Halford & Brough in the Morning - Does Quinn Hughes Get Traded This Season If Things Go Sideways?

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with DLLS_Sports Dallas Stars reporter Owen Newkirk (1:21) about the Stars' incredible powerplay, and how the Canucks' near-league-worst penalty kill will deal with it tonight, the boys look ahead to Sunday's Seahawks matchup at Tennessee with ESPN's Brady Henderson (27:29), plus they debate if the Canucks might entertain trading Quinn Hughes this season if things don't go well (38:51). 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.

703 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody, Halford Brubb Sportsnet 650. Halford Brub at the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal. can get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at Sands-TrustD.com. We are now in hour two of the program. Owen Newkirk from DLLS Sports in Dallas is going to join us

in just a moment here for a Dallas Star's preview. Stars are taking on the Kinex night, 7 o'clock from Rogers Arena. Hour two of this program is brought to by Jason Hominock at Jason. Dot Mortgage, the most medal of all the mortgage brokers. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online. at Jason. Mortgage.

We are coming to you live from the Kintech Footwear and Orthotics. We're going together with you in step. Let's go to the phone lines now. Our next guest, as mentioned, Dallas Stars podcast hosts for DLLLSS Sports. Owen Newkirk joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Owen, how are you?

Morning, fellas. I was just wondering if there's still coffee spilled all over your console there in the studio. Ah, you saw that. Oh, man. I couldn't help but notice that on Twitter this morning. How fun. There is a middle console here. Look at it, brough.

All the lights are on. It almost looks like it's shorted out. That might have been because sat dumped coffee all over it. I don't know. He has a problem with that, doesn't he? Multiple spills. He's a repeat spiller. What is it with the guys that aren't in the morning?

They can't handle their coffee. I don't know. We never spill. That's a lie. I dumped like eight. I dumped eight liters of tea over this keyboard one time. But we move on. We move on.

Hey, I wanted to ask you before we get into 10. night's game about that wild game that Dallas had against the New York Islanders the other night that snapped the five game winning streak, but also had like a ton of fireworks at the end of it. What was it like watching the final 30 seconds or so that one? It was like

a completely different hockey game because the first 58 minutes let's say the first 40 plus minutes were really conservative. It was exactly what Patrick Hall wanted. He didn't want to open it up against the stars. They weren't a lot of shots. I think they were

15 each through two periods. So while there were a couple of exciting moments, it was pretty drab. And then all of a sudden in the third, but particularly in the final two minutes, things went nuts, just haywire. And it was a six-on-five goal for Jason Robertson. He almost scored another six-on-five goal before the Rantanin boarding penalty on Romanov. Then, of course, they tied it with a 10th of the time. of a second left.

We saw Patrick Waugh's face turned eight shades of red during a couple different disputes. First, the injury and then, of course, at the goaltender interference dispute. And, you know, we never, as professionals, think about selfish things like how a postgame show might go, depending on how exciting a game is. But if we did think of something like that, it changed drastically over those final two minutes from, boy, this might be trying to ring those drops out of an old washcloth to, hey, this is going to be a lot of fun to talk about. Oh, and we're going to drop the call here.

We've got a bit of a weird noise going on. It's a tad distracting, I would imagine, too, our listeners. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. We are speaking to Owen Newkirk, Dallas Stars analyst here on the Halford & Brough show on Sports Net 650. The stars are in action tonight to take on your Vancouver Canucks, 7 o'clock puck drop from Rogers Arena. a pregame show starts at six. Post game picks up afterwards. It's a Dallas team, as Owen mentioned,

that had won five straight before that loss to Bo Horvett, who was tossed out of that game and the Islanders on Tuesday night. How many times has Boe been tossed out of a game? I don't know. And if we get Owen back, I probably won't ask him about it because we got other things we need to get into, but for a double high-sticking minor.

Then he got him 10-minute misconduct then was tossed whilst he was in the box. And he scored a goal that game, too. So Boer did it all. on the subject of these Dallas stars we mentioned off the top if not for the Colorado Avalanche they would be the best team in their division the best team in the Western Conference

12, 5 and 3 through the first quartermark of the National Hockey League season second in the Central Division Jamie Ben made his return to the lineup against the aisles that was his first game of the year after missing all of the season with a collapsed lung suffered during the preseason we've got Owen back on the line now

we'll try this again Owen Newkirk Dallas Stars DLLS Sports joins us here. Owen, do we have you? Guys, I hear you have clicking sounds when you try to talk to me. But not anymore. We did it.

