Halford & Brough in the Morning - How Do The CBA Changes Affect The Canucks?

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports including a wild Blue Jays win (3:00), plus they chat the recent CBA changes and how they will affect NHL clubs with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (26:16).  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. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Get out of here, bro. A scouring flyball to left-center, and can you believe it? George Springer is on a heater. George Springer has done it again. I really just want to help us win, you know, I'm glad I could. High-fly ball.

Al-Tube back on the track. Looking up, see ya. A grand slam for Grisham. Good morning, Vancouver, 6-1 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Rough. It is SportsNet 650.

We are coming live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Good morning to you. Good morning. Lattie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are coming to live from the Kintech studio, Kintech footwear, and orthotics working together with you and step. Big show ahead on a Wednesday at the three-guester here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650s. We are now just one day away from the start of the National Football League campaign. We're going to start today, though, with some National Hockey League news. our ESPN, NHL Insider, and good buddy. Greg Wyshinsky is going to join the program at 630. Big news from yesterday.

The NHL and the PA have agreed to expedite a playoff salary cap and changes to LTIR for the upcoming season. They're fast-track in that part of the CBA. What does it all mean? How it all work? What other changes are going to be implemented? We'll get into all that and more with Greg at 630. We'll do a bit of it in what happened as well. 7 o'clock, James Sharman is going to join the show for a little footy talk.

He, of course, the host of the Footy Prime podcast, also a sports net soccer contributor. His most recent piece, how the World Cup influenced a very, very busy transfer window for the Canadian men's team. Lots of transfers went down prior to Monday's deadline. Of note, Canada does play friendlies this weekend. They got a Friday game in Romania, and then next Tuesday they've got a match in Wales. so we'll talk to James about all that as well. 8 o'clock, Kevin Woodley, NHL.com in goal magazine. Jason, did you know that it's NHL goalie week?

What? It's NHL goalie week. Every week should be goalie week. Every week should be goalie week. But this week is NHL goalie week. That's good. It's not during the season. It's a celebration of goaltending.

Just get it out of the way early. From September 2nd to 7th, reveling in the uniqueness and artistry. of puck stoppers through the decades. So, what better time to get Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Ingole magazine on the show? We'll also do a bunch of Canucks talk with Kev as well. And around 7.30, we'll dive deep into some other stuff. Drancer has a new piece up at the athletic.

We'll get him on later in the week, but we'll talk about his stuff today. So working in reverse on that guest list, 8 o'clock, it's Kevin Woodley, 7 o'clock it's James Sharron. 6.30, it's Greg Wushinsky. 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. What happened? I missed all the action because I'm losing. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that?

What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCCSA.ca. We will begin with the Toronto Blue Jays. Another wild one. All the Blue Jays do. is play wild games.

There were 14 combined runs in the first two innings of that game yesterday in Cincinnati. Jays ultimately win 12-9, thanks to a pair of George Springer Jacks, like you heard in the intro. Let's hear it again. Let's hear Buck cheer that ball out of the yard. George Springer goes twice yard yesterday. Jays win 12-9. Here's what it sounded like. And the Blue Jays have two of the five American League hitters.

Get out of here, ball. Powering fly ball to left center, and can you believe it? George Springer has done it again. I can believe it, Mr. Shulman. I can believe it. He's the MVP, right? Of the team, Springer? Yeah. Had the crazy start, maybe cooled off a little bit, but he's back now with Bo Bichet, and they're carrying this team offensively, for sure,

and the way the bullpen has been performing, and frankly, some of the other pitchers they've needed it and this is the thing that we did mention yesterday about the Jays in that yeah they've got major

pitching issues with the bullpen but I don't I don't think anyone has to you know do any mental gymnastics to figure that out I know Hoffman got it done yesterday

23 blown says but Hoffman got his 30th and he only allowed one hit. Yeah, like he looked good. He looked good yesterday, but there are issues in the bullpen. But the thing is, they're not falling apart. You know, I mentioned this yesterday. You know, four series ago, they won two of three against Miami.

And then they went and hosted Minnesota and did have a blown bad save in that series, but they won two of three. They lost two of three to Milwaukee, but they got one win. a really good team. And now, despite, you know, losing that first one to Cincinnati in shocking form, really, wild form, they get the win in the second one. So they're not falling apart and they're not really in any huge jeopardy, unlike the team a few hours south from us. Yeah, we'll turn our attention to the Mariners here in a second, but it's a good point to bring up the jays aren't going to miss the playoffs right the mariners might the jays won't the

concern with the bullpen is entirely about the postseason yes yes yes the jays have the best record in the american league right now they're a half game ahead of the tigers with that win last night there's only two teams of the american league that are on 80 wins and it's the jays and the tigers the issues aren't a regular season issue the issue is when you get to the postseason and all of a sudden that save opportunity could be the difference between moving on to the next round and falling apart and having your season end, are you going to hand the ball to Hoffman and be like, go get it done?

