Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 4/24/25

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

Mike & Jason talk about the previous day in sports including NHL playoffs & a new Vancouver PWHL team, plus they chat the latest 'Nucks news with Canucks Talk host & The Athletic Vancouver's Thomas Drance. 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. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da Pass, shot, score! Score! Tyler Sagan! The Scars have done it! Ko Bataar, the can't pay on top, he's right by Greenhouse! Right off the end boards, Kuzmenko looks it over! Hands off to Sassen, back door pass, play shoots and he scores! Good morning Vancouver, 6-0-1 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody, it's Halford at his broth at eSportsnet 650. 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 broth for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help. With over 3,000 5-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. Maybe the most eclectic and dare I say electric show in Halford and Brough history today. First, we have not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but six guests on the program today. Six, Jason! Okay, we're gonna talk hockey, of course.

Yeah. There's gonna be the NHL, AHL, and PWHL. What? We're also gonna talk lacrosse. Get outta here. As the Warriors get set to host their first ever playoff game. It's the NFL draft tonight.

That's amazing. So of course we're going to talk some football. Adnan is joining us. Baseball talk. So there's baseball. And last but not least, Lino Messi is in town. So you and I will do a little soccer talk. That's amazing.

And if we have time, if we have time, we will try to fit in some cricket. Nice. Is it a two-horse race, Halford, between Gujarat and Mumbai? I'm all about Mumbai. It's a one-horse race. You're out to lunch, bruv. You're out to lunch.

Do you know it's called the Mumbai Indians? Did not know that. And then I was like, wait a minute, that's racist. I'm like, no, it's not. Change that. It's the Indians, the Indian Premier League. Sorry, it's Mumbai and whom? Gujarat.

What's Gujarat's team moniker? I don't know. I'm throwing you on the spot here. All right. Yeah. I don't know. That's what we learned. We'll get to that at, I don't even

know when we're going to do What We Learns today, by the way, because we have a guest. So anyway, I'll do the guest list really quick. Six 30 Mike Tannier for the NFL draft, seven o'clock Adnan Virk for MLB, seven 30 Kurt Malosky, head coach and general manager of the Vancouver Warriors. They're going to their first ever playoff game as the

Warriors in the national lacrosse league. We're giving away tickets for that one too. That's at seven 30, seven 40 Brandon Astle, play by play voice of the Abbotsford Canucks, is going to join the program. Eight o'clock it's Drance for the token Canucks talk today. And then at 830, very cool, Shelly Frost, the president and CEO of the PNE, is going to join us. So we'll talk about their new tenants, the Vancouver PWHL team, which was announced yesterday. We can also talk though, like White Cabs Stadium, potentially, World Cup, and then importantly,

the Summer Nights Concert Series. Yeah, well, the amphitheater is not active right now because they're building a new one. So I think all the concerts are at the Pacific Coliseum, but I'm not 100% sure. So we will get that confirmation with Shelly because that's honestly the most important part of it. I want a teaser for the lineup, like our EO speed wagon coming or not?

I need to know like today so we got a lot to get a ludicrous was so good last year Are you bringing them back Nelly want to come back to Vancouver? The answer is probably yes Okay, so we got a lot to get to on the program today tons of guests tons of content lots of sports without further ado laddie Let's tell everybody 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. The big news from yesterday is that the Professional Women's

Hockey League is heading west, and their first expansion franchise was announced, and yes, as you know, it is now going to be Vancouver, which will really open up the league, given that the majority of the teams are either based in the east or I guess mid Midwest when it comes to Minnesota. So it's Boston, New York, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, or the East. Central is Minnesota. And now way out West, congratulations, the newest PWHL franchise right here in Vancouver. And as we mentioned, they're going to be full-time tenants at the Pacific National Exhibition grounds, both playing at the Coliseum and practicing at the

Agridome. Yeah, 40 years until they joined the side club. That's it. That's it. Welcome. I'm glad they are not coming into the league with Buffalo. Yeah.

But I do wonder. They might be coming in with Seattle. I do wonder about Seattle. Yeah. Because, okay, so there's the original six right now, Boston, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa, and Toronto, so of that group, Minnesota's the furthest away, you know, middle America, whatever

you want to talk about. Fly over country. Fly over country. Um, and then you've got all the way out on the West coast, you've got Vancouver and in a league like PWHL, you have to be wary of travel costs. I mean, you're wary of travel costs in the NHL. So I do wonder if Seattle is to come.

So for people that aren't a hundred percent familiar with how the PWHL is run, the league owns all the teams. So it's not like, oh, who's our owner, right? Sure. No, the league is the owner. It's investor driven league, which is good because, you know, we were talking about this last week or

earlier in the week. You don't have these owners that are like, yeah, I'll put 2 million in and get a team. And then, you know, there's six months into it, they're losing money and they get bored. And then they're like, yeah, you know what? Actually, I'm going to fold the team because that never helps for leagues that are starting out.

