Halford & Brough in the Morning - I May Have Committed Some Light Tampering

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they dissect yesterday's end-of-season comments from Canucks management (6:00), plus they talk what was a wild night of NHL playoff action with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (27:12). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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It is Halford at his broth at his Sportsnet 650 and we are coming to you live from the Kintec studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Ladi, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Broth for the morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com.

We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you in step.

Got a big show ahead on a Tuesday. It's a four-guester here on the Halford and Brev show on Sportsnet 650. Guest list today begins at 6.30. Greg Wyshinski from ESPN is going to join the program. We will recap an absolutely fantastic night in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Four games, all decided by one goal. to join the program. We will recap an absolutely fantastic night in the Stanley Cup playoffs, four games, all decided

by one goal. Two of them went to overtime. One of them was decided with less than a minute to go in regulation. We can also talk to Greg about news around the NHL, big shake up in Seattle yesterday. Greg Wyszynski will join us at 6.30 to talk about all that.

Hey, which, which former Canuck do you think played the best last night? Was it, uh, Andre Kuzmenko who plays on the Kings first line. Power play merchant. He was very good. With Anzej Kopitar and Adrian Kempi. He had a goal and two assists or was it Anthony Bovillier? Tito. He plays on Washington's first line and, line and he had a goal and an assist.

Which, which, which guy? Ekman Larson yesterday, might as well throw him in there too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah behind the bench. At the very least, former Canucks. So wish you'll join us at 6.30. Seven o'clock, we're going to go to New York. Arthur Staple from the Athletic is going to join us. Isles and Rangers, two very important and transformative off seasons for two teams that fell short of making the playoffs this season. We'll talk to Art about all that at seven o'clock.

Then it's 7.30 and eight o'clock. Brendan Batchelor's gonna join us, followed by Landon Ferraro. Both of our regular Tuesday Canucks insiders are gonna join us on the same day to break down everything. And there was a lot from Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alveen's end of year media availability.

Yesterday, we'll talk about Elias Pettersson, Rick Tauke, Quinn Hughes, Quinn Hughes' brothers, and a whole lot more with Batch at 7.30 and then Landon at eight. So working in reverse on the guest list, eight o'clock it's Landon Ferraro, 7.30 Brendan Batchelor, seven o'clock Arthur Staples, 6.30 Greg Wyshinski.

That's what's happening on the program today. Greg, 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 moving. We know how missing last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... 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 bccsa.ca. We do wanna spend about three to four minutes here talking about just how fantastic last night's Stanley Cup Playoff games were. Before we get into the dregs of Canucks talk for the majority of what happened. It was a tremendous night. After a weekend in which yours truly

kinda took the entertainment value of those games to task, Monday really delivered with four games across the board. As I mentioned, two of them going to overtime, including a great game between the Habs and the Capitals. I have so much respect for that Montreal team for what they're able to do in third periods. They had a great comeback there. Alas, it fell short.

Huge night from Alex Ovechkin there. Followed up by Winnipeg in what was probably, and this is no detriment to the game. That was the worst game of the night. Probably the worst game of the night, Winnipeg. Step it up, even though it was a fun game to watch. That series is over too. St. Louis had to go in there and steal a game. They're not winning four or five against the Jets. The margins in that series are razor thin. There's not much of a difference between the two, but I'm with you. I don't see St. Louis winning four or five. So there was that game there. And then the two nightcap games yesterday,

we got our second overtime game of the playoffs courtesy of Colorado and Dallas. That was an awesome game. Dallas played like it was a must win and they got the win in overtime thanks to Colin Blackwell in overtime. And then of course, an absolutely bizarre game between the Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers in which the Edmonton Oilers

fell behind four nothing, made it four two, then fell behind five two. And I turned it off. Then rallied to make it five five scoring two goals with the goalie pulled and they should have just kept Stuart Skinner out of the net. Wouldn't have made a difference. Phillip Deno scored with about 46 seconds left on a flutter puck over just kept Stuart Skinner out of the net. Wouldn't have made a difference. Philip D'Ono scored with about 46 seconds left

on a flutter puck over top of Stuart Skinner. Not a great night for the goalies. Best score in hockey, man. Six five. Yeah. So just a wild night in the national hockey league. All right. Let's get to the Canucks stuff.

That was it. Yeah. We'll talk about these games later, uh, obviously by ourselves, but, and, and with some of our guests, um, yeah, the connects held their, uh, press conference end of season availability with management this time. It was Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alveen up there.

