Halford & Brough in the Morning - Drancer With A Canucks Update + What We Learned

Episode Date: May 7, 2026

In hour three, Mike & Jason get a 'Nucks update from Canucks Talk host & The Athletic Vancouver's Thomas Drance (1:55), plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

What we just have to call Thomas Drance Erotica. Thomas Dranserotica. Coorsy. Thomas Dr. Erotica. Expecting goals. Thomas Drance Erotica. Dau.

The bottom. Thomas Dr. Erotica. Regression. Thomas Drens. Erotica. P.O. 802 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. They're open seven days a week and they're open late to help you get debt free.

But no judgment or upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com. We are now in our three of the program. Thomas Drance from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks Talk is going to join us in just a moment here. Our three of this program is brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats a Duick deal since 1926. visit duick gm on marine drive visit them downtown visit them in richmond visit them online at the duick otto group dot com we're coming to live from the kintech studio step strong with orthotics and footwear from kintech we need some more uh what we learns into the dunbar lumber text inbox true we're gonna talk to drance and then on the other side of this hour uh we're gonna read your what we learned so you could text those in

650 650 is the dunbar lumber text inbox text in text in Let's go to the ABLE Auctions hotline right now our next guest. As mentioned, from the athletic Vancouver and Kinnock's Talk, Thomas Drance, the Dranser here on the Halpert & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning. Thomas, how are you? Gentlemen, good morning. Good morning. There's so many things to unpack that have happened in the last 24, 48 hours.

I think we want to start, though, with Jim Rutherford's announcement that he's stepping down from his role as president of hockey ops. And we'll be moving into an advisory role and I guess alternate governor role as well. He mentioned this in his pre-draft lottery presser, followed up with an interview with Ian McIntyre. Any big takeaways here, Drance, on Jim Rutherford stepping down as poho? Yeah, I mean, obviously it's a huge change. He's going to be very much less involved with the day-to-day.

It's not clear. In fact, it seems he's not going to remain in Vancouver, both from what he told Ian McIntyre and from what I hear. and yeah, I mean, I think this is, you know, this is regime change, like full regime change, right, in that Alvin is already gone. And Jim Rutherford is going at some undeterminate time. And the fate of Adam Foote, the next head, you know, will be determined by the next general manager and presumably the next leader of hockey operations, whatever sort of shape that takes. I mean, that's full regime change. That's a full house cleaning.

And we should remember it at that. way or look at it that way given that it's happened gradually, right? It wasn't done immediately at the end of the season, but following a 32nd play season, the Canucks are better than even money. I mean, I would say favored at this point to enter next year with a new president of hockey operations, a new general manager, and we'll see about the coach, but I would still expect changes there. And so that's, I think, the biggest takeaway is that, you know, in the wake of the season, Alvin was dismissed, but that was kind of it. And that seemed, I think, surprising to those of us that had watched it unfold. And yet, you know, I think by the time we get to June,

most likely this will have been a full house cleaning. And I think that's understandable, given the rupture that this season represented and the fact that it sort of marks a change in direction, a change in franchise direction that includes the club actively rebuilding and accepting that they're rebuilding in real terms. How much influence do you think Jim Rutherford still has, and how much do you think he's had during this GM search? I think his influence has still been significant, and I think the extent of it, like I'd like to hold off on judging the extent of it until I see who the new general manager is.

I think the GM pick will probably speak volumes. Specifically, you know, if it is Ryan Johnson and some experienced hand being brought in as a president, then I will have said that Jim Rutherford's fingerprints are all over it. Yeah. If it's someone like Evan Gold, I would say that's a sign of diminished influence for Jim Rutherford within the organization. Right? I mean, that's like, let's see. Why Evan Gold and just because it was.

Have you heard that Jim Rutherford is not an Evan Gold guy? No, no, no, no, not that. I'm just saying if it's someone less experienced a little more new age, that would feel to me like a sign of change. That would feel to me like a decision out of line with how Rutherford has operated. Right? So it's more, you know, it's not me pretending that I'm like, well, on that one, that's the guy on Dax Akellini's list.

Like, I'm not doing that game. I'm just sort of saying that would be something different. And if it's something different, that would mark it. to me that Jim Rutherford's influence has not been as seriously felt. Have you heard anything about a, and this is something Kevin Woodley was kind of hinting at, I don't want to call it a power struggle, but just different dynamics in the Kinnock's organization right at the top?

