Halford & Brough in the Morning - Newest Canuck Chase Stillman

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

In hour three, Mike & Jason chat with BC Lions linebacker Micah Awe (1:31) ahead of Saturday's game versus the Riders, plus the boys are joined by newest Canuck Chase Stillman (27:03), who was acquired from the Penguins in the Arturs Silovs trade. 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.

801 on a Tuesday! Happy Tuesday everybody, Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the 650. Halford Brough for the morning is brought to you by Sands and 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 three of the program. BC Lions linebacker Mike Ahwe is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour three. Hour three of this program is brought to you by Campbell & Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet

at Campbell-pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Guests on Sportsnet 650 call in on the hotline powered by Power West Industries. Don't get caught in the dark when it matters most. Visit them at powerwest.ca today. They keep the lights on. Uh, I, before we get to Mike, I didn't need to tell you about the team he plays for the BC Lions. It's the biggest rivalry part of the year. Lions, Rough Riders,

Saturday, July 19th at 4 PM with the Watermelon Smash on Terry Fox Plaza. Get your tickets now at bclions.com. Okay. To the Power West Industries hotline we go. Micah Awe, linebacker for your BC Lions joins us here on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning Micah, how are you? Good morning, how are y'all doing? We're great, thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it and congrats on the big win on Sunday 32 to 14 in Edmonton and let's start on the defensive side of the football. You guys only allow 14 points to the Elks.

I think most impressively barely anything for Edmonton on the ground via the running game. I think their backs just combined for six yards on four carries, a couple of carries by the quarterbacks as well. But what allowed you guys to do such a good job against the run in Edmonton on Sunday night? Oh man. It's a, it really is a team thing. I mean, it's, in order to stop the run like that,

it's not about having, you know, a really good linebacker, a really good D lineman, a really good DB, it's about everybody playing together as one. And I know that sounds like a cliche, but that's all it is because as individuals I mean I don't have to mention the D line I have in front of me you know Matthew Betts, all the way to Tommasi, to Baye, to just all every single one of the Mike Moore like these guys are you know I call them dogs and they make my

job easier but at the same time I mean I've also been there where maybe the front seven does well, but then, you know, offensive coordinators are smart nowadays. They'll bring those receivers in to include those DBs. So now we need to have the DBs come in to make it tackled. So it takes all of us and it truly, truly, that's what it was. I've asked this quarterback question of a couple of guys

that have played on the defensive side of the ball, specifically guys responsible for tracking down ball carriers. When it comes to tackling, what's more important? Is it the technique or is it the attitude? Oh, man, that's a, that's a good question. Um, tackling. And I'm not going to answer it directly because it's not really a direct answer. Charging is like art.

It's different every single time. Sometimes, you know, it might require more attitude because of the a gap tackle against, you know, Williams stand back or a bigger back where, you know, techniques not going to be much if you don't go downhill right now. And then you have the other tackles where you're in space with, you know, a top receiver and you can have

all the attitudes you want, but you need to have some technique in order to bring a guy that's very quick down like that. So that's what makes tackling, in my opinion, it's one of the hardest things to do in sports consistently because there is no exact handbook. A coach can only give you the tools But when it comes down to a individual tackle you you have to do it differently every single time Otherwise, we can go for a touchdown If you ever have a game where you feel like you're not tackling as well as you should be

What's one thing that you typically aren't doing? Oh Yeah, it's number one Main thing I think it is it's What's one thing that you typically aren't doing? Oh, yeah. Number one, main thing I think it is, it's the technical thing to say is keep running your feet, but the main thing to do to say is, Hey, calm down, like trust your athleticism because I'm, I think that's what really separates the CSL from any other league is in other leagues You can kind of get away with some athleticism because it's more tight, you know phone phone phone booth If you would say but with the CFL I mean it really does require a lot more technique and trust in your athleticism because if you dive early

The sidelines not there 15 yards away. You got to keep going. You got to trust yourself. Yeah. And especially as linebackers in this league. And I think it's one of probably the biggest transitions in linebacker play from down south of the air is down south,

you can take a lot more downhill angles because again, it's a phone booth. Those those angles are much much different in this league I mean I remember last game those drag routes again down south a drag route it's caught and the receiver has to immediately turn up the field so you can take that downhill angle and go for a big hit in this league the drag routes caught on the ads and they still have 25 yards to turn it up. It turned into a 200 meter dash. So linebackers got to keep running. You got to be able to run and go get those receivers. So it's one of those things where I just tell myself, Hey,

you're athletes, you're here for a reason. Just go get them. They can't outrun you. Just keep running. Just keep running. How do you game plan against a really mobile quarterback like Trey Ford? Oh man, that's a tough one because I've been against Trey Ford a lot of times. When I was in college I went against a lot of great one Trey Vaughan Boykins, a lot of really good quarterbacks. I think the main thing is you really just gotta trust, you gotta trust your technique for your players because when you start overcompensating with, you know, they're a running quarterback, they're running quarterback,

