Halford & Brough in the Morning - Did The Oilers Make A Mistake Hiring Stan Bowman?

Episode Date: July 25, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss the latest baseball news with MLB Network's Adnan Virk (1:19), plus they chat Edmonton's new GM in Stan Bowman with Oilers reporter Bob Stauffer (21:49). 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.

It's time to chat with Adnan, it's Adnan Berkey's on the show We're gonna talk some baseball and take a trip to the silver screen That's right, it's time for Red Nen. Yes, and then Berkey joins us now. We'll head out to the ball game and talk about all the films he's seen. 704 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650.

Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier multilingual destination for Honda customers. Visit them online at VancouverHonda.com. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Adnan Burke from MLB Network is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour 2 is

brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste, Primetime is full flavor without compromise. You can get some at a liquor store near you, or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

So, Rafi, what are you waiting for? To the phone lines we go. Kintec is what you're waiting for. To the phone lines we go. Adnan joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Adnan. How are you? I'm doing great, Mike.

Jason, good to be with you boys both. Olympics right around the corner. Even the Olympics, I feel like I'm woefully underprepared for how Canada's going to do. But I texted with our buddy Dan Shulman just to kind of get the scouting report. I said, maybe I'm delusional, but it looks like we're ready to get the silver medal. And so he gave me the rundown. He said, well, Australia's got eight NBA players, which I almost fell over. I said, I don't understand Australia's eight NBA players.

Spain is Spain. He said that Greece has a very good point guard, but Canada could finish anywhere from second to eighth. So let's go get that silver medal, boys. Yeah, we had Dan on the show yesterday, actually. And he said the exact same thing, that the group, he's like, I think Jason asked him to power rank the group. And he went 1-1-1-1 for all of them because it's such a difficult group for Canada to get out of. So things get underway on, I believe it starts Saturday at noon

against Giannis and the Greeks. So we'll see how they do there. Hey, I got a question for you about broadcasting excellence here because as an Emmy winner, I want to defer to you. On MLB Network, when something happens like what happened between Cal Quantrill and Reese McGuire yesterday, how do you cover it? Because we have not figured that out yet,

to do it in a way where you can get the point across to the listeners. Why? What happened? Yeah, I'm assuming you guys talked about it because that game was a big one yesterday. The Rockies tie a franchise record for runs. They beat the Red Sox 20-7. What were they arguing over? Yeah, how do you cover that, honestly,

at Nant on MLB Network? Well, first off, you get the compliment, but I want to point out you guys are all semi-horror winners. We're all in the same boat together. It's not like I know any more than you guys. But yeah, I think it's tricky. If it's not MLB Network,

you can have more fun with it. When you're a legal network, I can't be as explicit as I'd like to be. It's simply Cal Quantrill sharing words. Got a little feisty, that's it. I think if it's more avant-garde programming, I think you can air it once.

Maybe you bleep it out, maybe you don't, maybe you kind of use funny words that rhyme with what he said. Like, you can be a little more clever about it, but for us, when it's a league, you can't get too raunchy, unfortunately. You just say Cal Quantrill had some words, threw some smack in his direction, and that's it.

Why, Halford, what happened? Well, see, now what we're doing is we're encouraging our listeners to go find out for themselves. It's like a choose-your-own-adventure, listeners. You can go figure out exactly what Quantrill and McGuire were talking about yesterday. Have fun with that one. McGuire had an adventure in the parking lot. Yeah, that's right. Okay, I wanted to... Let me just

Google this. Oh, my God. We're going to pivot from the Red Sox to the Yankees. The slump continues for the Yankees, but Aaron Boone says everything is all okay and it's right there for the Yankees. The slump continues for the Yankees, but Aaron Boone says everything is all okay and it's right there for the Yankees. Is he right or is he wrong? He's more right than you think because, you know, the natural impulse is to go, are you kidding?

You had a 700 winning percentage. You were the best team in baseball going into June 15th, and since then you're the second worst team in baseball. So how could this guy not be falling? But the way in which he's right is part of what he said last night very passionately, is that, hey, other teams around us are slumping as well. Like, no one's paying attention to the fact the Orioles have lost seven of their last ten games, and the Yankees, despite this miserable stretch, which has now been over a month,

it's only a game and a half back of the division. So, you know, it really depends on one's perspective. It could be certainly a whole lot worse. Listen, I think if you don't win the division, is it disappointing? But because of the wild card, if you don't win the playoffs, you're okay. You know, there's different levels of frustration for Yankees fans. I think if they miss the playoffs, of course, collapse, disaster, horrible. People are losing jobs.

I think if you make the playoffs early exit, that's pretty concerning as well. But if they end up just treading water, and let's say they play 500 of the rest of them, which would be obviously better than they have been recently, but they get that first wildcard spot, but they go further than the Orioles. Let's suppose they go to the ALCS again,

and fall to the Astros in six or seven. Then, you know, I think this, I wouldn't get the blip on the radar, but this won't be remembered quite as poorly as it is right now. So he's right that they're fortunate other teams are slumping, but there's no doubt the Yankees have to play better, as he said. It's kind of alarming, fellas, when you look at their line-up, how it really is a two-horse race. And I'm shocked.

