Halford & Brough in the Morning - Could The Whitecaps Be Saved?

Episode Date: May 7, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss a potential new ownership group that will keep the Whitecaps in Vancouver (3:00), plus the boys chat the latest NHL news (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.

You're listening to Alford and Brough. Boys, that could get it out in front. They score. Seneca and the Ducks score the first goal of game two. Here's Byram right up the middle of the shots. Go! Who's Bobo, sir? Bobo?

I meant Lobo. Sheriff Lobo, they never should have canceled that show. Good, Bernie. Vancouver, 6 o'clock on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford and his Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adon, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brought for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. They're open seven days a week and open late to help you get debt free.

With no judgment or upfront fees, visit them today is sands dash trustee.com. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech Studio. Step Strong with Orthotics and Footwear from Kintech.

If you want to text into the show today, the Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650, $6. trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online. And today, we will go now to our morning guest list. It's a Duick morning drive brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 7 o'clock this morning. Adnan, Verk is going to join the program from MLB Network. Tough times for the Jays right now. Mired in a four game losing street got swept in Tampa Bay. But it might be okay, Laddie, because the American League is so very bad right now, just two teams over 500. You're going to discuss what the heck is going on with Adnan. That'll be coming up at 7 o'clock. 7.30, Eric Engels is going to join the program. Montreal Canadiens Beat Reporter for Sportsnet Montreal opened its second round series with the Sabres last night in Buffalo

a 4-2 loss. What was a big night for local boy, Zach Benson. Did you know Zach Benson's family or carnival folk? What? Yeah, they own or they owned, I don't know if they still do, West Coast Amusements,

which is a company which rents carnival gear to local fairs and county fairs and things like that. I don't know what to say to that. He did the bearded lady thing for a while. Zach Benson used to do mini donuts. That was his job. True story. How could you not just

like overload yourself with mini donuts if you're working the mini donuts stand? He knew one day. One for me. One for you. One for me. He knew one day he'd be a playoff hero and he did not eat the donuts. So what went wrong for the HABs last night? What did they need to do to bounce back in game two? We'll talk to Eric Engels about that

at 7.30. 8 o'clock Thomas Drance from the athletic Vancouver and Kinnock's Talk is going to join the show. We can talk about the Canucks, lack of lottery luck. Jim Rutherford stepping down. Who's going to be the next general manager? All these Caducks convos and more. That'll be at 8 a.m.

with Thomas Strands. That's the guest list. That's what's happening. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? You missed that? by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction

companies, investing tools, resources, and safety training, visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. We're actually going to start today's show with the Vancouver Whitecaps, and there was some pretty interesting news that came out of Victoria yesterday. BC jobs ministers at Ravi Akalin

said that the provincial government has been approached by a local group that has expressed interest in purchasing the Vancouver Whitecaps. Why do they, uh, Why do they approach the government instead of, do you think they approach the team? Well, that's interesting now, isn't it? It'd be nice if they approach the team.

Because the other bid for the Vancouver Whitecaps, as you all may well know, is a group out of Las Vegas, who of course went through more normal channels, i.e. Major League Soccer in announcing its intention to bid on the Vancouver Whitecaps. This one came out of, again, Victoria, courtesy the jobs minister. So it led to a lot of different speculation, partly because of where the sourcing came from, but also because said source, Ravi Cowan, didn't have a ton of other details when describing this yesterday. He said the bid so far seems interesting. It seems like it's grounded in a plan to keep the team here.

I don't want to get my hopes up, but at least it's something, right? I mean, we hope it's a legitimate bid that is, first, of all has a plan to keep the white caps in Vancouver because Axel Schuster himself said there's been a bunch of groups that have approached the white caps and he said you know none of them likes the books you know they and none of them none of them see it differently than the white caps currently see it in that you know it's a problem right now for them playing at BC place and the other hope I have is that it's not some group that's looking to lowball the white caps and maybe sees an opportunity to slide a bit

under there that in no way is going to satisfy the current white caps owner. But maybe if MLS is very insistent on the white caps staying in Vancouver, maybe they are thinking that they can get this across the plate. I don't know. Again, I don't want to get my hopes up, but at least it's something because the white caps and we as fans of the white caps needed somebody to step up and actually put a bid forward. And I bet Axel Schuster would like it too because he was put up in front of the media yesterday. And did he have anything new to add? Like why was Axel talking yesterday? Well, for fans that were hoping for any sort of update, honestly, positive.

or negative, just something. They left disappointed yesterday because Axel didn't have a lot of new news. And in a matter of fact, they didn't have any news period for people. I had the feeling that the club was under such intense pressure to have a senior official and a front-facing official speak publicly that they just sort of appeased the masses yesterday by putting sporting director, CEO Axel Schuster out there. You know, Axel did say that right now, BC Place is their first and primary option because it will be the home of the white caps for the foreseeable future. Now, the memorandum of understanding at the P&E grounds is still, I guess, for lack of a better term, active. It expires at the end of 2026.

