Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 4/24/26

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they get a Canucks GM search update from Donnie & Dhali's Rick Dhaliwal. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Tom, are there any names I've missed that have been reported already? No. Okay, thanks, Tom. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, make, we're 6-1 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody.

Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Alfred, it is Brough, and is Sportsnet, 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios in Beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adaw, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you. Hello, hello.

And for the final time this week, intern Jordan, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Halford in Brumbram for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Are you drowning in tax debt? Oh, my. Sands and Associates can often reduce your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com. We are in Hour 1 of the program.

Hour 1 is brought to you by 90%. 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 Kintech Studio. Step Strong with Orthotics and Footwear from Kintech. If you want to text into the show today and please do because it's Ask Us Anything Friday

on the Halford and Brough show. Text in to the Dunbar Lumber Text Line 650, 650 trusted by contractors and DIY champions. across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. Okay, we got a big show ahead. We got a lot of guests. Let's do the guest list.

It's our Duick Morning Drive, brought you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 6.30. Nick Shook from NFL.com. One of our favorites is going to join the program. Round one of the NFL is in the books. Two big stories from the draft yesterday. One, Fernando Mendoza, of course,

going first overall to the Raiders. And the second was the Mike Vrable, Diana Rusini, controversy taking center stage and taking up a lot of oxygen in Pittsburgh where the draft is being held. That story was drafted second overall. I think it was drafted first overall. It actually had its own press conference prior to the draft.

Oh my God. Nick's going to join us at 630 to talk about all that. 7 o'clock AJ from AJ's Pizza is going to join the program. A reminder, as Jason mentioned, it's Ask Us Anything Friday. $100 gift card to AJ's for the best AUA. Send a man $6.50.6.50 is the text line. pizza is the emoji and ask us anything is the challenge. 7.30. Kurt Moloski's going to join the program.

GM and head coach of the Vancouver Warriors. We're going all local in the 730 slot today. Kicking off with the Warriors. Playoff lacrosse is back at Rogers Arena, the number one seat of Warriors. Take on the eighth seated and the hated Halifax T-birds. I know you hate them, Laddie. Yeah. All right.

Yeah, I say I hate them. Tonight seven o'clock Rogers Arena round on. up. Round one of the NLL playoffs. Let's go. Kurt Maloski's going to join us at

730, 745. Stephanie Labet is going to join the program. Olympic gold medalist. You'll all remember her. Backstop Canada to a gold medal in the Olympics. Vancouver Rise Sporting Director.

The Rise begin their title defense also tonight as they will take on hated AFC, Toronto at Swan Guard Stadium. 7 o'clock from beautiful Swan Guard Stadium, Jason, the crown jewel of Burnaby. stepla bay is going to join us at 745 to preview the nsl season and the rise season when was the last time you were at swangard oh good question we drove by the other day and my kid asked me if i had ever played there and i was like yes we played a commonwealth cup final u11 nice back in 1991 now i've played there since right we actually trained there because um our regular field at burdby lake was undergoing construction so they're like hey do you old guys want to run around on swan guard did we ever how's the pitch it's amazing nice it's

It's a great facility, actually. So we'll talk Vancouver rise at 7.45. 8 o'clock, Rick Dolly Wall is going to join the program. I won't say everything that Dolly's going to talk about today, but of course we will discuss the GM search, Ryan Johnson, and some other tidbits as well with Dolly as we get into all things Kinnocks at 8 o'clock. I'm not going to run it in reverse on the guest list. We have too many things to do.

So without further ado, Laddy, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? the action because I'm... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that?

Whoa! What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. Laddie, we're going to flip the script here. I want you to get that 32 thoughts audio that

you pulled from earlier in the intro. Yeah, you like that clip? We weren't going to... Yeah, I did like that clip. That was very good. Imagine Dom not bringing anything to the table. Anyway, we were going to just start with the Stanley Cup playoffs and everything that happened at the NFL draft. But then the most recent 32 thoughts pod did include something of an update regarding the Vancouver Canucks general manager search, which is, as far as I can tell, very thorough, still ongoing, no resolution in the near future, kind of starting to mimic what

the Nashville Predators' GM searches look like. So, for each game, us some stuff to chew on. We thought, hey, let's lead the show with it here now. Elliot Freeman on the latest with the Vancouver Canucks GM search for the most recent 32 Thoughts podcast. Vancouver, who were the names that have been reported so far? Don. Ray Whitney, I think that's true. I believe they've done a formal interview with Ryan Johnson, Kevin Adams. Dom, are there any names I've missed that have been reported already? No. Okay, thanks Tom.

I think it's going to be a long list and I will spend more, I think they have spent most of this week and a good chunk of next week. I think it's going to be like the Nashville process. Introductory conversations with a lot of people and then cut it down. And I don't think we're at a point yet where they're cutting it down. I think they're going to talk to a lot of people. And what I'm curious about here in the end is how the structure is, all going to work, but we'll get to that another time. I made a mistake already, Dom. I made that comment about three different lists on Oilers Now with Stauffer. I should have known

better. I did not intend for that to turn into a tire fire, but of course it did. One thing I wanted to mention about Seattle, Patrick Alvin, the former Canucks GM, I wonder if he ends up there. I know a lot of people have suggested Minnesota because he's got a history with Bill Garon. He also has a history with Jason Bauderil. So I think Seattle could be possible for Alvin too. Okay, so lots to unpack there. We may as well go chronologically from the start to the end of the clip.

