Halford & Brough in the Morning - Could Trevor Zegras Be Traded To The Canucks?

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with DLLS_Mavs podcast host Kevin Gray Jr. (2:05) about the Dallas Mavericks winning the first overall pick in yesterday's NBA Draft Lottery, plus they chat with The Hockey News' Anaheim Ducks reporter Derek Lee (26:12) about the latest around the Ducks, including the coach Q hiring and the possibility of Anaheim moving on from Trevor Zegras. 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.

The number one pick in the 2025 NBA draft goes to the Dallas Mavericks. Oh my god! They did it! They did it! That is so unreal! Oh my god! Oh my god! You did it!

Oh my god! You did it! Oh my god! One point eight! Good for you! Everett, Evericks have won the NBA Draft Lottery! Ready to learn what a burger, buddy? Oh my gosh! 703 on a Tuesday! Happy Tuesday everybody! Halford Brough, Fortnite 650.

That was the audio from our next guest, Kevin Gray Jr. and his buddies watching the NBA draft lottery unfold last night In remarkably dramatic fashion you're listening to the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650 if there was one team that was gonna win the Draft lottery where it would have been hilarious that's the one a 1.8 percent chance of receiving the first pick the fourth lowest odds in the history of The draft lottery and the draft lottery has been around since 1985

I wish I could feel that kind of sports happiness soon Andy soon. I don't know maybe later There's a little bit sad as they had to endure before getting that happiness true. I realized but they eventually got there We will talk a little Dallas Mavericks in a second here before we do that We need to take care of some business. You are listening to the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Bruff in the morning is brought to you by Jason Hominuck at Jason.mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you.

Visit them online at Jason.mortgage. The show is also brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help. With over 3,000 five-star reviews, visit them online at Sands-Trates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help. With over 3000 five star reviews, visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We're coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Our next guest is the host of the Mavs podcast, also the pre and post game host on DLLS Sports.

Kevin Gray Jr. joins us now in the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Kevin. How are you? My Jason, good morning to you. L. S. Sports. Kevin Gray Jr. joins us now in the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Kevin. How are you? My Jason, good morning to you. I couldn't do nothing but laugh as you were playing the audio from last night as we were celebrating the fact that the Maverick going to be capturing the flag on June 25th and with the number one overall pick in the NBA draft this year. It's a shame that this is just a audio medium right now

because we're not doing the video justice. You're up out of your chair, off screen, running around celebrating. Everyone's going nuts. It was a really great moment. And look, this is about as long of a shot that hit that you can get. I mentioned it was a 1.8% chance.

So walk us through like before the lottery unfolds, you guys are set up and you're doing a live show But you're not actually expecting that the Mavericks are gonna win this thing or really come even close. Are you? No, I mean as you mentioned the fourth lowest odds in NBA draft lottery history of 1.8 percent chance in fact, what was funny the Percentage chance of the Mavericks had to keep the number 11 pick was 77.6. Now Mavericks fans who hear that number, those two numbers, laugh because Luka Dodgers of course were number 77 and spent six and a half years in Dallas. So that already

was, it felt like a bad moment to begin with. But obviously as the draft began to, the draft water began to unfold, the Mavericks had never moved up. They've been around for 45 years as a franchise, had never moved up in the 17 draft lotteries that they had been in. So the fact that they had even moved up was a shock to us. And then as we get deeper into the lottery, you see them come down to the Final Four with San Antonio and Philadelphia and Charlotte and you're thinking

there's no way that they have gone from number 11 to number one and as Mark Tatum continues to reveal the cards there is Rolando Blackman the Mavericks Ambassador representative with the biggest grin on his face because he realizes that once San Antonio's name was called that the Mavericks indeed have won the NBA draft lottery for the first time. So what does this make the Mavericks right now? Like how much of an impact could Cooper flag make next season? Well, he can step in and help immediately. And for a guy that we saw, you know, lead Duke to a final four appearance,

a guy that shot nearly 39% from three during his freshman year. Uh, but more importantly, all the defensive end, he's going to be a force. And if we're going to continue to walk down the road of Nico Harris, and being the president and general manager of this franchise, uh, the first words that he uttered after the Luca Donch's trade was defense wins championships. And you've got a defensive force and Cooper Flagg who averaged a block and a half and a steal and a half per game during his freshman year at Duke. So they're getting a player that

is as ready to play now as any that you could think of that goes 6'8", 6'9", you know, over 200 pounds, but has the athleticism to guard multiple positions, it can help them win right away. And if Anthony Davis, you know, remains healthy next year and he plays at the five, you've got a pretty stout front court with Derek Leib with the second, with Daniel Gafford, you know, on this roster as well to where you're going to have a lot of size and Cooper flag provides athleticism and size for this front court for the Mavericks so it makes them very dangerous even with him being a rookie stepping in. Do you agree with the notion that defense wins championships?

