Halford & Brough in the Morning - RIP Hybrid Rebuild, Hello Full Rebuild

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss Canucks president Jim Rutherford's comments on committing to a proper rebuild (3:00), plus they look ahead to tonight's 'Nucks road matchup at the Blue Jackets with The Athletic Columbus' Aaron Portzline (27:10).  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to You're listening to Halford and Brough. Right circle, Michael shoots, stop, and a Ruffaround, Stone scores. Vegas wins in overtime. Heeshire has a step. Moves in backhand for Heeshire. We've got to work hard. We've got to work together.

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It is Halford and his broth. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Good morning to you. Good morning.

Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online. Fans dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio, make 2026, year, year to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics. It is time now for our daily guest list, the morning rundown, the Duke Morning Drive, brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 630.

Aaron Portsline is going to join the program. Columbus Blue Jackets writer for the Athletic. The Canucks are in Columbus tonight to wrap up this dismal six-game road swing. This will also be the second game in charge for new Columbus Blue Jackets head coach, Rick Bonas. Former Connucks friendly face. We'll talk to Aaron Portsline about all this at 630. 7 o'clock Patrick Johnston's going to join the program. I don't believe we've ever had Pige on the show before.

Yeah, he's been exclusive to other. shows and so we're just going to steal them away from those. Just for one. Just once. Just once. That's why you have to listen today. Just once. This is a one time only kind of thing. Canucks writer for the province also the author of the new book, Gino, the fighting

spirit of Gino Ogic. Pige also had an interview with Canucks president of hockey ops. Jim Rutherford talking about the rebuild, so we've got a lot to talk about with Patrick Johnson from the province at 7 o'clock this morning. 730, Brady Henderson, our Seahawks insider from

ESPN is going to join the program. This Saturday, 5 o'clock, Seattle hosts San Fran in one of the two NFC Divisional Round Games. The winner, of course, will advance to face the winner of the Rams bear game. That one is being played Sunday afternoon. We will preview the biggest football game in Seattle, and I would say at least a decade with Brady at 7.30 this morning. 8 o'clock, Thomas Dranths from the Athletic, and Kinnock's Talk is going to join us here on Sportsnet 650. Old Jim Rutherford's been a chatty man this week. We mentioned he's spoken with our 7 a.m. guest, Patrick Johnson. He also did his seemingly weekly check-in with the Globe of Mail's Gary Mason.

Lots to chew on from Brotherford about the rebuild, which players will be made available for trade. How long he has left on the job as president of hockey ops? Thomas Trance is going to join us at 8 o'clock to talk about all that. A big guest list, a big show ahead. I'm not even going to run it in reverse. Without further ado, Laddy, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

What happened? Missed all the action because our wounds. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened is Bratzee of I, the BC Construction Safety Alliance? Making safety simpler by giving construction companies to besting tools,

resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. As I mentioned in the rundown, Canucks president of hockey ops, Jim Rutherford, he was a chatty man over the last 24 to 48 hours, speaking with both the provinces, Patrick Johnson, and the Globe of Males, Gary Mason, about the rebuild, Jason.

Yeah, and I think my, if there's a lot of stuff that's coming at us in terms of quotes for us to parse through. And I'm going to let Halford go through some of the things that Jim Rutherford said to various people. But I think the main point of all this, and we've had some people texting in asking, do you think this is a precursor to some sort of big trade? I mean, maybe, but to me, the main idea is that this is no longer a hybrid rebuild. Rest in peace, hybrid rebuild. The hybrid rebuild lasted for how long it was, what, during the wind streak? Three weeks.

Three weeks? Was it about three weeks? If we're going to officially declare the time of death as yesterday, then I'd say it got a good three week run as being a thing. I know Pierre LeBron was on another radio station in Canada and said that, and this is kind of a damning report, if it's true, said that, you know, after the Canucks traded Quinn Hughes, I remember they won a few games. Four in a row. Then at that point, the team was kind of like, maybe we can pull off this hybrid rebuild.

But then recently, I don't know if you've been watching the Canucks, but they've been bad. Yeah. And they have lost eight straight games. games. They've lost all five games of this current road trip. They don't have a hybrid win. Yeah. Well, they don't, they, I mean, if you want to call like getting to overtime and getting a point, a hybrid win, they don't even have that on this road trip. So, so I think if there was, if there's one thing that I believe that it seems like

that the team wanted to get across is like, you know, we're listening. on anybody. So there aren't guys that they're necessarily going to be like, no. This guy is untouchable here. Shockingly. The 32nd place team in the NHL does not have any untouchable players. Now, where I still, I don't know, I just, you know, I hope it happens, but I don't see how, is when Jim Rutherford says he thinks this rebuild will take two to three years. Because he openly acknowledges that the center position is the big area of weakness. In the center position, Elias Pedersen, Philip Edel, if you want to still consider him,

and Marco Rossi, who they got in the Quinn Hughes trade. So those are your top three guys, and maybe you got Braden Coots coming as well, right? So in two to three years, has that changed so significantly that the Canucks are? are now a playoff contender or even like a Stanley Cup contender, how would that, how would that, how would that change? Okay, well, let's wind it back a sec here, just to give everyone an idea of exactly what Jim Rutherford said. But that's kind of at the top of my head right now. We'll go without one right away.

