Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 4/22/25

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they dissect yesterday's end-of-season comments from Canucks management with commentator Brendan Batchelor, plus they hear from ESPN Hockey's Greg Wyshynski on Jim Rutherford's comments yesterday about Quinn Hughes. 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. Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Aaaaa Aaaaa A. The clock is free! What a great chance for Poveglia! Ovechkin scores! He scores! He scores! Colin Blackwell wins it! Quinn has been an impressive leader.

That would be partly out of our control. In our control, if we brought our brothers here. Oh my god! He made it! Good morning, Vancouver. 6.01 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford and his brother at his Sportsnet 650.

And we are coming to you live from the Kintec studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.

Halford and brother the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Got a big show ahead on a Tuesday. It's a four-guester here on the Haliford and Brev show on Sportsnet 650. Guest list today begins at 630. Greg Wyshinski from ESPN is going to join the program. We will recap an absolutely fantastic night in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Four games, all decided by one goal. Two of them went to overtime. One of them was decided with less than a minute to go in regulation.

We can also talk to Greg about news around the NHL. Big shake up in Seattle yesterday. Greg Wyszynski will join us at 6.30 to talk about all that. Hey, which former Canuck do you think played the best last night? Was it Andre Kuzmenko who plays on the Kings first line. Power play merchant. He was very good. With Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe, he had a goal in to assist.

Or was it Anthony Bovillier? Tito. He plays on Washington's first line and he had a goal and an assist. Which was- Echman-Larsen yesterday, might as well throw him in there too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, which- Yeah. Man, I love the playoffs. I love seeing the Canucks have success in the playoffs. We got to watch Adam Goddard.

The very least. The very other night too, that was exciting. Travis Green behind the bench. The very least, former Canucks. So, uh, wish he'll join us at 6.30. Seven o'clock, we're going to go to New York. Arthur Staple from the athletic is going to join us, uh, Isles and Rangers, two very important and transformative off seasons for two teams that

fell short of making the playoffs this season. Uh, we'll talk to Art about all that at seven o'clock, then it's 7.30 and 8 o'clock. Brendan Batchelor is going to join us, followed by Landon Ferraro. Both of our regular Tuesday Canucks insiders are going to join us on the same day to break down everything. And there was a lot from Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alveen's end of year media availability. Yesterday, we'll talk about Elias Pettersson, Rick Tuckett, Quinn Hughes, Quinn Hughes' brothers and a whole lot more with Batch at 730 and then Landon at 8. So working in

reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock it's Landon Ferraro, 730 Brendan Batchelor, 7 o'clock Arthur Staple, 630 Greg Wyshinski. That's what's happening on the program today. 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? Missed that? You missed that? What happened? What happened? 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. We do want to spend about three to four minutes here talking about just how fantastic last

night's Stanley Cup Playoff games were before we get into the dregs of Canucks talk for the majority of what happened. It was a tremendous night. After a weekend in which yours truly kind of took the entertainment value of those games to task. Monday really delivered with four games across the board. As I mentioned, two of them going to overtime, including a great game between the Habs and the Capitals. I have so much respect for that Montreal team for what they're able to do in third periods. They had a great comeback there. Alas, it fell short. Huge night from Alex Ovechkin there, followed up by Winnipeg in what was probably and this is no detriment to the worst game of the night.

Probably the worst game of the night. Winnipeg, even though it was a fun game to watch. That series is over to St. Louis had to go in there and steal a game. They're not winning. I know they're not winning. They're not winning four or five against the Jets. The margins in that series are razor thin. There's not much of a difference between the two, but I'm with you. I don't see St. Louis winning four or five. So there was that game there. And then the two nightcap games yesterday, we got our second overtime game of the playoffs

courtesy of Colorado and Dallas. That was an awesome game. Dallas played like it was a must win and they got the win in overtime thanks to Colin Blackwell in overtime. And then of course, an absolutely bizarre game between the Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers in which the Edmonton Oilers fell behind for nothing, made it four, two, then fell behind five, two, then rallied to make it five, five, scoring

two goals with the goalie pulled. And they should have just kept Stuart Skinner out of the net. five scoring two goals with the goalie pulled and they should have just kept Stewart Skinner out of the net. Phillip Deno scored with about 46 seconds left on a flutter puck over top of Stewart Skinner. Not a great night for the goalies. Best score in hockey, man.

Six five. Yeah. So just a wild night in the national hockey league. All right. Let's get to the Canucks stuff. That was it. Yeah. We'll talk about these games later, uh,

obviously by ourselves, but, and, and with some of our guests. Yeah. The Canucks held their press conference end of season availability with management this time. It was Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alveen up there. And Rutherford started with a humdinger of a statement. And then we're not going to play the whole clip, but he basically said we had a very

disappointing season that we feel bad about. And he honestly then like immediately launched into the issue with JT Miller and Elias Pedersen. He said, we ran into an unfortunate incident in the first half of the season that hurt the chemistry of our team, that we eventually had to make a trade that we didn't expect to make and didn't want to make. Rutherford was of course talking about

trading JT Miller and by the way they talked about Miller, it doesn't sound like they hold much ill will towards him. In fact. I thought he was talking about the Daniel sprung trade, but alas. Yeah, no, no, no, it was, it was the JT Miller trade.

