Halford & Brough in the Morning - Not Everyone Is Happy With These New CFL Rule Changes

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss the sweeping and controversial rule changes coming to the CFL (3:00), plus they chat the latest NHL news with ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski (27:16).  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.

You're listening to Halford and Brough. Jackson hands into Henry. Five falls out. Picked up by the lion. They've got it inside the 20-yard line. DJ Reed with a football in his hands. He's going to throw it to Jared. I've never said on the bench.

and said, well, I learned a lot today. First pitch, Verminneen swings, lines it into the center field. That'll do it. Freddie Fermin walks it off. And the Padres are headed back to the playoffs in 2025. Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is, Bradford. It is, Sportsnet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Adon, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brought for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Get out of the penalty box of debt and back into the game with a financial fresh start. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program.

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Guest list today begins at 630. Greg Wischinski, our ESPN NHL Insider. It's going to join the program. We'll go around the league for some of the bigger stories of the week already. Out of Vegas, turns out Alex Petrangelo's career might not be over after all. He is not ruled out returning to the Golden Knights. We can also talk about a hilarious story out of San Jose,

where the sharks put up a banner for a trophy they did not win. What? Talk to Wish about that. What's the deal with that? Wish also wrote about some of the American players who've just returned to training camp talking about their snubs from the Four Nations tournament, how they're using that to fuel as motivation for the Olympics. So we'll talk to Wish about all that at 6.30. 7 o'clock, Brandon Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks right here on Sportsnet 650.

Canucks had a day off yesterday. They returned to practice today at UBC. we can get batches reflections on Sunday's 5-3 loss to the Cracket in Seattle. Also do an early look ahead to tomorrow's game, the next pre-season game, Wednesday 7 p.m. from Abbotsford, Jason, as the Canucks host the Calgary Flames. 7.30 is a big get for us on this day. Stuart Johnson, CFL Commissioner, is going to join the program. And what was a monumental day for the league yesterday

and the first major move of his tenure as the commissioner, Johnston and out sweeping changes to the CFL that are going to be phased in over the next couple of years. Lots to get into about field size and rouge amendments and the repositioning of the goalposts and the play clock. We're going to talk about it all. He wants to turn it into the NFL.

We're also going to talk about how Nathan Rourke hates it all. That's all coming up at 7.30 today with CFL Commissioner Stuart Johnson. Speaking of Nathan Rorick at 8 o'clock, his general manager, Ryan Rigmeaden, is going to join the show. So at 7.30, we're going to have the CFL commissioner on to talk about the biggest set of rule changes, possibly in the 67-year history of the CFL. And then at 8, we're going to get the general manager of a team where I think has the most outspoken critics so far of these rule changes.

It wasn't just Nathan Rourke popping off in the media yesterday about CFL changes. The Lions Kickers, Sean White also took the Twitter to voice his displeasure. So Ryan Rigmaidens going to join us at 8 right after, We talked to Stuart Johnson, CFL Commissioner. So it's a very CFL heavy show, which I think is befitting, given how big a day it was for the Canadian Football League yesterday. Working in reverse on that guest list, 8 o'clock Ryan Rigmeaden. 7.30, Stuart Johnson, 7 o'clock, Brandon Batchelor 630, Greg Wyshinsky.

That's what's happening on the program today. Greg, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. 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.ca. So as we've already mentioned yesterday, a profoundly league-altering day for the Canadian Football League,

a shortened field, an amendment. to that single point known as the Rouge. And a bunch of other rule changes are coming in over the course of 2026 in 27. A two-part plan on Monday announced by CFL Commissioner, Stuart Johnson. So I'm glad we have the commissioner on the show today because I want to ask why. Like there were some kind of broad press releasey type answers yesterday that we got.

But I don't know in your reading or anything, if you came across anything, but it's just, it's just why. Like what are we, what are they trying to accomplish here? Okay, well, with which particular rule? Because each rule has a sort of very thorough explanation attached to it.

The why questions you're asking, I think can also apply to why do this now in the middle of a season. Why do this without apparently consulting with a number of the key stakeholders meeting players? Yeah. Because it sounds like the players were totally caught off guard. the release, Stuart Johnson did say that this was pretty much a collaboration between himself, team owners, and the chairperson.

