Halford & Brough in the Morning - Is #TheStart Still A Thing?

Episode Date: July 3, 2024

In hour one, Mike & guest host Jamie Dodd look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they look at the newly-released 2024-25 Canucks season schedule, and discuss how important that start for the club is this year (7:00), plus they look at what has been a busy week for the Habs with Montreal Canadians beat writer Eric Engels (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.

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Good morning Vancouver 601 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough with Jamie Dodd. We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios, the beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jamie Dodd, good morning to you. Good morning, man.

What's going on? Not much. Andy Cole, good morning to you. Good morning. And Greg Ballack, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for,

be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of this program. Hour one is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. And, of course course we are coming to you live from the kintec studio kintec canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star google reviews sore feet what are you waiting for kintec that's what you're waiting for so jamie's here for the vacationing jason

brough who texted me upon arrival in iceland yesterday yeah international man of mystery jason brough it's gonna get gunner stalls autograph i think that's the plan and then texted me upon arrival in Iceland yesterday. Yeah. International man of mystery, Jason Brough. Going to get Gunnar Stahl's autograph. I think that's the plan. And then he's just going to come straight back and do the show on Friday. Job done. Yeah.

So we got a lot to get into on the show today. Jamie will be with us for the remainder of the week. Guest list today begins at 6.30. Eric Engels from Sportsnet in Montreal is going to join us after a busy weekend at the NHL draft for the Montreal Canadiens, and then a very important contract extension for their young star, Uri Slavkovsky.

Eric will be joining us at 6.30 to talk about that. We'll talk about Alex Burrows as well, leaving his bench role with the Montreal Canadiens to take a different role within the organization. 7 o'clock, Eric Erlandson, Tampa Bay Lightning insider. Maybe the most profound changes of any team this offseason occurred in tampa bay where they say goodbye to steven stamkos and mikhail sergachev say hello to jake gensel so we'll talk to eric erlinson about that at seven o'clock 7 30 one of the newly minted vancouver canucks vincent deharnais is going to

join the program new can Canucks D-man. I believe he's actually doing his media availability today as well. So we'll get him on the heels of that. Talk about his new contract in Vancouver. Why he decided to come to Vancouver. We can also talk about what a whirlwind month or last few weeks it's been for him. Yeah. So only a couple weeks ago, he was involved in the Stanley Cup final.

Then had to go through the rigmarole of a short offseason before signing in Vancouver. So Vincent Desjardins at 7.30, 8 o'clock. Louis de Brusque. Hey, Jake's dad's going to join the program. He's excited. His son comes west playing in Canada, playing in Western Canada even more so. So we'll talk to Sportsnet Edmonton analyst Louis de Brusque about that.

You can also ask him about the Oilers, I guess, if we have to. If we have to. So that's the, the show today, working in reverse on that guest list, as mentioned eight o'clock, Louie DeBrusque, seven 30,

Vincent de Harnais, seven o'clock, Eric Erlandson, six 30, Eric Engels. We were going to try and book all Eric's. We were going to have an all Eric Wednesday, but we decided not to.

We're working on Ted Thursday. If you have any Ted's that you'd like us to interview tomorrow, let us know. I think the easiest one to accomplish would be Mike Monday. Mike Monday is easy. Because when I was a producer, I have, I'm not joking, like 30 dudes named Mike in my phone. It's just so incredibly common for people working in sports media to be named Mike.

I really like that. A summer theme where every single day of the week is a different name person theme. But we don't tell the guests that they're part of that. I'm just saying, start with Mike. That's the low-hanging fruit. Yeah, like that would be actually really fun. Even if we have nothing to talk to them about. Just bring them on like, well we brought you here today because your name is Mike and you agreed to do this. How do you feel about your name?

It's the middle of August. It's Mike Day, obviously. Gary Fridays we can have. Yeah, and no one is under the age of 56. Okay, we got a lot to get into on the program. Without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what's happening. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? 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. So the big news yesterday for your Vancouver Canucks, along with the 31 other National Hockey League teams, the complete 2024-2025 regular season schedule was announced. The Canucks will open against their hated rivals from Alberta. No, not those ones. Nope. The other ones. The Calgary

Flames, Wednesday, October 9th at Rogers Arena, as mentioned. So after the opener, Jamie, the Canucks then head out on the road. Well, actually, they host Philadelphia. Sorry. The rare two games at home to start the season for the Canucks before then doing what is kind of now becoming an early season tradition where they go to Florida and Philadelphia and then Chicago as well on a four game road trip.

So right. So they will play Chicago and then they'll return home to take on Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins and closer to the end of October. So it's actually a pretty cool start to the regular season. And that first month alone, the Canucks fans are going to get to see Conor Bedard, of course, who the Canucks will take on Chicago. Sidney Crosby, they'll also get to see the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers early in the year. And the Philadelphia Flyers twice for some reason or another.

That seems to happen with regularity now. Some key games on the docket. Conor McDavid and the Oilers make their first trip to Rogers Arena since that unfortunate Game 7 in the second round of the playoffs. That's early in the season. That's on November 9th. As mentioned, the Canucks will go to Florida early in the year.