Like the timeline to me still seems wildly aggressive. So the most detailed rundown of Jim Rutherford's timeline came courtesy the Patrick Johnson piece in the province, which you can read. It's online right now. It's a little bit of a lengthier quote here that I've chosen. I will try and read it as quickly as possible, but also with clarity so you can hear it all. With regards to the current timeline in the two to three year window that Jason Brough is talking about,

Jim Rutherford said the following. We've got to have the patience of living through where we are presently, being cautious in what is being moved and what's the return. Continue to stick to either getting young players, 25 or younger, or getting draft picks. There are deals out there that could make our team better today, but does it work for us over a three-year period?

I would like to think that based on the number of young players that we have, that we've been able to pick up over the last few years with high ceiling, that this rebuild can take two to three years, not six to ten. So who are those high-ceiling players? Braden Coots, Zeev Bouem. Who else? High ceiling? I think I've run through the list.

Yeah, I would agree with you. Now, you know, I think maybe DPD could be a pretty good player. I don't know how high his ceiling is. Tom Vlander. Ditto. Yeah. But, but again, Liam Ogren.

Come on. Down the middle. Down the middle. What are you looking at? Braden Coots. Yeah. So how are you going to, in this draft, by the way, which is not considered particularly chock full of centers, especially in the top five or the top ten. You know, McKenna's a winger. Stembourg's a winger. So how do you, how? I just, I, like he, okay, so when Rutherford won a Stanley Cup in Carolina, his two centers were Eric Stahl, who was really young at the time. It was unbelievable. Very good. Very good. and a very highly touted draft pick, and Rod Brindamore, who he'd picked up in a trade.

Mm-hmm. Right? Okay, so those, so you've got, I think Brindamore should be in the Hall of Fame. The guy won a Selke. Like, you had, you had, I think he won, they won the Stanley Cup in 2006, and I think Brindamore won the Selke in 06 and 07.

Okay. And plus you had Eric Stahl, who was, you know, an automatic for Team Canada when he was in his prime. They had very good centers. Okay? They had even better centers. centers in Pittsburgh.

Yes. They had Sidney Crosby and of Jenny Malkin. And then they actually picked up a pretty good center in a trade with the Canucks. And they got Nick Benino and put that line together. Right. So that's kind of the bar. Two to three years. How are you doing that?

Well, Jason, if you listen further to Jim Rutherford, the rebuild didn't just start the other day. as a matter of fact, Jim Rutherford would argue that the rebuild might have started a couple of years ago. So in his interview with Gary Mason, this time this one's in the Globe of Mail if you want to check that out, Jim Rutherford said in what could possibly, and I just want to throw it out there possibly be construed as revisionist history, the rebuild that the connects are currently in has actually been going underway for a little while. to me, Jim Rutherford said, the clock actually started two or three years ago

because we have very good young goalies in the system and now we have very good young defensemen. These are the two positions that are hard to build and we're already ahead of the rebuild before the clock started, including the Quinn Hughes trade. Does no other team in the league make draft picks? You know, like the Kinex are the only ones? Not like this.

The Kinecks are the only ones that have been making draft picks for the last few years and picking up the odd young player here and there. I appreciate it. So every team in the NHL has actually been rebuilding

this whole time. Everyone's rebuilding. Maybe. It's a bold new way of looking at it. All 32 teams are in a rebuild. Every time you go to the draft stage and you call out an 18-year-old guy's name. You're rebuilding.

You're rebuilding right there. You don't even know it until you draft them. This is the type of spin that kind of bugs me. I'll be honest with you. It's just like, yeah, you know, there was some more spin in the Gary Mason article where he kind of throws up his hands in the air

and says, well, there was nothing we could have done about Quinn Hughes leaving. You won't convince me of that. You won't convince me that if the Canucks had been rolling along that Quinn Hughes, the captain of the team, would have said, I still want out. I still want to go back east. I'm sorry, you won't convince me of that.