It doesn't seem like anyone's done anything there. Because they need a buyer first and foremost for the team. It's almost like, you know, well, it's great that you've got a place to build the stadium. How about an owner that owns the team that wants to build the stadium? And they're not at that stage yet. So this is why there's been a sort of pinnors. in discussions back to BC Place when I think a lot of people when the MOU

was first signed automatically zeroed in on the future at the P&E. Now, I'll say this. Just a couple more notes on what Ravi Collin did have to say yesterday. He said that this interested group was going to unveil itself sooner

rather than later and that he wasn't in a position to do that. He also said that they reached out to the provincial government when putting their bid together and did not seek any help from the province. Now, the only thing I'm wondering is that is this sort of unique path to communication have anything to do with BC place. Yeah. Like, do they want to buy BC place? Or do they want to be the people who spearhead a more favorable operational plan? Like what we've seen,

the Sounders in Seattle or TFC at BMO, where they become the primary operator. I mean, have the white caps not been trying to do that? I don't know if the white caps could do it into the current form. Like I just, I don't know. The thing that's complicated about the white caps right now is that they've got an ownership group that would very much like to cash out right now. Yeah. That's the clear, you know, M.O. from Kerfoot to, you know, the other two co-owners, Mallet and Nash is this is their time to cash in on what some people have called the Ponzi scheme. Yeah.

So, well, Greg and Pitt Meadows text in. He says, Jason, I think you have a back. backwards, possibly. I think the current ownership group is actually willing to accept a lower bid that keeps the team in town. It's MLS that will want a higher bid in order to keep club values high, possibly, or maybe we both have it wrong in that neither the ownership group or MLS will accept a lower bid. Right. If you're the Whitecaps current ownership group, yeah, you want to keep the team in Vancouver. you also want to cash out and make something off of your investment

because I know that you didn't pay much to get the expansion fee but if you believe what they've been saying they've been losing millions every year and they want to recoup that. I will say this. I firmly believe that MLS if they were pressed for a decision right now and it was a very simple like,

would you prefer the team stay in Vancouver leave, they would want it to stay. Relocation is. relocation isn't good for a league ever and they can get expansion fees for Vegas yeah you never want you never want to leave a smoldering mess

behind in a market if you're a league it's the reason that Batman held on to I mean there's a lot of reasons why Batman held on to Arizona but one of them was like he wanted to make it work and he went above and beyond trying to make it work and also his massive ego but there was that too yeah no question but Vancouver is a good market

yes And I think they know that. And it's going to be a World Cup host city. And it doesn't look good for the league. Not at all. Not at all. So I guess we'll wait and see on that. On to the other local team in Vancouver, Jim Rutherford spoke further with Sports Nets,

Ian McIntyre about his upcoming exit from the Vancouver Canucks said he's stepping down because he wants to be closer to family in Raleigh. So he's going back to North Carolina. And he wants to reduce his daily responsibilities. Now, I said his exit from the team, more like his exit from the role of president of hockey ops, because he says for now, he'll remain an advisor and an alternate governor. He acknowledged mistakes during Vancouver's rebuild.

But, or just during his time here, but believes the Canucks now have some promising young players and direction. Now, about his exit from the role of president of hockey ops, and all the things that we've been wondering what's going to happen with this team, are you really starting to wonder what's going on behind the scenes at Rogers Arena? Starting to. Like, you know, I listened to Kevin Woodley on the station yesterday, and he was hinting at maybe some power dynamics changing in the upper echelons of the Vancouver Canucks.

I don't know anything about that, but Woodley was hinting at it. And, you know, during this whole thing where they've been looking for a general manager, you know, you hear that Jim Rutherford wants Ryan Johnson. Okay. But we've also heard that ownership isn't so sure about Ryan Johnson and maybe wants an experienced general manager. And we're wondering like, okay, well, like who wants what? You know, like who is who and we hear about what, four or five different people interviewing these candidates. Like, okay, who are those candidates?

Are they all aligned or do some people want different things? I mean, I don't know if that, you remember when we were talking about, like, three different lists that were going around. Now, I don't know if that was a real thing or just some confusion in the reporting. But like, how much influence does Rutherford still have? And how much more influence is he going to have once he departs after the draft? Another great question, because if they only hire a general manager and Jim Rutherford is still around as an advisor, is he just going to be like, well, you can call me if you want. I'll be like drinking lemonade on my porch back in Raleigh.

An Arnold Palmer, perhaps. Or is he going to have influence because the general manager sees him as, you know, well, this guy's still here. He's the alternate governor. And, you know, maybe he still got some influence on the team. Maybe he was the one if it's Ryan Johnson. You know, Jim Rutherford will have pushed for him to get the job. Speaking of Ryan Johnson, who is running the day-to-day operations of the team right now?

