Halford & Brough in the Morning - Is It Just Crazy Enough To Work?

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they hear from Patrik Allvin and Elliotte Friedman on the Evander Kane trade to the Canucks, the boys give more of their thoughts on the move, (3:00), plus the boys discuss which players the Canucks will most likely trade to improve their team (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.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- The 2025 NBA draft, the Dallas Mavericks select Cooper flag from Duke University. It's really amazing. It's a dream come true to be honest. Again, I have no problem with personalities. As long as they perform on the ice. They're going to bet Kane is going to be motivated to be as positive as he can be. This is the worst day of my life. Good, Marty Vancouver, 6-0-01 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody. It is Halford and his bruv. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios and 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 bruv of the morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates. BC's first and trusted choice for net help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program.

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

We got a lot to get to on the show today. It's a big Thursday show. We're one day out from the National Hockey League draft. We got a lot of news and notes and trades happening across the NHL. But our guest list today will not begin until seven o'clock and we are gonna begin with a little bit of baseball. Adnan Burke's going to join us at 7 a.m. from MLB network.

We're going to talk a little Max Scherzer, Kettle Marte, Cal Raleigh, the trade deadline. Here's one for you. What happens if the Tampa Bay Rays make the playoffs and they're forced to play in the 11000 seat Steinbrenner field? You mentioned Sch mentioned sure be yeah, man. I forgot he was a blue jay until yesterday How many months was that between starts? Well, he was like first started the season and then that was it Yeah, so he said the thumb felt good. He felt rusty and I got walked off classic J's We'll talk to add nanoball all that at seven o'clock. Eight o'clock. 730 we're gonna do what we learned today. Eight o'clock Thomas Drance, who I misspelled in the notes as D-R-A-C-E. Drace. Drace. Which is

the white Drake. Thomas Drance is gonna join us at eight o'clock. Drop some bars. He's gonna react to the Evander Cain trade from yesterday. Also what does the future have in store for Thatcher Demko? We're hearing some rumblings on that front that it's close to a contract extension in Vancouver for Demko. And if that happens, what becomes of AHL MVP, the Jack Butterfield award winner, Ardur Siloves. We'll talk to Thomas Drantz about all that at eight o'clock. And then at eight thirty, yeah, you're going to want to listen to the eight

o'clock hour of this show. The general manager of the Calder cup winning Abbotsford Canucks is going to join the program. Ryan Johnson will be here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Uh, we'll talk to Ryan about RDC loves Linus Carlson, Manny Malhotra, what the future has in store for his Calder cup winning coach. That's at eight 30. So again, eight o'clock hour, know what we learned. We're gonna talk to Drance, and then we're gonna talk to Ryan Johnson. We'll try and do some what we learned at 7.30.

Adnan's gonna join us at seven. But before we get into any of this, I yet again ask the public, have you bought your tickets for the Sportsnet 650, Jayscare 5050 for Challenger Baseball yet? You know who did this morning, Jason? Who? This guy who has two thumbs and didn't cry this morning.

Me, I also bought Jays tickets. 50 50 raffle tickets. I also cried. So if you haven't bought them yet, go now to jayscaregolf.rafflenexus.com. Buy your tickets, support challenge your baseball. It's a very worthy endeavor. Get a chance to win some money. We're almost up to 10 K, which is good.

We still got a long time to go in this thing. This is all supported by Tile Town proudly Canadian owned and operated since 1971. Visit my tile town.ca again, j's care golf dot raffle nexus.com. Jason demanded that I show proof of my purchase. So I sent him two screenshots. I'm an old man. I didn't take an actual screenshot on my phone. I took a picture of my laptop.

You love doing that, eh? I do love, I love filming off the television and then putting those videos on X and I love taking pictures of my laptop screen. It's the oldest boomer thing I can do. The best thing to do when you're filming off the TV is to have something for people to look at of your reflection.

Like what's going on in Halfords room today? A little bit of hand tremble always makes it nice. Nice and noisy in the background, maybe someone doing the dishes. And then if you're really close to your television, maybe a small ornament that sits on your coffee table or a book. Okay, we got a lot to get into on the program today working in reverse on the guest list 830 Ryan Johnson 8 o'clock Thomas Drance

7 o'clock at Nanverk that is what's happening on the program today laddie. Let's tell everybody what happened Hey, did you guys see the game last night? What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how messy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? 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. Unsurprisingly, the majority of yesterday focused around the Evander Cain trade. There was a lot of reactions from a lot of different people, including the Canucks brass Patrick Alveen did his media availability in the afternoon. Countless articles written, countless standups done, countless opinions spewed. It was all about Evander Cain yesterday. There was another trade in the NHL last night by the way, in case you missed it, it happened late. JJ Baterka has been traded to the Utah Mammoth, but we'll get