And there were some comments from Hughes agent at the time when Hughes was traded where he said, listen, we wouldn't be having this conversation if the team wasn't struggling. Like I'm paraphrasing there. But, but so like, you just, this doesn't happen. Quinn Hughes wanted to play for a winning team. Yeah, he might have also wanted to go back east, maybe go down to the States, be closer to his family, sure. But if the Canucks were rolling along, like they were a couple of years ago, that continued. And there hadn't been the feud between Miller and Pedersen that forces a trade of J.T. Miller and everything looked rosy. Queen Hughes would still be a member of the Vancouver Cadux.

Well, there's been some differing of opinions. I won't say revisionist history, but differing opinions about how that whole process went down because Jim Brotherford, again to Gary Mason Mason in the Globe and Mail piece did say that in the end, it was a desire to play with his brothers or at least play somewhere in the east that became the biggest factor. in Hughes's decision to leave. Now, I'm kind of past that part. I think the continual harping on what's already transpired is a fruitless endeavor because what's done is done.

The trade has been consummated. Queen Hughes is no longer a member of the Vancouver Connection. Quite frankly, what's on the horizon is far more interesting than what's already happened, right? But it does matter because credibility is at stake. But that's shot already. Not with everyone. Not with everyone.

Look, we got a text into the Dunbar Lumberland text line. We got a lot of texts coming against. What's the text? So here's the text. I don't think the timeline matters too much. That was when I was talking about the two or three years. I think the most important thing is someone has convinced ownership to rebuild. It took several presidents slash general managers losing their jobs. Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure that maybe six months or a year down the line,

the Canucks maybe managed to win a few in a row, and all of a sudden, wait a minute, we're back to a hybrid rebuild. Well, like the plan changes, not year to year. Honestly, in the last little while, it's been month to month. Think of how many times the plan has changed. We came into the season. The plan was, keep Quinn Hughes, right? You add some players like Vander Cain, oh, that's a rebuilding move, throwing on a draft

pick for a Van der Kaine. You bring in a Quinn-Hughes friendly coach, apparently. in Adam Foot you re-sign Brock Bessor you re-sign Thatcher Demko totally rebuilding moves

Trade for a VanderCain And then Oh I mentioned that already Yeah sorry And then all of a sudden It's okay You can mention it twice And then all of a sudden

Quinn, that doesn't work And then you trade him And people are like Well that was a pretty good return you got And you got Because you got some NHL players And then the team Has a few good results

you know, high PDO results, but results all the same. And it's a hybrid rebuild. And then the team goes really in the tank. Like one of the lowest points we've, this road trip is one of the lowest points. Let's face it in Canucks history in terms of play. Yep. They've been awful. Not good.

And then all the damage control goes out ahead of an eight game homestand where it's like actually, yeah, we will listen to all the players. Because, you know, there's a lot of people. people, you know, not just media, but fans that are like, I don't like anyone on this team. Trade everyone, right? And then all of a sudden, they

reflect that in their words. If you want to ask me why I think they did all these media avails, is because the fan base is freaking out and they kind of had to change their messaging a little bit. The messaging, so how many times has the messaging change in

one season? A few. To put it, maybe underscore how many, I'd say a few. Let's say though, Jason, for sake of argument, just for sake of argument, that everything that was said over the last 24 to 48 hours is on the up and up and it's legitimate and that Jim Rutherford is convinced to ownership

that this rebuild is the way to go. Okay, let's just take it at face value. Okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Instead of trying to poke holes in the legitimacy of the statement, I think there's another thing

that could throw more doubt into, it. And that is the fact that Jim Rutherford turned 77 next month. And in this same article with Gary Mason did not offer the most optimistic view of how much longer he would be on the job. So the guy that is convinced ownership to do this said the following. Eventually, I will have to do what's best for my family, but also what's best for the Canucks. I'm committed to this rebuild. I'm committed to this job today. and as long as I'm here. Then he was asked how long that is,

and if he was committed to next season. Rutherford said, as we speak, yes, I am. Mason then went on to write, but beyond that, he said he didn't know. I think he honestly doesn't know

what the future holds for him, even beyond this season. And then Gary Mason concluded it by saying, if I'm betting, he's not going to be holding his current job in three years time, that would be asking a lot. So for Canucks fans out there,

this two to three year window, I think it means a lot. I think it means a lot to Rutherford because I think he might see that as the legitimate endpoint of his tenure as the president of hockey. And he doesn't want to leave the team like this. He does not want to leave the team mid-rebuild, I would guess.

He would like to be near the end of the rebuild. And that's where you get a two-to-three-year timeline for it. It all spells itself out pretty straightforward. I will say this one, Jim Rutherford. in this time here, is that when he's rolling and he's candid, he'll give you pretty much everything you want to hear. There's not a topic he won't discuss and won't give you something to chew on. And his media folk, it's great.

