Halford & Brough in the Morning - It's Almost Sort Of Kind Of Maybe A Rebuild Of Sorts

Episode Date: November 26, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss the latest trade rumblings around the Canucks (3:00), plus they talk the latest hockey news and notes with Sportsnet NHL host David Amber (29:32). 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.

You're listening to Halford and Bruff. I think they're going to be pretty aggressive. I mean, all you have to do is look at Rutherford's history, right? No, no, no, no. I'm not saying they have to trade for veterans. It could be good young players. I'm good. Are we going to talk young boys or what? One time, we'll say it's a rebound score.

Ropee hits, 2-0-0-0-0. Skinner! I don't know. I don't have any answers. Good morning. Maker's 6-1 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Adol, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by San. and associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick.

One, no more interest. Two, much lower payments and three, financial peace of mind. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal recycling, they recycle.

You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio. Now's the time to maximize the benefits of custom orthotics before the year runs out, visit kintech.net. It is time now for the Duick Morning Drive, brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It's also known as our guest rundown. Guest list today begins at 6.30, David Amber,

Hockey Night in Canada, SportsNet, NHL host is going to join the program. 15 games, 15 games in the National Hockey League tonight. Tonight's broadcast on Scotia Bank Wednesday night hockey includes Canucks, Ducks, 7 p.m. from the Honda Center. in Anaheim. David will join us at 6.30 to talk about that. 7 o'clock Frank Saravalli, NHL Insider from Victory Plus will join the program. So many rumblings, so many rumblings around the Vancouver Canucks right now with regards to trades and the future Quinn Hughes. What is Frank hearing? What does he know? We'll find out at

7 this morning. 7.30, Jonathan Davis, Sirius XM NHL Radio, West Coast Hockey correspondent. We'll preview the Ducks game tonight for the Canucks. Also look ahead to the weekend, Friday, Saturday back-to-backs in San Jose and Los Angeles. Jonathan will join us at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Randeep Janda, Kinnock's color analyst right here on SportsNet 650. As mentioned earlier, Knox get back into action tonight.

7 o'clock from Anaheim, Randeep will be on the call. We are giving away two separate things today on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. 8 a.m. We're giving away Guns and Roses tickets. Be caller number 5 at 8 a.m. 604-280-0-650. At 7.30, we're giving a.m. away a $250 gift card to

Golf Town. Same thing. Caller number 5 at 730 though 604-280-0-650. I will remind you during the show for each of our contests. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddy, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game

last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I knew. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Miss that? 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.ca. Where do we start with our Vancouver Canucks? When we last spoke yesterday morning, there are a couple of reports from Elliot Freeman and Thomas Drance that the Canucks had made it known that veteran players were available for trade. it sounds like the Canucks sent a memo to the rest of the league. Although there may not have been any names included in that memo, but we figured pending UFAs like Kiefer Sherwood and Evander Kane,

if anyone would have them, were a safe bet to be made available. So that was the morning. More stuff happened in the day, which was a travel day for the Vancouver Canucks, as they headed down to California to kick off three games in California. And it's a four-game road trip, which finishes in Colorado. It's a tough one. So more stuff happened in the day, including an interview by Jim Rutherford with Patrick Johnston of the province. Some of the quotes from that interview confirmed the reporting from Elliot Friedman and Thomas Drance, although we're still not really sure like what they have planned.

Okay. So Rutherford said, we have to make this team. younger. We have to get this team going in a different direction, agree with that, from where we've been. I also said the position of the team is that you would be willing to talk about the unrestricted free agents. That would be talked about closer to the trade deadline. This isn't about just looking at trading everybody. There are a number of veterans who have played very well, so this isn't about clumping everybody together. It's more about accelerating the obvious moves that could be made two months down the road.

We'll talk about that in a sec. Okay. Now, if Adog was doing this interview and pretty much any other Vancouver Canucks fan, the immediate question would be like, is this a rebuild? Are you doing a rebuild? What about a rebuild? And Rutherford said, use whatever word people like, whether it's somewhat of a rebuild.

Those are several words. That'd be hilarious if that's their new slogan. It's somewhat of a rebuild. Soar, S-O-A-R, somewhat, of a rebuild. But he says it's not a full-blown rebuild. The F-B-R. And then he said, rebuild, retool, whatever. And then he said something that they constantly say.

It's the position we've been in since the J-T. Miller trade. Hmm. So not a full-blown rebuild. The other follow-up would be, what about Quinn Hughes? Yeah, that guy. And he said, I believe Quinn and his agent are aware of the direction we want to go and they're aware of the direction they want to go

obviously everybody wants to play on a winning team but there's different reasons why people make decisions gee what could those different reasons be have you ever mentioned them before does that guy have any siblings in the NHL Quinn Hughes two parts unknown New Jersey

Could Rutherford be signaling that this is beyond his control anyway? There's nothing that Canucks could do anyway because Hughes wants to be somewhere else. I mean, there's different reasons why people make decisions. Have you ever heard that? Yeah, I did. That even if the Canucks were in a great place, maybe their captain would be leaving anyway.