Not necessarily in today's NBA. I mean you can just go back a couple years ago that Denver Nuggets were 15th in the NBA in defensive rating and they won the NBA championship. Nicola Jokic being the offensive hub that he was, drove that team obviously to a championship and the two man game between him and Jamal Murray was spectacular and you had your own kind of two man combination with Luka Donczewski and Kyrie Irving who led you to an NBA finals, you know, not even a year ago. So, um, it's a different way that Nico Harrison, or I guess it's an

old school way that Nico Harrison believes the championships, uh, should be won. I don't necessarily believe that that's the case, uh, in today's NBA, given the offensive output that we see from a lot of teams and you've got to be able to have guys that, you know, create and make their teammates better and be offensive hubs and Lucas Dodges was certainly was that whatever you want to say about his defense is what it is. But he raises the floor and the feeling of anyone that he plays with. Has Nico been given a vote of confidence? Like is he definitely going to be the guy? Has Nico been given a vote of confidence? Is he definitely going to be the guy?

There's no indication that he won't be moving forward. I don't necessarily think that should be the case because I think one of the things that – and we'll be talking about this today and over the coming days and weeks – is that with him winning the NBA draft lottery, this does not absolve Nico Harrison for the way that he handled not only trading Luca Dacius, but the subsequent days and weeks after in which he and the organization went about handling the Luca Dacius trade and not getting enough back, you know, in the initial trade with Los Angeles and bringing Anthony Davis to Dallas.

So none of that is absolved by them winning the NBA draft lottery. It does give them a hell of a get out of jail, you know, for free card with the potential drafting of Cooper flag. But right now, Patrick Dumont still believes that Nico Harrison, as he said this moment, is the man to lead this team forward. We will see if that remains the case as we get into the rest of the off season and into free agency. Do you feel like you've, you know, you don't have to agree with the Donchich trade, but do you feel like you've got a good handle on why exactly it went down or are there still

parts of the whole thing that you're like, wait, that still doesn't make sense? For me, there's parts of it that just still don't make sense. I mean understanding Nico's reasoning for it, feeling like he was not in the kind of condition that you could depend on moving forward to give them the kind of window to win a championship within the next couple of years, questioning his work habits, questioning his conditioning and some of the other things. I don't necessarily agree with that. And also trading that kind of a player months after you watched he and his team

have the number one defense in the final 20 games of the year, getting to an NBA finals and defense wasn't necessarily a problem when they lost to Boston. They just couldn't score and didn't have enough scoring. And that's why you went out a guy to clay tops to be able to help out, you know, from that standpoint. So I still don't understand why they necessarily did it. I understand the reason that Nico says that he did it. I don't necessarily agree with that.

It'll always forever be puzzling as to why you would trade a guy that literally was five times first team all NBA in his first six seasons in the league. A parental MVP candidate and a guy that's considered one of the three best players in the league while you would treat him as he's entering his pride. That'll never make sense to me. We're speaking to Kevin Gray Jr.

here on the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. So Kevin, as we mentioned off the top, like you do a lot of work around the Dallas Mavericks. You've got the podcast, you're the pregame and post game host. So you're as about as dialed in and, you know, living with the ebbs and flows of the team as anybody. So and, you know, Brough and I are always big fans of sport in itself, but also the drama and the theater that it presents. And I'm just wondering what this year has been like to cover the team

as closely as you have, because we are talking not just a transaction in the season, we're talking about potentially the biggest and most profound trade. Some have said in NBA history and it happened in this year, while you were covering the team and to add to the drama and intrigue, it came seemingly out of nowhere. What's it been like covering the team this year in particular in light of everything that I just kind of laid out there? I mean, honestly, the word I've used in the past with someone's asking me is it's surreal.

I mean, you go from going to an NBA finals, acquiring Klay Thompson, the excitement of the summer going into the season. You know, obviously they dealt with some injuries, but then at one point they won 14 of 17 games looking like one of the best teams, you know, and all the NBA. Then Dodgers gets hurt, you know, on Christmas Day and you never imagined that that was the final image of Luca Dodgers in the Dallas Maverick uniform walking off the floor and never to be in

a Maverick uniform again, to the trade happening literally in the middle of the night with no warning. We did our trade special, we were up until 2-3 o'clock in the morning just talking about it, fans obviously reacting and then you have the protests that happened in the days and weeks afterwards, the fire NECO chant that has spread across the country and obviously you know with their origination here in the Dallas Fort Worth area to now it all culminating with them receiving the number one pick in the NBA draft. It's been surreal and the vitriol and the anger from fans who felt like the franchise had betrayed them by training Luka

Dacic after you had gotten 21 years, you know, of Dirk Nowitzki and then you had a natural bridge and transition from Nowitzki to Dacic who, you know, fans thought was going to be there for the next 15 years to help, you know, continue the success, you know, the franchise had had it and to have that ripped away. It has been devastating on a number of fronts, sad on a number of other fronts, but it honestly has just been surreal. It feels like it continues to be that more and more

as the day goes on with the events that continue to transpire around this team. Did it ever get so surreal, and maybe it did yesterday, that you started entertaining some conspiracy theories around the Dallas Mavericks? because there have been a few already and there's going to be some more going forward. And my question was going to be, what's been your favorite conspiracy theory? That's why I lost track.

