Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 4/30/25

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they discuss the news of Rick Tocchet leaving the Canucks with Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli & Canucks Central host Satiar Shah. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of It's going to get really hard. No, no, no, no. Pearson, centered! They score! Brent Houghton, a hero again! Back for Goss's bear. Uh-oh! Game over!

Series over! Sebastian O'Hale wins it on the power plate in overtime! Good morning Vancouver 601, on a Wednesday, happy Wednesday everybody, it is Halford at his broth, it is Sportsnet 650, and we are Coney Live, from the Kintec Studios, a beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Intern Kieran, good morning to you. Good morning. Intern Kieran, good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halpert and Brougham for the Morning is brought to you

by Sands and Associates, BC's first entrusted choice for debt help. With over 3,000 five-star reviews, visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices 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. We got a lot, and I mean a lot to get into on the show today. Our guest list today begins at 6.30. David Amber, Hockey Night in Canada,

Sportsnet NHL host is gonna join us. Can you hear that? Off in the distance? That's the sound of the Toronto Maple Leafs choking away a three nothing series lead against the Ottawa Senators. We'll talk to David about last night's Battle of Ontario and look ahead to another Canadian team

facing elimination tonight. Fuck you! Ugh! God! Choking on my own rage here! Montreal down 3-1 in their series to Washington. I am projecting on other Canadian teams right now because it's 7 o'clock. We're going to talk to Frank Saravalli about Rick Tauket.

We'll talk to him about the big news from yesterday. Rick Tauket, as you may have heard, will not be back as the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. What's next for Rick Tauket? What's next for the Vancouver Canucks? Who's next for the Vancouver Canucks? Why is this all happening? We'll get the answers from Frank hopefully at 7 o'clock this morning.

7.30, Michael D'Agostino, Vancouver as a sports city could be redeemed somewhat this evening. The Caps, Michael D'Agostino, the assistant coach of your Vancouver White Caps, the Caps are in action tonight. Second leg of their CONCACAF Champions Cup Semi-Final against Inter Miami and Lionel Messi. Kickoff is at five. The White Caps need a win, a draw, or a loss by a single goal. That's the math on that one, to advance to the final.

Ah, sucker. Five. Five. That's what I'm saying. Eight o'clock, we had to make an emergency call to Sat yesterday. Had to make an emergency call in the wake of the Rick Tauket news to get him on. He's got like a bad phone, but it's the Sat phone,

and it's like this red phone that blinks. Just in case the coach that you really, really wanted to stay decides to leave. He's got a private number, you call Sat and he comes on. He's gotta like slide down this pole to get to the phone. Then he comes on. It's a whole other deal. Then he comes on the show.

But as Sat gets older, that pole becomes just like, he's like, oh god. Oh god, sick. Oh my knees. It's breaking on the way down. Sat's gonna join us at eight. Getting escalated here. Sat's gonna join us at eight to talk about Rick Tocket. We're gonna talk about the Tocket situation

throughout the show today I'll tell you right now text in Dunbar Lumbertext line is 650 650 get them in weigh in your thoughts your opinions everything else We're gonna be talking about this a lot today I'm not even gonna work in reverse on the guest list because we have so much to get into so without further ado laddie Let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? What happened? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Rick Tauket is not going to return as the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks next season. That's the story. That's the headline. That's where we're going. Okay. I think we should approach this in two ways.

The first is the straight news and facts. The second is when we can speculate a little bit, philosophize, cry maybe, and answer what this decision says about the state of the Vancouver Canucks and where they go from here. So the first part is the easy part. Now these are all just facts. Halford, you do the fact checking

while I read off the list, okay. The Canucks are now looking for their fourth head coach in four years. That is correct. Correct? Okay. Manny Malholtzscher will be on the shortlist for that job. That is also correct. Yeah.

Jim Rutherford confirmed that yesterday. He also confirmed that Mike Sullivan will not be on the list of candidates. Can confirm. Okay. Quinn Hughes was a huge fan of talkets. Quinn Hughes is the captain. He's the best player possibly ever. And he's two years away from unrestricted free agency.

I can validate that claim. Okay. The Canucks traded away JT Miller this past off season because of a rift with Elias Pedersen that affected the team in a negative way. I can also authenticate that. Okay. Pedersen is coming off his worst season in the NHL and has a no move clause that kicks

in July 1st with seven years left on a contract with an $11.6 million cap hit. Now there are a lot of facts in there. Were they all correct? All of those are true. Okay. Management has said it needs to dramatically alter its top six this offseason Probably got to bring in a top six center a top six winger and maybe one more player Rutherford Pegged it at three forwards

Affirmative, okay. The Canucks won't have a dedicated practice practice facility anytime soon. I Can also validate that claim. Okay, and the Canucks still haven't signed their top prospect Tom Willander. I can also verify that claim. Did I miss anything? I don't know I lost track. Did you mention Demko? Yeah right well Demko might never be the same goalie ever again and make it knock it resigned. Okay. Minor detail. Anything else that we've missed? Oh, and we're all gonna die. Hold on. I'll speak for yourself.

