Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 11/6/24

Episode Date: November 6, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk Canucks trade rumours with Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli, plus the boys chat a big 'Nucks win over the Ducks with radio commentator Randip Janda. 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. Whoa, wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose the f***ing Canucks? You're listening to Halford & Brough.

Harlan gets it back to the top of the point for Hughes. Heavy drive, he scores! Quinn Hughes beats Dostal from the line with Pedersen screening in front. What a freaking boost. Those are the ones you want to get. They're not going to be all pretty. You don't always paint a portrait. Sometimes you paint a barn.

Hard circle. What's happening? It's gone. Fire. I remember what I was doing at 23, and I'd be pooping in my pants. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody.

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

Laddie, good morning to you. Hello, hello. And for the third consecutive day, intern Ethan, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Half an Abroad for the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program.

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powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sorfi, what are you waiting for? Kintec, we've got a big show ahead on a Wednesday. Lots to get into from last night on the ice in Anaheim Canucks. Resounding 5-1 victors over the Anaheim Ducks. We've got that to talk about on the show. Also a lot of hockey. Ten other games in the National Hockey League last night.

David Amber, Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet NHL host, is going to join us. We can talk about what the Leafs did to the Bruins last night. Without Austin Matthews, too. Big result for them. Greg's boy, Anthony Stolarz. What a goalie. I think the Leafs historically do quite well without Matthews, too.

They should not play him. Yeah, they should just trade him. Who did Montgomery yell at? Nobody. Nobody? Just sat there quietly and. Who did Montgomery yell at? Nobody. Nobody? Just sat there quietly and said we lost the special teams battle.

He did have a, he had an underhanded remark. He said those that get the privilege of getting special teams minutes need to do something with it. So good job, Jim Montgomery. You're going to be fired by January.

David P. Yeah. Those that have the privilege of a radio show shouldn't screw it up either. It's true. Wait a sec. So 6.30, David Amherst, 7 o'clock, Frank Cervalli. We can ask Frank about the trade wins that are going to see. Bo Byron must have heard all those trade rumblings yesterday.

Went out and scored a pair of goals yesterday for the Buffalo Sabres. Please get me out of here. I got to go. I really got to get out of here. They made two very interesting, healthy scratches yesterday in Buffalo, including a very highly paid defenseman, Matias Samuelsson, got healthy scratched yesterday. So did Yoki Harju.

The kids can call you Harju. Anyway, so we'll talk to Frank about that at 7. Randy Jandel joined us at 8 for some Canucks talk. He was on the call last night for that 5-1 win in Anaheim. Finally, third day in a row, not just for intern Ethan being here, but also a $100 gift card to Mucho Burrito, where they have Mucho Burritos. Where's my burrito?

Where's my burrito? That's going to be up for grabs at 8.15. That's going to color numero ocho on the program today. That's 8, right? That's going to be up for grabs at 8.15. That's going to caller numero ocho on the program today. That's eight, right? That is eight. So everyone now knows, podcast listeners, streamers, live listeners, 8.15, be caller number eight, ocho. You can win a $100 gift card to Mucho Burrito.

That's what we're giving away today. So real quick in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock, it's Rand Deep. 7 o'clock, Frank Cervalli, 6.30, David Amber. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What happened that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca.

Quinn Hewitt has had three assists, and then he had two, and then he had three. He reached 300, then went to 299 then got back to 300 what was going on over there i have no idea what are they doing the vancouver canucks won 5-1 thanks to all those assists against the anaheim ducks at the honda center on tuesday night yeah i'd say the canucks actually got off to a bit of a slow start and surrendered the first goal of the game for the fifth straight time after atu ratatu stepped on the ice back in the NHL and immediately took a careless tripping penalty. The Ducks scored on that power play.

The Canucks also had a power play that looked rather awful, but things really turned on their second power play of the game later in the first period when Quinn Hughes shot one hard along the ice for Brock Besser to tip home from the slot. That was one assist. 298 for his career. For Quinn Hughes. A minute later, the Canucks took the lead on a very nice rush goal from Kiefer Sherwood, his third goal of the season. Sherwood one time to pass from Branstrom, who had activated up onto the rush. They call that activating. Nice little drop pass.

You've got to activate the defense, and then he goes in there, skates in, drops it to Sherwood, and he blasts it home. Very nice move from Heinen at the Canucks' blue line to spring the rush to body position. That's the key there. You get body position, and you get the rush going. Rick Talkett in the postgame said that Heinen played it perfectly played it perfectly yep and you know if we're praising everyone on that shift philip peronic made the breakout pass and teddy bluger made a really good play to stay

on side i thought he was going to go off side but he stretched that leg of his uh all of a sudden what had started out as i thought at at least, a pretty dismal effort, had turned into a one-goal lead. And from that point on, the Canucks were in full control. In the second, Elias Pettersson, I guess, tipped home a Quinn Hughes shot for his second of the season. And honestly, I'm still not sure what the Ducks were doing defensively besides just standing there and watching. Nobody was close to Hughes at the point, and Greg Cronin, the Anaheim Ducks head coach after the game,

was like, yeah, we were just – nobody went to the point. Someone should defend him. I would also point out that nobody tried to move Pettersson from in front of Dostell. Hughes and Pettersson both had like a 30-foot bubble around them of nothingness. Perhaps the Ducks were all just mesmerized by Connor Garland, who had another really strong game, a real hop in his step, can't imagine why. That was Hughes' second assist of the night. Hughes' 300th assist came in the third when Jake DeBrusque, another goal for him, tipped home a Brock Besser point shot.

