Halford & Brough in the Morning - Goodbye, DK Metcalf

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with ESPN Seahawks reporter Brady Henderson (2:13) regarding some big news yesterday regarding DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, plus the boys discuss the latest NHL trade deadline news with Sportsnet's Luke Fox (27:13). 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.

["Snowball's Theme"] 7.03 on a Thursday! Sounds like some early Callahan here. It actually does. It's really weird. This band, whoever they are, really cool. That's your old band, Callahan? No, no, no, this isn't my band. No, I know. But this band, whoever it is, is actually a lot like what my band sounded like. Really cool. That's your old band, Callahan. No, no, no. This isn't my band. No, I know. But this band, whoever it is, is actually a lot

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He was the lead singer. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you and Step. Was it a Tommy Boy reference? Yes. Callahan Auto Parts? Right. Someone sent me the, there's a video going around now.

They found the archive of outtakes and bloopers from when they were filming Tommy Boy. It is like 10 minutes of unbridled laughter. Oh, it's so good. They can't keep it together. Just all Farley? Yeah, well, Spade can't keep it together. Right.

Farley's so. This is the bees scene where they're running out of the car. Oh, they're huge. Took them like three hours to shoot together just all farley yeah was paid can't keep it together right the scene where they're running out of the car oh they're huge took him like three hours to shoot because they just couldn't get through it is pretty good Tommy likes wingy that's they're dying laughing during it anyway let's focus here you are listening to the hell for the rough show on sportsnet 650 halferden rough of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly,

knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour two of the program. Brady Henderson is going to join us in just a moment here to recap a very busy Wednesday for the Seattle Seahawks. Hour two of this program is brought to you by Jason Homonuck at Jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him on the internet at Jason.mortgage. To the phone lines we go, our Seahawks insider from ESPN, Brady Henderson now on the Haliford and Brush show

on Sportsnet 650. Morning Brady, how are ya? Hey what's up guys, good to talk to you again. Yeah, it's good to talk to you as well. A very busy Wednesday as I mentioned for the listeners that might not know. Tyler Lockett was given his release after a decade with the team,

and then shortly after that, news broke, news broke that DK Metcalf had requested a trade out of Seattle. Let's start with the latter half of the news from yesterday. Did it come as a surprise to you that DK Metcalf has requested a trade out of Seattle, or did you see that move coming? Well, I had been talking to people and I had heard that there was some stuff going on there,

meaning the Seahawks had been talking to other teams about a trade. And I think if you just think about the situation, the fact that he was going in the final year of his contract and is eligible for what would probably be a $30 million extension, something in that neighborhood. You know, if they're talking to other teams about a possible trade, that would tell me that they're doing that in lieu of paying in a big contract. And if they don't want to pay him the big contract, I think that would tell me that those two sides were far apart. So I didn't necessarily see the trade request coming, but I kind of had the sense that the reason

for the trade request, that that was happening, that they weren't really seeing eye to eye on what Metcalf thought he was worth versus what the Seahawks wanted to pay him. So in that sense, it didn't take me totally by surprise. What do you think their main reason was for not wanting to give him a big contract? Well, I think for one,

if you just look at kind of other receivers around the league, even other situations right now with receivers who, and this would apply to most positions in the NFL, but receiver especially, because it's a position based on speed and athletic you know other teams are kind of in a situation right now including the Seahawks themselves with Tyler Lockett that you know realizing that third contracts for receivers don't always pan out and that's what happened with Cooper Cup.

You know the Rams are in that situation right now with Cooper Cup, the Seahawks again you know they just had to release Tyler Lockett, uh, who had one year left on his third contract. And I think there's other instances around the NFL. So I think it's just the, the pure dollars and cents of it is maybe one thing. And then I would also wonder too about if there's just been, you know, some kind of relationship strain, uh, that has occurred over the last few years, because I think even with, you know, just the football money part of it,

I think you could look at that and say, yeah, you could easily justify a $30 million a year contract is exorbitant of amount of money. Is that sound? I mean, if you, let's just say the number is 30 million. Well, he was already playing on a $24 million a year extension. That was from three years ago. I mean, the $30 million extension is basically that same deal. That same amount of money applied to today's cap dollars with the salary cap rising as much as it has in the last three years. So

it's not a huge jump from 24 million to 30 million. So if it was just like if it was just a football dollars and cents production decision I think you could justify it but the fact that they don't seem to want to do it that tells me that maybe there's more to it and it could be it could just be stuff behind the scenes kind of the relationship souring over the last few years and maybe then getting tired of having to deal with some of that behind the scenes stuff. I don't necessarily know that for a fact.

It just makes me wonder because if it was just a football decision, DK is young enough and he's productive enough and he's durable enough to where you could justify a big deal like that. Uh, the Seahawks are reportedly seeking a first and third round pick for DK Metcalf. Um, would they automatically use one of those picks, do you think on a receiver?

