Halford & Brough in the Morning - Could This Be A Summer Of Crazy Moves?

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason wonder if we might soon see a summer of crazy hockey moves (3:00), plus Canucks radio PxP man Brendan Batchelor joins the show with an update around the team (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.

702 on a big day on Tuesday here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help all you cats with anything you're looking for. Ah, yeah. Sales, financing, service. Or parts. We are in hour two of the program.

I think I'm going to make this song Adnan Burke's theme song. Oh. And I almost, I just wrote it like right now. We're hashing out some lyrics right now. Really? Yeah. Don't spoil it. It's speaking to me.

I think last time when we let people behind the curtain to the song making process, it took away some of the magic. People appreciate it. Well, let's just say the lyrics. I think the finished product just needs to be like out there. Pow! Right in the kisser. No lead up.

The lyrics involve his name and him being on the show. Yeah, that's what we got. I don't know if this surprises you. This is the song playing, I think, in The God at the wedding no no no when michael gives uh the kiss of death oh yeah it kind of does sound like that yeah yeah that's probably licensed music though i bet it appears in a movie film that's what i'm gonna start calling our theme song is in oppenheimer really yeah we had someone text in right yeah i had no idea i've not seen Oppenheimer. Really? Yeah. We had someone text in. Right. Yeah.

I had no idea. I've not seen Oppenheimer. That's the one about Barbie, right? Yeah. Yeah. We are in hour two of the program. Prohibition got you down? If so, Primetime Craft Beer can help you out.

Primetime Craft Beer is meticulously brewed for quality and taste. Get some at your nearest liquor store. Get some. Or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. Get some at the best pet store in town. Yeah. You can go to a speakeasy. Coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands

of five-star Google reviews. Sorfy, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. We got an open segment here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I want to whip through a couple stories here. Real quick check-in with the Toronto Blue Jays. Still can't hit.

Still can't hit the baseball. As a matter of fact, they lost to the Milwaukee Brewers last night. What did they have, four hits? They could hit the netting. Four hits. Tell me about the netting. That was the biggest takeaway of the entire thing. Yeah, what?

It went flying through the air into the netting, and then they needed like a long stick with a grapple at the end to pull it down, and then the stick got stuck in the netting. That was the highlight of the game. We just kept putting stuff up there. There was a kid stuck up there. The Jays lost 3-1 to the Brewers, so they failed to hit.500, and then John Schneider was asked after the game

about the bat getting stuck in the net, and he was like, that was a big takeaway from today. Sucks that that was the most entertaining part of the game. That was it. It's been a tough season here in toronto um they're only just a couple a few games back of a playoff position that's that's the hard thing with the blue jays like everyone watches them and looks you know looks at the standings and sees their run differential and they're like this is a bad team but so but they're not out of the playoffs when you were on your golf trip uh jimmy dodd was in studio i didn't realize that jimmy dodd was such a big blue jays fan yeah i was like okay we'll do some blue jay stock we had ben nicholson smith on the show i think we had

another blue jays guest as well and um he kept bringing up he's like i hate this team it's so frustrating to watch however there was always the however. However, they're like three games out of the wild card. They're killing my soul. I can't handle this 500 baseball. However, it's like being in a bad relationship. You want to end it so badly, but it's still okay.

You got that trip to Mexico coming up. It's going to be fun. You want to end the relationship. The trip to Mexico could be a nightmare. It could be, but you might as well ride it out and see what happens. We got to end the relationship. A trip to Mexico could be a nightmare. It could be. But you might as well ride it out and see what happens. We got nothing else going on. On a team with that much talent. Is there a personal experience here?

Yeah, it's all being a Blue Jays fan. It's hard to get a refund for those trips. Last night might just seem like another loss in a long list. But with a team with that much talent, how do you have four hits against a journeyman pitcher? Two of them are from Horowitz, who, like someone joked, hasn't got the memo

that we don't do base hits around here, kid. Kirk has a solo homer. And then Varshow had a bunt single. That was it. Nobody else did anything of consequence at the plate. I don't know how they went from being such a good offensive team to this in the span of a few years. They're painful to watch.

Well, let's move on then. We asked for texts into the Dunbar Lumber text line, and I know this is related to a story that we can talk about here. Unsigned text, random thought, but hearing you guys talk about McDavid being up soon for contract has me thinking, I'm still holding on to that stupid random Crosby to Vancouver rumor at the deadline. That wasn't a rumor. That was just like baseless speculation. But Sidney Crosby does need or can sign a contract extension with the Pittsburgh Penguins

this offseason. How's that going for Kyle Dubas in Pittsburgh? So Kyle Dubas was at the NHL Scouting Combine recently because, of course, his team is not in the Stanley Cup final. They are preparing for the draft. And Kyle Dubas said that he intends to keep contract negotiations with Sidney Crosby close to the vest. The quote is as follows.