We solved the problem. That's fantastic. Okay, so thank you for running down all the wild stuff from the game on Tuesday night against the Islanders. Let's set things up for tonight. And like so many teams in the National Hockey League, Dallas comes into this one,

dealing with a lot of injuries, specifically on the blue line. Yeah, it's not quite 50% of the starting group, but it pretty much is. You know, three of the star's normal seven are injured with Nils Lundquist who's been out since October,

although he just started skating on his own yesterday. I still think he's a ways away, so I'm not really counting the days just yet on his return. Ilya Lubushkin was the most recent to go down, who did not make the trip to Vancouver,

which is the beginning of a four-game Western Canada and Seattle trip so I don't think we'll see his services for a little while and then Thomas Harley is the best we know is week to week he you know guys Harley is a fantastic player you guys saw it at the Four Nations when you really had that breakout for Canada but in the early part of this season he hasn't looked himself and we were trying to figure out why there were some you know but the weird thing is is that it wasn't always always skating doesn't look right or he can't do this or that.

It was more decision-making. He did some things that were a little just bizarre for a guy like Harley who's extremely calm and collected under pressure. But then, you know, it's possible if you're dealing with an injury and trying to play through stuff, that that all connects and it just changes some things. And so anyway, the game against the Islanders was the first time we've seen Vladislav Koliach in a Dallas Star sweater in the regular season. And he played some preseason games as part of the acquisition for Matt Dumbo going to Pittsburgh in the offseason and some salary cap moves.

And so Kyle Koppel Bianco and Koliachanik were the third pairing for the stars, which is not how you would expect after just 20 games. But as you said, you know, this is a league-wide epidemic. And I think that it's, you know, we were trying to sort of put our finger on why all these teams dealing with all these injuries so soon into the season. And I just think the condensed schedule has to be the main culprit because it's not for lack of conditioning, it's not for medical treatment and fitness. These guys work so hard to be prepared. But when you play game after game after game with no recovery time,

and I know the Canucks had a practice yesterday, the stars have had very little practice time already, and we're a quarter of the way into the season. And I just think that this heavy game load is catching up to everybody. Owen, the Canucks have the worst penalty killing in the NHL. So I hope Dallas doesn't have a very good power play, do they? Well, it's funny you mention that because they actually did not score a power play goal against the Islanders, which snapped an eight-game power play goal streak.

Oh, no. And was just the fifth time in 20 games. They have not scored at least once with a man advantage in a game. So I would say that you're catching the stars at the perfect time because their power play has just gone cold. What is the key to this power play, which I know is very good. It's the second best in the NHL, and I think it's clicking at over 30%. Yeah, the big thing is that there's no focal point anymore, right? Last year, the stars were a very good power play team last year,

but there were times where you could really key in on Jason Robertson as the shooting focal point. Well, Robo actually had a pretty slow start to the season, but when you look at the group, especially the first unit, how are you going to focus on Jason Robertson when you have Miko Rantan who honestly doesn't take a ton of shots? You know, everybody remembers in Colorado where he would sort of park himself somewhere between the faceoff circle, the dot and the bottom of that right circle and just bury backdoor passes from McKinnon and a car. Well, he's the distributor. Now, he will shoot, but he's setting up Wyatt Johnston, who has been an incredible,

bumper net front guy. And then you've got Mero Haskin's ability to move the puck. He's actually shooting more, which is a really good thing because Miro's such a pass-first guy. You know, he thinks a lot about getting his teammates involved and just shooting once in a while

opens up the options in the lanes because penalty kills now have to respect that shot. And then, you know, you have rope-pay hints on the other side. Who are you going to take away of that five? That's what's giving them their really superpower offense so far is they're they're you know they talk about winning

more face-offs early in power plays and better entries in the offensive zone so they're not eating up power play time but and they've been significantly better this year than last year so far but once they get set up they've been just singing the puck around and you want to take one thing away and they seem to be in a real groove as far as okay you do that we'll try this we'll do this, we'll do this, we'll get a retrieval, will suddenly cause chaos, and it's been really fun to watch. We're talking about the Dallas Stars with Owen Newkirk. Owen, what are the vibes like around the Dallas Stars?

