Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 4/20/26

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, plus they break down the Jim Rutherford press conference with Canucks Central host Satiar Shah. 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. Everyone's so fired up. It's a Stanley Cup play. What's a exciting class out there? Good morning, Vancouver. 6 o'clock on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody.

It is Halford, it is Brough. It is Sports Fed 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Ad, good morning to you. Good morning.

The 650. The intern program rolls on. Intern Jordan, good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alvin, bro up in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Are you drowning in tax debt? If you are, Sands and Associates can often reduce your debt by up to 80% with the upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com.

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And if you want to text in about the Stanley Cup playoffs, or more likely, the Jim Rutherford Press Conference that went on Friday, and we have yet to talk about on this show, text in to the Dunbar Lumber Text Line, 650, 650, trusted by contractors in DIY. champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. So yeah, we do have a lot to get to on the program, including our guest list.

It's the Duke Morning Drive brought to by the Duick Auto Group. Begins at 630. Eric Engels is going to join us. Habs Beat Writer from Sportsnet. As you heard in the intro, Urizzlovsky completed his hat trick in overtime. Habs beat the lightning in game one of their series yesterday. Terrific game, highly entertaining. all of the playoff action on Sunday. Not that Saturday was bad, but Sunday was electric.

Eric is going to join us at 6.30 to talk about game one between the habs and the lightning. At 7.15 this morning, Brent Wallace is going to join the program from the coming in hot podcast out of Ottawa. Ottawa did not have as good of a start to its series against the Keynes on Saturday. Just 22 shots on goal and a 2-0 shutout loss to Carolina. I don't think there's going to be many shots in that series.

That was a very... two good shot suppression teams. I don't know if you saw the game, but Brady Kachak and Jordan Stahl fought right off the hop. Yeah. It went downhill from there. That was the highlight. That was not an entertaining game in the slightest.

Brent Wallace is going to join us at 715. Game two of Ottawa and Carolina goes tonight, our time 430. At 8 o'clock, that's Satyar Shah is going to join the program. Connect Central host here on SportsNet 650. We have got a lot. I repeat a lot to unpack from Rutherford's media available.

on Friday following this dismissal of Patrick Alvin. What's sat hearing about who will be the next GM? What is he hearing about Rutherford's future in Vancouver? We got those questions to answer and a lot more was sat at 8 o'clock. Guest list is short. We got a lot to get into, not going to run it in reverse. Without further ado, Laddie, 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? Miss that? You missed that? 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 BCCSA.ca.ca. The entire first half hour of this program is going to be dedicated to all of the things Jim Rutherford had to say on Friday because we have not had a chance to discuss them on the air yet. And there was a lot to go over. And Jason has broken it down by isolating the highlights and sort of like the most memorable moment. both in a good and bad way. So why don't you start? Okay. Listen, this is going to probably last for more than this opening segment. So we may have to return to this list.

There are five things that I've identified of the press conference. It's all Jim Rutherford. We don't have time to talk about the players, although the players all said, you know, it was tough, but, you know, hopefully it gets a little bit better. Sorry, Marcus Patterson. You don't make the intro. So here are my five categories. All right. Most cutthroat part of the press conference.

Most confusing. Most enlightening. Most predictable. And most optimistic. Nice. Perhaps overly optimistic. This is like those awards they hand out at the end of high school. Most likely to succeed.

Not the Vancouver Canucks. So, Laddie, you're going to have to be ready here with the audio. I want to play the most cutthroat. part of the press conference and that was when Jim Rutherford explained why it was Patrick Alveen that became the fall guy, the only guy to be fired so far after one of the worst seasons in Vancouver Canucks franchise history. I think that's a fair comment in my position. I do have to make some decisions.

but he was in charge of most of the things in hockey making the trades and deciding who's getting called up and down and working with the coach and all those things. So I take full responsibility for the season. I head up the hockey department, but I don't make decisions for other people. and Patrick had the opportunity to make his own decision. So did you hear that part?

You may not have focused on it, but when he said working with the coach, that was part of Alvin's responsibilities. You're like, yeah. I heard it, I noted it, and then there was so much to unpack it. I kind of forgot about it. Working with the coach.