you start to lose other things in your defense. Whereas, you know, again, you have a guy like Matthew Betts and on our DMs that we have. It's really, you just let them go running down. You trust your, you trust what you have on the field, go run down and you know, sometimes he's gonna make his plays. It's professional football. But it's just kind of like one of those things where you just gotta trust what

you have, trust those D linemen, go get them. And then every once in a while you put a spy on them. But then you mainly just play your game and let him, let him do what he can do. And if he has a great game, you have a great game. If not, that's, that's what defense is getting paid for. We're speaking to BC Lions linebacker, Mike Ahway here on the Halford and Brough show

on Sportsnet 650. Mikey alluded to your college playing days there, seeing Trey Ford. For those listeners that are unaware, you were a college teammate of Patrick Mahomes back at Texas Tech. Now, I gotta know, I'm sure you've been asked this question a million times, but I'm gonna ask it

for the million and first. When you saw Patrick Mahomes play in college and you were his college teammate for a couple years, did you ever have any indication that he would grow and mature and turn into the type of superstar quarterback that he has become in the National Football League? No and yes. And what I mean by that, because I have been asked that question billions of times, is

you know, again, that tech practice against him and you know, before him, it was Baker Mayfield, before him it was Davis Webb, Seth Deggy, whose, you know, his brothers used to play for Edmonton, I think is in Toronto now. So it was just the standard. I can't, I really didn't see it because every quarterback I played against, I practiced against, including him, completed every throw. It's like it was, it was just the standard quarterbacks that we had at Texas Tech and you know I'm trying to worry about making the tackle so when I look at him and what he's done now I'm not surprised what I get mad about is that he felt he fell down the first round because he wasn't part of a hold on quote pro style offense and

all I could think is like I don't know what these scouts are talking about because All I remember is we play against Oklahoma State and he threw for 780 yards. If we're trying to, if you're trying to evaluate for throwing the ball, I think I'm choosing that guy. Like, uh, I just thought it was ridiculous that he fell down the ranks because of that. But you know, obviously a great coach like coach Reed was like, he didn't care about pro style or not. He saw that he threw, he threw for seven or eight yards. I think he can go for me. So to me, Mahomes has always been that guy.

He's always played like that. And that's how I feel about a lot of CFL players. It's sometimes just a matter of opportunity. I'm sure one, two, five, 20 of us could have been on my homeless players, but you know, sometimes it, and it's not like a, you know, what was me? Sometimes that's just how the dice rolls, you know? So I, I don't see him again. No quarterbacks scare me in the CFL because obviously I practice against practice Patrick Nones for a long time. Again, I went against great quarterbacks.

That's just part of the competition that I was brought up in. So again, that's just a good thing that we have in the CFO. We have a lot of guys who are highly, highly talented. Educate me a little bit on what you guys were running and maybe why it wasn't considered a pro-style offense even though he was putting up like astronomical numbers that would suggest,

hey, this guy's pretty good at throwing the football. Yeah. I mean, it was the air raid offense. So for those who don't know, I mean, people probably heard of spread offense, the air raid law offense, you know, coach leach brought it to tech from the al money, um, route Tria, we call it a coaching group, which means basically you have games where you're throwing the ball 75 times and that means that you're having over 100 plays every game. So again I think the reads are just different for the quarterbacks. They're not the pro style reads but to me what I see that as is you know again

it's coach our coach was coach Kingsbury who Mind you he's the offense coordinator for the Washington commanders and Jayden Danos was that a incredible rookie year and coach Kingsbury is They're not doing the error rate offense per se but they're doing his version of it In a pro style, so it's one of those things where I guess because of the reads it's not a pro style offense, but hey the times change. I mean that's what makes football so amazing is that it's not always gonna be the same and things might come back that we're you know Warren Moon probably was doing plays that we're doing now things might recycle so that's what

the error rate is and it's tough to play With that as a defense. I know we didn't get an access question, but um Don't in any way oh yeah, I mean good people will say you know They'll look at the big 12 we have a lot of hair rate offenses, and they'll say oh those defenses They can't defense because you know we give up 40 points the score will be 55 to 40 my auto defense yeah well it's not that there's not defense there's just simple math it's just that there's a lot of plays there for example I was averaging maybe

95 to 100 plays my college year my college season my senior year my college season and where I was the SEC defense was maybe averaging 50. So when you look at the yards for a carrier, when you look at the net offense, you're gonna see a Texas Tech defense, oh my gosh, they give up 500 yards average. And you'll see LLC defenses, they only give up 150 yards average, 200 yards.

How the hell do they have a better defense? Well, I'll tell you like this. My case in point was last game. Our offense had 43 minutes of time of possession and we were on the field for 17 minutes. I counted up our total tackles as a defense and we had 19 total tackles as a defense. 19.

