Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 12/31/25

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

Brough and guest host Josh Elliott-Wolfe look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss the latest hockey trade rumours with Victory+ NHL insider Frank Seravalli, plus they go over last night's Canucks home loss to the Flyers 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. You're listening to Halford and Brough. The Philadelphia Flyers come into Vancouver and double up the Vancouver Caducks. They sweep the season series. And former head coach Rick Tuckett has the last. laugh well you all know what laughter sounds like good luck but after that I don't know slipped a little bit away so yeah it must be wonderful to ring in the new year over and over and over please kill me welcome to the halford and bruff show know my halford still it's josh

holly wolf filling in but jason bruff is here good morning jason good morning jason good morning josh a dog good morning good morning laddie good morning hello hello howford and bruff is brought to you by Sands and Associates score Debt Freedom Hattrick, no more interest, much lower payments, and financial peace of mind. Visit sands-trustee.com and the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats a Duick Deal since 1926.

Visit Duick GM on Marine Drive, downtown in Richmond, and at duik Auto Group.com. Make 2026 your year to move better and step stronger with Kintech Custom Ortho because we are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio.

And it's almost the new year. Happy New Year's Eve, everyone. You can text in 650-6-50 is the Dunbar Lumbertext line. And on the show today, 630, David Amber from Sportsnet's NHL coverage, is going to join us and we'll get into, he had a podcast with Elliot Friedman, the 32 Thoughts podcast, where they talked about Olympic rosters yesterday. And so we'll get into some of that.

because Canada announces their Olympic roster at 9 a.m. today. You can watch it on SportsNet. You can hear it here on SportsNet 650 at, like just after this show, on the fan hockey show. At 7 o'clock, we'll talk to Frank Sarah Valley more about that, but also about everything going on with the Canucks as well. And trade options around the NHL. 730, Brady Henderson will help us preview the Seahawks Niners game Brady Henderson, of course, covers the Seahawks for ESPN.

Very big game. Very big game Saturday night. Not only for the Seahawks, but for Sam Darnold's legacy. Because last year he had the same situation, and he faltered. This year he won't. I believe in him fully. 8 o'clock, no I don't. 8 o'clock, Randy Janda.

Canucks game analyst. He's a Vikings fan, everyone, all right? He's a little bitter. Canucks, I am. Canucks game analyst on SportsNet 650. He will join us and we'll talk about last night's game. That's what's happening on the show. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action

because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? Well, Josh, it was another home loss for the Vancouver Canucks last night in Rogers Arena, 6-3 this time, to Rick Tocket and the Philadelphia. of Flyers. It was a great start for the home team. We'll always have that start. The first 10 minutes. Might be the most dominant 10 minutes I've seen from this team all year. It scored one goal. I think they won the Stanley Cup with that start. They got themselves a 1-0-0-0 lead when David Kamp scored less than three minutes in, but Dan Vladar, tough to beat him. Kept the Flyers in it with some sharp saves and that allowed Noah Cates to tie it despite a huge advantage on the shot clock

for Vancouver at the time. The period ended, tied at one with a 10-5-shot advantage for the Canucks. I believe at one point the shots were 10-0. Yeah. For the Canucks. They were playing so well. Jake DeBresk, he was back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch, noticeable in the first, thrown his weight around,

wringing one off the crossbar, and he wasn't the only Canuck that looked ready to go. And then came the second period. It was a different story there. The Flyers came out with a much better effort. and made a 2-1 on a goal by Carl Grunstrom, one of my favorite names, that Thatcher Demko maybe should have stopped. Demko did not look particularly sharp last night, and he didn't look great on the next goal.

He allowed, courtesy Travis Kineckney, who probably won't be on Team Canada. When they make the announcement today, he was on the Four Nations squad, but he scored a nice goal, put his own rebound past Demko, and to be fair to Demko, his teammates did not defend very well on that play either. So after that terrific start, those first 10 minutes, man, the Canucks found themselves down 3-1 after two periods.

They came into the game with a 4-11-1 record at home, and they were clearly motivated to stick it to their old coach, Rick Tocket. But they couldn't put the flyers away earlier. And at the end of the day, the Canucks just aren't a very good team. So motivation can only take you so far. The confline did strike again early in the third. a healthy scratch against Seattle returned to the lineup and played with Drew O'Connor and Kiefer Sherwood and it was O'Connor

that shoveled in his 10th of the season. That line was the Canucks best last night which is great for that line but not so much for the team. And at any rate, the flyer struck back seconds later when Matt Vei Michkoff set up Bobby Brink one of my favorites for a tap-in and it was a two-gold game again. It was Mitchcoff's second assist of the game.

