Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 4/17/26

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they discuss the news that the Vancouver Canucks have fired General Manager Patrik Allvin with Donnie & Dhali's Rick Dhaliwal.  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, dan, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Patrick, do you have a culture problem that needs to be fixed? A culture problem? Uh, on our team? Yeah. Download.

Throws it in front of the Scots Savoy. The game spot makes it three for three. A first period hat trick. You're pummeling me. Ladies and gentlemen. The weekend. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody.

Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford, it 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 Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sayans and Associates. They're open seven days a week and open late to help you get debt-free. With no judgment or upfront fees, visit them today. it's sands dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.

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into the Dunbar Lumber Text Line at 650. 650 trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. It is time now for our morning guest list. It's the Duick Morning Drive brought to by the Duick Auto Group. And it's going to be shorter than usual because we got a lot of stuff to get into and some potentially huge news as it pertains to your Vancouver Canucks. 7 o'clock AJ from AJ's pizza is going to join the program.

Brough mentioned to ask us anything Friday. $100 gift card to AJ's for the best AUA. You know how to get them in. At 7.30, Asa Raymond's going to join the program Play-by-Play voice of the White Caps. White Caps are back in action. Tonight's 730 from BC Place. And then when we talk to Rick Dollywall at 8 a.m. this morning, we're going to have a lot of things to discuss.

Intrepid Canucks reporter from Donnie and Dolly on Check TV. He's going to join us at 8 this morning. We're doing the bar inside giveaway. We're doing all our usual Friday stuff, but I'm trying to move this along, because we have a lot to get into. So without further ado, Greg, let's 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? You missed that? What happened is brought to you by

the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies investing tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.com.ca.ca. Before I break this news to the listeners, I will say this is pretty unique and the circumstances are not what we usually expect. But Patrick Alvin is out as general manager of the Vancouver Canucks according to a report out of Swedish media. Late last night and then early into this morning, this is according to Aftan Blotet, which is a Swedish news outlet.

I read it every morning. It's my favorite Swedish news outlet. One of my favorite Scandinavian tabloids. Do you have the new afternoon blotted? And there it is. We're still doing accents. Alvin is set to be dismissed by the Vancouver Canucks. There is not a ton of clarity right now whether this news has been delivered to Patrick Alvin,

whether Patrick Alvin traveled with the team yesterday to Edmonton for the team's final game of the regular season, which they got shelled and we'll get into that later. According to the provinces, Patrick Johnson, both Alvin and Rutherford have been contacted for comment. neither have replied as of yet. All we know right now is that a prominent Swedish news outlet, Afton Blatt, is reporting that Patrick Alvin is out as general manager of the Vancouver Canucks. I don't want to read too much into a potential translation of a Swedish newspaper, but here's how it's translated.

On Thursday evening, the owners agreed to relieve Alveen of his duties. Is there anything to that? The owners agreed to relieve. Alvin of his duties. We got to be careful with it. We do have to be careful. We have to be careful with it. It's a Google Translate.

I think that we've heard a lot about potential power struggles behind the scenes in Vancouver and maybe a lack of agreement on the way forward. And, you know, I just wonder what else is going to break today. Sure. What else is going to happen today? Now, the players, I imagine, are going to do their avails. Well, who knows now? Yeah, and get the hell out.

Well, they're going to have to because, I mean, you know, they usually just do it after their last game of the season. And they meet the media. They clean out their lockers. If this does happen today, you're putting the players in an obviously tough situation where they're going to be forced to comment on either the dismissal of their general manager or the reported dismissal of their general manager. Again, the connects have not confirmed this news as of yet, which is why we're handling it in the way that we're handling it.

Now, I will say this. If you want to start connecting the dots and making fair assumptions or not, mid-March, Nick Kiprios put forth a report on Sportsnet.com, that he had been told that Patrick Alvin was telling individuals, telling people, maybe leaking to sources, that he was not going to return his general manager, and he was going to be fired from his post. you could then say that maybe there's a line to be drawn between Kiprio's report

and then the news that the first prominent outlet to report Alvin's dismissal was a Swedish news outlet. Alvin of course being the first ever Swedish general manager in NHL history. Again, draw your own conclusions, draw lines between whatever you want, but there definitely seems to be at least a correlation there that's worth exploring. There were rumors starting at. at the beginning of the season. And I remember Patrick Johnston writing this,

that, you know, if things went a little sideways, Patrick Alvin was going to be the fall guy. And I do think that maybe not now is the time to have this conversation, but if Alveen is the guy that, you know, that wears it, that wears it, I don't know how fair that is. That's a very good point.