So what happens whenever you're on the field a lot of defense? You have a better defense. So it's not that there's better or worse defenses in the big 12 or air. It's just it's a team sport. If your offense is controlling the game with James Butler, what he did had a monumental game. That's the results you get, is you get a fresh defense that's able to fly around and do what they do. And the stats might not look like it was. Again, I had three tackles from 11 last week. There's two different ways to win.

And you know, that's what we did as a team. Where do you think the CFL game is right now in terms of points scored? There's some people that would suggest that the games aren't as exciting as they used to be. And I know there are still some high scoring games in the CFL, but you're so good at breaking down the game. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the current state of the CFL.

Yeah. I mean, my first thought when you first said that was, okay, what has changed in the past couple years recently? And the number one thing I think has changed is the hash marks. Again, I'll give some comparisons on, okay, what a hash mark means to people watching football. Again, my first thought, Johnny Menzel in college, he used to run circles around defensive ends. You were trying to get them on the RPO,

the speed option, flying back. He'd run around them. And everyone always says, oh, this won't work in college or in the NFL because there's better athletes. And I think that's false. It's not that there's better athletes. Athletes are more or less the same at the top level. But the hash marks changed.

In college football, the hash marks are so wide that a boundary side is really a boundary side. It's very, very close. And the field side is very large. So you're doing a speed option with a superior athlete as Johnny Menzel, you're going to get around those DNs. Whereas at NFL, the hash marks are being here touching each other. If you look at the NFL hash marks.

So when you do a speed option, there's really no boundary. It's a slightly larger boundary or like these larger fields and a slightly smaller boundary. So therefore, there's not as much room to get around. So go back to the NFL game, that's what changed. Now the hash marks are closer together, making the boundary not so much boundary in the field, not so much field, so offensive are adjusting to it.

And so are defenses. And naturally defenses are gonna have kind of like that, that advantage in the beginning, just because we, the offense has to figure out a choreographed everything. So I'll see it in a couple of years that the offense will adjust because the defense adjusts first. And then again, the defense will adjust after offense adjusts. It's just how the kind of the story of football goes.

Yeah. Good. Cause wasn't the idea of moving the hash marks, changing the hash marks to actually create more scoring? Yeah, because I mean, back in the day when I worked a year when the hash marks were different, a five yard out throw to the field receiver was like a 60 yard throw. Therefore, offensive coordinators did not call that. But now, if you think about about it okay how how's everything changing well you need you need better receivers now everywhere because you can as offense court they are utilized the entire field instead of just sticking to that boundary so um again it's a

better game i think oh you know one thing i would wish that the media would not stop doing, but start doing is we sometimes think a bad game is seven to six, whereas I think that's an impressive game because when you have the whole field to deal with and you have a defense shutting down offense to seven points with a whole field to deal with, let's talk about that and how impressive that is and saying, Hey, look, these guys have the top athletes in the world and this defense is stopping them. So I think that's kind of the mentality of aid just because the

high scoring game does not mean it's a good game. A low scoring game could be a great game in a different aspect. Maybe that maybe we need better angles. Maybe you need an end zone view angle for the show the trenches on game day, to show on TSN. Those are the things I think that need to change in kind of the perception of the CFO. Hey Micah, what did you think about, or what did you think when you first saw the CFL field,

when you came up here and you're like, I gotta defend all this? Wait did you do and like and wait The receivers get a running start what what? Yeah, yeah, I actually I do remember when I got signed to DC Um, I looked up YouTube highlights of BC Lions and it was you know burning Brian Burnham's many arsenal, John Jennings, Travis Lua, and it was just bombs over Baghdad. And I was just like, but ironically, and again, I think I'm just, I'm lucky. All I could think was like, Oh, it's a little bit like the big 12. It's a little

bit like the air raid, because that's, that's all we did at Tech. I tell people at Tech again with the error rate offense it's either three and touchdown or three and out. There was no in between. So that's kind of that's kind of what my mindset of the CFO was like oh this is pretty much professional big 12 because again you you give a ball to a receiver a five yard hitch it seems like every time that happened in college against you know I'm going to get guys like Joaquin Grant super electric guys yeah he got the ball the five yard hitch but he has five yards that way five yards this way the open field tackle every single time well that happens that happens every time in the CFO. You do a five yard out and you know,

you might be in a zone defense, but you still got to make that tackle before your guys come because they're coming from 20 yards away. So open field tackle is kind of always happened. So that was kind of my mindset as a CFO is like, man, this is just like the air raid. It's just like playing the big 12, lots of space and offenses can be as close to them. Yeah, the air raid. It's just like playing the big 12, lots of space. And offenses can be explosive.

And yeah, the waggles, that's crazy. The BC Lions are back in action this Saturday, July 19th, 4 p.m. at home. It's the watermelon smash on Terry Fox Plaza against the Rough Riders. Hey Micah, this was great, man. Really great. Thanks for taking the time to do this today.