But I could see why you were confused. Um, you know, the way they talked about him was glowing and which is weird because he was part of a rift, a feud that, that, um, changed the team and this is the words, uh, Rutherford used, um, from a contending team to a quote, team in transition. And Rutherford conceded that eventually got to the point that Miller himself asked out of

Vancouver. First, the Canucks went to him and said, you know, would you consider waiving your no trade clause for some team? And it eventually got to the point where Miller was getting a little antsy. He was getting a little antsy. He was getting a little anxious and I think we could see that at times from his play on the

ice and he eventually said, look man, I want out of here. But if you were looking for any of the juicy details about the rift, neither Rutherford nor Alveen were sharing yesterday. So I guess we'll have to wait and see for any of the juicy details on that one. There were a bunch of storylines to get through, including A-Dog's, because the dream of reuniting the Hughes brothers, I guess is alive in Vancouver. We'll have a bit more in a sec, but as well. Alive and tampering.

Alive and not gonna happen. On Rick Tocket, Rutherford said he expects a decision one way or the other by the end of the week and was very complimentary of the head coach. They will not use the option. They've come back from that and smartly, because it was a dumb idea to begin with, basically said what we all said, you can't really force a guy

back if he doesn't really want to be there. What are you going to do? Force me to be here? And by the way, there's another opening in the NHL. I think Halford mentioned it, the Seattle Kraken fire Dan Bosma. So they'll be looking for someone new. On Elias Pedersen, Alveen expressed his belief in the player and Rutherford said the first few

days of the off season have been encouraging from the Pedersen perspective and that PD has been working out hard in Vancouver and the way the Brotherford said he's not just coming in for a cup of coffee, which is nice because maybe Pedersen was trying to save some money, you know, like instead of going to Starbucks, come to Rogers Arena for a coffee. It's a sensible approach.

And while I'm here, I'll have a little bit of a workout. Uh, Alveen also said he'd be stupid not to keep his options open when it came to his trade. So, uh, expect to hear Pettersson's name in trade rumors leading up to the draft. And, you know, one of the more curious quotes, I thought, I think I know what Rutherford is saying,

so I'm not going to parse his words too aggressively, but he said, he had a quote where he said, better sends a guy that's always going to be able to get his points, but can you be a contending team with your top player just getting points? And the answer is no. So he's going to have to buy into being a complete player.

Now I thought this was a little odd and he did use the example of Steve Iserman in Detroit, but like getting the points was the main problem for Petey this season. Like it wasn't his defensive play. He was often in great position defensively because at times I thought he seemed hesitant to attack. And I don't know if that was a confidence issue or he wasn't confident enough in his skating to get back, which you have to do as a centre. But I just always thought he'd hung back a little bit too much season. But

I guess the point without, you know, getting into this too much is that PD has to work harder on all facets of his game and he needs to get stronger. Yeah. That being said, I do think you could take the president of hockey ops to task when he incorrectly diagnoses what, or diagnoses what the problem is. Yeah, no, I mean, that's not what Tauke has been saying, right? Tauke has been saying you got to move your feet, you got to shoot the puck, you got to, you got to move your feet to, to open up the

attacking angles or even passing lanes. You got to attack the interior of the ice. I, I don't recall Tau talk at, you know, acting like Petey was, you know, early 80s Steve Iserman or anything where he wasn't playing defense, but he was just piling up points. I'm like, that was the opposite. I saw a guy that was, had no confidence offensively, so erred on the side of playing defense. Yeah, like I was not overly thrilled at how there seemed to be a real disconnect. There seems like there's a lot of disconnects

in the organization right now. If we want to be like, let's just call it what it is. It seems that management and that's Alvin and Rutherford have a certain view of certain things and it doesn't necessarily align with Tocket, including his contractual future. And then Tocket's view of some of the players certainly doesn't seem to align with Alvin and

Rutherford's view of some of the players. And that is very concerning because you'll remember going back to the initial hire. One of the strengths of the triumvirate of Alvin, Rutherford and Tocket was that we all believe they were on the same page. They all came from the Pittsburgh organization together.

They all had a common view and thought and blueprint about how things were supposed to work. And it does not seem as though that is happening at all right now. Disconnect was what I kept coming back to over and over again, hearing all of the remarks from yesterday.

Well, I wonder if that sort of thing is going to come up in their discussions or, you know, the way Rutherford framed it on the Tauket situation is that they've upped the offer again and they're putting out the type of money that has never really been put out there for a head coach in Vancouver and they hope that Tauket accepts the job.

Like he made it sound like this is a money thing. Yeah. You know? So at any rate, there's lots more to get to from the press conference. They confirmed they're going to target another centre, probably in a trade and it's going to be expensive.