And he played well on a line with Brink and Cates. The Flyers eventually scored into an empty net on a Canucks power play. Power play was no Bueno last night in the waning minutes. And then Tom Vielander scored a meaningless one to make it 5'3. So the Connucks pulled the goalie again. And the Flyers scored into the empty net again. I'm watching this team and I'm watching the remaining core players. I don't even know if you can call it a core anymore.

But let's just call the veterans that they've got signed long, term, including Brock Besser and Elias Petterson, and I just don't know how they're going to justify bringing back a bunch of these guys for next season. I don't see it. I don't understand. I'm having trouble picturing Brock Besser on the team for much longer this season, let alone seeing him in a Canucks uniform next season. These performances at home are embarrassing. 4, 12, and 1. And this is a record that came after they were awful at home last season. I cannot count the number of times.

They have had a home game where it's like, all right, guys, come on. We got a home game. Let's, let's, come on, let's pull it together. You know, like when J.D. Miller returned with the Rangers earlier in the season, absolutely dead, lifeless performance by the Canucks. And, you know, yeah, they had a good start. But they completely folded their tents when things got hard. And that's the sign of a team that has no belief.

And it's a sign of a team that just doesn't have enough talent. And it's a sign of a team that, in my opinion, needs to be broken up. And there's a question of mental fortitude as well. So you mentioned the 412 and one record at home for the Canucks so far this season. And Adam Foote was asked about it after the game because they do have a bunch of home games coming up in January. Here's what Adam Foote had to say about how they're playing at home right now. I think the main thing I've done a lot of thinking about this is just when things don't go our way. Like you saw in the second, we're rolling, and we've had control of teams.

Detroit and here, Utah, there was a stretch where there's three or four in a row. When things don't go our way for a couple shifts, we fall off to whatever. I'm not going to tell you what I think of that. It's more we get off our game and we're trying, but we go a little bit rogue, or we, you know, we turn or we try to get the breakaway pass or just come out of structure. I think they want it so bad, and they hear the noise around them that they get a little frustrated and maybe do too much at times or get off the structure. And that's where, you know, our group's got to, like I said earlier, about this game is when you have a couple of, shifts where they, you know, they're playing against good hockey teams. They're going to get a couple good shifts and we got to just stay balanced and stay in control of our emotions longer. Because, I mean,

it was, whether they didn't have their legs early, we had our legs, we were rolling. I mean, the first 12 was even 15 minutes after that goal, we were just, we were humming. We were, it could have been up three nothing. And it seems like we've seen games like that a lot this year at home. And then one or two things go, don't go our way. And we get a little bit out of of sorts, I would say. And we're going to have to correct that. Yeah, that looked a lot like the performances early in the season when people were saying, wow, they're still in their new system. And you had players, not just young guys, the veterans, and that happened last night, especially on the Kineckney goal. I know, Tyler Myers and Connor Garland didn't look good on that

goal. And, you know, the Kinex a few weeks ago looked like they'd kind of turned the corner and they weren't allowing as many shots on goal. They weren't running around in their own end. They weren't getting out of their structure as much, and they had some decent results because of that. But now, you know, the last two home games, this is a San Jose game where they give up a ton of shots to the sharks. So, you know, that kind of threw out the trend

where they were keeping the shot clock down. And then against the Flyers last night, It was the running around in their own zen and, as Adam Foote puts it, going rogue and maybe hearing the grumbling from the crowd and thinking like, ah, I got to make something happen. And then you start running around and you get out of your position and then someone's running around trying to cover for you. And then, you know, you've left your man. And it's just, it's like a mess. That's what happened on the Connectney goal. And that Connectney goal, that was it.

That was 3-1. It was over. It was done. The Connection were not going to come back. from that because it's a team that doesn't have enough firepower. And they don't have belief right now. And they have a number, I'm going to keep harping on this. They have a number of veterans that are signed long term.

And they were in the lineup yesterday. They were there and they didn't, you know, Besser, Pedersen. Those are the two main ones that come up. They didn't do anything. They didn't say, okay, guys. All right. I've been here a long time. I've been in the NHL a long time. I know how these things go. I'm a highly paid player. I'm one of the leaders. I got you. I got this. It was a line led by a guy who was on the scrap heap earlier in the season in Toronto. So this guy said, you know what? I'm going to cancel my contract and then I'll come to Vancouver because they're going to give me a chance. So it was him. It was Drew a who is a bottom six guy who's played well this season had a bit of a rough start but he's played well and it's a kefer surewood who's probably going to be traded and probably at this point he's like

any time you want to trade me you can go ahead and pull that trigger because you know kefer surewood wants to be in the playoffs and he's going to go to a playoff team and he's going to be in the playoffs so for him he'd probably rather go to that team now and get comfortable with that team But when the Canucks do end up trading Kiefer-Shirwood, that's their leading goal score. That's their leading goal score that's no longer going to be on the team. So who are they going to look to for a goal? They're going to have a bunch of guys with nine goals left over. And I don't know.