The only issue is kind of what you pointed out earlier. There's a lot of messaging. And sometimes it's contradictory. Sometimes it changes. And sometimes it leaves you saying, hmm, I heard what he said. I still wonder what the future has in store. A lot of texts coming in.

Good. Austin and Langley, ownership isn't convinced to rebuild. They were literally trying to make the playoffs and win for Quinn, but they managed to put together the worst team in the league. And to save face,

they are calling it a rebuild. There was another comment from Jim Rutherford about this is the year to be bad, which I'm just like desperate for the follow-up question. what about next year? Where are the expectations?

And now you can say that two to three year, you already said it. It's a two to three year rebuild. I don't think they're tanking for two years. I don't think they're tanking for three years. He did say, he did say,

and I thought this was maybe the most important quote from an optimistic point of view, is that they're going to improve this team without taking short. Now, you're very well aware of this, and I'm sure many of the listeners are. For the last 10 years, the Connects have loved a shortcut. If there was a way to trim something off the route. They've said that before, though. They've said it before. They said you can't win with shortcuts

and then they continually take shortcuts. Right, but we have to take the- No, we don't. We don't have to take them at face value. No, you have to, you have to, I mean, we're talking about an article that was written yesterday and the quotes that were provided. You have to say the quotes. You have to say that at the very least, he has acknowledged that there have been shortcuts taken in the past and they haven't worked. And that if they're going to do this properly, there can't be any shortcuts.

You're absolutely right to question the legitimacy and the long-term nature of this. Because sometimes, and I don't know if you guys are aware of this or not, sometimes the Canucks have gone about a regular path of business and then thought, what if we could speed this up a little bit? What if we could change this? Or something happens. Yeah. Something happens.

And it deviates the plan. Yeah. And I know that there's a lot of texts coming in. And I know people are very, very skeptical. And that's putting it mildly of the Kinex being able to carry out this plan. My biggest concern right now, speaking just purely as myself and not projecting any of the, you know, what the fans are saying right now. I'd be very concerned about the role that Rutherford's going to play in all this. Because what's being said right now is the right messaging and it's what you want to hear.

but not only are you casting doubt on its legitimacy, I'm not 100% certain that he's even going to be around next year. I'm not. Yeah. Because things change so quickly for this organization. And he's, is Patrick Galvin going to be the GM next season? That was not addressed in either of the pieces,

which I thought was interesting. Because I think that's, look, if you want to talk about moves that they can make to, I don't know, sell hope, bringing a new GM, bringing a new head coach. You bring in a guy like

Mani Mahaltra, and you're like, this guy's a teacher. He's going to teach all the young guys. He's a high character guy. And I wouldn't even disagree with that. I'd be like, yeah. Not a bad move.

Or you could bring in another GM and say, this guy's a really forward-thinking type of guy. We went on head-hunted this guy. This guy's smart. He knows what course he is or something like that. I don't know. You know?

He gets it all. He gets it all. He understands it all. And maybe that's a move you can make. That can restore some hope. I just think about the guys, the season ticket sales guys, who are calling up people right now and people are like, what? What are you guys doing?

Yeah. What are you guys doing? What's the plan? Because there are season ticket holders that will say, like, I'll keep buying tickets. But I need some clarity of vision from you in order to know what I'm getting it. Like, I don't need, I'll buy tickets if the team has some young players in the lineup next season. And we can start growing our relationship together, fan base and players.

And I'll enjoy that process. I like hockey, you know? I want to buy these tickets. That's the thing. The season ticket holders, they do want to buy. They want a reason to buy these tickets. It's not like they hate hockey. And they have to be sold super hard on this stuff.

Yeah, it's a lot of money. But a lot of the season ticket holders, they got money or their companies, right? But right now, I'd be like, well, what am I signing up for? Because at the beginning of the season, it was completely different. And it's been two years now of, first of all, bad hockey from the Canucks.

and I'm watching a bunch of guys that are fairly well paid, not playing well. So you tell me, it's a clarity of vision. I would say that's what everyone needs right now. And I don't think we have it because he says we'll listen on guys, but he doesn't say he'll trade them. Like to me, Elias Pedersen is still the number one topic. because if you talk about he openly acknowledge

we need to improve our center group if you trade Elias Pedersen away and you're not going to get like a top center back in any trade for him then you've made that even harder so are you going to keep him then remains to be seen like you can say we'll listen on players

well I can I can you know anyone can listen you can pick up the phone and be like I won't hang it up it doesn't mean you're going to trade him. You know, I think a better thing would have been like, yeah, we're going to trade some of these guys. He didn't commit to really anything when it came to the veterans.