Because, you know, there's different reasons why people make decisions. All kinds of different things. If I were in management's position, I might, want to spin it that way, especially if it's true, right? Especially if it's true. But I would not want to be the president of hockey ops or general manager that lost Quinn Hughes. And I would have a, I would be like, well, it's not us. Yeah, disassociate yourself from that, brother. I'm just a simple president of hockey ops. There's only so much I can do as the president of the hockey team. So I have another question. Yeah. Before we get into some audio and ask what happens next.

And it relates to Quinn Hughes. Is it possible? The Canucks are just taking care of all the typical trade deadline business now because they're potentially going to have to work on a much bigger trade at the trade deadline. And they don't want to be, like, distracted by other solos. Like, I get there might be, you know, they might want to shake things up now. But it almost, like, he said, so this is, he said, it's, more about accelerating the obvious moves that could be made two months down the road.

Is this kind of like clearing the docket so that you, because you might have to deal with something bigger around the Olympic break right before the trade deadline? I think you have to leave that possibility open, and I think it's fair to infer that. One, because Rutherford just keeps talking and just keeps laying out all these different plans with all of these different lines and all of these different little color. coded messages and some of them not even that coded, which leads you to infer a lot of different things. I think the primary one is that it sounds more and more like ever like Quinn Hughes is leaving. If it wasn't already something that everyone had in the front of the mind after

yesterday's interview and all the news that was coming out, it's clearly at the front of the mind of the organization of Rutherford of Alvin and everyone. So back to your original point. Is this, in a weird way, sort of opposite world but similar world for Rutherford, a guy that traditionally going into the deadline has always been an early shopper, right? That was the, in Vancouver, you'll remember the Elias Lindholm trade. That was done very early in the process. If you go back to Pittsburgh and Carolina, he liked to do that stuff early now. Instead of being an early shopper, he's going to be an early seller.

He's going to try and get all of this done. It would lead one to believe, Jason, that this would open up the possibility to say, okay, let's say they sell off a couple free agents by December, January prior to the Olympic break. Yeah. Do you then circle back to Hughes and say, here's what we've done. This is our one last, we need to know where you're going type conversation.

Yeah, this second round draft pick in 2007 looms pretty large, Quinn. We've heard it's a deep second round. It's a deep second round. And then do you say, and then do you say, here's what we're ready to offer you when the time is right? And here, we need to know now. You've brought it up that a team that was acquiring Hughes would have,

maybe infinite more interest in acquiring them for two playoff runs instead to a one. Thomas Dran sort of pushed back on that a little bit saying that it doesn't matter when you're going to trade Quinn Hughes, you're going to get a bounty in return. But I think there's a couple other overriding sentiments to all of this. What is it? This season's shot.

Whatever this season was supposed to be, it's shot. There's a chance that Tolo Pulu and Patera could get hot. You know what? This is totally off topic, but kind of on topic. We should talk about this too, I guess. We will. Can I also point If you go look at the schedule, after the new year in January, they have two monster homestands. I think they have two eight-game homestands.

Teams don't often have one eight-game homestand in a season. The Cucks have two. That's going to be fun. And it coincides with maybe the worst year they've had in, I don't know, five or six years. This is trending to be an awful year. Do you think this is trending to be worse than last year? Points-wise, record-wise, yeah. Absolutely.

right now if they were to hit last year's total drama wise though i mean i guess it could be if they trade away quinn hughes drama wise yeah this team hi drama wise because there's no telling how um ugly this could get when you start to consider that once you sell off pieces there is an element of why stop there you know what i mean like if you move out let's say for the sake of unrestricted free agents bluger cane yeah who's another one enough throw on the pile Pending UFAs? Yeah, sure would. Thank you.

Let's say you move them and it gets you whatever you want in return. Do you then start saying, well, we've gone this far. Do we start asking Garland, Besser, I don't know about Horonick. Myers. You wouldn't have to ask Garland until July 1st, for the record. You'd probably have to ask them just out of politeness and niceness. Ditto for Demko, I think, too.

Demko? That's what I'm saying. Do you all of a sudden start going down the road and saying, well, we're already selling, we're already moving guys out. Do you know for Demko, it would be a good band name. That is a good band name. I like it. The band is constantly injured.

Let's play some audio here. What we got from Elliot Friedman? Because he was on the station yesterday. Yeah, two clips yesterday with Sat and Bick on Canucks Central. We'll start first with Sat asking the question. Now that this is out there in the ether, how aggressive, just how aggressive are Jim Rutherford and the Vancouver Canucks going to be? Here's Frege's answer on the Canucks and their level of aggression with all of these trades.

