Halford & Brough in the Morning - Happy NHL Free Agency Day To Those Who Celebrate

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they preview the start of NHL Free Agency with Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman (7:39), plus ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (30:01) joins the show to discuss the latest news from around the league.  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.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- Down to right center field, does he get enough of it? Yes! Number 33, Cal Rowley! Porter, that's him! He's got the scores! An incredible game winner for this winner! Are the Leafs maybe a little bit worse next year without him? Probably, but I think the most important thing here, bud, is that they are different.

Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Oh! Good morning Vancouver! Six o'clock on a Tuesday, it's not even the weekend. Happy Tuesday everybody, happy Canada Day everybody, happy free agency day everybody. It is Halford, it is Brough, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios

in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. TGIF buddy, good morning. TGIF, buddy, good morning. Hey, dog, good morning to you. Happy Friday to you, man. And laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello, it's a holiday. Hal for the Brough for the Morning is brought to you

by Sands and Associates, BC's first entrusted choice for net help. With over 3,000 five-star reviews, visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you in step. So I gotta hurry up here in the rundown because Freage is gonna join us in exactly four Minutes here to kick off the show on free agency frenzy day. It's July 1st. It's a big day brackets

We hope so Freage is gonna join us at 6 o 5 We'll ask him about everything that's going on with the Vancouver Canucks pew suitor. Will he land or stick in Vancouver? I should say what's next for Brock Besser? We could talk about the Vegas situation yesterday crazy stuff out of Vegas yesterday you suitor? Will he land or stick in Vancouver? I should say what's next for Brock Besser. We could talk about the Vegas situation yesterday, crazy stuff out of Vegas yesterday regarding Alex Patrangelo and Mitch Marner. And maybe we'll talk about Florida as well. That's all coming up at six Oh five with Elliot Friedman. He'll join us right after this rundown at six 30.

Greg was Shinsuke from ESPN is going to join the program. Wish wrote a lot yesterday about a massive Monday for the Florida Panthers in case you missed it. They re-upped with both Aaron Eckblad and Brad Marshawn. Uh, some interesting wrinkles on the Marshawn contract. We can get into that with wish at six 30 seven o'clock Luke Fox, uh, NHL writer from sports net is going to join the program. There's a big day in Toronto yesterday Yesterday, they finally fit a bid farewell to Mitch Marner. So we can talk to Luke about that at seven o'clock at eight o'clock.

Dan Murphy is going to join us. Canucks rink side reporter live from Rogers arena where he's on site for Canucks free agency and their headquarters at Rogers arena. There were a bunch of smaller signings for the Vancouver Canucks yesterday, which happened about a half hour after we got up the air. So we can break down some of those as well, but we get to Murph again, barring any massive news, which he has to go cover in the moment. We'll join Murph from Rogers arena at eight o'clock this morning. Finally, before I finished the rundown, I need to ask you all a question.

Have you bought your tickets for the Sportsnet 650, Jayscare 5050 for Challenger Baseball? If you have not, there's still time to do it. The contest runs until July 7th, which is next Monday. Buy your tickets now at jayscaregolf.rafflenexus.com. That URL again, jayscaregolf.rafflenexus.com. You can buy 5050 tickets until Monday, July 7th at 6 30 PM. So you got a while to still do it. Support challenge your baseball,

get a chance to win some cash and support a worthy endeavor brought to you by Tile Town, proudly Canadian owned and operated since 1971. Working in reverse on the guest list, it's Murph at eight o'clock, Luke Fox at seven, Greg Wyshinski at six 30 and Elliot Friedman is going to join us in just a moment here. That's what's happening on the program today. Lattie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. As we work on getting Elliot Friedman on the phone, I do want to run through some of the transactions from yesterday. I do want to get these Vancouver Canucks signings out of the way so we can discuss them later in greater detail. On Monday, the Canucks announced that forwards Archdi Baines and Atu Ratu have signed two-year deals, two-year extensions with the club, while defenseman Guillaume Breezebaugh and forward Max Sassen signed one year contracts each. Breezebaugh still here buddy.

He's never gonna leave. He's never gonna leave. He's gonna be at Canuck for the rest of time. The longest tenured Vancouver Canuck now I assume because Brock Bezzer's contract. Well he's still got a few hours left before it officially runs out but yes. Breezebaugh and Sassen one year deals deals, Baines and Ratu two year deals.

They also extended qualifying offers to defenseman Jet Wu and Goliath Nikita Tolopilo. Uh, in case you're wondering the specifics on the deals as they pertain to the NHL club, the Baines deal is a two year deal. As mentioned, the second year of a deal is a one way contract. These deals all come in at $775,000. Ratu gets a two year deal as mentioned, the second year of a deal is a one way contract. These deals all come in at $775,000. RATU gets a two year deal. It's a one way contract for both years of the deal.