According to Dollywall, Ryan Johnson is going to run the scouting meetings. Yeah, saw that. That's going to be awkward if they don't pick him as the next general manager. And also, according to Dollywall, there could be big changes to the scouting group soon. Now, is that where someone like Martin Madden could come in? And we talked about him yesterday. And Elliot Friedman talked about him on the 32 Thoughts guy. 32 Thoughts podcast.

He's the 32 Thoughts guy. Yeah, yeah. Martin is with the Anaheim Ducks. Currently, he's their director of amateur scouting. And he's a guy that, you know, Elliot said maybe he's a candidate for the GM job. Now, Elliot also said that, you know, Martin Madden has kept, kind of a low profile, and maybe intentionally so.

Maybe that's the way he likes it. Well, if he comes to Vancouver, are you going to put this guy who wants to keep a low profile as the front facing guy? Those two things don't jive. You know, it's just, it's actually hard to keep it all together. You know, I have to write all this stuff down for a reason because there's names flying around,

there's rolls flying around. We really don't know what's going to happen. But Rutherford said something interesting yesterday, in his interview with Ian McIntyre he said I think when it all plays out people will understand yeah and I was like I saw that too okay interesting that's interesting

like are we all going to be slightly ominous next no I think I think it is kind of ominous it is ominous people will understand you'll understand once it's done

you'll understand right and then but will we get to next week and we'll be like oh yeah that makes sense Or will we get to next week and be like, how's this going to work? Because the, how's this going to work is what happened in Toronto. Even after they introduced Chica and Matt Sundin, it was like, okay, well, wait a minute, who's reporting to who?

And what happens in this situation? What happens in this situation? You know, I mean, they were like, yeah, Matt Sundin, you didn't even know his title when he signed on. It's like, are you bragging about that? You guys should know about this sort of stuff. You need to know the structure. You need to know the hierarchy. You know, you need to know who's got the final say in this sort of stuff.

Because, you know, eventually that sort of stuff will come to a head. And I think we're really wondering the structure in Vancouver. It's just everything that's going on with this team right now. Yeah. It was funny that you framed it as, are you starting to feel this way? Are you starting to question what's going on behind the scenes? And I was like, starting to. I mean, lest we forget.

that just over a month ago, the Athletic released its player agent poll in which the Canucks were a decided winner, and I don't know if winner's the right phrase, but the decided winner of the vote for worst-run NHL franchise. And here's the thing. Came as no surprise to anybody. Yeah.

Because there's been a constant dysfunction around this team. But even just look at the last year, you finish dead last than 30 second in the NHL by a mile. You're the worst team on the ice. So your product on the ice is the worst than the NHL. You don't have a practice facility. And by the way, is one of Rutherford's legacies here going to be that he came in,

promised that he was going to get it done and then left before it got done? That hasn't been asked yet. I don't know if being the alternate governor allows you to, you know, work on some construction in Vancouver while you're living in Raleigh. But again, don't have a practice facility. he's also the alternate drywall guy seriously i don't i don't know how that works you know one of the quotes from one of the agents in the athletic piece was they really

don't have the infrastructure that players need to remove excuses and that was almost a direct shot at i think the practice facility issue well never mind go back even earlier midseason you're forced to trade your captain because he doesn't want to be here anymore prior to that your head coach who had won the jack adams not too previously to that wanted to leave because he didn't trust the future of the team. So when all of these things happen, you have to look at the highest reaches of the organization and say, what's going on here that is,

one, allowing this dysfunction to continue, and two, and most importantly, not putting a stop to it. Now, putting a stop to it right here is the removal of Patrick Alvin and the stepping down of Jim Rutherford. You would hope. but whoever comes into this job has a lot of mess to clean up and coming into this job

has probably gone through an exhaustive job search and interview process where they're like, man, this was elaborate. A lot of this played out in public. The 24 hours of which Pierre Dorian went from being one of the leading candidates for general manager to vilify it online. That was certainly a moment.

I almost felt bad for Pierre Dorian. It wasn't his fault. Yeah. Maybe some of the stuff in Ottawa. Well, yeah, it was his fault. But that's... And then all of a sudden, you start peeling back the layers of,

well, how did that happen? Why did that get leaked to the media? Who leaked it? Yeah. What was the reason for the leak happening? And you get back to this thing. Do you remember when we were like, are the connection clueless or is someone trying to trick us?

I mean, that's what's kind of has been wrought in all this, in all this. By the way, I wanted to add to your great point about the agents, is like another complaint that we'd heard is that they call up the Canucks. Another GM calls up the Canucks or maybe an agent. It's like, who's in charge here? And you didn't know. You know, is it Patrick Alvin, the general manager? Or is Jim bouncing back and taking things over again?

Even just the LV? They can't have that. They can't have that situation. There needs to be clear, roles, clear reporting orders, and a clear power structure. Speaking of Alvin, there's no clarity on what his position is with the team. Oh, yeah, that guy. I thought he was fired.

But apparently it wasn't. He was just offered a very public demotion. He's not fired. He's not still hired. He's a weird third thing. You're not the general manager. You're not the general manager anymore. That much is clear.

