Halford & Brough in the Morning - How To Keep Quinn Hughes Happy

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

In hour three, Mike & Jason preview tonight's Canucks home tilt vs. the Avalanche with radio commentator Brendan Batchelor (1:02), plus the boys discuss other stories from around the NHL, and look ahead to Quinn Hughes' future with the Canucks (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

It is Brendan Batchelor, Batchelor, Batchelor, Life from Rogers Arena, Carlinka, Knox Games. It is Brendan Batchelor, Batchelor, Batchelor. 803 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Halpern Bruff Sportsnet 650. Halpern Bruff in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for sales, financing service or parts. We are an hour three of the program.

Brendan Batchelor is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off our three. Our three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-Pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. To the phone lines we go. Brendan Batchelor joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Brendan Batch, how are you? I'm well. How are you guys? We're good. I got a question that I wanna start off with. How difficult, as a play-by-play man, is it to deal with a team that has not one, not two, but three surname Pettersons? It wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be.

To be honest, I think the saving grace is that Elias Petterson pronounces his name, Elias Petterson. If there were two Elias Pedersen pronounces his name Elias Pedersen. If there were two Elias Pedersen, we'd be in real trouble. But I always talk about what I call games, the BCHL for the Surrey Eagles, there were a set of triplets that played on a line together for the Victoria Grizzlies, the Fitzgerald. So if I could deal with that, I could deal with anything. I don't like all these new numbers here.

Phillip Heidel 72. What kind of number is that? It's too high. Right? Like this is a total boomer tick. This is. But like the numbers now, I don't, I, I, I always, I forget numbers now, right? Like whatever happened to just three, four, five, six, seven. Some guy on our soccer team a couple of years ago asked for number 90.

And he's like, what are you going to get cut in the preseason? Why do you want that number? And I'm like, because that's the thing. I often equate high numbers with guys that aren't going to be there that long. That's a training camp. Yeah. But that's totally kids today. They want their high numbers. Where do you think you are, Gretzky? Come on. Well, and some guys just stick with the high number that they get given.

Like that was the story with Victor Mancini around number 90. Like he was asked about that the other day and he was like yeah I never wore it until I showed up at Rangers camp but that's the number they gave me and now I like it so I'm keeping it as my number. So it's not like the old days where it was just you know 1 through 23 and those were the only numbers that guys wore on the NHL roster. You know, for some franchises that makes a lot of sense because the number of numbers that are now retired or honored that you're going to

run out, as long as we never hit triple digit numbers, I'll be okay. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, I'll put my old man rants away for a bit. Who starts in goal tonight for the Canucks batch? Yeah, that's a good question.

I think it's an open question pretty much any game now because of, um, you know, the, the, the play of Lankanen, but also couple that with, you know, Demko's had a couple of pretty good games here and you want to try and ramp him up. So if I had to guess, I would lead that they go back to Demko tonight. Uh, but at the same time, if we show up at the

morning skate and it's Lankanen going through the starter's routine, that wouldn't surprise me either. Um, let's talk about the line combinations for lack of a better way of putting it. Um, who do you think Pedersen should be playing with? Because, you know, we were talking earlier

in the show about goals for the rest of the season. And obviously, you know, Hey, it'd be nice if they won the Stanley cup, but like that might seem a bit of a, a bit of a dark horse right now, uh, the Canucks to do that. So, you know, the number one goal for a lot of people is to get Elias Pedersen back to where he was, or at least close to back to where he was.

And his line mates are going to have a lot to say with that. The Brusk and Besser were with him against Detroit. They had some chances later in the game in an overtime, but they couldn't actually put one away. Do you think he goes back to that? Do you think Taka goes back to that combination or do you think he might put Sherwood with them or maybe Drew O'Connor with them? What do you think Pettersson needs right now? Yeah, there's a couple of schools of thought on that and I was actually thinking about this yesterday because I totally understand that throw your top guys together. They're your most productive forwards. They're the guys that get paid the most.

It makes sense to put those guys together and say, you're all great players, figure it out. But I kind of wonder if all of those guys, not just Pedersen, need a little bit of a spark or a little bit of a different look. So what I would do, and this may not be what Rick Taukett's going to do, is basically rotate the centers around. So based on how well Philip Heidel played and how he carried the puck through the neutral zone and, you know, wasn't afraid to hold on to pucks and try to make plays, I think I'd move him into the middle with Debruskin Vesser and see if that speed and that playmaking ability can kind of drag them into the fight a little bit. Then I put Souter back with Joshua and Garland, and then I put Pedersen with O'Connor and Sherwood

and say, look, it's the other two guys' job to get in on the four check and retrieve pox. It's your job to find the soft areas and get into positions where you can score and then put the puck in the back of the net when they're able to find you. So, was it you guys that were talking about it yesterday about like who is the F1 on that line with the DeBrusk, Vesser and Patterson and kind of not really