Sassen's one year deal is also a one way deal worth as mentioned, 775K, and Breezeball is on a one year two way contract. So my takeaway, again, I'm no genius here, but my takeaway was that these guys, especially Ratu and Sassen are going to be very much in line for NHL jobs next year. And the idea with Baynes is that in year two of

the contract, they're anticipating that he'll be making a push for the NHL roster. Um, yeah, it's, I guess it's noteworthy that all those guys are, the second year of Bayaines' deal is a one way deal. Right? Yep. And Rattus both years, one way Sassen, one way Breezebois, two way contract, which is fair for Breezebois.

Yeah. I mean, I've got a lot of things to say on the Vancouver Canucks, but I don't really want to get rolling until Elliot Friedman. Sure. Where are we at with Elliot right now? Hey Doug, are we still working on getting them? Oh, there we go. Just one second. Okay, great.

We'll run through a couple of these other deals as well in case you missed it. The Vegas Golden Knights finalized their deal for Mitch Marner in what ended up being a sign and trade extortion works. Everybody. Marner's new deal with Vegas is worth 96 million over eight years. Vegas did indeed complete the trade part of the sign and trade, sending center Nicholas Wah to the Maple Leafs to jump the line for Marner. So Marner now comes in with a 12 million dollar cap hit all the way through 2033. So congratulations, we now exist in a world where deals are going all the way to 2033. Now the other interesting wrinkle here is that the deal came together at the

same time when Vegas announced that veteran defenseman Alex Patrangelo was going to step away from hockey due to a hip injury and subsequent, I guess he's got to still get it done, a hip procedure, which is going to rule him out for the foreseeable future. It was very vague on when timelines would be, if there's a timeline at all. But that was the big news for Toronto and Vegas yesterday. We got Freage on the line now. We will now go to the Power West Industries hotline. Elliot Friedman joins us now on the Halford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Freage. How are you? Good guys. How are you guys doing?

We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So we ran through a few things here around the Vancouver Canucks, but we want to ask you about the big two here as it pertains to free agency, Pew suitor and Brock Besser and anything else you might have. What are you hearing right now? What's going on with the Vancouver Canucks? Well, I was saying the biggest thing is that, you know, the Patterson story is over. I like, you know, he's, he's got his no move clauses kicked in. So I expected that to happen, but I think that's a big one.

You know, obviously we're going to get the Garland extension done today. I believe we're going to get the Demco extension done today. It sounds like that's pretty much done if it isn't done already. So they've got some stuff going on there. Suiter, I heard last night that they hadn't closed the door on it, but it was unlikely. I think the Canucks felt that they were going to go where Suiter wanted to go. They would have to clear out money. And so seeing as how that hasn't happened yet, either they sign them and punt that decision to later, or he's just gonna be out there. It looked like towards B,

but I'm always careful to point out that anything can change with one phone call. But last night, the word was that if they were gonna sign them, they would have to move money out. You know Besser, it's interesting like again there were some people who thought that the Canucks might take another run at them I don't know how likely that is but again they would have to move money to to do it so you know we'll see. I think I'm definitely expecting two extensions to be announced and we'll see where we go from there. Are you surprised that the Canucks are at this point where the only move that they've

made is bringing in a Vander Cane? No, I'm not because the place where they're really looking is the hardest is one of the hardest things to find in the league right now. Like what are the two hardest things to find? Right shot defensemen and high level centers, right? You know, I was at the board of governors meeting last week. You know, one of the things I was talking about with a couple of the governors there is that with Pittsburgh being the only team to sell, there simply are not enough players available for what everybody wants.

And so, you know, and you heard Doug Armstrong's quote this week. You know, when he was talking about Jordan Kyra, he said, we're like 27 other teams, we're looking for a 2C. If you find one, let me know. So I think the challenge is that with so many teams trying to get better and only one team really taking it down in the studs, there isn't enough supply to meet the demand. There was skepticism as soon as Jim Rutherford said his plan at the end of

season press conference though, but I think for a lot of Canucks fans, he said it so confidently, like, yeah, we're going to add two to three forwards. And, you know, they weren't going to be bottom six guys because he really wanted to totally remake the, the top six, not totally remake the top six, but add two to three players to it. And I think a lot of us fans of media like were like, well, that's going to be interesting because the Canucks don't really have all that much to trade except you know, some prospects that, you know, aren't exactly like the top of the line prospects. There's some good prospects. And then the 15th overall pick, which is a mid round,

first round pick with the cap going up and teams having the ability to retain. Like, do you think, do you think they misread the market when they, when they, when they said that? No, I don't think they misread the market. I just think that like the one thing I've just learned over the years is that Jim Rutherford in particular is a really confident guy. He always goes from the point of view that he's going to accomplish what he wants to accomplish and so like I think when he says he is gonna do something, he believes he's gonna be able to do it.