The defending Stanley Cup champions will make their trip to Rogers Arena in December. Mid-December game, December 12th. If you're wondering about that game that Connor Bedard will finally get to play in Vancouver, big asterisk, barring injury, that will be on November 16th. The Leafs and Habs games are going to have to wait until much later in the year. They are in February and March, respectively.

And then, of course, the Canucks will wrap up their season at home against the Vegas Golden Knights. It's a three-game homestand to close out the year. So I wanted to ask you, although I'm stealing the question that you put out there. That's all right. I'm stealing from Jamie Dodd already. It's 6-0-7. That's what I'm here for.

Is hashtag the start done as a talking point? Do we have any lingering concerns about the team potentially faltering early? Like they have in so many seasons past? Well, because I was thinking about when the schedule got released last year. Right. And because there was already, even at this point of the calendar, so much emphasis on the start. Right. And we knew it was going to be so there was so much hype around it. Could this team finally deliver? Could they avoid stumbling right out of the gate? And as a result, I mean, I sure you you guys are doing this as well and you remember people are like going over the first you know eight to ten games

of the schedule in as much exhaustive detail as possible right trying to analyze it from every angle okay like this is favorable for them but then they're on a back-to-back here but oh actually well this team's playing three and four so maybe that's not so bad right you're trying to like do everything you possibly can to figure out is this hard is it like how are they going to stumble how are they going to not get it done or or are they going to get it done and then of course they did they had a fantastic start and it carried on uh throughout the entire season they end up finally going back to the playoffs i'm curious and i'll throw this out to the fans to the dogs to you mike as well how much as you said kind of lingering concern there is about the issue of the start.

And I'll say I don't really have a lot of concern. I think the team, it's not just that they made the playoffs last year, right? They cleared that bar so easily. They won a playoff round. They took Edmonton to seven games. I think they've earned the benefit of the doubt enough that even if it's a little underwhelming out of the gate next year, I don't think it's time to panic.

I don't think it's like, I don't think we'll be able to justifiably say, oh, here are the old Canucks if they have a slow start out of the gate. I think a huge part of that is Rick Tockett. I think the teams are in the benefit of the doubt, but I also think more than anything, Rick Tockett has that even if they're, you know, four and five in their first nine,

four and five in October. Right. I think there's going to be a level of trust or there should be a level of trust that talk. It's going to do whatever it takes to get them back on track in a very weird way. There might end up being pressure because of how well they played to the start of last season. I know how media works. I know how I'm going to work when it comes to the fall. Everyone's going to look back to last November 15th, so a good chunk into the start of last year's regular season. The Canucks were 12-3-1 after 16 games. That's a pretty good record.

And that's not necessarily the bar, but there's very valid reasons to suggest that part of the reason that they were in the playoffs and in the playoffs comfortably last year is they built up such a bank of points through October, November, and then into December. The 12-3-1 start. At that point, you're a week out of American Thanksgiving,

which is always a pivotal part on the schedule that connects with the top team in the Western Conference and the second best team in the National Hockey League. By November 15th, they only trailed the Bruins by one point. The reason I'm bringing all of this up is because that's going to be very difficult to replicate. Yep. Some would say almost impossible.

You have to be one of the best two teams in the NHL through the quarter poll almost to achieve last year's goals. There's where I could see the narrative being, uh-oh, it's not as good as last year's goals there's where i could see the narrative being uh-oh it's not as good as last year are they gonna have to fight and claw for what they got last year which was 100 plus point season 50 wins etc etc but 12-3-1 can't be the bar like that's just so that's unreasonable why do you have such low expectations jamie that's true should be 16-0 typical soft vancouver media why did you drop a single game? What are you guys doing? What's wrong with you?

Yeah, I don't think it's going to be pressure in that regard, but we are inevitably going to do it. We're going to look at last season and be like, remember how great that start was? It's just the way that the media was. But I think one of the reasons the start was such a big deal is there was a lack of confidence that this team could, as you said, scrap and claw for a playoff spot, right?

Unless they were always on the front foot, unless things were always going well. But I think we should have that confidence in them at least to a degree right like i think yeah it's it's a weird conversation because in some ways obviously the bar has been raised significantly for them right and now i'm sitting here and saying ah don't get off to a good start it's not that big a deal but we see really talented teams you know have at least slightly uninspiring starts all the time and then figure things out and then get rolling. Right. And I think there should be every expectation that the Canucks can do that. The Canucks can be that type of team where it doesn't have to be a dream season right from opening night for them to have success.

They can find their way as the season goes and it won't be worth panicking about if it takes a little bit. So a couple of things that might help, hashtag the start for the second consecutive season. The Canucks only play six times in the first 17 nights of the schedule. So between opening at home, getting a break, going on that eastern swing, coming back, it's relatively light to start. Also, a fairly heavy home schedule, as you pointed out, through December. So 20 of their first 35 games are home.