I'm shocked more teams haven't done what the Mets did on Tuesday, which was I'm going to walk Aaron Judge four times, and then one time I'll pitch to him and he strikes up. Hey, we win. Why would I ever pitch to these guys? So the last night, two for three, hits his 26th home run of the season. They have to get some more depth in that lineup. Stanton should be back sooner rather than later.

But aside from Ben Rice, who nobody would have known, they would have known from Rice-A-Roney two months ago, they don't have anybody hitting. Austin Wells has been better recently. Volpe's completely fallen apart. Verdugo's no good. LeMayhew's no good. So they've got to score some runs, man.

There's no doubt about it. And their ace last night, Garrett Colgate, got three home runs. So there's more alarming news as well. You mentioned the Houston Astros in there. They were 10 games back at the Seattle Mariners on June 18th. Now it's July 25th,

and that 10-game gap, that's been erased entirely. Are the Mariners cooked here? Is this just the Astros finally found that groove that everyone thought they were going to find? Do the Mariners have any chance of getting back into this, or is it the Astros' division now? I think it's the Astros' division to lose, Mike. I really do.

I mean, I can't think of a team more desperate to make moves at the deadline than the Seattle Mariners. Their offense, like I just mentioned the Yankees, at least they're led by two of the top five players in baseball in Judges Soto. Mariners' offense is beyond lifeless. I mean, it is absolutely woeful when you look up and down their lineup. 700 is the OPS, which is average right now in the American League. I think they've got one regular above 700.

Like, that's insane to say, hey, eight of our nine players, on average, are below league average, looking at offensively. They've been carried by, as we all know, that outstanding starting pitching staff. And I don't know where they would be without Logan Gilbert and George Kirby and Luis Castillo and Wu and Miller. Like, those guys are awesome. And the bullpen is up in a slouch shot either.

But make no mistake, Houston's caught them now, and they've caught them pretty historic pace. I mean, they were 10 games back, and in 32 days, wiped that away. That's an incredible run by Houston. It was not like they've been playing unbelievable baseball. They played very good. Seattle slumped

at the wrong time, and again, they need at least two bats, maybe three bats. Like, I don't know how much more Jerry DiPoto is going to need to do to get this offense going, but even if they get some reinforcements, Houston's the better team. Once they got healthy and their starting pitching sorted itself out, they've been fine. They're getting Kyle

Tucker back sooner rather than later. I know we all hate on the Astros, but I wouldn't be shocked to see them once again. I definitely see them winning the division, but they could be in the LCS, they could be in the World Series again. That's how good they are. What do you think about the idea of the Blue Jays training Vlade to the Mariners? You know, it's funny.

Jason, the company were kicking around the tires. I don't know where this got some steam. Somebody mentioned Vlade to Houston, which I was like, oh, my God. They definitely go from the division winners to potentially winning the whole thing again. But Seattle is the one that makes the most sense just because they're so starved for offense. And Vlade's the exact guy they could use. And after a quiet first couple weeks, Vlade's really come on. Five home runs his last six games.

He's got 18 home runs right now. I know he gets criticized, but the other day, if you can tell me Vlad Guerrero is hitting, if he gets you 290, 27 home runs, 90 RBI, how many guys guys are doing that, you know, week in, week out, season after season? So I think Seattle would love to have him. The key here is, Jason, is this. If you're Jerry DiPoto, are you willing to part with major league talent? You can't just deal a bunch of prospects flat.

You've got to give up one of those five arms that I just mentioned, which have been so electric for Seattle. And that's always the conundrum for any sort of team. Do you deal from strength to bolster weakness? I think Jerry DiPoto would love to say, I'll give up all my prospects. I just don't want to give up that quintet of starting pitching. Let me figure out other guys I can give you. But in order to get Vlad, you'd have to give up at least one of those guys

and then a few top prospects as well. Would you also have to commit to signing him long-term if you did that deal? I think so. The thing is, he's up as we all know at the end of next season so i don't know if you know i don't think legally you could say hey we'll make this deal contingent on signing him but yes i figured there's there might be some way that seattle would back channel that the depot would get a hold of lads agents to go hey i'm about to sell the farm for you so hey can we try to figure out a contract as soon as possible

too but but there's no guarantee of that you have to make the deal and we try to figure out a contract as soon as possible, too? But there's no guarantee of that. You have to make the deal and then try to figure things out. But, yeah, I mean, he's going to want Julio Rodriguez-type money, right? He's going to say, I'm the big guy here. I want 10 years, 250, just like Julio got. So I think Seattle would love to have him. I don't see the Jays trading him, though. I really don't. I think Vlad stays put.