And Adog is sad. Wait, what? And today you gotta get your taxes in. That's the dead end. Right? Death, taxes, and the Canucks. And Tocket. Now comes the part where we ask

what Tocket's decision says about the state of the Canucks? Well. Are we done? Sorry, are we done the validation part? Those are all the facts. Good. We're done. Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a heavy workout at 6 or 7 in the morning. Yeah. You had to find different ways to say, yes, I confirmed that. That was tough for you, I'm sure. Validated. I had to put actually all the information together.

Let's go. Um, so the part where we ask what Tocket's decision says about the state of the Canucks. Well, I think you'd have to twist your brain into quite the positivity pretzel. You like that? Positivity pretzel. To see it as anything other than an indictment

of the organization. The coach, they really, really wanted to stay, decided to leave. And here's the quote from Jim Rutherford, we did everything in our power to keep him. But at the end of the day, Rick felt he needed a change. Now you can rack your brain for reasons why Rick might've felt he needed a change that has nothing

to do with the Vancouver Canucks. Maybe this has nothing to do with the Vancouver Canucks. Congratulations on the positivity pretzel that you've turned your brain into. By all accounts, this wasn't about money. The Canucks gave him a really generous offer and according to IMAC, they went up to five years instead of four.

Was it for Taka the thought of Quinn Hughes leaving? Was it the thought of Elias Pettersson staying? Was it the lack of a practice facility? Was it the exhausting nature of this past off season? Let's face it, the answer is probably yes to all of those questions. Maybe there's a bigger yes here and a bigger and a smaller yes there. But I'm sure they were all factors. The Canucks are trending in the wrong direction.

And Tauke decided that he didn't want to be a part of the organization anymore. You can call him a quitter if it helps you cope. Embrace the herd and now you leave? What happened to meeting pressure with pressure? You can call him smart. I'd do the same thing if I were him, I don't blame him. But this is a gut punch to the Canucks. And management, by the way, isn't trying to suggest it's anything other than that. So there's no need

for anyone to spin it for them. Now, another factor, the Philly job. Maybe, and I would say, probably, Tocket ends up taking the Philly. And there's a press conference next week or the week after that. And he calls it his dream coaching job and that he's always been a flyer at heart, yada, yada, but the connects will still be left where they're left. And that's with question marks and all the key positions. And that now includes the head coaching position. So yesterday I was trying to put together something in the realm of optimism or house of positivity, something glass half full, if only to provide a temporary counter from the

human doom scroll that is Jason Brough. But. I wasn't even doom scrolling. I was just. Just in general. Not even yesterday. Oh, in general. Okay. That's fair. Yeah.

But it was almost impossible to do. I spent hours, okay minutes, but I was trying to find something that would be a positive or any silver lining. You're like. From this. Attu or Attu looked pretty good in the last few meaningless games of the season. And I failed. Then I started looking online. I'm like, maybe there's someone's ideas I can steal.

That's pretty commonplace in our industry. Maybe Rick Riley's got something for me. Nothing. I've never seen a more universal acceptance from this particular fan base and media, and even the people working in the organization, that as you so eloquently put it, understood, embraced, took and just acknowledged that this was a gut punch, that

there's no way to look at this in a positive light. Even if you are in the anti-talk at camp and wanted him gone because of his Jurassic coaching style and his conservative approach to offense. Even if he wanted him gone, the way that he left can't leave a good taste in those people's mouths either. Because it wasn't as if he got fired. It wasn't as if the Canucks were saying, we don't want you and your coaching philosophies back. They made it abundantly clear they did

They got turned away. I don't even know if it was at the altar I don't even know if they made it that far but the organization got turned away from a guy who looked at the two and a half years that he was in charge and what the next two and a half years might look like and went I'm not signing up for this and That is something that nobody can spin in a positive fashion. We should go through some of the audio from yesterday and try and answer some of these questions. Do you think Rick Tauke and Quinn Hughes will one day meet in Zuateneo?

Maybe. Do you think Quinn Hughes is called Jim Rutherford back by now? I don't know. Maybe his golf round is still going on. It'd be funny if he still hasn't. Yeah, we're playing another 18, Jim. Yeah. And another 18.