They have to at this point because there's not really, I don't even think there's another way that they could tweak the algorithm to move the closers around or try and give someone a different shot. Hoffman's gotten to 30 saves this year, and I think that he's going to be the guy

come hell or high water when the playoffs start. I did want to mention one. Springer has been a revelation this year, not just because he's putting up some of the best numbers he's ever had in his career, Blue Jays or otherwise back in his Houston days, but doing it at an advanced stage.

Can we play the audio from Arden and from Ben yesterday? Because they were full of praise in a game where a lot of guys went off offensively. You know, Bichette had another great night at the plate. Dalton Varsho went in yard for the second straight game. But it was George Springer, old man George, summer of George, putting another epic performance forth as the Jay's win in Cincinnati. Here's Arden's Zwelling and Ben Nicholson Smith following last night's win. We are into September, but the summer of George continues. Springer has two homers here. He's now hitting over 300 with nearly a 400 on base and a 550 slug on the season. It is just remarkable what he's doing. It really is. Now, 26 home runs on the season. That's the most he's ever hit as a Blue Jay here in the fifth year of that six year contract, a point by which, you know, any fair observer probably would have expected him to be declining, not posting the best numbers of his Blue Jay's career and his

OPS Plus is the highest of his career, period, even going back to the Houston Astros. So this is a perfect time for George Springer to be having this kind of career season, certainly the best of his Blue Jays career, because they needed it. And at a time that Jose Barrios really didn't have it, they needed that offense to go off four home runs, and Springer with two of them, just looking at his best. We don't even need to mention that Barrios start. Don't worry about that. We'll just gloss right over that, because Bieber's going tonight.

Please know. Please know. Please, no. We do need to talk about the Seattle Mariners, though. This is a team in trouble. Another loss to the Tampa Bay raise, and Laddie came in the studio this morning and was griping not just about the M's losing,

but not being able to take care of the race. Who are now, check this record, 69 and 69 on the year, Greg. They're the nicest team in the league. They're hanging around that wild card. They're a plucky little team, and they've got the Js two series down the stretch, if I'm not mistaken, right? At least one.

Yeah. So the bigger story, though, the Mariners lose again. Now, they got some help yesterday because the Rangers lost as well, so there isn't any closing of the gap. They really got some help because the Rangers did, they looked like they might be winning that one, and then Arizona came back to win it. Yeah, so they got a little bit of help. Things do not look great, but they still got enough of a cushion to the point where their playoff percentage chances are somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 still. but this is a team that with everything that they did at the deadline

with the pitching staff that they had last year where we had Softie Muller on the show yesterday he was talking about the best ERA in the entire league still not making the postseason there's a lot of pressure to get the job done here and Cal Raleigh I know he had his 51st home run of the year last year but he's been in especially in terms of batting average

he's been in a slump the last little bit unlike the J's where the offense has managed to bail them out of a few bad starts especially last night in Cincinnati, Seattle hasn't had the same bit of luck. And that's part of the reason why that their lead in the wildcard is whittled down to what it has. Okay. Two of the semifinalists are set at the U.S. Open. Felix plays today.

Yes, we got Jokovic and Alcaraz going to toe to toe on Friday in the semifinals. Yokevich had a bit of a test yesterday against the American, Taylor Fritz, Tuesday at the U.S. Open. Alcarez had no such problems in his straight set victory. Alcraz has not dropped a set at the open. I mean, if you look at it right now, and I know that there's a lot of really cool storylines out there, for those of you that are Novak, Djokovic fans, 38 years old,

still doing the business, is now tied for the most semi-final appearances in U.S. Open history. He's got a tough road ahead because he's going up against Al-Kraz. On the other side of the draw, I mean, this really does look like another sinner Al-Karaz final, but hopefully Felix can throw a wrench into that somehow.

And Felix still needs to get the job done on the quarterfinals to get past Diminar, who, by the way, I said was Spanish yesterday. That's way wrong. He's Australian. But that's going to be the test there. They're close geographically. They're on the other side of the planet. It's a hop, skipping a jump.

Right? I will be watching this one intently today because this is a real opportunity for Felix, not just in the quarters, but you're looking ahead to taking on Sinner, who has been. Almost perfect, I will say, as I mentioned yesterday, that Chappo managed to take a set off him earlier in the tournament. And that's really been the only blip for him. If some of these, if the semifinals can play out,

like I think that they're going to play out, ones obviously are already set with Yokevich and Alcaraz. If we can get an Oje al-A-Sim sinner semi, I think that's a dream matchup from storyline perspective. For sure. And you know what? The interesting thing was yesterday. I mean, obviously because Taylor Fritz is American,

And they were giving Djokovic a tough ride yesterday, despite the fact that being the grandpa of the draw, he usually gets the crowd behind him, but wasn't the case yesterday. I'll be interested to see how that crowd plays when he takes on Alcoraz. And then I think should Felix get to that match against Sinner? And again, I'm already kind of pushing Sinner through.

