Halford & Brough in the Morning - Penguins Prime + Don Waddell

Episode Date: August 28, 2024

Mike Halford and Jason Brough look back at the previous day in sports. They are joined by Columbus Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell to talk about about the changes on the team and expectations heading into the season.  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.

Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-d Turning down the avenue. Might find its way to Adekube here. Danger. Big danger. There's the opener. It hasn't taken long. Ryan Gould on target. There's nary an animal alive that can outrun a Greece Scotsman. Good morning, Vancouver. Six o'clock on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody.

It is Halford. It is Broffitt. It's Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

When do the sports start? Not for another week. Lena, good morning to you. Hello. And Adog. Oh, my God, Adog. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Did you just call me Adog?

I did. You are now Adog. Hello, hello. Halford and Brad for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet. What, Mike Halford? What? I just ask you, what are you waiting for? Kintec and only Kintec.

You should just go. Why are you constantly waiting around for it? Kintec. I got to work on the delivery of Kintec, but we'll work on that later. We have a big show ahead. I heard you went on a trail run. How are your feet? Run is... I can't run at times. but we'll work on that later. We have a big show ahead. I heard you went on a trail run. How are your feet?

Run is... I can't run at times. So, Hoffer texted me last night. I was in trouble. I was in big trouble. He goes like... No, no. It was on the phone.

He called. You called me. I called you, and you were like out of breath. I'm like, what's going on here? You don't exercise. Are you eating?

What did I interrupt? Eating or something else? And he says, I'm on some trail, and I don't really know where I am. And all of a sudden, I just flash forward to the 11 o'clock local news. It's like a local man missing on a trail or something like that. Local fat man dies on a trail. So it's the Burnaby Lake loop which I've done parts of it countless times

because we used to train there all the time yeah I take my kids there I just didn't know I'd never done the full loop before so you got me about a third of the way in it was more a curious I was like I don't know exactly it was like a journey it was a journey to self enlightenment

and sore feet I didn't know where I was going I knew I'd get to the end of it because it's a loop right like you just keep going you'll get around it so i told jason i'm like i'm on the trail and i'm only like seven months out of achilles surgery so i can't run a ton i can run some and then i gotta stop and then i run again but i knew that there would be an ending i just didn't know what the ending would be okay how long were you on the trail for? Two hours. Two hours?

Yeah. That's not bad. It's all right. It was fine. I feel like you emerged from that 10K loop with like a full beard. My Yelp review of the trail was like, it wasn't glowing.

Like, there's some issues. There should be more signs. Some of them should tell you how long it is. But overall, it was fine. So that was my that was my Tuesday night it was okay uh as far as the Wednesday morning goes we have a big show ahead uh 6 30 Don Waddell's gonna join the program uh we just thought you know what let's see what general manager will join the show he's a friend of the show though he is this is like the third time we

found him on he used to come on not with regularity but he came on a couple times as the general manager of the carolina hurricanes now the general manager of the columbus blue jackets i don't know how much of the notes that i did that you read but um i went through his chronology since taking the job not that long ago some new faces in columbus he has been busy yeah i don't want to call it like it's his most famous quote too. It was like, we losing cannot be acceptable here anymore. Yeah. And he's made countless, like every level of the organization he's made changes. So well,

there's a new GM him. Yes. There's a new coach. Um, they're saying there's a new number one center. Now they're calling Sean Monahan that he is. Uh, yeah.

Let's play with Johnny Gaudreau. You would hope that Fantilli's can surpass him. Anyway, we can talk about that. Hey, train a Patrick Laine. And there's no more Patrick Laine. Yeah, so he's made a lot of changes, and he just took the job in late May. So Don Waddell is going to join the program at 630. It's 7 o'clock.

Mike Sando, who does the yearly, and I didn't realize how big of a thing this has become, the annual NFL quarterback tiers. Now, this is like tier one, tier two, tier three, not the tiers that I cry when I get lost on the Burnaby Lake Loop trying to run on a Tuesday night. Mike has been doing a huge media blitz for this thing. Like, if you look up Mike Sando on social media right now, he is doing interviews everywhere. So he's going to join us at 7 a.m i won't give out too many spoilers about who are the top tier quarterbacks in the nfl i'll just say this there's only three tier one quarterbacks in the nfl right now and this is a list i know who they're

yeah this is a list that gotta be right it's gotta be my homes don't do it don't do it don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Mahomes is on it, though. Good spoiler. Josh and Lamar. I got that one wrong? Yep. I got that one wrong. That was a big talking point in a lot of Mike Sandoz media availabilities. Lamar Jackson. Just to be fair, this isn't just one writer's individualized list. You've got NFL scouts, guys that are in coaching positions,

various skill positions, some advanced analytics guys, video scouts. So it's a pretty thorough and encapsulating list. And that's the reason why Mike's going to come on at seven o'clock

to talk some NFL quarterbacking. 730 Arda Ocal. Now, normally we have Arda's co-host at ESPN's NHL coverage, including the drop Greg Wyshynski on the show but we thought hey let's get the other half of the drop on so Art is going to join us at 7.30

Art is a Canadian wish. Yeah that's right I didn't know he was Canadian prior to doing the research yesterday he used to work for the Brampton Battalion of all teams so yeah we'll talk to Art at 7.30 you put together a list of unresolved NHL issues as we get closer and closer to the start of training camp.