So this was done at a very high level. At the governor level. The very high level. Which governor, would you like to shorten the end zone so that every stadium can accommodate the correctly sized end zones? They all checked in with their butlers before they made a decision. No, like I did think it was interesting. At the same time, it does kind of make sense because the commissioner.

does serve at the the rest of the owners. I mean, that's who he works for. Now, why they decided to do this midseason remains unclear. What the changes are designed to do, I mean, if you want to break it down into the sort of Coles-nose versions,

it's definitely to lean a lot less on special teams and to remove how profound a role special teams play in the CFL regular season games. There's also a nod to increasing the speed of play, the amount of offense scored not with rouges and field goals and missed field goal returns, which some people

who argue made the game distinctly and uniquely Canadian. The fear, of course, is that these changes are with an eye to what, Jason, making the game American, turning it into the NFL. And my, at first blush, I would say, it seems like a bit far-fetched to suggest that, because some of the key tenets of the Canadian game still very much remain. Still three-down football. The field is still, and it will remain, wider than its NFL counterpart, and it's still 12 players on the field as opposed to 11.

And those are big, big, big things that make the game Canadian. The phrase that I read, the way it's being sped from, spun from a league level was trading field goals for touchdowns. How does that happen? does that mostly happen because essentially you're going to add 15 yards now to any field goal attempt because the end zones are going to be 15 yards deep now

and the goalposts are going to be moved behind the end zone like they are in the NFL. There's okay, let's be clear here. Because I actually don't have a problem with that. There's a lot of theorizing and a lot of projections from the league on this. Yeah. So with regards to changing field goals

for touchdowns, there is a thought that too many teams settle for field goals in the Canadian football league is they're relatively easy to hit. Part of it has to do with where the goalposts are. And I'll be honest, I think it's kind of ridiculous when you have a like, and here's a 17-yard field goal attempt, right? There is that to be considered. There's also the point, and this one is being hotly debated at the player level especially, about the goalposts being an obstruction in the field of play. Because we will play the Nathan Rourke audio yesterday. He shot that down. And as a signal caller, I tend to lean towards his field of expertise. He's a quarterback.

He throws balls into the end zone. He says it's almost a strategic thing where you can use a pick play, man. You can utilize it. However, in the release, the CFL said that the projected gains of reposition goalposts would result in 10% more end zone completions and 60 more touchdowns per season. Now again, I don't know the math that they used on these projections. They did not unveil the math. We will talk to Stuart Johnson.

today about it. They also had the thought that while retaining the 65-yard width of the field, reducing the size of the end zones would ensure that scoring remains high and the kicking game remains relevant

but the teams again would try and alter the course of their offense because of it. Now there's also the point that this would also ensure league-wide uniformity of the end zones because the large end zones, according to where you were playing, where sometimes like, amended a little bit

I suppose see I you know I think there's there's a lot of CFL fans hardcore fans that love the quirkiness of the CFL yeah do you know what I mean like

okay let's talk about this for a second you go into one stadium and you're like watch out for that end zone because it's you know it's not rectangular or whatever there there's a little cutoff in the in the corner there because there's not off room in the stadium and and they in they they they like that um they like the idea of the

of the referee you know having to blow in the the time clock start because and is going like hurry up come on man let's go okay let's discuss this because it's it's a kind of a weird conversation to have because when you start talking about the individual rules and the sort of arcane breakdowns of what they're going to do you might lose some people because they're like whatever like okay you've amended the rouge the bigger picture here and I think the more interesting conversation, the more profound conversation, especially in light of what we've gone through over the last year, is the Canadian identity being threatened. Yes.

So that is 100% the issue, the main issue. Like, there might be a little bit of like, you know, discussing the minutia of all this stuff, but like what hardcore CFL fans are worried about is losing the identity of the game. And that's why, that's why the owner of the Argonauts, which is MLSC, Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, same guys that own the Leafs and the Raptors, the same guys that made a marketing deal with the Buffalo Bills just a couple of weeks ago. And then all of a sudden this comes out are like, wait a minute, there's a new commissioner in and I don't trust this guy. I don't trust that this guy isn't eventually going to take us to where we are some sort of minor league or feeder league to the NFL. And then all of a sudden the Canadian ratio is done.

All of a sudden, we're at four downs. Oh, they're going to narrow the field down. And, you know, because Stuart Johnston also said, like, I won't guarantee that we will never go to four downs. And he couched a little bit He was like, I just don't ever say like never You know, I don't think you should ever say never And, and you know, people are like, okay This, there's a lot of

There's a lot of circumstantial evidence out there That 20 years from now or something It's just going to be American football So it's probably a good time right now To play the audio from Nathan O'Rourke yesterday So it was a pretty explosive day by the standards of BC Lions, media relations on a day-to-day basis, is that Nathan Rourke was asked about the changes that Stuart Johnson had implemented

across the league that were going to take place in 2026 and 2027. Nathan Rourke, to put it bluntly, went off yesterday. This is about just over two minutes of uninterrupted Nathan Rourke audio, where he is very emotional and very irate about the changes being made and the damage that it might do to the Canadianness of the Canadian. Canadian Football League. Here now is BC Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke yesterday talking about the CFL new rule changes. New rule changes are garbage. It's garbage. I, as many people did, fans and people who play in this league grew up watching the CFL and loving the game. I grew up

in Ontario, played C-Canadian football rules all my life, was aware of the, and was a fan of the league down there, but was a fan of the CFO because of its differences. I went down to the states, proud of the game, being able to explain the differences. The waggle, the yard, the extra person. These are the things that are unique about the game that make it different. And the rule changes to me make it sound like we want to be that league down south. We want to be that league. And from recent history in years past, leagues that have tried to emerge, to try to be like the NFL haven't existed very long. That CFL gain has existed for longer than the NFL.