So the next step the Vancouver team has to do is to start hiring staff, including a general manager who will be tasked with building a roster. From scratch. Yeah, yeah, from scratch. And there is going to be an expansion draft. And then there is probably going to be a second expansion team,

and we all expect that team to be in Seattle. Yeah, and then from there, it sounds like the next two would be Denver and Detroit. So Denver would be obviously the one that would be paired up with Minnesota and fly over country. And then of course, Detroit would cluster in with

the remainder of the Eastern teams. Travel is important in the, in upstart leagues. I know the Canadian professional league, the soccer league, um, it's been an issue because when you want to have a true Canadian league, you need to hit all the major markets. That also means you're going coast to coast on a finite budget traveling and trying to carry over a large team. It can become difficult. So I think another good thing about being the

central ownership model is that the stakeholders have to do a very thorough data and market research of every potential expansion franchise and location because they ultimately end up owning it. It's not like they're granting it to someone like you said. They're like, good luck cowboy, go get them. I think a team will work in Memphis. Right. Or Sacramento. Yeah, and take your pick, right?

But the interesting thing here is that- I have a stadium in Las Vegas. It does not work for the CFL, but let's try it anyway. Vancouver ticked a lot of boxes, obviously. I think the takeover tour where they sold out was probably, that was the one that put it over the top, but the press release that came out yesterday said that enrollment numbers in girls

hockey in the lower mainland have skyrocketed over the last little bit. It is also Canada's third largest city. So it was kind of a no brainer to go there after Toronto and Montreal. Yeah. So there you go. Shout out to the Vancouver Angels.

Let's go. Okay. I saw. What do you think the team's going to be called? That's a good question, Andy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Their colors are, what are their colors? Blue, I can't remember what they called the blue.

It's like a light blue, Ocean blue maybe, Pacific blue. That makes sense. And then cream. I don't like that word. They wear them on Sunday? The Sunday creams. Yeah. So.

Vancouver rain maybe? You're still going with this. I don't know what it's gonna be. It'll be a singular name, we know that. That is actually what makes us all depressed here. Yeah. So I don't know what it's gonna be. It'll be a singular name, we know that. That is actually what makes us all depressed here. Yeah. So I don't. Okay.

I saw. The Vancouver agoraphobia. Don't ever wanna go outside. I saw Lionel Messi yesterday. I heard! And I saw, you sent a long video. I saw. Which you weren't supposed to be doing, by the way.

Well, I mean, I was outside the grounds where Miami was practicing at the Whitecaps facility. And at UBC. I was out at UBC, not out there just to see messy. I had to drive some kids to hockey at the rink next door. And then when we were driving home at around, I don't know, six o'clock, I noticed that there was

a lot of security around the practice facility. I don't know, six o'clock, I noticed that there was a lot of security around the practice facility. And the practice facility, if you don't know it, out at UBC is like, it's hard to peek in. Not impossible though. No, it's true. It's not impossible. Because there was one corner there that there was

a security guard at, and I went up and the security guard got, I threw some rocks over somewhere else. Okay. I was like, I distracted the security guard. He was like, what was that? Pretty clever. And then I went in and I watched Messi and Inter-Miami play.

And I was like, oh, he's a short one. Yeah, he is. He's a short guy. You learned something yesterday. Yeah. You learned a lot about Cricket and Lionel Messi. Yeah, yeah. Speaking of Messi, now we don't know if he's actually going to play tonight.

It's exciting that he's even in town. It's really too bad that the Scottish Messi cannot play tonight. His knee injury is lingering a lot more than people thought and it's making a lot of us, white cap supporters pretty anxious. Yeah. Of course we're talking about Ryan Gould.

If you, if you, if you're not that familiar with the Vancouver white caps, he is their best player and he's been injured for how long now? Uh, it's been over a month. Okay. And every time that they ask the gaffer, Jesper Sorensen for an update, he says the

same thing, couple of weeks. And then someone's like, but you said it would be a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks ago. He's like, I did. It will continue to be a couple of weeks. And Ryan Gould will be signing autographs on the concourse today, ahead of the match.

So that's not a great sign that he's not even just like doing the landisgog, take the warmup, no bucket. That's pretty cool that he's doing that though. Yeah, it's good. But it's not great for his playing status. No, no, no, no. If you would like him to be in the match. So who has kind of replaced him?

I mean, he's irreplaceable on the whitecaps, but who has taken on his role because the whitecaps have continued to play pretty well without him. So what they've done in the midfield is they've gone with Andres Kubas and then Sebastian Berhalter has been the biggest story of the season, I think. The son of the former US national team manager, Greg Berhalter, Sebastian Berhalter is a young guy who's been with the Whitecaps for a couple seasons now. He has been their Ironman this year.

I think he started every but one match. He almost played every single minute for a while there. So he slotted in next to Kubas and then Vite. So Vite kind of becomes the attacking guy. Bearhalter kind of becomes the do it everything box to box midfielder. And then Kubas, they're already talking about Kubas being the messy guy.

If he had messy plays, Kubas will be the messy shadow because he's their sort of defensive shutdown midfielder in the defensive role there. So, and as far as messy goes, playing in this game tonight, here's what I can tell you about his contributions this year. He's appeared in 11 matches across all competitions. I think it's 11 of the 14 matches.