I think they try to sign him in the offseason. I think Bo is a different matter. I think if he wasn't hurt, he'd be in danger of being traded. I think more likely he might sign him in the offseason, I think Bo is a different matter. I think if he wasn't hurt, he'd be in danger of being traded. I think more likely he might get dealt in the offseason. And do you think part of that is because Vladdy wants to sign in Toronto or he's open to signing and maybe Bo isn't? For sure. I think absolutely.

Whether rightly or wrong, the perception is Vlad is Canadian, first of all. He grew up in Canada, obviously, in Montreal with his dad. I think he just seems to have embraced the Blue Jays more, whereas Bo, rightly or wrongly, maybe it's one bad season, but you generally get the sense that he's not happy both on the field, off the field. He's not crazy about the team management there with Shapiro and Atkins. He just doesn't seem comfortable.

He doesn't seem like he wants to set down his foot for the next seven, eight, nine years. I feel like Vlad is camp. If you paid him what he wants to get paid, of course you're going to ask for the moon. Why wouldn't you? He's a young player. He's a really good player.

Perennial all-star. He's going to want, I don't know, $200, $250, whatever the amount is. I think Vlade would say, whereas I think Bo, even if you gave him a relatively good salary, he seems like he's looking elsewhere, just isn't that happy. And again, with a season the way he's had, Jason, he has zero leverage now because Jason will say, you've got a miserable year we're not paying you over x dollars so yeah i think i think vladi's a better player and i think he's he's happier in

toronto so it makes more sense for both sides how tough a spot are the blue jays in right now it's a real challenge because you look around and go okay baltimore is going to be great for years to come they're great right now. They've got more prospects coming. And they could deal one or two of those prospects and go get Garrett Crochet from the White Sox, who's going to be the best starting pitcher available as early as the trade deadline. The Yankees are the Yankees.

I think they're going to sign Soto when it's all said and done. I don't think he'll give them a hometown discount. I think he wants $500 million. But ultimately, the Yankees go, we can't let this guy go. Look how valuable he's been. The Yankees will always spend, and they'll be in the mix. The Rays are surprisingly regressed a little bit. They're around a 500 team, but that was bound to happen.

They've been so good for so long. But generally they draft well. They have good young players. They should bounce back quickly. And the Red Sox have been an absolute surprise. The great Alex Cora gets rewarded with a new contract extension. He's one of the best managers in baseball. They're above 500.

So if you're the Jays, you look around and go, okay, so who's exactly taking a step back? Like the O's, Yankees, and Red Sox are always going to be there. The Red Sox were not even active this offseason. Like it was pretty uninspiring. They did virtually nothing. And still, they're probably going to be a wild card team. Imagine if they actually spend money like they used to back in the day.

Like are they just waiting for that moment to say, hey, we're going to go back to being a top five pale rather than top ten? So the Jays are in real trouble, Jason. There's no team that's taking a step back. You've got to keep gunning and gunning. Do you commit to a complete rebuild? You just spent $400 million in renovations. You go, okay, we're going to stink for three years?

I don't think you can do that. Do you tread water, which probably isn't a good idea either. Let's keep Vlad, Trey, Bo. Let's run it back with this team. You can't do that. This team's not very good. It's a real challenge for them this year and beyond. Do you consider the Blue Jays like, what are they?

Are they a big money team? Are they a financial powerhouse? Because they seem to be stuck between that and a smaller market team, but also unwilling to go through what Baltimore did in order to build the team that they've got right now. What are they? They're a big market team. And I use it in quotation marks because they're not quite that top five.

They're not Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, you know, willing to spend like them, not quite the Cubs, but they're right there. Toronto's obviously a major city. It's a major market. They've got the financial wherewithal to spend like that. They offered a ton of $600 million. Clearly, you can't be a small market, mid-market team if you're offering that kind of money. But they haven't traditionally spent like those teams.

They're always like, like I said, top 10 in payroll, but not top five. And there's a difference. And I'm not saying you have to spend in order to win. I mean, there's been lots of teams, as you mentioned, the Orioles. They're not big spenders, but they committed to rebuilding. They stunk for a while and got good. Same thing with the Astros. But I think here's the danger when you're kind of, and again,

the quotations of a major team, you can't just be bad for four or five years. You're never going to see the Yankees or the Mets rebuild like that. So similar to the Jays, I don't think in their DNA they feel like, hey, our fan base, our culture, our environment will accept being absolutely brutal for four or five years in order to get good. This won't do that. But that's the real problem that becomes what? You're just going to be, hey, let's get 85 wins and we can be like the D-backs

and make the playoffs and make a run? Maybe, but probably not. Then you're just married to mediocrity. So it becomes a real challenge for the organization to figure out what exactly they're doing. You've got to look at this year and go, hey, what happened? Why did everyone, not just ourselves internally, why did externally everyone thought the Jays would be in the playoff mix?