Yeah, I mean, I think inevitably when the team finishes 32nd, you're going to have different opinions of what to do next. And so I do think that there's an element of that. you know power struggle vipers nest multiple lists yeah there have been there have been whispers about different views of what direction this franchise should

take going forward we know that Dax Ackleini has been part of the interview process actively so that also I think speaks to you know perhaps changes even in the ownership suite Right. I mean, forget sort of any front line being drawn between Rutherford and Michael Doyle, the president of business ops and hockey ops, but also, you know, potentially multiple ownership representatives being involved in this, right? I mean, you put four or five people in and the Canucks will say this has been a collaborative process with lots of people involved. And that might be true to some extent. But that has accompanied at least some organizational or some whispers from, from with,

the organization about who exactly has their hand on the wheel. And that's why, you know, I think this general manager search is going to tell us a lot, right? Like, is it, does it feel continuous? Does it feel of a piece with what we've seen during the Rutherford era? Or does it feel like something even newer than that? And if it does, you know, why? And who was the power broker?

Who had the final say? Who was the decision maker that made that happen? think that's going to be an active question and something to unpack for sure. I think I'm going to have to go rewatch succession to get a handle on what's going on with the Vancouver Canucks. Not the worst idea. Why did you read that book twice? Your answer, we were talking about this earlier in the show, and I know the Canucks

haven't established who's going to be their general manager, who's going to lead their hockey ops, but they're going to be faced with decisions like, Do you call up Anaheim and ask about Mason McTavish? Or do you call Seattle and ask about Shane Wright or the Rangers with Lafranier? Where are you on these types of moves in the Canucks rebuild? Halford is very out on them. And I think it's just based on experience. Like he doesn't want to see the Canucks go pick up someone else.

Yeah, the age gap. I think we're all a little bit scarred. by the age gap. As we should be. Are any of those guys of interest or to you, should they be of interest to the Canucks? Their interest, they're of interest to me as by lows, but they're not of interest to me as go pay the premium required, right?

And that's the key here. There's a lot of talk about building through the draft, and there should be because the Canucks have struggled to do so, not just because they've picked in ways, that you can absolutely backseat drive and second guess, or honestly, in the case of a lot of their picks across the last six years, picks that I've been frustrated by as we saw them occur,

but you can't really fairly analyze, like the work of Todd Harvey and company without noting how few picks they've had, right? Like how rarely the Canucks have, like, picked in the second round at all, or how rarely they've picked in the second round and the first round and the third, all in the same graphic.

Yeah, you might even call it ridiculous. The volume has not been there for us to fairly say that this is solely on the work of the amateur scouting staff, even if I think that one issue that they've had is going for athletic profiles too early, right? And then going for hockey profiles too late. By which I mean, like, Yermot was more athletic than Sortus. Volander was more athletic than Benson. Klymovich was more athletic than Stancovin, right? So in the second and third round in the first round, right? They've been like, let's take the Tulsie guy.

He projects, right? And it's like, just take the good hockey player when there's good hockey players still left on the board. And then later on in the draft, you get, you know, the Ty Mueller type picks. And it's like, I'd rather see you guys swing for athletic profiles once the really good hockey players are off the board, right? So it's like they've almost had that balance wrong. That would be my global criticism of the picks themselves.

But again, the bigger problem is that they haven't picked enough. They haven't picked enough. they haven't valued maximizing kicks at the can. Yes. To get sort of the highest upside bets that you can place in the game, which are draft picks, right? And there's been an arrogance to it that they don't need them because they've got such a keen eye.

And I feel like we're seeing that play out with this upcoming draft. And Jim Rutherford making comments like, if the staff can nail our first three or four picks, it's like, I mean, I hope they do. But I hope you're not, I know, but I hope you're not, I hope you're not assuming that as soon as you make those picks, you've got your foundation and you're ready to roll.

It's going to take years of this. It's going to take a long time. And yeah, so, I mean, yes, it's going to take a long time. It's going to take longer than the organization is prepared for, I would say. Like, as disappointing as the draft lottery results were this week, the truth is that they'll be there again. But I want to come back to draft picks and people saying there's nothing guaranteed

with draft picks, right? And that's true, of course. But if you buy Mason McTavish, right? Your best case scenario is that you get a top six forward out of it, right? Yeah. But we already have seen enough, like Mason McTavish when he was drafted at third overall, there were already concerns about his skating speed, right? Yeah.

Can he stay at center, right? now he's what 22 23 and he's legit one of the slowest skaters in the league like that's just not changing now right that's not changing now you know like when you're 18 that might change yeah even Mitchcoff is blowing past him

well Mitchcov at least Mitchcov doesn't separate but at least he's got that east west stuff whereas like McTavish is going to have to survive as like a down low Tanner Pearson style you know, below the hash marks.

Jack Skilly just came to mind. Right. And by the way, he can do it because he's a big body. He works hard. He's super skilled. Like, he's sick. I'm not against Mason McTavish being a really good impact player at the initial level.

