Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 5/12/26

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

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

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Rory works it loose. One-timer. He's a dirty player. He's always been. Not very well respected. That's fine. If you want to call me a dirty player, you can just look at my history. I'm not that dirty. Yeah, well, you know, that's just like your opinion, man.

Good morning, Vancouver. 6 o'clock on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford and his breath. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming live for the Kintech Studios in beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adel, good morning to you.

Good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford, in Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Are you drowning in tax debt? If you are, Sands and Associates can often reduce your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in our one of the program. is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling.

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today, maybe you're Evan Gold and you want to say hi. Hello. You can text in to 650, 650, because that is the Dunbar Lumber text line, 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 lot to get into on the program. We start with the Duick Morning Drive,

brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It's our morning guest list here. It begins at 6.30. Greg Wischinski's going to join the program. NHL, ESPN, Insider. One game in the playoffs last night. Two more tonight. Can also get into all the latest news and notes around the NHL.

Which is going to join us at 6.30. 7 o'clock. Araf Dean, one of our favorites, beatwriter for Colorado Hockey now. Big win for the aves last night in Minnesota, 5-2 victory that puts them within a single victory of the Western Conference final. Araf's going to join us at 7 o'clock to talk about the Aves Wild series. 7.30. Ryan Rig Maiden's going to join the program. BC Lions general manager. Training camp is underway in Camloops. We are now just 11 days away from the Leo's first preseason game. the Lions in Langford game Saturday, March, or May 23rd, sorry.

They'll be taken on the Elks. We'll talk to Ryan Rig Maiden about all that at 7.30. And finally, at 8.10 this morning, Satyar Shah is going to join the program. He, of course, host of Canucks Central right here on SportsNet 650. We'll talk about Evan Gold, Ryan Johnson, and the Siddines as we hopefully get closer to an announcement regarding the Canucks new front office hires. Just 8 o'clock, not 8.10. Oh, okay. 8 o'clock, even better.

Sat's going to join us at 8 o'clock this morning for some Kinnock's talk. That's what's happening on the program today. Let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. 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? You missed that? Nobody. If you want to get in on the ground floor, I know this,

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you know, Amazon sponsored us a while back. I turned them down. Starbucks. Starbucks. They were a fudgeon company. Yeah. IBM, Apple. Yeah. All the greats, really.

All the greats. All the greats started by sponsoring them. first hour of this show. Some of the best ever do it. If you don't want to be that company, well, that's fine. That's cool. All right. Monday was another day of reporting and speculation in Vancouver as the Siddines have

reportedly agreed to take on a larger role with the team, although we don't know which role exactly. As for the next general manager, that still isn't clear. It seemed at times yesterday like it was going to be Evan Gold out of Boston. but then we heard follow-ups that Ryan Johnson isn't out of it quite yet. It's a real horse race between those two. This should get figured out in the next couple of days, maybe even today, who knows? But it's been quite a ride to this point.

Remember the whole Pierre Dorian thing? Yeah. That was a wild day. It was pretty weird. Greg Mishinsky was involved with that prominently, and he's on the show at 6'clock this morning. I guess that was a week ago. I wonder how close Dorian really was to getting the job. was the fan reaction?

Did that cause the Canucks to pivot to something else? Maybe the Cedines? I don't know. Because I'm curious to learn eventually how long the team has been keeping this Cedines news up its sleeve.

I know they went to the draft lottery. Okay? Yeah, that's a clue. That doesn't necessarily mean that they were in the mix to take on a lot of, larger role. They could have just been sent to the draft lottery because the last time the Canucks drafted super high, not first overall. That's never happened, but the Cedines went two and

three. Still so many questions to answer in all this. Obviously, the structure of the front office is at the top of the list. Dran said some reporting yesterday in his athletic piece where said they're still trying to figure it out. Like the Seneens have accepted a larger role. And I think that acceptance sounds like it came fairly recently. But then they're like, we just don't know what the role is. We know we want you guys in it. We just don't know what it is.

