Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 4/16/26

Episode Date: April 16, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they wonder if the Canucks might both hire Manny Malhotra as head coach, and also draft his son Caleb if they end up with the third overall pick in this year's draft, plus the boys set up the final game of the Canucks season with analyst Randip Janda, as they get set to take on the Oilers in Edmonton this evening. 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. Play back out front. Cut in a shot, he scores off the pung. All teams came in with nothing on the line. And you can see their championship pedigree. Ah, McCarticle eases the pain. Good morning, Vancouver.

Thursday, happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford and is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adaw, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Halford and Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Hey, are you drowning in tax debt if you are. Sands and Associates can often reduce your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com. We are in our, one of the program. 6 a.m. By hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.

Are you sure? I wanted it to be eight. This is an hour three. Our one of this program 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 are coming to live from the Kintech studio. Step Strong with Orthotics and Footwear from Kintech.

If you want to text in to the show, any questions or comments. Text in to the Dunbar Lumber. X-Lex line at 650-6-50 trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. Okay, it is time now for the Duick Morning Drive. It's the morning guest list brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. First hour of the show, All Halbro. First guest, 7 o'clock, Adnan Burke is going to join the program from MLB Network.

We will talk about the slumping Toronto Blue Jays. They got their season finale in Milwaukee this morning. We'll talk about that. Series finale. Did I say season finale again? I always do that. We are at the end of the NHL season. And also, I'm now starting every show as poorly as possible.

Right. Do you want to just gulp some coffee first? Is this a bit? This is a bit. It's a good bit. They are going to play their season finale in Milwaukee at 1040. Series. Season finale at 1040 this morning.

We'll also talk about the Red Hot Dodgers and an absolutely brutal loss for the Mariners last night in heated Vetter Cup action against the Padres. Good winning if you're a Padres fan, though. Adnan's going to join us to talk some baseball at 7 a.m. 730. Arda O'Call is going to join the program. ESPN NHL reporter. We are getting closer and closer and closer to finally figuring out who's going to play who in the Stanley Cup playoffs last night. Vegas clinched the Pacific Division and a first round date against the Utah Mammoth. still don't think much of Vegas. I know they've got a really good record with torts.

7-1-1. They don't look all that good. Did you watch that game against Seattle? It was like a couple of games they watched against, they played against the Canucks. They like, they like pulled it together for a little bit. That's all I can say. I watch, I'm just on you.

I'm down on them. I'm down on them. I could be proven wrong in the playoffs, but I'm not, I'm down on them. So tonight, the rest of the Pacific Division and Wild Card 2 in the West, will be decided. Art O'Cal from ESPN is going to join us for some Stanley Cup playoff play. Kahnke's analyst on Sportsnet. Canucks play their final game of the season tonight, Jason.

It's the season finale against the Edmonton Oilers. It's a 6 o'clock puck drop from Edmonton. A reminder you can hear the pre, the post, and the actual game all right here on Sportsnet 650. Randeeb is going to join us at 8 a.m. Also at 8 a.m. We are once again giving away two tickets, three-day day. general admission passes to the Barneside Harvest Festival. It's going to be from September 11th to 13th.

The lineup includes Marianas Trench, Smashmouth, Tom Cochran, all your favorites. We're giving away a pair of GA passes every day this week. That's going to happen in 8-8-passes. Gen pop passes, as we like to call them. Caller number 5 at 8 a.m. this morning, 604-280-0-650. That number again, 604-280-650. We'll be doing that right before Randeeb joins us at 8 o'clock. Okay, we got a lot to get into on the program.

Not going to run it in reverse without further ado. Laddie, just tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened?

Missed it? You missed that? Whoa! What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCCSA.ca.ca. Let's begin with the very. Vancouver Canucks. While it was an off day yesterday as they prep in anticipation tonight's

game against Edmonton, there was some Canucks related news out there from our very own Satyar Shaw, who on Canucks Central yesterday talked a little bit about what the direction ownership might take this off season as it pertains to the front office, where a lot of us thought that, you know, maybe it would be Jim Rutherford sticking around as the president of hockey ops. Sat put it out there yesterday that not everything has been decided. yet. Laddie, do we have the audio at the ready? This is sat. It's about two minutes of audio yesterday talking about how Canucks ownership is still weighing all of its options when it comes to the front office. Here's sat from yesterday on Canucks Central. I'm sure with how things

have gone with Rutherford, there has been some confidence lost if your ownership. It would have to be, right? Like, it doesn't matter if you still believe in the person or not. Would you, if you had to guess, would you assume that ownership would have the same level of confidence and everything Rutherford does today as they would two years ago? No. Right. And that doesn't mean that he's about to get fired, right? It doesn't mean that.

People's reputations can go up and down. Things go up and down in that sense, right? But because of how things have kind of gone. And we've heard so much about RJ's name being thrown out there the last little bit. But obviously it hasn't got to a point yet where they're moving forward with that. And if you don't have alignment on 100% about what to do next, Let's say ownership and the president may not, and I'm not saying they're not, but let's just assume for a moment that they're not agreeing on who should be next. Can you come back with the president in that sense?

