Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 12/18/24

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

Halford & guest host Jamie Dodd look back at the previous day in sports, they talk the latest NHL trade rumours with Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli, plus they preview tonight's Canucks matchup at Utah with analyst 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. The news yesterday for a Vancouver Canucks team that did not practice and did travel to Utah is that they have called up a pair of forwards, Linus Carlsen and Phil DiGiuseppe from AHL Abbotsford, while also demoting defenseman Mark Friedman and goalie Arthur Silovs to the American Hockey League club, Jamie. Yeah, a little interesting to see a goalie and a defenseman go down. I mean, we expected Shelawes to go down, right, to Abbotsford

after Lankanen got healthy, got over the flu. Friedman had played a couple of games, though, but it's a goalie and a defenseman going one way, two forwards coming back the other way. And my immediate reaction was, this seems like bad news for Niels Hoeklander. Yeah, doesn't feel great. Team low in minutes against the Avs,

even though Talkett did give him a little bit of a shout-out in his brief post-game remarks after that one. But now with two forwards coming up, and I mean, we know how much Talkett loves him, some Phil DiGiuseppe. We'll see how they play this, but they have 14 forwards on the roster. I imagine they called these guys up for a reason,

at least one of them. It does not sound as though that this is the classic Vancouver Canucks cap-related move to accrue space under the ceiling, that these guys are actually going to travel with the team. They're going to take part in this two-game road swing that goes through

Utah tonight and then Vegas tomorrow and might very well get in the lap. There's a whole secondary story about the NHL's roster freeze, which is actually tomorrow night at midnight Eastern. And I'm sure that part of this has to do with the fact that they wanted to get guys called up and on the road because they have that awkward scenario where they're on the road and they have two games in a row before and after the roster freeze.

I won't bore you with any more of the details, but it does sound as though Linus Carlson and PDG could feature over the next couple of weeks. Well, yeah, and I mean, the roster freeze goes into effect, I think, tomorrow at midnight. And I don't think it comes out of effect until after Christmas, right? Yeah, it's the 27th. They've got four games in that span in relatively quick succession. So if part of the thinking here is, okay, let's set our roster before this roster freeze, again, we'll see if these guys get into the games.

I think Phil DiGiuseppe, pretty safe bet to get into a game here. Linus Carlson, I don't know. I was wondering. I mean, look, whenever you have to say who's coming out of the lineup, Nils Hoaglander, not a bad bet. Yeah, that's fair. Who's going to get demoted, right? Who's going to suffer?

But I was wondering if there's anyone else beyond that because they did call up the two forwards the other guy whose minutes are trending in the wrong direction and it's kind of awkward is dakota joshua oh you said the quiet part out loud now i it would seem a little harsh to go as far as taking him out of the lineup considering i think we're all we all understand why it's taking him some time to get up to speed. But the best way to predict who's coming out of the lineup is to look at the minutes, and his minutes are really low right now. So you never know, right?

Maybe there's a way to frame it of like, hey, this is part of the process, part of getting him back. We're just giving him a game off, whatever. But that was the other thing that occurred to me is, would Rick Talkett go as far as to scratch Dakota Joshua? Okay, I'm glad you brought it up. I thought about it last night, and you're right. On the surface, it's pretty cold-blooded.

Yeah. It's a guy that has fought back from a very serious medical situation and missed a good chunk of the regular season. So it's not just getting over the medical part of it. It's also getting back up to NHL speed. Now, some people will push back and say, well, he's had plenty of time to do that. And it is a business at the end of the day.

Here's the thing. And you pointed this out in your notes, and it's a very good point. They've already had five forwards come up and play between Abbotsford and Vancouver this season. So if you're looking at strictly in terms of production and minutes are earned and not just handed out, they have internal competition and two more forwards are about to be added to

that pile in D Giuseppe and Carlson and talk. It spoke about it a number of times this year that he loves the depth. He loves the guys are knocking on the door and trying to kick it down. And I think in the last couple of games, especially you've seen depth contributors to in particular. One was Max Sasson going from undrafted 24 year old rookie to top six forward. And the other one was Kiefer Sherwood going from like one point five million dollar a year depth forward signing in free agency to your most valuable forward in defeating Colorado on Monday night. So there's arguments to be made that doesn't matter who you are. If you're not pulling your weight right now, there is a guy kind of champing at the bit to get in the law. And I wonder if that was almost part of the rationale between

calling these two guys up. Right. Because as I mentioned, as you mentioned, they've already had five forwards play for both teams, Abbotsford and Vancouver. Sasson, who's on the Canucks roster already, but Ratu, Baines, Neal Zaman, remember him? He's like leading the Abbotsford Canucks in scoring. Oh, yeah, that guy. Neal Zaman and Lucker Mackey,

they're all with Abbotsford right now. They've all already played NHL games this year. You call two forwards up and none of them are those guys. And I wonder if almost part of it is a message to the bottom six guys on the Canucks of saying, like, hey, we got lots of depth down there. There are lots of options for us. We're interested in looking at these guys. If you're not pulling your weight, if you're not producing, there's no shortage of options

