Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 12/19/25

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk a wild Seahawks OT win over the Rams yesterday, plus they get a Canucks update from Donnie & Dhali's Rick Dhaliwal ahead of tonight's road matchup at the Islanders. 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. Dan-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Darnel has time. Looks. It's caught. To-down. Make an extra point.

Make a conversion. I don't care what it is. The Seahawks win the game again on the last play in the game. What the fuck is going on? J.T. Miller, he shoots. He scores. Miller does it again. Ladies and Jen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver 6-1 on a Friday.

Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford and his Broughton. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming in live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adah, good morning to you. Good morning.

Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and breath of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We're coming to live from the Kintech Studio. Happy holidays from all the team at Kintech footwear and orthotics. We got a big show ahead on a

Friday. First off, it's our last show of 2025. Bruff and I will be on vacation. Actually, you'll be back for a couple of shows solo, right? I'm back after next week. For a couple with Josh. But this will be the last true

Halford and Bruff show with the four amigos running things. So we're going to have a fun day today. We've got a lot to get into on the program. We're going to begin with the Duick Morning Drive. That, of course, is our morning rundown. And our guest list for the day begins at 6.30. Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join us.

What better time than this morning to speak with Nick. After the game of the year lived up to the hype last night, what a good football game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams. Seahawks win 38, 37, and overtime. But there is so, so very much more to unpack from that game. Nick's going to join us at 6.30 to do exactly that. 7 o'clock, AJ from AJ's pizza is going to join us. A reminder.

One of our three contest slash giveaways today is the $100 gift card to AJ's pizza on East Broadway. It goes to the best ask us anything. Hashtag at AUA and put a pizza emoji into your text. Dunbar Limer text line is 650, 650 at 7.30. Our good buddy Arthur Staples is going to join the program. He, of course, from Daily Faceoff and Hockey Night in New York, Canucks Isles 4 o'clock

You can hear the call right here on SportsNet 650 Isles coming in hot Won six to their last eight Although their last game was a loss in Detroit Artie Arthur Staples Isle is going to join us at 730 To preview things from the Isles side 8 o'clock Rick Dollywall is going to join the program

Intrepid Canucks reporter For Donnie and Dolly on Check TV For this we as always Turn things over to our show's resident Dolly Wall administrator Dolly admin Jason Brough I think we're going to talk about the Canucks culture.

Nice. Yeah, yeah. Nice. Yeah, yeah. You get to ask all the culture-related questions. Yeah. I'm not going to do it. Okay.

All right. I saw it's been a conversation all week. I saw it was there. And then Brock Besser said, Quinn's happy in Minnesota. They've got a winning culture. I didn't help. Oh, yeah?

What do you guys have? So if he's gone to a winning culture that makes him happy. It was the way he said it too because he said, they have a winning culture. And he was sad before. Anyway, yeah, so we'll talk to Dolly Well about that at 8 o'clock. Okay, other giveaways today. It's 7.30.

We are giving away our fifth and final $250 gift card to Golf Town this week. Holidays are right around the corner, Golf Town, the perfect gifting destination for the golfer in your life. Caller number 5 at 730 a.m. 604, 280,000, 6.50. Remember that phone number because at 8 o'clock, we're giving away a pair of tickets to see the Vancouver Giants take on the Camloops Blazers Sunday. December 28th of the Langley Events Center again same number 604-280650 caller number 5 at 8 a.m.

We'll win the Giants tickets. So we get Giants tickets we got a $250 gift card to Golf Town and a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza on East Broadway. It's the true holiday season here at the Halford and Brough show. Without further ado, Laddie to tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can. What happened is that? You missed that? What happened? What 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. It was Sam Darnold connecting with Jackson Smith and Jigva for a touchdown in OT. Then Darnold hit a wide open Eric Sobert. Who's that for the two-point conversion? And out of nowhere, the Seattle Cesar. Seahawks rallied from a 16-point deficit in the fourth quarter to stun the Rams 38 to 37 on Thursday night football. Before we get into anything, I want to give a shout out to Steve Rable, who was the happiest man on the planet yesterday on the radio call for the Seahawks. Can we once again hear his call of the two-point conversion?

This is pure joy when you screw everything up, but it's okay because you're still happy. Here is Steve Rable on the call for the game-winning two-point conversion in overtime for the Seahawks. Three receivers to the right. Motion back inside is Barner. Darnel has time. Looks inside. It's caught. Touchdown.

Make an extra point. Make a conversion. I don't care what it is. The Seahawks win the game. Again, on the last play of the game. The Seahawks win. 38, 37. It's sobbing with a two-point conversion catch.

Holy cow. So you got to hear some of this because you didn't get to watch the whole game. Okay. First of all, before I go. get into my story here. Yep. I want to give a shout out to you. Me.

