Halford & Brough in the Morning - Hockey Trades During The Stanley Cup Final Feels Weird

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports including a big day of hockey trades (3:00), plus they get the latest football news from Too Deep Zone NFL insider Mike Tanier (6:40).  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.

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Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford, it is Brough, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios, the beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning.

Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Well done on the intro. Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 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. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. A-Dog, you got some Kintec shoes yesterday, didn't you? I did. I got some Kintec shoes yesterday, and they are very comfy. What kind did you get?

I got these Hoka's. Hoka's. Hoka. Hoka. Hoka. Yeah, they're super comfy. Shout out to Kintec. That's a store, man.

They know their shoes. It's awesome. Yep. I went in there. They put me on this little thing, and it scanned my feet, and it gave me all the measurements, and then it gave me recommendations. It was really high tech. Nice.

I think we just stumbled on a new Kintec ad, possibly. I felt like I was- They know their shoes. I felt like I was in the future. I felt like I was in the Jetsons. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, if someone likes comfort, it's you. That's true.

Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Orfee, what are you waiting for? Kintec. Not Andy, though. He went there yesterday. Gave me a blanket, some hot cocoa. That's awesome. Sat around the fireplace, talked shoes. You can sleep here if you want. I have my

own house. But actually, it looks pretty comfy over there. Let's say it loud and proud. And also so Andrew and Victoria can tune out right away. Happy footy day, everybody. A kaleidoscope of football from across North America. Actually, it is North America. North America and Europe. This morning, Slovenia and Serbia followed by,

and Jason's wearing the shirt right now, for those that are watching on the live stream of Sportsnet+, England, Denmark at 9 a.m., followed by what a first round opening round group stage clash, Spain and Italy. Wow. Two powerhouses going at it at noon, but that's not all. You get a few hours of rest and then 5 o'clock this evening,

a historic moment for Canadian football, Canada and the men's national team going to Atlanta to take on Lionel Messi and Argentina in the opening match of the 2024 Copa America. So it's going to be a footy-centric show at times. It's actually going to be a very diverse, eclectic show today. Guest list begins at 6.40. Mike Tanier, our NFL insider, he's going to join us to

go around the offseason, look at some of these major stories coming from minicamps. Who's there? Who's not? Aaron Rodgers. I'm trying to pronounce the drug of choice. Is it Ayakusa? Ayahuasca. Ayahuasca. Are you kidding me? What?

Okay, no, that's fine. It wasn't that bad, was it? No, but it's, I don't know. In fairness, I wouldn't have been able to pronounce it either. Me neither. I guess people just looking to get, to open their minds a little bit more, have more awareness of these things. Right. Better pronunciation skills.

Ayahuasca. Yeah. Ayahuasca. They're just in the know. Right. And I'm not. Can I have some of them Ayakuses? Mike Tanner is going to join us at 740.

You're like, I did a drug last night. It was called Couscous. Oh, it was so good. It's delicious. It pops up when you cook it. Makes your tummy all full. Mike Tanner, you're at 640. 7 o'clock, Adnan Virk, MLB Network, and the Cinephile Pod. 730, Ben Steiner

from CBC Sports is going to join the program. Our soccer analyst for the day. We'll look ahead to 5 o'clock, Canada, Argentina. And then at 8 o'clock, Thomas Drance, the Drancer. We can go over the Philip Peronic news. The Mark, don't call me Elliot, Friedman news and then some other big deals from across the NHL. It sounds like

everyone has to start getting their business done. We've got some audio from Flames GM Craig Conroy, who made a big trade yesterday sending Jacob Markstrom to New Jersey. And the audio, he basically says like, yeah, teams are giving us deadlines now. There's deadlines across the board. People have to start getting things done. And yet the Stanley Cup is still

being played. Yep. What a league. He also says in the clip that he got his Zdorov. Yeah, we're not going to play that one. So working in reverse on the guest list. 8 o'clock, Thomas Drance. 7.30, Ben Steiner. 7 o'clock, Adnan Virk. 6.40, Mike Tanier.

That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? You missed that? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the B.C. Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca.

I mentioned the Craig Conroy audio where he's talking about teams giving deadlines for player acquisitions and trades because shortly after we got off the air yesterday, a whole lot of action went down across the National Hockey League. Let's start with the biggest and the most surprising news of the day. Let's be honest. When we got off the air on Wednesday, about an hour later, the Washington Capitals announced that they had acquired Pierre-Luc Dubois from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for their goalie, Darcy Kemper.

That was crazy. I was having a nap with Pedro, a post-game nap or a post-show nap with Pedro. Pedro's his dog, by the way. Pedro's my dog. You should probably clarify that sometimes. From Mexico, he was like, hola. And he couldn't believe. He honestly couldn't believe.

He said, Senor Brough, wake up. He couldn't believe that couldn't he honestly couldn't believe he said senor brough wake up he couldn't he couldn't that that the kings got off that contract uh and he couldn't believe that the kings admitted a mistake that early after giving up some significant assets to the winnipeg jets in order to get pierre luc du bois in the door but then he just said like there wasn't a good fit and then he basically said, that's on me, that's on me, that's on me. And some of the reporters were like, some of it's on Dubois.