that we can look at to replace you in the lineup if we want to do that I think the other part of it is and Sasson as you said look he comes up he gets those two assists against Florida gets a chance in the top six gets his goal so there's been some bottom line but I do think they're waiting to see okay we've got this group of kind of fringe guys who are maybe a little too good for the AHL but credible NHL players but we're waiting for one of them to really step up and be more than that to step up and say no I'm a permanent NHL player I'm someone you have to keep in the lineup on a night-to-night basis Sasson has may become the closest to doing that but I think it remains to be seen if he can actually but again I think they're

just giving as many young players an opportunity to make that statement. And right now it could be Linus Carlson's. Phil DiGiuseppe's not young, but we know Rick Talkett likes him. But it could be Linus Carlson's chance to do it next. I mean, it is such a great and maybe we don't talk about it enough kind of thing that they've got these options available to them. Yes. to them. It was not long ago as I hearken back to my days as a very, very mediocre writer with The Athletic covering the Utah organization

in depth and looking at the lack of available options that they had to call up on a regular. Do you mean Utica? What did I say? Utah. Utica. That's going to be a problem. That's going to be a problem today. I thought it was going to be the McConnell thing. Half of it was trying to push Utah hockey for decades now. Utica, thank you. I got so excited when it finally happened.

I remember writing lengthy, lengthy think pieces on Zach McEwen being the sort of, the lone option that they had to go to when they would call up from Utica. Remember the hype for Zach McEwen's first NHL game? Those were dark times. I feel like I was the driving force behind a lot of that.

And then that was it. You did not have have and part of it had to do with the geography of it is that you just couldn't call guys up with regularity but i mean i'm not gonna lie when they called sasson up i knew that they were um fairly impressed with them in training camp and they thought that there might be a player there but i looked at it just in terms of the roadblocks that were between him and the NHL. And I was like, you know, it's a great story. I would love to see the guy make it. But they signed three forwards in free agency.

They've got guys that they called up in the playoffs that were ahead of them, including Carlson. I had DiGiuseppe ahead of him in the pecking order. And then Atu Ratu kicked the door down in training camp and made his case for it. And you almost forget about Arsh Deep Baines because he's sort of been lost in the shuffle now. And now that he's come up and done what he's done,

I think it kind of harkens back to what you just said. They're dangling the carrot in front of all these guys. Yes. Do something with it. Yeah. And if you want to look at that on an elevated level, that's the key for Sherwood's story, really, is it's we're going to give you an opportunity to do something here.

We are going to stand by that. It's not just going to be empty promises on July 1 or in training camp. If you show out, you're going to get a chance to play with top guys, play in different situations. You know, I was on with Kip and Bourne yesterday, and one of the things that they kept bringing up was like, Kiefer Shilwood didn't just score a hat trick. It wasn't just a natural hat trick.

He did it in very different fashions. There was a net front goal. There was a shorthanded goal. There was an empty net goal, which suggests that the coach is like, hey, you're an all situations guy for me. You know, that's what this organization is pushing, and it trickles down to all these guys that are coming up and down from Abbotsford.

That was Kiefer Sherwood's first shorthanded goal of his career, right? Because they've given him the opportunity to show that he can kill penalties. I think you're right, right? Just the idea of dangling that carrot saying, look, there's a spot. There's opportunity available here. Who's going to step up and grab it? And just the other note from the roster machinations yesterday freed mark friedman going down so they have seven healthy defensemen on the roster right now assuming derrick forboard is over the flu and good to go

would seem to suggest that vincent deharney is out of the doghouse for now good for we'll see i guess part of that could also be it's it's a lot harder to trade a guy if he's stuck in the press box, maybe slightly easier if he's in the lineup at least. I do wonder if the, and let's just call it what it is, the leaking of the Deharnais. I don't even know how to describe it. I would say like trade rumblings, but I'm not sure there's rumblings. No one's actually enticed to trade for the player.

At that point, you're just throwing it out there. But I do wonder if that was to light a fire under the player or via the player's agent because, let's be real, there weren't exactly 31 NHL teams lined up to acquire him. Yeah, I think they'd love to trade him, though. I think they would like to trade him. I also think that they realized that some of these guys needed a kick and DeJarne's played okay.

He was fine against colorado i also think that this management group uh is coming to the realization that a trade to find a blue liner is going to be a lot more difficult maybe in past seasons or at the very least in this current climate because there's just not a lot happening right now and two defensemen that you might have been in on in truba and fowler well those deals are off the table now because they've already been moved and i don't know and marcus petterson's on ir now in pittsburgh as well so there's three guys that really aren't available in the moment so can you patchwork this thing together it's a good question because i think that's what rick talking is going to be tasked

to do but he's gonna have to do yeah uh to do. Yeah. Okay, tonight's opponent, the Hockey Club of Utah. Not Utica. Those are two totally separate places. The Hockey Club currently sitting fifth in the Central Division, but just a handful of points out of a playoff spot. They've won two straight. They are 4-0-1 in their last five, including a 4-3 win over San Jose on Saturday night in their last game how much attention Jamie

Dodd have you paid to this Utah club not a lot I mean I watched the first game there as I think a lot of people did just to see you know the setup and the fans and all of that I've been kind of monitoring the situation I know they've got a lot of interesting young talent they've been pretty good this year their goaltending hasaltending has really shown out for them. Sergeyev is playing a ton of minutes. So I think if you look at the standings in the Western Conference right now, they're the team to be most concerned about chasing the Canucks. Yep.