It's three in the morning. You've been going through a tunnel for 18 hours. He's at Topgolf. Okay. We got a bunch of questions here and we're going to play some audio from yesterday. It's either going to be Jim Rutherford, LA at Friedman Audio.

Um, what does the new coach need to bring to the table, whether it's, um, you know, Manny Um, what does the new coach need to bring to the table? Whether it's, um, you know, Manny Malholtra or any of the other candidates I heard kicked around on the station yesterday after the news broke. Um, Lattie, are you ready to fire up some audio here? Um, here's what, uh, Rutherford said about what the new coach has to understand. Yeah, that's hard to say.

I think we have to go through, first of all, we're going to get lots of calls. We have lots of names. We have to break those names down and then we're going to have to interview these people and see where they're coming from. And we have a situation here where we have some star players, impact players. Anytime you have them, coach has to be able to adjust to how you deal with them compared to the rest of the roster.

They have to understand that playing in Vancouver, the travel can be tough at times. Can they manage the schedule when we practice, when we travel, all those things. It's a little bit of a unique situation because of that, but we'll break all that down and you have to have some experience. You have to have leadership qualities.

You have to have a good structure and system that the players can lean to when they're not playing well. Those will be some of the things that we're not playing well. Those, those will be some of the things that we're going to look for. Um, okay. So when is this new coach going to be hired? Because the connects are going to make a lot of changes this off season, at least they are going

to try to their top six group. And you would think if you bring in a coach, you want to have that coach in the room providing input on those decisions. What kind of players does he think the team needs? And what kind of players does he like? What do you know, what's his style? Who does he lean on?

And here's Rutherford talking about, well, we're going to have to make some changes and we'd like the coach to be involved. Well, we're going to have to make changes anyways, whether Toc was returning. Um, and we knew we were gonna have to make changes anyways whether talk was returning And we knew we were gonna certainly make some changes with our forwards But ideally we know who the coach is

So the coach can have input on that. It's important for the coach to get players that he wants not for the general manager just to make Trades and say here's your guys. You make the adjustment. So hopefully, and we really don't want to do this in a manner that we do it too quick and we make the wrong

decision on a coach. We want to make sure that we go through the proper process. But the sooner we get it done, the better it is for the planning for the off season. Uh, okay. So that's on the coaching side and we'll have lots of conversations, I'm sure over the next

little while about who should coach the Canucks and who should be the assistant coaches. Because I think, uh, Mr. Foot is gone as well, wherever Rick Tauke it goes. Uh, especially if it's for an NHL coaching gig, I don't know if he'd show up beside him on TNT. He'd just be like, I'd come with Rick. Yeah.

Like what are you doing here? Um, Quinn Hughes. Um, there was a real freak out in the fan base yesterday because a lot of people were joking about, including myself, were joking about, um, what Jim Rutherford had to say about Quinn Hughes not getting back to him yet on the phone. And then the people that were catching up later in

the day were like, wait a minute, is he really not returning Jim Rutherford's phone calls? And I just want to play the audio from Jim Rutherford just so everyone understands what's going on here and why people might be suggesting that Quinn isn't returning Jim Rutherford, just so everyone understands what's going on here and why people might be suggesting that Quinn isn't returning Jim Rutherford's calls. Here's what Rutherford had to say about the Quinn Hughes factor in all this.

Yeah, well, I hope he's playing golf because he usually returns my calls right away and I called him within half an hour after I talked to Rick. So he hasn't called me back yet. Knowing how he feels about the coach and that he's a sensitive guy, I would suspect that he feels like I do, that we're disappointed.

But knowing the maturity of Quinn, he will make the adjustment necessary. But they did have a very strong relationship, a very good one. And Quinn had a lot of respect for him and talk had a lot of respect for Quinn. So, so, uh, there'll definitely be an adjustment there. So this just keeps getting better and

better and doesn't it? So what does, uh, what does Quinn Hughes really want here? Out? Or this is what Elliot Friedman had to say, cause he was on the station too and he's been all over this story. Elliot Friedman on what Queen Hughes wants at this point. I think that like to me, Queen Hughes, that

guy wants to win. Right? And you know, it's, it's just like, it's just wild. Like think about the last two years, Vic, I was actually doing this today. Like a couple of years ago, we weren't expecting a year where you guys are going to take Edmonton to game seven of the second round, right? And this year, you certainly weren't expecting the year of the way this happened. Um, so I think to sit here and say, this is gonna happen or that's gonna happen, it's kind of foolish to do.

But I think the truest thing, and we've talked about it a couple times now, is I don't think anybody thought Vancouver was going backwards this year. I think they saw something building, something positive, something good, and now look where we are. And like I think this saw something building, something positive, something good, and now look where we are. And like I think this year took a lot out of a lot of people.

