. Is that a fair way to say it? He dictated how that narrative went. Yeah. And in subsequent conversations, I know that he's put an overwhelmingly large percentage of last year's failings on the rift between Pederson and Miller.

Yes. Ignoring the other, the countless other things that led to the team missing the playoffs last year. And you know why? Because it's clean, it's tidy, it's direct. And here's the thing. Miller's not here anymore. So you can say that we had a problem, but we cleaned it up. It's ignoring all the other parts of the problem. The injuries, the ineffective stretches, the bizarre record, losing record at home, which no one was able to explain. The slow starts, the coach leaving

everything, everything was about the Pettersson Miller rift. So in light of that, I think a lot of the players are like, come on. Like that's not it. There's a lot of other things that went on, but to suggest that the room was as fractured and as divided as certain people are saying just isn't true. Myers has said, I mean, again,

the only thing that Garland pushed back on yesterday, it wasn't even pushed back because we were, again, just reiterating what the president of Hockey Ops said he pushed back on. It was made a bigger deal. What a terrific choose your own adventure we have setting up for next season though. You know, if the Canucks come back and they play really well and they play as a team together, you know what people will say? Well, you can blame it all on Miller. Sure. You know, especially if Pedersen bounces back.

But if they don't, you know what people will say. It's like, you brought back this same group. There is a- And for term, you locked up this core that continually disappoints? There is a third- What, are we taking crazy pills here? There is a third. What are we taking, crazy pills here? There is a third option.

What's that? Is that they try really hard and they play their best and they're still short because they're so lacking talent up front. Which I think would fall into that second category. I don't think that's the third category. It's just like, why didn't you start again? Here's, I mean, the issue I think,

one of the biggest issues with last year was they had a number of guys at Forward that underperforming. You start with Patterson. You can go to Joshua. I think it was a down. I mean, production wise, it was a down year for Besser. You had a nice year from the two free agent signings in especially. Oh, by the way, do we ever get news on a key for sure? What extension sounds like that's in the cards as well?

We can't get lost over that. And to brass, you got a down year from Holglander. Yeah, down years from guys. Yeah. And now you're expecting them to bounce back to form. But the counter to that is, or maybe that's what they're gonna end up being. If that's the case, there's gonna be a lack of goals.

Anyway, we'll continue this conversation on with IMAC at eight 30 after Brock Besser's media veil. Hopefully that runs on time because we want to carry that. Sure. On the show. Mu Cow. Basketball Ben. As I'm sitting in for Latty, I have to bring up

that the Blue Jays are now within the one game of the New York Yankees. After a thrilling win on Canada Day last night in the Rogers Center, George Springer, grand slam, seven RBIs. That's an all-time record on Canada Day that he's set. And I think it's really interesting to note, like it's not just the big guys in Vladdy and Bo

that are doing this, like Ernie Clement and Alejandro Kircher batting above 300 for this team. They're playing really good baseball. And it's, you could feel the energy from that stadium last night, just listening to the game, watching the game. And I think that's great.

Um, tell us the story with George Springer last season compared to this season. He's just looking like he's a bit more patient at the plate. Like he's kind of finding his pitches. He's looking for the pitch. I like that one, two homer, the solo home run, the first one that he kind of waited on.

Yeah. He just. That was the Yankees pitcher was like, damn it. And then he had a bases loaded single, uh, later in the game as well to get another couple RBI's he had a grand slam earlier this week or late last week. He's just kind of looking like he's really waiting

for the pitch he wants to see and he's driving the ball. It's kind of like a full lineup situation and Mack Schurzer was back on the mound a couple days ago, he was looking solid. Gossman had a rough outing, but the Blue Jays offense was able to pick him up. And I think when you kind of have that tug of rope in a way that each facet of the team can do

their thing, that's a dangerous, dangerous weapon to have. I think the Yankees are still a better, better, I know it's only one game in the standings and. Well, well they have Aaron Judge. I guess, I guess the Jays lost a lot of blowouts earlier in the season because I think their run differential is still around like zero or something like that.

Yeah, I was at a game they lost like 12 to one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Plus four run differential. Okay, so they're five. Plus 105. Yeah, so they're finally over the, because yeah, I think they were minus three going into the- They're in the green.

Into yesterday's game. Yeah, they're in the green. Congratulations. I mean, run differential isn't everything, but I think it does minus three going into that. They're in the green. Yeah, they're in the green. Congratulations. I mean, run differential isn't everything, but I think it does say a lot about a team. So are the Blue Jays actually good? I think they are good. I think they should be a playoff team.

They should be a playoff team, for sure. They should be a playoff team. The Yankees should win the East, though. If I had to bet, the Yankees would be the favorite still to win the East. But it would be awesome if the Jays could do it. But it would be so great if they could do it. It would be great. Okay, mook EJ's. But it would be awesome if the J's could do it. But it would be so great if they could do it. Yeah, it would be great.

Okay, mook out yourself, basketball Ben. Ahhhhhhhhhh. Nice, let's fire up the dot matrix. It's a loud dot matrix today. Well, we learned Humanity Edition brought to you as always by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Visit them today, 325 and 3270 East Broadway. There's two sides to the restaurant now.