They're so, like, look, maybe they pull it together and have a better home record for 2026 for the second half of the season. but you got all these long home stretches. And if they don't vastly improve, not just a little bit, vastly improve their home record, it's going to get ugly at Rogers Arena. It's going to get real ugly. It's either going to be jerseys on the ice,

booing, fan protest, or it's going to be what's probably even worse, apathy, empty seats, people just leaving early, not using their tickets. And then you've got to come into the off season, and sell a hybrid retool where a bunch of those guys are coming back, I just, I don't see it. No, and I don't see fans being super, super pumped to be sold that either.

The thing about, like, in a season like this, where you are tanking, and I think you've obviously acknowledged that it's a rebuild or hybrid retool, whatever you want to call it, whatever each individual member of management wants to call it, you still want to see the highest paid players on your team perform and you still want to reach a level of you want to hit a bar of competency in your in your top six especially from guys like alias peterson who you mentioned i i think you had a good game against seattle and i was like okay can he carry it over into the next game and he did not i think he had a really bad game last night brock besser he has one goal in his last 21 games now i think it is i think he had one good chance last night that got blocked yes yeah right in front so

you're like okay is that it that all you got And that was it. Keep trying. That was it. And yeah, so, like, when your best line is your third line of a guy that you found midway through the season because another team didn't want him. And then your two highest scoring forwards, Kiefer Sherwood and Drew O'Connor, who should be on your third line but shouldn't be leading the team and goals, it's adds to the frustration of, like, if this were happening and the team were like, hey, we know we're going to rebuild the, like, this. sucks. We'll figure it out. I think fans would still be frustrated, but there'd be a level of, okay, just got to have patience. When they come out and this is happening while they're also

saying, hey, don't worry, it's just a hybrid retool. That's where fans start to get incredibly like a lot of these guys, a lot of these vets who are not showing up, they're going to be back and showing the young guys how to play. Why? Why is management invested in this veteran core? Like how are they watching these games? Be like, this is a veteran corps we could win with. Like, how are they, what's the logic there? I don't get it. They should, because these players should be here. Because they already made the decision to sign these guys.

So a lot of the time when you make those decisions, you got to dig up with that, I guess. You're kind of stubborn. You're stubborn because you've made, you've made the case to give these guys the contract extensions, right? And so. Well, just admit it was a mistake and trade them. Yeah, then you're going to get fired, right?

Then you're, seriously. Like, that's, that is a major issue. right now. And, you know, Drans was on the show yesterday, and Josh and I were chatting with him. And I was like, I was like, you know, the hybrid retool is the plan right now. Could that change? Could that change if this keeps happening at home?

Because there's half a season left. Is there more than half a season left? There's more than half a season left. And what reason would there be for the Canucks to turn this around? round. What, what reason would there be? Like this season? Yeah. Like, no, no, no, just like, what reason would there be for the Canucks to have a better performance in the second half of the season and make people a little more comfortable with a lot of these vets coming back? Like, do you see, do you see Pedersen bouncing back? Do you see Besser bouncing back? Do you see anyone on this

team that is, or any factor on this team that's going to be like, oh, they've found something here. They've found something here and they're coming, it's all coming together, and maybe we're going to feel a little bit better about their decision to bring a bunch of these guys back next season. The thing that would have to happen that I guess both Besser and and Jake DeBress are capable of are like late season runs where they just score a bunch, or score in bunches and you're like, okay, you know what, the end of season total wasn't too bad. And maybe you can make the case if your Canucks management that these guys are complementary players and you're going to find the players for them to compliment. I don't know how you're going to do that in the off

season because again, we talk about how free agency isn't looking too good right now. We talk about how difficult it is to make trades around the league, especially if you're trying to get young premier talent and the Canucks have been or we're trying for months over the off season, weren't able to do it. I can't see that getting much easier. over the offseason. So I don't know. I don't see a world where I come out of the season going, you know what,

it's all going to be better next year, outside of, hey, you get a top three years. I got an idea. How about a coaching change? What if they brought in Manny? What if they brought in Manny right now? Is that something you could sell? Because they're always...

That affects the tank, though. No, no, no. That's a good idea. Okay, I agree. I agree, but... But, yeah, that would be the easiest thing they could do. But this team always wants to have something to sell into the off season, right?