And there's a reason for that. It's unique. The fans love it. I grew up loving this game. And they're changing that. They're getting rid of a lot of things. The worst part I think about it, honestly, is the fact that the people who play football, who have the football knowledge, were not consulted about this.

The players weren't consulted to coaches. management nobody was insulted this was done on their own accord this was done independent of asking anyone who actually knows football what they want to do what they think would be better we have a commissioner who hasn't been here for a year who's already trying to make trying to change the game and I don't believe he loves football as much as I do as much as many fans do as much of people who grew up loving this game I don't think he I don't think you cannot make and adjustments like this and tell me that you like football if you love the

Canadian football game because you're changing it. And what we're moving towards is not the Canadian football game that I grew up loving, that I'm passionate about, that I came back and played. I went down and played in the NFL in that league. And I came back knowing that this is a game for me because of the uniqueness of it, what's special about it. And we're changing, we're getting away from that. And that, you know, frankly makes me pretty pissed off. So there's a lot, obviously, to unpack there. First things first, that is the most passion I think I've ever heard, Nathan Rourke. Talk about anything. Anything. And we've had them on the show. We've heard countless scrums with him,

been pretty exposed to him from a media side of things. He unloaded. And he, I mean, he put Stuart Johnson square on the crosshairs there where it almost got to be a personal attack. And I think that speaks to how passionate, how emotional he was yesterday. And I was watching some reaction from the, I will say the TSN side because TSN's a big part of the CFL.

And, you know, a lot of people are wondering if they were part of this. Are they pushing for these changes? Well, it made for a better TV product for them. And the reaction from the likes of Luke Wilson, who has become a very interesting character of all this. Absolutely. And I think it was Davis Sanchez. They were kind of like, they were quite critical of Nathan Rourke.

Yep. For his. So you know what? All of this, it's actually kind of interesting. It's the most interesting the CFL has been in years. It's great for the league. Great for the league. It really is great for the league.

Because when Randy Ambrosie would come up with his. pie in the sky ridiculous ideas about you know global domination or whatever for the CFL like it was kind of like all right you kind of made fun of it but like this stuff is because also and you also you're like you know he'd talk about expansion and that sort of thing and then

nothing would happen yeah right like this is going to happen this is going to happen they're they're going to make these rule changes you know the Ambrosia stuff was always like yeah that might happen in five years but like nothing was done to the game and my my issue with Ambrosi was that, like, things needed to change in the CFL.

You need to do something in the league, like focus on the teams that are there, focus on Canada. And, you know, John in the township texts in and he says, this is why I love Rourke, best player in the league. He shares the same passion as myself for the league. I don't mind the changes, but I love seeing his passion. for the Canadian game. And I think there is a lot of passion for the Canadian game.

And, you know, especially, and you kind of mention this right now with our relationship with the United States. And there's a lot of people that are looking. Some people like it. But there's a lot of people in Canada. The majority of people in Canada are looking at the United States right now and going, I don't want to be like this. Even football.

Even football-wise, I don't want to be like them. And I understand that knee-jerk reaction to the news of yesterday, that all this is is the Americanization of Canada. I just think it's a little too reactionary and it's not grounded in reality enough. Because here's one thing you got to consider. Every major sports league in North America has undergone significant rule changes over the last little bit. I was thinking about baseball. I was watching the Padres walk it off to get into the playoffs yesterday.

They clinched last night. And I'm looking at it. And I, you know, sometimes I forget that not too long ago, extra inning games did not start with a runner on second base to speed things up. Not too long ago, we would have 17, 18, 19 inning games. Not with regularity, but enough to the point where they decided we cannot do this anymore. How about regular, regular nine inning games that were three and a half hours long? Baseball fundamentally changed the way the game is played.

They sped it up. And why? Because they wanted young, young demographics. They were getting all their fans stolen by the Savannah Bananas. They said, we got to do something to speed this thing up. So I want to read some quotes from Keith Pelly, who is now in charge of MLSC, but has a long history with the CFL, including being in charge of the Argonauts, I believe, for a few years. And he said, to the overdrive guys, he said, I've come back 20 years later and I go,

nothing's changed in the CFL. We need to make changes. We need to grow. TSN does a phenomenal job of promoting the CFL and the fact that you guys are here is greatly appreciated, but we need to do more. You need to take chances. You need to make changes and you need to take bets.