So you can't get into the upper reaches of the building with your pass key anymore. However, you can still access the parking garage and parts of the building. because we might want to keep you around in a scouting, you know, facilities. So I... Hey, what about all these potential changes to the scouting group, which I imagine even could involve Patrick Alveen, potentially? Wouldn't that be his role if they were to bring them back? Like, maybe they're not expecting them to come back to the organization.

I'm certainly not. But if Dolly Wall is hinting at big changes to the scouting group, I would like them to chop chop on that because, they have a pretty big draft coming up. And Jim Rutherford was the guy who said, if our staff nails the three or four picks that we've got in the top 41, this could be a real

game changer for the Canucks. You know what would be really important is to have a staff. Well, I will say this. About the scouting staffs, they're sort of this common knowledge, one of those unspoken and unsavory parts of the National Hockey League. And I remember this from when we used to be on the road for the drafts,

is that a lot of teams will turf their scouting department the moment the final pick is made in the second day of the NHL draft. Sure. Because guess when your scouting staff is least valuable to you, the moment the draft ends. Yeah, yeah. You know, they always have those dinners

after the first night of the draft, and it's kind of like the last supper for the scouting department. So they ordered the good wine and expensive stakes. So what the Kinnock might be doing there is just what is pretty commonplace in the NHL. It isn't, when I heard about it at first, I'm like, really? Yeah, but are they,

saying they don't have confidence in the scouting group heading into this very important draft? No, but oftentimes the contracts end at that same time. So I wonder if Rick is sort of correlating a common NHL practice with what the Canucks might do as soon as the draft is over.

But you get in what I'm saying, right? Like if the contracts are up and they're like, we've got to get rid of these guys. But first, this very important draft, you're like, thank you all for your hard work. Try the veal, that sort of thing. But who know? I mean, I don't know what that entails. Hey, maybe next week, like Rutherford says, we'll be like,

huh, we do understand. It all made sense. That is an unbelievable process that the Kinnock's just went through, and they nailed it. You know, I'll also add this. When you interview as many people as the Kinnock's have interviewed, a lot of information is going to get out. Because a lot of the interviewees,

they're not beholden to the Knochs. If you're on a Zoom for a couple hours with, you know, whatever ex-member of the Canucks front office, you're probably going to get off the Zoom and then go tell some people what you talked about. I mean, there's confidentiality, but only to a certain degree. And this is the danger of having this open

and transparent to search is there's going to be a lot of information that gets out. And a lot of your candidates, the names are going to get out there, and a lot of information is going to be inferred. Sometimes you can't win. Sometimes you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. I think some of that might apply to the Canucks, but a lot of the messes that have happened,

they've made and now they're forced to clean them up. Like for example, you know, this this past week has been a wild one where we got the Dorian news and that kind of overshadowed the fact that a couple of other candidates, including you mentioned Martin Madden and Frege mentioned Scott White, the assistant GM in Dallas. Like they came late to the party. They were interviews that happened within the last 72 to 96 hours indicating that this search for the Canucks is still very very very.

much on. Yeah. Like, I'm not sure how close they are to a decision. Yeah. Jim Rutherford only said, we hopefully will have a decision by next week. Yeah,

like, I think that this process is still very much underway. And we, we don't know if they're going to hire just a general manager. And then that general manager would report to, I guess ownership. Or are they going to hire a buffer of sorts? Are they going to hire a president that can kind of let the general

manager do his own thing while handling the needs of ownership? I wonder what are they going to do here? I wonder if this now outgoing regime of Rutherford and Alvin will give the organization pause like do we want to do this again? Do we want to have

the president of hockey ops and a general manager and then two assistant general managers? Because it at times there was a crowd of front office and as you pointed out on a couple occasions in this opening segment teams would call up and be like so who's in charge? Right. Who do I talk to?

Yeah. And then, you know, the switchboard operator would be like, if you have a minor deal you'd like, you don't press one for Patrick Albion. But functional... If you'd like to talk about Quinn Hughes, please press two for Jim Rutherford. Right? But functional teams will, like, they could do that and it's just everyone knows. Sure. Yeah, yeah. Like, sure. You call this guy for this stuff, right? And that's... So the switchboard is there for. Functional teams know how to do that. Okay. We got an open segment on the other side. We should probably do the playoff games from last night. Yeah, yeah. We can get into that and we can read any of your text questions or comments into the Dunbar Lumber text line, 650, 650.