And number one, of course, is- Yeah, I don't know if I'd call it a list of unresolved issues. I'd call it a list of things to look forward to this season since we've kind of talked the Canucks goalie drama to death. That's true. Like, that's an unresolved issue. That's an unresolved issue. 8 o'clock, Dan Robson from The Athletic is going to join us.

He is the co-author of a new book by Atiba Hutchinson. Atiba Hutchinson is the other author. It's his memoir. We'll talk about one of the

interesting, greatest Canadian players of all time. One of the most underappreciated and unrecognized athletes in his own country,

yet maybe one of the most famous athletes in Turkey, which is a very interesting dynamic. So we'll talk to Dan Robson about that. Ativa Hutchinson's memoir comes out, I believe, next month.

And we'll talk to Dan about co-authoring that with him. So Working Universe, 8 o'clock. Dan Robson, 7.30, Arda Okal. 7 o'clock, Mike Sandoz, 6.30, Don Waddell. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

What happened? I missed all the action because 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. So the Vancouver Whitecaps got through to their third consecutive Canadian championship last night with a 1-0 victory, a 1-0 victory over James Merriman's Pacific FC. We had James on the show yesterday to preview the match at BC Place. So they won over on the island. They won 1-0. Ryan Gould scored. Yes.

Last night, 1-0. Who scored? Ryan Gould. So many similarities between the two legs. Ryan Gould celebrating the news earlier yesterday in which he learned that he got a call up to the Scottish national team for the first time in over 10 years. 10 years he had gone between stints. And he still hasn't actually been capped by Scotland because the last time he was up, he didn't get a chance to get on the field. So Ryan Galt celebrated that with the goal.

The Vancouver Whitecaps celebrate with going to another Canadian championship. That Canadian championship will be here on September 25th, which is a Saturday. And in classic MLS and Whitecaps fashion, it is crammed right into the meatiest part of their schedule. They went three weeks without playing a single match. And then from September 14th to September 28th, a span of two weeks, they'll play five matches. So just some great, I mean, that's that league in a nutshell, really,

is they have so many different competitions and so many different matches. And the schedules are all over the place. Remember remember we went to that league's cup match in early august yeah i was so confused you're like why is nobody here and i was like well they only found out they were playing it four days ago right i was also i was like what is this that i'm watching right and you actually got to see a very good mexican team in pumas but i saw a lot of white caps blown chances too yeah they missed a few few. So they managed to score their one goal yesterday. Someone texted early to the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket

unsigned text, so it must be from Gary. Gary writes, hashtag WWL. The white caps won last night. It was less than convincing. Absolutely no killer instinct. It was about as comfortable as a 1-0 victory can be. I never really felt like they were.

Well, they scored early and they dominated possession, but they never added to their tally, but they didn't really need to. They didn't need the killer instinct against Pacific. Pacific doesn't score goals. They just don't. They're not good. And he also just texted in September 25th as a Wednesday.

Did I say Saturday? That's my bad if I said that. But anyway, September 25th as a Wednesday. Did I say Saturday? That's my bad if I said that. But anyway, September 25th is when the Canadian Championship will be between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC. So it's a rematch

of the Canadian Championship from two years ago. And I don't know if you remember that one or not, but that was the one that they won in penalties. And then Vanny went tarps off and started chirping

the Italian guys and Bob Bradley. You know what I remember? What? It was so damn hot. It was very hot. It was so hot in BC Place. It was.

It was unseating. That's why I thought Vanny took his shirt off. Right. It wasn't for celebration. It was just covered in sweat. So you know what? The Canadian Championship sort of is what it is. You asked this morning probably the biggest question about it,

where can you find it on television? The answer is one, soccer. So that really diminishes the amount of people that have taken in the last two canadian championships that the white caps have won and i assume it will probably impact the viewership for the third one on the 25th but i mean this i've been to both the championship games that they've won i have also and it's entertaining it's fun i mean you go and i mean, I mean, especially against TFC. Right. John Herdman.

I think that is going to be interesting. You want to win that one. I think that is going to be cool. Prove me wrong, Whitecaps, in the upcoming MLS Cup playoffs or whatever the hell they call it. But this is what, you know, this is a tradition for the Whitecaps now. Yes. This is the thing that they're doing consistently well.

