Halford & Brough in the Morning - OK, Let's Start The Trades Now

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason talk the latest hockey trade rumours with NHL insider Frank Seravalli (1:35), plus the boys discuss what the two-time Stanley Cup finals-losing Oilers will do next with Sports 1440 Edmonton's Jason Gregor (27:48). 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.

Frank! Cera Valley Cera Valley Cera Valley Frank! Cera Valley Frank! Cera Valley

Frank! Cera Valley Frank! Cera Valley Frank! Frank! Cerebelli! Frank! Frank! 703 on a Tuesday! Happy Tuesday everybody! Frank! Nope, Wednesday.

It's way out there. I always get days of the week mixed up. You're only one day off. Yeah, that's true. Feels like this year didn't say Monday or Friday, right? I was like, what day is it? You are listening to the Haliford and Bruv show on a Wednesday on sportsnet 650 how for the brother I had to look at my watch. I was like that doesn't sound right Tuesday. It kind of felt right, but then it felt wrong

Yeah, it's why I hung it in the ether there You are listening to the health for the brush show on sportsnet 650 halford and bref of the morning is brought to by sands and associates Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Homonuck at jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around

to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at jason.mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Our next guest comes courtesy of the Power West Industries hotline and he is a presentation of angry otter liquor.

Frank Saravalli from Daily Face Off joins us here on the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Frank, how are you? Pretty good, how you boys doing? We're good, thanks for taking the time to do this as always, we appreciate it. So we will touch very briefly on the Stanley Cup final because we're equally excited about the off season that's to come and all this

news that maybe has been stacking up here. But your takeaway is from maybe not just necessarily last night in game six and in fact, a victory for the Panthers, but an emphatic season and two in a row for this Florida team, which we were talking about it for the first hour of the program, truly the best of the best in the national hockey league. You know, they're the top team in the NHL and they proved it throughout the last two playoffs, uh, the team building, the talent level, the depth, all of it on display, especially last night in the victory over the Edmonton Oilers.

Yeah. Undisputed best team. I mean, that doesn't always happen with the Stanley Cup champion, despite the nature of the playoffs. But I think we can all agree three Stanley Cup finals in three years, two Stanley Cups. And to be honest, an utter run of dominance over a really good Edmonton Oilers team. They had the Oilers off their axis and off kilter pretty much from puck drop. And it wasn't just, hey, we're going to take you into the alley and beat you up. It was also, we're going to outplay you any which way you want and we're going to force you to do uncomfortable things with the puck. And that was on display. Plus you mentioned the team building

and I couldn't help but be drawn to the cohesion that this group has. I mean, for a team that won it last year, I mean, think about their Stanley Cup order and how they passed it along. They went to all the guys who had never won it before. Nate Schmidt, Thomas Nosik, AJ Greer, go through the list. These guys were getting it. Mackie Samuskevich didn't even play in the cup final. I don't know

if he played much at all in the playoffs. He gets a turn with the cup, VTEC Vanecek, who didn't play at all. Sergey Bobrovsky played every minute of this. And yet those guys are getting the cup, Seth Jones before, you know, key contributors, Marshon and Bennett and all these other guys. To me, that just tells you their thought process and how they think about it requiring everyone. I know the Panthers might lose some of the guys. They might lose Marshon, they might lose Echblad.

I think they'll probably manage to keep Bennett. But the scary thing for the league is Barkov is still 29. Kachuk's 27. Reinhardt's 29. You know, like their guys, their main guys are Lundell's 23 and he could be better. You know, he's already very good. This team isn't going anywhere, is it? Probably not.

I mean, that's the beauty of the Seth Jones trade, right? I mean, you have him for five more years and yeah, they'll probably have a decision to make at some point with Sergei Bobrovsky as he continues to age, but you're right. Carter Verhege didn't start his next contract yet. And Sam Bennett is about to likely embark on a new one with the Panthers. And, and then you hear Bill Zito say after the game last night that he thinks he can bring them all back, which I think is a tall order and almost impossible, but your point is well made.

Like this team is the beast of the East and they don't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. And in fact, when you think about Matthew Kachuk having a point per game postseason, doing it on one leg after tearing the adductor muscle off of his bone and dealing with a hernia at the same, same time on the same side of his body, what would have happened if Kichuck had been fully healthy these playoffs? What would have happened if, you know, go through the list? It's possible to envision a team that's actually more dangerous

than its current iterations. Meanwhile, you've got the Edmonton Oilers that, you know, you look at some of their complementary players to McDavid and Dreissel and there's a lot of guys getting into their 30s. I'm thinking about Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, Vander Kane, Matias Atkom. How different do you think this Oilers team could look next season? I mean I think the core of it is is likely going to remain the same but I think your question about the periphery of it is is certainly in question. I mean there's no doubt that this Oilers team arrives at a little bit of a crossroads. No one's taking anything away from them for losing to a team like the Panthers.