So mimicking what the Nashville search has looked like. And I'm assuming he means the duration of the search that if you're going to accuse Nashville of anything in their GM search, certainly not rushing it because it was announced in February that Barry Trots was going to step down as general manager and the search for his successor would be underway right away and now we are checks notes April 24th and they are still without a general manager

so they've certainly taken their time it's been a very thorough search in Nashville yeah and I mean the one thing that I'll take from Frie's comments is I have I'm wondering the same thing that he's wondering is just how it's all going to work when all is said and done, right? When they've hired everyone,

how is it going to work and is it going to work better or more fluidly than the last time the Canucks had a regime change and they bring in Bruce Boudreau and then they bring in Jim Rutherford and it turns out that Jim Rutherford doesn't really want Bruce Boudreau as the coach

and that was kind of, it wasn't pretty. that whole thing. And I'm sure the Canucks have learned from that. Well, I hope the Canucks have learned from that. And it's, you know, if they just bring in a GM and Jim Rutherford stays on for this season,

that becomes problematic, I think, because everyone will wonder, well, okay, who's in charge, right? The same thing we wondered when Patrick Alvin was the GM.

And even if Jim says, this new person is making all the hockey decisions, will still be like, so like you're not going to, you're not going to have any input? Like, are you his boss then? Like, who does he report to? Because if he reports to you, then you still have influence. Now, let's say there's a new GM hired and Jim Rutherford doesn't stick around. Okay.

So is there a new president of hockey ops or is there a new executive? And what's the reporting there? And is the executive who's hired in the quote unquote higher position than the GM, is that guy okay with the new GM that's hired and everything? Like, I just want for this all, you know, my preference really is that there's a new executive that loves the new GM and that Jim Rutherford moves on from the Canucks because I think it's time for that to happen. And I think as long as if Jim stays on, people will always wonder like, okay, What's your influence in this? Like he joked and it was a good nature joke.

I thought, you know, it was funny when he said it. Like, I'll, you know, go to Canadian Tire and help build the practice facility or whatever, right? I mean, but I don't think anyone will believe that if Jim Rutherford sticks around, that he's just going to focus on the practice facility and he's going to stay out of hockey related decisions. And it's also like, what's the point then? Yeah. You know? why?

And so, but if he's, and if he stays on, you're kind of like, all right, so you're having influence on this team then. Yeah. And, you know, the longer he stays, the more questions that will be asked about when he's leaving, because he's already opened that door. And I think everyone is fully cognizant of the fact that

Rutherford is definitely not long for this job, although, who knows, they don't prove us wrong, Jim Rutherford. But the uncertainty with him in that position, is twofold, like you said. Is he still a position and figure of authority? And then whether he is or isn't, the question is like, when does he leave and when do you get a replacement in place?

By the way, the name Ray Whitney came up in that clip. And I do want to just very briefly discuss this because this sort of came about yesterday and the day prior. And it started, I'm not sure everything actually started with, but it got a lot of oxygen courtesy that spit in chicklets ecosystem. because Whitney's pretty tight with Biz and Keith Yandel from their time together in the coyotes organization.

He's extremely close with Shane Done. Also, there are ties to Jim Rutherford from their time together in the Carolina Hurricanes organization. Whitney and Rutherford won a Stanley Cup together in 2006. Whitney's got a long and

decorated NHL career. He played over 1,300 games. He played for almost two decades. His role as an executive is pretty minimal. He spent some time in the Cain's organization as a scout. Sometime in the Coyotes organization also as a scout and then he was a coach of one of their

junior teams. Yeah, the Whitney and Donne thing is kind of odd. They just seem like their buddies. They're like, it would be cool if we like, should we go run the Canucks? I think they did that what you're talking about at the Spengler. I think Done was the head GM and Whitney was the assistant GM, but I think it was like, wouldn't it be

cool if we ran a team? Yeah, let's do it. So it was pretty fun at the Spengler Cup. Yeah, which lasts four days. I think this might be more challenging to run an NHL team, but his name is obviously out there. And when you start to connect the dots, you understand why. I think he's got a lot of connections to people within the organization and people interviewing for spots

with the Kinnock's organization. Okay. So let's park the Kinnock stuff a little bit and move on to what happened last night in the NHL. My main focus was on the Ottawa Carolina game. Ottawa, hanging on for dear life. And certainly hanging on now.

They're hanging on now. It was Logan Stankovin. The Stank of an open the scoring for the third straight game in this series. Cains take a commanding three nothing lead against the sons, the senators, with a two one win in game three. Your boy Jason Blake, who you really like that line. Jackson Blake. They call him Jason Blake? That's his dad. Jackson Blake. That line with the stank oven. Blake and Hall

has actually been the best line in that series. It's really given Ottawa fits the entire time and they haven't really had an answer for it. I didn't know much about Jackson Blake at all. He is a really good player. You know when I first watched him was late in the regular season. Remember Carolina had that game against Philly?