So there's some stuff baked in to the schedule here that will be advantageous for another good start. One of the things that I thought about as soon as the schedule came out was workload, particularly as it pertained to Thatcher Demko. So if you want to look and say, where is it going to get grindy for the Canucks? March is tough. They're going to play 15 games in 30 nights. And the last six of those are on an Eastern road swing.

That's going to be a time where you're getting right near and in and around the trade deadline. Yep. That's also going to be a time where you might have to start scrapping and fighting and clawing for points if you need them. There's going to be stretches in this schedule, and that's one of them where I'm going to start thinking about Thatcher Demko's workload and how the Canucks are going to deploy him

because I would suggest, I would suggest that one of the things going into this season that they'll have a conversation about is how do we, one, keep him fresh and two have him avoid the injuries that have plagued his last couple of regular seasons that's going to be a huge part of this season and i think again that's that ties into the expectations have raised but there isn't the same sense of urgency to scrap and claw for every point right in october right they should be able to take the longer view of hey we're a good enough team we don't need to play Thatcher Demko 60 games in the regular season to make the playoffs. They should feel like they have that buffer built in where they can be a little bit more relaxed with his workload with-week break in the schedule in February for the Four Nations tournament. So they play the Leafs on the 8th.

Then they don't play again until two weeks later, Vegas, on the 22nd. So, I mean, that'll be interesting. Demko probably is going to be on Team USA. How much will he play in that tournament, though? We'll see. So it's going to be kind of interesting, you know, rest for the players who aren't in that tournament versus the activity for the players who do take part in it. Because there were absolutely times last year where they were rolling out Demko, despite the fact that they had a lot of things. I don't want to say in the bag, but they were comfortable.

They were comfortable in terms of their playoff position. And I do think that last year there was so much of a that wasn't that necessarily quiet. But lurking in the background was we still need to prove ourselves. We still need to tell the league that we're for real. We still need to continue to set the bar. We still need to, you know, grind out victories and get wins and not necessarily throw them away. And then, of course, the sort of infamous Casey to Smith game

where they gave up 10 goals against Minnesota. I think that shook their confidence a little bit. And then all of a sudden you started to see Demko get overextended. I just think that, you know, they learned a lot in the playoffs this past year. And one of them was, it's going to be that what if. The what if. What if we had all our guys ready? What if we had our caliber goalie available?

And I do think that they're going to make some alterations and adjustments. Now, I'll turn the attention to Laddie. If you had to guess right now, I'm putting you on the spot. It's a Patera-Silovs question. Who do you think of those two would start more games at the NHL level next season? Well, I think Patera's only got six under his belt. He's been around the American League and National Hockey, but I mean around it like he's just been there.

But if you look at his games played totals, it's not high. Yeah, I think they're on kind of the same plane, the same level, but I think he's a guy that they're excited to work with. And I think, like I said yesterday, he was more of a victim of a numbers game in Vegas rather than playing poorly and being forced out. It was more of a, hey, we have so much goaltending here. We got to let one of you go.

And the Canucks were more than willing to scoop him up. So that's the kind of guy you got with Patera, which is intriguing. It's not the veteran that they've been bringing in the last few years. But, hey, I'm all for it. It's a guy I like to see. I think more younger goalies like that should be given opportunities like this. Did we talk about Casey DeSmith getting a bag in Dallas? Three years.

Yeah, three years, but only $1 million per year, which is a little low, but I guess he wanted to turn it. But it's $3 million. No matter how you slice it up, he doesn't have to move for a little while. And yeah, he's got $3 million. Not a bad gig, too. I can see why the Canucks went off of that one, because they probably saw the number and were like,

okay, have fun in Dallas. There were a few deals with the guys that departed where I was like, okay, I can understand why the Canucks didn't come near that number. Like Cole's money in Utah was one where I was like, wow, good on him. That's fantastic. Guys that were on waivers last year were getting money. Sam Lafferty got a two-year, $2 million deal for Sam Lafferty.

Yeah, that one. We were joking. We were like, how do you trade for Sam Lafferty's negotiating rights? And then also Buffalo buying out Jeff Skinner and then being like, Sam Lafferty, come on down. They fumbled the bag. Yeah, you want some of that sweet Jeff Skinner money, Sam Lafferty? Because you can have it.

Okay. Key dates from the National Hockey League schedule, the league in general. So Jamie alluded to this already. There will be a 12-day break during the regular season, February 10th to 21st, as the league hosts its first ever Four Nations faceoff. So what's going to happen, actually, is they're going to play a couple games on Super Bowl Sunday, including the last one is going to be Tampa Bay, Montreal. Then they're going to shut the league down, and then they're going to open back up on the 22nd.

Wait, they're playing on Super Bowl Sunday? They always have games on Super Bowl Sunday. They always play them early. Yeah, It's the 9 a.m. Pacific start. That's right. It's great for everyone except Thomas Drance. But there's always, you can always do like Super Bowl props that relate to the

NHL games. Whatever, like Nikita Kucherov shots on goal versus Patrick Mahomes touchdowns in the Super Bowl or whatever. Yeah, and it's always the Washington Capitals are always involved for some reason or another. Anyway, so that happens in February. The two outdoor games this year, in case you missed it.