But at the same time, I went through this exercise last night during the third period. I can't find a team in any of the major four professional sports that has gone to back to back finals, lost, and then ever actually got over the hump after the fact. I don't know that it's ever happened. So they've got a tall task in front of them. Um, they are obviously very motivated and their, their top end players are motivated, but they were also suffocated for the most part on the biggest stage.

So there's still more tinkering to do. I think their goaltending left a lot to be desired and was a key differentiator in the final round. And they also made some significant missteps on July 1st last summer. Any team that we think wins the day in free agency, whether it's the Nashville Predators or all the praise that was heaped on the Oilers

on July 1 on Canada Day last year, Victor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner were not only non-factors, but were barely even spare parts during this playoff run. So those dollars have to be allocated in ways that really are efficient and especially when Dricidal, his new deal kicks in and Evan Bouchard we know is do a massive raise that kicks in next season. It doesn't get easier for the Oilers moving forward than to pay Connor McDavid. it's gonna get harder.

How do you think they address the goaltending situation? Well that's really the tough part to figure out because you break out your calculator and do some of the math that I was just talking about. We're looking at 50 million dollars next season and beyond on four players. McDavid, Dreicl, Bouchard and Darnell Nurse. Darnell Nurse at nine and a quarter is the killer. So when you factor all those things in, how do you devote additional funding to your goaltending position? Unless you think you can get something in a similar vein or similar spend category

that's gonna massively improve your goaltending, I just, who's that gonna be? Are you gonna trade for John Gibson at six million a year? Besides that, Jake Allen is the guy who's the belle of the ball in free agency this summer. That doesn't really seem to inspire a ton of confidence. To bring it back to your market in Van, do you trade for Thatcher Demko? Would Thatcher Demko have any interest in going to Edmonton?

Would he be the answer with his health problems? I think they're in a real tough spot with their goaltending moving forward. Yeah. And would the Canucks be willing to trade Demco to a rival like the Edmonton Oilers? I think that's another question. Have you heard anything about- No, only Calgary and Vancouver are allowed to make trades, not Edmonton.

Cause Calgary doesn't threaten us. Um, does, have you heard anything on the, on the, on the Demco case or anything about anything Canucks wise? Cause I'm just wondering when it's all going to start to kick off here. I think it's, it's kicked off. Not so much on the goaltending front. I do think that there's a handful of teams that have been poking around on the goaltending

market, the flyers, the Devils, the Utah Mammoth, they've all been looking around. But in terms of what the Canucks are up to elsewhere, I mentioned with that and Dan earlier this week that I believe Vancouver is one of the teams that's been closely following and has called the Sabres on the JJ Peturko file. At varying points, I think they've had some interest in what a Bowen-Biram deal could look like. So that part has been ongoing and, and other than that, how I think we've all been yet to figure out or try and drill down on how the Canucks solve for that two C position that is certainly a glaring hole. Um, Marco Rossi is a name that has come up a lot.

What did the wild want in return for this? And would they entertain the idea of getting futures and then flipping them for something else? Yeah, I think they're pretty open. I think they would be willing to flip and take futures. I think they'd be willing to take on a roster player as well that they think could help them. And I understand how everyone has positioned the Marco Rossi situation. Some of it's

been accurate, some of it hasn't. They're not absolutely giving him away, like that's not how this is gonna work out. They don't mind Marco Rossi so long as he's at a dollar figure moving forward that they believe fits their cap and their roster structure. If you can get Marco Rossi to play 3C at $5 million a year, they're okay with that. But they're not okay with him being asked to play 1C or two C minutes and make 7 million a year and have that be how their team is structured. So that's the crossroads that they're at. And for other teams that are looking to improve, the big thing that they're

asking themselves is can he be a legitimate top six center as a five foot nine undersized player? Yeah. And that's a discussion we've had a bunch in Vancouver. Um, I know you mentioned this, uh, I don't know where you mentioned, but I saw it on social media. Do you have anything on the Canucks ownership situation? Well, just that it's been an ongoing tug of war behind the scenes that everyone has seen

the reporting of Paolo Franceschi, Paolo Accolini, excuse me, being separating himself from the rest of the family business and him essentially being bought out. That part has dragged on for a bit. And I think anyone who has positioned it as mostly done or nearly across the finish line is probably a little bit premature from my understanding. And that I think everyone's hoping that this could be wrapped up by the start of the regular season, but there's still some hurdles to clear. And I think that current going on behind the scenes has just created another additional layer of what everyone would say has been an ongoing drama

in Vancouver. I was gonna say one more on this cause I didn't wanna get to some of the other teams that are making some noise right now, but with regards to landing spots, and we're talking about a summer where a lot of teams have cap space and a lot of teams are looking to improve, and a lot of teams want to bring players

into their respective markets. How much does a situation like that deter players from coming because we just finished a Stanley Cup final where everyone had such glowing things to say about the culture that they built in Florida and the work that they've done from the top down from the owner Vinny Viola to the general manager Bill Zito. And I know in the aftermath of a Stanley Cup win, the, you know, model franchise stuff is always talked up.