Oh, okay. Well, Drants, our very own, Thomas Dran, said an interesting tidbit in the athletic where he reported that part of the reason, that Alvin was let go was that his relationship with Adam Foot, the head coach, broke down over the season. I'm just going to

read what Dran's wrote. Sure. Alvin wanted more development minutes for young players and foot was a bit too slow to lean into the team's plight at the bottom of the NHL standings and invest in improving those players by utilizing

them in roles above what they were prepared for. Okay? I bet that most of our listeners would be like, I'm on Alvin's side on that. Sure. It became a source of friction, Drans continued. And while the organization generally sided with Alvin's point of view, his lack of tact in managing the relationship was viewed as a mark against him.

Okay. I got a lot to go. There's a lot to unpack here. I just want to, I just want to keep going, then give it over to you. Now, on the roster front, I personally think Alvin's, Alvin was on a mission impossible to improve things without sacrificing the future in a significant way. And even Rutherford admitted that. He said that Alvin was smart not to give up Velander or a first round pick to find a much-needed center,

especially after Philippaedal went down. And yet, that inability to conjure something out of nothing was still held against him. now look all of that being said because it sounds like wow you're really going to bat for alveen yes and no because i'm not against the decision to let alveen go and move on i don't think he was the guy to lead the connects going forward the reasons just struck me as like really those are the reasons why not just say like yeah you know what like uh it wasn't anything he did badly we just don't think he's the right guy i'll be very curious to see how long Rutherford stays on after the new guy is hired.

The Kinnucks apparently need Rutherford's help with the hiring process, but once the new GM is on board, Rutherford says that all the hockey decisions will go through the new GM. At that point, I'm not sure it's such a good idea for Rutherford to stick around. Somebody else can get the practice facility done. You sure about that? He seems pretty ingrained in the practice facility. Okay.

when I heard about that brief brief snippet about this relationship with the coach and then followed up reading what Drance had to write in the athletic and then to your other point about you know not being able to facilitate a trade for a center

I think it was just like it crystallized how this organization had no plan that they stuck to during the season and when it altered they did not alter along with it we were calling for the removal of Adam Foote. I was anyway.

At the halfway point of the year, halfway point of the year, because I said, you did not hire Adam Foote to do this new job. When you hired him, you had Quinn Hughes and you had aspirations to make the playoffs. The moment that that changed, I just remember looking at the guy behind the bench and thinking, he's not the right guy for this job because he wasn't hired to do this job. It's like hiring a painter to be your plumber or vice versa. It just didn't make sense, but they stuck with it anyway. And then you had this thing where Alvin, as was clear at this point, was trying to convince Adam Foote to do a job that, one, Adam Foote was solely responsible for.

He was the coach, right? So all the decisions were going to end with him. And two, he had a bit of self-preservation involved here as well. Like, at the end of the day, he is going to be judged on development of players, but it's also going to be, in his mind, I know it, is part of it is, and what it looks like and the way that the team plays. And I bet he was just trying to manage the spirit of the team. Sure.

Man, he probably felt like, he probably felt like whether this was right or wrong. He felt like, listen, I got to play my veterans here because we're already getting killed. I don't want us to get killed more. Yeah. And also, you have to keep your veterans happy because they are largely responsible for mentoring young players, keeping the mood of the room up, which we'll get to later. And, you know, these guys have the. their own careers that they need to worry about.

So it was very much a quote about a team that was going in one direction, had to abandon it, and just wasn't prepared to deal with any change of plan. And your end result was finishing 32nd of the National Hockey League. Kuh, what else do you want to get to?

Okay, the next category is the most confusing. And the clip we're going to play from Jim Rutherford is him saying that he knew Quinn Hughes was gone. And he actually doubled down on that later.

He said, look, he was going to go, he was leaving. And you know why? Matthew Kichuk. I'm like, well, that's not a great example because they're two different people. But I'm going to play the clip and be warned, there's a lot of spin in this answer. We got to the point of the Quinn Hughes decision. I've known for some time that Quinn was not staying in Vancouver. And I've known before this season started, for that matter.

It's one of the reasons why we signed the guys, the garlands, the Bessers, the Demcos that had relationships with him, hoping for a little bit of a chance right down to the end that he would decide to stay here. But I don't think that was ever in the cards. And so then, knowing what he was thinking and what he was going to do,

instead of waiting until this off-season and probably getting a first-round pick from the New Jersey Devils, we accelerated it where the Canucks had the leverage. And so now there were a few teams involved, and we got the leverage. to the point where we could make the best deal we could. So there was a lot of spin in that answer.

First on, you know, why they made the decisions to sign Garland and Besser and Dempco, but also it made it sound like he landed on the perfect moment to trade Queen Hughes. Do you know what I mean? If he wrestled back to leverage. If he had waited until the off season, you know, they'd probably maybe get a first round pick out of New Jersey, right? Like for Queen Hughes. I'd probably get like a third round pick, right?