But it's not going to be most likely as a first line center. Like that outcome is off the table a little bit, right? Like the upside there is not significant. So if you acquire them and you pay the price to acquire, there's still a chance that he provides value, right? But the value that he provides is unlikely to be exponential, right? You very rarely get this sort of like, well, this thing was worth two cents and is now worth 75 cents, right?

It's more like this thing is worth 50 cents and if everything breaks right, it's worth 75, right? That's a very different equation. I feel like the J.T. Miller trade is a good example where the Canucks pay 90 cents on the dollar for a dollar. He becomes a hundred point two way center, which is absolutely not what he was acquired to us, right? He was acquired as a second line winger. So you've probably added 50 cents.

And then they traded him and they probably got a buck 25, buck 30 on the dollar. Yeah. Right. Okay. That's awesome. You've added 35 cents to your portfolio, right? But if you draft in the, you know, late first or early second, like if you draft Fraser Minton, right?

And he becomes, he goes from being. the 37th pick or the 43rd pick or whatever he was to being a legit top six NHL center who's 21 and cost controlled, you've gone from a 15 cent asset to a $2 asset, right? Like that's, and those are the gains that you need to make when you are in 32nd and need to out accumulate 31 other NHL teams across the next five years, right? Like that's, you need to have those draft picks, not because you need to build your team with them, but because you need to. rehabilitate the assets that you have so that you can pounce on opportunities and improve your team on the trade market.

Teams aren't built through the draft, but wealth is built through the draft, right? The assets you need to improve are built through the draft. The Minnesota Wilde are a really good example with the Quinn Hughes trade. Like we're kind of living through it where they made a huge volume of picks, partly because they were trying to manage that Perise, Ryan Suter, buyout, buyout crunch. Yeah. And then, you know, Ogren, it's not a perfect pick, but he's something. Marco Rossi, he's not a star, but he's valuable, right?

William, he's trending well, right? And boom, you have a lot of value in-house to pounce on the unique opportunities that come around. And there's going to be unique opportunities that come around, right? Like, and by the way, there's going to be unique opportunities, four or five years down the line with players that are probably pretty eager to sign and play in Vancouver, right? I mean, Badard's Sellebrini are obviously the headliners there, but it's also wood.

And, you know, a variety of these guys, Benson. It's a variety of these guys who grew up locally, a golden era of hockey coming from Western Canada, right? That's four or five years down the line. And it's like the time to make those deals where you're buying win now players are once you've turned a bunch of pennies into a bunch of quarters. And that's the focus for the next few years. That's what you build through the draft. you build a baseline of wealth through which you can problem solve and team build. Because right now the Canucks have like a combined like 10 bucks in their checking account.

They have no savings. They have no RRSP. They have no TFSA. They have no investment portfolio, right? And so this is what the Canucks are trying to do. They've got a little bit of crypto, but they forgot the password. Yeah. And also is crypto, right?

Meanwhile, the Anaheimducks have loaded up on rare charizards. and they're killing it. And so this is where the Canucks are at and the draft is where that wealth accumulation starts and that must be the focus. Like that has to be the focus. That's why PICs have to be the focus, right? And I guess I'd only add this is like,

the Canucks do have some toys. They do have some boats and some cars, right? Like this is the product of living large and beyond your means. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They got a jet ski in the driveway. And they might have a private jet in Philoporonic, right? But like the time to sell your Lear jet is before it's 10 years old, 15 years old, right? Like that's the other part of this.

And that's the other part of this that I don't think they're really prepared to account for. Like even what we saw toward the end of the season there, gentlemen, right? Like there's an organizational narrative, one that is believed at the highest levels. that, you know, because their young guys sort of seized control of the room and because the vibes were better down the stretch, that the veteran players have bought into being mentors, and that the locker room is fixed. And by the way, that might be true.

It felt true to be around the team. I don't care at all. I just care that this organization is clear-eyed in viewing even guys like Heronic, not as like future pieces of the next great Canucks team. but as depreciating assets that they need to manage in a certain way to maximize their future values. Same goes for Marcus Pedersen. Same goes for Jake DeBress.

Same goes for early as Patterson. Like all of these guys, even if they bounce back, same, by the way, same goes for Marco Rossi. Right? Like even if Marco Rossi, I'm so serious. I know. Markle Rossi becomes like a quality second line center. He's two years out from getting paid, right? By the time you pay him on a five, six year deal, right?