I think they're going to be pretty aggressive. I mean, all you have to do is look at Rutherford's history, right? When, you know, when he, I know Papa Colvin's the GM and he's involved here and he sends the note out on the chain. But whenever something like this happens with a Jim Rutherford team, your alert is up, that you know that some of this could happen at any time. And I think some of the general managers have been around for a while. They know that about him too.

so his history is to be early not to wait if he doesn't have to and I think that that's what this is like the Clinops are ready to talk now and so let us know what you're thinking with anyone on our roster and you know what I think that some of this too you know as I wrote like the first thing you think of

sat when you when you hear this come up is what does this mean for Hughes and the answer is is nothing right now. But I think it's obvious that whenever this conversation comes with cues and you're not getting too far away from it, you know, one of the things they could say, depending on what happens here,

is, well, this is what we've done, and this is what we're planning on doing. How do you feel about that? And this is what's available for some of the things we might be trading or try to trade. So what it says to me is they're out there now, they're ready to do things, let's hear what you got, and we'll make our decisions based on that. So Freach points out what many are astutely aware of that every decision that this club makes now

doesn't exist in a vacuum. It all leads to the bigger question, which is what's going to happen with Quinn Hughes. And you brought up the possibility of the Canucks possibly taking care of all their deadline deals early to try and focus on the Hughes thing as they get closer to the actual deadline. There is an element of, are you dismantling this team? Are you systematically picking it apart? What's going on here? If you make a handful of moves, is that a precursor to an even bigger dismantle that you say, Quinn, this is the direction that we're going. We're going to try and pivot hard and bring in young players and draft picks so that the future, maybe not the present,

but the future looks brighter. So if you were to sign on, this does look. look like a little more of a rosy outlook than previous. That seems like a... It's the same pitch they're giving McDavid in Edmonton. Right. I'm not even joking. No, I know. But the issue, again, is that it's a hard pivot 20 games into a season, where in the

off season, all you did was talk about how the improved vibes in the room, the new outlook under Adam Foote, the addition of Avander Cain and the goaltending tandem of Thatcher Demko. Yeah, we're going to have the best goalie tandem in the league, Monkey Paw Curls. Yeah. And now your goal-attending duo, 20 plus games into the season, is Tolapilo and Patera, which we'll get to in a second. What a season. Right? So, and they're going to say, and I know how this is going to go, is that we had a plan.

And we thought the plan was going to work, but we were besieged by injury. It's bad luck. It was bad luck. It wasn't our fault. Whatever the case, all of this leads to the big question, what's going on with Quinn Hughes? And when can they expect a decision to be made? Well, Frege also addressed that yesterday on the show with Sat and Bick on Kinnock Central, talking about the future, what he's hearing about when a decision will be made

and how close they are to potentially hearing that decision. Here's Elliot Friedman from yesterday's show with Sat and Bick on Kinnock Central about Quinn Hughes. The thing about Quinn Hughes is, and believe me, I did a lot of work on this again yesterday. Just number one, the memo didn't reference any names. So the first thing you're asking is, does that mean Hughes? And I was told no, okay? And I think people asked, and they were told no, not at this time. But I do think we're getting closer to the moment that this conversation is going to be held about his future and what it's going to mean.

And could his name potentially be out there? But as of right now, like, if Hugh's, has made his decision nobody's saying it like i asked yesterday has hughes given does anyone know if hughes is given any indication on which way he's going and the answer is no i don't think i think everybody suspects but there's no hard word given that he's made his decision i think that's still to come like i said i think everybody suspects it based on what rutherford is said and some of the answers that Hughes gave early in the year and interviews and conversations that has he come right out and say, I want to be out there or I want to leave. I've got no

evidence of that. But, you know, I said yesterday on Nick and Justin's show in Toronto, Kipper and Boren, that I assume that this conversation is going to come around the Olympics. I mean, some people said today they think it could even be earlier than that. So I guess that the best answer I can give you guys is we're all on alert for when it does happen, but it looks like it's coming. Yeah, Rick Dollywell has also reported that he believes that the Canucks want to know during the season. They don't want to wait until the summer, until, you know, like June and they're like, do you want to stay? You know, because I think, well, first of all, nobody likes this hanging over the team. It's not necessarily good for business. Not that.

trading Quinn Hughes should be good for business either, but it's not good for the team to have this hanging over them. But I really do think, and Durantz again might push back on this, I really do think that two guaranteed playoffs with Quinn Hughes, people are going to pay up for more than a Quinn Hughes under contract. Like, especially, especially. especially if the understanding is that Quinn just wants to go play for New Jersey, which I'm not saying is the case, but it's certainly been hinted by by Jim Rutherford. And, you know, if the Canucks do, things we still, like people assume, some people assume, not everyone, some people assume that if the Canucks trade Quinn Hughes, well, that forces the rebuild.

and that's going to force a three or four year long process. Don't think that. You know, Rutherford says it's not going to be a full-blown rebuild. And you still hear, I think Rick Dollywell said it yesterday, still hear that they want to turn this around quickly. This team has never, ever suggested that they're interested in tearing things down. so even if they do trade hues it doesn't mean they won't try to turn that trade into pieces

that can help them win now it might be one of those things where you trade hues to a contender this year and that contender is going to be like well we're not going to give up major roster pieces here right sure so we'll give you a crazy amount of futures and you go spend those futures however you want until the Canucks come out and explicitly say it's different this time

we're going to be doing things differently than we have for the last you know well decades now we should probably assume that they're not ever going to be interested in tearing it down and that includes this time and when they say we're not interested in a full-blown rebuild which they've done very recently. Jim Rutherford, I can read a quote that he had in an IMAQ piece very recently. You know, we should probably believe them when they say that.