He plays a countryman. I forget the other Italians name, by the way, in the quarters. I think that Felix will very much have the U.S. open crowd on his side in large part because he'll be such a. decided underdog, and that crowd always loves an underdog so he could, but he's got to get past Deminard today, and it's not going to be an easy task, although he does have a pretty good career record against Diminar. Okay, we got to unpack some of the CBA stuff. The National Hockey League yesterday, according to multiple sources, has agreed in conjunction with the NHLPA

to expedite the playoff salary cap and make changes to LTIR for the upcoming season. So the entirety of the CBA was not supposed to come into effect until 2026, 2027, but a bunch of these rules are going to be fast-tracked. And the big one, of course, Jason, is the playoff salary cap. I want, Adog, are you awake and ready to go? I'm here. Okay. Okay, so I'm going to read just one paragraph from Greg Wischinski's piece on the new playoff salary cap rules

and then you tell me how easy it is to understand like you got it right okay so the first sentence is actually pretty easy okay by 3 p.m. local time or five hours before a playoff game whatever is earlier

teams will submit a roster of 18 players and two goalies to NHL Central Registry that's just for the playoffs salary cap makes sense yeah right there will be a playoff playing roster, averaged club salary calculated for that roster that must be under the upper limit of the salary cap for that team. The average club salary is the sum of the face value

averaged amounts of the player's salary and bonuses for that season for each player on the roster and all amounts charged to the team's salary cap. Ah, yes. I see. It is why we all got into sports to understand. Nothing complicated about that. So when the news came down, I'm like, okay. What does expedite mean? Is it faster or slower? So when the news came down that they were going to implement a playoff salary cap

for the season, I was like, oh, great. Then I realized it was not as cut and dry as I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be very straightforward. So one player agent explained it thusly to ESPN. You can have 130 million in salaries on your roster once the playoffs start, but the 18 players and two goalies that are on the ice

must be cap compliant. Now, all that mumbo jumbo that you threw out there is how they go about with regards to average salaries and everything coming to that cap compliance. But the big question for a lot of teams moving forward is, will there be any way to manipulate the system now

with regards to LTIR and being cap-com, and cap-a-cruel, Jason, one of our favorite things from last year. Because at first blush, a lot of people are suggesting that cap-acrual might be useless now. because you can't stash a player on LTIR and then activate them for the playoffs

when there's no salary cap. But I don't know. That doesn't make sense to me because wouldn't saving money during the season on the salary cap at least help you get players in the door at the trade deadline? Yes.

I guess the question would be is are you able to ice a team with a bunch of players that you would have, accumulate and acquired over the season and be able to have like a quote unquote full lineup in the playoffs. Here's a question. Yes. What if you've got a player

that is not playing very well but he's healthy? Can you bury him in the playoffs? Do you? The new rule states that if you put a team on, if you put a guy on LTIR and then you exceed the cap, that player can't return in the postseason.

Like he's ruled out entirely. There's no bringing him back for the post season. So it would have to be something along the lines of this guy's playing bad, he all of a sudden has a hip injury. And that hip injury is going to keep him out for the remainder of the year. Like, he's not going to be an option for you. It seems as though they've closed every loophole here.

So that there's always a loophole. And that's what I'm wondering, what the smart team that's going to be to figure it out. Now, but the problem is then you have to go through the CBA. How many GMs are just like, I don't understand this? Apparently there's a general manager's meeting this week

where they're going to be informed that these changes are coming and they're on the horizon. I'm going to read one more paragraph. Yes, let's do it. This is from Wish's Peace. Okay? Along with that postseason salary cap, the NHL and NHLPA have agreed to expedite changes to long-term injury reserve rules for the upcoming season.

The total salary and bonuses for a player or players that have replaced a player on LTIR may not exceed the amount of total salary and bonuses of the player they are replacing. The new LTIR rule also states that the average amounts of such replacement players may not exceed the prior season's average league salary. See, this is where, and again, this is why we got into sports. I remember when I was a little kid. I was like, one day, I'll be able to read the CBA. And ask A-Dog about it.

Yeah. Yeah, that's not at all confusing. Oh, by the way, there is an exception to the LTIR rule changes. Teams can exceed these average amounts, but the injured player would be ineligible return that season or in the postseason. That's what I was talking about. That exception needs approval from both the NHL and the NFL. NHLPA. I think we just need someone to just be able to be like, can you do that? No.

Well, here's a question. Is any of this going to matter to the Vancouver Canucks this year? Because this rule is designed for teams that have playoff aspirations, not ones that are going to miss the postseason, right? This is entirely about what we've seen Florida do, Vegas do, Tampa Bay, probably most famously because Nikita Kutrov wore a shirt about it in the aftermath of winning a Stanley Cup. Like, this is what the contending teams in the National Hockey League have done with regularity over the last five, ten years is they've exploited this loophole, to which I've never had a problem with. I don't know if you're of the same mind on this, but I've never had an issue with teams

using the tools that were available to them in the way that, especially last year with Florida, where Matthew Kachuk sits out and Aaron Eckblatt under different circumstances, sit out for the remainder of the regular season. The Florida Panthers go out and make big moves, and they put together one of the more dominant teams that we've seen in recent memory over the course of those two seasons. The NHL should encourage loophole exploitation. They should just be like, you know what?