Sorry, is this Pedro or Rob Blake? This is Rob Blake. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Notice there was no accent. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Pedro was like,

I'm going back to bed. This was exciting, but. So there were, I don't want to call them rumblings but there were early sort of reports out there that the Kings might actually explore a buyout on Pierre-Luc Dubois after a first season in LA that was an unmitigated disaster they switched coaches that didn't seem to get him going he moved all over the lineup that didn't seem to get him going the worst statistical season of his career and so at the end of the year, people were saying,

well, if you use a buyout on Dubois, it might actually work in your favor because you get that two-thirds buyout, right? And Rob Blake said, no, we're not going to do that. And then there was still that lingering doubt that he was long for LA because it's like, well, if you're having buyouts. It was so bad, too.

Really bad. It was so bad. And then Blake did acknowledge, and in his credit, I would say, fell on the sword a little bit. He said, I don't think I did a good enough job integrating Dubois into the right roles on the team here this year. I think it wasn't a great fit in that aspect for us, and we'll take responsibility for that.

You know who I once heard say the exact same thing? Who? Trevor Linden, to me, in an interview for The Athletic, about Louis Erickson. Interesting. We haven't done a good enough job finding a spot for Louis Erickson. Now, the difference is they didn't move quickly

off Louis Erickson. This is a crazy, crazy, that's a crazy indictment for a player, right? When, I mean, let's be honest. I mean, it's just hilarious. Like, let's think about what Dubois said. We didn't find the right spot for him. Blake.

Sorry. Yeah, whatever. He's a center. He's a center. Yeah. I know your spot. You know the spot?

Center. So the other, what, what, what are you talking about? So first line, second line, third line,

fourth line, like which one? Center. So Rob Blake did a nice job of trying to fall on the sword and make it sound like it was the Kings and not Dubois, but let us be 100% honest here. This is clearly a Pierre-Luc Dubois thing. Now the Caps said that they were thrilled

to get a 25-year-old center in the door with an onerous contract. They didn't put that part in. I did. Everyone joking, that's why they bought out Cap Friendly, so nobody could dunk on the contract. They just copy and pasted the Kings press conference from last year, and that was the Washington Capitals press conference and how thrilled they were to get Pierre-Luc Dubois.

How is there no money retained in this deal? Because Darcy Kemper went back. Does it make up that much of a difference? It doesn't have that great of a contract either, Kemper. It's like five mil. Yeah, and it's got three years left. And let's forget he lost that starting job in Washington to Charlie Lindgren. So it's not like they were-

Pierre-Luc Dubois has shown at times in the NHL that he's a pretty good player. There's a reason he did get that contract from LA. There's a reason that the Kings were after him. He has shown at times that he can be a player. Unfortunately, he's also shown at times that he can be totally disinterested out there. So it's funny because him and Patrick Laine are now probably going to get moved in the same offseason again, having both been moved for one another previously. I don't even know if they're going to be able to move Laine.

But we'll see. I know what you're saying. Yeah. Somebody will take Laine. Pardon me? Somebody will take Laine. You know who freed Strother the other day with Laine was the Seattle Kraken because they're so desperate for score.

Like another, I had another goal scorer. Yeah. But I think the point was with these two players in particular, you've seen how high the ceiling can be. Like Duvall wasn't just a player. There was times in the playoffs, especially in the bubble where he was a dominant force,

like shutting down out playing Austin Matthews head to head force. And then there's other times where he looks like he's completely disinterested in playing hockey. That's a lot of teams to have moved on from for a guy who's 25 years old. I think there'd be red flags across the board, but Washington probably saw

an opportunity to get a guy in the door and they just want to remain competitive or however competitive they are. But you want to talk about a guy that I think that was a job-saving move for rob blake because you look at the return on assets the amount that they moved out to get him in the door right it was i follow it was uh velarde yeah and it was i'm missing the third one wasn't it sorry pick no, it was three roster players.

Oh, okay. But those were the two most important ones. Right. In exchange for what? Oh, it was Velarde, Ayafalo, and Rasmus Kapari. Okay. And a pick. Yeah.

So you move three players off your active roster and a pick out the door for one bad year of Pierre-Luc Dubois and then the remainder of Darcy Kemper's contract. That's a horrible return on assets. So all of a sudden the Kings are another team that should be active in free agency because the Kings save about 3 million on the cap. And Rob Blake said yesterday that we've got some roster openings.

He said that's what we'll look at here for the next couple of weeks. Obviously a different scenario, flexibility wise, space wise, and we'll have to address those things going forward here. What do we think about the Kings as a division rival for the Canucks heading into next season? Granted, the Canucks still have some work to do, the Kings still have some work to do. So maybe this question is better asked after free agency. But I do wonder if the Kings this season missed a pretty big opportunity for their franchise,

drawing the Edmonton Oilers again, losing badly this time to the Oilers. Working backwards, right? Yeah, like they did not make progress against the Edmonton Oilers. They did not look very good at all and were quickly out of the playoffs. And, you know, again, Dubois was supposed to be the guy that helped, that really helped them

against the Oilers. You're going to have a situation where the Canes could say, okay, well, we'll put out Kopitar against McDavid and Deneau against Dreisaitl, whatever. And then we'll have Dubois as the advantage. It was, frankly, similar to what the advantage the Canucks thought they might have, except Petey didn't show up in the playoffs.

They would have said, okay, well, we'll go Miller and Lindholm down the middle in our two-way roles, and Petey, it's all you. Now, not all of that's on Petey. They didn't have a winger for Petey either, but I just look at, I just look at the Kings right now and I go, you know, Kopitar is getting older now and Dowdy is getting older. He, he, he still logs a lot of ice time.