into that later because yesterday, especially on these airwaves, it was all about a Vanderkane. I kept on turning on the radio to see what each show would have to say, and I kept on hearing Mount Bruff. Sure, you can go Mount Bruff about this. So- But have you considered this? Maybe there's a reason why news doesn't get broken on our show ever. Maybe there's a reason why. Brough. Sure, you can go Mount Brough about this. So what have you considered this? Maybe there's a reason why news doesn't get broken on our show ever. Maybe there's a reason why they hold off for five minutes after we're off the air. It's because they know that we're going to bring the heat and a visceral

reaction. It was a reaction in the realest of real times. I know I throw around real time a lot, but we were both and I can say this gobsmacked when it actually happened. We had thought maybe, and again, I said it yesterday in the dark recesses of our mind, we thought they might go there, but to actually see it come to fruition right in front of your face while you're on the air, it was a, it was a very big surprise, a very big shock. And yesterday everyone was dealing with the aftershocks, I suppose. I want to play first some audio from Elliot Friedman,

who appeared on this station yesterday. And Fried sort of boils down to one of the things that we talked about yesterday, that this is what the Canucks are gambling on. It's not just the Vander Cane, but it's the time in the era and the lifespan and at the end of the contract when they're getting Kane, it's a gamble. No doubt. It's a risk. No doubt. Is it a calculated risk? Well, based on what Fried says here, maybe here's, Elliot Friedman on the Vanderkane trade for the Canucks. The thing about Kane is, um, like,

I just, you know, he's, he's playing for a contract. And if you're ever going to go after a player, one of the best times to go after somebody is when they are playing for that next deal. And Keane's coming home and he's going to be playing for his next contract. And I think if you're going to take that gamble, those are the kinds of gambles worth taking. The Vancouver Canucks are clearly going to believe that Evander Kane is going to be motivated to have a big year because financially

his NHL future depends on it. Can you leverage it? Well, you're going to try. I mean, here's the thing yesterday having Sat there and taken in all the information and everyone's different opinions My original thought really hasn't changed. It's still a pretty pretty big damn risk to try this But god bless them. They're gonna try it those crazy kids that can XK HQ. They're going to try it. Those crazy kids at Canucks K HQ. They're going to give it a shot. Yeah. I mean, look, to be fair to the Canucks, I don't think it's fair to say like, you had a

chance to bring back Besser and instead you're going to bring back Kane. No, that's not fair. That's not fair. I think those are two totally different scenarios. With Besser, you're talking about, first of all, a higher cap hit than Cain, more term, you know, and that's the same with Souter or Cain. You know, Souter's going to demand term,

so there's term risk there. There's no term risk with a Van der Kene. I just think there's culture risk. So, um, let's hear what, uh, let's hear what Patrick Galvin said about the, the risk of, of culture, because he was asked about it a lot by reporters yesterday. Don't forget, this is a team that, uh, had a few issues in the room last season.

And, uh, you know, they were, they're hoping to move past those, those issues and they're hoping to move past those issues and they're hoping to develop a new leadership group under Quinn Hughes and now they've added Evander Kane to the mix. So does Patrick Alveen think that could be an issue? So we've got a couple of different clips here. Let's start with the one where he talks about, you know, the past is the past.

That was the one that sort of grabbed a lot of people's attention because when Alvin said it and I was watching the, uh, the interview in the aftermath, you know, he really made a point of stopping and looking at whoever asked the question talking about they feel like they're moving forward. This is Patrick Alvin on to Vander King talking about how the past is in the past. Well I think the past is the past with Evander. The last couple years in Edmonton I think he contributed to the office stuff and helping out in the society there and having three kids here now I think he has matured. I do believe that this gives us a chance and him a chance

to see if this is a fit moving on there, and I'm sure hoping so after this year. There was also a real impetus made about the Edmonton phase of his career. I noticed that if Patrick Alveen did have his talking points, one of them was like, well, we think that overall, the situation at Edmonton went fine, and we're gonna go on.

What do you think the difference in the Edmonton room might be? I don't know. Maybe. A lot? Maybe 97 and 29? In like, Corey Perry and, you know, like other veterans that have been around.

I'm not, I'm not. A lot of Oilers fans yesterday, my mentions, be like, he's changed, we love him, he was great in Edmonton, and you heard that a lot, but then you'd also hear from other Oil that hey, I'm not I'm not not oilers fan yesterday my mentions be like he's changed. We love him He was great in Edmonton, and he heard that a lot But then you'd also hear from other oilers fans be like well He didn't really change until Corey Perry publicly called him out and then he changed so he was great last season when he wasn't With the team yeah, so I mean Sides to it and and the oilers fans as well seem a little now

gentlemen in the interest of fair journalism, which we're all known for here, not so much to journalism or being fair, quite frankly, we I'm not trying to defend or categorize anything that Patrick Alveen said yesterday. I wanted to look at it and say, what, how are the Canucks going to explain a lot of this way? Because there was a lot that needs to be explained away with Kane. There's no question about it. I don't even think even the most ardent Kane supporter can ignore, can, you know, deny that when you're addressing the acquisition of that player,

you're going to have to do some explaining. So there's another clip here where they were talking very specifically about not training for Evander Kane and his checkered history, but trading for a Vanderkane in the last two years that he had in Edmonton. Here's more Patrick Alveen from yesterday. Well, based on his last two years in Edmonton, uh, there hasn't been any, any issues. Uh, I would say, almost the opposite that, that he's a well liked guy. And, um,