More so than Calgary. And Calgary's been plucky, and they're getting good goaltending as well. That's great. But I think Utah has more of a case to go on a legitimate push in the second half of the year. And it's less so because they beat Colorado on Monday, but a bit of a big game for the Canucks, right? If you want to.

Your classic four-pointer. Yeah, your classic four-pointer here on December 18th against the Utah Hockey Club, as we're all used to. But if you want to give yourself a little bit of breathing room going in to the Christmas break, it would help a lot if you get a regulation win against the, I almost call them the Utah Jazz, against Utah. That's fine.

You know what? Just whatever. The Utica Jazz. They're one of my favorites. Do you buy them as a legit playoff contender? Because if you look at the picture in the West right now, you can almost have a bar between the four teams that are vying for that last playoff spot.

Yeah. I think it's Calgary, Seattle, Utah, and St. Louis. I want to say. Yeah.

And then there's a drop off after those. And even in that group of four, it feels like you're kind of talking yourself into some of them. Yeah. Bruff and I did this conversation yesterday and we both sort of, and you can agree or disagree, but it was like you're kind of talking yourself into some of them yeah bruff and i did this conversation yesterday and we both sort of and you can agree or disagree but it was like utah almost by default because they've got games in hand they're playing better as of late and they they have more young offensive talent than a lot of those yeah i think that's the key i i buy them as a playoff caliber team i don't know if that means they're going to actually make the playoffs

this year i just think it's going to be really tough to crack it in the West, right? With Minnesota going from outside to a no doubt it like top of the conference team, Minnesota and Nashville flip. Yeah, yeah. But Minnesota, that makes it difficult for any of the other like would be contenders to jump up.

I mean, Colorado's not in a playoff spot right now. I expect them to be fine with McKinnon and McCarr. So maybe it would be the Canucks that Utah would be looking at. But I could see them missing with like 96 points or something. You know, that is just shy of the bar. But it would get you in in plenty of other years. That wouldn't shock me at all with Utah.

So if you're getting up to speed on the Utah Hockey Club, they are paced by a big four forward group led by Dylan Gunther, who you'll remember as the pick from the Connor Garland trade and the other part of it. We're calling it the Connor Garland trade now? Yeah, we are. I'm rebranding it. I've completely erased OEL.

Those three letters don't exist in my alphabet anymore. So Dylan Gunther, who leads the team in scoring, Clayton Keller, who's shortly behind him, Logan Cooley and Nick Schmaltz, that's where the majority of the offense comes from. The story on their blue line is that they suffered a couple big injuries early in the season, including one to Sean Dursey that's basically knocked them out for months.

So they've leaned heavy, heavy on Mikhail Sergeyev, who plays Quinn Hughes-like minutes for this team. He's basically at 25 and a half minutes a night, and he's a very for this team. He's basically at 25 and a half minutes a night. And he's a very good defenseman. He showed his offensive prowess as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning and is doing it again right now. The other really big story for this team,

and Laddie, we talked about this yesterday, was that Connor Ingram came into the season as the sort of unquestioned number one goalie. And you floated it out there yesterday. He was kind of getting some love as a potential Team Canada member. That all went pear-shaped for him. He was not good in the early stage of the season, got hurt, and now it's our boy, Carell, don't call me Veg Melka,

Ve Melka, who's taken over with a 9-15 save percentage, and I think he looks to be the starter tonight as well. Do you know the outlook on Ingram at all? Because I know there's a combination of poor play and injury that's cost him the number one job. Yeah, I don't think he's going anywhere anytime soon. They're probably going to give him more opportunities, but it hasn't been good.

Statistically, he's been one of the worst goaltenders in the league. And Vemelka on the other side has been one of the top goaltenders in the league. And then the players they've called up, Stauber got a shutout. Jackson Stauber. Jackson Stauber. And then the players they've called up, Stauber, got a shutout. Jackson Stauber. Jackson Stauber. And then the goalie who's been carrying the load for their AHL team while Stauber was called up at the two-game shutout streak. So I feel like they're pretty well set with goaltending.

And Ingram's got some challenges with the other goaltenders in the system there. So it's funny, you called them the Utah Jazz earlier. So they share a building with the Jazz. It's a basketball city, first and foremost. And we were talking to Ray yesterday because Ray worked the opener. And he said there's this weird sort of dynamic at play because you forget that the team

and the sport are new in Utah. There's a lot of people getting up to speed with all of it. I saw there was a tweet that kind of went like semi-viral yesterday. Someone grabbed it from the Utah Hockey Club's Facebook page where someone was outraged at the fighting. tweet that kind of went like semi-viral yesterday uh someone grabbed it from the utah hockey club's facebook page where someone was outraged at the fighting they just couldn't believe that they would resort to such violence on the ice and they weren't sure they wanted to go back to another

game so that's kind of the dynamic that you're working with that team though is not a new team no but it doesn't feel like it a little bit like we're all like wow this this expansion team's pretty good it's like wait no these guys have all been in the league yeah but we just like the story was always this team is a joke these players could never succeed in arizona so you could like intellectually be like yeah well like clayton keller's good but it wouldn't you knew it was never going to matter in any way shape or form and now all of a sudden they it feels like a completely new group of players even though it's not because it had had Seattle and Vegas vibes going into it. But it's been so dramatically different.

