Halford & Brough in the Morning - So Long, Pius Suter

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

In hour one, Mike and Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they hear from Canucks President Jim Rutherford, they discuss the Canucks losing Pius Suter in Free Agency (3:00), plus they talk the latest baseball news and notes with MLB Network's Adnan Virk.  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 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 dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun He gets one and it bounces away! And in to score is Springer with the go ahead run! We all have to remember the caps going up and we all have to remember the importance of goal-tenning. And so we feel very good about our goal-tenning. The ravine rises, ready to erupt! Through to the football star! Ready to erupt. 3-10, the Torsons! Good morning Vancouver! 6-0-1 on a Thursday! Happy Thursday everybody! It's Halford at his breath at his sports net 6-50.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And basketball, Ben, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And basketball, Ben, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Haliford and Brev for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, VCs first and trusted choice for debt help. With over 3,000 five star reviews, visit them online at sans-trustee.com.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Lots to get into on a Thursday show. Guest list begins at six 30 this morning. Adnan Burke from MLB network is going to join the show. Blue Jays can't stop winning. They love winning. It's too much winning. 11 to nine over the Yankees last night, sixth of their last seven. They'll look to sweep the Yanks tonight in the series finale. Can also talk to Adnan about a big and an emotional night for the Dodgers

We heard in the intro Clayton Kershaw 3000 strikeout club Max Muncie terrible injury last night for the Dodgers We'll talk to Adnan about all that at 630 730 Neil McAvoy is gonna join the program He is the VP of football Ops for the BC Lions. The Lions are back in action this Saturday, four o'clock kickoff against Montreal or against the Owls in Montreal. Sorry. We'll get a Nathan Rourke health update, see if Nathan Rourke will be able to be behind center. And if not, if the Lions are going to be able to scratch and cloud a victory with Jeremiah Masoli or I guess Chase Bryce under center for the Lions this weekend, Neil McEvoy is going to join us at 730. Eight o'clock Thomas Drance is going to join us

for a dose of Canucks talk. Can discuss the Brock Besser extension. Can also discuss the Pew-Souter contract. What happened there? How did Souter end up a member of the St. Louis Blues on a contract what at first blush looks like a lot of teams probably could have afforded. Kind of strange how that all turned out.

Yeah, I'm really curious about how that all went down. Jim Rutherford also appeared on Fan 590, our sister station in Toronto, so we'll talk to Drantz. What everything that the president of hockey ops of the Canucks had to say, we'll also go through the audio in the introductory segment as well.

We'll talk about Dakota Joshua, Teddy Bluger, everyone else that may be on the market for the Vancouver Canucks as they look for center depth. Finally, before we move along here, I need to ask yet again, have you bought your tickets for the Sportsnet 650 Jayscare 5050 for Challenger Baseball? If you haven't done it, do it. Jayscaregolf.RaffleNexus.com. That URL again, Jayscaregolf.RaffleNexus.com. Buy your tickets now. The draw is on Monday, July 7th. Ticket sales end at 6.30 p.m. on Monday.

Again, this is for challenge your baseball. It's an extremely worthy endeavor. Buy your tickets, win some cash. It's your chance to also help challenge your baseball. That's what's happening on the program today. I'm not even gonna get into the rundown of the guests's your chance to also help challenge your baseball. That's what's happening on the program today. I'm not even going to get into the rundown of the guests because we need to get to everything that happened.

So without further ado, Ben, 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? Missed it?

You missed that? What happened? What happened? You missed that? You missed that? Whoa! What happened? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies

the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. It's gonna be a very audio intensive first half hour of the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Because anytime the Canucks president of hockey ops, Jim Rutherford, speaks to the media yesterday, it was on fan five 90s hockey show with Matt Marquesi and Mike Fuda.

Anytime J.R. talks, there's always a lot to discuss in the aftermath. And that was the case yesterday when Jim Rutherford appeared on fan five 90. I want to start with his breakdown of the Brock Besser contract extension and how it all went down. There's kind of a common theme going on here between what Rutherford had to say and what the insiders are saying happened behind the scenes.

Let's start now with the president of Hockey Ops talking about how Brock Besser always wanted to stay in Vancouver and that was a big reason why that deal eventually got done. Well, there was a chance that he was moving on, you know, it, uh, it, it actually would pass the past our deadline and, and, uh, and, but we always felt, we knew that we wanted to keep Brock, you know, he's a good person, good team guy,

and he's a goal scorer and you can never score enough goals. But as time was going along and of course, you know, we went through the trade deadline, decided not to trade them. And as the summer wore on, we kept we kept the, we kept the door open. They kept the door open, but I would say not by a whole lot because the closer you get to the free agency, that door starts to almost close tight. And, uh, um, but we always felt that deep down Brock wanted to stay with the Canucks. And, uh, as you guys know, when you're putting the team together, when you're, when you're in a cap system, it's like, it's like a big puzzle and you're moving

pieces around all the time and trying to move pieces so you can get a big enough piece to hit the sweet spot for a player. And Brock knew we were willing to go to seven years for a number of months. But that sweet spot of what he was going to be paid wasn't quite there. And so finally we got to that and we got it done. So it sounds to me like, remember yesterday we were saying was $50 million the sweet spot. We didn't use Jim Rutherford's words, but

we'll use it now because Rutherford said Brock knew for a while, a couple of months that they'd go to seven years. And that had been the previous sticking point term, right? So maybe they changed their offer to seven years, but the AAV wasn't all that high for Brock. And maybe he just went in there.