Reason to, every team wants that. Something to sell in the off season because the business is to sell tickets, right? The coaching change is always the easiest thing. Like, that's always the first thing the team does. I wonder if they're considering it right now because they're running out of answers to provide any semblance of optimism for next season.

And I agree, you know, when you say that ruins the tank, I know there's a lot of, there are some people out there that are like, no, I just want this to keep happening, keep happening. And I get that. Like, I understand. I don't, you know, I don't want the connects to go on a winning street because I want them in the top three picks or top five picks or whatever. There's also no guarantee.

Manny coming in will do anything. But, but, but, this whole tank thing is complicated, again, by the fact that they've got all these guys on the team. they plan to bring back, according to all the reporting that's done out there. And it just seems, it seems insane to me. It seems crazy. Like, these are the guys that you're going to keep around, these guys, the ones that have been, frankly, how run down must these guys be mentally? And do you think they're, do you think they're going to be like, oh, in the off season, I'm going to get recharged?

And I'm going to be back in Vancouver. I can't wait, can't wait for training camp. And, like, things are going to look. up. Don't you think Brock Besser at this point is just like I'm done. I would like I would like to be traded. Now the question remains too is like if you put Brock Besser on the market, how many takers are you going to have? I don't know. I still think you get a decent amount. I think I'm not sure what the return would be. Yeah, I don't know what the return would be, especially with the season he's having. But I do think there are teams out there for almost every, every player

we look at on the Canucks and we're like, hey, I don't know if this is a guy you can build around or at least be part of the core moving forward, whether it be Besser or DeBrusk or whoever it is, I still think there are teams out there that are like, hey, yeah, he wouldn't be part of our core either, but he could be a compliment to what we're doing here. We've got a half decent center for him to play with. Yeah, exactly. You know? Also, going back to Mani, would he even want the job? Yeah. Would he be interested in I think so. It's an NHL job.

I don't know. Honestly, I just threw that out there. I know. I'm just thinking of things where the management group, I'm not even saying this is the best thing for the team. I'm just thinking if I was a team and I needed to sell tickets for next season. That's my only thought. What would I do to, because you need to start selling that narrative?

right that things are going to be better next season so you should buy tickets and you know how you sell tickets next season you draft Gavin McKinnon yeah that's how you sell tickets like that's like or or in the top three of the very least no no no but Gavin McKinnon's the only one well he's definitely the main Gavin no no he is the only one that you could really sell tickets around yes most people don't know the other guys right people would be excited about Stamberg but it wouldn't be but it wouldn't it would be it would be like, oh, that Swedish kid, right? Yeah. Right?

No, no, no. They're like, Gavin McKenna Yeah. A hundred in the terms of selling power. And then, was it Fraunberg or whatever? Stenberg? No, no, like Frondel. Oh, Frondel.

You know, like, I don't even know these guys well, because I'm not a prospects guy, but I know Gavin McKenna. Okay, let's talk about the Fronberg. Canada

To make it up to Swedish names Why not Canada roster announcement Is coming right after the show For the Olympics Sydney Crosby Nathan McKinnon Connor McDavid Sam Ryanhart

Brain and Point And Kail McCarr Have already been named Forwards on the bubble include Bedard Shifley Sirelli

Seth Jarvis and Bo Horvatt who I would love to see Make Team Canada That'd be amazing Nick Suzuki had himself a night For Montreal last night in Florida And it sounds like he'll be on the team

No guarantee He was in the marketing drop Right So he's definitely gonna make Some controversial picks Could include Mark Stone Just because I think people wonder about his speed

His ability to stay healthy Sam Bennett Just because he's not having a particularly good season for Florida and Tom Wilson because I think there are some people that might be a little bit worried that he's going to go out there

and do something dumb. We'll see if they switch up the defense at all. Matthew Schaefer would be the name. Yeah. I don't think a guy like Jacob Chikrin, although he's having a great year, I don't think he's going to make the team.

But Schaefer would be the guy, but there's a couple of reports out there. I think Elliot Freeman is suggesting that, and maybe Frank Sarvelli are suggesting that they might just bring back the same eight guys that they had for the four nations, and then come the goalies. Jordan

Binnington has been bad this season, but based on what's been reported, he's expected to make the team. Logan Thompson, McKenzie Blackwood, Scott Wedgwood, and Darcy Kemper are all candidates to fill out the other two spots. You're listening to the best of

Halford and Brough. You're listening to to the best of Halford and Brough. We go to the phone lines now. We welcome in Frank Sare Valley. NHL Insider, host of Frank Lee Hockey and Frank Sarah Valley is a presentation of Angry Auder Liquor. Appreciate you taking the time, Frank.