Prove me wrong, kids. Prove me wrong. Is winning the thing that they're doing consistently well. Prove me wrong, kids. Prove me wrong. Is winning the Canadian championship. You can get all your spying. The key, I find, is to have only two teams, not even in your pool to

start with, in the MLS, and then all the other teams in a league below you. I find that's the key to their success so that does help and then hosting the final did you see like i don't know if you know this or not but toronto fc on the road to this barely got in but they also prior to playing a cpl team in the semi-finals in the previous two rounds they played semi-professional teams like the league lower than CPL.

Didn't they pump some team like 11-1? Yeah. Well, that was the combined on aggregate. They won 3-0 and 8-1. But that was against a provincial tier three team. I think it was CS St. Laurent or something like that. Yeah. So their first leg TFC wins 3-0. Yeah.

And then they're like, we're going make sure right that we get through here with an eight one victory so that team that they beat cs laurent was like we're going for it they were going for it it didn't work it did not work anyway there so there's your mls canadian championship recap i am actually pretty excited about i think the john herdman element will make it a lot more entertaining yeah phoenix tech in, will TFC be using drones? There it is. There it is. I was waiting for someone to make the joke.

Thank you, Phoenix. 6.13 in the morning. Did not take a lot of time to do that. Yeah, they're going to have to close the dome so they can't fly in. Well, you can still do it from the second row or the second tier, I suppose. RC car. Sorry? RC car, attach a camera to it.

You could also do that. That's a little more obvious than the drones, but I like your hustle on that one. That one's good. Okay. Yeah, you could work for John Erdman. Okay. We realize that there's not a lot going on

in the world of sports right now. We realize that we can't just kind of shoehorn in MLB recaps that, quite frankly, nobody cares about. Well, the five-game Jays winning streak came to a crashing halt yesterday. Womp womp. Yeah. You know, I thought they were going to make a run. I thought they were going to make the playoffs.

Hey, this version of the team I like a lot better than the first half of the season. Yeah, well, you love pressure, right? So does Vladdy, apparently. Yeah, so we want to talk about some NHL stories. The Sidney Crosby thing that we kind of touched on yesterday, I want to talk about that a little bit more. I was reading an article from – he's a columnist in Pittsburgh, Jason Mackey, for the Post-Gazette,

and he wrote a column kind of on Pittsburgh sports, just in general. Like what's the future hold for Pittsburgh? But he did touch on the Penguins. What's going on here? What's the future of the Penguins? Especially that Sidney Crosby has not signed a contract extension. And Dubas has been busy this offseason, but I don't know if he's made a trade where it's like,

oh, okay, well, you know, that changes everything. I thought that about the Rutger McGrory trade, but I digress. That changes everything? The kid hasn't even played in an NHL game, has he? I just liked his name. Yeah, it is a cool name. So I'm just going to read a little bit of what Jason wrote, because this is what they're thinking,

or at least some people are thinking in Pittsburgh. And he writes, the awkward part, the thing you shouldn't say out loud, is that it could make sense for the Penguins and Crosby to part ways. I don't want to see it. You don't either. It makes me sick to type. But if Crosby truly wants to hoist the

Stanley Cup one more time, his best shot of doing that isn't here. Meanwhile, for an amalgamation of reasons, good word, amalgamation, the Penguins would probably be best to blow it up and start over. I don't expect either of those things to happen, mind you. The point is that we're ignoring probably what makes the most sense for both sides because we're too emotionally invested.

He goes on to write, now, could the Penguins make the playoffs in advance? Maybe, if a lot of things break their way. But I don't see how any reasonable person could pick them to make some sort of advance? Maybe. If a lot of things break their way. But I don't see how any reasonable person could pick them to make some sort of postseason run. The longer this goes, the more it worries me that one side doesn't want to dance. It's just hard to decipher which one that

would be. Now, I will reiterate what Jason wrote. And here's what Jason says. Two Jasons. Let's face it. If Sib does want to chase another cup, there are better places to go than Pittsburgh. I know the Pens have made a few off-season moves of note, including their recent trade with Winnipeg.

But let me ask you this. Here's a question I've got for you, and I know a lot of our listeners. No NHL roster is even better than us. Which difference-making player in Pittsburgh is right smack in his prime? In Pittsburgh?

Right smack in his prime difference-making player. I don't have one. Is there even one? No. It's a group of aging superstars that's been partially bolstered with some youth, but possibly not youth that's ready for prime time.

And also Lars Eller. Right? Lars Eller is there. That's what you're looking at with the team. I mean, maybe the goaltending could be difference making, but I don't think anyone looks at the goaltending and you're like, wow, you guys are set.

No. And yet, at the same time, I still feel like if you were to say, like, you got to make a pick here, you got to choose what you think is going to happen, I would say that Sid's probably going to resign with Pittsburgh just because of he's already won his Cups. I don't know if he wants his legacy to include another team, but you know, Stephen Stamkos

left the Bolts. Aaron Rodgers left the Packers. These things do happen. Tom Brady left the Patriots. And just imagine, just imagine if you will, if Sid is available ahead of the trade deadline this season. I honestly don't, again, I'm having trouble. I actually am having trouble imagining it because I always felt like Sid would retire a penguin.