A lot of these guys, we focus so much on, on Capit, but you know, if you listen to Sat, uh, explain these situations a lot, he's really good at, and he's, he basically just says like a lot of the time these guys just go in and say, you know, it's not that they don't care how many years it is, but they've got a number in mind and maybe it was just $50 million for Brock and he got it done.

I also think that Brock is a guy that doesn't necessarily want every last penny. And I think we saw a little bit of that, we saw maybe a lot of that, especially in Florida. Now I know there's the state income tax thing, but it's smart. Like it's good, it's actually good life advice. Like don't chase every last penny.

If you're like, especially with these guys, I mean, this is, it's like, it's easy. It's actually good life advice. Like don't chase every last penny. If you're, like especially with these guys, I mean, this is, it's like, it's easy. Like I've always said, okay, someone's making $50 million. What's the difference between making $50 million and $55 million? Like you're still rich. And it's kind of like, if you're Brock Besser and you like the guys that you

play with and maybe you got a, you know, I mean, it's been widely reported his girlfriend is from Vancouver and you know, maybe she's like, I'd rather, you know, I hope you stay in Vancouver. You know, don't mess with happiness. Don't mess with happiness. Don't mess with happiness. It's like, it's not a decision between like, oh, I'm going to stay in Vancouver and be so poor.

Like you're still going to make a lot of money for Plan Oggie, right? He said it himself. And it's like, it's enough money to last you for the rest of your life. There are some very well-off people in Vancouver that will never make $50 million in their lives. He's going to be fine.

Now on the subject of money and the sweet spot, you might be asking, well, how were the Canucks able to finally get there? And some of it had to do with the failed chase of another player yesterday on the Dolly and Dolly show on check TV. Rick Dollywall had an update on how things came to be with Besser from a financial standpoint. The chase was on for another player and when that fell through, it was time for Brock to hit that sweet spot.

Here's Rick Dollywall yesterday from his side of things on the Brock Besser extension. Brock had options. I've been told that he had five serious offers on the table. They were going down the pathway of cutting the deal with another team. Then out of the blue, the Canucks call

with one hour to go in free and she. You know why they called on because the Canucks number one priority on July 1st was not Brock Besser. It was Christian Dvorak. The Canucks got into a bidding war with Philadelphia over Dvorak. Thank God they got into a bidding war, Don, and he wasn't going to be second line center. He's going to be third line center. Just so you know that.

That's why I say thank God You have a good season of money. Don't kid yourselves the Canucks number one option when they got up on July 1st Was not Brock Besser. They went to Besser when they lost Dvorak to Philadelphia different positions though. No, I know I know but they get here's the other problem Their number one center target was Michael Grandlin. He said sorry right Here's the other problem. Their number one center target was Michael Grandlin. He said, sorry, right? Dvorak said, sorry. They ran out of options.

I said, hey Don, they had to go to Brock. They had to go to Brock and say, okay, we'll fix the center position maybe early next year in a trade. And then it went on from there. So it did, there was a sense obviously that the Canucks to a certain degree leveraged Besser's desire and want to stay in Vancouver

and allowed it to simmer on the back burner for a while until they were ready to get the term and get to that sweet spot with Mike. But what would have happened if they had landed to Forock? That's a great question, Jason. Would they have been able to afford Brock because when they signed Brock, they were, now that they've signed Brock,

they're right up against the cap to the point where they might actually have to shed some salary just to get some wiggle room. Yep. And wiggle room, why do you need the wiggle room to address the center position, possibly mid season? So what would have happened? My guess would have happened? My guess would have been that if they had landed Dvorak,

it might have been the end of Brock Bester's time in Vancouver. And that is a wild thing to think about for a guy who ended up signing a rental deal in Philadelphia. I mean, one year is a one year deal of 5.5 million. But I think it's 5.4. Those are different deals in terms of total money. So it's- And why, how do you get outbid on a guy

that lands a one year deal? Does Dvorak not care about total money? Did you even get outbid? Maybe at the end of the day, he just decided to go elsewhere, not necessarily because of the money, but because of other reasons. I don't know, but it was an interesting

and kind of revealing report from Dolly Wall when it came out, and a reason that I wanted to play it because when stacked up against the Rutherford remarks that they always knew that Brock wanted to be here and then Dolly Wall's report that Dvorak was their priority and the first guy they were chasing and they only pivoted back to Besser after losing out on Dvorak,

you can draw your own conclusions there in listener land. So Dvorak placed center. They did not land him. And we've talked about this yesterday on the show, that this leaves them with Phillip Heidel and, uh, Elias Pettersson as their two, one, one, two punch at center going into the year. Jim Rutherford talked about this as well, and also how the team might address their lack of depth at center. Maybe not necessarily now, maybe not necessarily this summer,

but at some point, here's Jim Rutherford on the center position and how they're going to address it meaningfully moving forward. I've said all along that we would probably have to do our business through trades. The free agent market is always difficult. It gets more and more difficult as the cap goes up. And so we will make a trade today if we think it's a

center iceman that can help us. But if it takes some time, we'll also wait for that time. But that is a priority for the Canucks right now to get more depth at center. We do think that we're okay to start the season because Adam Foote is okay with Pedersen and Heidel as one and two centers. And then we got a good young center in Raddy coming. He's still healing from an injury. And of course, Teddy Bluger is a good veteran center.