And we're not even close. What happened? Let's examine it. Let's do an autopsy and figure out how to fix it. You mentioned Garrett Crochet and the white socks it's actually amazing that the white socks have not just a good player but one of the best pitchers in baseball because they are historically comically bad at baseball so for those that don't know they are now on pace to have the most losses in baseball's modern era they're 50 games under 500 they're 27 and 77 which is quite frankly hard to do playing that many games they're due for a win though they've lost 10 in a row they have yeah and it was a 10-2 loss a narrow 10-2 loss in texas on wednesday night which has got them to

this sort of dubious mark the reason i it up is, can you ever be too bad when you're going through one of these rebuilds? Like, I understand that you have to bottom out and there's sort of a blueprint in baseball, but we talk about it in hockey a lot that sometimes the culture gets so bad and the losing gets so bad that it actually kind of poisons the well a little bit.

Is that a thing? And is it happening in Chicago? Because to match the same amount of losses that the 62 expansion Mets might have, I mean, that's not just bad. That's historically all-time bad. Yeah, I mean, how bad is your bad is kind of the question when it comes to Chicago. And the key here, I think, is honestly, Mike, they got a hit on the chips that they do have.

Garrett Crochet is the most vaunted starting pitcher available. So it's okay to stink, as you said, historic levels. You might end up with 120 losses and set a record for futility, but if you deal Crochet and you get one everyday star and two top-level prospects, you think, oh my god, we changed our fortunes around.

Then I'm like, okay, I accept it. But if you don't hit on that trade, you could be stuck losing for a long time. I think you should trade Luis Robert as well. He's a player who generally affordable contract hits home run. Now, he strikes out too much, and he's too often injured. But give up the assets while you can and get something back because you're not going anywhere.

It's not like when they get good, Luis Robert's going to be still there. So trade him. Trade Crochet. Crochet has some concerns in the zone because he's up around 150 innings, which is more than he's thrown in the past. So, deal him now, man, before he gets hurt. That's my biggest concern. But, yeah, for Chicago,

it's been bleak. And I think at least, again, it kind of goes back to Jason's point with the franchise and the identity. You know, Chicago's a major city. The White Sox are not a major team. So, they can afford to stink for a few years. I think their fan base goes, alright, we get it. We're going to be bad. You still have the diehards that show up and pay attention.

And when we're good again, let's go make a run. And they have a World Series from 2005. They can still hold their hat on. So if you're going to be horrible, then yeah, might as well be as horrible as it gets and be horrible for a few years. But again, draft well. Look what Baltimore did. For years they've done but they handled those picks. Same thing with the

Astros. Think how many teams try to follow that blueprint and are never going to be good. Like, do you see the Rockies winning a World Series the next three years? I don't. They're horrible right now. But they have to hope that with all these picks they make, eventually they get good. And if you don't, you just keep on stinking.

Adnan, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week. I'm going to be gone on vacation for a while, so we won't talk for a bit, but you'll be back next week. So enjoy the weekend.

You'll talk with Jason. Are you going to go watch the Olympics? Where are you going? Mike? We're staying provincially. I'm going up to the Okanagan for a bit, then going to the sunshine for a bit. So I will be in a Olympics mode.

I'm going to try and watch as much of the basketball as I can. Cause I'm really keyed on Canada. Canada is going to win gold, not silver. There's a real romanticism and a mystery about the Okanagan. I think it's just a great name as a kid growing up. Oh my God. It sounds gorgeous. So one day I hope to meet you in the Okanagan

but for now, enjoy it. Okay, thanks buddy. Appreciate it. We will meet one day in the Okanagan. See ya, Adnan. Words to live by. Thanks, boys. Adnan Virk from MLB Network here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. And just thought I'd say a little something about those that might be affected by the fires in our province, but also Alberta. It's heartbreaking to see what's happening in Jasper right now. Yeah.

We've had a couple people text in already this morning, yeah. And it just happens every summer now. Yeah. And it's a problem. Yeah. Well, tough transition here, but it is time now for the Canadian Football Report, brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. Normally at this time, you know, we're a Vancouver show.

I hyper-focus on the BC Lions, but the BC Lions are off for another week, so we will turn our attention to tonight's game. It's one of the biggest, if not the biggest games in the CFL so far. It's the two best teams record-wise in the CFL. The Montreal Alouettes, the Saskatchewan Rough Riders, both at five at one. The Owls are coming off their first loss of the season

back on July 11th, so they've been off for a while as well. That time off will not afford them the opportunity to get their starting quarterback. Our good friend, Cody Fajardo, healthy. He's going to be out, and it the opportunity to get their starting quarterback. Our good friend Cody Fajardo healthy. He's going to be out, and it's going to be backup Caleb Evans behind center tonight when the Owls take on the Rough Riders. Yeah, we want Montreal to win that one too. Yes, we do.