But just imagine. Now, I do wonder if Sid and maybe even Dubas, that's the other thing that Jason hinted at. Maybe Dubas is slow playing this too. Okay. Right? Like maybe he's like, oh, is it the other thing that Jason hinted at. Maybe Dubas is slow playing this too. Okay. Right? Like maybe he's like, oh, is it the right thing to do? Someone is slow playing it. Let's put it that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I would bet Sid's slow playing this. But I do wonder if

someone just wants to see how things look for a few months of the season before they make the call. Because when you do look at the Penguins lineup, I mean, you see future Hall of Famers there, right? But they're just not in their primes anymore. And then after that, you're kind of like,

well, they don't even have Jake Gensel anymore. And remember, Jake Gensel did get traded at last year's trade deadline, and that was a Kyle Dubas move. So there is a precedent there. But Jake Gensel isn't Sid, right? No, but nobody is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sid is like, I mean, our comparison would be the Sidines, right? Yep. And the Sidines never really want to go to another organization. I don't know how much they even considered going and chasing a cup somewhere else. It didn't seem like they ever did. It was always inherently more difficult for a move because they were going in tandem. No team was going to be like, we'll pick up Daniel at the deadline. We'll leave Henrik behind.

That was never going to happen. I don't know. I will miss you, brother. Yeah, but this has to be done. I'm going to Chicago. I don't know. I really don't know what the next breaking point in this will be. But the start of training camp is a pretty good one like i was

reading an article from josh yohei from the athletic who is covering this story as closely as anyone and he says he still steadfastly believes that they will have a contract extension done by the time training camp starts and training camp starts for the pittsburgh penguins on september 18th so take that into account and that's and that's one of the reasons reasons why I said, I think Sid will probably end up resigning with the penguins because if their media think that's what's going to happen, then, you know, I'll give them benefit of the doubt.

Right. Another takeaway from the same piece was that Yohei has stated quite accurately that the penguins and Sidney Crosby have always stated publicly and insisted that they want to get an extension done in Pittsburgh. But here's the thing. Sidney Crosby, the idea of him going into the final year without a contract extension is just too tantalizing to pass out because Sidney Crosby, as a rental,

and I don't even know if this world would exist, but if it did, the possibilities to kickstart a rebuild would be huge. Like they got a lot of assets in return for Gensel, maybe nothing necessarily top drawer or top shelf, but they got a lot in return for Gensel. The idea of it would be huge. Now, the issue that I have with the whole concept of him going in to the season without a contract and playing out the final year and maybe either going at the deadline

or unrestricted free agency just doesn't happen with players of his ilk. The last one I can really think of was someone that meant that much to his team that got traded in season was like marty st louis when the lightning dealt him remember that they couldn't come to an agreement and they flipped him to new york and yeah but if that was even different like st louis not crosby nobody is um the and a real wild card i think in all this is to remember that like crosby's still

playing at a level where there's so much on the table for him personally and And I don't even think it's just winning a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh. I think the return of international play might play a factor into some of this. He wants to be at the top level. I guarantee he wants to be a central figure in both Canada's Four Nations face-off team and the 2026 Olympic team, right? Well, he's still playing at a very high level. If you look at the Penguins scoring last season, it was him with like 94 points

and I think the closest to him had in the 60s. And that's why a lot of people were disappointed on his behalf almost that the Penguins wasted that season because he was so good. He was incredible. And he had all those points and their power play stunk. Their power play absolutely stunk.

So other guys that are in similar positions to Crosby in that they are heading into the final years of their deals before their UFAs, those are pretty big names, especially among the forward group. Dreisaitl, we all know. We've talked about that.

How are the Edmonton Oilers with the new GM and Stan Bowman going to manage this? And how is Dreisaitl, is he going to be comfortable putting his name on an extension before he knows 100% that Connor McDavid is going to extend? Could be a tough balancing act for Stan Bowman in Edmonton. Another guy that actually surprised me a little bit because I was like,

wait a minute, he's UofL already? Rantanen in Colorado. Then there's Marner in Toronto. Brad Marchand in Boston. And I'll throw Brock Besser in there too. Sure. Just because that's going to be a big deal for the Vancouver Canucks. There's a couple other guys like Carter Verhage in Florida.

Practically no D-men of note, unless I'm missing a bunch of guys, and I don't think I am. Shea Theodore, do we still consider Brent Burns in that category? I don't. He's pretty old. He's old. He's old. I mean, he could be.

I mean, again, I expect Carolina to be right back in the thick of, like, playoff contention. I don't see him going anywhere. Like, he'll probably play out the string. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't see him being readily available or anything. It would be nice if Vegas couldn't afford Theodore. Yeah, that would be.