And that's why we are where we are. Which brings us to Elias Pettersson. Rutherford didn't necessarily mention Petersen by name, but we're going to play a clip here from Jim Rutherford and the good stuff happens at the end, but I want you guys to hear Rutherford's voice and see if you can sense, like I sensed, a little bit of anger right at the end here. As for the major issue we had to deal with in the first half, it wore really hard on everybody. Players, coaches, managers, it was tough, okay? But we can't talk about that forever.

It's behind us now. Whether we did the right thing or we didn't do the right thing, it's behind us. It was a decision that I don't think we had a choice to make based on all the information I have. We did what we had to do. We have to move on from that. Now it's about getting those, the top players.

And when I say that, I don't refer to Quinn. He's a phenomenal player. We don't worry about him. But getting the top players to perform the way they have to. You have to have your impact players win games for you. Not just be one of the guys. And that's part of the job of the coach. And that's something that the new coach is going

to have to figure out. You have to have your impact players win games for you. I'm not talking about Quinn Hughes. What is he talking about Philip Peronik? Kiefer Sherwood. Is he talking about Sherwood? Is he, well, Besser's gone probably.

Souter, is he, I mean, he's a, but surely he's not, he's not an impact player on the Vancouver Canucks. Third-in goal scorer. We all know he's talking about Pedersen there. What? Yeah. Oh, that makes more sense. Why didn't you say his name?

Yeah. So I think this is, I had a lot of friends texting me yesterday, it was like, what happened? And even a few calls, what, I need to talk to you about this. What happened? And I said, listen, I don't know the ins and outs of all this stuff.

And he said, people always want to boil it down to one thing, right? I think it was everything that we've mentioned, but, and what we might find out in a few days, I wouldn't be surprised. I wonder if the kicker in all of it, and maybe this is why the Canucks were so frustrated when the news came out, how the media reacted, was

the Philly job coming available. Because he was probably already thinking like, do I really want to deal with this? And you got Quinn Hughes and his uncertain future in Vancouver. Um, you know, like, like Petey or not, or like how, like how talk had dealt with Pedersen or not for talk at that took up a lot of energy. And by the end of the season, I know Pedersen had a few good games here and there, but I don't think

Anything significant had changed. I don't I don't think there was any proof that He'd been able to get through to Pedersen. I really don't I think he said some of the right things But I think the fact that he was still on him on practice habits and etc Like I think he was probably like, Oh my God, can we go through another season of this because I would bang my head against the wall. I've never had so many damn meetings about one player in my life. Um, was it the practice facility? Probably not, probably not. But when you add it all up and when you add the, you know how you got to like

pump yourself up for a season, right? And we sometimes talk about this when it's players are ready to retire. They're like, Oh, can I really, do I really want to go through the off season prep and go through all the hard work? And, you know, if I'm not a hundred percent in, it's going to be really difficult. And a lot of them just be like, they come to a point where they're like, I just don't, I'm not motivated enough to put the work in for this situation.

Now this is a little bit different cause talk, it's not talking about retirement, but I do wonder if when that Philly job become available, was he like, I really don't want to be here. I want to be there. Sure. And that might lessen the sting for some people. I know there's some like, there's Todd from Richmond's

texting in and Fish Dancers texting in, talking about the coach part of this. And the coach part of this is a huge element. Don't get me wrong. Who coaches this team, you know, is going to be a major, major factor in how much success they have next year, right? Like I get that part of it.

And I understand that some people are saying we might've maxed out in terms of success under what we were going to get from Rick Tauket. I think the important thing to understand here is that what we've been talking about for the first 23 minutes of the show, almost in a way, isn't even necessarily about the skills and attributes that Rick Tauke brought to Vancouver

is taking away from Vancouver, maybe taking to Philadelphia. What this really is about is a referendum on where an individual sees the franchise going, right? We can all agree on that. And more importantly, it's a referendum from an individual that the organization wanted to keep very badly. Very, very badly. Right?

Remove the nameplate from it. There's someone that the Canucks wanted to keep in a major way, and they were willing to give much term and many dollars to, right? That was the situation we're talking. That dynamic is almost exactly what they're gonna be facing with Quinn Hughes moving forward, is they have an individual

that they really, really, really wanna keep and they're willing to give as much term and as much money as humanly possible to keep him around. Can they sell him? But one person has already said, no thanks. I see what the future looks like. That's a very, very damning thing because much like Rick Tauken has other opportunities to

go somewhere else, so too will a Norris winning calibre franchise defenseman. And Jarence was making this point on the station yesterday. Even if the Canucks were in a good spot, Quinn Hughes might jump at the opportunity to go play with his brothers. And it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. You go play with your brothers and on a good

team in New Jersey and you're two brothers. They're all good players and go win a Stanley cup together. I mean, that's, that's like, that's sports dream stuff, right? And for Rick Tauket, for all that we've talked about, the state of the Canucks, maybe the Philly job and returning to Philly was similar to that. I am trying to help make everyone feel a little bit

better here, but I don't think I'm doing a very good job because the fact of the matter is we're still going to be left here with the Canucks. But. To me, it doesn't matter where Tauke it ended up. Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, TNT, it didn't matter. Cause the only thing that matters is that the choice was not Vancouver.

