Halford & Brough in the Morning - More Questions Than Answers From Canucks Media Day

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports (3:00), they break down the Canucks coach and player end-of-season comments from Friday, especially in regards to head coach Rick Tocchet and star forward Elias Pettersson (6:00), plus the boys hear from some more of the Canucks at the season end's press conference (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-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- Nylander steps into the slot and scores! Billy Nylander! He will right to our field scores! Wide open from the right circle! Power play goal to our field! The Knights have a 2-1 lead! I'd like to get an extension down to stay here. Obviously that's something that Patrick and my agent and I started talking about. Good morning, Vancouver. 6.01 on a Monday.

Happy Monday, everybody. Happy holiday Monday, everybody. It's Halford at his rough at his Sportsnet 650. We are coming live from the Kintec studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you.

Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford at Brob of the Morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help. With over 3,000 five-star reviews, visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics, working together with you in step. Big weekend in the world of sports. We got a lot to get into on the program today. The guest list will begin at seven o'clock this morning. That's right, first hour, all interrupted,

Halford and Brough. Craig Simpson's gonna join us at seven. He's on the call with Chris Cuthbert for the Battle of Ontario which kicked off last night an emphatic victory for the Leaf 6-2 over the Ottawa Senators. We'll look back on what happened in game one and preview game two which goes tomorrow 4.30 from Toronto. Craig Simpson at 7 o'clock. 7.30 Kevin Woodley NHLL.com in goal magazine. We will discuss Friday's Canucks player and coach media availability. And then we'll look ahead to today's media availability. It's 10 o'clock our time from Rogers Arena. It's the GM Patrick Elvin. It's the president of hockey ops, Jim Rutherford.

We can also look back on some of the series from this weekend. Five series got underway this weekend in the National Hockey League. So we'll talk to Kevin about all those as well. That's at seven 13 then at eight o'clock his final hit of the season on the Haliford and brush show on sports net six 50 satyar Shah is going to join us as mentioned. Canucks management will meet with media today. 10 AM. Uh, we'll talk to you sad about what to expect. And we will also look back with him about Friday's avails.

We'll ask what Rick talk it contract extensions potentially for players. Yes. We will talk about PD. All that's coming up at eight o'clock was sat to our show. So working in reverse on the guest list, eight o'clock it's sat seven 30. It's Woodley seven o'clock. It's simmer. 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 the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was...

We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? What happened? 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. We'll begin with the Vancouver Canucks. Friday's media availability, lots of talking points, lots of discussions to be taken away ahead of today's meetings with Alvin and Rutherford. Well, yeah, I guess if there was any surprising news from Friday's availability, it was that

Rick Tauket was a part of it. He hasn't signed an extension yet. And while he said he wants to be back, he also said he still needs to go through the process with Jim and Patrick, talk about obviously his contract, but also the team. And I imagine one of the questions he asks is, uh, how are you guys going to fix the center

position? And the other question he's going to ask is, how do we avoid a season like last season? Those are two good questions. Meanwhile, there are suddenly a number of job openings around the league. Yeah. Who were the guys that bit the dust over the weekend?

Lavie in New York, Greg Cronin in Anaheim? Cronin, Greg, yeah, he's laid off. So too is Peter Laviolette. I don't know if any other changes are going to be coming, but I believe that puts us at two outright dismissals and then three interim takes. So five jobs across the league right now that are for grabs.

Okay, so we'll see if Rutherford and Alveen have anything more to say on that. As Halford mentioned, they're scheduled to meet with the media this morning. So maybe we'll get an update then. Tauke knows he can't wait around forever to make a decision. He's kind of joked about that, but I'm sure he

wants to have an idea of what the plan is to fix the forward group and in particular, the centre position, which he rightly said is such a vital position. Um, you know, you're rightly said is such a vital position. You know, you're not gonna win a Stanley Cup without certainty and frankly like excellence down the middle and the Canucks did not have this season for numerous reasons, which brings us to Ilias Pettersson. And I don't know if you

saw, I don't know if you were watching the press conference, but when Elias Pedersen came up, and I don't know if this was intentional by Rick Docket, but he kind of like covered his face with his hands and rubbed his temples, like he was like, oh God, all right, let's get into this topic of Elias Pedersen. Been there, Rick. Yeah. I don't know where to start with this because there are so many angles. There are so many things, but I think it's safe to suggest that Pedersen took up a lot of talk, it's time and energy this season.

Friend, that's a fair assessment and a fair suggestion. Whether it was trying to mend Pedersen's relationship with JT Miller, failed, or just convincing Pedersen that he needs to move his feet more, failed. Did he mention that? There were a lot of meetings according to Tocket, and IMAC wrote that Tocket, quote, had his highest paid player in his office numerous times for frank and sometimes emotional discussions about his play.

sometimes for Frank and sometimes emotional discussions about his play. We're going to play one bit of audio from the presser. And this is Rick Tocket saying something that we've heard over and over and over and over and over and over again, whether it's from Tocket or whether it's from management. PD needs to prepare himself better. He needs to practice better. I think people understand, like, Elias wants to be a great player, right?