There's been so many I've lost track. That's true. There are so many. The irony is Rick Welch, who is the Mavericks CEO, was also in the room 40 years ago when of course one of the biggest conspiracy theories in the NBA draft lottery took place with the Patrick Ewing field envelope that allowed him to of course to get to the New York Knicks so for him to be in the room again 40 years later with what is

probably the other biggest conspiracy theory in the history of the NBA. You know, and look, if you ask a Maverick fan who's been through all this, they'll say, who gives a damn that the NBA is rigged? It was rigged for us. Never having moved up, you know, in 17 tries and then going from never having moved up to getting the number one pick after trading away for Luka Dodgers. Uh, Mavericks fans don't care. And if it's rigged, they're happy that it was rigged for them for once after what we've seen when it comes to LeBron James going to Cleveland. Obviously, um, we mentioned the Patrick Ewing

situation, you know, Derek Rose got to Chicago with a 1.7% chance though. Yeah. Mavericks fans, they don't care. They don't care at all. Did you ever worry about any of the conspiracy theories that had them going to Vegas? No.

Uh, I mean, the NBA is not going to allow a top four market, five markets to get up and walk out to a lot, to Las Vegas where they could get billions of dollars in expansion fees, uh, by creating a new team, uh, that was never going to happen. And I never subscribed to any of those. You've got a great conspiracy theorist too, and Kyrie there.

Like, what does he think about all this? Actually, you know what? Is he going to be back? I know he's injured, but he's got like, doesn't he have a player option right now? And there's some news about, I apologize if I've missed some of this. I've been, we're in Canada, so I've

been focused on hockey. No, for sure. I mean, we're in Canada, so I've been focused on hockey. No, for sure. I mean, we're focused on hockey down here too. Star has got a 2-1 lead on Winnipeg going into game four. So we're trying to get a family cup down here ourselves. But no, Kyrie's got a $43 million player option this summer that he can opt out of and then resign with a Mavericks for a new deal, which the expectation is that he is going

to opt out of that deal to resign asign a new one and remain in Dallas. The question will be just how much, especially with Andy Davis having a three-year, $175 million extension kicking in at the beginning of this upcoming season as well. So the Mavericks have some more things to work out financially, but the expectation is that Kyrie Irving will remain in Dallas. Kevin, this was great, man. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the stars. Jets game tonight. It should be a good one. Appreciate you guys having me on. Thank you so much.

Have a great day. Yeah. Thanks for coming out. We appreciate that. That's Kevin Gray Jr. From DLLS sports hosts the Mavericks podcast and pre and post game show for them after a very eventful evening in which they won the 2025 NBA draft lottery and get to pick Duke University star Cooper flag I ran through some of the Now NBA comparables are hard because I mean any sport it's hard because it's trying to project It's a little easier in the NBA because they make the jump right from Wherever they're from wherever they're

playing and they're expected to play right away. It's not like the NHL where some guys, you know, first down picks have to matriculate in the minors or they go back another year in junior. The three that kind of keep coming up for flag are Jason Tatum. And we're going to wait to hear the severity of what appears to be an Achilles injury for Jason Tatum yesterday. Doesn't look good. Scottie Pippen and Kawhi Leonard. Those are good players.

Yeah, some really elite company. And if you watched them last year at Duke, as an 18 year old, was about as dominant as you can be as an 18 year old freshman in that landscape. I know college basketball isn't quite what it used to be with early departures and guys now trying other options rather than going to college, right? Playing overseas or playing in the G League

and then going. There's still a ton of talent. But there's still a ton of talent there and there's only a handful of freshmen that have won the Wooden Award as the best college basketball player in the country and you're in a category with like Kevin Durant and Zion Williamson and Anthony Davis.

Like those are the guys that have done it in the past and Cooper Flag is in that conversation. This might interest you, I just saw this. The NFL news. I saw it too. The Dolphins and the Commanders will face off in the Burnabout in Madrid. They announced their entire international schedule today.

What is it, eight international games that they've got on the slate. I don't know. Is it? Yeah, they've got I'll bring it up here. I was just I was reading through it, interestingly enough, before we had Kevin on the show. So it begins at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, Brazil. OK. So for those that don't know, the growth of the international games in the NFL is also because teams have sort of been allowed. I'm just gonna use some very

Generic language here. They've been allowed to draft Countries essentially or territorial areas. Yeah. Yeah. So the Chargers for example are Brazil And we get Brazil. There you go. They get it. They get to play in Sao Paulo. They don't American imperialism tomorrow Tomorrow the Chargers are gonna announce who they're gonna play on Friday September 5th in the first international game The next international game is gonna be Sunday September 28th then it's gonna be the Pittsburgh Steelers and that's because their owner are Rooney is I believe the The Pittsburgh Steelers and that's because their owner are Rooney is I believe the American or sort of the US ambassador to Ireland, okay, I believe they got Rooney Irish fan anyway So they've sort of drafted

Ireland so they're gonna be playing at croak Park in Dublin against I Want to say the Vikings and then and so then it goes I'm not gonna run through all the teams and but just the locations That's a huge game for Mason Rudolph. Huge game. I don't even know who's gonna be the quarterback at that point. Probably Mason Rudolph. Could be Mason Rudolph. You go Hotspur Stadium in London, gets a pair of games.