He's probably an inefficient contract by the time you built the next core. Do you think anyone in the organization does or will think of the roster like an investment portfolio, kind of like you're doing right now? I don't know how you can't because this is how the best teams in hockey are now thinking of it. I would tell you this, like when you look at the investment portfolio managed by Pierre Dorian, right? Yeah. The fact that he's getting to the last round of interviews. Oh, very seriously, right?

I mean, 25-year-old Eric Carlson, 23-year-old Mark Stone, 22-year-old Mika's advantage ad, right? And then you make the playoffs once in your first year as general manager, very Jim Benning-coded, and then never again before you're fired. It's like. Yeah. It's not great. Do you remember when he traded for Derek Brassard?

Didn't he give a Zabandigad for that? Yep. Yeah, Zabatjit and a second. He topped it up. Yikes. Is that what else is that? No, they were a goal away from the Stanley Cup final. So it did work as a win now move, but the cost was obviously too high given the age of his core.

Yeah. Right. Anyway, my point is, is do I think anyone in the organization will think about it this way? No, but I hope they find someone who will, right? Like, I mean, you'd have to think guys like Evan Gold would, right? You'd have to think that guys like Martin Madden Jr. would, right? You'd have to think that guys like Ryan Johnson would. So, I mean, I just think it's so important that this organization really processes how little they have, right?

Yeah. And sort of accepts the nothing of it all and then goes about solving that as an intellectual challenge. How do we go from last in the league with very little of value to out accumulating 31 NHL teams to the point that we pass them? Even though the San Jose sharks who have 14 more wins than us are in the division, have a kid. that looks like he's the next Sid, right? And are picking ahead of us now. Finish 28 points clear, yet somehow drafting ahead of us. How do we out-accumulate that team over the next six years?

And it's like, you've got to be bad. You've got to be bad and you've got to hope they screw up. And it's like, that's it. Like, that's, you have to be willing to be bad. You have to accumulate futures. You cannot possibly waste anything of value that you have on the roster. in terms of accumulating those futures. You cannot make sentimental hockey-focused decisions right now.

Everything is value. Everything is future. And I want the club to identify a leader who sees that in a clear-eyed way, can communicate it to the market, and can manage ownership on exactly what they're doing and sell that vision. Because, like, selling that vision to the market's important. There's a gate-driven business.

But selling that vision up the line seems to be way more important given this organization's issues. God, this just seems so important. Such an important decision. Like, are we going to keep doing what we've been doing for a while? Are we going to change it up? And I think I understand why you had the reaction that you did when you learned that, wait a minute, Pierre Dorian might be a legit candidate here.

I mean, he was. He was a legit candidate. Like, there's nothing else to it. And, yeah, I had a very harsh reaction because I can't do this again. I mean, honestly, I'm not a fan of this team, but I am someone who struggles. I don't know if you guys know this about me, to suffer fools, right? Like, I struggle with that. I'm actually worried that you're going to get a concussion from banging your head against the wall.

Yeah. I'm also worried about the wall because I've seen your head. Too big concerns there. My size eight ball cap that my wife prefers to as a melon. Yeah. The, no, like, I just don't, I don't want for myself and I don't want for Canucks fans more of what we've dealt with, right? Like, I can't do another five years anticipating stupidity, right? Like, I don't want to be analyzing a team where one of the baseline assumptions that I'm working through.

I'm like, this would be a smart way to approach this. But I know the Canucks won't do that. so this is probably what will happen, right? Like, I don't want that. We end up doing that on our show. I'd love to be covering a team where I'm like, this would be a smart way of doing it, and then they find a solution that's smarter than what I'd imagined.

Like, that's what I, you know, that's what I'm looking for. I'm looking to be surprised every now and then. And there's people in this league that can make it happen, and there's some of those people, I think the Canucks have spoken with. I think there's some of those folks who the club has left on the sidelines of this process, which is somewhat concerning. let's hope they land on someone who can do that, can communicate it to the market,

and far more importantly, can sell it up the line. I got to tell you, man, I am growingly concerned with all these little Easter eggs that Rutherford and everyone else keeps putting out there about how, you know, we did have that one candidate that told us we might be through the toughest part of the rebuild

or, you know, we had this other guy we talked to who said that the dark days... Did you ask him if he was insane? Yeah, the dark days might be over. And he keeps putting him out there. as if to say, like, I'm not alone in this vision. Yeah. And I don't know if Easter eggs is the right. Doesn't that feel like managing up?

No, it feels like I think they genuinely believe it at certain levels. And all they're waiting for is someone else to validate their feelings. So what I've heard, what I've heard is the candidates have been informed that the club is, like, very much prepared to be top five in the NHL draft lottery for at least a couple more years. Okay. That's like, well accepted. That's good. The other thing that I would sort of suggest to you is that when the club is discussing rock bottom

as Jim Rutherford did, right? Yeah. Part of what they mean is this idea of like tolerating the level of confusion and disorganization that Canucks fans were treated to night to night this past year. Okay, I was wondering about that. Yeah, okay, okay, good. This idea of like explicitly tanking, right?