So good luck to Caleb Evans and the Owls as they look to hand the Saskatchewan Rough Riders their second loss of the season. So big CFL game tonight, 5-1 Montreal Alouettes against the 5-1 Saskatchewan Rough Riders. That was the Canadian Football Report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. Okay, so Bob Stauffer is going to join us next from Edmonton

to talk about the Edmonton Oilers hiring of general manager Stan Bowman. And we'll take this conversation in two different directions. We'll start with the optics of the Oilers hiring Stan Bowman after what happened in Chicago. But then I think we should ask Bob about the challenges that Stan Bowman is facing as soon as he gets into his job. And the name that comes up the most right now is Leon Dreisaitl, who's eligible to sign an extension with the Edmonton Oilers. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. JanPro are the leaders in commercial cleaning and janitorial. If your workplace demands a clean environment,

contact JanPro for a free, no-obligation quote. Visit them online at janpro.ca. 7.30 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They won Honda's most prestigious dealership award, the Honda Driving Excellence Award, in 2023.

Visit them online at VancouverHonda.com. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Bob Stauffer is going to join us in just a moment here to talk some Edmonton Oilers. And Stan Bowman, higher, announced yesterday. Hour 2 of this program is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste, Primetime is full flavor. Without compromise, you can get some at a liquor store near you, or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made.

Our next guest joins us now. Bob Stauffer here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Bob. How are you? Better now. I thought I was getting like two or three stations bleeding in there at once. So it's good to hear your lovely dulcet tones. How are you guys doing today? We're good good i'm glad we got through the technical difficulties good to

hear your voice as well so yesterday a pretty big pretty profound day for the edmonton oilers and for stan bowman uh before the hire was announced i know that there were some rumblings and reports out there that this was in the works did you know that this was coming prior to the announcement yesterday that Stan Bowman was being introduced as the, I believe it's the 11th general manager in franchise history? Alright, so as we've discussed before, Jack Michaels, Cam Moon, and myself,

Jack does the majority of the TV play-by-play, and on those nights, Cam does the radio, and then in the playoffs, Jack does the games with me. The three of us work for the Oilers Entertainment Group. And I think that's important because I think people should know where people come from on issues. And what I would say to you is, yes, I thought it was a possibility that Stan Bowman would be the next general manager of the Edmonton owners. I think once we saw Sheldon Kennedy's op-ed that was posted out on behalf of the Respect Group,

to me the timing of that sort of maybe hinted that there was going to be the potential of Bowman being hired as general manager. So I worked with Sheldon in an event called the Battle of Alberta Golf Tournament for the last six years. It's hosted in Red Deer. It brings 15 members of the Oilers and Flames together. I'm one of the MCs for the event. One of my best friends is Ian Herbers, who coaches the Alberta Golden Bears. He was on the bus in Swift Current that crashed with Sheldon Kennedy.

So, you know, there's a lot of history there. And, you know, I'm certainly aware of perception, public perception. Obviously, I host a show 49 out of 52 weeks on top of doing the color and traveling with the team all season long. And so, yeah, to answer your question, I knew that there was a potential of Stan ultimately getting the job, and I also was not the least bit naive to how some people felt about it. And what has been the consensus among Oilers fans? It's interesting. Before the press conference, I was probably 75 25 against it after the press

conference and once you know sort of shelvin was at the press conference by the way but stan uh bore a lot of responsibility which if you read the actual jenner and block report uh well we'll have a discussion on that in a second. But I think Stan certainly accepted his share of the responsibility that Chicago should have handled the situation better, involving Kyle Beach and Brad Aldrich, who is the perpetrator in the situation. And then when, you know, we got to the part where I asked, I mean, I wanted to ask about Kyle right away, whether or not Stan had reached out to,

I saw Kyle last year at Edmonton. I didn't talk to him, but Trinity Western was in town to play the Golden Bears, and it was an off night for us, so I went to that game. And I wanted to know whether or not Stan you know, Stan had spoken to Kyle. I was unaware that Stan had talked to him the night before to notify him that he would be taking the job at Edmonton, and I saw a little bit of a maybe 60-40 shift, and then, you know, on our show, all I said to people on our show is I think you should read the Jenner and Block report.

It's a little difficult, especially in terms of the graphic nature of what was perceived to have happened from Kyle Beach's perspective, from Brad Aldrich's perspective, because one guy is saying he's being abused and the video coach Aldrich is saying it was consensual. It's a hard read, but there's a couple

things that came out of that from reading the general block and again i'm not gonna like people are gonna have their opinion guys and i respect that and understand that and it's a passionate thing and people love hockey and uh everybody thinks they're an expert on it um and i can tell you as a guy who's hosted uh,000 shows over the last 20 years, there's a lot of days people don't think I'm an expert at all, so that's the beauty of it. But when you read the Jenner and Block report, and John McDonough is the president of the team

with direct access to Rocky Wertz, who owns the team. By the way, I think I mentioned this to you guys before, actually, before Bill Wertz passed away, I was actually in his suite at a game back in 06, and just through Cal Nichols' phone or the image of letters, and we had a lengthy trivia session one day, talking about stuff like the Maldon curse and all those legendary things that have happened to the Hawks over the years.

