Halford & Brough in the Morning - It's A Whole New EP40

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they break down the latest Canucks audio from yesterday's Jake Milford Charity Golf Tournament, as many of the players were in attendance (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. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Shotgunsnap to the quarterback. He fakes it in a runner-in-himself. Over the right tackle, the 10, got a block at the five. Sideline, Pylon, touchdown. J.C. McCartney. Nailer.

plugs this out to center field, and it short hops the wall. Well, I added six kilos, so you can add it to whatever head. This can't be right. This man has 104% body fat. Hey, no eating in the tank. How to hell? Good morning, Vancouver. 6-1 on a Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford and his broth. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adah. Good morning to you.

Good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford in Brough of 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 dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program.

Hour one is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. North Star! 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. guy that'll be really happy you did that. Sometimes I like to throw it in there.

You haven't done it for a while, though. I've got to keep him guessing. We have this one texter that got very upset when you stopped as well, and I don't think he was joking. He was actually very upset. It's like, I need it every day. We've blocked it. Routine is important.

It is. We're coming to live from the Kintech studio, Kintech, Footwear, and Orthotics working together with you in Step. Big show ahead on a Tuesday. It's a three guester here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. It begins at 7 a.m. Brandon Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks is going to join the program. We are officially back into the swing of things when Batch comes on a Tuesday to talk a little Canucks.

Batch was at the Milf yesterday, speaking with players and collecting audio for us and for the rest of the station. Pity, Brock, Mizey, Lanks, all your favorites. They all spoke yesterday at the Miltf. We'll get into that in the first hour of the program. Then we'll talk to Batch about everything. Not just from yesterday, but what's coming this week for the. the Canucks at 7 o'clock this morning. 7.30, Buck Pierce is going to join the program.

BC Lions head coach, we will look back on another disappointing loss for the Lions on Friday, 34 to 33 in the nation's capital in Ottawa. We will then look ahead to this Friday's game at BC Place against those same Ottawa red blacks. It has been a season-long challenge to get things right on the defensive side of the football for the Lions. So we will once again try and ask Buck, what are the plans this week? week to get things sorted. How are things going to be different this time when you take on the Red Blacks? Buck Pierce is going to join us at 7.30 this morning. 8 o'clock, Matt Verde Ram's going to join the program. NFL staff writer for Sports Illustrated wasn't the prettiest Monday night

football game last night, but in the end, it was entertaining and it was very interesting. The Vikings behind a resurgent J.J. McCarthy rallied to beat the Bears in Chicago last night despite trailing by double digits in the fourth quarter. So I was out of the hockey rink yesterday. The hockey rink. For the boys' tryouts. And I was talking to some of the dads about that game. And at

the time, the bears were winning and they were like, oh, what's going on there? I was like, well, you know what? After Sunday night, I'm not ready to call this game over. Still, I was one of the most improbable fourth quarter turnarounds I think I've ever seen. There was no indication that J.J.

McCarthy was going to go off for historical. In the fourth quarter, but he did. So what we can do with Matt when he joins us at 8 is we can look back on Monday night football and everything that happened from week one and hey, why not look ahead to week two? Because now we're just two days away from a very tantalizing Thursday nighter between the commanders and the Packers, both 1 and 0 starts for those two. That's on Thursday night.

So working in reverse on that guest list, 8 o'clock, it's Matt Verde Ram, 7.30, it's Buck Pierce, 7 o'clock, it's Brendan Batchelor. That's what's happening on the program today. Greg, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies,

the best of tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCS.a.com. We will begin with the Vancouver Canucks. who kicked off their season at Northview on Monday for the 41st annual Jake Milford charity golf tournament. Some call it the Jake, some call it the milf. It's now in the books anyway. Elias Pedersen, Brock Besser, Tyler Myers, and Kevin Lankettin

all spoke about what they did during the summer and how much they were looking forward to the upcoming year. I guess we can run through these real quick. We will go through some of the audio and have more in-depth conversations about, there were a few fairly good storylines coming from yesterday. but Elias Pedersen, big news there. And I'm not sure which one took the lead.

The one that he put on 13 pounds or the one that he got married. Or then I made a joke about it on Twitter and people lost their minds. They weren't happy with you. Well, some of them were. You made a very classic dad joke. A very, very classic.

It was the most innocuous, rated G joke I've made. Do you want to read it or do you want me to paraphrase it? No, I'm going to read it. read it. Okay. I'm going to read it. Okay. People were not everyone. Like, the thing is when I say, like, so many people, most people are like, yeah, that's a dad joke. And like, I don't like it because it's a dad joke. Sure. But, okay, so PD admitted, like, finally conceded. I don't know if admitting's the right word, but go ahead. But he did have to get pushed to say he got married. Well, he doesn't like to share private information about his life. And that's fine, right? Let's say, let's say Elias Patterson, confirmed reports that he did get married over the summer. Okay. He admitted his marriage.