But I think one of the things that's happened, like I said, Jason, is that teams have been surprised at how little, how many teams are going for it, or want to get better, and there just isn't the supply available. And you know, like, look, like, I think the other thing too like there are some teams that are always destinations there are some teams that are destinations when they're doing well and they're not as big destinations when they're not as doing well like look what's happening in Florida right now like all those guys you know they're they're staying because

it's a great place to be like I think the Canucks were really interested in Matthew Shane. He didn't really want to leave Dallas. His heart wasn't into it. So like right now, like right now there's, with the cap going up and so many teams looking for players, it's a great, like players have a lot of leverage, a lot. And you know, you really have to battle to to get these guys and

there's gonna be Vancouver's not gonna be the only team here saying they're looking for a 2c it may not solve their problem today there's gonna be a few of those like you know I'm curious to see what's Montreal gonna do st. Louis's I think st. Louis has got a decent shot at Grandland so that might solve their problem but there's a lot of teams out there looking for that position who might not find it today. Is there any anticipation that a more robust trade market might open up for Rutherford

and some other executives after free agency? Because if there's all these teams that want to make moves and want to add and want to still be competitive and they don't get to feed in free agency, which is a fair assumption because there's not a ton of talent available here. Are some executives, maybe Rutherford included, anticipating that the trade market might heat up

after July 1? Yes, like I'll tell you this, like one guy of her is, for example, is a guy like Victor Arbenson in Edmonton. Now, I don't think he's going today, but I do think that when everybody takes stock of what happens over the next 24 to 48 hours, there will be a market for him. So I like I, I'm also very curious about a guy like Adam Henry. Now, Henry has control. and so it'll be his decision.

But I can see teams going to the Oilers, depending on what happens today, and saying, hey, what would you be interested in doing here? Or what do you think the player would be interested in doing here? Like, I think there's going to be a lot of that. Like, for example, I'm not expecting an era Carlson trade today, but I can see a situation where, you know, when everybody sees how it all lands, people then starting to call Pittsburgh and ask Carlson who has control, okay, what are you thinking here?

Yes. I, I do think that kind of thing is going to be happening. So, uh, on Besser and on Suter, if it's not the Canucks, do you have any best guesses on where each of those guys land? No, I think Winnipeg really has prioritized Besser. I'll tell you one thing about Besser, as I wrote

this morning, there was a player who said, he joked with me, they're like, Besser is the only player who's not afraid of the cold. Like he's willing to go to some of these places, but a lot of other guys don't want to go to. Um, like I think Winnipeg is, has, has made Besser a high priority. I'll tell you this. I've heard the possibility of Edmonton that will take some surgery.

Like I, it's not an easy path, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. I think he would be interested there. I've heard Boston. The other team I really wonder about is it's different because they're farther away from winning, but San Jose is really far away from the floor and they're gonna have to pay some people. And I think a guy like Besser could really benefit from that. So we'll see but those are the kinds of places I'm looking

at for him. The team I've wondered about for some time now is Philadelphia. I mean it's an obvious connection but there's a whole bunch of centers out there. There's guys like Suter, Suter had the great year at the right time. You know, there's players like Sturm, like there's other players out there. There's a bunch. Holmberg, who the Maple Leafs didn't qualify. I know there's a lot of interest in him. But I think we've, like I've heard Suter is going to get somewhere between four, five and five.

You know, Philly can do that. We'll see who else. Um, another guy I've wondered about for Philly is Archer's Sealovs. Do you think the Flyers might take a chance there? I do think Sealovs is out there. Um, I don't know if I expect that. Um, I think someone told me that Philly has their eyes on a free agent target out there. I don't know if I expect that. I think someone told me that Philly has their eyes on a free agent target out there. Okay. So I want to ask about the Vegas situation, acquiring Marner, which is definitely going to help them, and then losing Patrangelo,

which is a big, big loss for them on the blue line. When you're talking to people in the league, is there any skepticism about the Patrangelo statement? No. Or do they just like, do most people just think like this guy is actually for real, never going to play another game in the NHL. So like, like I'll tell you, like I was being, I knew there was an issue there. I talked about it a couple of times, but the one thing I really stayed away from were the specifics because I heard there were a lot of potential outcomes here. Um, you know, like you guys saw Petranco at the end of last year, he could barely move. Like he really gutted it out.

He wanted to compete, he was trying to compete, he wanted to play for his team and I think also the Olympics, which he's won a gold medal at before, was something that was very important to him. I think he wanted to play at the Olympics. And, um, he's, and, uh, but what I heard was if he got the surgery and it's, they mentioned the wine, like there was a possibility might, I heard he might've had to have more than one, there was at least one person, I really trust this person who said if he got the procedures he needed to get, it might be 18 months before he could play.

Yeah. And so, like, I think this is very legitimate. I know why people roll their eyes and stuff. I think in this particular case, it's very legitimate. He had some serious injuries and, you know, one of the reasons I think the statement was worded the way it was yesterday, Jason, is that I had heard that if he even if

he didn't have the surgery, like he can still have a very good quality of life to skate with his kids and golf and stuff like that. So I believe that was one of the options. Like if if you're gonna have a, if you had two years left in your contract, and there's a chance you might not play for 18 months. And the other option is just don't have these huge surgeries but still have a good quality of life. Like, I get it. I get that you're weighing those two outcomes.

