Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 11/14/25

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

Halford & guest host Jamie Dodd look back at the previous day in sports, they get a Thatcher Demko injury update from Elliotte Friedman courtesy the 32 Thoughts Podcast, the boys discuss Sportsnet Canucks reporter Iain MacIntyre's latest interview with Jim Rutherford, plus they get a 'Nucks update from Donnie & Dhali's Rick Dhaliwal, ahead of tonight's road matchup in Carolina. 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 the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Dowdy looking for a chance, Dowdy to the far side of the score! One-timer from Byfield. wins the game in overtime. I think that Demko is doing everything he can to play. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Friday.

Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford, it is Bra, featuring Jamie Dodd, and we are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jamie, good morning. Good morning. Adol, good morning to you.

Good morning. And Lattie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford, inbrought for the morning, is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick. One, no more interest, too much lower payments, and three, financial peace of mind. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com.

We are in hour one of the program. Hour one 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. This is them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are broadcasting live from the Kintech studio, Kintech Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you in step.

Lots to get into on a Friday show. Guestless today begins at 6.30 in the morning. Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join the program. Big win for the Patriots last night on Thursday night football. They moved to 9 and 2 on the season. We will look ahead to a huge Sunday in the NFL with Nick, which includes the marquey matchup between the Seahawks and the Rams from L.A. on Sunday afternoon.

Lots more to get into as well. Big weekend in the NFL. Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join us at 6.30. At 7 o'clock, it's AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. A reminder, it is Ask Us Anything Friday on the show. $100 gift card is up for grabs for the best Ask Us Anything. Hashtaget at AUA, put a pizza emoji into the text. The best Ask Us Anything will be chosen and awarded a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza.

on East Broadway. After AJ at 705, Axel Schuster is going to join the program. He, of course, White Capps Sporting Director, huge news in Major League Soccer yesterday. The first is that the league is dropping its Apple TV paywall. That's a big one. I can't wait to explain that to Dollywall. He's later in the show. But the second and biggest news of the day is the beginning in 2027 MLS is changing its schedule, a summer to spring calendar to align with the European based winter leagues. Big news at AMLS. Also, there's that White Caps playoff game on the horizon as well.

So lots to speak about with Axel at 7.05 this morning. You should just get Dolly on at 7.30 and spend that extra half an hour just explaining the Apple TV segment. Because it would take that amount of time. I'm hoping with the amount of Canucks news out there we can gloss over it. He'll ask you about it.

I bet we won't be able to gloss over it. Because Rick Dolly Wall is going to join us at 8 a.m. This morning. Intrepid Canucks Insider on Donnie and Dolly from Czech TV. lots of questions to answer with Rick. Will Quinn Hughes play tonight in Carolina? What's the latest on Thatcher Demko and his injury? Where are things on a Kiefer-Shirwood contract?

And will the Canucks be in on David Kemp? Comph. Is it Kompth? We'll find out, I guess. I don't know anything. I've intentionally not paid attention to the hours of coverage we have dedicated to David Kemp or Komp. We're all going to David Kompf boot camp here over the last day.

We're like, okay, we've got to learn everything about this guy. Can we call it bootcom? pump? Sure. You go nuts. All right. Working in reverse on the guest list because I love doing this for no particular reason. 8 o'clock Rick Dollywall, 7.05 Axel Schuster. 7 o'clock AJ 630, Nick Shook. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. 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 is? brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. While there were 10 games in the National Hockey League last night, a Thursday night football game and

Canada's men's national soccer team playing a friendly. We are going to start, of course, with the Vancouver Canucks because there was a lot of news yesterday with our local hockey squadron. Let's begin with the practice in Carolina at the of Visaline Arena. Again, my favorite of the dental-themed arenas. According to sports, that's Dan Murphy, Quinn Hughes and Drew O'Connor were absent from practice yesterday. Hughes day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, questionable for tonight's game. Drew O'Connor needed a sick day because he wasn't feeling well in Carolina. Where do you want to start first, Jamie? There's lots to get into here. Obviously, it's got to be

Drew O'Connor taking a sick day. I thought so as well. No, it's Quinn Hughes. And we talked about Quinn Hughes and his, not his availability, but just his overall health on the show yesterday. And then that was followed up by, as you said, him missing practice. And the official designation was day to day. Now, Adam Foote did say he's hopeful he can play tonight. By the way, the Canucks have a game day skate at 8.30. So we can give you breathless updates as they come in, hopefully from Dan Murphy about whether Quinn Hughes is there. And, you know, injury designations at this point, and especially at this point in the season coming off of the Thatcher Dempco bizarre set of

fact pattern over the last week or so. They're basically a running joke. So Canucks fans see day to day and didn't do a lot to calm people down, right? There was a lot of, oh, I guess we'll see him in February then jokes from Canucks fans. I get that. Personally, I wouldn't be shocked at all if Hughes plays tonight. I'm willing to take Adam Foote at face value when he says, I'm hopeful what he plays. We've seen Quinn Hughes regularly over the last year or so fight through injuries and