And we're here to try to help him to become that great player. So obviously there's some things that, I gotta be careful what I say, because you guys hang on, if I say reprogram, you guys take it to a different level. No, I just think, I think he'll tell you this, that his preparation has to get better.

There's no secret. If you want to be a great player, you have to prepare. Almost an obsessive type of preparation. And I think he got behind the eight ball early, then the expectations come, and then there's a little bit of struggle with the team, and he could never gain traction, right? You know, he has to, we've talked about that,

move his feet, shoot the puck, change angles. You know, and you know me, I'm an honest guy, he's gotta practice better. You have to practice better. And I thought those things that he's learning and do I think he will do those things? I do, I really do. Like if I think I can bank on him taking this information,

going away for four months and make sure that he has a plan and the plan has to change. You know, I'm not sure he can train the same way or the team. I don't know who he's training. I do kind of know, but I don't. To be honest with you, that's got to change. That's my follow-up. You can't force him to train how he trains.

We talked last week about USA hockey and the Quinn Hughes gang and the influence, how much Quinn has improved his shot, his strength. A lot of what Elias has to do is strength related. So how much influence do you think you can have in that regard? Well, I think, you know, I think he, you know, he takes some of my information,

but he's also got teammates too, that he's got to inspire too, that are doing stuff too, you know? Tyler Myers, you know, he trains really hard. He had a great year for us. You know, Quinn Hughes, you know, he trains really hard. He had a great year for us. You know, Quinn Hughes, what are they doing? Like, I think he, the inspiration of those guys can help him. You know, uh, Kiefer Sherwood, you know, shooting a million pucks this summer has a career, a career high because of those little things.

I think, can he use his teammates as inspiration? So when Tauket says he thinks he can bank on Pedersen going back and doing all this training and putting a plan together, do you believe him? Do you think he truly thinks? Sorry, do I believe Tuckett believes it or? Yeah. It's a good question. Do I believe Pedersen?

I don't know. I think he's very hopeful. I think he's very hopeful. I don't know if it's naive optimism hopeful or genuine I think this might happen hopeful. I think he's very hopeful. I don't know if it's naive optimism hopeful or genuine I think this might happen hopeful but as someone once said hope is not a plan. I really have to wonder if the Connex is still trying to figure out how to get on the same page with Pedersen. It doesn't sound like the message is truly getting through. That, that's to me personally, because talking at another point, another time in the interview

is like, you know, um, is he, is he listening or, you know, he said something like, I know, I know the next obvious question is why hasn't he done it yet? And he's like, I think he's listening to some of it, right? I just feel like, and it sounds like, there's no certainty that Pedersen

is actually gonna do this. Like you say hopeful, right? I agree with that. It's more hope as opposed to certainty. I mean, the word hope and hopeful came up multiple times during Friday's media availability, right? In various different ways, but it all sort of

centered around what they were hoping would happen with number 40 this off season and then the next season. So here's the, here's the, the quote, I've talked to him all year about certain stuff and I know the next question, well, how come he hasn't listened yet? I think he has listened to certain parts. I just don't know.

I think he's evolving as a person, as a player to that stature he wants to be. Hopefully he's going to evolve even more. Hopefully he's going to evolve even more. Hopefully. There's the hopefully. You know, Pedersen had an availability yesterday or on Friday as well.

And I wasn't particularly encouraged by the way he went about it. I know it's just immediate availability. I know he's kind of a shy guy. I know he likes to keep his cards close to his vest, but I was really struck by his answer or should I call it a non-answer about why his speed and shot velocity had decreased?

It wasn't just that he didn't have a good answer. It's that he didn't seem particularly curious or disappointed by the fact that his shot velocity and his skating velocity had decreased. Let's play that back and forth because it was a question by Harmon Dial of the Athletic and it went a little like this. There are some numbers that show that compared to two years ago your skating speed has fallen off a decent bit

as well as the velocity of your shot. Do you maybe have some theories about why that's been the case? Not exactly, I guess. But, yeah, no, I'm not sure. But definitely gonna work on it. That is not encouraging, guys. That's not encouraging.

Well, I mean, look. You'd hope he'd have some ideas, Halford. You'd hope he'd be curious enough to wonder about these sorts of things. You'd hope he'd be excited about having an off season to turn his game around. I don't know, unless the answer is I'm getting slower and weaker. And that was right. And that's not something you're going to admit to. And that's not something you're going to say out loud.

Yeah, it is. You can just say I need to get stronger. You need to. I wasn't trying as hard this year. I need to get stronger. I need to get stronger. I don't just say that. I don't think you heard the part that I was talking about is what happens if in the two years he's genuinely, physically gotten slower and gotten weaker? It's not like I'm going to get faster and I'm going to get stronger. It's I'm that those things are decreasing.

