Halford & Brough in the Morning - Josh's Hot Takes Are Making Halford Uncomfortable

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

In hour two, Mike & guest host Josh Elliott-Wolf talk Canada Soccer at Copa America with CBC Sports' Ben Steiner (3:00), the boys do an Ask Us Anything from a vacationing Jason Brough (15:00), Josh spits a take too hot even for Mike "Hot Take King" Halford (20:00), plus they talk Canucks prospects with CanucksArmy prospect analyst Dave Hall (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.

703 on a Friday. It's a Fiesta Friday here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Making it an extra special fiesta. Josh Elliott-Wolfe's here. How you doing, Josh? I'm good. The spicy takes. Didn't flame for my takes, apparently.

Oh, we're going to set this one up for later in the show. We'll probably do it after Dave Hall comes on at 7.30. On Friday, they're caliente takes. Yeah, they're extra spicy. They have four peppers on the jar. That's how you know it's spicy. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you

by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program. AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway is going to join us in just a moment here.

Hour 2 is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste, Primetime is full flavor without compromise. You can get some at a liquor store near you, or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet, what are you waiting for?

Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. Let's go now to the phone lines. It's AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Try their traditional New York pizza or sink into their famous Detroit pizza only at AJ's Pizza. Order online at ajs.pizza. What up, AJ? How you doing?

What is going on? Hey, I have a question. A-Dog, you should have pulled the George Costanza yesterday and dropped the mic. I mean, that Peter interview was amazing. Where are you going from there? Oh, it's all downhill. All downhill.

It's all downhill. I mean, good for you. I mean, that guy was awesome. That was great. He had like an 800 number. Just call in and listen to his voice. A little backstory there. Adog didn't know who Peter Drury was,

much like how he didn't know who John McEnroe was. Yeah, this is my secret. So it actually helped with the chase because he chased him with confidence as if he was just chasing a stranger to come on the air. And I think Peter Drury really liked it and he appreciated it. And then he came on the show. I'm glad Peter Drury really liked it and he appreciated it. And then he came on the show.

I'm glad you liked the interview, AJ. It was awesome. It was honestly, it was great. It was fun to listen to it. That guy's amazing. Speaking of awesome, we were at AJ's on Tuesday, now officially a footy bar.

We were there for the Canada-Argentina match against those diving, cheating Argentinians. You guys are a full-fledged footy bar now. Let the listeners know Sunday, how busy are you expecting to be for the Euro final? I think there's four seats left. But it doesn't mean you can't order out and pick up and go home and watch it

or go wherever you're going to go and watch it. It's going to be so much fun. Okay. And then that day, yeah, it's going to be awesome. Kickoff is at noon. A reminder, if you want to see, you have four seats left in the actual restaurant. And then if you want to do takeout and everything, you can get it online at ajs.pizza. And all the specials are on this weekend as well?

Oh, yeah, all the specials are running. Yeah, they'll run up until Sunday. So, yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. Okay, great. Have fun with this weekend. But I'm out of town. But we will do this again next Friday. All right, yeah, take care, guys.

Enjoy. Thanks. That's AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Try AJ's traditional New York or get Andy's favorite, the Detroit Ronnie, better known as the Detroit Roni. Only on AJ's Pizza. Order online at ajs.pizza.

We're going to continue the footy talk here. Ben Steiner is going to join us in just a moment. He's already been on the station this week. We're getting him back because the Canadian soccer news comes fast and furious this week. Canada tomorrow will be playing in the third place match of the Copa America. Joining us

now to break it all down, soccer reporter and Canadian Olympic reporter Ben Steiner joins us now on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Ben. How are you? Morning. Certainly good to chat with you guys again. It's an exciting time in soccer and olympics as you said right there it's uh two weeks away from paris 2024 now as well yeah let's start

with the soccer though so canada will play uruguay in the third place match at copa tomorrow what do we know right now ben about which uruguayans will be available and which ones won't because they got into a pretty testy altercation with fans after they lost to Columbia in the semifinal. Testy is certainly one way to put it. I don't know if I've quite seen anything like it in my time covering soccer. 11 players from Uruguay have been sanctioned, including stars like Darwin Nunez, who many people know. It does sound like those players are going to be able to play

because when you have a tournament roster that's limited in the amount of personnel that you have, if you're missing an entire team, you're probably not going to be able to play a game. So it does sound like those players will be able to play in the third place game against Canada, which at the end of the day is good for Canada because they get another good test

against a full-strength Uruguayan team. But it's certainly, you know, sanctions are going to come down fairly hard on Uruguay, and it could be heartbreaking for them because they've been doing well in World Cup qualifying in South America that if they're missing, you know, 11 of their top players, nearly their starting 11, that could really cost them in terms of World Cup qualification.

One thing that we've been talking about this week that I kind of think is true in most third place games or bronze medal games or or whatever it is is there's usually one team that goes into it that's up for the game and they're they're fully dedicated to getting that bronze or whatever it is and then another team that's probably a little disappointed to be there and it kind of feels like Uruguay with what happened after the game. It might be a bit of a letdown spot for them in Canada. Maybe, hey, didn't expect to go this far, so maybe just trying to do a little bit more if they can.