Yeah. And that's, that's a top one reconcile. But it might be, it might be a dream job scenario as a coach for Tauke to start with the Philadelphia Flyers and then realize that the organization isn't in the best spot right now and maybe he can go back there and return to a city where he is beloved. And I'm sure he's still got a lot of friends and

he goes in there and he starts fresh, man. Like, I know he wasn't in Vancouver got a lot of friends and he goes in there and he starts fresh, man. Like, you know, like I know he wasn't in Vancouver for a lot. I was only here for what? Kind of two years or whatever, two and a half years, but you know, a lot of things happened. And the idea of starting fresh with a Flyers organization and bringing in a message that's

going to be new to those guys. We'll see if he takes that Flyers organization and bringing in a message that's going to be new to those guys. We'll see if he takes that Flyers job, but I would be pretty surprised if he doesn't. David Amber is going to join us next and we'll talk about what happened last night in the NHL, the Leafs and the Kings, man. So much regret for the LA Kings. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. To the phone lines we go, Frank Ceravalli from Daily Face Off joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. He has a presentation of angry Otter liquor. Good morning, Frank. How are you? Pretty good. How are you guys doing?

We're well. It's been an eventful morning following a very eventful afternoon and evening yesterday in Vancouver. When you heard the news that Rick Tauke was no longer going to be the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, what was your reaction? Surprise? Did you expect it? Did you not? How did you react to the end of last week and there was no announcement from the Canucks that Rick Tocket would be returning and there was seemingly very little progress, I think it was probably a foregone conclusion at that point. And I think as the week dragged on, the Canucks got a real better sense that, hey, this might not be happening. And I think there's certainly a finality that hits to it.

And I think the first thing that I think back to is just how incredibly wild and crazy this last calendar year is. I mean, this time last year, the Canucks are wrapping up their series win over the Preds and getting set to face the Oilers who they took to game seven. Rick Tocket then gets named coach of the year.

Everything seems to be pointing in an upward trajectory and now here you are picking up the pieces a year later, it's, I mean, it's unconscionable. If the Flyers job hadn't become available, do you think Tocket might've made a different, a different decision? I don't think that this has even 1% to do with the Philadelphia Flyers or any other opening, to be honest. I mentioned to you guys before that when you arrive at the natural

breaking point like this with a contract and you have to decide one way or the other to stay or go, and you have to decide one way or the other to stay or go. It offers you a point of inflection to reflect on where you've been and where you're heading. And this wasn't in the end about dollars, it wasn't about logo or geography, or like a lot of those things might be 5% factors, but this is purely about Rick Tawkins vision for where this is heading.

And I think an opportunity to, to do it the right way and win. And I think, to be honest, the dysfunction that exists in the Vancouver Cadux organization from top to bottom, it repels a lot. And you have some incredibly loyal people, Rick Tocket, Brock Besser, go through the list. JT Miller bled for that team. They're on their way somewhere else. And the big reason for that is right from the very top and how that filters through everyone else. This is one of the most dysfunctional organizations

in the league. It's one of the most dysfunctional organizations in pro sports. That chaos wears on people, fact. And with that, when you have an opportunity to take a peek and see what else is out there And with that, when you have an opportunity to take a peek and see what else is out there and see that there are seven openings right now, seven other openings,

and the potential for maybe three more, two or three more, depending on how things shake out here in the first round, I think instead of this being about the flyers, this was about, am I reasonably confident that I'll be able to get a job elsewhere? And I think the answer for Rick Tocket was yes. And with that, there was always the fallback option of, if it doesn't work out, I can always spend a year at TNT again trying to figure out what's next and find the right best fit for me.