I mean, that's a very, very legitimate thing that might be happening to the player. For what reason? Yeah, he's hurt. He's not I mean, no one gets faster and better and stronger as they get older. Maybe he's peaked. All those things are in the way. He's not I mean no one gets faster and better and stronger as they get older Maybe he's peaked all those things are in the way. He's 26 You haven't seen guys peak in an early age and then fall off. I Don't know that's just as viable an explanation as anything else. The age curve is getting earlier It's not a good one. I'm not proud to be like I think I might have solved it He might be like I don't buy that I and here's the thing. We're still in this position of like everyone's got a theory

Yeah, there's still people online that are just like he's injured. He's injured. He's injured. He's injured He told you that knee tendon I when I injured when I heard that clip the most worrisome thing for me was that he knows exactly what's going on and and that was the I'm not gonna say the quiet part out loud because if you take it on face value, if he is indeed not as fast as he used to be and not as strong as he used to be, the decline actually kind of makes sense. The lack of production kind of starts to check out. And that's the most worrisome thing of the entire

like ecosystem and landscape is that they've committed a bunch of money to a guy that might be going in the wrong direction trajectory wise. Might be, he is right now. I did think it was really interesting when Tauke said something along the lines of, you know, we have all these meetings and I wish he'd disagree with me sometimes.

You know, that makes a lot of sense because Fight back, fight back. At least it would be a two way discussion then as opposed to lecture. And I think he's been lectured a lot this season, whether it's management or the coaching staff, lectured, lectured and talking to saying like, Hey, do you want to be part of this conversation?

Do you want to push back on something here? For a coach to sit there and say, I wish you'd disagree with me sometimes. I think that says a lot about how those talks have gone. For a coach to sit there and say, I wish you'd disagree with me sometimes. I think that says a lot about how those talks have gone. They've been the Canucks saying like, how do we get through to you, man? Like, can we get some passion out of you? Please push back. You know, don't just take it.

Like, cause you need to be part of this process. You need to be part of this process. God, I hear, I'm so tired of hearing, well, maybe this guy can help them. Maybe this guy can help them. Maybe that guy can help them. How about you help yourself? How about you get inspired? Well, maybe, you know, training with Tyler Myers, that can inspire him or

Quinn Hughes, you know, or, you know, like they've tried everything at the end of the day, it always comes down to the player having to do it himself. Now feels like probably a good time to bring up the Quinn Hughes angle and element to all this. Cause Hughes did speak about Pedersen as well. But I think now, whereas in seasons past, Petey's foil was always kind of like JT Miller. And that was because of the rift

and the personal relationship in a very different way. Now Hughes is going to be the foil, not not in terms of like an adversary, but Hughes is going to be like the if you have two kids and it's the older brother, that's like the all American football player and the class valedictorian. And then there's the younger brother that always has to look up that Hughes embodies all the elements that they want out of a hockey player. Right. Leadership, dedication, on ice production, accountability, responsibility. And because Pedersen is the highest paid player on the team,

making more than Quinn Hughes, I'll remind you, there's going to be that I think that's going to be the new dynamic moving forward, is it's going to be like, you know, why can't you be more like your older brother, Quinn? That kind of thing. I do wonder if that's where this sort of next phase of the narrative goes, that instead of it being them going head to head, like you saw with the Pettersson Miller situation, that it becomes more of this thing where it's like,

look, you have the perfect example of everything that we want from a hockey player, and he's in the room and he's your buddy. Yeah, they want more leadership, he brought more leadership. They want their leaders to obsessively work on their games, Hughes has done that too, but here's the thing. Hughes like is going to work on his game

obsessively anyway, because that's who he is. Let's hear from Quinn Hughes. He was asked if there's anything he can do to help train Elias Pedersen because we're all looking for people to help Petey when in reality we should be looking at Petey. But here's what Quinn Hughes had to say and frankly Quinn Hughes agrees with me. Is there a role you can play in helping him find his way?

I mean I, no I don't think so. I mean I think that you know every guy, you get in what you put out, every guy is going to have to train the way they want to train, do what they want to do. I've always been a big believer in PD and I'll just leave it at that. So the, the party line from Tocket and a lot from the team has been about his last off season and preparation and practicing better. If this was just a season by itself where he struggled, I'd actually be less worried, but this actually goes back further and it goes back to, um, and the reason I'd be less worried is just be like, okay, we'll work

out more, have a better off season and then we'll see you in the fall. But this goes back to the previous season where he looked amazing. What, for four or five months of the season, then the all star break hit and the team started to pressure him to sign a contract and his game fell off and maybe some knee tendonitis then.

Possibly. Right. And I hope, I hope management gets asked about that because there's still a lot of people out there, a lot of Canucks fans are like, he's injured and you guys aren't listening to him. And that could possibly be an explanation or at least a part explanation for why he fell off so

badly halfway through the season. Because you can't chalk that up to his off season before then, because he looks so good before, right? And a lot of the times when I hear this, like, he's just got to get stronger. He's got to get stronger. off season before then because he looks so good before. A lot of the times when I hear this, he's just got to get stronger. He's got to get stronger. I mean, a few people were saying that, but when he was putting up 100 point seasons, it wasn't like, oh, he's got to change his off season preparation, right? Or he's too skinny.

You know, Petey the other day was like, oh yeah, my genetics. He was kind of joking around. It's like, I didn't get the best genetics, so, you know, I don't, I don't put on weight or I don't, you know, get stronger easily. That's the video. That's the video. Pederson blames it on his jeans. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I do that all the time with mine. Like that's true. That's why I never made the NHL, right? It's an easy out.

