Halford & Brough in the Morning - NHLPA Executive Director Marty Walsh

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk some Canucks lineup changes ahead of tonight's road tilt in Florida (6:00), plus they speak with NHLPA Executive Director Marty Walsh (26:01). 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.

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Good morning Vancouver. 6-0 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough. It is Sports a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford and his bruff. It is Sportsnet 650. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. A-Dog, good morning to you. Good morning.

Laddy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program.

Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sorfy, what are you waiting for? Kintec, we got

a huge show today. Huge show. It's a big sports day. We got two, count of two MLB playoff games, ALCS and LCS, both going today. Maybe one of the NLCS games will actually be entertaining. Hasn't been great.

Has not been great. The entertainment value has been low, but we're hoping for today. Of course, you've got the Canucks and the Panthers at 4 o'clock. Thursday night football as well, so it's a big show. There's a lot of sports ahead. We've got a lot of guests to talk to. It begins at 6.30. Marty Walsh, Jason, is going to join the program.

Head of the NHL Players Association. We'll talk to Marty about Utah. We'll talk to him about the collective bargaining agreement, expansion, everything else that's going on at the upcoming Four Nations Face-Off. Marty Walsh is going to join us for his early season check-in as he's done for the last year. One year, anyway. Marty Walsh at 6.30.

7 o'clock, Adnan Virk, MLB Network. We will look ahead to both of today and tonight's baseball games. 730, Mike Tanney, our NFL insider from the 2 Deep Zone sub stack. We'll talk to Mike about tonight's game. It's the Sean Payton

Bowl as the Denver Broncos go to New Orleans to take on Sean Payton's former team, the Saints. Mike Tanney will join us at.30 to talk about that. We'll look ahead to the weekend. In that 7.30 segment, we have two guests. Yeah, it's a five-guest show today. David Dwork from the Hockey News, Florida Panthers beat writer,

is going to join us to preview tonight's opponent for the Vancouver Canucks, the Florida Panthers. Finally, at 8 o'clock, it's the Drancer, Thomas Drance, from the Athletic in Vancouver and Canucks Talk right here on Sportsnet 650. I guess we've got to try and figure out what happened to practice yesterday for the Vancouver Canucks, what the lines look like,

when is Eric Branstrom officially going to be called up, all these things. He just got called up. Did he? They announced it now. Alvin announced today that Branstrom has been recalled from AHL Abbotsford and that Derek Forbort has left the team for personal reasons. So maybe this Branstrom recall wasn't necessarily about the play of guys like Noah Juleson and David Darnay.

Maybe there's something going on with, well, there obviously is something going on with Derek Forbort, and that is a left shot for left shot, Brandstrom for Forbort. Well, now we have even more to get into, so I'm not going to run through the guest list again. Just know it's a very versatile, eclectic sports guest list, and we're going to be talking to five different people today. We got a lot to get into, so without further ado, Lad laddie let's tell everybody what happened hey did you guys see the

game last night no no what happened i missed all the action because i was we know how busy your life can be what happened you missed that what happened what happened is brought to you by the bc construction safety alliance making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. It's very rare that we come in at 6 o'clock in the morning and have some current up-to-date news. Usually we're recapping what happened the night before.

But the Canucks have made a small flurry of roster moves. It seems it started yesterday with the motion of Atu-Ratu to the AHL Abbotsford Canucks after a trio of games with the team in the big club in Vancouver. Ratu is now back with Abbotsford. Yeah, and then probably to make room for Eric Brandstrom because I imagine Derek Forbert is going to stay on the roster. He's just left the team for personal reasons. They can't exactly just say you're off the roster Derek Forbert is going to stay on the roster. He's just left the team for personal reasons.

They can't exactly just say you're off the roster, Forbert, because they would have to put him on waivers, and that's not going to happen. So Brandstrom comes up and Ratu goes down because he is not eligible for waivers, so they can send him down right away. I don't think Ratu played badly. I don't think he stood out in a super positive way,

but who has stood out in a super positive way for the Vancouver Canucks so far? And tonight in Florida, they're going to go for their first win, and they're going to go against a shorthanded Florida team that is going to be without two of its best players, Barkov and Matthew Kachuk. Barkov, obviously one of the best two-way centers in the NHL, if not the best two-way center in the NHL. And Matthew Kachuk, you know, occasionally been called like the heartbeat of the Florida

Panthers, very talented forward. So this is a real opportunity for the Canucks to get their first win of the season, even though it is on the road against the Stanley Cup champs, which is weird. The Canucks did have a practice yesterday. Unfortunately, we don't know if there were any changes made to the line comes, the lines, like we have no idea.

The, it was funny because the Canucks practice yesterday, there was no non-team media there. Right. You know, the media landscape is continuing to change. It's the world we live in now. And an early season road trip, especially all the way to Florida, you're not going to get a lot of organizations sending out a rep for that. So the only person that was available was the

team reporter and none of the line combinations got tweeted out. Murph and Shorty, they're going to call the game tonight, but they don't travel on the charter anymore. So this is the reality of the media landscape. It was funny because Petey did media yesterday. Like he did.