Once you read the Jenner and Block report, it's clear that John McDonough, who most people in the hockey circles do, had the most power of any president in the league. Stan was a first-year GM. He wasn't even 40 at that time. It's right in the report that the president says, all take care of us. That's what he said. And he waited three weeks to take care of it. And that response was between either John McDonough or the HR person. Because within an hour of finding out what had happened,

the team had had the meeting with the team management leader and took it to McDonough at that stage and included him in the meeting. And McDonough said he'd take care of it. That is not a three-week response to something like that today. It's not acceptable. We all know that. I'll give you an example. When something happens with the police and people accuse a police officer or RCMP individual of roughing them up or being physically aggressive or whatever usually what happens is if

there's video of it they usually put that that employee on uh on leave and that's probably what they should have done and then investigated it right away they contradicted their own hr policy but again mcdonough had as much power as any president of the league that said stan by his own admission said he should have done more and so but I would suggest that it's out there it's really easy to access the general block report I think most people if they read it can

sort of draw their own conclusions is it going to change how a lot of people think I don't know it might for some like I think for some people they found it and the other thing that came out of it is there was no letter of reference or anything like that for Aldrich carrying forward out of the Blackhawks. Those were the two big things that I got. But they didn't actively stop him.

They didn't actively put the word out that. Well, there was no police involved. And now, should there have been a – it also did not – there was a question yesterday, guys, from a legislative reporter about, did you reach out to the minor that was involved? Well, we don't know who the minor is. That minor is legally protected. So I was a little surprised at that question.

I get it. Look, it's a hard subject. I'm glad Kyle Beach is at a better place. I used to be the SID at the University of Alberta. I remember when Trinity Western came into the conference. They didn't exactly have, as an institution back then, the most progressive approach to people's choices and options. And I obviously think it's terrific that Ben Walter and Kyle are working together

in that program. They've got a lot of work to do. UBC's got a really good team now. But anyhow, it's great that Kyle's found something that he can dig into. It's wonderful that Stan went and spoke at Trinity Western to the men's and women's programs and acknowledged that he needs to do more. I would expect to see Stan involved with the Children's Central Alberta Children's Advocacy Center, which is a big thing for Sheldon Kennedy and some of our supporters down in Red Deer.

And, you know, again, people should probably read the report. Do you think Stan had to get over some anger that he had himself in order to accept his role and responsibility in all this? Uh, what do you mean? Well, I mean that. I don't, I don't know what Stan's state of mind was. I mean, right.

Like I, like I interviewed him twice yesterday separately, once for our website, uh, and for, we have a, have a sort of a purchasing model called Oilers Plus, and we produce a lot of our own properties and content. You look at it, and the three guys that were sanctioned by the league were Al McIsaac, who had a direct report to John McDonough, despite the fact that Stan was the GM, Stan Bowman, and Joel Quindle. Those are the three guys.

McDonough just stepped away from the Hawks in 2020 and hasn't really been heard much other than, again, if you read the report, there's a lot of gray. It's not all black and white in the report. There's a little bit of gray there. And that's reality. That's how things work. So I think Stan has clearly made a concerted effort.

What I got out of it is that he's made a concerted effort to educate himself. But, I mean, I can think one thing for Sheldon Kennedy to think that. You know, for Kyle Beach to invite Stan to speak to Trinity's men's and women's program probably is a pretty good illustration that they think that. And there are two guys that have been abused. So I would sort of defer their experiences. And if they're comfortable, you know, certainly in the case of case of shelvin he flat out endorsed stan getting back in the league i i would sort of take you know let them take precedence and sort of judging stan so bob um why go through all this for stan

ballman if you're the oilers is do they really think that highly of him as a general manager? Because, you know, there's legitimate criticism for some of the strictly hockey moves that he made during the end of his tenure with the Chicago Blackhawks. There's always going to be legitimate criticism with virtually every manager because people care and people dig. You know, Jeff Jackson, really this was Jeff Jackson's hire. A lot of people, ironically enough, wanted Jeff to just take the job. But there were conditions upon Jeff becoming the CEO, and he has teenage boys and he wants to see them. And so, you know, he's going to oversee the organization

and work in concert with someone. And clearly he was philosophically aligned to use the term best of practices. And I'll tell you right now, like, I mean, I've worked the last 16 years for the Oilers, and I do think that they're doing a better job. Just like I think in Vancouver's case, there should be a fair amount of confidence in your market with what Jim Rutherford and Alvina have combined to do. And I think that's the hope is, you know, I found the best of practices common and interesting. We've already seen, you know, the Oilers lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on June the 24th.

And on June the 26th, their top three prospects are no longer their top three prospects today. You know, they traded for Matt Savoy. He becomes their best prospect in the overall pick. For Buffalo, they traded into the first round, but nobody saw it coming against Sam O'Reilly late in the first round, and then they made the trade to move Borgo for Yardiente. And so we're going to Penticton for the rookie tournament and there's an excitement that they build another layer behind the higher end guys the comment about the criticism about stan hey the hawks they won in 10 13 15 some

people would say that stan completely inherited the situation chicago from dale talon of course stan was working for 10 years for Chicago, working his way up in the organization by that point. You know, they lost I think they lost to the Canucks in 11, didn't they? Didn't Cam Pulley turn the puck over to Burroughs? Yeah.

