Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 12/12/25

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, including last night's Canucks loss to the Buffalo Sabres, plus they get a 'Nucks update from Donnie & Dhali's Rick Dhaliwal. 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. And a jersey hits the ice tonight at Rogers Arena as the final horn sounds. The Sabres take it by a final score of three to two. We're playing pretty good and creating lots of looks, but it just hasn't gone for us, honestly. Re-out, score! Goal number four!

Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver, 6 o'clock on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody, sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halpert and is Browfield, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Adol, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brumph of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick. One, no more interest.

Two, much lower payments and three, financial peace of mind. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid.

Visit them at 1175. Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech Studio. Now is the time to maximize the benefits of custom orthotics before the year runs out. Visit kintech. Dot net. Lots to get into on the program today. We begin with the guest list. It's the Duick Morning Drive. Brought you by the Duick Auto Group. Guest list today begins at 6.30. Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join the program. Pretty interesting Thursday nighter. Falcons upset Bucks, which allows the Panthers. Yeah, the Carolina Panthers, to move into sole possession of top spot.

In the NFC South, we will also look ahead to all the Sunday games with Nick. That's going to be coming up at 6.30. 7 o'clock AJ from AJ's pizza is going to join us. A reminder, it is Ask Us Anything. Friday on the program, $100 gift card to AJ's goes to the best. Ask it does anything? Hashtag at AUA, put a pizza emoji in the text. Send it to 650, 650.

You could win a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza on East Broadway. Right after AJ in the 7 o'clock hour, Whitecaps Sporting Director and MLS Executive of the Year, Axel Schuster is going to join the program. So Axel, as most of you saw yesterday, was front and center with Vancouver City Mayor Ken Goodtime Sim as the city of Vancouver and the Whitecaps agreed to pursue plans for a new stadium. So I am fully prepared for Axel to answer my questions like this for everyone.

I can't say more on that. Right. I can't say more on that. I don't know. I can't say more on that. Well, while we're low on details, we're high on enthusiasm. So I'll handle the stadium stuff,

but I'm sure you've got a few questions about what they're going to do this offseason, who might be back, what they might be looking for, etc. I still want to ask about the MLS Cup final. Still not over it. Still not over it. Axel's going to join us at 7.30. 8 o'clock Rick Dollywall is going to join the program.

Noted Kinnuck's reporter from Donnie and Dolly on Check TV. For today's rundown, I now turn things over to our shows. Dollywall administrator, Jason Brough. We're just going to talk about the usual stuff. Dolly Wall said, we'll talk about the game last night. I'm like, are you sure? You sure you want to do that? I mean, I guess you have to when you lose to the Buffalo Sabres at home.

Yeah, first jersey of the year on the ice. You heard that in the intro. That's fun. Maybe we can talk to Dolly Wall about that at 8. A reminder, another day of the 12 days of Halford & Brough goes today. It's going to be at 8 a.m. Caller number 5, 604, 2804, 06. If you listen to Halford & Brough every day next week,

don't worry, you'll get a chance to do it then as well to win. Some very cool stuff that we've been giving away. Tickets to sporting events, restaurant gift cards. Yesterday, we gave away a $250 gift card to Waffle House, which basically allows you the opportunity to franchise a Waffle House. We're keeping the Daily Prize a secret, though, until the winning caller calls so you won't find out what today's is until after 8 a.m., but the winning caller again,

604-280650, caller number 5 at 8 o'clock this month. morning. That's what's happening on the program. We got a lot to get into. That was the Duick morning drive. And without further ado, 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

We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety

training, visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca.a. Tage Thompson had a goal and an assist. And the Buffalo Sabres won 3-2 in Vancouver last night. The first road victory in regulation for the Buffalo Sabres since April 1st, which for you schedule enthusiasts out there means yes. It's the first time they've won a game on the road in regulation this season. I don't think anyone's interested in doing the, uh, the Canucks deserve better in this one act after losing it home to the Buffalo Sabers. Yeah, they outplayed the sabers. Great.

Terrific. They also surrendered two goals at five on five where the shooter was wide open. First by Dahlene and then by Tage Thompson, who's got a terrific shot. Don't leave that guy wide open. The winning goal, the Sabres scored on the power play. And Brock Besser was out there killing penalties. And this is something he's been doing a little bit lately. And I'm like, really?

Okay. he looked totally lost out there. He was like Ricky Bobby. He was like, I don't know what to do with my hands. Like, he was like, I don't know what to do with the killing of the penalties. I mean... You told me to go back and watch it. Did you watch it?

I did not do that. I will not be told what to do, especially when it's negativity. The negativity being the play, not you telling me to do it. I don't want to watch something bad. I knew what was, when you said, go look at it. I was like, I'll take your word for it. I think he got whiplash. on the number of times he was looking around,

but like half a second behind what was actually happened, then all of a sudden, Adog's favorite player, Zach Benson is, again, wide open in the scoring area, and he scores. And, man, he's been a terrific player for the Sabres this year, has he? It was his first goal in 35 games or something like that? My boy. First goal since March 12th.