This is me doing Kyle Dubas. The key for us is because of the importance of it and how much sid means to the organization in the city we want to keep that as quiet as possible and go through it and then hopefully as we get through this summer get a sense of where everybody's at and then let everybody know at the right time right sounds pretty secretive to me well that doesn't sound optimistic either no when you said you're gonna do calduas's voice i thought you're gonna do like a nerdy little yeah well i think i can't that's not fair to kyle just because he wears glasses anyway sorry bro so when um we were talking about sydneyrosby, I don't know, a few months ago. I remember thinking, if there isn't a contract extension announced on July 1st, then all of a sudden I think you can start wondering if Sidney Crosby and Kyle Dubas are on the same page.

Because the Jake Gensel trade, I just wonder how it was received by Sidney Crosby. But they took off after that trade they almost made the playoffs didn't make the playoffs they didn't make the playoffs they didn't make the playoffs and maybe against all go back and i just think it's going to be so hard for the penguins to essentially serve two masters which is giving sydney crosby the best chance to win another stanley cup i mean make the playoffs would be a good start. They missed it two years in a row. Very good way to win the Stanley Cup is to make the playoffs. It's often the

first key. And then also building for the future, which is one of the reasons why they traded Jake Gensel and Kyle Dubas is at the scouting combine. It's just such a tight window. Like Sid it's just such a tight window.

Like, Sid, Gino, and, like, they still got Carlson and Chris Letang. Like, these are all old dudes. And, you know, Sid is still playing at a very high level. But he's 36. He doesn't have, like, six years left for them to pull it all together. Like, he's neat. And if I was Sid, as much as I wanted to stay in Pittsburgh my whole career, I'd be like, okay, well, I've only committed to one more year in Pittsburgh.

Am I really on board with this plan? Like how important is it really for me to play my entire career in Pittsburgh? I could just go to another team. In fact, I could help my Pittsburgh Penguins and say, fine, you can trade me. Yep. We just had a conversation about the importance of player movement. I think seeing Sidney Crosby play somewhere else

would be awesome. I don't... Can you imagine Sid playing in Canada? Sure. For the Vancouver Canucks. His legacy in Pittsburgh is set. It's signed, it's sealed, it's delivered pittsburgh will love sydney crosby for the rest of eternity because he did remarkable things over the course of his career in pittsburgh he brought them cups he became on

that same platform as mario to be honest when you're talking about the pantheon of great penguins mario's there Sid's right beside him, right? I'd say Sid might even be more beloved in Pittsburgh than Jaromir Jager. I'd be willing to say that. Possibly, yeah. Right? Yeah. It's more than fine for him to try something else. Now, here's the interesting thing. Dubas, in that

same article that I was just reading from, said that the plan this off season, not even the plan, the priority is not to try and adjust the core. It's to keep the core of Crosby, Malkin, Letang, and Carlson and add young players to it. Now, that's the plan. So how do you get those players in the door?

I have no idea. Good young players. How do you get those? I have no idea. I would say it's probably trading one of the guys. Yeah. Maybe that's the unspoken part of what Dubas was saying. But back to what you were suggesting.

I think that an offseason in which a move of that magnitude happened would be terrific for everybody involved. Again, it is, I know that Wish, who we just had on the show, by the way, our one podcast will be available for download shortly. Wish's joke about NHL players is that they're loathe to ever move because they just want to be where their stuff is. They want to be where they keep their stuff. Steve Stamko's leaving Tampa Bay.

Yeah, maybe, but also he's got a couple jet skis and a car and all his stuff's in Tampa Bay. So he probably just will re-s all this stuff's in Tampa Bay. So he probably just will resign there and stay in Tampa Bay. But I do think that as we move along, maybe guys like Matthew Kachuk, who did it earlier in their career, guys that have forced the issue about moving and trying new things and going to new locales and moving around and making their market or making a market theirs or making a team theirs.

Sid and Stamko should team up. That'd be amazing. Yeah. Wouldn't that be great? Watching them. I mean, I don't know where they'd be now. The problem with all of this. They're like, have you ever been to Utah?

Man, that'd be something. Wouldn't that be something? But that's not going to happen. However, everything is hamstrung. All player movement is hamstrung by a hard cap. Yeah. Right? And it's been even more hamstrung. All player movement is hamstrung by a hard cap. Yeah. Right? And it's been even more hamstrung with the flat cap of the last few years.

People often ask, they're like, how can the NBA keep doing this with these mega deals and these super teams? I'm like, well, they've got a giant, the cap is very confusing. There's super max deals.

There's Larry Bird rights. There's luxury tax. There's a lot of ways you can move players and teams and everything else. It's also fewer guys to deal with. You don't have to, you know, we got this text in size of an NHL. We got this text in here.