I also know that we did our due diligence here in terms of talking to players and previous staff members as well. You talk to your own players? You see how they feel about it? I know they don't want to play against him. I think that's where Evander is one of those guys that you hate to play against and you love to have them on your own team. Obviously Adam Foote was involved in this process. I did not talk to any of the players. So I'm not going to editorialize much more about this. I'll give Kane a chance to prove me wrong. That's the only fair thing to do. He's here and we'll see how it goes, but I do

think it's going to be fascinating to see just how this team comes together overall. Can they build themselves back into a real team? I think Adam Foote's remarks on our show about needing to spend more time together as a group are very telling. You remember when we asked that question, you could, I don't know if you can hear someone's eyes light up, but you know, when we brought up

the notion of team building, he was like, yes, I'm so glad you asked this question. Um, Adam Foote was there last season. He knows that there were factions in the room. And I thought he made a curious remark about, you know, I don't think any of the young players should be eating dinner alone, right? Maybe he saw that happening once and he wants that to change and he knows he's got a challenge

here or if he doesn't, he should because you've got a captain, a very popular captain and one of the best players in the NHL, except his future with the team is very much up in the air. Your most highly paid player got bullied last season to the point they had to trade his tormentor, who was also a very popular player in the market and on the team, especially if he has the

Canucks. And now you add a guy with the history that Evander Kane brings. I mean, it's almost so crazy. It might just work. So in this case, it could work for us. Now it might not have worked elsewhere. Could that be, you know, you know how we always

look for Canucks slogans? Could that be? Sure. It's almost so crazy, it might just work. Do I have to get the Arrested Development clip up, ready to go? Well, there was a- They may delude themselves into thinking

it might work for them. Classic Haliford always bringing it back to the football. Back in the 80s and 90s, Wimbledon, not the tennis court, they also have a football club, had a group called the Crazy Gang. And it was basically like we're going to put together the biggest bunch of nutters and psychos imaginable. And we're going to see if it works like we're going to make a room so toxic.

It might just cancel itself out. Oops around. Yeah. And, you know, I'll say this. itself around. Yeah. And you know, I'll say this, this from a very crazy perspective, this does make sense. What they've done here. We said it yesterday. We there's a tacit acknowledgement that what they did here makes sense because you got a distressed asset on the cheap. It didn't take anything off your active roster.

It barely made a dent in your pick pool. And you got one year of term at 5.1. If it doesn't work out, chances are it wasn't gonna work out anyway. I mean, there's not a ton of optimism going into this season to begin with. No. So it's a flyer on it.

Now, the crazy part is openly acknowledging and leveraging the fact that the player needs to keep his house in order because he's got a future that he needs to play for. And I mean, Alvin alluded to as much yesterday. It's very rarely that you're like, well, we think it will be self-policed because his NHL future is on the line. But that's the reality of the business. Did Alvin really suggest that they might sign him to an extension? I didn't, I didn't get, I didn't get, I mean, he talked about like, and beyond. Right.

But that's a very, they're just trying to motivate them. They're very, I mean, here's the thing. You may as well say it now. Okay. Why not? I mean, you always renege on it. You'd be like, I regret saying that, or we were never gonna do that. But yeah, you can't bring a player in on the pretense that this is a one year stop for you.

You have to leave the door slightly ajar to extending it beyond. But I would think it comes down to this. If they can bring him in and the headaches are minimal and he can put now, this is the biggest thing for me. If he can play the majority of the regular season and there's not a lot of proof right now that he's going to be able to do like people are talking about

the playoff run. And I was like, well, did you see the second half of the playoff run? Some of that for sure was, I don't think he had the endurance or the match fitness to play that extended. Like he needed, he needed a break basically. And that's fair. He didn't play for almost an entire calendar year, but the playoff run started great. But like a lot of guys that don't have a ton left in the tank, it petered out near the

end. So I would be tapping the brakes big time on the notion that Evander Kane is fully healthy and fully back and is going to give you 82 games of solid production. Like, I mean, it's, he's 34 with it coming off a lot of surgeries. Okay.

So, um, here's a good way to seg to the next topic. Are we going to be holding our breath next season for Kane to stay healthy, Heedle to stay healthy and Demko to stay healthy? Because that's a lot of breath holding and we can't really afford to drop many more IQ points and Kane has a very big recent injury history. Hedl, we all know has a concussion history and it sounds like they really want to bring

Thatcher Demko back and based on some of the reports that you can share with the listeners, a deal between the Canucks and Thatcher Demko is close. So lost in the chaos of yesterday were a couple of reports that Thatcher Demko could have a contract extension with the the Canucks and Thatcher Demko is close. So lost in the chaos of yesterday were a couple of reports that Thatcher Demko could have a contract extension with the Vancouver Canucks as soon as the end of this week. And since it's Thursday, that means tomorrow.