I'm sitting there saying the NFL is the biggest football league in the world. How many Gen Z NFL fans are there compared to how many Argo Gen Z fans there are. So that's about getting the younger players. But that's where the critics will argue, oh. So you're trying to make the CFL more like the NFL in order to attract the younger demographic that doesn't have as much interest in the CFL.

So you can say like, I agree with you. you have to appeal to the younger fans because you're losing younger fans and we all know about the demographic challenges of the CFL, but you're just kind of conceding there that you want the CFL to look more like the NFL to appeal to those fans. Here's another interesting thing that he said. We need everybody's help selling tickets, including the diehards. There are only three types of fans. There are the diehards and there's fewer and fewer kids.

diehard Argo fans right now then there are the bandwagon jumpers when you're winning they get involved and then there's the second bucket which is the biggest bucket and those are fans that come because it's fashionable it's cool to be at

that involves corporate and consumers and that's the bucket that we need to grow so the question becomes are these rule changes going to make the CFL cooler I don't see that, but I very much agree with that sentiment.

Okay, my thought on everything that, you know, I talked to people yesterday, read as much as I could yesterday, listened to as much as I could yesterday. As far as I understand it, these rule changes and call me naive if you want, are not meant as the first step in trying to turn this into CF or NFL North or some sort of feeder league for the NFL. I think they are genuinely designed to improve the product. to make it more aesthetically pleasing, have more touchdowns and try and change the way the game is currently played. Because I don't know if you've been paying attention to this or not, but one of the pundits that you talked about,

Luke Wilson, has spent the entire first 11 weeks of the CFL season talking about how poor the quality of play is and how boring the games can be. And there hasn't been any significant rule changes to amend that in 67 years, not significant to the point where the National Football League has made massive changes to everything.

and does it on a nearly basis now, where they review all sorts of game operations to see if they can make the game more aesthetically pleasing. They don't even try and hide behind it. Because all the stuff that Rourke was saying, like, you know, he's like, the extra guy on the field, the waggle, which is the running start, I think, for, for, at the game.

That all remains. That all remains. Yes. Right? So he was complaining about stuff that is still in the game. He was going down the slippery slope argument, I think. Yeah, but I think that's a lot. So I think that's, when we have our,

conversation with Stuart Johnston. I think the main focus should be like, how do you reassure CFL fans that the CFL will always be

unique? And that's a very loaded question. Because uniqueness is almost in the eyes of the beholder. You know what I mean? It's like, well, we still have some things that make us unique. It's just less things than before. Yeah, but you've got to keep the league from dying, so you've got to make these changes.

And I think that... The league will die if you don't change. Yes. Well, Stuart Johnson himself said seven of the nine teams lose money. Correction. The league will die if the changes don't work. There's no guarantee that these changes will make the product better. There's no guarantee, unfortunately.

Yeah, but if you don't do anything, if you don't do anything, you retain the thing that people like right now. Their idea is there could be more people that like this. You know what I mean? Yeah. Do you think there were, I think there was a walk-off rouge. Wasn't there last year? I seemed to remember a missed field goal. They wanted that out of the game.

Because that was embarrassing. They found that, I think they found that embarrassing because there would be, that would sometimes go viral in the states. There was enough people yesterday. So the Saskatchewan Rough Riders who scored only four roosies all last season, Jack. So there were a lot of people yesterday saying that the league's biggest fear is that one day a gray cup will be decided on. a missed field goal and it was the damage that that would do to the shield and the brand and everything

else and that they said fine you know it's amazing that it hasn't happened yet yeah but eventually it will because like everything the odds are just eventually that will happen and it will pop and it will damage the league so they cut that out at the knees by modifying the ruge okay we're up against it for time we're going to i want the i want the gray cup to end now on a missed field goal with the guy with the receiver tackled in the end zone just trying to get out i actually think that would be awesome. Very unlikely, considering it's now a shorter end zone, but I think that would be awesome.

Also, the teams aren't on the same sidelines anymore, which, I mean, I couldn't believe that they hadn't thought of, like, should we change this earlier? So thank God they got rid of that. Very small, minor rule, but it's something that kind of set, like it suggests that it's been a long time since they've changed anything in this league, anything. Yeah.

And there is an element of what A-Dog's talking about. Like, if you don't change and you don't adapt, you do die. You need to look at the trend. trends and where things are going and at least try to make things different. But I also understand the hardcore CFL fan and them going like, is this the start? What was the word that was getting thrown around? The Americanization of the CFL. Okay, we got to go to break.