Yeah, I think, I think you would have to, and I don't, I mean, a first and a third seems, that seems kind of rich. Crazy. And I believe that's what, um, I believe that's what the Titans got for AJ Brown a few years ago when they traded him to Philadelphia on draft day. So yeah, that's what you should shoot for, I think.

Certainly you're going to get a lot more than what the 49ers got for Devo Samuel, which was only a fifth round pick. But can you get a first and a third? I don't know. I mean, there are going to be a lot of other wide receivers available between, you know, free agency and again, you know, somebody like Cooper Cup, who's going to be on the trade block, other guys. Definitely DK Metcalfe's youth and his, you know, his durability would separate him from

a lot of guys in that group. He's 27 years old. He's only missed, I think, three games in his career. He's had 900 receiving yards at minimum in all six of his seasons. So he's, he would probably be the most appealing guy, contract aside, he would probably be the most appealing guy available. Is that enough to get him a first and a third? I don't know. But I would, if I'm the Seahawks, I'm not doing that deal for anything less than a first, or if you're combining picks, you know, anything less than the equivalent value of a first round pick again,

because I think just from a dollars and cents standpoint, you could justify giving him a $30 million a year contract. But certainly if, if they do trade in, you've got to draft a receiver. You have to, I mean, there's, I was thinking about this before the whole DK stuff came about, like they don't have a receiver on their roster that you would feel good about, you know, aside from JSN from, and from DK, you don't, they don't have a receiver on their roster that you would feel good about stepping into the number three role to replace Tyler Lockett, let alone anybody who could come in and be the number two. So yeah, they would, I think if they,

between Lockett and Metcalf having to replace both those guys, I think that would be a joint effort between drafting a receiver early and then maybe paying a veteran kind of a smaller short-term deal to come in and be the number three guy. We're speaking of Brady Henderson, our Seahawks insider from ESPN here on the Haliford and Brush show on Sportsnet 650.

So is this definitely like you can't put the genie back in the bottle scenario or is there some way that they could go to market with DK and not get the return that they want in a trade and say, you know what, let's try and patch this up and sign him to something resembling a deal that he wants? I think you could put the genie back in the bottle. Okay. And this would not be the first instance of a guy requesting a trade and then ultimately

getting what he wants or getting something close enough to what he wants to where, you know, he ends up signing that deal. I believe that happened with Devo Samuel a couple of years ago before he ended up signing that 49ers deal. I believe that he requested a trade and they got that deal done. You do see it quite often. Now, again, it just depends, I think, on how much stuff has happened behind the scenes leading up to this point. You know, I know the Seahawks were not upset. I talked to somebody there who was very upset yesterday that the news was leaked when it was, meaning on the same day that the Seahawks were kind of dedicated to celebrating Tyler Lockett's career. Remember they released those four guys

on Tuesday and they knew that they were going to release Tyler Lockett but they waited until Wednesday just so that they could dedicate that whole day to him and that he wouldn't be lumped in with all those other guys. It was, hey you you're releasing Tyler Lockett this day. The focus is on celebrating what a great career he had in Seattle. And she actually were upset that DK Metcalfe's people apparently leaked that information that he wanted the trade, that he had requested the trade, because all of a sudden that became the focus of what a lot of people were paying attention to. So, look, I think you could still get a deal done. It just depends, some of it depends on how much other stuff is there that's happened behind the

scenes in addition to what we saw yesterday. Well, it was funny, just to interject here for a second, our producer, Andy Brady, sent us the link to Tyler Lockett getting released and he said, do you want me to chase Brady? And I said, no, that, that was largely expected that Tyler Lockett wouldn't be back with the team. So I'm not sure if that changes anything.

Then Alfred shares in our chat, the news about Tyler Lockett and I'm like, yeah, get Brady. DK MechF. Sorry. Yeah, DK MechF. Yeah, get Brady. Yeah. Like part of me wonders in light of that dynamic

you just laid out, I thought the same thing too. I'm like, that's kind of cold blooded by DK's people to leak that on the exact same day. How much of this, if it is an eventual divorce or moving on, will it just come down to the Seahawks, just kind of get tired of all the stuff that's been, I mean, the DK being detrimental at times

because of the penalties and the attitude and stuff like this. Yeah, and that's the other part of this too, is the penalties. And I think to some degree, you take the bad with the good because he is a very aggressive player. And to some degree you want that really physical aggressive like you know tough mentality you don't want that to cross the line into penalties and I just think that yeah there has been enough of you know I would say selfish undisciplined play like that that style definitely on occasion ventures across the line into selfishness and undisciplined play. And yeah, I don't think