You know, hey, they didn't ironically, his last playoff series that he won was against the Oilers in the play-in bubble in 2020 when Edmonton was a favorite. I guess you could say, well, it didn't end well for Stan in Chicago on the ice is what you could say that.

And then I'm going to ask you guys a question. How many general managers out there won three Stanley Cups? Yeah, but the question is mostly just like, is it worth it for the Oilers to go through this? Yeah, and that's, you know, obviously Jeff Jackson felt it was. I totally get what you're saying, and you're being very fair. And again, I don't expect people are going to, lots of people feel very strongly about this stuff. I remind people that Stan was not the perpetrator.

That's Brad Aldrich. And, you know, was Stan complicit in the cover-up? If you read the report, I don't know if you guys have. I could send it to you if you want. I've read it. Yeah, it kind of, I mean, it kind of makes John McDonough look, by his own admission, he kind of ruled it like a mob boss. I mean, you know, and I'm just laughing because when I went into Mr. Wurtz's box,

there was a picture of Al Capone and a baby boy bouncing on his knee. And you could figure out who that was and the reason why that would have been in his suite. The Wurtzes, for your listeners that don't know, had a large percentage of the Midwest liquor business for a long time, throughout the 20s, the 30s, the 40s, the 50s. In fact, Rocky Wertz was running the liquor business when Bill Wertz Jr. died and then took over the Blackhawks. So I get it.

You're asking, is it worth the cost? Like I have Brian Lawton on my show every Tuesday. Brian insisted that Tampa Bay draft Victor Hedman and not back to Shane. He overruled his scouts. He lasted two years because Oren Koulis and Lenny Berry on the team. He remains to this day very good friends of Oren Koulis

who has the Saw franchise. Gary has recommended Brian for jobs. I can tell you right now, our fan base would have been quite pleased if Brian had been the choice. I don't even think Brian made it. I don't know who's Jeff had in his final list, but I believe that Sam Bowman was always

at the top of the list. So that's his prerogative to make that decision and ownership to make that decision. And we'll see how they collaborate to reach the best, the best of practices they're looking for. And the reality is the orders are going to have to eat a little from a percentage of the fan base.

And, and I, and I get it. I can see why it would be, you know, it's hockey, right? Like I, I, I took political science in university. We have stuff that happens federally in this country. We have an environment minister that's a consultant for the Chinese government that gives money to China, uh, that sets a standard for what's expected in Canada. That's not expected for China. We never discuss stuff like that. And people say, stay in your lane, idiot. Talk about hockey, right? Everybody's got an opinion on hockey.

And that's a good thing. So even when it's not always positive, you've got to take it and you've got to understand that people are allowed to have their opinions and their care and their passion. And as Stan said yesterday, it's incumbent upon him to prove how his experience has made him better and how he could be more proactive and help make the game better carrying forward. Bob, thanks for doing this today. We appreciate you taking the time. Enjoy the rest

of the summer. We'll circle back when the regular season gets underway. All right, guys, take care. See you later. Thanks. That's Bob Stauffer from CHED 630 in Edmonton. Long time Oilers play-by-play guy and color analyst here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I don't know why Jeff Jackson didn't just take the job himself. That's one that... I know that he said he wanted to be the CEO and that he didn't want to do the day-to-day of general managing, but he seems like he's pretty good at it. He just had a really good offseason. I thought the Oilers had a good offseason.

I think it's a time thing. He's got those young kids. He just had a great offseason in terms of transactions. Doesn't want to do the job. Can't force a guy to take it. But if you're good at the job and you just proved you were good at the job, you should do the job. No, you shouldn't.

You should put your family first. No. No, just an outright no. No you shouldn't you should put your family first no no just an outright no no put your family first that's definitely the wrong answer it's like the mr burns thing like right like family friends i can't remember what the third one is these are those things you must slay in order to get a business that's it he's got me it just the whole thing doesn't seem like it seems like actually the first bad move that he's made since he's gone to Edmonton. If I'm being candid in my assessment. Have you guys had your eyes on the inbox during that interview? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a little split, I'll say. I don't think it was Bob's best performance. No, I don't think so. You know? It was a bit rambly, and then he started talking about the environment ministers. I don't know what's going on here. A-Dog's face when he said that.

Yeah. We were, we were off on an adventure at that point. Yeah. We were, we were, we were off on something there. I, I, we were going to ask about Leon Dreisaitl, but I made the hand gesture to Alfred. I was like, I think we'll just cut this one short.

Well, okay. But I, I'll just go back to what I was saying. Like, I think this, this whole thing, the whole hiring process of Stan Bowman, I just don't think that they were the club that needed to do it. The Oilers better think this guy is the greatest GM in NHL history. To make it worth the pain that they're going to have to go through with this hire, Bowman better be the greatest GM in his career. I think this is a misstep from Jackson.