Wembley gets a game. Then they're gonna go to Olympic Stadium in Berlin, and then they're gonna close, as you mentioned, the international slate with the game of the Bernabeu in Madrid between the Dolphins and the Commanders. And the stadium in Madrid just had a massive renovation. Yeah. That's a cool stadium. That's like, that's an NFL caliber stadium. Yes.

You know, that's like SoFi or Cowboy Stadium or whatever. I think it's like over 80,000 retractable roof and everything. So they're taking advantage of these stadiums around the world. over 80,000 retractable roof and everything. So they're taking advantage of these stadiums around the world. And this is the next, I mean, it's the next logical leap for all of these leagues is when you talk about globalism and expansion beyond North America is how do we get,

how do we make further inroads? And for the NFL, because their schedule allows it, it's not that- They're the perfect sport and league for it. It's not that daunting to have a regular season game abroad. No, it's a week's worth of prep. Like it's a challenge logistically, but you can get it done in an extra couple of hours of travel.

It's not that big a deal when you've got that many days off before each game. It's much more difficult for a team that's got like the 82 game regular season to leagues like the NHL and the 82 game regular season to its leagues like the NHL and the NBA it's way more difficult because the schedules are so are they still doing the baseball games in London weren't they doing that in West Ham Stadium I don't know what they're doing for MLB MLB's it was weird though because they were going to the stadiums that were not configured for baseball obviously right and I was like and it's 270 feet down the line or whatever. Yeah, so this season obviously

MLB start it was the Tokyo series this year, correct? It was the Dodgers and The Cubs that started the season So that's what the other leagues that have a compacted schedule Traditionally have done is they send a couple teams over to start the season Yeah abroad and play those first games there But the NFL has the luxury of being able to do this It's only gonna grow and get bigger as they go along. And they're gonna start to go to places,

I think they'll go even further afield. I'm enjoying the Dunbar Lumbertex line right now. Loud Titans fans text in, Randy Ambrosie walked so the NFL could run. Another text, NFL actually executing on Ambrosie's CFL 3.2. And it said CFL 3.2. Right, what Ambrosia is, instead of bringing the guys from Tahiti to the CFL,

you bring the CFL to Tahiti and you have a game there. That was pretty nice. Can you imagine if the CFL announced a game at the Burnabout? So, ticket sales have been slow. Yeah, right, maybe not the Burnabout, however, do you not think that it wouldn't be it wouldn't be a terrible thought exercise to bring more games in Canada to non CFL markets, more games I'm talking

about like the Atlantic. Can't hard with the stadium situation. I don't think it is. What are you talking about? How are you going to do it? They did one at Royal Athletic Park. I know. And they're. What are you talking about? How are you gonna do it? They did one at Royal Athletic Park. I know and they're gonna do another one this year. But it's a lot of work.

It's a lot of work. Okay, but what's your ticket revenue out of those? Maybe you bypass the ticket revenue for those individual games for a grassroots initiative and to grow the game. It's easy to say bypass the ticket revenue. If you can only get 15,000 into a stadium, you know, it's a lot of work and then you're like,

okay, well, what is the ultimate payoff? But it, well, I think they should bring more games to Shreveport. Right, that's where you wanna go. They've been dying for the CFL down there ever since it left. No, but you're talking about, all joking aside, we are talking about initiatives that they can have that also keep the league Canadian,

inherently Canadian. I'm not totally against it. Yeah. But I just think it's easier said than done. You go. It's not an easy task. The NFL, the NFL can pick all the amazing stadiums around the world and go there and be like,

this game will be sold out. Yeah. As long as we do everything properly, it'll be sold out. The CFL, if you're looking about going to, you know, look, if you want to go to Kelowna or Kamloops, if the Lions want to have a game there, where are you going to play? Yeah. And I know you can put together these temporary stadiums, but it's a lot of work. And you just wonder if if at

the end of the day like to what end I'm not against it I think it's great but Alfred you you'll have to plan it because it seems like too much work for me now I can't do that okay doing a lot of googling during the segment it's very impressive to see thanks yeah I was trying to look up a lot of things we do need to do the one to watch brought to you by Delaney's OK Tire. And with just one game on the slate tonight, you only have two teams to choose from. And let's be honest, there's only one guy who's all eyes are going to be on tonight.