But I think in the case of Florida, we are seeing something about, it's more than just a great collection of players. It's a very good culture and organization and top down that they've built. How much does the inverse of that detract players from wanting to go somewhere in either via free agency or trade? I don't know that I necessarily see that as being a hindrance to player movement. Okay. But I think certainly the idea that Okay. But I think certainly the idea that there's tons of cap space and teams are looking to improve as opposed to being in positions previously where they'd have to pluck players off of their roster is what's working against the current environment that we're all hoping for which is lots of player movement. I mean,

I've, you know, obviously going back and forth with managers throughout the week and trying to figure out the market. I was actually, as I'm talking to you guys, I'm scrolling through one of my text message conversations with a manager and he says, I'll just read you word for word. one of my text message conversations with a manager and he says, I'll just read you word for word. Teams are all looking to add, quote, I can't see someone subtracting to the point of giving team X what they need to make them feel like they're getting better in that equation. So like, that's the push and pull here is for the first time in a long time, we've got light at the end of the tunnel on the salary cap situation. No one's feeling the heat or pressure to make a move to create flexibility. Cause a lot of people have it. Yeah. And with that,

you're creating an environment where everyone's looking to add. And that's hard. Well, are there some hockey trades out there as they call them? I don't like that phrase because they're all hockey trades, but you know, one for ones, uh, because there should be at the very least the flexibility for these general managers to get creative. Yeah.

And I think there's some of that going on, but what have we talked about forever, which is a lot of teams are risk averse and the idea of making a hockey trade as the ability to make you look silly in a hurry and making a futures trade or trading for futures or trading, know futures away. It's a lot easier because the verdict on that is a long ways off How much more active is Chris jury going to be with the New York Rangers? Mikas Benajed's name has been in trade rumors and I know that I believe it was on one of the daily face-off shows this week You mentioned that there was a lot of smoke around Kay Andre Miller So the Rangers are going to continue to be really active here. Chris Curry is highly motivated to make his team better from a president's

trophy-winning team a couple years ago to missing the playoffs this past season. And with that I don't think Mika Zabanajad is going anywhere. His name, I haven't heard it. I think there's been a lot of online speculation and innuendo. But with that contract, with the control that he has with the signing bonus remaining, there's a lot of risk for any team that would acquire it, particularly at a player who is coming off of a down year. So they're going to try and rehab his game and get him in a better position. And Mike Sullivan has already dug in to do that work.

Well, with regards to Miller on the backend, I mean, he was on our trade targets board last season in March, leading up to it. They were taking calls then. I think it was a harder trade to make at the time. And a lot of teams see a player that has such an efficient and athletic skating ability and size that they can, they believe they can make them into something better than he is now. And the Rangers understand that proposition also know that they need to get better,

specifically defending in front of Igor Shisterkin. And even if they were comfortable keeping him, I think their big question is, well, two of them is he the right fit one and two, what do we pay this guy? And that part you're arriving at that juncture now with him being a restricted free agent real quick Or it might not be quick is a big question before I let you go Pittsburgh There's so many things coming out of here with guys that are available They feel like the one team that's actually kind of identified as a seller a team that's open to doing business Because they're entering maybe not necessarily great unknown, but it's a different future now

I know there's a future of aalkund with one year left on his deal. There's a lot of talk around Chris LaTang and his future, not necessarily with trades, but just what's going to happen. Brian Rust is apparently up for trade. Ricard Raquel is up for trade. So what are you hearing out of Pittsburgh right now? Yeah, I think Kyle Dubas is open for business. I don't think that includes Malkin. They would have traded the Tang previously if that contract was tradeable. I think Eric Carlson is another name that they're certainly open to moving, but at 10 million bucks, it might be difficult.

Brian Rust has been out there. They should have probably taken the deal that was on the table for Ricard Raquel, um, at the deadline, they decided against that. And now has a blank canvas this summer to remake this Penguin team in his own fashion, which he really hasn't been able to do so far since taking over as GM. Frank, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. We appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again next week. See you guys.

See you later. Frank Zerbelli from Daily Faceoff here on the Haliford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. That was really interesting. The text message that he read from one of the managers and it's kind of one of the things we've been talking about the Canucks have this plan to, you know, remake what half of their top six?

Tough environment to do it in. And we just keep coming back to like, how are they gonna do it? Tough environment to do it in. Feels like it's, which they have had a history of doing is making one move to set up a second move. But in this instance, it might be, well, we have to make one move to set up a second move.