And this is the quote that Jim Rutherford had and IMac included in his most recent piece that you can go read at Sportsnet.ca. Rutherford said rebuilds can work, but you have to understand rebuilds take a long time. There has to be a lot of patience and for the teams that take the biggest jump and ultimately rebuild and win a cup,

they usually have a first overall pick and you still have to get lucky on that. So a rebuild is not something that we're going to look at doing. Like I said, we're in transition ever since the J.T. Miller trade. Yeah. But we're not trading all these players

for draft picks that may or may not end up playing someday. Okay. So here's another question I have. Okay. Added to the pile of questions that I have. that we all have. If it gets to the point where Quinn Hughes says, I don't want to stay anymore.

Sure. I think you should probably trade me. Should this management group be the ones doing it? I think that's the biggest question of them all, to be honest. Does a new management group come in there and maybe in some interviews go, hey, like, this might not get me the job, but you guys got to be doing things differently. What are you crazy? I've been watching you from the outside for, you know, a decade and a half now.

Yeah, I mean, switch it up here. Part of a managerial regime change is to kind of... You're not getting hired. Do the difference, do the almost the exact opposite of what the previous administration did. A lot of companies have, you know, thrived just on that. Like, what got you into this situation? Why don't we do the opposite of that? And if that was this, if that's the suggestion, I find it very difficult to believe that

the same guys that led the Canucks to this moment are going to be tasked with getting them out of it. Can you imagine the PR of Keith? a management group that is forced to trade J.T. Miller and then forced to trade Quinn Hughes. And the team stinks. I mean, at that point, I honestly am wondering, do you bring in an entirely new group and wipe it clean to move Hughes? Like, do you let the current iteration of these guys do it? Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. I don't know what the direction is right now.

Having read everything yesterday and parsed through it quite carefully, and then stacking it up to the messaging that we heard. And there were a few inflection points over the calendar year of 2025. July 1 was one of them. The Adam foot higher in the summer was one of them. Start a training camp was one of them. And then now is another one. So there's been about four. You can point to significantly different directional messaging from the organization at all four of them where you're like, we're going in, the club is going in this direction. The club is going in that direction. Here's the long term outlook. here's what they have planned for Hughes

and it just continues to change on a whim which leads you to believe that either they didn't have enough faith or they didn't believe in their ability to execute the original plans or the original plans were so poorly constructed that they fell apart 20 games into a season. Whatever option it is, A or B, they're both awful

because right now you're looking at a team that the only definitive statement they've made is that they're going to try sell off the guys that would have probably gone at the deadline anyway early. If they were out of the plan. That's the new plan. And

all that really says is that you're trying to expedite what is turning into if it's not already a lost season. You're just trying to acknowledge it's a lost season before you get to the Olympic break or the turn of the calendar or whatever. You're just saying right now, this season's cooked. And by the way, speaking of how cooked this season is,

we should mention before we go to break, But Kevin Lankton is not on this road trip that they have embarked on. They left for Anaheim yesterday. They're going to play Anaheim, San Jose, L.A., and Colorado. And Kevin Lankin is not going to be part of it. Thatcher Dement is obviously not going to be part of it. The goaltending over the next four games on this road trip, unless something changes with Lankin's situation,

is going to be on the shoulders of Nikita Tolapilo, who's played a grand total of zero NHL games this year, and Yuri Patera, who's played one and allowed seven goals in that game. And that is a grim. Grim outlook for a team who I'll remind you at the start of training camp said that they had the best goaltending duo in the national hockey league. And now they've got two guys that were piecing it together in the American League about a month ago. David Amber is going to join us next. We'll talk a little bit about the Canucks, but I also want to talk about the oilers and speaking of the

goaltending. They got issues. I got blown out again last night at home to the Dallas stars. Nobody was good for the Edmonton Oilers. Well, maybe that kid that scored his first goal. He was okay. Yep. What's his name? Clattenberg. Clattenberg. Yeah.

Okay. So they're more of a Clattenberg team now. David Amber joins us next on the Halford Ambrough show on SportsNet 650. Before we go to break, I need to remind you, it's Canucks game day here on Sportsnet 650. And that means all Canucks coverage is brought to you by Panago. Go for the win. Buy two medium Panago pizzas and score free cheesy bread. Use code Canucks deal at Panago.com.

Panago for it. Restrictions apply. Game day only. You're listening to the Halfford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Strance. Get your daily dose of Canucks Talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. It is time for David Amber.

He is on the hotline, baby. It is time for David Amber. He will talk some hockey, maybe. It is time for David, Amber. He is on the hotline, baby. It is time for David Amber. He will talk some hockey maybe. On the hotline, baby.

I like the mushrooms talking. I remember what I was doing at 23, pooping in my pants. There's a massive butt coming here, guys. No one's fighting Rick talking. No one wants to fight Rick talking. I'm on the hotline, baby. It is, it's David.