I was laughing so hard because he's like, oh, here's Petey. Not getting asked one single question about his play. It was just like, how did practice go? And he was like, it was good. It was good practice. It was good. How many reporters are out there? One, and they work for the team. I will do media today. Yeah. It was good practice. It was good. He was like, how many reporters are out there? One, and they work for the team.

I will do media today. Yeah. It was like a media day. Sweet. I don't have to do that for a couple weeks because I just did it. At any rate, that's all we have, frankly, to report from Canucks practice is that they had a practice and they worked on some stuff. Here's what they worked on, courtesy of the head coach, Rick Tockett,

who in a minute and a half, we'll play about 30 seconds of a minute and a half media availability yesterday following practice. Here's what Tockett said they worked on without revealing any of the line changes or potential lineup changes. Rick Tockett from yesterday's practice in Florida. More two-on-two, three-on-three stuff battling. I think a play without the puck was something that, you know, I think we have to get to another level.

If you ask me the last three games what I would want, it's the same thing last year. We demanded from the players, you know, a lot of winning more battles. And I thought, you know, Tampa, especially the first half, I mean, they got the puck every time they wanted. So you got to eliminate people and extended box outs, we call it. If we do that, then we'll spend less time in our end. Okay, so let's circle back really quickly on what the roster will look like,

at least in terms of who's on it going into tonight's game, four o'clock from Florida. Atu Ratu, gone. I actually wouldn't necessarily expect to see him anytime soon. I don't think the first three games, while you said he didn't stand out in a good or bad way, I don't think it was very great for his development that he was playing eight or nine minutes a night. And it seemed like Taka was trying to find spots to play him in, to be perfectly honest. And they've got centers, right? They've got Miller, they've got Pedersen, they've got Bluger, they've got Suter. Nilsamon

was a healthy scratch against Tampa Bay, so they could bring him in if they want Suter on the wing. So they've got enough centers. And he might just have to go down to Abbotsford and wait a little bit. Wait for injuries. Wait for something else to happen. So the Bronstrom thing. There was word yesterday, Irfan Ghaffar, and then later followed up by Rick Dolly, while this recall was in the works.

We assume it got announced today for salary cap purposes, and maybe it was potentially tied to whatever sort of decision the club had to make on Derek Forbort, who, by the way, in case you missed it right off the top, has left the team due to personal reasons. Bronstrom comes up after a handful of games

with Abbotsford in the American Hockey League. We've talked about him a couple times on the show. We actually had Kyle Bukoskis on from the 32 Thoughts podcast, asked him about it because he is based out of Ottawa and he saw Brandstrom play a lot in Ottawa over the last few years where he played close to 300 NHL games so it's not like a guy that hasn't played at this level before he appeared in 78 of them for the Senators last year a very weird career arc for a guy that at one point was a very highly embellished prospect and was a central part of the Mark Stone trade. Yeah, drafted 15th overall in 2017.

As you just mentioned, that was the big piece that Ottawa was excited about when they sent Mark Stone to Las Vegas, or Vegas, the Golden Knights, where he won a Stanley Cup. But it didn't work out for Brandstrom in Ottawa. And I believe what happened was they just walked away from him because they were worried about the arbitration. It was like a Ben Hutton situation. They said, you played so much that we think you're probably going to get an arbitration award that we don't want to pay you, so you're now a free agent. He goes to Colorado, signs a one-year deal,

and then does not, I guess, impress in training camp in the preseason, and then the Canucks pick him up in a trade in a salary cup. So I truly have no idea what went on in Colorado aside from the bare bones facts, which was he signed a one-year $900,000 deal. He appeared in three postseason games, sorry, preseason games, and then they made the decision to part ways.

And they did it with a blue line that, I'm going to be dead honest, I watched the Avs play last night. Like that entire roster is thinned out. Like your third pair right now in colorado's calvin dahan and a guy named sam malinsky so i don't know why or how bronstrom couldn't crack that top six or why colorado made the i would say unusual decision to sign a guy in july and then trade him in september well i want to know if he's actually going to play tonight

because erica texts, what does it mean Forbert left the team? Like, is he gone for the season or is he in some kind of private situation and he'll be gone for a little bit? I'm just a bit confused. Probably the latter, right? He's in some kind of private situation, family

reason that he has to deal with. Okay. But we don't know. We don't know. We don't know. But that it's, I didn't read it as he's gone for the season. Okay. He hasn't left the team. He's not, I don't want to We don't know. We don't know. But I didn't read it as he's gone for the season. Okay? He hasn't left the team.

He's not. I don't want to be part of this. He's left the team. You guys aren't winning enough. But he hasn't left the team. So I imagine he'll play tonight, but they could dress both Julsen and Desjardins in theory and have Branstrom as a healthy scratch in theory the

thing with branstrom and what we've heard even after a couple games in uh abbotsford is that this guy is nothing like like imagine noah julson and then, what's the opposite type of player? What's Joe Nielsen? Yeah. That would be Eric Brandstrom. Not, you know, like he's,

he's a, he's almost like a Rover type of defenseman. Although Noah Juleson does some wandering, but he's a puck mover and he is honestly, he was developed as more of a Quinn Hughes type of player. Like that's how he was going to be. That's why Otto was so excited about him. He wasn't going to be some stay-at-home, big, tough defenseman.