And Rutherford started with a humdinger of a statement, um, and then we're not going to play the whole clip, but he basically said we're at a very disappointing season that we feel bad about. And he honestly then like immediately launched into the issue with JT Miller and Elias Pedersen. He said, we ran into an unfortunate incident in the first half of the season that hurt the

chemistry of our team, that we eventually had to make a trade that we didn't expect to make and didn't want to make. Rutherford was of course, talking about trading JT Miller and by the way they talked about Miller, it doesn't sound like they hold much ill will towards him. So I thought he was talking about the Daniel

sprung trade, but alas. Yeah, no, no, no, it was, it was the JT Miller trade. Um, but I could see why you were confused. Um, you know, the way they talked about him was glowing and which is weird because he was part of a rift, a feud that, that, um, changed the team. And this is the words, uh, Rutherford used, um,

from a contending team to a quote team in transition. And Rutherford conceded that eventually got to the point that Miller himself asked out of Vancouver first, the Canucks went to him and said, you know, would you consider waiving your no trade clause for some team? And it eventually got to the point where Miller was getting a little antsy. He was getting a little anxious and I think we

could see that at times from his play on the ice. And he eventually said, look, man, I want to we could see that at times from his play on the ice. And he eventually said, look, man, I want to out of here. Um, but if you were looking for any of the juicy details about the rift, neither Rutherford nor Alveen were sharing yesterday. So, uh, I guess we'll have to wait and see for

any of the juicy details on that one. Um, there were a bunch of storylines to get through, including A-Dogs, because the dream of reuniting the Hughes brothers, I guess is alive in Vancouver. We'll have a bit more in a sec. Alive and tampering. Alive and not going to happen. On Rick Tocket, Rutherford said he expects a decision one way or the other by the end

of the week and was very complimentary of the head coach. They will not use the option. They've come back from that and smartly, because it was a dumb idea to begin with, basically said what we all said, you can't really force a guy back if he doesn't really want to be there. What are you going to do? Force me to be here? And by the way, there's another opening in the NHL. I think Halford mentioned it.

The Seattle Kraken fired Dan Bosma, so they'll be looking for someone new. On Elias Pettersson, Alveen expressed his belief in the player, and Rutherford said the first few days of the offseason have been encouraging from the Pettersson perspective, and that PD has been working out hard in Vancouver, and the way the Rutherford said it's not, not just coming in for a

cup of coffee, which is, which is nice because maybe Pedersen was trying to save some money, you know, like instead of going to Starbucks, come to Roger's arena for a coffee. It's a sensible approach. And while I'm here, I'll have a little bit of a workout. Uh, Alveen also said he'd be stupid not to keep

his options open when it came to a trade. So, uh, expect to hear Pedersen's name, uh, in trade rumors leading came to a trade. So expect to hear Pettersson's name in trade rumors leading up to the draft. And you know, one of the more curious quotes, I thought, I think I know what Rutherford is saying. So I'm not going to parse his words too aggressively, but he said, he had a quote where he said, better sends a guy that's always going

to be able to get his points, but can you be a contending team with your top player, just getting points? And the answer is no. So he's going to have to buy into being a complete player. Now I thought this was a little odd and he did use the example of Steve Iserman in Detroit, but like getting the points was the main problem for Petey this season.

Like it wasn't his defensive play. He was often in great position defensively because at times I thought he seemed hesitant to attack. And I don't know if that was a confidence issue or he wasn't confident enough in his skating to get back, which you do have to do as a center. But I just always thought he'd hung back a little bit too much season.

But I guess the point without, you know, getting into this too much is that PD has to work harder on all facets of his game and he needs to get stronger. Yeah. That being said, I do think you could take the president of hockey ops to task when he incorrectly diagnoses what the he incorrectly diagnoses what the diagnoses what the problem is?

Yeah, no, I mean, that's not what Tauke has been saying, right? I know. Tauke has been saying you got to move your feet, you got to shoot the puck, you got to, you got to move your feet to, to open up the attacking angles or even passing lanes. You got to attack the interior of the ice.

I, I don't recall Tauke at, you know, acting like Petey was, you know, early 80s Steve Iserman or anything where he wasn't playing defense, but he was just piling up points. I'm like, that was the opposite. I saw a guy that was, had no confidence offensively, so erred on the side of playing defense. Yeah, like I was not overly thrilled at how there seemed to be a real disconnect. There seems like there's a lot of disconnects in the organization right now. If we want to be like, let's just call it what it is. It seems that management and that's Alvin and Rutherford have a certain

view of certain things, and it doesn't necessarily align with Tocket, including his contractual future. And then Tocket's view of some of the players certainly doesn't seem to align with Alvin and Rutherford's view of some of the players certainly doesn't seem to align with Alveen and Rutherford's view of some of the players. And that is very concerning because you'll remember going back to the initial hire, one of the strengths of the triumvirate of Alveen, Rutherford, and Talkett

was that we all believed they were on the same page. They all came from the Pittsburgh organization together. They all had a common view and thought and blueprint about how things were supposed to work. And it does not seem as though that is happening at all right now. Disconnect was what I kept coming back to over and over again, hearing all of the remarks from yesterday. Well, I wonder if that sort of thing is going to come up in their discussions or, you know, the way Rutherford framed it on the talk it situation is that they've upped the offer again and they're putting out the type of money

that has never really been put out there for a head coach in Vancouver. And they hope that talk it accepts the job. Like he made it sound like this is a money thing. Yeah. You know? Um, so at any rate, there's lots more to get to the job, like he made it sound like this is a money thing. Yeah. You know? So at any rate, there's lots more to get to from the press conference.