The line was we may end up saying no to offers, certainly, but we're not going to say no to having conversations about any player. Great. There's your big takeaway from yesterday. There were a lot of takeaways from this article. We'll be getting into these throughout the show. We are very hockey heavy today on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. We're also going to look ahead to tonight's opponent.

Yeah, the Canucks are back in action tonight. The finale of the six-game road swing goes in Columbus. Aaron Portsline, excellent Columbus Blue Jackets beat writer for the athletic is going to join us on the other side. Preview tonight's game also talk about the new head coach in Columbus, Rick Bonas. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drans. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on SportsNet 650 or wherever you get your podcast.

The Breft Show on SportsNet 650. Alfred and Breft of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Get out of the penalty box of debt and back into the game with a financial fresh start. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. Still an hour one of the program. Aaron Portsline from the Athletics is going to join us in just a moment here, the highlight of hour one. Hour one is brought to you fittingly by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on.

scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Busy night in the National Hockey League tonight. It feels like all of them are busy nights now as we get closer and closer to the Olympic break. Canucks are in action at 4 o'clock in Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets. Joining us now to preview it from the Blue Jackets side of things. Aaron Portsline from the Athletic here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Aaron. How are you? Yeah, good morning, guys. How are you? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. I want to to start with the coaching change

midweek, and I know Rick Bonas has already got one game, Grant total of one game under his belt as the new Columbus Blue Jacket's head coach. And one win. And he was very happy about it. I want to ask though, given how closely you follow the team and given the lead up to the Dean Eveson dismissal, did you get an inkling aside from where the blue jackets were in the

standings that that dismissal was imminent given how much everybody praised Everson for the job that he did taking over last season? Yeah, so I would be lying if I said I had a sense that it was imminent. But from a conversation with the general manager, Don Waddell, a day earlier, when Dodgers said this is his most frustrating year in hockey, you go, whoa, which says I need to continue to evaluate it.

No, he's safe or our coach isn't a problem. Right? You go, okay, well, things are being consistent. at least. I thought it would wait until the Olympic break, that big, big window there that helps with sometimes with moves to have a little breathing room before you can start it. But it was pretty clear. Waddell didn't think you could wait that long. You didn't think there would be a season left. And in fairness, the other side of the Olympic break, the Blue Jackets, and most teams have five games, and then it's the trade deadline, right? And then you've got one

month to the end of the season. So this next stretch is going to decide if, they can get themselves back into the race. And that's about making the playoffs, sure. But first, I think it's about how to handle the trade deadline. Why do you think it was his most frustrating season ever? Yeah. Well, as he said, I think it's, A, that there were a lot of players and just the team as a whole underperforming.

I think the issue is how this team is played in the, third period. I believe they've lost 26 games total, 19 in regulation, seven and overtimeers. Those 26, they've had a third period lead. Those games, they've had a two-goal third period. They've blown more games and they've given away more points, often directly to their metro competitors, certainly to their Eastern Conference foes, that it's been kind of a double whammy. A, they're not getting the points of B, the teams that they're trying to catch are. And so I think they've had a lot of things that are right there in their grasp that they've given away. And I think that's a big part of it for them is a big part of it for Adomadale.

Because I saw you and other people have pointed to this particular game as well. They had a 5-4-or-off time loss to Pittsburgh right at the start of January where they led 4-1, blew the lead. Now, you wrote in The Athletic that Everson insisted that. his coaching philosophy didn't change in third periods. But then you also pointed out that what he would explain postgame about why things were going wrong, maybe fell flat. Could you expand on that a little bit further? Yeah.

So, you know, and I'll give him this, Evan said, I think he's telling the truth. I don't think he went into the dressing room and said, okay, let's play not to lose, guys. Take no chances. Just chip the fuck out, yada, yada, nobody says that, right? but I think it's what you exude. I think sometimes it's the moves that you make, the lines that you choose to play in certain situations that send a message to your team.

Are we trying to win this game, or are we trying to not lose this game? And, you know, I heard Zach Werencki, you've got to be careful here, because Werenck, he was not saying it directly about Eveson, more in a general sense, but Eveson was the coach of the team. And this was said after that game,

that, you know, there still has to be some risk in your game. You still have to push to play. The third period is a long period, just like the first two. There's a lot of time there. And if you're not taking any risk and you're sitting back and you're content to just clear the puck and be careful with it, stay on the right side of it at all times, chances are you're going to give the other team a lot of momentum. And I think that was it. The other thing is I don't think Don Waddell, certainly I don't think the fan base, heard from the team or from the coaches after those rash of third period collapses.

Any tangible explanations of how this is going to be different going forward, it was always, geez, we can't get a bounce. We get so many bad bounces. And, you know, the fact of the matter is when the puck is in your zone constantly, you are going to get bad bounces. That's just the game. If it's around your net, all freaking period, you're going to get bad bounces, and those are the bounces that they got.