Then he broke down in tears. All I said, this is what I wrote. I go, getting married and putting on weight is called letting yourself go, isn't it? It's funny. Oh my God. How dare you? How dare you? That was the response from quite a few people.

Now, putting aside. the hysteria and I wanted to work a woke thing in here but I'm going to leave it alone I think there is something to be taken from this I honestly do me too I think that the response and the

people hate me that's the takeaway there's two takeaways main takeaway of this whole thing I think it speaks to the amount of consternation and stress and worry and trepidation

there is collectively about Pedersen in general but specifically how much is hinging and how much is on those extra 13 pounds that he's bringing into camp those shoulders all in the shoulders how much weight he's carrying not just in terms of the extra weight

but what he's got what he represents for this team and there are some people that want none of your foolishness Jason none of your fooling because I'll be very serious about it well all joking I hope the extra weight doesn't slow him down. Right. He's sensitive and he might hear you and not play well and ruin the season

and it'll be all your fault. All joking and sarcasm aside. No, that's actually what some people think. I know that. I know that. That's like the reason for those responses. A bit of a walking on eggshells situation going on. Just like, don't jinx it or don't make him unhappy. There's a there's a fragility to the situation

in general. There's a fragility to the situation in general. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that he took a beating both on and off the ice last year. And let's be real, at times, like a pinata for certain teammates, a certain head coach, right? There was, all of this. People feel that he's been picked on.

Right. And there are people that really like Elias Pedersen. Yes. And there's also people that I, and I think that the part that I'll give some credence to, because like, you know, the fan boy, fan girl-ish stuff, I put aside. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think there is some, there are some people out there that are like, this guy just needs all the positive vibes imaginable going into this. season like anything that you can try and build up and build in a positive way is what he needs

for maybe the mental side of the game more than anything else now i don't want to i kind of think that goes for the team too i would agree the team as a whole i think it was scott young was on the on the station yesterday and uh he's one of the assistant coaches yes and uh he was talking about how you know one of his jobs is going to be instilling confidence in the group and I don't really know how you do that other than just like looking good today, looking confident. Remember, hey, remember, you're a good hockey player. Well, we're going to answer a question later.

You threw it out there in the notes, and we're going to throw it to the listeners. I can throw it out there now so we can get the ball rolling on the conversation. What do you think will be different, capital D different, about Adam Foote compared to Rick Talkett? And what you were just talking about, I think might be one of the things. is I think and maybe he'll have to go about it

like in a very conscious matter like I'm going to have to proactively think about being this way every little thing Petey does like nice line change PD right I do wonder I do wonder if part of it is going to be having a less adversarial relationship with certain guys because I think I think one thing

you know and I'm sure behind closed door there is more publicly talk it did a really good job very rarely blasting players but you know we've heard anecdotally and otherwise that there were a lot of meetings with individual players and a lot of sit downs with individual players and a lot of talks to, not with, but two individual players, what they needed to do, right? And, you know, not calling players out publicly is one thing, but what goes on in the sanctity of the meeting rooms and the dressing room is another. And I wonder if that

might end up being one of the big things. It's a difference between foot and talk. As it pertains to... Well, I think to start the season at the very least it has to be. Because there is a concern. and a valid one of being the coach that throws his arm around everyone and is the good guy and never puts anyone's feet to the fire and never holds anyone's to account

is he become a dormant. And you don't have that voice or that gravitas in the room where you can, you know, pull the choke chain or demand more out of the guys and they'll answer, right? If they think sometimes,

sometimes, and it happens in the workplace a lot, if you think your superior is your buddy, you don't treat them as your boss, right? You just treat them as another guy. Yeah. And that's an issue. now I don't know if that's going to be the case but Camberra he's

a monster and a really great guy so anyway I think that's it for the Pedersen part of things well why don't we play why don't we play his audio about what because I thought did you notice that he added the

classic Pedersen headline line you know how we he spun it normally he says I don't want to make a headline this time he said you guys can put it in your headline. So it's almost like he's trying to get out in front of it. And this was in response to putting on. Can we just,

can we just admit that it's, it's interesting that he says that every time and possibly telling? Well, it's not even possibly telling. It's very obvious at this point that he pays attention to what's being said about him a lot. Yeah. A lot.

And I don't know if he's out there, you know, picking up the newspaper every morning from his local newspaper box and reading headlines. I don't know. But I think he might be. be more of a news on his phone guy. I think that he very much, very much is always on edge about what's going to be written

as opposed to paying attention to what's going to be written, if that makes sense. Like maybe he's not out there digesting everything that's going on in Connects Media, but he's very, very aware that anything he says is going to be like parsed, like what we're doing right now. So the stock line is always, I don't want to make a headline or this is going to make a headline. Let's play the Pedersen Audio now, Greg. How long are we here for this Pedersen? The headline should be just like,

Headline, PDMix headline. Yeah, again. You want the kilos audio? Yeah, let's run through some of it. This was the one that sort of led off the talks, and we actually mentioned this as we were going to break yesterday. Elias Pedersen talking about what happened this summer, not the wedding, but putting on six kilograms,