They confirmed they're going to target another centre, probably in a trade and it's going to be expensive. He said, Rutherford, it'll be expensive, but it'll also be very expensive not to get a top centre. And you can go all the way to Queen Hughes when it comes to that. So he said And you can go all the way to Quinn Hughes when it comes to that. Uh, so he said, we're going to be open to do whatever it takes, whatever it takes to get that

player and with Tom Willender still unsigned, another issue facing the Canucks. Apparently they've been told Willender is going back to school, back to BU. Um, now there's still a lot of time in order to figure that out. And Alveen said, well, that was a lot of money for that young player to leave on the table. But you know, that's what he's told us. You wonder if Willander could be a part of any deal to get a top center. Demko in his avail said that he wanted a contract

extension this off season and Rutherford, obviously, is going to be a top center. So that's a good question. And I think that's a good point. center, Demko in his avail said that he wanted a contract extension this off season and Rutherford rightly said that's a tricky one there. If it's going to happen, there will be risks to it on both sides. So do they share the risks on both sides, which is

basically like, Hey Demko, you're not going to get full freight on this. Like we can't act like you're going to be a hundred percent healthy because you haven't been a hundred percent healthy. Um, oh, the practice facility, that won't be happening anytime soon. And Rutherford kind of joked about this and he

got a few laughs out of it, but he basically said like, we've tried hard to find a partnership with some local rinks, tried three to four different facilities and it didn't work out. And he said, it looks like a new facility is, have to, he basically says, it looks like a new facility is going to have to be built to get this

done. It's going to take a while and we're all disappointed in that. So that, so that sounds like years. Yeah. That sounds like years in the makings because they're going to have to start from scratch, build a practice facility.

They're going to have to come to a deal to build the practice facility and then they're going to have to actually build the practice facility. In the meantime, they could use the Pacific Coliseum in the heart of downtown. It's right there. It's right there. Stone's throw from Roger's Arena.

Yeah. So the presser which I attended, there were so many issues that came up before Quinn Hughes, but Rutherford did deliver with what he had to say about Quinn Hughes. I think we should play that audio. We've got the whole audio here because we've also got Patrick Alveen's nervous reaction upon hearing

his president of hockey ops. What are president of hockey ops engage in some, I can't even call it light. We'll call it moderate to heavy tampering. So here, the question was framed and the question wasn't even a question at the end. I can't remember who asked it and I apologize to the reporter, but it basically ended with a statement like, you can't afford to lose Quinn Hughes. And Jim Rutherford picked up the microphone from there and he picked it up in a spectacular way. Here's the audio that was making the rounds

across the National Hockey League yesterday. President of Hockey Ops, Jim Rutherford, on Quinn Hughes' future and maybe the future of his brothers in Vancouver. Totally agree, 100%. The one thing that we will be sure of, that we will have enough cap space to offer him the kind of contract that he deserves, that's the one thing we can prepare for. And it may not boil down to money with him.

He said before he wants to play with his brothers. And that would be partly out of our control, in our control, if we brought his brothers here. So there's many moving parts here. I agree 100%. This franchise cannot afford to lose a guy like Quinn Hughes. And we will do everything we can to keep him here, but at the end of the day, it'll be his decision. Well, we gotta be careful with tampering here. So we'll just leave it at that. I probably crossed the line anyways.

I've seen tremendous growth in Quinn during the three years here. What he went through this year as a captain, leaders, several meetings with Rick Tuckett, I got a lot of respect for him off ICE, more so than on ICE. And I'm sure that he's eager to get started here and come back and be hungry to play an idea for Vancouver Connects. There's a good chance I may have committed some flight. All I got to say is that any time during an end of year media availability, your president of hockey ops openly acknowledges that he just crossed the line in what might be tampering, chef's kiss.

That is, that was the best part of the entire day as far as I'm concerned. I don't know what the end game was. I don't even know if there was an end game. Part of me thinks that he was just kinda, you know, talking off the cuff. Well, I've heard this idea has actually been kicked around by the Canucks. Now if that's the case.

To get the Hughes brothers. Now we're cooking. I'm not sure. Patterson, Mulliner and a first. I'm not sure how seriously, but I don't think Rutherford was entirely joking with that statement, because I did hear that, I don't know, like a week

ago. They're desperate to find any way to keep Queen Hughes. So, of course, you have to, like this, that's not, by the way, that's not like breaking news, right? Of course, you'd have this meeting. Of course, you'd have the idea of being like, listen, we've got to keep this guy. Everyone's talking about him going to New Jersey. What if we were to bring the brothers there? How can we do this? I just don't see why the Devils would even flirt with the idea. Their fan base would lose their minds.