Do you feel the same heading into this match? Partially. I think on the surface you can certainly see Canada's hunger to win a medal like this. But also it's still a third-place game. There's not a lot of guys that are going to get up for that challenge all of the time. And we heard from Jesse Marsh after the game that there's going to be rotation in the team as well. So it's going to be a Canadian team that hasn't played a ton together.

We're going to see players that we haven't seen a ton of in Canadian shirts as well. I would imagine we're not going to see that partnership of Kyle Aaron and Jonathan David up top. They'll probably try experimenting there, whether it's, you know, Jason Rosserow or Tanya Loesche up there. So it's a tough call to make. At the end of the day, I do think Canada will realize that they want to win this game, go out on a high, you know, beat a good team that would help a lot in the FIFA rankings if they can beat Uruguay.

And there's also a million dollars on the line because the third-place team gets a million dollars more from this tournament than the fourth-place team. And for a federation like Canada Soccer, you can pretty well hope that they're hoping to win this bronze medal here. We're speaking to Ben Steiner here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, Canadian sports soccer writer here on the program. So yesterday, we brought this up in the first part of the show,

Canada Soccer released a very short but very definitive statement on the future of Jesse Marsh and that he is going to stick with the Canadian men's national team and this program despite the fact that the U.S. has fired Greg Berhalter and is currently looking for a new manager. Do you feel like it was almost a necessity for Canada Soccer to put out some sort of statement, given all the smoke that was around Marsh and potentially returning to the U.S.?

Yeah, I think it was critical. It doesn't take much to put something out there. They're just putting it out there that he's Canada's coach. He's fully bought into building this team towards the World Cup and through the World Cup. And it seems like he has, you know, even a potentially longer foresight as well in the way that he's talked in the days since losing to Argentina in the semi-final. But he's fully bought into being Canadian. He told me that he feels Canadian because so many of the guys on the roster have stories that are very relatable to every Canadian. And they're a good representation of, you know, the best parts of our country here

that he's fully bought into, you know, what it means to be Canadian. And I'm pretty sure he hasn't stepped foot in Canada since he's taken the job. I'm not 100% confident in that, but that's what I have heard. And so it was important for them to go out and say that he's not going to be the U.S. coach because there's a lot of Americans who see Canada's success, see him as a good coach and would want him in that role. And it's important that Canada soccer went out and just made sure that wasn't a distraction. Having worked various matches at Copa America and being on Press Row and talking to other journalists that might not all be that familiar with the Canadian program,

and obviously maybe with Marsh's role in it because he's so new on the job, what were some of the reviews that Marsh was getting about the job that he did stylistically, tactically, his coaching performance so far? Again, early days, but very impressive with the Canadian team. Everyone was impressed. I mean, nobody expected Canada to be in the semifinal.

The press box in New Jersey was, you know, 100 Argentine journalists and maybe three or four Canadian journalists and then a decent amount of Americans being so close to New York as well that everyone was kind of surprised that Canada was going to be there. Nobody expected it.

And people were generally a little bit concerned about the attacking woes that Canada's gone through. Of course, only two goals from open play. They ended up dropping in the FIFA rankings in their quarterfinal win over Venezuela because it didn't count as a win. It was a draw on sort of the overall results. So when you look at the last seven games, they won one game, they scored two goals.

That's not ideal. But they also made a semifinal, and they won games where they needed to and did what they needed to do, which at the end of the day is how you succeed in tournament football. You know, England's in the final, and they haven't played exceptionally at the Euro either. So it's all positive for Jesse Marsh right now, but there's definitely ways that he can improve this men's national team.

And he has a couple of years to do that before the World Cup. Marsh has mentioned on occasion the lack of scoring that they've had. And not even just at Copa America, obviously the friendlies prior to, they didn't score as well. And he doesn't mention anyone by name. He's a smart manager, obviously he's not going to do that. But I'm curious to get your thoughts on the play specifically of the aforementioned duo, Kyle Lahren and Jonathan David up front, who I think it's fair to say have underwhelmed over the last few matches. Yeah, it's an intriguing problem because you look at Kyle Lahren, and he's been the guy that this program has turned to for years now.

He's the all-time leading scorer. He passed Dwayne DeRosario a little while back now. And you look at Jonathan David, and he's one of the top strikers in Europe who's in the longest. Will he, won't he move to the Premier League? So you look at that situation, and you want both of those guys out there at the same time. They're the same player in a lot of ways. They both like to

drop a little bit deeper in the build-up, and we saw it against Argentina in the semi-final as well. Ismail Kone was trying to play balls through and he didn't have a striker that was pressing against the center backs ready to get in behind the Argentinian defense. And that is what costs Canada basically every time. And so they need to choose one of the strikers, I think, and then throw in another name, whether that's, you know, former white cap, the O'Bear who can go up against a defender,