And yet again, I think he's been the subject of Delaney's OK Tire one to watch on multiple occasions here. It's Connor Hellebuck of the Winnipeg Jets. And just when you think that Connor Hellebuck had it all figured out It was another five goals surrendered in their game three loss in Dallas the other night including that very bizarre goal that Alex Petrovic Kicked in but as the NHL and their officials suggested it was Connor Hellebuck propelling it into its own goal I think it is fair to say at this point of the game that Connor Hellebuck and the Jets are only gonna go as far as Connor Hellebuck is fair to say at this point of the game that Connor Halabuck and the Jets

are only gonna go as far as Connor Halabuck is able to take them and he needs to recover and find a way to win games on the road. It's been a real struggle through the first round and again, early parts of the second round. He has a chance to correct that narrative tonight. It's the only game on the slate, Connor Halabuck and the New York Jets,

or New York Jets, the Winnipeg Jets, taking on on the Dallas Stars tonight game for in the lone Stanley Cup playoff game tonight It's time to put on your toyo tires whether you drive a car light truck or van Toyo tires are designed to perform in all kinds of conditions visit Delaney's ok tire in Langley and Aldergrove ok tire Service repair and tires you're listening to the Halford and Bref show on sportsnet 650 service, repair, and tires. You're listening to the Halford & Breff show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Vic Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets, weekdays three Brough, Sportsnet 650. for gruff sports net 650 sounds like shaft a little bit get some shaft vibes to upbeat a little too upbeat where that Ben you probably don't blood sweat and tears of course I do yeah yeah yeah yeah what's that shirt do you like rassy

some metal shirt like a metal band well I'm't know, just some shirt. Random metal shirt. It looks like a werewolf. No, it's like a guy riding a horse, like a headless horseman kind of. It's just meant to look really metal. It's got it on threadless.com. It's my go-to shirt website. It's so badass. Yeah.

You walk down the street and people are like, stay away from that guy. Look at that shirt. That guy looks hard, but I'm gonna stay away from him. I'm sipping my coffee. Yeah, he's like, good morning. Hello. I like cereal and cats. Yes.

You are listening to the Halferd and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Halferd and Bref of the Morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80 percent with no more interest. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program. We're right at the midway point of the show. Derek Lee, Ducks B writer for the Hockey News is gonna join us in just a moment here.

In hour two, hour two of this program is about to be Jason Hominock at jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at jason.mortgage. It's been an eventful off season for the Anaheim Ducks already.

Joining us now to break it all down, Derek Lee here on the Help for the Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning Derek, how are you? Hey guys, how are you? Thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks for coming on. We appreciate you taking the time. So let's start with the biggest news of the off season and one that's really reverberated for the last couple days. Greg Cronin out as the head coach but I think more interestingly for everyone is Joel Quenville in as the head coach. Obviously given the scandal and incident in Chicago and his lengthy departure from the game his hire was always going to come with controversy. What's it been like over the last 72-96 hours covering

the team in the wake of the Joel Quinville hire. Well, I think it's been really interesting, to say the least. I think it was interesting in the fact that this happened so soon because when Greg Cronin came in two years ago, they didn't really do anything with that until early June, kind of leading up to the draft. And so to see a hiring this early into the office using your own playoffs are still going on still in the second round right now. Um, I think that kind of caught everybody off guard a little bit. So why were they willing to take the PR risk and hire Joel Quenville?

Well, straight from the horse's mouth and we talked to Ducks owner, Henry Samuel early right after the introductory news conference and we talked to Ducks owner, Henry Samueli, right after the introductory news conference and there was a lot of, well, he's won before, he's won multiple times before and when you have the opportunity to hire the second winningest coach in NHL history, then you kind of have to do that. That's kind of what the thought process was from Samueli and from Pat Burbick as well as general manager of the Anaheim Ducks. And, um, well, it makes sense, you know, you can go out and get somebody

with that kind of caliber and has won that many games in the NHL and there's one multiple Stanley cups. It makes sense. But like you said, there's a lot of controversy that comes with this hiring, um, especially because of the nature of that incident, uh, regardless of what Quindale's role in that was, and I mean, he was the head coach there when everything happened, so, um, he at least shares some blame in that. And, um, and speaking with him, it seems like he's really trying to, he's

going to make an effort to, um, prove why he deserves this job and prove why he, uh, deserves to be back in NHL. So it's going to be an interesting season to say at least. Are the Ducks ready to win yet? Because the rebuild has been going on for a while yet, for a while now. And we've all looked at Anaheim and said, yeah,

they're amassing some talent, but you know, it's, it's, I don't want to say it's easy to amass talent, but it's easy to lose. It's hard to win. Yeah, they, they certainly have the talent. You know, they took some steps last season. Obviously every one point, so the 21 point increase, their points total.

I think a lot of that had to do with goaltending, but we did see some young guys take, excuse me, some young guys take steps. Jackson LeCom had a great season. Leo Carlson and Cutter Goche had a really great second half. Mason McTavish and Trevor's eager sir kind of clicking at certain points throughout the season and Samuel always said that they want to be in the playoffs next season. I think Pat Rubik said that as well

It's playoffs is the goal. I don't think anything short of that is Sad it's gonna be satisfactory for both Samuelio and Verbeek. So I definitely think that playoffs is the goal and anything below that, I think they would see that as missing the mark a little bit. Is Verbeek going to be on the hot seat next year? Well, it seems that he's getting close to the end of his deal according to Pierre Lebrun from the Athletic TSN.