You know, other questions that I've got, what is the reporting structure going to be? Who will have the final say on hockey decisions? What will happen to Ryan Johnson? if Evan Gold is the pick. Why gold and not Johnson, if that is the case? Who else could be joining Gold in the front office? What about Cammy Granato and Emily Castongay? And what about Patrick Alvin?

Will he remain with the organization, perhaps in some sort of scouting capacity? Because there's also talk that after this draft, there's going to be big changes to the scouting department. weren't there, didn't Rick say that the Senees and Alveen were seen together in a stongs or something like that yesterday? The grocery shopping. Are they moving in together?

They're grocery shopping now. What, like, what is happening with this GM chase? Well, I mean, in the Drance article that you referenced, by the way, that's up at the athletic right now. You know, he did say that news is. getting harder and harder to find as the leaks, whatever leaks there were, it tightened up over at Kanax HQ. With regards to the role that the Siddins might play, since it's not clearly defined right now,

kind of lends credence to looking around the National Hockey League and seeing what other ex-players and franchise legends have returned to organizations to serve in an executive role. And the two that got mentioned most prominently in a sort of hybrid presidents or co-president role where of course what Matt Sundin got named in Toronto and prior to that one I actually kind of forgot about but I shouldn't give it its ties to Vancouver

the one that Keith Jones is currently filling in Philadelphia. Right. Because you'll remember Daniel Breyer is the general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers but Keith Jones is sort of the almost, very reminiscent to a lot of the talking points

they had around the Sundin hire in Toronto The spirit animal of the Flyers? A little bit. The bringing back like the pride in the orange kind of thing. You know, he and the rest of his old Flyers' mates really carried the culture and the attitude and the I guess the reputation that they wanted to get back to.

And that's what you do when you harken back to the past. You rekindle some of that. So the Sunniin's just going to walk around. Roger's arena and go and like talk about the culture. I was like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. We don't do things that way. It could be part of their role. It's like, I'm making photocopies here.

That's right. Yeah, we do them with character. Now, the thing is, double-sided people. Double-sided. With regards to Jones in Philadelphia and Sundina in Toronto, there is a pretty clear delineation of like who reports to

who. What the stages of the tranches of the levels of the executive are and that i mean at least as far as we know is still undefined to make over a large part because we don't know who the general manager is going to be rick dollywall just tweeted out he's an early bird just tweeted out a very uh how many times have we heard a tweet like this or read a tweet like this as of this morning the canucks have not decided on a gm ryan johnson is still in the mix what is happening happening here? If I had to guess, they are torn by a very strong candidate and Evan Gold, but also by an extremely talented and loyal employee in Ryan Johnson. I wonder if they're

trying to figure out a role and then keep both them. If they don't hire, they will lose. Not keep both of them. It's probably part of the big thing. Not keep both of them. I wonder if they're trying to figure out a way that they can keep Johnson and hire gold. That was my first thought that jumped into my head. And I don't think it's possible. Do you think it's possible that there's sides are just dug in in the Kucks? Like there's some people that want Ryan Johnson and some people that want Evan Gold. I mean, the way some of the reports were going yesterday, he was like, wow, Evan Gold's got the job. And then, you know, we heard from a few people, including Elliott Freeman. They were like, you know, and he says, like, I've been told not to, that Ryan Johnson isn't out of this yet.

So look, there's no sense in us running around and chasing our tails on this. The conducts still have a lot of decisions to make, I guess. And I just want to reiterate, like, you know, whether it gets done today or tomorrow or later in the week, they got to get this figured out this week. And they got to make some announcements because you get the structure, you got to have your press conference, you got to. you know, there's all sorts of stuff that happens when there's people getting new jobs, all sorts of things that take time.

And they've got to get down to work. You know, they've got a lot of things to figure out before the draft, which is in a month and a half, the coaching staff in Vancouver. Maybe the coaching staff in Abbotsford. You've got to have your conversations with players. You got to figure out who you're going to draft. what's going to be your draft strategy? You're going to try and trade up, trade down, whatever you're going to do, right?