That's... But he's going to tell us also last season. He's going to bring it on now, though. This is the start. This is the start of the day. The Buffalo Sabers came to Vancouver and managed to do all the stuff they hadn't done since last season. Zach Benson scored a goal.

That was his first goal of the season? Yes. Good Lord. It was Benson's first goal since March 12th. Also, Alex Tuck didn't even play in this game. He was late scratch because of an illness that put him alongside Jason Zucker on the list of impactful forwards that weren't playing for the Buffalo Sabres.

But alas, in what we coined the Sad Club showdown, was that what we coined it going into it? The Sabers won it. The Sabres won at 3-2 in regulation. We are already at this stage of the season, folks. It is 6.07 a.m. We're tapped on Canucks's content. though they played a game last night and there was about five hours of live content dedicated to the team post game show was a mix of anger and angst and frustration from the fan base who did get to voice their opinions which i think is an important part of this process but even listening

to sat and bick talk about the nuances and intricacies of the game you could tell that they didn't really matter not sat and bick those guys matter a lot but the stuff they were talking about the breakdowns of individual plays the ice time deployment and they did bring this up of you look at the four centers and the low ice times that they were deployed. If the Canucks were in a different situation, you'd be like, okay, you need to make a coaching change. Right. But it's a hell of a thing to say,

I think they should change the coach, and then a very good counter argument would be, what's the point? Yeah, why bother? Why bother? Adam Foote said yesterday, and it was a small clip, and I don't think he meant it to be,

although no coach in this market ever means, in any other words, to be parsed and minorsed, manipulated and analyzed as they are, but Adam Foote said after the game yesterday, we needed to play a perfect game to win that against Buffalo? Yeah. A perfect game. Yep. And I think he was referring to the center depth and the amount of missed chances they had.

He didn't even try and- He was really trying to talk up the pump fake. He said pump fake six times. He was like, we got a pump fake more. It was like a grade eight power forward in the paint. You got to get the guy off his feet. You got to give him at least one pump fake. It's like, what's this a new strategy? Just rises up with the whiteboard in between.

Yeah, yeah. Did you ever get that in, in, in high school basketball, inbounding the ball? Yeah. Just like one, and then just get rid of it. One pump fake. Or one, two, down through is a good one, too, when you're trying to inbounds the ball.

Absolutely. Just pump fake. Hey, one, two, down and through. That's it. This is hockey. Yep. This is, I know what he's saying. I know what he's saying.

I know what he's saying, but, you know, he's basically saying, like, We are making it too obvious when we're shooting. We've got to have a little deception out there. When you start kind of micromanaging, if that's your takeaways from the game, it's like we got to pump fake more? What is going on here? What is happening here?

He sort of muttered the pump fake thing every time you mentioned it. Yeah, but I think the larger point was... Is that his feedback? At this point, yes. Is that his feedback to the team? Yeah, at this point, yes. That reminds me of when he was asked about the power play earlier in the season, and he's like, I would just get to zip it around a little bit more.

Snap it around a little bit. Was it zip it or snap it? A little more zip it, a little more snap. Snap it around a little bit more. But the funny point is when you kind of. The defensive breakdowns on the five-on-five goals. I mean, I think Drew O'Connor was, I don't, on the first goal. Was it the second goal?

There was one where he was, like, behind the net with one of his defensemen. I think it was Dahlene Dahlene had that shot he just glided into the high slot all by himself to pound one passport Thatcher Demko

and Drew O'Connor's like I have got behind the net covered Yep I got this part right here He's waving to it I was like that looks like a former winger that is being forced to play center Because it is Yeah I mean if you want to

If you look at the ice times last night Like here's a a fun game. Try and identify who the one C was yesterday based on deployment, face off's taken, and general time on ice. It's really difficult because they all sort of ended up

between 11 and 14 minutes and like they were pointing this out on the post game show. There were a lot of instances where Ratu comes out and takes the draw and then off right away. And then they bring out a third winger and it does create some real problems where

if you're a coach, like I am trying to get my best offensive players on the ice. It just so happens that none of my best offensive players are centers. So I'm having a hard time trying to manipulate things to get the scoring opportunities that we need. And then on top of that,

they're going through a prolonged slump where the veteran skaters, Besser, Garland, Sherwood, DeBrusk, and Kane aren't scoring. Sherwood had one last night, so I should remove him from this. but remember there was that stretch and I think it was at the tail end of the Florida trip

where pucks were going in like crazy I remember Dranz came on the station he's like you know this is going to be followed up by a stretch where the shooting percent drops to around 6 percent didn't they have like 13 goals on 56 shots or something like that right and what they were doing was riding the ebbs and flows

of heaters and like the peaks and valleys of shooting percentage there was no sustained plan of attack that would allow you to generate offense when things were bouncing your way things weren't, right? You lived and died with the bounces, essentially. And last night, did they deserve more than two goals? Probably but they didn't. They deserved

more against Detroit, too, but sometimes this is the way hockey goes. And then when they were asking the head coach as to why things weren't happening and what they needed to do is answer was pump fakes. Unicorn texts in, how can you blame the coach? They are literally outplaying

teams with an HL center group. Just said we're not blaming the coach. Unicorn, I'm blaming, I am. I'm blaming everyone. Wow. This is such, this is such a bad situation. I, I, I wasn't super optimistic heading into the season, but I didn't imagine this. I, the, everything, I mean, there has been some bad luck with the injuries, for sure. Some of them were predictable in some ways, and the Canucks made bets on guys like Heedle and Thatcher Demko, and they lost the bets, but some of them were also bad luck.