It is, it's David. Amber, it is, it's David. He's on the hotline. 634 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet, 650. brought for the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Only a licensed insolvency trustee.

You can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees to learn how, visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. I have a question for you. Yes. How many Canadian teams in the NHL are currently in a playoff position? Two? No.

One. Just Winnipeg? Oh, sorry, Winnipeg and Ottawa. Two. DDoz. DOS. Ah, yes, like most Canadians would say, Dose.

Is that it? Montreal dropped out? Montreal's out, yeah. Yeah, they've had a rough go lately. Toronto's last in the Eastern Conference. We all know Calgary, Vancouver, out of the playoff picture. Well, sure are the Edmonton Oilers.

Do you know Edmonton's got a worse goal differential than Vancouver? Last night didn't help. Another eight spot. Yeah. They've given up so many goals at home this year. They've been like the Vancouver Canucks of last year. Lots going on around the league. Canadian teams said otherwise.

You know what? I was right about Uno. Okay. Because Winnipeg is not in a playoff position right now. Okay. Yeah. Are we good? We clear on that now?

I knew it was one. Yeah, because I saw somebody post it the meme of Will Smith in the empty room and it was like Ottawa looking at all the 18s in the playoffs. I knew it was one and then Halperd said just Winnipeg and I was like, oh, they must be in there. So it's not Dose. It's Uno. Uno. Uno.

Okay. Uno. The Halford & Brunch show, everybody. Ah. When you don't do your research. at the break. You do it live on the air. I did it and then you screwed me up. You asked me

a question. I know. I know. It was my bad. It was my bad. How is it my fault? You saved him the one to watch the other day and then he does this to you. Yeah, I was earnestly answering the question. I thought that when I didn't have the standings in front of me. I would have thought that Winnipeg was in there, but I suppose not. It's a busy night in the National Hockey League

tonight. There's 15 games. We go 15, 0, and 15 in terms of games over the next three nights. And we've got the Scotia Bank Wednesday night doubleheader as well tonight joining us to break it all down he joins us every wednesday on this program uh sports net hockey night in canada n hl host david amber here on the halford and bruff show on sports net 650 good morning david how are you gentlemen talk about a doomsday intro well we did narrow it down to one team being in the playoffs so that's good doomsday would be zero

but it is it's extremely tough times across the national hockey league for our canadian franchises right now now more difficult than what's going on in Vancouver right now where what's happening on the ice you know what it barely even made our intro segment today we spent like a minute at the end being like by the way Kevin Lankin's not on this road trip so it's total appeal and patera net but the rest of it was about the direction of this club and where things are going and of course Quinn Hughes's future

I imagine that they must have drawn the attention back east as well as you guys prep for a busy night on Scotia Bank Wednesday night hockey well Canucks fans would have been losing their mind because every talk radio show has been like, so how can we get Quinn Hughes to our city? It doesn't matter what the city has, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa. You know, it's funny. Like, that's become the narrative. Well, if he doesn't want to stay in Vancouver and they're going to move them, this is a guy we've got to go for. And I'm thinking, well, let's just slow down a little bit here. But, yeah, it's a weird, it's a weird time. I can't argue with that. It's, uh, last night was a tire fire for

the Oilers, no passion, no purpose, no intensity. you know, people will point to Stuart Skinner, allowing four goals on eight shots. You know, he did make the first save on a few of those goals. And, you know, Evan Bouchard, Brett Kulak, et cetera, pretty casual getting sticks, moving guys out of the front of the crease, and there were some rebound goals. So it's not just on Skinner, but clearly that's a massive storyline in Edmonton. And now the Vancouver fire sale, if you want to call it that, is definitely caught the attention north of the border, south of the border.

every team that's sitting there saying our team could use a little boost, who can we get from the Canucks? That's become the storyline now. From a league-wide perspective, it's got to be great because this means, one, hopefully some teams won't have to wait for the silly season to kick off and they can start acquiring players

right now. And two, it does lead to another very interesting narrative as we get to 2026 in the turn of the calendar, closer to the Olympic break, which I'm sure is going to be filled with a lot of trade rumblings and everything anyway. And then when we get back, it's such a short window, between the end of the Olympic break and the trade deadlines.

So maybe in a way the Vancouver Canucks are helping everything out. And Jim Rutherford's sort of kick-starting what we hope will be a pretty active trade season. And I know the Canucks will be thinking it if they want to try and unload all these unrestrictive free agents. Yeah, I mean, the question is how much are they going to strip it down? There's a big difference between trading two or three guys and trading six guys, right? And are we talking the Corps? Like, are the Conner Garlands and the Keeper Sherwoods and the Brock Bessers? And I understand that, you know, a lot of these guys have no move or limited no move or limited no trade.

It's not as simple. It's just shipping them out. But how deep is this going to run? I think that's what everyone's waiting to see. You know, you have to still feel the team. You can't just get back a bunch of prospects and picks and say, let's have that it. I mean, I understand the notion of, hey, it's not working. We've got to let's change things up.