13 pounds this off season. Almost one stone, by the way. Thank you very much. Just under one stone. In his quest to get stronger for the upcoming campaign, here's alias peterson from the milf yesterday yeah um well i added six kilos so you can add that to to whatever headline how do you think that's going to help you no no jokes aside no i feel good it's been a long summer so he's tried to add some muscles and uh be be ready to um be myself

again out there and um and i feel confidence that i will so some other things as well he did He got married over the summer. He also spoke about how excited he was when Brock Besser signed his contract extension with the Canucks in the summer. That pivots nicely into one of the other people who talked yesterday and it was Brock Besser. He discussed the stress that went into July 1

and he was on a trip prior to free agency in Italy and Croatia. It was essentially stressed out the entire time, which I'm sure his travel mates were thrilled about. What does a stressed out Brock Besser look like? I don't know. Did he go from a zero to a one? I don't.

A lot of running his hand through his hair Guys guys guys I am stressed It is We all just got to calm down The uncertainty that he must have felt though All kidding aside Because he actually made it to free agency

Yeah for about six minutes So you got to imagine the days leading up to the first Where you're not only acknowledging That things aren't going great with your current employer But you're also now with an eye to who else you might play for Yeah So Besser spoke yesterday at the Milford as well. So too did Tyler Myers.

Interesting. Myers spoke a lot about his time with Evander Kane, of course, because he's played with Kane and a bunch of different stops, including the World Junior team, which I laughed because it was about 16 years ago. I think a couple things have changed since then, but he also played with him at the World's had a lot of good things to say about Kane. Kevin Lankinen talked about how much he trained in the offseason in Finland. Also talked that him and Demko got together about a month ago and started working in 10.

them together for the upcoming campaign, which I think is a really interesting thing because they're going to be counted upon not just to play well individually, but also they're going to have to work in tandem in terms of like, hey, it's your turn now, or I'm going to lift you up, you're going to lift me up, and that kind of thing. Were Myers and Kane traded for each other? That was the trade, right? So they never actually played with one another in the National Hockey League. Right.

But they did high-fived each other at the airport between Buffalo and Winnipeg. Yeah. And he was like, have fun with Buffalo and Winnipeg. So, you know, anyway, that was kind of it. We can dive through some of this audio at 6.30 as we get deeper into some of the minutia that the guys put out there yesterday.

But, hey, big picture from yesterday. The golf tournament is the annual kickoff for so many of these Canadian NHL teams. And yesterday that was for the Vancouver Canucks. They will continue this week. There's going to be some on-ice sessions in Abbotsford for Canucks prospects. That's because this weekend, down at climate pledge,

arena in Seattle, there's going to be a mini prospect tournament between the Canucks prospects and the Cracken prospects. That tournament's going to be held in Abbotsford next year. They're going to alternate back and forth between Seattle and Vancouver. So there's a lot going on. And then of course, next week at this time, we will be prepping for training camp, which is going to be really exciting as well, because it's another step closer to actual physical Canucks hockey, which we have been dying for since last season ended. Okay, we'll put a pin in the hockey talk for now. I do want to turn our attention. to Monday night football where J.J. McCarthy

through two fourth quarter touchdown passes and ran in another three touchdowns in the fourth quarter from McCarthy in his long-awaited NFL debut. The Vikings, after a treacherous first three-quarters of football, rallied for a season opening, 27-24 win over the Bears on Monday night. Let's hear the game-winning score from McCarthy.

The scramble into the end zone, courtesy of Westwood-Wan Vikings' game-winning score here in eventual 27-24. win over the Bears. McCarthy in the first three quarters, 56 yards. He's thrown for 87 yards in the fourth quarter and two touchdowns. He has a third and one right here. He's at the 14 of the Bears.

Thielen in motion, shotgun snap to the quarterback. He fakes into one of himself. Over the right tackle, the 10. Got a block at the five. Sideline, pylon, touchdown. J.G. McCarthy with a touchdown run of 14 yards. this quarterback in his NFL debut is doing it all I cannot believe what happened in the fourth quarter yesterday

so I had a few even though it's the Bears yeah I watched J.J. McCarthy through the first three quarters of that game and there were no signs no signs that there was going to be a flipping of the switch to have I'm not talking about a good fourth quarter like that's a historic fourth quarter what he did yesterday well it came off a pick six dude didn't it He was, yeah, I mean, that was the only thing of note that he really did. It wasn't so much, it wasn't so much that he was making mistakes.

Yeah, he had the pick six, right? And it was one of those ones where he threw it out in the flat and the DB jumped it and it was returned the other way. So yeah, he made a mistake there. But it was the sort of trepidation, which everyone approached the game. Like, it felt like a guy that was making his first ever NFL start. And it was, right? Even though he had spent all last year on IR learning, still his first start. Consider this.