Daniel in Campbell. I assume that's the river part. If I was an Oilers fan, I would be terrified of Leon and Connor, both resigning. Imagine both of them making $14 million plus and how badly that would handicap your team. It could potentially be like watching the Maple Leafs theory

fail all over again. So I fundamentally disagree with that. I think if you can get players like McDavid and Dreisaitl, you're getting value out of the problem that the oilers have right now is they've got a lot of wasted cap space like jack campbell at five million dollars not helping darnell nurse with his contract especially right now him being banged up not helping evander kane at five million dollars helping. That's what you really need to avoid. I understand

it. It makes it harder. There's no doubt that it's harder for Colorado now that Nathan McKinnon is making market value. Don't get me wrong. There are challenges when you have multiple top-end players and you still have to fill out a roster for sure. But you cannot

tell me that Connor Mc mcdavid is not providing value for his contract he is underpaid yeah brough's right the salary the hard cap system is set up to pay your stars a lot of money and let them eat whatever the max percentage of the cap is and then be very efficient with the rest of your contracts the middle class gets squeezed and rookies don't make as much money as they should but that's the way that the cap system works so you have to play the game as it's laid out i think it sucks but that's how the game gets played you can't have inefficient contracts and it's very punitive like some people say well you know you overpay a guy by a few million here and there well no it's super punitive when you do that and that's why the canucks have to be really careful this offseason like ilia mckay have is a problem he shouldn't be

but he is don't turn elias lindholm into a problem don't turn dakota joshua into a problem don't turn uh you know nikita zadorov into a problem because a player can go from beloved to that guy with the big contract real quick and blame the system if you want to blame somebody because a player can go from beloved to that guy with the big contract real quick. And blame the system if you want to blame somebody. Because it's not a great system. It's not a great system where you can't reward a guy for putting in yeoman's work, answering the call, rising to the challenges put in front of him. Dakota Joshua is going to be a great example of that.

By all rights and all accounts, he should be rewarded for what he did this season. Right? Just in a normal world. He's going to be rewarded one way or another. Sorry, rewarded by the organization that gave him the opportunity. Right. It should be, you know, there should be some, I don't know, what's the word? Congruency?

It should be, you know, I don't think that's it. There should be some congruency. No, I don't think congruency is the right word. It might be. I think it's close enough. It's a congruent enough word. It sounds smart. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alignment, maybe. I don't think that's it either. No. Point being. Congruent in agreement or harmony. Yeah, there you go. Congruency. Yeah.

There you go. That's the first time I've ever gotten one right. Well done. I'm actually amazed. Yeah, and I'm still not even convinced I got it right. Point being. It's like Halford not studying the night before a big test and he somehow passes it.

It was a very congruent performance from you, Mr. Halford. Keep going. With Joshua, it's just, there should be a world where you pay him what he's earned, and the Canucks are the one that do it, and everyone's happy. But that's not going to happen, right? Everyone's saying, well, he's got to take a haircut,

or he's got to give the Canucks a discount because they gave him a shot, and that's the hard cap world. Is it possible the Canucks will lose every single UFA that they try and resign? No. No. Just most of don't think so. Just most of them. Remember when that happened last time?

Yes. Imagine that happening. Yes, I do remember that. They all got tired of waiting. Here's an unsigned text. With the way Seeloff's played in the playoffs, do you think trading Demko to, say, the Devils for, say, Marino, Holtz, and a draft pick,

then flip the draft pick to unload Mikheyev. Okay, this is the whole thing. No. It's like, do you think trading Demko is the right, like, no. Demko's great value right now. I would not trade Demko. You'd trade him when his contract's up. Just because Seelov's played well in the playoffs.

What if Demko never has another healthy season, though? What if Seelov's played well in the playoffs. What if Demko never has another healthy season, though? What if Seelov's is Spencer Martin? And also, you've got Seelov's, and everyone's like, okay, he's your starter now. That's putting a lot of pressure on Artie Seelov's. The only thing that I'll say... And then you've got to find a backup. When we had Kevin Woodley on the show yesterday,

and he was talking about what goal the coaches have told him. And they said, would you, would you rather, as we do it, would you rather on a Tuesday, uh, have,

uh, an all-star elite high-end top five, number one goalie, or have a good number one center. And then a good, like top defensive pairing in front of them. And they'll say, give me the skaters in front of them

because I can build you a goalie that can stop the puck in that system. Yeah, but Demko's cap hit is only $5 million. Well, this is a separate conversation. This isn't the idea of a $12 million goalie. Look, you understand why I'm bringing it up because Demko's contract after next season suddenly becomes a talking point again.

Well, I think the smart idea would be go into next season with Demko and Seelabs. Give Seelabs quite a few games during the regular season. See how he does. And then maybe you have to make a decision with one year left on Demko's contract. But not right now. And certainly not with the number of goalies that are out there available. What value are you going to get for Demko with Markstrom potentially available, UC Soros potentially available? Who are the other guys?

Well, Stolarz is going to get a big contract from someone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's some good names out there. The Bruins are going to trade one of their goalies. Possibly, yeah. I don't think that Demko's market value right now is all that big. I think he is much more valuable to the Vancouver Canucks.