Rumbling started yesterday with a Darren Drager report saying that, quote, it does sound like progress has been made on a multi-year extension for Thatcher Demko with the Canucks. An extension is far more likely than a trade at this point. That was followed up by additional reporting from Rick Dollywall. You know, Dolly, don't you? He said, quote, there is indeed a pathway to a Thatcher Demko extension in Vancouver by the end of the week, not done, but a pathway. Now in that same report from earlier,

Drager also suggested that a hypothetical slash potential Arter-Selov's trade could very well be a possibility because of two things. One, they're not going to carry three goalies on the active roster and two, if they don't carry three goalies, there's a very good likelihood he won't clear waivers. So there's a lot to unpack there from the goaltending front for the Vancouver Canucks. Yeah. I thought it was interesting that Patrick Alveen shouted out Tolopilo and Ty Young. If I'm management, I'm trying to bring Demko back.

If he can stay healthy enough to split 82 games of Lankton, I think the Canucks will really like their goaltending. Big if they're on the health. Might be the best goaltending tandem in the league. Yeah, one of them. Hold your breath though. I would feel a lot less safe about betting on Seelob's with all due respect to what he just did in the Calder Cup playoffs, which was amazing.

I agree. Do we have any audio that we want to play from Patrick Alveen on the Thatcher Demko situation? No, just keep going on the goaltending for now and then we'll catch up on it. That's all I got. I mean, I just think, it sounds like they want to bring back Demko and okay, I got one more thing. One more thing.

Remember when Adam Foote came over or Petey came back to play golf with Adam Foote and Quinn Hughes and who else? Thatcher Demko. That was a sign, right? I think so. That was a sign that that's, and Adam Foote came on and said we had a great time, we had a couple dinners out and we talked about the future. I mean, Thatcher Demko is going to be part of this leadership group, it sounds like.

The biggest question is- That was a big tell for me. Yeah, I agree. Can you imagine? There's like, hey, do you want to join us? We're gonna trade you but you know, we like your company Why do you why do you keep calling it my farewell round? Comes back what if he has another injury plague season? What's the backup plan? What I know see logs and and Lanken is that what? Yeah, it's a huge bet. They're gonna make either way. It's a huge bet. They're gonna make it, you know

It's a little wor they're gonna make either way. It's a huge bet they're gonna make either, you know? It's a little worrisome, a little worrisome. Okay, so there's two things on a potential contract extension. One, what the number's gonna come in at. Because right now, for next season, they've got Demko and Lankinen at a combined nine and a half million.

Which is good. That's great, right? I mean, if you're paying your goaltending tent or your goaltending department in a hole under 10 million, and you're getting top flight goal tending Which I think is the expectation great. Good job going up You could probably spend closer to like 12 million on your goalways and that's perfectly normal. Absolutely

Yeah, the question is have they found the secret recipe? in terms of workload for Demko because now correct me if I'm wrong, but it definitely feels like there's a straight line drawn between Demko's health and the amount of workload he's putting on his body. Like when Demko was in the Ian Clark regime and going crazy with the training and, you know, practicing like a madman and carrying a heavy workload, his body started to break down. His habits were probably the best they've ever been, but his body started to break down. Right. Yeah. If they think that they found that, I mean, again, if everything goes right, I don't know where we've heard that before,

but if everything goes right, the goaltending duo becomes a real area of strength on this team. Behind a blue line, which is also an area of strength on this team, you sort of get the idea of why they've got optimism and why they think that they can be competitive next year. Such a thin line though, with that injury worry

hanging over the entire season essentially. It could happen in the playoff. You never know when it could happen, right? Would you risk trying to get C-lobs through waivers? I think you have to. Really? I think you have to. Can you imagine what idiots they'd look like if you got picked off?

Is it better to flip them for a mid-round pick? It honestly would be, yeah. That's all you're going to get for them, but better than nothing, right? I mean, he can be part of a larger trade package. This is a good problem though. This means you have an overflowing goaltending pipeline.

This is what you want. But like right now we're looking at a scenario where the Canucks could have amazing goaltending if they keep Demko and he can stay healthy and they've also got Lankanen and those guys can split games. You've also got this scenario where they could have some of the worst goaltending in the NHL. Do you know what I mean? If Demko gets hurt and they're forced to play, I don't know, Tolopilo because they've already moved sea lobs.

And then Lankton is overplayed. Yeah, you play the wheels out. Yeah, you play the wheels out. Like it is, I mean, there's a lot of bets going on right now. I foresee a few bad pats. With this season. So I want to hear from the listeners, text in to the Dunbar Lumber Text Line 650.