He's the first player in NFL history. to account for three TDs in the fourth quarter of his debut. First player in NFL history, debut or otherwise, to have two 10-yard passing TDs and a 10-yard rushing TD in the fourth quarter of a game. He went from doing nothing to exploding offensively. And you saw on the sidelines all the skill position players of the Vikings that were kind of grumbling through the first three quarters

were then hype. They're like, yeah, we've got a quarterback. This is great. He might even be better than Sam Darnold. So it was pretty remarkable to see it that way. Now, the Bears, that's a kick in the teeth for that team. Is it Amro, the actor, that texts in to the show? He's a big Bears fan.

And I notice he has not texted this morning. I don't see anything from Amro. Amro, wellness check. Come on, buddy. Text in. Let us know how you're feeling. There are some red flags there with the Bears, and it starts with the quarterback position. Again, I know you're at the hockey tryouts, so I don't know how much you got to see of the game last night.

But Caleb Williams, for as shaky as his first season was, I think a lot of people were like, he's got a new offensive coordinator and Ben Johnson. This is the guy that all these NFL teams won. He chose the Bears. Caleb Williams, and this is some really high level, like professional NFL analysis here, you're not going to get this on any other radio show. Caleb Williams throws the ball too hard. That's his problem. He throws the ball. Every throw is just a bullet.

Every throw It's like he has the touch of a blacksmith When it comes to the finesse side It's always a lazy You never hear You never hear And he floats it out there All the screen

You know those bubble screen passes Where you're just supposed to like Gently touch it in the flat He throws him in a thousand miles an hour It's like he's throwing a heater every time And on some of the throws It's great because he can put them in really tight windows With like pinpoint accuracy

Because they throw so hard But there were a couple throws yesterday Where it's almost like You're too strong Your arm is too strong for what you want to do. And it was super erratic. Now, the numbers at the end of the day

on Williams were okay. He got a rushing touchdown. He had a passing touchdown. He made a couple nice throws. But overall, they had that first drive where they scored, and then the offense just went dead silent for about three and a half quarters.

They did the hurry up at the end where they got a score to bring them within one possession. But if you're the Bears, you're at home, opener, Monday night football. You've got an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter. you got your new head coach, you got your second year quarterback.

You kind of have to find a way to close out that game, especially against a guy. They were booed off the field hard. And all due respect to J.J. McCarthy for what he did in the fourth quarter. But if you silence them for that long, you got to be able to close the deal. You have to be able to keep that pressure coming. And they just weren't able to do it. I bet there's a lot of really disappointed Bears fans right now. But good for J.J. McCarthy.

It was a great performance in the fourth. I admit, I was skeptical. I watched him a bit at Michigan. And he didn't throw that much. Michigan was Harbaugh ball and he was there to kind of orchestrate the offense and you see him and there's nothing really overwhelming about what he does

he's not super huge he's not really fast he doesn't throw the ball a million miles an hour there's nothing overwhelming about his physical presence he's just one of those guys he says oh he wins football games right well then he went out and did the thing that he does and goes out after again a game where he did nothing

nothing good through three quarters except throw a pick six it was pretty crazy to see what he did there finally before we go to break We haven't done a ton of baseball over the last little bit and we kind of caught up in the National Football League and everything that's going on with week one but a big win for the Mariners last night as they look to hold on to the wildcard spot in the AL

Josh Naylor who's been on fire lately go ahead two run double in the sixth to help the M's win their third straight this one against the cards four two on Monday night let's hear the hit from Naylor this one's funny because with all the excitement Julio Rodriguez gets gunned out at the plate rather easily so it dies off at the end but here's Nailel

Naylor's big hit from yesterday and a 4-2 win over the Cardinals. This has remained loaded up. Here is Naylor. Nailer, plugs this out to center field, and it short hops the wall. Randy is in. Cal Raleigh, he thunders home. Julio, play at the plate. Throw gets him in plenty of time.

He is out, but the Merrittors have taken the lead on Josh Naylor's tracer to Center field. So I don't know why. I wish we had video to go along with it. He didn't even slide. He was out by like 30 feet. Like I don't know why he went. I think it was because he wanted it to be a basis clearing double.

Right? He wanted all three runners to score. And then Raleigh's not that fast. So J. Rod was right behind him. But he was out. He was so far out. Anyway, good on the M's. You know what?

Julio's starting to play. Yeah. He's still only 24. Yeah. He's had a very erratic year. Yeah, yeah. He's playing better now, but I think sometimes because he's been so good for so long, you think he's older than he is, but yeah, he's only 24 years old.

And another big night for him and the rest of the Mariners last night. Again, third straight win for them. Did you notice I put the rough jinks on the raise? I did not. We had Adnan on Friday. Okay. And it was my hot take that if anyone was going to overtake the Mariners, it wouldn't be the Rangers.

it would be the Tampa Bay raise because they'd just swept the Mariners. Right. And I was looking at the run differential. I was like, this is actually a pretty good team. I think they've lost like four in a row since I said that. Very well done. Sometimes, if you're genuine enough,

you can use your powers for good, but you have to be genuine about it. Yeah, no, that's pretty good, eh? All right, we gotta go to break. We got a lot more to get into on the program. A lot of Kinnock stock coming up as we parse through some of the audio from the milf, Connect's discussion on the other side.