Hey, I got some news here. Someone just passed it along in the thread. Was this you, Laddie, that passed it along in the text thread? Yes. Remember former AHL Abbotsford Canucks head coach Jeremy Colleton? Well, he's got a new job, everybody. Jeremy Colleton has been named the assistant coach of the New Jersey Devils.

So that's an interesting hire on a staff where they've got a brand new head coach. Ian Kiefer. And Sheldon Keefe. And then Sheldon Keefe's eventual replacement, Jeremy Colleton. So that's pretty good too. I did wonder when Colleton left,

and it sounded as though an offer was made to him, that you can stay, that there was some interest around the NHL in terms of head or assistant coaching gigs. I think he was tied to the San Jose job, which is still unfilled, if I'm not mistaken. That's correct? They still need to hire a head coach. Still not filled.

Because I think Marco Sturm might be taking that one. And then the idea was, well, if you're not going to get a head coaching job, maybe go somewhere where you can join a staff where the opportunity exists. Because let's be honest, in Vancouver, the guy behind the bench is the reigning coach of the year. He's probably not going anywhere. Although the Jack Adams has been a kiss of death at times, right? I've seen coaches get it and then fall flat.

I don't think Tuckett's going to be that guy. I'm going to put you on the spot right now. Okay. Who's going to be the most successful of the new head coaches? Can you name me some names? Well, yeah, I can name them all. Okay, great. Dan Bilesma in Seattle.

Okay. Scott Arneal in Winnipeg. He could be it. Really? He inherits a good team. Sheldon Keefe in Winnipeg. He could be it. Really? He inherits a good team. Sheldon Keefe in New Jersey. Craig Berube in Toronto.

Greener in Ottawa. Lindy Ruff in Buffalo. So are you talking like the best turnaround from like last year to this year? Because the Jets will probably be the same team they were under bonus. That's why I said Arneal. Like they're not losing any guys. They still got Hellebuck. It's the same team that got torched. They're losing bonus, though.

Yeah, I know, but Arneal coached them this year already. Yeah. Right? He coached them for like a month when bonus was gone. Yeah, like two weeks or whatever it was. Yeah, so I would just suggest that that's probably the most seamless transition. Probably the easiest one. Biggest turnaround. So basically you're saying Rick Bonas is useless,

is what you're inferring here. Yes. So mean. I don't know. I think that's a step down. I just don't think they're going to change that much. But anyway. I think Sheldon Keefe is most likely to have the success

if the Devils go out and get that goalie. Yeah, well, I think that they were so besieged by injury this year. They already have Jake Allen, too. They have a year of Jake Allen. It's enough to... Greener in Ottawa is an interesting one because Ottawa is underachieved. Totally. And they've underperformed.

They've got the potential to have a jump. I don't know if it's necessarily because it'll be like a great coaching performance. I just think that they could play better than they have. You're talking about Ottawa? Yes. Corpus Alli just being league average. Yeah, right. That's another part of it too. Like so much is dependent on goaltending, right? Other ones, like

here's one. Seattle with Bilesma because Seattle was good two years ago. They were a playoff team that won a playoff round and went to game seven of the second round and then regressed last year. They could have the bounce back. Torgi texts in, it's Keefe 100%

and it will be glorious watching Leafs fans cry. Imagine Sheldon Keefe goes to New Jersey and wins the Stanley Cup. You know what, Torgi? That's possible. That's possible. I'm kind of down with Torgi's thought process here. Anything to twist the knife on the Leafs a little bit.

Yeah. Like imagine Berube comes in and they get significantly worse. He just gets angrier and angrier behind the bench. Yeah, right? And then all the guys on the ice are like, I don't really know what's going on here, but it's not working.

This guy's terrifying. Yeah, he's yelling at me all the time. Marner's like, let's get a little creeps. Yeah, right. Old Leopold back there yelling at Mitch Marner. I think that's a good angle. That's a good narrative. I like that, Torgy.

JD and Kukwetlem, no mention of Jason Krog yet this morning that i've heard yeah it was interesting name that came up i think it's pronounced crog i think it's crog i don't even know yeah we could ask i'd like to have him on the show though i don't know if we're gonna get him after that whole thing that we just did with his name um he's going to be the new skills coach um and the skating coach taking over from yogi who is the new assistant coach i believe his friend's yogi okay um yeah i i mean i i was laughing at drance going nuts talking about crogg's ahl numbers and i'm like yeah that's kind of like a double-edged sword there right it's great that he did well in the AHL but I'd like to talk to him about what it's like

to be a skills coach coaching guys that have made it further than you like that's a that's a you have to be very gentle with that question but like no do you

know what I mean yeah you know what I mean? Yeah. You know what I mean? You played 200 NHL games. That's not insignificant. No, it's not insignificant. You can't say they went further than significant. Remember that Seinfeld where George was teaching the Yankees players how to hit? Yeah. But he was actually like really good at it.