I mean, I talk about Brock Besser being out on, on the power play. Like, they really miss a guy like Bluger. Penalty kill. Sorry, on the penalty kill. Yeah. They really, they miss, they miss a guy like that. And is it the reason why? No, but like, you can't single out anything about this season.

You can't, right? There's so much stuff that's going wrong. And the problem is, is that nobody seems to be part of the solution. No, not right now. Every single, Dranth wrote a piece in the athletic. And, you know, he examined, like, and we've kind of done this before. Like, he examined, do the connects do anything well? Is there one thing that they can hang their hat on?

No. And we've had that. There's nothing. There's nothing. There's not, there is not. usually if you're a bad team you at least have one thing you know and even if you could

say well the Canucks have Quinn Hughes doing things out there there's like oh that's a bit of a negative though right because they might not soon speaking of Queen Hughes let's turn our attention now to the Canucks captain who did speak following the game and there's a lengthy clip here which includes some back and forth with reporters talking about

the major story of the moment and that is the noise surrounding his future as of Vancouver Canuck and the trade rumors that are swirling It's an extended clip, as mentioned, there's some back and forth with reporters, so turn up your radios and pay attention closely. There will be a quiz afterwards. Quinn Hughes, following a 3-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres,

talking about his situation, the noise around it, and how it might be affecting his teammates. I mean, I'm obviously human, and I feel stuff, but for me, I feel more the results in where we are in standings. I mean, that probably affects me more. Yeah. affects the team, just the uncertainty of that? Do you think it affects them at all?

I would say, you know, the same thing with the team. I think, you know, at the end of the day, I think guys are, I think guys are focused about themselves too and trying to get their own games going and trying to be productive and bring their best. And I think at the end of the day, when guys are lacing up the skates, not necessarily thinking about me. They're probably thinking about other things. Adam talked about some of this noise, maybe affecting the team in the room.

Do you think there's anything you can do as a leader to help maybe apply some of that noise down? I mean, I'm just trying to do everything I can. I mean, you watch me play. I'm trying to bring it every night and be a good teammate. And, yeah, that's what I'm trying to do. It's worth noting that Foote was asked that question as well, that final question about what can you do, not as the captain, but as the coach,

what can you do to help silence the noise in the room? And Foote said, in short, not much. Like, it's out there and everyone knows about it. And Huggy's going through, whatever he's going through. and Foote's just kind of along for the ride. And that's fair. I don't think that there's much he can do on a lot of fronts. I know there's some people that are skewering the coach right now.

Can you teach them how to defend? That'd be nice. Oh, I don't think he's got it in his bag. I don't think it's in his arsenal. I don't think he's that guy. Skippy from Halifax Texan. I long for Talkett's, quote, protecting the guts of the ice.

Foots, quote, swarm defense doesn't work. Everyone swarms away from the net front. Yeah, they haven't picked up the sun. swarm very well the amount of times that I don't even know I don't even know if it's intentional there was a goal the other day when I think it was Garland and Marcus Pedersen went to one guy and that was the winning goal in the Detroit game wasn't it was it the winning goal I don't know it was one of the goals um and uh you know the the amount of slot shots that are coming in that is a guy like Tate Thompson he's got a great shot he gets that puck in the in the high

slot, middle of the ice. That's a dream for NHL players to be in that position that wide open with no and I was like, I'm going to beat this goalie. So it's interesting like, I'll try and break this down to as basic as it was explained to me and as

I think I understood it. There's not a lot of teams that are doing what the Canucks are trying to do. As a matter of fact, someone suggested that Lindy Ruff and the Buffalo Sabres were also ones that tried to do more of a man-on-man defending and swarm style defending. As opposed to protecting pieces of the ice, which is what

the Tocket philosophy wouldn't you. Sure. You don't necessarily defend men. You defend ICE. I watched the Vegas Philly game a bit with last night. Yeah. I think Vegas ended up winning it overtime.

Yeah. And an amazing play by Eichol. Right. But there were like, in a terrible play by Kineckney. But there were like combined 40 shots in the game. Yeah. You know,

it just protect the middle of the ice. So it takes away the reads of who goes to get that guy, which in your situation, two guys went to go get one guy yesterday because they're like, am I reading this or are you reading this? And you protect. pieces of the ice. I know this is...

Juror Connor's like, I got behind the net. Right. He's like, why are you swarming there? And they're like, no, you need a man. True. No ice. All man here. Like, I'm a wigger.