You're listening to the Halford-Abrough show on SportsNet 650. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drans. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcast. 632 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford, Brough, Sportsnet, 650. and breath of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

They're ready to give you the financial fresh start you deserve. With no judgment or upfront fees, visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Midway point of hour one. On a thrash Thursday. Hour one is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. First half hour of the show, all local. Second half hour of the show. We're on a Stanley Cup playoffs. Two games yesterday. A very interesting one for the Montreal Canadian who opened up their second round

series in Buffalo against the Sabres. 4-2 win for the Sabres. Local boy Zach Benson, great night for him. First star, pair of assist. Alex Lion, 26 saves. Sabers go up, won nothing. In a game that

not a huge concern for Montreal. they just came off a very long and emotional seven game series, which was extremely tight against Tampa Bay, and you lose on the road against a team that had a little bit more rest. But I think they've got to be worried about Cole Cawfield right now. Yeah. I mean, we'll get to him in just a second. The Habs, they just looked off last night.

Like they hadn't quite recovered from their series against Tampa Bay, and that was a crazy series. unbelievably close series. I know the Habs ended up out shooting the Sabres 28 to 16 last night, but that does not tell the story of the game. No. The Sabres took the lead early in the first after Lane Hudson stumbled in the neutral zone.

And it was that kind of night for the Habs? This great skating young defenseman falls down. Yeah. They got out of the first trailing 2-1 after Nick Suzuki scored. But, you know, depth forward Jordan Greenway for Buffalo made it 3-1 early in the second after some very tentative defending by Alex Carrier, who kept backing up and backing up. and backing up towards

Dobish and only really served to screen his goalie on the play. It was 4-1 Buffalo not long after that and that was the game pretty much. I know the HABs will say that, yeah, we liked our third and that's score effects, right? Of course you're gonna, I mean, I hope that you're gonna have some sort of push

in the third and Kirby Doc scored a nice goal and made it four two. He's had a good playoff. You know, it was Buffalo's night. The Sabres power play went two for three on the night, and that's a big turnaround from their series against Boston when they went one for 24. Yet still one. Still one. And you did mention Zach Benson. He has become a very good player. First star last night with two assists brings so much energy when he's out on the ice,

along with his line mates Josh Norris and Josh Donne, Shane's son. It's a good line. The Sabres fan. Josh is Chuck Norris' son. Yeah, it's right. Yeah, he's been going through it. tough times yeah tough times the sabers fans love that line and they really love Zach Benson the Chilawak kid I know A-Dog was upset

when the Canucks passed on Zach Benson to take V-Lander and he's not in the booth right now he just ran out crying when you mentioned the name Jack Benson A-Dog was right or he'd be like well I mean so VLander no could turn into a pretty

important player for the Vancouver Kentucky Kentucky Where is Velander from again? Not from Chilliwack. That's right. Yeah. Got to lean into your provincial biases here. Not only is he from Chilowack.

He's a carnival operator from Chilowack. Yeah. I mean, how do you pass on that? How do you pass on that? He's actually pretty funny too. Yeah. Yeah. There was a, I guess, do we have that audio?

No. It was him in Greenway at the podium. Yeah. There was a, I don't know if it was Coos asking the question, but it's a pretty long one. And, uh, You could see both guys kind of paying attention, but kind of not. So I had an idea where it was going. Anyway, the question came to its rightful conclusion.

And then Greenway looked and he's like, Benz, you want to take this one? And Zach Benson was like, I wasn't paying attention. I was hoping you were going to answer it. I got it now. You guys want it? Yeah, let's hear it anyway. A couple days to prepare, but I'm just curious, you know,

what the feeling out process was like, even though you know them fairly well. Taking away better. Well, I was thinking you're going to. answer. I wasn't really listening. And he went on to answer. Is that just like hockey guys? Like I have. Okay. Also,

I've been in those, especially in the playoffs, the postgame media. So they're not scrums at their lockers. They have to go up to the podium. And you can tell that they've got a million. They're probably still jacked on adrenaline. They're not really- Or crashing. Yeah, one of the two. But they're not really interested in doing the media. And, And they know they're on camera.

So they're doing all the stuff physically that you're supposed to do. You're like, look forward. Don't have your head buried. And, you know, active listening. But you can tell that they're not interested in all. They're not engaged. And that was a great example of it, right? They're looking at each other like,

please tell me you listen to that question. So you've got to make your question short and snappy. I was reading an interview that Zach Benson did, I think was Steve Ewan of the province. After the draft where the Canucks did not take him, they took Tom Velander. And he was just, he was talking about all the questions that he got asked ahead of the draft. And he said, did I get asked 10,000 times about my size in the lead up to the draft?

It was probably north of that, honestly. It's something that I guess I get asked and will continue to get asked until I prove that it doesn't matter at all. I wouldn't say that it bugs me other than the fact it gets a little repetitive and a little annoying. Mental note, if we ever have Zach Benson on the show, don't ask him about his size. First question, how tall are you? And then he said, look, I'm not afraid to go into a corner with a guy who is seven feet tall. There are small elite players who play on the perimeter at the junior level. You tend to see those guys not succeed at the next level.

By the way, with the draft coming up, that is one thing that I imagine is pretty tough because there have been some small players. that have been overlooked that have gone on to do great things in the NHL. One of them is the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens. Yep. Martin Saint-Louis, it must be tough in some ways to determine, okay, which guys are going to make it and which guys are going to totally not make it and not even be close. And I guess you would probably just start with, okay, well, are they willing to take on the biggest players?