Because on our text chat, on our text chat, this came in at 732 p.m. And the Seahawks were down big. 30 to 14. At that point. Halford, there's going to be a crazy comeback here. Watch. And then me, no, there won't be. I was convinced.

I mean, it is. didn't take much convincing. The Seahawks were done. They were getting dominated by the Rams. So I actually had a hockey game last night, and it was about a 20-minute drive to the rink. So I get in my car when they're down two scores, and I listened to Steve Rable's call.

And when I got in, he was, like, depressed. He was doing that thing, he was doing that thing, and there's another play. Yeah, someone dropped it. And we're going to go to commercial. Yeah, yeah. He was depressed. By the time I got to the rink, the Seahawks had tied it.

And it was, I mean, he was hilarious the whole time. There was one play where the Seahawks made a gain, but there was a flag on the play, and they thought it might be coming back. But then it turned out the flag was on the Rams. And Rabel was like, yeah, baby! Like, you can tell he was getting back into the game. So anyway, get to the rink, and it goes to overtime. And I'm like, I got to go on the ice now.

I got to go on the ice. I played my game, as embarrassing as always. And then I get back, and I'm like, okay, come on, phone. Come on, come on, just give me this. I need this. And then I see that they had won 38, 37 in overtime. And it was one of the nicest surprises I've had coming off the ice in my life. And then you furiously texted Martin Ego and I.

You're like, tell me everything. And I was like, wait for tomorrow. Just wait for tomorrow. We'll do it on the show. Because there was so much to unpack from a game that with 11 minutes to go was 30 to 14 for the Rams. The Seahawks in franchise history have never had a fourth quarter comeback of 15 plus points. And they did it last night. And they did it as you said in maybe the most improbable fashion because nobody.

And I mean nobody. except for me, and I was doing it jokingly, thought that they were going to come back in that game. So I'll walk you through, I'll try and do this as fast as possible, but walk you through what happened. Goes 30 to 14, Rashid Shahid, who has been fantastic the last few weeks in the special teams game,

returns a 58-yard punt, or sorry, returns a punt 58 yards for a touchdown. By the way, on that play, right before he took the ball, Rabel was like, the Seahawks could use a good return from Rashid. Steve knows. Steve knows how football works. I don't think he was expecting that. He was like, we need to better feel a like field position here.

And then then all the way, all the way to the end zone. It was incredible. So now you're looking at it and you're like, they need to go touchdown two point, touchdown two points. So they're going to need a lot of things to go their way on a night where the offense wasn't doing very well. Well, answer the first one, punt return for a touchdown. Darnold then hooks up with Cooper Cup for a two point conversion. Okay. Things are kind of happening.

Then you kind of start to see the squeaky bums of the Los Angeles Rams come into effect. On the final five possessions in regulation, they had four punts and one misfield goal. They just could not close the deal after they got to 30. Which is insane given how dominant they were. I think that

they just got way too scared and way too conservative. Stafford was completing passes whenever he wanted, and then it felt like they're like, well, we're at the end of the game, we should play it safe and just start running the ball. And they couldn't get anything going on the ground. I was like, why don't they just keep throwing a puk and a coo? Like every time that he throws, they're getting a first down. Anyway,

Ball goes back to the Seahawks. They put together another drive, and it's a 26-yard touchdown pass from Sam Darnold to A.J. Barner, and it looked like he overthrew Barner at first. I'm like, oh, no, he's wide open and he's overthrown him, but good on Barner for hauling it in. Do we have the audio of this crazy two-point conversion? Can you see if you can pull that up?

If you can't, it's fine. I'll try and walk our way through it. For the two-point conversion, Darnold throws what looks to be a swing pass to Zach Charbonnet, and it's batted down at the line of scrimmage by a ram's defender. The ball sort of rolls into the end zone incomplete, and everyone's like, well, it was a good run, but they needed that two-point conversion.

It's going to be tough to get the ball back. We're already thinking about that. While all those conversations are going on, you start to notice, and the guys that are calling the game, Al Michaels and company, start to notice that they're taking a really long time getting the ball back for the kickoff. Yeah, what's going on here?

Like, what are we looking at here? And then it becomes obvious that they're looking at the Darnold swing pass as a potential lateral. So now you've got the NFL review guy, Terry McCauley, believe his name is, he's coming on camera trying to explain what's going on. And suddenly you start to realize that this thing is a lateral that was batted down, meaning it's a live football, meaning that Zach Charbonnet, who innocuously picked up the football, had actually scored a two-point conversion. I want to play. How long is the audio? The clip of the actual play, which is about 20 seconds, and then there's the clip of them overturning the call.

I want to let the guy calling the game in real time explain just how confusing it was, and the elation, when they realized that they got a two-point conversion out of nothing. Let's play the audio now. Walker's in the backfield. Darnold will go under center, three receivers to his left, including Barner and Cooper Cup. JSN far side, throw inside, and the ball is batted down.