Like barely. Barely even that. But, you know, the way that went about it was perfect. Like I mentioned already, Rutherford doubled down later on when he reiterated that Hughes was gone regardless. I know there are some who will say that even if they knew Quinn was leaving, the Kinnx still had to try and change his mind. Right until the very end, you do everything you can to try and change.

change his mind. I know there are others who actually don't believe that Quinn was gone regardless. And that that is just a convenient story that Jim Rutherford is telling that if the team had been a cup contender and the vibes were immaculate, he'd still be here. Let's say he was, let's say he was the captain of the Montreal Canadiens right now. Team in Canada. Would he be like, actually, I want to go to the state? It's like I just find I find it hard to believe might be true.

I do too. I do too. It might be true. I find it hard to believe. But I find that hard to believe. Maybe I shouldn't have called this section the most confusing section. And maybe I should have just called it like that was the most Canucks part of the press conference. Because I just think it's typical of the team who always want to have their cake and eat a team.

like in hindsight they will always say like that's what we were planning i know that's what we were planning so frustrating all along you know um just commit to one direction not multiple directions at the same time and then after the fact you're like uh what direction happened that direction oh that was yes that was the direction that we were uh that we were going in a lot of half measures man that's what i heard yesterday was a summation of a season of half measures or sorry on Friday and it's really frustrating. Okay, there was some enlightening stuff from the president of hockey ops on Friday, including

a tidbit about how the locker room as currently constructed is the best it's ever been. And you coined this the most enlightening clip of them all and I do agree. Here's Jim Rutherford on saying how the locker room, again, as currently constructed, is the best

that it's ever been. I'm probably not going to answer your question because I'll end up pointing fingers at people. And and I don't like to do that, but it was really bad. And since the trade deadline and since the young character

energy players have come in here and stepped up, okay, to bring that energy in the room, the chemistry and the culture in the Canucks dressing room over the last five weeks is the best it's been since I've been here.

And you say you don't know where that's going to go. I don't know where it's going to go either, but if that didn't get cleaned up, I can guarantee it wasn't going anywhere. Now with that team chemistry, this team has a chance to move forward and let every player enjoy coming to the ring. And I'd have to worry about somebody barking at them in practice or picking on them in the room or whatnot. This group is tightly knit. Good veterans left here, good mentors,

very good young character players. Got a number of good young players coming. So this team's going in the right direction. How long that takes? I don't know. I would only be guessing. It was pretty crazy to me. And I actually had a laugh

out loud moment listening to that part. I was on the golf course and I heard it. I'm like, you just admitted that guys were getting picked on and bullied. at practice. And I thought, hey. Oh my God.

He admitted it. Remember when Frege reported that the Canucks thought Petterson needed to be toughened up? I do remember that. Like they needed him to be toughened up. It was in, uh, it was early last season. It was October 24. Okay. It was two years ago.

And this is what Frege said because I went back and looked at the transcript. they needed or they thought that Pedersen needed to be toughened up and they didn't want it to be up to Rutherford or Alveen or talk it. And I'm going to directly read what Fridge reported. They really believe in their leadership group. They believe that Hughes is a strong captain and they believe that Miller is a strong alternate captain and that their group is a strong group. man, they nailed that. They did. They nailed that.

And they said, you guys are the ones who have to do it. Miller's obviously taking that very literally. And it was just after a practice where Miller and Pedy had had a little bit of a tete-a-tete. Yeah. And Miller called Pedersen something. And Free said in that practice, I think there's been talks off the ice,

but I think Hughes is involved too. I just think Hughes would take that so seriously. as a responsibility of his, I think you're insane if you don't think he's trying to do that too. They enabled the bullying and the yelling at practice and the picking on of players. That was their plan.

They wanted to get Pedersen to a point where they were like, where he was like, hey, I'll show you. I'll show you guys are going to be mean to me. I'll show you. And, you know, if they'd known his personality, They'd know, well, there's, you know, there's a chance that happened,

but there's a better chance that he's going to go into shutdown mode. And isn't that what we've really seen from Pedersen? Like a total shutdown mode? Just like, I don't love this anymore. I think it's a fair thing to bring up in light of his performance, the body language, and energy and all of it. I think it's lost his passion. Yeah, this isn't fun anymore.