He said, Rutherford, it'll be expensive, but it'll also be very expensive not to get a top center. And you can go all the way to Quinn Hughes when it comes to that. Uh, so he said, we're going to be open to do whatever it takes, whatever it takes to get that player and with Tom Willender still unsigned, another issue facing the Canucks.

Uh, apparently they've been told Willender is going back to school, back to BU. Um, now there's still a lot of time in order to figure that out. And Alveen said, wow, that was a lot of money for that young player to leave on the table. But you know, that's what he's told us. Um, you wonder if Willander could be a part

of any deal to get a top center. Um, Demko in his avail said that, uh, he wanted a contract extension this off season and Rutherford rightly said that's a tricky one there. If it's going to happen, there will be risks to it on both sides. So do they share the risks on both sides, which is basically like, Hey Demko, you're not going to get full

freight on this. Like we can't act like you're going to be a hundred percent healthy because you haven't been a hundred percent healthy. Um, oh, the practice facility, that won't be happening anytime soon. And Rutherford kind of joked about this and he got a few laughs out of it, but he basically

said like, we've tried hard to find a partnership with some local ranks, tried three to four different facilities and it didn't work out. And I say, it looks like a new facility is, he basically says, it looks like a new facility is going to have to be built to get this done. It's going to take a while and we're all disappointed in that.

Right. So that sounds like years. That sounds like years in the makings because they're going to have to start from scratch, build a practice facility. They're going to have to come to a deal to build the practice facility and then they're going to have to actually build the practice facility.

In the meantime, they could use the Pacific Coliseum in the heart of downtown. It's right there. It's right there. Stone's throw from Rogers Arena. So the presser, which I attended, uh, there were so many issues that came up before Quinn Hughes, but, uh, Rutherford did deliver, um, with what he

had to say about Quinn Hughes. I think we should play that audio. We've got the whole audio here because we've also got Patrick Alveen's nervous reaction upon hearing his president of hockey ops. What are you doing? Engaged in some, I can't even call it light, we'll call it moderate to heavy tampering.

So here, the question was framed, and the question wasn't even a question, at the end I came over who asked it, and I apologize to the reporter, but it basically ended with a statement like, you can't afford to lose Quinn Hughes. And Jim Rutherford picked up the microphone from there and he picked it up in a spectacular way.

Here's the audio that was making the rounds across the National Hockey League yesterday, president of hockey ops, Jim Rutherford, on Quinn Hughes' future and maybe the future of his brothers in Vancouver. Totally agree a hundred percent. Um, the one thing that we will be sure of that we will have enough cap space to offer him the

kind of contract that he deserves. That's the one thing we can prepare for. Um, and it may not boil down to money with him. You know, he said before he wants to play with his brothers. And that would be partly out of our control, in our control, if we brought his brothers here. So there's many moving parts here, agree 100%. This franchise cannot afford to lose a guy like Quinn Hughes and we will do everything

we can to keep him here but at the end of the day it will be his decision. Well, we got to be careful with tampering here. So we'll just leave it at that. I probably crossed the line anyways. But I mean, I've seen tremendous growth in Quinn during the three year here. What he went through this year as a captain, leaders, several meetings with Rick Tuckett, I get a lot of respect for him off ICE,

more so than on ice. And I'm sure that he's eager to get started here and come back and be hungry to play an idea for Vancouver Connects. There's a good chance I may have committed some flight. Tamper. All I gotta say is that any time during an end of year media availability, your president of hockey Ops openly acknowledges that he just crossed the line

in what might be tampering. Chef's kiss. That is that that was the best part of the entire day. As far as I'm concerned, I don't know what the end game was. I don't even know if there was an end game. Part of me thinks that he was just kind of, you know, talking off the cuff. Well, I've heard this idea has actually been kicked around by the Canucks. Now, if that's the case.

To get the Hughes brothers. Now we're cooking. I'm not sure. Henderson, Mulliner and a first. I'm not sure how seriously, but I don't think Rutherford was entirely joking with that statement seriously, but I don't think Rutherford was entirely joking with that statement because I did hear that, I don't know, like a week ago. They're desperate to find any way to keep Queen Hughes.

So of course you have to, like this, that's not, by the way, that's not like breaking news, right? Of course you'd have this meeting. Or of course you'd have the idea of being like, listen, we've got to keep this guy. Everyone's talking about him going into Jersey. What if we were to bring the brothers there? How can we do this?