Vancouver took a point from them in a game that they should have won or got a point out of a game that the Blue Jackets should have won going away. There's just been examples like that up and down. And so I think that's what Elved off. The jackets have had quite a few draft picks in the top 10 or even the top five. Kent Johnson,

fifth overall in 2021, David Eurocheck, six overall in 2022, Adam Fantilli, third overall in 2020. You know, Eurichick isn't even on the team anymore. But how much

has the performance of Adam Fantilli and Kent Johnson, how much did that impact the decision to change coaches? Well, it's a great question and a timely one. I've got a story should be posting momentarily about what their outlook looks like and how bonus may,

well, how he plans to handle them. Ted Johnson played almost 21 minutes in his first game under bonus, which is about eight, got eight minutes more than he'd been averaging under Evesant. Like, this is a player that got lost this year. At 50-some points, 24 goals last year, kind of a breakout. season for him and he's been lost. And I think I asked bonuses yesterday if he and Wadell discussed, you know, this is how he's going to be used.

And he said, no, that's up to me. But boy, in game one, you saw a lot of Kent Johnson. You also saw a lot of Fantilli. Now, Fantilli did play a lot under Evanston. He was elevated to the top line center early in the season. He's gone 13 games without a call. That's the longest in his career. the thing you're going to see with him, I think, are going to be more subtle changes.

In overtime, he was typically part of the second or third cluster of forwards that would come out. You know, two forwards, one D typically. He'd be part of the second or third change. I think you're going to see that change. The other thing that I've been thinking about a lot is I don't think Rick Bonas and Ken Hitchcock are really that different in terms of their philosophy of how they think hockey should be played. First move Ken Hitchcock did when he took over the blue jacket was taking offensive-minded Rick Nash and say,

you're on the penalty kill. We all laughed. I think Rick Nash scratched his head. I think the thing that he turned out to be, by the way, one of the best penalty killers in the NHL, it really elevated his game. I think something similar is coming for Fantilli here. He's barely been part of the penalty. to kill. To me, that player should be playing 20 plus minutes a night. And he said yesterday he's

ready for it. He's conditions for it. He wants more. And I think you're going to see these two young players get elevated under bonus. Yeah, it can get you into the game sometimes. It's a little risky, but it can get you into the game sometimes. So being in Vancouver, we couldn't help but notice that Lawrence Gilman gets hired to the management group and then not too long after after that, his old friend Rick Bonus, who they were together with the Canucks, you know, over a decade ago now. Did you hear whether or not, I got to ask this question, did you hear whether or not Gilman had any influence on the bonus hiring? You know, it's a good question. My sense is that Don Waddell has known Rick Bonus forever.

Yeah, everyone does. I also, I didn't get the sense that bonus needed much persuading to take the job. I was a little surprised by it because when he stepped down in Winnipeg, you know, he said it's just time. It's just time. Well, it's been a year and a half. I was in no longer time. And he made it clear that he had some health issues, his wife had health issues, and it just become too much. And they're beyond those health issues, which is wonderful news.

I hope I look like Rick Bonas's day when I'm 70 years old. But I thought that still looks like he's in his 40s. So I don't think he needed much persuasion to come back and take an NHL job. So I'm not sure exactly what Gilman's role is or was in this. I think Lawrence Gilman's got enough on his plate in Columbus, Ohio, with these contracts. He's got to have some, I bet he's got a big stack of standard player contracts in his briefcase and a bunch of pens that are brand new and ready to use for signage

because he's going to be busy on the contract front here. What's the biggest or most important piece of work that he has to do? So I think it's a decision to be made with the young players. I mean, first off, the trade deadline, what do they do with Boo Jenner? What do they do with Charlie Coyle? What do they do with Mason Marchments, right? If they're back in it and they're keeping these guys, then I think, and they feel like a trade is, or a signing, sorry,

is in the same ballpark from both sides, then perhaps they go past the trade deadline without them signed and they know they can get them done. Especially a guy like Jenner, who's been here the whole time. Certainly there's a level of it. Fantilli is up, right? They've got a bunch of young players who can sign extensions. In two years, Werensky's going to be up.

So there's a lot of, there's been a lot of players that have left this market, really good players. And so contract talks are always a very, very nervous time for the fan base here. And I think people look at Lawrence Gilman and they're excited and a little nervous to see just how this is going to go because for some reason this process has never been easy for the Blue Jackers. They can't trade Boone Jenner. He is a Blue Jacket. He's been there forever. He's the most Blue Jacket guy, I know. He was drafted before Ryan Murray Do you remember him? Number two overall?