Part of it, I think, is that the national media never really caught on beyond the first game at home. Yes. As they did, like Vegas became a story right out of the chute. You'll remember it was unique. It was Vegas, which was a big part of it. And they won and had success straight away. Seattle was a little different in part because I think COVID really wreaked havoc with their launch.

Seattle also felt like the NHL media trying to recapture the Vegas experience. They're like, it's going to be just like that. And it's like, nope, actually, it's going to be more like other expansions where the team kind of sucks. Right. And that's a very good point, is you were always in the shadow of Vegas. And as much as the NHL tried to push you out of it, you were always in Vegas's shadow. The Utah thing is just,

it's different. I don't really, that's why I wanted to talk to Matt McConnell coming up at seven 30 on the show today, play by play voice. Cause he actually moved with the team from Arizona to Utah. So who better to kind of do the juxtaposition between markets and get an idea of what it's like having this existing

team go into a new city. And that's honestly what I'm most curious about. I want to talk to him about the team as well, but just like what do people in Utah think of hockey? How's it going? Don't even ask him about the team. What's Utah like? What are your favorite things to do there? Sounds like it's pretty nice. How's the weather? A lot of land. Ryan Smith's building and buying everything.

Great national parks? Yes. Crown jewel of Utah. Don't you guys want to everything. Great national parks. Yes. A crown jewel of Utah. Don't you guys want to ask about the hockey team? Nope. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. To the phone lines we go. Frank Cerevelli, a presentation of Angry Otter

Liquor, joins us now on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Frank. How are you? Morning, boys. I'm good. How are you guys? We're well. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So the Buffalo Sabres, let's start right there. It's a 6-1 loss in Montreal.

Yeah, I saw the same reaction from every guest we have. The day after the owner flies to Montreal to meet with the team to tell them that the answer is in this room, Buffalo goes out and says it is certainly not in this room. A 6-1 loss in Montreal. Jamie and I just had the conversation prior to having you on about how bad things might get in Buffalo and what they might be willing to entertain

in terms of trying to solve this, be it someone getting fired, or I guess more interestingly, someone getting traded. How do you see this going if it keeps going in the direction that it is in Buffalo? Yeah, I got to tell you, when I was reporting on this meeting on Monday

and team sources were relaying this information about the meeting and the tone and what was said, I was typing out the tweet and I was like, for the first time in my career, I feel like I write for the onion. What do you mean the answers are in this room? And I'm not downplaying or knocking anyone on the sabers, but 10 losses in a row in a pressure-packed season, which everyone knows needs to be different, something has to change.

And I think last night was such an exclamation point on it. It's not that you're, you know, you're going up against the last place team in the Eastern Conference and you're just ahead of them in 15th place. You know, to come out and lay an egg like that and to do it in the fashion that they did so decisively and so early, quick in the game, I mean, I was floored falling from afar. So from a trade perspective, I think everything has to be on the table,

regardless of whatever Terry Pagula said on Monday that he told the players to not expect a big trade. And I'm not saying that it's going to happen before Thursday's trade freeze kicks in. But if Kevin Adams is spending the holiday break and he's still employed, I would say the big thing that they have to figure out is why do we continue to fall into this rut with a team that can't defend properly and how do we make changes to this roster and get past the idea that we just love our own players because terry pagula said it he told the players that he believes kevin adams has built a good team and i think on paper there's lots of things to point to to say why that might be the case but the fact of the matter is the sum of the parts is just it's just not working and they've got to

find a way to I guess fall out of love with some of the guys that they have or at least recognize the value that they might have to bring in some other players to do it differently. Who do you think would be most likely from the roster to be on the move? As you said, maybe part of the process is they need to fall out of love with some of the guys they've really committed long-term to. There's a lot of them. They also have a young player in Bowen Byram, who's an RFA after the season is there a logical candidate that you look at and say okay if they want to shake things up if they want to change the roster that's the guy they could explore trading I think they have to look squarely at their back end because I look

at that group and I say again on paper power Darlene Pamuelson supposed to be the shutdown guy. Then Byram that you mentioned pending RFA, like they should have a top two or three defense core in the Eastern conference to build around. And yet when you watch their games, it's the same mistakes over and over again for a team that looks like it's playing summer hockey. And I think you've got to find a way to take one of those four defensemen and change them out for someone else. And the Byram deal was so interesting because obviously you gave up a good piece in Casey Middlestad. It's going to have to be a trade that's a lot along those lines,

where you're giving up something that you really like and you're getting something back that you like as well. And that's the type of deal that they're going to have to look at here. I think seeing some of those mistakes and maybe even considering one of Darlene or Power, as drastic as that might sound, there's dots here that aren't being connected. We're speaking to Frank Cervalli from Daily Faceoff

here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What does the defenseman market in terms of trade look like right now? Because Fowler's been moved, Truba's been moved. I mentioned Marcus Patterson just got placed on IR, and he was the guy who had his name out there as well. I know the trade roster freeze is happening in short order, so we might not see anything for the next little bit, but how is that trade defenseman market shaping up?