I'm coming to work and getting barked at and getting picked on. which brings us, I think, to the most predictable part of the press conference. And that was Jim Rutherford up there saying that Elias Pedersen has to put in the work. Yeah, he's been disappointing, obviously. I think there's a lot of good things he did. you know, he tried to become a two-way player, and he's tried to do the things that it ultimately takes to win as a team, but his production is down so much, it's difficult, right?

I believe that if he puts the work in in the summer, it's the same as anything people do in life. Preparation is the key to success. And I don't believe he's put enough preparation in at this point to be the player he needs to be. But he's young enough, he's capable of doing it, and if he does the things he's told to do, he has a chance to succeed here.

But if he doesn't, you know, the GM is going to have to make a decision. But you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. You're damned if you trade the guy because he could go and take off again. And then, or you decide, no, he's going to do it here, and he doesn't. So it's a very tough decision.

But I do feel confident that PD has the ability that he can bounce back. And he doesn't have to be a guy gets 110 points. Even just a point of game will be enough as this team grows and becomes a better team. It'll be enough for this team to be successful. But he's got to get to that and he's got to work at it. So, Halford, we're actually doing really well getting through these audio clips. So I think we're going to get through all five in the opening set. segment, but quickly on Pedersen, it will be interesting to see what the new GM decides on him.

The one thing I will say about taking issue with Pedersen's work ethic so publicly, and I know a lot of people are like, stop saying he doesn't work hard. Yeah. But there might be a team out there that thinks they can fix that. For some teams, comments like Rutherford's will be a non-starter. They're like, this guy's getting paid what he's paying and he's not working hard enough. we do not want that on our team. But others might think in a better environment,

and let's face it, a better environment is most of the league, right? 31 other environments. You know, Pedersen could thrive again. So let's not waste too much time on the Pedersen thing. That was the most predictable part. Well, I came from the press conference, unless you want to say something quick.

No, we got to get. I mean, I have, it's burning my, my tongue as it was, but I'll, no, no, say it. We got time. Okay. I think that there's a direct line, a correlation, if you will, between the amount of effort and energy and resources spent on trying to prop Pedersen up and justify the Patterson contract.

And all of it comes back to one singular guy. And that's the president of hockey ops that forced that deal over the line. I think that what you're seeing play out and it'll continue to play out is Rutherford, understanding that he is on the hook for the biggest and as of now most onerous, contract that's ever been signed in the history of the Vancouver Canucks, just go back, do it chronologically, go back and look, right? Who is the one that tasked players to cattle prod Pedersen to play better? Who was the guy that said that they had to orchestrate the trade of J.T. Miller because

the riff between Miller and Pedersen was too big and too deep to fix? Who came out in the press conference and said that the vibe in the room was so poor because guys were getting bullied and picked on? a dynamic that the organization itself created. And then who at the press conference is now lowering the bar to where he said Pedersen doesn't even have to be a hundred point player anymore. All he's got to do is be 80. 82 points. That's good enough for us.

Oh, is that it? It's the guy that pushed that contract over the line. And quite honestly, from what we've heard, did it in the face. And in spite of other people who were saying, don't do it. They made a huge gamble, a huge gamble. If you want to go back to, I mean, I know there's a million different fissure and fracture points over the last few years, but the moment that they made the decision to keep Pedersen and then double down with that gigantic contract,

it set off a course of action that saw the Miller trade, the Tocke at Exodus, the Hughes trade, 30 second place in the NHL. and they're still still trying to you know and there's like five different things they're trying to do they're trying to prop him up

they're trying to recoup whatever sunk cost is with the the contract and now you've got the president of hockey up saying with Pedersen we're damned if we're doing we're damned if we're don't yeah like that is a huge thing to say

for a guy that you signed to an 11.6 million dollar a year deal in the not too distant the past. Yeah. It's crazy. I'm sorry, but it's crazy.

Okay, we didn't do it, but we can save the... I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We'll save the most optimistic, perhaps overly optimistic part of the press conference

for later in the show. Eric Engels is going to join us next. Talk about the Habs big win in Tampa Bay. Coup was not happy with all the penalties that his team took. That Gensel penalty was ridiculous. In overtime. Or sorry, at the end of regulation that led into overtime.

The HABs on the power play are just a joy to watch though. Slavkovsky's pretty good. Pretty good with the man advantage. All of them working together. There's some really good power plays on display in the playoffs right now. So we'll talk to Eric Engels about

the HAB's big win in Tampa. I mean, at some point in the show, we're obviously going to talk about Buffalo's massive win yesterday. And that Utah-Vegas game, I know the Buffalo comeback was incredible, but I think the Vegas, Utah game was the best game I've watched so far. That was fast.