Yes. I think they won it in the shootout. That's how Philly clinched their playoff spot. But Jackson Blake was unbelievable. in the overtime and just down the stretch. I was like, who is this guy? I really didn't know who he was. I like, I kind of heard his name, but I'm watching him and like,

this guy has a ton of talent. At any rate, the Sends, man, you know, the conversations around this team, assuming they go out to Carolina and don't have a miracle comeback are going to be really interesting. Brady Kachuk and Tim Stutzla have been, in the words of Travis Green, average in this series. And The Sends had a five-on-three power play

yesterday against Carolina, which might have been a top five worst five-on-three power play I've ever seen. It's terrible. It was horrible. It was passes to nobody. It was lost battles. It was losing races to the puck.

in a five on three. At home. Getting out manned? How does that work? At home, those are like momentum killing, energy, sapping power plays. And, you know, I think the Sends off season, the most obvious guys that people are going to talk about are Brady Kachuk. Because there's, let's, I mean, let's face it,

there's always these trade rumors with these American players now. And he's got two years left on his contract before he can, become an unrestricted free agent. This is when the Quinn Hughes chatter really started to pick up in Vancouver because this is when Jim Rutherford made his comments about, I know everyone thinks that Quinn wants to go play with his brother in New Jersey. I was like, yeah, we think it. We didn't say it out loud, though.

And, you know, there's always going to be these rumors. I mean, his Brady's brother, Matthew, was one of the trendsetters. And, you know, they're going to have to figure out, number one, if you really want to stay. And number two, if they got the right mix of guys here, the other guy that's going to get a lot of conversation is Linus Almark and whether or not they can rely on him down the stretch. He's been good in the playoffs, but I think there's going to be a conversation there. And then another guy that's interesting to me is Tim Stutzla. You watch him play and you can see the obvious talent that made him the third overall pick in 2020,

and that was the draft that Lafranier went first, and Bifil went second. Stutzla is a really fun player to watch, but I bet he drives Travis Green nuts at times. And I think it's fair to ask the question, is he the kind of center that can lead you to a cup? It's like the Dillon Larkin situation in Detroit. Stutzla doesn't have a point in this series.

He could have many points. He had chances to score in that game two against Carolina. have three goals and three games in the series. Yeah. And Stutzla and Kachuk are taking a lot of heat from the fan base. I'm not suggesting the Sends are going to trade Stutzler or that they should, but the Sins to me are a bit stuck in that mushy middle.

So what do you do if your management? Most of the time in the NHL, they just kind of shrug their shoulders and try again the following season, right? You know, at least the Sends have made the playoffs the last couple of years. They went a long time without doing that. And while they were bad, they drafted all sorts of talent. I'm just not sure they drafted a true game changer. And this is a really tough situation to be in if you're Ottawa.

You know, you've got good players. You could even say you've got very good players with Stutzla and Kachuk and Jake Sanderson and Thomas Shabbat. But is that good enough? Is that going to get you a cup? And are you either going to play the conservative route and be happy to be a playoff team, but kind of know that if you ever made just the Stanley Cup finals, people would be surprised to put it nicely?

Or are you going to, are you going to reach for something higher? and maybe make some risky moves. Well, this is a good time to reintroduce the Kachuk conversation because on that podcast that Brady and Matthew do where they had their dad on and it got a lot of smoke over the last couple weeks of the regular season for the remarks that Keith made about player injuries and players not playing hurt.

There was also a clip in there, a line where Keith jokingly asked Brady, how much time you got left on your contract there in Ottawa, to that effect. And you're right. this is the season going into this offseason where they're going to have to look at it because you'll say, well, it's a good young team and they're on the rise that made the playoffs two years in a row. They've also fallen behind 3-0 and 2 consecutive playoff series.

And there's a sense of frustration with that organization right now. And you can feel it. Like you can feel like they know that they should be better and they're not. I actually want to play the audio from Travis Green yesterday. Now, this is Greener's frustration with the officiating because Taylor, Hall hit Jake Sanderson with a headshot yesterday. He probably should have got five in the game. I mean, it's pretty, it was pretty clear cut.

I have no idea how they didn't. I think the reason that he didn't is because they didn't call it a major on the ice so they couldn't reverse the call or they couldn't at least take a look at it. Yeah. Well, I mean, speaking of doing that, they did that with Brady Kachuk. Yeah, Greener Brins up in the clip. On, I think it was Jordan Marknook. The Kachuk skated by him and Martinuk went down like he'd been, you know,

stabbed by Brady Kachuck and you can actually hear him yelling. Yes. On the ice. And they stopped the play. And they stopped the play. And I mean, I'm watching him like, what did he do to him? Like what happened there? And I'm still not exactly sure.

They called it a spear on the ice. And then they downgraded its interference. They didn't call it a spear. They just said a five minute major. Oh, I thought it was sparing. There were allegations from the Carolina bench, I think, that it was a spear. But they just said he's been assessed a five minute major. now we're going to go.