Quinn Hughes had, of course, passed it to Besser. Made a couple of nice moves to do it, too. It wasn't just your regular secondary assist. The captain, with that 300 assist, is now just 10 assists back of Alex Edler for tying the franchise high among defensemen. He is 25 years old. Probably worth mentioning. Heinen added another to make it 5-1. Nice pass from Sherwood.

But the Ducks were already cooked by then. Credit to the Canucks. That was a dominating effort of a bad team. But I got to say, honestly, the Ducks were awful. At least San Jose a couple nights before played with some energy and some enthusiasm the Ducks just looked really they're just there they looked really orange they're just there I'll tell you that they're very orange and they're very present they're very orange uh it was one of those games I know we all want to talk about the the Canucks and normally I

don't really care about the fan reaction of the other team, regardless of what happens. I'm, you know, 100% interested in the Canucks, but I actually did spend a bit of time last night just seeing what the Ducks fans reaction was to the game. You know, you just hit the replies on X and in the game story and everyone was like, fire Cronin, fire Cronin, fire Cronin.

That was a dismal effort from a team that has a lot of young talent that should be doing more with the talent that it's got. At any rate, back to the Canucks. Kevin Lankanen improved to 6-0-2 on the season. He stopped 21 of 22 shots. It's not a difficult night for Kevin Larkin. The Canucks were very good in front of him defensively. I don't know how many really good chances the Ducks had,

but it wasn't many. So a good night for the Vancouver Canucks. The Ducks, just to finish that point, because this is probably the last that we'll talk about, Greg Cronin, needs to be more coaching and less what, Laddie? Cronin. The Ducks have scored. Less Cronin. The Ducks have scored. Less Cronin.

The Ducks have scored two goals or fewer in eight of their 12 games this year. And when they're talking about firing a coach, I'm sure it's because they look at all these high-end first-round draft picks that they have and they can't score any goals. They can't even manufacture the chances in which they could potentially score goals. I know the Canucks played well last night. Full credit for them for taking advantage of a bad team. Let's put that in the

back. Cronin's answer is pretty funny, though, when they asked him about the lack of scoring. He was just like, I didn't score when I played, and I didn't play this high of a level, so I don't know what's going on. He was like, guys seem to be like whiffing on the puck a lot. That's a problem. He's like, I'm familiar with that. Anyway, there's a lot

of text coming into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket right now talking about the captain, Quinn Hughes. A lot of people saying that he's playing at a higher level than last year in which he, you know, won the NHL's award that's given annually to the best defenseman in the league. Tanbeer wrote in that he's coming for Buray's throne for being the greatest Canuck of all time. And by this, Tan Beer, I think you mean the most singularly gifted and talented player to ever wear a Canucks uniform, which I would agree. It's Buray.

Like all the players, including the Sedins, who are unbelievably and uniquely talented and gifted. But I always put Buray on a different level because he played the game at a different level at the time. And that's kind of what I see with Hughes. I think we should make a promise to our listeners now is that you and I will not take this for granted. I don't. We will not. I don't. I've taken other players for granted.

That's our campaign promise for 2028 when we run for office. We're going to say make Quinn Hughes appreciated all the time I mean you know I'm not going to take it for granted because but we'd probably be guilty of it from time to time because sometimes that happens with brilliance you just get used to it you do but you know I won't with this player because I've been waiting so long I had been waiting so long for the Canucks get a player like that that was like my sht. That was like my shtick. That was half my shtick. You had two shticks. One was the Stanley Cup thing. One was that I lost all the time.

My teams lost all the time. And the other was that the Canucks needed to get an actual franchise defenseman to win a Stanley Cup because not many teams, if any, win the Stanley Cup without a franchise defenseman. And I had this whole spiel where I went through the Canucks losing to Dennis Potvin and the Islanders, Brian Leach and the Rangers, Zidane O'Chara. His name came out last night. Zidane O'Chara, yeah, that's right.