So, you know, when things are getting desperate, like you said, they haven't been in the playoffs seven consecutive seasons. So when you feel like your job is on the line, maybe you kind of feel that you need to make these moves that help the team get better in the short-term or the current and being able to bring in someone like Joel Cuenville, it certainly fits the criteria of wanting the team to be better right away and trying to push them to get into a playoff spot. Burbique has said he's going to be active and aggressive this off season. It sounds like pretty much every other NHL team as soon as there's cap space, we're going to be active and aggressive.

What do the Ducks need and what might they do? Well, they definitely need another top six forward. I mean they've got Troy Terry, they've got Mason McTavish, Carlson and Goche like I mentioned, they've got Zygrass. That's a pretty solid forward core right there. You've got Beckett Senneke who I don't know he'll be NHL ready next season but that's one of the guys that you got with your top picks over the last several years. But they do need another top six forward right now to just kind of plug into that like they've got veterans like Alex Kalloran, Ryan Strom, Frank Toronto, those are solid guys in their own right not taking away anything from

them but I think you definitely need someone like for example Mitch Marner or Nikolai Ehlers those are the type of guys that maybe you can add in free agency maybe perhaps even someone like Brock Vester that you guys have up in Vancouver for at least a little bit longer. So whether that's through free agency or trade, I definitely think that a top six forward should be the priority. We're speaking to Derek Lee, Anaheim Ducks beat reporter for the hockey news here on the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Derek, I do want to ask about ownership here because I know that the Samuelis have had the team for a while I did notice that I think partly because he had to Henry Samueli was you know, very visible and outspoken in the aftermath of the Quenville hire but it wasn't just about

Quenville like some of the quotes that came out of the presser that he had saying that you know He misses personally going to playoff games and that he's willing to write a big check this time around and they're willing to spend and they wanna invest the capital. I know that there was a lot of renovations going into the arena that's, you know, so it feels like Samuel is a guy right now that wants to be really aggressive

and really aggressive financially. What was your takeaway from what the owner had to say after the Quenville hire? I think, you know, in a lot, not a lot of ways, in a little, some ways, it's a little bit surprising just because kind of how unsuccessful the team has been recently in terms of getting to the playoffs. But I think there's kind of a turning point now because they're building an entertainment district around Honda Center.

It's going to be called OC Vibe. It's supposed to be ready in 2026 and those construction methods and everything that's going on, it's supposed to be fully completed by 2029. So I think in Samueli's mind, they want the team to be successful and kind of on the rise as OC Vibe gets started. And by the time that's completed, they want it to, they want the team to be just a playoff contender every year, or even a Stanley Cup contender every year. So I think that's kind of the thought process from him is, well, we've got all this going on right now around the arena, and we want fans to show up and watch a winning team. And so that's kind of kickstarting the thought process of, okay, we need to spend more money to get better. We need to bring in these people that we feel are

qualified to lead the team to the playoffs and whatnot and so I think that's kind of where he's at right now. Does the Samwelly family own all that land? Like are they developing that? Cause that's a massive development. Yeah, so they've put in already a $4 billion into all of that development and they just recently put in already $4 billion into all that development and they just recently

put in another $1 billion for renovations to Honda Center. So that's going to be, I think, fully completed in 2027. So everything is going to be just completely new and developed by the time that they have all of that entertainment district planned out. We wanted to ask you one final question and it's about Trevor Ziegres because the connects are going to be looking for, uh, some centremen this off season and, uh, you know, they might look

for a player of Ziegres' profile, maybe down a bit in terms of value, but, uh, possible, um, you know, turnaround project. Has Ziegler's been given a vote of confidence at all from the Ducks? Where is his game right now? Could he be available in a trade? Well, if I had a hundred dollars for every time

I got asked about Ziegler's, I'd be a pretty rich man right now. But it's really interesting. Like I, I personally, I think Zegras is the most creative player on the team. It's, it's really easy to see when he's not in lineup and he's been out of the lineup quite a bit over the last few seasons because of injury. When he's not in the lineup, the team just is kind of missing that flair, that creativity that he brings the eyes every time he has the pocket, every time he's just in the lineup.

And I think he, he also brings just an exuberant nature in the locker room. He's great with the guys in the locker room. I think last year when he was out and the year before it players talked about how much they miss him being in the room, just his energy and just how much he brings on and off the ice, I think he's a really important player to this team. I'm not sure if management feels that way, however. I think, you know, I asked Pat Rubik after he fired Cronin, where do you see guys like Trevor Zegris and Jacob Trubo

fitting in because they have one year left on their deal? He was pretty noncommittal in addressing where he sees both of those guys, and I think that Zecherson in particular, I'm not sure if the Ducks see him as part of their long-term plans, at least management does. Derrick, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it.

All right, thanks guys. Take care. Yeah, you too. That's Derrick Lee, Anaheim Ducks reporter from the hockey news here on the Halford and Brough show on Sports Net 6. So this ties in nicely because the Ducks have 38.6 million in projected cap space. And we've talked at length about all these teams that are going to have all this extra cap space. Their freeway face off neighbors, the Los Angeles Kings, also have a truckload of cap space going into this off season.