So he's played a lot. He's been very active and very busy. In this tournament, the CONCACAF Cup, he's featured very prominently in every leg. Okay. The only time that he sat out was when they played the Jamaican Premier League team Cavalier FC,

my favorite of the Jamaican League teams. He sat out one of the legs there. When do you think we'll know the lineup? When do they announce the lineup? Usually 90 minutes prior to kickoff. 90 minutes prior to kickoff. So do you see it as a chance that he could maybe come off the bench?

Potentially. It hasn't been a role that he's done a lot. Like it's been very rare that he's come off the bench with Miami. More often he starts and then comes off the bench. Potentially. It hasn't been a role that he's done a lot. Like it's been very rare that he's come off the bench with Miami. More often he starts and then comes off early, like in the 60th minute or maybe even at half if they're trying to rest him. I think the match flow will dictate what happens.

They don't want to go back to Miami having not scored an away goal. Cause in this competition away goals really matter, right? And I would also say they have taken this competition very seriously throughout. They have put their best 11 forward on several occasions, including in their most recent victory over LAFC. And you got to remember, you know,

the last time that Miami actually lost the game and their only lost this season across all competitions was in the CONCACAF Champions Cup last round in the first leg where they had to go out West, right? Was that the Galaxy? Yeah, no, that was LAFC. Oh, okay. Yeah, so they-

One of the LA teams. Yeah, so it was, I mean, there's an opportunity here for Vancouver to kind of take advantage of a Miami team that doesn't have a ton of experience. Yeah. Traveling across the continent, playing, and then having to deal with the turf. I think the crowd will be excited for Messi, but I think the crowd is also going to get

behind the whitecaps. So they should. And the ideal scenario would be that we see Messi, but we also see a Vancouver whitecaps win. Jay texts into the Dunbar lumber text line with a great, great segue. Speaking of Messi, did you see the Oilers defense last night? Oh Jay. My God.

Yeah, it was not good. It was messy. Adrian Kempe two third period goals and two assists. Anze Kopitar a goal and three assists. If you're like, wow, those sound like some inflated point totals, that's because for the second straight game, the Edmonton Kings, the Los Angeles Kings scored six goals

on the Edmonton Oilers. This time it was a six to win on Wednesday night to seize a two nothing lead in the first round of their Stanley Cup Playoff Series. So here's what happened. Here's what's happened over the first two games of this series. The Edmonton Oilers have fallen behind O2 in the series.

They have allowed 12 goals. That's an average of six per game. Stuart Skinner got chased after allowing his 11th goal last night, receiving a Bronx cheer, caught smiling on camera after the Bronx cheer, and then pulled out of the game for Calvin Pickard. Pickard comes in, boom, within seconds of being in the net. It's C it goes from five, two to six, two.

How many Oilers fans were online going like, I don't like the fact that he was smiling after the Bronx cheers. It shows he's not serious. It shows he doesn't care. Jason, there were a lot. There was someone in my mentions. They're like, it's not a coincidence that he was pulled right after he smiled at the Bronx cheer.

And I was like, I also said that might have been the least effective goalie pull in Stanley Cup playoff history because they took him out too late five too late in the third Why would you not take him out at the end of the second period? Why let him go back in for the start of the third and then as soon as they took him out LA scored again. Yeah, no blocks on thin. I'm just giving pickets a minute before he starts I felt terrible for him. He was probably looking like am I really going in right now? Like, I'm stone cold. I've been sitting here all game. Why am I going in now?

Is Skinner hurt? Is it because he smiled? I don't know. I've been looking for Jessica Halbot the whole time. Is she here again? Also, can somebody tell me what is going on with the Oilers penalty kill? Do you remember how awesome it was last year?

It was incredible. After they beat the Canucks, I'm like, the Edmonton penalty kill is the MVP of this series. We actually felt better about the Canucks' horrible power play as that playoffs went along because the Oilers' PK was so good. We were like, all right, well, maybe you got to tip your cap to the Oilers too. I think Andrei Kuzmenko has 10 power play

goals already in two games. It's unbelievable. I'm happy for Kuzmenko. Like, you know, the thing is nobody ever thought that he didn't have talent. It was just whether he was going to commit to the system that Rick Tocket ran. And, uh, and I know there'll be a lot of people like sometimes with guys with talent, you have to

make allowances for them. And I'm like, yeah, but you know, like, look, he had a great first season and there were allowances for them. And I'm like, yeah, but you know, like, look, he had a great first season and there were allowances to be made, but when he stopped scoring goals, it was hard. And he went to Calgary. He didn't do anything in Calgary. He went to Philly. It wasn't there long in Philly, but Philly was like, all right, see you later.

Seen enough, right? Don't unpack. So, you know, I, I, I hope Kuzmenko like, I don't know, he always seemed like he was having fun, right? Don't unpack. So, you know, I hope Kuzmenko, like, I don't know. He always seemed like he was having fun, right? I'm happy for him. He's a talented guy. When he has the puck on his stick on the power play, like you can see the talent just by how

he stick handles, how he passes the puck. And the one thing that he is very, very good at is getting to the spots in the net and working with his teammates and just banging in easy ones half the time. Right? Yeah. I'm totally happy for the guy. I don't think it should be anything more than that.