Zidane O'Chara and the Bruins. Like you don't, when you have a player like Quinn Hughes, it just helps so much. You know, the Canucks aren't a perfect team, but when he's on the ice, they're nearly there. But they have a perfect defenseman. Honestly, he is so good. And I hope that if this continues and Quinn Hughes continues to play well,

that not only is he going to continue to get Norris trophy love, it's time for a defenseman to make a legitimate run at winning another Hart trophy. I agree. It's time. I agree. It's time for a defenseman to make a legitimate run at winning another Hart trophy. I agree. It's time. I agree. It's time. And I think a market like Vancouver has enough amplification to get that thing going. If you look at the numbers when Quinn Hughes is on the ice versus not, they are stark.

And it's got to get people's attention. You know, like even, I think here's an example of taking things for granted. Okay. Not many people were really talking about the talent it took on that secondary assist to when he fed the puck to Brock Besser and Brock Besser shot it and Jake DeBrus tipped it home. I think it was the Canucks' fourth goal of the game. But that was his 300th assist.

Yes. And his skating ability on that, he sucked in two ducks there just with his skating ability and his deception. And Brock Besser is left wide open at the point to really hammer it home with no one blocking his shot and Jake DeBras. So it's that type of move, that type of deception that you might eventually take for granted because you're like, yeah, that's what he does. Yeah.

Here's what I'm saying right now. A couple things. One, there is not a defenseman currently active in the National Hockey League that I would take over Quinn Hughes on a roster right now. Wouldn't take McCarr. Wouldn't take Yossi. Wouldn't take Fox or Hedman. Morrissey, Bouchard, Heiskanen.

Go down the list. Not a single one I would take. And I'll start with McCarr. If you were to give me both guys right now in a lineup, I'd take Hughes over Makar right now. Possibly because Makar got hurt last night, but I digress. I do think that you're on to something here that the level in which

he is playing has superseded where you're saying he's just the best defenseman in the NHL. You're going to make the argument that he's the most valuable player in the National Hockey League. He is starting to enter that territory where when we talk about, and I got to, the only thing I want to quantify here is a defenseman of his size, because I don't think it's fair to compare him, obviously, to the Charas and the Prongers

and the way that they were able to influence a game. Right now, at his size, Hughes is entering that territory that we had reserved for like the Duncan Keiths and the Scott Niedermeyers of the world. Makar is almost double the amount of points though. So?

I'm just curious as to why you would easily pick Hughes over Makar. Have you seen him? I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just curious. He's been egregiously bad defensively. Makar, you're talking about Makar. And he's even called himself out

for being egregiously bad defensively. I would take Hughes because I think Hughes has embraced the leadership role and embraced being the guy on the team and everything that comes along with that. The responsibility of play, shouldering the workload, right? And the understanding that when he's out there, he has to be super impactful because quite frankly, the rest of the defense isn't going to be able to cut it. I just love that he's gotten better and better every year. Mm-hmm.

You know, there are things that he has set out to work on, and he has achieved it every year, and that's what the greats do. His shot is insane now. Like, it's just and that's what the greats do his shot is insane now like it's just it's insane it's it's it's you know first it was um working on his defensive play um and he took it really personally when he was a big minus which i don't know i mean i don't think he was as bad defensively as some people said but you know he know, he needed to work on things. There were times when he would get lost in his own end. And that was the whole Canucks team though. You know, and I think probably the new coaching staff

has helped Quinn in that area. And he wanted to work on his shot. And his shot has vastly improved. And, you know, you, you, you're seeing the effects of that now. He gets it away really quickly and it has some, has some zip on it. And that's, you know, you getting it away

quickly, getting it through all the shot blockers, like that is a, that's a big deal in today's NHL. This is no longer the Al McInnes loaded up and blasted. Break some shins. Because all the players are like, I want to let the goalie see it, right?

Like that's a different NHL now. So you have to adapt. That hard pass or whatever it was, if it was a shot or a hard pass, that was clearly intentionally on the stick of Brock Besser for the first power play goal. That was just a really smart heads-up play. And I wanted to mention one more thing because Quinn Hughes,

I think, is a good leader as well. And he may not be the yelling and screaming type, but I don't know if anyone kept watching after the game when Quinn Hughes was talking to Murph afterwards and he said, you know, like, he was asked about his 300 assists and he immediately talked about all his teammates and all the friendships he's made. He also said, he also said, I'm glad Petey got credit for that goal because he did a great job getting to the front of the net, and that wouldn't have gone in unless he was there. So here's a guy that knows one of his teammates is going through a tough time, and he wants good things to happen for that teammate. That is what a captain does.

For more on the captain, Quinn Hughes, we'll turn it over now, the audio, to Rick Talkett, the Canucks head coach. We're going to play this audio right from the top with the Q&A with Canucks reporter Olivia McDonald, who asked him a couple different questions about Quinn Hughes. Here is what Rick Talkett had to say about his captain following a 5-1 win over Anaheim on Tuesday night at Honda Center. Rick, we saw Quinn hit

that 300 mark, third fastest for an NHL defenseman to do so. Is that shocking at all to see him do that tonight? No, I mean, he's obviously controlled a lot of the play. Special player. You know, he gets a lot of shots off. That's hard to do.