And they're on the verge of hiring a new general manager in Ken Holland. It's not quite as much as Anaheim's, but it's a projected 23 million. And they don't have a lot of key U.F.A.s to re-up with in Los Angeles. I think it's Gavrikov and Kuzmanker are the two big U.F.A.s. I'm bringing this up because if you start going through the list of teams this summer that are motivated to get better, have cap space at their disposal and have all glaring areas of need. A lot of them match the profile of Vancouver Canucks.

The big difference is that these teams probably have more cap space and more of an arsenal to work with in terms of assets than the Vancouver Canucks do. It's not just that Vancouver Canucks do. It's not just that the Canucks need to, you know, complete this shopping list that you've laid out in top six center, a couple more forwards. And so they have to do it at a very crowded grocery store. And with people that have either money in their pocket

or coupons, whatever, you get the analogy. It's a very, very crowded and competitive market. We just talked to Pete Blackburn about what the Boston Bruins want to do this off season. You know, you look at a team in Anaheim that's extra motivated by the fact they've got the third longest playoff drought in the National Hockey League. They go to Los Angeles Kings, who just lost to the Edmonton Oilers for a fourth consecutive postseason and fired their general manager. There are other motivated teams out there,

desperate teams that want to go shopping this summer. Do you know, I actually wonder if the Ducks are going to be big players in free agency this off season. I mean, we just spoke with our last guest and he mentioned names like Ehlers and Mitch Marner, and those are at the top of the list. Brock Besser. And Besser. If you were to try and sell a player on Anaheim,

you got a promising future with some of the good young players there. I don't think people will also realize how rich Sam Welley is. Like it's always been full of, it's like it's a, he's a, it's like the family owned team, right? He's loaded. Yes.

He might be a top five owner in terms of net worth. Like he's worth $20 billion. And he made his money in like, so it's like Dr. Sam Well, you hear that right? It's like, he's a PhD. He's not like a family doctor or anything like that. So he made a lot of money in like semiconductors as a dog gives a big stretch and yawn. And a scratch.

And a scratch. Hello, belly scratch. There you go. Thanks, buddy. That's always encouraging when I start talking and you're like yawning away. Anyway, I heard semiconductors. At any rate. They just had to stretch out.

They're putting how much, did he say four billion? Four billion plus another billion on top of that. You know what I found funny is like a one billion dollar renovation to the arena there What are they gonna have there like gold? Staircases there like that's incredible to put one billion I know they put one billion dollars into Madison Square Garden, but that's massive Square Garden in New York, right? Hey, but one billion dollars into the Honda Center. I was down there incredible I was down there at Spring Break two years ago

and like one of the day, I think it was the day before we were scheduled to fly out. We were like, let's just jump in the car. We took all the boys to the Angel Stadium and Honda Center across the street from one another, right? Kids are all huge sports fans. They just wanted to see like, oh, let's see the baseball stadium.

Let's see where the the Ducks play. And so I remember driving through there and it was already in the throws of some pretty massive construction. But like it is I was trying to while Derek was talking, I was trying to envision what I saw seen two years ago and what it must look like, because I'm going to be dead honest. It was the most uninspired arena district I think I'd ever been to. There was just it was nothing. There was just, it was nothingness. There was a baseball stadium and a hockey rink,

and then it was just sort of nothing. But look at, go to ocvi.com. No, I know, and they're just building it out, which is exciting for them and also very interesting because there was nothing really to write home about there. I love these arena districts, by the way. you know, they were thinking of it's like, Oh, what can be what sounds like LA Live OC vibe close enough. You know, you throw in a couple restaurants and outdoor skating rink. You throw in one of those like glow in the dark

bowling. We need to short words, three or four letters. Ice, why? I mean, I've been LA live numerous lives like LA lives great. It's cool Yeah, for sure you never have to leave that two block radius because they've got everything there The hotels are there the shopping is there nine million restaurants honestly you use center. You shouldn't leave and don't leave Town can get nasty You're a big proponent of a... Yeah, Koreatown can get nasty at times. Right, Alfred, are you a big proponent of 15-minute cities?

It sure sounds like it. You know what? Give them a chance, you know? Maybe give it a try, I don't know. Everything you can need and walking distance. That's it, you know, just all right there. Don't need a car, I'm saving the environment. And now to look at the environment.

That sounds amazing. Yeah, but it's, that's the sort of, where a lot of these areas are trending, is you get a couple of different Sports venues for in these particular instances together and then you start building around it This is not revolutionary by any means but you need a deep-pocketed owner to do it like you're talking about Samueli So what he's done is said it's a top-to-bottom investment, right? We're going arena surrounding entertainment

district, hockey team. You know, Elliot pointed out on the 32 Thoughts Podcast that historically this is not an organization that has paid top dollar for coaches. They've gone out and done that in hiring. Well, they get to pay them a lot of money to get there because- They're stepping on the gas.