We really appreciate it. Hopefully we can get you back on the program again. Sounds great. I love it. Thank you all for inviting me. Yeah. Thanks for coming out. We appreciate it. That's Mike Alway, BC Lions linebacker here on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet

650. Damn, that was awesome. Lot of positive response. Corey from Winnipeg texts in. I had to text in just to say great interview with Mike Alway. That guy has to get into media when he's done playing the CFL needs more personalities like that covering the league. Totally agree with that.

Although with his degree in petroleum engineering, he might be able to go make money in the oil game. He's got some options. Just hearing him like break the stuff down. Yeah. It was fantastic to listen to. And I think his point about, uh, points scored, like that's the type of argument you need to be able to throw out there.

Like, do you agree with that? Like, I don't know if I, I was interviewing, so I didn't want to start a fight, but like, I'm like, listen, if I watch a CFL game and it's seven six, I'm probably not happy. Like all the, and I do think some low scoring games, yes, you tip your cap to the defense and then say, that was great. But a lot of the times you're like, hey man. Let's get some points on the board.

Can't be having a 7-6 game in the CFL. He's a linebacker though. Yeah, of course. He's gonna advocate for that. Totally. And that's what you need. You need someone who's played the game and be like, guys, like, I don't wanna hear you

meet you guys always complaining about the lack of points scored. Just because there's a lot of points doesn't mean that it's a great game. And yeah, there can be some great defensive battles and that's where you need the context. Like, was the quarterback under pressure all the time? Did he miss throws?

Did receivers drop passes? Like, that's what makes a sloppy football game. Yeah. I also love this positivity too, in terms of being like, trust your athleticism. Keep running, outrun them. There's no sideline there to protect you or to bail you out.

I say that all the time. Yeah, that's a dog, how he tracks guys. Yeah, that's my model. It's almost like keep your feet moving. Yeah. No one's ever said that. Wall guy. No one's ever said that.

Yeah, keep your feet moving. No, it was- Who doesn't move their feet? Everyone moves their feet. Everyone moves their feet. Why would you not move your feet? Mike Alway does. All good athletes.

All good athletes move their feet. All good athletes move their feet. Keep those feet moving. Trust your athleticism. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trust yourself. Trust yourself. He good athletes. All good athletes move their feet. All good athletes move their feet. Keep those feet moving. Trust your athleticism. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trust yourself. Trust yourself. He also brought up a good point too,

that there's always a course correction when the game starts to lean one way. We all, in media, we exist very much in the moment. We're like, are we seeing a trend? Is this the death of the high scoring CFL? And then he brings up something as minute as where the hash marks were changed on the field and the impact that had. But that was supposed to add.

Exactly, and it's had the counter effect. I remember when the old commissioner was like, the new hash marks are gonna change everything. And they haven't, you know, Mike has said it might've worked in the other way. The NFL has sort of juked the game over the last 15 or 20 years in a lot of different ways to do the things

that they think are more entertaining, which is to put more points on the board. So I was thinking about this the other day, and you know how analytics have changed sports so much. I'm aware. You know, in basketball, for example, they were like, you know how this three pointerpointer is worth three points and Inside the three-point line is worth two points

What if we got really good at three-point shooting and then we just made more threes With that is that is that is that something to think about and that now the game has totally changed where there's a bunch Of three-pointers and we might have a four-pointer. Okay in the NFL Do you think they were like, wait a minute, we have four downs. The CFL only has three. Technically, we have more chances to get first downs. Do you know what I mean? Yeah.

Like the CFL used to be the risk Like the the NFL was risk-averse, you know, they were like well we got four down so let's run the ball That's you know two out of three plays and like that chew up some turd didn't work Yeah, so they were like wait a minute like let's just a lot of it boils down to Let's get more aggressive. Yep. Let's get less conservative. One of the biggest. And I think that's what's happened in the NFL. They were like, yeah, we've got four downs,

so let's get aggressive. We should, in theory, be able to put up more points in the CFL. And I know that the field is bigger in the CFL, but half the time, I feel like the reason there were more points put up in the CFL had nothing half the time, I feel like the reason there were more points put up in the CFL had nothing to do with the rules, the field, the running starts for the receivers.

It was just like they were forced to be riskier. Yeah. So on that note, one of the biggest fundamental changes from when I first started watching the NFL to when I started watching now, and you kind of take it for granted now, you don't even think about it, is the acceptance and aggressiveness of teams going forward on fourth down at different points of the field. When I first started watching football 20 years ago, like devoutly as I do now, there was no question what you're doing on fourth and one or fourth and two. It was your, I mean, unless you were.

How many people were throwing on first down? Yeah, it was, there was a very, there was an understood way the game was supposed to be played, but fourth down was you could not even risk the possibility of turning the ball over on downs. And it was the safe option to punt it away and let your defense play and pin them in deep. And that, that has changed in a very dramatic way. And it's added a very,

and I don't know if this was intentional or not, but the decision to go front on fourth down has become theater unto itself, within the game, within the game. Challenges and going front on fourth down, I've put the coaches in a sort of, I don't wanna say the same caliber as players, but I've put them more into the game

where there's so much riding on what they do that it's made it even more entertaining. Like those little battles and those little decisions and those little things in the game. That's a big difference from where traditionally you just err on the side of caution. It's made the game a lot more fun to watch. Okay.