I think we can discuss it right now. if this does happen. Look, we're going to work on the assumption that this is news and this is happening. Okay, here's a text into the Dunbar Lumber text line and it's a little harsh, but I kind of agree with it in theory. Unsigned text must be nice for Jim Rutherford. He gets to make all the decisions and when they stink, he gets to fire the secretary. Well, there's that element of it. Look, we talked about this yesterday on the show. we've talked about it repeatedly since it happened. And while there wasn't a singular kiss of death for Alveen's role and his diminished his diminished role in Vancouver,

I think it came during the Quinn Hughes trade, both how the trade was orchestrated and in the immediate aftermath, when Jim Rutherford made it abundantly clear that that was his deal to be made and it was his deal that was made. It was not Patrick Alvin orchestrating the biggest trade, not just of the season, but one of the biggest trade in franchise history. Because even if you think it's unfair that Alvin would wear this, and maybe it is,

another way to look at it is potentially that Jim Rutherford has been tasked with finding Jim Rutherford's successor, and Jim Rutherford doesn't believe that Patrick Alvin is that guy. You know? No, no, no, but like that's, it's like, so, because some people will look at this. Well, like, this is a punishment for Patrick Alvin, for what has happened, right? Yeah. Maybe it's more about like, okay, we're going to need a successor for Jim Rutherford.

We're going to need someone going forward. And we just don't believe he's the right guy to you. We don't believe he has the stuff. So let's get going on the, on the search for the successor, right? away. I think there's a lot of layers to it. And I think there's a lot of different reasons why this might have happened. So it's not rather for trying to find another fall guy now? Well, I need to find another

fall guy. Okay. It's, you know what? I'm being facetious. I don't think it's even that facetious is that within this structure and within this organization, if you always have a president of hockey ops and then a general manager serving underneath, that dynamic always exists. But surely he must be looking

looking for another successor. But if it's going to continue the way that it continues, it's always going to exist. Like, is that fair to say? Anytime you hire the guy that's underneath you and you don't give full autonomy, there's always going to be that element of, one, who's really calling the shots? And two, if this goes badly, who's the fall guy? Because in this instance, I tell you who the fall guy was, is Patrick Alvin. Now, this is not to say that Alvin did a wonderful job as general manager and was unjustly fired.

And that's probably what clouds the analysis a little bit. I don't think anyone is here saying that Alvin knocked this job out of the part. or he had a scintillating stint as the first Swedish general manager in the NHL, there were a lot of issues along the way. There was constant, I would say constant communication problems. And I'm not talking about just public speaking. I'm talking about the way that messaging was framed, the timing of certain messages,

how things were relayed to the public and the media. And, and this goes upstairs to Rutherford as well, a general lack of accountability from the guys in charge. Because we're going to play some Elliot Friedman audio afterwards where he relays this notion that the entire Kinex organization from ownership to the front office is still almost dumbfounded at the way that everything crumbled underneath them. And it often seems like they were always looking for reasons why.

And you heard Jim Rutherford talk about the Pedersen and Miller Rift. And you heard Jim Rutherford talk about that, well, one of the biggest, issues with keeping Quinn Hughes is he always wanted to play with his brothers. And it was always something that was outside of the organization's control. Always. And that lack of accountability, oftentimes was the prominent message from the president of hockeyups and Alvin did it as well,

the general manager. We played that clip from your question of the presser after the Queen Hughes trade, where you asked if they had a culture problem. And his answer was, and I know he was caught off guard, but his answer was on our team. A culture problem on our team? No, in the concessions. And I know you might have been caught off guard.

Not you, but the royal you might have been caught off guard. But you got to be kidding me at that point. You're at that point, you've had a rift between the two, two of the biggest stars on your team that led to one of them getting traded. Your head coach had left. And your star defenseman and captain had just been traded. you should be prepared to answer the question of whether or not you have a problem in the room and a culture problem. Okay, let's get to that Elliott Friedman audio.