How are you? Good morning, boys, and happy year. Happy New Year. I hope you're doing well. And here in Vancouver, it feels like the conversation after, especially after every home game, is when is a trade going to happen and when are they going to get

started on the post-Quin-Hugh's sell-off. Do you have any idea of kind of what a timeline looks like here for the Knox? In terms of an exact timeline, no. Everyone's just getting through their holiday hangover. The roster freeze has been lifted, as you know. And as we inch closer to this next deadline, because in a lot of ways, NHL front offices need deadlines to make things happen, Eyes are really on February 4th and this roster freeze prior to the Olympics.

There's very likely to be big names that are participating in the Olympics that teams are looking to make moves on prior to subjecting themselves to that injury risk of high leverage hockey in Milan. So that's really the next thing. In terms of some other pieces, you know, I think there's, certainly less pressure on players that aren't going to be participating in the Olympics to have them move before them. But when it comes to sizing up that market and if you're talking about pieces like pending UFAs and Kiefer Sherwood, I mean, there is certainly

the possibility that they wait until closer to March 6th. But, you know, it's clear that the Canucks would like to try and get moving in that direction, but they want the best deal possible. So they're going to wait until they get it. I imagine a lot of the teams that might be in the market for Kiefer Shrewood would want to wait until the last possible minute just because, well, A, Kiefer Shirwood could get hurt the way he plays, but also you never really know the situation you're going to be in at that point. And I've talked about it earlier. Unless you're a firm playoff team. No, but even then, you might, you know, you've only got so much ammo to use at the trade deadline. And let's say you have an injury on the blue line all of a sudden in the next few months and you're like, oh,

actually, you know, we prefer to use this ammo on defensemen, but you've already spent it on Kiefer Sherwood. I just wonder if that is having an impact on the Kinnock's decision because I think that the Kinnock's had a deal that they really liked. They probably would have pulled the trigger already. For sure, because, again, circumstances change and that deal might not be there later. So I think right now they probably have a pretty good sense of what the market looks like

and what kind of realm they'd be living in in terms of a return for Kie for Sherwood. You're right, though. Ammo needs positionally and organizationally, standings can shift. And the other part, too, is, and I've mentioned this a couple times, that when it comes to Sherwood specifically, there's a lot of teams that like the player. It's not really that different of a conversation than Pew Souter a year ago. They like the player. They'd like to acquire him, but they're not entirely certain that they're going to like with the next contract. number is. And that's also part of the equation in terms of making this deal. Has there ever been any discussion about limiting the amounts of no-move clauses and no-trade

clauses? Because it just seems like, I look at the Canucks. I'm like, how do all these guys have no-move clauses? Back in my day, a no-move clause was reserved for, you know, the best of the best. Well, there had been talk about it, and it was something that general managers had put on their list with the NHL to discuss during the CBA negotiations. There was a relative non-starter for the NHLPA, understandably so. And they talked about limiting them to a certain number, potentially. And also the league at some point, you know, they had their list of priorities. It wasn't high on the list because it's something within the GM's control, right? If you want to limit the number of no trade clauses, then don't hand them out.

So it's entirely within their purview, and I think what happens is a lot of management groups approach it like, well, we'll just give it out because it gets the deal done, it gets the job done, and we'll figure it out later, that there's so few players that want the pressure of this team doesn't want you anymore please leave that they don't like to stick around anyway and it ends up just solving itself so i do see it both ways like i do think if you apply the right pressure as an organization that the player gets the hint and it becomes a non-issue but there are certain circumstances particularly with guys that are pending ufas that have a lot of either total or a lot of control in the next destination that I think it really hampers and limits your return.

Well, that's what it does too. And sometimes it gets to the point where as a team, you're like, well, actually, we might as well just keep them because our return is going to be so limited by this. What's that? Well, I mean, a few suitor is not the great example because he doesn't have, he doesn't have the clause. But I was going to say the other part is there are some general managers who would tell you even if they don't have the clauses that a lot of times

what the agent will do behind the scenes because you know that teams call the agent a lot of times before even making the trade you know it's not a conversation that's quote unquote supposed to happen but they're calling about another player that's a client of that agent

and just happens to come up in conversation that they try and ascertain hey would this player be interested in signing here longer term or would this person be interested in resigning at all and sometimes if the answer is no like that also then crosses the team off of a list and a guy that doesn't even have the trade protection ends up being protected from a destination that he doesn't want to go to before it ever even gets close to materializing yeah I guess I guess my point is just like a lot of the Canadian teams right now seem quite stuck