The Blackhawks are going to host the Blues at Wrigley Field on New Year's Eve. And then the Red Wings are going to go, I forgot about this one, are going to go to Columbus to play at Ohio State in the Horseshoe in March. The Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers are going to play twice, December 16th and February 27th in a rematch of the Stanley Cup final. Of the sort of revenge games that are going to be out there,

and we'll talk to Eric Erlandson about this coming up a little bit later in the show, Stamkos and the Nashville Predators, which sounds weird. I can't even imagine what it's going to look like they get to go back to Tampa Bay early they go on October 28th so that's going to be super interesting because they're obviously going to be an emotional love-in from the fans

but Stamkos isn't even going to have that much time to get over how jilted he is and how upset he's going to be that's quick yeah that's going to be really interesting Lindy Ruff so he gets to face his old team with his new team, the Buffalo Sabres, taking on the New Jersey Devils in Prague. So that'll be interesting as well.

And I do want to mention, because we're going to have a chat here about what the St. Louis Blues are doing. The St. Louis Blues will welcome back their cup champion coach, Craig Berube, who's with the Toronto Maple Leafs on November 2nd as he goes back to St. Louis. Speaking of St. Louis, probably the most active team,

I would say, on day two of the agency, in large part because I think Doug Armstrong slept through day one. He forgot to set his alarm. He's like, ah, crap. And all he did was sign Kasperi Kapanen. So yesterday, big money extension to Pavel Buchnevich, a six-year deal with 8 million AAV. So big money for him.

They acquire Radek Foksa and Matthew Joseph for nothing. And I literally mean nothing. It was just future considerations. They got a pick for Matthew Joseph. Yeah, they just brought him on board. And they're like, you know what? And now we roll. I have no idea.

No idea what this team is exactly doing. I think that they believe that the turnaround they had under Bannister last year was enough of proof of concept that they feel like they can be right back in the playoff mix. I can't see them as a legit contender, but they seem to believe that they're going to do the old retool on the fly, which is we're going to try and get a little

bit younger and also get incrementally better where we can still compete for a playoff spot. So the old trying to serve all masters type thing, and I'm not sure it's going to work. Their roster. And you just look at cap friendly, which is still up and running, by the way.

I don't know when the shutdown date is coming, but shout out to cap. Two more days, buddy. Shout out to cap friendly. All right. Well, I'm going to,

I'm going to use as much as I can before then, but you know, you've still got Brayden Shen there, right? Hold over from the Stanley cup team, Colton Pareko there hold over from the stanley cup team but then you've just kind of got a lot of parts that don't necessarily seem to fit together after that and buchnevich was a player that there was talk he might be yeah he might be a trade target certainly at the trade deadline this offseason as well now they lock him up and i really like the player but with the guys they

have on the blue line you know they're already committed big money to jordan kairu and robert thomas i don't know how much upside there is with whatever plan this is like i don't know i don't know how they take that next step to being more than a kind of fringe like oh hey if they get hot they could make the playoffs team so the funny part about buchnevich is the agent todd diamond uh came out yesterday and said like you know we had an understanding that he didn't want to play for a rebuilding team he wanted to compete for a cup and he didn't want to go through a retool I'm like so why did you why did you sign in St. Louis do

you think you're competing for a cup here do you get access to cap friendly Todd Diamond you should take a look at it I don't know where that team is going and he did add though that Doug Armstrong also told the agent and the player that he's not interested in a lengthy retool either I do wonder if they've got something else up their sleeve or if there's another deal to be made because going into the season what they've got they're not a hell of a lot different than last year they did trade uh Kevin Hayes to Pittsburgh in a deal that kind of got lost in the shuffle over draft weekend. This is an interesting question, though, on the heels of talking about what direction the St. Louis Blues are going in.

Jamie, which team's direction confuses you the most right now? So there's a bunch of good candidates. I think I look at Washington, the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade, the Chikorin trade. You know what? What's the plan here? Not to interrupt. I kind of like that Washington is like, look the plan not to interrupt i kind of like that washington is like

look we got to keep playing hockey and on certain levels so ovechkin can get the record let's just throw some stuff on the let's just see what happens and see what sticks right like there's a dubois there's a yeah we'll try we'll just try anything here who cares let's see what happens i think the lack of activity from buffalo and la stands out to me but the the team i'm i find most baffling it's it's the detroit red wings and you know i know the the eiser plan people are so excited they're in detroit for what he was going to do for this really patient rebuild he's flailing man i like the eiser plan is on tough tough times it's on life support, I think, in Detroit.

After attaching that second round pick to move Jake Wallman, who's a perfectly fine player. I cannot see how you had to attach a second round pick in order to move that contract. They followed up by basically doing nothing. Doing basically nothing to improve their team. I was shocked because they re-signed Kane on the eve of free agency. So I was thinking, okay,

this is sort of the first domino to fall on what's going to be the Iser plan, which traditionally has actually been fun to watch. I remember he had a move one year. We were on a plane going back and forth from the draft at the end of the Stanley Cup final. And he was moving around and it involved Sam Gagne's contract.