Because when a lot of people in Vancouver last checked in on the Dallas Stars, they were getting eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers, and there was a crisis between the head coach and the goalie, and things were not good for the Dallas Stars. How much of things changed since? Dramatically. funny thing is that you say not good for the Dallas stars, you know, most teams would probably sacrifice an entire flock of livestock to be able to have three straight trips to the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. And yet, that was becoming, it was wearing

thin because they weren't seemingly taking the next step, which admittedly is not an easy thing to do to get to the Stanley Cup final. But the last time we saw Vancouver, which was the, I think it was the second home game of the season. It was back in mid-October. The Stars had gone sort of a back-and-forth kind of situation where they won their first three games of the year. And everybody said, oh, this is great. You know, Glenn Gulleson has come in and they have a couple injuries.

And, you know, Jamie Ben being the most notable there, but aren't we doing just swimming weight? Well, they lost to Vancouver at home in a game that we were really from, When I say we, of course, I play for the Dallas Stars. You do that. But the stars were not happy with how that game played out, and it led to a four-game winless streak. They lost three in a row.

The worst was by far the loss at home to Columbus on October 21st. And then they turned it around, and they've got points in, I think it's 12 of 14, since that point, including a three- and a five-game winning streak, you know, really finding ways to get results in spite of sporadic play. Now, the power play, as you guys asked earlier, has been a huge reason why they've been so successful over the last month. And they've gotten really good goal tenant. Now, Jake Ottinger holds himself to an extremely high level. And so if he's anything less than perfect, then there's a lot of scrutiny. Casey DeSmith has been really, really good as the number two option. And I wouldn't be surprised if he plays tonight after

Ottinger played against the Islanders on Tuesday, I just, I don't think we've seen the Dallas stars humming along at their ceiling yet, which is a good problem. When you're near the top of the league standings and you feel like you've had injury problems and that there's been issues within certain areas of the team game, granted we've got three quarters of the season left to go.

I think Dallas is in a really good spot, especially because, you know, I think we end up getting sort of sucked into the looking at the micromanaging of the SARS. I'm sure that there's been maybe an occasion or two where somebody in Vancouver has been maybe over-analyzing the Canucks, but maybe not.

You know, that may be a landish claim. Never happens, nope. But exactly. But I think when you step back and then you go, wait a minute, the SARS have plenty of problems, but they were, I haven't looked at the standings this morning, they were tied for second in the league behind only Colorado, and you go, oh, other teams are going,

through growing pains and problems and injuries too. And so if you're banking points while you're going through these hiccups, that's a really good situation to be in. Okay, Owen, you need to explain what's going on between Dallas Stars and the Dallas Mavericks because it kind of stars a Vancouver native and Tom Galardi. So what is happening between these two teams that share the same arena? well I'll tell you what guys and I hope this doesn't ruin your holidays but it looks like mommy and daddy are on their way to a divorce and I'm not going to assign gender roles or parental responsibilities between the Mavs and the stars because that's probably just going to get weird so let's just stick with the legality of it this really started years and years ago Mark Cuban when he was still the principal owner of the Mavericks had always intended to build his own arena I believe there was a point during that where he was thinking the stars are welcome to become a tenant,

but I want to build my own arena. And then he, last year, maybe a year, year and a half ago, sold to the Sands Corporation run by Miriamond Adelson and the Patrick Dumont family. They are now the principal owners, Cuban is still a minority owner. That really shifted because one of the key elements here is Mark Cuban is a Dallas native and a huge Mavericks fan and season ticket holder before he ever became the owner of the Mavericks. So, well, profit and championships and all that

are very important things by every ownership group. The what's best for the team franchise, the city of Dallas always play a role in what Mark Cuban was thinking about. I don't believe, based on what I've seen so far, that the new ownership principal owners have that same impetus of how they go out their business. I think it's very cut-throat strictly business.

Now, not really judging better for worse. You run your business how you do it. But I think, you know, we talk about sports franchises as being very much a steward to what really belongs to the fans in the city of which they occupy or they reside in. And it doesn't feel like the stuff that they've been doing since they've taken over has been that way.

So there's always this discussion about, I don't know if the relationship with the Stars of Mavericks has always been full of sunshine and chocolate and flowers, but they, for better or for worse, understood that getting along to a point was always better for the kids, better for the family, better for the fans, the city, all that. Well, since the ownership change, there's been a drastic shift in relationships, and we've watched from afar that it is degraded into now a legal battle as the, I don't know how much minutia you guys want to get into. But basically both teams, I think for a large portion, even up to the time of which this

really happened last October, the stars wanted to coexist with the MABs and continue to this 50-50 partnership with American Airlines Center, their downtown arena. They obviously want to continue renovations on it. It's a great building, but, you know, there has to be more luxury and more sweets and let's make it fancier and we can charge more for this and all those things that come in with modern buildings. There's nothing wrong with the building at all. And so there's that sort of negotiation and revenue sharing and operating. It's a very busy building with concerts and other events throughout the year. Now there's this whole thing about gambling, which is not legal in Texas,