We applaud you if you're able to get past this nonsense. Counterpoint. Okay, quick counterpoint. It's essentially cheating. Yeah, you're being cheating and trying. And obviously there were enough teams that were frustrated with it. And maybe the league in league itself.

He goes, oh, he looked like fools. They changed in the CBA and in fact didn't even wait for the new CBA to comment. Now, speaking of loopholes, guys, there is a story breaking in the NBA right now. And it's funny to us because we've actually kind of joked about this scenario maybe one day playing out.

Um, Pablo Torre finds out who has been finding out about a lot of stuff. That's his podcast title. Pablo Torre finds out. Um, is alleging in an exclusive that Kauai Leonard signed a $28 million endorsement deal for a no show job with a fraudulent tree planting company funded by $50 million from Clippers. owner Steve Balmer. And a source

says that it was to circumvent the salary cap. So here's we've clipped this one of the anonymous sources and there are many sources that were used in this

story. But one of them agreed to go in a disguised interview. and this is people wore a mask chin putty had some funny glasses on if you see it it's like it's like electronically

disguised and here's how that played out I didn't so much as discover it as I was told about it what was your reaction what were you told my reaction was what the fuck

and I was told like oh these are the major contracts and the major players you really need to be aware of. And we went through a litany of, you know, really, really top-tier name contracts. And then, oh, by the way, we also have a marketing deal with Kauai Leonard,

a $28 million organic marketing sponsorship deal with Kauai. And that if I had any questions about it, essentially don't because it was to circumvent the salary cap, LOL. There was lots of LOL when things were shared. Did you ever see proof of Kauai Leonard marketing or endorsing aspiration in any way? Never not once. The single largest payment to an individual for marketing that aspiration ever made has completely evaded all press.

It's honestly incredible. Nothing. You didn't have to do anything. In other words, Kauai Leonard got from Aspiration a $28 million no-show job. Yeah, it's amazing. I'm honestly so jealous. So I'm going to put you on the spot here. Great.

What do you remember about the Clippers signing Kauai? They signed him to a four-year, $176.3 million contract, which raised a bunch of eyebrows at the time because a lot of people said that Kauai, like so many other NBA starts, could have either opted or opted for some sort of Supermax. It was less money than what he probably could have gotten at the time.

It now dovetails nice. into, oh, getting $28 million from a company, which also had several other A-list celebrities on their marketing payroll, including, if I'm not mistaken, Leonardo DiCaprio. But I think the big difference was with the other celebrities that were paid to endorse is that they actually endorse the company. Yeah, that was a big key.

Yeah, whereas Kauai Leonard seemingly had no interest nor public announcement that he was the face, or one of the faces of this tree planting company. And it would have been dicey if he had put himself out there as an endorser of that company. Yes.

Don't you think? Well, I believe it's gone bankrupt if I'm not mistaken. Well, that's how it was all discovered. Yes. Because Kauai Leonard was a creditor. And Steve Ballmer had invested

50 million of his own money into the company, if I'm not mistaken. So if this story proves to be accurate in any way, shape, or form, This is going to go right to the front of Commissioner Silver's priority chart because this would be salary cap dodging of the highest order

for one of the marquee teams in the NBA since Balmer has taken over with the brand new stadium that they are playing in and all of the amenities that have come with it and the fact that he has tried to build a team with his financial clout and the star players that he's been able to attract that would somehow wrestle some of the spotlight away from the Lakers in Los Angeles. It's a pretty big story that happened this morning. Brough sent this to me at like 5.15 this morning.

So this is something that is happening right now in the moment. So we'll be keeping tabs on it throughout the show because I got a feeling that there will be some statement from the National Basketball Association at some point today, at least to acknowledge that this is something that they have to investigate. If they get the Clippers dead to rights on this, they are going to hammer that team and every commissioner of the major leagues

is going to be calling the NBA and going you have to hammer the clippers on this because you can't circumvent the salary cap unless you're in the Stanley Cup playoffs we're going to talk to Greg Wischinski coming up next from ESPN he's going to break down everything that happened yesterday between the NHL and the PA

with regards to the new salary cap Rules for the playoffs you're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. Happy Wednesday, everybody, Halford and Brough, Sportsnet, to 650. Halford & Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates, B.C.'s first and trusted choice for net help. With over 3,000 5-star reviews, visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. To the phone lines we go, the Power West Industries hotline, that music can only mean one thing. Greg Woshensky from ESPN joins us now on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Wish?