And that's a third move, and then maybe there's a fourth move. set up a second move, and that sets up a third move, and then maybe there's a fourth move. That's the kind of layers that you're gonna need. What are you talking about? What? What are you talking about? Give me an example of how that would play out, all those moves.

Well, it wouldn't. That's what I'm saying. In this market, it's not gonna be as simple as, well, we're gonna trade for someone else's asset and then move that asset out the door. We're gonna acquire a pick and then package it with somebody else. There just aren't many teams. Because everyone wants to get better.

Yeah. And there aren't any teams in desperation mode. You think back how, how the Canucks got JT Miller. Well, the Lightning were in a cap crunch. Yep. And for the last five or six years, because of the pandemic, we've been in a cap crunch in the NHL and now teams aren't.

There are teams up against the cap, like the Rangers and, you know, but there are none that are, we're a really good team and we just can't keep all these great players. You know, Florida, yeah, they're going to have to make some decisions there, but I don't think the Canucks are in the market to sign Brad Marchand. And if the other big name player that leaves

the Panthers is Aaron Echblad, I don't, I don't think that's a conversation for them either. So it just seems like there's no, I mean, there's, I guess there are some names like Marco Rossi, that's out there, but Laddy, you just listened to the most recent 32 Thoughts. Now Buffalo could be, JJ Paterka could be available, but Buffalo is going to want players.

Like they need NHL players. They're not going to be like, oh great, more draft picks and prospects. Awesome. That's worked out so well for us. Yeah. You can say, well, they can flip them. It's like, well, how about we just skip the whole

flipping part and we just trade JG. If Paturka doesn't want to be here, we'll get, we'll get a player. We'll make a hockey trade with some team and Alex Tuck, who's a guy that a lot of people in Vancouver are like, well, get them out of there. What, what does Freach say about Alex Tuck? Well, he just basically poured a lot of water

on everyone's trade proposals that haven't gone around because he just said it's super tough to make deals this time of year because everybody feels like they want to get better for next year. And these teams that you mentioned aren't going to be taking draft picks and prospects back. They want players that can play now. They want players.

Especially in the Rossi case. The Wild really don't want to get worse by trading Rossi. They want to at least be even or better. So it's very difficult. There's also going to be a lot of teams in on all these guys. Like if you look, if you read the stuff that Frank's doing at daily face off, there's a bunch of teams that are interested in Paterka and teams that quite honestly are probably a little bit closer to winning a Stanley Cup or being a playoff contender. And it sounds like Prochureka might not even be on the market. It's sounds like it was just a lot of rumors over nothing. I think the point I was trying to make earlier

facetiously is that it might be the, well, it's the chess moves is you have to make three moves in advance to make the move you actually want to make. And doing that in a highly competitive market where everyone else is trying to do the same thing, get to the end game, you know, either, you know, call a checkmate or anything. NHL players on your team. It's really tough. It's not going to be as straightforward as before.

Like you talked, I mean, I remember in a smaller scale when the Canucks got Jason Dickinson and it was like, he fits our needs and Dallas is in a crunch and they can't afford to keep him. So we get him. Yeah. And it was really straightforward. Nate Schmidt is the same thing. It's like a pluck and away. And that doesn't exist anymore. Now it's almost funny because the machinations would have to be like a bunch of moves in advance to try and get to that point. And again, this managing group has shown an ability to take an asset from one deal and

quickly move on to making another deal. But it's in an environment now, it's a brave new world for the National Hockey League. Cap space, no cap crunches. And there are a lot of teams looking to get better. And there are reports that the cap's going to go even more than was anticipated over the next few years. So we'll see how the Canucks fare with this, but, uh, man, it's, if they pull this off, they'll have, uh, done some really good work.

Tip my cap to you, Vancouver Canucks. Uh, before we go to break, I need to tell you about the Vancouver Giants. It's never too early to get your Vancouver Giants season's tickets. Tickets start at under $19 at vancouvergiants.com forward slash season tickets. Coming up on the other side of the break, Jason Greger sports 1440 in Edmonton. Yeah, we're going to Edmonton the day after the Edmonton Oilers lost their second

consecutive Stanley cup final. You're listening to the Halford and brush show on sports net six 50. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Strance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to two on Sportsnet 650 or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. Florida goes back to back check. Consecutive cups for the Cats. The takeaways that we didn't win.

It's... I don't know. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. We didn't win. 7.34 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650.

Halford Brough for the morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. I'm just looking at the ConsMite voting. It's pretty close actually. Sam Bennett finished with 76 points.

Marshawn, 68. So Marshawn was pretty close to winning the Consmite trophy. Pabrowski, 10 points. Dreisaitl, 7 points. And Forsling got a third place vote in the Constellate Trophy. I think Bennett got 11 of the possible 18 first place votes. The voting overall margin, yeah, it was tight. And that makes sense.