Like how can you move forward? To me, it's like if you don't have alignment, and this goes beyond just the general manager, but also let's say the president with the very higher ups in the organization, if you don't have full alignment on what to do next, how do you proceed with that group? And as much as, you know, the assumption has been whetherford's going to be back. but I think Kiprio's nailed it about nobody's been assured anything yet. Everything we hear is based on stuff that we've spoken to people in the organization for. It's like, yeah, the ownership still believes in Rutherford. The senses Rutherford is coming back. But nobody's been given that assurance yet.

And the longer it takes for that assurance to be given, the possibility of everything changing remains on the table. And that's the thing that I took away from the Kiprios piece and looking into things, that the idea of everything happens, in terms of cleaning house top to bottom, I think that possibility exists. And maybe that possibility is bigger than we may have assumed a few days ago. So let me get all of this straight. I can walk you through it.

I've got it in chronological order and reverse chronological order. Okay. I might not go in the order that you've got in the prep notes. But we did hear that all of, if not most of the scouting staff, does not have contracts beyond this season. Is that correct? That's correct. That's been reported, right?

We don't know if the head coach will stay. We don't know if the general manager will stay. And then the one thing we were kind of all counting on based on what's been reported is that the president of hockey ops may not stay or would stay. And now it's being reported that may not stay. That assurance is not. been given to Jim Brotherford.

Is, are the, are the Canucks going to be around next season? Like, are there, are we,

is the franchise staying? Like, what's, what's next? Is the, the arena just going to fall down? And we're like, oh,

well, I hope we keep the white caps at least. I would get on that. No, no, it just seems like, uh,

you know, the, uh, the last game of the regular season is tonight. Yeah. You know, it's tonight. And,

uh, there doesn't seem to be, like, is, I, I'm just wondering, I'm just wondering if, if ownership and that extends to maybe some, some of the top business executives have all been kind of huddling and been like,

are they, have they hatched a plan that none of the hockey ops know? Or are they just, like, does nobody still know what's going to happen? Well, okay, this is what I think's going on right now, is I think that with the amount of uncertainty there is, and as Sapp put it out there in the clip, it sounds like the Canucks are still weighing all of their options. The information that you're getting is probably leaks or conversations from the individuals themselves, right? For example, Nick Kiprios, who sat was talking about his report, had also reported in March that Alvin doesn't expect to survive past this year.

And Kiprios actually framed it as Alvin has been telling people he doesn't expect to survive. Now, I wonder if a lot of the conversations around Jim Rutherford's future may have been coming from Jim Rutherford himself. Because you got to remember, there's ways that these things work their way into media's ears and insider information and the pieces that they subsequently write. So you have numerous sources inside an organization. And they, too, are kind of guessing at what the final decision is going to be. Because there's only one guy that makes the final decision. And that's the owner in this instance, right? and that's why there's so much riding on what the owner decides,

because you could either have, and it's a pretty fundamentally important decision. The architect of the last few very tumultuous years return, Jim Rutherford, or you do a, and let's underline this, massive house cleaning, where you get rid of the architect and then the chief architect beneath him and then the coach as well.

There's not many teams that undergo that size. make a shift in an off season. And according to that, that's still on the table. Do you think they have someone in mind if they're thinking of doing a massive house cleaning? Here's where things get sticky. Because I would suggest that other NHL teams, and you do sometimes take your notes and actions

from what the rest of the league is doing, other NHL teams have acted more swiftly and more definitively when it comes to getting rid of the guys that were already in place and in power, right? We saw it with Tom Fitzgerald in New Jersey. We saw it with Brad Tree Living in Toronto. And if you want to go all the way back, we saw it with Barry Trots in Nashville

when they planned his exodus months ago. And a lot of the thinking was, if we're hedging on bringing this guy back, maybe we've already made a decision not to. And if that's the case, let's move on and start the search for a new guy right now. In that regard, I'm puzzled by what the Canucks are doing. Maybe they genuinely don't know.

That's not necessarily endorsement of what other teams are doing. It's just you're telling. Trends across the league. But like Toronto's a mess right now. You know, like I don't think we should be like, look at what the Leafs are doing. It was like, the Leafs are a disaster. And by the way, the Leafs, coaches and players are all doing their end-season pressers today after their sad little loss to the Ottawa Senators in the final game of their season last night.

and Craig Bruby was just asked if he expects to be back next year and he said yes adds that he hasn't been told anything will be up to the next general manager or boss and then Craig Bruby said I'd like to change my answer actually also I hate my team I know you didn't ask you that

but I just wanted to get it out there for everyone to see okay one thing on the Leafs though the last few months have been pretty tumultuous the whole year has been a nightmare really and there's been a lot of reporting going on about how dysfunctional the organization is right now and how there's a real disconnect between the higher reaches and the team itself.