And especially when teams are keying on you. So, yeah, I'm not shocked. Where's your confidence level with him at so far? The season just went a couple weeks in. Yeah, no, it's just he's, you know, been here a couple years and he's a pleasure to coach. He just loves hockey. He always tries to work on his game.

That's what I love about him. Oh, he loves him. I also want to mention. Always working on his game. Yep, and he loves that about him. And that is, you know, in any sport, you know, you see guys like Wayne Gretzky, when he first got into the NHL, his shot was not good, and he worked on it. And when, you know, I think about, was it Michael Jordan who worked on his three-point shooting?

Yeah. Jordan's big thing was when they got eliminated by the Pistons in those consecutive years, he realized that he wasn't physically strong enough to withstand the beating. So the thing he had to work on was his strength, endurance, and all that. So he met up with Tim Grover and redid his body, basically, mid-NBA career, which is quite remarkable when you think about it. He got pretty good doing what he was doing, but he realized there was another level he needed to get to, and that was, I need to be physically stronger.

Remade his body and then went on to win a bunch of championships. The Canucks will play the LA Kings on Thursday, and the Kings are looking pretty good right now. Big win for them last night. They smoked Minnesota. They went into Minnesota. So that might be tough for the Kings coming back from a two-game road trip to Nashville and Minnesota,

but they had success there. They beat the Predators 3-0, and then they went into Minnesota against a pretty good team and beat them 5-1. They're 8-3 and 3 on the season. Now, they've had their clunkers, just like the Canucks have. They lost to San Jose. They lost to Chicago. So the Kings are, you know, they're like most teams. They're not perfect. But this is going to be a test for the Canucks. And I think, you know, if you're looking at the Canucks season right now, you're going, you know, it hasn't been, it hasn't been,

certainly hasn't been terrible. In fact, you look at their record and it's 6-2-3, just two regulation losses in 11 games. You might even say it's downright, it's been good. But the strength of schedule is what people will look at and say, you've been in a lot of bad teams and you've struggled against good teams. You know, and so every time that there's a quote-unquote good team on the schedule,

people will be like, all right, let's see what you got, Canucks. Because, you know, again, I don't normally think too much about the Canucks opponent after the game is over. Except for Greg Cronin and the Anaheim Canucks. But I was, because I'm just, I don't follow the Ducks on a day-to-day basis. Nor should you, friend. Well, it doesn't look like many of their fans do based on the empty seats at the arena last night either.

And I'm kind of like, I don't, I just took time. I'm like, I'm going to try and find Greg Cronin's post game because I want to see what he's saying because like I'm watching that game and going, Greg Cronin's post game because I want to see what he's saying because like I'm watching that game and going Greg Cronin might be the first coach fired possibly they're bad that was that was really bad and if you look at their analytics they're really bad in terms of expected goals and the only reason really I think they've got any wins is because of their goalie, Lucas Dostal, who now might be getting a little bit tired and run down.

It took his eyes away last night. A lot of traffic in front of Dostal last night. It wasn't helped by the fact that Anaheim didn't clear the net on any occasion. I want to carve out a couple more minutes here at the end to finish up our Canucks talk by saying that in addition to everything else that we said glowingly about Quinn Hughes in this segment we should also point out that Quinn Hughes is also a good talent identifier and potential agent because he was one of the guys that told Patrick Alveen to go out and get Kiefer Sherwood this summer and the early returns on Sherwood

I gotta say I expected certain things from the guy and a lot of it was hit totals and energy I didn't realize this until listening to Shorty and DT on the broadcast last night but if you go look at his American Hockey League numbers he scored at a bloody prolific rate throughout his time in the American League like 36 goals in 57 games one year rate and I'm thinking okay he ripped that shot home so I'm looking that was rate. And I'm thinking, okay. He ripped that shot home. That was a great shot. I'm looking at this player and his body of work at the NHL level is largely of what you would consider from like a bottom six forward, right? Maybe he gives you 10 goals in a season like he did last year with Nashville, but that's it. He's 29.

He's definitely a late bloomer. He went undrafted. He played a bunch of years in college and then clawed his way up. I just wonder what the ceiling is for him offensively, because right now he has seven points in 11 games. And every time he's been out there this year, I have been impressed with everything that he brings, because he hasn't shirked any of the responsibilities

in terms of being physical and nasty to play against. Saw him chirping Trevor Zegers yesterday during the game as well. It's like he's brought all of the agitation and annoyances that made him tough to play against, but now he's got a little bit more offensive upside than I think anyone thought that he might have had. Can I also say that I think the most underappreciated Canuck is Teddy Bluger.

Yeah. Here's a guy that has been the center for two very impressive third lines with completely different wingers in back-to-back seasons. He's the glue guy. They should call him Glue-er. Yes, you've got to credit the wingers. Hey, I like that.