Sometimes it can be simple. It don't have to read too deep into it. It doesn't have to be a verdict or a judgment on Rick Taukett or the Canucks organization or anything. You know what? Good on Kuzmenko. So they have scored five power play goals in this series in two games.

So the 12 goals, five are on the power play. So not only does this come at the expense of an Edmonton penalty kill, which was great last year, and is now terrible for some reason, the Kings also had a crappy power play. They were 27th in the NHL during the regular season. And look, it's Kuzmenko, man. Well, I know Kuzmenko, all the difference.

Yeah, he's the one guy that could turn that power player around. And a little bit of confidence. Okay. Now I have a question for you, so don't take too much coffee. Yeah, let's go. Let's go.

I have a question for you. It's a hard one. Okay. Who in the last two days will want to check social media the least to search their name? Who in the last two days will want to check social media the least to search their name. Who in the last two days will want to search social media for their name the least. Okay. Okay.

Is it Batherson for Ottawa? Is it Arvidsen for the Edmonton Oilers? Yeah. The fourth goal that Edmonton. That was bad. LA scored. Or is it Jonathan Drouin for three, three very, very difficult choices.

Was a no bueno for Colorado yesterday and was a key part of, he was kind of like the Batherson of last night. So if Fatherton, if we're going to power rank them, I would say Arvidsson is the third most likely to search because his goal, while it was egregious of an error, it didn't really cost them that badly, like they were already down and out. The other two were in overtime.

When, when, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. They were, they'd come, they'd come back in that game, it was three, two. Oh, you're not talking about the one he did last night. I am talking about the one he did last night. I am talking about the one he did last night. They lost six two last night. I know. They didn't lose it.

Oh, Batherson. But when Arvidsson actually scored. Batherson and Jiren were in overtime though. Okay. But when Arvidsson. Yeah, those are different. Those are different. Okay.

But was there, was there any part of you when Arvidsson scored to make it three, two for LA, it's like, oh my God, the others are coming back again. LA is blowing it again. We all know what happened in game one and I had told you the story and reminded everyone what happened a couple of years ago when the Kings were up, again, I think it was two one in the series and they had a three nothing lead and they

blew that lead at home. And I'm like, oh my God, they're going to do it again. They're going to blow this again and the Oilers are going to come back and beat them and that'll be it. Yeah. And I'm like, oh my God, they're gonna do it again. They're gonna blow this again. And the others are gonna come back and beat them and that'll be it. Yeah, so I think it's- And Armitage made a huge mistake. He took the puck back.

He's fumbling it all over the place. He's swearing on the ice. You could hear him. He's like, ah! Evan Boucher was like, that's my thing. I think of the two, because I've narrowed it down to Batherson and Durant, I'm actually gonna go with Johnson and Durant.

You know why? Because he ruined Gabriel Landeskog night in Colorado. It could have been a great story. And it was amazing that Landeskog came back last night and to great fanfare, to the pop and the celebration that I think everybody expected. And then the, you know, Colorado got off to a good enough start. But kudos and tons of kudos to the Dallas Stars on this one because you could make the argument that they don't really deserve the 2-1 series lead.

I think they've led in this series for something like 17 seconds. Like they barely had the lead in this series, yet they lead this series. Thanks to now two overtime winners. It was Colin Blackwell in game two. It was Tyler Sagan last night. And you know what? Dallas last night was full value for that victory because they killed that

double minor late in regulation and then into overtime. Right? Where it looked like. Well, Durand had a chance right in the slot not to pick on the guy, but like he blasted like four feet over the net. So Dallas now with a two on lead. And remember that eight game losing streak that Dallas had, which was the seven final regular season games and then the first of the Yeah. Over the net. So Dallas now with a two-one lead and remember that eight game losing streak that Dallas had, which was the seven final regular season games and then the first of the playoffs. Well, they've erased it with back to back overtime victories. That's been a very good series.

Steven North-Sanich said, I love Kuzmenko, but Edmonton's defense has been a huge help to him. Yeah. Edmonton's blue line is an absolute mess right now. There were question marks about it heading into, well, frankly, the season and then Ekholm got hurt. And I don't think there's any coincidence that LA's power play has taken off in the absence of Matthias Ekholm.

That's the same as the Canucks losing Ham Hughes. Uh, that's fair. You know, like, and then you're like, kind of like, oh, that's, that's our most reliable defensemen. Trustee security blanket. Yeah. And all of a sudden it's like, well, that's fair. That's fair. And then you're like, oh, that's our most reliable defenseman. Trustee security blanket. Yeah, and all of a sudden it's like, well, let's see what Jake Wolman can do on the PK, right? And then I think it was, yeah, it was LA's second goal, the byfield goal, where it was

Nurse and Bouchard out there, and Nurse is just wandering up the left side of his own end. You gotta stay on the right side of the puck, kids. Darnell Nurse didn't, and then Byfield is coming in on a two-on-one, real close in on Stuart Skinner, and Bouchard just keeps backing, backing, backing, backing. I don't even think he covered the other guy all that well. He was like, he was, Stuart Skinner was like, watch out, you're going to run into me. And ultimately ends up just kind of staring at Byfield who went in on like, just like

it was a breakaway essentially. Yeah. And beat Stuart Skinner, very nice shot by By, who's got a lot of talent, might be putting it all together. And like, and then it's two nothing in LA, for LA, and even though Edmonton can come back, you're kind of looking right then at nurse is a problem sometimes, Bouchard is a problem

sometimes, and Stuart Skinner is a problem more than sometimes. I think I know the answer for Edmonton, Troy Stetcher, it's Troy Stetcher time. It's a good defensive defense. He might have to, I'm not even joking. I saw his name on Twitter last night. I'm like, oh yeah, Troy Stetcher.