Jeans. But we've seen him, we've seen him be an elite dominant player in the NHL before. I know this isn't a guy that's never proven it, right? But the guy like you love, he's We've seen him be an elite dominant player in the NHL before. I know this isn't a guy that's never proven it, right? But the guy like you, Levy, is like, dude, you're getting in shape, man. Look at you, right? Because we never saw it. Crumpled in the corner with your bag skate. So there's just, I know that I didn't expect all the answers to be answered

or all the questions to be answered in that avail. But I just feel like we're still in the exact same spot now. Because we are. Because nothing's changed. We don't know if Taukid is going to be back. We don't know what's going to happen with Pedersen this off season.

And we don't know, like this is what, this is what it all boils down to. You know, it sounds like the Canucks are still wondering the same thing a lot of us are still wondering. What happened to this guy? How can we motivate him? Why do we even have to motivate him? What's the deal here, man? What's going on? Well, they have no idea very clearly. I mean, I don't the one of the more illuminating things that came out of the a press conference on a season where everyone was Tired and frustrated and exhausted and exasperated was the amount of time that talk it spent

specifically dealing with Pedersen the meetings the one- on ones, the video work, the emotional pleas, the pointing out the lack of game that he had in various areas and instances. And that's one again, I brought this up before. That's one player talking to us as 22 other guys that he's responsible for on a regular basis. I guess it didn't seem as though anything that was explained on Friday gave anyone a lot of optimism that they had unlocked the riddle or the mystery to what's going on here.

It just felt like another episode of, well, maybe a little bit more time will fix all this. All right. Maybe some time away. It was the tired old fresh start narrative. The freshest start, by the way, is a true fresh fresh start which the Canucks can achieve before July 1 But until then I think that this is all just sort of like window dressing and a lot of it is speculative Too I hope I hope I hope I wonder if there's even a team out there that would take them in a trade right now

Someone would buy low you probably lose real bad on the trade. What does that look like? They're not real bad real bad Well, probably worse than the return that they got for Miller and by by probably a pretty significant margin I don't know why they don't want to do it. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know There's a GM out there that would take his contract right now. I Real I really don't I push back on that because it's one bad year and there's all you need is one There's 31 other general managers out there one guy might Think like I'm gonna outsmart them all somebody get the black

To boy did not do why do not roast do you corrosive though? He got traded straight up for Darcy Kemper well the skill set is so tantalizing too I mean when he's on his game he's incredible so maybe one GM's like I'm the guy that can unlock this I'll figure it out I'll bring him back, and then I'll have this perennial only take guy remember when they traded Travis Hamoneck for it only takes one It only takes one well as like as you said though. They would lose the trade badly Probably like that's the downside like you're well would they lose the trade badly I mean there's the thing like are you guys just holding on to a value that doesn't exist anymore There is the addition by me interaction you know that you have to put into this for sure.

Well, I think having a player that is a highly paid player is supposed to be a leader, and your coach and management and probably the players are wondering if this guy's working hard enough, that has a corrosive effect. That's what I'm saying. On the team and the culture, it has to. That's what I'm saying.

You do gain. I mean, we saw an effect of it. I mean, you can't tell me that the Miller-Peterson rift had nothing to do with the fact that Peterson was not playing up to the standard. And you also can't tell me that down the stretch when they shut down Leas-Peterson, there were some signs of a team that rediscovered a lot of its blue collar, working hard routes

and found a way to get, I think importantly offense, but also some results and have some resolve and for the first time all season, be likable, at least in our eyes, but be likable down the stretch when they didn't have high priced star players. I don't want to say dragging them down, but not providing the same kind of tenacity and work ethic and stick to it. Of NIST that we saw from a lot of other guys, right? That I think that I'm very hesitant to take that 15 game sample size from the end

of the season and put a lot of stock into it. But there was a stretch there where there was something there where that team rallied around being down and not having certain guys in the lineup. And you saw a different team. Granted, it was a small the lineup and you saw a different team. Granted, it was a small stretch, but you saw a different team. And it's not the answer. I don't think, like, don't act, don't, don't put, you know, words in our mouth by saying, okay, so

Haliford and Bruff want to build around Souter and. Drew O'Connor. And, you know, or Souter down the middle as your one C. That's not what we're saying. We're saying that when you have a player that's the highest paid player on your team, and he's the one you're wondering about if he's got good practice habits. You're asking your captain to prop him up?

That is absolutely corrosive on a team culture. Okay. We still got some more to get into from the Kanax presser by the way. So we can do that on the other side. A reminder, the entire first hour of the program today all interrupted. Haliford and Bruff. We can also get into the five, count them five Stanley Cup first round playoff series that kicked off over the weekend. Craig Simpson's coming up at seven, Kevin Woodley at 730, Satyar Shah at 8 o'clock and then at 830 we're gonna read your what we learned. Get them in now. Dumbarlumberte line is six 50, six 50.

