Halford & Brough in the Morning - JT Miller Is Having A Great Time In New York But That's Fine

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they look ahead to Friday's NHL trade deadline and what the Canucks could do to help their center depth (6:00), they look at JT Miller's success in New York and revisit the JT vs. Pettersson saga in Vancouver (10:00), plus they chat the latest top stories from around the NHL with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (27:58).  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- Yeah, he shoots, he scores! It's another two point game for JT Miller. Ooh, captain of the football team. He's a dreamboat. Pedersen cutting in, Elias Pedersen, put it high! Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah Good morning Vancouver 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. It is Alfred at his broth at his Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios of beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. I hope Petey doesn't listen to the show. Lad, you scamp. Good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred at the broth of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers

They have a friendly knowledgeable staff that can know with anything you're looking for sales Financing service or parts we are in our one of the program our one is brought to you by North Star metal recycling Vancouver's premier Metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal North Star metal recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec Footwear and Orthotics working together with you in step. Big show ahead on a Tuesday, three guests on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650.

The first will join us at 6.30. Greg Wyshinski, our regular Tuesday insider from ESPN is gonna join us. We will go around the league as we get closer and closer to Friday's trade deadline. Six games across the NHL last night. Greg also went to the outdoor game in Columbus over the weekend.

Gotta ask him about shaking up he is, about the injury to Jack Hughes. There's a lot to get into with Greg. He'll be joining us at 6.30 this morning. Seven o'clock, gonna talk a little trade deadline in a different vein with, uh, Ilyas Hussein from the Toronto star, uh, he has a piece out right now about the rise in trade protection across the NHL.

Did you know Jason, that nearly 30% of active NHL players have some form of no trade or no movement clause right now? Also. Way too much. That's way too high a percentage. 30%. Yeah. And I did not realize that this is like an NHL specific thing. The other big, big like

sports leagues in North America, they don't have this. Yeah. So Ilias wrote a big piece about that. We'll talk to him at seven o'clock as we get closer to the trade deadline and how that could impact Friday's deals. Uh, at eight o'clock, Brendan Batchelor is going to join the program. The Canucks do return to practice today. 11 30 this morning at Rogers arena. Uh, batch will be on hand for that. I presume he will also be on hand for tomorrow's game.

7 30 PM puck drop note the start time. It is a home game at Rogers arena against the Anaheim Ducks. Batch will be on the call for that. So we'll preview Wednesday's game as well. And speaking of Wednesday's game, Jason, this Wednesday, March 5th, we're giving away a pair of tickets to see the Canucks. That's right, the Vancouver Canucks are celebrating

First Nations Night on Wednesday, presented by Rogers. And Rogers wants to send you to the game. All you have to do to enter, be caller number seven, lucky number seven, at 815 this morning. The phone number here, 604-280-0650. That number again, 604-280-0650. Rogers is a proud partner and fan of the NHL. Good luck.

At 815 this morning, you can win a pair of tickets to see the Vancouver Canucks take on the Anaheim Ducks First Nations night Wednesday March 5th caller number 7 this morning 815 604 280 0650 that's what's happening on the program today laddie. 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 was busy. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed 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. Yesterday, the Vancouver Canucks did not practice. It was a full team day off in anticipation of today, where the Canucks will return to practice,

as I mentioned, 1130 a.m. at Rogers Arena, and we will get answers to a couple of questions. Most pressingly, will Quinn Hughes participate in practice today, and will Thatcher Demko make his return to practice after being off for nearly a month? Of course, a lot of people are just waiting for the trades.

And at this point, we're just playing the waiting game and soon we'll get tired of that and we'll break out the hungry, hungry hippos. The Canucks, as you mentioned, have a home game Wednesday against Anaheim. Then it's the trade deadline Friday, followed by a game that night against Minnesota. Brock Besser remains unsigned with all options

remaining on the table. Although it was reported that his extension offer is no longer on the table. So I don't really know what that means, but Brock Besser does sit at number four on Kipper's trade board. The Canucks have enough cap space to add something significant at the trade deadline.

Even if they do keep Brock Besser and all their pending UFAs, I seriously doubt they're going to be spending futures on a rental. They better not. But I could see them getting aggressive on a center with term or years of club control, a la Philip Heidel. Sure. Or maybe even a winger.

They definitely need more of everything, especially up front. And that goes double if they don't keep Besser. But if you're looking at wingers versus centers, at the very least they've got Debreusk signed longterm and he's been fine for them. And they've got Leckermacke in the system. He might not be quite ready, but he's certainly trending in the right direction down in the AHL.

On the other hand they don't have any centers that are trending as top six NHLers while suitor is a pending UFA. Apparently they're quite far apart in any talks between club and player. They've got Hedl, they got Bluger, but we all know Petey's kind of a mess right now. So, you know, the center position is the problem area, which is why it was so frustrating that JT and Petey couldn't get along and JT eventually

couldn't get along with the team. And now he's with the New York Rangers and doing pretty well with the New York Rangers if we want to talk a bit about what happened last night in the NHL. Yeah, we should probably pivot to that right now because JT Miller stayed hot and the New York Rangers stayed hot as well.