Do you think the higher ups in Vancouver and the people that really control this organization again, trying to figure out what's next and find the right best fit for me. Do you think the higher ups in Vancouver and the people that really control this organization, are they going to have a moment of self reflection? As we've talked about that a few times, like this has been a long time now and there's been the odd high point, whether it was in the bubble or last season, but for the most part, this team has not functioned well. And you would think that there might be some thoughts about, Hey, should we maybe

switch our philosophy up a little bit? Do you think that's going to happen? I would think if it was going to happen, it would have happened over the last number of weeks in an effort to try and retain Rick Tocket. Because I think what is abundantly clear, whether you think he's a great coach or not, and there seemed to be some speculation on social media in the Vancouver market over the last couple months of the season that he's not, what is undeniable is that the best foot forward that this franchise has put together over the last 13 years or 14 years has been under Rick Tuckett's

guidance and you've heard the vocal support from your superstar defenseman and perennial Mars trophy candidate. You've heard it from people that have left the organization, why wouldn't you want to get things in order to try and maintain some semblance of the positive approach and success that you've had? If you can't do it for that, then I mean, that way would also require some serious introspection to look at, hey, how have things gone awry here? How do we fix it? And when you have a situation that spans multiple regimes, I don't know where else you leave to point to. You mentioned Rick Tarkett's vision of what he saw in the future in Vancouver. Is it fair to

suggest that Tuckett's vision when he was looking into the future maybe didn't involve or include Queen Hughes wearing a Connex uniform? I couldn't even begin to hazard a guess on that. I honestly, like I would assume that his thought process would be with Quinn Hughes leading the charge. And whatever happens after that is certainly a question mark. But I don't know how far ahead he's thinking, to be honest. My guess is that it probably starts with this next season and then figure out the rest

after that. Because that was one of the major focal points from yesterday's media availability with Jim Rutherford was that Rutherford was asked straight up about Hughes' reaction to this and he made the aside that he hadn't had a chance to speak with him yet. And we all know that Hughes had great admiration for Rick Tauket at Adam Fo Foot, I guess we should point out as well. You've mentioned the coaching staff on a number of occasions and how regarded, well regarded is across the league. It was no more well regarded than with the captain of the team. And it does give everyone in the market pause that if Tauket's looking at the future and decides, no, I don't want to be here, the next logical question is, well, what about your captain?

Well, it's a totally logical and fair question to ask. I just don't know the answer to it. I'm not even sure if at this exact moment in time that Quinn Hughes would know the answer to it. If that's the case, we're all just guessing. How much do you think the roster and specifically the top six group and down the middle had weighed on Rick Tauket and he maybe looked at the Elias Pedersen situation and said, I don't know how much more I can do here. I've told this guy to keep his feet moving. I'm kind of out of answers here. And then knowing that JT Miller got traded, knowing that Philip Heidel, his health is a wild card and we

all hope that Philip Heidel can play fully healthy next season, but even if he does, he's maybe a 3C. And then the Canucks have essentially said, we got to go out and get some impact players in the top six. But all of us around here are racking our brains. They're like, how are you going to do that? That's probably the same question that Rick Tauke was asking of, of Patrick Alveen and Jim

Rutherford. I mean, it's great to present a plan, but how do you go about acquiring the pieces that you're thinking about or talking about? And yeah, I think the overall wild card nature of the roster with Pedersen, I think being a way bigger one than, than Heidel. Like, I don't know how you, if you're not getting the bare minimums, the non-negotiables, the proper offseason preparation

and training, I don't know how you could reasonably expect, if it goes the way that it did last year and into the playoffs, and then you have a player who you try and impress upon those things in the summer, and he blows you off and shows up again in a spot that you're not comfortable with. How do you have any faith that that's going to work itself out if and only if he's actually even still part of the roster next fall? Like either direction of that is uncomfortable with him there or without. And I'm sure that part and the overall roster construction, the pipeline, um, you know, outside of LaKara Mackie and, and Tom Willander, which is a whole different question, um, what's next?

Like who's the next wave and where's that coming from? And how do you find a way to have that sustain or prop up your roster? Like all of that factors into the vision and longterm planning, I'm sure. We're speaking to Frank Saravalli from Daily Faceoff here on the Haliford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. So finding another head coach is another thing added on the to-do list for Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alveen now.

Moving in further into the off season, I got a two-part question here. What is the list or short list of candidates look like to be the next head coach of the Vancouver Canucks? And going back to that reputation for dysfunction that you mentioned earlier, do you think that's going to impact the quality of coaching candidates that they might have on that list? Maybe not the quality of coach that they're going to be able to get because it's still one of 32. But what I think it will impact is how far they reach to try and get a quality coach. In other words, are they going to be pounding the pavement to try and land someone with

a long resume Stanley Cups and 700 plus games coached in this league and pay top dollar to do it? I doubt it. I would suggest that on the back end of swinging and missing on Rick Tocket, that you probably go with a check down option that's gonna cost you a little more than a third of that. And especially for all of the reasons that we just mentioned in this upcoming year of transition, find someone who can be a really comfortable stop gap,

that can take bullets, that can try and develop as much as possible any young pieces that are inserted into the lineup and see if you can roll the dice and maybe punch above your weight class and get lucky. Now you look and they missed the playoff by six points. They don't have a number one and number two centers. Their Vestna goalie might not even play half a season next year. Like what's left here? Oh no! We suck again! 8.01 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday everybody.