I mean, I was debating back and forth if I had a vote where I would have gone. I think maybe Marshawn giving his work in the cup final, but it's hard to argue with Bennett 15 goals and then he said a Stanley Cup playoff record with 13 road goals very I just assumed it would have been Bennett I wasn't surprised and then I was listening to the panel last night And and there was a couple that were saying that they give her their vote would have gone to Bobrovsky and I was nodding Along I'm like, yeah, I want to be friends with laddie still I'll agree with that Are we still afraid to save face? Yeah We are in our two of the program here by the way jason

greger from sports 1440 and ebbenton is going to join us in just a moment here our two of this program is brought to you by jason hominik at jason.mortgage if you love paying too much for your mortgage then don't let jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you visit him online at jason.mortgage to the phone lines we go jason greger from sports 1440 and ebbmonton joins us now on the Haliford and brush show on sports net six 50 morning. Jason, how are you? Good fellas. You were good. It's been a eventful morning, obviously.

A lot of praise for what the Florida Panthers did not just last night, but over the course of this entire playoff and all the last year's playoff as well. And I was scrolling through your timeline on On Twitter and you had one where you laid out all the things That Florida did over the course of this series and how they were fully deserving of the cup It kind of reiterates what we said in the first half hour of our program that The Oilers just lost to a better team and really the best team in hockey right now Is that sort of the feeling that you and a lot of other people in Edmonton woke

up to this morning? Well, yeah, I think, um, you know, now Edmonton plays a part in that. I, I didn't love Edmonton's game. I thought, you know, their giveaways, I thought they were, they started slow in a lot of the games you're playing, catch up most games. So that doesn't help you. Um, you know, you look at games five and six and, you know, they gifted them some goals and just some atrocious giveaways that Florida just didn't make it.

The better team doesn't beat themselves and I don't think Florida did. Florida's depth, what do they tie the orders in the Highlanders of having that many 20 point guys? So hey, they're a deep team. There's no question about it. Deserving of the victory. I know there's some people, hey, they're over the cap. Well, actually, if you look at their cap hit of just in the playoffs, and I like to look at the 20-man roster because I think that's a

legitimate rule that they could change to simplify the salary cap is your salary cap, your 20 man roster in the games has to be cap compliant. That would solve any excuse. Now, a Seth Jones and a Brad Marchand, they're not seven and 6.1, they're what they're, you know, they're capped at from what they were acquired during the regular season. And Florida wasn't over the cap, if you look at it that way.

So, you know, they made them fair and square and they're a good team and it's, it's hard to win. So, you know, to win back to back, it's what, the third time in the last decade, we've had consecutive champions and kind of shows you like, when you have good teams, you know, they stay good, right? Like, Edmonton's a really good team. Yeah. They just, they can't beat Florida.

So, when it was all done, or maybe just this morning, where do you start with the Edmonton Oilers off season? Where, where do they have to improve and what can they possibly do? Um, because we're, we're sitting in Vancouver here and, uh, we're wondering, um, with all the aggressive teams out there and, uh, teams with cap space now and looking at more

and more cap space over the next few years, it's going to be hard to get good players. It's going to be easy probably to acquire futures and draft picks, but not so easy to get the actual players because there's going to be so much competition for them. Yeah, no, it's totally valid. I think that, you know, there's, there's lots of

more cap space. So this is going to be the summer of Omer payments. Like let's, you know, July 1st historically is where, you know, teams lose sanity and, and mistakes. Most of the big mistakes are made on July 1st. If we look at historically for contracts,

there's the odd one that, you know, a team, you know, we've seen teams who win, they get loyal to guys and then they pay them seven or eight years, you know, a team, you know, we've seen teams who win, they get loyal to guys and then they pay them seven or eight years, you know, when they're 30 and those contracts don't age very well, right? Like you look at the Sharks and the Blackhawks and they had some prime examples of it. But most of the big contracts that don't work out, you know, are signed on on July 1. So, you know, teams are,

you know, like look at last year, all the Nashville Predators won free agency, they did everything. Oh yeah, how'd that work out? They finished what, 14th in the Western Conference? So I don't expect Edmonton, like they got a re-sign at a bouchard, so that's their big signing. But what Edmonton's gonna have to be good at is you have to go out and I think there's a few tweaks they need to make to the roster and I think there's a few tweaks they need to make to the roster and I think there's few tweaks especially against Florida right like Edmonton in the offensive zone tried to beat Florida by being on the perimeter but they had no one in front of the net. Bobroski

played well because he saw every damn shot almost there wasn't a lot of screen so I think Edmonton has to go out and find some guys who are comfortable being around the net. Right? Like they obviously miss Zach Hyman. So him coming back will be a huge boost. Right? Like that was, you know, that was a crushing loss. And that's when it's a series is that close, you lose one key player. That could be the difference in a series. So I think that'll be there. Edmonton is going to want another right shot defenseman for sure that they can play that, you know, they had guys like Kulak's better on his left side than he is on his right side. there. Edmonton is going to want another right shot defenceman for sure that they can play. They had guys like Kulak's better on his left side than he is on his right side.