fight through a lot of pain clearly to be in the lineup would not surprise me at all if he does so again, especially with Thatcher Dempco out. Right. He knows how important these games are, how important he is to this team. He's a very, very tough player. So would not surprise me at all if Quinn Hughes is in the lineup. The bigger question is it's the one we were getting at yesterday. He's probably going to play. And even if he doesn't play tonight, he's likely going to play at some point on this road trip. It's great to have him in the lineup. You want him, you want Quinn Hughes in any shape in your lineup to help you win, but I think we've also learned pretty conclusively now. They don't just need 75% Quinn Hughes. They need as close to the peak of Quinn Hughes

as they can get. And that's my biggest concern here. It's not the availability. It's not will he play tonight in Carolina. And oh, if he suits up, okay, great, nothing to worry about. This is already another instance. He's already missed games this season, had to leave the game temporarily against Winnipeg. Now he's day to day. You start to have concern about this, these injuries and these kind of physical ailments adding up and how often are we going to see Quinn Hughes of his best for the Canucks? That's my biggest concern. I do wonder if the staggering workload that he's shouldered, and we're not even at the 20 game mark, I want to remind everybody, I wonder if that's weighing on him mentally, or sorry, physically and mentally. And because there is

a dangling carrot this season. And for Hughes, it's not like he's reaching out for it. He will be going to the Olympics pause, assuming he's healthy. Yeah. And I do wonder if the player at this point is kind of looking around relishing the opportunity to play as much as he is, but also acknowledging that this is a lot to be putting on one player. I mean, I think we probably should have mentioned this in the aftermath of the Winnipeg game. Being able to log 28 minutes of ice time in a game where you exit with an injury is quite impressive.

Some would think it was almost impossible to do. Like, well, he wasn't even there. to be able to play 28 minutes. But the moment that he was deemed okay after the quote unquote weird play that knocked him out for a period of time, he was right back with no like acknowledgement or nod from the coaching staff

that they might need to measure his minutes. Right? It's like, well, he's here and he's breathing. We're going to play him to the max. And again, this early in the season, with as desperate as the team seems to grind out results, I don't see that changing anytime soon. So I'm with you.

I would expect him to probably be in whether he's 100% or not. And if he's out there, it's the same logic that applies. He's going to play a ton. They're going to lean on him. We talked about this with Drance yesterday, right? Whether it's Demko, Pedersen with the defensive burden he's taking on and all the faceoffs or Hughes in the minutes. Adam Foote and his coaching staff are riding their top guys in a big, big way early in the season. And as you said, if Quinn Hughes is available, I think for any coach, it's just too hard to resist the temptation to put him out there.

because he's so dynamic and so effective. And again, I think this is going to be a major storyline throughout this Canucks season is how much does the minutes burden decrease his effectiveness? How much does his physical health decreases effectiveness? And how often do we see the best version of Quinn Hughes? Okay. Now, something else that's shaping up to be a major talking point

and storyline and narrative for the remainder of the Canucks season, if it wasn't already, is the health of Thatcher Demko. So we've got an extended clip here from the recently released 32 Thoughts podcast in which Elliot Friedman has a lengthy, lengthy explanation and a couple different theories on what's going on with Demko and what the future holds for the injured Canucks. Netminder. It is a long clip.

It's about two minutes and 45 seconds. There's a lot to unpack here. So we'll play at its entirety and we'll pick it up on the other side because this is a very big development for the Vancouver Canucks as they move forward. Here now, Elliot Friedman from the 32 Thoughts podcast on the health and the future of Conachsgoley, Thatcher Demko. I just think when it comes to Demko, and they go into Carolina,

like that Lankanin signing might actually be one of the most important signings of the past couple of years because he has been huge for them. And now he's going to have to be huge for them again as Demko works his way through this. I just think with Demko, it's so, you have to be so careful when discussing a timeline. Because over the past couple of years, timelines have proven to be a very difficult thing with him. And like one of the things I, like, look, I'm not a doctor, okay. I wouldn't even be allowed into a medical school to visit. But you have to wonder, like they, they talked to.

about how, you know, he was sore last week and whatever's bothering him now has got nothing to do with what happened last week, you just wonder with all his injuries if it's all interconnected somehow, that his body's been through so much and he's had so many injuries, you know, small, more than that, that there's some level of compensation going on here. And I want to make something very clear. I think that Demko is doing everything he can to play. I heard he was really down about this one because he really wants to be in the battle. He thinks he's a difference maker.

Like a lot of guys, they want to play in the Olympics, but he knows and thinks he can be a difference maker for the Canucks, right? so I heard he was really disappointed about this. But I just think that over the last couple years, there's been so many things we've heard about him and then timeline and it's off or something else pops up. The best thing you can just do is wait.

What I go by is concern meter. The concern meter as I sense it is not off the charts here. So until that happens, I don't freak out, but I don't believe in a timeline. I just think the toughest thing, I think it's the toughest thing for everybody involved is they want them to be available and he wants to be available. It's just a struggle and you're wondering if all these injuries are connected somehow.

Lots to unpack there. I like the Canucks Concernometer. I like that idea. It's not high. Halford just moving his arm on a dial. I did it. It was on camera for those of ones. They should just have that on dozens of listeners and viewers right now.

They should just have that on the Jumotron throughout the entire game. It fluctuates up and down based on how the game's going to. They should have it outside Rogers Arena so you like see it was you drive by the viaduct. Yeah. That would be funny. You know how like they used to have like the world population clock at public places or something? Looks constantly. Give me the consumer meters preloaded it. I was like it would be like the force fire warning. Yeah, exactly.