I just don't see why the devils would even flirt with the idea. Their fan base would lose their minds. What could the Connucks really offer the devils to get Jack and Luke out of there? The only thing I can think of is Queen Hughes. Yeah, right. The good thing I can think of is Quinn Hughes. Yeah, right You know, like the good news is we get your brothers like

Like what's the what's the offer you you just threw out there? Patterson Willander in the first Okay, so if you're a Devils fan, obviously they would not obviously no, they would lose their mind They would just like why not just wait two years and get him in free. Yeah or a year Even it even like if it gets to it and it doesn't sound like Quinn's going to re-sign with the Canucks and maybe they have to kick off the rebuild then, maybe they only have to wait a year. If the Devils traded both Hughes brothers to the Canucks two years ahead of Quinn Hughes becoming an unrestricted free agent, the happiest person on the planet would be the general manager of the Dallas

Mavericks, because then he'd be like, well, the pressure's off me. They can't get on my case anymore. Look, I think that there, I don't think it was particularly calculated, but I agree with you that this didn't come from out of nowhere, right? This wasn't just something that the entire organization was like, Hey, why don't you throw this out there as an idea?

I think what this speaks to is, uh, well, two things. One, just how important Hughes is to the organization and how much they recognize it. They didn't even try and alter or pivot or come off that conversation. They know, ah, desperation is a stinky cologne. But I will say this. I thoroughly appreciate what Rutherford did there. I do. I think that if the situation is that big

and that potentially dire, there is no harm in throwing some chaos into the mix. There's really not. I'm not sure it'll work out in the end, but aside from maybe getting slapped on the wrist for some monetary punishment for tampering, you've made it abundantly clear where you're willing to go. Yeah. You have. The problem is that now Quinn Hughes has to deal with this. He has to deal with the questions and the comments about it.

I guess maybe people will forget, he's gone for the summer. Yeah. But I will say, I just wanted to kind of wrap up the press conference from yesterday. I think what struck me after it was over is just the long list of major, major issues that this management group needs to deal with this off season. They really are underdogs to get everything solved. I still do think Tocket will be back.

I do too. But even if he does sign an extension, that's only the start of management's off season. If he says thanks but no thanks, man. Well then- You can hire Dan Bosma. Well, yeah, you can hire Dan Bosma. That'll help him.

Rutherford thinks he needs to add three forwards, and I think that's probably three top six forwards. Yeah. And that includes a top six center. That's going to be really difficult to, first of all, choose who you want to target and not just get whoever's left and acquire the right ones and not pay a wild price to get these players. Maybe they get one of them in free agency, the way Rutherford put it. Maybe they get lucky in free agency and someone chooses them like a guy like

Ehlers or something. But we've been through the list before of both pending unrestricted free agent centers and wingers. It's not that long and frankly, it's not that impressive. The Canucks have a lot of goals walking out the door and Besser and Souter. They do need to explore trading Peterson just to cover all their options. The Canucks have a lot of goals walking out the door and better and suitor.

They do need to explore trading Pettersson just to cover all their options. And I think they will. I think they'll talk to some teams that might be interested and say what does that look like? How does that leave us? How could we then use the cap space or do we need to take on some players? You know, I think they're just going to explore it. The draft is June 27th and 28th. That could be a crazy time for the Canucks because if you need to acquire three forwards via trade, you can't really wait until after free agency.

You know, then a lot of teams are set after free agency. They're like, we're good. We got our guys. We're not really looking to trade. So it's right before free agency that I think a lot of deals could go down. If they do go down, uh, they've got a goalie on Thatcher Demko who's publicly said he wants an extension. That was a strategy by Demko.

That was a negotiating strategy by Demko to come out and clearly state, I want an extension with the Canucks and I want it this off season. So maybe this doesn't matter, but how does Demko react if he doesn't get that extension? Is that another fire they have to put out? Is that another relationship they have to manage with a key player on top of Everything they have to get done this offseason. I think it's also worth noting that all the goodwill They built up from the previous season that's been spent you do not get to oversee a season like this past one and

not face a crisis of confidence from the fan base. And we've already got some texts into the Dunbar lumber text line. Van City Zavid in Toronto, texts in after hearing the end of season presser with Alvin and Rutherford. I don't have faith in this regime anymore. Sadly, I think Quinn will leave.

Therefore, I think the Canucks should just do a real proper rebuild. A retool these last 15 years hasn't done much for the Vancouver fan base. Well, we're not to that point yet, but I think a lot of people have lost faith in this management group and it makes it harder to operate from a PR perspective when everyone's like, their first reaction is going to be like, I'm not going to like the way you guys are doing this.

Yeah. I mean, I agree with most of those sentiments that you said there. It's, you can feel the public perception shifting if it hasn't already shifted and a lot of the confidence is waning. They've got an opportunity this summer to win some people back, but right now there's a lot of people after a tumultuous season that ended with the playoffs missing and this time of the year it always stings more because while you're talking about your failings there are games like last night where there are a bunch of teams that

are having a great time playing the most exciting hockey at the most exciting time of the year. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. I filled in for a batch yesterday at the press conference. He wasn't there?

No, he wasn't there. And you were there. You took a seat. Yeah. How does it work? I didn't realize it was you for a second when I was listening. It's like, I think that's Brough, but it sounded

so like you're like doing golf play by play. He didn't have his radio voice on. Yeah, it's true. Hello Hello Yeah, what's up with Pedersen? Yeah That's the Masters music play. Exactly. Yeah, that's what it was. What the hell's going on here? I've noticed that you've actually can we get the Masters music here? We just we just we do a batch on hold of course. I don't care. Okay.