So, but with that being said, if we can figure out how to get a center, we're gonna do that. So just on the subject of Dvorak being one of the solutions that they thought they had at center, there were a couple of different reports out there that to answer your question, if they had signed Dvorak, there was a suggestion that they

were going to then move around money immediately to try and figure out a way to get better in. So that might've answered the question as to what happens if they actually landed Dvorak? Or they might not have had to move the money right away because you can go slightly over the cap. So there's your insider answer I suppose. In the off season.

Yeah, but the center position still remains an issue, obviously, because it wasn't addressed yesterday. So what do you think they would have done? Because it might point to what they might still do if they had signed Dvorak and if they had signed Besser, who goes out? Probably Bluger and Joshua. I think, I don out? Probably Blugr and Joshua. I think, I don't think it would, well. Yeah, he's already, so he's, in that clip,

he talked about Ratti, Atu-Ratu being an option, which I presume would be the 4C. Right. If not him, Max Sassen, who signed a one-year deal. So if they would have had Dvorak, Yeah. He would have been. The three. The three? Mm-hmm.

So they would still had Pedersen and Hedl one, two, but they would have the Borac. You'll notice in that clip yesterday that he wasn't talking about upgrading the one or two center positions. He was talking about upgrading the center position. Right. So I do wonder if their target still, at the end of this, might end up being a guy that slots in as a three-C. Yeah.

Which is just called the end of Blugger and or Joshua, or Joshua and or Blugger, depending on which one goes. I think they're... I mean, the other candidate I suppose would be if they were, if they desperately had to clear cap space, Hoeglinder. Possibly. Yeah.

He could be in the mix as well. Those, those would be the three that I, that I'd wonder about because Dvorak, if they had signed him, could replace Bluger. Right. Um, and then, then you would have had to just move money out. Ratu to me makes a little, like this is, you know, we, we talked about yesterday about how sometimes if you're a

young player, you just have to, you have to take the opportunity that's there. Sure. The opportunity that is there for Ratu is to replace the things that Suter brought. And we can talk about Suter if you want, about like why he didn't know Vancouver, if he should fire his agent or whatever happened.

But Ratu to me is the guy that like, he can win face-offs so you can put him out there on the PK and hope that he can win draws. And he just, he seems like a pretty smart player too. Pretty strong on the puck. The weakness has always been his skating. That matters a little bit less on the PK, but you know, we went through all the guys yesterday that

have been in the Canucks organization and some of them are still in the Canucks organization and managerial positions that have made a career in NHL career. They've been like, okay, well, how am I going to stay in this league or how am I going to break into this league? And we went through, you know, Yannick Hansen and Alex Burrows and the two guys, you know, running the show in Abbotsford, Manny Malholtra and Ryan Johnson, they killed

penalties and it wasn't glamorous stuff, but Manny Mahoultra, I still remember when he was killing penalties with the Canucks, it was like he would win the faceoff. It felt like he was 80% on that first faceoff in the Canucks, and he would win it, and they'd get it clear, and it was like an automatic 30 seconds off the kill. And he was just a really smart player.

Yannick Hansen, a guy that just like would dog the puck and was just really smart burrows too, right? Like these guys made a career out of like, okay, what does my team need? Yeah. And how do I, and how do I do it? And if I look at what the Canucks have lost this off season, you know, suitor, I saw a few people say like, well, they've lost 25 goals in Suter. Not really if Pedersen and Hedl stay healthy because Suter,

Suter wasn't going to score 25 goals. He wasn't going to be provided the opportunity. He wasn't. Exactly. Exactly. He wasn't going to be provided 25 goals. So a lot of Sors, 25 goals, where they need to be replaced is by like Pedersen and, and, and, and Hedl. And if they can stay

healthy and if Pedersen bounces back, they should more than be able to cover that. So where, where are they, where they need to replace suitor, in my opinion, the biggest thing is on the PK and hopefully Ratu can do that or or if it's Max Sassen You know, there's a little competition whatever you whatever wants to do it. I don't really care Just someone needs to do it. So you mentioned Manny Malhotra there He also came up in conversation yesterday when Jim Rutherford was on with fan 590 Mark Casey and Fuda on the hockey show There were a couple things that JR pointed out here one was that Manny Malhotra will indeed become an NHL head coach one day, just not right now with the Vancouver Canucks.

And he addressed specifically the reason why they went with Adam foot over Manny Malhotra for the head coaching job. Here's the quote from Rutherford now starts with a little bit of praise for Manny and then gets into the decision why it's foot over Malhotra for the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. But the biggest thing when I look between the two guys and Manny is going to be a head coach in the NHL in the near future also. But the, but the biggest thing was that Adam knew all the things that went on with the

team last year, which was a difficult year at times. And the fact that he knew that and how he was going to approach that and make it better gave him the real advantage to getting this job. Because you bring somebody new in, they don't totally understand what happened. It may take them 40 games to a whole season to figure out how he wants to approach that.

And that wasn't something that we wanted to wait for. We want the team to be ready the first day of training camp, let all the stuff that happened last year get behind us, not talk about it, not compare things going forward, and just go forward in a very positive manner. On the surface, the explanation makes sense. It's like who better to clean up the mess than the guy that was around that kind of made part of it last year at the very least. I mean he was, he didn't make the mess, but he was boots on the ground while it happened.

New guy comes in and is like, where's JT? Anyway, I thought he was on the scene. What whatever happened there? Did something go wrong? Obviously Manny knew some of the inner workings of what happened last year, but hey, we said last year, that was a complete organizational failure, even though it was, the onus falls on the two players. Falls on Miller and it falls on Pedersen.