The meter that goes up and down. If you thought you were going to jump off the sky train and maybe catch a Canucks game, you're like, no, I'll just. Keep going. Oh, look at the concernometer. It's pretty high today. I think they should lean into that. The concernometer for Thatcher Demko.

You can decide where your personal one is at based on what you just heard from Elliot Friedman. But I think this is the worst case scenario for the Canucks in terms of outlook for this season. Like, when Elliot says that it all might be connected, I mean, the inference there is that this is just a goalie that's put his body through a lot. a lot of physical toll over the course of his NHL career and now it's not so much about isolating individual injuries and trying to rehab them

in the hopes that he can come back to form it's that he's on the wrong side of you know he's reached his apex possibly as a goalie and now he's on the downside of it this is my nightmare it kind of is it kind of is when you talk about going into this season and how it was predicated on having the best goalie tandem in the national hockey league and that was a major talking point that Demko

healthy and back and with a new plan and outlook to make sure that he stays fresh by adding Kevin Lankin into the mix like that plan scuttled 18 games into the season. And I think my most interesting takeaway from what Freben had to say there is one, the idea

of don't put a lot of stock in timelines when it comes to Thatcher Dempco and maybe, you know, we heard two to three weeks from Frank Saravalli on with us earlier in the week and I'm spitballing here and speculating a little bit but maybe it's a situation where in kind of a standard goalie situation

it might be two to three weeks with Thatcher Dempco in the accumulated injury history maybe you don't want to marry yourself to a two to three week timeline and I did find it also striking that you know Elliot runs through don't put a lot of stock into timelines here is it possible this is all connected

and you know all these injuries are connected and they're kind of piling up on each other Demko feels horrible because he wants to be out there so those are three I would say not great reports and then he ends it with what the concern meter's not that high. So I don't really know what to make of that because hearing those first three things, I would think, oh, that's pretty concerning. I don't know what to make other

than as I think the most important thing Friedman said there is just you're kind of never going to have that certainty with Thatcher Dempco. Like if you're if with any Dempco injury, if you're expecting to hear he's going to be out four to six weeks and I can take that to the bank. That's probably that time is gone for Thatcher Dempco now. Okay. Let's jump into the other news of the day for the Vancouver Canucks and that of course David Compe the 30 year old now I guess in a matter of hours free agent available to sign anywhere after his contract was terminated with the Toronto Maple Leafs at any time any NHL caliber player of any ilk becomes available the Vancouver Canucks are at the front of the trough trying to get their bit because they desperately need help right now at the

forward position that was confirmed yesterday by of course Rick Dollywall who said on the Donnie and Dolly show that he has been told that Canucks will definitely be in on comp. I can confirm they will be in on him. That's not you confirming. You needed to do the shorty, end quote. Right. Sorry, that was me playing the role of Rick Dollywell on the radio. Even though Rick Dollywell will play the role of himself later on. Why, though? Like, it's just because he's set, like, he's got a career high 27 points. I just said why. Because anyone that can, anyone that's a viable candidate to play NHL minutes is available. Signing, he's a body. Signing David

Komp would increase the number of NHL centers they have on the roster by 50%. it would go from two to three if they say they have two NHL centers that's true Lucas Reichel walking into town having not been able to secure regular time work in Chicago and then being anointed the two see the moment that he got here that's a pretty good sign for the rest of the guys in the NHL looking for an opportunity that Vancouver is that land of opportunity yeah go to Vancouver there's land of opportunity and I get what you're anything I get what you're saying right like he's one of the more offensively limited players in the league that's just

that's just it What else is there to say? Yes, but they desperately need a fourth line center. They don't have one. Dear Lord. He's a fourth line center who can take faceoffs in the defensive zone and kill penalties. That is like mana from heaven for the Canucks where they are right now. I mean, how much have we talked about how desperate they are to get Teddy Blugher back?

He's a 4C. They are desperate for a 4C right now. And again, I completely understand where you're coming from Adog and we have texts coming in. and oh, this guy couldn't even crack the leaves. Why are, like, why are the Canucks going to be in on him? We're all talking about the Pedersen thing and how much they're relying on him defensively, how many draws he has to take. At the very least, you can throw David Combs to the wolves a little bit.

Hey, take a face off, puck off the glass and out, kill 30 seconds, and then go back to the bench. And I understand how incredibly underwhelming that sounds. And it is, it is underwhelming. And if you're in a position where you're desperate for a player of, David Combs caliber, then yeah, you're not in a great spot. That doesn't change the fact that it would be a huge boon to the Canucks to have David Komp. Now, I think the interesting thing is, as you said, Rick Dollywall confirming they'll be interested elsewhere in 32 thoughts. Elliot Friedman said, yeah, Vancouver will be in on it.