You didn't show up yesterday. Yeah. T.S. for you batch. I have a question for Jim and Patrick. It seems like you've been having trouble getting through to Elias Pedersen. Is that, is that true? And also on the knee tendonitis, how much of a factor was it? And is it still a factor for Elias Pettersson?

Thank you. They're both looking around one of the music's coming from. Do you bring his own music? Uh, you are listening to the Haliford Impressor. Both of the other temples at the same time. I'm glad that we were able to get some more masters music out there.

Usually we have to wait until next year. Well, it does make the question sound a little less aggressive. You know what it does. Actually, it kind of makes them sound way more aggressive. He's like, I'd love to answer your questions, sir.

He never felt so calm. You look up and Rutherford's asleep. Yeah. We saw that coming. Look what you've done to him. Where'd that couch come from anyway? Okay, we are in hour two of the program. Brendan Batch are patiently waiting on hold here.

Hour two of this program is brought to you by Jason Hominuk at jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at Jason dot mortgage. To the phone lines we go. Brendan Batchelor joins us now

in the Halford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. Batch, I'm sorry first, and thank you for joining us. Oh, I'll always wait for the master's music. That's fine. He does hit all the notes. So look, let's just open this up to everything that was said yesterday. And there was a lot. Did you have one particular favorite takeaway from Jim Rutherford and

Patrick Alveen's media availability on Monday? Oh man, that's a hard question because there was so much there to parse through. You know, the thing that jumped out at me first was Rutherford just openly coming out and saying, we're not going to force Tauke to be here if he doesn't want to be here. We're not going to activate the extension clause that we have there, which very much leaves the ball in Rick Tauke's court and is going to be the first decision, it seems like, that is going to define this offseason in terms of, you know, they said they expect an answer later this week. So, you know, hopefully by the end of the week, we know is it going to be Rick Tauket or is it not, in which case you

have to start a new coaching search and, you know, what you decide to do there could, you know, play a big factor in many of the other things we've talked about, like the future of Elias Pettersson, the future of Quinn Hughes. So I think a lot of these off-season talking points that we're going to discuss are kind of tied together. And the first domino that's going to fall is the coaching decision. So that comes to the front of mind for me right away anyway, because that's going to set up what the off-'s gonna look like and I think you know rightly or wrongly it's kind of going to be a you know

maybe a referendum is not the right word on this management group and on the direction they're going but I think some people in the fan base might interpret it that way whether it's fair or not which is if Rick Taukett stays that's him endorsing their vision and if he leaves, that's the opposite. Now, I don't know if that's fair to say, but optically that's what it would look like if he ultimately decides to move on and look for other

opportunities on the market, which there are now plenty of, especially after the firing in Seattle yesterday. I think it's fair to wonder that. You know, like if he, if he, because the Canucks have come out and said, like, we've made a very generous offer and we're going to a place where we've never really gone before in terms of money given to a head coach in Vancouver.

Now that doesn't necessarily it's mean it's going to meet Rick Tuckett's price, but they are making, I would imagine, a pretty generous offer. And if he says thanks, but no thanks, that is, I would say that's pretty close to a referendum from a key guy on what management has planned because the plans are, let's face it, pretty optimistic in what they want to do this off season. Finding a top six centre would be one thing, but Rutherford said yesterday, like, we've

got to find three forwards. And I imagine three top six forwards considering what's potentially leaving the team and Brock Besser and Pugh Souter, and they already needed to find a top six center. Like that's, that's going to be real tough with the limited number of quality free agents and all the other teams with cap space to bid for them and

the limited number of assets that the Canucks have to trade with. Yeah. And, and that to me takes the conversation to the Quinn Hughes part of things because, you know, we've talked all season long about, you know, make Queen Hughes happy, do whatever you can to make Queen Hughes stay. But the fact that Rutherford was so blunt about, you know, he wants to play with his brothers, we're going to make sure we can offer him a

competitive deal, but ultimately that's out of our control. And then he got into, you know, him a competitive deal, but ultimately that's out of our control. And then he got into, you know, maybe a line of conversation that he shouldn't have caught into talking about trying to bring the Hughes brothers here, which I think might've been more than a joke than anything else. But, you know, it coming out of that press conference, it changed my way of thinking about this off season where prior to that, I was saying, okay, do whatever you got to do, be competitive next year, make sure that you get Quinn Hughes to stay. But the way Rutherford sort of described it makes me think, well, is there a chance that Quinn Hughes is going to leave anyway? And can you empty, can you afford to empty your

cupboards if your captain is, you know, going to move on in a year or two anyway, whether you trade him or whether he walks in free agency. So that makes this offseason that much more difficult to manage. I think ultimately they're going to have to give up future assets to make some of these changes and bring in some of these top players to fill out the top of the lineup so that at the very least they can say, look, we did everything we could to try and keep the captain if he ultimately does decide to move on. But then you have to talk about what sort of situation that leaves them in if he does move on and if he isn't here in a couple of years and what things look like after that. So, you know, everything that this management group has to accomplish this offseason is going to be very difficult. There's a fine margin or