With regards to moving on from Tree Living, though, I will say, they acted in a manner that I think is right. And Tree Living did acknowledge us, right? He's like, hey, look, if you're not going to keep me around, get rid of me now, to which the organization said, okay, and I do think there's something to that. Okay, Paul in Okinawagin texts in and he says, well, I tend to believe what Gary Mason reports,

because that's that tends to be what will happen RJN that's Ryan Johnson Mount Malhotra in foot out here's the thing Paul what if Gary Mason was being informed by Jim Rutherford right which goes back to my earlier point

right like yeah it well exactly right like I it's very possible that Gary Mason's reporting was at least partially or maybe significantly informed by Jim Rutherford who thinks like I like RJ I'd like to bring him in as the new general manager I like Malhotra I'd like to bring him in as the new head coach but then ownership is like I don't know I don't know about RJ I don't know if he's ready for

this sure rookie general manager rookie general manager tasked with this massive, massive, and first decisions are huge in a rebuild. Let's get that straight. And are you so sure that he's going to be ready for this massive job? And then what if there is,

and I think this is maybe what sad is hinting at, although I don't want to put words in his mouth or anything in his mouth, for that matter. Right. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

You know, maybe there's disagreements right now or a lack of alignment. as they call between Jim Rutherford and ownership. And ownership is going, well, you guys want these guys, but we're not so sure about that. So what are we going to do about that? And now all of a sudden, we're not so sure about you. You know, that's, that's, that's what happens.

Like it's not, like, it doesn't have to be like this massive fighter, or falling out. It can be legitimate, just differences in opinions. And then you're kind of like, well, it's hard to work together then. And you know, if you want this guy and we don't want this guy and like, how we're going to solve this? But are you ever ready? Like, your first job has to come somewhere.

Hey, dog. Giving this job to a rookie general manager. And I like Ryan Johnson a lot. I think he's a smart guy. He's got high character. But this is also possibly a guy that not only are you prepping to become the next general manager in a very difficult situation in a rebuild that has to be done right um you're also saying maybe you're the guy that's going to take over entirely because jim rutherford is not going to be

staying for the next five or six years right it is a massive job to put on someone that has never been under the spotlight it is and and the knox have gone after rookie head coach and rookie GMs and it's just gone on and on and on. And I know there's some people out there that are like, I don't want another retread. But sometimes there's something to be said for someone who's been in that position. Gone through the battles. And, you know, I think Sat brought up Mark Bergervan, right? And I understand.

And he pushed back because it's like, all these old hockey men, you know, it's like, blah, blah, blah. These guys have been all in these positions. It's an old boys club. I get that. But Mark Bergervan has been the general. manager of an NHL team in a Canadian city. Yep.

Right? And a lot of these guys learn things. Sure. In their jobs. You know, these guys that weren't necessarily great in their first jobs. And I know Montreal wasn't, you know, Mark Bergervan's like first experience in management or anything like that. But, you know, there might be something to be said for bringing in someone that has

experience with the heat. Because I think, personally, we've. seen Patrick Galvin struggle with some of the public facing stuff. I think we've seen Adam Foote struggle with some of the public facing stuff. And frankly, I go back to, I don't know, like, I think, you know, like Willie, Willie Desjardin struggled with it. Jim Benning struggled with it. Like we've seen a lot of these rookies come in and they're the next big thing or like the, you know, Jim Benning was like this genius scout. And then he came out and it was like he couldn't stop putting his foot in his mouth.

Right. You sometimes need someone with experience and polish to take over these jobs. It's a tough decision. It really is because sometimes you get these guys in there, rookie GM, rookie head coach. And you're like, wow, these guys. are great. They're very well spoken and they look comfortable and the moment's not too big for them. Yeah. I mean, I think it's, you know my thoughts on this is that if you're going to start fresh, and I've mentioned this a few times, but I'll reiterate it again. If you're going to start fresh and

you're working from the ground up, you have to look at it as an opportunity. You don't really want to be too focused on the past as to how you got to 32nd in the NHL and having to tear everything down. You kind of want to put that in the rear view and you want to start with the notion of, hey, this is, a new start, a fresh beginning. We have a chance to reestablish our identity and redefine what we're about as an organization. And I think oftentimes, maybe almost all the time, the best way to do that is to move on

from as many things as possible from what got you there. So in this instance, I think that a complete overhaul of the front office, president of hockey ops down, is the right way to go. I understand you're not giving the current regime a chance to write the wrongs that they've done and set things up for the future. I'm with you, man.

I think there should be a house cleaning. Get someone in that has new ideas and different ideas. And if it doesn't work, and there's a chance that it might not work, at least you can say we wanted to go in a direction that had no ties to the past and was committed to building a future that we wanted to embrace.

Brandon Langley pointing out Kent Hughes is a rookie gym. Okay, well, we can go through all the exceptions to the rule. If you want to go through all the exceptions to the rule, we can do that. I would be curious to see the statistical breakdown of like the success of rookie coaches and gems. Because I think there are quite a few that I don't have had success. And I understand your argument that yeah, like this is like such a monumental undertaking that you don't want somebody to. And will tend to the pressure and we've seen that in Vancouver obviously with rookie. I get the argument.