Miller and or Temi Panarin each had a goal and an assist, 21 saves for Igor Shostarikin for his fourth shout out of the season. The Rangers who are now seven and three in their last 10, got a four nothing victory over the slumping New York Islanders last night. With the win, as I mentioned, it's seven and three in their last 10.

The Rangers have won four or five. It's their second shout out in two nights. They're now even on points with Detroit for the second and final wild card spot in the East. Plus four goal differential. They trail Detroit on the tiebreaker, but if I was to kind of prognosticate and look ahead, they've gotten exactly what they wanted

out of the Miller deal. And then it gave them a shot in the arm. It gave their offense a punch. It's kind of lifted the spirits of Mika Zabinajad whose play has improved over the last 10 games as well. And they would be, I don't want to say a dangerous proposition because I still think they're kind of a flawed team,

but they would be a tricky proposition if they were to sneak into one of the two wild cards given their individual star power, the goaltending, veteran experience, and they've been in the playoff multiple times. So they know what they're doing when they get there. And Sabanajah had been kicked to the wing.

Yes. Okay. So he's on a line with Miller. That's correct. And Miller's the center. That was kind of the spark. And Will Cooley. And Cooley, good old Cooley.

But they don't spell it. Cooley. They spell it. Cooley. So we should call him that, Will Cooley. Cooley. All right. spell it, coo-lee. So we should call him that, well coo-lee. All right. Um, so right now, if you're looking at, um, who's more likely to make the playoffs, it might be the

Rangers compared to the Canucks. They're both in pretty much exactly the same spot. Near identical situations. Because they're tied in points with the second wild card team, but they don't have the tiebreaker. Um, the Canucks are of course tied with the Calgary Flames because the Flames have the regulation wins tiebreaker. Um, that'll hurt.

That'll hurt. If the Rangers make the playoffs, largely thanks to the bump that they got from JT Miller and the Canucks missed the playoffs in large part because of the fact that they don't have JT Miller anymore. So yeah, through 10 games post trade, and it's been a longer, like actual calendar time because of the four nations faceoff break, Miller has 14 points in 11 games since joining the Rangers.

So he's scoring at a clip that would have been on pace, essentially with his best season in Vancouver, where he was 100 plus point player. This also comes at a time where the Canucks can't score and their offense is bordering on inept. I looked yesterday and it was funny because we had Eric Francis on the show yesterday talking about How weak and pop gun the Calgary Flames offense is with just 155 goals this season Vancouver Canucks have 165 they scored 10 more goals this year

Than the Calgary Flames who are one of the most inept offensive teams in the NHL. So there is that dynamic the big picture the So there is that dynamic, the big picture. The Pettersson Miller dynamic and how it's playing out, I struggled to think how it could be going any worse from a Canucks slash Elias Pettersson perspective. Because you talked about this at length prior to the trade being consummated for JT Miller to be moved out of town. You said, what if they make the decision to keep one and part with the other, which they did by keeping Pedersen and parting with Miller?

And what happens if one takes off, like JT Miller has, and one really struggles, not just continues to struggle, but even struggles more? And I think you could make the argument that Pedersen's game has been even more toothless and lifeless since the trade has happened. Yeah. What happens?

I would be very curious to know where fans are at. I'd be curious to know if any of our listeners right now have changed their minds on this in the 10 game window, that maybe they understood or were okay with Miller leaving. Cause Miller was a flawed character when he was here. Right? I think there were a lot of reports that rubbed people the wrong way about his behavior and his attitude and the way that he treated certain teammates.

Has anything changed in the three weeks to close to a month since the trade was done? Are you looking now at the 14 points and 11 games that Miller has with the Rangers and saying, yeah, he might have been a jerk when he was here, but man, could he put the puck in the back of the net? Man, could he help our offense? I'm curious if our listeners are at that. If anything has changed in that short window, because there's still 20 games left in the regular season for this storyline

to play itself. I say this, and I mean, I see more from people is that they're angry at Miller for quitting on the team when he was here based on how he's playing now. It's like witting on the it's like, why couldn based on how he's playing now. Quitting on the team? It's like, why couldn't you do this with the Canucks? And we all know why. But I mean, at the same time, I see that a lot, that repeated thing a lot on social media and a bit in the inbox.

What do you mean, quit on the team? On the Canucks. Just not try. Not want to be here. Not give his best effort. For whatever reason. And now you see him obviously giving his best effort and having a great time in New York. So that probably rubs some, does rub some fans the wrong way because it's like why couldn't you just figure it out here and

be that guy here then we wouldn't have the center depth issue and but we all obviously know that. So I don't have to reiterate all that but nevertheless I see that a lot. I was listening to 32 Thoughts yesterday walking Pedro around the neighborhood and I skipped to the part. Is that your dog? That's my dog, yes. Not like some guy I know. I'd like to make that abundantly clear. Yeah, yeah. And Pedro was listening to like Joe Rogan or something. He's got an open mind. He's a hannibal.

Kind of a jerk. And, uh, and anyway, uh, Freage, Freage was talking about the Canucks and, um, the JT Miller trade and basically it came to the part where I think, I think Kyle said like him leaving wasn't just about his relationship with Petey, right? And Freage was like, no, no, But it was a lot to do with Petey. But all Freach said in kind of a dramatic way was like, it was time for him.