Tanya Loewe, she showed well, and I wouldn't be surprised if we're going to see him start. And I think, you know, both David and Laren, they're both naturally going to drop back into a bit more of a pocket and be able to serve the ball up. I was almost sort of like a false nine attacking 10 for, for the soccer nerds out there. And then you need that striker that's really going to press against the

defenders. And that is not Kyle Lahren and that's not Jonathan David for better or worse. Has any Canadian player stock risen more over the course of this tournament than Jacob Schaffelberg's? Not at all. I mean, Jacob Schaffelberg has launched himself into Canadian cult heroism into the

starting 11 of Canada's men's national team. Like he's known as the Tennessee water slide at his club in, in Nashville because of his mullet. But yeah, he he's impressed in every way. I thought he could have had a better game against Argentine. I thought maybe that Marsh would have gone with Liam Miller on the left side and use Jacob Schaffberg as an impact substitute because he can offer so much in that kind of role,

given his speed. But I don't think we've seen a player like Jacob Schaffelberg in a Canadian shirt in a while. Ben, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the match tomorrow. I'm sure we'll be doing this again later on in the summer.

Yeah, no problem. Always a pleasure. Thanks, Ben. Appreciate it. That's Ben Steiner from CBC Sports. Soccer analyst today will be an Olympic analyst, I'm sure. When you and Brough are hosting together, and it's Olympic time, I'm sure you'll get Ben on the show

as he's a diligent Olympic reporter. I think that was the first time. So I was thinking about Ben, as I do. As you do. As I do. We all do. But when I was covering producing on the show, it was during the Olympics last time, and we we had been on I think for the first time just a young up-and-coming Ben

Steiner now look at him yeah uh interestingly enough speaking of Jason Brough he just texted me with an ask us anything is he listening from Tuscany no I hope I hope not. No. Here's his Ask Us Anything. Those Tuscany data rates are incredible. Yeah, out of control. Jason Brough on vacation in Italy with the following Ask Us Anything. He wants to know, is this a top 10 worst feeling in the world? Losing your wallet on vacation

and thinking it's gone forever only to find it an hour later. So Jason then went on to explain that he lost his wallet in italy right uh and he felt like he was going to be in major trouble for the remainder of the trip that would be a pickle do you think he was pickpocketed no he found it did he think that for the hour well that was the thing is that my my biggest fear in Europe. That hour where that wallet is missing, your mind runs wild with scenarios and possibilities. Has someone already taken my identity? Has it been sold to the underworld?

Is there a Signore Brough? Who am I? Is there now a Signore Brough out there? He thought about that within an hour. He spiraled quickly. The only thing worse, and this happened to me, is the hour in which you think you've lost your passport. Ooh. Yeah.

I was in Nashville a few years ago, and I didn't have a driver's license at the time because I went out while I was getting a replacement license. So I had to bring my passport everywhere to get into bars because I'm so young looking. Right. So at some point I, it fell out of my pocket at,

and I was like, it's at a bar in Nashville. I'm, I'm not getting back to Canada. I just have to live here now. Would the drinking have anything to do? Probably, probably.

I just want to ask the question. The losing your passport whilst abroad. You, I mean, my mind just automatically went to, I live here now. Like this is my new country. I'm a Nashvilleian. I started looking for real estate. I'm i'm like this is just it i just have to accept my fate he actually was like you know what this is good for me this is better i had a new start i went and got a fake id it was come to terms with it a new identity and then i got my

passport back and all was forgotten i'm like up yours nashville i'm going back to canada so long stink town but losing that key core piece of uh identification is so another funny story on this when i used to work at the sutton place hotel i used to be a security a weekend graveyard security guard kids follow your hopes and dreams you too can have that high ranking a position one day um so on the weekends you would get some pretty interesting situations unfold you'd find yourself in some odd scenarios oftentimes associated with uh late nights people like one too many cups or maybe they imbibed in something else who knows and then hilarity and hijinks ensue and i remember uh there was one guy who stumbled down to our office at three in the morning and he couldn't find his passport.

Like he had misplaced it. And he went through the same emotional tailspin where he was like, I'm never going to get to see my wife and kids again. And I'm like, sir, they will let you back into the country. But the immediate shock and awe of losing that key piece. I mean, that is your literal guide to get in and out of countries and it will freak people out. Eventually he was able to go to the consulate and get his passport back, which was good.

I think I know the rest of the story. There's parts of the story that you're not. I can't say most of the parts of the story. Yeah. Yeah. I can't say most of the parts of this story, but I can, I felt his pain and I'm like,

sir, I know that you've lost. He actually, he, the, the, the spoiler to the story is he had it stolen. Oh.

Oh, yeah. And he woke up without it. Dun, dun, dun. The only passport story I have, I don't know if it's a worse feeling because you kind of bring it on yourself, is I was going on this trip to California with a few friends. And day before, one of my friends is like, I thought my passport wasn't expired. It is expired yeah i can't go yeah that's a tough one i've seen people furiously racing to like sinclair center and

like trying to bribe people to get to the front of the line so they can get their passport turned around in 12 hours and service can is like sir it does not work like that yes you are missing this trip just because you are first in line does not make this process fast there's anything that takes extra extra hours for no reason, it's getting your passport. Yeah, I'm like a year ahead and I feel behind. I gotta renew in May next year. You're sweating. Uncontrollable stress.