As long as he doesn't go to, like, Edmonton or something. We're up against him for time in the opening second, but I think Vegas is primed to take a huge step back this year. This year? Yeah. Why this year? Well, they didn't add anything in the offseason. They lost a bunch of pieces in the offseason.

I look at them after. So refresh everyone's memory. Who did they lose? I don't have it on the top of my head, unfortunately. I don't have the notes in front of me, but it was, let's see. It was the entire four lines. Will Carrier. Well, they lost Chenandler Stevenson.

Chenandler Stevenson. Nick Waugh. I'm trying to remember. Logan Thompson. Logan Thompson, yeah. Where did Nick Waugh go? Nick Waugh went to, God, I can't remember now. I'm getting thrown on the spot way too much for an early morning hit here.

I apologize. That's okay. I'll look it up at the break, and we'll come back, and I'll review it very quickly before we go to Don Waddell. It's almost like you've been on vacation for a month. I just casually forgot everything about Vegas. Peter says he's still on Vegas. Yeah, okay.

Maybe I got that one wrong. I don't think Jack Eichel's there anymore. I don't know. Mark Stone died. I don't know what happened. We've got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Don Waddell, general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets is going to join us next. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. 6 minutes and 30 seconds. 6.31 on a Eurodance Wednesday here on the Health and Abrupt Show on Sportsnet 650.

Jonathan Marcheseau. That's who I was trying to think of. Talking about all the departures from the Vegas Golden Knights during the offseason. I'm like, oh, Will Carrier. That was pretty funny. You're like, I think Vegas is going to take a big step back. They lost a lot of guys. And I'm like, remind the listeners who they lost.

I can't think of one. I didn't have the list in front of me. The list. There is a big list. So it's Martiusso, Stevenson, Carrier, Mantha, Amadio, Martinez, and then the biggest one of all, Yuri Patera, who of course is now a member of the Vancouver Canucks. But not Nikwa.

Nikwa joined the team. I got it backwards. He didn't join the team. He's been there forever, hasn't he? He's on the team. Someone texted in and said Nikwa joined the team. He was a huge part of their Stanley Cup win. He's on the team. Someone texted in and said, Nick Watt joined this. He was a huge part of their Stanley Cup win. He rejoined the team.

He's played for them for about five years now. He's been years and years and years. He never left. He's been there the whole time. Anyway, you are listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda.

Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. To the phone lines we go. Very excited to be joined by our next guest. He is the general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets. He is Don Waddell. He joins us now on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Good morning, Don. How are you? Excellent, gentlemen. Thank you for having me. Don, as you might have heard, we are still in off-season mode, but your off-season has been very, very busy. What's it been like doing all the things you've been doing in Columbus? Not your typical off-season, I imagine? A little different, but a great opportunity. Excited about being here in Columbus.

And, you know, we just took our time with, you know, hiring our coach. We wanted to make sure we got the right coach. You know, when I first got the job, we had the draft and free agency coming up. And I knew the NHL was going to feel bad for me and move those. So we had to dig into those. And, you know, like I said, we were the 32nd team that didn't have – 31 teams had coaches. We didn't have a coach. I said, whoever's there today is going to be there tomorrow.

So we waited until after we got through free agency and that to really dig into it and ended up hiring Dean Everson, which I think is a great hire and the right person for the job that we have in hand here. So before we talk about Dean and before we talk about guys like Sean Monahan and the Patrick Lyon A-Trade, you get to Columbus, you start talking to people.

What do you learn about the organization and why it has been struggling? Well, yeah, I think, you know, like I always say, you know, we all coach differently. We all manage differently. And, you know, I think there's a lot of acceptance of things were okay here. And, you know, like I said, and I've preached it to everybody here and the employees that, you know, like I said, and I've preached it to everybody here, the employees that, you know, losing is not acceptable. You know, we're not going to win every night,

but we got to try every night. And if we go out and give the effort that our coach is going to ask for, you know, we should have more success than not. And the other thing is you want to make sure you hire people and sign players that you get people that want to be in Columbus, not just because it's a job or it's money, people that want to be here. And in Dean's case, every time I talked to him before I brought him in, he certainly had passion to coach in the NHL, but he had passion to coach the Columbus Blue Jackets, and that's what led me to hiring him.

So, to me, it's a mindset that we started. We've got to continue to make strides because it doesn't happen overnight. But losing it is not acceptable. When I talked to the players when I first got hired, one of the questions I asked every player was, do you want to be part of the process moving forward, or do you not want to be? Because we want, again, people that want to be here

and represent the Blue Jackets as best they can. Is that something that Columbus has always kind of struggled with? I mean, I remember the story when Johnny Goudreau chose Columbus, and the story was Johnny Goudreau chose Columbus? Because the franchise had been mostly known for guys that were good there for a bit and then left, right? And I just wonder if that created a bit of a, a feeling there. Um,

and maybe it's, uh, manifests itself into people wanting out. Um, and possibly that's why you went in there and said, listen, like we can't just accept people that are here for just the money, or we can't accept,

uh, people like Patrick Laine who, you know, for whatever reason, want a fresh start somewhere else. We have to make sure that everyone that's here actually wants to be here, not just like, fine, I'll be here, wants to be here. Exactly. You know, you said it well because, you know, what's happened in the past, I can't change and don't really care.