And I, look, I don't think this. Stuck in what way? Stuck in the, and I don't think no move clauses are the main reason, but stuck in that they either refuse to rebuild or it's difficult to rebuild. And I'm just wondering if the no move clauses are part of that. I don't think they're the main thing. But, you know, if you look at the Canucks and you're like, okay well let's start trading away some of these veterans the no move closets do hamper that effort

and could hamper that return where if you didn't have them maybe it would be a little easier to change the roster around maybe but like I said there's certainly a subset that players that are coming up on new contracts end up seizing a lot of control anyway And my belief is that any Canadian team that is stuck, and there's some American teams, smaller mid-market teams that operate this way as well, any Canadian team that is stuck in trying to do the right thing and fully repair and rebuild is because purely business decisions. And look, we've talked about this before, but this is the next larger conversation to be had as the cap continues to increase, and Canadian teams pay out players in American dollars,

as long as the Canadian and American dollars remain where they are right now, in a couple of years' time, we're talking about a $160 million Canadian salary cap. Yep, yep. That's really significant because you can't just double your ticket prices overnight. to have revenue catch up to that it's going to be a long time before that happens and teams are feeling the duress of if we're going to rebuild

and we might have a half-empty building a look at San Jose it was one of the most full buildings in the league for 20 years for the last five they've been averaging like somewhere between 8 and 12,000 a night yeah it's not even the half-empty building it's also that you can't charge

as much for the tickets. So you're per ticket. It all goes together. When it's a half empty building, the concessions are half. Alcohol sales are half. I mean, little things, I mean, little things add up to big things. And budget wise, like, unless you're prepared to cut a check for $50 million of operating expenses for the year, which a lot of people aren't, to fund the operation through that lean time, then you want to try and remain in the mix, which is why I mentioned Winnipeg. There may be the post Calgary is another poster child. The reason why they don't fully tear it down to the studs is because they want the money. They need the money to remain competitive. And maybe Winnipeg is just okay having these guys locked up long term, even if

they're battling only for fourth in their division, because let's remain in the mix as opposed to tearing it down. Okay, now we go to the phone lines for real this time. We welcome in Randeep Janda and Randeep Janda on SportsNet 650 is a presentation of bells and whistles, your new favorite place to catch all the action, hockey, football, soccer, and more on Fraser, right in the Fraserhood, on socials at Bells and Whistles, YVR.

Appreciate taking the time, Randiap. We're talking about how this last year kind of went since it is the final day of the year, how the last year went for the Vancouver Canucks. It wasn't good. How does it improve into 2026? Yeah, that's a million dollar question. And you're in review. You know, where does one start, how much time you got for this show today?

It's an extra, you know, five-hour program rather than the usual three guys. But, you know, how does it improve? I think it's with anything, with any resolution you set as an individual or as an organization, you've got to look in the mirror and see what you are, right? And I think for the Vancouver Canucks the last season, but the last two seasons, it's you've gone into a season and there's been a, you know, a real, and listen, every roster in the NHL has a weak spot,

but you also understand that certain rosters have more cracks than others, right? And with Vancouver, I think the last two seasons, whether it was defense last year or the forward group and specifically center this season, And that was the starting point. You were dealing from, you know, a pretty significant weakness. And ultimately, heading in the next year, you need to build out that depth when it comes down to it. Not just one position group, guys.

To me, it's, you know, every position group. If you want to become a good team long term, if you want to be a contender, which is the ultimate goal of any sports organization, you need to set that depth. So I think that work has to start. And it has, right, with the Quinn Hughes deal, where you get three players, four pieces overall for one incredible player, but you have to start building out that depth. And for 2026, I think that does have to continue

because the good teams in this league are, you know, they hit you in waves. They are like the Florida Panthers where arguably one of the best players on the planet is down with an injury and they're still competitive. They're still near a playoff spot. They're going to get stronger. And that should be the goal that has to be the ultimate goal. When watching a guy like Brock Besser, even though he's signed long term,

do you, like me, have trouble picturing him on this team for much longer? Yeah, it's an interesting one with Brock because we know his commitment to the city of Vancouver. We know what he wants to be, and he wants to be a Vancouver Canuck. And listen, you know, nobody knows the inner feelings of any player. But with Brock, the struggles are in front of us, right? And we've seen them essentially since J.T. Miller got traded, where that duo is currently not there. And listen, the Marco Rossi pairing, when they've played together, you need to give up more time. Obviously, this is, you know, seven games, eight games into, you know, Marco Rossi, the Vancouver Canuck is not the end-all be-all.