Next year's vacation. Up in the air. Okay, we mentioned that we were gonna do some Canucks related Ask Us Anythings, What We Learned, everything else in the notes today. Josh, I'm gonna throw it on your broad shoulders. Pick one that we've got. We flagged a few of these.

We already went through the Dream Canucks lineup where you have to have all six positions filled by six different nationalities. We've done that one. We figured out that Josh thinks that the Sedins aren't very good. Hold on. You know what? Hold on. You know what?

We got four minutes left until the segment's done. Let's go ahead and crucify Josh right now. Well, the inbox has already started. In the conversation about filling out a roster where you have to pick a guy from each nationality, it was interesting that Josh went with Sweden's representative at center as Elias Pettersson when Henrik Sedin was very much on the board and eligible to be chosen. And then Adogog curious Adog he's got a curious mind he's very inquisitive

he said wait a minute why did you go with Pettersson over Henrik Sedin Josh continue the conversation I'll tell you hold on yeah exactly so Henrik Sedin that was Josh's response yeah before we before we like

get too deep into this I do think Henrik Sedin and the Sed Josh's response. Yeah. Before we get too deep into this, I do think Henrik Sedin and the Sedins in general are the greatest Canucks of all time. That being said, Elias Pettersson is more talented than the Sedins were, even at their peak. Better all-around player, better numbers,

probably comparable offensively, but I would still give the edge to Pedersen when he's firing on all cylinders. And especially when you look at the numbers, six seasons, 400 games into their careers, Daniel Sedin had 226 points. Henrik Sedin, 221 points. Elias Pedersen, 238 assists. He had 406 points. Henrik Sedin, 221 points. Elias Pettersson, 238

assists. He had 407 points in his first 400 games. And I know the Sedins were late bloomers. Took them a bit to get going. That being said, I do think, as a total overall player, Elias Pettersson is better than Henrik

Sedin. So controversial, yet so brave. So brave. Imagine. So, yeah, we got a text. Yeah, so wrong. Not well. Imagine two Elias Pedersens.

Are two Elias Pedersens better than two Sedins? My counter to the argument would be, I don't think that Elias Pedersen is on a Hall of Fame trajectory, and that would be the bar. It's like Daniel and Henrik are in the Hall of Fame, and I'm not sure he's trending that way. My other take is that, and again, the Sedins should be in the Hall of Fame. They wouldn't be if they were individual players.

They're twins, and that's crazy, and that's why they're in the Hall of Fame. Well, the twin connection is what got them all those points too, right? They probably wouldn't have scored as much if they didn't have that connection. Even if they had the same amount of points, I don't think they're in the Hall of Fame if they're not twins. Really? Yeah. Unsurprisingly.

There's too many hot takes going on right now. I can't deal with this. It's too early in the morning. Josh, what are you doing to me, bud? And to be clear, they are amazing. They're my favorite players of all time. Just to recap, Petey, more talented than Henrik Steen. And part two, the Steens would not be in the Hall of Fame if they were not twins.

Josh Elliott-Wolfe, co-hosting. Halbert and Bryce. There's too many rap horns. We've broken the rap horns. This is funny, too, because Halbert, normally he's the hot take king. And I should note that he never gets the right. He's sweating right now. He's losing his crown.

Howard is like one for 100 for hot takes. And even he is looking at your hot takes and going like, wow, this guy is a lot right now. I will never, ever extinguish a hot take. I want those flames to burn. And where the flames are burning right now is the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. It's 650, 650. I'm going to save some of the vitriol for the other side of the break. There's several that just say, kick this man off the radio.

Well, you know what? I went into Friday to have this take for a reason. I was going to say, we're only an hour and a half away from being out of here for the weekend. Josh has got timing. He's got takes and he's got 90 more minutes to deal with the Jackals in the in-basket. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. The roar is back for the BC Lions

70th season. I've got the information right here about the Watermelon Smash. It's this Saturday. It begins at 11.30 in the morning. Kickoff is at 4 p.m. It's the annual Lions v. Riders game. That's the Saskatchewan Riders. Imagine they gave everybody at BC Place

a watermelon. Free watermelon. Grow your watermelons. Here come the watermelons. We regret this in a major way. Immediately backfired. It was a terrible idea. Drinks start at $5. Tickets start at $15. It is the Watermelon Smash. Get tickets now

at BCLions.com. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd. And Thomas Drance. 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. 7.31 on a Fiesta Friday. And boys, it's getting spicy in here. You're listening to the Halford and Ruff Show on Sportsnet 650. The human jalapeno known as Josh Elliott Wolfe over here.

Human jalapeno. You're spicing it up. Cali, aren't you? He's a scotch bonnet of a human being. I have not seen the inbox this angry in quite some time. It's very, uh. It's a completely random Friday in July, and Josh is angryed up the blood. He's sewered his reputation.