And by the way, the Canucks lost badly in Edmonton last night. Oh, yeah. What was it, 6-1? And by the way, with that, this is symmetry. With that five-goal loss to the Oilers last night, the Canucks officially finished the season with a minus 100 goal differential. Right on the button. Right on the button.

Such a nice clean number. They needed, they needed, it reminds me of when Wayne Gretzky scored five goals in the game to, what did he, oh, to get to 50 goals in 39 games. Yeah. And I just slid in the empty netter to get there. And like, it was, you know, that happened in Edmonton, too. I respect a nice clean number. You know, minus 100. Minus 100.

Yeah. I think the next team was maybe Chicago at like minus 60 something. I mean, the Canucks were dead last in the NHL by a mile. by a and you know I don't really have anything to say that hasn't been said already but I guess now that it is officially done my only conclusion is that

there needs to be significant change this is an inflection point for the Canucks and just saying well we'll get a new general manager or well we're rebuilding that isn't going to cut it It might cut it for you. It's not going to cut it for me. Me neither.

If the philosophy of the organization doesn't change, if the way they handle themselves on an everyday basis doesn't change, if the way they identify and evaluate talent and character doesn't change, then the rebuild is not going to work. I just don't know how much more of a wake-up call an ownership group. would need. This team has failed so spectacularly over the last couple of years. So spectacularly.

So many chickens have come home to roost. Have you been to Rogers Arena? It is inundated with roosting chickens. God, they're all roosting. There's a real smell there. I think that might sell a few tickets personally. I showed up and there's a chicken on my seat and I got to hang out with said chicken the whole game.

You thought it was roasting. Maybe get a few eggs out of the deal? You thought it was roasting. chicken. It's roosting, which means it's resting. No, no, no, I'm fine with a live chicken. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you'd be like, this chicken was because you traded away too many draft picks.

And that chicken over there was because you ignored the importance of leadership and culture. That chicken over there was because you did not, you wasted too much cap space. Yeah. And they're just like,

they're all coming home to roost. That's with the ostrich. So, that was in the most recent 32 thoughts which I believe is either dropping or has dropped early this morning

Elliot Freeman had a lengthy analysis on what you're talking about that everything's coming home to roost for the Vancouver Canucks but that the team is still very much mired in thinking about the past instead of turning the page

making the decisions and going to the future it was a very long clip I play a bit of a longer version I'll leave some of the pre-end Okay, sure. Why not? Why not at this point? We're going the first hour

completely uninterrupted Canucks anyway. So this is Frege on the Canucks, talking about how they need organizationally to make the decisions and turn the page. Elliot Friedman for the most recent 32 thoughts. I think the biggest thing that the Canucks have to do is make their decisions and then turn the page. I don't know if there's a market in the league

that looks to the past more than Vancouver does or debates the past more than Vancouver does. I think they have to make that a focal point. We're turning the page and we're not talking about the history ever again. Now, saying that, Kyle, I think that the way the last two seasons unraveled after that playoff birth and great series with the Oilers, has been an earthquake inside the organization. And like I've said, several times this year,

I don't think they really understand how they got here from there. And I don't think they've ever felt they got the best possible answers to it. And I don't think, I think they're still in disbelief that here's where, We are. That two years after that series, they were in 32nd in the league. And one of the reasons I think there's still some uncertainty over what may happen here is because I don't think they're satisfied or can completely comprehend how we got here. I just think it's been a lot of disbelief culminating in the Hughes trade. And it's sort of, I think they've had a difficult time figuring out, you know, now they've accepted their rebuilding, right?

But I think there's other parts about the path from here on out that they've struggled with. how do we address it or how do we go about it or you know who leads it or what our leadership structure is what our overall structure is since the Hughes trade it was really as as shocked as the fans were and as shocked as we were I think it really rocked the organization too so I still don't have a great grasp on where exactly they're going to go here. There's real disappointment. But I do think that whatever they decide to do, they have to say, all right, new era, that was disappointing, but we're closing the books and we're moving on. Enough worrying about the past. You know, the whole Ryan Johnson stuff, the, you know, Rick Dallowall

reported that Nashville asked for permission to talk to him. The Canucks have disputed that. I think there's a little bit of semantics there. I do think Nashville wanted to talk to him. I think the Canucks felt when Johnson got an extension, there was an agreement that he wasn't going to pursue any other opportunities. So I guess it just comes down to how you look at it. You know, Pedersen, I think, is the big one, Kyle.