Yeah. So it becomes a bit of an issue when guys aren't getting it. And unfortunately, it doesn't seem as though Foote's done a good enough job. And this is where I'll be critical of the head coach. He hasn't done a good enough job of being able to either, one, instill this into his players or two, abandon it entirely and go to a different system because that is something, especially at this stage of the season,

that a head coach would consider. Okay, I want to talk a little bit about the White Capps announcement. It was Axel Schuster there with Mayor Ken Sim and Ken Sim was definitely a politician yesterday in this announcement. But the big questions

we had before this announcement remain unsurprisingly unanswered. The bottom line is we still don't know who the caps who's going to pay for all this the stadium. We don't know if the Lions will be part of it. And it all seems rather

pie in the sky at the moment, but at the very least, the White Caps do have something to go out and flog to potential partners for the next year in a bit. They announced that there has been a memorandum of understanding.

MOU from here on in. Yeah. The MOU. There's a, there's a M-O-U horn that we've got. It's the mo-mo. There's been a moh of understanding. Let's just move past this. Yeah. So this is a quote from Axel. The next step is that we continue to have conversations with everyone who can help and could be interested in participating in partnering in this project. And if you speak about an entertainment district, if you speak about the whole piece of

land there, you can imagine that a lot of things are doable there. If you just build a stadium in the city of Vancouver and you build that as a private organization, which the caps are, and you pay it fully by yourself. Then with the cost that this comes with, you will not get into a better financial situation. So we have to be smart and we have to find other avenues for how we can make this whole thing work. So the translation is on that as I read it is they want to partner with maybe some real estate developers and go, look, we've negotiated with the city of Vancouver to build an entertainment district

on this land we'd like some help building the stadium you guys can build mixed use stuff you know whether that's residential or you know some retail with

restaurants or whatever I mean I'm gonna get to that stop interrupting every time but I will get to that okay so the the one thing I'll say right now is I don't know if this plan is realistic

because I don't know I don't know first like how much does the stadium cost to actually construct and build and are the white caps willing to give anything for that or are they just, well hold on a second I don't know again I don't know if the plan is realistic

I hope it is but it's a pretty shaky time in the economy right now and a lot of developers are having a tough tough go of it. So if you're asking partners to join you on a big real estate development, the projected numbers better look pretty juicy, especially if they're like, do we have to build a stadium too? It's like, yeah, you've got to build us a stadium. So how much money are the white caps themselves prepared to put into this project? Are they hoping to essentially get a free stadium out of

this? You'll remember the Canucks tried to partner with the developer at the plaza of nations to get a practice facility, A-Dog, and ultimately, that deal fell apart and presumably because the numbers didn't work. Maybe the Canucks just, they're like, yeah, we're not, we don't want to pay for this because, like, we'll be part of it, but we're not going to actually pay anything

because we are the, we're the selling point of this development. I just have a question for you and I want to circle back. So when you said that you don't know if the plan is realistic, and I know you kind of spelled that, but based on your understanding and your read on it, What did you get from yesterday that you thought the plan was? Because I actually walked away from it thinking I'm not sure even what the plan is.

I think the plan is to bring in some developers and say like, okay, we're going to have a stadium. But your opportunity, the developers is the stuff around the stadium. Right. So you can build that and you can make money off that. Okay. And that's your opportunity. What do you think about that? Right.

And the city is saying, we're granting you the permission to do that on this land. Right. That's where the lease comes in. The Slaywathooth Nation is going to be involved in this somehow. Okay? And here's an interesting thing. Adog, are you listening? The Slaywatooth Nation quite often works with the Aqualini's in developing.

They will partner up and, um, provide their covenant on deals. And so there are a lot of potential parties that could be involved in this. You know, maybe the Aqualini's aren't, you know, involved in this somehow. I don't know. Well, that's, because we don't know what they're offering, right?

We don't know, we don't know what the numbers look like. It sounds to me, like what the white cops are doing is they're going to go around to a bunch of investors and developers and be like, eh? Yeah. You give us some idea on how you can make money on this. And by the way, we need a stadium built. See, that's what I assumed that the plan was yesterday. We're talking about the infancy, the babiest of baby first steps.

And I would assume that right now, the next conversations are going to be with an indigenous group. Let's slay with tooth. Possibly the equineas. Don't forget about the BC Lions because they were brought up yesterday as well. There's going to be a myriad of conversations going on about. How do we figure out the financing behind this? The lions will be one of the last at the table, unless they're willing to put in money.

But they'll be in the table, right? But they might, well, not to start. Is there a world where we might see, like, this entertainment district theoretically be built and have a White Capp Stadium next to a Canucks practice facility? Like, could that be a thing in that? Yeah, I suppose. Nebulous.

Yeah, sure. Why not? I mean, I think the white caps are basically, maybe you should go to some of the meetings, and you can create, like, the Homer Simpson car of, of entertainment districts. Exactly. But I do think it's like,

you know, like, what's a corporate buzzword? They're like, we're going to blue sky this. Yeah. Right. You know? Look, you got to understand this. With all due respect. But it seems pie in the sky to me.

But with all due respect. Dream out there. Be the, you know, bring the dreamers to the table. Well, they needed something. Let's not get it twisted. Like pessimism is pessimism. But overall, it's optimism because they got something off the ground. When Garber openly said, we need some.

some tangible evidence that things are moving in a direction where you might get a state. Do you not think this is a realistic proposal? It's not a proposal. It's a scenario? It's not a proposal of anything. That's what we just said. We don't know. We don't know.