We'll see if Darcy Kemper can help them in goal, but I, you know, maybe Byfield can take a big step this season and he can become the star player that he was supposed to be. But I don't know, man. I look at that team now and go, eh. Okay, they're going to miss Dubois in the sense that he played every game last year. He had 40 points in 82 games.

So they'll miss whatever he brought to the table. Well, they don't have a follow of Velarde either. But but i do wonder and my fear is that the kings actually get better that it's addition by subtraction because i think he was probably a bigger issue than just his on ice play i think a lot of the riffs that we heard early in the year that eventually led to todd mcclellan's dismissal might have had to do with the fact that this guy came in didn't play a minute for the team got a gargantuan contract yeah so everyone's excited then he comes in and i think a lot of the players were like wait is this what we just signed up for don't you see them as a team that's kind of struggling with

their identity too and how they want to play 100 jim hiller is still the head coach there and you know the i think they're going to have some discussions this off season, possibly involving the players. They're like, how do we want to play here? Do we want to do the stupid one, three, one,

right. Can you, and when they asked that question, it was like, maybe I framed that the wrong way when I called it the stupid one, three, one, I should have the stupid part out,

but can you come back realistically and do the same things that you did last year? They got you to the playoffs, but clearly weren't going to make you a competitive playoff team i think people thought maybe it would but that whole idea got blown to smithereens in the opening round by the oilers do you think dubois has a chance to salvage his reputation in his career in washington where he's going to be given a big opportunity i think it's a put it this way if it's not a jolt to the young man who is still only 25 years old,

then they've got real problems because I'm sure right now he's like, these guys were so desperate to get off my contract that they sent me for, it was, I mean, it was almost a salary dump. I know they took, it wasn't salary, but they had to take Kemper back.

It wasn't a pure dump. They had to take a two years left on that deal. I think three, they had to take a dumpy contract back. Like what? The Kings also were like, Hey, we need a goalie. And Kemper won a pure dump. They had to take a... There's two years left on that deal, I think. Three. They had to take a dumpy contract back. But the Kings also were like, hey, we need a goalie. And Kemper's won a Stanley Cup. Sure. He knows the organization.

He's been in the organization before. He knows where the bathrooms are. Yeah. That's coming off a brutal year. That's all you want to see in a goalie. Lost his job to a journeyman. 34 years old. Yeah.

What could be better? Bigger body who's prone to injury. Constantly injury prone, which is pretty great. So there's that. Oh. They like their tand, which is pretty great. So there's that. They like their tandems in LA though. So do you think Dubois is so like, you know, some people just kind of have this crazy high opinion of themselves. He was like, they traded me for a Stanley Cup winning goalie.

I must be killing it. I'm sure that's what he's saying to himself. And I was like, Darcy Kemper? I remember him. He won the Stanley Cup a couple of years ago. One of the all-time leaders in save percentage. Speaking of goalies. He was the most important player on that Avs team,

a lot of people said. It's true. Many people said. I actually forgot he was on that Avs team until they were like, who do you want a Stanley Cup with? Oh, right, the Avalanche. Speaking of goalies getting traded,

yesterday, another big news. Shortly after we got off the air, the Calgary Flames agreed to trade Jacob Markstrom to the New Jersey Devils. In exchange, the Flames received defenseman Kevin Ball, not to be confused with Rick Ball. He lost one. Yeah, he left Calgary. And a top 10 protected pick in 2025.

Where did Baller go again? Chicago. Oh, yeah, that's awesome. Congratulations, Rick. That was when you were on your golf trip and Jamie Dodd were talking about that. Anyway, Jacob Markstrom. So the Devils needed a goalie. They get theirs.

They now go from being shaky and that's having what I would consider to be a pretty good tandem with Jake Allen and Jacob Markstrom. I'm an Allen fan. Yeah, I think that's a really big upgrade for them. What happened to all those young goalies, Ladi, that you were crowing about in the New Jersey organization? I was thinking that there might be some deals on the horizon.

Schmid and Dawes, I don't know what their future holds. I think you could possibly see one of them being dealt this offseason as well. And so all due respect to the trade, I wish – I've always liked – They just want more experience, obviously. I've always liked Jacob Markstrom. I think you could share the sentiment that I would like him to do well in New Jersey. I think New Jersey is a young, up-and-coming team, and I think with the two goalies in net, they're going to have a lot better year.

I think Sheldon Keefe is an interesting hire now that he's out of Toronto. All due respect to that, I think the big story here is that things are happening. And the goalie market, which we talked about at length this week, including our hit with Greg Wyshynski earlier in the week, is starting to heat up. You see two goalies move in the span of two hours on a random Wednesday, and you're like, okay, teams are starting to make moves now. And this is what Craig Conroy said in his media availability yesterday,

talking not just about trading Jacob Markstrom, but the fact that the pressure was on and he needed to start making moves now, even though the Stanley Cup is yet to be handed out. Here's Craig Conroy, Calgary Flames GM from yesterday's media availability. There are other goalies out there and there's other teams involved. And I think teams were ready to start making moves. And so, you know, they started putting deadlines out there. And if we wanted to be in the game, we had to we had to move a little bit quicker

probably than we thought we were going to have to so that's that's kind of how it it played out you know I was traveling on Monday and then I'm in Florida for Tuesday today so it wasn't as easy as just being encountering in the office but you know know, so I do think it just picks up. I mean, that's how it happens. And we had to feel this was the right deal for us with what was out there and, you know, helped us moving forward. So Pierre-Luc Dubois goes from the Los Angeles Kings

to the Washington Capitals. Jacob Markstrom goes from the Calgary Flames to the New Jersey Devils. Minor news yesterday from the Vancouver Canucks. They re-upped with veteran defenseman Mark Friedman. The only really interesting takeaway here, at least for me anyway, was the quote that Patrick Alveen had where they expect him to compete for a regular job next year, which does make me wonder.