Do you think he'll stay, Aaron? I think Boone Jenner helped name the team and purchase the cannon. Like, I know he's only been here for like half of the team's existence, but I've covered him from the start. I can't remember a time when Boone Jenner wasn't here. It just seems like he's always been here. it's almost unspathomable to think that he might move along and the way that he played the other night

I'd say he's not going to but listen with their center depth and the number of bodies that they have up front I've been saying for a while I think it's more possible than ever that Jenner is seen as a player that they could move along if they're out of it I think it still becomes that

but he's also the heart and soul the team he's the captain of the team he's a crowd favorite. He's really everything you could ask for. He's taking team-friendly deals consistently. I'm not sure he has an appetite to do that yet again with the way that's the... But we'll see.

You know, we'll see. He's a player that's coming into his 30s now. And it feels like he's an interesting one. It is the Canucks. It is the Blue Jackets. It's 4 o'clock tonight from Columbus. Aaron, thank you very much for doing this today. We really appreciate it.

Enjoy the game tonight. We'll check back in closer to the trade deadline. Okay, thanks guys. Thanks, Aaron. Aaron Portsline from the Athletic Columbus Blue Jackets writer here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Just a quick reminder, game tonight from Columbus. Sixth of a six-game road trip, a highly forgettable one thus far for the Vancouver Canucks. Pre-game, post-game and the actual game, you can hear it all right here on Sportsnet 650.

Remember when you said this was a very winnable road trip? Thought they were going to take four, six. Yeah. They have taken zero of five. Maybe they can win four games tonight. They are getting housed. night. Okay, well, they're winning for sure now.

Yeah, see, that's how you do it. Yeah. That's how you do it. Okay, last night in the NHL, a couple notable scores, Buffalo stayed hot, and all of a sudden, the Flyers are looking like they might be collapsing or at least in a little bit of trouble. Buffalo was won 14 of their last 16. The Flyers have lost 4th Street.

Yeah, Sabers beat the Flyers 5'2. But the result of the night, Ottawa goes. into New York, MSJ to play a Rangers team that is very fragile right now. And they win the game 8-4, but that actually sounds better for the Rangers than it really was. Yes. Because it was six-nothing for the senators halfway through this game. And so I was outrunning some errands yesterday. So I listened in my car to the Rangers feed. Yep. And I was actually laughing because I was like, I'm going to turn on the Rangers feed and just see if they're freaking out or anything like that. They weren't. They were just telling stories. Yeah. They were like, oh, and they're like,

oh, by the way, it's five nothing for the senators. Oh, six nothing for the senators. Anyway, back to my story about, I don't know, one of their Hartford guys or whatever. I think. I think anger must have changed to apathy at some point, because I was also listening, driving around, and they were beside themselves in the first period, when the Rangers fell behind for nothing. And one of the lines of the night was, I'm paraphrasing, but all the Rangers need to do here

is complete a couple nice passes and get a good breakout and build some confidence. Unfortunately, it does not seem as though they are capable of doing that. They're rotten right now. Someone texted me the other night and said, would you rather, would you rather on a Thursday? Would you rather have where the Canucks are at right now as an organization, current roster and everything, or the New York Rangers?

And I had to take a long time to think about it. Because the New York Rangers right now are an absolute mess. I think I'd rather have the Canucks roster. I think I might. What's being shown over the last couple of games, and it's probably maybe the most distressing thing of all, is they're the worst team in the Eastern Conference. They're dead last in the Eastern Conference.

And the majority of that was put up while Igor Shisterkin was a net. Without Shisterkin, it has been a nightmare. Jonathan Quick got pulled for the second time in three games last night, six goals on 17 shots. Saturday, you'll recall when they lost 10-2 to the Boston Bruins. It was six goals in that game as well before he got pulled in favor of Spencer Martin. They got booed off the ice in the first period. again, this is the Ottawa game last night,

NMSG, they're 04 and 1 in their last five games, two games under NHL 500, dead last in the Eastern Conference. And when you talk about that comparison between them and the Vancouver Canucks, there are two teams well on their own in terms of worst home records in the National Hockey League. One is the Vancouver Canucks who have four wins at home this year.

The other is the New York Rangers who have five wins, five wins at Madison Square Garden this year. They are awful Now I want to play Ladi Laddie Lattie Lattie Lattie Laddie Lattie Hi Can you pull up the Mike Sullivan audio from last night?

I can One of the intrepid you guys We're having a conversation Yeah I'm sorry to interrupt in the middle Sorry to interrupt in the middle of our radio show I shouldn't do that Mike Sullivan was asked by an intrepid New York Rangers Beat writer yesterday

If he wanted his team to show some more anger because part of what's going on in New York right now is that they're losing all these games at home, they're losing them badly, and there's very little pushback from a number of players, possibly including the captain, J.T. Miller. I don't know if Mike Sullivan...