You're listening to the Halford-Inbuff Show on Sportsnet, 650. 631 on a Tuesday I don't know if this one has the energy we're looking for from a morning show what you're talking about this is the exact energy I don't think it is amazing I wish this was my alarm clock it could be

it's a license music this is like the start of a gangster film yeah but a really bad one some sort of slapstick gangster film Chicago 1930 exactly you pull a gun on the guy and shoot it and just has the little flag that says bang on it

it comes out you are listening to Listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. It's hard to take this show seriously sometimes, quite frankly, all the time. Halpert and Brub in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt free in just two weeks. Visit them online at Sands-dustrestear.com. We are in Hour 1 of the program.

Hour 1 is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premium metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit the Middle 17 Powell Street in Vancouver. as parsed through some of the Canucks-related audio we have from yesterday. We're going to start with Elliot Friedman, SportsNets, very own NHL Insider. On with Donny and Dolly yesterday. This audio has been making the rounds on the socials, I believe a bunch of the shows on our station played it yesterday,

but we're going to recap it for the morning crew. This is Freedge talking about the Canucks's continued search and potential solutions for that second-line center position. It's a longer clip, but there's lots of good information in here. Elliot Friedman on the Canucks in their 2C situation. Elliot, that market for second line centers, Rossi re-signed in Minnesota, Mason McTavish is still out there, Jack Roslovick is still out there.

What's going on? Like, I mean, Patrick Alvin tried really hard in August to get a second-line center, but there was no dance partners. I mean, first of all, they're costly. It's not cheap, and the Canucks don't have a ton of cap space to get that second-line center. Well, I think, Rick, a lot of it is what we just talked about in our last answer.

It's just the fact that there's only one real seller. Yep. I mean, how many teams out there right now do you think, if you have a number two center, look how hard they get. Exactly. How many teams are looking to move one. And, you know, the other thing, too, is the Canucks have made a lot of deals. You know, they started to build up their, build, try to build back up their prospect base a little bit.

You know, the Abbotsford team had a good run last year. but do they have a real top-end prospect or pick that either they're going to that someone's willing to take or that they want to move or both in a deal? You know, I think right now, you know, McTavish, I don't think the ducks want to trade them. I think they want to sign them. I don't think they want to trade them.

But let's just do for argument sake, Rick, if the ducks didn't want to trade McTavish, do you think you guys have the haul that it's going to take to get them? Okay. So it's not even, you know, worth discussing. Yep. You know, a guy like Jack Roslavig, I think, you know, Toronto was looking at him. I think they were looking at him potentially as a winger on the number one line.

I don't know that anybody sees him as the number two center. Right. So, you know, you know, that's not, that's not the answer to your problem. To me, right now, unless Rutherford and Levine pulls something out of their hat that we're not seeing, the answer to that number two question is probably, probably internal for a little while. I mean, those guys are hard to find, and they are expensive to get.

Look, you made a first round thick, you drafted a center. It's an organizational need, and that's what you're going to do. The best way to solve it is internally, but obviously that, that's a few years away. Okay, before we get to the analysis,

there is a little bit of news in the NHL, especially if you're a fan of the Calgary Flames, boo. Or goalies. Greg, we got a big one for you here. Yeah, Dustin. Wolf, the young goalie in Calgary, has signed a seven-year extension with an AAV of seven and a half million.

So, he's getting paid. Yep, that's great. He's getting paid and he's getting paid early. So the flames are doing like a lot of teams do around the league. They're taking their young stars and they're giving them a big extension out of their ELCs and hoping that in a few years, they'll look at that contract and be like, oh, what a bargain. Dustin Wolfe signs a seven-year extension with a cap hit of $7.5 million with the Calgary Flames. Back to the Canucks.

It is interesting and it is going to be hopefully exciting and not too stressful to go into this season with, I would say, every center except for maybe Teddy Blum. Luger being a complete wildcard. Mm-hmm. Like we don't, we really don't know what to expect. It starts at number one with Pedersen, and we all know the story there. Heidel is almost like a multifaceted wildcard because number one, we don't know if he's capable of being a number two center in the NHL.