Well, yeah, you just mentioned three of the eight guys that were on my trade target board. That tells you that it's it's thinning in a hurry um that said i do need to share that the canucks are one team that i have my eye on between now and the trade freeze on thursday night at midnight eastern um i i do think that they've been pretty active here in the last few days, trying to go after a defenseman to fulfill some of the needs that we've talked about all season long, that efficient puck mover.

I haven't been able to put my finger on exactly what they're looking at or who they're talking to. I know everyone wants to immediately draw the line to Buffalo and mention Bo and Byram, but when I look at the league, I think there's way more pieces on the chessboard than just Buffalo. As it pertains to the Canucks, I'm assuming that your antenna might have been raised over the weekend when Jim Rutherford went on national television and said that the team might have been

a couple players away from being a true contender? No, actually, I heard some increased chatter yesterday and Monday about the Canucks involved in conversation. Anything else? Come on, Frank, give us something here anything else potentially i'm sharing as much as i as i possibly know like i'm i'm metaphorically emptying the notebook for you if i if i can pinpoint the team i would tell you uh i haven't been successful in doing those thus far so i've been i've been working behind the scenes and i was hoping you know i made a couple calls this morning i was hoping to even get you some additional intel um but i just haven't gotten there yet. It's a process of elimination.

That's life of an insider. You throw a bunch of teams on the board that might be possibilities, and then you call and try and figure if you can narrow it down. And we appreciate the hard work on our behalf, Frank. My question, the question that came to mind for me hearing you say that is, we've heard so many different things that the Canucks might be interested in doing right anywhere from, I mean, you know, Elliot Friedman throws out the big Patterson idea right to Buffalo. But from there down to, you know, trying to find a taker for Vincent Deharnais and obviously puck moving defenseman is in the mix there. There's been reports that they're looking for maybe some wing help as well.

Do you have any sense of like the magnitude of the type of deal they might be working on this week? Is it as simple as, hey, we're trying to get Vincent Desharnais a new home and free up some cap space? Or could it be something more substantial? No, I'm told it's something more substantial that they're working on. That they're looking for that top four defenseman addition that they're trying to make. And I'm not saying it's going to happen by Thursday, by any stretch of the imagination,

just that talks had picked up on that front. There's some sense that they might have gotten closer. And it's, you know, all those other other things are nice sort of ancillary moves on the chessboard that are nice to have but not need to have and I think even going back to the end of training camp and the start of this season that has been by far the number one you know thing on everyone's wish list in vancouver's front office and coaching staff has been get a top four edition if we can that's a that's more efficient moving the puck we're speaking to frank ceravelli from daily face off here on the halford and breath show on sports

net 6 6 50 okay let's look at some of these teams around the nhl that might be in the business of making a move majority of the ones that are struggling, of course, the New York Rangers last night lose in Nashville to nothing to the Preds. Nothing is going right for the reigning president's trophy winner. I will remind you that's where the New York Rangers were last year. They lost the team that had the fewest points in the NHL. It's our third straight loss. There's a lot going on in New York. Not a lot of it. Good. What do you have on the Rangers, Frank? Yeah, I think the Rangers are not all

that different than the Sabres, although in a different spot in the standings in that they're willing to consider a lot of different things. And also, unlike the Sabres, where I'm told a number of teams have presented formal offers to Kevin Adams and just haven't been able to get engagement coming back the other way, that Chris Drury is way more willing to engage in conversation to, you know, to try and figure something out. And I think there will, like, they're all over the map in terms of what they're looking at. What happens next with Ryan Lindgren, for instance? And should the Rangers consider, although they'd be selling low, what happens with Keiondre Miller on their back end? And

go through the list of players up front. Capo Caco probably, at least with his coach, put a target on his back with his comments yesterday. So there's a whole host of things that New York is looking at that I think the biggest question for me watching that team is, you can make moves this season, and not to suggest at all that they'd be punting on it, but how many moves can New York make that actually improve their team in the here and now? And I think that's the tougher part of the equation to put together if you're Chris Drury.

Well, yeah, when they made the Trouba deal, I mean, that freed up such a big amount of cap space for them. And obviously for next year, a lot of that ends up being committed to Shusterkin in net. But for this, it's just strange to see a team with the aspirations like the Rangers not replace that cap hit for this season to try to be competitive. But having said that, I mean, they've continued to spiral

since making that deal. So I wonder if at this point almost, do you want to kind of commit the assets to go out and bring in a big money player for this season if you're not even sure you're going to have a real shot at the playoffs right now well that's the question that they're asking themselves the problem is they have an owner in Jim Dolan who won't accept otherwise so I think it's very likely that they do go out and pull the trigger at some point in time um to to significantly try and improve that team and change um what this the

complexion of this season looks like and and not only that but i still think that there probably is plenty of time with a hard reset and i think the holidays will probably come at a good time for them, given how they've been scuffling. Like, this is a team that was 12-7-1 and firmly in a playoff spot before Chris Drury sent out that memo that now has sent them in a spiral. So it feels like a lot of the issues that have plagued New York reside squarely between their ears. And it also coincides with a period in time in which they've gotten their

worst goaltending in years, which, yes, there have been egregious turnovers and mistakes made, and certainly lack of effort and attention to detail. But at the same time, the goaltending had previously covered up a lot of those issues. And Shisterkin and Jonathan Quick have saved percentages in the 800s since Chris Drury set out the memo. I want to turn our attention to a positive story or one of the better stories in the National Hockey League, a very good team, the Washington Capitals, who lost the services of

Alex Ovechkin, but are still playing remarkably well. They've got a 7-10 points percentage, which is one of the best in the Eastern Conference. And I know that you had a conversation with Dylan Strom the other day who's having a tremendous season. He's on pace for 30 goals and 100 points this season. And it's a guy that it took him a little bit longer than some of the other draft mates of his to find his footing and to become this quality of a player in the National Hockey League.