I got some people defending me. Hey, you know what? I think those are pity defense. Whether I agree or not with the hot take that the Sedins are trash, and that Elias Pettersson is the best. Maybe the greatest Canuck of all time. I'm projecting a little bit. I'm also kind of taking some creative liberties with this take.

I respect the hell out of the fact that you decided to come in here and take a flamethrower to this place with the hottest of the hot takes. It's good. And I'm right. Do what you gotta do for summer content. I told him at the break, I'm like, whatever you do, don't back down. You can't show weakness.

You can't show fear. It's like fighting a bear. You have to show it who's boss. I don't think that's how it works. That's how it works. I don't think that is. 100% winning success rate. You stand up. Yeah.

Grizzly bear. You stand down. You see a bear, you throw some hands, man. You are listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough in the morning

is brought to you by Pacific Honda, North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts.

We are in Hour 2 of the program. Dave Hall, prospects writer for Canucks Army, is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour 2 is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste, Primetime is full flavor without compromise. You can get some at a liquor store near you, or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made.

To the phone lines we go. Dave Hall from Canucks Army joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Dave. How are you? Oh, I'm doing great now. That's one intro that can wake me up, that's for sure. Basically, the take was that... The take was that Elias petterson at his peak is

more talented than uh henrik sedin at his peak but we can move on we don't have to don't have to i don't need the oof it's fine anyway thank you dave spicy i like it thank you thank you uh dev camp just wrapped up. Who were the standouts, I guess? Because I know Tom O'Lander was there, a lot of attention on him. I know Vilmer Alriksen, big guy, just stands out in general. But who were some of the standouts at DevCamp? Yeah, I mean, as you kind of mentioned, it was really hard not to sort of gravitate towards Tom Wielander.

He's, you know, he's just obviously pretty, pretty high above everyone else's. His skating is just so, so high end. And so it was hard not to notice him out there. And as you mentioned, Wilmer Alvorson as well. He's just, you know, it's hard not to see a six foot six, 19 year old out there. So he stood out. But who I really liked was, to be honest, all three of the new newly drafted kids,

they were all pretty quite impressive. Riley Patterson, especially in the inner squad game there, he showed off some extremely nice hands. I mean, obviously you probably saw the highlight of him scoring the between the legs goal, but even on top of that, he was dangling pretty much everyone all game and showing some nice, some nice motor um same same thing goes with anthony romani he was kind of hoping for a little more in the inner squad game but throughout the week you can definitely see where he got his 58 goals 111 points from so he's got a nice offensive touch and then melvin fernstrom you

know it's by no means uh an extremely powerful, but he clearly knows how to pick his corners and, you know, get off that good shot. He was going bar down quite often throughout the week. So I liked all three of the newly drafted forwards. I thought they stood out quite mightily, to be honest. Yeah, I wanted to ask about that and just your kind of thoughts on the draft class, because it's obviously always difficult when you don't draft in the first two rounds but um everything i've read at least made it seem like they were going more for high upside and hey if one of these hit that's great um is that kind of what you thought of their picks in this year's draft absolutely um and you know at this point why not right you have no first and

second rounds um you have a dwindling prospect pool. Even the prospects that are there, there's only a few that are considered, you know, super high-end offensive. So why not take a few swings? And they did just that. There's one thing that you'll notice from all three of the forwards that they selected, all have huge offensive upsides. So we love that.

All need to work on their feet. Pretty much just across the board, there's just some work that needs to be done. However, all three of them, if they're hitting on their feet, that all three of them can pretty much carve out, you know, at least an NHL role. Some might be a little bit higher than others, but offensively, all three of those forwards are super gifted.

They just need to work on a few things, mainly the feet. Now, in terms of on the back end, even a guy like a kid like Parker Alcos, he's 17 years old, he's six foot three, and he moves well. Like he's the exact opposite of the three forwards. He actually moves very well and he's six foot three. So if they're kind of hoping that he can fill out a little bit and he can cause some damage from the back end. So definitely an upside swing and I'm all for it. I think it's the exact way to go about it when you have no first or second round picks. So it's by all means upside swings, and I'm for it.

When it comes to players, especially when they're drafted in the later rounds, there's always going to be something that, hey, they have to work on, probably multiple things that they have to work on to really hit their potential ultimate upside. When you talk about, hey, they've to work on probably multiple things that they have to work on to really hit their potential ultimate upside. When you talk about, hey, they got to work on their feet, got to work on their skating, where does that rank in terms of difficulty of getting improved

or improving on and getting to an NHL level in terms of skills that have to develop for these young players? Yeah, it's a great question. And I mean, look, the nice thing is, is not their mind. All three of them seem to have a pretty good hockey mind. I mean, Melvin Ferdinand, he's obviously got that offensive mind both on and off the puck. So, you know, it's one thing to have to try to change their entire mentality

of how these kids think and, you know, the way they think about scoring goals and being offensive. So the one nice thing is they all have good minds. So although it's not easy skating, or sorry, I'm sorry, 7.30 in the morning here, guys, changing a player's skating stride, it's not, you know, by any means easy, but it's a lot easier than trying to change an entire mentality and attitude of a kid, the way they play.