Halperd Brab, Sportsnet 650. Halperd and Brab of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are in hour three of the program. Satyar Shah, joining us on an emergency basis, emergency sat call in light of what happened with Rick Tauke yesterday.

In case you missed it, if you've been asleep or under a rock, Rick Tocket, no longer the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. We're going to talk to Sat in a moment about all that. After the intro, it's going to be an emergency sad call. Ooh, well played, dad. Thank you. Thanks, son.

Hour three of this program is brought to you by Campbell & Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & 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. So instead of throwing right to sat, we're going to make them wait on hold for two minutes and 15 seconds. We will get some hot audio, hot fresh audio right out of the oven that is the 32 thoughts

podcast. Here is Elliot Friedman from this morning's pod on the Rick Tocket situation. We'll play the audio and then we'll talk to Sat on the other side. Elliot Friedman on Rick Tocket from 32 Thoughts. I think Tocket was burnt out. Um, you go back a year, the Vancouver Canucks never thought they were going to be in this position. They thought they were moving forward.

Miller, Demko, Hughes, Pedersen, that great seven game series. They thought they were they were going to they were going in their opening window of contention. And this was a chaos fueled year that. Ended very badly and with a lot of uncertainty and Justin I think he didn't want to face that again the uncertainty I think you know the I'm not blaming anybody for this you know Vancouver's a hot market it doesn't bother me high risk high reward but I think between that and everything

that happened this year, I think he had enough and wanted something fresh, something new. I think now a lot of people are going to look at Philadelphia. I do think the Flyers have interest. We'll see what happens. I do think Tauke is going to have some options. So he'll decide what he wants to do. You know, Bick Nazar I was on on 650 and Bick was saying, you know, it was going to be tough for him and Canucks fans to see Rick Tauke want to leave Vancouver and go somewhere else. Like you said, it would hurt. You know what Justin? I look at it like dating okay? We've all had someone we've been interested in who we've liked more than they've liked us

If you like someone and they say no or they choose to go with someone else What are you gonna? Do cry in the field position in the corner? No, you say that sucks, but the world stops for no one and maybe you feel sad for a few days, but you move on. There's other fish in the sea. You go find another partner. You know, there's only 32 of these jobs. They're gonna have a lot of interest.

I don't think this is what the Canucks wanted, but I just think at the end of the day it was time for Rick Tauke. And I think that's what happened. I think when the season was over and he really had time to think and process, it was just time. When Freage mentioned balling up and crying in the fetal position, is that what you want to do? Both Jason and I simultaneously were like, yes. Sure she's not interested in you, but you could always find another rig talker.

Yeah. Yeah. I think being balled up in the fetal position should be the new Canucks logo. That's right. Embrace the ball. All right. Pardon?

It works. To the phone lines we go, Satyar Shah joins us now on the Haliford and Brev Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Sat? What's going on? So I guess, Chok didn't want to keep meeting pressure with pressure. No, he did not.

He did not want to embrace the hard. He let it go. Apparently not. Apparently not. He's a quitter. He's a quitter. Yeah. And listen, when you're on the verge of being a free agent

like he is, you can make your choice and go wherever you want to go. So I don't begrudge anybody for it but it's just kind of you know he it's hard not to look at him and say he pulled his shoe a little bit right especially if you go somewhere else and as much as you hear about you know tough market this and that to me those are just I can't speak to talk and I'm not saying Elliot is wrong because I trust his reporting on this but how much of this is, if Quinn is locked up longterm, you feel better

about the situation in Vancouver, do you care about the noise as much? No, no, this is, I mean, yeah. People ask me like, it's kind of funny, it's like, which major issue the Canucks are facing do you think was Tuckett's main reason for leaving? And I'm like, I don't know, I think they probably all played a role. Yeah, well, I'm sure exactly, right?