Oh, he was quote worthy in his press release? Mark Friedman got a quote. Oh, okay. Two quotes, as a matter of fact. And I do wonder if... They've obviously got a plan that they would like to execute, the Canucks, right? Everywhere across the board.

But if it doesn't happen, I do wonder if guys like Friedman and Juleson are going to be the stopgap, like, hey, we're going to need you guys to play maybe a little bit more than we thought. But there's nothing wrong with having those guys as a seven or eight defenseman. I do wonder if maybe it follows the same blueprint as last year where Friedman came aboard, was playing regularly,

and then they made the move for Zdorov, and he was back in the press box. It's possible, yeah. Because having flexibility and being able to pivot in season was one of the big things that catapulted the Canucks to where they were last year. We'll see if they have any flexibility, though. I mean, that's the tough part because they're just so bereft of picks, the Canucks, right? No, I just mean cap-wise. Well, that's the other part of it.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, when you don't have a lot of cap space. Like, are they going to be right up against the cap to start next season? It's possible. Right. And if you don't have a lot of cap space and you don't have a lot of picks to play with,

it makes, I mean, Sap brought this up when we had him on last week. He said it's harder to make these kinds of moves when you don't have an abundance of picks, like what you moved to get Zdorov and Lafferty and everyone else closer to the start of the regular season or into the regular season. There was also the Barclay Goodrow, which was kind of interesting. We didn't mention it yesterday because he got put on waivers

by the New York Rangers. And I remember thinking, oh, that's a little playoff hero, Barkley Goodrow. He didn't have a great regular season, admittedly, but he's almost one of those guys where you kind of take the regular season with a grain of salt because he always shows up in the playoffs. He's won Stanley Cups with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He's been a very good playoff performer for the New York

Rangers this year. So where's he going? San Jose? Yeah. Maybe he'll win a Stanley Cup next season. I don't think so. Okay. I don't think he'll be in the playoffs,

but they're going to be a team to watch for us because of Macklin Celebrity. I will anyway. I don't know about you, but I will watch and I want to see the trajectory of the North Vancouver native as he's, I'm presuming, going to play. Mike Greer has kind of tipped his hand a little bit here

because they're going to have him and their fourth overall pick from the previous year, Will Smith, not the guy that slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, the other Will Smith. That'd be cool if he was on the Sharks, though. Yeah. They do have some good young players.

They're going to play, so he wants to insulate them with a little more veteran presence. So they just scooped Barclay Goodrow off waivers. And Larry Brooks of the Post had it out there that this was kind of a handshake deal that they had dating back to maybe even when the playoffs were on, that they were saying, waivers and Larry Brooks of the Post had it out there that this was kind of a handshake deal that they had dating back to maybe even when the playoffs were on that they were saying like you

know Goodrow is probably going to play well for us in the postseason he did he had six goals in 16 games but four in the regular season he scored six in the playoffs some really nice shots too yeah like really nice goals like I'm like are you just saving it for the postseason which is cool like they want to go deep in the playoffs so I get it but we're gonna need more than four out of you in the regular season and he was making 3.6 million which isn't an egregious contract but for again a hard cap league you see these guys get squeezed so brooks he said there was an understanding that they were because everyone's like oh like no one's gonna pick them up off waivers and then christian was like i think i know one team that to pick him up off waivers. And then Chris Durer was like, I think I know one team that might.

And then winking and nudging, you know? Right. A little bit of that light tampering there. It's like, is anyone going to pick him up? So the San Jose Sharks claimed him, and now he's a member of the San Jose Sharks. They made a trade, too. It's just easier than doing the trade for future considerations, basically. Right?

And they did make a trade. They made a trade for Ty D'Alandria. Yeah, right. For a fourth-round pick. Who I forgot was a first-round pick back in the day. Yes, he was. Yeah. And then I guess his offense never really came to.

He was like a late first round. He wasn't one of the. Yeah. I don't remember the name of the texter, but we got one texter who's a diehard Dallas stars fan. And he always texts in asking us to talk about the Dallas stars. Then yesterday he tweeted at me asking about this particular trade. So kudos to you,

random listener. Well, you got the title Andrea. You should just reply to him. Like, you know, more than me. Yeah.

Why don't you come on the air and talk about Ty Delandria? Everything I know about Ty Delandria, I just said. Okay, we are up against it for time. I need to tell you before we go to break about JanPro, the leaders in commercial cleaning and janitorial. If your workplace demands a clean environment, contact JanPro

for a free no-obligation quote. Visit them online at janpro.ca. We'll continue some of the Canucks and hockey conversation in the next hour. We're also going to talk to Mike Tanier, our NFL insider, a little mini camp action, what to look ahead to, what Aaron Rodgers is up to, all the news and notes from the National Football League. That's coming up next with Mike Tanier here

on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet at 6.50. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 6.30 on a Thursday. Not just any Thursday, though. It's footy Thursday. There's a theme for you, Greg.

Is that why you're playing this song? What's the name of the song again? It's called Ballin' Every Day. Ballin' Every Day. How befitting of this show. Monday to Friday, we're ballin'. Are you ballin' every day, though? Ballin' in the morning.