it's a tough needle that they're going to have to thread to do everything that they want to do, accomplish the things that they want to accomplish and get back to being the kind of team that they want to be next year. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's going to be difficult. It's going to take some creative thinking and it, I think, promises to be one of the most, if not the most eventful off seasons for the Canucks, potentially of the last decade or more, just because of the laundry list of business that they have to conduct. And that's not even entering into the possibility of trading a guy like Elias Pettersson or trading a guy like Thatcher Demko, which I think, based on Alveen's comments yesterday, both of those things have to at least be on the table heading

into this summer. Yeah. Regardless of who the coach is, whether it's Rick Tauket or someone else, don't you feel like a lot of team building is required? Because it sounds like the room was not a good place last season. Yeah. And I mean, ultimately whether it got to a better place later in the year, uh, you know, they weren't specifically asked that question, but you know, did they, by moving on from JT Miller, did that, you know, improve things behind the

scenes, even if it didn't improve things on the ice as they went through injuries and ultimately missed the playoffs. Like we're not in the room, so we don't know the answer to that. But, you know, that's one thing you think about though, is like I'm seeing comments. I think it was about the LA Kings. I saw something on Twitter last night

about people saying like, these guys are a band of brothers and they love each other. They go to war with each other. And, you know, that is how I would have described the Canucks last season, but not necessarily how I would have described the Canucks last season, but not necessarily how I would have described them this season. And that's important, right? You know, you have to want to fight for the guy next to you on that bench. And if there's

uncertainty around, you know, any any off ice issues, and if there's any question about those sorts of things, then that's a serious thing that you have to address as an organization because, you know, as much as you can put together a team of all-stars on the ice, if they aren't on the same page and they don't all buy in and they don't all see that vision that you see and agree, excuse me, agree, you know, with the way you have to play and what you want to do to try and accomplish your goals,

then you're not gonna get there even if you've even if you've got the 20 best players in the world on the ice on your team. I think diagnosing off-ice chemistry issues, diagnosing how you correct those, bringing in character people as well as good players is going to be incredibly important for this group. I think it's something they did a really good job of last season, ultimately when things really worked out for this team and, you know, they had a guy like Ian Cole in the room, who I think, you know, was really important to the success of that team, even though he wasn't a key player in terms of being a veteran guy that had

been there before that could maybe calm some of the noise, um, and get guys focused. Um, you know, and they have some good character guys in that room still. So it's not me calling out the team and saying that there aren't character guys, but you need to find the right mix. And clearly the mix was off this year, whether that's down to two players not being able to get along or whether it's bigger than that, we don't know because we're not there. But yeah, absolutely. You have to have guys that are on the same page and want to fight

for each other or it doesn't matter how many points they put up. Talking about Rutherford's comments tied to Elias Pettersson yesterday, you want guys that'll play the right way, buy into winning and ultimately sacrifice things like individual numbers potentially for the greater good of the team. Do you think Pedersen can see this as an opportunity to win back some respect for his name and win back some respect from his teammates? Because it sure sounded like the way he came to camp

inflamed the situation with JT Miller. And I think we could all see how that would play out. If the highest paid player doesn't come to come to, um, come to the season in shape after let's face it, having a, a pretty awful playoffs. And you know, you want this, uh, locker room culture where players hold each other accountable. Well, what do you think's going to happen? Yeah. players hold each other accountable. Well, what do you think is gonna happen? Yeah, and I

In a best-case scenario that is how alias Petterson views this is okay I've got to prove to everybody that I can still be the guy that I was you know at the start of last season, right? It hasn't actually been that long. Although it feels like an eternity like the first half of last season He was tremendous and was a big part of the Canucks early season push to, you know, ultimately secure themselves a playoff spot by, you know, how well they played in the first half and how they weren't having to chase and in the second half, because we've seen a lot of that in this market and we know how that plays out. And we saw how it played out this year. So, you know, that capability is in there for him. The question is, can he draw it out? And the question is, does he have the motivation to draw it out? Which,

you know, I would never want to question a player's motivation or professionalism or anything like that. But you can't not do that when the organization is doing it, right? When all of the conversations from the head coach, from management are about preparation coming into the season, about understanding the things you have to do to be a top player. And, and, you know, Rutherford's example using Steve Iserman yesterday where Scotty Bowman got him to buy into the way he had to play and sacrifice points for the betterment of the team. And ultimately they went on to win Stanley Cups together is a good example. So can Pederson do that? Can he prove to everyone, literally everyone I think at this point, that you know he has that in

him that he can come back and be a true number one center and be a guy that they can rely on and be a guy that pulls on the rope and helps this team turn things around, you know, or not. And, you know, based on everything we're hearing out of the organization, the way he handles this off season, the shape he's in coming into the year, the commitment he has to the plan and buy in going forward is essentially how we're going to define that. So, you know, I hope that he's having a good start to the off-season. I hope he continues it because, you know, there was a point in the year where, you know,

Pederson came out with the media and was pretty open and honest and accountable, which is something that hasn't always been there from him. And Rick Tuckett talked about, you know, he's had a few, couple of good days. He's doing the things that we want him to do. And that's a good start, but it's just a start. And ultimately, you know know things didn't pan out. Pederson didn't turn his game around and ultimately went out with injury and missed the end of the season. So I'm at a point where I'm going to say I'll believe it when I see it because it's been too long now and these are two long stretches in this player's career where he's gone AWOL and now that he's making $11.6 million, this club can't afford for that to happen anymore.