You know, like we talk about, you know, a hard-nosed, playing a hard nose game a tenacious kind of player it's really hard to ingrain those sort of attributes into a player rather than just try to teach them how to you know cut out that up up up um that upright stride or you know trying to get down lower on each each of their strides so i think in terms of skating it's never easy but it's also you'd rather that over some of the off uh the some of the mind stuff we're speaking to dave hall canucks prospect analyst from canucks army here on the halford and breff show on sportsnet 650 uh dave tell the listeners a little bit more about aiden celebrating

obviously the surname quite popular these last couple of weeks uh he was at development camp i think he's really good buddies with tom velander what did you learn about him i know you wrote a piece about him for canucks army yeah first and foremost he's just such a good kid think he's really good buddies with Tom Wielander. What did you learn about him? I know you wrote a piece about him for Canucks Army. Yeah, first and foremost, he's just such a good kid. He's just so well-spoken, so thoughtful, and he just seems like he's got a really good head on his shoulders. Yeah, you know, it was a bit of a difficult season for him last year.

Obviously, a freshman out of BU, and it didn't go as well as Tom Wielander's was, that's for sure he was sixth and seventh in the lineup on the defensive core for most of the season you know even when he was the sixth D-man he didn't really get a lot of minutes wasn't doing any power play any of that stuff so it was definitely a challenging year for him and you know it's kind of nice to hear that Tom Bielander kind of not took him under his wing

because they're the same age but they grew up pretty close friendship. And it was sort of funny to hear some of their battles up at Hell on the Ice. They've pretty much just created this extremely competitive environment. And throughout the week, they were not giving up the fact that each of them thought they wanted to pull up competition. I think at the end, Aiden got the last laugh by being the first to be done the grouse grind so overall it's a big year for him he claims to have a pretty simple summer going on but he wants to improve and go in there

and try to make a bigger impact with less guys on the back end so by all accounts, great kid and I'm rooting for him at this point With Tom Wallander, second season there by all accounts great kid and i'm just i'm rooting for him at this point uh with tom willander second season there what what are your realistic expectations for him this year i guess and what do you want to see him improve yeah he's one of those tough ones because when you first watch tom v lander it right off the bat you're like oh this kid's going to be a star he's his individual skills

are so elite his skating is impeccable he's got a good shot his first pass is really nice most of the time it's just trying to put it all together in in a working package at the ncaa was a bit of a struggle at times i just sometimes there is as i kind of alluded to before with the mind, it just, it seems like sometimes he makes, he makes the tough decision rather than the easy decision, or he makes, you know, the wrong decision over the right decision. It's just a lot of it comes down to just making the right decisions. I find either with his transition or his shot selection, just things like that. And so for me, I'm really excited for his year because he's basically going to be given the reins on the back end. I know Lane Hudson is going to be gone.

So it's going to be all eyes on Tom Bielander. And the hope is that he can kind of hone some of that offense in and just kind of find his game. I don't know. It's almost tough to explain because, like I said, when you watch him individually, he's just so impressive. It's just when you do watch a full game, you definitely notice these little

things in his game that he just and it's usually his decision making. So my expectation is that he just starts to work on those. It would be great if he could add a little bit more offensive punch, especially with all the power play time that he's going to be getting that he didn't get last season. So those are just things that I'm working about maybe slowing the game down um a little bit

getting those transition just a little more crisp and just working on those decision making wanted to ask about a couple guys that'll be playing in abbotsford too uh we'll start with jonathan leckermackie um what do you want to see from him this year full year in abbotsford or or should be close to a full year in abbotsford we'll see if he at times gets a call up but what do you want to see from him this year, full year in Abbotsford, or should be close to a full year in Abbotsford? We'll see if he at times gets a call up. But what do you want to see from him in Abbotsford as he continues to develop? Yeah, well, he's the million-dollar question, right? So the Canucks, in my eyes, have two prospects that are,

I don't want to get dramatic and say must-hit, but like Aaron Mackey and Tom Villander are two prospects that, you know, they can't be messing these up. They've got to make sure they hit. And so, you know, dealing with LeKarimaki is going to be crucial this year. I see a lot of people hoping that he's going to jump into the top nine right out of training camp, and that's all fine and dandy. You know, if he has a great summer and scores six goals in the preseason,

then, you know, sure, maybe he commands a spot and, you know, they give him a few games. But, you know, we saw him in six games in the AHL and he looked good. You know, he didn't... Physically, he wasn't out of place. You know, he didn't score until his fifth game. And so all that to say, he was fine.