He was like moving it to Arizona and then moving part of it elsewhere. And he was moving around, and it involved Sam Gagne's contract. He was moving it to Arizona and then moving part of it elsewhere. And you could see everything unfolding. And I'm like, oh, he seems like a really savvy general manager. So every time he makes a move, my mind automatically goes to, well, let's just wait,

sit back and eat popcorn because there's going to be two or three more. And it's not really happening. This was like the first domino, but then it wasn't close enough to the other dominoes to knock them over it's just one sad domino falling and then no follow-up whatsoever they only have nine forwards under contract right now now they got a couple of rfas that they can get done but that still only brings you up to 11 like that's not a full

complement of nhl forwards and there's not that many interesting names left out there so the team that is baffling me the most right now is the los angeles kings i think i know what they're doing and that actually is what makes it baffling they're good they're gonna lean more apparently they're gonna lean further into being this heavy gritty grinding team even though at the end of last season a bunch of their players went to the podium we We're like, we don't like this. We don't like what we're doing. We play a 1-3-1. It's super boring.

We don't create enough offense. And for a defensively stout team, we just got the doors blown off us by the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the playoffs. So they've gone out and acquired Warren Fogle and Joel Edmondson and Tanner Jeannot. When you sign those three guys, you are putting up a big sign to the rest of the league that we want to be big-bodied. We want to hit guys. We want to be aggressive. We want to out-physical people.

I'm thinking about a team where Kevin Fiella literally said at the end of the season, I would like to try something different in terms of style of play. They don't score enough. In a league where offense is exploding like we haven't seen since the 90s it does seem like an interesting tack to take now i know that you need to play good defensive hockey to you know be a successful playoff team but i'm not even sure that they're that good at it i think they're a fine

regular season team and i think the reason that that system works during the regular season is because it's a different look every night for the opponent right you've got a different opponent every night you don't have a guy sitting there like systematically picking it apart over a seven game series and they didn't have the horses to go with Edmonton and it was alarmingly apparent that in the subsequent rounds teams did have the horses to push Edmonton more. Because the Kings got the doors blown off them in the first round. It was not a close series. It may have been a sweep

for as close as the Kings made it. So I'll be very curious to see how that plays out in Los Angeles. Okay, we are up against it for time. As Jamie mentioned off the top, if you want to weigh in today, Dunbar-Lumber text line is 650-650. We've thrown out a couple questions

to the audience, to the listenership so if you want to weigh in on anything we can also, because you and I haven't really discussed at least together, all the Canucks signings from day one of free agency including Vincent Desjardins who will be joining the show at 7.30 today but joining the show next

Eric Ingles from Sportsnet in Montreal we'll talk to him about a busy draft for the Montreal Canadiens we'll talk to him about a busy draft for the Montreal Canadiens. We'll talk to him about Uriah Slavkovsky's, the big gamble that they made on their young star. And then, of course, what happened with Alex Burrows behind the bench in Montreal. That's all coming up next on the Halford & Brough Show, featuring Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650.

It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 6.33 on a Wednesday. So Jamie Dodd's in for Jason Brough on the Halpern and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Since the last time you hosted, we decided that we didn't have enough administrative nonsense in the show. And we rebranded Wednesdays as Eurodance Wednesdays. This is fairly correct.

And right now you are experiencing Eurodance, which I called Euro Trash Wednesdays. That is fairly correct. And right now you are experiencing Eurodance, which I called Euro Trash Wednesdays yesterday. I kind of like that better. I was wondering, because off air you called it Euro Trash, and then the mic came on and you called it Eurodance. I was like, is he trying to avoid offending our Romanian listeners here?

No, I offended most of them yesterday when I called it Euro Trash Wednesdays. Bring it up, Laddie. Alfred and Brough for the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. Eric Engels from Sportsnet in Montreal is going to join us in just a moment here.

He will be the highlight of Hour 1. He's probably very confused right now. I think I cleared it up. Okay. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling. They recycle.

You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. As mentioned, Eric Engels joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Eric. How are you? I'm excellent. How are you guys? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it.

The Uri Slavkovsky extension in Montreal, you tweeted out that the Canadians made one signing on July 1 that was more important than any other offer they could have made in free agency. Can you explain to our listeners why it was so important? Well, I mean, you start with Slavkovsky, right?

You've got a 20-year-old kid who's with the team for the next nine years. He'll play this first one because he was eligible. This was the first time he was eligible to sign a deal, but he still had one year left on his entry-level deal. So he's 950 on the cap and then goes to 7.6. And to have that player under control, the first overall pick in 2022 for that long, is a big win for Montreal. It's what they wanted to get done.

That's why they made that offer on the first day of eligibility. To have him, Suzuki, and Caulfield all under $8 million set them up really well in the future for when they actually want to jump into the market and spend max dollars and max term on a big fish to bring this thing to a whole other level because it didn't really make sense for them to do that on July 1st. That's just not where they're at in their build.