He was an offensive defenseman. He was a puck mover. And when the Canucks picked him up, I think a lot of us were like, well, that's good because the Canucks picked him up I think a lot of us were like well that's good because the Canucks might need some more puck moving in their bottom four because the way they've built their team is they've got the Hughes and Hronik pair that does great at puck moving they're a good pair and then they've got the what you want to call like the four trees on defense uh and they're big dudes uh not necessarily the most mobile not necessarily the most adept at moving the puck

but in zone they'll they'll be physical they'll block shots you can send them out there to kill penalties and that's how a lot of teams are built so if you add Brandstrom to that mix, all of a sudden it's a different mix. But I think that's a good thing because I think sometimes you need that. For example, when the Oilers were in the playoffs last season, they had De'Aaron A playing and he wasn't doing a very good job moving the puck.

Right. So they bring in Broberg and replace Darnay with Broberg, and all of a sudden they bring some puck-moving ability. So I actually liked that option for the Canucks because sometimes you just need a little bit more of something else. I'm a touch surprised that they made this move so early in the year. But that being said, it does fit with everything I've talked about over the last 42 to 78 hours about there's a real lack of patience

and they want to get guys either in the lineup or if they're not doing the job, out of the lineup. Also, the four board situation, which we are just finding about this morning, is new and it adds a wrinkle for sure. I would have said that if it was a straight swap that Ratu comes off the roster and Brownstrom comes on, there's probably a 0% chance that Brownstrom plays tonight because he hasn't practiced with the team and they've got other guys that they can put

in, especially Deharnais. But now with four boards. I don't think four boards have been bad. Right. And now with four boards departure, it really does kind of throw a curve ball because you've got less defensemen to choose from plain and simple yeah i think bransford is probably going to play and he's probably going to play with

while it's going to be julson or dna right yep and it's coach's decision on who goes in um i thought that julson had a really rough outing in tampa bay um did play well, did not look comfortable. So this is an opportunity to get De'Arne back in the lineup. Now, will the coaches trust a pair of Brandstrom, who they don't really know, with De'Arne, who they're working with? I don't know. This is a very banged up Panthers team, by the way.

No Barkov, no Kachuk, as Jason mentioned. No Thomas Nosek. And the only reason I'm bringing that up is because even when you lose a sort of familiar name like Nosek, it really whittles you down. Their top line tonight is going to be Lundell centering Luster-Reinen and Reinhardt. Now, Reinhardt's obviously a borderline 50-60 goal scorer from last year,

so there's some potential there. Their second line might actually be more dynamic than their first because that's the one that's got Verhage and Bennett on it. But if you even look at their blue line right now, like former Vancouver Canuck Nate Schmidt, not just Gustav Forsling, two Vancouver ex-Vancouver Canucks manning the blue line for the Panthers. So the results early in the season have been a lot of energy in that first game, which I watched where they played Boston and had a very good outing against a team that

they got a simmering rivalry with. I'll get to Boston in a second because Boston had a really eventful game against Colorado last night. But Florida has had a lot of injuries. They've obviously been affected by the storms that have hit the Florida area. And they go into tonight's game, still the Stanley Cup champs, right? Like, you're not going to take that away from them. They're still the core of this team that was so very impressive winning the title last year, but is whittled away because of injuries. And I would say they're two best players, all due respect to the guys that are in the lineup, with Barkov and Kachuk on the show.

Well, they don't have Brandon Montour either. Well, yeah, he's gone, gone. Yeah, yeah. He left the team. Yeah, yeah. He's with the Kraken now. So, you know, it's not going to be the same team.

This is an opportunity for the Canucks to get a win. Yep. And we all know they would love to get a win. I don't know if we're in the stage where, you know, it's four games into the season. I don't know if we're at the stage where they desperately need a win.

They would just really like one. Yep. They would really like a win. Let's talk about some of the NHL action last night. It was pretty entertaining. My spirit animal team. Who's that? The Pittsburgh Penguins.

Oh, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Yeah. They're old. How about Geno? It's amazing. Man, I was ripping pretty hard on Geno last season. Just because he looked old and done. And now he's what?

Leading the league in points? It's crazy, man. It's awesome. The NHL's leading scorer is 38 years old and it's of Jenny Malkin. That was after last night's game in which the Pittsburgh Penguins were setting franchise marks

and individual records of seemingly every single goal. Sidney Crosby got his 1600th point if Jenny Malkin got his 500th goal the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-5 in an absolutely electric game at PPG Paints in Pittsburgh Sidney Crosby scored the overtime winner here's what it sounded like jubilation in Pittsburgh on a very exciting night for the Penguins Crosby's in front. Letang with the shot blocked by Greenway.

Right back to Letang. Now Malkin's turn. Fires across. Cross and back. Do they score? It's Cindy Crosby. And it's an overtime winner. So Malkin assisted Crosby for his 1600th point.