We're way up against it for time. We're going to go to break when we come back. Did you see this? What? We were just talking about Michael Carconi. Did he sign somewhere? He's back in Utah. One year deal for Michael Carconi.

The Carconi update is complete. Chase Stillman is going to join us next on the Halford & Broughough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3000 five star reviews. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are in hour three of the program. Normally we'd be doing what we learns right now, but the newest member of the Vancouver Conuxt, Chase Stillman is going to join us in just a moment here to end hour three and

the program. Hour three of this program is brought to you by Campbell and Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-Pound.com. Today, our next guest is the newest member of the Vancouver Connects. He's already in Vancouver getting acclimated to the West Coast. We go now to the Power West Industries hotline. Chase Stillman joins us here on the Haliford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Chase, how are you? Morning guys, thank you, thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on, we appreciate you taking the time. Wanted to ask you right away, what was your reaction upon getting traded? How did you hear about the news and how excited are you

to be the newest member of the Vancouver Canucks? Yeah, no, it was obviously a very exciting day. And to be totally honest, it was a total blind side. I had no idea it was coming, wasn't hearing any like rumors or anything like that. I jump in the shower and then come out and I get a text from Carl Dubas and a missed call saying, call me back as soon as you can. And called him back and pretty much told me that I was going to be a part of a trade and I was

at no west of Vancouver. And yeah, like we've been traded once before and once in junior as well. It's a bit of a emotional roller coaster. But the way I look at it, somebody wants you and somebody wants you to be a part of the organization. So it's nothing but excitement coming for me for sure. What have the Canucks told you about the opportunity in Vancouver?

Yeah, they said there's going to be an opportunity for me to play and they're looking for guys that play my style of game and the only thing I just I need to continually need to get better at that and be able to produce and do more and Play my game at a higher level and do consistently tell us about your style of game. I Would say I'm a I'm a two-way forward I play hard. I think I am I'm a tenacious player and I can go be first on Pox I I go through people all the time I hit guys and and play I'm a tenacious player and I can go be first on pucks. I go through people all the time.

I hit guys and play on that bit of an edge and I didn't have the result last year for it but I know I'm more than capable of bringing offense and setting up plays, scoring goals and definitely more of a fast first guy. But like to score goals and produce for sure. What did your brother tell you about his time in Vancouver? He was actually, so I lived with him in the summer and we trained out in Toronto together and he was pretty funny. He was obviously the first first night cold and he was just

he was just really excited for me. Obviously I think the first thing he's trying to do is was calm me down because it was all that all happened really fast and but he was just nothing said nothing about good things about the organization here and especially the city and how beautiful and what a place it would be to live out here. So obviously for those listeners that are unaware, your dad was, or is, sorry, was long time NHL player,

Corey Stillman, and he moved around a fair bit in his career, played in a variety of different markets. Did you lean on him at all, or your brother lean on him at all when it came to, you know, accepting a trade, finding the positives from it, moving locales, all the stuff that goes into getting traded as an NHLer? How important was your dad in sort of stomaching all that and processing all of it? Yeah, for sure. Obviously, there's nothing that we're going through or going to go through that he hasn't. So he's actually such an important piece in our lives. And there's one thing for being our coach and mentor, he's also my friend and he's an easy guy to reach out

to when things are going right and when things are going tough. But just nothing but kind of the same thing that we were talking about and looking at the positives from it. And because that's the one thing you can always take away from a trade is you can look at it and say, Oh, maybe you're comfortable where you're at, but this team doesn't want me anymore. But every time that you get traded, somebody is trading for you. So that's the way to look at it. We're speaking to newest member of the Vancouver Canucks, Chase Stillman here on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. This might be an odd question to answer because it's not strange for you, but there's a lot of

people who didn't grow up with a father who played a long time in the NHL and won two Stanley Cups. But I'm curious. My dad did not do that. My dad didn't do it either, you know? It was a real disappointment from a family perspective. But I imagine that when you're talking to some of your other peers and everything, the way that you grew up was different.

And I'm just curious to peek behind the curtain a little bit and know what it's like, what advantages maybe that now that you're a little bit older, you've been able to see that you had growing up with a dad that had not just an NHL career, but a very decorated NHL career as well. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. It was a little interesting growing up. I know when I was younger, I thought everybody's dad played the NHL.

Right. So I didn't really click for a long time and go to school and stuff. And I'd be like, what does your dad do? And he'd be like, oh, like a firefighter. So I'd be like, my dad's an ox player. I thought we'd like we're in the same class. They'd be on the same team. I had no idea.