But I think they're going to trade Arvidsson or they're going to try to trade Arvidsson. I think they're going to have to move out some other guys because they don't have a lot of cap space. So we'll see now. This is kind of Stan Bowman. He took over the team after July 1st last year. He was there when they decided not to match Holloway and Broberg. I never agreed with not matching Holloway. He's who I would have

matched for sure. Not saying he would have had 60 points at Edmonton, but you know, probably would have had 45 or 40. So, but I wouldn't have matched Broberg just because it didn't make cap sense. And now we'll see like his, his act Trent Frederick's the guy I think they want to sign. But we'll see after that, his act, Trent Frederick's a guy I think they want to sign. Um, but we'll see after that, like Corey Perry had an unbelievable year, right? It's an unreal year, but yeah, I can look at it too ways.

I can look at it harshly and say, well, if you want to get to the cup and lose, then you'd sign Corey Perry, but you know, non jokes aside, you know, he's 40 years of age and is he going to be able to redo that again? Like, I don't know. I would sign him if he wants to come in at a million, million two, but if he wants to get paid like a guy who scored 29 goals between the regular season and the playoffs, I just

don't think the Oilers can afford him. You mentioned a bunch of players there. Do you think Evander Kane will be back with the Oilers next season? He's got a partial no move clause. I think he's got a 16 team. I don't know. He's a real enigma at times. He didn't play great in the playoffs. He also didn't play all year. I think the adrenaline can catch up to you after a while. You get tired in the cup when you haven't played all year long. I know some people say, well, you should be rested.

Well, sure, but you're also rusty and stuff. So I don't know, they kind of need Kane because he's physical, but I think if they trade him, then obviously they signed Fredrick. Now Fredrick doesn't have the high-end skill of of Kane but he brings a lot of similar styles of Kane. After game one of the Stanley Cup final, Kane didn't do anything, barely noticed him in the games, too many undisciplined penalties. So I think if I had to wager odds, I would say there's a good chance that he won't be back. I think it would be like 55, 45, 60, 40 maybe. What do you think they'll do in goal?

Yeah, they'll look to make moves in goal. I know it's easy, like save percentage isn't the only statistic to look at here, right? And hey, Stuart Skinner could have made some better saves, sure, but when I look at this series, like Kevin Woodley outlined it, like Stewart Skinner did not allow one bad goal. He didn't even allow a goal on a mid range

change. Now maybe the, the sand bed, it went off his feet last night, but again, like went off the guy's skate. So, yeah, no, I didn't like his rebound on that. That was probably the whole playoff. So it was like, what are you doing?

So that wasn't good, but you know, I think they would probably like to go to a one a they're not a cap face. And first of all, there's no elite goalies available, right? Like the Islanders aren't trading you, Therouc, Chester and like, you know, Autinger or whatever, go down the list. Like, so who's you got to go find a goalie that, that you're going to bring in here and that you think can think can push Skinner and be

probably like a 1A, 1B situation. Because I don't know if you can just, I don't see, do you guys see any starters like bonafide, lock it down for starters? Because here's the thing, there's one in Winnipeg and he can't win in the playoffs to save his life. So, you know, goaltending is, is as much of it's a goalie and he need make good saves, but like Bobrowski, he didn't have any much traffic, right?

He made some, he made a few key breakaway saves. Don't get me wrong, but they played a really good system in front of them. And I think I've always argued in today's game, goaltending is as much about the system in front of you as it is the goalie himself. And I think Hellebuck is a great example. Let's talk about the blue line a bit more. I know you said they got to go out and get a right shot

and for sure they do. You know, Stetcher struggled and he was only in there because Klingberg was struggling pretty badly on that right side. Evan Bouchard is going to get his contract and I'm sure there'll be a lot of debate about that, whether or not he's worth it, whether he's too much of a liability to allow for all of his offense. But another guy that I'm wondering about is Matias Atkom.

I know he was coming back from an injury and it was a tough position to put him in, in the playoffs, but he's also 35 years old. What's the concern level with the Oilers blue line going forward because you got to find some guys and you've also got some guys that are getting a little old. Yeah, there is some concern there. I'm sure they'll look and say, okay, you know,

he was banged up. He didn't have a great year. Did at home, you know, his foot speed at times, you know, got exposed like the Marshawn goal in game five, I think was a great example of that. Um, you know, like Stan Bowman, Stan Bowman comes in here and he, the one thing he did in Chicago was, you know, like he took over the team the first year and they won the cup. And, you know, obviously Dale Talon was the real constructor of that team, but