I'm not opposed to getting a hockey man TM. Like I'm not opposed to getting a hockey mind that I'm experienced. I'm tired of watching general managers and frankly head coaches that look like deer in the headlights. For sure. But sometimes those rookie GMs have those fresh perspectives that you want. Or they do it a different way than maybe what has been tried and true and doesn't necessarily always work. So there's arguments on both sides. I think the big takeaway here is that no one in the organization is exactly sure what path they want to take yet.

Now, some people are going to say, classic Canucks, they don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're going to do. And they haven't figured it out yet. I think another way to look at this is you need to take as much time as possible trying to get the right people in place at the top, the architects that are, and you need to have the conversations across the league and pick the brains of countless executives

that have the experience that you were talking about and make sure you get it right. Talk to anyone involved. Talk to people at the NHL front office, figure out who would be a good steward for this thing. and also take the appropriate amount of time to get the right alignment in place. Sat talked about alignment a million times in that clip. Alignment means if you're going to have ownership and then underneath him, a president of hockey ops,

and then underneath him a general manager, make sure that that ladder is all aligned. Everyone understands what their roles are. Everyone can work together appropriately. And most important, everyone's got the same vision. They're all pulling the rope in the same direction. Can we talk about how some of these teams are, besides the Canucks, are ending the season? Like, I watched that Senator's Leafs game and the Senators didn't exactly blow them out, but they were just so much better than the Leafs.

It looked like, sorry, it looked like one team that was going to the playoffs and the other team that was putting the wraps on in a very disappointing season. But, I mean, like, there are levels to that. You know, I think we're seeing some, like, really pathetic, finishes because Toronto has had a pathetic finish to the season. Columbus had such a pathetic

finish that Rick Bonas was like nearly scream crying in the end of the season press conference. Seattle has had a really pathetic end of the season. Finished with a loss last night. And then I would say Detroit.

So this is an interesting one. In the aftermath of the Rick bonus blowup, which we played on the air. There was an opportunity for another one last night because the Detroit Red Wings finished their season meekly, to put it mildly an 8-1 loss to Florida in Florida.

And that ended the season. We're going to play some audio here from Red Wings head coach Todd McClellan. You know, Bruff, I honestly think that part of the reason he didn't blow up was because Rick Bonus did it the night before. He's like, well, I can't do it now. Bones stole my bit. But he was still seething. And if

it comes across in his voice, hopefully you'll hear it now. The audio almost does it, or the video almost does it more justice. But here's the audio, a very terse and very short postgame media availability from Detroit Red Wings head coach, Todd McLaughlin after an 8-1 loss to Florida to end the year.

Here's what Todd sounded like yesterday. Todd was this kind of a fitting end to a disappointing season, do you think? Well, I don't even know if I'll answer your question, but I'll tell you that we both, both teams came in. with nothing on the line. And you can see their championship pedigree. So I'm going to compliment the Panthers.

It runs throughout the organization. They came in and it meant something to them. This hurt a little bit just the way guys came out and just... Yeah. Ted, how do you measure the fact that this team made progress in several... I don't even want to talk about that now. Not even going there. We're good?

embarrassed. I mean, we all should be. Shout out to the guy that tried to talk about the improvements in a 92 point campaign. I love that guy's optimism. Todd was not having it yesterday. Not having it at all. So here's what you want. Is that the in-house reporter?

I got to put something for the website, please. Hi, I'm from the Detroit Red Wings Twitter account. I'm in Ben. Please give me something to work with. And Todd said, no, I am leaving. So here's what you need to know. Despite looking like they were well on their way to the playoffs before the Olympic break, they went 8, 11, and 4 post-Olympics.

and what the crazy part is is they had a bunch of games where they were leading in the third period. I believe four of those regulation losses that I mentioned of the 11 were blown third period leads and the even crazier part

is that they were doing those against teams that were out of playoff contention. They lost one to New Jersey that was crippling. They lost one earlier, not the 8-1 game, another earlier one to Florida who had nothing to play for. They had that game against Columbus

where they gave up a goal with like 10 seconds left. And they got a point out of it, but that was just emblematic. of the season. So look, there's a lot of teams that are finishing in a bad way. And hopefully that means that we're going to see some news this offseason, some big trades, possibly. I just want to make a point about what we were talking about with the Canucks general manager search or whatever head coach search. If there is one, like, it's a very difficult situation.

and one texter who was kind of fired up for like 624 in the morning he's like he's like well who would you hire who would you you know who these re these retreads are often you know just failures and I'm like I don't know I'm not doing the interviewing right like I'm just I'm in some ways playing devil's advocate and I'm trying to express the difficult situation that the Vancouver Canucks are in Like Mike and I aren't here to solve their problems. That's not our job. I think our job is to explain the issue that they're in. And then we have good pushback sometimes from guys like Adog that are like,

well, there are some good rookie head coaches and rookie general managers. And I would say, absolutely. If you can find those guys, find them and put them into positions. But what I'm saying is that sometimes in a situation like this, you do want a little bit of experience. You know, John Cooper... Like him, Rutherford. John, that's the thing.