And, you know, obviously he's had a really difficult year off the ice, too, in his family life. And I'm hugely sympathetic to that. But I do think that they're going to sit down with him if they haven't already and looked at the potential outcomes. The Canucks have made it clear. They don't want to eat money. And I think there will be teens. who will look at this and will investigate it. And I think there will be teams who may ask to meet with Pedersen,

but I don't think trading him, if everybody wants to do that, including Patterson himself, who has the ultimate say, I don't think it's going to be impossible. But what I do think that, you know, everybody involves going to have to be creative on what they're willing to do. And secondly, I think there are teams. who will consider it as long as they can talk to Pedersen first. I think they want to get to know him a bit more before they trade for him.

So this idea that Elliot put forward that the Canucks can't understand how they got to this point, like what happened? That is probably an infuriating thing for a lot of fans to hear. I'm thinking about the ones who've been. been warning the Canucks about things like asset management for years, the ones who kept pleading for the Canucks to patiently build a roster instead of making win now moves for a team that wasn't ready to win consistently. I mean, put it this way, the, the, you need an army crowd isn't all that surprise that the Canucks

have ended up here. And neither is the crowd that says, your top players have to be your top players your top players have to be leaders your top players have to have character the Canucks put their trust in a trio of players J.T. Miller, Elias Pedersen

and Quinn Hughes who didn't lead very well and I think you can question how much they wanted to win their character, their knowledge of how to win all three are very different personalities. And some of them showed leadership qualities at times for sure. Yeah.

But clearly, the right culture did not get established under their watch and under the watch of management. I keep thinking about the Canucks top brass wondering how they got to this point. And are we the baddies? keeps playing in my in my brain like you know i don't know if everyone knows that skits mitchell and web english guys and it's a couple of like s s guys and they're sitting there fighting the russians and and they're like one of them goes like we've got skulls on our cap like are we are we the

the baddies see you know and it's kind of like it's it's it's it's Like, you know, because the Canucks have this idea that sometimes, like, it feels like they've got this siege mentality that everyone's out to get them. Well, that's right. I wanted to go with it. Everyone's out to get them. And everyone is just criticizing them. And it's unfair. And why are people always criticizing us?

And then, you know, like, I wonder if there's been any realization from ownership is like, maybe some of those critics, like, they kind of. kind of had a point. That's kind of where I wanted to go with it because in that clip that you're talking about. Critics, right? In that clip you're talking about, there is an actual moment of self-reflection. It's when they actually ask for the first time,

wait, is it us? I don't think the Canucks have ever gotten there. I really don't. I don't think they've ever had a moment where they're like, should we look inward? Is it us? Did we make a mistake? The public messaging put forth

And again, specifically in the case of the Miller-Peterson Rift and Quinn Hughes wanting to play with his brothers. And as someone pointed out in the in-basket, the injuries, there's never been a moment where any of those things have been turned inward. And the questions have been asked that are we at fault for this? It's always immediately defensive and blame it on something else and put it on someone else. Miller and Pedersen had a fight. We couldn't have seen that coming. Had nothing to do with us. And, you know, Quinn Hughes never wanted to be here anyway.

I always wanted to go play this, but I had nothing to do with us. Nothing, nothing to do with us. We're perfect. And that's why a reimagining of this entire thing. This entire thing is so important. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Rick Dolly Wall.

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

It's time for Rick Dolly Wall. Rick Dolly Wall. It's time for Dolly. Rick Dolly Wall. It's time for Rick Dolly Wall. 8.1 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Halford and Bruff, SportsNet, 650.

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Call in on the ABLE Auctions hotline email sales at ABLEA auctions. to get your business assets sold and your building cleared. We go now to the ABLE Auctions Hotline. Our next guest is a presentation of Bassant Motors. It's Rick Dollywall here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. What up, Ricky D? Hey, guys, what's going on? Oh, man, where do we begin, buddy?