He might draw in their entire. Has he been hurt? Uh, he was hurt earlier in the year. I don't know about his health recently. Um, when they made the deal for Wallman at the deadline, obviously that bumped him down the depth chart a little bit. But I did see his name trending on social media yesterday, I think in large part because a lot of people are like, we have to do something differently on defense. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. erotica expected goals thomas trans erotica

thomas trans erotica regression thomas trans erotica pd oh thomas trans erotica Oh. Thomas Drance, Veronica. 803 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody. Halford Brough sportsnet 650.

Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 5-star reviews. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in hour 3 of the program. As the music suggests, 1,000 five-star reviews visit them online at sans-trustee.com We are in our three of the program as the music suggests Thomas Durantz from the athletic and Canucks talk is going to join us To kick off our three our three is brought to you by Campbell and pound real estate appraisers trustee expertise of Campbell and pound

Visit them on the internet at Campbell-pound.com today We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step to the phone Lines we go Thomas Trance joins us now in the health of the brush on sports net 650. What up Drancer? Gentlemen, good morning Drancer. It's Thursday Deadline Friday for the Rick talking decision. Are you hearing anything? Well, I know that this is a critical 48 hours here today and tomorrow if we're going to get the positive news that the Canucks are hoping for, the talk it's decided to stay, which you know I still narrowly expect but obviously this is a

difficult one to gauge. You know I think these next couple days and really over the weekend I mean I know this week is when Rutherford sort of suggested that they'd have a decision. I wouldn't be stunned, I suppose, if it goes through the weekend, but, but yeah, my understanding is talk, it's coming back in town. Uh, so presumably there'll be some touch points there and, um, yeah, I'll definitely

be on high alert to see some news over the next 48 hours. Um, so we haven't chatted since the Monday presser with Patrick Alveen and, and, and Jim Rutherford and let's face it, it was 90% Jim Rutherford up there. Although Patrick Alveen did supply some awkward laughter.

Very nervous laughter. When, uh, when Jim Rutherford was doing a little light tampering, but it was a joking way. Um, what were your main takeaways from that, uh, from that presser? Uh, I mean, I thought the main one was just that I can't for like this franchise is entering choppy waters over the course of the season.

Right. And there's a lot of things that have happened, uh, under Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alveen's watch and predating them that have kind of all come together at the same time to create somewhat difficult or challenging circumstances for this team over the course of what we expect to be a significant off season. Right. I mean, you think about the all of Reckland-Larsen buyout ballooning to near 5 million, uh, it's over 5 million in dead space when you combine it with the Mikheyev retained salary transaction, uh, the, the JT Miller trade that they didn't want to make, which has clearly, you know, as Rutherford put it, right. Put this team into more of a transitional phase of their team building cycle than where

the club was hoping to be at down the stretch last season. Their needs are the most expensive players to acquire, right? It's not just the centre, although man, a top two centre is key for this team. It's also probably an additional scoring winger. The decisions on just about every front, a possible Demco extension, are fraught, right? Incredibly risky, all told. And in sort of navigating these choppy waters, it just seemed to me that the club's hockey operations

leadership was pretty intent on framing the stakes appropriately. Right? Like there was no sugarcoating this. There was no like line dropped about, you know, we're over the six youngest team on average, right? Or there was none, there was nothing that if you were like an uncritical fan that just wanted a line to repeat or a little bit of a nugget of hope to cling to, that wasn't on offer, right? Like it just felt to me to be stern of tone, right? Like we've got a lot to do

here. It's gonna be really tricky to do. It's gonna be expensive to accomplish, which means, you know, logically we're probably gonna have to make some decisions that are unpopular, trade some fan favorite players, let some players walk who our fans would prefer to see re-sign. That's on the menu. And I just think the tone of it all, from the answer on Quinn Hughes to the answer on Temco to the answer on Pedersen and all the commentary about Pedersen, I think all lined up with sort of an organization that I think was pretty intent on

making sure the market understood what was going on and then sort of how grave the possibilities could be in the months ahead. How are they going to do it? And like, what are their chances of accomplishing it? Yeah. So thinking about it a little bit, right? I think there's, you know, at the end of the day, we look at the standings and we'll see that the Canucks finish what, four or five

points out of the playoffs. I mean, they weren't a mile away. What are the chances of them accomplishing it in terms of building a team that truly can contend next year? Well, I mean, I thought the Canucks were only on the fringes of contending. And I know people say, well, they got to within a goal of the Edmonds and Oilers, but you know, they got pretty thoroughly outclassed as that series went along, right, with two chances to advance the Western Conference Final Game six and seven last