He also mentioned Pittsburgh, Montreal, interesting Alex Newhook situation, potentially developing for them and they were already looking for centers. In David Komp's situation, he is walking away from, I think it's like three million dollars he had left on his contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. So partly, yeah, if someone is going to offer him a bunch of money, that's always going to entice him. But the other part of this is he wants

to go to somewhere where he's going to have a big opportunity. And the Canucks, more than any team in the NHL, can offer a center like David Comf, a massive opportunity right out of the gate. And I wonder how much that influences his decision. So to further answer your question, Adog, the conversation really

isn't about David Comph. I know that there was endless coverage on the station yesterday getting into the sort of like pedantic stuff like his like coursey four over the course of like that point that part doesn't matter the player doesn't matter the situation is what matters and the situation is the Canucks could very well be in line desperately desperately looking to secure the services of a guy that couldn't get regular minutes with another NHL team that should be your takeaway is that they did it with Reichel when he the Chicago Blackhawks

had essentially reached into the rope and he was what days away from being on waivers potentially where someone just could have grabbed them. The Canucks stepped up because their depth at center was so low and now we're seeing that situation play out again. Now I think in the case of comp as you pointed out there will be other teams

at the trough in large part because the injury bug is hitting a lot of other teams not named Vancouver in a very serious way. As a matter of fact we're going to see it tonight in Carolina on their blue line. We're going to see it across the in Tampa Bay on Sunday, and you'll see it in Florida on Monday as well.

All these teams are besieged by injury, which I think only further underscores how little value Reichel had around the league, that despite all these injuries going on, he still wasn't being snagged by anybody. But this is where the Canucks are at. No one in the organization wanted to be in this situation

prior to the 20 game mark, with your marquee goalie out, with your captain and star defenseman being taxed the way that he is, and with a forward group that is so thin, out, given where it was to start and with injuries, it's not a great situation. The only thing that might keep them afloat is, and I mentioned this already, is that there's injuries across the board in the National Hockey League. And that's probably a decent way to pivot to

tonight's opponent, the Carolina Hurricanes. So the short synopsis on the canes, a reminder 4 p.m. puck drop from Raleigh. You can hear it all right here on SportsNet 650. Pre-game coverage starts well in advance, 4 o'clock puck drop, and then we get the postgame show going well past the end of regulation. 11-5-0 second in the metro. They haven't played since Tuesday. It was a 4-1 loss at home to Washington, which snapped a four-game win streak for the Keynes.

And I mentioned this a couple times. They've got a ton of injuries on the blue line right now. Slaven, Chatfield, Lago, they're all out. In goal for Carolina, this is something you're going to want to pay attention to. I don't think anybody has any idea who's going to play a net for Carolina. Over the last three games, they've had three different goals. of record, Coachetkov, Bussie, and Freddie Anderson, who got hurt the other night in Washington when he got bowled over and got pulled out of the game so the concussion spotter could take a

look at him. So three different goalies in three different games. We'll wait and see the morning skate's going to go about 8, 39 o'clock our time, so we'll get a better idea of what to expect from Carolina. You've got a good note here, though. One thing aside, the injuries that might play to the Canucks advantage is that with the man advantage, Carolina stinks. Yeah, Carolina's really been struggling on the power play, which is great news for obviously a Canucks team that has been really, really struggling on the penalty kill. Now, if we were doing a hockey show in the red hot hockey market of rally, we'd be saying, hey, is this a chance for the Carolina Powerplay to get back on track against a weak Canucks penalty kill? So both teams

are looking at this, I'm sure, is an opportunity to write the ship on one side of the special team's ledger. It is interesting though because Carolina has been terrible on the power play and yet there's still, I think, the third highest scoring team on a per game basis in the NHL. So even despite a power play that has not been particularly threatening, there's still a really, really dangerous offensive team. And we've focused so much on the penalty kill. There's been plenty of breakdowns at five on five for the Canucks defensively. And I know Adam Foote spoke about, you know, hey, this is another team that can jump on your mistakes, quickly, and they were working on some defensive zone coverage stuff at practice yesterday.

So you might get a little bit of a reprieve on the penalty kill if you're the Canucks, but you still have to be really, really sharp at five on five. And of course, the same kind of truism that's all that's been the case for Carolina for years now is they put a lot of pucks on net. They'll send a lot of rubber at your goalie. And so if Kevin Lankan is potentially going to play all three of these games, as Drantz suggested yesterday, he's unlikely to kind of get to ease into the road trip tonight. He's, probably going to have a lot of work to do against Carolina. You're listening to the best

of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. There's a new Jim Rutherford interview. It's up on Sportsnet.com.C.A. right now. Panned and orchestrated by our very own Ian McIntyre. And Jamie Dodd has spent the better part of the last. That's right. Forty-five minutes parsing through it. I've basically tapped out of the show

for the last 45 minutes. But that's for you, the listeners. He didn't contribute. He contributed in his own special way. And now he's going to take the torch and he's going to run with it. It's a doozy though, right? Yeah, there's a lot to get into and we'll build up. We'll start with some of the shorter term stuff and then we'll build up to some of the more interesting long-term conversation than I did have to laugh because IMAC wrote at

the start of the article. We thought it would be a good time to sit down with Canucks president, Jim Rutherford and ask about rebuilds, injuries and what the heck happened to that help at center. Always a good time, IMAC, to sit down and talk about those things with Jim Rutherford. and on that topic the incredible lack of depth at center but this team went into the season with that was a good portion of the start of this interview an article and he asked,

iMac asked, did you think in April you'd still be waiting for that trade in November? Rutherford says, no, I did not, but it's not from Patrick's lack of trying. He's calling teams all the time. If it ever gets to a conversation about potentially adding somebody, the price is just too high.