they've loved that. I think that, you know, Pete Carroll was the type of coach who would put up with that stuff. And he would try to give players grace and he would give them space to be themselves. And he would just try to keep them he would try to do the best he could to keep them on the right side of that edge. And maybe it's different with Mike McDonald, who maybe he doesn't have that same kind of patience with players that Pete Carroll did. And maybe he wants guys who were, you know, more so are going to fall on line. Obviously, John Schneider has the final say over all this now with the new power

structure. But, you know, I'm sure that Schneider would want to listen to McDonald and really, But, you know, I'm sure that Schneider would want to listen to McDonald and really, you know, really take into account his input on what kind of behavior he will and will not tolerate. So, yeah, I think that is another. The penalties and even when I talk about behind the scenes stuff, yeah, I guess the penalties would somewhat fit into that. But I just wonder if there's other stuff that's happened behind the scenes that maybe hasn't really gotten seen the light of public day.

So Jackson Smith and Jigba had an incredible season last year, over a thousand yards in receiving, made some spectacular catches and, you know, essentially became the number one receiver for the Seahawks. But how much of that was due to all the attention that DK Metcalf would get in coverage and what kind of risk would the Seahawks be taking, not only trading away a talent like

Metcalf, but the potential impact to JSN's numbers. Yeah, which is a big part of this equation that I don't think it's talked about enough. And then, you know, there's been one of my good friends, a local radio guy, who's been on the DK Metcalf, he's been on the Trade DK bandwagon for, I mean, he's been the conductor, I would say, of the DK, of the Trade DK train. And the thing I keep reminding him, I have reminded him over the last year or so, is that, you know, if you talk about trading

DK Metcalf, it's not as simple as saying, okay, well, you just draft another receiver and hopefully that guy can get you a thousand yards and seven or eight touchdowns a year. But with DK, you don't just have to replace the production. You have to replace all the attention that he commands from defenses being six, three, 228 pounds with four, three, three speed. So, um, and yeah, to your point, that is a big part of why, you know, Jackson Smith and Jigba had the kind of breakout season that he did. And that's not really exclusive to J has said that would just be any other receiver who's, you know, producing a lot with Seattle. Like part of that,

it's going to be because DK Metcalf is, you know, he's getting coverage, shifted towards him of that is gonna be because DK Neckhap is, you know, he's getting coverage shifted towards him. He's getting double teamed, bracketed, whatever. So yeah, that would be a big part of it. And the, I guess the counterpoint to that is, remember JSN's monster game. Remember the biggest game he had last season in week nine against the Rams?

Remember the, what, three touchdowns, 180 yards? Huge. Yeah. Yeah. Well, guess what? DK Metcalf wasn't playing in that game. So that is the counterpoint to what I think is a good point that yeah, you would have to replace that somebody who commands that kind of attention. And that would be a factor for JSAID, but he did have his best game of the season without DK Metcalf. Okay, Brady, before we let you go, just a moment to talk about Tyler Lockett, how good of a guy he is and was for the Seahawks and how much he'll be missed. Yeah, just, I mean, you know what kind of player he was, but just the person, like I don't think I've met too many other people who are just as down to earth and as courteous and as humble and as just normal kind of guys. I mean, I think it's easy for a lot of these guys to

they're just, you know, when you communicate with a 25 year old player who makes, you know, X million dollars a year playing football, like when you communicate with them, it's just not really on the same wavelength a lot of times and it was never like that with Tyler Lockett just a totally normal guy very always very courteous will always you know say hi to you and you know I got to spend some time with them a couple years ago working on a story about I was doing real estate and just just really interesting, amazing, and I think most of all just kind person. And yeah, he was just a first class individual in every way.

Brady, very well said and very well done. Thank you for taking the time to do this today. We appreciate it. Enjoy the next couple of weeks. We'll check back closer to free agency in the draft and all that stuff. All right, sounds good fellas, take care. Yep, thank you.

That's Brady Henderson, our Seahawks insider from ESPN here on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. What do you think about it? Trading DK. You know, I've never been a huge fan of his kind of attitude. What?

No. But he, but I. You've never made those feelings known. But I can't deny his incredible talent, his physical ability and he's caught some big passes. And I do, you know, despite the, the one off where GSN had a great game without Metcalf out there, I, you know, it really does help when you

have a player like that who commands so much attention for the other receivers on the team. The question you've got to ask yourself here, and especially in the meat grinder league that is the national football league is have you've already seen the best of what DK Metcalf has to offer? Metcalf's going to be 28 this season. That's crazy that he's going to be 28. He's already had three 1000 yard receiving seasons, including, I think he went over 1300 in his sophomore year. You look at how guys age in the NFL and you

look at the physical toll that the game takes, it is much more ruthless than the NHL. Like you re look at him and he's got durability because he's just such a giant. Maybe. I mean, he missed some games last year. He only started 12 and he only played in 15. Those were both lows for his career.