Oh, huge. This has the potential to blow up disastrously in their face. They've intentionally made things so much harder for themselves. Why would you hire a GM that is if anything, overrated? The three cups he won, he inherited that team. And the moves he made

when he was there actively hurt that team. So, with these types of things, I think one of the things that we've learned being in this business for quite a while now is things blow over. And eventually people will just talk about Stan Bowman, the GM of the Oilers, being the GM of the Oilers. Does trading Artemi Panarin for Brandon Saad blow over? Because that's what his track history is like. Yeah. No, is like. Yeah. No, I know. Yeah.

For sure. For sure. But, like, it is, the whole, the scandal, the Chicago Blackhawks scandal, that will eventually fall to the wayside. Unless they start losing a lot. Yes. And then it'll come right back. It'll come right back.

Yeah. Yeah. It'll come right back. They better hope they're good and that's what i was trying to get to with bob i'm like is this guy like for example when they when they brought in evander kane right i know evander kane hasn't played well or he didn't play what all that well this year although i think he had some injury concerns like when they brought in evander kane there was legitimate reason to be like hey what are you guys doing but evander kane is like a hell of a hockey player when when he's healthy he's he's a really

good player right um now he wears out his welcome pretty much everywhere he goes but while he's there at least for the first part, he's usually a pretty good player. In order for it to really blow over, Stan Bowman is going to have to knock it out of the park real early. And he's got a bunch of challenges to face right away. He's got to go in there and be like, hi, I'm Stan Bowman. You've probably heard of me. I was in a major scandal. And he's like, Leon, I would like you to commit to our team. Right. I mean, okay, there's a lot to unpack.

There's a ton to unpack, and that's one of the things. Like, there's so much to unpack for Stan Bowman getting into this job, handling all this PR stuff, if you want to call it that, even though that sounds a little like, just call it PR stuff, but then to actually get down to the job because you've got a team here that has some things to do. They're going to have to sign Evan Bouchard at some point. They might have to move on or try and move on from Darnell Nurse's contract. And, oh, yeah, their fans expect a Stanley Cup

because they came pretty darn close just a month ago or two. But I think what we are trying to figure out here is the Edmonton perspective for why Stan Bowman. And we got it through 15, 16 minutes of unfiltered access to Bob. And then people didn't like the response to which I'll say you weren't going to, no one was going to like the response as to why Edmonton made this decision because a lot of people are vehemently opposed to Stan Bowman working.

So whatever the reason or whatever the excuse or whatever the rationale was going to be, you weren't going to like it. That's part of the reason that you go to Edmonton to talk with that particular guest to find, because it's not the pretty answer, but it's the one that is real, right? They decided that Bowman's track record as a hockey executive outweighed all the negatives that he brought to that job. End of story.

That's as plain and as English as you can make it. Whether you like it or not is almost secondary, because believe it or not, Jason and me and the dogs at Sportsnet 650 had nothing to do with the hire we were just trying to figure out why it happened and now you kind of get an idea why from someone who's in the market and works there about as closely as anybody now when it's our time to try and parse through this i'll go back to the same thing it doesn't make any sense to me that a guy who has made a bunch of decisions that have been controversial make no mistake bringing in Evander Kane bringing in Corey Perry those were big-time

question mark moves this one is beyond the pale though with that because not only does Stan Bowman have a very checkered history with the Kyle Beach incident, there's also no real proof of concept that over the last few years in Chicago, he was a good general manager. And I'll go back to what I said as soon as the interview was over. Jackson seemed like a guy who was doing a very good job as a general manager. He doesn't want the job, man. I don't know why you keep hammering on this.

He doesn't want to do the job. It's a lot of work. It is a lot of work. It's a lot of stress. It is a lot of work. They probably did offer it to him. It's like Jim Rutherford didn't want to be the general manager in Vancouver. Now Jim's got a good excuse because he's a little older than Jeff Jackson.

But, you know, Jim did not want to do the day-to-day grinding that you'd have to do as a general manager. So he hired Patrick Alveen. I, you know, I, I look, one thing that's great about all this is that I think the Canucks, um, have a rival again, you know, whether the Oilers consider the Canucks a major rival, I think for Canucks fans, like if you're talking about which team do you want to go and see at Rogers Arena and which team do you really want to go see

and watch the Canucks beat? It is risen right to the top. It is the Edmonton Oilers. Both two teams actively hate each other now. Both two fan bases do as well. Frankly, it's beautiful. There's a lot of dislike between the two of them.

And I think that part out of all of it is awesome. Ben Steiner is going to join us on the other side to talk about the Canadian Women's Olympic scandal. And it'll be right around the same time

that the Canadian women's soccer team kicks off against New Zealand in the opener in what has been a very contentious tournament and it hasn't even begun yet. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions.

The Roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions' 70th season. Get your tickets now at bclions.com. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.