Because I don't know, again, like, if the white caps are saying, like, build us a stadium, you figure out the rest. I don't know. Like, I think the white caps are going to. But we don't know that what they're doing. Like, this is not unlike. a lot of things that we do where we go way down the road and we start coming up fine this is what they've left us to do we we honestly don't know and i and i and i think this is uh you know this is this is one of those things where i'm just going to throw it out there like the reason i say

i want to learn more about this is i don't want to get taken on a ride here sure i don't want to get my hopes up and for it to be three or four years down the line and the white caps leave town and they're like well we tried to build a stadium you know you can't Say we didn't try. It's like, yeah, but was it ever a realistic plan? Was it ever, or did you just, did you just want to go out there and be like, hey, is anyone going to build us a stadium here? And you figure out the rest.

They've still got a lot on their plate with the current plate of the team. Because if this was, even to come to fruition, we're talking four plus years out. So you need to still rectify your relationship with BC place. Because unless something dramatically changes, you're calling that play. home for the what, like, let's say the next three or four years at a minimum, right? Ken Sim really put the pressure on the provincial government, which I found hilarious. He was like, the city of Vancouver has done its part. I was like, oh, yeah, how much money have you spent?

How much? What have you, what have you done? It's like you had lawyers involved to put this MOU together. Like how, you've not, you've, you haven't really committed anything. You've not, you've, you've, you've, you've, you've, you've committed nothing. That's the point. And then you're asking. And then you're like, and then you're like.

to the province he's like now you give the white caps a break on their release you're listening to the best of halford and brough you're listening to the best of halford and broth it's rick dollywall here on the halford and breath show on sports net 650 what up rickie d'y gentlemen let's go busy show so the conucks i guess outplayed the sabres but they lost there were some glaring defensive breakdowns that allowed the sabers to score their goals um what did you think of the game. Team 32, lost to Team 29, in the basement bowl. That's what I thought. The Canucks lost to a Buffalo team, by the way, Brough, that had a backup goalie, and we're missing Josh, Norris, Alex Tuck, and Jason Zooker. They are now 410 and 1 at home. They finish that homestand 1 and 3. Vancouver is not a city where the opposing team says, oh no, we got to go to Vancouver. That's going to be a tough game. That's a tough building to win. No one's saying that right now. I mean, the home

record wasn't it bad last year, and here we go again. So they got to play their final five games before the Christmas break on the road. Even the return of Thatcher Demko didn't help. He gave up three goals and 12 shots. And after those 12 shots, he only faced

three the rest of the way. But one of the bigger issues, like all the Buffalo goals in the slot guys, you know, not touched, but the offense has dried up. Since that Memo came out, no goals in six games for Besser, Garland, and DeBrusk. Cain and Sherwood only have one. Besser and Garland have David Camp as their center.

Camp has no points in 11 games in Vancouver. He's not a first-line center. He's not a playmaking center. He's not getting the puck to those wingers. They can't win. Forget about the defensive mistakes, prop. They can't win when they don't have a first or second-line center. The first and second-line centers were Camp and O'Connor, O'Connor. a winger. Until the center ice position improves, it's going to be tough for this team to get out of the basement, 32nd. So they had a jersey thrown on the ice last night. Fans are showing up with paper bags on Monday against Detroit. One guy burnt his jersey on Twitter. They're in 32nd place. They're on the verge of trading their best player in franchise history. A possible

rebuild, and I don't care what they call it, is around the corner. You're starting to see empty seats, cheap seats for 30, 40, 50 bucks now available. It's only December 12th. How is the rest of the season going to play out? They're on pace for 66 points. Brough, that's the worst season since 1998. That's going back to the John McCaw days. And, you know, they didn't get to 32nd place because they announced a rebuild in the summer. Then you can accept 30 second place. They got here with mistakes, not only are they in 32nd, they're also capped out. That's not a good one-two combo to be dead last and capped out. So, like, I don't know, like, there's trade freezes, Olympic, you know, freezes coming up for trades. There's, you know, when you get,

when you get out of the Olympics, there's only going to be 12 days until the NHL trade deadline. It's just, it's going to be fascinating for me to see how, you know, this plays out before, and after the Olympics, what is going to happen with this hockey club? Yeah. What did you think of what Quinn Hughes said after the game? Yeah, and that's, I agree with them. You know, I agree with them. 100%.

It's affecting him. It's affecting the dressing room. This isn't Carolina or Columbus, you know, where, you know, you send out a memo and, you know, this is Canada where, you know, you're under the microscope and you're the second best defenseman in the National Hockey League. So let's get into Quinn Hughes. Here's what we know. Canucks are taking calls on him,

but they haven't come out and said he's available. Nobody knows if and when this happens. The memo that was sent out two and a half weeks ago opened the door for teams to ask about Hughes. The memo wasn't about him. He's the only real attractive piece on the Canucks teams won anyways. Have the Canucks had a conversation with Hughes? not sure they have.