I think it was time for him to go. I think, I think JT became almost unmanageable in Vancouver and both sides recognized that he had to go. Vancouver and both sides recognized that he had to go. So listen, it's just, since we don't know all the details, I think the thing about all of this is, it's just really damn unfortunate because you had it. You had the blueprint. Like on paper, you had it. You had the blueprint. On paper, you had it.

You had this guy in JT Miller that when he channeled his emotions properly, he could be just a terrific leader from a we'll drag you into the fight type of guy and in Pettersson you had this ultra talented You know very cerebral but also Hard-working type of center that you know when he was on he played like a selkie type player where he's great defensively But also dynamic offensively You remember the comparisons that were made to Pavel Datsuk and those comparisons, by the way, were totally fair. He played at that level.

And when JT Miller was on, you know, again, like one of the best passers on the power play you'll ever see and Petey was a great finisher. I mean, and then you had Quinn Hughes and you had Thatcher Demko and just, it all fell apart. And what I'm, when I'm curious, I mean, I'm obviously curious about what the Canucks are going to do, but they're in such a tough spot right now.

I'm still curious about what the hell happened. And I know I've seen some sentiment because there are some people that just like can't handle what's going on in New York right now with JT Miller. Like I saw some people tweeting out like, we need to just ignore JT Miller. I was like, well, buddy, that's not how

the human brain works, right? Like people are going to be curious to see how this works out. So if you don't want to hear about JT Miller anymore, sorry, you're going to hear about JT Miller because this is part of the soap opera and this is how people are going to follow the rest of the season.

It's going to kind of be like Miller versus Petey, who can help their team the most? And right now the answer is easy. JT Miller is helping his team the most. I've actually been starting to think about like, what's this postseason press conference going to be like? I know we're like 20 games away.

Lots can happen. But you know, you know, like, and I know we're going to have press conferences after the trade deadline or whatever, but I'm talking about like everyone rolls out for their, like, okay, here's the Pedersen to talk and here's management and here's like, I'd love to have that right now. Yeah.

And I'll be like, what? Because when Miller was traded, there wasn't much, was there? Did they even have an availability? Like, I can't even remember. Alve, well, it happened on a Friday night and they were in Dallas. Yeah.

And Miller showed up to the rink, did like the sort of Grandpa Simpson in and out and then like left right away. Was there a big availability? Alve met with the media the day after. Cause they, I believe they returned home from that trip. That was the last game. Was there any media there?

Not on the trip. It was, it was very quiet. It was very, it was very docile to be honest. And then remember Miller played like the last game. Was there any media there? Not on the trip. It was very quiet. It was very docile, to be honest. And then remember, Miller played like the next night. So you didn't really, and then all he was talking about was like, I just want to focus on the future. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's fair.

And that's fair as well. But there wasn't really a huge media dissection of the deal or how it came to be. I mean, that might've been the potential timing of why they did it on the road. I mean, that might've been the potential timing of why they did it on the road. I'm not a hundred percent sure. But the other thing I wanted to know,

and when I was asking the listeners, I'm just genuinely curious about their sentiments because after the 10 game mark post trade, you can kind of get an idea of where this thing is trending. Now, I'm not entirely surprised that Miller is reinvigorated and re-energized with a return to New York. And I'm not really surprised that there's been a spike in production either. He was obviously underperforming and quite frankly underwhelming over his

last 25-30 games with the Vancouver Canucks. I can understand how that would irk some people even more. The notion or sentiment that he was either dogging it or loafing it in his final days in Vancouver and then flip the switch the moment he got to New York, I get that sentiment. It's probably not all that inaccurate. Mentally, I think that you could have- He was checked out, man. You can point that he was checked out, right? Is Brock Besser checked out right now? He's playing like it.

Is Pedersen checked out right now? Well, possibly. Pedersen still has seven years left on his deal. What I'm curious about is if anything has changed in this short window, because the more and more sentiments that I see right now are that this is not just about a personality clash and a fracture, it's that the team's offense has taken such a 180 this season, and this just sort of capped it off. It was the chef's kiss on what was at one point a pretty useful and effective offense

to one that just struggles to score goals and to find the back of the net with any sort of regularity. Okay, some other news from around the NHL last night as we get onto the back half of the first half hour here. Big game between the Capitals and the Senators last night. You see the tilly, the tilt between Tom Wilson and Brady Kachuk. Didn't get the fight at the Four Nations face off,

so they did it last night. Wild game where the Caps had a three nothing lead. They blew that three nothing lead. Then they came back to beat the Sens five four in the shootout. Sens are in a real bad spot right now. They've now lost for the sixth time in seven games. This is despite the fact that they've got all these guys

back, including guys like Kachuk and Pinto who had missed time post break. The Caps, they had their season long losing streak, snap three games, just to give an idea of how dominant they've been this season. So that was the one out of there. We got the Panthers and their in-state rivals at Tampa Bay Lightning played last night.

It was a 2-1 win for the Panthers over the Lightning. Big story there, of course, was that Seth Jones made his Panthers debut, played a lot, well over 20 minutes as they kind of expected. Almost scored a goal early in the second period, played to a huge round of applause from the Panthers faithful. So that's an interesting one as well.