What were some of your takeaways in speaking with Strom? Well, I think the most interesting part to consider with Strom is everyone is looking for some kind of secret sauce here. Like, what's the ingredient that turned this guy into a, the last couple years at least, a consistent 65-plus point player, and then now this year, this breakout breakout year that has him on pace for 103 points uh i think the amazing part about it is the answer is nothing's changed he's by and large the same player that he was three years ago that has been given more opportunity and has an organization that believes in him. And he's maintained confidence and, you know,

self-belief that he can be that player that was picked number three overall in 2015. I mean, there's a guy that in the OHL playing for Erie outscored Connor McDavid. So obviously a really talented individual that has put it all together in one spot. And it's also a lesson, I think, for the rest of the league in that three years ago, he was a healthy scratch on opening night in Chicago and seven of the first 11 games of the season. I was at the Caps game last night in Chicago, by the way,

awful blown third period lead as the Hawks scored three goals on four shots in the third. But it's a reminder that 30 teams in this league passed on Dylan Strom. They didn't issue him a qualifying offer in Chicago. And he mentioned in the pod with me that he got one offer from one team and it was a one-year deal in Washington. So it wasn't just the Hawks and what they didn't see in his play. It was everyone else too. And sometimes, you know, even at 24 years old,

he's now 27, you know even at 24 years old he's now 27 you know these things sometimes a change of scenery is needed sometimes that opportunity is needed frank one team that's interesting to me as we start to look ahead to the trade deadline is the the kraken in seattle and they get shut out at home by ottawa night. You know, they're still well outside the playoff picture in the Western Conference, below 500 points percentage. They just can't seem to find any traction in that market. And, you know, you look at their roster, they've got a bunch of UFAs, Yanni Gord, Brandon Tanev,

Will Borgen that I think teams would be interested in. They've also got a couple of players, you know, like Bjorkstrand and Schwartz who have one additional year left that I think would be interested in. They've also got a couple of players, you know, like Bjorkstrand and Schwartz who have one additional year left that I think would be really interesting. But I also know, you know, they spent big in the offseason. They're still a new franchise. They're desperate to kind of recapture the imagination of sports fans in that city. What do you see them doing? Do you have a handle on kind of what their approach might be for the rest of the season and leading into the deadline? Yeah, and Jamie, time rest of the season and leading into the deadline. Yeah, and Jamie, time is of the essence too because it's only really a matter of time, I think,

until the NBA comes back to Seattle. So all of a sudden you're going to be in a dogfight for disposable income in the winter months in what was previously an NBA market. So I think they fully recognize the timeline and need to get moving. But I think that team is stuck in no man's land. And the reason for that is they don't have any stars.

That's hugely problematic in pro sports and not from a marketing perspective, but also just from a marketing perspective, but also just from a compete perspective. They've got a bunch of really good players. They're all good players, but no one truly exceptional, truly elite. And unfortunately for them, I don't see that in their draft pipeline either, their prospects. So they've got've got i think some not so difficult decisions to make and they've gotten a ton of calls already on yanni gourd brandon tanev both those guys were on my uh my trade targets board that i think seattle they they need a shot in the

arm like they've got to make a big move because I think what we've seen from Ron Francis in his tenure as GM in Seattle is really not all that different than what we saw from him in Carolina, which is a competitive team, not one of the worst teams, but nowhere near close to being in contention and scrapping and clawing just to be a playoff team. Frank, this was great as always, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. We really appreciate it.

Enjoy all the games tonight and we'll all be keeping a close eye on everything that happens or doesn't happen as we get closer to the roster freeze. Sounds good. Have a great Christmas guys. You too. Thanks. That's Frank Saravalli from Daily Faceoff here on the Halford and Brough

Show featuring Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650. Friendly reminder to all you kids in journalism school out there, when you're at the end of an interview and you don't know what else to ask, just do what I do and say, come on. You got anything else for us? I'll be your friend. Give us something more.

Give us some red meat here, Frank. Come on. You don't even have to try and frame a question very well. Just be like, come on. You don't even have to try and frame a question very well. Come on. You got to have something else. He's trying his best out there. And actually, the process that he is undergoing is painstaking. They do actually teach you in journalism school, not for like an on-air interview, but if you're more of an informational interview for print or whatever,

to say at the end, like, is there anything else you want to say about this? Yeah, just put it out there. So there you go. We opened the floor, as it was. But yeah, it's interesting because the roster freeze for the holidays, it's midnight Eastern on December 19th. I believe I've got that correct. I can double check.

And then it stretches to the 27th. So if you want to get a move in, you got to do it fast. We got a lot more to get to on the program. I got to do some, I got to tend to some business here because we have like, know what we learned whatsoever in the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. So please. Rough not here. Everyone's just checked out.