But the other part is we don't know if he'll be able to stay healthy. he has had a lot of concussion issues and it cropped up last season as well you know fingers crossed that he can stay healthy but also fingers crossed that he's a good enough player to be a second line center which is a very big role in the NHL okay then you get to maybe Bluger as the 3C

but you might want him as the 4C which introduces the three younger wild cards in this I would say actually let's make it four younger wild cards okay because you've got A2 Ratu, and we're going to play some audio related to Atu-Ratu. You've got Max Sassin, Ty Mueller, and let's throw in Braden

Coots as well. Okay, sure, yeah, let's put Coots in the mix. That is, we've named seven centers and six. Six or wild dance. Six, we're like, I don't know. Early ask us anything for you guys, for me. Will the Canucks regret not resigning

Pew Souter? Good question. It's a good question. Especially at That A.A.A.V. with four-point, like, it was a very affordable contract that he got. He didn't get the moon. I mean, we all know the answer. It just depends how everyone else does. Depends if he's... Would you not want a bit of insurance, though, based on your C-depth? I mean, like, not to say that Heedle won't work at 2C, and I know that Suter isn't technically a 2C. They're both probably 3 C's. Well, you seem to be arguing that they will regret it. Well, I hope they don't. I mean, I hope Heel is amazing and he's healthy. I'm just saying, like, I mean, you have Heedle, you have Sudeau, you let go.

Both are probably three Cs, but if you have both those guys, at least they're a little interchangeable at the two spot, especially if Heidel goes down with an injury, which is probable. I also think that that is dependent on, well, how you look at that decision is going to be dependent on how a Vander Cain plays. Because when you think about it, that Kane's cap space, which they added, meant in a lot of ways that it was challenging to bring back Souter. I mean, let's be real here.

As great as Souter was for the team last year, he's one of the most likely regression candidates in the league in terms of production. In terms of production, yes. Yeah, but at 4.4, you still got a good 3C that could slot in as a 2C. That's a lot of money. Not really. It is for a guy that I don't know. They can play 2C on a good team.

I don't think that's a lot of money for what he brings. Well, I don't know. What does he bring if he's playing? A versatile center. He's not scoring 20 plus goals probably if he's playing a diminished goal. No, but you're not going to expect him to. But when you had him on $1.7 million, you loved the deal. Well, sure.

When you have him on $4 million, I'm not sure you love it so much. You could also make the argument that he's played the best hockey that he's ever going to play. That he's hit the heights. Oh, I'm not expecting him to repeat what he did this previous season necessarily. I just will miss that depth. There's a, okay, the center position. you talked about it from the Ross pure guys that are in the

mix which I think is important because that's a good point to bring up that six of the seven guys there's some question marks around them maybe not even if you want to put it in a glass half full kind of way don't even say you know there's question marks around them

you just don't know exactly what you're going to get yet it's a bit of a mystery box and everyone loves a mystery box it could be anything even a 3C so there's that now I want to focus back

and Fridge kind of danced around I don't think intentionally, but he danced around that they wanted to bring somebody in. And I think more importantly, they were very vocal in promising that they were going to bring somebody in. What were the big lines that Rutherford uttered in this offseason? It'll be more expensive if we don't than if we do. Well, it'll be expensive to do it, but it will also be very expensive if we don't. And the other one is that we're going to do whatever it takes. Yeah.

So you're not really leaving a lot of wiggle room as to what your promise is going to be fulfilled. You're going to either do this or you're not. You're either going to go big or you're going to miss entirely. Yeah, and I realize, and, you know, Adog threw up a video of us on social media yesterday going that, you know, I think the Canucks misread the market. And, of course, most people didn't actually listen to the clip. They just immediately responded to Adog's salacious headline and said, well, 31 other teams misread the market. and the difference Ah, the nuance, though, the difference is...

The video today is just going to be a one-minute clip of a rough complaining about the tweet response. The difference is, by the way, we're putting no more Pedersen videos online. Except for today's. What if they're good positive videos? What if he scored the at-trick? Okay, fine.

Today's video headline is Halford and Brough make fun of Pedersen's weight gain. Yeah, okay. So the difference is that the Canucks made it seem like they were definitely going to do this. They were almost, they were almost,

you know, like, yeah, we got to do it. We're going to do it. Because they had to. If they were, no, they didn't. They didn't have a lot of other teams like Montreal in comparison, we're like, we would like to address the center position.

Let me wind it back. They felt like they had to. Like Montreal right now, all due respect, they are at a different level of, I think, expectations and practice. in terms of a organizational trajectory. They made the playoffs last year. That's great.

They don't want to take a step back. That's great. But they're still in their infancy. The Canucks are in a far different spot. I think there's a general manager and president of hockey ops who are under job scrutiny, as opposed to the crew in Montreal. But I also think that's Rutherford's personality. Now, here's an interesting point.

He just, he's like, we're going to do this. Now, that's a very interesting point because that's kind of what I wanted to get to. Have we sort of reached the level where we start putting less stock in the things, and especially Rutherford, because he's far more candid publicly, that we just stop putting any stock in what he's saying publicly and just acknowledge that he's a guy that likes to talk and we'll put things out there. And if he misses on them, that's not really going to deter him from doing it again anyway.

Yeah. You know what I mean? And I suppose in a way it's good for content and fodder. but at the same time when you're in that prominent and executive role and you're tasked with what you're tasked with I do think there's some danger

and not fulfilling promises for sure there is I don't think you can just keep throwing out these things that you are going to do with the confidence that they think they're going to be able to do them and then not come through can we just can we just think back

to another thing that was said in that press conference and I realize the market is tough but that's their job to read the market. They said they were going to bring in two or three new forwards to the top six group, right?