Well, as soon as golf is threatened, you have to make the right choice there. Yeah, I do too. I totally get it. Fritz, before you go on the subject of, uh, potential skepticism with these deals, is there any around Brad Marshawn being signed until he's 43 years old by the Florida Panthers? Yeah, you know, I have to say like some, some Leaf fans were mad about this because they sent me DMs about last year that people

talked about investigations into the TANF deal. Like I don't care about that stuff. Like I don't freak out about that. Like I have no problem with the TANF deal last year. And I don't have a problem with the Marchand deal this year. I will say this, like I was talking about this with someone last night. I don't know if we've ever seen a contract like this before. Has anyone ever gotten a six year deal to take them to 43? I've never contracted this before. Has anyone ever gotten a six year deal

to take them to 43? The thing with me is, I look at it for the player. If someone wants to do that with Brad Marschant, I'm like more power to him. You're worth what someone's willing to pay you. I do believe he is the first player in the cap era to sign a six year deal at age 37. So I'm good on him.

How long did they have Kovalchuk originally? 17 years. Until what age though? Because that was the crazy thing. I can't remember how old he was. At that time he couldn't be a UFA until you were 27, about seven years in the league or 27. So at minimum he had to be 25 so 42 yeah all right

17 year deal that was amazing all right well thanks for taking the time uh to join us this morning we'll see what the Canucks do today if anything I I expect they'll announce the uh Garland and Demko extensions and we'll see and we'll see what else. Enjoy a very busy day, Freage. Have a good day. See you. Thanks, buddy. That's Elliott Friedman, Sportsnet NHL insider here on the Haliford and

Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. When Kovalchuk signed the contract, the 17-year contract, it would have taken him through age 44 with the New Jersey Devils. Okay. Yeah. Canucks. through age 44 with the New Jersey Devils. Okay. Yeah. Um, so. Canucks.

I mean, I, I, I came in talking about, or prepared to talk about the Canucks resigning suitor and now Freage said that he heard last night that it was unlikely. Now, again, some people are reporting that this thing could go down to the wire. So we'll see in a couple of hours, I guess. But what does it say that the Canucks had to circle back on Souter?

I think Fried said a lot of it already. It starts with the fact that they failed to address the centre position via trade. Um, it's also believed that Michael Grandland doesn't have any choice, any interest in joining the Canucks, uh, Freach suggests he'll end up in St. Louis or it's a strong possibility. Um, it's been widely reported that the Blues

are really going to target Grandland. Um, I do wonder about some other guys, Roslavec, can they afford him in this market? Right shot center that scored 22 goals for Carolina last season. He's going to get paid. I actually wonder about Jonathan Durant just because that's more of a me thing, because I

really think the Canucks could use some more playmaking ability upfront. But we all know this is an underwhelming list of UFAs. a me thing because I really think the Canucks could use some more playmaking ability upfront. But we all know this is an underwhelming list of UFAs. The Canucks were hoping they could do better than the guys on this list, but they have it so far. And this is, I mean, I can't believe in a lot of ways. We've had a lot of, I can't believe it's come to

this in the past year for the Canucks after the season they had before last season, but I can't believe we're like, can we afford Pugh's suitor? That's where we're at. This is the most bargaining power suitor has ever had and probably ever will have. The guy had an unbelievably timed contract here, given what he'd done to that point in the NHL, which is bounce around.

Part of that was because he played for the unbelievably timed contract here, given what he'd done to that point in the NHL, which is bounce around. Part of that was because he played legitimately really well, but I also think you have to remember the opportunity he was given after the Miller Peterson feud blew a hole down the middle of the roster. Suiterer at the end of the season was regularly logging over 20 minutes a night because Miller had been traded and Pedersen got hurt. And then he just happened to become an

unrestricted free agent in a market that was suddenly flushed with cap space and short on centers and the question of whether that was a market the Canucks should be playing in anyway was out there. A lot of mistakes get made on July 1st when there are markets like this, but Suter brought a lot to the Canucks beyond just goal scoring last season. He was versatile. He could play center. He

could play in the top six as a winger. And don't forget, he was a big part of the Canucks returning their penalty kill to respectability in the NHL. He was the guy that was out there first, most of the time among the Fords. He's very crafty, defensive, 200 foot player. He's not the fastest skater out there. He's not the fastest, but he's one of the smartest. So, you know, I think there will be some people that are like, you know what, I'm okay with the

Canucks not giving Pugh suitor four years and $20 million or whatever it's going to be for suitor, but they're also going to have to replace him. And, you know, I threw out a question on social media yesterday and it was essentially like, what is the Canucks going to have to replace them. And you know, I, I, I threw out a question on social media yesterday and it was essentially like, what is the Canucks top six look like? And there's two locks, Pedersen and Debrusque.