Everyone probably had to take some level of accountability for not trying to make it better. Well, they tried to make it better. They're sorry. Not making it better. Right. Like even if you can say if you try and fail, you still fail. There's something to be said for that. Right. And Foot was there along with Rick Tauke. And they probably tried everything that they could.

So on the surface, I do understand what Rutherford's talking about here. He's like, hey, Foot was there all last year. He knew about all the issues that plagued the team and he's probably got a better, a better and closer look at what went wrong in the hopes of making it right. And that makes sense. I guess, but.

Now there's always a flip side of this. I mean, if that were the case, then every coach would just be replaced by the assistant coach, right? There have been plenty of times where a team has gone through something, something pretty, pretty, you know, like, you know, like if a coach gets fired, usually something's happened, you know, whether it's a loss in the playoffs or just a bad season, whatever, and you bring in a new guy. They didn't want to bring in a new guy, like, talk it like in a new guy. Um. Yeah, but that being said, they didn't want to bring in a new guy.

Like talk it left them. They didn't leave talk it left them. I know, I know. Yeah. It was, uh, like, listen, I'm going to give Adam Foote a chance, um, because I think coaching can be quite unpredictable in terms of who works and, and, and, you know, who doesn't, but I know he

doesn't have that much experience behind the bench. His only time as a head coach was in the WHL and guess what? It didn't go well. So this is a massive challenge for Adam Foote, but you hear people talking about him. I mean, we heard some people interviewed in the last little while, whether it's Connor Garland

or Brock Besser. And they say only good things about Adam Foot and they say, you know, he's a really detailed guy, he's a good coach. Quinn Hughes always, when he talked about the coaching staff last season, it wasn't just talking. He would always talk about the coaches, you know, and Adam Foot, because he was running the defense,

I think they had a really good relationship. It's a challenge though. Adam Foot will have to go out there every day now and talk and he'll have to have different relationships with the players and he'll be the guy in charge and he won't be the nice guy all the time. He won't be the good time Charlie. Right? Right. Right. So, um, that man, like I, I, I know I, I need,

like on the one hand, I need a break from the Canucks. Like I need some time off from the Canucks, definitely. But on the other, all the things that have happened recently and then bring the core back and bringing in a Vander Kane and having a new head coach, I'm kind of like, when's training camp? Like I really want to see how this plays out.

Well, there's one. Is it exciting? Yeah, and it is a bit exciting because it has. This is always what happens on the first couple days of free agency, right? None of us really know how this is going to go. Like, what's Pedersen going to look like? How's Kane going to work?

Is Hedl going to be around? Is Hedl like, oh by the way, by the way, by the way, I'll just jump in. It's so dangerous, there's so much danger. We cut the part of the clip, but Rutherford did confirm that Heedle is 100% healthy. He also said that he could have played in the last couple of games of the last regular season

if they needed him to, because he was good to go then. So there's no concerns, at least right now, with where Heedle is at physically. I know we're way up against him for time, but I wanna squeeze this in. The goalie situation, yeah, that was also addressed yesterday as well. Oh yeah.

Another thing to look forward to as we get into the summer and then looking forward to training camp artists, seal offs what becomes of the Jack a butterfield trophy winner for Calder cup MVP. Uh, that was addressed among other things. When Rutherford dialed in on the goal tending yesterday, here is what Jr had to say about the goalie position going into next season. We feel very good about our goal tending, not only about the names that you mentioned, but we have some very, very good young goalies coming.

And right now in our development camp, we got young and we got method ed. So those, those two guys are going to be very good NHL goalies some day. So we've got things lined up here. Our plan going forward right now is to go with Demko and Lankinen, as well as Seelos played. He's the odd guy out, and he's not waiver exempt anymore. So we're going to have to deal with that here in the off season, but we feel very fortunate where we are with Goaltender.

They're going to have to deal with it here in the off season. Just another thing to add to the list because they're still not done yet. Well, I saw some clips of the Canucks prospects doing the grouse grind yesterday, and Medvedev was there, the goalie that they drafted. And based on the way he looks, he'll be running in about 10 years because I think he's 14 years old.

Those prospects. They're young. They look so, God, we're getting old. Although the Sedines were just like running past all of them on the grouse grind. They did a before and after video, and they asked them how hard do you think the grouse grind is before they did it? And then after they did it and the numbers got exponentially larger afterwards those guys were some of them were just sweating buckets. It was crazy Yeah, yeah, they lost a few of them on the way. Yeah, just that's why you draft so many guys You're gonna lose some of them on the grind. Okay, we got to get out of here

We got to go to break when we come back We're gonna dive into some baseball for about 10 or 15 minutes with that and and Burke from MLB network. Then on the other side, we got some other stuff to discuss. We're going to try and answer another question. What the hell happened with Pew suitor? You're listening to the Halford and Bref show on sports net six 50. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks.

Listen 12 to 2 PM on sports netnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. It's time to chat with Ed Nen. It's Ed Nen Berkey's on the show. We're gonna talk some baseball And take a trip to the silver screen That's right, it's time for Adnan Yes, Adnan Ferkey joins us now We'll head out to the ball game

And talk about all the films he's seen reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. The music suggests that Adnan Burke is gonna join the program. We're still working on getting him on the line. Lots to talk about with Adnan from the world of baseball last night. How about them Blue Jays, basketball Ben? Another win last night.