Hello, everybody. I hope everybody had a great summer. I'm in Arlington, Virginia today for the National Hockey League Players Association slash Upper Deck Rookie Showcase, which is our opportunity to talk to some of the hottest prospects in hockey before the crush of expectations and local media ruined them.

I'm excited to talk to them today. Before they're torn apart on social media. But Bard's like, I remember that. those were good times. I think Badaard came here. I've talked to a lot of really interesting. I remember talking the first time I ever talked to Dustin Wolf was here, and I remember thinking, oh, wow, this is a really interesting kid.

And then, you know, when he had his season that he had last year, I talked to him again for a feature story, we were reminiscing about the wide-eyed, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed days of the rookie showcase where your biggest stress in life is, how am I going to look in my upper deck card? So, you know, things change. Is there someone in particular that you're looking forward to speaking with today? There's no Vancouver Canucks there, by the way.

I checked the list yesterday as we were scouring for content, but it does not appear as though there are going to be Canucks rookies there. But there's still a bunch of high-profile kids there. Yeah, for sure. I'm intrigued on two fronts. One, I understand there's a plucky young Ginnla kid here, who I am interested in talking to because he had, I think two hip surgeries last season, but also because I've yet to talk to anybody from the Utah mammoth about the Utah mammoth name and logo.

So he'll be probably wearing that jersey today. So I want to talk to him about that. And then overall, like, there's a ton of kids here who are finishing up their junior and NCAA careers at a time when the rules have all dramatically changed. And I'm intrigued to find out if any of them would have changed their development path if those rules had changed, say, like, two years ago. I'm intrigued to find out what this generation thinks of now all of a sudden it being a free-for-all where, you know, Canadian junior experience doesn't ruin your NCAA eligibility. You know what, let's go on that for a second.

I know we've got to talk about the NHL and NHPA stuff with the CBA. But I think it's going to be really interesting to watch college hockey. this year because obviously they're having a moment and you know they're tired the outdoor game they with Penn State and the profile that Penn State's got now McKenna's going to give them a bit of an attendance boost with a 110,000 right it's going to bring up yeah as far as I understand math that's going to bring up the average attendance but I wonder what it's going to we've talked about like we had Chris Peters on the show talking about what it's going to look like from a television perspective how the sports profile is going to grow exponentially it's not just going to grow a little

but this is going to be must-watch television for a lot of hockey people. Whereas, I mean, let's be honest, in the past, college hockey hasn't always been that way. It hasn't, right, and it hasn't because you know, the tippy-top prospects would inevitably come still from Canadian Junior. It shifted a little bit with Celebrini

and now with McKenna, you know, playing his last season before the NHL in the NCAA. But, look, I think there's been a steady climb and interest in college hockey first with more of an acknowledgment from American fans about the development path of players. When you see an uptick and interest in World Junior,

there's going to be an uptrick and interest in NCAA. I think the Frozen Four has become a pretty marquee event for a lot of fans each year. And then obviously, you know, the fact that ESPN is embrace college hockey, I don't think can be understated as well. So all those forces are kind of creating a little bit of wind in the sales for this, for this sport, on top of the fact that now the overall talent is going to increase

across the board into the NCAA, although there's still a lot of people in the NCAA coaches included who are kind of side-eyeing, you know, how many top players will end up playing there if they can, you know, also play with Canadian junior teams and, you know, play on a line with some of the best players that are going to be in the NHL. It's going to be interesting in five years to look at what the overall effect of this rule changes insofar as the talent level in the NCAA. We're speaking to

Greg Wischinski from ESPN here on the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Okay, the big news from yesterday, NHL and NHLPA agreed to expedite the playoffs salary cap and some changes to LTIR for the upcoming season. Why the push to fast track this for this year, Greg, as opposed

to next year? Well, I had one agent telling me it was the league's imperative to try to fast track it. for this season. Obviously, you know, they, these rules, there was interest on the league level, and they always said if there was enough interest from the GMs, that they would pursue this in the, and the CBA, so obviously there was. So, you know, why wait a year?

You know, why not, why not just implement those rules in particular this season? Again, I can't say for certain that it was the NHL's push. That's just what one source told me. But you can kind of understand the logic of it. If the GMs are tired of seeing certain teams take advantage of LTIAR rules and certain teams, ICE lineups that are, you know, $18 million over the cap in the playoffs, then you can understand why they don't want to wait another season to see these rules implemented. So you can bring a roster that exceeds the salary cap ceiling, right?