But to what degree. And I think that's what everyone's waiting to see, just what the scope is. We'll all wait for that first shoe to drop, you know. if the first guy goes out the door, okay, is that it? Or is there a bunch more and how is this going to look when they're done? And I think these are the big questions that hockey fans really in every market are wondering, because you don't really see that very often. You don't really see a team say, well, you know, it's November, we're not doing well,

we're near the bottom of the standings, everyone's available. I mean, when's the last time you heard a team do that? It's been a while. So speaking of waiting for the shoe to drop, let's turn our attention to Edmonton and another blowout loss at home last night, throw it on the pile with the other ones that they've had this season. At what point do they say enough's enough in Evanton and something has to change?

Well, I mean, I think that's probably past the point. I just think it's much more difficult to facilitate moves. I was like, well, they've got to get a goalie. Okay, so walk me through what that looks like. There's not a bunch of Patrick Waz and Martin Borders waiting to be picked up, right? Like they need to get someone who's discernibly better than who they have. And what will that cost them? And how do they afford that?

Right? It's just not that simple. Everyone's saying, you see Sorrows, okay, well, what do they have to give up to make Saros fit under the salary cap? Like, it's really difficult, right? Edmonton's up against the cap. The Leafs are up against the cap. Many teams that would like to, you know, make additions and change the look and feel

of their team. Just it's not as simple as that. So I think to the average Euler fan, you know, they've seen enough and media types and I'm sure the front office. It's not the losing, it's the lack of passion, and there was just no pushback. Dallas came out there, looked like a team that wanted to avenge losing the last two Western Conference finals to Edmonton. You know, Edmonton looked great at Sunrise. They played really hard, and obviously they wanted to avenge the last two Stanley Cup final losses.

Then to return to home ice and lay an absolute egg, Dallas opens the scoring, no pushback. Dallas adds another, no pushback. Dallas adds a third, they wilt even more. That's what's concerning, right, guys. you know, one thing I'll say about the Canucks is most games I've watched and you guys have seen more than I have, but they've battled. Is that a fair thing to say? The Canucks have been undermanned, but they've generally not waved the white flag and just look disinterested on the ice, whereas Edmondson has looked disinterested on the ice

more than a handful of games so far this year. Okay, with that being said, if you can't make the changes materially to the roster, do you have to consider a coaching change? I'm sure everything's on the table. I mean, it's so funny, you know, Chris Namblogue, has coached the team for two years, let him to the Stanley Cup final both years. He signed an extension right as the season started. You know, it's funny to think that he's the issue. But, you know, we've seen this in the past,

inject some new energy. You know, they were struggling with Jay Woodcroft a couple, three years ago, and they brought in Knoblog and turned the team around. You know, we've seen that happen with other teams. We've seen that number of times. Bruce, there it is, you know? Like, I don't have to remind your fan base.

Like, sometimes you get that new voice, that new injection of energy, that new style. The players feel more comfortable. I don't know. To me, that's a veteran team, right? I just, I can't see that being the solution. I think they're just having some horrible defensive breakdowns. The goaltending has not been good at all,

and they don't have as much balanced scoring as they've had in the past. I mean, you say that about any team, those three elements, and you're in trouble, and that's sort of what it's been like for the Oilers so far this year. Yeah, they're not deep enough. up front. They just aren't. Yeah, you said that last week. You're not wrong. Yeah.

So what have we, we've covered Vancouver. We've covered Edmonton. What's next on the, is Montreal next in terms of or is it Toronto? Like what? Hey, you know what? Throughout all this with the stuff that's going on with the

Canucks and the stuff that's going on with the others, we really haven't paid that much attention to the Toronto. Maybe. believes, who are dead last in the Eastern Conference right now, they're behind Buffalo because Buffalo's managed to win a few games. What's going on

in Toronto, David? Well, that's complicated. One, they haven't played a great inspiring brand of hockey at times, the defensive breakdowns. It's not like a broken record, but I think they've allowed the second most goals in the NHL. So, last year they had fantastic goaltending, third best

save percentage. This year, Stolars has been hurt, Wohl wasn't with the team for the first 17 games. The gold and it's been below average. So, you know, there's simple things about it. And then right now, guys, they're missing half their team. I mean, they're missing seven regulars and they're not incident, you know, minor players. Austin Matthews, Matthew Nyes, Chris Tanna, Brandon Carlo, Anthony Stolars.