What did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports? Let us know. You're listening to the Halford and Bref show on sports net six 50. It's Canucks central with Dan Rachel and Satyarshah your destination for everything Canucks exclusive interviews, inside info and even the post game show. Listen four to 6 PM weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app I love it. 80s Monday. This has...

Forgot about 80s Monday. This is the Huey Lewis power of love knockoff. Louis Huey. Don't need money. Yeah. Don't need fame. Yeah, you gotta get back to the chorus though. Then it sounds exactly like,

I don't know what this is right now. It'll get there. You are listening to the Halpern and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Halpern and Bruff in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com.

It's the power of drugs. It's the power of drugs. All right. Remember that Huey Lewis song? I got a new drug. Yep. It's kind of a... Mixing the two together. There you go. Yep.

You did it. We are in hour one of the program. The drug was music. The drug was music. Still going. Maybe Petey needs some Huey Lewis. Yeah. I think if he listened to this every morning as he woke up, he'd be a different player.

I wonder what he listens to when he wakes up. A lot of musicians kind of push the music as actually the drug. Yeah, that's right. It is. Who is that? Did Ice-T have? I'm your pusher. Yes. And he was pushing music. That's right.

And maybe drugs. And also drugs. Yeah, subtle hidden meaning there. We're not so subtle. We are in hour 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 Recycling, they recycle.

You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. There were other topics of conversation from Friday's Canucks media availability with the head coach Rick Tauke and multiple players, including Thatcher Demko, a not so insignificant bit of audio from Thatcher who said he hopes to sign an extension this summer rather than go into the final year of his contract without any sort of contract certainty. Let's hear from the Canucks starting netminder now, at least nominally. Here is Thatcher Demko from Friday's Media Availability.

Yeah, I mean, I've always wanted to be a Canuck since day one. I want to be here, obviously drafted here. Yeah, I mean, I'd like to get an extension done, stay here. Obviously, that's something that Patrick and my agent will start talking about. But I'll let them focus on that. I'm focused on getting myself back to where you know, Patrick and my agent will start talking about, but, you know, I'll let them focus on that. I'm focused on, you know, get myself back to where I know I can be. And, you know, everything will play itself up.

How can you possibly negotiate an extension right now? Selfishly, selfishly. The Connach should take advantage of this situation because what you've got is a player motivated to, you know, get an extension, but also needing to prove a couple of things. One, he's healthy and two that he can return to the rigors of a NHL workload, a proper NHL workload. A lot of people would say, take all of those things and use them to your advantage and say, that's your go out there and play yourself

into a new extension and we will reward you thusly if you can put up, I don't know what, 40 some odd starts in a tandem with Kevin Lankanen. Well then, I mean, if they pay him at his true potential, let's call it his healthy potential, can they afford it? No, and then at the end of the year like you know what? You play too. Well, yeah, you play way out of town. It's a double-edged sword that you you priced your way out of the market

You're too valuable now. I just think if they went into the negotiation right now if I'm Thatcher Demko I'm negotiating like I'm gonna like look at my career numbers negotiating Yeah, like I'm the Thatcher Demko and if I'm the Canucks, I'm negotiating like yeah, but you can't stay healthy And that was proven. So how are we gonna how are we gonna bridge that gap? That seems very tough I think what'll be interesting is if that becomes a problem Well, there's the right risk right is if you do the old tried and true kick the can down the road Like we're not gonna do anything with an extension until we got some like and it is certainty or I don't know assurances that he can do these things You also run the risk of a player being like I'm not happy with my current situation

I don't have a contract for sure this year right and Demko has said all the right things and I don't think he's faking it. He said, you know, Lankton and deserved the money that he got and I was happy for him. I've got a great relationship with Lankton. But you also got to think about your own career. And Thatcher Demko a year ago or whatever, year and a half ago was probably thinking, man, my next contract is going to be massive.

He was watching some of the contracts that some other goalies around the league are making. He knows the cap is going up. Give me that Chester. He's like, I'm going to cash in. And now people are wondering, okay, yeah, but can you stay healthy enough for us to give you more than two-year contract?

Because again, in a ideal world for the club, having a healthy Demko and then a less taxed Lankanen is a dream scenario. Except you're paying a lot of money for it. Just this year though. Oh, just this year. Yeah, sure, sure. That is probably non-Peterson division,

probably the biggest key to your return to the playoffs. So, Nate in Richmond texts in to the Dunbar Lumber text line, he says, can you sign them to a four year extension at say six and a half per year? Both of those goalies for 11 mil over the next five years would be extremely ideal. Well, it would be if he can stay healthy. And to your first question, if I'm Demco, I don't

know, that's almost admitting, that's admitting that you're not going to get a better deal anywhere else. I mean. Four years, six and a half, that wasn't the dream a few years ago. The others. Things change, but it's almost like, you know

how people are with house prices and a downturn. It's like, well, I know that the economy is dipped or the housing market is dipped, but I'm not dropping my price. Not for my house. You know. Not for my house. Not for my house. Someone else could drop the price of their house. My house is amazing.

I was told last year that my house is worth this, so I'm going to stick to that. My house has a healthy popliteus. Yeah. It's a very important part of the housing structure. It's the key to the house. I don't know- Teaching in engineering school. It's triangular. I don't know.