You know, we're looking at what we can do to move forward. And, you know, the old expression, which I absolutely hate, is, well, this is the way we've done things for years. Well, I don't care how you've done things. This is how we're going to do things now. So, you know, Dean and I will put our own stamp on the team. And, you know, there might be some bumps on the road, might have to make some changes as we go along.

But, you know, I always look at it, you know, I didn't know anybody when I got here from, you know, from a staff standpoint. You know, I want to get to know them. And, you know, if we have to make some tough decisions on the road, that's what we get paid for. But the decisions we make is always in the best interest of the hockey team. How do we make our team better?

It's just not the players, it's the staff included. We're speaking to Blue Jackets General Manager Don Waddell here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Don, you're on in Vancouver, and there's a lot of people locally that want to know a little bit more about Kent Johnson. He signed a contract extension this summer. What are the expectations for Kent Johnson going into this season?

Yeah, you know, we've talked a lot about him. I've watched a lot of the video of all our players, but Kent also, you know, we're going to continue to work on his strength. He was in this summer for a period of time and got to talk to him. The upside is in front of him, and I think that's why his reputation,

I agree, doesn't three-year deal. Put the contract aside. He doesn't have to worry about that for the next three years. Just prepare yourself as a hockey player to be the best player you can. And, you know, we're at a point of our franchise with a lot of our young players. We need to take that next step with them. Nothing against our veteran players.

We've got some great veteran players here. But our young players are what's going to move us forward down the road, and Kent's going to be a big part of that. I always say it's, you know, we're going to provide the tools and all that, but it's up to the players to take advantage of that. I always say it's, you know, we're going to provide the tools and all that, but it's up to the players to take advantage of that. And I believe with his mindset, just speaking to him, he's a pure hockey player.

He wants to be the best he can. And so hopefully that heads in the direction that we all want it to go. I think we all saw here in Vancouver with Rick Talkett how much can change with a hockey team when you bring in the right coach, you have a structure that when you talked to him when you interviewed him made you think like this is the right guy for us because there have been some you know some there was a little bit of coaching drama in columbus last year i know you weren't there but there was some drama yeah yeah you know again you know we had a good good three weeks or so doing homework on all these guys,

and we talked to everybody. And I was fortunate. I have Rick Nash here who's going to take a bigger role at the team this year. He was able to talk to players that played for Dean, along with the other guys that we were talking to. And every man to a T loved playing for him. They thought he was very hard, but very fair. And they always knew where they stood.

They always knew the structure that he wanted to play. And I talked to Billy Guerin. Obviously, Billy's a friend of mine. He's been involved with USA Hockey and everything for years. It was a tough decision. They came out of the gate after going three USA Hockey and everything for years. You know, it was a tough decision. You know, they came out of the gate after going three years and making the playoffs with Dean and started off slow. And, you know, that's what happens in the coaching world, unfortunately.

You know, you have to make a change. But Billy couldn't say enough good things about him also. And so when you talk to people that you trust in this business and hear those things, it makes you say, you know, we've got to take this to the next level. And when I brought him in here and we met with him, every man to a T just said, he's the guy for our franchise. So, you know, this is not a Don Waddell show. It's a Don Waddell and the team show that I'm going to include the people around me

that are capable of making good decisions and that's how we're going to continue to build this. I remember a few years ago when I wondered how many years left in the NHL does Sean Monaghan have?

In Vancouver, we knew him well in his years in Calgary. Then his game fell off. He went to Montreal. He went to Winnipeg. And now he signed a five-year deal with you guys for $27.5 million. He's almost 30 years old. But I imagine there are more things than just his point totals

that you hope that Sean Monaghan is going to bring to the club. Yeah, you know, we all know Sean as a player in his good years. And then, you know, he struggled through a year and a half with his hips. He got those done, not what, a year and a half ago or so. Ended up playing 83 regular season games last year because of the trade and the playoffs. So, you know, we spent a lot of time in the free agents watching these players and doing background checks and all that.

And when I got the opportunity to talk to Sean on free agency, he really wanted to be a Blue Jacket. The Johnny Gaudreau thing is a plus, but, you know, Sean had heard so many good things about Columbus and the city he lives in here. He's got a young family, and that's what you want to hear. You want to hear players that just want to be here, and certainly we think he upgrades our team, gives our chance for our younger players, especially down the middle,

to grow at their pace, not force them into a situation they're not ready for. So we're still very good about signing Sean and how our center position lines up going into the year. What kind of conversations have you had with Johnny Goudreau? Good, all good. He's been frustrated, obviously, the last couple years of not having success. It came from where he had success.