then he had to go out and rejig the team and he kept the core, but he rejigged around it. So they won again and they had quite a few different players from 10 to 13. Right. So maybe they got the right guy to do it. You're, you, I think he learned maybe from the Seabrook contract in Chicago that, cause if you look at Tampa, and I think we're probably going

to see with Florida, teams now realize you can't pay guys for what they did to help you win the cup. You want to pay them for what they're going to help you do to win the cup moving forward. Right? Like Aaron Echblad, if Aaron Echblad wants to get eight or nine million, I just don't know if I see it in Florida because his foot speed is an issue. So and I think you can think can be said about Ekholm. He's entering the last year of his deal. Now if Ekholm ends up being your third pair right and he makes three million bucks on his next contract well you know that's a very different

conversation right. I just think eventually you know you'll see at home where his minutes come down a bit and he doesn't necessarily have to be the guy playing 24, 25. Jason, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this as always. We appreciate it. I imagine we'll be checking back over the next couple of weeks because there's a lot of off season business to attend to and it'll be interesting to see what Edmonton does. But thanks not just for this, but every time you joined us during the playoffs, it was a good run, fell short short but it was always great getting

caught up with you. Well yeah anytime guys yeah well I've talked to you guys because I'm curious about the Canucks what are they gonna do? We are too buddy we're gonna find out in the next couple of weeks it's a tall task but hopefully for our sake they're gonna need some goal scorers right like the Elu Miller and Besser. Well and they might lose Suder too, but you know, Jake DeBruska is still there. So, yeah. Thanks buddy.

Okay man, have a good one. Yeah, you too. Take it easy. Jason Greger from Sports 1440 in Edmonton here on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Speaking of goal scoring, Halford. Good segue. What a pro.

You've been very disciplined. Yep. And I know you were at BC Place last night for an absolute thrashing. Thumping, if you will. Six nil, Canada beats Honduras in their opener at the gold cup. On grass in front of 24,000 people at BC Place yesterday.

It was, okay, It was great for Canada. It started with an opening goal from the local boy, Nico Seeger from Burnaby. We went to the same elementary school, interestingly enough. Shout out St. Helens. We and then and then it just kind of rolled from there was very dominant. I only want to mention this just so I'm giving the proper context. They beat Honduras a Nation and a program that at one point

Was far far better than it is right now Yeah, they went back-to-back World Cups in 2010 2014 good research my friend I got as high as number 20 in the FIFA rankings when they beat now some will remember this is they quite famously Now some will remember this as they quite famously beat Canada 8-1 in Honduras in 2012 on the road to the 2014 World Cup. I remember that. Yeah, I'm not even a soccer fan and I remember that wasn't even to qualify for the World Cup It was to get into the hex was yeah It was back in the days of the hex I think was San Pedro Sula was the the scene But it was Canada's best chance in a long time. Yeah. Just severely disappointed. 8-1. Honduras put the boots to Canada.

It felt a long time since 13 years, but a little bit of revenge yesterday because this time it was on Canadian soil, on grass, as I mentioned, a BC place. What a great performance from Canada. You couldn't have asked for anything better. I just wanted to put into context of how bad the opponent was last night. Sure. It was a reflection of how much the Canadian program Has improved and how hard this Honduran program has fallen like the times that they fall and it's tough

But I'm gonna put you on the spot. Yeah, sure. Who's the fourth best team in CONCACAF? Oh, that's an interesting like is it Panama or something or Panama's in the mix Jamaica should be better than what they are Jamaica got off to a bad start in this tournament. They lost their first match to Guatemala, I want to say. They've done a really great job of recruiting all of the dual nationals that are playing in England, but it hasn't translated to on field success. Costa Rica is still in the mix.

You know, if you really want to go down the road here, Mexico opened its Gold Cup campaign against the Dominican Republic in a narrow three to win. Now, Dominican senior team is still a long ways away. But apparently, I was told this last night by one of my many sources at the match. Do the Dominican Republic has won a bunch of Conca Carly at the you're like, we can't just be baseball guys. I guess that's what happened.

They decided they wanted to branch out into other sports, so they could be on the rise. Anyway, the point is that- Baseball's so boring. Yeah, we could play the other sports. And they're like, what about soccer? It's all so boring. Let's try that.

Should we try it, though? Should we just try it? Anyway, the point being is that the landscape has changed in conca-caf. In Canada, I'm going to put this as bluntly as I can. Absolutely annihilated. Like Honduras had no business being on the pitch with Canada yesterday. It was as emphatic as you can get. And some of the post-match analysis was they came into this match and they knew that Honduras was an inferior opponent and they did not rest on anything.

Like they're like, we're going to go in here and we're going to kick ass and we're going to do it unapologetically. Like it's too bad that your program has fallen on hard times and it's too bad that you're not playing well at the moment, but you need to release here. This is our opportunity to put an emphatic number on the board. Like that, you, Laddie said this morning

when he was working the board, the CBS morning show that precedes this show was talking about Canada beating up on Honduras last night in the gold cup. What? Yeah. And the Stanley Cup final. We're just, all the sports headlines are coming from Canada.