But when it comes to having the 18 players and the two goalies on the active roster for that night's game, that has to be cap compliant. Is that if this is going to work? Yeah, that's correct. Like, you can have a roster that's like $130 million in capped space. But the lineup that you put on the ice for any given game has to be below the upper salary limit for that team in the regular season. And so what happens is you submit your roster, I think, in the afternoon, the NHL

checks it out, make sure it's count compliant. You will have some wiggle room if, you know, somebody gets hurt. and warm-ups or something, but ultimately you have, the lineup on the ice has to be under the cap. And, you know, that's one level of control to try to make sure the teams aren't pulling the same salary cap tricks they've been pulling over the last several years. The other one is obviously the changes in LTIR

where, you know, they're putting restrictions on the kinds of players that you can acquire within that cap space. And so the combination of those two things, at least from the players and the agents and the GMs I've spoken to, they think that that'll mitigate the issue. But as Nazim Khadry told me a couple weeks ago when I spoke to him about this, you know, everybody's just kind of waiting to see who finds a loophole. Because there's going to be one somewhere, right?

Well, that's what I was going to say. You also pointed out that the NHL GMs are still to be briefed on this new version of the CBA that's going to come into effect this year. And I wonder how many eyes are going to be glossed over. in Detroit when they sit down for the meeting and it's like everyone's going to be on chat GPT what does that mean well it's it's kind of funny like the way I understand it is that there was a memo that went out yesterday um with the details on this thing and that memo went to the agents and so the minute it goes to the agents I mean that's like you're opening up the faucet boys

you know that that information is going to get out to everybody and so basically the The information got out to the media for myself and the athletic and Puckpedia and other places before the GMs were really briefed on it yesterday in their meeting in Detroit. So now I think everybody is now probably up to speed either last night or today on what the rules are going to be for this season, which means good. I mean, now all the GMs know that their players are legally able to endorse wine and spirit. which I know it's the biggest part of the CBA that was passed yesterday. Do you think they've closed all the LTIR loopholes?

Like, I mean, I heard, I know that this might be a different question, but I've heard people suggesting that accruing cap space is practically meaningless now, and that doesn't make sense to me. Well, I mean, it still makes sense insofar as the trades you can make, you know, whether or not you have a guy in LTIR, LTIR. I mean, you know, I don't think we'll know it until we see it, boys. Honestly, like, there's people that are exponentially smarter than you or I nodding at Eric Tolski who might be able to find some ways to create creative mass around these new rules. But at its face,

I mean, it kind of makes sense. And also, you know, you can still get that massive amount of cap space you could get with an injured star in the regular season, the issue is that then you lose that player for the year. That's another part of the LTIR thing. If you have a legit injury and you're done for the season, you can replace that player. There's no restrictions on it, as long as the NHL and the NHLPA approve it, but then you don't have that player for the rest of the year. We're speaking to Greg Wischinski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Let's turn our attention to some of other stories that are percolating throughout the National Hockey League, Greg.

What do you make of what's going on or what's not going on between the Edmonton Oilers and Connor McDavid right now and the possibility of McDavid entering this season without a contract extension? I'm really shocked. I've got to be honest to you because I always figured

that he'd probably wrap this thing up around the time that Drysidle did his deal, which is now, basically in September. But the idea that he's still mulling it over and waiting to think about the years he wants to sign for and all this other stuff is kind of a surprise, as is the idea that he'd want any of this lingering into a season where his focus is on winning a gold medal for Canada and then

winning a Stanley Cup for Edmonton. So again, like this guy is a special athlete. He's probably able to compartmentalize all this stuff. I don't think he's going to maybe sweat about it as much as another player would. So maybe it's a different situation where you can go into the season and not be bothered by it because ultimately maybe knows what he wants to do. But it certainly doesn't help the blood pressure of Edmonton fans to have this linger as long as it has. And, you know, I took a lot of grief earlier this year when I was like one of the first guys to say, don't put it in concrete that McDavid's going to resign for, you know, for eight years just because Drysidal did.

and I took a lot of grief from certain people about that. But the way that it's played out right now, I think you can see that if he stays, it's not going to be for eight years, and that's if he stays. Well, if you look at the Oilers situation, they've got a lot of key players that are getting a little bit older. Mitya Secombe, you know,

even guys like Nugent Hopkins and Hyman are into their 30s now. I know he's got dry subtle there. and it would be a risk to him to leave a guy like dry sidel, but the oilers don't have much coming. And I kind of wonder if he might head into this season and be like, all right, who are these kids? Like the Isaac Howard kid, is he good? Is Matt Savoy any good?

And then see, you know, if he wants to make a decision then because if I was McDavid, I'd be okay staying a year or two more, for sure with the team, even with the goaltending situation. But I'd be a little hesitant to sign an eight-year extension because there could

be some rebuilding or retooling years in Edmonton given the age profile and their lack of prospects. No, that's exactly right. And that's exactly what he's thinking about. You know, he's, I mean, on the one hand, he's thinking about how do I maximize

my opportunity to win a Stanley Cup is it going to be here? Is it going to be someplace else? And the other thing he's thinking about is, you know, you have a chance to be the ultimate hockey free agent in the history of the game. I mean, like, you know, that's not nothing. You know, you have a chance to really, you know,

break the bank, rewrite the rules. And, you know, you want to make sure that if you have that opportunity, that you're still in your prime. And eight years from now, you're not going to still be in your prime. So I think those are two of the considerations that he's thinking about. Then obviously there's also where he wants to live, where his wife wants to live, and all those other stuff too.