Where do you want to start? Oh, boy. Oh, we've got to start with the big news. And when you finish 30-second overall, it's hard to believe you're coming back with the same crew. You can't do that in a smart hockey Canadian market. That's what Vancouver is. You're not going to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. Patrick Elvine's out.

I got the background on how the story broken Sweden, but I can't... I'm not going to get into a... What? Come on. You can't say. I've got the background. He's the listeners like... Stop.

Stop. Give us a little bit. You said it. Give us a taste. Give us a taste. No, I just look. Patrick Elvines from Sweden. The story broken.

Sweden. I spent some time this morning. It's a funny background. But anyways, I've been told I can't. Let's move on. As of this week, sources say there was also a scenario where Alvin could have stayed as president, GM. You know, Cervilles mentioned that with you guys a couple of times. That was pretty accurate. That means the owner, everything was on the table to me, like everything, like everybody was being looked at. there's no question about that. Now, I texted a lot of agents this morning. Lots of them replied with this. The wrong guy got fired.

Lots were like, why fire the guy who had no control? Didn't make the big decisions. Agents, for the most part, I don't know if you guys are going to blame me or not, but they liked Alvin. We all know that Rutherford made all the big moves, keeping Miller over Horvatt, resigning Pedersen, resigning Demko, that's all Jim's fingerprints. As of now, and I'm only talking about this morning, I'm not hearing of any other significant changes other than Alvin. That doesn't mean more changes aren't coming, but I've just, as of now, as of this morning, I'm not hearing of any other changes.

So if other changes will obviously clearly, we know will happen, we'll have to wait to see what happens. But as of now, that this is the big one this morning. So tell us. Okay. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, no, you go. You go. Well, tell us more about this scenario where Alvin could have been the president and the GM. Like, when was the ultimate decision made? Was it just very, very recently? I think it was very recently. But you sound surprised. Survelli said that on your show. But it does look like the decision was made, you know, it wasn't made two, three, four, five days ago.

and Kiprios had some really good information this week where he said the owner, you know, he was contemplating everything, everyone was, you know, you know. So, yeah, I think everyone was being looked at. I think there was a lot of scenarios going through ownership's head, and that was one of them. But that's what I, that somebody said he could have got a promotion as well. So, but you sound surprised when Cerville told you the same thing. but you do make a good point, Jason. I do think that this decision came down yesterday,

and obviously Patrick was told last night. He leaked it to the people in Sweden, and it broke overnight. And so there you go. Now, I want to get this in. You would think that Ryan Johnson is going to get a hard look here, right? Now, one thing I want to say about Ryan Johnson, I believe the Canucks extended him last year with a big raise after he won the Calder Cup

and the Canucks's understanding was he wasn't going to go anywhere. After signing him to that extension, the Canucks felt he was locked into Vancouver. I don't think you're going to hear the last the teams going after him, right? The Canucks can silence those rumors by promoting him in Vancouver. They have the opportunity. There's an opening now. and as Elliot Friedman and I have both reported, the Canucks did not allow Johnson to talk with Nashville

about their vacant GM job. I would, if you're going to block this guy, and you did give him a raise, and you want them to stick around, I mean, you've got to promote him in some fashion, I would believe. Now, the other thing, the problem the owner is going to have is experienced hockey people don't think Vancouver's a great place to be right now with all the chaos.

You can get an experience. guy who's desperate for a job. Those guys are a dime a dozen, but you cannot get an experienced guy who can see through the BS and would never entertain Vancouver as a place where you want to go. If everybody in hockey, and you guys

said it this morning, if everybody in hockey knows Jim is calling the shots, who would want to come here and, as people have said, become a puppet? Your new GM here in Vancouver is not going to get three to five million. It should be most likely a cheap hireer

is what most people are thinking. Everyone in every department is under review, and it should be. Everything is on the table. The coach, the scouts, he's got to look at everything, this owner. John Shannon mentioned on our show yesterday that there could be changes with the assistant coaches. And I'll tell you something else. You know, agents were asking Alvin last week, hey, are we coming back? What's going on?

He didn't have the answers. So there's a lot of uncertainty all over. over the place, right? And they should move quick here, because I'll tell you something else. The biggest draft in franchise history is two months away. Alvin has just traveled all over the world. They sent him to Finland, to Sweden, you name it.