And then Crosby assisted Malkin for Malkin's 500th goal. I was actually going to play the audio of the Malkin goal as well, but we'll skip over it. Everyone came off the bench for Pittsburgh to celebrate. They were down in that game. There was a controversial moment midway through the game where it was 3-1 for Buffalo.

Then the Penguins scored, I want to get this right, I think it was 4 on three for Buffalo. And then Pittsburgh went the other way and scored shorthanded on a two-on-one. And Buffalo challenged because they thought it was offside. And guess what? It was offside, but for some reason or another, they didn't overturn the call on the ice.

I saw the replay four or five times. I'm like, it's close, but he's off by about an inch. They didn't call it. on the ice. I saw the replay four or five times. I'm like, that's off. It's close, but he's off by about an inch. They didn't call it, but they said it was on. The goal stood and Buffalo got dinged with a penalty for delay a game because it was a failed challenge. So now it's three on three. Pittsburgh scores again, and then you get this wild game that ends 6-5

for the Penguins. So anyway, you wake up this morning, you look at the NHL scoring leaderboard, and there is Jenny Malkin, who's on pace for approximately 311 points this year. If he keeps going at the rate that he's going at, it's a pretty good story out of Pittsburgh so far. I know it's early, but it's fun because they're really old and everyone's got such an admiration

for Crosby. And we all kind of like Gino. Do you think it's hard for the members of the Vancouver Canucks that they're constantly like in Pittsburgh, Sid did this? I have heard anecdotally that there's a lot of, this isn't the way we did it in Pittsburgh, in the Canucks front office. Yeah, but that's a little bit different.

I'm talking about the Canucks players. Most of it is about Crosby, though. Yeah, getting compared to Crosby is like, Crosby stays after practice and works late on a shot. Crosby does this. Crosby delivered season tickets to season ticket holders. Oh, Sid is so perfect. Well, I'm not Sidney Crosby, Dad.

No, you aren't. Yeah, you sure aren't. There is 100% that vibe. I watched a lot. Well, Taka did it when he came on the show, right? Talking about Petey. He was like, you know, I want Petey to be obsessed with this game. Go out there and, you know, I've played with Mario and I've coached Sid and, you know, I guess that is

all just part of raising the bar in Vancouver and having a bar and having the Stanley Cup as the target. Players in Vancouver, you know, for years it was the Sedins. You got to work like the Sedins. This is the role model for your team. And now, so not only you've got the Sedins like working for the organization and working with these players so that the players are being compared to them, you've also got this Pittsburgh contingent in there that's like, we had Sidney Crosby and we had Evgeny Malkin and Chris Letang. These guys won Stanley Cups. They were just dedicated to winning.

And that's the bar you're being expected to match. And I'm not against it. Why would you be against it? I just think it must be at times you're like, oh, my God. That's okay. You've got to meet pressure with pressure, though. You got pressure to live up to Sidney Crosby. You got to try and meet it.

It's funny because I think the guy that they're looking for to be that sort of leader and captain and alpha dog is Quinn Hughes. Now, you remember in the offseason, there was that anecdote. It was we talk about this anecdotal evidence when they were talking about the Kiefer Sherwood signing. And they kind of let it slip that it was Quinn Hughes who was was like this guy was a real pain in the ass in the playoffs let's go sign him let's get that guy that's a stat that was a crosby thing in pittsburgh to the point remember when they gave jay's good buddy jack johnson a deal now slightly different circumstances but there is that sense of ownership management and coaches understanding that they can talk until they're blue in the face about culture and setting the bar and setting the lead,

but it's the players that do it. It's the players that do it. And the players have to be part of the decision-making process. 100%. The same sort of thing was like, you know, I don't know if the coaching staff wants to break up Hughes and Hronik, but it was almost like as soon as Hughes said, I want to play with Hronik, that's my guy.

Yep. I was like, okay. Yeah. You're playing with him, I guess. The decision has been made. Yeah. What else happened in the NHL last night? That was a pretty big game from the Pittsburgh Penguins,

who have been kind of like up and down so far. I mean, Malkin's been steady good the entire time. The wins and losses, they've kind of traded them. But they're above 500 now. The Toronto Maple Leafs. Yeah, they look good. Your beloved Toronto Maple Leafs. I don't like it. They look good, though.

Yeah, 6-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings. Now, I want to say, I did not realize what the LA Kings are currently going through. Are you aware of this? No. That they've been on the road since the middle of the preseason. What's going on? Is there something at the arena? There's major renovations going on at Crypto.com. I don't know if it's because

crypto failed or whatever. I don't know how it works. I don't know if there's an NFT okay. I don't know if it's because crypto failed or whatever. I don't know how it works. I don't know if there was an NFT involved. I don't know. They're adding a bunch of miners. It could be. Maybe they don't have enough bandwidth. I don't know how it works.

It's all AI now. Yeah, it's all run by AI. Crypto's out and now it's AI. So the Kings have been on the road. They finished the second half of their preseason, basically, as like the traveling circus. I didn't even realize this, but they were in Quebec for a while.