I couldn't believe Sullivan pulled the goalie with... They were down three goals. So the eighth goal was an empty netter. Yeah. And the performance they had with the extra attacker was pathetic. There was one dumpin. Panarin dumped it in

and no one from the Rangers chased after it. And the senator's just like, thanks? I'm just going to just skate this out myself. The give a crab meter might be pretty low in New York. So here's the audio from yesterday. I don't know if Mike Sullivan loved the question. And you could sense that he was about to go nuke,

but he dialed it back. Here's Mike Sullivan being asked about the Rangers needing more anger following an 8-4 loss to the Ottawa senators. We've talked about frustration, but at a certain point, do you want to see more anger from the guys? You can obviously sense of frustration and maybe the lack of confidence, but not as much maybe angered.

Yeah, well, so what do you suggest and what are you implying? Just, you know, some sort of pushback or fight, not like physically dropping gloves and fighting, but, you know. Well, when you look at the start of the second period, I thought, you know, starting from the first shift, there was a lot of initiation of contact to start that period for the first five minutes of that period started with J.T.

The very first shift. If that's what you're asking, if you're implying, you know, embracing contact, physical play. Listen, we've gone through a rash of emotions. You know, there's been tons of anger. There's been, you know, we've run through the gamut of emotions here

trying to write this thing and get it going in the right direction. And we'll continue to try to solve it. you know, there's no easy answers. We've got to work hard. We've got to work together. We got to stick together.

We got to stay together. And we've got to compete together. And that's what we're going to do. Sticking together is what good waffles do. So I just want to put this out there. I like Mike Sullivan. I think he's a really good head coach. And I know that every NHL coach

tries to put a spin on things. But when he talks about his team coming out and being engaged in the second period, it was 4-0 at the end of the first. Ottawa scored twice in the first 12 minutes of the second period to make it 6-0. So that's great if your team finally decided to physically engage the impotent. They also got scored on two more times to make it 6-0.

And I know that it probably doesn't do any good to pile on your team even further in those moments, especially when the media is asking questions. But, you know, we now exist in this weird ecosystem where I think that NHL coaches and maybe some executives around the league, just say, whatever they think will quiet the storm or whatever people want to hear, whatever they think people should hear as opposed to actually just telling the truth. I don't know if it's quite gaslighting, but when you see something play itself out and you have someone describe almost an entirely different situation,

it does make you wonder what's going on. But maybe Sully's like, you should see JT in the dressing room. We've got a lot of anger. Right, but that's what I'm saying. Like you said maybe, like maybe that's the case. When you hear someone say something and it doesn't really match up. with what you're seeing. Yeah.

It does lead to a lot of interpretations. Of course. But he's in a tough spot there. Yeah. Like for example. I remember when he took that job. You know, we talked about this Rangers team as a potential disaster. I don't think this is shocking.

No. They're old. They're shockingly bad. They're, they're, this, I don't think we expected this. The start they had where they're getting shut out every game at home and how they've continued to be a disaster at home. But I think we looked at this. team. When they got J.T. Miller, we were like, that's an interesting decision to make him captain.

That could go a number of different ways. And we talked about the potential for this to be a disaster. And I think Mike Sullivan is probably sitting there going, geez, I just signed a pretty big contract. And like, I'm good financially. But this can be a nightmare. Like, one thing we haven't mentioned in this is that their best offensive player, Panarin, could be traded in the next month. Yep. And not replaced. No. You know what I mean?

Like, what are they going to do with him? If they re-sign him, all of a sudden they've given a big contract because, you know, he's going to want a lot of money and he's going to get it with the free agent market being what it is. And then they're going to have another older guy locked up long term. And a guy that they haven't really been able to trust in the postseason. Yes. You know? And it's like, well, you haven't changed the mix then. what are you guys doing?

So if I'm Mike Sullivan, I'm like, what did I sign up for? Is it a hybrid rebuild? None of this should dissuade the Rangers from overpaying for Kiefer-Shirwood, though. I just want to make that abundantly clear. Oh, yeah, there's still very much in it. They still got a chance. Still got a chance. They can go on a run.

Hour one of the program is in the books. Hour two is on the horizon. Patrick Johnson's going to join the program. First-time guest here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. The Canucks writer from the province, also the author of the new book, Gino, the fighting spirit of Ginoogic. That's coming up on the other side.

Before we go to break, I do need to remind you that you can reserve your spot for the big football party at the Clayton Public House, hosted by Sportsnet 650. Email info at the Clayton Pub.com. Clayton Public House, good food, good people, good times. First hour is in the book. Patrick Johnson joins us next on the Halford & Brough Show

on SportsNet 650.