Sam was trying to throw what would have been almost, a screen pass to Charbonnet to get in behind his blockers out in that trip set and the ball got slapped at the line of scrimmage and knocked down. Okay, so right there. That was actually what you just heard was a successful two-point conversion. Yeah, like he's like, let's

go kick it off, right? Like, it was done. It was done. The plate was done. And then all of a sudden, you're like, wait a minute, and then wait a minute, and then you get the confirmation of, let's hear the call. And if this ball is thrown backwards, and it

Kind of looks like it is, and it bounced off the defender, rolled into the end zone. Charbonnet had one foot in the end zone when he picked it up. That's enough. And that's all he needed for a clear recovery. And here comes. After reviewing the play, the quarterback threw a backward pass, which is recovered in the end zone by the offense in a successful conversion. I'm telling you what. Sometimes it just pays to live a good life.

And the Seahawks right now are living that good life. So now we're at 30 to 30. And, you know, teams exchange possessions in regulation. Nothing happens. So we go to overtime. Now at this stage of the game, I think the Seahawks, one objective on defense would be to not let Pooka and Akua do any more damage. Going into overtime, I believe he had 11 catches for 186 yards.

Yeah, put a man on that guy. Maybe put two. Yeah. Maybe put three. Somehow they missed the assignment and Pooka Kua scores a touchdown in overtime. But because of the new rules in the national football league, it's not a walkoff because that was the first possession of overtime. Seahawks get the ball back. And Sam Darnold, and I have no idea what to make of Sam Darnold at this stage of the game and at this stage of the season.

He can at times. He's an overcomer. But he's also an undercomer in the same game. I've never quite seen someone reach the lows and the highs to the degrees that he does in the same football game. Usually when someone's having a stinker, they're having a stinker. But his ability to turn it around, he deserves credit. There's a touchdown to Jackson Smith and Jigba to put them down by one point.

With three minutes left on the clock, the two-minute warning still there, and the Seahawks have a timeout. So you're thinking you could kick this off to the Rams as a tie. you could try and get the ball back and try and go for something. But they had to win this game, though. The tie did them no good in the tie breaker. So they're like, we're going for it.

And you want to talk about... Got the chance right now, let's do it. And you talk about theater and drama and everything else. It's Sam Darnold to a guy in Eric Sobert that I honestly had no idea was still on the team. That's what Al Michaels was like, it's probably Eric Soburt time right now. He had been on injured reserves since November 1st.

He caught two passes all season. And his third was maybe the biggest catch of his NFL career. Seahawks win 38 to 37. We'll put a bow on it for now because we're going to talk to Nick Shook. It was just a phenomenal football game. And very rarely, having done this sports thing for a long time, do the games match up to the hype? That exceeded the hype.

If you were to tell me the best game of the year had that much drama, and was that script, I'd be like, no, it's impossible. But it had it all. It was fantastic. I'm sorry you missed it. No, you know what? It was, I'm happy with the way it was. went down. I'm happy with the whole evening on how it went down because it's nice to get surprised

by a win sometimes. Oh, yeah. You know, pleasantly surprised by a win. When I went back into the dressing room and I was like, all right, I'm going to check my phone now. It was old school. Yeah. I was like, you know, like that is pretty cool. It was the game had ended like an hour and a half ago and I had no idea who had won the game and I kind of picked up my phone. I was like, come on, come on, come on. I was like fully prepared for the, oh, they lost. But they did not. It was nice to see that they won. By the way.

3837 too. Seahawks clinch a playoff spot with the win. They're now top spot in the NFC. So they go to Carolina. Where they will lose. 100%. Okay, let's get to the Kinnock stuff. Okay.

So the Kinnock's practice yesterday in Long Island. And they play the Islanders tonight. Only three games left before the Christmas break. And a lot of us were expected. to see Ilius Pedersen in the lineup tonight. He's already missed five games now, but apparently he's not going to play tonight, according to the head coach Adam Foote.

And the Canucks play tomorrow in Boston, and Foote suggested, and it's probably unlikely that he plays tomorrow in Boston. Pedersen hasn't played since December 5th. When the Canucks, remember that they played well, but lost 4-1 at home to Utah. Yep. They had a game the following day against

the Minnesota Wild who didn't have Quinn Hughes at the time but it was the following day and he left the warm up with what was reportedly an upper body injury now he was eventually placed on

IR where he still remains but it's an odd what's going on there we don't really know what the injury is other than an upper body injury but he's been skating

with the team and so we'll have to see what's going on there. Pedersen only played 64 games last season. I think you mentioned this. You're now at the point where you're like, this guy can't stay healthy. Yeah. There's no way around it.

So there was no Ratu in the line combinations either. And with the Kinnaks having won two games in a row with no PD and no Ratu and no Kwin-Ews, they're probably going to keep. the same group out there against the New York Islanders tonight. I want to play some audio.