What could the Connucks really offer the Devils to get Jack and Luke out of there? The only thing I can think of is Quinn Hughes. Yeah, right. You know, like. The good news is we get your brothers. Like what's the offer you just threw out there? Patterson, Willander, and the first. Okay so if you're a Devils fan. Obviously they

would not. Obviously. No. They would lose their mind. They would just be like why don't just wait two years and get them in free agency. Or a year even if like if it gets to it and it doesn't sound like Quinn's going to resign with the Canucks and maybe they have to kick off the rebuild then, maybe they only have to wait a year. If the Devils traded both Hughes brothers to the Canucks two years ahead of Quinn Hughes becoming an unrestricted free agent, the happiest person on the planet would be the

general manager of the Dallas Mavericks, because then he'd be like, well, the pressure's off me. They can't get on my case anymore. Look, I think that there, I don't think it was particularly calculated, but I agree with you that this didn't come from out of nowhere, right? This wasn't just something that the entire organization was like, Hey, why don't you throw

this out there as an idea? I think what this speaks to is, well, two things. One, just how important Hughes is to the organization and how much they recognize it. They didn't even try and alter or pivot or come off that conversation. They know. Ah, desperation is a stinky cologne. But I will say this. I thoroughly appreciate what Rutherford did there. I do. I think that if the situation is that big

and that potentially dire, there is no harm in throwing some chaos into the mix. There's really not. I'm not sure it'll work out in the end, but aside from maybe getting slapped on the wrist for some monetary punishment for tampering, like you've made it abundantly clear where you're willing to go.

You have. The problem is that now Quinn Hughes has to deal with this. He has to deal with the questions and the comments about it. I guess maybe people will forget, he's gone for the summer. So, but I will say, I just wanted to kind of wrap up the press conference from yesterday. I think what struck me after it was over is just the long list of major, major issues that this

management group needs to deal with this off season. They really are underdogs to get everything solved. I still do think Tocket will be back. I do too. But even if he does sign an extension, that's only the start of management's off season. If he says thanks, but no thanks, man. Well. You can hire Dan Bosma. Well he says thanks, but no thanks, man. Well.

You can hire Dan Bosma. Well, yeah, you can hire Dan Bosma. That'll help him. Rutherford thinks he needs to add three forwards. And I think that's probably three top six forwards. Yeah. And that includes a top six centre. That's going to be really difficult to, first of

all, choose who you want to target and not just get whoever's left and acquire the right ones and not pay a wild price to get these players. Maybe they get one of them in free agency, the way Rutherford put it, maybe they get lucky in free agency and someone chooses them like a guy like Ehlers or something. But we've been through the list before of both pending unrestricted free agent centers and wingers. It's not that long and frankly, it's not that impressive.

The Canucks have a lot of goals walking out the door and Besser and Souter. They do need to explore Trading Peterson just to cover all their options. And I think they will. I think they'll talk to some teams that might be interested and say, what does that look like? How does that leave us?

How could we then use the cap space or do we need to take on some players? You know, I think they're just going to explore it. The draft is June 27th and 28th. That could be a crazy time for the Canucks because if you need to acquire three forwards via trade, you can't really wait until after free agency. You know, then a lot of teams are set after free agency, they're like, we're good, we got our guys.

We're not really looking to trade. So it's right before free agency that I think a lot of teams are set after free agency. They're like, we're good. We got our guys. We're not really looking to trade. So it's right before free agency that I think a lot of deals could go down if they do go down. Uh, they've got a goalie on Thatcher Demko who's publicly said he wants an extension. That was a strategy by Demko. That was a negotiating strategy by Demko to come out and clearly state, I want an extension with

the Canucks and I want it this offseason. So maybe this doesn't matter, but how does Demko react if he doesn't get that extension? Is that another fire they have to put out? Is that another relationship they have to manage with a key player? On top of everything they have to get done this off season, I think it's also worth noting that all the goodwill they built up from the previous season, that's been spent. You do not get to oversee a season like this past one and not face a crisis of confidence from the fan base.

And we've already got some texts into the Dunbar lumber text line, van city Zavid in Toronto, texts in after hearing the end of season presser with Alvin, Alvin and Rutherford. I don't have faith in this regime anymore. Sadly, I think Quinn will leave. Therefore, I think the Canucks should just do a real proper rebuild.

A retool these last 15 years hasn't done much for the Vancouver fan base. Well, we're not to that point yet, but I think a lot of people have lost faith in this management group, and it makes it harder to operate from a PR perspective when everyone's like, their first reaction is going to be like, I'm not going to like the way you guys are doing this. Yeah, I mean, I agree with most of those sentiments that you said there. You can feel the public perception shifting if it hasn't already shifted and a lot of the confidence is waning.

They've got an opportunity this summer to win some people back, but right now there's a lot of people after a tumultuous season that ended with the playoffs missing. And this time of the year, it always stings more because while you're talking about your failings, there are games like last night where there are a bunch of teams that are having a great time playing

the most exciting hockey at the most exciting time of the year. We're going to continue that conversation coming up next with Greg Wyshinski from ESPN. We will whip around all four games from last night. An awesome night of Stanley Cup playoff action here on the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 PM on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 6.32 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program.