Keep that in mind because that's going to be a theme throughout this interview. Later, IMAQ asks them, what do you do to the roster in the short term? Rutherford says we could make changes, pay heavy prices and trades, and still not be a playoff team. Or we could stay the course,

keep that phrase in mind as well, stay the course, get back healthy and still have a chance to make the playoffs. But we could also miss the playoffs doing that, right? Oh. We're in a very good draft year, and we've got to keep that in mind.

That's interesting. Right now, as we speak, I would say we stay the course with developing our young players and getting our injured players back in the lineup and continue to look for that center. We still really don't know what we've got because we haven't had a full lineup. IMac follows up. So you're not considering as trade chips guys like VLander and Pedersen,

that's DPD, Jonathan Leckermackie, and Braden Coots. Rutherford says that is not in the plan. Okay, so I'm going to jump in here and ask you a question, Jamie. If there was one overriding theme or key, takeaway from what Jim Rutherford sees is direction of this team in the immediate and then not too distant future. What would that one takeaway be? Stay the course. Stay the course. That's the plan short term. And as we'll get to, that's the plan long term as well. So no change to the direction, to the philosophy. It doesn't seem like it. And there is this kind of theme of

we're just going to keep doing what we're doing and almost let the chips fall where they may mentality. And you hear it there, right? Like, hey, we could make a trade and still make the playoffs. Or we could do nothing and get lucky and make or and still miss the playoffs, I should say. Yeah.

Or we could do nothing and get lucky and make the playoffs. Which is true enough, but can't, don't you want to tilt the odds one way? No. Don't you want to be active in some way rather than just kind of sitting back and saying, well, we'll see what happens. Yeah. Let's see.

Okay. Let's see how this plays out. So this is why I think the conversation about rebuilding is so infuriating for people. And I know people are screaming for it and they make these great legal defenses as to why it should happen. And I think maybe the most frustrating part is that all that effort and energy and time and thought, it's beyond wasted. It is a complete waste of time. And people don't like having their time wasted. No.

They don't like feeling like their efforts and energies are for not. And that is especially prevalent in fandom. Is that when you give and you give and you give and you give and you commit a significant part of your life to following a team, talking about a team, having an emotional investment in the team, you want good things to happen to it. And when you, it's not just that you see a path that's going in the office, opposite direction. It's the steadfast refusal to acknowledge that there are other paths to be taken.

And that's, I think, the real frustration here. And again, so later on in the interview, IMac, SportsNet. So what's the best case scenario from here? The best case scenario is we get our players back. We stick with the priority we've had for six months to get another center. And then we see where we're at. Take a run at making the playoffs. And if you get in the playoffs, you just never know. And if that doesn't work, then the downside of it is, stay the course, Stick with what I just said and we miss the playoffs. So we win the draft lottery and get a top five pick and keep building a team that is relatively young where most of our players are in their 20s. Just keep adding good players.

You'll notice there that the plan does not change at all. Right. Best case scenario, worst case scenario. Are you going to react to whatever happens for the remainder of this season? Nope. We're going to stay the course. You'll also notice that in both the best case scenario, which is, by the way, in the words of Jim Rutherford, you take a run and making the playoffs. In the best case scenario and the worst case scenario, the president is explicitly relying on a huge dose of luck, right?

In the best case, it's you get in and, hey, who knows what can happen? In the worst case, it's, well, if we missed the playoffs, maybe we'll win the draft lottery. No luck involved there. That would be an extraordinarily lucky accomplishment. So again, either way, it's, well, we're just kind of, we're just going to kind of sit here and cross our fingers and hope something awesome happens to us. hope something really, really lucky happens to us. And I'll get to the rebuild stuff here, right? Because I know a lot of people want to hear about that,

even though, as you said, we've gone down this path so many times before. There's a new way to approach it for sure. Anyway, keep going. And so IMAQ asks them, but not a full rebuild. And Rutherford says, rebuilds can work. But you have to understand rebuilds take a long time. There has to be a lot of patience. And for the teams that take the biggest jump and ultimately rebuild and win a cup,

they usually have a first overall pick. And you still have to get lucky on that. I did think you were just talking about winning the draft lottery. but that's fine. I'm not naming teams, but some have tried a rebuild and had a ton of draft picks that didn't turn out.

So a rebuild is not something that we're going to look at doing. Like I said, we're in transition, but we're not trading all these players for draft picks that may or may not end up playing someday. And there's another part of the disconnect for me.

It's like, well, what, you want us to trade players for draft picks? There's so much uncertainty with draft picks. They may never play. That's wild. But then you hear him talk about Lucker Mackey.

V-Lander, Braden Coots, D.P.D. None of those guys was a top 10 pick. Right. How did you acquire those players that you are now absolutely unwilling to trade unless it's for a complete unicorn player? I think it was through the draft. It was with draft picks. So you are implicitly acknowledging that draft picks have a lot of value and can be a really effective way to get good young players in your organization while also saying we have no interest in acquiring more draft picks. The scariest part might be that he's, He's not even cognizant of the double standard that you just pointed out. And it's again, and this, this takes me back.

I mean, speaking of having circular arguments and conversations, this takes me all the way back to the Jim Benning days, right? Where, and elsewhere in this interview, he's emphasizing, you know, our scouts have done a really good job. And that was always the thing with Jim Benning. And part of the explanation for trading away picks was, well, we believe in our scouting so much, like, we're not going to miss those picks. We're still going to do a good job.