Doesn't it feel like Mike McDonald runs a very different type of operation than Pete Carroll? Yes. Like he is running a tight ship where Pete ran kind of a, let's play some tunes, that kind of a ship. He was more like. He was more of a players coach.

Yeah. McDonald's more of a task master. Thought it was interesting that in all of his off season media availability is McDonald was talking up how much more they needed to get Metcalf involved in the offense. Maybe that was just paying him lip service. Sure. I'm not sure, but it sounds as though.

Well, it was probably true and then maybe something happened. Maybe something happened in the negotiations, like things went sideways and then DK eventually went like, ah, I don't really want to be there anymore. Yesterday was pretty greasy. That was not a cool move. No.

If that day is supposed to be about Tyler Lockett was pretty greasy. Totally. That was not a cool move. No. If that day is supposed to be about Tyler Lockett. And then like, here's the thing, Metcalf and Lockett have been in that fraternity of receivers. Like they have their own thing, they practice together, they have their own little room. Like it's kind of carving up.

It's not like, I don't know, some random offensive lineman was getting released. Like it's a guy that was a mentor to the other receivers when they came in the door at Seattle. That was, I thought it was a pretty cheap move. Do you think it was intentional or just clueless? Intentional. Yeah.

Yeah. There's no. Like he knew there was going to be a tension on the Seahawks receiver group and the Seahawks in general then, cause it was funny how it went. Adog sends the, the, the news about lock and I'm like, yeah, none of us expected lock it went. Adog sends the news about Lockett and I'm like, yeah, none of us expected Lockett back next season. So I don't know what Brady's going to say.

There are a bunch of nice stuff about Tyler Lockett, which he did in the end. Yeah. But then when the news came out, you shared in the text, it's like, oh, DKC can a trade. It's like, yeah, get Brady. We need to talk about that. Yeah.

It's, I mean, it's a lousy move, but one that I understand if you want to grab headlines and grab attention and make yourself maybe, you know, more interesting via trade. I mean, everyone knows that DK Metcalf is out there and available. And there could be a bidding war now. And I mean, and not like it wouldn't have been otherwise, but part of this is the hype machine

that is the NFL. Like it was a slow day in the national football league yesterday and the Seahawks took center stage and now everyone's asking the questions like who's going to play receiver for the Seahawks. I threw in that question about the genie going bad in the back in the bottle. It was more of a cursory question.

Like I can't see them getting back together. We've seen it in the NFL before though, right? Teams, guys requesting trades. But here's the, but like the Debo situation, like the 49ers loved him and the fans loved him. I'm not sure the same sentiment is there with Metcalf. I've never found him to be like a beloved figure. I think he's a polarizing figure in Seattle.

Extremely talented, a physical Marvel. He's a freak. Well, some people value, you know, some people are a hundred percent on like, if he's talented, I don't care what he's like, I'll deal with the penalties, I'll deal with the, frankly, I thought it got to the point with Pete Carroll of disrespect at times.

Um, he, I thought he was, um, like I think Pete, frankly, as much as he ran kind of a looser ship, I think he kind of lost control of that room at times. Jamal Adams didn't help either. Um. Did not help. But I think Mike McDonald being there is like,

this is the way I run things. And, um, maybe that has some sort of relationship to it, but it might also just be like, here's what we think you're worth and DK going, well, here's what I think I'm worth and it's way more than you guys think I'm worth. Plus I don't feel like we're going to win Super Bowl here. I'm already 28 years old. I don't know how much longer I've got in the NFL. Trade me to a contender. Yeah. Okay. I did want to how much longer I've gotten the NFL. Trade me to a contender. Yeah. Okay, I did want to really.

I hope they trade them to Cleveland. They restructured to Sean Watson's contract yesterday. So they freed up a bunch of money in Cleveland. By the way, the Vancouver Whitecaps did play last night. And we got a text in from Safety Mike talking about the low attendance figure that he saw on television while watching the Whitecaps game last night. And talking about the the low attendance figure that he saw on television while watching the

Whitecaps game last night and talking about the Apple TV deal. A couple of things. One, Whitecaps played very well last night in a 1-1 draw with Monterey, one of the powerhouse teams from Liga MX. They actually roundly outplayed Monterey. Ryan Gault had 11 shots, which is a remarkable total. Did you score on any? He did not. So 11 shot attempts. Seven on target. Okay. And five big chances. That's an actual stat.

Big chance? Big chance. Like a, what do they call it, BC? Just big chance. Big chance. I don't know if they shorten it. But anyway, they ended up drawing one-one, which is a fine result.

Here's the thing, Mike, I can't really blame, and no one's blaming last night's attendance on anything other than this tournament that they're in. They didn't know they were playing this game until last week when they beat the Costa Rican team, Saprisa. It's not part of the season ticket package, is it? It's not. So it's basically like tickets are on sale, now you've got three days.