Yeah. Now this doesn't always work and sometimes it backfires. They've tried to step on the gas a few times in Buffalo. Right. And they're like, oh, the engine doesn't always work and sometimes it backfires. They've tried to step on the gas a few times in Buffalo. Right. And they're like, oh, the engine doesn't work. And they miss the pedal and put their foot

right through the floor of the car. Stopped it, Flintstone style. But I looked at it. Do you remember that taxi we had in Buffalo? Yeah, it was the same taxi driver like eight times in a row. It was like a minivan that was so rusted through that you could see the road from your seat. But I was like, how many taxi drivers do you have in Buffalo? Why do we keep getting the same guy?

Are there three of you? And why is there no four? Do we have a 33% chance of seeing you tomorrow? Is this safe? Yeah. None of it was good. There's like 30 different rattles going on in that van. You know, sometimes you're in a car and you got a rattle and it drives you crazy. This wouldn't have driven you crazy because there's so many rattles. So when we were in, I went to Russia many, many moons ago.

I went to St. Petersburg to do an MMA event. Yeah. And in a weird way, Russia was at- Halperd used to be an arms trader. Yeah, and an MMA guy. Past lifetimes. We haven't talked about it a lot. Yeah, yeah.

Aspiring tattoo. So me and Vlad were talking. For obvious legal reasons, but we'll not go into this. Aspiring tattoo artist, vodka smuggler. I did it all I was saying Petersburg It was great. I had a really great time It was I mean it was an experience that I don't think I would have ever had if not for that like opportunity to go is it um For lack of better word colorful like is it a vibrant city? Yeah, so

the architecture when the city was built was drawn from The architecture when the city was built was drawn from, I guess it was Peter the Great. Now I'm not sure I got my 100% of my history here, but you can see all the different popular European cities in their architecture. Right, right. There's Roman architecture, there's sort of pseudo canals, there's all these different impressions that he took.

So it's very unlike the rest of Russia That's why I was wondering because like obviously you look at pictures of most Russia's a little drab looking. It's very very different Yeah, but then you see St. Petersburg and it kind of pops out of you wow is this Russia? anyway, so we were so the Russians in a very weird way sort of were ahead of their time when it came to Transport because they had their own sort of version of u wherein that you would call for a quote unquote taxi. And you were disappeared. No, it takes you where it wants to go. Not quite, not quite.

I wanted to go that way. I want to go that way. Over my head. People would just pick you up, right? So one time I hopped in, we wanted to go watch, it was like two o'clock in the morning, we wanted to go watch NFL. There was like one bar slash casino that

was showing all the games so a guy just picked us up and he had a pizza in the front seat and I was like oh you're a pizza delivery guy he's like what that was okay so he had just actually picked up this might dinner that was his dinner he picked it up and then he also picked us a cab fare right which is great he had a gigantic hole in the bottom of his car, right? So you could look through it and see the ground underneath and I was thinking like if we need some style if we need to Come to an emergency stop. We're the stop like we're sticking our feet. That's like one of those Glass bottom boats. Yeah with a hole in it. You actually paid extra for that

It was a good time we made it to the casino we get the watch you go back to Russia I mean I was in Sochi This is future. It was a good time. We made it to the casino. We got to watch the play. Would you go back to Russia? I mean, I was in Sochi. Now? Well, not at the moment. Now? I feel like I'd give myself pause before I jumped on a plane.

Well, people are always like, what's it like? It's like, you've seen movies. You were in Sochi though. That was dramatically different. Kind of Disneyland-ish. It was propped up because of the Olympics, right? This was. But you could still feel like. No, I-ish. It was propped up because of the Olympics, right? This was. But you could still feel like.

No, I know, but that was sort of like a resort town that they had built primarily for the Olympics. Yeah. This, I mean. It was the Kelowna of Russia. It really was. Yeah, no, that's a good way to classify it actually.

Yeah. Lot of barbed wire tattoos. I loved it. Sochi, Fornia. All these guys who are backwards, Fox hats, wraparound shades. Would you go back to Russia now? No, no, no problem.

Well, not I mean, now that I've already done St. Petersburg, but back to your original point, they said if you wanted to get a true essence of what like the Western understanding of the sort of drab and dour Russia Russia go to Moscow. Yeah, that's why I say, yeah, because anytime I see a picture of Moscow, I'm like, it's not a lot of color there. Right. Great. Petersburg was different.

But I like I it was it was a fascinating trip. I'm so glad that I did it because I think as I get older, I'm probably less likely to take risks, which is what it was. You know, next time you'll be back. Yeah. Yeah. OK. And you sold those stingers. You know, we had to do what we had to do to get by it was a different time. I was in my 20s I

Regret nothing okay. I call it disappear. What's that? It's like their uber yeah, okay? We got to go to break when we come back we got one final hour to go on the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650 Buck Pierce is gonna join us the head coach of the BC Lions training camp is underway up in Kamloops. Buck is going to join us right before they start practice at 8.30 and then at 9.30 we're going to get the concert series announcement from the BC Lions. Who's going to be the big headliner this year? We're going to find out at 9.30. This is all coming up in the final hour of the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650.