Ballin' every morning? The day after you're not sleeping. Why don't we throw some basketball news in there? Sure, we can do that. Andrew and Victoria stopped listening a long time ago. He gave up. He's like, you know what?

I'm not even going to send in something sarcastic. Because Canada announced their roster for the Summer Olympics. Well, you got that wrong. Technically, it's their training camp roster. Okay.

Some of these guys won't be going to the Olympics. Okay. But, I mean, let's be honest. We're not going to focus on the guys that aren't going to the Olympics. Everyone knows pretty much who's going. It is a... But some guys were left off. Yeah.

Not guys that will really ultimately matter, let's be honest. I mean, you take your roster, and there's going to be some bench guys, guys at the end that aren't going to play. i would i don't know how much zach edie is going to feature right but i think he's going to get to go okay right anyway um so yesterday canada basketball announced its roster and the big takeaway including uh longtime nba writer john hollinger of the athletic pointed out that it's basically 11 NBA rotational players, meaning guys that play with regularity, not benchwarmers, plus Zach Eaddy, who's the reigning collegiate player of the year.

He thinks it might be the deepest non-U.S. international team ever. So I was looking at some odds, some betting odds for the gold medal in Paris. USA, obviously a big favorite. They are minus 400 to win gold. Very stacked roster. Canada's next though. Yeah. Canada's, but they're all the way back at plus 900.

And then you've got the likes of Serbia and France, Germany plus 1900. And then, you know, again, this is not a big tournament. Australia, South Sudan, and Japan with very long odds. There's still teams to qualify too. Right, right, right. You get that ridiculous qualifying process. That's right, that's right.

So, but if you're looking at those odds and you're looking at the roster, is it fair to conclude that Canada could be, would be, or should be disappointed if they at least don't get a medal. Yes. I think they have higher aspirations than, say, South Sudan. Well, yeah.

They should medal. Canada should be in the gold medal game against the U.S. I'll say it. Well, that's... Not should. Should. Should. This is an unbelievably deep team.

Not just the starting five. You have guys that can come off the bench that are NBA regulars. You can match up with the U.S. Where might they have a weakness? Probably with their bigs. Yeah. So, okay, I know the question is, like, who should be Canada's starting five? Yeah.

So, traditionally, what they did at the FIBA World Cup was the starting five was with regularity too. I went back and double checked last night. Shea Gilgis-Alexander at point guard, Brooks, Dylan Brooks, and RJ Barrett on the wings. And then Dwight Powell and Kelly Olenek as the sort of bigs down low. You know, Powell is your sort of prototypical power forward. He's 6'10". He's big. He's athletic.

He can rebound. He can do some things. And then Olenek is more of a stretch five because he can shoot the ball so well. Okay. But he's also got the physicality to do the FIBA stuff, which is rebounding becomes really big in FIBA. Okay.

Because there's a lot of misses from outside and you're sort of banging and crashing down low. Is it because they're not used to the weird ball? It's the weird ball. Yeah. It's the weird ball, 100%. It looks funny when they shoot it. It looks like a Globetrotters game. I're sort of banging and crashing down. Is it because they're not used to the weird ball? It's the weird ball. Yeah. It's the weird ball. A hundred percent. It looks funny when they shoot it.

It looks like a Globetrotters game. I don't know what to tell you. That's just what it looks like. Anyway, if they wanted to have some really interesting wrinkles or looks at it, the big one would be play shade Gildas Alexander and Jamal Murray at the same time because Murray wasn't at the FIBA World Cup. He took the summer off because they won the NBA title with Denver. Then you'd have a backcourt that would rival anything internationally,

including whatever the U.S. would throw out, right? Shea Gildress Alexander is the first team all-NBA. Jamal Murray is an NBA champion. That would be very dynamic and very difficult to deal with. The problem, if you do that, is you kind of want to keep Brooks and Barrett in the starting lineup. And you could, but they're both 6'6". So suddenly you're asking a lot of one of those guys

to almost be a paint presence, and that's tough. You can still start Olenek or Powell. The issue with Powell is, I don't know how many NBA playoff games you watch of the Dallas Mavericks, but he was a non-factor. He got drummed right out of their rotation. He doesn't play anymore. So I don't know where his game is at.

So you might want to try and sub him out. And then the big wild card is Wiggins because Andrew Wiggins hasn't played for this national team in four years. So he doesn't necessarily fit in with the group from a chemistry standpoint. And I also don't know where he fits positionally, because if you want to talk about guys that had bad years, Andrew Wiggins had a bad year in Golden State. He acknowledged it at his end of year presser.

The media definitely acknowledged it. The team was kind of a mess, though. Yeah, they weren't good. But they were relying on him to be the bridge between the old guard, the Splash Brothers and Draymond and everything, and then whatever they're going to bring along in the draft. That's a tough position to be put in when you're the bridge from a legendary team to whatever's coming in the future.

He showed he could do it. When they beat Boston in 2022 in the finals, he showed that he had the potential to be that guy. He was great. But that's when the other guys were performing. It's just never materialized since then. He's been bad. So I don't know where he fits.

Now, you could put him in the starting lineup because he's in that same group, that 6'7", 6'6", 6'7", 6'8", where you can kind of make him as a fake power forward. He's not necessarily got the height, but maybe in a smaller lineup against a team that isn't as skilled, you could throw him out there but what i mean think about the champagne problems you're talking about here like you're talking about you still compare them to previous canadian

teams that we've seen you would be bringing lou dort off the bench you would be bringing nikhail alexander walker off the bench and these are full--fledged regular NBA contributors. Canada's never had that before. Yeah. They were probably starting five and then off the bench. What kind of team did they have? This is putting you on the spot. It is. The last time they were in the Olympics would have been 2000 with Steve Nash, right?