And maybe it is the market, but I just find that funny to be like a guy who's been through everything he's been through and he's like, yeah, I don't want to be in this market, it's just too much going on in the market. To me, it can be on that. Like it has to be with the situation with the team as well. And again, I'm not disputing what Elliot said. I'm sure that's part of it. I just listened to that. And I'm like, it has to be more than that. You know, like there has to be more reasons than I'm just burnt out. I know the organization, Rutherford said he had

personal reasons for wanting to go as well. I'm to your point. I'm sure there are a lot of different things. It just doesn't, I don't know, the whole idea of, you know, I don't want to deal with a, with a tough media market and I was one of the toughest players to play in the league and that's the reason I'm not there, just. I don't think I still feel like that's, that's comprehensive. You know, I don't think he sees a chance at winning. Yeah. No, I think that's the most fair way to look at it and most realistic way to look

at it because you can be, you can actually look at the situation and say, if Quinn was signed long term, you have some time on runway. You can figure out what to do with Pedersen. Quinn is here. You have some young guys coming up. You have cap space coming up in a couple of years. You're building a little something. If you're patient, you can see it through and build something through it, but you don't

have the luxury of patience because you don't know what's happening with Quinn. And I think that's the big thing. It's the unknown. And if you're him and you have all these unknowns, do you want to sign a four or five year contract, your big last deal with Vancouver? I think thinking about it, I'm sure he thought he had other better options. But to me, it's just probably more to do with better options. Now that's not to say that the situation in Vancouver has been great, but the noise is

something that he's enjoyed and we can talk about that as well, something that they haven't been able to control is the noise in this market. But if this team was in a better position as far as chances of winning and keeping Quinn, I think we see talk it back. Yeah. I mean, the challenges are huge.

This off season alone. Even if you, even if you'll, you'll say, okay, well, I'm going to give Pedersen the benefit of the doubt, which I don't, but some people do, um, that he'll be back as, as a legit top six centre next season and he'll put the work in. Um, you've still got to find another centre, probably, um, and you got to find one or two goal

scores, especially if you let Suter and Besser go. That's a very, very difficult off season to, for everything to go right. And then, um, come back and try and prove it on the ice. Mm-hmm. No, it is. I mean, and even Rutherford, the way he spoke about it yesterday, he didn't, um, you know,

exude confidence about being able to pull it off. You know, he spoke about how they went off track, they were on track and they're going to try to get back on track, right? And all you can say is that you can't promise because it's a foolish promise to make, because there's no guarantees about it, right? It's a very difficult task to have in front of them.

I think they understand how difficult the task is. And maybe at the end of it, you're not gonna be able to figure it out anyways. And then you're kind of stuck in a position, if you're talking, you're probably thinking about it and saying, did I just made a different decision two years ago? You don't want somebody in an organization

feeling that way, right? And I do think there was surprise by the team. And I checked in this morning, but it's kind of like, I think the search has begun today and they're just moving on in terms of, okay, we just have to go and find somebody else now. It's kind of like next guy up, how we approach injuries, one guy's out, we got to go find

somebody else, he's not all in and we got to find somebody else who's all in here. But the coach is a big part of it too, because when you talk about that task, now you're adding another head coach to that big off season plan. Okay. Let's try and put a silver lining on this. Or at least, you know, maybe throw out the phrase

blessing in disguise because you never know, man, you never know. Right? Maybe this next coach is, is a better fit for the team. I certainly haven't seen a lack of Rick talk of criticism throughout the season. So what does, you know, if you're Jim Rutherford and you're Patrick Alvin, what are

you looking for in a new coach? What's the number one job of this new coach, whoever it is? Well, I think one, as much as we heard Rutherford speak, I think one big part of it is going to be the relationship between Al Geene and the head coach. And then after that, it's going to be a lot

about, obviously Quinn is a big part of it, but I do think Quinn is one of those guys that's very low maintenance. It's not even so much about finding a guy that's right for Quinn, it's just find a competent head coach that can help the team be good. And what's the best way to get better is get

your best players be better. You don't worry about Clint, but you kind of need to get that number 40 guys to get a lot better. And you can't make the hire solely for Pederson, but it has to be somebody you feel like can get the best out of Pederson, especially if that's the guy you're bringing back next season. So I think qualities aren't going to be too dissimilar as far as what the priority is for the head coach.

It's going to be about structure. Their staples are going to be similar. Even before the higher talk, there was a big talk about structure when they got rid of Bruce and what they wanted. So I don't think, uh, philosophically, they're going to hire a coach who's different, very different at the very least. And now maybe it's a coach that you've seen before that has coached offense, but it's going to be a coach that they believe can impart structure to the group.

So I think those are going to be the big things, But you also have to look at somebody, I think, who's a really good communicator, if he can get through to players and somebody that can, you know, get through to your top guys to get a lot better. We're going to sit here and talk about offense and play style. To me, that doesn't, that to me doesn't matter to me. That comes down to the personnel you have. That's going to dictate ultimately how you can play and how good you can be offensively. So that's going to be the part of it. But somebody that can, that's gonna dictate ultimately how you can play and how good you can be offensively. So that's gonna be the part of it. But somebody that can create the structure but can get through to players.

And the biggest player to get through, we all know, is number 40. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.