There's all these conversations that you have to have. But I'm sure a new GM will want to reach out to Elias Pedersen and guys like Jake DeBrusk and see what's going on there. And then also call other teams, you know, and see, hey, they're at a business. What are you up to? That is, it's like, you know, sometimes you start a job and the people will be like, well, we'll just easy in here. You know, you can shadow this guy for a little bit.

It's not going to be the case with the Canucks. And on top of all that, you could have a fairly inexperienced group doing it, right? The Seneens are not experienced executives. Evan Gold has a lot of experience in an executive role, as does Ryan Johnson, but not at the NHL level, not where they also have the obligations of, you know, a lot more people following this stuff. The stakes are higher.

And also, they have limited media obligations as well. You know, like this is the big leagues now. And you are, you are a general manager of an NHB. team. And with all due respect to being the general manager of an HL team, which Evan Gold was in Boston with Providence and Ryan Johnson Curley is with Abbotsford, the stakes are a lot lower. And it's almost just like you're also taking orders from the big club when you're the general manager of an HL team. Okay, let's pivot now to

the news from the white caps. This happened late last night and expanded overnight. It has been reported by multiple outlets that the Whitecaps, BC government officials and several local First Nations leaders are going to meet on Wednesday. It's first reported by Jay Janauer of Global News and then subsequently corroborated by Patrick Johnson of the province. So what we're talking about here is the future of the white caps at BC place. According to the reporting done by Patrick Johnson overnight, there was an original meeting on the book scheduled for

this week on Wednesday. And it was going to bring MLS VP of Club Performance and League Growth Charles Altcheck into town. This came after the meetings with Garber, MLS Commissioner Don Garber and David Eby last week. They said we're going to send up our VP

of Club Performance and League Growth to talk about what can be done at BC Place. Those meetings, which were originally on the books, have now reportedly been expanded to include leadership from the Musquim, Squamish and Sailor-Tooth nations. A source of the province said that this is the quote, the meetings will be focused on getting all groups on the same page

about what could be possibly rearranging the team's lease and revenue generation possibilities at BC Play Stadium. The idea here, and this was again going back to Jay Janauer's original reporting, is that they would find an extended MOU for the lease of four to five years that would bring in the three First Nations groups in the hopes of maybe at the very least getting a not short term, but mid to long term plan for the team to play at BC Place, thereby

potentially redrawing the interest of buyer groups who would then say, okay, if we were to come in and build a stadium, we know that for the next four to five years, we've got a reasonable situation at BC Place where we wouldn't be losing money hand over fist like the current ownership group is. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.

It does make sense. And by the way, there is a media availability at BC Place this afternoon, 2 o'clock now. It is ostensibly to show off the BC Place upgrades ahead of the World Cup. Premier David Eby is going to be there. the Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport will be there.

The president and CEO of Pavko and the general manager of BC Place will be there. And they are, people, the media is going to be like, yeah, yeah, great, looks good. What's going on with the White Caps? Yeah, that'll be maybe question one or if not question one, question two. An interesting name that was added to the mix, courtesy of Jay Janauer's reporting yesterday. Vic Montalani, who of course is an East Vancouver native and his current FIFA vice president, one of the highest ranking officials at FIFA. And he has been pretty outspoken in the past about how vital the white caps are,

not just to the local market, but to Canadian soccer in general. We've talked about that as well. And also how embarrassing it would be to lose the white caps right after being a World Cup host city. So I'm not surprised that Vic has now gotten into the conversation. So the meeting on Wednesday, which was already going to be a pretty important one, given the players and the stakes involved, is now going to include representatives from the three local First Nations, the city of Vancouver, the provincial government, the federal government, the MLS officials that I mentioned, and FIFA VP, Vic Montaliani. So it's a big meeting and a lot of stakeholders involved. So we'll see what comes of that. But overall, on the White Cups front, this news can only be described as encouraging. Frank Sarvelli tweeted out about a half an hour ago,

something about the Oilers coaching situation. Yep. And he wrote that league sources say that the Oilers have sought permission to interview Bruce Cassidy as they contemplate significant coaching staff changes. Oh my. That would be a big deal in and of itself, and it is. Here's the kicker. Frank says to this point,