Do we have a queued up, Lattie, where Adam Foote is, he was originally asked about Atu-Ratu. Okay. But then there's some, there's some odd stuff where Adam Foote says,

like if I tell you, tell you what's going to happen, you know, what my gut says. Anyway, listen, listen to this because it's kind of, it's kind of weird. Atu-ratu.

I've just got to ask about because it seems like there's this transitional phase he's entered he's obviously a young player he leads your team in five on five score and we know what he's done

in the draw how do you think about working with a player who's been a regular healthy scratch and sort of what's your message to him in terms of how he gets the kid

well yeah he's just he works hard I'm not worried about Rattie I'm worried about the part of that he's young and we got to keep his confidence and his work ethic and how he studies the game

he'll be fine yeah we're going to through a little bit right now where some guys are coming off injury and things like that and what he might even be in the mall we'll see like um um um i don't even want to tell you what my gut thinks about the next two days because it could change like so i don't want to set anyone up for that but i don't think it's fair to the players either but yeah we're we're keeping an eye on it for sure so ratu might actually be in today he doesn't want to what was that he doesn't want to

The best was he's like, I don't want to set anything up for the players. I'm like, he kind of just did. Yeah. Very cryptic, very cryptic to what his gut is telling about what might happen today and over the next few days. People have... I mean, could that mean a trade? Could it mean someone going down?

Well, you know what today is, right? Is this the roster freeze today? No, it's Friday. Oh, right. Canucks love making trades on Friday. I don't know if it's old school. It's like, hey, we got to hit happy hour. Let's get that trade in before 5 o'clock.

But they love making moves on Fridays. I wonder if they'll be making a move. move today. I don't know. Or maybe there's going to be someone moving to IR. Maybe someone's going to go on waivers this morning. I really don't know. I'm not exactly sure what the play. But that was weird. It was very weird. Yeah. Maybe it's nothing. But with all the things that Canucks have been through in the last little while, there's a few things that are weird. Like Ratu's not getting into the lineup. Well, I kind of understand that from the numbers perspective. Pedersen's injury is unusual. I don't know if I want to call it weird, but it's

unusual. I would suggest to Adam Foote that if you don't want to draw attention to something, you shouldn't send a bunch of cryptic remarks out to the media ahead of what might happen. You could just ignore it and not talk about it at all. He sends one of those Zodiac letters out to the paper.

What does this mean exactly? He's there cutting all the individual letters out of a newspaper? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what could possibly happen. But I mean, consider it where the team is at. They've got different injury situations and we've got real lack of clarity on what's going on with

Pedersen and why he can't return. You've got the looming specter of these trades pre-Quinn Hughes that were supposed to kind of be, if you're looking at it chronologically, Hughes, I don't think was supposed to be the first move. And now you've got these other ones that maybe have been

in the hopper. I think we got to write the first time, by the way, when they sent out that memo, they wanted to take care of business because they thought they would have to deal with the Quinn Hughes situation ahead of the trade deadline. Like it would take a while. And then and then I think what happened was they had the meeting with Quinn Hughes and his reps

and they're like we're not resigning and then Quinn had a couple bad body language games and they're like we've got to take care of this now you know what also also happened one of the clips that we played from Bill Guerin last week I think it was a spit and chickless one in that clip he said like my AGM told me he's like hey maybe we should call Vancouver

on Hughes because it seems like they're ready to move stuff right because he's like I got the memo they seem like they're ready to do some business should we call on Hughes and I don't know if this was, you know, Rutherford playing 12D chess and thinking that if I send out a letter about my UFAs, someone will call back and we can kickstart the Hughes thing. I don't think it went that way. I think the Canucks watched the same plays that we watched and watched how he was carrying himself and realized, listen, we're going to do this. So let's do it now. And then they got

that pretty good offer from the wild and they pulled the trigger. Thatcher Demko is going to make his fourth straight start tonight according to Adam Foote. What could go wrong? It makes it likely that Demko will start five of the Canucks final six games before the break because they go

the Islanders tonight, Boston, tomorrow they get Sunday off and then they play Philly on Monday and then it's the break. After Christmas, the Canucks return with another three games in four nights

set where you would think if Demko is still healthy at this point and still playing well, he's probably going to get two of the three of those too. I don't know what you do here because you're in a back to back. So he's going to have to play one of them. Maybe giving him a... The other thing, too, is they didn't play since Tuesday.

So they did have a little bit of time off between the Tuesday game and the Friday game. Yeah. That being said, it feels like a lot of action in a short period of time in a return from another injury in a guy that's routinely injured. Again, I don't think there's any other solution

as to you have to play them in one of the two games. Like, you're not going to call up Tolapilo to play one of these two. I mean, I guess you could. Your season's kind of sunk anyway. No, they're not going to do that. My concern is that they're going to be like, you know, the playoff bar is only eight points back.