Yeah, I know. Like step up. Somebody asked me if I could interrupt Halford and monologue for three minutes. You got to argue with the texters too. To kind of fill the void a little bit. Well, somebody come at me in the text box. I'll argue with you. You got to argue with the texters too. To kind of fill the void a little bit. Well, somebody come at me in the text box. I'll argue with you. One guy was like, this is way too cordial.

It's freaking me out right now. You have to intermittently interrupt me while I'm talking and then also not pay attention to me when I'm talking and have a one-on-one argument with a listener in the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. We have a very similar co-host. This is what I'm learning. That sounds like the Thomas Trance experience right there. Hold on, hold on. I'm talking to someone. It's not you. This guy

just texted in this. I was like, alright, that's great. It's Ran Deep. Ran Deep Janda time. It's Ran Deep Janda. It is Ran Deep. Ran Deep Janda. It is Randy. Randy Janda.

It is Randy. Talking hockey now. Oh. It's the oh that always gets me. It's the best part of the jingle. It makes the jingle. It does. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It the best part of the jingle. It makes the jingle. It does.

You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It is hour three of the program. This entire show, this whole big mess of a show, is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. I say mess lovingly.

It's a fun, entertaining mess. I like that you're blaming them for it. If you've got complaints, take it up with them. I'm merely here to read the commercial ads and get us to break on time. I don't even do that very well. We are an hour through the program. You have two jobs. You do one of them moderately and the other one not well at all.

Thank you, Andy. And that's been Alfred's performance review for the year. Have a good 2025. Okay. We are an hour three of the program, as mentioned. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at

campbell-pound.com today. Of course, we're coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet? What are you waiting for? Kintec, to the phone lines we go. Our next guest is a presentation of bells and

whistles. Your new favorite place to catch all the action, hockey, football, soccer, and more. 3296 Fraser Street. Randy Janda joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Randy. How are you? Good morning, gentlemen. I'm doing well. How are you? We are well.

We just spent about a half hour talking to Matt McConnell, the play-by-play voice of the Utah Hockey Club, setting up tonight's game between Utah and the visiting Vancouver Canucks. I asked this question of David Amber earlier in the show. I'll ask you as well. Do you have a handle on what Vancouver Canucks team we might actually see tonight in Utah? Will it be the good Canucks or will it be the bad Canucks?

Well, it's the road, so obviously they're going to be the good Canucks. Exactly. 10-2-1, right? So this is a team that delivers on the road. Listen, they do play differently on the road. They play a more, you know, there's more urgency in their game. There's more directness. Sometimes even a more simplified game north-south.

So based on the track record we've seen, I would expect them to play a good road game. Is that, you know, you used the word urgency there. I look at the Florida game and the Colorado game. Were they able to capture some of that urgency that they've shown on the road and finally bring it to Rogers Arena? Is that kind of the difference that stands out in those two games in contrast to, obviously, the Boston game in between them?

Yeah, I think in those two games, and specifically the Colorado game, guys you know better than anybody, there was a lot of noise in the city, there was a lot of conversation going on, and it felt like Rick Tockett had reached a point where he needed his guys to show up and bring that urgency. And for whatever reason, you know, on home ice we hadn't seen it. But in those two games, against the opposition that they were playing, two of what, they won the Cup two of the last three years,

they were able to bring that effort. And it's interesting, when you're in the room, when you're talking to the guys, the opposition, anytime you bring up the opposition, if it's a good player or a good team, every single player will say, it's not really about the team we're we're playing it's about us it's about you know making sure we play our game but without a doubt i think those teams did bring

something out of the vancouver canucks and that urgency a of hey we got to do better because on home ice we haven't been good enough but also i think that challenge from colorado and florida is something that they looked internally and say hey hey, we can't do this again. We can't have a Boston or New Jersey game. So that urgency and that good start and really setting the tone throughout the lineup, it wasn't one line doing it. It was all four of them. They needed a team effort and they brought it into those games.

The Boston one, we can kind of ignore that because it wasn't there. But absolutely, I think the urgency was something that they needed. one we can um you know you can kind of ignore that because it wasn't there but absolutely i think the urgency was something that they needed like you need to get started on time something they haven't been able to do consistently this year at home yeah and it's a good point about playing up to their opponents that would be a welcome change right because i mean we've seen earlier in the season games against good teams right edmonton new jersey carolina the performance just wasn't there. So, I mean, hey, sometimes it can be frustrating

when you play to the level of your opponent, but if they could start raising their urgency level to match the quality of opponent, that would go a long way, I think. Yesterday, just a little bit of news around the team. They send Friedman and Shelovs back down to Abbotsford. Phil DiGiuseppe and Linus Carlson come up the other way. So a couple of new forwards in the mix that we saw last year

haven't yet seen for the Canucks this year. And my first thought was this could spell trouble for Nils Hoaglander staying in the lineup. Do you think that's a fair guess on my part? Is there a chance he comes out for one of Carlson or DiGiuseppe tonight? I think it is a fair guess. Seven minutes and 50 seconds of ice time against Colorado. He's got no points in the last 20 games, guys.

So this is a player that, sure, he might be playing in the bottom six, but you chip in with points, you chip in with consistent effort. I'm not questioning the effort with Niels Hoaglander. I think it's the trust thing with him where, you know, are you able to influence the game? Are you able to make in a positive way? Are you able to bring your style of play? And the struggle with Niels Hoaglander has been it's just the inconsistency.