I also don't know what it says if Demko. I know he wants to stay in Vancouver and I know he wants an extension, but going into that extension also acknowledges that you're signing up for a timeshare with Kevin Lankton because he's not going

anywhere for the foreseeable future, I don't think. And I, you know, I don't know if Demko still has the dreams or hopes of being a heavy workload. Are you flirting with 60 stars? You should have been at the press conference. You could have asked him,

Thatcher, have your dreams been crushed or do you still have them? Has the weight of reality and your health, like all of us, brought you back to earth? You're no longer able to do the things you want to do physically are you ready to settle that sure and it is well Okay I hate putting it that way but going out somewhere and trying to find a number one gig on the open market Which I think he probably could look for and do yeah is a lot different than saying well

I'm gonna sign up and we're gonna be a 1b 1A and we're not really sure who's going to be who. It's largely dependent on health and current form. So. So, um, we'll talk to Kevin Woodley about this coming up and, uh, I'm sure, uh, Patrick Alveen and Jim Rutherford will be asked about it at the availability. And in case you're just joining us, uh,

Canucks management will meet with the media this morning at 10 a.m. I just wanted to add one more thing from the presser, encouraging news on Phillip Heidel. Maybe the best news of the day. Yeah, he said it's great to head to the off season 100% ready and have a big summer now and be ready for September.

And actually both those guys, Demko and Heidel, have now said how much they're looking forward to the off season and how much they're looking forward to being able to just have the certainty of being healthy heading into the off season so that once September rolls around, they're at their best. Right? They get to train all summer. It'd be nice if Pedersen would say the same thing, right?

Just like, I'm su- Yes. That was something he could have said, by the way. You know, if you're writing PR for him, just be like, say, I'm super excited to work in this off season. Maybe he's not. Why didn't he say that? Maybe he's not 100% healthy like Phillip Heidel and Thatcher Dempkin. Yeah, but why not even like seem excited to improve yourself in the off season and get

better? That's a good question, Adog? That's a good question a dog That's a great question. He is a unique personality We all can't be like a dog just striving to get better every day. Just lie to us that I don't care You know give us something to hope for I can't be like a dog willing to lie all the time I wonder if the owner of the PR gives him gives them any talking points, and he probably just ignores something He's like no. Yeah, or he's like I don't listen to the coach, I'm not gonna listen to you. That's right. Elyas, are you listening to me right now?

Uh-huh. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. We did get an update on Tom Willander, though not from Friday's media availability. This one came over the weekend courtesy of Rick Dollywall. You know him from the Donnie and Dolly Show and his Friday hits here on the Haliford and Bruff Show

on Sportsnet 650. According to Ricky D., Tom Willander has reportedly left Boston University and returned to Sweden, Dolly Wall wrote on social media, that Willander is set to join the Swedish national team tomorrow to play in a couple of upcoming exhibition games ahead of the World Hockey Championships.

Okay, first of all, if Dolly Wall is reporting it, you don't need to say that Dolly Wall said reportedly that he's going back to Sweden. Dolly Wall is the report. That's true. to say that Dolly Wall said reportedly that he's going back to Sweden. Dolly Wall is the report. That's true. He's heading back. He's reading off the website, aren't you? Uh, no, I'm reading out my notes.

Okay. Which are written poorly. Reportedly written by Mike Alfred. Dolly Wall reportedly reported. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He reported his own report. Yeah.

Reportedly. So another question for, um, Jim and Patrick today. So what are the questions going to be? This is going to be, man. Are you going to be there? I think so. Give you one big question. Is that your question?

Is that your question? Because every, this is a rough tradition. He asks one question and it's the mic drop one. He definitely leaves. Chaos behind him. I'm out, I'm going to get a hamburger. Just throw the mic like a grenade. Yeah.

So questions facing Alveen and Jim Rutherford today. Yep. Go. Rick Tocket, what's going on there? Sure. Tom Willender, what's going on there? I don't know. All the things on Pedersen, all of them.

The diagnosis. Do you have a diagnosis? Diagnoses perhaps. How to get a upgraded center? How are you going to do it? I know it's great that Phil Upetel is feeling good and excited about the off season, but I don't think you can pencil him in as the 2C.

Right. Right. You can't just be like, this is our 2C. You know, he's never done the role before and there are some concerns about whether he can stay healthy or not. So how are you going to go up, how are you going to go out and get a age appropriate center that is going to

meaningfully impact the team? Um, how to replace the goal scoring. If Brock Besser and Pugh Souter walk away for nothing in unrestricted free agency, how are you going to replace that? They had. 50 goals out the door. They have three guys that scored more than 20

goals. Souter was one, Besser was one. The other one is Jake DeBress. They still got him. He's still there. Uh, the Demko extension. Are you open to it? Thatcher says he wants an extension.

Are you willing to talk about it? And do you think you can do it? Um, the practice facility. Oh, the practice facility. That's going to come up. The practice facility. What's going on with your practice facility? Any updates on that?