understanding, you know, or maybe it needs to be DeBrusk, but does he realize that that's his job now playing with those guys and those sorts of things. So I think roles are more simplified if you mix the lines that way. But at the same time, you know, I'm not a head coach in the NHL and I totally understand putting your top players together and assuming that eventually they'll be able to figure it out as well. Do you see any changes on the back end? Will Susie remain a healthy scratch? Will Victor Mancini get a look? Yeah, I guess it'll all depend on Queen Hughes status going into the game tonight, So we'll have to wait and see

exactly where things are at with the Kinnock captain. I think it's less likely that Sousi would draw back in if Hughes can go because then that would bump everybody down on the left-hand side. And DPT already looked really good. Yeah exactly. So you know, you've, you, you've got, suddenly you've got great depth there where you've got options and you feel okay about, um, you know, bumping forward to the third pair and, um, you know, DPD could be in, could be out, I guess.

We'll see in terms of handedness, what they want to do. I'd like to get a look at Mancini on the right side. I think he could probably come in over Juleson, but at the same time, he's a young player who doesn't have a lot of NHL experience and the team didn't practice yesterday. So they had an optional morning skate before the game against Detroit, which was basically all the new guys in Sherwood and the two goalies. And then they didn't practice yesterday. So they'll have a practice like morning skate this morning, I expect. But you know, they may wait another

game or two to throw the young kid in there and try and get him a little bit more settled in Vancouver and have a greater understanding of what's expected of him in Rick Taukett's system because especially for a defenseman and a young defenceman, that's probably more important than for guys like Phillip Heedle being thrown in upfront. When you read about what's been going on behind the scenes with the Canucks and, or listen to it when from Elliot Freeman on 32 Thoughts and he

was talking about, you know, three or four games into the season, they had to have a meeting with a small group of players about Pedersen and Miller, and they tried to convince them to move past their issues and they just haven't been able to do it. And then there was the 10 game leave of absence for JT Miller with all the noise and all the injuries that they've had to deal with,

the goaltending situation. Again, I said earlier in. Like, I don't, again, I said earlier in the show, like, I don't want to give them credit for hanging around because like so much of this is self-inflicted, especially the Miller and Pedersen stuff. But the fact that they haven't really completely collapsed, I guess you do have to hand them some credit for that.

Yeah. I think, you know, I was thinking about this yesterday as well, that, you know, they had a two month stretch where they didn't play very good hockey. And, you know, you look at a team like the New York Rangers who had a similar stretch. The Rangers went something like four and 14 or something like, I can't remember the exact record, but it they struggled to win games they lost lots of games in a row credit the Canucks they haven't gone on any lengthy losing streaks it was a lot of win one lose one win

one lose two like that but they found a way to get points and you know as much as we've focused quite a lot on the struggles in overtime, you know, that narrative and how we view it at the end of the season will be totally dependent on whether they make the playoffs or not. If they squeak into the playoffs or if they end up making the playoffs, then we will laud them for their ability to find a way to get a point in a lot of games. If they miss the playoffs, then they'll be criticized for not winning enough of those games that they pushed to overtime. But they've managed to hang around. I think it's also a reflection

of how no one else around them in the playoff race has really grabbed the bull by the horns, whether it be the Flames or Utah or even the LA Kings who are coming back down to earth a little bit here. So, you know, that's the exciting thing about where the Canucks sit right now. And I know that, you know, you don't necessarily think of being on the outside of the playoff picture at this time of the year after the way the season has gone as exciting. But, you know, there's lots of talk about a fresh start. Now you've got some new faces in and you still got 30 games left. And based on the way the teams around you have performed, the opportunity is there for you.

You've just got to grab it. You've just got to find a way to go on a little bit of a run here at some point, put some points together, find some consistency in your game. And that should be more than enough for you to make the playoffs. So as much as it's disappointing that, you know, we're sitting here in early February

and having this conversation about the Canucks, they're not out of it at all. They still have lots of opportunity to, to battle back up the standings and to make the playoffs and to try and turn what has been a very distracting and noise ridden season around into a better story than what we've seen thus far this year. But ultimately that's on them. And most importantly, it's on their top players

to produce and get back to the way that they are capable of playing because you're not going to go very far without a top line. And that's essentially what Rick Tocket and Patrick Alveen have both said here in the last few days is, you know, Alveen's comments about holding Pedersen to a higher standard than anyone else on the team, Tocket being pretty blunt and saying, look, those guys need to produce. That's what they're paid for. That's what it will likely come down to for a group that obviously has lost some depth and some some top of the lineup scoring punch down the middle

in JT Miller. But I think, you know, based on the way they played the other night and how the rest of the group looked has added a lot around the edges that if those top guys can get going, it makes them a really intriguing group. You know, I think the most, the biggest positive coming out of that Detroit game is that they pretty well drove play throughout the night without Quinn Hughes in the lineup. And we've spent so much time this year talking about how they're an elite play driving team when Hughes is on the ice and they're one of the worst play driving teams when Hughes is off the ice. Well