Fast. Back and forth, fast, nasty. You weren't really sure who was going to win right up onto the very end. That was some good hockey. And that's honestly the best for me, Vegas has looked in the last little while. Still undefeated under torts. They kind of looked like old Vegas there. And I also, I just love Mark Stone. Yeah, God.

This is nose for the net. Amazing. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Well, it's time to chat with Satyar. We'll talk about the hockey now. Let's chat with Satyar. Checking in on the Canucks.

Well, it's time to chat with Satyar. We'll talk about the hockey now. Checking in on the Canucks. Talking hockey now. 802 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford and Brough of Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Are you drowning in tax debt? Sands and Associates can opt to reduce your debt by up 80% with no off-front fees. This is them today at sands dash trustee.com. We are now in our three of the program. Oh, man. Hour three is brought you by the Duick Auto Group. Find out when nobody meets a Duick deal and nobody has since 1926.

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Steps strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. Let's go over to the ABLE Auctions Hotline, Halford. Okay, let's do that now. Joining us on the aforementioned hotline. host of Canucks Central. Canucks pre and post game host. Saty R. Shaw joins us now in the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650. What up, Sat? What's going on, boys?

Oh, man. You know, we've spent at least an hour and a half of our three-hour show breaking down. Everything that came from Friday, a lot of focus on Jim Rutherford's media availability. But we actually just played a clip from Teddy Bluger. I'm sure you've heard it like everyone else has now because we just played it. Talking about setting a culture, setting a standard. he alluded to his time in Pittsburgh playing with Sidney Crosby

and how things got developed and set there. What have you heard about the way the Canucks culture was, how it developed throughout this season, the highs and the lows, and where things are going to be going moving forward. Culture with the Canucks at,

what do you know? What have you heard? Well, I mean, there's been an acknowledgement publicly the last little while about how bad things were. Even Rutherford said they were really bad, which is also kind of funny because there were a lot of denials over the years about how bad things were in the locker room and things had apparently been okay. But I think essentially how it had been described to me by some had been a bit of a mean girl's kind of clique group with a team that would kind of, you know, pick on guys or, you know, always.

And I don't say pick as in like high school pick on guys, but I think it was more like maybe they were a bit tougher on certain guys or whatever it was. They would be a bit more cutting with their climatery here and there and wouldn't always create the best environment. And when things were going sideways, maybe that stuff went out and got out of control. And I don't mean it necessarily as, again, like, you know, attack revenge of the nerds type of bullying before the nerds started pushing back or anything like that.

But just one of those things where things were palpably not great. And I think what Rutherford was kind of alluding to was, especially with certain guys when it became clear that they don't want to be here anymore and things have fallen apart, maybe they let the attitude go a bit more, for instance, right? So I think that's the biggest thing. The losing got really bad. They already had some stuff going on with certain guys on the team.

And I wonder if certain guys just say, you know what, I don't want to be here anymore. So I was going to act a complete fool and then they'll have no choice with the move me out. I think it's fair to assume that Ilias Pedersen was part of the Lambda Lambda house in Revenge of the Nerds. So could this culture, change help him or is this is this a case of things have gone too far and maybe they just need to explore other places?

I mean, I guess the possibility is always there. I'm at the point now where we've done, what is it now? This is the third off season we're sitting here talking about, well, if you do these things different or if that changes or if that gets better or if you do this, maybe this will turn it around. So I'm kind of like at my wits end in terms of those factors being it. You would imagine if the environment is a little bit better, those things would change. But I think for PD, the biggest thing is, are you going to emerge somehow yourself? It doesn't mean you have to be this vocal leader, but are you going to emerge as a even silent leader, as somebody who, you know,

does take some people under his wing from time to time? Like, do you get to a point where you have a larger voice? So I think this question with, with PD is, do you get to a point where You just don't have that trust with your own teammates. And can you get to a point when you can convince them that you're still one of the guys that can really lead the way moving forward? Because every time everybody talks about the leadership group on this team, well, we know the names that get checked. You also know the names that don't get checked.