Honestly, it is like that. And the return leg in Monterey, to give you an idea of how screwed up this thing is, Monterey can't play in their home stadium next week against the Whitecaps because there's a Shakira concert already booked there. So they have to find, it's not a neutral site because it's still in Mexico, but I'm serious. I'm serious.

If you were to make me guess what concert it was, I'd be like, is it a Shakira concert? You got it, first guess, you got it right. So it's a tournament that is important for CONCACAF, but not really important for MLS and for the Caps. It's fun, it's interesting, you get to play against Mexican league teams, but like last night, there was 9,000 people there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's impossible. Imagine the NHL, if you were a Canucks season ticket holder, and then in the middle of the year, they said they were gonna play a tournament game against a team traveling over from Switzerland, and it was gonna be midweek, and depending on whether they beat or lost

against that Swiss team, there might be a return leg next week. Like, it's very soccer. There's multiple competitions going on at the same time. The Apple TV deal, don't get me wrong, is kind of a flawed product, but last night wasn't really an example of it. What about the home opener against the galaxy? Because I know they announced attendance of

21,000, but watching that game on TV, I was like, it looked like there were a fair amount of unused tickets. So what I have to do to gauge attendance is it's always by how busy the con, I know I've, I was like, it looked like there were a fair amount of unused tickets. Yeah. So what I have to do to gauge attendance is it's always by how busy the con... I know I've been there enough times you can tell. The tequila soda lineup? Well, not that one so much.

That's mostly just me, but the concession and the concourse in general, you can almost feel how heavy the crowd is. Yeah. Not fat, like how many people are there. Play a heavy style in the Concourse. Yeah, right. And that one-

Daryl Sutter Concourse. That one felt like shy of 20,000. I think it was announced at 21,000, but it was still north of 15 or 16. So like a fine crowd. The big issue with the YCAPS season and MLS in general is it's too long. It starts too early. It started in February and it goes till damn near December. The off season is like five minutes. I know.

It's, you don't, I understand why MLS is framed the way that it is because they have a ton of international breaks during the summer and they have to, you know, it's a hard league to run during the summer. It's not a traditional winter league, but MLS. It's not a winter league. Pardon?

It's not a winter league. It's a summer league. It not a winter league. Pardon? It's not a winter league. It's a summer league. It's a summer league. But it also plays games in February. Right. You know, it's very strange. One day they'll figure it out, I think, because the league continues to grow in leaps and bounds, but right now it's all very strange with a lot of different competitions.

We're way up against it for time. We got to go to break. When we come back, Luke Fox, NHL writer from Sportsnet is going to join as we get back into the Trade Deadline talk. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Mick Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets, weekdays three to four on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 734 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody. Halford Ruff Sportsman 650. Oh, I'm watching the replay. We forgot to mention that when Drew O'Connor knocked John Gibson out of action last night. Gibson didn't look good when he got up. That was not good.

I think it was his right leg. It was down and it got kind of jammed. I thought it was a head injury at first. I thought his head might have hit the post, but it was clearly a lower body thing. Not great for a guy that probably wouldn't mind being on the move ahead of Friday's deadline, but didn't look good last night. Anyway, you are listening to the Halferd and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Halferd and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with

anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Luke Fox from Sportsnet NHL Writer is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour 2 of this program is brought to you by Jason Hominoch at jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at jason.mortgage. To the phone lines we go, Luke Fox joins us now on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Luke, how are you?

I'm doing pretty good. How are you guys? We're well. We're eagerly anticipating tomorrow's deadline. Hopeful that we'll get a lot of big deals and maybe that Meko Rantanen trade out of Carolina. Let's focus on that to start maybe with a lean towards the Toronto Maple Leafs getting in on the Rantanen sweepstakes. What do you know here, Luke? Well, they're definitely interested. Brad Trey Living seems to be aiming high.

I think it's a very difficult deal to pull off. From what I understand from the leaf perspective. And I'm sure some of his other suitors is they don't want to be in the same situation that Carolina just put themselves in. Meaning if he's a maple leaf, he either is going to re-sign with the leafs or sign with the hurricanes first and then get traded to the Leafs. Because they don't want to trade and have them just be a rental. They got enough pending UFAs on their roster as it is with Mitch Marner and John Tavaris.