He wasn't dominant by any means in the AHL. So let's be real here. He's only had by any means in the AHL. So let's be real here. He's only had six games in North America. Let's get him in there. I want to see him in top six. I want to see him on the top power play. I want him shooting a ton. And you know, if he can score a couple of goals like Christmas, we take another look and perhaps they call him up. But for me, I'm all for in the camp of let's get him in the Abbotsford for a full season. Let's just let him get as much confidence as possible. The hope is that he comes in with a few pounds added on his game

and he can kind of, you know, play those board battles a little bit stronger. But the main thing for me is just let's take as many shots as possible and get that confidence going because shooting Jonathan McCaramacki is a good one. So, yeah, obviously just adding some weight is going to be the big thing for him. And what does Atu Ratu need to do to get some games at the NHL level this season? I think he's close. I don't think he's that far off. I don't think he's by any means going to be competing for a spot out of training camp, but I don't think he's far off.

I've been pretty vocal this year. I think it's just all with the feet. Whether it's skating, whether it's being stronger on the puck, I would love for him to get a little bit stronger on his feet. He had a fine season. He developed in a lot of great ways last year, but I'm still, at the AHL level, I'm still looking for those moments

where you see Atu Ratu take over the game he just there is a lot of play driving there that I would like to see going forward so I think one more if not half year but definitely a full I would love a full year in Abbotsford just actually showing that he can drive a play and you know his foot speed is fine when he gets going it's at the end of the shift that you can just see it's still super choppy and just very upright, and so skating is going to be the big one, but I would love to see him be able to drive a little more play. Dave, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

We really appreciate it. Enjoy the weekend, and thanks again. Yeah, thank you, guys. Enjoy the sun. Yeah, thanks. You too. That's Dave Hall, Canucks prospect analyst for Canucks Army here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

It is a Friday. It is a Fiesta Friday, but it's also an Ask Us Anything Friday. A friendly reminder as we reset here, the best Ask Us Anything is going to win a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway, the best pizza place in the world. That's right, in the world. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. If you send in a What We Learned, you need to do the following things.

One, hashtag it AAUA. Two, put a pizza emoji into your text to be entered into the contest. And three, make it a good Ask Us Anything. I got a couple here. Very excited to get into them here. This one came bright and early from Harry from New Westminster. Ask Us Anything, hashtag AUA. If you could be any movie dad in history, who would you be?

Darth Vader. Right. I wondered if you were going to go there. Yeah. Because you didn't go for the model dad, the best dad. Well, he does redeem himself at the end. But there's a lot of dark. Yeah, I was going to watch it tonight.

But there was a lot of dark. He's his dad? There was a lot of inherent darkness. Well, yeah. Yeah, there was. With the outfits. He was on the bad side. Yeah, but he's got that cool lightsaber.

True. I think it'd be fun. The whole redemption. Get a rule of the galaxy with your buddy. So there are countless lists dedicated to this topic. Yeah, best movie dad? Right, but this isn't asking

which one you'd want to be. Not necessarily the best, but which one you prefer. I was trying to find the richest dad that's also nice. So you're trying to win the contest. Yes. so the answer to most people is atticus finch from to kill a mockingbird okay yeah yeah right that makes sense right like it's got the strong moral compass it's sort of one of those iconic movie figures

and of course there's like the very strong fatherly ties throughout the film i mean it's a little little pollyanna for my likes but but that's fine. That's fine. Mine would obviously be Tim McGraw from Friday Night Lights. Vocally and physically nut job dad who eventually gets his son to play well in the championship game. And that's what we want to do with Mufasa. That's another one. Yeah, I was going to go Mufasa. You want to be Mufasa?

The king? Yeah, the king. For like 10 minutes. Well, I mean. Spoiler alert. I was going to watch The Lion King tonight. What is happening? You're not King for long. Here goes my Lion King Star Wars double feature.

There's a whole song in the movie about taking over from Mufasa as the King. Come on. They're also releasing a Mufasa movie. So maybe that'll delve deeper into why I would want to be Mufasa. Like a Mufasa origin story? Yeah.'ll delve deeper into why I would want to be in Mufasa. Like a Mufasa origin story? Yeah. What the people always wanted to know about.

Let's give them a Mufasa origin story. Everything needs an origin story. Yeah. Prequels. You either do prequels or sequels now. That's it. I'm getting the impression the movie studios don't know what the hell they're doing at this point.

Well, they find something successful and they say, can we go backwards in time or forwards? Can I just say how awful pretty much all of those live action Disney movies are? I mean, I realize they make a ton of money, which is why they keep doing them. I think that Jungle Book one, that very first one they did. That one was good. I recall thinking, I can't remember it very well, but I think I liked it. Every single one after that was just absolute trash. Also, can I have another gripe is that it's not live action.

It's mainly CGI. It's just realistic looking CGI. What parents would be showing these to their kids over the animated ones? Like, how could you do this to your children? Show them the classics, man. I agree. Speaking of movies, snacks at movies, Mike, the urologist from Brockville, ask us anything.

I just got some chocolate-covered dried mango from Costco. So I ask you this. What is the best snack to cover in chocolate? Mike, despite having chocolate-covered dried mango, says chocolate-covered pretzels. That's also a good one. Mine's a little boring, but I have chocolate-covered peanuts, man. Those are solid.