Oh, my God. Let's see how many games we could get out of Demco. You have to keep him healthy. You have to keep him healthy. For the benefit of what Drans was talking about yesterday, I think, the possibility of at least exploring to trade him at one point. A bit of a weird schedule, by the way.

The Canucks, over the next couple of weeks, play Philadelphia twice, Boston twice, and Seattle twice. Speaking of Seattle, do you think anyone in Seattle actually noticed that the Cracken lost again last night? No.

And they got badly outplayed by Calgary. In Calgary? They got badly outplayed by Calgary. They had a 2-1 lead, and then the Flames dominated the third. But if you look at the shot clock, it was crazy shots for the flames and not many for the Cracken. That team is in trouble. That's a team that could need, they need to, need to orchestrate a big trade to shake things up. And I happen to know

a team that's willing to make moves right now. Just throwing it out there. Just throwing it out there. And it is a Friday. The Leafs are in trouble too, eh? Yeah. I know they got that comeback win over the Chicago Blackhawks today. Congratulations. You beat Connor Bedardless Chicago Blackhawks and Austin Matthews scored and he did that you know kidding the booing thing like the crowd was booing

him earlier. That's a wild thing to do at home by the way. Just to put your hand up to your ear and then be like yeah, boo me now, home fans. Can we play the Craig Brube audio real quick before we go to break? Because the Leafs lost 4-0 in Washington yesterday and apparently it was a pretty toothless effort from the Toronto Maple Leaf

Here's their head coach Craig Baroubae after the game. To me, they play with more passion than we did tonight. I mean, that's what it boils down to. It looked to me like they had way more urgency in their game, more passion in their game. That's the difference. How do you explain that, considering where you are at the scene? Pass those guys, not me.

So he's done there. We'll see what happens in the coming days, but that reminds me so much of his final days in St. Louis, where he was like, I don't know what you want me to tell you. You go talk to them instead of talking to me. But he's done that before. Is that not your job, Craig, to figure this out? Except when he's done.

Find a group that does get it done? It's almost the exact same thing that happened in St. Louis with Jordan Cryu and Robert Thomas. Is that he was like, you know what? I've tried and I've tried and it's not working. He hasn't been in Toronto for that long. He's just done with this group. I also think that team, the best before date was like a long time ago, right? Do you think Matthews is going to regret taking that short term?

He signed the five-year extension, right? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. It's been gone completely sideways for him, and I think a lot of it has to do with health. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Rick Dolly Wall. It's time for Rick Dolly Wall. It's time for Rick Dolly Wall.

It's time for Rick Dolly Wall. It's time for Rick Dolly Wall Rick Dolly Wall It's time for Dolly Rick Dolly Wall It's time for Rick Dolly Wall It's time for Dolly Wall It's time for Rick Dolly Wall

8.04 on a Friday Happy Friday everybody, Halford Brough Sportsnet 650 Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates Learn how a consumer proposal Can you on the road to being get free in just two weeks Visit them online at Sands

That's trustee We are in our three of the program. Rick Dollywell is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour three. Hour three is bratsy by Campbell & Pound, real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-Dash pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintech studio. Happy holidays from all the team at Kintech, footwear and orthotics.

To the phone lines we go. Our next guest is a presentation of Basant Motors. It's Rick Dollywall here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. What up, Rick, you need? gentlemen gentlemen how's it going uh it's going pretty well we just played my hilarious audio from the patrick alvin uh presser riggi do the conducts have a culture problem first of all great question last week to alveen you should be in the radio hall of fame for that um i hope they don't play the audio just listen to me elvine looked like a deer in headlights when you

asked it was just the best video of a gm going to and, you know, what the hell with this question? He didn't have a clue on how to answer it. But you know what? You're the first guy in the market. I give you credit. Yeah. When J.T. Miller, Rick, talking, and Quinn Hughes all last out in less than two years. Yeah, there's a culture problem. Three really important pieces on a hockey club all won out in a short period of time.

Two star players hated each other for years. That lingered for years. Pedersen and Miller, yeah, you got a culture problem. When you have a winning culture, nobody was. wants to leave. Nobody. After the Canucks made their 2011 Stanley Cup run, every single buddy wanted to be in Vancouver, free agents on July 1st, coaches, GMs, get me to Vancouver, everybody. Not anymore. Vancouver's not a destination for players, not after all the chaos and the soap opera and the dysfunction that this team has put on display in the past 18 months.

There is no top UFA this July 1st who is telling his agent, get me to Vancouver. nobody it is now obvious to me why tocket left huge part of it was he had to take into account that hughes was going to be gone and bingo he was right um not sure well i'm not sure that talk it wanted to coach peterson for six more years either the practice facility was a real good excuse but man you can now connect the dots as to why the talk it said no to a contract that would have made him the highest paid coach in franchise history from ownership on down they tried real hard to keep talking. You guys got to understand.