And now they started on the road. They've got this Eastern road swing, which finishes tonight in Montreal. So it's a back-to-back. They were in Toronto last night. They looked like one of the slowest teams in the National Hockey League last night. And I got to chalk some of that up to being exhausted

because they've been on the road for forever. They finish this Eastern part tonight and then they go back to the West, but they still don't get to go home. They got a bunch of road games still until they open up at Crypto.com. Yeah, so even though the Leafs won, that's good news for the Canucks because the Kings are now 1-1-2. The last game that I wanted to mention was the Avs are still winless. They're 0-4-0 after losing to

the Boston Bruins 5-3 last night. It was an eventful game. Perhaps we'll get into it later in the show, but we got to go for now because Marty Walsh, NHLPA chief, is going to join us next on the Halford & Ruff Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for

everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 631 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. NHLPA Executive Director Marty Walsh is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour one of this program 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. To the phone lines we go. NHLPA Executive Director Marty Walsh now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Marty. How are you?

Good, guys. How are you? Sorry, if you hear background noise, I'm at the Fort Lauderdale Airport, so I can't get to a quiet place for you, so I apologize. All good. I can hear a little bit of noise in the background, but it sounds otherwise fine. Regardless of the sound in the background, thanks for taking the time to do this today. We do appreciate it. So, year one as the NHLPA boss in the background, but it sounds otherwise fine. Regardless of the sound in the background, thanks for taking the time to do this today. We do appreciate

it. So, year one as the NHLPA boss in the books. Some things obviously arose during the year. There was the Mike Babcock situation right at the beginning of the year. Obviously, the issues with Arizona that are now resolved. Going into, or now that we're into year two,

Marty Walsh on the job. What's keeping you busy? What are your priorities? What are you working on right now for year two? Right now, what we're into year two and marty walsh on the job uh what's keeping you busy what are your priorities what are you working on right now for year two right now we're doing uh something that's called fall tour we're going around and meeting all the teams um you know individually uh so we get a chance to like recap the year talk about what we're looking at and now in the second year and what the future looks like so we're talking a lot about business development and growth of the game. We're talking about, you know, getting some feedback from players about their desire on collector bargaining. You know, the commissioners approached us about starting collector bargaining earlier.

The contract expires in September 2026. So we're having, you know, some conversations about potentially going into negotiations next year after the first of the year sometime so we're talking about you know players what they what how they feel about where they are collective bargaining how they feel about the game at the moment and also growth of the game um you know historically i don't think that the union's been engaged engaged in growth of the game but there is an aspect that we want to grow the game of hockey, you know, beyond the cities that the teams are currently in.

How do the players feel about, how do the players feel about the CBA and the current state of relationships with the NHL? Would they paint as rosy a picture as Gary Bettman did? I mean, I don't think, I think some players probably would. I think, you know, they're all over the place. The players, when you think about the league, you have 750 players there, anywhere from, you know, 13, 14, 15-year veterans that have seen it all

to younger players that are following their dream and playing the game they love. You know, they're a different aspect, different points in their careers. So I think, you know, you get mixed reactions from different players and playing the game they love. They're a different aspect, different points in their careers. So I think you get mixed reactions from different players on where they stand. But overall, I think when you look at the game of hockey as far as from a business standpoint, ticket sales were up last year, viewership was up last year. It's going in the right direction. Is there more that can be done? Absolutely.

But on the surface, it's going in the right direction. Is there more that can be done? Absolutely. But on the surface, it's going in the right direction. What's a common complaint that you get? It doesn't have to be a big thing, just a frustration. Take us into the day-to-day of a player. It's quality of life. It's something

to do with the team. The small little things that just don't necessarily race to the top of, you know, we have to have a major meeting with the NHL. It's like any workplace. I mean, when people are listening today, I mean, you think your team and your players that they perform on the ice, but leading up to that game, there's lots of little things that can go wrong or be frustrating to players and to organizations.

And I think that that's what happens here. It's no different than any other workplace. So do you right now expect to sit down with the NHL in the new year and start talks? I mean, it seems that way. But again, we're only three meetings into our fall tour of the 32 teams. So, you know, in the next few weeks, that'll be maybe a different answer to you. I just really got to – I'm not getting ahead of myself.

I don't negotiate that way. And this is really driven by the players. And we're going to wait and see what the players want to do. You know, we have 29 teams left. We're going to have five or six next week, and the week after we'll have six or seven. So we'll have a good grasp of where the players are. But again, like the question you asked earlier

about the little gripes, every team's different. Every team has a different mindset, and they're in a different place. So, you know, we want to really get to all 32 teams before we make any decisions like that. So, Marty, I know you're a lifelong hockey fan, so you probably understand that a lot of hockey fans get triggered even when just hearing the letters CBA.