That's, this was great buddy. Thanks for taking the time to do it. As always, we appreciate it. Uh, we'll probably put a pause on the bi-weekly hits for a bit as things will likely dry up news-wise for the Vancouver Canucks, but if something big breaks, you'll be one of our first calls. Rest assured, buddy. We should have called him about that Manchester United win the other day.

I texted him. Oh, okay. Well, that counts. It was a called him about that Manchester United win the other day. I texted him. Oh, okay. Well, that counts. It was a very subtle, like, this is a decent match. It was pretty good. It was crazy. It was pretty good. It's maybe the craziest soccer match I've ever watched.

So thank goodness they won and we'll see what happens going forward. But yes, guys, I will be waiting next to my phone for your call if they're breaking Canucks News. Beautiful. Thanks, Batch. Appreciate everything this season, buddy. Thanks guys. Have a good one. Yeah, you too.

Thanks. Brandon Batchelor, Kenex Radio play by play man right here on Sportsnet 650. We got a text into the Dunbar Lumbert text line, it says it's unsigned, my office culture sucked and then we upgraded the coffee machine and it all came together. Sometimes it's the simplest gestures.

Sometimes the smallest ones. Has anyone checked out the coffee machine at Rogers Arena? I don't know. Could be a problem there. We never know. Just install a really nice one at the new practice facility.

Oh. Right. And you'll be great. Oh, sorry. That was actually, Rutherford handled that well yesterday, he handled it with some humor, but you can tell. He's been doing that the whole time he's been here.

Yeah, and I guess Patrick Johnston from the province has been one of the guys that's kind of been on him a lot about it. So I think it was Peej that asked the question and Rutherford was like, can we not talk about this? Yeah. Can we just, by the way, can we just be straight here for a moment is that Rutherford yesterday was electric.

Like as far as media availability's go. Alvin barely talked. Yeah, nor did he need to. We know Patrick Alvin is the straight man and Jim Rutherford's the color guy. He's gonna provide the anecdotes and the quotes and everything else. Look, I don't wanna get into this thing about like,

sometimes we want people to be candid and then when they're candid, we come back and we're like, too candid. I don't want to be that guy. I loved yesterday. I thought it was great. It might be worrying for the future of the franchise. But in terms of entertainment value, which is what we're all here for. It's like that tweet is horrible for the country, but great entertainment. Great content like this is good, like and I'm not talking about some soulless content

machine, he went out there and made what is traditionally a mundane presser, cause let's not forget, 99% of anticipated press conferences usually end with a thud, we're like, well that was disappointing, we didn't learn anything. That was very entertaining, and I do think that it's partly because Rutherford's been around for a long time. And I think there is one of those axis graphs where the older you get, the less Fs you give. And you're just willing to say stuff. I think he just enjoys it. And he enjoys it. That's important. I think he enjoys it.

Some people want to go up there and say as little as possible so they don't get enough, so they don't get any attention. Other people like the spotlight. Like you remember a couple of years ago where Jim was like, you know, I think I've learned my lesson. I'm going to talk less. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Remember that? Yeah. A long time ago, narrator, he did not learn his lesson. No, but I think he learned the lesson and the lesson was if I say something, it's going to blow up and he's like, I'll just lean into that

Yeah, it's you know doesn't care. He's like whatever well again. There was a lot to be taken from yesterday And I think that the Hughes thing regardless of the intention behind it Saying the quiet part out loud and acknowledging what everyone else is acknowledging anyway like I do We got people texting in talking about how, you know, they damage their leverage and this is harmful for the process. I'm like, come on, man. Everyone and their dog knew that that dynamic was out there.

Yeah. He just said it. He's like, you know what? I'm just going to say it. He's just preparing people for the fact that there might come a time where he use blocks and just- But they're going to say it. He's just preparing people for the fact that there might come a time where Hughes walks and just- But they're going to do everything they can.

Right. To keep that from happening without any sort of major return. Yeah. And then if Hughes leaves, they'll be like, well, that's Pedersen's fault. I mean, there is a dynamic there and you laugh nervously like Patrick Alveen was laughing nervously, but there is a dynamic there and I think the one thing they better do if they keep Pedersen is make sure that whoever's coaching gets everyone on his side because you cannot tell me that there weren't clear factions in the Canucks dressing room this year.