And then you've got three solid candidates, I think in Kane, Garland and Hedl. Now if Suder's not there, Heidel is your second line center for sure. So you can't bump them to the wing and then you're going to have to find one more winger for the top six. Now, you know, people can say, well, try

Hoeglund there or, or, or try Carlson there. And for sure, that's fine. Go for it. Try anyone there. But Pedersen, Debrecht, Kane, Garland and Hedel, I like the Canucks goaltending. I like the defense, but that is a very thin forward group. I mean, in light of the contracts that were

signed yesterday where Atu Ratu and Max Sassen got one year deals, or sorry, two year deals and a one year deal, both one way contracts. I wonder if we're staring at a world where you're one C is Alitas Patterson. You're two C is Phil Petal. Your three C is Teddy Bluger reuniting the third line and your fourth C is a battle between Rathu and Sassen and somebody else. I wonder if that's what it's going to be. Souter sounds like, I mean, again, if we go on what Elliot Friedman is saying,

that it's unlikely to happen in Vancouver. Pierre Lebrun just put out that Mikhail Granland is officially going to market. He informed Dallas of that this morning. But that, to me, suggests that there's going to be a bidding war for Mikhail Granland. He's been bid up so much that he doesn't need to settle on going back to Dallas. Like some of the other guys, like, you know, Matthew Shane, that he can go to market and maybe a team like St. Louis will come out of

its shoes to spend on him. So we'll have lots more time during the show to talk about the Canucks and what they may do or what they may not do. And not doing is a kind of a theme this off season so, so far with the Canucks. But we got to go to break because Greg Wyshinski is going to join us next. We'll talk about Florida keeping the band together.

We'll talk a little more on the Marner to Vegas swap and the Patrangelo situation and all the other stories circulating the NHL. You're listening to the Alfred and Bruff 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 podcasts. 6.34 on a Tuesday. Not just any Tuesday though. Happy Canada Day everybody. Happy Free Agency Day everybody. Maybe not for the Vancouver Canucks. Maybe not for a lot of NHL teams. Did you think we'd ever get to the Pugh suitor watch of the Vancouver Canucks? Oh, I can't believe we're in it friend

Right from from from game seven against the Edmonton Oilers to begging pew suitor to come back Should they maybe have resigned him earlier this year? You mean when it was like around a three million dollar a year extension? Yeah, like you know like in February It was like around a three million dollar a year extension. Yeah, like you know. Like in February, when his agent came to Vancouver and was like, let's talk about that extension. Before he became the top free agent on the market. Yeah.

Maybe that was the time to do it. The Canucks were like, no, February, that's far too early to engage in contract talks. Rick Dollywalt tweeted out this morning, nothing close with Pew's suitor this morning. There has been contact between the two sides, but suitor will have a healthy market and free agency. Also, another rumored target of the Vancouver Canucks,

Mikhail Grandlin, according to Pierre Lebrun this morning, has announced, or at least informed the Dallas Stars, that he will be going to market as well. We will wait and see what happens. You are listening to the Haliford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Haliford and Bruff of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. To the phone lines we go, our dear friend, Greg Wyshinski from ESPN, joins us now on the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Wysh?

I'm kind of astonished by the Grandland thing, aren't you? Like, I really thought that that was, hey, buddy, we've got all the Finns here, including a guy named Rantanen who likes playing with you. What say you to take in the the no state income tax contract that we're about to hand you? And he's like, no, peace out. I'm going to free agency. I guess maybe because there are no centers left. Yes. I mean, all due respect to mr. Suiter, but but I really thought grandlin was was probably gonna extend in Dallas I'm surprised by that

I thought maybe too but then when you started to hear how much interest there was in him it made sense to go I mean, I don't know if he wanted to take as big of a haircut to say Matthew Shane took to stay in Dallas Especially since it sounds like st. Louis is interested Vancouver is. I'm sure there's a handful of others because Greg, as I'm sure you know and have written about, this is a thin with like 11 eyes in that thin, thin, thin free agent class. Yeah. I mean, we often refer to it as a free agent pool. This is a puddle, and pool. This is a puddle. Maybe a spilled glass of water on a hard top table. It's not great. But you know, listen man, just because there's a lot of demand for a player in free agency doesn't mean they're going to hit the market, which is why Brad Marchand is going to be playing in Florida until he's 73 years old. I mean, it's not as if there weren't

people looking to sign that dude. But sometimes you choose to stay where you are instead of hitting the market. Okay, you brought it up. Let's start there. So the Florida Panthers keep the band together. They sign, and I think more interestingly in terms of the structure of the contract,

they manage to keep Brad Marsh on around for a six year deal, which will keep him employed until age 43. We asked this of Freage and he kind of brushed it off but I want to ask you have you heard any inherent skepticism of the structure of this deal the fact that for the first time in the cap era we've got a guy that's 37 years old signing a six-year extension or is this just whatever Bill Zito did good work? I mean I think I've heard both of those things from some of the folks that I've spoken to

in the last 24 hours, which is astonishment that Bill Zito was able to retain all three guys, but also like, that's kind of an absurd contract. I don't think we've reached the point of like NHL intervention. I think it probably takes a few of these before they start to get really concerned about it. But it is kind of like, listen man, when his diet is beer and cookie dough sundaes, I don't

think there's a lot of like inherent optimism that this guy is going to be in peak form at 43. But yeah, I think the bigger story and the bigger takeaway for me is the fact that Bill Zito found a way to keep the three USAs on his team. He said he thought he could find a way. We'll still see what the other shoe to drop is. Probably Evan Rodriguez being shipped out at some point this summer. But you know, in covering the Panthers for a few rounds, I was extremely confident Bennett was going to stay. I figured Ekblad would probably find a number to keep him in Florida. He didn't want to leave and he's been there for his entire career. You