They tried super hard to keep this guy, and he still said no. When your star defenseman says he's not going to resign and there's 18 months left on his contract, yeah, you've got a problem. When your team is losing quality people left right and center in a short time, yeah, there's a culture issue. There's something wrong. And I think you had every right to ask that question, and I'm glad that you did. Okay. Well, thank you for that. And I think most Canucks fans, you know, I don't think I've ever got the response that I did for that question. And I was a little surprised that Patrick Alvin seems so taken aback by it. But we will move on. What is next for the Canucks?

Let me say this first. The huge trade was a huge relief for the players and the coaches. It's a more relaxed environment with all the noise gone that comes with trading a star player in a Canadian market, just like Miller and his trade and the Miller-Peterson feud, and that chaos that came with it, when the chaos leaves and the noise leaves, guys can just go back to playing hockey, and I think that's the case right now. The Christmas roster freezes today. It ends on the 28th. Then the Olympic roster freeze February 4th to 22nd. When that's over, you're going to have 12 days until March 6th. January is going to be a month where you could see the most movement. February is going to have a tight window to make the deals.

Because when you come out, when you come out of that Olympic break, not a lot of time to wheel and deal. Okay, Kiefer, Sherwood, is the guy to keep an eye on. The Canucks should move this guy sooner than later. I've been told despite the fact he's got one goal in the past 13 games, I am told a lot of teams still interested in Sherwood. Now, one team told me why. They are not, so this is the one team that told me they're not really worried about his goals too much.

Goals are a bonus with Sherwood for them. They love his salary. His salary fits in everyone's budget. They like his style of play. They like his energy, his physicality. They know what he brings in the playoffs. This team didn't think the Canucks would get a first round pick for Sherwood. They think it's going to be a second and something else, right?

The Canucks aren't going to sign Sherwood. Unless there's a Hail Mary. The best they can probably do is low threes or 3.5, maybe on three or four years deals. But he's going to get way more on July 1st. All he's got to do is hit 20 to 25 goals. He's going to do really well. I think the Canucks, and I told you this before, are really worried about, you know, another Dakota Joshua situation on their hands, right?

I think the Canucks' biggest worry was Sherwood is that. And he's also surewood's not in the 26-27 range. He's a little bit older, right? So that makes the difference as well. Connor Garland's a name you still hear that teams like for good reason. You know, he comes with a contract. You know, he works hard. He's doing all the right things.

But the Connucks like them and they don't really want to move them. You know, and he's showing a lot of leadership skills. You know, Garland took a lot of the young guys under his wing this year. He's a good culture guy, right? But what do you do if a team makes an offer, you know, you can't refuse? but Garland's a guy that, you know, is a guy that teams look at and go, you know what? I'd like to have them in our lineup. And so I have no indication right now that Garland and Demko went out.

Demko made it clear after Hughes trade. He doesn't want to go anywhere. But teams are going to be watching Demko, I'm told, to see how long he can stay healthy the rest of the year. Yeah. Now, listen, the Canucks have Tolopilo. He looks like a real good cheap backup at the NHL level down the road here. and they got Medvedev, their featuring goal, great draft pick in London. So let me get to Lankinen.

If I had told you guys how many people have texted me in the past week and said, hey, you know, they're going to move Lankan, stop it. Stop with the Lankan crap. He's got a no move this year and next year, right? He just became a father. He's not waving. He can sleep a night knowing he doesn't have to move his two, three-month-year-old baby. That's why you get a no move.

that's why no moves are important to players is that situation right there family like he's not going to move like yeah the Canucks may be stuck in a situation with 13 million tied up in two goalies next years but they didn't realize they were going to end up in 30 second place this year they didn't realize they might have to go into a rebuild you know those deals with Demko and Lankening were not done

with a rebuild in mind but that guy's got a no move Lankin I'll be shocked if he if the Canucks go to him and if teams call on him, I'll be shocked. Like, that's why you have a no move. You can sleep a night knowing your family's safe from moving mid-season, especially when you just became a father. The other one is Tyler Myers has not been asked to waive when I checked in last night. Myers is interesting to me because he's still getting a lot of minutes per game.

And Willander's at 12, 13 minutes a game on the right side. The day Willander gets close to Myers and minutes. you got a decision to make. But if you traded Myers today, let's just say you did, who's chewing up his minutes? Yeah. Like, they obviously don't think Willander is capable of 19, 20, 21 a game, or they would have done it by now in terms of giving Wollander more ice.

And you don't want to put Willander in a position that he's not going to have success in. He's too important. He's not there. Yeah. And the fact that Wollander's become an everyday NHL player at a young age, and he's starting slow in the third pair, that's a real big bonus. Because we'll get into another guy that Canucks. need to get going at the NHL level two. Someday, Well, Lander is going to take Meyer's spot.