In Sydney? They had Steve Nash. They had Steve Nash. And then a bunch of guys that were playing in random European leagues. Mm-hmm. Right? Peter Gulacci, I want to say, was one of them. Showed at SFU. i don't think they had

an sfu product on the team yeah i don't know it was it was dramatically different it was steve nash and then a bunch of dudes this year it's honestly like hollinger who's been covering international basketball for a long time for him to say this might be the best non-us roster in the history of international basketball i mean you're going back to the great like former yugoslavian teams a lot of the teams of the soviet union that were just like completely stacked like this is uh an incredibly deep they have 11 guys that play regularly in the nba that's tough to do uh someone texted in asking if we could talk a little bit about canada Argentina. That's Mac in Maple

Ridge. So we do have Ben Steiner and you can win his money too. That's part of the fun of the Ben Steiner coming on to the show. That show didn't last all that long, did it? I can't remember. It was a good show. It lasted a decent amount. How excited are you to watch Canada

play Messi and Argentina in a match that actually matters. Oh, it's amazing. It is honestly amazing. I'm not as excited as I was for the World Cup. No. But it's close. And part of it has to do, of course, with the opponent.

It'll be turf though, right? It's in Atlanta. I don't know what they've got. They didn't bring in grass. I don't know what they've got. You don't have to Google it. They might have the hybrid system okay some of them do have that now especially some of the more glitzier um new stadiums in in the u.s and in mercedes-benz stadium is one of those um it's the it's the opponent because at the world cup like it was great that they were playing belgium and croat a lesser degree, Morocco. Though Morocco ended up being a Cinderella story at that World Cup. This is one of the premier South American countries playing for the South American title.

This is very, very, very important to Argentina. And this is, we all talk about Messi, but Angel Di Maria. This is his last international tournament. And he's been a stalwart of that national team for a long time. It's going to be an opportunity to send him off with the title. They're going to be very motivated. I'm also terrified of what could happen tonight.

It could be worse than the 4-0 drubbing that they took at the feet of the Netherlands. We've done basketball. We've done soccer. What a diverse show. Let's do a little football. Let's go now. It is the author of the Two Deep Zones sub-stack. He is our NFL insider, and we're very happy to have him back on the program.

Mike Tanier here on the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Michael. How are you? I'm doing great. We're talking NFL in June. There is no better feeling in this world. I had to get you on because I was reading your sub stack. And Mike is a good writer.

Some say a great writer. Some say the best writer. He has the following lead. Minicamp season makes me feel like I am trapped in the Matrix for stupid people. We got to get him on to talk about this. Mike. Sounds like you're on our show. The Matrix for stupid people.

It's the Alfred and Brough Show. Walk us through minicamp season and how truly ridiculous all the news that comes out of it is. You know, every year when minicamp starts, and in the past, I would attend minicamps,

and I get geared up to hear like really interesting quotes and news and updates and things like that. And what you get is like a rookie quarterback throwing a bad pass because it's like the second pass he's ever thrown in the NFL and a wide receiver like Keenan Allen for the, for the bears. And yeah,

Oh darn it or something like that when the pass goes over his head and it all points Bolton going out about this rep, you know, that is the kind of news you get. It's like, oh, my God, this kid threw a bad pass. Oh, this guy looked at this guy the wrong way, et cetera. There is nothing. And the reason why there's nothing is because these guys are practicing in shorts. They're kind of just doing these very light walkthroughs.

They're jogging. They're not covering each other. They're not hitting each other. And yet there's dozens of reporters trying to figure out how to spin this into something meaningful. So I spent two weeks of minicamp looking for NFL news, and all I got out of it were weird soundbites, goofy clips, and lots and lots and lots and lots of fantasy football talk. Well, don't forget Aaron Rodgers not showing up to said minicamp, which was a big story in New York. I throw the theory that Aaron Rodgers did this just because he likes being in the news

and he likes being the center of attention. And when he's not the center of attention, he wants to make sure he's the center of attention. What better way to do that than by the tried and true staple of not showing up to minicamp where everyone notices and your head coach is left to explain why you're not there? Aaron Rodgers is like the the middle schooler with oppositional defiant disorder you know if you tell him that he has to do something he will not do it he will be like you're not my real dad and he will storm out and he will have a yeah you know he'll let firecrackers in the in the in the back alley or

something like that as a protest so yeah ro yeah, Rodgers was at OTAs. He was there. He gave interviews. He was tossing the ball around. The moment the word mandatory got put in front of it, his weird Facebook brain could not handle the idea that this was mandatory, so he had to leave. And he had to sort of leave in a way that left everyone confused.