year, they weren't close. And so I didn't buy that team necessarily as more than like a fringe contender, right? So getting back to that level, I think is like closer to realistic than getting to the level of, you know, some of these teams are watching every night right now, right? Then then getting to the level of like Vegas, right? Then getting to the level of Vegas, right? That to me is that your chances of getting to the level that Vegas is at in terms of their overall roster composition and quality I think is low. But could you get to a somewhat similar level as this team hit the prior season? That I think is somewhat doable just based off of you need some things to go right in

the season, obviously. But you know, the level that Quinn Hughes was at, I mean, I was looking at it last night and the, you know, the level that he was at in the first 47 games. I mean, he was on pace for before he sustained that core injury in Dallas the night that they traded JT Miller. We were 47 games into the season. He had 59 points and 14 goals. He was on pace for 20 goals and 100 points. And if your starting point is we have that guy. Man, I mean, that's something that raises both floor and ceiling. That's something that makes being a much improved side next year

very reasonable, like very, very much reasonable. You should be able to put a playoff team around a guy who the moment he steps out on the ice is point per game plus as a defenseman, plays 25 minutes a night and drives the sort of two-way results that we really only see from three or four of the best players in the NHL. Like that gives you a baseline. Now, you definitely need Pedersen to be an awful lot better than he was this year. That's stating the obvious. You definitely need Thatcher Demko to be an awful lot more available next year than he was this year. So, and then you do need more talent, you do need more goal scoring talent. You can't generate shots at a rate that's 31st in the NHL, only better than the Chicago Blackhawks.

Like that's not going to cut it, that doesn't give you enough juice, it doesn't give you enough margin for error. You have to be too perfect defensively. And the Conex weren't near perfect enough defensively, let's be real, right? Like in addition to the offensive struggles, their defensive game fell off. But having that Hughes effect, having that top of the lineup, just star, I do think gives them a credible shot of at least like making the playoffs and being good enough that fans can talk themselves into this team being sort of back on the

road to contention, but man, are chances of success going beyond that. I think it's going to be incredibly challenging without winning multiple trades in quick succession here. Yeah. The one line that I've thrown out a lot is that the Canucks have three guys that scored 20 goals or more this season. And two of them are pending on restrictive free agents that probably won't be

back in Brock Besser and Pugh Souter. And then the other guy is Jake DePresque. Um, so this is a team whose offense wasn't exactly amazing this season. Again, like who are some names that, that you're thinking about? Cause I know you're always thinking about this sort of stuff, but you know, let's take the free

agency out of it because we all know the names and you know, frankly, the Canucks management doesn't seem all that optimistic that they're going to land any of those big names. By the way, they talked about it on Mondays and maybe we'll get lucky with one of them, but who are some names that they could target that can make a meaningful difference for the Canucks?

Yeah. I mean, I was thinking about this a little bit last night, especially while watching that Capitals Montreal Canadians game where Connor McMichael was absolutely killing it. And McMichael to me stands out for a couple reasons, namely though that he really had this breakout season at on the wing for the Capitals over the

course of this year right acquiring Pierre-Luc de Bois allowed them to shift him back to the wing but the season prior he really was a full-time center for the Capitals and there's a couple players that match this description another one is the Winnipeg Jets forward, Cole Profetti. Guys who have played a lot of center in the past, but are in situations on really good teams that have enough depth that they tend to play the wing. So one thing I think about in terms of,

if you're willing to part with a ton of assets, if you're willing to spend to add a centre, one way to maybe consider doing it, this is just something I was thinking about and I wanted to throw out a couple names, could you target one of those young wingers, quote unquote, but guys who were drafted as centres, have played a ton of centre, have skill sets that can work in that spot, with McMichael being, in my view, a more credible option just because he's got more speed. And that's really what I think the Canucks need

down the middle here. You know, I think that's a way of maybe, you know, not buying low because those guys are still going to be enormously expensive. But yeah, you look at the deals that they're on, they're short-term, like one or two year kind of bridgey contracts. Those teams are going to have significant calf considerations in a variety of different

areas. Ehlers expiring in the Jets case, like are those the sorts of guys that you can buy not low on, but that you could pay as like a super promising forward as opposed to an established center, but maybe they can play center for you. Right? Like those are the sorts of angles that I'm, that I'm sort of thinking about here, um, in, in terms of what could be available, Pavel Zaka, the Boston Bruins center, uh, in the event that they sort of decide to go deeper into a rebuild.

Right. He's like prime age, like not, I think it's 27, 28. He's got two years left to super affordable contract. He's like a pretty consistent 50 point guy would be, would give them some bulk, give them some size down the middle, which I'm sure certainly if Rick Talkets back, you would appreciate. So those are the sorts of guys that I'm thinking about,

but yeah, it's tough to come up with names, man. Like it is tough to think of centermen that could be available. So really I wonder too, are you able to build a baseline? Like, are you able to build a baseline, find a good enough middle six guy, maybe as an older player, maybe it's a grandland type in free agency, and just create an environment where

you're good enough that you position yourself to take advantage of the next JT Miller situation. The next guy who shakes loose for reasons that are completely impossible to anticipate today, but shakes loose over the course of the year and sort of add to it in season. We've seen that this group is pretty comfortable entering the year with one team that's sort of an unfinished product and having a very different looking team by the deadline. So you know it's not as simple in some ways too as like they have to figure it out for sure this offseason. Like they have to have graphed sort of depth and and talent and scoring juice into their lineup. I think to get off to the sort of

good start that would permit them to keep tweaking in season next year but I do sort of wonder too like if you're looking for that star top six center guy is that something where you might have to produce like a reasonable facsimile of that in the over the course of this off season with an eye toward maybe even upgrading it during the year. Uh, Dranser, I was reading, uh, Harms, uh, Harmon Dial's piece on, on PD and the headline is, how did Elias Pedersen go from superstar to one of the NHL's most disappointing players? Uh. Great breakdown.