sources say the Golden Knights have withheld permission from their division rival. Now, Frank ends his tweet by writing gamesmanship, perhaps, mostly unprecedented for role. Yeah, this doesn't happen very often. It is not very often that a team fires its coach, remember? They fired Cassidy and brought in torts and then says, and we're not going to let you search for a new job because you're still under contract. It is just largely understood that if you fire the coach, you in fact want that coach to go coach somewhere else

because it means you don't have to pay the coach. Yeah. Right? But it's a very uncomfortable situation for the Oilers and especially Chris Knoblock. I mean, what do you say to Chris Knoblock? You're like, no, Chris, we, we wouldn't fire you for anyone. Well, well, for one person, for Bruce Cassidy, but not, not anyone else. So last week, they still haven't decided what they're going to do there, apparently.

Last week, Bruce Cassidy was on the fan hockey show with Futes and Marquesi on Fan 590 in Toronto. And he made it very clear that he wanted to get back into coaching in the National Hockey League right away. As a matter of fact, the quote was, I would want to get back into it right away. And in Edmonton. Yeah. He didn't say that. He didn't say the Edmonton part. However, that was the one that everybody was pointing to for a variety of reasons. So there's a couple really interesting wrinkles to what you were talking about. The understood unspoken gentleman's agreement that you just go and let a coach try and find employment somewhere else. One, it's very clear that Cassidy wants to be employed somewhere else. Two, it's also very evident that the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers are fierce division rivals. And I don't know. I actually don't know how long Vegas. can do this for without raising the ire of multiple parties, not including, I mean, Cassidy being one of them, the Oilers being another one.

The Oilers can't be thrilled that this is out there now, that they are trying to interview a coach and they're unable to, while they still have a head coach employed. It's a great bit of reporting from Frank, because this is going to make what was already a very interesting offseason in Edmonton, all the more interesting. And for Cassidy, who wants to work, and lest we forget,

despite how uneven the Vegas Golden Knight's season was, they were still very much in a playoff position at the time of his dismissal. He's regarded as the top candidate

that's on the job market right now. Easily. Easily. And if he wants to go somewhere, you would think that he would like to be freed from the contractual obligations of the Golden Knights. Okay, we can get into that more

with Greg Wasinski in about 10 minutes. The Colorado Avalanche beat the Minnesota Walsalsh. last night five to two they now lead that series three to one it was a fairly dominant performance by colorado which didn't look very good in game three and the wild won that five to one they made a goalie change they came back and no more than anything they just it just kind of flexed their muscles last night and you saw how talented they are at the top of that roster but also how much depth they've got

as well. What a silly. So the Wild are one game away from elimination. And I wonder is it too early to speculate where Quinn Hughes will be playing next season? I love it. Oh man. Because unless the Wild beat, unless the Wild beat

Colorado three straight times, they are going to bow out in the second round and fail to reach the conference finals yet again. The Minnesota Wild? Not making the conference final, no way. Since the Wilde entered the league in 2000, they've only been to the conference finals once. I cannot remember which year that was.

Who's to say, really? Who's to say? Who knows? Elliot Freeman recently said that he'd be surprised if Quinn Hughes did not extend in Minnesota this offseason. But does a short series against Colorado change any of that thinking? The Wild still don't have an elite center. I know they were missing Eric Seneck last night and have for a while, I guess.

Yep, he's been out for a bit. But he's not an elite center. He's a good center, but he's not elite. They've got some elite wingers, two of the best in the league with Boldie and Caprizov. And I'm sure Hughes enjoys playing with a guy like Brock Fabor, Brock Fabor, but is that enough to convince Hughes that they can win a cop? Maybe he signs a short-term extension, which seems to. to be all the rage these days.