He didn't go to his coaches and say, hey, I'm going to go do another darkness retreat cover for me or something. He left the Jets in a situation where they had to sort of scramble and stammer and figure out how to spin this. And they're the Jets. They don't do that kind of thing well. So it turned into a, you know, it's not very meaningful because, again, he'll show up in August and he'll throw the ball around. But it's not meaningless either because this is just another reminder of who Aaron Rodgers is and how while everyone else is focused on the Super Bowl,

focused on the championship, focused on the winning, Rodgers is focused on Aaron Rodgers. Yeah. That being said, there have been times when he's been a pretty good quarterback in the NFL. Do you think he's still got what it takes to lead the Jets to a playoff spot? Yeah. See, that's the thing. We kind of had these conversations last year, like over and over again,

when Rodgers was at Taylor Swift concerts and everything. And it's like, yeah, that defense is absolutely phenomenal. They are loaded with receivers. They stayed in the playoff hunt with Zach Wilson throwing interceptions for much of the year last year. They were still in the playoff chase until I think December. Rodgers can lead them to a playoff run. He can get out there, they get to the playoffs, they face the Chargers or somebody like that in a wild card round,

they can get a win, then they get beat by the real teams. If that's all there is, if the Jets traded the last two years and all these headlines, all these scandals, all this ridiculousness for a playoff appearance, that's a real indictment of how far things have gone for the Jets. They basically sold their soul to do something that other teams just kind of do by accident

every couple of years. We're speaking to Mike Tan here from the 2 Deep Zone sub stack here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Mike is our NFL insider. We played some audio last week about Russell Wilson and his fresh new start with the Pittsburgh Steelers and a rebirth of sorts for Russell Wilson. I want to table that because the team he left behind the Denver Broncos, I actually think it's kind of interesting.

Do you have a sense of what they're going to do at quarterback and who might be the guy under center for week one? I think that Sean Payton has a legitimate competition going between Jared Stidham and Bo Nix. I don't think Zach Wilson is really in the competition right now. I think the way Sean Payton thinks and operates, he's going to have his thumb on the scale so Stidham wins that competition initially because it's a good way to do things.

Stidham goes out there. He's unimpressive for a couple of weeks. Bo Nix gets to be the hero. And Bo Nix gets his feet wet a little bit a couple of weeks of getting used to an NFL schedule. If you do it the other way around, the rookie looks like a bust. And Payton knows all this. And Payton is very good at optics

and politics. So that seems to be the case now. If you look at their roster top to bottom, Broncos are a bad team. They are a rebuilding team. It might make sense to say, hey, throw Stidham or Wilson out there for a while. Let him be the guy who gets beat up while the team is bad, and then save Knicks a little bit until maybe some more talent has come to the rescue of that organization. What do you think is going to happen with the quarterback situation in Pittsburgh?

It sounds like Wilson is doing all the right things, saying all the right things. I've been hearing Justin Fields, he's throwing wildly. He doesn't seem to grasp the system right now. That sounds like it's kind of in character for Justin Fields. People talked about a fresh start. This isn't a great fresh start for him. I don't know what Wilson has left, but I think he left behind some of that goofy, fame-brained 37 bathrooms and invisible high fives and stuff like that. I think he realized he had to leave some of that behind in Denver. He showed up acting normal, acting like a professional.

That's going to give him an inside track to that job. So do you think it's going to be the same old, same old teams competing for the Super Bowl next season? Or is there a team that has made some significant offseason moves? Or maybe you just think this is their time now that could enter the mix with the likes of the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers, etc.? You know, the team that looks like it's on the rise, the easy answer is the Houston Texans, you know, with C.J. Stroud, with the additions they made this year. You look at that AFC South and you realize, okay, the Titans are kind of a mess. The Colts are still in this kind of

rebuilding phase and the Jaguars are kind of up and down. You can see the Houston Texans going out there and just having an easy schedule and getting 13 wins, 14 wins, and then winding up as a home team and causing a problem there. That's the one that leaps off the page right now. It's tricky this year, especially if you look at the NFC, because the 49ers didn't lose much. The Cowboys are in their weird little the 49ers didn't lose much. The Cowboys are in

their weird little world. They didn't lose much. I guess the Packers are another team on the rise, you can say, that is kind of like, you know, reasserting themselves. But it's hard to, like, find a surprise team when so many of the bottom feeders are still stuck on the bottom, and the teams on the top still have, you know, the core players that they succeeded with in previous years. You know, you mentioned C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans and what they did in his first year on the job.

I think a lot of people, specifically those in Chicago, are hoping for something similar from Caleb Williams. And look, the additions on offense, it was like Keenan Allen, they drafted Roma Dunze, DeAndre Swift, Gerald Everett.

They had D.J. Moore. They had Cole Komet. I have to admit, it is a very tantalizing offense for a rookie to step into. What are realistic expectations for the Bears this year? That's a team that should be, I believe, honestly, in the wild card picture, in the playoff picture, as a rookie. You mentioned all that talent. I want to play them on Madden.

I hear those guys and say, sure, Williams as a rookie, you mentioned all of that talent. I want to play them on Madden. I hear those guys and say, I want to put my Madden offense out there with these guys and see what it looks like. Offensive line isn't bad. They've been adding pieces here and there on defense, so defense isn't bad. In the NFC, if you're kind of like average at a bunch of positions and have some playmakers, that can be a 10-win schedule.

That can be a team that beats up on all the rebuilding teams that you're likely to face along the way. So a little bit of a wait-and schedule. That could be a team that beats up on all the rebuilding teams that you're likely to face along the way. So a little bit of a wait-and-see mode with them, but it's encouraging. Everyone's saying the right things out there, and yeah, when you look at them on paper, that looks like a pretty impressive playmaker core for a rookie to work with. We ought to ask them about Atlanta,

right? What's going on with Atlanta, the quarterbacking situation there? Oh, I mean, Kirk Cousins is going to be the starting quarterback. It's funny. When the Falcons, you know, when they signed Kirk Cousins and we looked at the players they have on offense and, you know, they have an okay defense,

and that division's horrible, I think a lot of us said, oh, okay, well, the Falcons will win the NFC South. The end. That's great. They'll win 11 games and get beat in the playoffs. Hooray. Good for them. And then they bring in Pennix, and it becomes a little bit of a controversy, and it's like, wow, this team could have used another defensive player or offensive lineman or another star instead of another quarterback.