they drove play in three of the four lines did a really good job of driving play throughout the night and the one line that wasn't as consistent over 60 minutes is the line that you need to be a whole lot better. Is the biggest question for you whether or not they can score or is it something else? Is it, you know, who will be the goalie that they lean on and, or can Demko get his game back? Um, what's the biggest one for you? Yeah, it has to be scoring because I think, you know, the way the blue line

played the other night and again, one game, small sample size, we don't want to read into it too much, but you know, you, the blue line played the other night, and again, one game, small sample size, we don't want to read into it too much. But you know, you just look at the construction of that back end now with Pedersen coming in and you know, it slots guys much more appropriately, right? Like if we go by the way they skated in warmup before Hughes was scratched, you've got Hughes and Hironik back together as an elite pair. You've got Pedersen and Myers as a shut down pair that Rick Tauket will certainly trust against

pretty much any line in the league. And then your third pairing looks a whole lot better as well because you've got options there, whether it's Forbert and Juleson or Forbert and Susie or Pederson in that role or Mancini is an option now too. So, from a defensive side of things, you're okay with it. I think goaltending wise, for the most part, they've been okay. It's been a little up and down and not as consistent as you would have liked. But, you know, I have confidence that either

Lankinen or Demko can find a way to get on a run and, you know, create confidence that they can carry the mail. And you know what? We've seen a lot of teams in recent years have success by running a tandem too. So it may not be the worst thing that they don't have one guy that they're going to run with down the stretch. It keeps both guys fresh so that if you get into the playoffs, then you have options and you have goaltenders that haven't had a heavy workload. So all of that side of the puck now I'm much less concerned about. It's all about where the goals are gonna come from

and who's gonna produce and can their top guys get going because ultimately you might end up being a pretty good defensive team. And we've seen late last year, this group turned into an elite defensive club in comparison to other teams around the league. But ultimately where things dried up for them and ultimately cost them in the playoffs was the lack of scoring and the lack of scoring up the lineup. And you know, you can point a lot of the finger

at Elias Pettersson for that, for his lack of production. So it's the same story as it was late last season, even though a lot of things have changed. If Pettersson and his line don't produce, then this team doesn't have much of a chance of succeeding going forward. We're speaking to Brendan Batchelor here on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Batch is a presentation of the hockey shop in Langley. It's a great day for hockey shop in store or online at thehockeyshop.com. We tend to get distracted on this show, Batch, and I realize that it's now 8.17 in the morning, so we've been here for over two hours. We really haven't talked about if Quinn Hughes, fairly important player for the team, if he's

going to play tonight, given that he missed last game. Are you anticipating that Hughes is going to be in the lineup tonight against Colorado? Yeah, I guess we'll see. Rick Tauke, its answer was not really committal after the game. He basically said that Hughes wanted to gut it out, but it probably wasn't the smartest of decisions. And we'll see how things are in 48 hours. So I guess in what, just over two hours from now,

when they take to the ice for morning skate, we'll see if Hughes is out there and then go from there in terms of his availability. And I think, you know, it's going to be really interesting, first of all, to see if Hughes gets back in the lineup tonight. But beyond that, does he get back in the lineup this week? Does he play in the four nations faceoff? You know, how capable is he if he's dealing with some sort of lower body issue at the moment on top of the hand injury that he's been playing through for a while here and can he continue to be the elite player

that he has been for this team in spite of the fact that he's playing through some stuff? I wouldn't doubt him. I think that he's a guy that even if he'd played the other night, he probably would have made a big difference for the Canucks. So we'll see if they're gonna be cautious again or if he feels like he's ready to ramp it up

and get back in the lineup because they could certainly use him against the Aalanche tonight. Guys are dropping like, I mean, I wouldn't say like flies, but there's like every day it feels like there's another guy dropping out of the tournament, like William Carlson, Wild Bill, he's out for the Swedes.

Finland named a couple of replacements, Patrangel obviously. If I'm not mistaken, JP Berry with Donnie and Dolly, I think kind of like tampered down the worry that Hughes was going to miss. Well, he said, it's bumps and bruises right now with Quinn Hughes. So nothing serious or long lasting, but bumps and

bruises could go away with a two week vacation really, a two week break. You could heal the bumps and the bruises. He also said like, Quinn wants to go to this. He wants to play in this tournament. And if you're an elite hockey player, why wouldn't you want to go play in this tournament? Unless your name's Alex Petrangelo.