Are they scared to go into the corner? but I don't know it's just different like NHL big is different than junior big. Yes, that's fair. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, and it's grown man strength.

Yeah. I think it's the biggest thing, right? Dad strength, if you will. So, anyway, that's game one of Montreal, Buffalo. I think that's probably the series that that most of us are are the most interested in. That conversation you just had about diminutive players, though.

That is something that we need to discuss with Cofield. Oh, Cofield, yeah. So after an amazing, regular season in which he led the team in goals, became the first 50 goal score for the HAB since who was a Stefan Rishi or Vinnie Damfus. It's been a struggle

to put it mildly. One power play goal through eight games now. Zero goals at even strength. And here's the concerning part for Montreal right now. Yesterday, in game one against Buffalo, that Caulfield line was Suzuki and

Slavkovski saw more space than they did throw at the seven games against Tampa Bay. And I'm not even being hyperbolic here. Like, Lindy Ruff wasn't even happy with the way that the Sabres played last night because he thought it was too Lucy Goosey, which is exactly how Lindy would say it too. And Suzuki scored. On the power play.

Yeah, but Suzuki scored. Slavkovsky generated a ton of chances in offense. Cawfield, I remember at certain points of the game, I texted one of my buddies and I was like, is Cawfield even playing? Yeah. Because right now, his. His goal share for the team. He provided 18% of their offense this year.

He's down to five and a half. Like that's a major drop off for a team. And look, in the first round, I think you could carve out this nice, syrupy narrative where the habs relied on their depth scoring and they showed how good of a team they are because when they were at evens against, because part of the reason they were shut down against Tampa

was the Sorrelli line. Sorelli is a great defensive forward. He's a Selki finalist. You know, he's, that series was so tight. There really weren't many goals scored. Now you're like, okay, you've been freed from the shackles of Tampa Bay, go out and produce some offense. And I know it's only one game in, but to see, and again, this is something that Zach Benson talked about with young players,

Coffield just seems like he's dancing around the perimeter. Yeah. And either can't or won't or doesn't know how to generate offense in another way that is not like the regular season. Because the regular season, when there was more space and more time and he could get that. shot off, it was great. Now, you know, we talk about the cliches of greasy goals and finding different ways to manufacture offense. He's going to have to do it

because the haves aren't going anywhere if he's not scoring goals. End of conversation. They should motivate him by the fact that you realize, if you don't score in the playoffs, this is going to be a thing with you. 100%. This is going to be a thing with you. It already is a thing, I think. I mean, he's got an opportunity to turn the narrative around, but eight games, no evens goals.

That's a problem. Also last night, by the bye, the late game, interesting series. For one that I wasn't all that hyped about, the Anaheim ducks with a 3-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights in game two of their Western Conference second round series.

Anaheim dominated that game. They were the better team, not by a country mile, but enough to the point where you kind of went, huh, all right. And the reason I use that sort of like sound and tone at the end is that the ducks played in a way

that I haven't seen from them a lot this year in that they kept pucks out of their own net. They were tight sound. Their checking was excellent. When did they learn to check? And when they are able... I'm serious. I know.

Like, when did this happen? I don't know. It was a very impressive performance. Now, I am going to pivot off. They were one of the worst defensive teams in the NHL last season. I think they allowed the fourth most goals. They're doing... who allowed the most.

Vancouver Canucks? Yeah. Interesting note here is they're generating nothing on with special teams. Like their power play is I think 0 for nine in the series now. So this is all coming at evens. I'm going to pivot though to this other story that I think we got to monitor because I am terrified about what this could mean for the Vancouver Canucks. Mason McTavish was a healthy scratch last night in that game.

And if you've been following this story at all, Mason McTavish's career, I think is a real inflection point in Anahe. In Anaheim. Because Joel Quenville has very little use for this guy right now. What's the deal with him?

Like, I know he makes some questionable decisions out there. So, right now, the 1C and 2C, firmly entrenched on that team, the 1C is Leo Carlson because he's awesome. And the 2C is Mikhail Gremlin. And I think because he's a veteran. presence. He's a good two-way guy.

I think you can do worse than Grandland is your 2C. I think on a really good team, he's your 3, but on a team that's in its infancy of being a contender like the Ducks are, he's fine. After that, he has no real use for McTavish because McTavish can't play in a bottom six role and do the

things that Q wants you to do. Now, you might be saying, well, what does Q want you to do? Well, he loves Jeffrey VL, Ryan Paling. Ryan Paling's been very good. washy and all these other guys that will go out there and do all the dirty, grimy, greasy stuff that quite honestly, Mason McTavish has probably never had to do.