And, you know, by that the club means, let's just get through the season with the top lottery odds. We're not going to worry too much about the fact that every seam is open every time an opponent comes into our end of the ice. That era, what he's saying is like that era is done. That's rock bottom. Like, rock bottom is painful to watch. Disorganized. That we can't have anymore. Dysfunction, essentially.

Dysfunction. And dysfunction behind the scenes, too. that's over. We're going to have team feeling. We're going to play organized hockey. You know, we're not going to allow the bus to crash with the same level of acceptance that we did this past season. That's what he meets. And so that's, you know, fine to an extent, although I still think there's going to be a lot of years over the balance of this decade, where the club's best interests are going to require the team to make tough decisions in a way they haven't characterized. characteristically done at the deadline and then allowing the bus to crash in the last quarter of the season. Like that's coming then. Like I don't know what else to say. Like this is where this team has landed.

And there will be a lot more seasons that involved the club needing to make that decision willingly. But at the very least from a planning perspective, the club wants to be more ethical in the way that they end up at the bottom of the standing going forward. And that's fine by me because I thought this was a really unique year from the process. perspective of it looking like nobody knew what to do on the ice most nights. Drancer, great hit, buddy. Hang in there. Cheers, boys.

Be alive. Thomas Drans from the Athletic Vancouver and Kinnock's talk here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sports Night 650. What we learns are coming up. Get yours in. Dunbar Lumber Tech Line is 650, 650. You're listening to the Halford and Breft Show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks.

Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on SportsNet 650 or wherever you get your podcast. Now for my favorite part of the show. What I say? Talk to the audience. Oh, God. This is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time.

It's what we learn time. On the show. 835 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough of Sportsnet 650. Halfford Brub for the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. They're ready to give you the financial fresh start you deserve.

Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are in our three of the program. It is what we learn time. Hour three is brought to by the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats a Duick Deal. Visit Duke GM on Marine Drive. Visit them downtown. Visit them in Richmond. Visit them online at the duikatogroup.com. Not bad.

Not bad. We have a bunch of what we learns. You got the Robert Redford. Thumbs up. The knowing nod. Just a little grin and a nod. I appreciate that. Okay.

Jason's going to start. Yeah. I learned that recently FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, has been defending high ticket prices for this summer's World Cup. Are they expensive? I guess he was doing something at the Michael Milken Institute. Ah, yes. In Beverly Hills.

The milk, they call it. Michael Milken, the famous financier who went to jail in the 80s, later pardoned. Didn't know any of this. He's giving away some money. He was, Infantino was asked about the ticket prices. And he basically said, like, that's the American market. The American market is what it is. And he said that if we lowered the ticket prices, they would just end up on secondary ticket markets.

And they would go for higher prices. So we're going to charge what the American market allows us to charge. And part of me is like, yeah, I got that. Sure. The American market is very different. And we're a part of the American market for ticket prices. What's called the North American market? Where did you think, where was, where did you kind of be like, realize like how out of control ticket prices were?

for the World Cup or in general? No, no, just in general. Because it seems like out of the pandemic, they've gone crazy. The Taylor Swift. The Taylor Swift thing for me too. That was where I was like, you're paying what to see what? Yeah, yeah. I remember there's a very famous clip of Kurt Cobain. I think it might have been on much music back in the day.

Talking about what, I think it was Madonna's prices for their tickets for her concert were. And this was in the mid-90s. You're talking to Nardwar? No, I don't think it was to Nardwar. Might have been to Master T. I don't know which much of me. We're losing focus here.

Anyway. You went to my college, I think. I was looking at the other... All right. Master T. Anyway, he was bemoaning the outlandish prices for one of those big, glitzy, glamorous, North American tours.

And I think tickets were like $50. And I scoffed in comparison. I'm like, wow. Well, now, you know, there's... And I, you know, especially with someone like Taylor Swift, it's a lot of parents taking out a second mortgage on their house so their 13-year-old daughters can go to the Taylor Swift concert. You know, you're not talking, oh, those are expensive.

You're talking like, this is going to set our family back financially kind of prices. Yeah. Like in the thousands of dollars to the point where you're left with that age-old debate, it's like, well, can we justify the price? And then there's like, well, can you put a price on what's, might be a once in a lifetime experience. And leveraging that. Yes, you can.