Greg Wyshinski is gonna join us in just a moment here from ESPN. The highlight of hour one, hour one of this program is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

To the phone lines we go. ESPN's very own Greg Wyshinski joins us now on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Greg, how are you? I'm good. I have to admit that I, much like Alex Oveskin had a personal first last night in scoring an overtime, I had a personal first as well yesterday, where I actually for the first time had to go check the actual footage of an NHL Executives Press Conference to make sure what I saw online wasn't AI. And it turned out that Jim Rutherford actually did tamper

by saying that Jack and Luke Hughes should become Canucks. It wasn't even light tampering. We're used to light tampering here in Vancouver Jim Benning got fined for some light tampering back in 2016. This was some heavy-handed Tampering he was all over this one. Do you think the Devils are gonna make a make a complaint about it? So part of me was like will the league even care like is this gonna be a kindly old Jim did I did a goofy thing Kind of thing and and we don't really care? Or the devil's going to be, you know, summarily insulted. Here's the thing though,

like if you're the devil's, like what's the sense of trying to file tampering charges against a team that you're probably going to be negotiating a trade with in the near future? Yeah, it's possible. I mean, the big takeaway from what he said yesterday was not that there's gonna be an effort to acquire Jack and Luke Hughes. And by the way, thank you Vancouver fans for all the trade proposals I saw online yesterday that all started with Elias Pedersen at half retained. The guy you've been just dumping on for the last year

is being inferior. We gotta get him out of here because he's underwhelming. No, he's actually really good, Wish. He actually had it. He was just a little snake bit in the season. He's focusing on his defense. He'll be the centerpiece of a Jack and Luke Hughes trade. No, but the big takeaway from me yesterday was that he said Quinn wants to play with his brothers. And so if that's the case, and two of them are in Jersey and the Canucks do not have the things to acquire both of them and they're both under contract, well there's only one solution here which is that Quinn Hughes joins them in New Jersey, in which case you've got yourself a

Matthew Kachuck Calgary Flame situation where you know instead of counting down the days until he just leaves you might have to be more proactive about it. So all kidding aside, like, start the clock. Start the negotiation. The devils have some pieces that Canucks probably would like. And if the ultimate destiny of Queen Hughes is to walk away from Vancouver to go play with his brothers, then you might have to get more aggressive about it. I think Rutherford tipped his hand to that yesterday. I'm glad Greg is mentioning this because I had...

It's not going to happen this off season. I had two different people reach out to me and they're like, you know, this is kind of the first time that we're hearing that it's Quinn saying he wants to play with his brothers. Cause if you go back and look through the archives of whenever they've linked up. I've heard his brothers don't wanna play with him.

Right, no, Jack has said it, honestly, I'm not joking. Jack has said it. And a matter of fact, he said it before that October game, Hughes of Palooza here in Vancouver, which ended great for the Canucks and Hughes, by the way. But a couple of people wanted to point it out. It's like, this is almost the reveal from the Canucks side of things

about like Quinn Hughes's intentions and desires to play for his brothers. You think it would be like sort of innate, like, well, of course he wants to play with his brothers. But if you go back and look, he's never explicitly said anywhere, like, go try and find a quote or go try and find an interview. Quinn has said it. Find it. Cause I found the one with Luke and Jack in a second. I think he told Drantz a couple of years ago.

Anyway, it was interesting. But it was probably more in the more in the pie in the sky. Yes, it was. That'd be great. It'd be wonderful if all of us could play together on the same team. That'd be great. My Queen Hughes is also my Jack Hughes, by the way. They have the same voice.

Oh, they're brothers. They're brothers, yeah. No, but this was more explicit coming from an executive saying, this is our understanding. It's our understanding that this is so real that we have to find a way to get his two brothers here, like is the twist on this. This is not like pie in the sky. This is now like policy. All right. This is making me depressed. Can we talk about the oilers crushing loss last night? No, no, no. No, listen. Jason, it's fine. Tyler Myers and First gets you both from what I understand.

So you're fine, you're golden. 50% retained though. Okay, let's go to, let's go to last night's games because of all this doom and gloom in Vancouver. I don't like the giddy laugh that we just had. It was a very good night in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was, I kind of positioned it this morning is I came in Monday morning and

said like the games on the weekend, they were okay, but the scores were kind of crooked and some of the games lacked some of the, the real true essence of playoff hockey. And then we got it all last night, two overtime games, one decided in the final minute of regulation, all one goal games across the board. In a celebration of hockey wish, I'll give you the talk about question. Talk about what was your favorite game from last night?

You have four to choose from. Which one did you enjoy the most or which one captivated you the most? Oh, Dallas, Colorado, which is to me the spiciest series that we have and probably the best played in the highest drama. And that included last night for two reasons. One being that, I mean, it wasn't really put forward during the

broadcast all that much, but that's a must win game too. If you're Dallas, like the series is done. If they don't win that game, I mean, to be down O2 going back to Denver where Landis Cog will probably play game three, like it's, it's insane to think that they could even muster a rally in that series considering their injury situation if they don't win game two. And then not only do they win game two, but a guy making league minimum who's bounced around this league like a super happy fun ball, who gets signed last July in a transaction that probably doesn't even make the ticker at the bottom of the screen.

And he scores like the biggest goal of the playoffs so far. Like Colin Blackwell had the biggest goal of the playoffs so far last night. And that's the essence of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It's the high drama of the stakes. And then frequently the last person you'd ever expect to wear the cape gets to be the hero. That's why we love the playoffs. Did you wonder at all if there might be a goalie interference review on that winning goal?