Some games or some shifts you have it where he brings that tenacity. He brings that ferocious forecheck. The wall valves are being won. In other moments, you're questioning a play, whether he's kind of diving in too deep, whether, you know, potentially, you know, giving the puck away in a bad circumstance. Earlier this year, we saw some penalties as well. So when I look at both of the players that they've called up,

Linus Carlsen and Phil DiGiuseppe, two players that Rick Tockett loves. You know, first of all, they've got the size, which is important to this coach. They are players that are tough to knock off the puck. They play a style that he really likes. And with Phil DiGiuseppe, he's mentioned a couple of times this year

when DiGiuseppe was injured that, you know, Phil being in the AHL and when he gets healthy, he's an option. So this has been kind of a long time coming. I think with Phil DiGiuseppe, this is a plug-and-play type of player. That's what he's been his entire career. So if I'm Nils Hoaglander, no doubt, I think this is definitely you're on watch right now.

I mentioned the lack of point production, but that ice time when you're hovering less than eight minutes and you've got a veteran player like Phil DiGiuseppe being called up, very much on watch. Vincent Desjardins, the game against Colorado, relatively good one. One of his better games than the Canucks uniform, I thought. Did you see enough or have you seen enough recently to have a little bit more optimism around the players?

Is this jury still very much out on Desjardins? I thought it was a great game. He was doing a good job of getting in the lanes, guys. That's one of the areas, I think one of the frustrations with Vincent Desjardins this season has been, you understand there's going to be problems moving the puck. That was something that was the MO coming out of

Edmonton. When we talk about his game being a work in progress, that's what you often think of. But he hasn't been as physical as I thought he'd be this year. And that's been one of the areas where you're saying, okay, you need to see a little bit more there. You need to use that 6'7 frame to break the cycle, to be separating man from puck a little bit better, winning battles.

In that game against Colorado, we saw a little bit about that. We saw him be a cycle breaker in the defensive zone. We saw him also stand up guys at the blue line. I mentioned getting his stick in the lane and breaking up passes. He did that. So if he can bring that,

he can bring that consistency, this is going to be a situation where he's going to get more looks. He's going to get ice time. But is he there yet? No, I wouldn't say so. I think that was a solid game by him. That's why Adam Foote and Rick Talkett gave him more ice time. But he's got to string games together like that.

He's had a good game here with Eric Brandstrom in the past as well. But we've seen a couple of games later he was scratched after having a dud of a game. So for me, I think with Vincent Deharney, he's showing you what he can do well. but we've seen a couple of games later he was scratched after having a dud of a game so it's for me i think with vincent day harney he's showing you what he can do well he's just got to do it game after game after game and that's the challenge that's the you know being called the ultimate pro and a everyday defenseman in this league is tough day harney's in that spot right now he's got to show something you know the other forward that came to mind for me ran deep when i saw the two call-ups yesterday he was you know second lowest ice time against colorado it's dakota joshua and i

understand this is a a bit of an awkward one to talk about right i think everyone understands there's very legitimate very understandable reasons uh why maybe it's taking him a little bit of time to to get back up to speed and have close to the same impact he did last year so you know the idea of him potentially coming out of the lineup, I don't think it would be like with Niels Hoaglander where it's almost a punishment of the player, right? But I do wonder as the going forward for the Canucks, you know, they made the investment in Joshua. He was such a big part of the team last year.

I wonder what the path forward to getting him back to that is, and could it include, you know, hey, we've got back-to-backs here, maybe day off, rest, chance to reset, something like that, for Dakota Joshua in the near future. Yeah, it is a tricky one because you want to give the player as much time and opportunity to get back up to speed, but at the same time, if you're not able to click on the ice you have to make a choice if you're the the coach here and 16 games played he's averaging about just shy of 13 minutes but guys the stat that really jumps out to me is four shots on goal right this is a guy in those 16 games

he just hasn't been able to generate or get close enough uh to to the middle of the ice and he's got that one goal that was scored in transition playing alongside Conor Garland. But I think the last game showed us that when he's playing away from Conor Garland, that impact isn't quite there. And even though, you know, when he is playing with Conor Garland, he's not able to hit that ceiling yet. So it is a tricky one.

It's one where you're just looking and saying, hey, you want to give him time to ramp up you want to give him time and and a chance to get up to speed but at the same time rick talk it needs to build out a bottom six that he can be comfortable with and if that means lenis carlson fieldy giuseppe are able to get to those spots a little quicker and phil giuseppe is an interesting one because if it's not a whole lender, are you able to swap him in for Dakota Joshua because he can make us a greater impact on the four-track? And that's really Dakota Joshua's bread and butter. Is he able to get home?

Is he able to, you know, make an impact? And if his timing is not there yet, if his conditioning is not there yet, I think you do have to consider it. I would give him a little bit more of a runway here, maybe a couple more games just to see if he can, you know, pick up the pace a little bit. Of course, you issue a challenge in the next couple of games. But I agree with you. I think, you know, for the good of the player, obviously, you want to give him time to ramp up, but he's just not getting home right now. And you do maybe have a couple of options that might be able to do that more effectively at

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