You know, they think about lockouts, they think about lost seasons and lost games, and they think about really, like, being inundated with CBA stuff, which is not why they became hockey fans. So is there an understanding on your side that this can sometimes be a sensitive issue for hockey fans? Oh, no question about it. I mean, listen, between lockouts and strikes in hockey,

but in other sports as well, I mean, fans, when the season ends, fans, the avid hockey fan is getting I mean, fans, when the season ends, fans, the avid hockey fan is getting ready for the first game of the year, and they circle that date on the calendar. And if there's a concern that that might not happen, that will cause problems. But, you know, I've been in the labor movement for my entire career,

and the way I approach negotiations is you don't negotiate, you don't approach it with a mindset of we're going to have a strike or a lockout. If that's the thought going into negotiation, then you're already behind. And I think that when you look at negotiations in the private sector and a strike happens or a lockout happens, that conversation is broken down long before negotiations began. And that's not what I plan on doing here. We're speaking to NHLPA Executive Director Marty Walsh here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. For as much as hockey fans loathe the CBA, they're very excited about international play and the return to it.

It's been a long time since we've had international best-on-best, and I know when the Four Nations face-off and the subsequent Olympic confirmations came through, everyone was really excited. Can you walk us through the process of what it was like working with the league to make that happen? I was reading an interview that you had,

and there was a really interesting takeaway that even within the PA, you had a lot of different people working on international hockey. So you had to streamline it from your guys' perspective first before going to the NHL and talking to Gary Bettman and Bill Daly and getting a calendar sorted out. Yes. So March of 2023, I was selected by the players to take over the PA. I went in and I started, I should say.

I was selected at the All-Star Game in February. I went in and I assessed the office in different places. And one thing I heard consistently from players at that point, and I hadn't talked to them all, was that they all were very interested in being in international play, Olympics, World Cup. So when I got to the PA, I was asking what the process was inside. And there was a lot of different people working in this space,

and there was really not one person kind of leading the way. So we made some changes. We put Rob Zepp in charge of international hockey. He began instantly, immediately working with the international folks at the league and talking about the Olympics and Four Nations. And we were able to, not at the same time, but pretty much at the same time but pretty you know pretty much at the same time negotiate uh not negotiations they negotiate work out a deal that we can get um nhl players back into the olympics now that deal is is nearly finalized it's still like some some you know

teased across an eyes a dot but you know the players will be playing in the olympics in 2026 and 2030 uh and then we were talking about bringing back the World Cup on a consistent basis, not every 10 or 12 or 14, 15 years, but being consistent on it. So we started thinking about 2024. We realized that we couldn't have a full World Cup tournament in 2024. We just didn't have the time to be able to put it together because it's a massive undertaking. So we decided with the Four Nations tournament face-off, and then we're having ongoing conversations now

about trying to finalize and get this World Cup on a consistent schedule so NHL fans and players will have a consistent international schedule where every two years you'll have a tournament, meaning you'll have the Olympics in 26, I hope we'll have the World Cup in 28, the Olympics in 30, and I hope to have the World Cup in 32,

and then obviously the future Olympics and World Cups. Just so there's some consistency there. It does a couple things. Number one, it's great as a hockey fan to have international play, you know, have a best-on-best tournament. It's great for the sport of hockey, for people to get a chance to see that all over the world. And the players love it. The players love the fact that they can play for their country. I mean, you have Sidney Crosby and

players like Sidney. I believe the last time he wore a jersey for his country was in 2014. You know, some players have never done it. So we want to make sure that fans get a chance to experience that, but more importantly for the players, they get a chance to do that. Well, on that note, what about the players in your

union from Czechia and from Russia who aren't going to be participating in the four nations face-off I couldn't help but notice that some of the Czech players after the world hockey championships weren't too pleased about not being in the four nations face-off yeah you know I talked to David Pasternak obviously he's in Boston I'm from Boston we've had conversations but the issue the issue there was we didn't have the time to be able to to be able to put all the teams in there. So that's why we're very focused on the Olympics and also the World Cup, the bigger World Cup.

And the Russian players, I mean, I've talked to the Russian players. They certainly want to play and best on best competition. There's no question about it. And, you know, some of the governing rules at the IOC and the IHF right now are, you know, they haven't made the decision on 2026 as far as our Russian athletes going to be in the Olympics. So that's a whole different conversation. I mean, and it's unfair in a lot of ways to our players that play in the league

that, you know, it's beyond their control, I believe. I know it's beyond their control. This upcoming Four Nations tournament, are you expecting to get full buy-in, full intensity from the players? Are they pumped for it? Because what makes international hockey so special is the feelings of nervousness on the Canadians

or the Americans and the Swedes and the Finns and like it's, it's national pride on the line. But if the intensity of the games aren't there, and I really don't feel like they were in the last world cup just because of the format, it's not the same as we've seen in international tournaments in the past. Oh, I think the intensity is here. I think that, you know, the players that I've talked to, know the players that that i've talked to

even the players all the players not just the players that might play on the team i mean the teams haven't been chosen yet but people are excited about it and i think that it's a great setup for 2026 i mean you're getting you're getting a hockey tournament that um obviously whoever wins will celebrate whoever loses will want to will want to get theirs in 2026. And then on top of that, you have the teams that aren't playing in the tournament because of the timing of it, the motivation they're going to have to show people in the Olympics, just to prove everyone that they're the team. So I think it's going to be exciting.