So I think it's a big win for them. It's definitely a big win for Yuriy Slavkovsky too, just based on a smaller sample, right? He has 130 games under his belt, and really it's the last 40, 50 of the last season that he was able to provide the type of performance that reassured the whole Montreal staff that he's going in the direction

that this deal will end up being a bargain down the line. Did you have a sense prior to the deal being announced that this was in the works? Because it is a bit of a risk. Anytime you sign a young player, this young, to that long of a deal, there's always a risk involved. Everybody understands the value that you could squeeze out of it. But did you have a sense this was coming or did it catch you as a surprise? The only thing that caught me by surprise was that it happened on Monday. I knew it was in the works.

It was just a question of whether or not it could get done as quickly as it did. And it happened to come through about 10, 15, 20 minutes before Kent Hughes was set to address the media. So that was good. It kind of saved the press conference, right? He didn't make any big signings. He made a pitch to Jonathan Marcheseau, but the Canadians went into free agency with a pretty limited option to be able to land somebody on the market,

which is that they were looking for, you know, some top six scoring help on the short term. And it's pretty rare that you see a top six player that's a bona fide top six player especially when he scored 42 goals last year suddenly uh decide okay i'll i'll take two years instead of five which he signed for at nashville so uh yeah i was i was only caught off guard by how quickly it came together i thought it would be a few days before they were able to get that one done with slavkosski, he goes from 10 points in 39 games in his rookie season to 50 in 82 last year.

So obviously a huge step forward. What really clicked for him in Montreal last season? You know, it's hard to pinpoint one thing. I think it was, you know, they want to i want to say that the biggest success of seeing that rate of progression with him and it was a really quick turnaround from oh he looks like he's struggling oh he looks like he could do some time in the ahl to all of a sudden he's unlocked something i think it's the expectations that the canadians were able to set with him personally the way they were able to give him a slow burn

and give him all the platform and opportunity to grow as a player without heaping the expectations and pressure that the outside world would have put on him as the number one overall pick going to Montreal. They really kept him on earth. They told him, hey, don't worry about the points, don't worry about this, don't worry about that. We're going to we're going to work on this this this and this and it'll take you to this level and then from this level we'll get you to this level and you know credit to the player

as well for having the maturity to not get ahead of himself was he frustrated at times where he wasn't producing and and still playing some decent hockey of of course. It's only natural, especially for somebody who has these high expectations of himself. But I think they just did such a good job of keeping him grounded. And I think that's a big factor in why he was able to submit to the process that Marty St. Louis went through with him. And while everybody around Montreal, or maybe not everybody, but a fair portion of the people were sitting there

saying, like, why does he need to be in Montreal? You know, I think the Canadians always saw it as Marty St. Louis is the best option to oversee the development of this crucial player to the Canadians' rebuild. And, you know, anybody who was debating it before certainly wasn't, as the second half of the season rolled around and he produced at a 70-point pace 35 points in 40 games and it wasn't just that he was scoring, right? He was on the first line playing with Caulfield and Suzuki

against premium matchups every night, playing 19-20 minutes a game, playing in every situation. His play away from the puck, which appeared to be the biggest thing he would have to work on to be able to get to the level expected of him went from you know one of his biggest weaknesses to his biggest strength and it shows that sometimes the separation between why you pick a guy first

overall versus guys who are picked third or fourth or whatever it is, is their potential to grow quickly, to adapt quickly. And he showed that he has that. We're speaking to Eric Engels from Sportsnet in Montreal here on the Halverd and Brough Show featuring Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650. Alex Burrows, Eric, obviously a guy that Vancouver Canucks fans still follow very closely. So can you let us know exactly what's going on as he exits his position from behind the Montreal bench, but still takes on a new role within the organization?

Yeah, I don't think it's all that complicated, right? You look at Alex Burrows, he's had, I think, 22 or 23 years of professional hockey from going through the entire system as a player to immediately jumping behind the bench of the Laval Rocket with Joel Bouchard as an assistant coach and then being promoted. He just hasn't had enough time to be around his family. Ken Hughes also explained he lived an hour away from the rink. So there were nights where, you know, game would end and he couldn't even go home before, you know, they have to leave the next

day early on a trip. So I think, you know, he made a decision that was best for him and his family. He's still in high regard with the organization, hence he's got a position with them, you know, consulting and everything. So it's good for him. You know, I respect anybody who will put their family first, especially after their family has put him first for so long. And, you know, he's got kids and wants to be more of a dad.

And the Canadians had a crowded bench, right? Like, I don't know if every team in the NHL has four people on their bench. I don't know if the Canadians will continue to have four people on their bench. We'll see how Marty St. Louis wants to proceed here, if he wants to fill that vacancy with somebody he knows. Because, you know, he inherited this coaching staff from Trevorvor letowski and stefan robita and burrows uh maybe this is an opportunity for him to bring somebody in who would be his guy or maybe he says you know what there was some overlap between what i was doing what alex was doing and i'll take on those responsibilities

and have a little less crowded bench and we'll take it from there we'll find out in the next few days so you mentioned going into july 1st kind of a limited shopping list for a general manager kent hughes and obviously the the slavkoski uh extension the biggest deal they're going to make this summer but what else do you expect to see in terms of transactions for the canadians over the course of the summer there, are there players currently on the roster who could be a potential trade candidates for the team as well? Yeah, I think there are, uh,

whether or not the Canadians will be aggressive and pursuing it is, is a question, you know, like they, I think they're in kind of wait and see mode, see how things shake out, see how the rest of the market shakes out, see who remains and where the leverage kind of swings to Montreal's side

to potentially convince someone that they see as an upgrade, you know, in their middle six, let's put it that way. As far as trade is concerned, they're not looking to move a core piece from one position where they have an abundance on defense to acquire a forward. They have a lot of draft capital, as you mentioned. They've got two first-round picks, a couple second-round picks, three third-round picks, a couple four-round picks.