No, no, no. But like, I think it's a fair question. It is an interesting question. There's a lot of, you know, Pga tour pros that never made it in the game and they're out there teaching the best in the business now well like goalie coaches as well right exactly coaching is completely different right like you're you're you're looking at um you know the fundamentals of the swing you know the theories and you probably thought about it even more than some of the players and you can just say like like krog can say like well i wasn't big

right like i wasn't i wasn't a big dude and that was one of the reasons i made it and a golf coach could say well like i was i'm not as good an athlete as these guys i don't have the hand the hand eye or i don't have the mental game that these guys have but i know how to break down a swing oh it's it's the conversation it's just an interesting thing, but you've got to be careful without being like, what gives you the right to coach Elias Pettersson or coach Quinn Hughes? It's kind of like the media guys. What gives you the right to give your opinion on hockey? You guys never play the game.

It's the same conversation that a lot of people have. We know how to do reads, basically. We barely know how to do that. But it's the same conversation when coaches ascend to the highest levels having never played the game at all. Scotty Bowman gets talked about all the time. Yeah, Mike Babcock, John Cooper. There's a bunch of guys.

I'm used to it from the goalie community. I know Andy mentioned goalie coaching. You see it a lot. You see guys that make it to the highest level of goalie coaching that never played, maybe college at their highest. Do you think that could be tough for them at some time, at certain points? The conversation is going to be tough because you run into those personalities

that have the opinion, like you said, where it's like, oh, you never made it. Why do I got to listen to you? You do run into that. The players probably appreciate it though, right? Because you're working with guys that see the game or think the game in a completely different way. I think the big part of it is... Some do, some don't. I think the big part of it is that to be a good coach, you have to be an incredibly

effective communicator. And that in itself is a skill. That has nothing to do with whether you played 600 games or six games in the NHL. And I think part of communicative skills is speaking to guys in a way where you're not being like, hey, I know I didn't play at as high a level as you, but I have something to offer you because I have this particular skill set. I think that's what makes John Cooper so effective is he continually finds new ways to communicate to guys

knowing that he went to law school. You know what I mean? He didn't play a million games in the NHL. He's not Rick Tockett. There couldn't be anything further from Rick Tockett in terms of experience, but they're both equally effective NHL head coaches. In the case of Cooper, I'd say he's probably the best

coach in the NHL. Brendan Batchelor is going to join us next. And at 8 o'clock, we've got Neil McEvoy, the general manager of the BC Lions, talk about the Lions' first game of the season, which did not go particularly well in Toronto. They lost to the Argos, although I suppose they had a good start.

We'll talk about the home opener coming up this weekend, sold out BC place 50 cent and also the Grey Cup being in Vancouver this year I got a lot of questions for Neil McEvoy the one big question that I have is what is the strength of this team because I would say last year you know you'd look at and maybe like the previous few years, you'd look at the receiving core and go, wow, there's some great receivers there. But I know you did the research on the receiving core last night

and like- Trying to figure out who the guys were? I'm going to be dead honest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trying to figure out who the guys were. Yeah. Because Domney Grimes, gone. Lucky Whitehead, gone.

Those are guys that you kind of know. Keon Hatcher, who was their leading receiver last year, he's out till Labor Day with the torn Achilles. All the great athletes suffer torn Achilles, you know? Like you. Yeah. So it's tough. Those are three guys.

I heard he was 40 pounds overweight, too. It's true. He did an over 45-man soccer game. So we got a lot in common, me and Keon. Alfred's going to really yell at me in the break. Yeah.

You're listening to the Alfred and Brett show. We're going to have a fight. 650. Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. 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 podcasts. It's his friend and bachelor, bachelor, bachelor. Live from Rogers Arena, calling Canucks Games. It's his friend and bachelor, bachelor, Bachelor. 7.34 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody.

Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help you with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks, is going to join us in just a moment here. The highlight of Hour 2,

even though we did talk about Jason Krog, it is Krog, by the way, for 10 minutes, without actually talking to Jason Krog. We had the Jason Krog conversation. Sans Krog! That's how good we are at radio. Well, you're just taking someone's text. Didn't I just say that?

Conversation with Kroglist. I repeat, Kroglist. Someone said, you said that and you credited that? I don't think you credited anyone, though. Sorry. Someone we got to text in. An unsigned text came in. You don't like to brag, though, because the text went like this.

Here is how great you guys are at your job. You just spent 10 minutes talking to Jason Krog without even talking to Jason Krog. So thank you, Unsigned Texter. We're not great at the job. We're super great at the job. Hour two of this program is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste.

Primetime is full flavor without compromise. No compromise. Get some at a liquor store near you or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. The phone lines we go. is full flavor without compromise. No compromise. Get some at a liquor store near you, or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. The phone lines we go. Brendan Batchelor joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Batch.

How are you? I'm doing well. How are you guys? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Batch, do you think Dreisaitl is getting suspended? I don't. Is there a possibility of that?

It's kind of a thing furious debate about it but um i i would be surprised if they suspended a star player in the stanley cup final um but that said i i don't agree with some of the assertions out there that uh it wasn't deserving of a penalty uh let's put it that way, but I would be surprised if he got suspended. Yeah, so would I. But I'm just wondering, after the first two games of this series, especially Game 2, which the Florida Panthers, I thought, dominated, compared to Game 1, where Bobrowski kind of stole the game. Although the Panthers did play.