And I think the key here is it's not a one-off. And we've got to make sure it's not a one-off. You can't just have a tournament in 2024, go to the Olympics in 2026, and then have international hockey, except for the Olympics, drop off the map until God knows when. And I think that that's the difference here, having that map, having that schedule, having that consistency. I think that's going to even add a little more to this.

Let's talk about the Utah Hockey Club. Are you happy for now with how the Arizona situation was resolved? I mean, it's great for the players. I mean, the players have been welcomed with open arms. Utah has just simply embraced this team. The ownership has done amazing in making these players welcome and introducing professional hockey to Utah, NHL hockey to Utah. So it's a good win for the – it's been a great win for the players.

It's been a great win for the league. It's been a great win for the fans, I believe. And hopefully that continues on. I mean, I think that, you know, the first night was crazy there and, you know, it just seems like it's going in the right direction there. So we're excited about that. Future expansion, let's talk a bit about that. Does the NHLPA have any role in that?

No, we don't have any role in it. I mean, I've talked to Gary Bettman about it. You know, he made it clear the other day that he doesn't see it as the immediate future for the league, but certainly I've talked to him about it. I've heard the rumors of different places, and I've given my opinion on those places. I think the relationship that Gary and myself have at the moment

hopefully will continue on. I'm not going to have any say in what city's chosen, but I'd like to have an opinion on, give our opinion on some places. What about the money? Do you guys want to share that? Of course we love that. That'd be wonderful. Well, it's funny because we had Bill Daly on, I think, last week,

and we were asking him, like, what would happen if the NHLPA came and asked for some of the money? He said, I think that would be a very interesting conversation or something like that. It really would be, Bill. Yeah. Is that part of the plan? Because I'm, again, a triggered hockey fan when I hear CBA negotiations.

I'm kind of like, okay, what could trip this thing up? And I could see, you know, if the NHLPA goes in there and we want half of the expansion money and that's hockey-related revenue, then I'm like, oh, my God, we're going to miss games again. Yeah, no, I think that, you know, in the past, the expansion fees were not part of anything the NHLPA had. Obviously, at some point when expansion, if it does come, or when it does come, you know, we will have conversations.

I think that, you know, we look at the whole picture. I mean, 46 jobs that we're going to have for our players, two new teams potentially, new revenue. So we take all that into account, and obviously we'll have conversations. I'm not going to get hung up on the expansion fee conversation with the league. I mean, I think it's something that the expansion fee obviously seems like it's going to grow and grow and grow. And would the players, would we like to talk about that?

Absolutely. And we'll have a conversation probably. Yeah, I will. I mean, I'm doing it right now on the radio. But I think that, you know, you look at the whole you look at the whole game here and what it means for hockey. And it gives two new two new areas, two markets, whatever, maybe markets or areas, opportunity to experience in NHL hockey. You look at the last two teams that have been added to the league, the Golden Knights and the Kraken, and the success those teams have had. Utah is not a new team, but for the sake of this conversation,

let's say it's somewhat of a new team. The success they've had very early in the season. So the latest expansion has seemed to go really well. Now we just need to make sure that as we think about moving forward, that that can be replicated. We're speaking to NHLPA Executive Director Marty Walsh here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. So this is the first season in a while

where we've seen a significant salary cap bump, $4 million increase, and they're hopeful there'll be another one next season. What were your impressions of this first free agency period since the cap increase? I mean, in the very beginning, there was a lot of movement early, obviously. And I think that, you know, we're projected to have another increase next year. I think we're going to be, you know, I think one of the things that we have to look at here is to make sure that the cap increases continue with the growth of the game.

And I think that, you know, we saw good growth last year in revenue and ticket sales and attendance and TV audiences and things like that. We had an amazing Stanley Cup final playoffs, quite honestly. Hockey playoffs are the best hockey, the best playoffs of any sport, I believe. I feel that way even before I got this job. And we had seven game series in the Stanley Cup. So I think that, you know, as we think about the salary cap and revenues, I mean, that's where the players benefit, right? And that's where we have to continue to grow this game of hockey

and continue to move the salary cap. I mean, I think, you know, if you're a fan and you have room on the salary cap, you're excited because you want, at the end of the season, because you want your team to be able to either sign the superstar or go out and get new players. I think it's great for the game of hockey, and we're going to try and continue that growth. I did want to ask you about, like, the commercial function of the union,

because it does seem like the subsequent business opportunities that come from that, it was a big priority. It seems like the marketability of players, things like the Amazon documentaries and the profile of the players and getting them more business opportunities was a big priority for you in your first season on the job. Do you feel that you and the union are moving in the right direction on that front? Yeah, we're definitely moving in the right direction and that's one space that you know that's one space that the PA and the league can work with without any controversy because their business department's about growing the game our business department's about growing the game and you know I empower my team to work with the league and then work aside from the league as well to grow opportunities for the players and I think that that's where you know when you think

about success and you think about the future, where you find those common areas where you can really do work well together and there should be no conflict in the business is one aspect of that. Marty, thanks for taking the time to join us today. Enjoy wherever you're going. Enjoy the Fort Lauderdale airport for now. And we'll talk to you later. All right, boys. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Talk to you soon.