Yeah, right. Yeah, but Alex Petrangelo has been able to do all this stuff. I know, I know that's a big difference. These younger guys haven't been able to play for their countries at this level before. I understand. Go ahead, Batch. I was going to say, I've heard some talk this week too about like all the four nations like

maybe not as excited for it as we thought we would be and things like that. I don't know, I'm incredibly excited to watch best on best hockey and I can't even imagine how a guy like Queen Hughes feels about the opportunity to suit up for Team USA for the first time in quite a while here and literally play at a best-of-best tournament that we haven't seen in more than a decade now in terms of you know international competition. So, you know, it's not a World Cup it's not an Olympics, but you can tell that these guys care about this tournament a lot and you know

maybe there is the odd exception and we don't know all the details of Patrangelo's situation so I'm not going to speculate on that but knowing Quinn Hughes, knowing the competitor he is, knowing how much that opportunity will mean to him and to go play with his brother as well, I think he would have to be severely injured for him to miss it and that may not be what Canuck fans want to hear but that's the risk you run when you have these international tournaments and we've all been pining for them to be back for a while. You know, sometimes they're going to be great and team Canada wins gold and everybody's going to be

happy. Other times there's a very real chance that one of your top players will be risking injury or will be injured by participating in these things. And that's just the way it goes. If you want to have international best on best hockey. Which game of the round, Robin, are you most

looking forward to it? Is it Canada, US or is it US Sweden? Still Canada, US for me, but I will be watching USA, Sweden very closely to see if there's any sort of matchup on the ice between Miller and Pedersen and if there's anything else that can fuel the soap opera that we've all been living in for the past two months or two years, it feels like to be perfectly honest. There's going to be something, right?

They're unencumbered now. They're not teammates anymore. There's going to be something that happened. That game is in Boston, so it's going to be an American crowd. I think JT Miller is going to be pretty fired up. Like there has to be something that happens, even if it's just like a, a little stick whack here and there. Well, and the one thing I can tell you for sure is that whatever happens, we'll read into it way too much and it'll fuel conversation on this station, maybe for days afterwards.

So there's nothing wrong with that. We sure will batch. Hey, thanks for doing this today, bud. We really appreciate it. Have a good call tonight. We'll do this again next week. Sounds that. We sure will batch. Hey, thanks for doing this today, bud. We really appreciate it. Have a good call tonight. We'll do this again next week. Sounds good. Thanks.

Thank you. Brendan Batchelor play by play voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Okay. So I just made my call. Something is going to happen between Miller and Pedersen in that game. What do you think?

Yeah. I mean, I, he. What if Petey's the one that just like. Just loses it. No. Go time. Bury, buries him with a hit. Cause he can deliver heavy hits.

What if he burry, churl is him. Can you imagine? We would not talk, talk, talk to him. We were like, yes, that's what I want. Sports talk radio. Exactly that. That's what we want. If that happens.

That would be the only thing. Sports talk radio would just implode. We wouldn't be able to deal with it. It would just be cataclysmic. It would just, the whole station would just erupt. Uh, in case. Too much for us to deal with. In case.

The takes would be too hot. In case you're wondering Canada, the United States, February 15th, and that game is in Montreal at the Bell center. Um, USA, Sweden, February 17th. That is the last game of the round robin at TD Garden in Boston. And then the final, there's a round robin, four teams.

Top two teams make the final and that is February 20th at TD Garden in Boston. Yeah. Like I, and just, I know we got Richard Sherman coming up, so we got to go to break, but I do want to say like, I know I've been flipping back and forth, especially with Quinn Hughes, like he shouldn't go, but that's just speaking as a

Canucks fan who doesn't want him to get any further injured and wants them to play the second half of the season. I still maintain what I've said throughout this thing is that the players were passionate about international best on best. They wanted it badly to the point where it was collectively bargained. Yeah. We had Marty Walsh on the show, NHLPA boss, and he said this was a priority for the players. So my thought process is be united as a

front and be all in on this as a player group. Now you're not going to be able to control every player and every, every union member. It's impossible. I think they're going to be into it, man, but they've got to be into it. Right. Like if Hughes goes and he's banged up and he's hurt and he gets hurt, I will begrudgingly acknowledge it was because this means something to the players like it. And batch brought up a good point. There's going to be some inherent risk

if you're gonna have these tournaments and they're gonna matter. If you're gonna play an intense competition in the midst of an intense 82 game regular season, there's even more risk for injury. But if you want that, the risk comes along with it. I just hope that the players are bought in because they really petitioned and bargained hard for this

and they got it. So now it's almost like the put up or shut up party, right? Yeah. You wanted this, you've got it, go make it happen and make it a good event for the fans. All right. Richard Sherman is going to join us next on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Before we go to break, I need to tell you yet again about the Clayton Public House, the host of the big football party this Sunday hosted by Sportsnet 650.

If you want to go, if you want a reservation, visit them online at theclatonspub.com, the Clayton Public Host. Good food, good people, good times. As Jason mentioned, Richard Sherman coming up next, Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks.

Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post-game show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 832 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking Sportsnet 650. Halvard and Brother in the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination

for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour three of the program. Some of you may be wondering, what's up with the music? What's up with the programming? Where's what we learned time?