But yeah, it was awesome. Obviously, there's a lot of positives from it coming, being around the guys and being around the rink and seeing what has to go into to be a professional hockey player and the work that goes into it. It was awesome. There was just a lot of fun to be in that experience.

And I was still really young, but I remember still a little bit of the Carolina parade and stuff. I was only around like three or four, but it's still, still stuck in my brain for so clearly how, how special that is and how that's memories and stuff that lasts a lifetime. And that's basically the one thing that I took away from a kid,

no matter what or what I do. The only thing I really care about is I want to win. We're speaking with Chase Stillman here on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. You were born in St. Louis when your dad played for the Blues. Then he went to Tampa Bay, won a cup. Then he went to Carolina, won a cup. Did you have a favorite team growing up or did you do, was it hard because your dad was jumping around to different teams? Yeah, jumping around. The longest we ever lived somewhere, I think was three years or four years, wherever he was playing.

So it was like after that, we knew we were pretty much moving somewhere. But I think for me growing up, my favorite place was Florida. That being said, that's the only time I really remember. That was from kindergarten to grade two. So I have very, very strong memories from there. And obviously Florida is a great place.

It's hot. I like the beach and the sun, so it was a pretty cool place. Well, you're definitely on an anti-challer because you like Florida, so every other one makes it up down there. Yeah, that makes sense. There's a lot of sun in Vancouver. So what are your goals for this season coming into the Canucks organization? Honestly, I just want to get my foot in the door.

I want to, I want to have a good camp. I want to show everybody that, you know, what they traded for is I'm going to be an asset. I'm going to be a player and not just something that's going to be in the, in the Abbotsford roster, but somebody that's going to be, be an impactful player and get, get up top. And that's something I'm looking forward to. And I just want to do anything that I can to play in the NHL as fast as possible and whatever role or whatever they kind of need for me,

I think that I'm capable of doing. And I think that's the one thing I take pride in my game is being like a Swiss Army knife and just wherever I can fit in, wherever you need me to be. Chase, I wanted to ask you one more question because you were playing your junior hockey and you were drafted during the pandemic if I'm not mistaken and I'm just wondering how that affected your development, how that affected the you know some of the guys that that you played with just not getting as many games as a lot of the guys at the junior level.

Not getting as many games as a lot of the guys at the junior level. Yeah, it was, uh, that was definitely a crazy experience. Um, that was super unfortunate. I actually, and I really felt for the guys that were actually older than me too at the time. And now maybe they missed their draft and I was the fear to have another crack at it. And they didn't have it. And for me, it was going into my draft year. I'm like, Oh my goodness. Like I had, uh, I had a decent rookie year in junior, but now it's like, what am I, how am I supposed to build off of that? I was fortunate enough that I did actually get an opportunity to go out and play,

play in Denmark. So I think that, that was the best thing for me to do and showed off at what I can do there. And ultimately I think that led to me getting the invite to play team Canada, UA teams then the rest is history. Well, Chase, we want to thank you for taking the invite to play team Canada at year 18, then the rest is history. Well, Chase, we want to thank you for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. I'm glad you made your way out to Vancouver.

Enjoy the next little bit in the summer and let's do this again in the fall. Thanks a lot for joining us today. We appreciate it. Yeah, awesome guys. Thank you. A lot of fun. Thank you, Chase.

Yeah, Chase Stillman, newest member of the Vancouver Canucks here on the Haliford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Seems like a nice young man. Yeah. We get to say that now that we're getting older. 20 year old. Yeah. He's a nice young man.

Very polite. I was gonna say, you sound so old saying that. Yeah, I know. You're a nice young man. Thank you. Yeah, very polite. When he said that he was three years old when Carolina won the Stanley Cup, I had a big long pause.

Three or four. Three. It was three. And then I was. Yeah, that's rough. Corey Stillman, to me, was a guy that stopped playing hockey a little while ago. Not that long ago. Right. Corey and I can live with Corey Stillman's kid kid Cory Stillman's like four years older than you I know I'm aware of all of this

You know, I was 51. I know one of the questions that I wanted as he coached He's actually a center kid that can actually might be interested in complete the We've got all three still ones now It's great. I collect them all. Yeah. No, and he also coached his kid in Sudbury in the Ontario Hockey League. Okay. I want to go back into the Dunbar Lumber text line and read a few more of what we learned.

Hal for this one's for you, Greg and Pitt Meadows. By the way, we had Jesper Sorensen on the show yesterday. I heard. And I asked him about Pedro Vite and he didn't say much, but Greg says, what we learned, a sale of Pedro Vite seems imminent as he was held back from traveling with the white caps to Houston and San Diego. There is a rumor of a new U22 player coming in from Peru.

To replace him. So the best- What do you think's going on with the caps right now? Are they just, are they they just stretched too thin? Okay, a few things. The run to the CONCACAF Champions Final was wildly unexpected. I don't think if you had asked anyone within the organization, publicly they're going to be like,

yeah, we want to go in, but I don't think they were anticipating going as far as they did. I don't think they were anticipating having the both physical and emotional investment in that tournament that they had to have. Now it was great. It was, I mean, the final was terrible. It ended badly though.