If you can't get into the restaurant, order online at ajs.pizza. Ken in Pitt. What we learned, the full court press is on Quinn to stay quite clearly keeping all the boys. Yes, I have coined this Operation Guilt Trip. All your friends are here. I like that more than Operation Make Quinn Happy.

Yeah, Operation Guilt Trip. That's good. Is amazing. We signed all your friends. We made you the captain more than Operation Make Quinn Happy. Yeah, Operation Guilt Trip. That's good. Is amazing. Yeah. We signed all your friends, we made you the captain. What, are you just gonna leave? Are you just gonna leave? What?

You'll break your mother's heart. Wait. I don't think that. Yes, it was. I don't think it was the driving factor, but I think there was a large part of, hey, if we bring the band back together, minus JT Miller, if we bring the band back together. Yeah, yeah

Minus JT Miller we bring the band back to get in the realm of possible Oh, you know that they talked to Quinn about besters resigning like hey, how do you feel? We obviously here. He's your buddy what you want us to bring him back see how happy Demco Yeah, like social media see what we're doing for you here like isn't that awesome to see by the way like what that? If the defenseman is running the front office the Demco Instagram story. Yeah, the friendships. The camaraderie. The camaraderie.

The camaraderie. Like last season was hard to watch. I mean, half the time we were like, who wants to be here? You know? Um, so. Garland posted a pic with them all together as well. It's awesome. Did you know that, uh, Quinn Hughes is

Connor Garland's son's godfather? That's another element. I think that was smart of Garland. He's like, what are you going to leave your godson? Are you going to leave me on the day of my daughter's wedding? Okay. Juan from Comox, what I learned, Jonathan David finally signed with a big fish, Juventus, once as I wish he had gone to the EPL or La Liga. The old lady, that's what they call the club, the old lady. Well the most important thing, did the agents get paid?

Weren't they asking for like 15 million bucks in fees or something like that? I guess at the end of the day he got his money, so kudos to him as well. Yeah, great for Jonathan David. I believe that's the second Canadian player to ever play in Syria. Although technically hasn't played a game yet. Tejani Buchanan, who briefly and I mean briefly appeared with Inter

before making the move to Villarreal. It's great for David. Juventus is in an interesting trajectory. It was not a successful season for them on the pitch and they just wrapped the club world cup. But this is a massive, massive club. One of the biggest clubs, one of the most storied clubs, absolutely frenzied and passionate fan base in Italy.

This is a huge stage and a huge spotlight for David where he's going to be competing for like skedaddle champions league spots. I mean, I know, and I know that he played in champions league with Lille and I know that he did well in champions league, but there's bigger aspirations when you play for you. So it's a great thing for him and it's very cool. Uh, it's, I got, you know, on my Syria chat, there's two guys that are big event to support his Siri, uh, chat. Yep. It's a, the two guys are you Venti and they, uh, You know the Serie A chat? Yep, it's the two guys who are at Juventi and they are very excited about getting

the chair for a Canadian too. What's going on Sampdoria wise? Samp was almost relegated to Serie C. I was kind of joking there. There's something going on with the. That's one of my soccer Saturday, I remember. Sampdoria?

Sampdoria in action. I don't have a great Sampdoria? Sampdoria, actually. I don't have a great Sampdoria update right now. A Loud Titans fan, what we learned, the Canucks saw the Panthers re-sign all their guys and said, let's copy them. They won two cups in a row. I like that. That's not bad. It's not bad.

Mike and Port Moody, what we learned, the Canadian men's national team needs a new coach. Yeah, not a lot of positive reviews for Jesse Marsh on this day, just because this should be the day that Canada is playing the Americans in the semi-finals of the gold cup and instead it's Guatemala. 107 feet for the ranked, Guatemala taking on the USA. You know what? I don't want to dwell anymore on the Canadian soccer discipline.

I think we had our fill. I, you know, lamb based them a couple of days in a row, but it's it's a huge, huge, it's a huge setback for the program. I don't, I know some people were trying to push back and saying it didn't matter. It's just the sort of like frivolous tournament anyway. And we, we didn't have the even close to our full squad and all those things are in part true. Absolutely true. But the way that, what bothers me the most

is the way that they set this up. And this is a failing of Canada Soccer in a number of fronts, is when they get a little taste of success. It seems to go to everybody's heads really quick and they seem to want to get ahead of themselves. Now there's another wrinkle to this that Marsh is gonna have to figure out this team.

Now I'm going, I got going, so now I'm getting going. He is gonna have to take the temperature down on this team in a significant way and have them stop with this notion of they gotta fight back for every perceived slight injustice. It's so annoying. Max Crepo's victim mentality. Max Krapo jumping off the bench in the middle of a match

to shove a Guatemalan player who had a foul on a tackle on one of their players. There was nothing there. It's unhinged behavior. And you can't go into CONCACAF competitions saying that we have to understand the dark arts and how they're gonna try and get under our skin and then allow them to get under your skin.