Don't look. Don't look now. But there's a tie atop the ALE standings. At 48 and 38, Toronto, New York, half game behind the Tampa Bay Rays. Ben, who is the most surprising player on the Jays for you? Is it Barger? I'd say Addison Barger.

Yeah. Played at the Vancouver Canadians. He's got a beautiful swing. Grew up down the road in Bellevue. Right? Yeah. He's got like that opposite feel, single the other, that's smooth.

Yeah. Quality, quality base hit. We got Adnan on the line now. To the phone lines we go, the Power West Industries hotline. Adnan Virk joins us here on the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Adnan, how are you?

I'm doing great Mike J. What a run for the Blue Jays. I mean the heck hour under a great like a uh... what a wonderful look at it accurate during the break at the exit by a couple of them about the barges great it's been impressive and i don't know if we should have seen it coming maybe the yankies were gonna run away with the a l east and i know that earlier in the year we bemoan the lack of talent in the a l east but look at it out the jays in the yankies tied atop as i

mentioned forty eight thirty eight raise a half game behind boston still two games below five hundred but not talent in the A.L. East. But look at it now. The Jays and the Yankees tied atop, as I mentioned, 48 and 38. Rays a half game behind Boston. Still two games below 500, but not entirely out of it. Baltimore stinks. But it's really heated up in large part due to the fact that the Jays got hot and to a lesser degree, the Rays as well. There's no doubt you have to have two things after the same time. You guys are right. It's a matter of not only the Jays clearly stepping up when need be the Rays as well.

I mean, the Rays since May 20th have been the best team in baseball in terms of runs per game and their pitching staff has been incredible in terms of their teaming array. I mean it's pretty remarkable what they've done but specifically to the Blue Jays I mean I was looking back their numbers you know from June 8th on aside from the Ashford they've got the best record of baseball so they really just turn it around and it's really exciting because I think going into the series like if they could win three or four how exciting would that baseball. So they really just turn it around and it's really exciting because I think going into the series, like if they could win three or four, how exciting would that be? And now

they could be going for a sweep. I mean, that's crazy to think about. Uh, you, I'd love for you to jump in on the question that Jason asked because we kind of have the guys that we expect to do the business for the Jays, right? You start with Ladi Grarer Jr. You go to Bo Bichette, guys on the pitching staff as well. Who's been the biggest surprise for you in this first half of the J season, where again, they're tied now atop the AL East with the Yankees. I'll put it as high with Berger and Springer. I mean, barge in the fact that he was not the fellas.

He was in triple a at the start of the year. Like it's crazy. And all of a sudden like he's your starting third baseman and he bangs, he has an eight 20 OPS and spoons of the number two spot. I like, Jay was saying it's a great looking swing and just gets on top of the wall. TomahawkPS, this was the number two spot. I like, Jay was saying, it's a great looking swing and just gets on top of the ball and tomahawks it. But Springer also, man, I mean, you talk with a player who plays with such zest and enthusiasm and it's so contagious what he does,

that seven RBI game was unbelievable. I mean, that was a great George Springer game. And you could see the emotion that he had. You know, you kind of forget how good a player he was, right? This guy was was winning World Series was so clutch for the Astros. It's just been a disappointment as a Blue J. But he's playing his best baseball since 2021

and too much of his OPS and what he's able to do out there. So, Fladdy always hit the ball hard. Bo's been okay. I looked at his numbers the other day. It's like 105 OPS plus, he's minus five defensive runs saved. At least he's in there playing. But it's those stories more like Kirk

who's gonna be an all-star at catcher is the backup to Raleigh. It's Barjard Springer. It's amazing what those guys have done. Speaking of emotional evenings, it certainly was one for the Dodgers yesterday. See at the high of Clayton Kershaw joining the 3K club with 3,000 career strikeouts.

And then the lows of what looked to be a really ugly injury for Max Munson. I love watching MLB Network when you do your whip around stuff and when you dive into one of these games. I imagine that's a tough one for everyone in the network when you're trying to capture what's a huge historic moment for Kershaw,

but also the Muncie thing. And you know, the way that the modern television works with injuries, you're not really showing 9,000 replays like you used to, but there were some real highs and lows there yesterday for the Dodgers. No, no question, Mike, I mean, first off for Kershaw, I mean, 3000 strikeouts, fourth lefty to ever do so. Like it's remarkable to think about the accompaniment that he's done and you

know, Kershaw go down as one of the great pictures of all time. And for a while there was that hole in his resume that why could this guy be a great regular season pitcher? One of the best since, you know, 1968, let's say Bob Gibson, that era. And yet when the plants, it wasn't that guy. And then he looked at the numbers and he'd go, Oh, one inning through six. He was excellent. And then ending seven, he'd blow up in like an area of 21.

Okay. So just late in the game, Kershaw with Tyra wouldn't be that guy. And then all of a sudden they figured it out. They won a world series. You know, you can argue whatever did the COVID era, but still they do get a world series. Kershaw has that accomplishment on his resume. And now still out there. Like you say to yourself, why is he still pitching?

Like, you don't need this. Do you think you're good? You won the greatest last year's fall time. But I think 3000 strikeouts is important. And he himself had said, if last season he had pitched and been successful, that would have been different. But the fact that he was a non-factor,

he just wanted to give it one more kick at the can. Who cares? It's 5 million, 7 million, The Dodgers is so much money. So just have Kershaw out there. And honestly guys, he's been better than you realize. Like again, I thought he was just carrying along. He'd pitched 50 innings and okay, in the world series, it's like a dog and pony show, but like he's been five and died, but five effective innings out there. So like they need him right now.