He's just not ready right now. Mancini's chomping at the bit to get to the NHL level two. Did you see his goal in Calgary last weekend? I did not. I did not. Coast to coast. He deeked through five guys. Oh, nice. Yeah, he deeked through five guys coast to coast. So the Canucks right side, there's strength there for the first time in many years since

Chris Tann had left, right? So you're really happy with the right side, but look, the Canucks, when you talk to people about the Canucks and trades, they got too many guys with no moves, they got too many guys with trade protection, that makes it tougher. And if you want to know why the, if you want to know why the New Jersey Devils couldn't get Quinn Hughes, it's exactly that reason. Too many guys with no moves, too many guys with trade protection. And sometimes when you give trade protection or no moves like it's candy, well, you're going to pay the price. Every team does that now. It seems like there's way too many no move clauses.

I know the agents negotiated and the players negotiate them, but man, they sure kind of bung up the league a little bit. Before we get to Leckermackie, because I know you want to talk about Lechromackie, Adam Foote had kind of, I don't know if you heard a scrum yesterday, but they're kind of weird comments where He suggested, like, he didn't want to provide any hints about what might happen in the next couple of days. Could we see some movement today with the roster, it's Friday, the roster freeze is happening? He kind of, I don't know, it was like he was hinting that he knew something that we didn't. Yeah, I mean, obviously he's kept abreast of the day-to-day talks with management every single day, every coach is. they're obviously working the phones

they're obviously talking to teams about players look sure was the guy like I you know I sure was the guy to me like if if they can move him

quicker sooner and later they probably will try I'm not a big guy on it's Friday they like to do things Friday look these these guys have you got to move a guy Sunday didn't they make a trade a while back on a Thursday night or 10 p.m.

I mean I don't care if it's Friday or Sunday or Monday. They're working the phones. They got to get stuff done. If it happens today, great. If it doesn't, I'd appreciate if they don't do it today because I'd like, you know, it's a game day. And last Friday, just do it on another day.

Do it on the bruff with the days we have off. But anyways, all I know is they're working the phones. And if it happens today, great if it doesn't, then you're in the trade freeze and then, you know, you have to do it at a later date. if it happens today, great. If it doesn't, I mean, he also Fitt talked about Atu-Ratu, did he not?

Yeah, that was asked. Yeah. Yeah. So here we go. On the one hand, the Canucks say, it's time to get young players in the lineup, young kids, this, young kids, that. Then you watch Drew O'Connor, who's not a natural centerman, play over Rattu,

who's the only center on the roster from the Bull Horvatt and J.T. Miller Trades. So what message are you sending Rattu? There's no center in Abbisford. Zero. Ratu is literally the only young center that's close to becoming an everyday player in the NHL like Brayden Kooch is coming, that's great

either next year or the year after or whatever. When L.E.S. Pedersen does return, are they still going to keep O'Connor in the lineup over Ratu? Like, at least Rattu wins face-offs. He does it at a good rate. O'Connor should be in the lineup, but he should be kicked to the way.

But I don't get that. I do understand Rattu's not the fastest guy in the world. I do understand there's defensive responsibilities that sometimes he's got to be better at. But you wonder about his future. Okay, here's the thing. I'm very much wondering about his future in the organization. If you, okay, here's the thing, if you're a young player, if you can't make the Vancouver Canucks roster when they're dead last in the NHL,

when the hell are you going to make it? Yeah. Yeah, no, no, I agree. Now, the only thing I will say is I think that O'Connor-Shirwood-Kane line has actually been pretty good in the last. two games. But I think this is where we can get into the conversation about where are the priorities right now for the Vancouver Canucks and what kind of, they use the word rebuild, but what kind of rebuild is this? It's a great question. You know, Thatcher Demko's picking a very interesting time to return to

his Vesina form. He's only allowed two goals in the last two games. By the way, let me get this before I get going. I do feel Demko is still in the mix for the USA team. I was told last night 50-50, right? But my other source tells me it's going to be hard for the Americans to overlook his injury history, right? And plus the Americans are loaded in goals. So that's Demko

on the U.S. team. Rebuild a retool or whatever you want to call it. The goal here is to turn this around as quick as possible. How long that takes is up to management and the moves they make? I don't know. It could take a year. It could take three. It take five. I don't know. Can they

get lucky at the draft lottery? the Islanders. Now, let's go back to New York. They had the 10th best chance to win that top pick last year. They got lucky. And they got Matthew Schaefer, who's an absolute stud. The Islanders are three points at the first place in the East. In a year that nobody expected them to do much, but they won the lottery. And the kid turns the franchise around. Can that can that happen to the Canucks? The other one I want to tell you is Colorado was dead last in the NHL in 2016. They win the Stanley Cup six years later. In 2016, they made the changed. Patrick Wada, Jared Bedner,

draft to kill McCar, Miko Ranton and becomes a star. They also got lucky in the draft because Philly took center, Patrick Nolan's second overall. They're probably wishing they took McCar, but Patrick was a big right shot center and do remember this about that draft. Seven of the nine players,