I've got to know Johnny, and I knew him through USA Hockey a little bit, too. He's a hockey player, and he wants to play hockey. He wants to have success as a player, but he also wants to have team success. Every conversation has been very good. Dean actually flew

in and had lunch with him when Dean got hired. We talked about how important he is to this franchise. So, so far it's been very, very positive. I know he's coming in town here I think today or tomorrow and, you know,

ready to get this season off on the right foot. So everything right now is very positive, as I said, and look forward to getting going here and seeing what kind of year we can have. Because I'm sure you knew that there is a narrative out there and there's true narratives and there's false narratives that, you know, Johnny chose to go to Columbus. He took a big contract and he went false narratives that you know Johnny chose to go to Columbus he took a big contract and he went there and you know maybe he went there because he didn't want the pressure

maybe he went there because he didn't really care about winning as much um so I give the floor to you to push back on that yeah I just you know, I wasn't here when they signed the contract. And, you know, I don't know the whole reasons. I've never asked him why he chose here. Obviously, we all know he's got a big contract and that, you know. But saying that, you know, if you're going to have your top players get the most out of them, you've got to put them in the right environment and with the right people. And I think we've done that. I think, again, you know, I keep putting a lot of emphasis on Dean,

but I think Dean, you know, when I talked to Johnny, it was funny. I talked to him one of the first few days after I got the job, and I asked him who his best coaches were. And, you know, Daryl Sutter was his number one guy, and Daryl's a hard coach, as we know, and had lots of success. And the second one was Bob Hartley, who I had for five or six years, and I know how he is. So it made me say this player likes to be around structure

and the accountability factor. Players want to be told what to do, when to do it, you know, successful players and players that want to be successful. You know, we think they're all, you know, grown men and, you know, know how to go about their business. But, you know, I found over my years, players want to have that structure in place and be told this is what they can do and what they can't do. And I think Johnny, by talking to him and knowing how he spoke about previous coaches, I think, again, I think we're in a good situation moving forward with Johnny and having Dean as the bench boss. Is Dean as intense in person as he looks on the bench?

Because he looks terrifying on the bench at times. Yeah, I can say. I actually took him out to the golf course yesterday. He's a big golfer. Oh, yeah. So we spent the day in the golf course yesterday, and he's pretty damn competitive, I can tell you that. Anything he does, he wants to win at.

So I think he's very intense. You know, again, it goes back to what I said. You know, he can be hard on the players when they need to be hard, but he's also very fair with them and, you know, treats them as human beings. You know, the players that we talked to that have played for him, they all echo the same thing, and some of them were top, they all echoed the same thing. And some of them were top players that we were able to talk to. So, you know, to me, when you've got a guy that, as you said, as intense as he is, he'll

be the same way in practice. He will be as the coach of the games. But at the end of the day, he'll treat the guys with respect and be fair about it. Were there any clubs thrown on the golf course? Not by him. He's a two handicap and I don't play enough to throw any clubs so the only thing I can say

this is I don't have any Columbus Blue Jackets golf balls yet so I still had some Carolina Hurricanes so I deposited about five of them in the woods yesterday. So somebody will be finding Hurricanes golf balls on the golf course. We're chatting with Don Waddell, a new president and general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets. So let's talk a little bit about the Patrick Laine situation.

I imagine that one must have been pretty tough for you to stick handle because, first of all, you haven't really had much experience with Patrick Laine. You didn't really know what went down, or at least you didn't witness it. You have to have empathy for the situation with Patrick Laine, but you also have to do what's best for your hockey team. So how did you approach it? Yeah, you know, again, I got in here, I heard all the stories, did all the research that I could possibly do on it,

talked to his representation probably 25 times. And, you know, with the new GM coming in, new coach, I wanted to, you know, know if his position had changed at all. And, you know. They talked about it. Every time they got back to me, they just felt that what happened here in Columbus, that he didn't want to come back there.

He wanted to change. I've had lots of players over the years say, I want to change. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes it doesn't because what you said is I have to look out for the best interests of the Columbus Blue Jackets, keeping in mind what Patrick's wishes are and knowing he went through plays a factor too.

So, you know, we tried for, and Dean reached out to Patrick himself after he got the job and, you know, just came away that, you know, it would be if we could find a trading partner that made sense that it was probably best to move on from him. Montreal made a ton of sense at the end of the day, if there was going to be a trade. And you must have been pretty happy that you were able to shed his entire contract hit, although you had to throw in a second round pick, I imagine, to help that along.