But with Brock, he's got to, you've got to show more. And plain simple, when you're making that type of dough, you have to do more in zero goals. 14 games when you are a noted goal score, a 40 goal score in this league, somebody that this team relies on for 20 to 25 at the very minimum. Yeah, right now he's struggling. And in the long term, I think that question, especially, and we can hit whatever label we want, retool, rebuild, throw a hybrid in there if you want. If you are in the next year or two, taking a bit of a step back, you're going to add depth,

You're going to add, you know, speed, which is something that I think this team didn't have last night and it shows that they need more of it. You do have to beg the question of, okay, where does he fit in terms of A, the duos that you're trying to develop and be, you know, long term, you know, is this a player that is going to be able to match up stylistically? Jason, it's a very similar question to what we had last year, right? I remember being on this very show saying, good player, but how does he meet up, you know, match up stylistically with what the Canucks want to do? and we've seen those struggles that really come to the four here not only with Brock and the way he, you know, his style of playing,

but you also have to find the right center for him because he is a player that needs, you know, that running mate and he needs a strong win at that. And right now Vancouver just doesn't have that. Yeah, you know, I don't disagree with you on the notion of depth, but I have to admit I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the depth of the Canucks right now because I spend all my time thinking about

the lack of difference makers that they've got you know, J.T. When he was at his best in Vancouver was a difference maker. And maybe it's a blessing in disguise that they got off that contract, maybe. But they haven't replaced what he brought when he was at his best. And we all know what Quinn Hughes brought. Maybe up there with Pavel Burry for one of the biggest difference makers in franchise history. And I think we're starting to see these games that Canucks miss Quinn Hughes

because some of the times they can't even get out of their own end. how do they start to replace that? Because that's where it's all going to start. You know, is it just in the draft? Is that the only way they can do it or there are other avenues to do it? Well, in today's NHL, with everybody having cap space, you're not running into the problems where, you know, a strong player is going to hit three agency or a team is forced to make a really tough decision in trade.

Like, we're just not going to see that. Player availability was tough to begin with. And when we're talking about, like, elite players that, you know, are deal, you know, essentially game breakers to your point, you don't necessarily, you don't see that, you didn't even see that two, three years ago, let alone now where everybody has cap space. So, you know, this free agency and trade, like, it's difficult, right?

Last year with the Canucks trying to look for a center, we saw how difficult that was for them. So, you know, it's going to have to be via the draft primarily. You have to build within, and that's for a lot of management that maybe has a quicker timeline in mind. And I'm not talking about just the Vancouver Canucks, but other organizations, like, is that maybe a tough pill to swallow? Yes, it is, but that's the way you got to do it. You got to load up on those picks, and you essentially have to work your way through the draft. You have to build internally because here's the good thing about, you know, cap going up.

That means players are getting paid more. It means league revenues are going up. But the downside is that the player movement aspect of things is very, very difficult. So, you know, when I look at the Vancouver, Conduction, you're 100% right. Like, I think if you want to be an elite team, you have to have that depth. You have to build out, you know, waves within your lineup. But before you get to that, you need to have impressive, you know, game-breaking players. And for Vancouver, two, three years ago, you had Quinn Hughes, you had J.C. Miller.

You had Elias Pedersen that was trending towards that consistently. And now you don't have that. If I look at teams in the Pacific Division, I'm looking at Vancouver in terms of game-breaking ability. I cover a lot of Calgary Flames hockey on the weekends guys. And, you know, that's a team outside of Dustin Wolf that doesn't really have a game-breaker, right? I see a Seattle team that's got some depth, but they don't really necessarily have game-breakers. Vancouver is in that same discussion now. So how do you develop that?

How do you get more kicks at the can, so to speak? You basically have to work with your way through the draft. In today's era, picking up players is near impossible because teams don't want to give up high in skill. It's a league of, it's developing into a league where players have more leverage and they can pick where they want to go. But, you know, that's not going to work for a team that's currently at the bottom of those standings. That rarely happens that way. You know, player leverage can work in your favor if you are a team that is trending in the right direction for Vancouver. Unfortunately, as of right now, that's not the case.

Is it fair to say that the David Kompf line was the best line for the Kinecks last night with Drew O'Connor and Kiefer Sherwood? And if it is, what does that say about the rest of the guys? Yeah, I think for the three players in question, you got to love the way that they work hard. Kiefer Sherwood, you know, you can tell how much every single game means to him, his stats, you know, the goals, the points that he's able to put up. He didn't have any yesterday, but, you know, he should have, right? Five shots on goal, 10 hits, just trying to initiate. You know, Camp is scoring something he, you know, he hasn't done, but he's got a couple of goals this year.