They weren't completely of stole the game. Although the Panthers did play, like it wasn't, they weren't dumb. They weren't completely dominated by the others. At any rate, I just wonder what hope do others have to get back in this series? One is going to be going home to Edmonton, getting a home crowd, but also is one of them potentially a Barkoff injury?

Yeah, that's what I was going to say is the hope going home is that you can get your top players away from Barkov, which is obviously a much easier task if Barkov is not featured in the lineup. So we'll have to see how that progresses. And if things are serious for Barkov in terms of an injury and missing any sort of time here, that might increase the likelihood of a dry sidle suspension, I guess. But, but yeah, that's sort of what the Oilers have to be hoping for right now is either that Barkov is unable to play, which, you know,

puts a lot more sort of spotlight on the whole thing with Dreisaitl. Or that they can create some better matchups and opportunities further down Florida's lineup for their top players to take control of the game and make a difference. But, you know, obviously the ice looks pretty tilted in one direction right now. At the same time, you know, the old saying goes, you're not in trouble in a series until you've lost at home so we'll see what the Oilers have in store for game three and game four coming up this week. What makes the Panthers so good and is there anything that's applicable to the Vancouver Canucks something the Vancouver Canucks can learn from the Panthers? To me it's their depth right

it's it's they've got guys throughout their lineup that contribute and i think the canucks had elements of that this year that's why they were able to go on the the playoff run that they were um but you look at florida's lineup and you look at the the options they have and the the top players that they have that that play further down the lineup and then guys like evan rodriguez who's a pretty good forward for my money like I think he's pretty underrated um around the league comes up with a couple of big goals yesterday I really like a guy like Luster Renan who's sort of blossomed into a strong depth player for them um and you know they they have a blue line that can kind of resemble what you talk about

with um you know the the modern blue lines that have had success resemble what you talk about with, you know, the, the modern blue lines that have had success in the NHL, like Vegas is last year, like, you know, to a certain extent the Canucks blue line in terms of how they've remodeled it is, you know, big guys that can move the puck and can defend well. And you look at Forsling and Eklat and Montour, you know, those are, those are three great defensemen to have in, in the fold. So, you know, those are three great defensemen to have in the fold.

So, you know, I would say that the Panthers are probably just a better execution to this point of what the Canucks have tried to do with their roster in terms of like, I see a lot of similarities in terms of the team building. It's just the Canucks maybe didn't have quite as much depth or quite as much punch at the top of their lineup, and that's what made the difference for them ultimately. We're speaking to Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

It has been interesting since the season has ended, obviously, because Canucks fans have kind of been in this tornado of angst about the season ending, loathing towards the Edmonton Oilers as they try and chase their Stanley Cup. And now they're down two games. So there's that. They can hang their hats on. And then everyone just waiting and waiting and waiting for July 1 with drips and drabs

of updates coming in. How have you been keeping yourself busy over the last little bit, Banch? I haven't really. Like, I've been sort of, you know, re-energizing here a bit after a playoff run and certainly still paying attention to everything that's been happening with the rumors around the Canucks and everything. But, like, I think like a lot of fans, my mindset is, you know, let's wait and see what actually happens here.

So there's rumors around Zdorov. There's rumors around Lindholm. You know, there's going to be noise around these guys until either they're signed or, you know, July 1st hits and they go to the open market. So I'm just sort of waiting and interested to see how this management group approaches what, you know, has the potential to be a tricky summer but i think also has the potential to be a summer that could define this team's ability to compete for the next three or four years depending on who they decide to bring back how they decide to allocate their cap space um and and if they don't bring guys back then who they look to in free agency or through trade to um to try and fill the holes that the guys like Zdorov or Joshua or Lindholm

might leave. If they go to the open market on July 1st and ultimately sign somewhere else. Cause the thing that's interesting, and I know it was a singular line and it might've been a throwaway line. I hate parsing words, but I'm going to anyway. You don't hate it.

That's what we do all day. Actually. I love it. When Patrick, I know where you're going here. Well, when Patrick LV said, you know, and our job is to also find the next Dakota Joshua,

not even necessarily with Joshua per se, but that notion of you know, the guys that we have are great and we love what we did last season and you know, a lot of them probably endeared themselves to us and to the market, but the NHL and a hard cap system, which is what we were talking about in the previous segment,

it is about finding the next guy that can do it for cheaper, which is fair or not, right or wrong. It doesn't really matter because that's the way the game is played under the hard cap that you don't really necessarily pay the guys that have done the job for you. In a lot of instances, you say thank you for your service and you find another guy who can do that job for a lesser ticket, which is tough. But ultimately, it's the way that the efficiency game is played under the hard cap. Yeah. And you get into trouble when you pay guys for what they've already got for you. I mean, like a perfect example of that is the Louis Erickson contract in Vancouver, right? Like he hadn't done it for the Canucks, but he was a proven guy in the league. And this organization gave him a