As we go to the standings there, a lot of people are talking about what that Atlantic division is gonna end up looking like, because right now the Toronto Maple Leafs, who also played last night and kind of blew a point by losing in the shootout to the San Jose Sharks, it's now Toronto and Florida atop that division. Toronto's in first by way of the tiebreaker. They're both on 79 points.

And the people in Toronto are already starting to do the hand-wringing thing about potentially having to play one of these two Florida teams in the first round. Because that's the possibility of what's shaping up right now. And they would obviously like to avoid those, hopefully sliding into one of the wild cards. Because it's kind of a given that the Caps are going to finish first in the East and they're

going to get the second of the wildcard team. So there's a bunch to play for there atop the Atlantic and of course the Caps finishing last night atop the Metropolitan and they're going to win that division running away. Uh, Austin Matthews, should we talk a little bit about him because he's only got 22 goals this season. How many did he get last season?

Uh, 70. Yeah. Was it 69? Uh. Was it 70? Yeah. Let me double check on the, the final, the final tally there, but Austin Matthews obviously has missed a ton of time this year.

And when he has been healthy, the production hasn't been there anywhere close to last year. Do we have some audio from, uh, fan 590? Oh yeah, we do. So who are we listening to here? This is the, this is the post game show from last night. It's JD, JD Bunkas and Sam McKee, two huge fans of the health and rough show. Right. Okay.

Well, here's what they're saying about Austin Matthews. There's just some with Matthew's body language. That's just not there for me this year, man. Yeah, I've been talking about this a lot. Sure. I don't even know. Like, I don't know. I'm out of theories. I don't know what's wrong with them. Something's wrong with them. Like, I, you know, we're heading towards the deadline and you got to win the division. But I don't know, like, I don't know how hurt he is. He plays 25 minutes here. Like I, I, he just looks tired, tired.

Like, quite frankly, he's a shell of himself. I know that's a strong statement, but it's just he's not even close to the same guy. So I don't know. I don't know. A shell of himself that seems to be going around. He has 52 points in 46 games, but it's the goal. A shell of himself. He's a goal scorer. He's a goal scorer.

He had 69 goals last season. Which is very nice. Trade PD for Matthews, get them both back on track. See, there's a big difference between the two of them right now. Don't watch the tape, Toronto. I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but Toronto's in a weird spot because we've

had a couple of guests on the show this year and the entire regular season. I don't mean to cast dispersions onto any of their media members, but it almost seems like they're finding, trying to find new interesting things to talk about because the team has been so much in, well, let's just wait until the playoffs for the last couple of years. And this year is no different. Like the Austin Matthews trajectory, goal scoring wise this year, it's interesting, but the only time that it's gonna matter

is once they get past game 82 of the regular season and they start the post season. Because there it's gonna be the test whether Matthews is truly a shell of himself or not. I thought he was good at the Four Nations, although I thought a lot of the American players that were playing with a lot of heart and a lot of drive looked pretty impressive. I thought Eichel was really good.

There was a handful of guys, obviously, the Kichaks did their thing, but I, you know, I have watched enough Leaf games this season to see that Matthews is nowhere close to the player that he was last year, where he set all kinds of franchise goal scoring records and everything, but he's also missed a ton of time because he's been hurt.

And you got to think that has something to do with it. I've talked to a few guys from Toronto who just, who just thinks that like Matthews is almost like constantly dealing with something, whether it's his back or his wrist. And I've heard some theories about just like the way he shoots the puck and the way he contorts his body to shoot the puck.

Too much torque. Too much torque. Yeah. Too much torque. Um, there's a lot of, a lot of texts coming into the Dunbar Lumber text line. Um, Juan from Comox asking, do you think Petey regrets signing his contract, money aside?

I was like, I don't know, man. I don't know what's in Petey's head. I have no idea what Petey's thinking because he doesn't really, I don't know if you've noticed this, but it doesn't seem too open to opening up to the media. No, finds it annoying at times. He finds it annoying. Yeah, yeah. Here's the thing, coming into the show tonight, it feels like every night I'm doing equal parts New York Rangers updates as I am to Vancouver Canucks updates. And that's because this dynamic continues to mushroom cloud and grow.

Also, as we get closer to the deadline, as we try and figure out if the Canucks are going to be able to salvage the season and becoming more and more skeptical by the day, and what that looks like when they start orchestrating trades, because they've been busy this this year They have one of the biggest trades in the NHL this season moving Miller And it's been one of the most fruitful ones for the Rangers You think Rangers shows are doing Filipino updates every day probably not probably not Paul texted in McDavid's a shell of himself lately to so much shelling going around I Wonder if the four nations face off was a mistake Did we push these guys too hard? And did we push them too far?

But McDavid and Matthews, that was a problem well before the four nations. And we all know that Petey was a problem before the four nations. Did you see what the Florida Panthers did yesterday? They announced that Matthew Kachek's gonna be out for the remainder of the regular season. LTIR.

Yeah, but he's not gonna play again until the playoffs. Besser to the Panthers. Jimmy Aces. Jimmy Aces, you know, called it. Okay, we got a lot more to get to on the Hellford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650. Greg Waszynski from ESPN is going to join us next. You are listening to the Hellford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650. Of course, a lot of people are just waiting for the trades and at this point we're just playing the waiting game and soon we'll get tired of that and we'll break out the Hungry Hungry Hippos. Now we play the waiting game.