This essentially would be Marner Insurance and or Marner Leverage. Like if we already have an All-star winger locked up in Rantanen then all of a sudden we can lean on Marner and say do you ask how bad you want to be a make-believe? will you take less the market value to resign here or It's of the the mind that we're willing to let him walk and go get as riches Elsewhere because we have the security of having Rantan. And then plus you get Marner and Rantan for this playoff run, which, and you know, you guys are seeing the arms race in the Atlantic division. They're right there tied with the

Florida Panthers in first place. They need a boost. So it's a really fascinating situation. I still think it's a really long shot because Carolina apparently wants, you know, some roster player and not just futures. So it's going to be a difficult trade for the Leafs or any of the, of the suitors to pull off, I think. Have the hurricanes possibly screwed themselves in this situation? Yeah, yeah, they, they possibly have, yeah, they possibly have. They possibly have genciled themselves.

So they have to weigh whether can they get a return that's at least as good as what they gave up like Marty Nietzsche's, you know, like can they at least save face by getting what they gave up to get them in the first place or do they shrug and say, yeah, we took a chance but at least we have them for the playoffs. Jack Hughes is not going to be in our division for the, for the postseason. Maybe we just make this a very expensive rental and, and hope for the best. Cause he's not resigning there by Friday. So how much pressure is on Bradshawure Living to make a big move here and what is the move that most of the fans and the media are calling for in Toronto?

Well, something like Grant and Wood all of a sudden, you know, that's a blockbuster. One is the Panthers going out and getting Seth Jones addressing their biggest need, which was defensive depth that they lost in the off season, the free agency, guys like Brandon Motz or Eknem Arsene. The second is Tampa going out and taking a big swing, getting Yanni Gord, who was on the Leafs radar. I know he's a little bit banged up, but that guy's a gamer come playoff time and Oliver Bjorkstrand who's a five-time 20-goal scorer. So their closest competitors just stocked up in the last few days. Leafs haven't done a thing. And then, you know, I asked Austin Matthews yesterday in Vegas if he thinks the team needs a boost and he doesn't usually say much

in terms of grabbing headlines but he said yeah he's like you look around our division we think we'd like some reinforcements here we want to boost you know he's taking note and Austin Matthews you could argue wields more power with this organization than even the GM or the president right now. Like everyone kind of bends over backwards to make this guy happy. So if he's going public and saying, I'd like to see a trade,

this is given management something to think about, I'm sure they're doing lots of homework, those were his words yesterday, then that adds a little bit more pressure to trade living. And he's in a tough spot here because the targets are limited. Like the fall off from Rantanen goes to a very expensive Braden Shen and Sam Lewis. Scott Lawton, I don't know even know how much he moves the needle. Apparently Philly is asking the first for him. Brock Nelson, is Lou Lamerello even going to trade him. He's going to be expensive because there's

lots of teams that would like him. Like there's not a ton of options and they've kind of waited to the last minute to pull the trigger on anything. So there's a ton of pressure on him and he doesn't have a ton of assets that teams absolutely love. That's the other catch.

Has Auston Matthews game started to turn around at all? A little bit. He's not, it's not where he'd like it to be. It's not where the fan base would like it to be. And ironically, he's on a really good point streak right now. Um, and he did score in garbage time last night

and he gave it like a really emphatic fist bump. And he's not one to celebrate goals that don't mean something in the game or don't break a record or something. So that body language after he scored a pretty meaningless goal in garbage time kind of showed tipped his hand about how much he is finding it right now and how much he was happy to to find the back of the net because he's got a couple of empty netters and he's gotten some assists, but he's pinged a heck of a ton of posts. And he's on pace to finish in the 30-something in goals.

And for a lot of guys, great, great season, especially when you're hurt. But to fall off from 69 goals to 30-something, that's a bit of a problem. And he's not complaining about it too much and you know, he's kind of pushing through and still playing well defensively. But this is not the awesome Matthews that fans got treated to last season by any means. Hey Luke, what do Leafs fans think about

resigning Mitch Marner? Is it a polarizing topic? Because I have heard from some people in Toronto that, you know, people are a little bit tired of the core. Um, they've seen it for a while now and know that it can be successful in the regular season, but not so much in, in the playoffs and they

wouldn't mind something different. But on the other hand, he's a really good player that wants to be there. and they wouldn't mind something different, but on the other hand, he's a really good player that wants to be there. I'm not a hundred percent sure on the second part of your sentence. I don't know. I don't know if he wants to be here. I mean, that's what he said publicly, but how bad does he want to be here? Does he want to be here if he takes less of the market value? I think that's the question.

There is definitely core fatigue for sure. Like last time I was doing some research because they were playing the Knights, the Knights came into the league one season after this core was first formed, Nylander, Marner, Matthews and went to the playoffs as rookies and they won 10 more playoffs series than the Leafs core. So yeah, there is fatigue with how they've structured this thing, how they've just messed around on the fringes and tripled, quadrupled, quintupled down on these guys and they haven't got it done when it's most meaningful,

the Leafs would like to resign them. But I don't think they're gonna, I think they've set a price and they're not gonna go above that to keep Marner there. And I think a lot depends on what happens in these playoffs. Say they win two rounds and they go to a conference final, maybe that change changes their mindset. But if they bow out in the first round, which I don't think is possible if they get the first seed, but if they get that two-three matchup against one of the Florida teams,

I think that is possible that they could be first round fodder again. I don't think there'd be a strong appetite in the fan base to run it back. And the flip of that is Marner has been their most valuable player this year. He's been awesome. He's their leading point getter. He's first unit, both special teams. He plays more minutes than anyone, even the defenseman. Even through these struggles, he's been a bright spot. He looked really good last night when most of the team didn't have their legs. Like, he's phenomenal.