but the Adelson's wanted to build their own basketball specific arena with a casino attached and all that stuff, that has not gone through the Texas legislature, so I don't know if that's ever going to happen, honestly. It seems like that's not politically something that they want to see. But now the stars, because the option of a, you know, sort of a, we find a way to get along 50-50 doesn't seem to be on the table. Now because neither the Mavericks nor the stars own the properties adjacent and around American Airlines Center, they're all talking about getting their own space so that they can control revenues that aren't just on game nights,

not just ticket sales and, and, of course, merchandising and parking. We're talking about rent and restaurants and entertainment districts and stuff like that. So I hate to say it, guys, because I think the downtown location is a really good thing for a sprawling metroplex like Dallas-Fort Worth

where public transportation is not anywhere near set up for the sprawling population, but it's the best area for that it sure looks like the Mavs are looking at probably ending up with their own space at a new location in Dallas and the stars are probably going to end up in a suburb of Dallas, whether it's Plano, Frisco, McKinney, we don't know yet. Where is the public support?

Because I feel like the Dallas Mavericks made a bit of a trade last year that didn't go over so well with the public. And I wonder if there's some leftover hard feelings about that. you know, Miriam Edelson is a pretty controversial figure. And, you know, I remember when that trade went down, there were all sorts of conspiracy theories that you wanted to move the team to Vegas. I too heard those theories.

It doesn't make a lot of sense when you sort of look at the landscape of why would you move, obviously, of course, because of their business ties in Las Vegas, but you have a top five media market in the United States and a huge fan base that had just gone to an NBA. finals and then you trade away a generational player Dallas here's the thing

I grew up in New England I'm from Maine I've always been growing up I was a Boston sports fan so I Celtics Red So Boston Bruins Sorry Canucks fans I know that that's Probably not real we're nearly over it We're nearly over it yeah Well that's probably at least the amount of time

The Mavericks fans will take to try to get over Luca if they ever would And so I wasn't a Mavericks fan by birth or by residency initially. Luca Donchish made me a fan of the Mavericks because how could you not just sort of fall in love with this young guy that was just and continues to tear up the league offensively? And he really seemed to have a love for Dallas. There was this long narrative in Dallas that Luca wasn't going to want to stay,

that they weren't going to be able to re-sign him. They want to go to L.A. or New York or some, you know, a bigger media market, if that's possible. And then when the trade happened, it quickly everyone could see. He did not and thought he was going to be here for his entire career. So it was emotional. They just fired the GM of the architect of that deal,

Nico Harrison, after constant fan protests and chance of fire Nico during games, which was interesting. It showed the passion. It was also very uncomfortable for the new 18-year-old phenom Cooper Flagg to shoot free throws and hear fire. Nico in his own building, and that was a wild scene. Again, from not a, you know, born and bred Mavericks fan, I don't feel as though

the GM firing is the end of the story. It doesn't really assuage anything other than he deserved to go because he made a horrible, horrible all-time mistake because Lucidantia isn't coming back, at least not anytime soon. And that's the part of the wound that I don't know if it'll ever completely heal here. So to go circle back to the question, which is where's the sentiment? Honestly, I think, like to go back to my divorce analogy, I don't know if there's really any winners here. It might just be that if you're going to continue to fight and make it worse, maybe it's best that we part ways. But nobody really feels as though they're happy with the situation.

I think as far as a, you know, I was talking to a buddy of mine who works for the islanders. We were together in the miners with the Albany River at years and years ago. And he said, why would they leave this building? It's great. I go, I agree. But in five, six years when the lease is up, they're probably not going to be here. And he goes, you know, five or six, I go, but we've got that time. He goes five or six years is right around the corner.

And I think that's a good sentiment. We're going to see a lot here. There's a jury trial. The Mabs and Stars have counter lawsuits in Texas business court against each other as it pertains to their operating partnership because they share a 50-50 operating split of American Airlines Center. The Mabs and the new ownership tried to sue or have sued the stars for breach of their franchise agreement by moving their team offices to Friscoe, which they've done since 2003. So it's been a long, long time. the stars have countersued and now added a Tuesday night added another motion saying that now the Mavericks have violated their own agreement because their principal offices are now in Las Vegas, which the Mabs argue back and say that's patently absurd. This guys, the jury trials in January, I don't think it's going to get any cleaner from now through the holidays.