So we can look at it. Look at it. And then they looked at it at it at home and we're like, I don't think that's like anything. So they're, but if they call it a five-minute major, do they have to call one penalty?

That's what I was wondering. Yeah. And I'm sorry to the listeners. I don't know the answer to that because, you know, I watch that. I was like, I don't think there is a penalty. And they were like, how about interference?

Do you give them interference, right? So Green mentions is this in the clip. This is a very frustrated Travis Green following a two-on loss, Ottawa had to Carolina last night, which put them on the break of elimination down 3-0 in the series. Here's Travis Green. I just don't understand how there's not a five-minute major called on the hit to the head. It's blatant hit to the head. Kind of hits you don't want to see.

I think it's ridiculous. There wasn't a review. They call a review on Brady on a penalty that I don't even know what the pay. penalty was and then they totally miss a review that I mean I'd be shocked if there isn't some kind of review and

you know from the league on that and something done uh laddie yes you can rescind the penalty entirely entirely they are able to do that it felt like they gave them too because they were like well he needs something on this play but there wasn't when they called interference I was like he barely

clipped his shoulder to be honest hey, there have been a couple instances now of guys getting hurt during the play and they're being really quick whistles and then the guys getting up and skating away which I think is a horrible look. Look, no disrespect to Vladar because he's been great for Philly

and I know goalie's a little bit of a different position but it happened twice in that game against Pittsburgh in the third period. One where he lost a skate blade and I think you were texting us. You're not even supposed to blow the whistle on that. Yeah, well, in the past, I guess they've blown it down

when the goalie loses their skate blade, but they've since changed the ruling and you're supposed to just let the play go and I think they blew it one time for Vladar and they're like, you better get the training staff out here because we weren't supposed to do that. So like I know that there's, you know, I know with replay and everything else

that they're supposed to take their time and when it looks like there's a big collision on the ice because of like potential head injuries, they stopped the play and everything. But like if I'm watching that game and I was, my first thought was like Martin took a dive. Like that was embellishment. By the way,

There was another embellishment call last night on a star player. Nathan McKinnon got one in the L.A. King's Colorado Avalanche game. Was that in solidarity with Sid? I don't know what's going on. They're such good buddies like, I'll support you, Sid. Well, I wonder if there's been a message your mandate sent down being like, look, we've got a lot of embellishment going on right now. And refs are getting in these situations where they're blowing plays dead

because they think guys are seriously hurt and then they pop back to their feet. So Brandon and Vancouver texts him with a very, Very good question. And it was about my comments on Tim Stutzla being a very good player, but a bit like the Dylan Larkin situation in Detroit where you're like, yeah, he's good. Is he a good enough number one center to win the Stanley Cup? And Brandon said there's only like eight of those centers in the league and two of them are in Edmonton. What do you want them to do?

That's my question. Like I don't know. I think it's a very tough situation to be in. and it is similar to, and we're going to talk about the NFL draft coming up, it's similar to when you have a very good quarterback, but he's not a great quarterback. Right.

Right. And he's prime for the hall of very good. Yeah. And I mean, the Seahawks were a perfect example of that this season. I certainly didn't ever think they'd win a Super Bowl with Sam Donald as quarterback. Did you? No, but they did.

But they did. Now I'm like, they're going to win more Super Bowls for San Donald at quarterback. And that's funny though. No, but just because they had such a great defense and they had game changers in other areas of the roster, right? And. Well, that's the answer to your question then.

You can win a cup with Tim Stutzel. Hold on, though. Surround him by complimentary players. But we're talking about a different sport here. But is Sam Darnold now? Because, I mean, he was unbelievable in the NFC championship. They don't win. They don't go to the Super Bowl.

not as good as he was. It wasn't like he was. And Stutzler has the potential. Right. To have an unbelievable playoffs. But until he has the potential. But until he does it, those questions remain.

That's kind of, and unfortunately, it's not fair. It doesn't make any sense. No, it isn't because you're, you're almost blaming a guy for being not great.

And then when you're like, you're very good. But the problem with this team is you're, you're not Connor McDavid. You're not Nathan McKinnon. You're not Sydney Krazby. It shouldn't matter, though. That doesn't matter.

But it does. But it does. But it does matter. You're trying to win a Stanley Cup. But if you have enough good players on the team, you don't have to have a Carmen David to win the Cup. Like Brian said, there's only eight of those guys or whatever, even less maybe.

In the NHL that you would say, like, yeah, this guy is like bona fide, superstar, one C. You do have to have one of those to win a lot of them. You have to have a very good centerman, but if you have other excellent players around him, it's not like that'll limit you from winning championships. This is the conversation that they're going to have in Ottawa, but I do wonder if they're going to make some changes.

I don't think it's going to start with Stutzel. I think Brady Kachuk is the one where they have to it's Kich. They have to make a decision on. And if you were to, like, first of all, like, I think Brady's a little overrated. I know who else is? Matthew. They're big names, and I do, I do enjoy what they bring to the NHL because they bring some personality. And sometimes they're willing to play the villains.