guys know my mantra this time of year is his stuff is there. his stuff is in Florida. But Marchand's the one I thought was gone, only because I had heard from so many people in covering the Panthers that he was going to try to secure the bag, that he was going to try to go hit big on the free agent market and obviously had teams like Utah and Toronto in particular that were primed to hand him the bag. But I guess when you look at the sum total of the contracts value over six years, it's not out of whack with what he would have gotten for like three or four years in so far as like total money. Um, I just thought that, you know, when you have the meat beliefs, his childhood

team primed to give him like 9 million a season to come teach them how to win a cup. I thought the temptation was going to be too much for him, but he clearly had a transformative few few months in Florida with the organization, with the, with the market. And, and he clearly wanted to stay and found a way. The most remarkable thing about the Panthers

to me is when I look at a blue line that has Seth Jones at $7 million cap hit because they got the Blackhawks to retain. Echblad at 6.1 because they got him to take a serious hometown discount. I didn't have Echblad making less than Ivan Provarov on my bingo card and Gustav Forsling at $5.75 million.

And this isn't just for like next year, this is for at least the next five years. See, I was, I was leaving you room because I thought you were going where everybody else has gone, which is, and then I look at the Edmonton Oilers and they're spending 19.5 million on two players. No, I was going to leave that to you.

Yeah, only one of them deserves to be on the team. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy. And again, the thing about the Panthers is that you have to understand the sort of underlying reasons why they've done all this. They think Seth Jones is an ideal second pairing defenseman. I think they see him as like Ryan McDonough, right? Like he's not a top pairing guy,

but you put him on your second pairing and he's like the best at it. And so they didn't want to elevate him to the top pairing. Like they wanted him to kind of just stay in the role that he played during their cup run this year. And to do that they needed to ensure that the the Ekblad-Forsling combination remained intact and so that works out great. The Marshyne thing you know, it's not just simply what he did during the playoffs and what he does to that team on the ice and and clearly he

fits the Panthers aesthetic of of Yappen and antagonism, but it's also just like all of the stuff behind the scenes I mean I made light of the cookie dough sundae thing but like all the Dairy Queen stuff all the cutting up in the locker room like all the stuff that kind of like diffuses the tension of a playoff run and then and then beyond that he became kind of the de facto spokesperson for the team and as much as they they yap on the ice they're not a really like media boisterous group. Their captain is Sasha Barkov for God's sake. Like he's not exactly, as Paul Maurice famously said, he's not gonna be hosting a podcast when he retires.

So to have Marshann be the guy who's sort of the front facing spokesperson for the locker room helped them a lot during this playoff run. And I think it's something that they liked to maintain. We're speaking to Greg Wyshinski from ESPN here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Let's turn our attention to the other big news from yesterday. And that was the finally completed sign and trade Mitch Marner going to Vegas as we joked extortion works everybody because Toronto did end up getting Nicholas Wah out of the deal. So there's two fronts here for Vegas.

It's acquiring Marner obviously, but there's also the Alex Patrangelo angle. And again, this is another one that we asked to Fridge, but I wanted to get your thoughts and maybe what you've heard on this. Given that it's Vegas, you gotta ask the question. Is there any level of skepticism about the Patrangelo health prognosis and diagnosis given that they've kind of, you know, colored outside of the lines a few times when it comes to LTIR and cap management and everything else. Not on this one, not, not on, on what he's dealing with. And it was kind of the worst kept secret in the league that he not only would not start the season for them,

but that his career was probably in jeopardy. Like this is something that I heard at the beginning of the playoffs. So this is not, I mean, the timing of it, I think made a lot of people like recoil because it's like, we got Marner. Oh, and by the way, all this cap space opened up. But no, no, no, it was something

that they were preparing themselves for for quite a while. And so I know that they don't know. It was something that they were preparing themselves for for for quite a while. And so I know that they don't they haven't earned the benefit of the doubt, but on this one it's legit. And honestly, like, after you've bought in Mitch Marner, wouldn't you like to have Alex Petrarangelo on your blue line to help win another cup? Of course you would. So this is one, this is not one where I expect he's going to show up in game one of the playoffs. I'll eat my words if that happens, but I don't think it's going to happen. Um, the, the, the tampering thing is, is fascinating. Obviously we assume it's been put to

bed because Toronto is the one that would have to bring those charges against Vegas and they've in theory been satisfied by getting a pretty great third line center out of the deal. We called it extortion. Extortion works? I mean, it's extortion, it's blackmail, whatever they've in theory been satisfied by getting a pretty great third line center out of the deal. We called it extortion. Extortion works? I mean, it's extortion, it's blackmail, whatever you want to call it.

But I think Kelly McCrimmon's going to be asked about it and unfortunately he probably has the cover of, well, we made that deal because we wanted to get the eighth year for Mitch and then not have to address the actuality of why it may have happened, which is kind of a bummer. I think tampering is stupid. I think that, and stupid in the sense that we treat it with seriousness and it's a very silly, dumb, unenforceable thing. Yeah. Tampering happens everywhere. Tampering happens at bars. Tampering happens on texts.