But the catch is, investing this much, this greater percentage of your cap into the same forwards time and time again, there is fatigue in the market. And there are fans right now that want him signed, they just are like, this guy's too good. We just got gotta keep trying with them. And then half of it, half of the fan base is like, I've seen enough, I wanna see something different. So it really is polarizing. We're speaking to Luke Fox, Sportsnet NHL writer here

on the Haliford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650. So I know last week, Craig Brubay said that he kind of wants to identify who the guy in net is gonna be prior to the playoffs So he's got a clear cut definitive number one and then I believe since then Joseph wall is allowed something like eight goals on 41 shots. He got the hook last night So is it fair to suggest that when the playoffs open up these very important playoffs for the Leafs? It's gonna be Anthony Stollers is the guy

It is right now I mean, I'm not going to say that definitively because we got some runway here. There could be injuries, maybe Stollers hits a snag and wool kicks up his game. But yeah, right now, Anthony Stollers has, has the baton. So last night was the first time, uh, in Joseph Ball's career. He'd been pulled for performance reasons. It was the first time since Ruvet took over as coach that he pulled any of his goalies who were having a bad night. Like his MO was usually just like, you don't have it. Well, you just got to figure it out because I want to rest

my other guy for the next start and I'm not going to deviate from the plan. You just got to go in there and eat it. But I think, you know, it had been a while since they played a good team like the Golden Knights and he was trying to give the guys a spark. But what's really interesting to me here is that when Ilya Samsonov started playing well around this time, around March last year, he went through his early season struggles, but he started playing well. He was winning every night he went in. Joseph Woles gave fell off and in March and April of last season, he went from way above $900 to like an $8 something, $8.80 something in the last two months of the season. And basically it was his

starter's job for the playoffs to lose and he lost it to Samsonov. So Samsonov started game one in Boston. They eventually made the switch back to Wall and he won a couple games but then he got hurt. So you know history says that this guy doesn't play his best when he's feeling his partner breathing down his neck and trying to take his net. Now it's only two games You know that he's really struggled But he needs to pick it up here and times running out for him to be that number one guy because right now it is Solar's how's our guy Chris Tanneff doing?

He could play he could play Saturday. Okay, but boy have they they've missed them guys like It just you know, it's only been a few games, but his absence, you're seeing a lot of Philip Myers, a lot of Connor Timmons. They just don't have the depth to make up for the loss of Tannif. He just brings all those. I mean, you guys saw it for years. He just brings so much that they need. So good news that he left the rink a week and a half ago with his arm in a sling, but he could play as early as Saturday because you guys know he's a warrior. Classic tannin. If he's even half good, he'll be it. The case for optimism in Toronto, how much of it involves Craig Barube and his style

of hockey being successful in the playoffs? Yeah, that's a big part of it. The way they're attacking is more greasy playoff style goals. He's sending guys to the net, he's big on tips and rebounds and deflections. He's big on getting shots and creating havoc. he wants guys driving to the net more to try to draw more penalties than they have in the past. One of the knocks on the Leafs is their two perimeter, particularly in some of their playoff series. There's a lot of muffins from the outside.

So I think that gives them optimism. I think the play of Solars and Woll up until recently, like the fact they were getting the best goaltending they've had since probably Eddie Belfort, that was probably even a bigger source of optimism. And the fact that outside of Matthews, all the other core four guys are having fantastic years. Like John Tavares has been very consistent. Marner's having the best year of his life. Nylander is on pace for a career high in gold. So this thing really, I think is going to, they're going to live or die more by their best players, you know, being superstars come playoff time and

having better goal tending than the opposition. So that's probably a little bit more of a source of optimism than even the coaching. What if they flame out in the playoffs? Yeah, probably Brendan Shanahan's probably gone. Roubaix and Trey Living probably stay. Uh, serious questions about whether to re-sign Tavares and Marner. I think that that's where they go.

So that would open up all sorts of opportunities, I suppose, for the club to reshape itself. Are there any players that people have brought up? Is it, is it ranting him? Like are guys like maybe. It's ranting him. Yeah, it's ranting him. Yeah, that's fine.

Yeah, that's number one. I mean. He's going to get paid a lot. Yeah. Yeah. And he's good. If I'm Rantan, I'm not signing an extension with any team right now.