Thank you. That's Marty Walsh, NHLPA Executive Director here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. A lot of bases covered in that interview there. Listen, if you want to take one thing away from that interview as a hockey fan, there was absolutely no saber rattling whatsoever. It doesn't sound like the NHLPA is going to seriously go after any expansion money. They'll be happy to get the jobs. They'll be happy to get the new teams. And, you know, he said, listen, I'll have a conversation.

But he obviously doesn't expect to get any of that money. It sounds good for now. The relation sounds good. He sounds like everyone's happy with how business is going, and it doesn't sound like there's a huge appetite to fight the NHL on anything. And again, as a hockey fan that has, well, not only experienced lockouts that lost season, I mean, I had to work a lockout, which was just awful.

You know, as fans, you guys are lucky that you can just be like, all right, I'm going to ignore this until hockey's back. Nobody in the media wants another lockout. Believe me, it is the absolute worst um it sounds like the relationship hearing from the nhl side and hearing from the nhl pa side is pretty good and solid going forward i expect right now that they're gonna get together there might be a few hiccups here and there but they will hammer out a cba and we will not miss any games. He's such a curious character because I think part of it is, you know, you base your future on the historical and what you've gone through in the past and all the NHLPA, NHL negotiations in the past.

And you said it, we worked a lockout. So adversarial and it was so... It was like pissy. It was so angst ridden right and then you get a guy and he's comes from such a different background and like for example if you google marty walsh and the news right now the most relevant news topics are how he helped kamala harris pick tim walls as her running mate that's that's the world that he came from and and now he comes into this and he's like i've worked in labor my entire life i've gone through countless negotiate and negotiations and i know

that if you go in like he said in our call if you go in with your backup or not willing to listen or go in with an adversarial approach it's going to end up bad well let's be honest it's been the league that's gone in with adversarial approaches in the lockouts because the lockout that costs the season was the league going we need a hard cap but it also felt like donald fear at times was more than willing to play that game no but it was always the yeah because the league was going after stuff remember how these lockouts went the first one was the league going in there and going we want a hard cap and the and the pa no way. And eventually, of course, the NHL got the hard cap. The next one was the NHL going, we want more of the share. Because originally, it was something like 57% went to the players, 43% went to the owners.

And then the NHL said, we want a 50-50. And they eventually got it. That's what they eventually got. I can't't remember don't quote me on those numbers but like it was constantly the league wanting things and if the league doesn't want anything generally you're going to have an agreement because the players aren't going to risk a lockout because the players are the one they want their jobs right they're just like okay as long as you guys don't want anything more then we can do a deal i mean that's always the great leverage that the league is going to have over the players right yeah they can wait them out yeah they can wait them out that's constant that's what they can do they're just like all right well lose

two years of your career it doesn't really matter mean, a lot of those teams were losing money anyway, and it was worth it for them. It was 1 million percent worth it for them to lose that season of hockey because they've got a hard cap, cost certainty, and look at franchise values as a result. It also definitely sounded like the NHLPA need to be way more organized, and that's one thing that he's come in and done is that like they didn't have someone that was specifically in charge of international hockey.

I don't think Donald Fear was 100% in it. See, that's what I was. Yeah, like I didn't. He was there because he was there because he was Donald Fear. Right. Like that was it. He was he had a cachet and a profile, but it was all based on things he had done in the past right it wasn't necessarily that like in the current form he was this great leader or negotiator

it wasn't a great era for the players i it really wasn't and this is really interesting to listen to marty walsh talk because it is a sort of new approach and a new vision for the union all right why didn't you ask marty walsh about the play of elias petterson our listeners are demanding and i like that leaf texted in he's like cba talk can't we get back to pd uh we will eventually program without talking about pd we're gonna talk about uh pd with thomas drance uh coming up at eight o'clock. I was, I was listening to the crossover with Drance, Dodd, Donnie, and Rick Dollywall yesterday.

And I have to admit, I had a bit of a laugh because they had a big argument about whether or not the Canucks could trade Elias Pettersson. And I'm like, we're three games into this guy's contract, massive eight-year contract, and we're having debates about whether Elias Pettersson has trade value. Like, is this – this is very Vancouver that this is happening.

Yesterday was a poop storm, if you will, of Petey. Yeah. There was a lot. It was crazy, man. I stayed off my phone. Did we start it? Potentially, we were the first show on the air. No one else is doing this at 6 o'clock in the morning.

We didn't start it. We started the day. The fans want lots of, well, some of them don't. Some of them are tired of it, but he's the number one guy being discussed. And Drance has an article on The Athletic where he lays out the argument for why history is on Elias Pettersson's side. So we can talk about that with Drance at 8 o'clock.

We're going to do a little baseball and NFL talk coming up next, though. Adnan Virk is going to join us at 7 o'clock. Maybe we'll get into the Dunbar-Lumber text line after Adnan for a few minutes. And then Mike Tanier is going to join us. Talk a little NFL. Talk about some of the wide receiver trades.

I also want to talk a bit about DK Metcalf because he's been a real topic of conversation down in Seattle this past week. And he had some interesting things to say about his role in some of the Seahawks losses. So lots of sports talk to come on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.