When we come back, Greg Wasinski is going to join the program for some NHL talk. We'll whip around the league. Before we go to break, I need to tell you a Jan Pro. From the boardroom to the break room and everywhere in between, Jan Pro keeps workplaces tidy, clean and disinfected. For a free quote, visit them online at jampro.com. You're listening to the Halfford & Bruff Show on Sportsnet, 6.50. net 6.50. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Get out of the penalty box of death and get back into the game with a financial fresh start. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Greg Wyshinsky from ESPN is going to join us in just a moment here. The highlight and the non-CFL part of Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest price. is on scrap metal, North Star Metal, recycling.

They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the Power West Industries hotline, we go. Our next guest comes courtesy ESPN. Greg Wischinski here now, live on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Wish? Hey, everybody. I got to be honest, I'm a little out of the loop on the CFL news.

Does Bruce McNaul still own the Argos? Yes. Yes, he does. Yeah. All right, good. Then I can go into this this week knowing that I'm all up to speed on the new CFL news.

The loss of John Candy in the ownership group was a big deal but Bruce retained. Good for him. That's good to know. Never when the CFL played in the U.S. That was a weird time, huh? That was great.

Everyone remembers it really fondly up here. Honestly, Birmingham has missed the league. It really It's really Yeah There's probably a group of Birmingham fans That are just like the Whaler fans in Hartford

That are constantly pestering the CFL To bring a team back Wish that's that's actually funny Because For years I assume it still happens There were people from Baltimore That would go to the Grey Cup

Every year Because the Baltimore Stallions And then they were called the CFLers No or was it the CFLers and then they were called the stallions? They actually won a Grey Cup which is just terrible

but they loved it. There was like 40,000 people that would go to those Baltimore games. Unfortunately, all the other American cities did not care for it. Well, listen, I think after last night, after realizing

their Hall of Fame running back is now Butterfingers, they're going to start rallying to bring a different team to Baltimore. haven't even got to the Derek. We spent the entire first segment. This is Canadian radio at its peak. We spent the entire first segment talking about the CFL rule changes. We will get to Derek Henry and the Ravens, but later in the show, because we need to turn our attention now to the National Hockey League. I need you to get me up to speed. As we got you up to speed with the

CFL stuff, what's going on in Vegas right now with Alex Petrangelo? So he held his first availability since it was a next. He was stepping away from hockey because his body needs to heal and playing hockey is the worst thing that could happen to his body. Basically, he's got a hip injury that's been lingering for years. Last season, for whatever reason, was the season in which it was exacerbated. And he really felt it the most. He played, he didn't play in four nations to try to, like, power up for a playoff run. He did play in the playoffs and for most of the regular season.

But it's kind of a thing where it was impacting his ability to be a father and a husband, he said, which is not what you want to hear from a player. Right. He stepped away, and he had two students, which was to have this, I think it's like bilateral femur surgery or to try to rehab the injury, and he chose to rehab. And so the news yesterday was somebody asked him, I think it was one of our friends at the Sinbin, asked him,

so are you out for the season, right? Is it pretty concrete that you're out for the season? And Petrangelo said, no, nothing's really concrete. We're rehabbing it. We'll see where it goes. It's a process, which was an absolute stunner because I think we all assumed that he was at a minimum going to lose, not play this season, most likely not going to play again. And now all of a sudden it becomes a situation where if this is real, we have to start thinking about the salary cap ramifications for a team that's up against it because of the Marner contract. And frankly, that isn't going to be able to leverage the same LTIR rules that they have in the past to maximize his absence if there's a chance he can come back.

I was going to say if this was maybe any other franchise in the National Hockey League, you'd say that this is a heartwarming story of a player who thought his career was over. And yet there may be light at the end of the tunnel and you may be able to come back. But it's not any other franchise in the NHL. It's Vegas who have done a magnificent dirty job of skating around the cap rules over the last few years. Yeah, looking down the road, is there something that they, have they found a loophole maybe already that other people haven't envisioned? Is there something here nefarious, I guess is what I'm asking? I don't think so. I got to be honest with you, as much as this was a shocker yesterday, I kind of chalk it up to blissful optimism on the part of a great defenseman who doesn't want to give up his career quite yet.