You can sit here and say, well, he's not the vocal leader type. You don't have to be vocal to be a leader. We've seen very many silent leader types in Vancouver over the years that were a lot of for their leadership, despite not speaking up in the room a lot. So I think part of it is, yes, the environment, maybe it helps them. But I think more than anything is do you step out of your shell yourself and embrace being the top player, being the leader on the team, or at least one of the leaders on the team? Do you think it's fair to wonder or even conclude that that dynamic is one of the big reasons why Elias Pedersen's game has fallen off? I mean, I think because a lot of his issues seem to be mental, it would make sense to point towards that and say, well, because,

even though we talk with some of the physical limitations that we've seen from his shot and we've seen from his skating, although that did improve as the year went on, and some of the talk about his physical issues being the reason why he struggled, I think the easiest thing to point to is something between the years. And was there something that happened with the group, especially with the whole JT thing, that just severed certain signals that allow him to be that player here in Vancouver? And part of me just wonder is if he just needs a change of scenery for that to change,

where not only do you need a fresh outlook for yourself, but maybe you need people with fresh eyes to give you an opportunity and not have people that are very skeptical about whether you're going to be able to pull this off or now and whether you're going to be able to show up and be the player that everybody hopes you want to be. And I'm just at the point now where I think the best thing for him is to go somewhere else to figure that out. I'm not sure it's going to happen here in Vancouver because as much as you can say the environment is changing, the leadership is changing, well, there's still a lot of players here who went through

this disappointment. You have to earn that trust still. It's not just about, well, we're going to go out here and be, you know, far better teammates, so he's going to be better. Well, he's going to have to earn the trust of them believing in him again. And I think that's part of what he has to uphold. Okay, Sat, who do you think is going to be the next general manager of the Vancouver Canucks? All right. So I'm trying to figure this out. And I think all the reporting is very accurate. Ryan Johnson is very much the leading contender. The thing that's really fascinating for me is how are you going to sequence the person who's going to be above Ryan Johnson? Because I don't think as much as Ryan has a good chance of becoming the

general manager of the team, I'm not sure he's going to be the key hockey czar, so to speak, or at least the guy who's going to be above, you know, kind of be in the same position or Rutherford's in. And I think at some point here, they do want to have somebody who is a by a president type. Now, the sequencing for this is what's really fascinating for me. Are you going to be hiring, let's say it is Ryan or somebody else who's a GM candidate that doesn't say have the experience of being a GM or being an executive at that type of level. Are you going to be hiring that person and say somebody who has experience above Ryan that comes

in together or is this something that's going to be sequenced over time where Ryan or whoever doesn't have a ton of it? Because it looks like whoever's going to be the GM candidate, if they're going with somebody who doesn't have experience, they're not going to be somebody who can step into the vice president or president enroll right away. But are you going to be hiring that person together with Ryan? Or is that going to be something that happens two months from now, three months from now, five, six months from now, depending on how long Rutherford wants to be involved? But I do think internally, there's a recognition that they want to have another executive.

The question is, will that person actually become a vice president or a president? or did they just stay kind of in the role they have. But the thing that's most interesting to me is, do you have to get the sequencing right? Because what I don't want to see happening here is you hire a GM, and then seven, eight months from now, you hire another executive, and then they're not going to be on the same page

or whether for a least potentially about how to move forward. So I think the best way to do this, if you're going to hire somebody who's going to be the eventual replacement, at least have some idea of how they're going to work together and at least have that planned out. even if it's not something that happens right away, if it happens within a couple months, are you hiring people that can work together?

That's going to be the biggest question I have about the situation. Yeah, the new president's going to come in and be like, this GM kind of reminds me of Bruce Boudreau. And they're like, oh, one of these things again. Yeah. Okay. This is a simple question, but I think it has a complex answer. Why was Patrick Alvin fired?

I think somebody had to pay the price. And I do think as much as their, I think Patrick has to, I think somebody had to pay the price. And I also think that Rutherford not staying long term and then this plan failing caused, creating a situation where ownership has to have somebody else coming in. You know what I mean? Like Patrick Alvin's failure is also very much Jim Rutherford's failure. It's also the failure of the regime as a whole. It was supposed to come in and resuscitate the core and take it to new heights.

And they did briefly. And then now it's crashed and burned. And now you're into a rebuild. So that plan has fully failed. And this is not what everybody had signed up for when they initially came over. So when your plan fails as spectacularly as this one did and you're on a spot we have to start over. And then the head hockey ops guy may not be here more than another year maximum. I think you have to create, it was a situation where you have to create a,

the succession plan. And I think just because Rutherford is here, it doesn't mean that he's not paying the price in some way, shape, or form. The price that he's paying is you've got to build the next management team, and then whenever you leave, you're done, and it's not going to be this long-term situation here.