Tampering happens when somebody's dad knows somebody in the organ. Like it is, it is a, you can't enforce it. It's just, it's just coined the realm. And so, you know, the idea of the NHL is gonna puff out their chest and be like, we're gonna crack down on this now. Who cares? Why? Because, oh my God,

somebody signed a minute after noon today and it made us all look bad. Who cares? Like it's just, it happens in every, in every business and every league. And, and I don't think it should be something that we're, you know, taking draft picks from a team for having dabbled in it. Well, it is funny because, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll ask around various reporters and I'll be like, what do you think about this guy?

And, you know, I'll hear back, you know, like, for example, like, oh, Grandland's already told the Canucks that he doesn't want to come to Vancouver and I'm like, well, it's June 29th. Yeah, right. Exactly. Like, so, so I, you know, how's he done that? You know, obviously there's, there's

tampering going on. So like it just, I was wondering the other day, well, whatever happened to that interview period? Um, and what, can you remind me, you're better at these details than I am. Can you remind me why they went away from that interview period? I was thinking about that myself because I was thinking about all the NHL drafts that I've covered through the years and how it used to be like, you know, such and such gave

up a third round pick so they can have a few minutes with Dan Hamhus. You know, it used to be like that. And then we got away from it. I don't really recall, I mean, maybe it was part and parcel of trying to like get away from the tampering thing or, or something. I have to go back and research it a little bit more. I actually think it was, I think they were frustrated that deals were getting announced

almost in full before July 1st. Like the whole idea was that you go and meet with the players and talk to them for a few days. They called it, you know, like legal tampering or whatever. But maybe they wanted to save July 1st for the big announcements and everything and maintain some semblance of surprise.

Because if you think about it, if you have an interview period, three days before July 1st, say, like there's just going to be tampering before the interview period, the tampering will just be earlier because a fish like unofficially, but kind of officially, I guess free agency would start as soon as the interviewing period starts. Does that make sense? Can I ask you something more in a general sense? Why is it tampering?

Like if, if I'm, if I know I'm going to leave a job, my agent is going to probably figure out what my next job will be. Like, I mean, I just don't understand it. Like if Mitch Marner is like, peace out, I'm done. I'm tired of being a pariah in this town and that everybody blamed me for not winning in the playoffs, like why shouldn't he be allowed to just be like, what's my next thing?

It's not as if somebody's like, you know, worm tongue from Lord of the Rings or they're whispering in Mitch's ear to change his mind about staying in Toronto. Like if that's not the case, he's made the decision. The whole thing's just absurd. I don't know. I, but I, but I, but to your point, Jason, though, like, I'll tell you, I do think that something's changed behind the scenes where a lot of this stuff is not the teams are maybe have been encouraged to not announce stuff early.

Like the Marner thing only hit socials about five minutes before we got on the phone. Yeah. And that was said and done yesterday. I talked to one PR guy yesterday whose team was doing a big resigning and he told me that we're not putting it out there until tomorrow. So I wonder if it's been communicated that, hey, we're trying to make free agent day as big as possible. We don't want it to just be the Nick Purbick's Derby and save some of this stuff for the day when people are all paying attention. Cause I don't, I think that, you know, from what I've just seen and also been told, like stuff's

all said and done, but they didn't announce it until today. Um, Wish, one final question. And I do want to get your thoughts on the Canucks. I know they might be like team number 28 on your interest level these days, but um, can you believe that it's come to the Pew suitor sweepstakes in Vancouver? Um, that Jim Rutherford went out and said, we're going to make some big moves, uh, at the end of the season press conference.

And the only thing they've done so far is bring in a Vander Kane, probably at the expense of losing Brock Besser and maybe even Pugh Suter. Now I'm trying to think, are there four teams that I care less about in Vancouver? I'll figure that out after we get off the phone. Don't make the Canucks, don't make my listeners angry, they're already pretty tense about today. I'll figure that out after we get off the phone. Don't make the Canucks, don't make my listeners, uh, angry.

They're already pretty tense about today. It's tough sledding, man. It is. It's, it's, it's, uh, it's kind of remarkable that a team, like you said, that was the playoff team and pushing, pushing, uh, cup contenders to seven games, kind of find themselves in the state that they're in now. Um, I, the best that they're in now. The best thing is just so bizarre.

It just seems like there should be some level of common ground that they were able to find unless they just didn't want to necessarily commit to the player. But yeah, I could, there are mystery to me as to how they're going to approach free agency in much of the same way. There are mystery to me as far as like what the three year plan is. Um, but, uh, but it is, it is a kind of a stunning fall from grace where they were like two seasons ago. Wish this was great as always buddy. Thanks for taking the time to do this. It should be a very busy day.