You know, Dakota Joshua and Connor Garland are clearly good players, and I think now you're looking at Danton Heinen and Sherwood and saying those are good players. But Teddy Bluger is an underappreciated member of the Canucks. And I actually thought he was pretty hard done by getting kicked off that line when Lindholm was added. Not that Lindholm, you know, wasn't good for the Canucks

in the playoffs, but I just don't think enough appreciation went into Teddy Bluger's role on the third line last season. And now maybe people are like, you know what? This guy is a pretty good hockey player. One of the most stark contrasts you can find in the previous management regime to this management regime is how they filled out their bottom six forward group

and the guys that they've identified to go out and do it. It's been hit after hit after hit as far as i'm concerned like i've i've loved everything they've done i love the price points that they brought brought guys in on right suitor was a win bluger was a win early returns on sherwood that was a win and you want to talk about one of the failures total win right that's a defenseman though i'm trying to focus on the forwards right now um i i do think that when you about, and I know it's easy to cherry pick, especially Roussel and Beagle, but when you talk about how you build a team

and how you find value, this is one of the ways that you do it is you find good quality, cheap bottom six forwards and see if they can do more with an elevated role on your team and see what they can do with the opportunities you provide them. And these guys have all ticked the boxes and in certain cases, knocked it out of the park.

You're talking about three guys in particular, I'd say Suter, Bluger, now the newest one, Sherwood, coming in all at under $2 million, each playing well above their contract value. And that's an important thing for a team that's trying to contend, right? You got to try and squeeze money out of entry-level deals when you can, and you've got to try and squeeze money out of your low-end, bottom-six deals, and they're doing a good job of that. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.

You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. Frank Cerelli from Daily Faceoff joins us now on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Frank. How are you? Hello, boys. I'm good. How are you? Hey, Frank. This might be putting you on the spot I'm good. How are you? Hey, Frank. This might be putting you on the spot a little bit, but we were just talking about Brock Besser,

who is off to a good start to the season. He's got six goals and five assists in 11 games. And we were remembering what Jim Rutherford said in the offseason. He said if he continues his solid play into into the season then we'll start talking about his future in Vancouver he's a pending unrestricted free agent have you heard anything with regards to a contract extension for Brock Besser I have not but to be totally candid it's probably been about 10 days to two weeks since I last asked and when when I did ask, I was told that conversations had not yet begun. So take that for what you will.

I think there was a certain amount of, to your point with the quote and also the Canucks' stance, I think, internally, they wanted to see it again. And I think Brock Besser was more than comfortable to go out and prove it. What kind of contract do you think he could garner? It's a great question. Obviously, continuing at this type of pace with the season that he had last year really seems to fit in well and have a great understanding

of what Rick Tockett is looking for and vice versa. It's difficult to pinpoint my guess is something um with an AAV that starts with an eight yeah well it's going to be a big decision for the Canucks um the Canucks like a lot of teams are apparently looking for defensemen. You know, I know we're not still in the flat cap days, but it seems like the market for defensemen is still tight as ever. Yeah, I'd say it's probably even more thin, right? It's difficult to get your hands on these guys, and when teams do, they lock them up, and for generally a long time.

So, you know, I think there's a few guys out there that are playing with less opportunity now that when given more might be able to show you a little bit more. And I'm not saying they're all going to blossom into a top four defenseman but look at a trade that the montreal canadians and new jersey devils made last summer with kovacevic not really a headline grabbing deal but kovacevic has been so good that they haven't been able to keep him out of the lineup. So I wonder if there's an opportunity there, not unlike what Florida has captured with the market, in finding certain fits that you might be able to elevate and get more from. I wonder if that's really the opportunity here, given how difficult

and expensive it is to acquire a true top four defenseman. Do any names come to mind? Not particularly. I mean, I understand everyone's watching Rasmus Andersen and what he's doing in Calgary and saying, well, can the Canucks and Flames just make another trade? I don't think Calgary has any interest in making any kind of trade at this point in time. What do we know? What do you know about Bowen Byram's name coming up in potential trade talks

out of Buffalo? I think one is an established fact that Kevin Adams has been making a lot of calls around the league to try and understand what a number of different markets look like. Two, I think perhaps the Canucks were one of those teams that had called to ask about Byram to say, or in the course of a conversation that the Sabres and Canucks might have had, to say, hey, is this guy available if you are shaking things up?

I believe the answer was no, and probably understandably so. And three, I would argue that even if we establish that all of those things that I just mentioned, those two things are stone cold facts, Vancouver Canucks are a terrible trade partner for the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres don't have any interest in futures. so then you go through this process with me and pick you've got to give to get you tell me who you're plucking off this Canucks roster to make a move well I mean the obvious answer is a forward because they do have a surplus of forwards especially when Dakota Joshua comes back in the lineup and Look, I'm not going to say Besser because we just spent the last 10 minutes talking about how

it would be borderline impossible to move a guy that's playing great on the ice and his blood by his teammates off the ice. Nothing big and shiny enough to get a guy like Bowen Byram, I don't think. Like Nils Hoeglund isn't going to get a guy. So if that's the case, then tell me who's the next guy up.