Lots of highlights that show where and how his game has declined. I noticed in your grades that Elias Pedersen was the only forward to receive the grade of F. The grade of F. It was a failing. The grade of F. The grade of F was a failing grade. Well, why would he suppose a safe? It's just the funny way. Yeah, the grade of other I mean, see, left side a D. Did you ever bring your apart card home? It's like, what grade did you get? Father? I have received the grade of the grade of F. The grade of F. The grade of F. I never had that. Guys, you'll be completely unsurprised to learn this,

but I was one of those kids who'd come home and I'd be like, Hey, yeah, no, I got straight A's, it's fine. And then my mom would be like, no, you didn't. You got a C plus in PE. My C plus has always came in art. Jason doesn't seem to care about art. You're right. That teacher has got it bang on.

Um, anyway, we're all filibustering here because, uh, this is when you're going to throw out your theory on whether or not he can return to form. Yeah. I look. I, are we talking to Rick Taukeadere? Are you rubbing your temples right now? Alongside. I know. The, the extreme. Are we talking to Rick Tauquadeer? Are you rubbing your temples right now? All alongside of Rick.

I've got some extremely telling body language going on. I don't know, right? I don't know. And I would say my confidence has been dented because of how long these struggles have persisted, right? If the speed doesn't come back, then I do think we're talking about a different phase of Pedersen's career. And if the speed doesn't come back, I think he's going to have to adjust his game.

Like I think he's going to have to materially adjust his game. Now if you have to materially adjust your game in midstream in the NHL at the age of 26, I'd rather you be, you know, uh, so someone like Patterson with an extraordinary level of hockey IQ in, in seeking to do that, um, then an average player, but it's still a big ask, right? It's still a big ask, especially when you've got seven years remaining at 11.6 and need to be the

reason this team wins. That's an impossible ask. That's honestly in terms of like, like Dranser, have you taken a moment to just wonder what it would be like if he comes back next season and it's the same? Yes, I have. Yes, I have. And I like it's, I mean, it the the Canucks build, right, would be fundamentally compromised if he's not the answer to your top line center issue. If you need another top line center, because it's not Pedersen, then you absolutely need to consider, you know, I think trading him this off season, right? Like especially if you

want to do dramatic surgery with short term successes as the top line goal of it. But that said, you know, I don't see a world where you can bring in a player who, you know, can match Pedersen ceiling case here, right? Can match the, the, what we could, what we could reasonably expect from Pedersen if he looks like he did, you know, in 2022, 23 or, or in the first half of the 2023, 24 campaign. Um, like they, I don't, I don't see how this is workable without a Pedersen bounce back. And, and then you get to, will the speed come back, will the skating stride come back?

Uh, the shot velocity concerns me a little bit less, but only a little bit less because it feels connected, right? It's like, why does this guy have no juice? Yeah. I mean, your, your shot velocity is not with your arms, it's with your body. Yeah, no, I know.

I had a point being, man, it's a really tough one. Like it's a really tough one. I think I'm usually inclined to just close my eyes and bet on talent when I think about these things, but this is one that, you know, you might not, there might not be enough to close your eyes. You might also have to hold your nose and yet I don't see what, I don't see what better options there are.

I mean, I, you know, you, you sell low on a, on a guy who, I mean, is your problem is your best solution to the biggest glaring area of need in the lineup. And then now you. Such a connects decision. Well, then you need to come to. Such a connects decision. It's crazy. I guess, sorry, let me, let me, let me frame it this way. Like I like to think sometimes in terms of what do I get if I'm right? Like what do you get if you're right? Right. And so it's like,

I think that's an important framing in this case, right? What do the Canucks get if they're right? And what they're right about, like the bet is, Pedersen won't get, won't bounce back. Right. So the negative side of this is, Pedersen doesn't bounce back. And we duck that bullet by pulling the shoot and finding a way to trade him for something, you know, something useful, let's say like a top six forward of some kind this summer. What do we get if we're right?

Right, and the thing you get if you're right is like long-term cap flexibility. You've ducked a bullet, you've avoided risk, right? Like you've managed your risk and maybe you get a pretty nice contributor back too. Okay, so you have cap flexibility and you've avoided the risk. Well, is that the sort of thing that even matters for this team given the stakes around

the huge thing and the and the sort of brittleness of this overall build? Right? Like, no. Whereas if Pedersen bounces back, what do we get if we're right? 100 point top six or top line center who's typically driven really good two way results. Well, that's like, this is a home run cutoff season. And the easiest home run cut to make is we have to bet on Pedersen getting back to who he is because at least if we're wrapped right there, what do we get?