And it's $5,000 a ticket, apparently. But that's the North American market. Yeah. That's it. There are a lot of people out there that they'll be like, no, I will go into significant debt because I might never get to see this again. The World Cup's a perfect example of that. I think the one thing that bugs me about FIFA.

Well, there's a lot of things. Is that it has a secondary market itself. And so the way. way they do it is they take 15% of the purchase fee from the buyer of each ticket and a 15% resale fee from the seller. So on a $1,000 ticket and some of those tickets are $1,000, some of them a lot more, FIFA would make $300. So the buyer would pay $1,150 and the seller would get $850 for their ticket and FIVA would take $300 total. Now, I know that's comparable to secondary markets like Stubhub.

Stubhub might even charge more at times. It's just so damn greedy to take additional fees on tickets that you are selling. Like, it's your tickets. The old double-dub. Stubhub isn't running the World Cup. That's correct. Do you know what I mean? Like, FIFA is like, we're going to sell some tickets.

They're very expensive. And, yeah, those are all gone now. And now we're going to sell them again. And we're going to take a 30% fee. Now, Infantino has and will always stress that the revenue from the World Cup supports the development of soccer globally. Goes back into football. Nobody trusts that FIFA is going to dispense that money in a responsible,

i.e. non-corrupt way. Not a single person. And you know what I hate most? I hate that I'm probably going to use that FIFA secondary market because I don't have tickets and I want to go. I want to go. And it's people like me that allow this to happen because for me, the World Cup in North America

and in Canada and in Vancouver is literally a once in a lifetime experience. It will never be back in Vancouver. unless my diet improves a lot. Dramatically. Do you know what I mean? So I guess at the end of the day, we learned that you are a hypocrite.

Not a hypocrite. A sucker. There you go. They were going to come back in 2040, but your diet just didn't improve enough, Jason. Yeah, yeah. That's it. Mucal, this sucker.

I learned that the Pittsburgh Steelers have found their quarterback for next season. It's Aaron Rogers again. Oh, God. No. According today's report from NFL networks, Ian Rappapur, Aaron Rogers is going to visit the Pittsburgh Steelers this weekend and is likely to play for them this season.

Now, this isn't going to come as a huge surprise because Steelers president, Art Rooney, the second Art Rooney doses, he's known on Fiesta Friday, told NFL network last week that he was confident that Rogers would be the team quarterback this year. But now it sounds like the wheels are spinning towards Rogers going, signing a deal, and coming back to once again lead the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 9 and 8 record and be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

That's very exciting for everybody involved, although it won't be with Mike Tomlin as the head coach this year because of course Mike Tomlin is no longer the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I can't believe that they're doing this yet. I can absolutely believe that they are doing this because there are just no other options out there.

I'm not sure Aaron Rogers is ever going to retire, Jason. I think he might just play football for the rest of his life in some capacity and just do this same song and dance. I think it's sad for the Steelers. I don't know. Mike Tomlin must be like, thank God. Yeah, I'm out of here.

No longer the coach. Mike Tomlin getting to be on TV because he's doing football night in America now, if I'm not mistaken. I think he's going to be good at it. I think him doing Steelers games being so closely removed from it. Talking about the Aaron Rogers' experience

with Aaron Rogers coming back is going to be must watch TV from an NFL analyst perspective. Anyway, Mukau, that. Greg, it's your turn. Yeah, this is actually a breaking kind of story that I'm going to go on the fly and switch it to the PWHL story. Oh! I'm going to say the rumors are getting louder and louder that Hamilton is going to be the next place to get a PWHL team.

We reported that Detroit, I think it was yesterday, got announced. And now today it's been heavily hinted by the Hamilton mayor for a while now, but it's looking like officially a third Ontario team is going to be added to the PWAHHP. TD Coliseum, no longer Cops Coliseum. So Detroit is official. Yes. Hamilton is not, but it's being heavily, heavily rumored. And the player expansion.

Is there anything between Vancouver and Seattle and like Hamilton where they could, I guess Minnesota's got a team? But I just think about the travel. It would be. Yeah. or Edmonton. Yeah, those are the two places that everyone's thing. Calgary had a pretty good team in the old league, right?

They had a team that won the championship. So the fact that they haven't expanded into Alberta is a little surprising. But Hamilton did draw 16,000 for their takeover tour game as well. So it's a very strong market in its own right. I wonder if what might happen here is they push it along so that Hamilton and Detroit kind of come in like the same way that Vancouver and Seattle did. And then they do a joint player dispersal of the expansion. because that's scheduled for May 28th, I think.