What do you think about Hughes in his future? Are you fairly convinced that the Wilder are going to be able to re-sign them? No, because I wonder if it's less about what the Wilde do and more about the division in which they play. Are Colorado and Dallas

going anywhere in the foreseeable future? Do you want to sign up for that? That's a legitimate question. I'm sure he loves his team. It's a great team. They are very talented. Boldie's great. Caprizov's great. Faber's great. They've got good goaltending. There's no reason not to, except for the fact that you play in the same division as two of the best teams in the National Hockey League. The way Frege put it was that

Quinn Hughes appreciated the gamble that Bill Garron took. Yeah, I'm sure he does. I'm sure he does, but I don't think that that would somehow erase what the future has in store. Like, I look at it and I'm like, hey, if I want to make a run in the Stanley Cup playoffs, I do not want to be in the same conference and same division as the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas stars, right? I know Minnesota took care of Dallas in the first round,

but to me, those teams are neck and neck. They're even in terms of talent. And I think that when they play in a series, it's a coin flip for me. I know they all play Dallas this year. And you've still got to go through Colorado, who is unquestionably the best team in the National Hockey League, again, in my view. So if you love the team and you love the organization, can you not say, guys, I appreciate everything you've done for me?

I love that you went out and had the big brass ones to make the train. but if I stay here, it doesn't erase the fact that there are still two really good teams that are massive roadblocks for me getting to a Stanley Cup final. We can continue this conversation with Wish on the other side, but if he doesn't resign. And the way Frege put it, Frege was pretty confident that Quinn is going to resign with the Wild. But we're going to have fun with this regardless. Who do you think he would go to? Detroit always seems like the one, right? everything is perfect for Detroit in the sense that they missed on them once in the draft.

They are looking to make a splash. You've got this, you know, decades old now. Playoff drought that is just eating away at the organization. I mean, what was Steve Eisenman's end of your media availability all about? We need to get better players. Better players. Right? That one, to me, seems to make the most sense.

Would the wild definitely trade him if he said, I'm not going to sign an extension? I mean, given what we saw with Marner and the way that that ended in Toronto, I feel like any team is, it's just reckless. Yeah. Have an asset of that caliber and that worth. Because you could, you could recoup a lot in a Quinn Hughes trade. You could, you could, you could almost match what the Canucks got. Yeah.

I mean, they're, they're, because it would come with a long-term extension or a problem extension. The Minnesota Wilde's prospect cover right now is kind of bare. Yeah. And you could go about trying to replenish some of that. If you get a sense that, hey, we tried, we took a swing. And I think that's what the conversation would be. It's like we tried and we took a swing

and we might take a little bit of a knock, but not a huge one if we turn around and move the player again. That's the decision facing the Minnesota wall. Again, assuming they lose that series. Yes, they're down 3-1, but it's not over yet. It's over. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

Satyar Shah joins us now on the Halford and Brough show. What upset. Yeah, that intro always moves me off too. I'm like waiting for the uh, and I'm going to see if it catches you. off hard. But, you just focused on getting your read on. That was good. Just got a power through, buddy. You just got

a power through. Okay. So a couple of hours ago, Rick Dollywall, venerable Canucks reporter tweeted out that as of this morning, the Canucks have not decided on a GM and he actually spelled have wrong. He spelled it with a G so it's very on brand for Rick.

He said, Ryan Johnson is still in the mix. Do you have any update whatsoever on this situation set? Well, I mean, I do believe they are getting a lot closer to the deal. I don't get any outright denials when asking whether something would happen today or not. So we'll see if it's today or if it's tomorrow. But I don't think that we're that far off from a decision being made.

What I think has been fascinating is the fact that nobody knows for sure yet who it's going to be. There's been rumors and suggestions that, oh, I think it's going to be Evan Gold or, you know, Ryan Josson is still in the mix. But to their credit, for the amount of stuff that gets out and for the amount of stuff that gets discussed, nobody yet knows for sure who it's going to be. Now, there's been a suspicion that all along it was going to end up being evident goals when we got serious about things. But as you're going through the finer details, things still have to be agreed upon. I'm not saying they haven't been or they've hit any sort of hurdle that they can't overcome.

But when you go through the details, that still has to get figured out. So I think it's been fascinating to try to figure out who has the inside edge or not. and how that process is unfolding. But essentially, I think they're at the finer detail stage of doing things. So I don't think a decision is going to be that far off. So it's not today. I have a hard time seeing this going deep into the week. Sat, do you know how long the Canucks have been speaking with the Cedines about an elevator role?