No, the waiting game sucks. Let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos. Canucks Talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. ["Sportsnet 650 Theme Song"]

6.33 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brough Sports Night 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, 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, more parts. We are in hour one of the program. Greg Wyshinski from ESPN is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off our one. Our one of this program is brought to you by Northstar metal recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

Northstar metal recycling. They recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell street in Vancouver. Shout out to Dean via Twitter, who reminds us that the press conference following the JT Miller trade actually happened at the airport. It was old school. I had reporters waiting at YVR. Oh, okay. For the Canucks to step off the plane.

I knew it happened on the Saturday. I couldn't remember the details. It was Alveen. Yes. Yes. Thank you to Dean for making that up. Maybe that's why I forgot. I was like, something happened.

I don't really stand out in my mind, but something definitely happened. Good old fashioned airport media availability. Okay. Now, speaking of the JT Miller trade, we are gonna ask our next guest about that and what's going on right now with the Rangers. Joining us now, Greg Waszynski from ESPN

here on the Hell from the Brush Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Wish? My favorite airport media story ever, I think it was Mike Russo of the Star Tribune at that point after the Parise and Suter signings by the Minnesota Wild. He like staked out at the airport and like somehow got Parise, like hiding in the bushes or something.

Like it was, it's kind of neutral territory like it's uh you can go there and and do your business without any imperial interference from pr staffs and stuff but uh yeah airports jt miller uh yeah everyone knew he was going to be great with the rangers there was no question about that i mean you know everybody knows why the trade was made it's not because jt miller sucks because you know his everybody knows why the trade was made. It's not because JT Miller sucks, it's because, you know, his his tenure in Vancouver had become untenable because of the feud with Pedersen and frankly because, I mean, you know, there had been signposts along the way that he wanted to move back east. And so, you know, the Rangers are doing exactly what one would expect them to do

with superior goaltending and better pop up front than most of the teams on the East bubble. They've climbed their way back into the race and then it's going to become a question in the next 48 hours or so of is it going to be continuing to nibble around the edges of pending unrestricted free agents? Is it going to be a more dramatic reshaping of the core? I think JT Miller is kind of like the first step in, you know, try to make over the attitude and the, you know, whatever you want to call it, of this team. And, you know, you wonder if there'll be other big moves that accompany that now or in the summer.

Do they have cap space to add? Dude, what am I cap friendly? I don't know if they have cap space to add? Dude, what do I, what am I cap friendly? I don't know if they have cap space to add. I'm like every other reporter at this time. You, if somebody has a question about the cap, I go online. That's what I do. I'm sorry. You know, and B, and B also like if, if.

You're lashing out because the devils have injury concerns. If, if it's a matter of cap space, they'll, they'll just trade, they'll trade people with money. Like that's, you know, there, there are a few guys in the, they'll trade people with money. There are a few guys in that roster that have trade protection, which kind of makes it a little bit difficult. But I imagine if the Rangers wanted to reshape things, they'd probably go money in, money out.

But, dude, everybody can figure out cap space here. That's why we have these trades where five different teams are taking $10 off the salary in order to facilitate trades. It's a great time to be alive in the NHL. Before we get to your devils, I do want to talk about the Islanders who were on the other side of the game yesterday with the Rangers lost 4-0. This might be actually a tougher question to ask than do they have cap space. What is Lou Lamorello thinking right now?

He's thinking he doesn't want to kill his darlings like he's he's thought about for the last four years with this team you know he's built a veteran group he has faith in the veteran group he believes you know making a coach change to Patrick Wilde will get the veteran group to be a contender and then it doesn't all come together. And so again, you know, the Islanders have been an interesting team this year in the sense that, you know, every two weeks it seems like their fortunes change dramatically. They're either a team that should go into a full rebuild or they're a team

that's all of a sudden upwardly mobile in the Eastern Conference. I think they're back in like sliding into rebuild territory now with some recent results and obviously that loss to the Rangers is to sting. I think they are absolutely foolish if they don't sell on Brock Nelson this week. I mean, I just don't understand it. I think, I mean, I know that he's a good soldier and I know you want to keep a guy like that around, but I mean, he's going to bring back a pretty good return based on the lack of depth at the center position available at this trade deadline. And also the fact that frankly, he could be a final piece of the puzzle type player for a number of teams,

Colorado being one of them. So, um, I think they're insane if they don't, if they don't deal them. Um, but you know, Lou has a funny way of keeping the band together despite all logic dictating otherwise. We're speaking to Greg Wyshinski from ESPN here on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Uh, how worried are you about when the news breaks on what or the severity of Jack Hughes' injury in New Jersey?