There was in a country there. He's been to Ontario and back to see Mahaltsra 500 times in the last few weeks. You know what I mean. He's been back and forth. But so you're sending this guy all over the world. to scout the top picks in the most important draft franchise history, and you just booted them right out of town. And I'm going to tell you something else.

The owner better execute these changes better than he did when he fired Jim Benning. He fired Benning, hired Boudreau, then he hired Rutherford. And you know how that ended with Boudreau crying on a bench? So take your time. I have no issues with these guys. Everybody wants to see 500 firings today. I don't. Take your time.

Take a deep breath. Do it better than you did when you fired a bending in green. And here's another one for you. As I said last week, the owner needs to think of a long-term plan. Not just for next year, but a good five years down the road. Now we're told they're going to look at a 10-to-15-year plan.

Really? when in the last 10, 15 years, all they've ever believed in was two-year plans. Remember? Vending told the owner every two years. We're two years away. The two years will come up. We're two years away, and the owner kept believing it. I find it hard to believe these guys can come up with a 10-to-15-year plan.

But it would be nice to have a plan for five to six years. If he would have listened to Trevor Linden in 2017, he'd be coming out of a rebuild. He wouldn't be going into one. Okay, so Jim Rutherford's going to meet with the media at noon today. That just got announced earlier this morning. What are you expecting Rutherford to say, what are you expecting to hear from when he meets with the media today? Well, I mean, what do you guys want to hear?

I want to hear some account of a bit. Not want so much, but what do you, like, let's start with the, what do you think you're going to hear? I want to hear accountability. I want to hear why you started this season, win for Quinn, right? all these people that rip Adam Foot, do you understand how the goalposts changed on Adam Foot? They traded Sherwood, Garland, Myers, and Hughes. They took those four guys away off his roster, right, and plummeted to 32nd.

I would like him to explain why we went out this year. We started the year trying to win for Quinn to re-sign them, and they were after Pabelsack on the summer. They were after Rossi in the summer. They were after Cadre in November. that doesn't sound like a team that wanted to go to 32nd place. I'd like some accountability. I would like for Jim to stand up and explain exactly how did you get to.

And you know, people give these guys credit for being in a rebuild. Why are you giving a team credit for being in a rebuild when that wasn't the intention? And there's no other option. There's no other option except to rebuild, none. Yeah. Yeah. No. Go ahead.

I think the most interesting part of this presser could be like, why did Alvin pay the price? Like, why did he not get the job done? Or is this about, is this about like the future and him not being the guy that you think is going to be capable of taking over from you? Because if, I mean, if you ask the question, did he not get the job done? Obviously, he didn't get the job done. but who didn't get the job done more, Alvin or Rutherford? Do you know what I mean? Does that make sense?

No, and like I told you, I still got text. I'm looking at myself. I still got texts coming in from agents, and they're all saying the same things. You know what? I like Patrick. You know what? He wasn't the guy calling the shots. And that's another thing.

That's another thing I'd like, you know, why would you come here? I mean, even Ryan Johnson, let's say they give the job to Ryan Johnson. Ryan's got to ask at some point, how much control. do I have? Like, am I going to be like Patrick? Like, in Patrick Alvin's defense, like, you can say, you can rip them for the makeup of the team and some decisions, yada, yada, yada. But he didn't, as you said this morning, Jason, he didn't have full control. We know that Jim runs the show and we know that Jim makes, you know, all the big decisions. So I would like for them to come out today and say what the new GM and what control he's going to have,

What's his going to be future? Now, Jim's got one year left on his deal, right, guys? Right? You tell me, does he? Yeah, okay. Okay, and the other thing I want Jim to stand up and talk about today is the culture. It has to be priority number one for next year. Culture doesn't start in the dressing room.

It starts with ownership how he treats people, president, how he treats people, then it filters to the dressing room. The agents did not pick Vancouver as the worst run team in the NHL for no reason, right? Quit being a soap opera. Quit making the news for all the wrong reasons. You think the NHL was happy about the publicity, about the Canucks created when they kicked out a reporter out of their home games? That went to some major networks in the U.S.