I mean, these are leaders on this team. These are guys who pull the team into fight. These are guys who can score the timely goal, block the timely shot. So, you know, it's hard to sort of pinpoint, are the Leafs done, what's going on? They weren't playing great when those guys were. healthy. But now, and what really drives the Toronto fan based nuts is this clandestine approach, you know, we just, you never know. It's like, oh, the Solar's injury doesn't look too bad. He should be back a day

or two for now and then a day and two passes. Well, it's much worse than we anticipate it. We're not sure what the timeline is. You know, Austin Matthews, we don't know what the injury is. They never really will tell you. And I understand that. You don't want to be having your star players targeted. But we don't know if it's a day a week, two weeks a month and we're now into a couple of weeks and we're not sure he was in an extra jersey last night so it doesn't look like he's necessarily playing today. So there is some significant injuries here

and quite frankly, before the injuries, they did look, you know, slow at times and unable to make the defensive plays at time and certainly weren't getting the timely saves. There was a lot to it. The East is wide open, the guys. Like, you know, Elliot Friedman has that 77% of teams, in a playoff spot on U.S. Thanksgiving,

which is tomorrow, make the playoffs. I think that's going to be out the window. It won't shock me if it's more like 50% this year, right? I just, the Leafs are last in the East, guys, 21 points. They are seven points out of first in the division and nine points out of first in the conference. So first to 16th is separated by nine points. It's hard to make up nine points because all of the three-point games,

but it's not like they're buried 15, 20 points out. So that needs to be said. I'd say there's going to be a handful of teams of both the East and the West that aren't currently sitting in a playoff spot that will make their way into a playoff spot come April. What does the future look like for Austin Matthews?

I don't know, great question. I mean, maybe him and Quinn Hughes will connect somewhere. I mean, maybe him, Quinn Hughes and Connor McDavid will walk out somewhere. That would be just the dagger in the hearts of Canadian hockey fans. I don't know

I really don't know he signed that five-year extension he didn't want to sign an eight-year extension and a lot of people thought with the cap going up it makes sense and here's a guy who scored 69 goals he doesn't want to leave a bunch of money on the table like it all was kind of met with oh okay and now we're just two years away from that being over

and you know he's been injured last year he was injured for a large portion of the year was his worst year of his career you know, his lowest goal output of his career. This year, it's more the same. You know, he kind of, I interviewed him before the season started. You know, I've got a chip on my shoulder. I'm 100% healthy.

I'm going to show people. And I believed all those words, and I don't think he was just saying them to say them. But now he's injured again, and we're just not even sure when he's returning. And he hasn't been as dynamic even before he got injured as he was previously. So I really don't know. And if the Leafs are deciding, okay, we gave it the good decade-long run, core forward, da-da-da, we did everything we could with that group and now we're going in a new direction, you know, it might not even be a Matthew's situation where he calls the

shot. You know, again, we're getting way ahead of ourselves, guys. I don't, I don't like speculating two years out and I just think it can probably do more damage than it does more insightful conversation. But the fact you brought that up, that's something that, you know, it used to be, oh my God, Austin Matthews' lifetime leave, he'll be the all-time least goal score, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, he'll go down in infamy, Greatest Leaf Ever or whatever. There was all that dialogue. That's quieted down. And of course it quiets down when your team's in last place and you're the star player and you're not playing. So there's going to be, you know,

there's a lot of teams sitting there trying to figure things out. I do think, again, because of the parody in the league and how close they're all bound together, a lot of teams, regardless, even if they're the Leafs and dead last in the East, are sitting there saying we still can make the playoffs. And once we get in the playoffs, all bets are off. We've seen that time and time again. Florida, three years ago, snuck in on the last day. They went all the way to the Stanley Cup final.

St. Louis in 2019, dead last in the NHL in January. They won the Stanley Cup. L.A. Kings, I can keep going on and on. You don't want me to, though. So there's been a number of examples of wildcard teams and teams that just get the momentum into the playoffs than doing damage once they get into playoffs. And I'm sure, whether it's Toronto or Edmonton or whomever,

they're saying, that could be us. So there's still a lot to be decided here. It's only November. Okay, well, let's end today's hit by focusing on the here and now. Scotia Bank Wednesday night hockey. There's 15 games across the NHL tonight, so 30 teams in action. What can we expect from the broadcast tonight, David? Yeah, I mean, it's wall-to-wall action.

We got the Leafs in Columbus, so that's obviously a big storyline because of the Leafs have been in a tailspin like we haven't seen in a decade. We have the Jets and the Capitals, which they're going to do a big ceremony for Alexander Ovechkin before the game. Talk about two great milestones. 1,500 games, 900 goals. So they're going to celebrate those two milestones. I mean, who in their mind would think that someone's going to hit those two milestones? That's unbelievable.

So that's going to be part of the pregame with the Jets and the Capitals. Of course, we have the Flames as well who play are playing a lot better. They're not in the basement anymore. They're into Tampa. So that's going to be a really tough matchup against the lightning who's now first in the Atlantic. And our nightcap, the Ducks, who I'm calling must-see TV guys, I look at them like the Canucks four years ago. They're so young.

They're so dynamic. They're so fun to watch. If you haven't watched them, you should. And the Ducks and the Canucks. And again, the Canucks, we all, you know, you guys know what's going on there. But the Ducks are a really fun, exciting team to watch. So many good young stars. And it's going to be a busy, busy night.

I'm not sure I love the scheduling, right? One game 15, zero game 15. But it's feast or famine. And tonight's the feast. And tomorrow, I guess, is the famine. But we have American Thanksgiving. So we get some football and everything else to keep us busy. That's right.