And the flip side of that is always, well, if you guys love your scouting so much, get more picks. So you have more opportunity for your incredible scouts to do his great work identifying talent. And guess what? They have done a pretty good job, I think. Like, DPD is a third round pick. That's an awesome third round pick. Yep.

But doesn't that mean you want more second and third round pick? So you have more opportunities to unearth talent like DPD. And it's that disconnect, which just never seems to get bridged. And then I'll read one final quote here at least for now because this is kind of the big one. This is the number one takeaway, right? And so this is coming off the heat. of discussion about how they don't want to do a rebuild. Ian McIntyre asks him,

Quinn Hughes's future will be a subplot all season. Will his decision next summer, whether to resign with the Canucks or ask out to play off his brothers, determine which direction the team building takes. Rutherford, nope, I don't think so. I think as long as we stay the course

and keep getting younger players that we feel will play in the NHL and contribute to a team that can become a consistent playoff team and a contender, then that's what we would do. so will Quinn Hughes leaving affect the team building direction for the Vancouver Canucks and explicitly indirectly the answer from Jim Rutherford is no I don't think so stay the course yeah the the can I just say that's absolutely wild the subtext of this rebuild this latest round of rebuilding conversation to me it's never been like people reacted

to Patrick Albinan after hours as if they were expecting him to commit to a rebuild they're never I completely understand why that's off the table as long as Quinn Hughes plays you. That makes tons of sense to me. No problem whatsoever. The subtext of it has always been, well, what happens if this season goes a certain way and Quinn Hughes decides to leave? Aren't you almost definitionally in a rebuild then? And Jim Rutherford for the first time has addressed that question and said, nope, that's not going to change our thinking. What you've seen for the last, certainly since this regime has been here, but I'd argue it's pretty much a continuation of what Jim Benning was doing as well. What you see is what you get and what

you're going to get with the Vancouver Canucks. Yeah, Mark and White Rock just texted in. Rebuilds take a long time. Retools are much quicker, signed 2014 Jim Benning. That's, there's an immediacy to this organization that, um, I would say was only heightened by bringing in a president of hockey ops who is now closer to age 90 than he is to age 60. There's an immediacy there. And there is, um,

at times a confidence that borders on delusional is not the right word but I'll throw it out there anyway that you can do something that no other organization in the NHL has done they point because when you they say well this is a no plan plan I think that's a fair assessment because point to me to one who's done this and has gotten through successfully I'm not when you tear when the organization the executives tear down the notion of, well, we can't go through a rebuild because the fans won't stomach it.

Not all of them work. It does feel like they're cherry picking the certain examples that, you know, have failed, as opposed to looking at the wide breadth of them and saying, some of work, some haven't. But the overriding theme, and I think what a lot of people are frustrated about is that fail or no, success or no, there was a plan in place. We're going to try it this way. And there were executives and front office personnel that were quite frankly willing to stake their careers

and their jobs on a plan as opposed to we'll just wait and see what happens and hope we get lucky. And I mean, in those instances, the issue with banking on luck is that when it doesn't break your way, the explanation in the aftermath is always like, well, you know, things really conspired against us this year.

We didn't get a lot of luck with injuries. We had some of our best players, you know, being on the shelf for extended periods of time. You want to go back last year, you know, Jim Rutherford on countless occasions when he met with the media pinned last year's disappointment almost exclusively on the Pedersen Miller Rift

and that he had never seen one in his 30 plus years as an executive, right? More bad luck. We thought we had everything going right, and then lo and behold, two of our star players couldn't get along, and that was misfortune for our organization. So a few people are texting in Bob and Berneby,

trying to find kind of the bright side of this right hey stay the path and get top picks he said he wouldn't trade young players so they're trying to find that kind of silver lining if you're looking for more of a long-term approach which is hey he doesn't want to trade the first round pick i think somebody else had texted in along those lines there's a ton of text coming in so uh apologies for not being able to flag all of them and i can understand that but in some ways the frustration for me is not so much about oh they won't rebuild it's the desperation to kind of sit in both worlds at the same time, right? To desperately hold on to your young players.

And well, we couldn't possibly trade Jonathan Lecker-Mackie. Right. We like them too much. Well, okay, are you going to build around like that time window? No, no, because we don't want to trade our veterans for draft picks that might never play. I think I would have more time for it if Jim Rutherford's philosophy was we've got arguably the most talented player who's ever played for this team in the prime of his career in Quinn Hughes.

we've got Philopronick who's in the prime of his career we've got Brock Besser in the prime of his career Connor Garland Jake Debrusk we've got this group we really really like we still believe in a leas peterson and because of how much we like that group we are going to be super super aggressive moving out picks and young prospects to try to do everything we can to make this group a Stanley Cup contender in the next two to three years now would that be an incredibly risky plan yeah sure would but at least there would be intention and strategy behind it. Yeah.

And instead it just feels like we don't really want to bolster this group because we don't really believe in it. So we don't want to trade Braden Coots or Jonathan Lecker-Mackie. But we also can't do the other thing. So as we said, it's just stay the course and cross your fingers and hope something happens. And I just think that's a really hard way to live in the NHL. I would much rather the team lean hard in one direction than we talk about the mushy middle in the standings.