Like he's put in his time, he's finally hit free agency, he's the best guy on the market. Maybe you can make a case for Marner, but he doesn't have the playoff reputation that Rantan has. If I'm Rantan, I'm just playing this out. Like the cap's going up, he can write his own ticket. Yeah, so Frank has just redone his trade deadline board, a daily face off.

And so Rantanen's now number one. And the scoop from Frank is that teams calling on Rantanen have been informed that he's not signing the eight year, 100 plus million dollar franchise record offer from Carolina. So they've made their best pitch. I don't know what's more, how much more you can

give them without breaking some sort of CBA rule. But like Luke said, if they trade him, they're going to need roster players back. So how do you make that trade? Because, because he's a pending UFA who may not want to sign anything until he gets all the presentations on July 1st, a rebuilding team isn't going to want to do that deal.

But the rebuilding team is the one that could give Carolina the roster players. A playoff team, if you go to them, it's like, we're going to need like some good players here. They're like, well, no, we want the, we want rancid and, but we don't want to give up good players from our own team. I honestly don't know how you do it.

I think they're just, do you think they're just going to have to keep them? Possibly. And lose them and look really silly unless they win the Stanley Cup. What do you think Luke? I think that's the most likely outcome is they keep them and lose them and really hope they win

the Stanley Cup? Honestly, but you know, but if your team like Buffalo like if your team like Columbus you have cap space You have some roster players that haven't worked out for a while like you're making a pitch but is random gonna want to stay in those places like It's a tricky one. So I honestly think, you know, they're making a lot of noise. They're basically put it out there to the whole league that he's available. Give us your best offer. But I don't know if they're going to get an offer that matches what they gave up. And they might shrug and say, and also, how do you look,

your coach in the eye, how do you look Rod Rod Brandemore in the eye and say, yeah, I know we trade away natures and now we also trade away random, but go give it your best. Like. Yeah. Play that tight system guys. Yeah. Luke, this was awesome, man.

Thanks for taking the time to do it. We really appreciate it. We'll check back when we get closer to the playoffs. Yeah, gonna be new to times. Nice chatting with you buddy. Thanks Luke. See you Luke. That's Luke Fox, Sportsnet NHL writer here on the Hellford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

Can I just do something I've been waiting to do the whole time? Luke Fox. What did I say? No, no, no, Luke Fox. Just to make sure. Oh yes. Lattie, what? Can I do something that I've been waiting to do the entire interview while he was talking? Yes. What a freaking boost. He did drop a boost. He said it like three times.

Did he? Like in a row. I had like the beat of sweat going down the side of my face. He's kind of got the voice for it too. Yeah. Yeah. I can't believe this random situation. I mean, I guess I can, but. I kinda, I'm actually, I'm obviously gonna be

cheering against the Canadian teams, except for the Canucks in the playoffs, as I do. I'm also cheering against Carolina. Against? Yeah, because they kind of stabbed the Canucks in the back and I hope they get screwed by it. Did they really stab the Canucks in the back? One man's stabbing is another person's negotiating, is it not?

From what I heard, the Canucks were pretty sure that they had a deal. But that's how you, that's how you leverage one deal against another. And then they, and then they shopped that deal to Colorado. That's good negotiating. It's also just really fun to see a team spectacularly fail.

And the Canucks and Jim Rutherford called the Carolina Hurricanes and said, I thought we were friends, but I guess not. Was I nothing but a patsy in all of this? I mean, like I would like to see it, and this is very petty, but I would like to see it blow up for Carolina because I'm kind of over the smartest guy in the room thing. The entertainment value.

I'm sure Eric Tulski is an incredible, I know Eric Tulski is an incredibly bright individual. And I'm sure he's a very good executive and I love that they have this bold and innovative approach. None of this takes away from the fact that I am petty AF and I am ready to watch everyone crash. You're like an old school jock.

You first, you were picking on Kyle Dubas and now you're going to pick on Tulski. But see, I will also, if a jock has his come up and he'll be like, awesome. Like I want to see him fail too. I just want to see everyone fail. Well, the smart people that used to be popular. Anyone.

To be smart. Now, now it's all about having balls and making bold moves. I don't like seeing anyone achieve things. I think that's what it comes down to. Oh, okay, though, that's something completely different. Yeah, okay, we're up against it for time. When we come back, Thomas Drance is gonna join the program for his regular Thursday hit.

We're also gonna do Ask Us Anything. Sorry, it's Thursday. We're gonna do What We Learns in the final half hour of the program. So get them in now. Dunvon over text line is 650 650. Tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. Text it in and hashtag it WWL. It's your chance to be on the radio. That's gonna happen at 830. But coming up at 8, Thomas

Drance from the Athletic Vancouver and Canuckstock all right here on the Halford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650.