David, thanks a lot for doing this day, bud. we really appreciate it. Enjoy all the games tonight. We'll do this again next week. Yeah, guys. Thanks so much for having me enjoy. Yeah, thank you. That's David Amber, Hockey Night Canada, SportsNet, NHL host here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. There's some news coming from Ottawa. They, of course, the only team of the seven Canadian teams currently in a playoff spot. Confirmed. Confirmed. Also confirmed, Brady Kach is going to return to the Senators lineup.

On Friday, Black Friday, the day after American Thanksgiving, he announced it on the Wingman podcast with Matthew and Brady Kachuck. Matthew Kachuk was wearing a turkey costume. They're obviously very proud Americans and tomorrow is American Thanksgiving. So they took the opportunity to announce that Brady, who hasn't played since October 13th, it's going to be back in the lineup for the Sends this Friday. So the rich get richer in Ottawa. I want to read a text into the Dunbar Lumber Text line at 650, 650.

Bit of a contrarian take. He said, good morning, guys. very long time Canucks addict here. I have full confidence in this management team. There is no need for a regime change. They have had ridiculous bad luck

and unfortunate events to deal with. They are stepping up facing reality and trying to deal with the crappy cards they've been dealt. As disappointing as it is to be here, I respect that they're manning up now. Hold on.

It's a wild ride. Canucks fans. Okay. And I'm just happy that Michael Boubley is texting into the show. He said that one up for a mile away. Mile away. You saw it coming. He's a huge star and he's listening to the Halford Embrough show on Sportsnet, 650. Did you see all that stuff?

I did see all that stuff. Our humble little radio show. How about that? That's a real text, though. No, it's a real text. It's probably not from Bubla. Who's to say, though? I've got his number now, though, I think.

Legal is on line one. Okay, it's amazing that that exists, that line of thinking. And I'm going to give the text or some credit and not just make fun of the very, very uniquely optimistic take. There is a part of it that I could kind of nod along with where at the very least, if you're going to give someone credit for something, maybe it's not much, but it's something, it's at least acknowledging that this can't keep going on, that it's like, okay. I know it only took 20 games, but we've seen enough. We got to go in a different direction. Now, do you give someone credit this late in the car crash recognizing that it's a car crash?

I don't know. How would you feel if you were management, looking back at the whole J.T. Miller, Elias Pedersen thing, try and put yourself in their shoes and just be like, would you blame yourself for that? was there what was the mistake that was made was it actually signing both of them long term and stop right there yes right yeah and having them that's your mistake and thinking that

that whole stuff was behind them because when you sit in the big chair and you wear the big shoes that's what happens is you have to take ownership of things that maybe aren't necessarily your quote unquote fault your fault that two guys had a fight and or babies and... It happens on your watch. It's your fault. I mean, you wouldn't be the first person to... The buck stops with me.

Suffer the consequences for someone else's actions. It happens a lot. But when you're in the big chair... When you're in a leadership position. And to be fair, this is the ownership... This is the management group that handed out the richest contract in franchise history to one of the two aforementioned parties. Yeah.

They made that decision to give Elias Pedersen. In fact, they leaned on him to make that decision. And that's a management-driven thing. They wanted it. They wanted to get it done. They wanted to have him signed, sealed, and delivered, and locked up. And they wanted to have that piece of business. I'm dusting my hands right now.

But they wanted that done. So that is 100% a management-slash-ownership decision where they have to own it. You have to take ownership of that. And I think you have to take ownership of the gambles you take and lose. And that would be putting a lot of your season, frankly, on Factor Dempco. And putting a lot of your season on Philippaedal and putting a lot of your season on a van der Kaine. You can say bad luck, but those decisions were made. And they were, there was obvious and clear potential downsides in all those.

And you can say, well, they made a bad. bet and they lost and it's bad luck. Running a business is a bet. There's no guarantees. You're constantly making bets. And when you lose the bets, sometimes you lose your jobs. Yeah. There was a clip floating around on social media the other day. It was Rod Brindamore on the Jim Rome show talking about, I guess,

the spate of injuries that has befell the NHL this year. And Brindamore said, you know, you should be set up or good teams are set up in a way where you can survive injury or injuries to one of your two top guys or one or two of your top guys and a lot of people were you know quote tweeting it with hey ceasing the canucks and everything else on it but there is some merit to what he's saying as opposed to just a cheap punchline for other teams it's that you do need to exist in a world where everything isn't hinging on the health of one or two guys especially in a league where injuries happen with great

regularity and great frequency, right? One of the, I don't want to call it an untold story, but one of the things with the 2023, 2024 Canucks season that was so amazing and such a fun ride was that they had an unprecedented level of health that year. Go back and look at the guys that participated in all 82 games that year. It is an anomaly on the health side. It's a lot of them had career years. Frank Servali is going to join us next on the Halford Embrough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Before we go to break real quick, I need to tell you that the previous segment was brought you buy the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats a Duick deal since 1926. Visit Duet GM on Marine Drive. Visit them downtown. Visit them in Richmond. And of course, visit them online at duke Auto Group.com.