This is the mushy middle of team building philosophy. Don't trade draft bicks, don't acquire draft bics, don't trade young players, don't trade your vets at the deadline, just stay the course. Rick Dollywell joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. What up, Ricky D? Gentlemen, gentlemen, let's go. Let's go. Let's start with tonight's game in Carolina. Will Quinn Hughes play?

Will the captain suit up for the Vancouver Canucks tonight? Last thing this team needs is another injury. We just don't know if Hughes is going to play tonight right now. you know, possibly his shoulder may or may not be 100%. He didn't practice yesterday. He left the Winnipeg game briefly with the shoulder injury. He didn't come back. Well, he did come back shortly.

He ended up playing 28 minutes. I find it hard to believe they would take him on a three-game road trip if he was not going to play at some point on this trip. Like if he's got a separate his shoulder, if the shoulder's really bad, you don't take the guy on a road trip across the country into, you know, in the deep south. You just don't do it. We'll see what happens tonight.

And, you know, we talk about injuries, and, you know, they're piling up and all this stuff. And Drew O'Connor missed practice yesterday. Let me give you a couple of updates on other injuries. A good sign that Victor Mancini made the trip. He's been out with that arm injury. I did hear last night that Hoaglander is close to skating. Hoaglander heard his ankle in preseason play and then had surgery on that ankle September 29th. they thought eight to ten weeks, so he could be back in the next two to three if everything goes okay,

but the fact he's close to skating is very positive for Holglander. You know, Derek Forbert has been skating on his own for the past two weeks, so I do want to get that out there. Everyone's figuring out, well, you know, what's going on with Forbert. I do know he's been on the ice with the skills guy by himself. Nikita Tolopilo, this guy's important. I'll get to that in a bit. He was close to playing Wednesday at home against San Diego.

He's got the groin injury. Tolopilo is on the trip with Abisford in California. They are hopeful he plays one game this weekend. He may not play, okay? The Canucks like Tolapilo a lot. The only reason Patera's up with the Canucks and not Tola Pilo is because Tola Pelo is hurt, right? And Abisford has used five goalies this year. Six, if you count the eBug in Colorado, he played one period.

It's just crazy what Manny Malta is, you know, what hand he's been dealt with this year. I can tell you that Tolapilo on the trip with Abby, they're hopeful he plays, but I don't know if he will play fully this weekend. Philippeitel, someone told me that Canucks have flown him around the USA to talk with concussion specialists, so I'm trying to verify that. The Canucks are making sure that he has the best information available to understand what he's going through, but I don't get the feeling he wants to retire. So we'll keep an eye on Heedel, obviously, but this hockey club cannot afford Quinn Hughes out,

not when the injured list is, what, 6, 7, and, you know, Hughes would make it 8. It's just ridiculous what this hockey club, Mike, has gone through this year with injuries. What are you, Demko now? Yeah, it's a good timing. What a week in Demko's world. It was this morning. A week ago, he woke up feeling sore. four days later would leave the Jets game after the first period because of a groin injury.

We still don't have a timeline. He needed to be re-evaluated Wednesday and yesterday before they could get a timeline. Maybe they're waiting another day or two to see how he feels, go from there. Not hearing it's going to be long, long, long term like months, but certainly he's going to be out sometime. We just don't know how many weeks. Dempco did not know his timeline on Wednesday. I'm not sure how the media would know his timeline. A lot of people are guessing right now, and one thing that we have learned with Demko is don't guess

because nobody thought his knee injury was going to happen and he was going to be out nine months. So I think we've got to wait for the club to nail the timeline. One question I have for you, where is Ian Clark? Demko loves Clark, the NHL's highest pay goalie coach. Clark isn't around the Canucks on a day-to-day basis. He's been relegated to scout. Some have asked me this week would have things played out differently this week if Clark was in town and working with Demko on a day-to-day basis. I will never know the answer to that.

Clark is done in Vancouver after this year. There will be teams lined up to get his services once his contracts over. But very interesting that Clark and Demko have a very good relationship, but I don't think he's been, was in on the day-to-day of how to handle Demko in the past week. Now, the U.S. team for the Olympics is obviously monitoring Dempco's injury. Dempco was clearly in the mix for the Americans, but this injury is going to hurt them. And you know what? Also with his history of injuries as well, they got Hellebock, Audinger, DeCords, Wehman. The Americans are so loaded at the goalie position for the Olympics.

There is no other team at the Olympics that have the goaltending depth that the Americans have. You know, you really feel for Demko. I think he wanted to make that USA team, obviously, just like Quinty Hughes wanted to go to the Four Nations. Every guy wants to play for his home country. He works so hard to come back from the Popliteas, and now he's going through this. So let's wait for word from the Canucks on officially how long he's out, but I can't give you a timeline right now. I just can't.

Rick, your point about Ian Clark and him no longer being able to work with Demko on a day-to-day basis, I think that's a good one. But I also look at it and having the Canucks this year at least done everything right with regards to Demko, right? They weren't overplaying him. You know, he woke up sore and they gave him a weekend off and, you know, played Lankin and back-to-back games. And everything we heard over the summer about Demko was his, he's feeling great. He's physically where he needs to be. He's able to have the right type of summer to get his body prepared for the season.