Metro Vancouver's a trusted choice for contractors and rental warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at DunbarLumber.com. It is the Dunbar Lumber text line. Again, 650, 650. We still got to talk about one more topic when it comes to the Vancouver Canucks and Patrick Alveen's

availability and that is, yeah, they've added Evander Kane, but you know, he talked about Evander being a middle six top nine guy. They still need more upfront. They still want to go out and get a second line center and they probably want to get another winger. So any thoughts on what the Canucks will do in the next few days or what they've already done,

text them into 650-650. We'll get into that topic on the other side of the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. And before we go to break, I need to tell you that all coverage of NHL Free Agency 2025 on Sportsnet 650 is brought to you by Homes by David L. Young of Dexter Realty. Here, there, everywhere. Visit homes by davidlyoung.com. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks.

Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 6.32 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody. Halford Crubb, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brub in 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 Sands-trustee.com Still in our one of the program our 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. Okay, so let's Yesterday was a lot of the Vanderken talk, but the Canucks haven't solved their issues with the addition of the Vanderkeen. Sure they have. If he stays healthy, then great. He might score, I don't know, 20 goals. I saw a few people saying he's going to score

30. I was like, that's probably doubtful since he's rarely done that in his NHL career, but they still need a second line center and probably one more winger. And the second line center is the, is the big one. Because we talked about what would happen if Demko were to get hurt and they've traded away sea loaves. You know, then you're probably stretching Lankton and that could go bad.

Well, what happens if Heedle gets hurt and they haven't addressed the second line center position? You know, he's got a serious concussion history and we saw that play out last season and they still, they still need to add a forward who makes plays happen. And this is something that we've talked a lot about on the show and that's not a Vander

Keynes thing. He does some good things out there for sure. He's got a great shot. He hits, gets to the front of the net, but nobody's going to ever describe him as a playmaker. Even if Pedersen returns to form and becomes the playmaker that we've seen him be, they still need another forward who creates on the ice.

It doesn't always have to be a center, but oftentimes it is. Now the problem the Canucks are going to keep running into is that according to Alvein, very few teams want futures in trades right now. They want players back and the Canucks can't spare any of their good players if they want to make the playoffs next season. The Wild want players back for Marco Rossi. I imagine if the Blues trade Jordan Kairou, they'll want players back for him.

The Sabres did trade JJ Paterka to Utah and they got NHL players back because that's what they, the Sabres are like, we're good on picks and prospects. No futures. All presence. We need actual NHL players. So again, which current NHL players would the Canucks be willing to trade?

They want to extend Garland and Demko apparently. Trading Hironic would be a surprise even with all the young guys they've got coming on defense. I don't think they're trading any of the Pettersons, the three of them. So who does that leave? Hoeglinder, Joshua and Bluger. What value do those guys hold and can they help

get the Canucks a young second line center? Yeah. I do wonder if they're going to have to circle back on Pittsburgh now because Pittsburgh is the one sort of identified seller that is interested in acquiring young prospects and picks. And Pittsburgh is the only one. We know the ties there. We know the history there. We know that Brian Rust and Ricardo Keller available in a potential trade. Can we play the Alvin audio real quick?

Cause he really makes a point of saying that there's no movement in the NHL right now. And part of it has to do with the fact that so many of these teams are looking for anything but futures. And I get it with the cap going up and with, you know, established contenders wanting to do the business along with a bunch of teams on the outside of the playoff picture wanting to make a push. Yeah. People want guys that can deliver right now. They're not waiting three or four years down the road. So here's Patrick Alveen from yesterday's media availability talking about how there's such little movement in the NHL because teams just don't want futures based on what you see around the league here leading up to today. It's not a lot of movements and I do believe they're the parody of the league

means that that teams want to have players in return. And I think it's too early to tell here what will happen prior to July 1st, but I do acknowledge that you're right in terms of what's available in the free-giving market. So we'll see here. We still have a couple more days to be creative and find ways, but it's definitely not for a lack of trying. So Alvin was right and wrong. He was wrong in the sense that there is movement in the NHL.

As a matter of fact, hours after he said that, a trade was consummated. You mentioned that the Utah Mammoth, they are the Mammoth now, acquired JJ Paterka from the Buffalo Sabres. Now, Alvin was right in that that trade involves no futures whatsoever. We talked about this in exchange for Paterka. They got Josh Doan a forward and Michael Kesselring a defenseman. And if you want to go down the road of what they got in return, Don't ceilings out as a third line forward. And Kesselring is the top four defensemen

Probably a three four maybe elevates to a two because he's still relatively young. He's always like Kesselring He's a good player big duty six five. He played for the US at the Worlds I feel like the Canucks could have offered more for Perturken still gotten him like what like They could have all right. They needed someone to play with Dolly and here's the right-handed Dean Here's the question you trade Philip ronin for JJ I'm just saying if they wanted to make moves like they could have offered me Yeah, like I think I think offered I think they could have put together offered Hughes Yeah, I think I could have got the deal done, but I don't think they want to move off of for example It's heronic not their best for trade ship and their most likely trade ship

It's not likely not likely here's the way to keep them. Here's the thing trade chip? Considering that's their only strength. Not likely. Not likely. They want to keep them. Here's the thing. Let's say in terms of the framework of that deal, the Connexion said, we'll give you Horonic and Hogminder for Paterka.