Jim, you sounded so optimistic a few years ago. What happened? Are you now willing to settle? Has Vancouver beaten you down like it has everyone else on the team? Fine, we'll rent. And last but not least, the big overarching question. How do you keep Quinn Hughes? What's the plan?

Are you confident that you can keep Quinn Hughes? Can you get some guidance from Quinn Hughes on What's the plan? Are you confident that you can keep Quinn Hughes? Can you get some guidance from Quinn Hughes on what he's thinking right now? I mean this is going to be a tough press conference for these guys. I hope they're prepared because the questions are going to come at them from all angles and it should. The other things that's going to come up is is there anything you could have done differently to avoid this past season and specifically the Miller-Peterson feud that balled over and you had to trade one of them.

The one thing that I will say about that I liked about Rick Tauke and his availability on Friday is he's always willing to question himself. Yep, that's fair. And I think he's quite introspective and he puts it out there, like, you know, he's asked if there was anything he could have done differently or do you think back on that? He was like, yeah.

And he goes into the off season and he's going to wonder about that stuff. He has uttered on a number of occasions, what can I do better? What can I do? What can I do better? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. He's, it's a pretty familiar refrain from that coach. Yeah. Um, and, uh, again, you'd like to see that from all the players on the team. The Quinn Hughes juxtaposition with Pedersen is so stark though.

And, uh, you know, it's not like Quinn Hughes is intentionally doing it just to spite Pedersen, but. Big brother energy though. He knows. I mean, we use the juxtaposition word all the time. You got this guy right here, over here, who's a

great leader. He was asked to speak up more in the dressing room. He did. Um, he doesn't need to be told that he needs to train more because he, he's driven himself, you know, like he, he, whether it's him being, uh, upset about the criticism he took for his defensive

game or whether it's him, I want to score more goals. So I'm going to work on my shot or I'm going to work on my defensive play. He goes out and he does it. And then you've got Pedersen who makes a lot more money by the way, than Quinn Hughes does. And you know, talking to still talking about, I want to see the guy wears an A, I want to see

more from the leadership. And it just, you know, it brings me back to your point and it's like, is this doable? Is there just way too much hope here? Because they've been, it seems like they've been asking more from Pedersen for a long time and he's actually ended up giving him, giving them less. I mean, again, I think that the fresh start narrative and idea

in theory, while very dangerous and risky ultimately is going to be the only way to correct this problem, because I just don't see a way that this particular player regains his form. This is the important part here under the current climate

and everything that involves. And I'm talking teammates, role, history, coach, management, media, throw it all into one big pile. I just don't see it happening. You know why I'm so- But I do see, I honestly believe

that he could rekindle something or find the spark or find the fire, the magic elixir, whatever the hell. I do believe it's there somewhere. I just don't think it's here. You know why I'm still hesitant to endorse a trade out? I don't. Because I still don't know what's up. But that's not a reason to not move forward.

Just because you can't solve or explain something, it doesn't mean you should sit there wasting valuable time, energy, resources, and energy trying to solve something that you're pretty, pretty much convinced that you can't fix. Do you think the Canucks have a good idea of really what's going on? Do you think they're certain? But I think that there's a certain point where you have to stop saying like,

do we know? Do we think we know? Do we think we haven't figured it out? Have we figured it out? I think at a certain point, those conversations just have to stop entirely. You know, the hope is not a plan thing. Isn't just some, where's that slogan from? Is that a campaign trail thing? Yeah, I think so. No, no, no, it's an investor.

Oh no, yeah, it's the robo investor, right, okay. I do think that there's some, like there is something to be said for that line because after a while it's all about like actions and actionable things. I can't believe I said actionable like I'm a TED talk but it's it's oh well the media availability didn't go as well as we hoped well hopefully he's got the right mentality going into the summer and it's just tick after tick after tick where you're like did he pass or fail this test?

And there's not enough ticks and there's a lot of Xs, right? I really come back to what Tauke, I know what you're saying there. I really come back to what Tauke said about, I wish he'd disagree with me sometimes. Yeah, sure. There's another wrinkled little L in the whole thing. But doesn't that paint a picture

of what all the meetings have been like? Probably. One-sided. Yeah. And just be like, hey man, do you want to be like hey, man Do you want to be part of this do I be part of this solution? And I and I think if you took that tone But I get what you're saying if you see if you see him like peterson's checked out if you see him at that or just A very different personality yes, you know I'm listening, but he's not taking it in not checked out, but just a Different personality, and it's not working maybe it's not working for him either

I'm going back to what you guys are saying like probably shouldn't assign the contract I mean it's okay, but you gotta keep my lawyer didn't want to he didn't you wanted to win on to the offseason if they Trade him it makes the team actively worse it puts them into a rebuilds That's something ownership wants and also does that keep quitting you gotta put them in a rebuild doesn't put them in a rebuild Well, it does if it makes not even a neighborhood of a review It does if it makes Hughes unhappy and he leaves because of it, but it doesn't put them in a rebuild. It does if it makes them in the neighborhood of a rebuild. It does if it makes Hughes unhappy and he leaves because of it. But it doesn't put them in a rebuild. You're trading your best player.