And that, that's great, right? It's good for us. It's good for the sport. Sure. You don't have to like them to appreciate what, what they bring to the league. But, you know, he's got two years left on his deal. And if you were to trade him, like, I keep on thinking about a trade. where Brady goes to St. Louis

where the Kachuk. And, you know, like, St. Louis would be like, yes, like, we can, we can sell that. Robert Thomas and Robert Thomas goes the other way. There's your center. Or at least, you're deeper at center.

And then you've got two really good centers as opposed to Tim Stutzla and then like Dylan cousins or whatever, right? I'm so glad you brought this stuff about the Kachucks too. Like, because coming out of the Olympics, there were no two guys that were leaning into the celebration and the pride and the confidence of winning gold than Matthew and Brady

Kachuk. And it was kind of like, at the end of it, they were like, and I helped because there was eight other guys on that team that were more important to the U.S. success than Brady and Matthew Kachuk. They didn't do anything in the metal rounds, right? It was Connor Hullabuck, the Hughes brothers, take your pick. There was about five or six other individuals, but at the front of the line, they're the Kachukes who haven't seen a camera. They haven't loved, right? But I would add Ottawa to the teams that could have a very interesting offseason or at least a lot of noise around them. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Our next guest is a presentation of Basam Motors. He joins us courtesy of that Able Auctions hotline. Rick Dollywall, Ricky D, joins us now in the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. What up, Rick? How's it going, boys? All right, brother.

Let's get into this. GM search. What's the latest? Well, the latest is the search continues, and we're not going to get an answer today or tomorrow. And we found out this week that leading the charge to hire the new GM, Jim, Jim Rutherford, Francesco Aqualini. And as I told you guys Wednesday morning, Michael Doyle's involved, the C.O.O. the Canucks. But listen, I don't really care how many lists are out there. I know everyone's making a big deal of these lists.

They could have hired a firm, which they haven't. The key isn't the lists or the firm. The key is just hire the right person. I don't really care how you get there. Hire the guy with the best plan, the best vision, the best mission statement. And the best time to look at a young and upcoming rookie is during a rebuild because there's really no expectations to win. Let's say they hire a rookie. There's no expectations to win.

You just got to manage the ship. make sure you draft and develop properly. That's what the new guys got to do. You know, manage the ship, draft and develop. You're in a rebuild. Nobody expects you to win next year anyways. It's just not hiring the next GM. The entire culture in that management and ownership's got to change.

The perception in the NHL right now is the connection not a well-run team, the last two years. You guys, it's a disaster, drama, soap opera field of this team, always in the news for the wrong reasons. They've got to change that. that. And how you change that is you hire people who treat people right. Just hire good people, let them do their jobs. Jim Benning had no control because the owner was playing GM. Patrick Alvin had no control because Rutherford was making all the decisions.

Hire a GM, let them be the GM. In the last 11 years, the Canucks have not had a true GM who had power. And it's really time to change that. Look, we've heard all the names this week, right? Shane Dohn, Ray Whitney, Kevin Adams, Ryan Bonas, Jeff Tamblini, others. Canucks have, I will tell you this, the Canucks have interviewed a lot of people whose names didn't get out there. They've been kept quiet. And so, but I want to talk about Shane Dorn, and I'll tell you why. Because since his name surfaced in Vancouver, I've heard nothing but positive things about this guy.

Okay. I had a couple of agents reach out to me and say, if the Canucks hired Don, it may change those agents' perception of the organization. That's how well thought of in the hockey road, Donne is. Now, most think Donne would come here as president of hockey ops. Not sure about Whitney. Whitney and Don are very close friends. Okay.

Now, last night I talked to two people who work with Don't in the last few years. One person called them a great person, upbeat, always positive, small. smart, great with the media, but he did say this. If Don't ends up in Vancouver, it is imperative. He surrounds himself with good lieutenants. The other guy said to me that Don is one of the best people he has ever met in his life, truly world-class, humble, and team guy. Let me ask you this.

You just heard the description of Don't. When's the last time someone described someone in the Canucks Barne office like that? Yeah. I mean, we threw out the idea of Shane Donne, Ryan Johnson, and Mani Mulhotra plus the Siddines. I mean, that's almost character. That's too much character. We can't have that much character.

I mean, that's, you know, in a couple of years, if the Canucks aren't, aren't doing that well, people will be like, there's too many nice guys in the front office. They need some, they need some killers in that front office. My question for you about Shane Donne is, is like what position would they have for him? and what's the reporting going to be? Is it going to be GM to the president of hockey ops?

Is it going to be GM to the owner? And maybe there's a VP in there. I'm really curious about the hierarchy that when all is said and done is going to exist in Vancouver. And then there's the question of how much longer is Jim Rutherford going to stick around? Yeah, Jim Rutherford is a great. That one I want to talk about.

Like, could Jim hang around next year in an advisor role. And if you do hire guys like that are young and not a lot of experience like Donne, Ryan Johnson, or Ray Whitney, he could stick around next year in a consultant role and guide them along.