I don't think the NHL was doing cartwheels about that. Look, it is time to start with the culture improving up high and then moving down. They need, okay, so J.T. Miller wanted out, right? Okay, Quinn Hughes wanted out. Rick Tawket wanted out. Why are people leaving this organization? I would like for him to stand up and say, and they're just not fourth-liners leaving.

They're not seventh or eight defensemen leaving. Rick Tockeets got Philadelphia in the playoffs. You know, he took them from 29th place to the playoffs. They lost a very good coach. You know, they lost their best defensemen in franchise history. Why are people leaving? When Quinn Hughes used the word nonsense in his interview?

What do you think he was talking about? He was talking about the chaos, the soap opera. I'd like for Jim to stand up today and say, we're going to improve the culture. But the culture improvement starts up high, then it filters down to the dressing room. Why are so many people leaving the organization? Why do the agents think you're the worst run team in the league?

Why, why, why? Are you guys always in the news for the wrong reasons? That is another question. I was a reporter today, I would be asking Jim. Why do important people want to leave your organization? Why? So, Rick, here's another question. Are you sure that Jim is safe?

Because I'm actually wondering if this press conference is tough for him. And like we've seen crazy stuff happen, right? Is this, is the fact that he was the guy to relieve Patrick Alvin of his duties? Is that a signal that he is 100% safe? Or could ownership still throw us a curveball here? No way. If he's talking at noon today, he's going to outline what the new GM's going to be like. He's going to outline a future plan.

He's going to tell you how we're going to improve. How can you fire the guy that comes on in noon today, Jason, to tell you how he's going to fix it? If it goes badly. Well, the Canadian market is, for everyone. And I'll tell you that much right now. I think this is the first Canadian market that Jim's worked in, right? He's been everywhere else. Hartford, or no, sorry, Carolina, Pittsburgh and all that place. I think this market caught him off guard in a lot of ways with social media,

the media itself, and it gets to people, right? It gets to, but Vancouver only gets to you when you lose. Vancouver doesn't get to you when you win. In 2024, right? Everyone was including you guys. We're singing the praises Rutherford, Alveen, Miller, talk it, everybody in this city, including us here, Donnie and I, we were raving about everybody. And it was hard not to.

But when it's at the other end and it goes bad, Vancouver's not a great place to be. It's not a great place to be. But you guys, Donnie and I, and all these people ripping J.T. Miller, when J.T. Miller scored that goal to send it to game six against Edmonton,

He scored that big, huge goal. Late with dying seconds, everybody was loving J.T. Miller in this city. And now everyone's turned on them. But there was a time when every – Vancouver is not a great place to be when you lose year after year. It's just very simple. Well, it also has to start from the top on how you handle criticism, because criticism is going to happen in a market.

And if it's affecting the leader of the operation, and then decisions are made that like I've talked about the siege mentality that the Canucks seem to have had with pretty much everything right like everyone's out to get them not really I mean you're just you were just laying it out there

when they were winning and doing well everyone was behind them you know people wanted to come to Vancouver I remember after that season we're like was it Sherwood or maybe it was DeBrasse they were like man I saw this place in the playoffs I want to be part of this right I mean and that's and that's

even the crowds down the stretch, they're so positive. The crowds were not nasty at all. I mean, I think this market has actually been, this may sound crazy, but remarkably, understanding and kind of a team considering all the terrible things that have gone against them because of poor decision-making.

Yeah, absolutely. And I'll tell you something else. Vancouver, we all know this. When the Canucks are winning, look at 2011. I still remember agents telling me and calling me after 2011, hey, you know, we want to go to Vancouver. When they're winning and everything's good, Vancouver is the best place in the NHL to be.

But right now, that's not where they're at. And another thing I want to tell you to is the word alignment. It's being used a lot in the last few weeks by a lot of teams. And alignment means this. The owner, president, GM, and the coach on the same page, that's been a big problem in Vancouver. guys. You know, when I look at why Rick Tocke left, alignment was a huge problem, right? And that's something that these guys have to do going forward. Your owner, your president, GM, and the coach got to be on the