I think one of the things Kent Hughes said the other day that resonated with me was he's not urgently looking to potentially move from that draft capital right now to get a player that can help them for the now when he could potentially use it to overpay to acquire one more piece that would really set this whole thing you know they they got to meet off which was a huge win for them they got michael h who they view as a top six forward um i can't speak to what everything else that happened on saturday because you know when you look at rounds two through seven, you're just hoping to graduate players to the NHL eventually. And if any of them do more than that, it's a real bonus. That's just statistically how

the draft works. But I think, you know, as much as they would like to tweak this thing so that they give themselves an even better chance of making the playoffs they just will not do anything that affects their commitment to building a team that can compete for the stanley cup year over year and so yeah i mean they'll be they'll be looking for opportunities to make this group better especially the commitment of the players over the last couple years of what they knew would be losing hockey you You know, they've never wavered from the program. The one thing you'd say about them is that they were in every game and that's why they led the league and won goal games last year.

They pushed as hard as possible, knowing the odds were against them. And I think he would love more than anything to reward that effort. But again, not at the expense of a long-term plan. And he has some players on the blue line that aren't necessarily core pieces that potentially he could move from, but we'll see if there's a fit on the trade market to make that happen. If not, I'll go into a camp with a ton of defensemen and some young ones pushing to make the roster, and Lane Hudson, Logan Mayhew, and David Reinbacker.

And I don't think it's the worst-case scenario that if no movement happens between now and then from the blue line that those three guys start in the bow together. They're going to get NHL experience, all three of them, I think, at some point this coming year. There have been improvements with the team, not just eye test-wise, but they've gone from 55 points to 68 to 76. So year over year, you can see the team winning

more games and getting better and inching closer towards being in playoff contention. How have the fans responded to all this? Because I know if you follow on social, they're thrilled at this stockpiling of young talent and prospects and they love the youth movement. They love they see that the plan is coming along and working as

devised, but there's always that point where it's like, okay, it's go time. And fans are notoriously impatient when it comes time to getting back into the playoffs and celebrating the best time of the year in hockey. So where are the fans all this as it goes into another year of the Montreal Canadiens' evolution under Hughes? I think they've been exceptionally patient, but patience has its limits. And I would suggest that limit comes next summer. You know, if they wade into free agency or the trade market next summer and come up empty like they have so far this summer,

then there will be a lot more impatience expressed within the fan base. I also think there is a portion of the fan base that would like to see some sort of aggressive moves here that helps the team for the here and now more so than the long term. But I think the Canadians' management set forth a plan here and their willingness to stick to it, to me, is a virtue. I really see it as this is a critical juncture of their rebuild, and it's the juncture that a lot of teams around them

have gotten wrong, where they get ahead of themselves, do something that ultimately sets them back down the line for what is potential short-term gain, but doesn't necessarily push them over the top. Like, I look at Kirby Doc coming back, I look at how competitive game but doesn't necessarily push them over the top.

I look at Kirby Dock coming back. I look at how competitive the Canadiens were last year without him for 81 of 82 games, still being in all those one-goal games. And if they win a few more of them, they're right there in the mix. And I'm saying to myself, even with him back, even if they had gotten marches so locked in it would have given them a much better chance of making the playoffs next year but it wouldn't guarantee that they'd be there and so you know you look at what ottawa has done over the last couple years you look at what buffalo has done at the last couple of years and what expense that might spring to their long term plans i think those are cautionary tales for the Canadians,

and that's why they've been so rigid in following their own plan here. Eric, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy some well-deserved time off this offseason. We'll do this again later in the fall as we get closer to the start of next regular season. Thanks, guys. Have a great summer.

Yeah, you too. Thanks. That's Eric Engel, Sportsnet NHL analyst from Montreal, here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, featuring Jamie Dodd. Jamie said earlier, let's get the listeners involved. Threw out a couple questions. Here's one coming into the Dunbar Lumber text message-in basket at 650-650. Get your texts in. Pistol Pete.

It's a lengthy one. I'll read it anyway. Pistol Pete also threw's a lengthy one. I'll read it anyway. Pistol Pete also threw in all the emojis that we normally have for giveaways. Pistol Pete, we're not giving in. I was just covering all those bases. I don't know what's going on, but just in case, I'm entering for a prize. I respect your game. I respect your hustle, but we have no giveaways today.