Right? So I... He could in theory. He could, in theory, yes. But is there a perception problem then? Are you are we wondering then who's pulling all the strings and who's really in charge? Maybe it doesn't matter.

as long as it works well behind the scenes. But I don't know. There's, to me, I'm just so ready to move on from this last period, this last era of the Canucks that I'm kind of like, everyone out the door. And maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself. The only problem you have,

Jason, is that Rutherford's got one year left on his deal at that pretty good bucks, right? So if you're the owner, you don't want to send them off and just say, okay, see you later. You've got to pay the guy. The other thing is that Rutherford, made it very clear last Friday. The new hockey ops or GM or whoever it is or if there's more than one person, they're going to make the hockey decisions. He's going to go into the background. I do believe that. I don't think he's going to do what he did with Alveen and make all the

decisions anymore. That's why I brought up to you the advisor role. Could he stick around next year as an advisor in the background? And if it's a guy like Don't, hey, Jim, what should I do? You know, this situation has popped up. If you're the owner, you're probably not wanting to send Rutherford away, he still makes a pretty good damn buck, and you probably want to utilize that. And whatever you think of Jim Rutherford in the last four or five years, or no, the last four years he's been here, he's still a pretty savvy veteran hockey guy. But look, if he hangs around, it's one of the scenarios that I heard, he hangs around in an advisor role next year, he could help some of these young guys.

But back to Don. He was a coach's dream. Didn't cheat an effort, great pro on and off the ice. I was told he handles upper management the same way, right? But right now I've been told that Knoxers talk and do a ton of people. Lots of Zoom calls, all that stuff. I don't think you're seeing a decision anytime soon. Here's one for you, Jason.

I haven't heard any agents being interviewed yet. You know, I was thinking of Danny Millions, your buddy coming in. That would be the last try, I think. Hey, Danny Millions, from what I'm told, has had, in question. inquiries in the last few years about that, about this type, about joining a team. But he's got so many clients and he's got so many top-end clients coming. The agent thing has worked in the past. You look at Montreal.

The agent thing is not a, you know, the agents bring... Oh, Gillis was successful here. Yeah, yep, yep, yep. The agents bring something that is different. They know players inside out. They know what players want. Like, okay, let's go to July 1st, and you've got to talk. client, you're writing down on a piece of paper the 10 things that your clients looking for

on July 1st, they got a good read of what makes players successful, what they need to be successful, what they need to be surrounded with what needs to be successful. But I haven't, to that end of it, I haven't heard any agents, but I checked in with Danny Millions just to see if you got a call and the answer's no. Did you ask him where Van der Kaine's going to play next season? Well, I mean, Evander's had his exit meetings. I know, he had them early. Yeah, he had them early. Evander is, as far as I know, still sticking around town.

I haven't heard that he's left. But, I mean, if you're the new, are you resigning Evander? Like, I mean. Out of your mind? I was talking about maybe in the KHL. Oh, no, I see what you do. Danny Millions. He's got some connections over there.

Let's move on from Evander because I don't know what to discuss that. Ryan Johnson. Halford and I were discussing this and in the same context of Mani Milhotra and I know we're going to talk about Caleb here but yeah I mean I know the Canucks can't

quote unquote rush this process but I'm sure Ryan Johnson wants some sort of answers because you know there might be other teams out there that are interested in his services if the Canucks do not want to promote him yeah so let me talk about Ryan Johnson

he's been with the Canucks since 2013. He was hired by Mike Gillis. This organization has groomed that guy for exactly the moment of Friday. So why didn't it happen? Why didn't that moment? We fired Alvin and Ryan's the new GM. Why didn't that happen when you've been grooming him for 13 years? If the Canucks don't think that after 13 years he can be the GM, he'll never be the GM here. He was the simple, obvious choice to announce last Friday. Was he not? He knows the franchise inside out. He knows Abbisford inside out. He knows East Coast Hockey League team inside out. He knows the

young players' draft picked inside out. If they hire a GM with no experience above over him, that would be very telling. If he doesn't get the GM job in Vancouver, I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't hang around. When I talk to agents,

never has an agent to me said a bad word about Johnson. When Rutherford first got here, it was Johnson who helped ease him into the job. Jim was very appreciative of his help. I do believe that Jim is a supporter of Ryan Johnson. When Jim got here, Ryan Johnson went out of his way to get him acclimatized to Vancouver, get him caught up to everything, right? Rutherford is the guy that believes Johnson is ready to be GM. Others do as well. I just

don't know if the people at the top do. Now, time will tell. I certainly haven't heard Johnson's out of the mix in Vancouver, so he's in there fighting like the rest of them. But I really do wonder, If he does not get this job, I really wonder if he sticks around. I mean, guys, if he doesn't get it, you've been here 13 years? Like, are you getting the job after 19 years or 20, 25? I think he's already in a top position now that it's been reported that ownership is like, I don't know about this guy. Yeah, and to me, I don't know what else he's got to do.