It's not like we're going to have a Christmas freeze where suddenly everybody's getting along again. It looks like it's going to be pretty ugly. Unbelievable set of circumstances in Dallas. And, oh, and thanks for breaking it down for us in such great detail. It is a pretty complex case, but you made it a lot more clear than I think anyone had an understanding of prior to this. And thanks for doing this. Yeah, the short answer was greed. Yeah, really.

I think that might have been a little too long-winded there, right? No, it was great. Like, I honestly, I knew it was a big deal, and I knew it was getting increasingly litigious. So thank you for breaking it down. Thank you for previewing tonight's game. It should be a really good one. A reminder, 7 o'clock, Rogers Arena. And, oh, and thanks for doing this today, man.

We really appreciate it. I love it. Guys, if I can turn the switch on you real quick, I'm curious, and if you don't have time, cut me off and hang up on me, I'm okay with it. Adam Foot, brand new coach, obviously has ties and has been with the organization. Is there enough of a change? He seems like he's got some good things going, but because it's, you know, he was an assistant, it's not like he brought somebody from the outside.

Is that enough sometimes in your mind? The change has been significant because, well, you watch the Canucks try and defend tonight. Because this is not Rick Tocke defensive hockey, and they've been having a real tough issue with some of the system changes. Maybe they'll come around a little bit, but I think a lot of us wondered that same thing is this just going to be like talk at 2.0 and it has not been.

Some of it's been good. Pedersen has looked a little bit better. They have been scoring, but defensively, no bueno. So that was the focus at practice yesterday, so we'll see if they're better tonight against the Dallas Stars. Fascinating, guys. I appreciate it.

And thanks for letting me Bogart. as a host for a second. All good. Appreciate it, Biden. Owen, thanks for doing this. Thanks, boys. Talk to you later. Owen Newkirk from DLLLS Sports. I'm going to see how fast I can do the next two things. One, limitless AVs, one to watch tonight.

You know what? I'm going to make it Adam Foote. I'm going to see if the yelling at practice and the changes to the forward group and maybe a renewed attention to the defensive side of the game will result in the Canucks not allowing four goals or more tonight against the Dallas stars. Adam Foote is your Limitless AV One to Watch One to Watch is brought to you Of course by Limitless AV

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Hey, it's Big Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets. Weekdays 3 to 4 on SportsNet 650 or wherever you get your podcast. 737, 737, on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody, Halpert Brubb, Sportsnet, 650. Halpert and Brub in the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates.

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Dob Mortgage. To the phone lines we go, our next guest is our weekly Seahawks Insider from ESPN. Brady joins us now in the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Brady. How are you? I'm doing great, fellows. What's going on? Now much.

We are looking forward to a pretty interesting game for the Seattle Seahawks this Sunday. Is it? Well, how many times? are the Seattle Seahawks 13 and a half point favorites on the road. But that's what they'll be when they take on the Tennessee Titans.

And I wanted to bring it up like this because while there is a game on the horizon, it feels like most of the conversation this week hasn't been about the upcoming Titans matchup, but rather the four interceptions that Sam Darnold threw against the Rams last Sunday. Now, I was reading through your timeline and I know that Mike McDonald said that a lot of them came

at times in the down quote where we just needed to get to the next play can you explain a little bit more what McDonald meant by this maybe some examples and how much of the conversation this week has really been about Sam Darnold and those four interceptions against the Rams Yeah it has been

certainly a big part just because we haven't seen a game like that from Darnold and what McDonald was talking about there was You know he was saying that that was kind of in some of those he said the majority I would probably take an issue with that and maybe say it was two of them, but

that they came late in the down and what he was saying there was that Darnold has typically been really good this season in situations like that, where he is extending plays and he finds big plays off of that. And, you know, we've talked about how

good of a job he's done and not just avoiding sacks, but, you know, creating big plays while on the move, while escaping pressure. And, you know, I would say the first one was not totally an extended play, but it was kind of late in the down in the sense that he's kind of

drifting out of pressure and he throws off his back foot. The fourth one, I think, was probably the best example of what McDonald was talking about. That was the one where he's, you know, navigating the pocket, and then he tries to, you know, jump throw and dump the ball off to Eliza Royal and the defender

steps into it. So his overall point there was sort of that you sometimes got to take the bad with the good. There's been a lot of good in those situations. And, you know, it is a dual-edged sword, though. But, you know, I would say he said the majority of them kind of fall in that same category. I didn't really feel that way about, I think, the second and third interceptions. Those just look like Donald not seeing a defender.