You can go, you can go in circles like this. Like, like John Cooper has turned out to be an incredible head coach. Tampa's GM is a rookie GM. Laddie pointed out. John Cooper has turned out to be an incredible head coach. But he tells that funny story about his first season in the NHL when he was like, He would get off the bus and he didn't know the arena. So he'd be like, I'm going to pretend to talk on my phone.

Classic. So the players will go ahead of me and show me the way to the dressing rooms because I don't want to act like I've never done this before. That happens all the time. Jim Benny got lost. That was in year five. I am in closets. I think I'm in a closet right now.

Okay. It's all I'm saying is it's a very. difficult situation to be a rookie general manager or a rookie head coach in the NHL, especially in a market like Vancouver and especially in a situation like Vancouver where there are numerous, numerous challenges that are going to come up. And a lot of them are unexpected. When you are the general manager, you are doing a lot of other things that people don't know,

administrative stuff behind the scenes that you've got to do. And a lot of that stuff is going to be like, I don't know anything about this. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. I was reading SportsNets' latest draft prospect rankings. And Caleb Malhotra was number three. And number three is the spot where the Canucks, based on probability,

are most likely to draft. Sure, we hope they win the draft lottery and pick first or second. Yeah. But third is very possible. Would you be on board with the Canucks hiring many Mahotra as the head coach and drafting his son, Caleb? Is that like a good thing? Or is that fraught with risk and fraught with conflicts of interest and fraught with just all sorts of confusion and like. you know, what happens if Manny isn't doing a great job?

And you've got his son in the mix. But it could be great. It could be great, right? Like, it could be amazing that you've got this thing not only to sell from a business perspective, but also, you know, oh, like a father or son? Like, what if, what if Manny's great and Caleb is great? What a great story that would be. Have you even thought about this?

because this is possible. This is very possible. I think Dollywall reported that he thought that if the Canucks were to draft number three, they would take Malhotra. And I don't know. Maybe if they're trying to sell many Mahotra on taking the job with the Canucks. Like, do you think he'd be more likely to take the job with the Canucks if they said, we're going to draft

Caleb or like, I don't want to coach my son. That seems like that seems crazy. It would be, okay, first off, it would be a really, really unique circumstance

in the history of the national hockey league to have not, I mean, a father and son, like if you look back, there's a handful of guys that have a coached. Sutter must have coached his kid.

No. No? No. It was uncles and nephews that aligned on the bench, but never father's son. But anyway. I never liked your brother anyway.

Yeah. Did not care for him. Now, but even, okay, there's had, there have been a handful of guys that have coached their kids, but to task them with being a, and not a, like the foundational building block of a rebuild,

it feels like it's pretty risky. It feels, okay, I'm going to just be really, like harsh about this. It feels like a marketing ploy more than a hockey decision to me. But Caleb Mulhotra could be a really good player. His,

like, he's, Awesome. It's like an high IQ elite two-way player, excellent playmaker speed, projected top five pick

comparable to a more offensive version of Jonathan Taves. Adog's been watching his games. It's funny. No, it's funny. Since the Dollywall thing,

like I started, I didn't really, honestly, I'd never seen him play. But ever since the Dolly Wally-W thing, yeah, I'm not a big prospect of it. But since the Dollywall thing,

I started like watching the highlight reels. I'm like, wow, this guy's like awesome. I had no idea. He was that good. I had no idea. That shows you how little I know about prospects.

But like, really seriously, I love his genetics, too. Yeah. Like, so he's... Like, there's your center if you're after him. Hold on. He's...

Mani Mahalchus his dad. Who's his mom? Joanne Nash, Steve Nash and Martin Nash's sister. Star soccer player at the University of Victoria back in the day. So here's the thing. I mean, come on. He's got celebrini vibes with the very good lineage. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

With the athletics. But here's the thing. If they get Malhotra, you're going to say, it's going to be out of, it's going to be born out of disappointment because that means they would have dropped to third. Let's just call that what it is.

Yeah, but you still end up with a very good player. There's going to be disappointment. You can't say that there's not. If you don't win the draft lottery and you fall to third, 0% of people are going to be like sweet outcome. Yeah. Right? Agreed. So that's a tough situation.

Malhotrazari is going to be the guy that wasn't McKenna and wasn't Stenberg. So that sucks. Secondly, you bring in his dad. who's never coached in the NHL before and is inheriting what's going to be a really bad team. So a couple of questions popped a mind right away. If you do this, is Malhotra ready to play in the NHL year one right away?

Probably not. Are you going to fast track them in because his dad's the coach? I would hope not. Are you going to send him back to junior? Is he going to go to the American League? Maybe the best place for him, you know, like any of these options. And suddenly, what looks like a really cool story in a really great marketing ploy.