Hughes agents are well aware of the fact the teams are calling on their prize client. They monitor the situation daily. Because Hughes has no trade protection, the Canucks don't really have to talk to him. Yeah. Or his agents. If Rutherford gets an offer,

he absolutely can't refuse. He can pull the trigger any time. And those people that say about the no trade, and he does have no, and there was a report, from one of the national guys that he's got no trade. That's not true. He's not eligible in this contract for no trade clause.

So that's not on the agents or anyone. He just wasn't eligible. The only leverage that Hughes has, he doesn't have to sign an extension if they do move them. And that's going to hurt Vancouver's return. Yeah. But still two post-season with Quinn Hughes. Yes. You know, and plus you could,

if some team took him for this post-season, to resign him, he said no, they could, in theory, flip them or keep them as their own rental or whatever you want to call it. I mean, the hall should still be massive. It should be. You know what? A team I think about is Carolina. Can you imagine one pair with Slavin and another pair with Hughes? For a team that's trying to get over the hump, you give yourself two cracks at it. I mean, I remember hearing, I remember hearing Svetnikov's name coming up. I don't know if the connects would be interested in him or should be interested. in him, but I do wonder about

a team like Carolina. Yeah, you should. There's a lot of teams that are kicking tires. I'll get that into a second, but you started this by saying did you hear his comments last night? First of all, Adam Foote came out and said that the Hughes trade talks have affected the room. Yeah, that was before the game. Yeah, and Hugh said last night, he's human, he feels it.

Before last night's game, Hughes had no points of six games, all right? Bester's got one in 11. Sherwood's got one in 11. Players will be affected by having their names in the trade market. It's just, and you're in, again, you're not in a non-traditional hockey market. You're in a Canadian market. If you're the Canucks, you obviously want a quality, quality center back, a puck-carrying defenseman, preferably on the left side, because the right side is set for years, right? Preferably on the left side. Sandine Pelico's a right shot, isn't he? Yeah, I, I, but look, well,

Lander's there, Mancini's there, Heronics there, the right side is set, right? I, I, I think they need somebody on the left side, but we'll see how it all plays out. But I think that, but Dolly, before you get going here, like, I think that, that is what people are almost scared of, is that the Canucks are going to look at this trade and be like, okay, well, we need someone on the left side, and we need a center when they're like,

so you're going to just keep trying? Like, you're just going to keep trying instead of being like, who cares? What we need right now is talent, and we figure out the rest of the pieces later. We need talent, talent, talent, draft capital, we need players, and then we'll put the pieces together

because they're worried that they're going to use this Quinn Hughes trade and just keep going down this road. Do you think they will? No, because, look, if they nail this trade, and do you notice one thing? Remember when they were trading Miller and Rutherford said, you know, the return is not going to be great, that he hasn't said that here has he no they should do well they should do well in this you are

offering up the second best defenseman in the national hockey league but here's the here are some of the problems and some of the pros and cons some teams don't have the assets jason the draft picks and most importantly they don't have the center the conucks want some do okay so who are we hearing about that you you mentioned the hurricanes red wings capitals devils and the flyers the red wings are a team that can satisfy Vancouver they have young pieces is they got three first-round picks under the age of 24 on their roster right now. One team told me they can't match

what the Red Wings have in assets. Not many teams can. I told you a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the Kinnock's ass from the Devils who's going to be Nico Herschur, and you kind of just kind of fluffed it off. But that's the type of guys you've got to go after. You know, Rick Tockett

would love to get his hands on Hughes, right? But not sure they have the pieces. they're weak at center, just like Vancouver. Flyers do have good young talent, but you're not getting Porter Malone. You're not getting that guy. If Vancouver asks for him, they have good prospects like Nesbitt and Bunk,

but Porter Malone, I don't see it. Capitals have called, right? Ryan Leonard, Cole Hudson, they got good young talent. I don't think Canucks are going to get their hands on Leonard either. They should be asking for the moon, Jason. Of course they should. They're offering up.

They should be asking. I don't know, I think it might have been on your show, or so I've heard it a few times. If a team's like, well, we don't have the assets you're looking for, okay, well, you're not getting Quinn Hughes then. Because some team will, some team will. But what I'm getting at, really, and I'm not sure if you're following me on this, I just like, you know, they want a center, they want a center, they want a center, they want a center. Just get talent. Just get talent. And like, don't worry about next year.

but I think they always do they always worry about next year and they always try and put together a team that people can talk themselves into it's like maybe if all things go right we can make the playoffs but what I'm getting at is like and maybe we can talk about management next

like I want and a lot of fans not all of them but I want a clean slate I want a lot of these guys even if they're good guys I want them out of here because I want to start

over with something else. Because what I'm watching, like, Brock Besser, great guy. I think he's a good player. I think they should trade him. Connor Garland, really good player, really admire what he brings. I think they should trade him. I'm just at this point now where I'm not even afraid to throw this out here. If people disagree with me, fine. But this is what I want from a team. I want a fresh start. I want Pedersen traded. If you're going to trade Hughes, Trade Pedersen. Trade all these guys and start again and give us something to get excited about in the building and the redevelopment of this team.