It was one of those results where you kind of do, at the very least, an eyebrow raise. You're like, whoa, six-nil. Like, that's a big result for Canada. And the Americans had a big win in their first game of the gold cup as well. If you go into these tournaments. Or an even worse team, I would say,

Trinidad and Chicago. Trinidad is very poor. You go into these tournaments and you got us kind of say, hey, we're the top dogs. Now, the interesting thing about Canada is that there was a lot of guys in that lineup yesterday who were making their stake to be in the mix. I mentioned Nico Seeger, like the reason he's in there is because Alfonso Davies is out.

He was playing in the Davies spot. Nathan Saliba, who played in the middle of the park, he's with CF Montreal, he's 21 years old. He's on his way to Belgium to play for Anderlecht. He was really good. If you're at all this talent come from, where was it before? I mean, a lot of it has to do with the three MLS clubs

in their academies. You look at all these guys and there's a lot of guys that have come up through them. Like Seeger was at one point with the Whitecaps Academy. He got cut loose and then he found his own footing and went over to Croway Show. Okay. Right, but so that's part of it.

The growth of the game coast to coast, more kids playing, more talent identifiers, more kids I've noticed really taking the plunge to go to Europe at very young ages and try and work through the ranks. Yeah. Right. I mean, that's what Ali Ahmed did before he came back and then rediscovered the white caps and everything there. And now he was playing last night as well. How much of is it our best athletes are now getting priced

out of hockey? Big part of it. I mean, the athleticism on display last night was so evident. We were saying like, they would set traps all over the field for the hundreds to play into, and then just turn the ball over the midfield and then relentlessness. They couldn't deal with Tejan Buchanan speed down the line.

They couldn't deal with Tani Oluweshe strength up front, the second goal that he scored from a crazy angle. That's just athleticism. Then on comes- How old is he? He is 25. Okay. I wanna say.

They brought on Promise David in the second half, another big, rangy four. They've just got incredible depth. And Marsh, the style that he wants to play is, we're gonna make your life a living hell for 90 minutes. We're going to press. We're going to turn balls over. We're going to come at you with speed and there's going to be a relentlessness about us that we might concede. They conceded some chances yesterday, but we're going to make your life very difficult for very long stretches and you

need speed and athleticism to do it. And you know what the other thing is, is youth. You need young, very exuberant it. And you know what the other thing is, is youth. You need young, very exuberant players. And like Seeger's really young, the center back, Dufusio's really young, Saliba's really young. And they just seems like there's always another one ready to go play. They brought on Schaffelberg.

I felt like kind of mean. It was mean that they did it. They brought him on in like the 80th minute. When he was fresh. Yeah, and he's like, he's one of the fastest guys out there He's just running down the line. Just going it guys. It was a lot of fun I had a really good time last night at BC place. It was good I wish Johnny was still doing sports page so he could

Have a dad joke about promised David. So he shows a lot of problems. Do you remember? Yes, you're a Marion Hossa Haas a lot of potential Young Marion Hossa, has a lot of potential. That's a good gag. That's one of the screw-n-its lines. The blonde man. It's a pretty good gag. Young Marien Hossa, yeah, has a lot of potential. I got a question for you, Halford. It's a good, that's one, that's a good line. Two, yeah.

I was reading up about the 2011 loss to Honduras. 2012. Well, it was for the 2012 cup, but it happened in 2011. MLS MVP Dwayne De Rosario was out. And also several players had what they believed to be food poisoning. So is that just a standard Team Canada like trope when they lose badly?

We all just had food poisoning. You know, I don't like to go there because every country has its own unique richness when it comes to foods and the way that they prepare them. That match in Honduras, Honduras kind of had the food poisoning and they were still gonna bump Canada. I did, that was one of the most embarrassing

one-sided matches. They were so scared, so scared. That was Atiba Hutchinson's sort of breaking point with the national team. He took, I mean, he was like, well, I'm not gonna do this anymore. And then of course, 10 years later, he comes back to qualify for the World Cup with Canada.

Yeah, it was a dark time for that program. You know where they were ranked at that point? They were 115th in the world. I was gonna say in the hundreds. Yeah they were in with countries that like had just been born right and they're like we're now we're ahead of Canada in the FIFA rankings it was wild. Okay we're way up against it for time. I mentioned BC Place if you want to go to BC Place this weekend. School's out and summer's here. Kick it off at the BC Lions summer camp game as mentioned at BC place this Saturday, June 21st at 4pm for details and tickets.

Visit them online at bclions.com coming up. We're going to talk a little Abbotsford Canucks Brandon Astle play by play voice of the Abbey Canucks is going to join us next on the Halford and Bref show on sports net six 50.