So there's a lot on his plate. I think it's one of the reasons why it's taking so long. But you're absolutely right. And, you know, you've kind of poo-poohed the goal-tending thing. I mean, the goal-tending situation... Just trying to be nice. The gold-tending situation in Edepidding right now is last time we saw them, they were still deciding who was going to play in a game.

an elimination game in the Stanley Cup final. I know. It's crazy. That's psychotic. And one of the options was Calvin Pickard. That's a good one. Yeah, exactly. And so they come into this season right now and correct me if I'm wrong, but is there any other plan than we hope the NHL reinstates Carter Hart at this point for it?

No, no, no, no, wish. They got a new goalie coach. They got a new goalie coach. They'll solve everything. Fantastic. That'll fix everything. But, I mean, that's kind of like where we are as far as them fixing, what has been absolutely the Achilles

seal of that team for the last two post seasons so I don't you know you're doing your best to keep the best player in the world on your roster and you're just like we'll run it back I mean that's not great I'd also be shocked if Carter Hart signed in Canada absolutely shocked

because we asked who do we asked we asked Don Waddell about him right and he was like he did acknowledge you had the conversation though Yeah, conversation within the organization, like we've talked about it. Yeah. Yeah. So.

I'm not going to pretend to know the dynamics of the politics in Canada around that case. I understand what you're saying. I will also say that when your general manager is Stan Bowman, perhaps there's a counterbalance to this person will never be back in hockey because their general manager was a guy who I thought was that. Yeah, I just don't think Carter Hart will want to do that. if he's got options in the states like Columbus like go to a quieter market

does Columbus have Connor McDavid and Leon dry cycle who's that yeah at the end of the day this guy's a goalie who's looking to succeed in the national hockey league and first of all I think he'll go to any place that'll take him

because I do think there'll probably be teams that don't want to deal with all that and I think the Edmont pre-end post Stan Bowman have shown that they don't really care about reputation see a van der Kaine like they're they're just going to sign the guys that they want to sign because they're willing to go there.

Back to the McDavid thing for a sec. Something you mentioned, which I have thought about, and with every passing day, I get more and more intrigued by is Connor McDavid possibly, and just possibly, because he isn't the last year of his deal, going to unrestricted free agency and rewriting how we understand free agency.

Like he would be the biggest free agent in NHL history, would he not, if he was to go? Easily. Yeah. That would be, it would be the Tavares thing times a billion. Right? There'd be more PJs and more, you know, slide shows. You probably have to do even something more than a slide show, I would imagine, to try and impress con him. Well, the idea.

You'd have to do a lot. I'm going to, I'm going to date myself and date and date you guys a little bit, not in the actual literal sense, although I love you. Okay. But it's more like the Brad Richards thing. Remember what Brad Richards was a thing? Oh, yeah. I remember, I remember, yeah, yeah. I remember, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, and teams, it was like an episode of. madmen. Like they were taking all of their materials and pitching Brad Richards in some office. You know, teams are making DVDs for them and stuff. Like that's, that's the McDavid thing. But at the same time, like, I mean, as much as we want this to happen for Connor and just for the sheer interest in how that'll play out, you also have to figure that if he does become a USA, he has a decent idea of where he wants to go. Probably. Perhaps have some place that has, you know, Egers and Shirkin,

Adam Fox, a collection of good young forwards like Gabe Perrault and Will Cooley. I mean, I'm just saying that there's probably options out there that have some interesting building blocks that Connor McDavid might be interested. See, well, that was a bummer with Marner. Is that the Marner free agency, theoretically, should have been really exciting. But everyone knew

he was on his way, Vegas. He was, you know, he wanted to go there. That was pre-determined. They wanted him. Like a good old fashion, that's why I brought up Tavar's, and Richards is another good one, too, where you actually, like, you go into July 1 and you're like, oh, I got to figure out where I'm going to play next year. And then you do the entire car wash and you visit all these different places. I think that, I mean, you get that in the NBA a little bit. I think it would be amazing to see.

I doubt it happens because you're right. The guy probably has a pretty good idea of where he wants to go. I would wager on one of the California teams. California, too, New York or California. Yeah, I think he's going to one of the coasts. But, you know, in Marner's case, you also have to remember that. Vegas historically one of the safest places on Earth

there aren't roving gangs of thugs like in Toronto threatening his safety at every turn I mean Toronto is basically like Fallujah compared to Vegas and as we've seen from Marner that's very important what do you think about that story I think him and Darren Ferris are crafting

a narrative that they are comfortable with months before they they really need to put it out there I think it's It's been interesting to see the pushback on it from not only the Leifes, but also from Leifes media in a sense of like, hey, you know, every time that he's faced something, they've addressed it. They're obviously going to take care of their players. So I think the people saying that he's playing the victim card are completely right. And I don't necessarily think he needed to do this.