It feels like everything was done correctly. And yet we're still here on November 14th and he's out. and we don't have a timeline. And Ian Clark or not, it just makes me concerned about, okay, let's say Demp goes back in a month, but how much can you really trust that it's going to be back for the rest of the season? Yeah, I mean, like it was told to me the other day, boy, this guy just bad luck.

Like, you know, you start with the Popliteus, and now he's going through this, and, you know, the hockey club signed him to an extension at Big Bucks. That hasn't even kicked in. I know I know there's a lot of, oh, he's made a glass, you know, blah, blah, blah. Hey, look, injuries at the professional level are human nature. You know, some guys have injury-riddled careers. Some guys go 10 years without missing a game or very few games.

I mean, you can't sit there and say, okay, he's made a glass and this guy's, you know, this, that. This was, look, he skated three days in a row. It was a week ago, like I told you, he skates three days in a row. They play him against Winnipeg, last one period. Like, I mean, nobody can make that up. happened, it's pro sports, it's injuries. I get what you're saying. The reason I brought up Ian Clark is because they do have a really good relationship. And if you go back to Demko's previous contract, one of the big things at the time, Demko and Ian Clark both had no contracts.

And in Dempco's contract talks with the Benning, they were kind of like, hey, guys, let us know are you going to re-sign Ian Clark? I'm just saying there's a really good relationship with the two. And it just looks like to me that, you know, what's his name? Clark's been pushed to the back of the bus by the Canucks. But I'll tell you something, there's a lot of people that like Ian Clark. And when he does become a UFA, he's not going to have a problem finding a job. There are going to be plenty of teams after him. But I'm just saying that in his last contract, the Demko cap wanted to make sure,

hey, are you guys going to bring back Ian Clark? There's a really good relationship there, right? but he's just not there with Demko day-to-day like he used to be. That's all I'm saying. It is just there's a lot of respect for those two guys for each other. That's why I brought it up. Hey, speaking of goalie decisions, they got games Friday, Sunday, Monday. Does it go Lankan, Lankan, Lankan, or do we see Patera?

Well, like I told you, I don't think Patera would have been the call-up. If Tola Pilo was healthy, I think it would have been Tola Pillo. I think the organization's high on Tola Pillo. I think Tola Pilo, although he didn't play in the playoffs, I think that they like this guy. I would go with Lankin and all three. And, I mean, yeah, Kevin, Lankan has got a, they need wins. And this is, look at tonight's a tough building.

And then you go into Tampa Bay and Florida, two more tough buildings. Like, I don't know, like, I'm not a goalie coach, and I don't know much about Patera, but, I mean, you need victories. If you're 28th in the National Hockey League, you've got to put all, you know, you've got to go all out and get wins, because look, if they come back from this trip with no wins, like, that's going to be a tough look. And the last time I looked in their division, you know, teams are starting to win. Look at the Kings are on a roll.

They outplayed Toronto last night. They almost outshot them, double on the road. They're starting to pick it up and put things together. Teams in their division are winning. So, you know what? To answer your question, Mike, I would go with Lankin in all three. They need wins, bottom line. crack and beat the Jets last night, too.

They're winning a bunch of games as well. We're speaking to Rick Dollywall, Connect's reporter from Donnie and Dolly here from Czech TV on the Halford and Brough show on Sports Night 650. Okay, give us the latest on what you know about the Kiefer-Shirwood contract situation. Well, look at the,

I'm looking at the goal scores and seeing Kiefer-Sher-Wil through the NHL with 11 is something else. He's got seven in his last nine games, leads the NHL and the hits with 79, scores nice goals, breakaway goals, crash to the net goals. He scores any which,

way you want. So you're thinking, okay, sign this guy, ASAP, hot and heavy contract talks, are going on, right? No. Canucks continue to take the weight and see approach with a player who continues to stay red-hot while teams are on the league, continue to look at Sherwood and say, boy, you know what, that guy would look good in our lineup, all these people that are making fantasy trades about Sherwood, oh, the Conucks are going to get a first rounder from. Well, he's not going to be traded till the Connucks first contact the agent and see what the agent

wants and then they got to have that conversation and then they go from there. If he keeps up this pace, guys, he's going to price himself out of Vancouver. The number is obviously going to start with a five and it's going to go from there if he keeps the pace up at the pace

he's going. I don't know if he's going to keep this pace. I don't know if you guys think he is but damn he's impressive, you know, and he keeps doing Any guy that leads his team in goals and leads the league in hits is going to have tremendous value if he hits a July 1st market, right? So I just, all I can tell you guys is Canucks continue to take a wait and see approach.

There is no heavy and hot negotiations there. David Comf, what do you got there? Okay, so on the show yesterday, I mentioned the Canucks are definitely going to be in on this guy and they're definitely going to be in on this guy. So Com fell out of favor with Craig Barubi. He doesn't bring much offense. He's not very physical. He only dressed for one playoff game last year.

But Vancouver is desperate as center. They need a center who can win face-offs, help with the PK. That's Comf. This is the weakest group I've seen with the Canucks a center. I can't remember how many years. Like I don't remember the Canucks being this week. I know injuries are playing a role, but they also don't have a second-line center. Com can help

Elis Pedersen take less draws in the Vancouver zone. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.