And for God's sakes, fix your culture because it's broken. No, you make all valid points, but everything that you want, it starts with the R word. And I haven't heard them use the R word. And the R word is one of the biggest issues. Let me get back to Hughes. I heard Pittsburgh call, but we're just exploring. So if Pittsburgh did call, the Canucks would ask for Ben Candel. They should ask for players like Condell, Leonard Malone, but they're not going to get them.

But that's who they should be asking for for Quinn Hughes, the moon. Now, here's the problem for me. It is sad that the Canucks need to trade Hughes to get a center. They so desperately need. This regime has bungled up the center-ice position so bad that they got to trade Hughes to fix the center-age position. Not long ago in this city, they had Pedersen, Miller, Horvett, and Lindholm up the middle. One guy out of those four remains, and he's not the difference-making center he used to be. Now they got three American Hockey League centers and Drew O'Connor up the middle of the ice.

He's a winger. That's not good. And to use Hughes to get a center because you've bungled up that position so bad, they're the weakest team in the NHL up the middle. It's not even debatable. but you had Miller-Horvatt Lindholm up the middle with Patterson. You were one of the strongest teams in the NHL up the middle. Now you are without a question. They had six All-Stars 18 months ago in Toronto.

They had the coach of the year two years ago. How do you go from six All-Stars, the coach of the year, to 32nd place in that short of a time? Dysfunction. That's what that's the answer. Dysfunction. Bingo. The team is dysfunctional. And I'm, like, I'm with you because I know you're just reporting what they want, right?

I understand that. They want centers. We might be having different conversations here. Like, I just want new and talent and character. And that's what I want from trades. I don't want them to be like, well, this guy's good, but he's a winger. So we're going to take the center. I don't have a lot of interest in Marco Casper.

You know what I mean? Like the Red Wings were thinking of putting them, sending them down to the HL for a reset. Right. Like that, is that what I want? Like if, you know, I don't know. But, rough, what you want starts with a rebuild, and they're not using that word. I know. And that's what you, everything you want.

So you say trade better and garland. They just signed those guys months ago to six, seven year extensions. I know. I know. You know. I know. I know, Dollywood. I know what they did.

I know what they did. How do you trade two guys who in good faith signed to the damn team? To fix the damn team, Dollywall? Brough, Brough. Brough, Garland went to his agent and said cut the deal in Vancouver, right? Demko went to his agent. Cut the, do you know what the Demko's agent said? I don't care what the agents think.

I care about the hockey team. Yeah. Okay, but you want every guy that just signed for six, seven years to be traded. Yes. And they all got no moves. How is that possible? Make it happen, man. This team, what are we doing?

What are we doing? What are we doing? Are we just going to watch this stuff over and over and over again? Well, how many coaches and GMs have they had since 2011? How many people have tried to fix this? And what's the one constant in the last 14 years? The order. Thin.

Oh, right. the owner. The owner. And, you know, GMs have come, coaches have come, players have come and gone, the presidents have come and gone, but the one constant is ownership. You know, I don't know, like, so a brand new, and I heard you talking earlier this week about, you know, management changes in the possibility. So as a new coach or, no, sorry, a new GM and a new president going to make a difference? You know, it's all right, and I'm just, the Canucks had a good culture under this ownership group. They did. They found a way do it and it started with uh frankly for me it starts with the sidines like that's what you need

you need these you need these guys and uh queen hues is a great defense man if he wants out see yeah like honestly like i i'll be devastated but if he doesn't want to be here you can't have your captain in a place where he's not happy um you know the they need to find they need to find the next siddeans like jim rutherford can go on and on about uh or people People can go on and on about Jim. Oh, he's this great GM. He's won three Stanley Cups. Yep, Sidney Crosby probably had something to do with it.

Rod Brindamore probably had something to do with it. You know, they had terrific character players that led the way, and they need to find those guys. And they're not going to find them looking for a 24-year-old, 23-year-old that some other team is willing to give up on. That's the biggest red flag. We'll give up this guy, you know? you know where you find some guys

in the draft? In the draft and you know Braden Coots that's exactly what you described they need is what Braden Coots is. Absolutely. But I don't want him to be poisoned by this dysfunction that we've had

in this Canucks team for the last few years. And you know who you know the other guy that came here and Trevor Lyndon, same thing. It was guys like that. Things changed when they, and Pat Quinn. And you have a leader that has character and does the right things and makes things happen

and isn't afraid to ship guys out that aren't on board with what the team is doing. Yeah, but they're signing these guys to six, seven years deals, Jason. That's not clicking into your head. It is clicking into my head, and my head is about to explode because that's frustrating to me. Yes Yes But at the time Did you have a problem with Conner Garland

Getting a six times six deal? I did with Besser Well okay Well Besser is different I mean Like you go back to July 1st Just wanted to stay in Vancouver I like Besser

But his willingness To accept that deal Because he just wanted to stay in Vancouver He had some buddies on his team They kind of disrespected him They kind of went Well we're going to try They're going to try, we're going to try and find someone better than you.

Oh, we couldn't do it. We couldn't find anyone. No one wants to sign with us. So, Barack, here's a contract for you, and he's happy to take it. Man, like that, come on. Well, and do you want to know why they're in the center mess? Is go back to that day, July 1st, Christian, no, Radic, or what's your name? Devorak, Devorak in Philly.