And I think overall, I kind of wonder if what happened was, I wonder if there was some psychological scarring from what happened the last time he played the Rams. Remember, it was that nine-back debacle in the playoffs. And look, you take like four sacks, that's a bad day at the office. If you take six sacks, that's the game that is probably going to stick with you. If you take nine sacks, that's the kind of performance that could really mess with the quarterback's head. And watching those interceptions, I sort of wonder if maybe there was some kind of mechanism in his brain saying, gosh, you just cannot get sacked against this team. And I wonder if he was so determined to not take sacks that, you know, in some of those throws,

he just, you know, was kind of throwing caution to the wind, prioritizing not getting sacked over taking care of the football. Do you think it might also just be, like, big game experience? We were kicking around the question of, what's the biggest game that Sam Darnold has ever won? And we're like, I don't know, is it the Rose Bowl? You know, like when he was at USC and you won a pretty famous Rose Bowl over Penn State. and I'm just wondering if this is now a thing

with Sam Darnold. There's going to be a big game and people are going to wonder if he's up for a big game. You know, I had not thought about that. He probably didn't play too many big games with the Jets or with the... Yeah, that's what I mean, kind of, you know? Yeah, for that matter.

I mean, you're right, the last two games of the season is obviously when it went downhill. I mean, without looking at their schedule, I know that there was a Green Bay game late in the year. I think it might have been right before the Detroit game last year where that was a big game in the sense that it was division game with a lot of implications. So I don't know.

That's something for me to go look at. It is a fair thing to wonder. But I don't know. He does kind of seem like a guy who has been through enough fires to maybe not let something like that really affect him. but I don't know. That is a good question. I'll have to go back and look at that.

How does this schedule shape up for the Seahawks? They're seven and three now, so they got seven games left, obviously looking at that return matchup against the Rams on December 18th, and that one's obviously back in Seattle, but at Tennessee, home to Minnesota, and they got major quarterbacking issues. Then they go to Atlanta, major quarterbacking issues, as Michael Pennix is out for the season, home to Indianapolis, at Carolina, at San Francisco.

Like, it doesn't, I don't want to jinx them here. There will be a couple tough games there, but not many. No, and, I mean, yeah, this is probably the best game that Darnold could have right now coming off a four-interception performance, because if you need kind of like a psychological reset, a pallet cleanser, if you will, then, you know, playing maybe the worst team in the NFL is probably going to do that for you. So, um, and then, yeah, I mean, I would have liked their chances to beat Atlanta

with or without, uh, Michael Panics in there. Um, and, you know, actually the game in between that is Minnesota. And, uh, you know, what a fascinating set of storyline for that game. Just because, you know, Minnesota had this embarrassment of riches at quarterback last year with Sam Donald starting and, you know, Daniel Jones. They picked him up late in the season. And now all of a sudden they're stuck with a guy in J.J. McCarthy who's clearly not ready. So that's probably some good perspective for any Seahawks fan to keep in mind if you're fretting about Darnel and his four interceptions. You know, the team that he came from is in just a really tough situation with a roster that is ready to win around a quarterback, but a quarterback who is not ready to play at all. And so, yeah, I mean, I'm sure that'll be an interesting game for Darnel, just playing the

team that he used to play, but that's another game that just with how poorly JJ McCarthy is playing, you've got to really like the Seahawks chances in that one as well. Would it be crazy to actually see the positives from Sam Darnold throwing four interceptions and yet the Seahawks

nearly won that game? Well, if I'm him, that's what I'm doing. Yeah, I mean, there's a couple different ways to look at this. One way is that, okay, this is, again, the same Rams team that sacked him 9, times. And obviously, sacks weren't the issue in this game, but interceptions were. And so you could

look at that and say, gosh, kind of looks like their defensive coordinator, Chris Shula, who, by the way, could be a head coaching candidate. But it kind of looks like that guy may have his number. If I'm darned, I'm not thinking that. I'm thinking of it this way, that, okay, you had your worst game of the season. You threw four bad interceptions where, you know, none of them were fluky, by the way. You know, we've seen, you know, balls go off a guy's helmet for a darnal interception. Or we've seen, you know, a center come in replacing the other center, and the guy, you know, is a bad quarterback center exchange. Like some of his turnovers, there's been a tough luck element to them.