You're putting several... You're putting several carts before the horse there. The team will be actively worse. Like they were this season? Yeah, like they were this season. Do you want to do another season like this season? I don't, I'm just playing devil's advocate and just saying why they would not do that. And also ownership doesn't want that.

It is a- And management doesn't want that. It is a hell of a decision. Like it would alter the course of this franchise. And also what does that do for Hughes? Does Hughes want PD to go? Does he want him to stay? I mean based on their decisions in trading, whether or not they do or not, I would assume

that they probably would have had a conversation with Hughes about that. Well, there's also the moral hazard angle of it, where if you're the management group that trades away Horvat, trades away Miller, and then trades away Pedersen, and you don't have anything to show for it, are you kind of like, am I going to get fired? No, no, no, don't just, just wait until like the, the, the, they rebuild. I'm not going to call it a Hail Mary though, but like, if you keep Pedersen, that is your best chance to be better next season. Yeah.

If you keep them. Yes. If you don't keep them, then let's forget about whether you're in a rebuild or not. You're in a real tough spot. Like you can see the temptation to keep Pedersen. He has a great off season. He comes back. Even if he's 90% of the player that he once was,

that's a pretty good number one center. Or that's at least a 2C, right? That's a good player. It's a good player. It's also 11.6 million in cap space that you can go and use. But it's not so easy to just like, just because you've got the cap space, who are you gonna go get? And also the return they would get from, okay, maybe it's a couple picks and some prospects, you don't know what those guys are gonna be and they're not gonna be like top tier based on his performance level.

Yeah, they might be able to put up 45 points. So I'm just saying like the risk to move him is the reason I like ultimately I think they keep him because the risk of moving him is far greater than the risk of keeping him. I don't know about that. I disagree with that. I think there's a huge risk in keeping him. Massive. I think though I think what is the team next year without him? The one that they were down the stretch. What is the team with them? Is it Demko and Hughes? What is the team next season if he comes back and he's the same level? That's the conundrum.

Then you are really screwed. Then you're really screwed. Not only do you have, I mean that's a thing, right? So it all comes back to, do you really believe he's gonna put in the work? Like if you get three questions, like do you really believe he's gonna put in the work? Like if you get three questions, like do you really believe he's gonna put in the work? Yes I do.

Really? Yes. Really? Thank you, come again. Those are your three questions. You know what I mean? Yep. It's so hard because you must be, as the management group,

you're kinda like, oh I love to have the control of the situation. Yeah, and you have no control. And you have no control. It's literally a gamble. Yeah. So maybe they should just ask Hughes then to make the decision for them. Maybe he can make the change. Like this is you have no control. And you have no control. It's literally a gamble. Yeah. So maybe they should just ask Hughes then to make the decision for them.

Maybe he can make the trade. Like this is such a gamble, we don't wanna make the decision. Or just put it on social media, have a poll question. Yeah. And then it should be like, hey, you guys voted for this.

Yeah, we don't know what to do. We're screwed. Okay, quick, we need to just make the trade for us. Maybe he can make some calls. We'll add him to the WhatsApp group. But I mean, that is something to consider, like not the poll question, but I mean, like what does Hughes want? Because I mean, if you really wanna WhatsApp group. But I mean, that is something to consider, like not the poll question, but I mean, like, what does Hughes want?

Because, I mean, if you really want to make this whole thing about him and keeping him making sure he doesn't go anywhere, because if he does go somewhere, then you really are in a rebuild. If you want to keep Hughes happy, what does he want to do? You would assume that management would ask him about Pedersen. I would hope they would, because it's ultimately like if Hughes doesn't believe in the player, I'm not saying he doesn't, but if he he doesn't then that's a reason to move him But if he's like no PD will make us better. He's gonna get better then absolutely

That's the reason you says he still believes in Hughes. He says it no Hughes still believes in Patterson. Oh, sorry Yeah, yeah, that's what I meant. Yeah, you said Hughes also believes in Hughes though Yeah, well that's like if that is if that is the case then that's why the Canucks don't move them Yeah, they want to keep Hughes happy. Okay, counterpoint. Keep Hughes happy. You could direct him towards the head coach who he also loves and has a great affinity and admiration for. And they could say, Hughes, we're going to bring someone else into the conversation.

It's your head coach, Rick Toggett. Who like rubs his temples. Right. And here's what he has to say about the dynamic moving forward. Maybe this will change your thought process on the entire thing. Okay, we got to go to break. We're up against a very interesting press conference today, isn't it? Yeah, I'm hopeful that we will get something

bold, hopefully better and declarative. Yeah, but I'm not 100 percent certain. We'll wait and see. Whatever the case, stay tuned, because we're going to be talking a lot about it throughout the programing today on sports at 650. Then, of course,'ll be back tomorrow morning. We do have to go to break. We're going to get into the rest of the NHL story on the other side, beginning with Craig

Simpson who's on the call for the Battle of Ontario. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about Jan Pro. From conference rooms to kitchenettes and everything in between, Jan Pro keeps workplaces tidy, clean and disinfected. For a free quote, visit JanPro.ca. You're listening to the Halford and Breff Show on Sportsnet 650.