They brought in one. And he doesn't play center. Yeah. And it's funny, I do find it funny that there are some questions out there that go along the lines of, you know, this management group brought back you know all the

so many players like like Besser for example is is that a vote of confidence for the for the for this core and I kind of I kind of roll my eyes because I'm like I don't think that was plan A

it's some good spin on the situation it's great spin it's good spin it's great spin but I don't think it's accurate but that wasn't what they were trying to do no because they mean and they didn't entirely run it back and they did make some alterations to the group right They weren't that thrilled with it.

The Besser situation, I think, might exist in a vacuum in terms of how it played out. Very unique in its circumstances. But, yeah, to suggest that, oh, we're going to give them another shot at it. I think they wanted to make far more material changes all over the place. It wasn't like they got together the week before a free agency or like, you know what? I actually believe in this core. Let's bring them all back. The day before free agency never mind the week before.

Yeah. Because again, the best one was there. I don't know how many minutes he actually was a free agency. agent. Maybe he wasn't. Maybe at 901 he actually became a Vancouver Canuck. But they're, I mean, they took it right down. Because they were trying to get other guys. To the very last second. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let's play some other audio here. This is Sat from yesterday from Atu Ratu and how the organization values him and how maybe they were loath to put him in any potential trade package for acquiring some players this summer. Here's Sat from Canucks Central

yesterday on Atu Ratu. The thing that I actually came away from the off season, you know, knew I learned that I thought was interesting, and maybe people won't find this as interesting because it's, you know, nothing happened. But how high the Canucks are on Atu-Ratu. I heard there were a couple of teams that checked in on him and tried to see if they can pry him from Vancouver. I don't know what the conversations were like. I can't sit here and give you exact details. But what I had heard from people from different teams was the Canucks were pretty reluctant to part with our Atu-Ratoo as well. So I don't think it's lip service when they say that they're high on them and they think that he can play a big part for them because

if they wanted to trade him, they easily could have done so. And I think there were some centers they talked to other teams about that wanted Ratu. Not to say the Knucks were, you know, they wouldn't have traded him. But I thought it was interesting than when talking to other teams that people checked in on Ratu and he wasn't the easiest player to pry away from the Canucks. So Ratu, it feels like he's been in the organization for a while now. He's part of the Bo Horvac trade with the New York Islanders. And I think one, thing that the connects really like about Ratu is he's a worker

he works hard and the knock on him when he came to the organization was that his skating wasn't that strong and he's worked on it and you know that that is always going to endear you

to an organization if you're willing to put the work in put the work in in the HL with the likes of the Siddines and all the guys that they got down there to work with these young players. What they're asking of him this season is going to be a lot, I think.

You know, I don't think they want Teddy Bluger as their 3C. They probably want a higher upside guy than Bluger. Someone's a little more offensive punch, perhaps? Yeah, and in the H.L at least, Ratu has shown that he can produce a little bit. He's a point of game guy last year. I want to know if he can kill penalties.

I want to know if he's going to be reliably winning face-offs out there because I don't know if they've really got a guy that can reliably win face-offs. You know, the two centers that they traded out were good face-offs guys in Miller and Horvap, but they're not here anymore, so they've got to replace those guys. You know, we were talking about Julio Rodriguez and he was like, Yeah, he's still only 24. Ratu's only 22. Yeah, he turns 23 in a few in like a month or something.

But yeah, but he's still young player. Go to his draft class. Like there's still a lot of guys that were taken in and or, he was the 2021 draft. And there's still a lot of guys in and around his draft area that are still, you know, kind of matriculating into being real viable full-time NHLers. Yeah, there's some higher-end guys that have taken off.

It doesn't matter of, I think Nize is the one that got taken at, like a fair distance after he did in the, draft as well that's really sort of blossed them into a guy that you could say there's a top six forward there's a guy that's really going to be an impact player at the NHL level there is you know as an NHL general manager and an executive sometimes you do have to alter your course and you know a common phrase that you often hear from these guys is if we've got time we'll use it and we're going to be patient there is a pathway here that the Canucks can open this season with all of these question mark guys that we're talking about and specifically I'd say

the young guys, Ratu probably at the forefront, and give them the runway in the first six weeks of the NHL season to see if they can do it full time. And if they can't, granted, you're going to be under even more pressure to make a move, but you also allow other teams to maybe falter or maybe get off to a start that they're looking to make a move as well. There's a big difference between what's going on with your team on September 9th, where everyone's golfing still and everyone's in good spirits because they're coming off the summer and then a few weeks into the regular season where you're looking at your team

and we've seen this on a number of occasions. General manager looks at his team three or four weeks into the season and they're like, this isn't it. We need to make a change. Again, you are leaving yourself in a dangerous situation because you can lose a lot of games.