But I think that's died down. It's funny. The FTN almanac, the former football outsider's almanac, is coming out in a couple of weeks, and I have the projections. I'm not allowed to really talk about the projections. The Falcons' projection is terrible. The rest of us, you know, Vegas, the oddsmakers are like, oh, yeah, the Falcons are the favorites to win that division.

They are not, according to projections. This is a team that did fall off on defense, was not really that great, has a lot of big names on offense who haven't really done anything yet, like Kyle Pitts. defense uh was not really that great has a lot of big names on offense who haven't really done anything yet like kyle pitts there it's it's weird to say that kirk cousins could be surprisingly disappointing because he's kirk cousins and disappointment is kind of like his middle name falcons could be surprisingly disappointing in 2024 his other middle name is rich so it's like kirk rich disappointed cousins uh it was funny when Michael Penix Jr. got drafted, there was a big reaction in this area of the world because we're in Vancouver, Seattle's

not too far away. And I'm a Husky fan. I have been for a while and I cheered hard for Michael Penix Jr. Sometimes I liked what I saw from him and other times I didn't. But I went into the draft and I was most curious really about where he'd go. And I was shocked when he went top 10, when he went eighth overall, because I thought he'd be a late first, maybe even go into the second round

just because of a few issues health-wise, age-wise, and some of the ways he played, some of the times he had some bad games for the Huskies. Yes. So what was, how do you think it all went for the Falcons? Like, was he just on their list and if he was

going to be available, they're going to take him? Or was this always the plan to bring in a guy like Kirk Cousins and say, okay, you're going to be good for the next year or two, and then we want a quarterback waiting in the wings to take over? This was miscommunication among the departments in the Atlanta Falcons. If you look at the Falcons organization, there are a lot of cooks. There are a lot of people with presidential title, vice presidential title,

director of personnel title, et cetera. And it seemed like there was a lot of people with like presidential title, vice presidential title, director, personnel title, etc. And it seemed like there was a big miscommunication there. And nobody kind of did the Iran the interference to make sure Terry Fontenot and Rich McKay and all these other people were on the same page. There's no logical plan for saying we're bringing in Kirk Cousins and his eventual replacement. That does not make any football sense. I know people have been trying to get inside information on this, and one of the terms that came out, there were no grown-ups in the room at that point.

Whoever made that final decision was not thinking clearly and was not thinking long-term and just saw the top name on some list from the scouting department. So the silver lining to this is that Pennix is in a really good situation because there are no expectations on him at all this year. If he plays, it's because of a cousin's emergency of some kind, he will come out as a hero. If he doesn't play, it's all by design. No one's going to say, well, you know, why is this rookie still on the bench?

He's well, he's behind the, you know, $50 million quarterback. So this could be a silver lining. Appendix gets to start his career as somebody who can actually learn and do that tutorial mentorship thing and not worry about going out and competing this year. Mike, this was great. Thanks for taking the time to do it. We really appreciate it.

Enjoy the rest of the week, and we'll talk again soon. You got it. Take care and enjoy some summer, folks. Thanks, you too. That's Mike Tanier, our NFL insider here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We were short on time. I didn't get to ask him about the gargantuan contract

Trevor Lawrence signed in Jacksonville. But there's not much to that. It's like the latest young quarterback gets paid because they have to pay him. I just wonder if Trevor Lawrence is good. That's what i wonder too yeah like i wonder if he is in that uh like not to get into the is joe flacco elite conversation but it's fun it's kind of like that right and then you need to have a quarterback that can um if you're gonna pay that quarterback a lot of money you have to trust that he can he can show up in in the big moments then i wanted to ask about

another former jacksonville quarterback nathan rourke how did we miss we didn't even talk about that he got picked up and now he's a member of the new york giants maybe i was on vacation we just missed it completely i don't know how that we didn't because we were following the trials and tribulations of nathan rourke as he was bouncing around the nfl and then he lands in new york we didn't do anything on it so how did he land there i got claimed off waivers he got claimed so it wasn't his decision he wasn't like if that italian guy can play there i could play there so yeah their roster is weird right now they tommy devito is still there he's still doing the thing well you know who else is there former seattle seahawks quarterback drew lock oh okay yeah so i mean

i don't know what's going to happen. It's a crowded quarterback's room, so we'll see. And Daniel Jones is still recovering from surgery on his knee, if I'm not mistaken. Adnan Virk is going to join us next. And I want to talk to Adnan about his memories of the Red Sox coming back from 3-0 down in 2004 to beat the New York Yankees on the way to breaking their curse, the curse of the Bambino and winning the World Series. Because the Edmonton Oilers are attempting a similar storyline against the Florida Panthers. And if they can pull this off, they would not only come back from a three nothing deficit in the Stanley Cup final that hasn't been done since 1942, I believe, they would also break this Canadian drought.

So it would be breaking the Canadian drought in spectacular fashion. So I just wanted to bring on Adnan and talk about the memories of that happening and how it unfolded for both sides of the equation, because there are two stories. If the Oilers win the Stanley cup, obviously Edmonton will be a big focus, but Florida, what a collapse that would be for the Florida Panthers. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. The roar is back. BC plays for the BC Lions 70th season. Get your tickets now at bclions.com. Adnan Virk coming up next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.