Nothing fluky about these. And despite that, he still puts the team in position. And with a better kick or maybe, you know, four more yards on that final drive, Jason Myers hits that field goal and you win the game. So if I'm Darnold, I'm looking at it as saying, okay, if that's the worst that can happen, you can play a horrible game or make four horrible decisions, and you can still be right there to win it at the end. You know, knowing how much of quarterback play is psychological.

Obviously, there's a lot of talent involved. You need the pieces around you. You need the coaching and the scheme. But you really got to have your head on straight. And if I'm Darnold, that's what I'm telling myself. And the reality is probably a little bit of both, but I'm not focusing on that other part. focusing on the fact that you played kind of poorly and you still had a chance to win.

So what's the worst that can happen? We're speaking of Brady Henderson from ESPN, our Seahawks Insider here on the Halford-enbrough show on SportsNet 650. Let's run through the health front here with regards to injuries. I guess the big one, of course, is the health of Gray-Zable. They got good news and that the star rookie offensive lineman won't be out for an extended period of time, but how long will he be out for, Brady? Yeah, we don't know.

Well, I mean, he's not been ruled out for this game against Tennessee. I've got to imagine that they are on the side of Kasha and not play him in this game. You know, although Tennessee, look, that is one-win football team, I believe. But interior is probably the interior of their defensive line is, you know, one of the things they really have going for them with Josh. I'm, gosh, I'm Simmons. Simmons, yeah, Simmons. But Justin's, no. whatever his name is.

He's so good, I can't remember his name. And then Tevonre Swez. Jeffrey Simmons is the one you're thinking about. Jeffrey Simmons. I'm thinking Josh, Justin, every Jay name, but the right one. Yeah, I got to imagine that they give him a week off just to make sure that, you know, he's healthy for the stretch run. And, you know, we'll see what they got in Christian Haynes, the guy they drafted in the third round last year, who, you know, really has not done a whole lot to this point.

But, yeah, Zabel is the big one. And then we also did not see Torrey Horton. Tyrese Knight or Robbie Ute's practice on Wednesday nights in the concussion protocol. So we'll have to wait and see on that one. And then Horton, that shin injury continues to bother him. And that trade for Rashid Jihihed just continues to look more and more prescient. I got to say, I know we're going to let you go, but this year's draft class, I know we mentioned Zabel. And then you kind of mentioned Horton.

I mean, I know that they had their full cadre of picks and they made them and everything. but this draft class has been something else. It's been really impressive, really bolstered a team that no one was quite sure about going into the season where they were going to be, but all these rookies that have played have stepped up and made a really big contribution. Yeah, and then we still haven't seen, I mean,

Elijah Royo was consistently the most impressive of those guys over the offseason, and you really haven't seen him pop yet, and you know that he's got that potential, and so, and then Jaylon Milroy, that's a whole other story. We'll see if they can get him involved. But yeah, this says 2020,

22 vibes very much to it just with how much these guys are contributing already and how much you know that there is still room for those guys to grow. Brady, this was great buddy. Thanks for taking the time to do it. As always, enjoy the game on Sunday. We'll do this again next Thursday. Okay, cool.

Thank you. See it. Yeah, thanks, Brady. Brady Henderson, our Seahucks insider from ESPN here on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. Jason, you have something you'd like to do now. So, Frege published his most recent 32 Thoughts on Sportsnet.ca. And you remember last year, 32 thoughts,

both the written and the podcast was like, it was honestly like a Canucks show. And there was so much drama going on in Vancouver. And this year, there hasn't been as much Canucks content. And every time it comes out, I, you know, scan it quickly. You see that there's any Canucks news that I need to bring to the show. Yep. And there wasn't.

But actually, maybe there was. because he didn't mention the Canucks, but I'm going to read this paragraph and you tell me if this is about the Canucks or if you can think of another team that this might apply to. Okay, I'm listening. Okay.

It is impossible not to look at what is happening in Anaheim, Chicago, and San Jose without wondering about attitudes to rebuilds. The arguments against them, that was a big sigh. The arguments against them are simple. There are no guarantees. The lottery is a fickle mistress, as Detroit.

And perhaps the one that scares owners the most, you get financially pummeled while going through them. Organizations will tell you fans may support rebuilds, but not the way it matters most in a gate-driven league. There was a lot of pain for the ducks, black hawks, and sharks, and I think he means attendance-wise. That said, every team reaches a point where you must consider it. You can't help but look at those rises and think,

wouldn't it be easier to sell that now? Okay. Who else is he talking about? So I went, while this was going on, I went to the overall league standings. Because you would say the teams in the rebuild are probably the ones that suck. Right? Yeah.