Yeah, at Devorak, they offered three times four. Devorak said, no, they turned around and spent 11. million on Besser and Cain. Like, so the center they wanted was Dvorak. They made a commitment and Dvorak said, no, I'm going to take one times five. I'm going to bet on myself. Guess who's having a good year?

Dvorak, he's probably going to re-up there in Philly. He played for Tockeet in Arizona. Right? So that guy said no. So these guys turn around and spent $11 million on Bessor and Cain and the center race position is still in flux. It's, I just

it's all their problems start up the middle of the ice. It's not good. It's not good. All right. I still hope you have a good weekend, buddy. Hi, Rick. Halford. Hey, buddy. Hey, buddy. Hey, Rick. Do you think they're

going to be able to get this stadium built for the White Caps? I hope so. I texted Halford last Sunday when he was in Miami. And by the way, Donnie and I had a chance to go to Miami. I said no, because the best seat in the house to watch games, I'm getting old is the couch. I just want my couch.

which I don't want to go. I sit on a plane to Miami. Anyways, I texted Hallford last Sunday and said, hey, a lot of positivity about the white caps in this stadium deal. Let's hope they get it done. Okay. Let's hope.

Let's hope. I want, there's three things, Alford, I want to know. How many seats? How many seats is the stadium? 25,000.

Who pays for it? Good question. What is the cost? Also good question. It better not be taxpayer money, you know, and helping some billionaires, and millionaires out.

20 years ago, these sports owners just wanted to buy land and build the stadium or the rink. Now, they want the casinos, the condos, the malls around the rink for additional revenue. And you can see why, right? Like, the whitecaps deal

with B.C. place is horrendous. I want to see if the B.C. lines are involved in this because their deal with B.C. place isn't a whole lot better than the whitecaps deal. And I don't think the Lions at BC Place makes a lot of sense anyways, but David Braley fought that lease for years.

But I want to see, like, what happens here next? The mayor of Vancouver was quite excited, wants this to happen. We all want it to happen. We don't want the White Caps to leave. It's a bad look on a city. We already had the Grizzlies leave town, right? And, you know, they left for a multitude of reasons. It wasn't an arena deal.

It wasn't an arena. They left for losing too much money, all that stuff. The attendance was low. It's not a good mark on a city when a team leaves. The Grizzlies leaving wasn't very good. We don't want the white caps to leave. And after the sensational year they had, Halford,

I think they expanded their season tickets. I think they expanded their amount of people that love soccer now because of this great run, right? And if you can do it on the P&E, and Brough, you're going to hate me for saying this, but a little Ricky used to, used to go over to the Empire and loved it there. It was beautiful, like, on a Sunday afternoon.

I never got to Empire. I'm kind of, I... Are you serious or joking? Well, I wasn't, I was when I was only five or six years old when BC Place opened. Right, right, right, right, okay. I just never went there, yeah. Watching a game at Empire on a Sunday, on a sunny day, or the Eskimos lines used to play Sunday afternoons, and just the North Shore Mountains and the sun, beautiful.

You won't find a better place in Vancouver. to put a new stadium. You just won't. But Halford, they got a long way to go. This isn't done. A lot of red tape. You're involving the provincial government, the city, the city, you know, these billionaire, millionaire owners, everybody wants a piece of the pie.

Everyone wants a piece of the pie, and there's a lot of people that just want the best deal. It feels like the Whitecaps just want someone to build them a stadium. Yeah. Sure. Why not? If you can do it. If you can do it.

But are they going to be able to, are they going to be willing to invest some money into the construction? They have to. They have to. Because if this comes out and it's taxpayer money, boy, oh boy, a lot of people, you know, the economy's not great. A lot of people are struggling and you're going to put taxpayer money into a stadium. I think that's going to cause an uproar, right? Well, Rick, it would have been fun to go to Miami with you. I'm sure you had a bunch of shirts to commemorate the occasion.

Oh, my God. Can't. I imagine Dollywell shirts in Florida, South Florida? Despite the fact we do you live here? you must live here. Look at you. You look like you there. Miami. Hey, Miami Vice. Friday nights, 10 o'clock, pubs and Crockett. Are you kidding me? While it would have been nice to go with you, it's always good to get to talk to you here on a Friday. This is a close second place. Hey, Holford, listen to me. Don Johnson and Miami Vice. Holy smokes. Holy smokes. That was a good show.

Okay, buddy, we're up against it for time. Thanks for doing this. I'm Don Johnson. You're Tubbs. Well, I'm Tubbs for obvious reasons. Later. See you, buddy. Rick Dollywall. All of that. I don't know what it was, was brought to you by Basan Motors. Don't know what the last 27 minutes were. I didn't want to yell on a Friday. I don't go into this weekend kind of chill and then

Dahl. You were yelling with loving. I had multiple text messages. It was on-air therapy. I still I still love this damn team. I do. Apathy, maybe a little bit at times, but I still want them to be successful. You're listening to

the best of Halford and Brough. Thank you.