The final was terrible. With the poisonings. Right, and then the poisonings, they can't forget the poisonings. So that happened. They knew going into this season that there was going to be a stretch from late June to mid July,

where they were going to be ravaged by the international break. I don't think that the beginning of the year, they thought that guys like Bear Halter and White were going to ascend to the point where they became full-fledged members of the US national team. So that's something that was unavoidable.

They knew they were gonna get hit hard by the international break. Compound that with losing Atacube, Gauld, and Ali Ahmed, and whatever vibes they had from the beginning of the season were gonna evaporate regardless of what the gaffer did or what the league was doing around them. So there was a sort of inevitable swoon

that the club was gonna have. The question now though, is in light of the fact that the swoon is happening, not happened, past tense, they're right in the middle of it, are they gonna be able to find their way out of it? Now you can legitimately ask the question is, are the Whitecaps the team that we saw at the beginning of the year? Or are theyps the team that we saw at the beginning of the year?

Or are they more the team that we're seeing right now? The answer's probably somewhere in between, but. But hopefully more to the side of they're good. But the Whitecaps would not be the first team to have their season get derailed by injury and fatigue. They'd be joining a long list of teams that haven't happened to. They're not especially deep.

Losing Vite is going to hurt them. When can they just get a rest? Like does it ever come? Probably August? Yeah. And they built, the one silver lining in all of this is they built enough of a cushion in the first half of the year where it would take

a cataclysmic collapse to lose a good footing for the playoffs. It'd be nice if they could get a bit of a rest and then at the same time get galled back. Yes. The gall thing is- Just for that push for late into the season. The gall thing is super interesting right now

because I think I mentioned this last week, it's not just the injury anymore. Now it's basically you've had an off season. You've been off for three months. You need an entire preseason to get back into what you would have looked at at the beginning of the year. There's going to be an element of catch up in his entire game, not the condiment, the

entire year. Yeah, because it's pronounced ketchup. That's another part of it. But there's going to be an element of him having to continually sort of nip at the heels of the rest of the league because he's starting from scratch. I don't know when they're expecting him back. Fonz in Vancouver, what we learned, Snooki was spotted in Kelowna a few days ago. That tracks.

And there's the rumor of a Canadian Jersey Shore being filmed there. Yep. This is all true. I never watched, I never watched that show. Jersey Shore? Yeah. Caps are here.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Grenades. Grenades, buddy. Cabs are here. Oh yeah. Grenades, grenades buddy. Grenades everywhere. What was the draw? They were just awful people and you were kind of wanting to see what happened?

Or were they actually okay people? Okay is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. Some of them were more interesting and I don't want to say wholesome, but were better people than I think what was portrayed. Some of them people just didn't like, it was. What was Snooki like? In the show?

Yeah, yeah, I honestly don't know. She was. I was like, what we learned, Snooki was in Kelowna. Okay, so part of it is sometimes you're introduced to characters that you can't make up. Right. Right, like central casting couldn't go in and drawn up her. It was just, there was one of one. Right. Right, like central casting couldn't go in and drawn up her.

It was just, there was one of one. Yeah. Snooki. And it ended up being this thing that has lasted, quite frankly, way longer than I ever thought it would. Cause I think the show premiered in 09. So that's 16 years ago. Yeah.

The fact that it still has any cultural relevance is wild. Cause we- Does Chase Stillman remember that as a kid? Maybe he would have been like six, six or seven. But it was also one of those, there's just these weird phenomenons that take off all the time and they're inexplicable. Like why was it popular?

I don't know. Why is half this stuff popular? Do you think Snooki ever wakes up and is like, another day of being Snooki? He has a name. It's Nicole. I thought it was Snooki. No, it's her nickname. No, Snooki's her legal name now. I's Nicole. I thought it was Snooki. No, it's her nickname.

No, Snooki's her legal name now. I think she changed it. I don't think she did. Leaf with a what we learned. It helps to be large to get a decent major league baseball nickname. And this is after the big dumper won the home run derby. And he mentions big poppy, big hurt,

big unit, Big Unit, Big Maple, Big Mac. Yeah, helps to be big. But you know, my favorite baseball player as a kid, Tiny Mike Felder, who played for the Vancouver Canadiens. He was 3-1. He was tiny. Tiny Mike Felder.

He actually had a, he actually played a, he might have played for the Mariners. I think he played a couple seasons for the Seattle Mariners. Was in, was in the Milwaukee Brewers organization. He's right here. The Giants, the San Francisco Giants did a little, I don't, tribute to tiny Mike Felder. He's not, he's not,

Tiny Mike Felder. Yep. It's not like he's gone or anything, he's still with us. I still remember a lot of those 85 C's that won the PCL title five Dale Swaim five foot eight 160 pounds didn't Dale's fame turn into the worst third base coach and in the MLB. Yeah with the Red Sox, right? Just wave him home down to wave him home Dale. That was his nickname Like this way just my fault. Sorry. I left you hang I accidentally closed the page, it's my fault, sorry, I left you hanging.