Yeah, you know, we had lots of interest from teams, and most teams are cap situations where, you know, I was going to have to hold money and, you know, potentially take back some contracts. And some I didn't mind at all, actually. But, you know, the day when Montreal and Kent and I started talking, you know, they had lots of cap space. And, you know, I think lots of cap space and uh you know

I think for them I think it's a great fit um you know he he could score we all know he's a goal scorer playing on that team with some of the centers that they have you know I wouldn't be surprised he puts up 35 or so uh so for us you know the way I looked at it was the cap space this year wasn't as important because free agency is done. I am getting some calls from teams now that are a little more cap problems, wondering if it would be interesting, player X or Y. So we're navigating through that.

But I think even more important, moving into next summer, knowing that we have that $8.7 million cap space that we didn't have this year going into the summer, presents potentially a very good opportunity. Before we let you go, I did want to ask one Carolina question. It's actually about the guy that took your old gig there, Eric Tulsky. We all know anecdotally about physics at Harvard and a PhD in chemistry from Berkeley, but what was it like working with Eric and then

the situation where he sort of ascends to the GM gig and then you move on to Columbus? Yeah, well, I worked with Eric the last six years firsthand. As you know, I worked with Eric the last six years firsthand. As you said, he's probably the smartest person I've ever met. And multiple times I had to tell him, dummy it down for me.

You know, he used to do all the analytic side, which is a strength of his abilities. You know, the experience factor will come with the job. I think he's prepared for it. He had interviewed a few times with a few other teams. He's a quiet guy that you've got to get to know. I know I've had other GMs reach out to me just asking me what's his personality and all that. Knowing how smart he is just asking me what's his personality and all that.

Knowing how smart he is and what he's got himself around there, particularly with the coach, leaves me to believe that they'll continue on. They had some changes, as we know, in the summertime, but the core of their team, particularly up front, is back. I mean, I think they're going to continue to roll right along. You must feel pretty good about the work you did in Carolina. I know the Stanley Cup wasn't won, but that's a

hard thing to win. Only one team out of 32 wins it every year. But from a business perspective, I know a lot of that was on your plate. And I saw, I don't know all the details, but it sounds like there is a long-term deal to renovate PNC. And it sounds like from a business perspective, and I know, again, that was on your plate a lot in addition to hockey ops, things are pretty good there.

Yeah, no, I felt good about leaving. Now, usually, you know, when you get these jobs, there's multiple things that you have to fix. I think in Carolina, they're heading in the right direction. We had secured $300 million for the building, or I made the building, and then we got probably almost a billion dollars in development planned for the outside of the building. So, you know, that franchise has been, you know, the last six years, I think we've played 12 or 13 playoff rounds. From a business standpoint, it's never been in as good a shape as it's been in, and I don't see any reason why that won't continue. But you've got a lot of good people there that really are capable of doing their jobs,

which leads me to believe that there's no reason why them to have any setbacks both on and off the ice. Hey Don, really enjoy when we have the chance to chat with you. We chatted a couple times when you were with Carolina and now you're with Columbus. I know you've done a lot of work. You've got a lot of work ahead of you. Let's keep in touch and best of luck this season. No, I appreciate it. Have enjoyed the past conversations, and I'll look forward to the future ones with you guys.

I always like talking to fans of our game, and it's the greatest game in the world, and I'm very lucky to be part of it. Thanks, Don. We appreciate this. Enjoy the rest of the summer. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. That's Don Waddell, general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. He's got such a huge job ahead of him. Yeah, it doesn't work.

He knows it, though, right? It's really just completely resetting the organization. Right. And that must have been a tough situation with Laine because you do have to be empathetic to what line A's been through and what he wants. But at the same time, you're sitting there going like, uh-huh, I'm in charge of the Columbus Blue Jackets and I'm going to do what's best for the Blue Jackets. I think he did a pretty good job. He did a lot of work in a very short period of time.

He just inherited such a mess of a team. That's the biggest issue. But there's potential there. There's potential. A guy like Fantilli has big-time potential. Well, Fantilli, Sillinger, Johnson, Marchenko, they drafted Caden Lindstrom. I mean, he won't be there this year,

but the future theoretically should be bright. When you're that bad for that long, you're able to stockpile talent. Yeah, I hope Kent Johnson finds something this season. I think he's one of those guys where you know the talent is there, but you're not sure if the overall game is. And maybe the, and this isn't my words, but Waddell says he needs to get stronger.

Yeah, I mean, that was the first thing that he said. It was the first thing he said. So, you know, he's not the biggest guy. He's got a lot of talent, but hopefully it works out this season. Coming up on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, we're going to move on to Hour 2. We're going to do some NFL talk with Mike Sando of The Athletic. His annual quarterback tiers piece is out.

He's doing the media blitz right now, so we'll talk to him about the three tier one quarterbacks in the NFL. And this is based on a panel consisting of seven general managers, eight head coaches, 12 coordinators, 12 executives, eight assistant coaches, and three coaches involved in analytics for a grand total of 30 people on a panel. This is a annual rite of passage in the National Football League. It's a very popular list. Mike will be joining us next

to talk about it right here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.