Fred, that was an hour ago. Little bit of a different spin on today's show. We are waiting on Richard Sherman to call in to the show. Yeah, that Richard Sherman, Seattle Seahawks legend, Super Bowl champion, five time Pro Bowler, five time All-Pro. So we did what we learned earlier. Take care of some business right now. I should mention that it's still hour three of the program and hour three is still brought to you by Campbell and Pound,

real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-pound.com today. It's actually a busy day across Sportsnet 650. Big game tonight, seven o'clock Rogers Arena, Canucks, Colorado Avalanche for the second time this season. Those two will be going toe to toe. A bunch of people texting in about, Canucks, Colorado Avalanche for the second time this season. Those two will be going toe to toe. A bunch of people texting in about the Canucks

to the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket as well at 650-650. We can read some of those texts now, because as per usual, we didn't get to a ton of them when we did the actual What We Learns. Well, Josh, the Zamboni guy texts in What We Learn. Buying the US Anthem worked to pause the trade war. We can all watch the Super Bowl with a clear conscience.

I wonder what the reaction tonight will be. Do we take a 30 day pause of booing the American anthem? I feel like the point was more than adequately made on Sunday. I don't think we need to go down that road again. Do you think they should be sending anthem singers out there? Or should they just play?

Imagine if they just played a super old school American anthem? It'd be hilarious. Just brought it, like a cassette? Yeah, just a cassette with like a marching band's version of the anthem. So- Just straight down the middle, the fundamental anthem. I'm going to sound incredibly centrist on this, which is Google for like translated to like he's just not taking a side.

Yeah, there's a picture of you in the dictionary actually. Move my hands up in the air. You can go either way. I get the sentiment and what everyone was doing. I think anyone that was trying to point to what happened on Sunday is like, well, what are the American players? I think the American players are very cognizant of the very delicate

political climate. If they're not, that's on them. It's not on the people booing. I get that part of it. I felt horrible for the woman singing the anthem on Sunday. Yeah. Wasn't fair to her. I don't think anyone can argue that.

Now, Lattie had an update on that. Yeah. She's she's done interviews since that happened and she's not holding any grudges. She was explained to before she went out there that there was probably going to be some booing and she says there's no hard feelings. Obviously it wasn't a great moment. It was tough to watch though.

But she's not harboring any ill feelings. I'm glad. I'm glad she feels okay. I'm glad she took that position. She took the high road on that. Good for her. Yeah, it was just a moment that was awful for her. And I'm glad that she's been able to rise above. And I think it's a very big person to do that. So there's that element of it. If you want to go

down the road of, do we need to do the anthems for these domestic sporting events. I don't see the value in them. I know Don Taylor's probably pounding on his dashboard and or steering wheel right now, because he loves a good anthem. Donnie, I'm sorry, but you know, if you're not, like I understand it, a international soccer match or the four nations face off where you're representing your country and you're wearing

your country on the front of your Jersey. I get that. That's an international competition. I think it's just such a tradition now that it's not going to die out. I don't, yeah. It's just, it's just, that's just the way it is. And I'm fine with it if it doesn't, I'm not

going to lose any sleep over it. But don't be shocked when, when things aren't going well politically that we get reactions like this because anthems are inherently political, so people are going to react. Yeah, I just thought, I thought it was, I thought it was wholly appropriate to boo the anthem. It's not the big, it's not a big deal.

I mean, there was threats to wreck our economy. Oh, I'm sorry. I booed the anthem, right? Nashville booed ours. Did they? Stupid Nashville. Yeah, when Ottawa was there. Oh, good for them.

They're, they're having a tough season. It was a very muted boo though and didn't last very long. Yeah. But nevertheless. sure up your border so If a Cesar So look and

To put a bow on this conversation if it ends up being that brief snapshot moment where people were reacting Viscerally to what the news of the day and the climate of the moment, okay? If it continues to go on Then I guess we're gonna have to have another larger scale conversation because I can't imagine that anyone wants to see this happen continually Continually at a sporting event like let's be cute. Let's be clear like the Vancouver Canucks Detroit Red Wings game probably isn't the appropriate venue to have that kind of. And I don't want to call it discourse because it was just a cacophony of boos.

But like the Canucks, let's be clear, didn't represent Canada any more than the Detroit Red Wings represented America in that moment. There's players from all different countries and it's not like the Red Wings were like, we're going to take this into the room and we're going to use this fuel for the second period. It didn't, you know, so I'll leave it at that.

Any luck? No, Richard Sherman hasn't called yet. Are we getting ghosted? We are reaching it. We have reached out to his people. Nice. Any luck, no, Richard Sherman hasn't called yet? Are we getting ghosted by Richard Sherman? We have reached out to his people. Nice. Um, Aaron, the assistant cruise director, uh, is what we learned. Maverick's GM, Nico Harrison was the Nike

representative who botched the sponsor pitch to a young Steph Curry. For the uninitiated, Nico called him Seth, spelled his name wrong and used a presentation that was used for Kevin Durant. Curry opted for Under Armour. Poor Nico Harrison.