I accidentally closed the page. Oz with what we learned. According to the Independent, Trump says he kept the real Club World Cup trophy in his office and Chelsea has been given a replica. I can only imagine what the talk back in merry old England and the rest of Europe is about the club world cup final and the Americanization of it.

Cause we talked a little bit about it yesterday. Like there was a halftime show and there was a pregame concert and those things aren't done back in Europe and I guess Trump was I think Chelsea might have photoshopped him out of their championship trophy because not because it was Trump necessarily just because like he went to present the trophy and then he hung around on the stage with them and they're like uh we're we're going to take a team picture. Could you, uh, you know, get out of here?

And Trump was like, uh, no. My takeaway was that this was FIFA and infantino, um, trying to lay the groundwork and set the stage for the world cup in 2026, as is this is going to be an inevitability that there's is going to be, how should I put it? A very, uh, American forward in terms of photo ops and presentation. I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but a lot of US politicians have popped up

at a number of very important sporting events over the last little bit. You remember Cash Patel showing up at all the Ovechkin chase games. But that's the same because he likes hockey. But it's still the presence of it. And I think that, I don't know if you remember, but prior to the final,

Juventus had a series of players go to the Oval Office and do photo ops with Trump. That was well received by the fan base. Again, this is all part of, I think, this is, it's trying to normalize it ahead of 2026. 2026 right now, the World Cup is turning into like a must watch spectacle, not for the tournament and the sport, but how it's going to play out and how it's going to be received because there are so many different elements of play here.

Uh, I was at a soccer tournament on the weekend and we talked about it for hours at length between the geopolitical issues, the teams that still have to qualify and the subsequent fan bases that are going to be traveling from different nations, how they're going to access the largest country of the three hosts, the U.S. with a backlog of visas and everything that's going on with immigration. The fact that the tournament. Did you talk to any more than any Americans in the tournament? I tried not to. Anyway, we were also talking about the size of the tournament. I think a lot of people are unaware that this is the quite literally

the biggest World Cup. The field's never been larger. The World Cup is going to last damn near two months. It is long and drawn out and there's more group stage matches. And finally, the ticket prices, at least right now, I don't know if you guys talked about this, cause there've been emails sent out, the ticket prices right now are astronomical.

Yeah, but those are for the hospitality things and everything. Single seats. Single seats going for 1500 US. Like, and that's- That's what I anticipated though. The opening salvo. So you're talking-

Yeah. But I'm just saying, I'm not- Ticket prices for every event, like every game or concert right now is it's crazy But it's just adding to the conversation around how big it is how expensive it's gonna be just and a lot of logistical nightmares Like you got to say at first blush ticket prices being that expensive is gonna price out a lot of people that wanted to do this I played with a Golf with a buddy yesterday Who was just other enough? He has a family from Kansas City

Okay, and he was in Kansas City and he said it was so bloody hot there That's another element of this world didn't even bring that up how hot it's going to be Yeah, you don't really think of Kansas City is like oh wow that place is a scorcher We had like a little about summer. Yeah, neither of us a scorcher. We had just had a guest on about that. But in the middle of the summer. Yeah, neither of us were here on Friday, but we had a guest on talking about how. Yeah, Rebecca Tauber. The heat ravaged the club World Cup.

And I know there's been a lot of players that, especially the guys that have come over later in their careers, European guys. It's funny, Roman Berkey, who was a keeper in Germany for Dortmund for the longest time, he signed with St. Louis. And he was. Yes, dude, have Burkey, who was a keeper for in Germany for Dortmund for the longest time, he signed with St. Louis and he was. Just too damn hot. He was unaware, like he didn't think that it was

gonna get that hot in St. Louis, like who thinks about that when they go there, but they're playing in the middle of the summer in these conditions that are just scorching. Well, we've seen that at Cardinals games. You know, remember when they played on the old AstroTurf too, at Bush Stadium? Yeah. And they would have the they played on the old Astro Turf 2 at Bush Stadium? Yeah, and they would have the

Thermometer down on the turf is like a hundred and twenty off the off the turf here And they love it here in st. Louis they'd show the field level camera There'd be waves of heat and you see the heat moving and here come the Clydesdales and they look exhausted I wonder if tiny Mike Felder was out there. He might have been he could be a jockey All right, we gotta get out of here for today. He's not that tiny. He is kind of. Well, on a Clydesdale, he looks very small. We got to get out of here for today, but we will be back tomorrow.

Thank you all for listening and thank you all for contributing. Signing off, I have been Mike Halford. He's been Jason Brough. He's been Adog. He's been Basketball Ben. This has been the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.