So Kershaw turning back the clock and then as far as month, he's concerned. Yeah, I mean just a brutal injury. I guess the Dodgers would say, hopefully it's not as bad as once feared. So fingers crossed, man. It's, um, his story is amazing too, cause he was not hitting it all at the start of the season, then discovered the astigmatism and since then, cause he can actually see properly now he's been great. So hopefully he will not be out too long. What is it? The Rick Vaughn story here? That's what they should have done. They should have had the exact same glasses that Charlie Sheen wears in major

league. That would have been fantastic. Just paying homage. What you can actually see, you can hit. What a surprise. We're speaking to Adnan Burke from MLB network here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. I always like to be in the present, but I also like looking ahead to the future as well. So we've got the trade deadline when we talked to you about a couple of times here, but even closer to that, the MLB all star game on July 15th in Atlanta. I know that everything's starting to take shape right now. I mean, you're starting rosters and lineups

and who's going to hit where and what's going to happen for all the different competitions. What are you most looking forward to or maybe a couple of things that you're looking forward to now that we're just 12 days away from the MLB all star game? You know, I always loved seeing the first time All-Stars, you know, nine guys were named as far as starters. I mean, again, Raleigh is just an incredible story. Who, if you're just an average casual sportsman, you see that guy, how do you not root for him?

From the nickname to the story, the big dumper is hitting 33 home runs and has been really captivating. Everybody there is enjoying baseball in the Northwest. And I also just love seeing stars who are balling out, man. Ronald Acuna Jr. has only them playing like thirty games be starting the all-star game and why not if you all seem doesn't mean anything as far as home field etc

he has been one of the players going and i don't care if you don't play thirty five games if you got there for the stars of their the federal and it can you need to be a part of that so i'm happy about that of course you have judging a tiny and it's good news to have three dodgers there but how about the tigers fell it's been a long long time to be able to say we're gonna have four or five detroit tigers in all-star game hobby by his comeback clearly here is an all-star starter i thought it was washed it was but it's a lot of companies and he started a different

position he beat up mike trout twenty six twenty four percent of vote by the green is their superstar left field glaver torres with the yankees he makes the altercumulus first years of tiger is really improved at first chase rates Riley Green is their superstar in left field. Glaver Torres was with the Yankees. He makes the All-Star team in his first year as a Tiger. He's really improved as far as his chase rate's concerned, his walk rate. Like to think, the Yankees deal up on a guy who's the best second baseman right now in the American League.

And of course, Derek Skoulos is gonna be starting the game. So yeah, you expect the Dodgers, you expect Judge and the Yankees, but the stories at the Cal Rally and the Detroit Tigers coming back with a vengeance, to me are pretty cool and it'll be fun to watch in the All-Star game. Yeah, I was reading a bunch about rally and you know, the Seattle media is just like in love with this story as much as I think the

national media probably will be after the All-Star game when he kind of explodes on that big stage because. He can't tire himself out in the home run Derby. Yeah. And that, that that can turn seasons around. He's not the most physically robust guy in terms of fitness. So like, you know, pace yourself for the second half of the season. Now that being said, he's finally starting to get some help at the play because Randy Rosarina has been tearing the cover off the ball recently in the last few games.

And, you know, the question in Seattle right now is, is Raleigh's historic season going to mean less if the Mariners miss the playoff? So I do wonder, like, if a a Rosarena can heat up and continue, not necessarily this tear where he's hitting a home run every game, but start hitting the ball and give them two legitimate bats in the lineup where you're worried about them. And then they add something at the deadline.

They could really be a team to watch come post-season time. And I worry about the adding of the deadline because they didn't add anything in the off season. No. To trade a photo, whether or not it's him or it's ownership, I think it's the latter. He just hasn't been doing the stuff that he normally does. He's known as like Trader Jerry, right? He loves to make moves. So I think he's kind of been ham-fisted there. And you're right. They've got to get some more offense because the Raleigh Stoli

isn't nearly as exciting if they're the third wild card spot and they lose to Blue Jays. Like, man, I'm so much for that. Like, you know, it's going to be a lot more fun if they actually win the division. You could see how going on a run at three of us know they have never won a world series never been to a world series like you can't get over that hump and the long way away from that but you're right a rosa reyna plonk again back to be who we used to be who ever because it's supposed to the franchise guys who supposed to be the

store and said like you know really mentioned because of the bali story ticket pops to cowl but those other hitters got a step it up good news that they have Logan Gilbert back because they're ace, George Kirby's back. He's been better his last few starts. So it's weird, their hitting was carrying them early and their pitching was actually mediocre.

They were 15th in the RA. Now the pitching is a little better. Now they're hitting these to do some work. So I asked the photo last winter about hitting in Seattle, how hard it is. And he told me straight face in the summer, guys hit a lot better. So we'll see if that's true.

They should theoretically hit better in July and August in Seattle. Who are some names that are out there that could end up with either the Jays or the Mariners at the deadline, which is July 31st? So everybody always needs starting pitching J. Sandy Alcantara obviously is the big superstar with the Marlins.