Those are chocolate-covered raisins. Yeah, I like the glossettes. The glossettes. Some raisinettes. I was going to go raisins, too. I find pretzels, you can only eat so many, even when they're chocolate-covered raisins. Yeah, I like the glossettes. Some raisinettes. I was going to go raisins, too. I find pretzels, you can only eat so many, even when they're chocolate-covered. They just dry you out.

I mean, like, peanut butter isn't a snack, but that's the best chocolate-covered thing, you know? Okay, I got time for that. I mean, Reese's is up there as the chocolate-covered peanut butter. Peanut butter M&Ms are sick. Trader Joe's does one where it's an almond wrapped in coconut, wrapped in chocolate. Is it the turducken of snack?

It's like an inverse almond joy. I wish we had Trader Joe's. Almond Joe. Why does Trader Joe's come up here? Good old Almond Joe and his sister, Almond Joy. Okay, Josh went down to the States yesterday. I did. I love Trader Joe's, man. It's uh yesterday i did i went to i love trader joe's man so awesome you did not go to trader joe's i went to target bellis fair yeah also not a great

mall i'll tell you that right now target's a good time malls are dying target is fun let him keep going um there's a lot of malls in the states so i used to every time i went down to the states i'm like ah snacks and pop i love it and they always just got weird varieties of everything. And I like trying things. Went down yesterday, and I was thoroughly disappointed because Canada is kind of like caught up, which I guess is good. Well, I don't know. As a cereal connoisseur, I will say American cereal selection dwarfs our own,

and I'm very envious of it every time I go down there. He made a point of that earlier. So, yeah, I did. And then I went into the cereal aisle own and I'm very envious of it every time I go down there. He made a point of that earlier. So yeah, I did. And then I went into the cereal aisle and I was like, hey, they're still winning here. We've been on the Pop-Tart thing before. In fact, a listener once sent us a bunch of American Pop-Tarts

because we talked about it. The American Pop-Tart selection is just, it's mind-blowing. I bought some Pop-Tarts. They have so many flavors. I bought very, very. We've got like six. They've got like a hundred.

We got a great submission for the dad question. Yes, please. Nigel Powers from the Austin Powers series. Michael Caine. He did not come up on many of the lists. He is an excellent choice. A bit of a jerk towards his son, I gotta say, but he's lived quite the life as a senior

spy. That's an intro. That never popped up on the list. There were a few that came up like time and time again the father son dynamic in the indiana jones movies that always comes up as a oh how did i forget who played the dad

of course i changed my answer from darth vader to sean connery yeah sean connery yeah him playing the dad in last crusade he's like that's yes okay that's my answer what about liam neeson and

taken see how much work you're a hero that's a lot of this is what you want to be yeah I got enough of my play already I don't go rescuing it takes a lot of time and

effort to save my daughter also why is my fantasy being a dad like I'm already a dad when I dream about being somebody I don't dream of being a dad I don't

recall I don't recall anyone saying fantasy I think it was just what was the question like what would you be you had to pick one when you would you be the interesting part of the question isn't the quote-unquote fantasy of being a dad.

It's would you want to choose one like Atticus Finch, which is the high moral compass and the protagonist that everybody loves? Or the Nigel Powers. But could you skew evil? Even some person would be like, I would love to be the evil dad, right? There's some twisted people out there. That would be their quote unquote dad fantasy,

which is a very strange thing to say continuously and repetitively, uh, out loud. It's a common topic here on the show. The dad fantasy. Okay. Just to reset what we're doing here today. Uh,

we got one final hour to go on the Halford and Brough show on sports net six 50. Uh, Mojo is going to join us on the other side. We will preview a very big game for the BC Lions tomorrow 4 o'clock from BC Place. It is the now

CFL's only undefeated team now because the Owls lost yesterday. The only undefeated team in the CFL, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the 4-0 Saskatchewan Roughriders are coming to town to take on the 4-1 BC Lions. It's the big litmus test game for this BC Lions group. I would say it's their biggest challenge of the season. I know that they lost the opener into Toronto,

but since then it's been not necessarily a cupcake schedule, but not the toughest of opponents. This one is tough. I will remind you as I break out my big, exciting graphic here. Printed in color, too. Yeah, Watermelon Smash is is tomorrow so the pregame event begins at 11 30 on the terry fox plaza uh five dollar drinks 15 dollar tickets and of course as mentioned the lions and riders are competing for top spot in the western division so moj is

going to join us at 8 at 8 30 we're going to dive back into the dunbar lumber text message in basket we'll get to some of that built-up Josh Elliott Wolf hate that a lot of you threw out there. Awesome. Yeah, that's what he wants to do before going away on a Friday. And we're also going to give away the $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. We haven't picked the winner yet.

There's still an hour left, so you've still got a chance to get in on the action. Hashtag it AUA. Yes, Andy? AUA at the top here, which we can answer at 8.30. For Josh, which Sedin reputation would you want to destroy more daniel or henrik and is there any other legendary thing in vancouver you'd like to burn to the ground what about the steam clock you got any takes about the steam clock oh my well it's not actually steam i mean that's not really a take

josh is a hot take factory and we got one hour left to see what he'll cook up you're listening to the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650