So they basically got three weeks to kind of get everything in order. And then they can do like a joint playoff or sorry, expansion draft. Well, the league has full control, right? Which is where it gets interesting because they might not even do an expansion draft they're saying. Because they're going to try to add four teams it looks like. And that's a lot of players to be dispersed across the league. So I think they're trying to think of different approaches on how they're going to do this. Obviously you have to stay tuned.

But it's going to be an interesting couple of years, I think, in the PWHL to see where this all shakes out because they're really, they want to expand a lot in the next little while and then kind of leave it for a bit. Is there enough talent? I think there is. I think when you look at the college ranks, a lot of the great players just end up ending their careers after it's all said and done, right? There's nowhere for them to go, really.

So I think there is room for more. Obviously, it's going to take a little while to build up that talent pool, but I think it's clearly the interest is there. People want to continue their career. They don't want to just stop after college. So I think once they realize these jobs are there and they're viable, then it's going to... You can actually survive on the salaries.

Or it just helps a lot, right? A lot of these girls do have two jobs, but it helps them. And now going forward, you know those jobs are there, so they're going to go after them. And I feel like the talent pool will increase as time goes on. Okay, Mooka yourself. Fired the DaMat Matrix. What we learned, Humanity Edition, brought to you as always by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. From corporate events to special events, there's no order to large.

order online at AJ's da pizza. Dave in Vancouver, what we learned, I would rather the Canucks lose with a purpose versus the last 15 years of trying to win and failing miserably and not accumulating any assets. I feel emboldened by what Drant said during his hit about the importance of accumulating draft picks and accumulating young talent,

letting that talent flourish. Don't spend any sort of capital on it. Although I would allow maybe for, for like a one-for-one swap or anything. The big three, by the way, just in case you missed it. Guys, I do not want the Canucks to target. Who have they been rumored to maybe be interested in. But it all depends on the price for those guys.

I just don't want it. I don't. They're going to be bad. So if the duck said you can have Mason McTavish for free. For free. Yeah. Would you say no? Like, just take them? Just take them? Just take them? Pure, pure salary dump. Would you take them? Sure. Okay, well, so then price matters.

Sure, but I don't think they could get them for free. Okay, but you don't know that for sure, right? Trevor Zegra's didn't go for much. I wouldn't pay what they paid for Zegris. Okay. Yeah. All right. I mean, the famous saying is the price is what you pay, value is what you get.

Right? I've never heard of this before. Okay. Ryan, the Reverend and Surrey. Not a big economics guy. No kidding. You're like, should the Canucks think about this is an investment portfolio? And what's an investment portfolio?

What? and surrey what we learned. My brain hurts after that Drance hit. We may have the worst team in hockey, but we have the best analysts. What Drance is saying isn't rocket science. It's good analysis, though. It's just the way you

have to think about your team in the salary cap era, which has been going on for a while now. There's a lot of math in that hit. The quarters and the sense and the start confusing. Buy low, sell high. There you go. Oh, okay. It's honestly as simple as that.

How many times have the Canucks, you know, bought high and sold low? And how many assets have they been forced to give away? And how many times have they traded for something and you're like, man, they paid a lot for that? You know? It's, it's, it's, that's what it boils down to. Buy low, sell high and lean into the system that the NHL has that you can take advantage of, i.e. when you are a bad team, you get rewarded with high draft picks. Lean into that. Don't fight it.

Because if you fight it, it's like quicksand. The other advantage you have is when you are a bad team, no pressure on you to win a Stanley Cup. The good teams, they have pressure. So you know what they're going to do? They're going to sacrifice the future for win now. They're going to sacrifice the future for the present. So make sure you are the team that they are sacrificed. to. It's really not that complicated. You've just got to be patient. And that's the same as

when you are investor. What do the best investors do? They use time as an advantage. And they realize that most people are impatient, people that want things, and they want them now, and they have no ability to wait and satisfy themselves a few years later. No, they want it now. So I'm going to put it on my credit card. Yeah, like children. Well, how about I own the credit card companies? And then I take advantage of all these people that can't live within their means

and want it now because they see someone else with it and I want this now. And they take advantage of that. And then they look at their portfolio in five, 10, 20 years. And they're like, I'm rich. This is awesome. tickets on his credit cards. By the way, speaking of credit cards and dimes and nickels

and quarters, did you know that we are now in a world of entirely coinless payments for parking in the city of Vancouver? Really? Yep. You can no longer pay with coin. It's entirely cashless. Yeah, I know it's in front of our old building. They had taken all the old

pay parking meters out and just the one is there now. This is going to be another one of those sad, lost generational things. Because I remember one of the best exits when you didn't want to be at a place was like, I got to go I got to go feed the meter and then you'd leave and never come back.