Could there have been a possibility if things were successful, that Rutherford stayed on for another year or whatever, or they would have just handed off the reins to Alvin and then some other executive if things were going well? I think that could have possibly have happened, But I think it's an indictment on the entire plan failing. And just because Rutherford is here doesn't mean that he's been, you know,

he's safe quote on quote in terms of, um, it's scurting the failures of what happened. It's that he's been put in charge of putting together the next management team. And I think ownership has, uh, still believes in, um,

Rutherford's acumen and in hiring people and putting people in place. When it comes to management and even in another position, then you can actually look at that and wonder how much, you know, faith they should have, based on how some things have kind of gone here the last little while. But instead of hiring an outside firm and giving it to somebody else, I think they just entrusted Rutherford into hiring his own successor, essentially.

Yeah. And I think they just, I think they trust him to do the press conferences because they don't want to. I mean, Francesco is not comfortable public speaking. And not everyone is. And Jim Rutherford is. So I think that's part of it as well. You know, Francesco probably would not have done well.

if he was in the same position as Jim Rutherford on Friday alone up there, getting question after question from the media, that is not something he wants to do. And I understand it because there are some people that just don't love public speaking. It's very uncomfortable for them. Jim Rutherford isn't one of those guys, so why not send him up there instead of ownership? You know, I...

Well, that's what they're paying him for, right? Well, exactly. I want to hear from ownership, but ownership is paying him to do it. this and then when the season that's still the way it has it has it's like well we've paid you to fix this and now we're paying you to take the bullets yeah and i also wonder because this was the next thing i was going to ask you about his when jim rutherford was asked are you embracing or are you bracing for more pain next season and he said no i'm not when i heard that i was kind of like

oh i think you're going to have more pain but maybe that's ownership talking there. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think it's very clear based on everything of Rutherford has said that he doesn't think this is going to take forever, right? And I think part of selling the plan to ownership is that we are rebuilding, but this is not going to be a five, six, seven, eight year rebuild. And you're selling it as, I've already started the process

and we have these pieces in place. And all we have to do is hand it over somebody who has to take another year or two of hard work to get us over the. hump. I think that's how it's being sold, that, hey, we're not that far away. We just need somebody to come in and put the finishing touches somewhat on this. And the next thing you know, within a year or two, we're going to be far more competitive. It doesn't have to be as bad as it's been in other situations. But every single team who's thus gone through a rebuild has said this in one shape,

in one way or another. Some teams are a lot better in terms of giving fans, the red meat they want to hear about how they're going to take this process, but they all kind of leave the door open. in that this doesn't have to take four to five years. It doesn't have to take five or six years. We feel like we've started the process already. We feel like we've put the groundwork in. And from this point on, it's all upwards. But that's how evils are sold in general. Like nobody comes out and says it's going to take a decade. Even the ones that are very honest, you know, don't sit here and tell you they're going to be bad for seven, eight, nine, ten years.

And I think part of it is trying to sell that it's not going to take that long. And I do believe that they think that they have some cornerstone pieces already here and that they need. some of the higher end ones, but they feel like they put some of that work together. So I don't think, you know, he's, you know, he's lying. I think it's genuinely what they believe to some extent. But I think that's how it's being sold, that we're rebuilding, but it doesn't have to take seven, eight, nine years. We're speaking to Satyar Shah, host of Connect Central here on the Halford & Brough Show,

on Sportsnet 650, had a few people texting in for this one, Sat. They want to know, what does the future have in store for Adam Foote? I think it's very much up to whoever they hire, which personally I don't love it. But if you looked at it from the outcome that, I want to say makes the least amount of sense, but as the most head-scratching outcome would have been that the only person to get fired

is Patrick Alvin and the only person that gets replaced with Patrick Albin. And it's like, well, he wasn't a key decision maker. If you look at the stuff that happened on the ice, you can say the head coach was handed, you know, a rough situation and that's all very fine and true. but he still didn't do very well with the opportunity. So I think there's no way around it.

So I think part of it to me is it seems like, hey, the coach wasn't the issue, the situation that was the issue. We just need to change the GM and we're maybe not in that bad of a spot. And I do think once they get through the draft, and I think this has been outlined as well, because of, I think Drans mentioned it, but like if the Knuck somehow end up getting the third pick and it's Caleb Malholtrae looking to draft, potentially at third overall, do you want to have Manny as his head coach does that make sense in terms of how you move forward?