He want to call the cup. Did he not want to call the cup? Is there any reason you're hearing like, why? maybe they're not sold on him? Well, I think, like I said, a few days ago, I think the owner's worried about hiring a third straight rookie GM. Okay. Jim Benning, then you go to Elvine,

but in Benning and Elvine's defense, they really never had all the power. The owner was playing GM with Benning, and then Jim was calling all the shots. Patrick never had control. I think everybody in the hockey world knows that, but somebody had to pay the price. There had to be a fall guy for going to 3.

second place and it was Alvin. You can't come back with the same crew that got you to 30 second place. You just can't. Now, listen, I want to get in a couple of things about Adam Foot, Mani Mahaltra and Alvin. So Mahaltra left Wednesday for Ontario. He went to go see his kid play. We'll talk about his kid in a minute. The Abbisford season is over. Mahaltra's got one year left on his deal. Most people think he is chomping at the bit to move to the next level, the NHL, whether that's in Vancouver or elsewhere, time will tell. But the Manny left Vancouver Wednesday. The Abbisper season's over, so we'll see, we'll monitor that.

Now, imagine being Adam Foote these days. After one year into a three-year deal, go sit in the corner and wait to hear about your future. The new GM decides your fate. I was told that Foote is working every day, going about his business, preparing for next year, what else could he possibly do? It's not a great, great super position to be in, but he has no choice, but to continue to do what he does

and prepare for next year, and that's what I've been told what he's been doing. Now I want to go to Patrick Alveen. I've been told he's going to get calls from teams and not just one or two teams. He had no power in Vancouver. The rest of the NHL knew that. Everybody in the NHL knew that.

He's a good scout. He's got a good reputation. There's a lot of people to like him in the league. Everybody knows he was the scapegoat in Vancouver. I'm being told this morning that Elvine's not going to rush into anything, but I think there's going to be interest in this guy. I'll tell you one thing, Elvine and Tocke had a great relationship. There was mutual respect there, right?

So I think as Patrick Alvin thinks about his future, I think there's enough people in the National Hockey League that like him and value his work, I don't think you'll have a problem finding a new job. Okay, let's talk about Caleb Malhotra. And, you know, his stock is very much on the rise. Tell us why. So let me go back to last year. When he finished his 16-year-old season in Chilohaq,

remember he was in Chilowac before he went back. I remember after Chiluac got balanced in the playoffs, I asked an NHL scout. I said, hey, where do you think Moulthra is going to go? in the 2026 NHL draft. And he said somewhere in the second round, today he's a top 10 pick. Today, he's very high on the Canucks board. We're talking top three.

That is how fast a kid's game can grow in 12 months. Last year, a scout told me after Chilliwack mid-second round, today he's number three on many teams' boards. That is how these kids progress, develop, grow, gain weight, muscle, get better. Now, early this season, the Canucks had Ty Nand Lawrence as their number one rank center on the board, not Mahaltra. Ty Nan Lawrence has dropped. His decision to go from the USHL to Boston and the NCAA midseason, not a great call. Not a great call in a lot of people's eyes.

Mahaltra is very high on the Canucks board because he's a centerman. And that's the Canucks weakest position. He's smart. He's skilled, 200-foot player. character off the chart, good family jeans. He's got a lot going for him. Two scouts told me last night, if the Canucks pick two or three, they should seriously consider Mahaltra at both two and three.

That is the respect this guy's got right now among scouts in the National Hockey League. Now, other than Braden Coots, there is no center in Abbisford, no center in the prospect pool who's got the upside to be a top six center in the organization. That's why they got a hard, they got to take a hard look at Mahaltra if it's two or three. If the Canucks get the third pick, Mahaltra makes the most sense. We don't know the future, Brough of Elias Pedersen. He could be traded. He could be bought out in a few years.

We don't know. The Canucks need more centers in the system because getting centers in a trade, very expensive. Teams are not letting their centers get to July 1st. you got a draft and develop them because they're just not going to find that center on July 1st because if you got a good center, teams are locking them up. Now, I also want you to look at what Philly did last year. They're in the same boat as Vancouver.

They have no centers, okay? So they're just as weak. So they had the sixth overall pick last year. Everybody expected them to take a center. But what do they do? They took the best player available. Porter Martone, great pick. GM Daniel Breyer said at the time,

he was too good to pass up despite the fact they needed a center. It was a heavy draft center at the top last year. I think seven centers went in the top center, top ten, something like that. If you're picking third near the Canucks, do you take the much needed center or do you take the best player available, which most likely in that area could be a defenseman? So tough decisions lie ahead for this organization. But we've got to find out, first of all, where they're picking. The other one I want to say this year is weak for centers in the top of the draft, but next year, oh boy, lots of centers expected to go in the top 10.

Well, the connects are going to draft a defenseman next year, and his name is Landon DuPont. So I'm not too worried about that. Well, the balls, Jason, the balls, the ball's got to go in the right direction. Stop yelling the balls at me. Okay, anyways, you know that that's a wishful thinking. That's the guy you want. Yeah, yeah. Boy, what's he got, 30 points?

Sounds incredible. Yeah. You know, he's unbelievable. Is that kid in Everett? Hey, Dolly, before we run out of time here, I was wondering if it's been discussed among the organization or if it's a complicating factor that, you know, it's possible that Manny Malhotra could be coaching his son, Caleb.