same page. I don't think they've been on the same page in the last two years. And that's been a big time problem. And that's why you're having quality people and quality players and quality coaches get up and leave Vancouver. They got a lot of work to do this offseason. They got the biggest draft coming up. They got to pick a new GM now, possibly a new coach. We don't know. I would, as Elliot said this morning, he heard that Jim Rutherford was talking to players this week, so that tells me he's probably talking to players to get their impressions about Adam and, you know, should we bring them back or not? You got the Mani Mahaltzra situation. If you don't promote him this year, is this the summer he leaves? Right. So you got the Mahaltzra situation going

on down in Abbisford. Abbisford didn't have a good year. I don't blame them. They had a ton of injuries and they had a ton of guys leave and the whole nine yards. There is so many things on their to-do list. Guys, this summer, it's not even funny. But I do agree. I think they should take their time because if you rush into these,

you're going to get ripped in the market in a few weeks anyways, if it goes bad. But I think they have some time here to sit back, reflect on how they can be better organization. Make Vancouver a destination. It's not a destination right now. I've talked to agents who don't want to send their clients here on July 1st. I told you guys on your show a couple of weeks ago, some NCAA guys, advisors didn't want to send their guys to Vancouver. So they need to make Vancouver a destination. And how you do that is how you treat people. You know, go get the practice facility, make it an attractive place. But agents, want to know not just where their player is in the lineup.

They want to know, is Vancouver a great city? Of course it is. We all know that. That's one thing that Canucks ownership has. It's a beautiful city. But how do you treat the families of the players? How do you treat the players? That going forward is going to be a big thing for them.

And they've got to change that. They've got to change the perception of the franchise. Because right now the perception of the franchise, guys, not good. You know what's going to be really interesting on the subject of the head coach? coach. Rutherford, I assume we'll be asked inevitably about it today. You're curious to see if the answer is going to be, that'll be the decision of the next general manager, whether he'll give him a vote of confidence.

And I think the important thing to note here is that if he says, that'll be up to the next GM, if anyone actually believes him because. And when I say the next GM, I mean me. Exactly. Rick, that's going to be, I feel like that's going to be the overriding sentiment with every decision this organization makes moving forward is who's calling the shots. Is it Rutherford or is it insert GM here? Absolutely. And you know what?

I always remember Arthur Griffith is telling me, you know, we hired Pat Quinn and we let him do his job. How is Arthur going to tell Pac-Quinn what to do? You hire hockey people, let them do their jobs. Like, did Patrick Elvine ever, was he ever the GM in your guy's eyes? Like, you know, when you got a guy above you named Jim Rutherford, who's won Stanley Cups, who's a, like, I'll tell you something right now. Like, for me, the best executives in this city were, and this is only me, Pat Quinn and Brian Burke. And Jim Rutherford's right there in terms of when he talks, people listen. Like, I got nothing out of LVine news conferences.

I just didn't. But when Jim talks, people listen. He's a savvy veteran. He knows this stuff. You know, this isn't a guy that just started out five years ago. He was drafted in the first round by the Red Wings as a goaltender many, many moons ago. He knows this stuff. but he's also, he's got to get better too.

I think he'll tell you that I got to get better to. The owner's got to get better, right? The owner's got to get better. Rutherford's got to get better. The new GM coming in. And if they keep Adam foot, I don't know if they're going to keep Adam foot or not, guys. Like I know you guys have been, you know, pretty vocal

in getting a new coach. But you tell me right now, is a new coach taking the Kinnock's from 30 second to 10? Probably not, right? No. No. No. No.

They're looking at a lottery page. again next year, guys. And do you honestly think, what were they? 30 second and goals against, 31st in goals for, and they were, I heard you talk about the goal differential. You don't change that goal differential overnight, guys. They're playing four defensemen under the age of 23. And here's another one for you.

And all those people clamoring for a rebuild. Okay, let's go through this. Buffalo, first time in the playoffs of 14 years, right? Okay. And then what's it, who else got in this year for the, first time, Anaheim, eight years, Philadelphia, six years. Go look at the Red Wings, 10 years, no playoffs. San Jose, no playoff, seven years.

Chicago, no playoffs, six years. All these people clamored for a rebuild, buckle in, boys, because it's probably, you're looking at six to ten years and no playoff hockey. Rick, we are up against it for time. We've got to go. Thanks, as always for doing this today, bud. We really appreciate it. Busy day.

All right, go. Nope. Rick Dolly. I don't know what that noise was. A little toot. listening to the best of Halford and Brough.