We're talking about the third overall pick. You're talking about a star at the junior level. I'm sure that he is just dismayed at where his career is at. Now you're like, well, Halford, why are you bringing this up? Traditionally, historically, this sort of diminished asset has been the kind of player that the age range Vancouver Canucks. The age gap. The age gap guy that they've chased. And I do remember at various points over the last, what, 12 to 16 months, Mason McAvish's name has come up as it pertains to the Vancouver

Canucks. You heard it too, right? Remember the great center search of last summer where it was Marco Rossi? Oh, maybe Mason McTavish. But the price tag on McTavish was going to be too high. While that price tag is inevitably going to go down because he can't get it. I mean, he is is getting healthy scratched in game two of the second round. Yeah. Are you, are you terrified of the Canucks acquiring him? What if they can get him for, I mean, they're not going to give up a first round pick for Mason McTavish.

I don't, well, they might have to. No, they're not going to. Well, they're not going to. Here's what I'm saying. In this phase of the rebuild, everything should be about draft and develop. Yeah. You don't need to take on someone else's problematic prospect, who, by the way, is entering year one of a long-term deal.

Now, the cap hit probably doesn't matter, but there's a financial obligation there. Furthermore, I don't want anyone else's failed prospects anymore. I feel like conceptually as a franchise, if you're looking to turn the page and do things differently, then do them differently. I don't need any more and I'm not saying Mason McTavish

is a failed first round pick because his career might rebound. He's a young guy. There's the potential to be a very good player. The problem is he doesn't move that fast. And the problem is it doesn't need to be here anymore. Let someone else do it.

Yeah. I'm so worried, so worried that someone's going to come in some Lyle Landley type and be like, I know the way you can get out of this jam. And they're going to be like, you go and get a Mason McTavish and Alexis Lafrieney.

And you go out and you get all these, guys. Yeah. And you're a first overall pick and a third overall pick. With the, and maybe if you don't even say it out loud, but the notion is we're going to expedite this. Yeah, yeah. Just a little bit.

I can almost hear Jim Benning say, I watched him a lot while I was scouting him for the draft and I really liked him. We put Lafretne on the map. We're going to do the same with McTavish. What happened since the draft? I'm always concerned when, you know, when you, when you've got a center that his skating stats aren't in the upper echelon of the NHL in terms of speed

and Mason McTavish they aren't right I mean there's a reason Atu Ratu has not been able to break through I mean the guy works hard yeah he plays physical he wins lots of draws he can't skate

you know I mean he can skate but not a very can't skate effectively for the NHL right Like, and, you know, one of the big things that has happened to Elias Pedersen is his skating has slowed. Now, you can argue about why that happened or whose fault that is. It doesn't matter. His skating is not good right now for the NHL. And it is very, very, very, very, very, very difficult to play center if you are not fast.

Yeah. You got to cover a lot of ground. So in the case of Pedersen, it's like, he, since his skating slowed, he's had to make decisions on, you know, how far he goes into the offensive zone, how much he presses in the defensive zone. He hangs back a lot. He hangs back a lot offensively as well. And, you know, he doesn't take on guys one-on-one because he doesn't have the speed that he

did a few years ago for whatever reason. So don't go after centers, especially young centers, you know, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, get this whole, like, you can teach him out of skate. Bo Horovac got better. Mason McTavages is 23. If he was going to get better, he'd have done it already. Like, I'm not, Ataturatu can go into the offseason and be like, I'm really going to work on my skating. Like, he's not going to come back and be Pavlovbury. Right. Speaking of centers, by the way, did you see who the three Selke nominees were yesterday? This was announced, I think just prior to puck drop of the first game. So you got Nick Suzuki,

who many expected. You got Anthony Sorrelli, who's now a two-time Selky finalists and widely regarded as one of the best defensive forwards in the NHL. Brock Nelson of the Colorado Avalanche coming in as a Selke finalist. When I saw that, I was like, Brock Nelson. I did not see that. The first 75-year-old ever dominated for a selfie. 34. I don't think he's ever received Selky votes.

Do you remember when they first made that trade with the Islanders? People are like, I don't know if this is going to work. Brock Nelson. and now he's a, he's a sulky finalist? First time he's ever been a finalist for any NHL award. Like what else award? But I don't think he's,

I was looking at his. No, he went from being not in the conversation period. Yeah. To one of the top three defensive forwards as voted on. Apparently. Yeah. And, you know,

when you look at Colorado right now, there's a reason that there's such a tough team to deal with. Because that roster has been built out in such an effective manner. their center depth is unbelievable when you're talking about your two C in Brock Nelson getting a Selky nomination at this stage of his career too right and you got McKinnon Nelson and Cadry down the middle you've got a really good talented blue line and McFarlane's done a really nice job of reinventing the goalie position kind of on the cheap and kind I mean the blackwood wedge would who by the way I hate admitting this because I cover the league

and hockey for living. I never know which one's the starter. It's Wedgwood. Is it Wedgwood or Blackwood? I don't even know. I'm like, one of the woods is in that, and he does a fine job. They've done, I mean,

I know that there's still a long way to go in these playoffs, but I just look at that team, and I marvel at how good they are in so many different facets. It is quite remarkable. Who's your Stanley Cup final pick right now? I think it's Colorado and Carolina in the Stanley Cup final. I think we should prep for that right now.