big long-term deal that didn't work out because they were paying him for past performance rather than what he might've been capable of going into his thirties. So these are the things you have to be careful of. And, and yeah, that, that always is the job of these organizations is to unearth the next guy because in a cap world where efficiency is king, you know, you need guys making less money providing more if you can have that at all possible, right? So I think for a lot of people around the league and for a lot of teams, the salary cap going up as much as it's going to is going to be welcome in terms of alleviating some of the crunch that these teams have been under for the last few years since the pandemic. And it might lead to some more interesting player movement and some bigger contracts in free agency. But where it hurts from the Canucks perspective is for a guy like Joshua, who all it takes is one team out there to throw an extra million or two at him per season to pry him away and quote unquote overpay him compared to what you might expect. contracts because, you know, looking back at some of those sorts of deals, more often than not, I think they end up hurting you a lot more than they might help you even in the short term. And,

you know, that's the tough needle to thread here is you've got all these guys that were key contributors of a very good team that was one win away from the conference finals. And you want to continue to grow and develop and take a step in the right direction and get back to that sort of level and back to that part of the playoffs next year but at the same time you know you you have to be smart and you have to be diligent and you have to think about the the medium and the long term as well as the short term so that's why I say that this offseason could define the way this team is able to compete for the next few years. And why I think it's going to be so interesting is because these are hard decisions to make. Nobody wants to let Dakota Joshua walk away. Everybody wants

him to come back. Even the Canucks management would admit that they want him to be a part of their team. They understand the important role that he played this year, but in a salary cap world, there's a price that you have to be willing to walk away at, and Joshua is one of those guys who could be willing to command a lot more than you might have projected prior to the season he had this year.

Don't you think, too, that teams should, as opposed to fearing change and fearing the losing of players don't you think they should embrace change like i i i've come to i've come to embrace the change in teams as as a positive is there risk there yeah there's risk there because if you try and find the next dakota joshua and then that you don't find them then then you're going to look pretty silly for letting Dakota Joshua go. But I don't know. I just think, like, look at some of the energy

that the new guys brought to the Canucks this season. Zdorov comes in and energizes the team. And I know you do want a semblance of stability, but if you do need to make changes i think you can spin that or see the silver lining and bringing in players that are going to want to come in and have a great training camp because they want to impress their new teammates they're going to be energized because it's a change and some of them are going to be hungry because maybe it's their final chance. Like Dakota Joshua was on the precipice, right?

Like if he didn't have a good year this year, I don't know. Would he still be in the NHL going forward? It's not like he'd done a lot in the NHL so far. So if you can bring in more of those guys, then I think that goes a long way for a team. Yeah, and this is something that Vancouver fans haven't had to deal with because this is one of the hazards of being a good team. If you perform well and your players exceed expectations,

then you're going to have to make hard decisions about who stays and who goes. I think I brought this up last week with you guys, but you look at the Blackhawks and how they actually extended their contention window by moving off of guys like Dustin Bufflin and Andrew Ladd and having to make some of those hard decisions year after year, but found a way to remain competitive. I think the hard part about this conversation in Vancouver is you're talking to a fan base that I would liken to someone that

just got out of a bad relationship. Like you've just gone through a decade of being afraid of your team having cap space because of how they might mess things up. So, you know, it remains to be seen how they manage this off season. But yeah, I think, you know, change can be a positive and bringing in new blood and freshening things up and having a different look, these can all be positive things as long as they're the right guys that fit the system and the right guys that can fill the roles of the outgoing players. And compared to what we've seen over most of the last decade for the Canucks, I think you can trust in this management group and the organization right now

that they can do a good job of targeting these kinds of players. And the fact that they have alignment with Rick Talkin and understand how he wants to play and the kind of players that he will want in the lineup, I think gives them a great opportunity to have exactly that. But the other side of the coin is the fear of the 2020 offseason, where all of these guys that were key contributors to the bubble playoff run left. You weren't adequately able to replace them for one reason or another. And it sent the team back into a spiral of two or three years of struggling before they got back to this point. So I agree, like change should be exciting. And I think Canucks fans should be excited about the possibilities of what this organization can do with some of the cap space they have this summer

and, you know, try to actually allow this team to take a step and maybe bring in another top six forward and look at this group to improve. But at the same time, you know, there's a reason that Patrick Alveen has multiple times been banging the drum of we need guys internally to step up and come in

and play roles, whether that's Pod Coleson or Baines or Carlson or whoever you want to look at from Abbotsford. It's because there are going to be openings. There is going to be

some opportunity for competition, for roster spots at training camp, I would imagine. But that's part of the cycle of being a good team is this happens when you have success this happens when you have players that play well and it's not necessarily a bad thing but i can understand why people would be sort of cautious about an offseason like this because they've seen it go the wrong way