But the language, if you go back and look at the release from Vegas and from Petrangelo in, I think it was like August or whatever it was, if you look at that language and you compare it to what he was saying yesterday, yeah, no doubt that like if you're rehabbing an injury, there's going to be some positive impacts on your life. Like maybe you can reach down and, you know, pick up your kid without your hip giving out or whatever. But that's a long way away from being able to be a viable NHL player again and potentially. exacerbate that injury once again. So, you know, if you read the language from the release in the summer, it's kind of like very career-ending kind of, you know, kind of discussion unless this guy gets surgery and works its way back. And then Kelly McCrim and their GM said, even with the surgery, there's no guarantee that he could come back. So it's very more fatalistic about his career in that release than it was yesterday. So I kind of believe this is somebody feeling better

through rehab and being optimistic about the potential of coming back one day without surgery. And more so than, hey, boys, you're going to have to figure out your cap before the end of the season because daddy's coming home. I don't quite think it's that for Petrangelo. We're speaking to Greg Wischinski from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You mentioned that Petrangelo didn't participate in the Four Nations sermon. His choice, though. You spoke with a bunch of guys recently from the U.S. team that wanted to go. to the Four Nations and weren't able to

because they weren't selected. And now they're using that as fuel for the Olympics coming up in February. Here in Vancouver we've got a guy, Thatcher Demko, who didn't play Four Nations, wasn't invited to the summer camp as well. So from the guys that you spoke with, who stood out as someone that really was using that as fuel for the fire

for this season to make the Olympics? Memo to all fantasy owners, you may want to load up on Cage Thompson stock. That guy, that guy was super pissed. Really? Now playing in 48.

Oh, God, yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, because remember, boys, he was there at the championship game. Like, he was, he was a forward reserve because of the injuries for the team USA at the time, you know, Kreider, Kachuk. Like, he was there on site in Boston watching this championship game playing out, watching a tournament that he wasn't invited to join and watching a team struggle to figure out how to score a goal in overtime before Connor McDavid could and having no, you know,

no way to do that for his country. contrary and for his team. On top of that, like I think he felt like he really earned a spot. And he said it himself. You know, when they got back into the league after the Four Nations break, that was, you know, rocket fuel for him. And if you look at his offensive numbers for the rest of the season, you can see he was trying to make a statement. So of the players I spoke to, I talked to him. I talked to Clayton Keller. I talked to Tom Wilson, a bunch of others. He's the one that really stood out as far as being the most impacted by it. And I kind of feel like he's made his case. The question for Teen USA

for the Olympics is whether they're going to do the same thing they did for Four Nations and take some guys down the lineup that are veteran 200 foot players that could maybe play more of a role on the team than really light the lamp or if they're going to put the pedal down and bring, you know, Tage Thompson

and Clayton Keller and Cole Cawfield and some guys that may not necessarily have defensive prowess but in a tight game we're going to be able to figure out a way to score a goal against Jordan Bennington. Well, let me ask you about that. Did you get any inkling from Garen or the rest of the brass or the coaching stuff, what direction they may be leaning?

Because it was, again, at the end of the tournament, and I know it was a gold medal game, and it was one goal, but you look down at the end of the bench and like, did you really need Crider? Did you really need Brock Nelson? Were you missing another guy that could actually put the puck in the net? Did they give any indication or hints on where they're going roster-wise with that? Did you really need 20% of Macachuk?

There's one too, yeah. Yeah, lots of questions. No, I mean, they're not tipping their hand yet. I think, you know, we know some things about what team. I say it's going to look like. I'd be surprised that there's any huge augmentation on the blue line. When you consider Quinn Hughes coming back

and everything else that was already there, that clearly wasn't the problem in Four Nations. And so I think that that unit is pretty well set. You might see like a Seth Jones sneak in or something like that into the Olympic fold, but the D is pretty well where it's going to be. You know, the goal-tending,

you mentioned Demko, not being invited. I think they're pretty happy with the three that they bought to Four Nations. And then the forward spots the real question. In particular, the bottom six. And, you know, I'd be shocked of Kreider's there. I'd be shocked if Brock Nelson is there, although not shocked, actually. I think, I think Garron is kind of fond of his game. But they definitely have some, some room for younger players to slide in, or an extremely old one. Because to me, the biggest shock of Olympic orientation camp was Patrick Kane being there. And I know maybe he's there to, you know, be the Obi-Wan Kenobi

sage of Team USA and share some stories and have the young players get a chance to meet him. I don't know, but I talked to Kane, and the way he spoke about it was, you know, they invited him. And it was a legit invite. It was a legit, legit interest to see if he could be potentially a part of this team. It'd be an amazing story. I don't think it'll happen. But that, that to me, more than anything else, was what really stood out about that Olympic camp roster in the summer. I don't think it was a shock that young guys like Celebrini and Bard were invited to Canada's camp because one day they're going to play for Canada. What do you think about their chances for playing for Canada at these Olympics?

I talked to Bedard. He was actually pretty funny about this. He's like, look, I'm really young and I didn't have a very good first half of last season. So I'm not going to be, in his words, but hurt about not being on the Canadian Four Nations team. I'm like, all right, that's good, that's good focus and context for this young man to understand. Good self-awareness? Yeah, good self-awareness. I like to see that personality come out maybe, you know, a little bit more in speaking to him at things like the players' media tour.