So I did, but, but if you watch it, there is contact, I think with whoever in front, I think with steel and, and, um, Mackenzie Blackwood's stick, but then Mackenzie Blackwood basically gets completely reset to take the shooter. Yeah, that's what I thought too, yeah. Yeah, and so any idea of there being like a continuation

of the interference I think is wiped away because there's nobody touching Blackwood and he's completely square to the shooter at that point when he scores. So yeah, briefly I thought, uh-oh, because when you first see the replay, you see the contact, but then as it plays out, you're like, oh, okay, this is, this is fine.

Do you see much separating Colorado and Dallas? I've watched both those games pretty much head to tail and I'm having trouble seeing a lot that separates them. Maybe it's the goal-turning where Jake Ottinger has to, has to up his game a little bit. He does. And you know, at some point we have to acknowledge

that the guy who's basically played, I mean, one of the best series of goaltending we've seen maybe in 15 years against Calgary that year has yet to really steal a series and he hasn't. And I think that this is the kind of series where he needs to be better than Blackwood and maybe, you know, carry the freight on his own for a couple of these wins.

There's two points of demarcation between the Dallas Stars and the Colorado Avalanche. One is the Avalanche, the Stars help because, you know, trying to win this series without Heskinen is one thing, trying to win it without Robertson and Heskinen and you really, really see the loss of Robertson on the power play, especially, which is, you know, deleterious when you know we have so many power plays early in the playoffs this year. And then the other point of demarcation is Nathan McKinnon, who, I mean, all due respect to all of the great players that the Dallas stars have, no one, every time he touches the puck can, can score. Like, like,

I mean, when, when McKinnon gets going and he has the puck can score. Like, I mean, when McKinnon gets going and he has the puck in the zone, it's like the only other guy, like the only other two guys like that are McDavid and Dreisaitl where he just like, has this guy not score a goal at every shot. Like he's so good. And that's why when that game gets to overtime last night,

you're just like, oh man, you know, can Dallas score before McKinnon does? Basically is the way you look at that overtime and they did. So those are the two differences. But again, you know, that's a, it's a really impressive win for Dallas, man. They grinded it out.

They hung in there. They, they, you know, gave up a goal right after taking the lead. Like there were, there were moments in that game where it could have really fallen apart for them and it didn't. Well, let's talk about that Oilers crazy comeback in LA last night.

It started, the first goal the Oilers scored was an incredible goal. Leon Drysaddle, that's moving your feet, Canucks fans. That's what you got to do. You got to find those pockets and it doesn't hurt to have a guy like Connor McDavid passing you the puck.

But you know, when they made it four one, I was like, okay, well good for them. At least they scored a goal. They come all the way back to tie it at five off an incredible goal by Connor McDavid. And then, you know, just when everyone's like, I guess this one's going to overtime. Uh, the Kings score a bit of a weird one.

It was a floater over Stuart Skinner's shoulder. And they actually pull out the win. What was your main takeaway if there is one from that game for you, Wes? No, that Warren Fogel catching air, like even the dunk competition in front of Skinner on that screen, that was incredible. My takeaway is that game is a microcosm of the 24-25 Edmonton Oilers. They're a team that has the two best players in the world that can score at will and you can carry this team to victory, but

it's also a team that has devastating defensive lapses that has a diminished support and cast around them and that continues to have specious goaltending at best. And so last night was the Oilers. And so the question is, you know, can Connor and Leon do what they did in the third period in the first and second period? So they can kind of like not have to chase the game. And if they can do that,

then they can still win the series. I still think they're gonna win the series. I think last night's ending was bitter and devastating, but it probably would have been even more devastating to LA if they had lost 4-0 and and now all of a sudden okay maybe this is a different Kings team. I still don't think they're scared of this Kings team I think they know what they did last night and what went wrong and then when they needed it they scored you know four goals in quick succession but you know people, uh, you know, people have been

picking this oilers team to get back to the cup. What, what you saw last night is the reason they won't get back there. Yeah. Can't defend it anywhere near as they, as well as they did last year. Well, yeah, they may not be scared of the Kings team, but do you think they're scared of

their own goaltending? They are. I should say that they don't have that calm in this series, which obviously lends itself to the defensive lapses to not having a steadying presence back there. But even before his injury, they were wildly inconsistent defensively in a way that they weren't last year. And yeah, I mean, they know what Skinner is by now.

I don't think there's any surprises. They know they're going to have to outscore their goaltending. They knew it last year too. And are they hoping he's more competent than they saw last night? Of course. But ultimately they know what they need to do in front of that goaltending and they did it well enough to come within one win of the cup last year. Yeah. I'm kind of with you that they, teams can learn something and they can gain some

confidence in a loss. And I do think that Edmonton being able to do what they did. I mean, blowing a four goal lead at home in the Stanley Cup playoffs is very uncommon. And you know, LA watch it happen to an opponent that they've had so much trouble with over the last three years. So at the very least, I think Edmonton proved something and planted a seeded doubt, even though they lost the game. I kind of feel the same way about what Montreal did in Washington yesterday. Like it was their first playoff game for a lot of these guys in this group. They were young, they looked like they were nervous and had the jitters through the first two periods.

It was, you know, the guys on the broadcast kept saying, it's not an oil painting from Montreal right now. But in the third period, importantly, they were able to do what they did so many times during the regular season, which was, you know, mount the third period, come back and play very, mount the third period comeback and play very well in the third after not playing great in the first and the second.