Well, I mean, considering he is the totality of their offense, I'm slightly concerned about their fortunes about Jack Hughes in the lineup. I, it's interesting about like what it means for them vis-a-vis the trade deadline, because they were going to probably trade for a center anyway. Yeah. I think that this probably necessitates it even more if Jack's gonna miss some time in the lineup but you know they've pissed away the advantages that they've had in that conference as far as the points cushion that they built early in the season. Since the turn of the calendar to 2025 they've been they've been really

mediocre and you know part of that was losing Jacob Markstrom for a good stretch of games he just came back against Vegas and played well they had Yishir out of the lineup too for a little bit but I mean you know there's no question that this this team should not be in a situation where it's looking over its shoulder at the Blue Jackets right now you know and and that's not to slight the Blue Jackets it's just to say the Devils were in a position where they were, you know, pretty comfortable in the playoff spot. So, you know, the huge injury could impact the trade deadline, it could impact a lot of things to the Devils, including whether or not this team that looked like it could

potentially contend for a cup even makes the playoffs. So of all the teams in the East, Wish, we'll get to the West in a bit, but of all the teams in the East, Wish, we'll get to the Western a bit, but of all the teams in the East, which one do you expect to be most aggressive heading into Friday's trade deadline? Florida. Let's be honest. Florida is now officially Vegas East. Not only because now they're dipping into the Kelly McCrimmon playbook by putting Kachuk on LTIR until the playoffs. But now they have that cap space to add and they've been extremely aggressive and building out what's already a pretty darn good team.

I mean, the Seth Jones trade is what it is, but it's seven million with the Chicago Blackhawks picking up part of that contract. It looks a lot better than it did, especially with the cap, you know, going up. And, and I think, you know, him in a different environment with maybe some different coaching, he probably can recapture at least some of the magic. Uh, not saying he's a top pairing guy anymore, but I think he's going to be solid for them.

Uh, and now with Kachuk's salary space open, they could add anything. They could add a top line type score, they could add another fenceman, which I think would be the smartest thing to do. They could really continue to tinker with a lineup that took a decent personnel hit last summer after winning the cup as far as the players like Brandon Montour and others leaving in the off season.

So they do have some holes to fill now they've got the financial flexibility to do so. Based on the context you just laid out, do we have a sense of exactly how hurt Matthew Kachuck really is? Yeah, he's really hurt. Yeah? Okay.

This is not a LTIR of convenience. I mean, his groin injury from everything I heard at Four Nations is not insignificant. But that being said, you know, every sign that I've seen and everything I've heard from around the Panthers is that, you know, given the time on the shelf that he'll have before the playoffs, he should be good to go in round one of the postseason.

So again, this isn't anything they planned on. I think everyone knows he probably would have played more than he played in the four nations final, if he could have. But now, you know, Florida is comfortably, I think, pushing towards the playoff spot and he'll be rested and ready and probably have a couple of new friends by the time he gets back for the playoffs. Revisionist history and all that, but should maybe Kyle Connor have gotten into that final game instead of,

I know the emotional lift that Kachak gave from standing on the bench, Kyle Connor could have actually played hockey in that game. You're American. I'm just curious what your thoughts on this. So you're asking me if one of the best goal scorers in the NHL, if it would have been advantageous for the Americans to have them in a game that they lost by one goal in overtime? If you care to frame it as such, I'm willing to entertain the conversation. Are you saying it would have been advantageous to have a healthy body in a game in which they played with 10 forwards for most of it against the Canadians in the championship game? Yeah, I would say that probably would have been smart but again

like you're absolutely right in saying that there's something to be said about Kichuck just being there I mean you know trying to give it a go and playing a little bit earlier in the game and what have you I mean he is without question like the spiritual leader of Team USA much in the same way he was the spiritual leader of two Florida Panthers teams that went to the Stanley Cup final and one that won the cup. So I get it, but you know, between him being unable to play

and Kreider only playing 10 minutes, now you're asking a lot out of your forward group against Team Canada, which is pretty good. And then also obviously in a game where one goal changes everything to not have Kyle Connor on that ice was in hindsight, a little frustrating. I want to bounce around here because there's a lot of stuff going on around the league. Go back to the weekend. How's the horseshoe?

It was awesome. I you know, the biggest takeaway for me is how many Blue Jackets fans there are. Like I was kind of blown away by that. I really thought if they were going to get 94000 people at the game, that we would be looking at, I don't know, like 40% Red Wings fans because there are a lot of Red Wings fans in Ohio and obviously Michigan is not too far away either. And so that didn't really happen. I thought it was probably about like 85-15 as far as the percentage split of fans but I've said this for a while like the the stadium series, the winter classic have sort of become more about what's happening on the ground than what's happening on television.

And you know, it's kind of a gathering of the tribes as a chance for you to go to the game and look around and see how many people are just like you, you know, loving this team and loving the sport. And so for a franchise that's had a real magical season so far after having an unimaginable grief to start the year, it was a really nice moment, I think, for Blue Jackets fans to kind of get together and see each other and acknowledge each other and acknowledge the fact that when this team does get consistently good, that's going to be a market that really pops. I truly have always believed that and I believe even more now

having seen what happened at the stadium series. Pete Now, I know Columbus has cap space. Do you expect them to do anything heading into the deadline? John They might tinker. I can't imagine that they're going to do anything too traumatic. Listen, this is a gravy season. I mean, everybody expected them to be not great and then really expect them to be not great after what happened with Johnny Goudreau. But you know, if they get into the playoffs, I think that's going to be a heck of an accomplishment. And also, don't forget, like they're they're doing it the right way right now. I mean, this is a team of Adam Fantilly and Kent Johnson. And, you

know, Warrenske is still pretty young, and they've got some good young players in that roster. I was joking with somebody when I was in Columbus, that if, if Yarmouk Akalainen was still the, the GM, they probably would have traded all of them for Elias Pedersen by now. Like that's how they used to operate in Columbus. Um, but now they're doing it smart. They're doing it, you know, with a, with a good youth movement. And if they make the playoffs great, that's great experience for those guys.