That's crazy, man. That would have been the comp. Horonic for Paterka would have been crazy. Right. Any of them would have been crazy. What I'm saying is anyone probably could have gone and made that move, but they would have had to make major subtractions from the lineup. I think what a lot of people publicly facing or thinking

that don't really know the Utah lineup is that they gave away nothing for Paterka. Kesselring, in addition to being relatively young, 25, there's also club control on the money that he's making. So it's a good deal financially. It's not a nothing trade, but it definitely seems like Buffalo won it. I don't know.

From all the reactions too. Buffalo won it? Yeah. I think most Sabres. I mean, sorry, Paturka, not Buffalo. Yeah, Utah. Utah won it. I think it very much.

What's a mammoth again? A retired elephant. Okay. I think it very much. The retired elephants won that trade. I think when we look back on this historically, I think we're gonna say that J.J. Paturka became the bell of the ball because he came along with a trade

request in a summer where everyone was looking to make deals and people were willing to spend. And there wasn't a lot of other options available. By the way, Utah also agreed to a five year thirty eight point five million dollar extension, so roughly seven point two million for Paterka. If you talk to anyone from Buffalo, they'll say the same thing. Defensively, he's really irresponsible and quite poor.

Offensively, he's extremely gifted. He goes for long stretches without scoring, but he still managed to finish close to 70 points last year. Close to two 30-goal seasons, and he's only 23. Yep, and he's the guy that makes things happen out on the ice. You watch him, like he's a very creative player. Um, I want to get into the Dunbar Lumber text line here.

Yeah. Uh, unsigned, I believe. Uh, it reads, I feel like there has to be a breaking point on Marco Rossi soon, right? By all accounts, Garin, who's the Minnesota GM, doesn't think he's a true top six centre, but we know the price is high based on the reported Canucks offer.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. I too am curious if the Minnesota Wilde will eventually acquiesce on the asking price and maybe accept futures and then try and flip those futures, but again, like Minnesota is a playoff team, at least they were last year. And I would say the same for, you know, Frank

Saravelli had Jordan Kairou number two on his trade board. So maybe he's heard something about Jordan Kairou in St. Louis. He's a guy that scores goals and is a creative player, but the Blues made the playoffs last season.

They're probably not looking for futures. You know, I can't remember the last time a first round draft pick had less value. Nope. And everyone wants to move off there. How many did I run through yesterday? Tons. Of teams that night, it was the nine, the 10.

The three even. Yeah. Chicago's willing to trade number three. Right. And look at players, man. Look at the team that we just talked about, the Utah Mammoth, they're holding the fourth overall pick and they want to make noise right now.

So if you're sitting at 15, you are talking about a pick that has diminished value. Now you're gonna have to, they're gonna have to get creative at some point. I think, I don't know if there's another- Who, Minnesota? No, no, no, Vancouver. I think they're gonna have to get- Well, they're trying to get creative. How can you get, I don't know if there's another. Who, Minnesota? No, no, no, Vancouver. I think they're going to have to.

Well, they're trying to get creative. How can you get, you can't? Yesterday was creative. Say that. Yesterday was very creative. It was very outside the box thinking. They took it. And you know, and inherently speaking here, when I say they have to get creative,

you know, really the word that it is, is they're going to have to get risky. Real risky. Real risky. That's going to, and you know, for me, as someone like I'll I leave after the show and I'll go to the grocery store and live my life like I'm excited. I'm very curious to see how this thing turns out. This is exciting. Then isn't Hronik the right move then? Because that's their only area of strength is defense. And he's like their only asset that has value. That's not a prospect. Anything. I mean, I guess you could argue Hogan or maybe has value, but I mean, as far as like high

value, Hronix, they're their only player that they could move. I also think they're looking at if Quinn Hughes leaves, what would they be left with? Sure. I mean, but I'm working under the assumption that they think they're going to keep him. I mean, I don't think they're going to keep him, but I'm just thinking like they think they're hopefully going to keep him. So they're making these moves to facilitate that point taken We've talked about the lack of so with that said then is not heronic their best trade chip

Yes, but I don't think they want to trade him But if you want if you want a forward that makes things happen, you got to make Rick take risks I agree and that's their guy that they would have Are you suggesting I don't want to have their cake and eat it too? That's not like them. I don't want them to trade Aaronic. I love that player. He's great. I don't want them to move.

I'm just saying, if they're looking for a forward that quote makes things happen. We understand, Adog. So we understand. Adog, it's not your fault. It's okay. It's not your fault. Don't do this to me. It's not your fault.

Jay Cook texts in, any chance they may consider trading Kevin Lankanen? Okay, we had Rick Dollywell on the show. No, they won't. They won't. We've had- You're just missing my bit here. It's like, yep.