You start finding some holes in it. And it starts becoming a little bit more complex than, wow, what a great. Now, from a sales perspective, it's amazing. Father's son, dad played for the Canucks, dad rose through the coaching ranks here, won a Calder Cup with Abbott's. But you're saying it could blow up in their faces. I just think it's a really interesting possibility.

Yeah, totally. It's a very, very real possibility. Yeah. Now, I just benched his kid every night. Yeah, right? What happens if your kid stinks? what happens? I mean, there's a lot of bits that could come from this

the very least. Hey, from a radio perspective, I would love this, right? They're like, what a dinner is like? What happens if you have, you know, what happens if he starts the year with the Kinnacks? Like, let's say like Coots did this year. And within five games,

he's not ready for this. And then dad's got to be the one that sends him back. But that's okay if he's, if he's, that doesn't matter. I mean, if he's 18 years old, but it cares if he's not ready. But it's, it would be amazing watching. his dad, like park him in the third period of him. Yeah, yeah. There's this other possibility as well, despite the disappointment, and yes, there would be lots of disappointment, is that there's

also a real possibility that Malholtra could be the best player of those three. Because it's not a surefire draft this year, right? This isn't like one of those drafters where like, this guy's surefire first, this guy's surefire second. They're all very close. I mean, yes, McKenna has the highest ceiling. But I'm just saying like, in terms of like, if you say five years down the road, Malholtra might be the guy that ends up becoming the best of those three players. I think I'd kind of enjoy it just for the jokes. Look, from our perspective is gold. Can you imagine?

It'd be the best. Imagine like we're sending you down. Oh, is it my play? It's like, no, you consistently don't put your dishes in the dishwasher. And it's just... Your room's a mess. It looks terrible. Your mother can't handle it anymore.

It's just a disaster right now. So many dishes in your room. Just bring them downstairs. Just bring them downstairs. Another question. We don't have enough cups. Would Malhotra want to coach his kid? Or would he be like, this is too weird?

Hey, that's a good question. Right? Would he be like, I don't know if I feel comfortable with this? I'd have reservations. Man, he's played almost 1,000 games in the National Hockey League, so he knows what good and bad teams look like. More importantly, he knows how they operate. Right?

And look at Chicago. Look at how bad they have been. This was year three of Connor Bedard. I had to go back and check. This is sophomore season, right? Uh-uh. right? He's been in the league for three years. It's been tough, tough going for him,

tough going. Yep. You know? So it's not a great environment for a young guy to break into on a bad team. If it's your son, you're probably maybe want to keep it at an arm's length. Like I don't necessarily want to be boots on the ground here because man, he's going to be, if he was to be that, coach of the Canucks.

At arm's leg. No more hugs. That's it. We can't do it in the room, on the plane. Private, sure. No public hugging. I just wanted to, I just wanted to throw that possibility out there because I'm sure some of the other shows have done it, but we surprisingly haven't. And it is, it is a very real decision that the Canucks could have to make. Brandeep Janda joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Brandeep. Good morning, boys. How are you? We're well. We finally made it, buddy. It is the final game of the

Vancouver Canucks season. You know, I got to say for as long and at times tortured as this year has been, hasn't been too bad to close it out. And they got a chance to do a couple things tonight. They could close the year with a four game winning streak. They could also throw a real wrench into Edmonton's postseason plans if somehow, somehow they're able to get a win in regulation tonight. So I'm actually really looking forward to this one. I think it should be a pretty interesting game. Your thoughts on tonight's matchup against the Oilers. Yeah, this team clearly embraces the role of spoiler. They don't say it, but they're playing, you know, and battling every game.

won three in a row as we've seen guys. And more than anything, they're not going weakly into the off season, right? Look at what's going on in Columbus. Look at what's going on in Detroit. That got absolutely spanked even Toronto. And I understand those teams were more competitive, especially the first two I mentioned

throughout the season, but there is something about ending off the season, right, having the right vibes, having the right mentality. And obviously this team is in a different situation. Some of those, those are a little bit more veteran-laden. This is the third youngest team hockey. So to end off positively

really matters to this team. And I think it does present an interesting matchup tonight where Edmonton you need to win. If you want a whole nice advantage in the Pacific Division, you've got Anaheim playing Nashville tonight too, which, you know, National has got nothing to play for at this point. So if Anaheim gets

the two points there, if you're Edmonton, you don't want to start off on the road. That should be an entertaining series because defense is optional sometimes for both teams. But I think if you're Edmonton, no doubt you want to finish it off. So they'll be hungry and we'll see if Vancouver can match that level of intensity.