And is that the best situation to have. So I do think part of it is just let's take a little bit of time and see how the pieces fall together. And I think the other part of it is genuinely that Rutherford wants to see whoever the GM is and see if that person can have faith in the head coach because if they were completely out on the head coach,

it would have fired him. Is it possible that the new GM gets hired and Jim Rutherford is very quickly out the door and resigns? I don't think it's going to be that quickly as a sense I get. I have a hard time believing they're going to be able to, like I've been asking about this, about the VP

position, and I do think Rutherford wants to hire a couple people here. Now, it could also be one of those things where they hire a GM at another AGM, and maybe that's how they go about starting the process and then down the road, they put in a VP type who could move into the president role whenever Rutherford goes away. But I do think, I'm not sure that's going to

happen and that type of sequencing all together at the same time. And I think that Rutherford is because Albein's been fired and because they still have to work out some contracts for other people in the organization, that he can't leave until that stuff gets sorted out. And I think that's got to be, I'd be surprised if he's gone before July. That's the way I see it. I think, you know, and honestly, like somebody even told me, if they can't get the DP type they want, maybe he hangs on a bit longer and maybe that's something that drags into, you know,

early parts of fall or whatever it is. Like, you know, I think that part isn't clear. I think the focus right now is they need a GM. They don't have a GM. They have to get the GM. And once that gets figured out, I still think there might be other things they have to sort out. It's tough timing for them, though, isn't it?

I mean, like, we all want them to take their time and make sure you get the right hire and go out and do the Zoom calls. And maybe even if you don't hire someone, maybe you've learned something from them in the interview process. This isn't something that they've tended to do. So we all want them to take the time and make sure that they hire the right person. But at the same time, you're going like,

all right, bitter, patter, let's get at her because you've got some massive decisions to make before the draft in June. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think, you know, I think you have to get your final list put together. And I think with the scouting staff, once you get the GM figured out,

do you figure out what you're doing next? Who you're keeping, who are you coming in to replace them? What's your plan moving forward here? And I think you also have to make sure that you have people that are very on board and very much committed when you're sitting on the draft floor drafting these players. You can't have somebody who's distracted about going somewhere else or whatever it is. So you have to figure out what's our staff going to look like, who are the key decision makers, and how are we tackling this draft?

And then becomes free agency and everything else that is involved as well. the thing that makes it a little bit easier is there aren't a lot of contracts they have to figure out. So I think that does buy them a little bit of time before you get to May because they don't have any big RFAs they have to sign and the players that could use new contracts

are a year out like Zee, Boo-em, and they're not in a rush to do those sort of things right now. But I think the biggest thing is you have to make sure your staff is in place or at least you have an idea of who the people are that you trust when you're sitting on the draft floor because there can't be any distractions during that day. Sapp, this was great, buddy.

Thanks for taking the time to do it. As always. We appreciate it. Enjoy the playoffs this week. We'll do this again real soon. You got it, boys. Satya Shav from Connect Central, Canucks premium post game host here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sports Night 650. Okay, real quick, we are very

cognizant and aware that a lot of other sports stories, quite frankly, all the other sports stories have fallen by the wayside today. We knew that was going to happen. Yeah. And I appreciate all of your complaints. Like the Winnipeg Jets. are going to have their presser today with Chevy and the coaching staff. Yeah, Connor Hellebuck set the table nicely for him.

Yeah. So I'm going to be really curious to see what Chevy has to say in Winnipeg. We just didn't have the bandwidth to really get to it today. We are aware that we haven't spoken about the Vancouver Whitecaps and their 3-0 demolition of sporting Casey. We're aware. But they had a 3-0 demolition of sporting Casey. We're aware.

We haven't mentioned Jen Gardner and what she did for the golden eyes, four-goal performance. We're aware of... First ever hat trick. We're aware of all... And then she added one more. And then one more for good measure. Jen Gardner scored four goals for the golden ice. Look, we know.

We are consciously ignoring other sports stories today. The Mets have lost 11 straight. They're never going to win again. I've seen far too much Mets baseball. I've had my fill for the year, I think. Lattie this morning, you brought up, was the Eric Lauer remarks, right?

We know that these stories are out there. And Jordan in the Ridge, yes, we will be talking a little across this week as the Vancouver Warriors prepare for the playoffs. Okay, stop texting in. But you got to understand. This is a day where we got to come in and talk about everything that happened in a fairly seismic Friday where we were on the air for the dismissal of Patrick Alveem, but we did not

on the air get to parse through everything that the president of hockey ops had to say about the worst season, maybe the worst season in Canucks franchise history. So yeah, it's going to dominate proceedings on a Monday. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.