Is that something they've considered? Is that something they want? Or is that something they're wary of? they are in a tough spot here because you're eventually if you don't give Maddie the job up high you're possibly going to lose them right you're possibly going to lose them and

you know it's a tough it's up to the new gym Jason of course they've thought about Matt everybody's thought about he had teams calling last year for him you know he wanted to call their cup he's a young good up and coming coach yes he's going to have interest but okay, well first let's hire the director of hockey ops. Let's get the GM in place.

He's first got to decide Foots fate. Then if Foots not here, you seriously got to consider Mani. He's right in your backyard. Yeah. Are you willing to lose him? Jason, if you don't give him the promotion that he thinks he probably deserves? I wouldn't be. Let me say this about Ryan Johnson and Mani Mahaltera.

The Canucks have two very good options in-house. They really do. look, I'm not saying Ryan Johnson is not going to get the Vancouver job. But man, it was so easy to say last Friday, here's the catmiss guy right in our building. They didn't do it. That scares me. I also do wonder, and a bunch of people have texted in and said, you know, maybe they are just doing their due diligence. Maybe they are interviewing a bunch of guys to gather information, which is something that, you know, idiot sports talk,

shows like ours have constantly done. Like do an interview process. Talk to people. Get ideas. See what's out there. Don't rush to just internally promote. Don't just zero in on a candidate and just be like, that's our guy and we're going to hire them. You know, go through the process.

So maybe that's what they're doing. But I'm sure Ryan Johnson wants to know a bunch of other people texted in and said, well, maybe Nashville's waiting to see what the future is with Ryan Johnson in Vancouver because they've been taken forever to make their decision as well. Exactly, exactly. And you don't think Nashville is appealing to Ryan Johnson. He lives there in the off-season.

You don't think it's appealing to him. You'd have to be a fool not to think it's not appealing to him. That's his home. That's where he lives in the off-season. But look, when it comes to Ryan Johnson, they could have easily said, can't miss, here's our guy, spend with us 13 years. It's time to promote. If you don't promote him now after 13 years, what's the needs to keep him?

You're just basically saying you're not going to be the GM ever. Yeah. What else does he have to do? I agree. It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks. I don't know how long this process is going to take, but I do know that it's going to be a beautiful weekend here in Vancouver, and I hope you enjoy it. Oh, cutting the grass.

Get the weed eater out, you bet. It's going to be a great weekend, broft. Great weekend. How's the lawn looking? Mine is dialed in. Oh, no, no, no. I'm a lawn guy. I love the green grass.

When I cut it, I cut before and after pictures, I look at it for, I'm telling you. I'm a lawn guy. I love the weed eater. I love the lawn morn. The sound, when you pull the wire, you get it cranking. It's good. Brup, it's good.

Enjoy that, buddy. See you, pal. All right. Do you say when you get its cranking and it's good? It's good. And he's just yelling the balls at me too. The balls, bruff. And balls, would you get it cranking?

By the end, it just becomes this like loud word salad. You just say stuff. It doesn't necessarily have to do. with the words that preceded it. My favorite dollywall, everyone. My favorite dollywall thing is, I know we've talked about this before, but when they end the hits, because that's my favorite.

It's just, it's when he accuses you of something. Yeah. You don't think. You don't think. I'm like, no, I agree with you. You'd be a fool to think that. Like, well, I don't.

Stop yelling at me. He actually did make a good point about Ryan Johnson. I mean, I didn't even think about that. I mean, I know that obviously they declined. But I mean, like, yeah, I could totally see him being the GM of the predators. Sure. If he doesn't end up in Vancouver,

like that seems like a logical. Yeah, I didn't either. Yeah, he's a natural guy. He played for them though, right? No, his brother played for them. Oh, right. It makes them up. Yeah.

I will say this. The reason that that search is probably taking so long is they're just sitting there waiting. For Ryan Johnson, might just shake loose, you know? Now, it's been two and a half months. It feels like a long time to wait on one guy, but they know what you want.

Are the Canucks just doing this search? Not as cover, but haven't we always said that? Like go interview other people. Don't just zero in on one candidate. So, but I mean, the thing is, there are reports out there that the ownership isn't sure about Johnson. Yeah, that's fine if they're not sure.

Go out there and see. Yeah. I mean, you know, the list discourse that we had on the station this week, I mean, I appreciate that we had a nugget of information and it's a very fervent hockey market when we get after it. But like, Sat came on and clarified, like, the mechanisms of the list. Like, it could have been a Google.

Google Doc. There might have been tabs that constituted a singular list. Who had administrative access, though, right? Like, you only, you know? I love the idea that they don't know how to remove Alveen from you still there. Yeah.

He can't add in it. Who keeps adding Alveen to this? He can very much look at it. Anyway. By the way, Greg Ben Kuzva also just posted an article about Lawrence Gilman. Larry Gill's, yeah, saw that. Yeah. Not necessarily.

It's like a potential, like it's something they're talking to. That's been out there in the ether. because, like a multitude of reasons. Gilman said that he felt like there was always unfinished business in Vancouver. For sure. It's another name that we can speculate. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.