I just wonder from the Buffalo side, why Byram? Is it purely a contractual thing, or is it maybe they aren't as enamored with his play as when they first acquired him for Casey Middlestad? No, I think he's been fine, if anything. I think the Sabres' issues are a lot deeper than any one player. I think they really struggle to defend as a team. They don't play connected.

You talk to managers and scouts around the league, and they look at the Sabres and say, that's a team still playing summer hockey. And I know that they've got the youngest roster in the NHL at 25.7 years old, but this is year five of Kevin Adams trying to put this team in a position to be in a better spot. And they're off to their worst start in a while. So the clock's ticking.

Like to sit here and try and ram your head against the cinderblock wall time after time with this same core of players that isn't getting the job done. They've got to shake it up. They've got to fix it. And that's also going to mean some really uncomfortable conversations about players that they probably really like. I would imagine another guy that the Sabres are getting a bunch of calls on is Jack Quinn.

Speaking of teams that are on the clock and maybe it's getting late real early for them, the Nashville Predators, I don't know if anyone anticipated them to have this slow of a start. Maybe a transition period, but it looks like they are fully committed to playing summer hockey, even though it's November. Is it starting to get late early for the

Predators? Yeah, I would say my level of concern has ratcheted up pretty significantly for them. 32nd in the league and goals four at five on five is a giant red flag. And it's not because of the players that they added that are, you know, they added a hundred goals year over year in the offseason between Stamkos, Marcheseau, and essentially Brady Shea. But when you get to this point in the season and Roman Yossi is leading your team in shots from the inner slot, that's probably not conducive to success.

I mean, they've become a perimeter team. I mean, you guys know and respect Luke Shen. I mean, he was out there after the game the other night saying, it's not a knock on any one individual, but playing from the perimeter is not going to work. They know what the issue is, and yet it seems to be kind of an easy thing to fix as it's related to work ethic, effort, and mentality,

and yet the Predators continue to kind of wallow in that spot. it's related to work ethic, effort, and mentality, and yet the Predators continue to kind of wallow in that spot. So, you know, I am concerned, and with the build of this team, really lacking center depth, counting a lot on Ryan O'Reilly, this team's built on the wing, and they're older. Like, look at all of their star players. They're in their 30s, and they're signed long-term. If the Nashville Predators don't figure it out this season, it's straight-up nightmare fuel for that team.

They were supposed to make hay in years one, two, maybe three, and then you deal with whatever consequences come on the other side of the signings you make at that point. But if these guys are all in their mid to late 30s and they're not winning at that point and they're not winning now, it's only going to get uglier, not prettier. Yeah, I mean, we all have so much respect for Barry Trotz as a hockey mind, and I know he was getting a lot of accolades for getting these signings done. We all have so much respect for Barry Trotz as a hockey mind.

I know he was getting a lot of accolades for getting these signings done. But one of the guys that kind of defined their character last season, Kiefer Sherwood, is already a fan favorite in Vancouver. And I just looked down the middle there, and Ryan O'Reilly's had a great NH NHL career and he was one of the big reasons that the St. Louis Blues were finally able to win their first franchise Stanley Cup. But him as the 1C, I don't know if that's sustainable. On a true contending team, he's a 3C. Yeah.

And I think that was clear when he was in Toronto, wasn't it? Yep. That's exactly where I would have pegged him, would say, hey, if you're the Leafs and you're going in with expectations that Ryan O'Reilly is your 3C, you're in pretty good shape. We're speaking to Frank Sarabat. But Yuso Parson playing 2C, that doesn't work either. Frank, I want to ask you about the Anaheim Ducks

because we saw them last night and while we were all happy that the Vancouver Canucks were able to get a dominant 5-1 win and we were happy that Quinn Hughes got his 300th career assist already, he's just 25 years old. That was all great,

but I was struck by how bad the Ducks were. And they just brought nothing to the table. And they've got so much young talent. And I noticed on social media, granted it's social media, but there was a lot of, we need a new coach and not set in such a nice way. Just wondering what you're hearing about Anaheim and their slow start. Yeah, I think there's something to the need a new coach conversation just based on what I heard from Ducks players last season. And it was only Greg Cronin's first year, but I was told that he was an exceptionally difficult coach and someone

that really wore and graded on the players. You could go back and find the quote somewhere. I don't have it in front of me, but Ilya Labushkin had some really damning words for Greg Cronin recently in the last month or six weeks. And that has stuck with me. I'm not saying that's an excuse as a reason why this team hasn't taken a step forward. They've got tons of young talent. And the fact that it's not coming together is concerning.