Well, speaking of the level of intensity, I think it was Jeff Patterson who pointed this out on Twitter. I apologize for not knowing in the moment, but the Canucks have had six scraps now in their last 11 games. So there's a true fighting spirit behind this team. Now, I know someone has to do with getting a guy like Curtis

Douglas in the lineup, but it seems as though But Chronic was fighting, Blugher was fighting. Right? Like, guys you wouldn't necessarily expect to. And I know it's late in the year and some pessimists might point out, that they should have been fighting like this earlier, but I do think it's another interesting development that late in the year,

there's that, you know, I hate, pardon the pun, that that fighting spirit throughout the team, something that I think's been lacking at times this season. It has, and I think the guys that are fighting are important here too. Jason, you mentioned it. Obviously, you know, Douglas has that role and he's shown that he can score

with his first NHL goal. But, you know, Teddy Bluger, he's got scraps under his name in the NHL, but he's not noted for that. I think he's got scraps. because he's played in the bottom six over the years and eventually a fight or two finds you. But Philip Rodick hadn't fought in six years, guys.

His last fight was against Vinny Trocheck in 2020. Like, this guy does not drop the gloves. And when you have a young team, the veterans on this team understand if they get hit, if one other teammates get hit, it's not only about standing up for the young guys, which Philip Roedick was for Zee William on that play. There's also a thought that, you know,

we've got a young group now. We've got to teach them how to play. We've got to teach them that there is, you know, you've got to be, you know, there's got to be a selfless attitude on this team where you're standing up to the guy next to you. So I think more than anything, it's not only standing up for the young players, it's also showing them how to play the game of hockey at the NHL level. And the word culture has been used all across the NHL, obviously in Vancouver over the last couple of seasons, but we heard Rick Monas talk about it. Todd McClellan indirectly said it, but he said it with his looks more than anything last night. And I think when you see scraps like that guys from guys that typically do not fight

is a message being sent to the younger group saying, hey, every now and then, you got to step up and I thought, you know, Philip Rodick, he's not known for chucking him, but the fact that he can stand in there, the fact that Blugher could take Radco Gudis, that sends a message to the team to say, we're going to stand up for you, but also this is our part,

this is the part of being a team. You got to stand up for each other. Hey, Randy, this is just kind of like a fun conversation we're having earlier, and it's a bit of a what-if. But it's a possibility. All right. What would you say to the idea of naming many Malhotra, the head coach, and then if the Canucks pick third, taking his son, Caleb, in the draft.

Ooh, okay. So I'm a classic go-by-your-list best player available. Like, I understand the father's son. element here. But like if it was my team, the direction I would say is, hey, that's cool. Like, welcome to the club. Understand your kids involved in this.

And he's going to be a top five pick, top six, depending on your list. But the list is the most important thing this time of the year, guys. So if you feel like if your scouts have a consensus, which is rare, let's be honest, but if they have a majority saying, hey, Keaton Verhoff is the guy that you got

to go with. Players on the right side of defense, this big, this mobile, don't come around, or Chase Reed, or going through that list. Whoever that number three player on your list is, I would feel go by that. And I understand the enticement of having father's son. But if you feel like there's a better player out there, you got to go with that guy. And it doesn't matter if their father, son, nephew, to me it doesn't matter. It's an interesting one because could it happen? Yeah, I guess it could.

Totally. But I'm always best player available when it comes to that. So I'll just, this was going to be what we learned because I just saw it. But hey, we'll just announce it now because we're talking about Caleb Malhotra. So NHL Central Scouting has released its final draft rankings ahead of this June's NHL entry draft. So to nobody's surprise, McKenna's the number one North American skater. Stenberg's the number one European skater.

Caleb Malhotra, according to NHL Central Scouting, is the sixth North American skater. Remember, this isn't overall. They're separated into two distinct camps. So it goes McKenna 1, Chase Reed 2, Carson Carroll's 3, Keaton-Virhoff 4, Daxon-Rudolph 5. Daxon. And then Caleb Malhotra 6th. So I know that everyone's got their own lists and everyone's got their own talent, you know. Yeah, the Sportsnet list has Melhotra number 3.

Right. So it just goes to show maybe that, you know, him being three on certain boards would be a reach because if you're going to suggest Stenberg's in there, it would put Malhotra more in the long lines of a seventh to tenth overall kind of pick. So it's all very interesting. And, you know, just to get back to the conversation, Randy, I love the idea from content creation and marketability and narratives. But I do think ultimately it's fraught with risk because, you know, when you enter a rebuild, something to remember is a lot of times the coach that starts it

is not often the guy that finishes it. I know Marty St. Louis had been a great story in Montreal, but when you inherit the job in Vancouver next year, assuming that you do, whoever that coach may be, you've got a lot to do because this is a, this been a difficult job for Adam Foote. I know he hasn't been perfect, but it's been a tough job for him this year.

Yeah, if you look at the coach turnover rate, guys, hockey is no fairy tale, right? Like, I'm going to throw in some soccer here. Diego Cibioni has been managing athletic. Maddo Madrid, I think two of his sons have played for him over the years.