We get exactly the thing we need, like literally the thing we need. Yeah. And so I don't know, man, like I think they have to think about it that way. I think so too. Yeah. And it's almost like a moral hazard issue with management.

Right. Because they're kind of like, well, our only chance is Pedersen bounces back. Otherwise, you know, the first thing that you brought, like, you know, okay, otherwise the first thing that you brought, like, okay, otherwise we still haven't fixed our issues down the middle. And second of all, if we bet on Petey and he doesn't bounce back, then we at least get to leave.

Hope is not a plan, gentlemen. Hope is not a plan. Sorry, but it's hope is not a plan. Hope is not a plan, but I do think you have to factor in the upside cases here and what you're trying to do overall. And for me, I guess that's the other thing I'd add, right? Is the way that they were, the management was willing to effectively

call Pedersen's preparation and performance to account the way that he was publicly challenged in that forum. And you know, fair to wonder if that will work, right? Like fair to wonder if that's the best approach from the perspective of motivating of the player. But I do think it's a window into an organization that certainly didn't seem to mind an organization that certainly didn't seem to mind or wasn't prioritizing, like managing his asset value, right? Like the audience for that commentary, that's a good point. Clearly not other GMs considering trading for Pedersen, clearly Pedersen

himself. And I think that's a pretty, of kind of where we should set our expectations in terms of where this goes. Drancer, you're the best buddy. Thanks for doing this today. As always, we really appreciate it. Enjoy draft night too. It's going to be a lot of fun this evening. Let's go. Let's go. Need the jags to trade out. Yeah, right. See you buddy. Have a good one. Thomas Trance from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks Talk here on the Haliford and Bref Show on Sportsnet at 6.50.

Jeff from Mission Text In, this is bloody depressing. Mike the urologist from Brockville, this is the worst. And then he says like the PD situation, not Drantz. Yeah, right. Okay, I get it. Thank you. And he also said never heard Drantz at such a loss for words. The Drantzian sigh.

It doesn't happen often, but when it does. You can tell the Drantz computer, like the Drance 3000 is like, this does not compute. None of it computes. I don't know. It's like my Microsoft Excel sheet just exploded. This doesn't happen. This doesn't happen to players in their mid-20s that have put up 100-point seasons. The guy in the inbox laughed at me and called me a mean name when I suggested that at 26, that Pedersen might be atrophying slowly.

Well, that was dumb. It wasn't that dumb. It was dumb. It happens to people. At 26? Yeah, some people, it does. I don't know what to tell you, but it does. Some people lose their athletic ability a lot earlier than others.

Some of them lose it when they're in their teens. I lost mine when I was seven. There you go. I was an incredible athlete for the first seven years of my life. And then suddenly just disappeared. It just all went away. I am not a doctor by trade, but I have anecdotal evidence that it's true that it happened. Okay, we gotta go to break. It's when a dog discovered sugar. Yeah. I think that would make me a better athlete. Video game, sugar, take your pick. Okay, let's go now for a little Abbotsford Canucks talk the play-by-play voice of the Abbotsford Canucks Brandon Astle here on the health of the breath show on sports net 650 morning Brandon. How are you boys?

How are my people doing in the Dunbar? Text inbox because let me tell you last night your station picked up our game So I got access to the inbox Fun place not a message. I could only imagine what comes in during your show because it was all night. Only compliments, only compliments. I know, I bet, right? It was like people come texting in from Brazil,

Mexico, Maple Ridge, like it was everywhere. Like I just thought like, what does Halpern and Bruff read during their show? It's a lot. Yeah, we love our listeners. I'm saying that with a straight face. I wanna talk about this game last night. So Sammy Blay, the hero, Artie Silov's a lot. So yeah, we love our listeners. I'm saying that with a straight face. I want to talk about this game last night. So Sammy Blay, the hero already see loves the hero.

I asked the question right away, so I got to get the answer. What happened with 34.6 seconds left that led to see loves stopping a penalty shot to secure the four three win. Lay it out for us as a play by play guy. Set the scene in the sequence. I'm still scratching my head it was just came out of nowhere because yeah Tucson was trying to tie the game they had the goal tender pulled and then all of a sudden Max Sassett was skating the puck out of his own end and was gonna

have a good shot at the empty net and then the referee blows the whistle and I just see like the net's knocked out behind Shelagh so they go okay that's kind of sucks for Abbotsford. It looks like they're going to ice the game there, but now the face off is probably just going to be in their own zone and we go from there. But then the ref points to center ice and then she loves it. Like what? And the Abby Canucks and the fans were all confused, but to Tucson's credit,

they knew right away something happened. They were like telling the ref like that's a penalty shot. That's a penalty shot. Apparently she lost just intentionally knock his head off which is an automatic penalty shot so jumping over the boards was a defenseman who isn't known for his scoring Mac Zuber he's a big left-handed shot defenseman went one for one in the shootout had seven goals all year put on a pretty decent move

but Shilas made a nice right pad stop to preserve the game one win and just yeah, some of the one of those things you don't see every day. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.