Can you imagine if Buffalo gets in? imagine they've got a chance I know they've got a chance I think they still play a little too loose I don't think they check well enough but they've got a ton of talent yeah they got a ton of talent I mean look

the Montreal series isn't over Montreal is gonna have something they say in this series it was one game Montreal you give them a bit of an excuse they just came off a brutal seven game series against Tampa Bay and then had to travel to Buffalo right probably you know

give them a little grace if they weren't 100% in game one again I think Montreal still has a lot to say in that series, yeah. But I think right now the Sabres, simply because they're up on nothing in the series, are going to be favored to win that series. They've got home ice advantage still,

and they're a good team. They got a little more rest than the Montreal Canadians did. And, you know, I think Carolina is going to beat Philly. Buffalo, Carolina, we'd all be cheering for Buffalo, right? Nobody wants to see Carolina. That would be a rematch of the 2006 Eastern Conference final. which of course Carolina one in seven. That one stings in Buffalo.

Stings in Edmonton too. Yeah, I think 06 they had a delay a game penalty. I can't remember who was. I want to say Brian Campbell. Anyway, I think it's Carolina that's going to get through the East. If only because this feels like their coronation time, you know when you get that vibe at a certain point that it's your time? And I felt that the moment that you realized that Florida was not going to be a contender this year

and you saw the East start to play out. And yeah, Buffalo had a tremendous year. but it still feels a little early for that group. And it feels a little early for Montreal as well. Now, Carolina's been through the wars. They've been through the battles. The thing I like most about the Keynes right now is that we have yet to see that Ajo line,

their top line, really click. And they've been driven almost exclusively by a second line that is masquerading as the first line with Stankoven, the Stank Oven, Blake and Hall. They've been fantastic. That's one of the best lines in the playoffs. And that really... I think it has been the best line of the playoffs.

And it gives you the luxury of having your top guys, not unlike what we saw in the first round with Montreal, having your top guys not being burdened by the weight of not producing because you're still getting wins. I think that's helping Carolina big time. What were you most wrong about in the playoffs?

I'll start. Okay. Anaheim. Yeah, I was pretty wrong about Anaheim. Watching them in this Vegas series. Yeah. I'm like, they're going to toe to toe with these guys. Quimble's done a really good job there.

And when they shut down Vegas last night in Vegas, I think most of us assumed that Vegas would have a push. They didn't really. Nope. When did these guys learn how to check? Yeah. They should have, they were pushing hard in the third period.

There was a couple goal mouth scrambles. I can't believe the puck didn't go in. Yeah, yeah. But Dostal played well. But you're right. They checked extremely well yesterday. And Torts kind of acknowledge it as post-game media availability. He was saying, like, you know,

torts is, by the way, Towards his entire approach with this team is like, these guys know what they're doing. I'm just here to steer the bus. And he did it yesterday too. He's like, you know, we've had games like this before.

I'm confident. Sometimes I wonder if Torz is just lazy. He just doesn't want to do the work. It's not a bad approach where he's just like, I'm just here, you know, call the play. Yeah. Yeah, I tell him when who's doing media after the game and when to be on the bus.

And they occasionally blow up. Yeah. Occasional blow up. When it need, when it's required, right? And, I mean,

they did a good job in the first round. I thought that they would have real problems with Utah speed, but they won that series, not easily, but convincingly, they were the better team. Do you think Torz even has like a whiteboard? Because he's always about, it's not about X's and O's. It's about a mindset. I bet he's telling them X's and O's like, you got to get, you got to get to those circle things. Do you mean the face off dots? Torts? Yeah, those things. I bet he still mixes up Dora Faeaev and Barbashev. I bet he's like, I don't know which one's which. I know you're both Russian, but I'm not sure which one's which. And they just yells like you,

instead of like one of their surnames. But anyway, that series far from being over. A lot of these series, obviously still very early and far from being over. We will go to Montreal on the other side of the break. We're going to talk to Eric Engels, Canadians beat reporter from Sportsnet.

Montreal Open, of course, as we mentioned, 4-2 loss in Buffalo yesterday. What went wrong? What's up with Cole Cofield? We'll get some answers to those questions coming up next. Before we go to break, though, I do... Sorry? Sorry? We have Adnan for...

As you're... Yeah, I know. Adnan's coming up at 7, and then Eric Engels is 730, right? Yeah, yeah. So we're going to talk a little NHL coming up in the next half hour. Before we go to break, I do need to remind you that this segment of the show

was brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats a Duick deal since 1926. Visit Duick GM on Marine Drive. Visit them downtown. Visit them in Richmond. Visit them online at the duikatogroup.com. Adnan Verk first, followed by Eric Engels second.

That's the second hour of the program. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650.