Like I was watching the games, watching the election, watching social media and seeing fans say, Hey, I think low key the Sharks are better than the Ducks. I was saying to myself, it sounds absolutely preposterous at surface level, but may not actually be that far off. To the phone lines we go. Randeep Janda joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

What up, Randeep? Good morning, boys. I'm doing all right. How are you? We're doing pretty well. It's funny, Mark and Vernon just texted Randeep, and he said, morning, guys. What is your opinion on the value of quinn hughes's next contract uh and i said i do not have the mental bandwidth to get into this right now i'm just happy the canucks have got him under contract for a couple more years that is a problem for tomorrow and today we are just enjoying how well this guy is playing. Randip, I was saying, even his second assist last night,

the one that gave him his 300th career assist, was special in its own way. I mean, he sucked in at least like two Ducks players and was able to feed Brock Besser at the point. Besser shoots, DeBrus tips at home. There it is, 300 assists. The guy does special things and he makes it look easy. Yeah, and looking at that goal where he's able to basically pull Zegers and Dumoulin closer to him, just taking an extra second and the middle of the ice is wide open for Brock Besser. It's essentially, you know, the opposition has to do something because he's such a special player and he's added weapons to his arsenal now, right? Originally, he was a great skater and an excellent playmaker.

He didn't respect the shot so much. Now, the last two seasons, he's added that to his repertoire to say, all right, if that's a perceived weakness in my game, I'm going to add more. And, you know, we saw that on the 3-1 goal, which somehow was credited to Elias Pettersson. Good for Pettersson. I still don't really understand how he ended up getting a touch on that one. But Quinn Hughes attacking the middle yet again.

And he's doing it so often now. You have to respect A, the skating, B, the playmaking. And guys see the shot, which is, you know, a really aggressive Quinn Hughes is great from a shooting perspective as well. And I think a special performance he had again. Take the three points even out of it for a second. Because, yeah, that's special, him hitting 300 assists. But the way he's able to control the game.

He's able to either speed up the game or slow it down whenever he wants. And I think there were a couple of zone entries on the power play where the Canucks were fumbling the puck. Brock Besser couldn't really handle it crossing the blue line which is still a bit of a problem for this team but Quinn Hughes is that safety valve where he's just following up the play and says don't worry I got this and settled it down so I think you know whether it's a five on five game where shot attempts what they're plus almost plus 19 with him on the ice yesterday. Scoring chances were plus nine. Or on the power play where he's able to just calm things down and attack now

through the middle of the ice. We're watching something special, no doubt about that. Randy, if this continues, and I know it's still very early in the season, but if it continues, will you join our quest to promote Quinn Hughes as a, not just a Norris Trophy recipient, but a Hart Trophy winner? The last defenseman to win the Hart Trophy was Chris Pronger all the way back in what, I think 2000 or something like that. 24 long years. And if you look at, just watch Quinn Hughes play on a nightly basis, and then you also see how the team plays when he's on the ice versus not on the ice. I mean, this is truly, is it not the definition of an MVP? When you say quest, is this like secret meeting, like the stonecutters?

Yes. Well, hopefully not that secret because we need the publicity. So maybe quest was the wrong word but like we need to get this going i think there's a if this continues and you know on a nightly basis we're seeing the numbers so in the favor of the canucks when he's on the ice and the point totals i'm sure there's you know there's other defensemen across the league that have more points kael macar would be one of them but when you start looking at the complete game of this defenseman, the way that he's improved defensively,

the way that the ice is so tilted in the Canucks' favor when he is there, it's hard to disagree with that take to say, if Quinn Hughes continues to play this style of game, if he continues to dominate when he's on the ice and the Vancouver Canucks you know pick up goals and are allowing forget goals right now but scoring chances when he's on the ice I think it's a very real conversation if he continues this guys even till you know December or January or the you know the cutoff of the four nations face off, it's going to be, I think, a huge talking point where Quinn Hughes, he's playing at a level right now that, A, we haven't seen

in Vancouver from a defenseman. It's never happened before. This market was starving for a number one defenseman and they finally got him. But even across the league, I said it yesterday after the game broadcast, even before the game broadcast, I don't think there's a defenseman that is playing as good as in the NHL as Quinn Hughes and that's all due respect to guys like Kael McCarr and some fantastic players across the league but yeah we're in the conversation of is he the best one of the best players period in the NHL and it's hard to argue against that when you watch him every single night his ability to just control the game guys and that's what the special players do they're able

to control the game they're able to have you know the puck on a string and make decisions and and attack and slow down the game speed up the game whenever they want. Quinn Hughes is doing exactly that. We were talking a lot on this show about Brock Besser because he's off to another solid start to the season. Good player, pending unrestricted free agent. And the Canucks said in the offseason that, well, we'll revisit the situation during the season. If we see the same stuff that we saw last season, we want to see the consistency.