And maybe they can make a little hay when they get in there. If not, then, you know, they're, they've, they're building something pretty, pretty impressive in Columbus and I think they'll probably stay on that course. Wish by the way, just so you know, Elias Pedersen is the young defenseman that they've got.

Elias Pedersen is the problem that they've got. No one cares. You know, and no one in the United States cares. Be happy. Well, that's your problem down there in the United States right now. Nobody does care. Yeah, that's the main problem that we have right now in the United States right now. Uh, which I want to talk about the Edmonton Oilers and what they might do heading into this

deadline. Um, but like that's actually not even the main part of one I want to talk about. What is going on with Evander Kane? Because I find this story or the narrative that's coming out of Edmonton really quite odd that, and the way I'm hearing it sometimes is that Evander Kane like might just be like at any point after the trade deadline, be like,

yeah, I'm actually ready to play hockey now. So, yeah. Uh, yeah. Yeah. And the, and the others are like, we don't know if we can use your LTI space. Like aren't most teams normally on board like with the player on a plan about what's going to happen.

It almost seems like at times the Oilers don't want Evander Kane around. And he's like, like, I felt like this is like a Costanza episode of Seinfeld that he's like, I'm coming back. Yeah. And it's weird because Evander Kane traditionally has shown to be someone who is a

rule follower. Usually a team guy, usually a team guy very popular in the room. Not the kind of guy that would ruin his team's plan for the trade deadline. But I wanted to get one game in before the playoffs start. Yeah, it's kind of a mess right now. And I think it does handcuff them a bit at the deadline. I mean, I've heard some, you know, talk about trying to ship them out if they can and make sure that that space is open. But again, like we all forget the origin story of the Vanderkane and Edmonton, which was that that was like one of the few places he could land after the, you know, vaccine debacle with the San Jose Sharks and the whole

contract termination thing and what have you. So again, like I don't quite know what the market would even be for this guy. I don't know if you'd have to like sweeten the pot just to get them off your roster. Um, but yeah, it to not have that certainty right now is probably killing them. And, uh, and they certainly don't have it at the moment because as you said, there are indications that Vanderkane would like to play before the playoffs, which is kind of crazy. We're speaking to Greg Wyshinski from ESPN

here on the Haliford and Braff show on Sportsnet 650. Yes or no wish, is Miko Rantan still a member of the Carolina Hurricanes after Friday's trade deadline? I'm gonna go yes. I know that everyone's very excited about a second trade and everyone assumes it's on the table because Eric Tulski is infinitely smarter than all of us. We assume that he's playing like 10D chess at all times.

But I cannot logically approach what the Hurricanes did and believe that they traded away where they traded away for a negotiating window with Miko Rantana. Like they acquired a player, much like they acquired a player last year in Jake Gensel whose modus operandi is getting them the one goal in the playoffs they can't get and get them over the hump and get them to play for a Stanley Cup for the first time under Rod Brendemore. And the idea that you know because they don't have contract certainty with somebody whose world was completely rocked and is still trying to figure out where what he wants to do and

where he wants to be, I just can't imagine that they'd slip him. I just can't. And whatever they get for him is not going to be as good as him. And so if the whole point of it was trying to win the cup and then you trade them away for 75 cents on the dollar, then I don't think that you're serving that aim very well. So I don't know anything can happen you know maybe maybe it is the situation where the Tom Dundon comes to Eric Tolesky with the concept of asset management that involves you know all of a sudden turning him around and trading him to the LA Kings but but I can't process that when there is I mean the East is wide open the league is wide open they have league is wide open.

They have as good a shot at it as anybody to win the cup this year and they, and they, and they do have a window as like some of their defensemen are certainly getting older. And I think Rantan gives them the best shot. Are you at a bird sanctuary or something? Here's the beautiful thing about living in Brooklyn, in Brooklyn, New York. I live in a brownstone with a backyard. I'm in my backyard right now and it's springtime. The birds are returning. They'll all get killed by trucks when they try to fly across the street. But

for the moment they're in trees. And Jason, don't you find it serene when I'm being angsty about the salary cap space of the New York Rangers. Yeah. You can hear the chirps of a beautiful avian friend in the background. It's quite nice actually, because you were a little snappy earlier. I thought it's early in the morning out there.

I was trying to give people the right, I've started waking up in the morning by the way, not with the alarm on my phone, which is what I've been doing for a very long time. My wife bought the sound machine. Yeah, we've got one of those too. It sounds, yeah, it sounds like the ocean. And then when you wake up, it plays what I

assume is a lute. It's like a lute. Is that a thing? Yes. I don't know. It sounds like the music from a Zelda game. And, uh, and then I wake up and I'm like, I'm much happier than I normally am without having

the cell phone alarm clock blaring in my ear. Does it have one of those like fake suns? Do you have that thing? Like. It does. You have those same one? Yeah. We got the same thing.