So enjoy it, enjoy some time off afterwards. I don't know if this is our last hit or not, but if it is, it's been another great season doing this with you. And if not, we'll talk again next week. You guys are one of my favorites because I know that eventually inevitably the conversations will never be the same week to week. Um, I also want to pat myself on the back for getting through your Canucks question Jason, without mentoring mentioning Quinn Hughes the Devils

It was very hot. Yeah, it was very He said it I don't blame you for doing it I don't blame Thanks for doing this wish we appreciate it buddy Take care Greg Wyshinski from ESPN here on the hell for the brush show on sports 650. Another update from Rick Dollywall, better known as Ricky D. CheckTV Donnie and Dolly. He just tweeted out about six minutes ago that it is now time for Vancouver Canucks fans to keep an eye on the likes of Christian Dvorak and Jack Roslavik, who Jason mentioned several times yesterday, as a potential center signing.

Dollywall also points out which many of us kind of understood and now it's becoming even more crystal clear that Mikhail Grandland is on the Canucks list, but is also on the list of many, many other teams. He announced this morning, told the Dallas Stars that he will be testing free agency and he's probably gonna get a nice payday.

So again, we're now down to the likes of Christian Dvorak and Jack Roslick as potential center solutions for the Vancouver Jack Roslick got 22 goals last year. Mm-hmm. You know what that's not bad. Well Here's the thing What's to say he's at all interested in coming to Vancouver? Oh, yeah, totally gonna have suitors. Oh totally right there all these There's a lot. Yeah. Hey, I heard there's a lot of suitors for suitor. Yeah I don't know if there I wonder I wonder if Philadelphia is the leader and he just might end up going there because It's a payday. It's talk it there's some familiarity there right yogis there sure him and yogi like each other

I'd yeah, I'll be very curious to see if Suitor just says you know this makes a lot of sense for me. Maybe they'll give him the term that he's looking after. You never know. I feel like I've got the penalty killing beat among Vancouver media. Yeah. And I always think this is one of the more

underrated aspects of players. Christian Dvorak did kill a lot of penalties last season for Montreal. He didn't produce much offense. And Jack Rosljovic wasn't much of a penalty killer in Carolina. Like if they lose suitor, who's going to be their top penalty killing forward? Atu-Ratu, Max Sassen. I don't know. I mean, Bluger's going to be their top penalty killing forward? Atu-Ratu, Max Sassen. I don't know. I mean, I mean, Blugr is going to be out there probably. Blugr, yep. But Suter was really good.

And again, if we want to talk about the things that went well for the Vancouver Canucks last season, it's like a list of one. It's the penalty kill was good. You're going to, honestly, I think that this day might end up being a lot of Canucks fans looking at guys like Andrew Mungiapone and Anthony Bovili, former Vancouver Canuck, as potential centers. Karcone?

I don't know what to say. Go ahead like one crazy, did you do that in Arizona? He had like 22 goals, his shooting percentage was sort of the roof or something like that. It was like 36%, he scored every third shot that he took when he, okay, here for the roof. It was like something like 36%. He scored every third shot that he took when he. Okay, here's the thing.

I do honestly wonder and hope, and I'm holding out an unprecedented level of optimism for the Hellford and Brough show, that after the frenzy starts, let's say 9 a.m. this morning, right when we get off the air, all the signings get announced, and NHL teams not located in Vancouver

are also left empty handed, that a trade market and a robust trade market opens up, where teams look at each other and they're like, let's get together. And I know the phrase is stupid, but let's make hockey deals. I wonder if that will open up, where it's like we're trading roster player for roster player,

active NHL or for active NHL because we need to make change and we didn't get a chance to do it prior to July 1. And then when July 1 opened up because look, here's the thing. Vancouver is not going to be the only team that's walking away empty handed. Like it's very naive and very Vancouverish to think that the Canucks are the only team in this position. They're not. We're just hyper focused on it because the executive group talked up how much they wanted to do. There's like if you follow the other teams in the National Hockey League there's a lot of other teams that put it out there that

they wanted to do stuff on July 1 and aren't gonna be able to do it. So again I asked Freage about this. He was optimistic. I'm gonna remain somewhat optimistic if only for the content that there will be a trade market that kind of has to manifest itself because there's going to be so many teams left. Is it going to be two months of Adog talking about trading Horonik again? Sure.

Yep. Honestly. Get ready for it. Because you still get to the point of, okay, well, if there's going to be hockey trades, what hockey trades can the Canucks make? And then, so there's going to be hockey trades, what hockey trades can the Canucks make? Yeah.

And then, so it's going to be a dog going heronic and you going unprotected first round pick from 2026. Raw dog that pick. Let's get it out there. This is the darkest timeline. Okay. We got to go to break. When we come back, Luke Fox, Sportsnet NHL writer is going to join us from Toronto.

Mitch Marner has posted his goodbye to the Maple Leafs organization, the fans of Toronto on social media. That deal is now consummated. It's done. Both teams have announced it. Also, the Matthew Nye's deal is done as well. I know you don't love Toronto talk, but they have become a very, very intriguing team based on what's happened over the last 24 to 48 hours. We can get into some other NHL teams as well with Luke Fox from sports that he

joins us next on the Halford and Bref show on sports net six 50.