That's a really good point. And I understand that Marsh is doing this thing where he's trying to adopt that Canadian ethos of elbows up and we're gonna fight and we're not gonna take any crap. And it's great. But you can't do that with one hand and then push Guatemalans with another.

There has to be some level of discipline. Uh, Chet and Bernie, what we learned, I learned the big winners on day one of free agency where team all my stuff is here and I want to win. Team secure the bag struck out. Yeah. Did, did like like what was the. Biggest move.

I mean, it was Marner, right? That was that was on free agency day, though, just got me. The actual biggest moves that happened yesterday, I'm not joking, were Carolina and the New York Rangers revamping their blue lines. The Los Angeles Kings spending 45 million dollars on a bunch of spare parts and Grandland going to Anaheim. Grandland going to Anaheim. What was the biggest, not counting Marner, because that was a sign of trade.

What was the biggest pure free agent contract? That was signed, was it Gavrkov? Gavrkov was 49 million total money. I'm not talking about re-signs, I'm talking about going to a new team. Grandland got 7 million per, but it's only over three years, so it's 21 total money. I'm not talking about re-signs, I'm talking about going to a new team. Granland got seven mil per, but it's only over three years, so it's 21 total money. Gavrikov was 49. Do you count Kandri Miller? Because he got 60 million, but that was a sign in trade.

Sign in trade, yeah. It just wasn't that day. Russ in Olympic Village, what we learned, I learned we're going to have seven more years of persistent trade rumors around Besser. I don't think so. You got a no move clause. Oh yeah, so I'll give you... Someone else was asking rumors around Besser. I don't think so. You got a no move clause. Oh yeah. So I'll give you, someone else was asking

about that as well. I got the details here. Okay. Uh, Besser has a full no movement clause in the first four years of his extension followed by a modified no trade clause with a 15 team, no trade stipulation in the back half. So does anyone not have a full no move clause

on the Canucks? No, that's part of keeping the band together is you have to make sure that the band members can't get traded against their will. Justin in East Van, what we learned, rest in peace to Rick Dollywell's weekly Noah Juleson update. Rick Tuckett got his guy and they will be reunited in Philadelphia. I heard Juleson is a good six, seven guy. Throws the body around.

Good six, seven guy. I saw one article from Philadelphia and the headline didn't even have Juleson's name in it. It said Philadelphia signs player that used to play for Talk It. Kevin and Campbell River. What I learned, the Canucks new catchphrase for their marketing will be, what's old is new

again, it could have been worse, honestly speaking. Yeah. I mean, look, we're all talking ourselves into this team right now. If this happens, if that happens, the Canucks could be a playoff team. They've got really good goalie tandem in Thatcher Demko and Kevin Lankanen. If Thatcher Demko stays healthy, they've got a great blue line, especially if some of the young kids take another step.

And upfront, there's a lot of ifs, right? Like if Kane can stay healthy, if Pedersen bounces back, because Pedersen's play will affect Besser's play because Besser needs a center to go get him the puck and he's a great complimentary player to a good playmaker. And that's not a criticism of Besser, like you need those complimentary players, but he's not a play driver.

And then if Heedle stays healthy, and I also think like, even if he'd'll does stay healthy, is he good enough to be a 2C? And then if suitor's not back, can they replace Pew suitor and what he brought, especially, uh, on, on the PK. So lots of ifs. I think he's good enough to be a 2C.

Who? He's heathel. He's never healthy. No, no, no. I mean, I'm working under the assumption that he'll be healthy, of course. Why would you work under the assumption that he'd be something that he's never been?

I'm just saying if he's able to stay healthy, I think he would be. But obviously that's a huge, huge if. That's a, again, if my hand had wheels. But pretend for a second that he is healthy. If my hand had wheels, she'd be a bicycle. I know. You need to do that in an Italian accent. Hey. She could be a wagon. Do we also, aunt had wheels, she'd be a bicycle. I know. Italian accent.

Be a wagon. Do we also, by the way, be a bike. She's a be a bike. Do we also miss out on one of the most egregious overpays of yesterday? And that was the Philadelphia Flyers giving Christian Dvorak five point four million dollars for one year of work. It's one year deal. Not as bad as the Tanners, you know, deal in Boston. That one, at least I can kind of understand

because Tanner Genot can still face punch. Dvorak was a 4C in Montreal last year. But it's a one-year deal. It's like Grandland going out of there. I know it's a one-year deal. We have the cap space, whatever. No, I know, but it's still, it's $5.4 million for a guy that had like 12 goals last year.

All right, we'll end on Dvorak. Yeah. The biggest news of the day. Hey, he went to Philly. He's got to play with Rick Taukett and Noah Juleson now. That's fun. Structure.

Structure. He meets pressure with pressure. Did you know that? Yeah. He won't quit on anyone except the Montreal Canadians. Uh, okay. Brock Besser's media avail is coming up next.

We'll carry that live. Hopefully there are no technical issues. Hopefully it starts on time. We might have to do some juggling for a bit. Here's what we'll do. We'll have a couple of what we learned teed up. So we can continue what we learned until the media availability starts. But coming up next, Brock Besser live via Zoom.

It's the media availability we all want to hear. You're listening to the Halford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650.