before in this market yeah it's also um I think, on the Canucks leadership group, and I'm talking about the players, to, I mean, hopefully there's communication between management and the players, but also this leadership group needs to accept that there are going to be changes and there are going to be players that they probably enjoyed having on the team that will be forced to move on and i just wonder if you know those players that you mentioned losing it was just such a tumultuous time in the world and it's not even fair to compare it yeah in some ways it's kind of like because everyone was like pretty upset like the canadian hockey

players were feeling like you know they the guys i'm talking about the the the players that played in canada not necessarily the canadians they they felt like they were almost trapped in canada compared to the lives that the the players that were playing in the states were having and it was just it just seemed like a really weird time but also i think it is incumbent though like that being said is incumbent on the leadership group to just get on boards regardless of what happens like there can't be can't be any pouting if there are some players that they like leave that's what i'm saying you know what i mean yeah well and i think that situation was unique uh in 2020 for all the reasons you alluded to, but also because a lot of those guys left and

it wasn't exactly like there was a parade of new guys coming in the door, right? Like you remember that season, Niels Hoaglander had to be elevated into a top six role as a rookie to replace Tyler Toffoli because nobody came in to replace Tyler Toffoli. And, you know, sometimes that works. And Hoaglander had a great year that year on a team that struggled. But, you know, if a lot of these guys do move on from the Canucks, which I think is a real possibility that fans should prepare for, you would still expect the organization to be aggressive in bringing guys in, which is not what happened in 2020. And again, there's a lot of reasons why that happened,

and I don't want to relitigate a pretty dark era in recent years for the Canucks. But when you look at this summer, you can have confidence in this management group, and you should have confidence that if Zdorov and Joshua and Lindholm and whoever else you want to add to that list of guys that could be departing ultimately don't come back, that they will be aggressive because we've seen them be incredibly aggressive in terms of trying to find a way to bring players in to fill those holes and to, you know, allow this team to continue to grow and develop. So I'm not expecting it to be a situation where those guys leave and it's just like, okay, well,

every single one of those spots has to be filled internally. Like this is a management group that has cap space. They have more of it now with the cap going up. I firmly expect them to be aggressive and to go and chase opportunities to make this team better. But you also have to couple that with, you know, young guys needing to come in and fill roles further down the lineup. And, you know, to your original point, that's also an incredibly exciting thing.

Like this market loves young guys getting opportunity. We always hear like there was clamoring all season long for Pod Colson and Hoaglander and some of these guys to get increased roles and more opportunity and get chances to show that they belong and can be impact players at the NHL level, well, those chances are coming probably as soon as training camp here in a few months. And that's an exciting thing to have because when you have opportunities for young players to develop, that's how you find out about some of these guys and whether they're going to be able to do the job or not and sometimes it's players that you wouldn't expect that step into those

roles and succeed but um you know that's a very exciting thing to have with an organization and that's why i think it's an exciting off season to see how things shake out patch one final question are you excited about england's chances at the euros, yeah. I think there's been a lot of negative press about their loss to Iceland in their last friendly, but I'm not going to start worrying until I see a performance like that in the group stages. But yeah, I love the Euro. I love the World Cup.

In fact, the last World Cup was the toughest one for me because it took place during the hockey season, so I couldn't commit like all of my time to watching it but the Euro I normally sit down and watch pretty well

every game so I'm fired up and I'm ready for Friday. Sunday is when Sunday for England Friday for the tournament. Exactly.

I just all watch every game I love it. So Sunday England and Serbia versus Mojiz Serbia at 12 o'clock our time. Batch, enjoy the soccer, enjoy all the hockey news, and enjoy some well-deserved time off.

Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Have a good one. See you, buddy. Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Quick reminder before we go to break, if you're looking for something to do tonight, given there's no Stanley Cup final games, there's no NBA final games, it's dog day dog night at nat bailey stadium for the vancouver

canadians i believe at last check there was 800 tickets still available for the game now i know the weather doesn't look great right now but it is supposed to clear up it could be a nice night at the park for you and your dog you can bring alegged friend. You can bring up me and Andy. We can bring the dogs. My brother still laughs when I showed him the picture of us at our annual Christmas dinner, and it just said Dog Dinner 2023. He loves that. It's the funniest caption. Dogs love food.

What can I say? So if you want to check it out, go to VancouverCanadians.com. Tickets still available for tonight's game. A reminder, your dog needs a waiver to get in. You need to sign the waiver, not your dog. That's also an important thing to point out. I've never been to the dog days, and I was going to bring Pedro, but I don't trust him.

Like, I just... I don't know what the protocol is for dog behavior. I would think that you'd need to have a pretty like. I hope he's listening right now. Resourceful dog. And I hope he realizes he needs to be better behaved. They need a cat day. I think cats are overlooked.

He's pushed for this before. I've pushed for that. That would be awesome and chaotic and terrifying. The cat day would be insane. As soon as a bird flies by. Oh, oh, oh. Yeah. All right.

You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Neil McEvoy, the general manager of the BC Lions, is going to join us next.