I think we're seeing it. How do you think this contract situation plays out with Brock Besser? Because this is a big one for the Canucks. Oh, for sure it is. And for a team that needs top six players, every team needs top six players, but I think we've talked about adding DeBrusque, having support for JT Miller and Elias Pedersen in the past.

You can't take a step back on that. And as we know, finding players who are impact pieces in free agency, it's very difficult. There's a reason that Jake Gensel was highly touted across the league. There's a reason a number of teams are excited at the proposition of potentially signing him. It just simply doesn't happen. So from a league-wide perspective,

if Brock Besser hits the market, of course there is going to be a lot of interest based on what he's been able to do from a goal-scoring perspective last year. But guys, the two-way game of Brock Besser has changed big time in the last three years. So, you know, what that number looks like ultimately comes down to Brock Besser, right?

We've heard a lot of conversations about him loving Vancouver. I remember talking to him when he signed, you know, a contract last time around and he mentioned, hey, this is where I want to play the rest of my career. Well, all right, let's see if that happens. That was a contract ago and there's been a lot of ups and downs since then.

But with Besser, a lot more ups recently. And, you know, that number, it depends, right? You hit the free market, you can, with the cap going up, it can go as high as any team wants it to be. But it's going to be something that if you're hoping for a bit of a discount, I think the fact that he's a point per game player, the fact that he's a two-way player, and he's turned himself into a Rick Talkets type of player

who can play winning hockey, and that's the difference. We're not talking about a guy that just puts up points. We're talking about winning hockey. Yeah, and that price total is going to be up there, but the Canucks, it's a very difficult decision because you just don't give away top six players. You've got to make sure if you've got

a 40-goal score in your lineup, you do the best you can to keep them in the lineup. What's happened to Carson Soucy's game? He was an adventure last night. Yeah, that was a high event, first period especially, and I look back last night. Yeah, that was a high event, first period especially. And I look back, a number of plays, there was a giveaway early to Leo Carlson.

There was a little unlucky on the 1-0 goal. He was unable to clear off the puck, went off the skate. He stumbled at the blue line, which led to another Leo Carlson chance that Robbie Fabry created. I think one of the areas that I've noticed him least is basically, you know, controlling that blue line. He's usually so good to stand up players and, you know,

be square them or be active with that stick. Haven't really noticed that much. And he's also, in my opinion, getting beat a little bit more wide, which is something that generally Carson Soucy is really good with that stick. So he's been, I don't know if there's an issue. We saw him go off the ice and off to the locker room a little bit. Looked like a skate issue to me after he fell hard in the corner, but he just doesn't seem right.

And you look at the numbers, guys, you know, he's what? I think dash five right now, dash four. Moving the puck out of his own zone. Even the simple plays, you know, working off that backhand has been a challenge. So, the Carson Soucy and Tyler Myers, that pairing has had moments where they've had a couple of good moments. But to start off the year, it's been a challenge. And I think Soucy, just every time he sees the pockets there's a little hesitation in his game you can see he's maybe hanging on to it a little bit on his backhand and that hesitation

is leading a lot of giveaways we're speaking to Randy Jan at Canucks analyst here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650 uh we also sung the praises of Kiefer Sherwood this morning in the opening segment of the show go download the hour one podcast by the way it's available now uh I did notice, thanks in large part to Shorty and DT pointing it out on the broadcast last night, Sherwood had some pretty great numbers offensively in

the American League, including one year where he scored like 36 goals in 57 games, which is an outrageous total. I know he was brought aboard to be a bottom six energy forward guy, but do you think there's more offensive upside than anyone envisioned, or is he just on kind of a heater right now with seven points in 11 games? No, I think there is more offense there.

This is a player, sure he scored 10 goals last year, but guys, even watching that Nashville series, one area that he was dangerous, he didn't maybe finish, was in transition off the rush. And that's exactly how he scored last night, right? But I love that 2-1 goal, not only from Kiefer Sherwood, but the way that the buildup happened. The initial pass by Hronik.

You had Danton Heinen protect the puck, make the play at the defensive blue line. Brandstrom activates, acknowledging that there's two Anaheim Ducks that are down low, and that's his chance to go. And Kiefer Schroeder with the shot. This is a player that can play with speed. He's got the green light in his mind where he's got the confidence in his offensive skill.

Can he produce game in, game out? I guess we'll see. But, you know, another goal and an assist. He's got maybe a little bit took the foot off the gas when it came to the hit because he didn't need to engage that much. But as we saw yesterday, He's got maybe a little bit, took the foot off the gas when it came to the hit because he didn't need to engage that much. But as we saw yesterday, he's got a shot. He's also a bit of a playmaker

as well. And that 5-1 goal that Denton Heinen scored, what I loved about that play was he didn't give up on it, right? This is a guy that takes a shot, it's blocked, and he continues and sets up Heinen for a setup. I believe there's more offense there, and sets up Heinen for a setup. I believe there's more offense there.

And most importantly for Vancouver, it's transition opportunities that he can create. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.