Like if you, let's say theoretically, they open the season, they like what they see from Ratu and they're like, kid, you're going to be our 3C going into the first game of the season. It's a big, big responsibility, big task for a guy, that doesn't have a ton of

NHL experience he's at what 48 career NHL games so it's a lot but we're gonna give it to you you worked hard you've got a chance

Blugers are 4C you're our 3C and then they have to sink or swim with it right they have to because you can't just automatically dump a guy the minute he doesn't have a good game

at the NHL level that's not how you become a full-time NHLer you have to be able to learn things like bouncing back from a bad performance or taking the negatives and trying to learn from them

like that's what you're going to need to do If they allow Ratu to do that, it's great, but it's also a dicey proposition for a team that needs to win games and doesn't have a lot of leeway with its fan base and is very much in win now mode because there's so much at stake this season. We've spent so much time talking about the top six and what it looks like. I haven't really put much thought into what the bottom six looks like.

I don't think Ratu playing 3C for this team is the craziest thing. I think they like him. I think he's got some of the attributes to, do it. He just doesn't. Who's you going to play with? He just hasn't done it. I mean, take your pick. I guess Sherwood would be in that conversation. Hollander? Like, where's Holglander?

Houglander will be in that conversation. We always go into the season. He could be on the first line. He could be on the fourth line. God can play anywhere. You know what? In terms of things that I am interested. Drew O'Connor. Yeah, interested and excited to see how many of these guys that played a key role on

that Calder Cup run with Abbotsford are going to use that as a jumping off point to the next phase of their career and are going to push for NHL minutes this year. There is something to be said for being the best team in the American League and winning the way that they did in the playoffs last year. They were very, very impressive during their playoff run. There was a lot

of guys. Linus Carlson, is he going to push for a spot? So they are going to have some competition and they're young guys that are looking to make their mark in the NHL. Looks like we might have to bring back hashtag the start. Great. Here's Brock Besser talking about the importance

of the start of the start of season. Yeah, we got to put in the mirror. You know, there's some positives to build on, but, you know, I think we have such a great group of guys. I think if we come together as one and work together and push each other each and every day, I think, you know, we always talk about the start. I think the start's important, so I think that starts day one of camp on, you know, a week from Wednesday, so we got to make sure that we're ready to go. Remember last season, management said that he thought the Canucks maybe didn't go into training camp

with the humility that they should have and they had come off a successful season a surprisingly successful season and maybe the feeling was that they thought they had already put in the work and now they were just going to roll and they blew a lead in their first game and things got tough

and they never really gained any positive momentum throughout the season. And a lot of other stuff happened too. The season before that, they got up to this surprisingly good start. Great. And the vibes were high and the vibes remained high for almost all the season. There were a few hiccups at the end for sure. But for the most part, that was a very enjoyable season. so this is a pretty tough start when you look at the schedule for the Canucks

now they can get revenge on what happened last season because they host the flames in their first game October 9th but then they got to go to Edmonton and then they only return home for one game against St. Louis which was a playoff team last season then they go out on the road for five straight so they're playing six of their first eight games away from Rogers or Arena. And you can joke that, yeah, well, the way they played at Rogers Arena last season, you know, that's probably a good thing. But, you know, it's challenging playing that many games on the road. Like they've got a, they've got Chicago, uh, in their fifth game, which is good,

but it's a back-to-back. It's the second of a back-to-back. They go Dallas, Chicago, and then they go into Washington. So they're playing in their fourth, fifth, and six game, they're playing three games in four nights. I know it's going to be really interesting about that. a goalie split because if you that really good point if you go back to the two years ago when they got up to that great start in 2023 2024 Demko played a lot

Demko played a lot to start the season as a matter of fact Demko played nine of the first 12 and you know you talk about what else happened that season well that's where Demko broke down near the end of the year right there is going to be a concern about managing workloads because when you're also when you're paying a guy like Lankin in the amount of money you're paying him, you can't keep them in mothballs for a long period of time.

He needs to play with some kind of regularity to keep a rhythm going. It could work to their benefit, right? It could be this great thing where you've got this very good goaltending tandem, and they came out of the gates firing, and they're fresh at the beginning of the year. I mean, this could work out exception well, because part of the issue in 20, 23, 24, when they got off to that hot start was they wanted to play Demco a lot. I don't know how much faith retroactively they had in DeSmith. I think it eventually reared its ugly head in the postseason.

and where he got benched in favor of C-Laws. Tuckett also wanted to win a lot of games that year. Remember there was an impetus there about winning games and winning a lot of them, so they went with Demko. So the goalie split's going to be another thing to watch at the beginning of the year as well. If you want more at Canucks Talk,

don't worry, there's more to come. Brandon Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks is going to join us next. He was out of the Jake Milford yesterday, got all this audio for us. We'll talk to him about what he expects from training camp, and then, of course, the beginning of the season as well.

Before we go to break, though, I need to tell you about Jan Pro, from warehouses to washrooms and everywhere in between Jan Pro keeps workplaces tidy, clean, and disinfected for a free quote, visit them online at janpro.ca. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.