Drew O'Connor, I thought maybe outside of the first two weeks, he's had a really good season. But, you know, for that trio, that's a good thing. But that also begs, you know, brings up the question of if that line, who was also playing a shutdown role against the Zegrois line last night, so they were generating offense and playing the toughest matchup, if they're the ones that are doing that, you know, you need more from, you mentioned

better, zero goals in 14 games. Jake Debrusk, better game last night, but he's coming off a scratch. Elias Pedersen, I thought, you know, played well against Seattle. In Philly last night, you know, he was fighting the puck and it was certain moments. We're just giving away the puck, you know,

where he wasn't pressured. Like, those are the players that you look to and say, all right, the third line is doing their job. The fourth line did it against Seattle. You need that top six to step up. So it's good for keeper Sherwood. It's good for David Camp. It's good for Drew O'Connor. But overall, when your third line is the best line, a game after where your fourth line was the best line, you need your top two lines to do

something. What do you think about some of the healthy scratch decisions that the connects are being forced to make because they've got this glut of forwards? Yeah, it's an interesting one because I understand why a lot of the fan base wants to see Ratu. They want to see Neal's Hoaglander kind of get into a rhythm. You want to see DPD in the lineup. as well, but with Adam foot, it's a weird situation where you're getting healthier. You have more bodies. You have veterans that perhaps are not

playing well, but you also have to keep an eye on what's going on in the future, right? I think if you don't play the kids, you're going to hear it, but if you don't play some of the veterans that potentially could be on the trade block, could be somebody that you're trying to even, you know,

kind of reset their value or find confidence in their game because they're part of your long-term plans. Like, it's a conundrum for the coach because, A, every coach is going to try to win games. Every coach, every player is going to try to do that. So it is kind of the reverse of what Adam Foote was dealing with earlier on in the year. It seemed like he didn't have anybody healthy. And now he's got a number of players to choose from, but it presents its own challenge

because you're at this time right before, you know, 2026 comes in, guys. And, you know, there's players that you need to see and develop and get more from. So some of them do need reset. Some of those younger players do need resets. But you have veterans in the lineup where you want to get more from them. You want to reset their value on the ice, but also potentially off the ice as well, because management is going to be taking a look at who they can potentially move in the next couple of weeks. So I think with Adam Foote, you have to be able to kind of rotate some of these guys in.

It's a bit of a soccer scheme where you're rotating your squad a little bit. But I think with Adam Foote, you know, the more, the longer and longer, some of those veterans go silent at the top of the lineup. At some point you might have to make another decision like you did on Jake DeBrus to say, all right, you know, based on merit and based on production, you might have another decision, a tough decision coming up here. Is the easiest answer for management to take the decision out of Adam Foote's hand? And what I mean by that is just by moving some of these guys on the wing,

whether it be Kiefer Sherwood or Van der Kaine, just to free up a couple spots to make that, those decisions a little bit easier for Foote? Yeah, I think, you know, in theory, that makes a lot of sense. Essentially, if you have a lot of forwards, hey, just subtract one, and you give a player like Neal's Hoaglander, Achu, Rock, you a little bit more time. But when you're trying to extract the most value from these players, right, when you're trying to say, all right, if you feel like you can get a first-round pick for Kiefer Shrewood,

and that's one of the reasons you're saying we don't want to pull this deal off right now, you know, that's a difference between having three first-round picks versus, you know, one in the second or one in late in the second. So I understand the logic behind of, you know, getting rid of the logjam, but if you just feel like, hey, a couple more weeks, there's going to be more teams interested or maybe a little bit closer to the Olympics. Maybe there's going to be less parity, you know, there's going to be more clarity on teams and where they feel like they are.

Are they buyers or they sellers? Look at the Eastern Conference right now. It's a complete logjam where the last. team in the conference can still make the playoffs and it's very, very close. You have the Buffalo Sabres that went from being the worst team in the conference to being an absolute wagon. In the next

couple of weeks, some teams are going to have that clarity. So it is a bit of a painful position for the Canucks to be in because you're just waiting, you've got this log jam of players, you've got some guys sitting out but there is potential clarity to come here and say, okay, maybe

you can have a bit of a market here for Kiefer Shrewood, a bigger market. Maybe there's a way for Evander Cain to have a couple of teams' interest in a couple of weeks. So it sucks in the short term, Josh, because you've got players sitting out. But I think in the long term,

if you can get these guys A, to remain healthy, and B, potentially pick up some value in a deal, it's probably worth the exercise. Randeep, you'll be happy to know that I had a friend in town from England. He lives in England now, and he is a huge Arsenal fan. And me and

Me and this guy, when we were in our 20s, we traveled around the U.K. together, and we went to a game at Highbury, and he became a massive Arsenal fan from that point on. Like, to the point he moved to England. I'm pretty sure that was the main driver. So we woke up on Saturday morning, and we went to watch Arsenal play Brighton, and we went with him and his two kids who were huge Arsenal supporters. And I very much enjoyed that save by David Rhea. That was a pretty good save. Listening to the best of Halford and Brough.