I know they lost in overtime and I know as you mentioned it, Ovechkin's first ever playoff OT goal, but I feel like Montreal can take a lot away from that game. Curious to get your thoughts on it. I think the education was more on Washington side, to be honest with you. I mean, if you listened to them in the post game last night, to a man they all said the same thing, which is we took our foot off the gas. We got up to nothing against an inferior opponent and then

we thought we could just coast. And maybe they didn't realize or understand the pedigree of that Montreal team and the way that they were able to come back in the third so many times this year and have those young players with a motor that's not going to quit. And so I thought that was a really important win for them, much in the same way that game one for Winnipeg was super important and kind of like calming everybody down and having them kind of understand what needs to be done to win the series. Like I think that was a real education for Washington last night.

And look, you know, despite winning the Cup, that's still a place that has some ghosts of playoffs disappointments passed. I mean, the amount of times Yaroslav Holak's name has been evoked in the Washington DC area in the last like two weeks, you know, is incredible. Like there's still that anxiety and there's still that anxiety in that building when things go sideways. So to get that win last night and to then understand what they can't allow to have happen if they do get a lead on this Montreal team, I think was really important to them advancing. We're speaking to Greg Wyshinski from ESPN here on the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Some big boy hockey being played between Winnipeg and St. Louis right now, but the

bigger of the two boys, Winnipeg now up to nothing in the series. And Brough and I were talking about this in the introductory segment this morning, like the series has been razor thin in terms of margins. There's not much to choose from between the two teams yet, despite this, we both kind of feel that it's done. St. Louis is, I just don't see St. Louis winning

four of the next five against this Winnipeg team. Where was this Kyle Connor in the Four Nations tournament for you guys? Oh, he was next to me in the press box where he was. Yeah, man. Where was that Kyle Connor? That was actually one of the most disappointing players of the Four Nations and just like, I mean,

I, we know in Vancouver how good Carl Conner is. He scored like a thousands of goals, it seems like against the Canucks. That was a weird one, how he did, he never really found his footing in the Four Nations. Well, he couldn't, he didn't get a chance to. Like, you know, it's, it's a championship game. You know, they need a goal and you know, they

sit him in favor of Chris Crider's broken back and what's left of Matthew Kachuk, because of their name value, I guess. So, I was thinking about that when he scored that goal last night, I'm like, oh, look, a shot from the slot on Bennington beats him. Could maybe use that over time, huh?

Like, instead of watching Matthew Kachuk not play. Yeah, so, I'm surprised how much PTSD I do have from Four Nations by the way. I'm just trying to needle you a little bit just because of your earlier comments about the Hughes brothers. I still have oodles of it from Vancouver in 2010, but it's lingering a little bit from Four Nations.

And I don't know. No, but like you said, it's a brutal physical series and Winnipeg is really up to the task. And then, you know, the lingering image for me last night was the Jets coming over and congratulating Connor Hellebuck because he had a pretty good game too. And so, you know, the Blues had a chance to get him on in game one on a night when he didn't have his fastball.

And then he plays, you know, I thought a lot better in game two. And then, you know, they come away with I'm not I'm not counting st. Louis out I mean they played really well down the stretch but you know Winnipeg's got a little something going on I picked Dallas to come out of the West because I picked them before the season but like if I'm being honest with myself there there's a better than decent chance that Toronto and Winnipeg are gonna play for the Cup you can clip that and remember it when it happens but like as much as that's gonna be painful for a lot of people like there's a better than decent chance that Toronto and Winnipeg are going to play for the Cup. You can clip that and remember it when it happens. But like as much as that's going to be painful

for a lot of people, like there's a better than good chance that Winnipeg and Toronto are going to play for the Cup. Um, I'm glad you talked that into existence. I mean, we were, we were talking about- The second round might be the toughest for Toronto. Yeah. If they're getting Tampa Bay or Florida, right?

And that's the thing I keep telling, that's the thing I keep telling people is like, you know, how, you know how you beat the Leafs? They beat themselves. Like that's how you beat the Leafs. You have to instill doubt in them. You have to get into their heads. You have to have them thinking about disappointments of playoffs past in the weight of not having won since 67. Like those are the things that crush Toronto in the playoffs every year. and Ottawa is ill-equipped to do that to them and so they're going to make short work of the senators

and then it's the next round that you start to wonder okay well can either Tampa or Florida bring back those demons and I think both could but if Toronto gets past that series and they're playing Carolina or Washington probably, I mean, that's, that's, that's winnable. That's winnable. I mean, if Carolina was in a crazy market like Toronto, there'd be so much pressure on the hurricanes and the way things are, are looking

right now, you know, I, again, I don't want to disrespect Washington for the season that they've had, but if it want to disrespect Washington for the season that they've had, but if it's Carolina and Washington in the next round and Carolina doesn't beat Washington, I don't know, man. Do you have to start making changes in Carolina then? I know they have tried to make changes, but I do wonder if something, how much more is Rod Brindimore's system going to come under attack then?