When they say anything, is anything willing to be, yep. But they're not trading Lankanen. But they're not gonna trade Lankanen. But also they can consider trading him. A lot of people texting in with this notion, and I agree with it, Mark and White Rock, the quickest way back to relevance and a possible playoff spot is Demko bouncing back.

It's even more important than what Petey does. They can't deal him away now. That's a good point. Yeah. I mean, I think him playing well and Petey playing well, I don't know if you want to say which one is more important. They're both important.

But yeah, if I was management, I'd be like, okay, how are we going to do this? We're going to have real trouble scoring goals probably because it seems like it's going to be tough to add a real significant difference maker up front. So what do we do here? We keep our defense as currently constructed and we have potentially one of the best goal tending tandems, fingers crossed that Demko stays healthy in Demko and Lankton and we win a bunch of low-scoring games. We are the Nashville Predators under Barry Trotz. Yeah. And I just think that's probably what they're thinking. And we become that hard to play against team.

I could see them adding a couple more grinders. Well, that might be the pin. Is that the one, again, of the many things that plagued this team last year on the ice and you and I brought it up on a number of occasions, the lack of pushback and the lack of physicality came shining through on a number of occasions. Like in addition to not playing very well and losing on the scoreboard, it felt like there was a lot of battles lost on the ice. Now again,

this isn't retroactively trying to talk up the Kane acquisition because I have never been of the belief that you can add one guy and plop him in and be like, be toughness, be our toughness. It doesn't work. Toronto tried it for years. It never works. You need to have either a collective attitude among your team that one of your primary characteristics is going to be ass kicking. Or you need multiple,

and I underline the word multiple guys that are interested in playing that kind of style so that the guys that don't want to can shy away from it. So could they adopt the mentality where they find other guys that are going to be even tougher to play against? Yes. They're also gonna, and I'll be dead honest about this,

they're going to need to ask the guys currently on the roster to do a little bit more in that department. Like, Joshua is going to need to do a lot of things this season, he's gonna be asked a lot. Well, DK and Squamish texted in, how come no one has mentioned Sherwood? Guy has that edge everyone wants, Canucks included, feel like teams would be

interested in him or is he too valuable to the Canucks? On the ticket he's on, he's too valuable. I think he's too valuable to the Canucks. The Canucks are in this very tough spot where they're like, we've got futures, but nobody wants them. And then if people go out and say, well, how about that guy? Or like, we need him.

Yeah. And that's what go out and say, well, how about that guy? Or like, we need him. Yeah. And that's what a lot of teams are, that's what, that's, that's, that's the same situation a lot of teams are in. Whether they played well last season or they didn't play well last season. They're like, there's no sellers except for Pittsburgh.

And there's only a few teams that are going to be in a cap crunch. Vegas could be in a cap crunch if they go after Mitch Marner, but they might also be able to alleviate some of that by putting a guy like Petrangelo on LTIR. I think one forward is going to shake loose from Vegas.

Maybe it ends up being Hurdle, but Hurdle's gonna cost a lot. Maybe it's gonna be William Carlson, which I think. I don't think so. I think Carlson could shake loose, and maybe it's a guy like Barbachev. I'd like Barbachev. Yeah.

Again though. But again, that's gonna be expensive. Yeah, and does he wanna come here? Now speaking on that note, Sonny writes in to the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket at six fifty six fifty. Do you guys think it would be pretty easy to get Jonathan Marcheseau from Nashville? So a couple of things here. One, Marcheseau's name has been out there.

I think it's very well understood that that first year in Nashville did not go exceptionally well, and I don't know how many people paid attention to it. But Marcheseau was very outspoken about his frustrations, but where the team was at, partly because he was coming from a winning program in Vegas and partly because he knows he's only got a finite amount of time left in his playing career. Here's the thing, this was from Elliot Freeman

on the 32 Thoughts Podcast. Here's the thing. Marchesot is open to a trade, but the list of teams he'd go to is small. Marchesot is blunt and honest that it hasn't gone over really well in Nashville. However, he's gone from a no-tax state in Nevada to a no-tax state in Tennessee.

Any trade he would accept would have to be to another no-tax state. So I would suggest, Sonny, that you could probably rule that one out. Nice, I think there is no taxes. The most annoying thing ever. David Eby, you wanna help out?

Yeah, can I just wave some certain people's taxes? Professional athlete, no tax exemption. These hockey players have it tough. They shouldn't have to pay taxes. Yeah. But I mean, yeah, again, Marcia, so would be a guy. Could they put it in the Canucks contract that if the player comes here and we win a cup,

then they never have to pay taxes again as long as they live in Vancouver? Sure, Andy. And BC? Sure. Like, is that a legal thing we can do? I'm sure. Is there something against the CBA?