He's getting everything. So. Everyone is wondering what's going on with that. This was a long time ago when this happened. This was a 2013 meeting, a presentation with Steph Curry, which is 12 years ago. And then it was captured by a piece in the ESPN that came out in 2016.

So this is a bit of ancient history. Like, you'd like to think that you'll give someone the benefit of it. Like, everyone screwed up at work before. We do it on a daily basis. They keep inviting us back. But it's been obviously brought to the forefront in the light of this Donchich trade. The reverberations from this, it's funny, because we were talking to Arif Dean earlier

about how shocked he was by the Miko Rantan trade. And I wanted to say, I'm like on the scale of shock, where did that rank in terms of I didn't see this coming to the Luca Donchich, Anthony Davis trade. Because let's be clear here. Donchich Davis, we might never see another trade like that in sports again. Cause not only did it feature two superstar level players, nobody knew it was coming. The fact that the Lakers and the Mavericks were able to keep that thing under wraps

for three weeks is quite incredible. but given the climate of the day. Okay. Who's, who's the guy running the Lakers? Rob Polinka. Okay. So did Nico go to him because they were buddies? There is an understanding. Like there was a storyline out there that was

like, Hey, I know you were buddies, so I'm going to take you, take this to, take this deal to you and you only. If I'm a Mavs fan and I hear that, I'm like, you should be fired. I asked a couple of people that knew the situation a little better than I did, and this is how it was explained to me. They knew each other and Harrison sort of brought it up as a, hey, would you ever think of this? Just two, you know, two guys talking, you know, executives, you talk about every player.

And this goes on in the NHL too. Every player gets talked about. It's just, you know, casual conversations. What do you think about this? And then there was kind of a twist where Polinka started saying, look, if you're gonna trade Donchich, you're going to need to get a, you're probably not

going to get equal return, but you're going to need to get a superstar level player in return. And then it's kind of became like knocking guys off the board about, so for example, Milwaukee. Yeah. Like you could trade. They're not going to trade.

Luca Donchich, but you could. Yeah. But Milwaukee's not going to do that trade for two reasons. One, they probably want to keep you honest, but also's not gonna do that trade for two reasons. One, they probably wanna keep, be honest, but also there's no chance that Luke Adantius is signing a super max, or sorry, he wouldn't be able to get his trade,

but he wouldn't try to, I wouldn't sign a max contract in Milwaukee. Just go to free agency and sign somewhere better. Like that was the allure of Los Angeles, because that's the team they go to when they get free agency, free agent time. But at the very least, don't you think they should have tried?

See, that's the thing. It's just like, well, why don't you just try? Just try. Try other options. And then they said, well, what about Boston? And they're like, Boston's not trading Jason Tatum. Why would they trade Jason Tatum for Luka Dantjic? They just beat Luka Dantjic in the finals.

They like Jason Tatum. They got a good thing. He just won them a title. They're not going to do that. And then you start going down the list of superstar for superstar. And suddenly you're like, well, what about Anthony Davis? And it's like, you know, amazing defensive player. You can't, and then you start getting,

you start talking yourself into it and then, you know, the, the other side starts talking you into it. And it's not a perfect, this isn't a perfect theory. Yeah. But I do think there's some legs as to how it might've gone to at least explain how you take a top five player in the league and don't shop him everywhere before trading him to the Lakers.

Right? I think that's, that's an interesting dynamic there. My, my whole point is that if you're trading a player of that caliber, that means that much to your fans. And it sounds like you only talk to one team about it. Your fans should be furious. And you're looking at the return that you got. And I understand the AD part of it, but don't you

want multiple first round draft picks? Mikhail Bridge has got five, four or five first round draft picks. Mikhail Bridge has got five or five first round draft picks. And, you know, so Harrison and Jason Kidd and the Mavericks have explained it as well. We want to we still think we can win now. We've got Kyrie Irving. We've got whatever's left to play Thompson. We've got players here. We've got. And, you know, there's the sense that A.D. has always said, if you play me next to another big like I'm even more

dynamic because I've got another big guy to carry the load. They've got that in Dallas. So like, I get it from that perspective, but when the stories come out about you negotiated with a pool of one, okay, it's then they're like, but no one was, no one hamstrung you to do it. It's not like he had a no movement glossary. He said, you can only talk to the Lakers. You can talk to the entire league.

It does. I can understand why Mavericks fans are so upset. Yeah. If the Canucks traded Hughes that way, I'll be like, I hope you canvassed for the best return. Oh, and by the way, also, I'm done with this team. So everyone's been trying to come up with the NHL comparable. Who is it we had on the show yesterday? They came up with dry side for Mark Stone, which I was like, yeah, that's a good one. That's pretty comparable.