Pistol Pete writes, Based on management's moves last season, potential cap space, and the relationship with Chicago, could we see an in-season trade to acquire Taylor Hall? His contract's up at the end of this year and would probably work well in the Talkett system. This could be a Petey-Winger solution if DeBrusque finds himself better suited to Miller and Besser thoughts. My first thought is that yes, Rick Talkett and Taylor Hall do have a history with one another. As a matter of fact, if you go and look back to a few different articles written during both their time together in Arizona, rest in peace, Arizona coyotes.

There are a couple different articles where Talkett speaks glowingly about Taylor Hall, what he brought to the team, and that short stint that they had together. Now. 35 games. 35 games. Unforgettable 35 games. 35 magical games. Oh, God. They both remember those times so well. I think this is more of a better jumping off point, though, for that type of move, as opposed to Taylor Hall, in particular, who is a little bit longer in the tooth and is coming off a pretty significant injury.

Yeah. I mean, it's an interesting name to throw out there, right? We'll see what he looks like if he, when he gets back on the ice with Chicago, $6 million cap it. So you're figuring probably some retention there.

I think it's a good shout from pistol Pete too, but they have done a bunch of deals with Chicago. So there's already a familiarity there, a comfort level to do those deals. So it's an interesting name. I think, as you said, kind of the bigger point is what is that next move

that they'll be looking to make in season or before the start of the season, especially because they could actually have some significant cap flexibility. If they don't sign anyone else before the season, they could actually be like under

enough under the cap that they don't have to use tucker poolman's contract on lti to be compliant and then that opens up a whole bunch of different possibilities i would still lean to another defenseman if you're looking to make that type of move a fairly significant for a big salary and a high profile player to me it's a number three defenseman is what you're targeting more than anything more than an additional winger but if the right winger is out there then it could make a lot of sense too so prior to leaving on his european vacation brough brought up he had some concern about the blue line is currently constructed and it's puck moving ability do you feel the same yeah absolutely and I think the Canucks internally,

concern might not be the right word, but I think they are curious. Let's put it this way to see if it'll work. And I think they've got some plans and Patrick Alvian references, right? Look, we're going to play fast. We're going to put these guys in a position to succeed. But one thing we always see with this management group

is they're not afraid to pivot when something isn't working, right? And if they see a need on the team, they're not afraid to pivot when something isn't working. Right. And if they see a need on the team, they're going to go out and try to address it. Think about, you know, Carson Soucy getting injured last year. Pretty quickly after it, they go trade for Nikita Zdorov. Like, you know, we need another big physical lefty on the blue line. So I think if we get to December, certainly January, and the puck moving ability on the blue line is causing this team issues, they're going to go try to find a solution.

I don't think they're locked in to playing with this defense core all year. Now, you brought up another good point there is that they do still have cap space remaining and always the option to put Pullman's deal on El Tiara, which would open up more cap space. Again, prior to leaving for his vacation,

Brough kept mentioning keeping the powder dry, essentially remaining cautious and pragmatic in case of emergency. I do wonder if we saw the blueprint for that last year, where they went into the start of the regular season with the flexibility to make the amount of trades that they did, starting with the DeSmith acquisition and getting off Pearson's money, and then sort of systematically adding pieces at a time where a lot of other NHL clubs

were either trying to get cap compliant before the start of the regular season or looking at what they had and saying, okay, we don't want to go into the regular season either with or without these pieces. The Canucks were exceptionally active at the beginning of last year. Remember, we joked that if it wasn't for Patrick Alvino, there'd be no movement in the National Hockey League in October last year. And the Zdorov trade was one of those deals

where they saw what they needed, and then they went out and made the move because they had the flexibility to do so. Well, and last year, but they were in a situation where for all of those trades that you mentioned, they had to clear money first, right? Like you had to send Tanner Pearson out to get Casey to Smith back. That lets you do Sam Lafferty as well.

Before they trade for Zdorov, they had to move Anthony Beauvillier to Chicago. Obviously, Kuzmenko had to go to Calgary in the Lindholm deal. So even with the relatively limited flexibility, they were able to find a way to make deals. They could be in a situation this season where they can acquire a player with no money going the other way, right? Because you actually have that amount of cap flexibility. And I think, as you point out, this front office, even in a really tough

scenario to make trades, was able to do so, was able to find creative solutions. So I think if you give them that extra bit of flexibility, there's a ton of different things they can accomplish with it. Coming up on the Halford & Ruff Show on Sportsnet 650, we're going to go down to Tampa Bay. Eric Erlinson, Lightning Insider. I don't think there's a team that's had a more profound switch in terms of the face and the identity of the organization

than the Tampa Bay Lightning have over the first few days of free agency. Parting with a longtime face of the franchise franchise and captain Steve Stamkos in a very cold and callous sort of way that left Stamkos puzzled. They bring in Jake Gensel, who of course was a target of the Vancouver Canucks for a long time prior to July one. They extend Victor Hedman. They made a bunch of different moves.

Mikhail Sergachev is out. What's going on in Tampa Bay? We will find out next with Eric Erlinson, lightning insider. That's all coming up on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.