Right now there are a handful of teams with 20 points or fewer. they are the Vancouver Canucks the Toronto Maple Leafs the Buffalo Sabres the St. Louis Blues, the Nashville Predators and bringing up the rear the Calgary Flames. Of that group I would say Vancouver is in that conversation I think you can make an argument that St. Louis might consider it

same with Nashville Calgary probably should have started considering it last year Are they kind of in it though? But they haven't made the big moves They haven't traded Rasmus Anderson They haven't traded Cadry And then eventually Huberto If you can move them? I don't think he was movable, but yeah.

Buffalo, I don't. Buffalo's one of one. You take them out of the equation. Sure, we'll try a rebuild. I don't think Toronto's there yet, but I think, I bet there's some Toronto Maple Leafs fans that are ready and willing to have a conversation. Here's the thing that we talked about earlier in the show.

With Austin Matthews under contract, is it harder? Here's the thing. If you're going to entertain the idea of trading Quinn Hughes to kickstart a rebuild because of the, volume of assets that you would get back. Could the same logic not be applied to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Austin Matthews? No, because the trading of Quinn Hughes is not because they want to kickstarter rebuild. The trading of Quinn Hughes is because he might not want to stay long term.

It's totally different. No, it's not. It is. Again, once again, you're arguing the semantics of it. The idea would be like right now in a market where there's no sellers, if you wanted to do it, just hypothetically speaking. The thing that you would have going for you in both instances is you would be selling a prime player, right?

Yeah, but you wouldn't choose to do that. You would choose to resign Quinn Hughes. Yeah, I know, but we're talking about a rebuild. Aren't we? But it's almost like a rebuild getting forced upon you. Well, whatever the case. Like, let's just go on the pretext. Well, I thought we were differentiating between the Leafs and the Canucks.

No, just rebuilds right now. All these teams that could theoretically do one if they were to do it. Now, let's remove the Leafs and Title because I don't think they're going to go there. But the Canucks has been a pretty topic of conversation. And yes, in part because Hughes might leave if he's not traded. Did you hear what Dollywell said on crossover yesterday? I did not. I only have so much bandwidth.

He said that he does believe that if Quinn Hughes doesn't want to commit long term to the Canucks that that trade could happen this season. Like before the trade deadline he meant. Let's look at this. I mean, I thought at first that the rebuild conversation was a waste of breath

quite honestly because I didn't think that they were going to entertain it unless Quinn Hughes decided to leave it and then they'd still play out this season but then there was the and we didn't talk about this yesterday there was a Gary Mason piece in the globe I had out of nowhere really

talking about rebuilds and all Gary decided to weigh into the conversation now you got Friege talking about it on 32 thoughts you've got it just seems like in a weird way they've convinced ownership that it's time they've been successful I don't know if I'm ready to go. I mean, that's why I'm reading it, because you're seeing it from so many different sources now.

I don't know if I'm ready to go there. I think I am. Are we ready to... I mean, eventually... I don't think you'd see it from this many different angles if there wasn't a conversation had where like, look, like if Hughes leaves, we don't have a choice. I know you don't want to do the rebuild, but if he actually goes, there is no alternative here to turn this club around. Well, there is an alternative is that you play a trade for win now players and even if even if the trade does involve futures, you flip the

its futures quickly for players that can play. The trade would probably include roster. Like, you would get some guys that are playing now. I mean, it wouldn't just be a bunch of ticks. Like, you'd get a haul. I mean, you could focus it around purely futures because you've got to think that if you're trading Hughes, you're trading it to a team that doesn't want to lose roster players.

Right? Yeah. Like, you know, like, well, give us your top player. Like, no, that's not the point of the trade. We need him. Okay, but let's take it back one step here. I think an interesting angle to all of this is that the market in which the Canucks couldn't add

because there's no sellers might actually end up being a market that will benefit them in this particular scenario because we've already talked about the bounty that Hughes would get in return. The bounty you'd get in return for Hughes if you were to move at this deadline because you get two years. Imagine the other bounties that you could get for some of the players on this team.

In a market where nobody's selling. Yeah. And there's no deals. going on. I mean, if there was, if, if, if, if, if there was ever a time to do it, right now, that's the time to do it. We'll continue this conversation on the other side with Thomas Drance on the Halford & Brough Show and SportsNet 650. Friend, the reminder, it is a Canucks game day. And all Canucks game day coverage is brought to you by Panago. Game Day, the Panago way, buy two medium pizzas and score free cheesy bread. Use code

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