I was thinking you might have to go like a high and forward like Dreisaitl for an age of defensements, like a Dreisaitl for a Victor Hedman or something. But the comp is in that realm if you want to keep going forward. What did you think of what JP Berry said on the Donnie and Dolly show? He had a lot to say, did he not? I was kind of focused earlier when we were talking a batch about the Quinn Hughes angle of

it all, but how many connects does he represent? By the way, I lost track, but JP Berry's got a few. He's got a Heedle. Yeah. Um, and who else does he have? Hughes. Right. Okay.

Yeah. Well, Heedle and Hughes, and I think there is, maybe, I don't know. Who knows? Do we have some audio from this? Well, we donle and Hughes, and I think there is maybe, I don't know. Do we have some audio from this? Well, we don't, but I thought I sent it along. But what JP Berry said was essentially like, Canucks fans, Quinn loves being a Canuck. Don't freak out. Don't freak out.

But I also think that, you know, his agent is going to say anything else, right? But he also had a, he also. Can you imagine? He was like, yeah, he's gone. Yeah. You have two years to freak out. But I also think that the point he made was like,

things do have to quiet down here and the Canucks need to kind of pull themselves together. Yeah. And finish strong and that obviously is going to help, or if Quinn Hughes is going to sign, obviously it's going to help. But I'm still worried. Just because his agent came on and said,

Canucks fans have to settle down. Because I feel like, and it kind of annoys me and, you know, it annoys me when other people play into it as well. Like the agents, oh Vancouver, that's just Vancouver. It's like, yeah, we're a passionate hockey market. Like we shouldn't be ashamed of that. No. We shouldn't, we shouldn't feel badly about that. Do we go a little crazy sometimes on social media? Like yeah, because you know, we're a passionate hockey market. And in real media.

That's what we do. And we've waited the entire life of the franchise to have a defenseman like Quinn Hughes on the team. And the thought of him walking away in unrestricted free agency is scary for us. So yeah, some of us are going to maybe lose a bit of composure sometimes thinking about that, but it's very important that Quinn Hughes resigns with this team. So it's almost like, Hey, take it as a compliment. You know, take it as a compliment that we're, we're looking ahead, we're looking at the situation

and going, Oh, this Miller-Peterson thing isn't very good. Well, Miller's gone. There's still a chance that Peterson's traded. What shape are the Canucks going to be when it comes to the decision time for Quinn Hughes? We're just, we look ahead. while Miller's gone, there's still a chance that Pedersen's traded. What shape are the Canucks going to be when it comes to the decision time for Quinn Hughes? We're just, we look ahead.

That's the way it works in the NHL now. Okay. You think you've got the audio here, right? We're going to give it a shot. Let's, let's give it a shot. Hey, you know what? If it doesn't work out, we'll just yell at you in the aftermath.

Uh, JP Berry yesterday from Donnie and Dolly right here on Sportsnet 650. Well, I'm, you know, I really like his game. Like we've all, our whole group is kind of waiting for him to, to really take it to another level. He can skate, he's really smart player and he's a great teammate. I think he's, he's going to be a good fit. Uh, that's, I think that's a heat'll part.

It goes, it's a long interview. It needed to be cut up, but essentially he said, uh, he was just talking about, um, Quinn Hughes and, you know, he's happy here in Vancouver. He's happy to be here. He's happy to be cut up, but essentially he said, uh, he was just talking about, um, Quinn Hughes and you know, he's happy here in Vancouver and don't freak out about it. Okay. So, uh, Richard, Richard Sherman has really thrown

us. Good try on the audio, by the way. It was a good. I was given zero direction for this. I apologize. I know I was just like gesticulating wildly towards laddie. Um, another thing that we discussed yesterday,

uh, my world famous hit on fan 590, I kind of pivoted the conversation to Quinn Hughes to be honest. And I said, with regards to Pedersen, I said, it's almost going to be, everything moving forward now, I think is going to be about, not necessarily appeasing a singular player,

but Quinn Hughes is your captain. He's your most important player. He's your most valuable player. And while the contract isn't on the front burner, it's on the back burner because it's only two years away. And everyone understands a couple of things here. One, the Canucks are getting incredible, incredible value on Quinn Hughes' contract currently. Currently. There might not be, yeah, currently is doing a lot of heavy. Currently. There might not be, yeah. Currently is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. We, there might not be a better contract in the

National Hockey League in terms of what they're getting out of the dollars paid. There might not be. It's a, it's a remarkable contract for how good he is and the level in which he's playing and the amount that he plays. Let's be clear about that. Keeping them around is going to be, there's going to be two major points.

So it's one is how much, uh, how much are you willing to allot to him cap wise? And it should be however much money you can percentage wise, the max. And then the second part is going to be, what have you done with the players around him? What have you built around this guy? Because it's very clear that he's, and whatever term you want to use, like he's your horse, he's your alpha, you're going, he's going to take you the places you want to go. You need to surround him with

the pieces that are gonna help him in that journey. So if that's the case, you need to make some pretty bold definitive moves with core players saying like, we're gonna get you the guys, or if we've currently got guys that we don't think are gonna get the job done, we'll move those players out. And that's an important part of this because Miller's already gone. That part of that chapter of the book is closed.