But, you know, of the two and of the young players, I think Celebrini's got the most juice. And he's pretty well established himself as being mature beyond his years. I think there was a lot of people that were impressed with the way that he played a complete game last season. And then, you know, it all depends on how Team Canada wants to structure things. Like, do they want to do the thing where they put a Celebrity on the way? roster knowing that A, he could contribute if called upon, but B, that he's going to be one of the guys that leads this team four years from now. It remains to be seen, but I think that of the younger players, like, he clearly has the most interest. And let's not also forget

boys, he also has the, he was knighted by Sidney Crosby at World Championships. This guy's great. We love him a lot. He's so good. The Cole Harbor boys were all on the Malcolm Mountain, the Celebrarini train. So that's also probably playing into it as well. Here's a, here's a kind of, this is a tough question, but I know you're very smart, and I know you have a lot of opinions. Who has a brighter future? Anaheim, San Jose, or Chicago?

In the near term, or overall? Let's go three to four years out. I think probably my answer is San Jose. Because I just really like the, I mean, when you have Celebrini Smith and Mesa, that's a pretty good starting point. They have some, something, you know, they're going to need to help on the back end. They're going to have to figure out the goaltending. But I think that ultimately, when they get close again, that ownership group has shown

no hesitation to try to build out a team around a good core in the past. Now, has that changed? I don't know. But to me, you know, the minute they look like they're about to turn the corner, I think that's when you start to see the funding of the team increase. Anaheim is really interesting to me only because they've got so many pieces in place and they also have some really, really good pieces on the back end.

They're one of the teams, honestly, this year that I'm scratching my head about because, like, Joel Claimville didn't miss. I mean, say what you will about the guy, but, like, you didn't miss a lot. And, you know, this was already a team that amassed a pretty decent amount of points last year on the strength of their goaltending

being better than we thought it was going to be. And, you know, Leo Carlson's great. the McAvish thing is kind of a headache but they've got some really interesting pieces in place they're one of the teams that I'm wondering if could even make the leap this year and then Chicago is just like you know they're they're

an extreme they're the slowest of the builds and the problem for them right now is that the fulcrum for that build Bedard we don't know what he's going to be quite yet like he may just be a really good goal score that doesn't manifest into being the kind of

franchise level player that Carlson and Celebrini are for the ducks and sharks, respectively. And it just seems like, you know, in order to acquire him, they really strip that thing down to the foundations, and it's a slower build than the other two have. One more L.A. team or California team that I want to talk about is the L.A. Kings. What does the Kopitar announcement make for this team? Halford and I had a lot of fun trolling Oilers fans over this announcement

because, you know, it just makes sense that another Edmonton Oiler great goes down to L.A. and there's going to be cap space and certainly a positional need down in L.A. When Kopitar leaves, even though they do have Byfield down there. First of all,

I like what you said. I want to ask about one more California team as if there's like one in Sacramento we're ignoring at this point. Yeah, yeah. Like, we only have one more to go. We might as well just knock it out. Are you trying to tell me that the, let's just play conspiracy theory here for, let's play it out, okay?

Do the L.A. King's hire Ken Holland, knowing that he had a good relationship with McDavid and be able to help recruit him. And then sign his good friend, Cody Cici, just putting the pieces together over here, buddy. And, you know, bring over whoever Connor needs to feel more comfortable. Corey Perry? I bet, you know. Obviously, this is happening. Yeah.

Lauren Kyle could probably find some pretty decent storefront space in Los Angeles to continue her businesses that are driving in Edmonton. Bigger market. I was told he'll never leave because obviously she has businesses in Edmonton, which, you know, in no way could ever transfer to a large American city. Never. Listen, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, it's clearly one of the teams that's probably keeping its powder dry in. And honestly, like, if he does decide to leave Edmonton at any point,

it's going to be because he doesn't believe that they are positioned to stay in Stanley Cup contention for the perpetuity of his contract. And, you know, Los Angeles has some really interesting pieces. Byfield being one of them, you know. They've got some younger players. They've got some guys in their prime. It's an amazing place to live. They can afford him.

So I'm not, I don't think, I think drawing the, connecting the dots from the Kolopatar retirement is probably too much, but the idea that he couldn't end up there, I think, is, or the idea that he could end up there, rather, I think is not too outlandish. So I always assume that the wild would just be able to resign Caprizov. I don't know why I assume that. I guess maybe there was just not much noise out there that I had heard. I'd wonder if you had heard any noise before this whole thing started bubbling up

or what your opinion of the situation in Minnesota is right now? Yeah, I had heard it was a situation where it wasn't guaranteed he wanted to stay in Minnesota. And it's not any slight to the wild or any slight to Craig Leopold's checkbook, which obviously opened up as wide as it had in NHL history to try to sign the guy. But ultimately, you know, when you see someone reject the richest contract in an NHL history, and then you have Mike Russo of the Athletic who is tied into this franchise as anybody say that there hasn't really been any discussions