I think, I think that's the conversation to have. From a personnel perspective, things are kind of going to trend in the right direction. You know, they're going to move Burns off the cap and Orloff and you know, at some point, like they've got some of these older guys that have been on this roster now for a few seasons that aren't going to be there in perpetuity.

And it's going to slowly transition to being the team of Logan Stankovic and Seth Jarvis, if it's not there already. And obviously Svechnikov. So like, I famously picked them to not make the playoffs, which obviously in hindsight was folly given how bad the rest of the Eastern Conference was. But I did so because I felt this could be a transition year for them. And you know, listen, they went all in and tried to make something of it with the Rantin deal. But you know, when Eric Tulski took over that team, I knew what they had in the pipeline and I knew what they had on the way. And I knew that, you know, there's a lot of players in this roster that are going to be trending younger and guys like the stalls and the burns that are going to be there's a lot of players in this roster that are going to be trending younger and guys like the stalls and the burns that aren't going to be there

for very much longer. And so I don't think there's a reason to panic from a personnel's perspective, but if you can't play for a champion, if you can't make the cup final, um, after all this time playing the same system, I do think there needs to be a referendum on, on, on the way they play. Wish, real quick before we let you go, Dan Biles is out in Seattle. Jason Botterill reportedly getting promoted to general manager to replace Ron Francis, who will not be out the door, but rather moving up to the president of hockey ups. If these moves all eventually get announced today, my question for you is what's next? What comes next for a, I would say a very

disappointing Seattle Kraken organization. Yeah, I'm a Botero fan much to my chagrin. I admitted that last night and all of Buffalo started quoting, you know, he let sixth round pick Brandon Hagel walk away. I'm like, all right, we all knew at the time he was going to be Brandon Hagel. We all know you've had problems, Buffalo. All right. Just. Definitely, definitely Botterill's fault that Brandon Hagel became Brandon Hagel.

Um, I think Botterill's really smart. I think he, I think he has the chance to be a really good GM. The question I have is, are they going to let him be Brian McClellan, um, and know this roster and know this system and know this system and make the necessary changes to make it better? Or are they going to just have him be there and have Ron Francis still running hockey

ops in which case they don't think they're going to be any better? I don't think Ron Francis is a very good GM. And I think that this team, when he was hired to run this team, there was always a chance they were going to be stuck in the same purgatory that the hurricanes were stuck in when Francis was there and lo and behold, that's what happened. I will say this, I am intrigued to think, to find out what happens to Jessica Campbell, the assistant there, because like they've retained her. They said she's going to still be on staff as everyone else has gone. And if we, I mean, listen, coaches have minimal control when they get hired of what they can and can't do with their situation. But one thing they can

do is bring their own assistants in. And so I'm very intrigued to see how that situation plays out where if, you know, if you get it, it's like Peter Lavillette comes to Seattle and they're like, Oh, by the way, you have to have this person on your staff. Like, is he going to be like, okay? Or is he going to be like, I need the people that have coached with me forever to come in and be on the staff. I found that to be a very curious move.

And I wonder if ultimately like they're trying to have the new coach be the bad guy in making that change. I don't know. It was, it's weird to see that. Four more games in the Stanley Cup playoffs tonight. And NHL has done a great job of spreading out all the start times as well. So we won't have as many overlaps hopefully as last night.

Greg, thanks for doing this today, bud. We really appreciate it. Enjoy all the games tonight. Should be a lot of fun. We'll do this again next Tuesday. Anytime, thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on. Greg Wachinski from ESPN here

on the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Did you see the start times tonight? Are they spread out? Devils and Hurricane starts at three o'clock our time, six o'clock Eastern. Um, yeah, last night watching that Kings Oilers game, it actually reminded me of the game that I went to. Remember a couple of years ago, I was down

in LA for a little quick vacation and I went to a Kings Oilers game and it was game four of the series and the Kings had a 2-1 lead in the series. First period, they go up three nothing and the place was like it was a madhouse in there. It was like we're going to go up three one on the Edmonton-Eulers. The Eulers come back, score three quick goals

in the second period, but the Kings take the lead again in the third period. Alas, Evander Kane scored late in that game to tie it up, send it to overtime. And Zach Hyman won it in overtime. That was a killer loss for the Kings because the Oilers would win the next two games. And now everyone acts like these three series that the Oilers and the Kings have played, like the Oilers have just kind of like, yeah, it's been easy for them. Right?

It hasn't. It hasn't been easy. No. The first one was tough. I think the first one, the first series went to seven games. Right. And then the second series had this one game, this game four, that was such a turning point.

Last year, the Oilers took care of the Kings pretty easily. But you know, I think this But I think my point is overall, this series has been a lot closer than people may remember. Okay, that's hour one in the books. We're moving on to hour two. Arthur Staples is going to join us from New York. We'll talk about the Isles. We'll also talk about the Rangers,

also known as the Canucks of the East, locker clean-out days over the last few days. A lot of changes potentially on the horizon for both teams. We'll talk to Arthur Staples about all that coming up next on the Halford and Breff Show on Sportsnet 650. Attention, workers. We have completed our evaluation of the plan. We regret to announce the following layoffs,

which I will read in alphabetical order. Bilesma, Dan, Cronin, Greg, Laviollette, Peter. That is all.