I wanted to bring this up. Actually, I didn't have the argument ready in time. You got me. But when you said the possibility of trading Pedersen and how low his value might be, we do have to remember that at the deadline, they did have it. And I know that maybe it was used as leverage so that Carolina could get a different deal, but they did go down the road with Carolina of moving them. And that was only a handful of months ago. Has his value decreased since then? Quite possibly. Well, Carolina could still be a team where, that where they're interested in.

And I'm actually kind of interested in how they play in the playoffs this year because they have, I don't want to say again, no road is easy, but they should be able to beat New Jersey. And then, you know, if they can't beat Washington or Montreal in the next round, there's going to be a lot of upset people there. So when people use that cliche, that tired line

of anyone could be traded, even Gretzky was traded. I like to use it as the both extremes. Like the greatest player on the planet and the greatest player to ever live can be traded. And then like the, one of the most problematic contracts, anything can be traded in the National Hockey League, especially with the Capcom. You know who has very high trade value?

Who's that, Andy? Quinn Hughes. Yes. He would net a pretty nice return. You wanna go there. Well, I'm just saying if he's to not- They're not doing it this off season. No, no, I know.

They might have to do it next off season. I know, but I'm just saying if it's already been more or less decided that, hey, look, I'm gonna be going to New Jersey. Well, you know what? Whether you want me to or not, they might as well not a huge return for him. The first, the first. And another rebuild begins.

The first time when we can maybe honestly talk about that could be at the trade deadline. Because if the connects are out of it, let's say they haven't fixed their issues and they're not in a play out position like this season. Then- Oh, sorry. You're talking about next year's trade deadline.

No, I'm talking about taking a time machine back to- Going back to this year's trade deadline. March of this year. Oh, okay, sorry. Okay. So the next trade deadline, because then you'd make the argument, well, we're not making the

playoffs this year. How much more would a team pay to get Quinn Hughes? And look at his cap at it, it's barely anything at a, for two playoff series as opposed to just one, you know, guaranteed. Can you imagine? But we don't need to worry about that because the Canucks are going to fix all their problems.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's going to be great. For sure. Full faith. ESPN's very own Greg Wyshinski joins us now on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Greg. How are you?

I'm good. I have to admit that I, much like Alex Oveskin had a personal first last night in scoring an overtime, I had a personal first as well yesterday where I actually for the first time had to go check the actual footage of an NHL Executives Press Conference

to make sure what I saw online wasn't AI. And it turned out that Jim Rutherford actually did tamper. Yeah. Jack and Luke, you should become Canucks. It wasn't even light tampering. We're used to light tampering here in Vancouver. Jim Benning got fined for some light tampering back in 2016. This was some heavy handed tampering. He was all over this one. Do you think the devils are are gonna make a complaint about it? So part of me was like will the league even care like is this gonna be a kindly old gym did I did a goofy thing

Kind of thing and and we don't really care or or the Devils gonna be you know Sumerily insulted here. Here's the thing though. Like if you're the Devils Like what what's the sense of trying to file tampering charges against a team that you're probably going to be negotiating a trade with in the near future? Yeah, it's possible. I mean the big takeaway from what he said yesterday was not that you know there's going to be an effort to acquire Jack and Luke Hughes. And by the way, thank you Vancouver fans for all the trade proposals I saw online yesterday that all started with Elias Pedersen at half retained the guy You've been just dumping on for the last year as being inferior We got to get him out of here because he's underwhelming. No, he's actually really good wish

He's yeah, he actually had it. He was just a little snake bit in this season. He's focusing on The centerpiece of a Jack and Luke Hughes trade He's focusing on his defense. He'll be this centerpiece of a Jack and Luke Hughes trade. No, what he's... But the big takeaway from me last... Yesterday was that he said Quinn wants to play with his brothers. And so if that's the case, and two of them are in Jersey and the Canucks do not have the things to acquire both of them and they're both under contract, well, there's only one

solution here, which is that Quinn Hughes joins them in New Jersey, in which case you've got yourself a Matthew Kachuck, Calgary flame situation, where, you know, instead of counting down the days until he just leaves, you might have to be more proactive about it. So all kidding aside, like, start, start the clock, start the negotiations. The devils have some pieces that Canucks probably would like. And if the, if the ultimate, if the ultimate destiny of Quinn Hughes is to walk away from Vancouver to go play with his brothers, then you might have to get more aggressive about it.

I think Rutherford tipped his hand to that yesterday. I'm glad Greg is mentioning this because I had- It's not going to happen this off season. I had two different people reach out to me and they're like, you know, this is kind of the first time that we're hearing that it's Quinn saying he wants to play with his brothers. Cause if you go back and look through the archives of whenever they've linked up. I've heard his brothers don't want to play with him.

Right? No, Jack has said it. Honestly, I'm not joking. Jack has said it. And a matter of fact, he said it before that October game. He was a Palooza here in Vancouver, which ended great for the Canucks and Hughes by the way. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.