I thought it was a very curious Timing is the one that got me Like you said like I don't know if you necessarily needed to do this now Because you're not going back to Toronto for months Like they're not back there until January This just kind of puts Or ever I saw it like

Or ever just be like we had some challenging times there Sure But I saw it positioned And a lot of other people did as well As it was like one final Let's make sure we blame the fans in the market Before I say goodbye as opposed to just saying goodbye.

And again, the initial pushback, it kind of felt bad because you're saying, well, someone's actually receiving these threats or they're facing this kind of screen. They're feeling unsafe. Yeah, like you shouldn't make light of it. But it was the volume of pushback and the number of different, like you said, Leif's media, independent media, all these different people pushing back on the story and trying to poke holes in it. I think it spoke to two things. One, the veracity of his claims, but two, also people don't like Marner there.

And it's tough that because of his persona, they're trying to poke holes in his story. But, I mean, it is what it is. That's how that whole thing unfolded in Toronto. I used to work in PR before it became a fake journalist. And like, here's the thing. The easiest thing for him to do would just to be like, look, we didn't succeed.

I wasn't happy. You guys weren't happy with me. I think the best thing for the Leafs, a team I love and grew up. loving, just like you guys did, and the best thing for me is to just try something different. And people, and maybe 30% of the people that are, that are like super mad at Marner would be like,

you know what, that guy's right. We're kind of sick of him not performing in the playoffs. We've made him our postseason pariah, and that's a very mature thing for him to say that maybe to help the team that he loves and also to do right by him, he's just going to go do something different. And, like, that works a billion times better than, you know, we had to build a steel dome around our condo because of how, you know, crazy and violent Leafs fans are. You know, it's funny that you mentioned PR.

I've often joked. I'm not even joking anymore because this thing will come to an end soon. When the radio thing is done for me, I'm going to start up the Halford PR firm. And our entire ethos is going to be say nothing. Just don't talk. Just don't say anything Just let it pass You don't have to address it

You don't have to say anything Just wait for something else To pick up the news cycle And just let it go And that'll be $10,000 Yes And now give me my money So your plan is to just say

Your advice would be to be say nothing So you have learned something From your radio career Yeah It's good to have you back, buddy Thank you very much for joining us today We appreciate you taking the time Enjoy the rest of the week

We'll do this again next week All right, I'll talk to you, boys. Hey, buddy. Thanks. Greg Wischinski. For me, SBN, here on the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Get Zinger out the door for Greg. I put him on a platter. By the way, I love that wish was, like, I asked him some CBA questions. He's like, I think we're just going to have to wait to see how this plays out.

Good old wait and see. I'm like, yeah, that's what I'm going to do, too. I'm not going to be the one trying to figure out the loopholes. It's too complicated, and I gain nothing from it. Also, I'm sure Drance is working at it. It's too early. You don't have all the details. in front of you. You have understandings and ideas. And you, here's the thing, it got leaked to

the agents first. So the agents in turn, as they leak it, they're putting their, no, it wasn't leaked. It was sent. Okay, whatever, sent. But it's, they're the ones that are now telling all the different journalists about it. And in doing so, I don't know if you're aware of this now, but lots of agents, they have an agenda. And you can see it in trying to explain it to certain journalists that this is how I see the wrinkles and amendments to the CBA as it pertains to playoff salary cap and LTIR. Yeah. Right.

Now, how it plays out, again, it's not great radio, but we do have to wait and see what transpires because it's going to come into effect. People are going to digest it. Also, the one inevitability is that someone will find a loophole. It might not be as egregious as the previous one. It might not be as big, but someone will find some way to work around it because that's in part the part of the job like that it's almost part of the game right is that you get these rules set down and then a bunch of math whizzes try and figure out a way around it to utilize the rules

to your advantage which is what everybody did with stashing people on lTIR i think we'll have a little more conversation on mac david mitch marner um the vancouver canucks as well at 730 or maybe a little earlier than that after we speak with James Sharman next about do a little soccer talk with James Sharman if you go to sportsnet dot CA right now good website Ian McIntyre

has an exclusive interview with Quinn Hughes where he gets into a little bit of Quinn Hughes's future expectations for the season coming up and he also talks about

Elias Pedersen. I don't think there's any massive news within the piece but it is a good read it's a compelling read there's nothing like Quinn going like yeah I want to resign

or yeah I want to leave like he definitely kicks the can down the road on that and he does it with some really good PR spin but we will discuss that coming up after we talk with James Sharman about soccer lots of things going on in the soccer world including the Canadian

national team playing some upcoming friendlies, lots of big transfers around the soccer world. You are listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. It's another season of hard hits, heated rivalries and non-stop entertainment.

For tickets, visit BCLions.com, and get ready to roar as one. I'm going to date myself and date you guys a little bit. Thank you.