about a shorter term contract for Coppitar for Caprisoff in the wild then you start to wonder okay well is this really about Minnesota and you know there are certain situations around the league right now that you have to keep an eye on as far as him and one of them is the Rangers where he's tight with Chichurkin

it's obviously a place where Russians love to go and play and they could play around with the money a little bit to make this thing work, i.e. Panarin won't be there anymore and yada, yada, yada, you know, I think when you start to see the decisions that his camp is making, you start to wonder if it's really manifesting into another, Matthew Kuchuk doesn't want to resign in Calgary situation, and then if that's the case in the wild, they're going to have to take action on it.

Speaking of the Rangers, what did you think about J.T. Miller getting the C in New York? My first thought was how it played out your way. Delicious. Oh, we just heard about it. That's actually the first I've heard of it, Wish. I mean, my God, it's like, you know, the high school bully becomes class president, right? That's a good way of putting it. No, I mean, it makes total sense to the Rangers because the whole impetus of acquiring him was not only his prowess and scoring points, but it was also they wanted to be a J.T. Miller-esque team in the way that they play.

And, you know, if you look at the roster right now, there's still some remnants of the previous core, one of them being Mika Zavadaad. But overall, like J.T. Miller, blunt force trauma. Will Cooley, blunt force trauma. You know, Matt Rempay, blunt force trauma. Like, they've got a lot of guys that are going to be more in the mode of the gritty head-down north-south type player that J.T. Miller is. And that's kind of the way that Chris Rurie and James Nolan want to kind of form this core. ultimately, I think it's probably the only decision they could make. I don't really know what the team would have benefited if Vincent Trotrach's your captain or Adam Vox is your captain. If you think that J.T. Miller is the model. If you think he's the guiding light for the franchise, you might as well put the C on him. One more before we go.

Two of the greatest Russian players of this generation of Jenny Malkin and Alexander Ovechkin, is it going to be both of their last years in the NHL? You'll read the T leaves on this one? So I went to Capitals camp last. week. And obviously, you know, the news from there was that OV doesn't know if it's going to be his last season. And everyone I spoke to on and off the record around the Capitol's swears that they don't know if it's going to be his last season either. In fact, I had one source

telling me, look, if he goes out and scores another 44 goals, he may want to stick around. He's having fun. And there's no, like, guarantee that just because his contract is up, that he's not going to come back for another season. In Malkin's case, I don't know. I mean, like that's the real mystery for me is his comments recently about you know what the future could look like it is it going to be in Pittsburgh is it not going to be in Pittsburgh um just because we've all been waiting for like one piece of that core to go and uh if it's geno that goes first then that could certainly make for some interesting times for sid i don't i tend to believe that it will be the last season for ovechkin that's just my my hunch like

I could see a situation where he pulls a Gretzky and kind of announces late in the season that it's going to be it. And then, you know, we all rush to buy tickets and laud the guy and what have you. But my pet theory, and this is in no way validated during my conversations in Washington, is it would have been really unfair to his team and his teammates to take over another season. Like if he had pulled a Kopitar and said that this is it, it for me. Well, now it's the Gretzky Chase part two. Like, every single stop is, you know, people giving, Ovechkin gifts, like he's Mark Andre Fleury. So it wouldn't shock me if he decides he's going to go out on top, but announces it later in the year. But again, like, I can only

report whatever can report, which is that there's some people in the Caps organization that don't, don't necessarily believe wholeheartedly that this will be his last season. Well, Wish, I'm just excited that we are only six days away from the New York Jets at the Miami Dolphins on Monday night football and, you know, I'm going to be watching those jets and dolphins. I'm sure you're very nervous about this game

and it's going to be an incredible contest. We have known each other for way too long and in that time I have probably said on the show multiple times, maybe Jets fan is finding new and creative ways to lose. and blocking a field goal attempt and running it in for a touchdown to take a lead against the bucks, only to have Baker Mayfield basically walk down the field and then they win the game. And having our coach literally step dance when they score the touchdown to take the lead.

Like, that was a new one. That was a new one even for this beleaguered jet sand. So yes, looking very much forward to seeing advance further. up the draft board here in which there is not a franchise quarterback. Aaron Glenn went right into meme immortality in one week. It was perfect. Okay, Wish, we got to go. We're up against it for time. Thanks for doing this, bud.

Any time. Greg Wischinsky from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We've got to go to break. Before we do, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. It's another season of hard hits. Heated rivalries and nonstop entertainment for tickets. Visit BCLions.com and get ready to roar as one. of one. Hour one is in the books.

Brendan Batchel is going to join us next on the other side to kick off hour two. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.