seven of the first nine players in that draft were centers. You know the importance of centers and you know in 2026, you know, you want a top heavy center draft in the top 10. It really isn't that. But anyways, you understand why Philly took them. The Canucks can get out of this mess

quickly, but it's going to require luck, really good drafting, that starts this summer. Player development's going to have to be strong and it is with the Sidene Twins in Abbisford and you're going to have to have savvy decisions from the management. All those four things can get you out of the mess

quickly, if not. You know what's going on in Buffalo when there's not a savvy management crew, right? You need difference makers, though. The abs, I get your point. it's a great point, getting lucky, if you want to call it that way with Kail McCar, but

they also had, they had Nate, they had Landis Kog and those guys were young at the time, they were a terrible team but they were young and we see what Nate McKinnon is right now. The Canucks don't have anything like a young, Nate McKinnon is.

Brough, the point is they were dead last. And where are the Connucks today dead last? You can fix it in four, five, six years if you're smart, and you've got the right management crew, and you make the right decisions. But if you have bad management and bad coaches and bad development, then you're going to miss the playoffs 14 years in a row like Buffalo. Yeah.

Let's talk a bit about Jonathan Lekker-Macky to finish this off. What do the Canucks think of this guy? Because he's scoring a lot of goals in the H.L. I know there's a numbers crunch right now, but I'm wondering about the future of Lekar-Macky in the organization. I do too. I wonder about this kid. And look, if he can't make the connects when they're in 30 second place, exactly when he's going to crack this lineup, it's time for the Sadine Twins to work some magic with this kid. He can score at the American Hockey League level, but he still needs to round out his game.

A pro scout who saw him last weekend in Calgary told me, look, he's got to make more plays, get first on pox, make players around him better, get bigger, stronger. He's got to stop making fourth-line plays at that level. Now, he's not a fourth-line guy in Vancouver. He needs to get in the battle and create more when he gets to the NHL. You know who gets in the battle and creates more? Connor Garland, right? I'm not saying he needs to be Connor Garland, but he needs to have that part of the game in his game and not just be known for a guy who can score goals. It's hard to get that, though, Rick. Like, it's hard to, like, hey, have a motor instead of not. You know what I mean? I think some guys just have a motor or they don't. And you can't buy it at the

hockey shop. You know, there's a couple of things you can't buy at the hockey shop. You can't buy a heart and you can't buy hockey sense, right? You can't do it. You can't do it. I'm not, his hockey sense is fine because he can score goals. But I mean, look, he is going to turn 22 this summer. He's got four goals at the NHL level. He's got 28 in the American League. We know he can score at the American Hockey League level. Canucks need LeCarramacki to figure it out at the NHL level when he gets up there. But if he gets up there and you're going to play him eight minutes on the fourth line, how is he going to score goals? Yeah.

Well, it's going to be interesting to see what the Canucks do over the next few months. There's going to be some moves because there have to be some moves. And we'll see about Ratu and Lechromacki. These guys are highly touted prospects within the Canucks organization. And right now, they're not playing games for the actual Vancouver Canucks. Ricky? Bob, just a too small thing. Danila Klamovic has had a real tough year, three goals.

That's his fifth year in Abbey. He's never been called up. This kid needs a fresh start. The Kinez should get him elsewhere in that league. Like, just look, in five years he's never been called up, not even remotely thought of being called up. I think your buddy Danny Millions, you tried to get him out of Vancouver about a year and a half ago. I get that kid a fresh start. And also not sure why it's almost Christmas and Abbisburg players still have not received their championship rings.

for winning the Calder Cup last year. You would think that would have been done by now. I don't know what the hell is going on there, but get those guys, their rings. They deserve it for winning the Calder Cup. Well, that's interesting. Rick, it's always a pleasure and an adventure when you're on with us on Friday.

It's one of my favorite segments of the week and you bring so much energy and information to the show. And this is our last show with the three of us together. Yeah, I wasn't just doing this because I appreciate you so much. We do appreciate you. We do appreciate you, but this is the end of the year. You're great, and then you say something

nice about us, and then we hang up and we get to our weekend. Okay, so let me say something nice about you. You guys are the best show on that station by a country mile. I love doing my hits with you guys. I love radio. I love the fact. I hate where radio is going in Canada.

It makes me mad. Radio, TV, and newspapers, you know that. Those are, I hate social media. I hate all the crap. all this stream and all BS. I love radio, I love TV, and I love newspapers. That's been a big part of my life. I'm happy that you guys get to do what you do every week.

I listen to you guys every morning. It's the best part of my week away from Donnie and Dolly. So you guys have a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Merry Christmas, Rick, and a happy new year to you as well. We appreciate you, buddy. All right, guys. Thanks, buddy. Rick Dollywall, one final time for 2025 here.

He hung up the phone. He slammed it. Take that. rest of the station my favorite show by far underline three times not even close

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