Yeah. Yeah. It's quite nice. It feels like when the fake sun goes on and it starts playing the lute music, I do feel like I'm in like the seventh year on the, on a 20 year space mission where we don't get to see the sun anymore. So we have to have an artificial sun in our room. But that being said, I do wake up more pleasantly than I have in the past.

Okay, I've saved the best for last year. So right now up at ESPN.com you guys have a collaborative piece talking about the NHL trades that we want to see before Friday. You wrote it. Okay. So, Wyszynski's contribution to the six trades we want to see before Friday. I made two of them. Yep. But the one that is going to be the focus

of this radio hit in Vancouver is a trade between the Vancouver Canucks and the Utah Hockey Club, in which Utah gets Elias Pedersen and Carson Sousi, and the Canucks get Barrett Hayton, Matias Macchelli, Son Durzi, Michael Harabel, and a 20-26 second round pick. Feel free to go any direction you want in breaking this down and analyze it.

Deal. Well, I mean, I'll say this. I certainly would help the Vancouver capaps space to make that trade. I don't know, man. I wanted to find a way to get Pedersen off the Canucks and onto the Utah game. That's what I wanted out of it. I don't even know if that's a good landing space for him. I actually think that, I think what he needs now mostly is probably to go to a different

culture and maybe a place where there are good players already that can kind of foster him a little bit. Um, I think if he goes to Utah, he's going to be like an elder statesman, believe it or not, based on the ages of the guys in that roster. Um, but I don't see what the problem is. I mean, you guys. I don't know. Hey, you know what?

I don't either. I like that you included Utah because all we've heard from day one is that the new owner, Ryan Smith, is looking to make a big bold move. Yeah. And I do wonder, I do wonder. We love Hayton up here in Vancouver too, because when the coyote drafted him, it allowed the Canucks to draft Quinn Hughes. So this is interesting because like all of my mentions yesterday, where people

were from Vancouver telling me to go pleasure myself, but you seem a little bit more open-minded about this trade than they are. Absolutely. We're open-minded in finding ways for Elias Pettersson to get traded somewhere else, frankly. I mean, it's a bit of a polarizing situation up here in Vancouver. Well, the reason I find it confounding is that Vancouver fans, it's like, it's like severance, right? Their, their Audi is like, I cannot stand this player anymore. He's not doing anything.

We need to get him out of here by any means necessary. The contract is now trust. And then there, there any is like, except we should really get a lot of value back for, you know, a couple of firsts, top prospect, you know, roster players that are well established, that are like 24. I mean, you can't have it both ways. This is obviously the ebb of his career.

And I hazard to guess what even the return could be for him at this point, based on the contract, and based on the fact that, you know, he's generating one shot on goal per game could be for him at this point based on the contract and based on the fact that, you know, he's generating one shot on goal per game for like ever since Miller was traded. And so I don't know what that ends up looking like. But I've always been a give him some runway guy, like to see if you can figure things out.

But the returns in the in the set that you know, almost dozen games since Miller was traded have just been so depressing like I don't know like maybe you do have to pull the trigger before the deadline because then he's going to have trade protection this summer. Wish before I say goodbye I just want you to know that you lost Halfords so badly with that Severance reference but I got you. I got you. I don't understand. I cannot gauge how many people watch that. I don't think many. Or understand severance. Oh I watch it and I don't understand it. Well okay that's fair. I like because in my social circles like there are constant severance

references but I think you know it's the fracturing of media. Like, I always assume that people are watching something that they're not, and frankly, it's an Apple TV show, so how many people are actually watching it? And yet I do feel like it's kind of infiltrated the pop culture a little bit. What is a show that would have, show reference that would have resonated with Halford? Like, Ink Masters? Or that show where they make swords? No. Forged in Fire? No, that's... with how for like Ink Masters or that show where they make swords. Fortune fire. No, that's no, no, no. I started watching Landman, Landman, which is good.

OK. Yeah. Well, you know, so so again, like, you know, Vancouver fans are like Billy Bob Thornton. I don't know, dude. I don't I don't. Reference here. All right. Well, landed there. Wish enjoy the birds, buddy. I don't, I don't, I don't see any reference here. All right. We'll end it there. Wish, enjoy the birds buddy. Thanks for doing this as always. We'll talk next week.

Take care, bye. See you, bye. Greg Wyshinski from ESPN here on the Haliford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. Coming up on the other side of the break, we're gonna talk more trade deadline, but with a twist, we're gonna talk no trade clauses. Ilyas Hussein from the Toronto Star is gonna join us he has a big lengthy profile

piece out on the rise the spike in no trade and no movement clauses across the NHL what does it mean what does it mean for Friday he'll join us on the other side as we discuss that and before we go to break I need to tell you about Denny's true north taste awaits with Denny's 100% Canadian beef burgers made with new shredded iceberg lettuce. The kids are calling it shreddis. Yo, give me some of that shreddis bro. On a brioche bun and all the classic ingredients you love. You had one job. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

When the fake sun goes on and it starts playing the lute music, I do feel like I'm in like the seventh year on the, on a 20 year space mission where we don't get to see the sun goes on and it starts playing the lute music, I do feel like I'm in the seventh year on a 20 year space mission, where we don't get to see the sun anymore, so we have to have an artificial set in our rooms. But that being said, I do wake up more pleasantly than I have in the past.