Can't do that anymore. Yeah, it's true. You're like, I gotta go. I gotta feed the meter. And then I never, it was, it was one of the slickest Irish goodbyes you could do. And it's gone now. They took that from us. That and blockbuster. You could pull the card, be like, I don't want to download this app. I'm going to go and do it the manual way

and then just take off. I don't I don't know. I don't think those exactly. I got to go tap the meter. I don't think those exactly. I think it's all via phone. I guess there must be somewhere you can tap the car. There's got to be like a kiosk somewhere. You can't exclusively have it via app. But there's no cash. I used to love. There's no

cash. Yeah, I love, I got to go feed the meter. You said the guy coming around with like the roly thing and he would collect all the coins and he'd roll on to the next one. So I guess his job is now in jeopardy. Noah for me's fan, I want to read this one. Yeah. Texts in. What I learned is we're all going to be planning

our walks to Vancouver like Josh Elliot Wolfe when the World Cup gets going here in a month. Downtown's going to be a problem. Let's just put that mildly. So there are going to be some road closures. I think Pacific Boulevard is getting closed down. Yep.

Do you remember when we heard from the Canucks that they're like, we're a little bit worried about the potential road closures for the World Cup? Because what if we're in the playoffs around the World Cup? And then we laugh. What if we go on a deep? run and you know they're closing around the streets around rogers arena and no one you know no one can get into the games and we're like uh i weren't worry too much about that you guys should be fine i think you'll be okay um have any of you guys been caught up in any of the uh vpd practices for the motorcade

the motorcates i have i have i got stopped in one the other day laddie didn't care for it i thought it was good that they were practicing i've been stopped in three now it always happens when i'm walking home harford you tell them why i didn't care for it they stopped the oaks Street Bridge at 9.30 on a weekday. You got it. They're practicing. You need a practice in traffic. I know. You can't do it at 2 o'clock in the morning. You got it real, real world experience, Greg. So the people in the city also need some practice because

they did one. I was on, I think, our Budison 16th, and the cops roll up and they're rolling east. And I'm trying to turn left. And there's someone in front of me. And the person in front of me still went. Yeah. Like, they, the guy was, like, he got off his motorcycle, he's in the middle of the intersection. He's telling everyone to stop and this guy's like, I'm going anyway. Yeah, I should probably try it. Should I not try it? Right? And he, you know, you know, like he freaked out. He started

yelling and people are crossing the street too because it takes a while. Yeah. I missed, I think, three lights. Yeah, it's a long one. Why are they doing this again? Because the dignitaries from FIFA and I guess the teams when they're getting transported are going to need these motorcades.

So when Messi and Inter Miami were here, they practiced out at UBC. and I happened to be out there at the time and we got caught in a motorcade for the buses that were carrying into Miami because that's the kind of security detail that some of these teams need and it's

you just have to like I the one I got caught in one of these motorcades the practice motorcades I watched a guy get out of his car and stand there like and I'm like don't do that like that's the wrong thing to do you know it's not starts taking pictures yeah it's not a moment to take a tourist

like pick like you have to stay in your car but people are just kind of caught off guard by the whole thing. Did you ever in your childhood? Did you ever see any of the dignitaries that came to Vancouver? I remember Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltson drove down 41st. It was like two blocks away from where I lived because they were doing a conference out at UBC. I'm like, oh, I'll go see that. I think I saw the queen when I was really, really young in one of those?

The queen, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'm just remembering Princess Diana and Prince Charles came. here during Expo Eighty-6. I kind of remember that, but more like the story that they showed up, not actually being there. Yeah. I remember thinking like Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin are going to tie one on.

That is going to be a party. My question is, how do they do these motorcades on the highway? Who draws the short stick to jump off the motorcycle and stop traffic on the middle of the highway? The answer is the rookie. I was like, Bruffle. I saw a guy in a rent-a-car just like blow by a cop on his bike as well. When he stopped everyone, he was just looking at the guy.

like, what are you doing? Like, what are you going to do? Leave your motorcade? Yeah. You think you're the one guy that's allowed to go through this? And the guy was like, yes, I do. And he went. All right, let's play the music.

We gotta get out of here. We're already done. Yeah, it's 8.55. We're already two minutes late. Laddie's dropped the ball. He's so fired up both of the motorcades. There it is. Okay, thank you all for listening.

And thank you all for contributing. We're out of here for today. There's the one staying on time. What the world is this? Why am I running things now? Imagine me doing a motorcade. I got to get out of here for today. but we will be back tomorrow.

It's Ask Us Anything Friday tomorrow and a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza up for grabs. For now, though, we've got to say goodbye. Signing off, I have been Mike Alford. He's been Jason Brough. He's been A-Dog and he's been Lattie. This has been the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.