You know, you got to have a horrible start this year and wonder what's going on. But in June, he's been much better. So whoever gets Sandy is going to really feel like they get the big prize. But Bailey falters in a really good picture of the pirates. I think whoever requires him would be happy. Where it gets tricky is what happens with the bats because you know, the downside of the extra wild card spot is that eventually so many teams still

tell themselves they're in the playoff mix. So you'll have a team, right? That's like four games of the third wild card and you go, dude, you're under 500. You're not doing anything. Like, well, we're still kind of in this thing. And you go, okay. Back in the day, at least, six teams made the playoffs. It was very clear the haves and the have-nots and the sellers were clear.

Now it feels like everybody's buying and you've only got a handful of sellers that then drives up the price of a few guys that are available. So I hope Arizona, to be perfectly frank, goes into more of a tailspin because then they can trade some of these guys. A.U. Henning of Suarez is top five in RBI's and home runs. He'd be the best bat available. He'd be great for Seattle. He'd be great for the Blue Jays.

He'd be great for anybody. Zach Gallagher's going to be a pending free agent. They should trade him. Josh Naylor is a private at Mississauga, Ontario. He's a free agent of the D-back. They should trade him. So I'm kind of hoping, fellas, we get some more discrepancy between the haves and the have-nots and then some of those teams should be sellers

who normally are not. I mean, Texas is another team that they can't score runs or offense is pitiful. They should make some moves, but they're still like, oh, only five games to go to the wild card spot. Okay. You got to be realistic at a certain point. Do you think the Mariners could ever be sold?

Because, you know, if they, if they don't do anything at this deadline, I mean, the fan base has been, I'm not going to ask like, what will happen if they don't do anything? Like the fan base is already frustrated with ownership and I know these are tough questions to answer, but like, it's so weird now that we have this separation between like really rich billionaires and just

like kind of billionaires. Do you know what I mean? Like it, it, it, and the Mariners ownership doesn't fall under like wildly rich. Yeah, you know, it's hard. I think when it looks at ownership, you can't really tell which teams are they have and have nots because you're right.

It's like they should be spending, they should be better than they are. And then, you know, I think honestly what's happened Jay is that the whole issue with local sports rights like that's been a real challenge because you don't know right in the past they have so much money that was so lucrative from these regional television deals you could spend and now with the RSN it's kind of in hold up and I guess Rob Manfred's point is that he's going to try to figure this out in the next CBA. Fingers crossed, how's that going to go?

Potential lockout, et cetera. So the frustration is the Seattle, the Minnesota, the Cleveland's, before they rely on the arson money, which was lucrative, now they don't really have it and they kind of wait for a year and a half. So I think that's honestly the biggest issue for a lot of these owners at least. That sounds like a pretty worrisome situation. If you have a significant revenue source that's been affected, but the players will be like, yeah, I don't care about that. Um, you know, like I want everything to stay the same.

Like look at franchise values. You guys are rich. Look at what the Dodgers are spending. What, look at what some teams are spending. Like you guys will figure it out because there's just never that trust between ownership and players. And from the players perspective, they never believe the owners are telling them the whole story.

Yeah. And I think that is what the issue is, right? That disconnect between the two of them. And that's where that frustration lies. It's like, you know, if everyone's just on the up and up, we could all make it to the money. I was at the NHL and Gary Bevin, the CBA, that can get taken care of. Like I laugh, right? I say, oh my God, they're already done.

We're going to have more games. NHL, CBS, take care of it. There's no, no issue. The problem is, unfortunately with baseball, there's that distrust which has happened for years between Tony Clark and Rob Bamford. So hopefully at some point it will get better. Adnan, this was great buddy. Thanks for taking the time to do this as always. We appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week and the weekend. We'll do this again next week. All right. Thanks so much, Mike. Thanks. Say have a good weekend boys. Yeah. You too buddy. Thanks. That's Adnan Burke from MLB network here on the hell for the breath show on sports net six 50. Okay.

Let's dive back into the hockey talk and some of the Canucks talk here as it pertains to the Vancouver Canucks. Very interesting development yesterday in the middle of the afternoon when we learned that Pew suitor had signed a contract only not with the Vancouver Canucks with the St. Louis Blues a two-year 8.25 million dollar deal with a 4.125 AAV. So the fact he went to the Blues shouldn't be a surprise because we heard a lot that Grandland was the number one target for the Blues but Grandland didn't end up signing

with the Blues. He went to Anaheim instead. So then shortly thereafter, they signed Nick Bukestad. So I thought that maybe they would be done acquiring depth centers, but they were not. Now I understand that Bukestad plays pretty low down the lineup and maybe Suter will play higher, but I mean, that's for a team that wanted to kind of revamp its center position. You could do worse than getting Bugestad at 3.5 million, and then, sorry, 3.5 over two years, so 1.7, whatever, and then Souter as well. I guess the question for a lot of people

was what happened with the Vancouver Canucks and why were they not able to come up with a deal that seems, at first blush, pretty reasonable, not that expensive. And the one you'd want to give to a guy that performed very well for you last year, we've got some audio here from sat and Dan who were live on Connx central when this deal went down, uh, sat with a couple of nuggets of information about what he heard regarding negotiations between the Connx and Pews suitors camp. Uh,

here is sat shot Dan Riccio yesterday on Connect Central reacting to the news. The Pews suitor was on his way to St. Louis. Bringing it back to Pews suitor and we'll see what happens with dealers. But could the Canucks have done this? I think obviously, I mean, they traded for a Vander Cane. They signed Brock Bester. They could have done a contract like this for Pews suitor.