Like that's done. They wrote that one. He's not coming back, he's gone. Pedersen, and you want to talk about like a finite window from basically now until July 1, that's where this management group has to decide, is this going to be Quinn Hughes' running mate for the next eight years?

One C and one D. Or are we going to cut bait now? If you want to look at it in very harsh, frank terms. Is there any way we could get Hughes married off to a Vancouver goal that really likes this city? Then there's option three. That's why we've got to bring in Josh Norris, man. Make Hughes happy.

Bring in all his buddies. Who do you want us to bring in to make you happy? Hold on. Now here's the thing. You are your best friends. You will try to acquire all of them. You can't come... Everyone, every guy, probably all four of us in this room know what it got. Coming across as too desperate. I'm sure we acquire all of them. You can't come again everyone every guy probably all four of us in this room No, what it got coming across is too desperate. I'm sure we've all had no but Norris

Sure, we've all had that experience Norris name has been out there loathing to the Canucks So it's not like just I'm pulling this out and there's a very has been late It was a very fine line between appeasing a player and then capitulating. I know but if the team is already interested in him I'm saying you might as well that there's a bonus to that. I think Quinn Hughes is going to sit there on the verge of signing a hundred million dollar contract, deciding his future career in the NHL, his legacy in the NHL, and he's going to think about the opportunity to join his two brothers, they are blood, in New Jersey and he's going to be like, yeah, Josh are blood, in New Jersey, and he's gonna be like,

yeah, Josh Norris is here though. Yes. Have you been to New Jersey? They gotta get him married off to a Vancouver girl. That's the key, right? And she's like, I'm not leaving. All my friends and family are here. I mean, you joke.

That's how you get them. Well, whatever, however they do it, I'll go back to my original point. That's why they're Grand and Besser. Well, that now is the whole thing moving forward. The moment that we had an identified core, remember that? The glory days, the big four, Demko.

Yeah, I remember. Pedersen. Yep. Miller. Yep. Hughes. Well, that core four, the pillars, the four pillars, they certainly don't seem as solid as it once did.

No, three of them might not be here next year. Right? So you have to find guys that he's gonna ride with real fast. I just want, I'm just picturing a dog running the Canucks and he's like bringing in all his childhood friends to play on the team. I was like, I don't even play hockey, man.

Yeah, but it'll be fun though, man. It's like a little country club. Oh no, wait, we tried that. Not the country club. Oh God, no, no, no. We can hang out. Okay, well it doesn't look like Richard Sherman's gonna call us.

If he does, we're real short on time here. We'll probably get him another game. He didn't want to be matched up with a sorry program like the Halford and Brough show. We can do a 45 second host. You've been wanting to work in that crab tree clip all show, and at 8.52 you finally made it to Bailey. Well, he didn't show up,'s we can do a 45 second. You've been wanting to work in that crab tree clip all show. And at 8.52, you finally made it.

Well, he didn't show up, so we gotta do something. Well, the chances are we'll probably have him on the show at another time this week. In addition to Richard Sherman being the keynote speaker for the JCC Sports Dinner on February the 12th at the higher agency Vancouver, it's also Super Bowl week, so it's a very good time to have him on,

because I had a lot of, I wanted to ask him like, how would you set this up, given your experiences in the Super Bowl, and the fact that they've got a Super Bowl rematch here from two years ago, but alas, he did not join us, and that's okay. So a friendly reminder,

we'll just reset everything that's happening today. We've got Canucks Central with Sat and Dan, that's gonna be from four to six. Then it's six to seven, Sat and Dan. That's going to be from four to six. Then it's six to seven. Sat and Dan are going to take you to the pregame show between the Canucks and the Colorado Avalanche. Puck drop is seven o'clock tonight. You can hear it all right here on Sportsnet 650.

Batch and Randy will be on the call. Sat and Bic are going to be working the intermissions. And then the post game show, which is going to run through till 10 o'clock. So that's about six hours of consecutive, uninterrupted connects program. Lots of other hockey news out there right now. The Buffalo Sabres apparently had a meeting.

It was like, we can't get bullied. And, uh, it was there. They've had many meetings of that. You know who they should bring into that meeting as a guest speaker? Ryan Miller. Also, uh, sounds like Matt Barzell is going to be out for a while. Patrick Wa said he doesn't know whether Barzell will be back by the end of the regular season. That's crazy for a team that was just had a massive winning streak snapped.

Yeah. With a loss to Florida, but they won seven straight prior to that. Okay. The music means we gotta go. Thank you all for listening. Thank you all for contributing. Enjoy the game tonight. We'll be back tomorrow morning to talk about it. But for now, we gotta say goodbye. Signing off, I have been Mike Halford, he's been Jason Brough, he's been A-Dog, and he's been a laddie. This has been the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.