Like, you don't get that sort of a rain in hockey, right? Like, you don't get that opportunity where, you know,

you're going to have a long leash. And I think overall guys, like, yes, in a sport that has so much turnover, right? When we talk about the most tenured coaches,

sometimes we're looking at outside of John Cooper, the window is, what, two, three years at times? Like, when we start really, you know,

reaching maybe four or five names into the list. So for me, yeah, It's got to be, I think there's that fairy tale there, but as we've known in hockey, not only Vancouver, across the league, hockey's not a fairy tale. Like this aspect is that if you can get a player at number three that you feel like could be, you know, a much better player, you got to take that every single day of the weekend. You know, to your point, yeah, Central Scouting has their own list. The International Skaters list I see, I guess, Stenberg and maybe Albert Smiths are the only other two ones that you can potentially.

potentially, say, have top six or top seven potential. So, yeah, you're looking in that range. But, you know, Caleb Mohotra has done a heck of a job this year. And in the playoffs, he's been fantastic for Brantford guys. But, like, you know, at that point, number three, such an important decision for this team. You got to go with the best possible player at any position, whether that's wing or or center.

We're speaking to Canucks, analysts. Randy Janda here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Just jumping around here. I do want to dive back into you. the current day Canucks and the team's most exciting player, the Paval-Berry Award winner, Z. Bouillon. We had Drans on the show yesterday, and he had an extended response slash thought

that if they're going to truly maximize value with Booiam, he needs to be more of a focal point of the power play. I guess a PP-1 guy. Wanted to get your thoughts on that watching the Canucks on a nightly basis. Is that an important thing for the organization to set as a goal to get him more reps, more minutes, and maybe more of, more of a presence on the power play.

Yeah, so if we look at minutes, last game he played 25 because of the Philip Rodick fight, you can say he got a little bit more, which was a taste of, hey, this is what this guy could do. But so, you know, absolutely, you know, he's got a trend in that direction a little bit more over the next season for sure. Powerplay one, that is a natural next step, guys.

Now, in this iteration of the powerplay, what has works for the Vancouver Canucks? it's been, you know, quick puck movement. There's a mobile five-man unit, essentially, and the puck's moving quickly, but also there's a lot of interchangeability. I think with what we saw with the Queen Hughes experiment was there's a lot of one individuals hanging on to the puck, right? And then the shot threat was there at times and it wasn't. I think with Steve Blumen, there's got to be a couple of things. There's got to be, yes, you can hang on to the puck, but you've got to also, I think his goal against L.A.

was a signal of, can you attack the middle more? Can you be mobile and, you know, can you change with the switch with your teammates as well and just be more of a goal threat? And I think a traditional quarterback, you know, they sit at the point and they'll direct traffic. I think William has the ability to do more than that. But obviously you have to have confidence in the rest of your power play as well. So I think there's a growth potentially there for him in that regard. And the other thing, guys, is if you want to be a power play threat, that shot, as of right now, he's a young player. he's got to develop it.

I remember Quinn Hughes, it took him time to develop a shot over the years as well. He made it to focus. But for his eve, I think that's another step you have to take. Of course, handling the puck, distributing the puck, I think is something that he can do well.

He can skate, he can create room for himself, maybe even attack the middle, as we've seen pretty, you know, I would say we've seen a fair bit, maybe not as much on five on five because he have left space. But, you know, if you can develop a shot

over the next year or two guys, I think he can very much be that power play one quarterback. And at the very least with where this team is at, even if he's not fully there yet, I still want to see him given that opportunity. It's trial by error, right? Like you want to get him out there, kind of what we've heard from a five-on-five perspective

from Adam Foote and Kevin Dean, get out there, make mistakes, learn from them. Power play is very much the same thing. We'll see what this roster looks like next year, but I'd like to see him at least build some chemistry and maybe show what he can do with some of his teammates. So to me, he's got all the tools.

What he needs right now is the reps. Speaking of the power play, can we just take a moment here and talk about how truly remarkable it is what Jake DeBrusk has done in this wildly forgettable season where it's been bereft of a lot of things. If Debrus scores on the power play tonight, that's going to give him 20 on the year.

Yeah. There are, that's like, I score on the power play and at three on three. That's it. I do two things out here. There would only be three players in the NHL with 20 power play goals this year

would be Wyatt Johnson, Pavel Dorofa, and Jake DeBrus, so whatever, that's not the most illustrious company. But if you go back and you look in the history of the entire 50-plus years of Vancouver Canucks hockey, there are only four players all time

who have scored 20 plus power play goals in a season. And it's Pavel Burry, Todd Bertuzzi, Marcus Naslin, and Tony Tanti. That's it. That's the list. That's the tweet.

Debrusk, again, in a year where it's been really bad offensively at times. He hasn't done anything at five on five. He has a chance to have a really unforgettable season almost exclusively on the power play. Yeah, and it's been very impressive because, you know, five on five, I think Jake would be the first one to talk about how he wants to do better and he's been disappointed that the puck starting to follow him. I think there's a couple of things here, guys. Five on four, you know, Jake has talked about in the past where he gets his cookies in front of the net.

Like he doesn't, he's not shy about that, right? Five on four, you're just getting more opportunities to battle in Titan. As we've seen, he's very good at that, right? You talked about the numbers within the Canucks and the NHL. I got another one for you, right? He's top three in the NHL when it comes to inner slot shots. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.