Obviously, considering where they are at now, I don't know what happened last little bit But what I did here was that the Canucks did make an offer to pew suitor I don't know the time frame for this whether it was weeks ago months ago during the season or whatever But that they did did make an offer that was significantly more than what he signed for today Okay Significantly more than the 8 million that he signed for so yeah I, I don't know the structure of it exactly, but at some point they had discussions. Now it didn't work out clearly. Besser or suitor thought the market would be far harder for him than it actually was.

So I don't know what happened now. It was definitely a softer market than expected. 100%. And he only got two years, 8 million. I mean, I thought it was going to be soft and was softer than I thought. So suitor got a bigger offer from the Canucks at some point, what I guess around the end of the season. I can't say timeline. I just heard that they did make an offer that was better than whatever he signed for today. But for whatever reason, I don't know what happened with negotiations

over time and why they didn't get to where they wanted to get to. Maybe Souter really thought he was going to get or his agent thought he's going to get significantly more than whatever the CUCs offered. Probably the strangest development in free agency for me right now is that you've got Mikhail Grandlin getting 21 million over three years from the Ducks. You get Christian Dvorak getting 5.4 million for one year in Philadelphia after spending the entire year as a four C in Montreal. And you look around the league and there are centers that are making good money and having a lot of people, you know, championing it the bit to get their services.

And then you have Pugh suitor coming off the best year of his career. His agent should have tampered more. Maybe, maybe there was a lack of tampering. Should you have tampered harder or softer? I don't even know what's the best form of tampering these days, but something went wrong here. Clearly. Yeah. And I would say it went wrong from the suitor side of things.

For sure. For them to like, again, no one's like, you know, sloughing off $8 million. It's a good payday. Especially for a guy that, you know, was, I don't want to say having to prove himself every year to stay in the league, but he probably did. To a certain degree.

He was. I mean, when guys sign contracts in August, they're usually the bargain bin type signings, right? Do you remember the story that Taka told about Pugh's shooter coming to him early in the season and being like, where do I stand? Yeah, I do remember that actually. Cause like, nobody really knew where he was gonna fit.

And then ultimately he became, I mean I don't know if a non-playoff team has an indispensable player, but down the stretch, there was a lot of Pugh suitor. Only thing I can think of why he didn't have as robust a market is that a lot of teams realized that the numbers that he put up last year were probably inflated by the fact that he was

playing first line center on a team that wasn't making the playoffs. He's kind of a tough, he's a tough player to value because you don't really know where he fits in your lineup. Right. Do you know what I mean? Like, I guess he could be a 2C, but I don't think you really want him as your 2C.

Nope. He could also be a top six winger if you need him, but not the guy, not the mate. Like you'd want to have a better, you'd want to have a better wear. Like he would often slot in on a line with JT Miller and Brock Besser and he would do, he would do well. Like he's just a smart player. He doesn't do anything too Besser and he would do he would do well like he's just a smart player

he doesn't do anything too flashy, but He would do well with those players, but you're kind of like yeah, but you're not a top six winger So what what what are you? What are you? Well, okay, so that there's that question. What are you? What are you very philosophical? He's like I'm Swiss the other one. I What are you very philosophical? He said come Swiss the other one I Think is what happened here. How is it that the Canucks made at least according to stats reporting a more lucrative deal Than the one that suitor ended up signing on day two of free agency with the st. Louis Blues How did the deal not come together in?

Vancouver yeah, and I'm gonna be honest here as call it a failing of your favorite AM radio show, we have no idea what happened here. And even digging around, answers were very scant yesterday as to what happened here. We had nothing on this. I've got a question for you. Sure. How confident were the Canucks that if they called

Brock Besser back at the last minute, that he would play ball with them? Sounds very, very confident. Sounds like they were very confident that Brock wanted to stay here and they knew that. Like they knew that, right? You heard the audio yesterday from Besser's media availability talking about how he got the

feels in his stomach. Like the market feels, I, you know, market feels, I don't know what's going to happen next season, but I do know that right now the market feels a lot better about the Canucks since they signed Brock Besser. There's more of, there's a feel good element to everything and based on the text that came into the Dunbar Limer text line, people liked Brock Besser.

They liked the deal that he got signed to. And if you squint, you can see a top six that can work if a lot of things happen. If Brock Besser had said, nah, I'm out of here with that last minute phone call. What do you think happens then? Like what do they, they just be like, oh, we got cap space. Like, is there someone else that they had in mind? It just seems like there are a lot of potential ways it could have gone in free agency and the Canucks were just kind of like bouncing around from situation to situation, which I get happens in free agency.

Sometimes you have to pivot and you have to pivot quickly, but you know, if Brock Besser had said, nah, I'm not coming crawling back to you. And they didn't get Dvorak because Dvorak chose Philly. Would they have just signed Pugh Souter and then you're looking at a pretty big hole in the wings? Possibly. Let's turn that question to the listeners. If you have answers to that, or you've got questions of your own, text in right now. Dumbart Lumber Text Line is 650-650. We have an open segment coming up on the other side of the break. We can get into anything you want to discuss as it pertains to the Vancouver Canucks. And there's no shortage of things to

discuss after a pretty eventful first 48 hours of free agency. Before we go to break though, I need to tell you about the BC lions July 27th, bring the family to celebrate generations of lions fans at the family traditions game. Your lions will take on the tie cats on the 27th. Get your tickets now at bclions.com open segment coming up your chance to weigh in the first of two today, get them in your texts. The Dunbar Lumbertex line is six 50, six 50. You're listening to the Halford and Bref show on sports net six 50.