You know, they are redrawing up the CBA. I'm sure they'll put a clause in it. I prefer to when you were talking about trading for one. I'm just saying, it's crazy enough to work, the theme of the show. A couple of people have brought up, by the way, a couple of people have brought up the prospect of the Canucks

Targeting targeting Tanner, you know I could see that. Yeah, I really could. Yeah, especially if Bessers gone I mean, I'm not even trying to be like glib about this But like I think it would be hard to have Tanner's, you know, I'm Brock Besser in the same room. That's buying low That's buying buying real low. But here's the here's a question. What did they do yesterday? With a Vanderkane they buying real low, but here's the here's a question. What did they do yesterday? With a Vander Kane they bought real low mm-hmm right You did have 12 points over the playoff stretch. Oh god. Please stop. They bought low you can't class a good player But they bought low you can't classify it as anything else right and there's you know had like no points

Yeah, no, I know and it was like a penalty liability work with me here though. What the yesterday was I think it's just crazy enough to work Yeah, yeah, yeah. Remember this is the slogan. It's not gonna cost us a lot It's just crazy enough to work the connection could be like major league for you know Do they go really well or yeah, yeah, perfectly wrong. You made a four major league. No, they could be oh You're saying right. I think there actually is one. They are. Straight to the H.S. Evander Kane could get Rick Vaughn's glasses.

Potentially. That was the problem all along. I couldn't see. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I am after yesterday. I am starting to look at some of the most distressed assets

out there, or the guys that have completely petered out with their value. And guess who came to the top of that conversation list, laddie? Tanner Janow, who I agree with you, I don't know if he scored a point last year, but there's a guy, he's an unrestricted free agent, right? And there's a guy. He had the same amount of points in the regular season

as Kane had in the playoffs. Yep, and there's a guy that. He played 67 years. What did we just talk about? Maybe you get guys that are harder to play against. Maybe you get guys that'll fight. Maybe you get guys that'll throw a dirty hit from time to time.

He ticks all those boxes. Lucas, the Fuel guy texts in, do you think Vegas would want Futures since they have spent most of theirs over the years? Yeah. I think Vegas would be a good team to identify because they couldn't afford to add players. Like they are, again, the whole thing is you need

to find a team that's in selling mode, and there's really only one of those, and that's Pittsburgh. So are you interested in a guy like, I don't know, Brian Rust or whatever. Or you need to find a team that is in cap trouble. With the rise in the cap, there aren't that many teams. Vegas could be one of them. They might have to accept futures. If they get Marner, even if they LTI Patrangelo, and we don't even know if Patrangelo is going to play another

game in his NHL career. Even if they do that, I think they're still going to have to move a guy. Well, they're going to have to accept futures in that. But here's the thing. There's other teams out there that have futures that want to make additions to their roster. Think about a team like Montreal. They want to upgrade their 2C position as well. And they've got arguably better futures

than the Vancouver Canucks. Yeah, no, there's a lot of teams that have more enticing futures than the Canucks. But Vegas is interesting because I think that they can still monkey around with LTIR, specifically with Datorre. And I think to a lesser degree, Stone. And I think that they're obviously big game hunting

with Marner. I think that's pretty much a foregone conclusion. And I do think that they have some questions to answer at center. Because right now it's Eichel and it's Carlson and it's Hurdle down the middle. And I think what they're looking at, rightfully so, is we got too much money committed to these guys,

collectively. We're going to have to re-up with Eichel, presumably. And there's an odd man out here. Now, here's the thing. I don't know who's clamoring to get Hurtle on board at 8 mil plus. Like, I'm with you when you said it the other day. Always thought he was overrated.

I think there'd be a lot of interest in Hurtle. I don't know. I think he's overrated. Well, yeah, I mean, I do, but I. And I'm not sure what he's got left in the tank. Well, he's not that old, is he? He is 31. No.

Yeah, Thomas Hurdle's 31. Ah, we all grew up so quickly. Yeah, so that's a thing. They're not a young team either, right? Stone's 33, Hurdle's 31, Carlson's 32, and those are guys that they really need to figure out what they're gonna do with moving forward. Vegas could end up being a major, major player

in this free agency slash trade class, even though they've kind of been lurking in the shadows for the last little bit. We've talked about so many other teams. But yeah, I could definitely see them being a team where they sell a guy off, sell a guy off straight for futures because they can't afford to bring any cap space back.

Okay. Thomas Hurtle being 31 may have just ruined my day. I know. It caught a lot of people off guard. He's still 18. He's still 18. He's got the baby face. Yeah.

But yeah, he's- I just remember when he broke in. It feels like yesterday. Yeah. Team mates with the Vanderkane. Yeah. He's at 6'7", by the way, not 8. I misspoke on that one.

That's my bad. Put my hand up on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, we gotta go to break. Before we go to break, I do need to tell you that all coverage of NHL Free Agency for 2025 is brought to you by Holmes by David L. Young of Dexter Realty.

Here, there, everywhere. Visit Holmes by davidlyoung.com. First hour's in the books. Coming up on the other side of the break, we got Adnan Virk to talk a little MLB. We're going to do some what we learns at 7 30. Drance is going to join us at eight and then Ryan Johnson at eight thirty. You're listening to the Halford and Brev show on Sportsnet at six 50.