So I think that this is something that has come up in some capacity in the past. And I do think over the past a little while, it did pick up a little bit more in terms of what they're going to do. I had heard a suggestion that when Rutherford came in and he got a lay of the land and he got to know the twins, that he was very impressed by them, the organization as a whole has been, but the new people coming in, and they wanted to see them have roles and increase their roles as time goes on. And I think part of Rutherford's plan was when he steps away, because the Siddins in some way, shape, or form be part of what that new front office looks like. So I do think it had been something that they had thought about, but ultimately it always came down to what are the Siddins willing to do and what timeline are they comfortable in doing things?

Because when they were first handed their advisor positions back in 2021, they had the opportunity to take bigger roles with the organization, but they're the ones who turn down bigger, say, and say like a stronger title because they want to learn everything that it takes to be an executive, whether it's on the coaching side, development side, management side, how do we go about doing all things that an organization needs to do to be successful? they've gotten in and worked on those things a lot.

And the thing that's impressed a lot of people, and we all know this about the cities because their work ethic was exemplary when they were players, but that's been carried over into everything they do off the ice with how hard they work and how willing they are to do things like go to Abbey and stay there, go to a different market to work on players, and just essentially put a lot of hard hours and real work in to learning what it takes and trying to help players they're working with and also figuring out what it takes to scout

and work as a management group in general. So I think that the way they've gone through that process I think gave the organization confidence that they can offer them bigger roles again and this time they would be willing to do so. Now, I think the Siddins are the ones who always, you kind of wondered, are they willing to do something bigger and greater to have more responsibility?

Or are they comfortable working with developing players and being in positions where no matter what happens over the years, you're not going to be pointed at one way or another. going to be under duress. But if you step up into a bigger role, all of a sudden, you're putting yourself into that jackpot. So that's going to be really interesting for me to see how significant are those titles? Because I do think the organization is really counting on them to be the big culture

setters moving forward. Okay. Jimmy Murphy out of Boston is reporting that Evan Gold could be joined by two other members of the Bruins front office, including. the assistant general manager, Jamie Langenbrunner, and the director of analytics, Jeremy Rogalski.

What have you heard about this? And what could it mean for some of the staff that are in Vancouver right now? So I think for those positions, and one thing I did here is, I think part of the process when you're talking to a guy like Evan Gold isn't just to be like,

here's a contract for you and here's what we're looking for, come and join our organization. When you're hired as a GM, you always want to bring somebody along with you, right? Whether it's one or two executives or people you're comfortable with or somebody that you want to be your right-hand man. We saw it when Rutherford initially came in. He had Clancy with him. Now, that changed as time went on, but you always come in with somebody initially. At our very least that does happen. I think part of the discussion is how do you build that out with the Canucks?

now how that is going or has gone, I think is anybody's guess at this point. And I'm not saying it's not going to be Jamie Lang and Burner. I may not be, you know, two executives. The one thing that I wonder about, if you're hiring two AGMs from one organization, only one is getting a legitimate promotion to GM, how is the team going to allow you to do that? And what are the mechanisms you're willing to put in place to allow that to happen? as in are you giving Langanburner a bigger contract? Are you giving him a bigger title than just being a GM?

Is he an associate GM? Is he a VP title? Like, how do you go about doing that? And Langaner burner himself was to some degree involved in the search in Vancouver as well. And again, I'm not saying he's not going to be the guy. But I do think it's not as simple as, oh, we just want this guy that's going higher him. I think it's pretty complicated. And we've taken two AGMs for one team.

So I do think they'll get someone from Boston potentially, maybe even a couple of people. But I think the way that would be outlined in terms of the role is really fascinating. Because unless Boston's like, we don't care about laying in a burner, like you guys take gold. We don't want this guy to be here anyways. Usually you don't see a team like two AGMs walk out the door at the same time. So I think that's going to be the real fascinating part of who are they able to bring out of Boston and what title is that person going to get. I don't know exactly what's going to happen with the executives currently with the conducts. I would imagine we are going to see some change.

I've heard rumors about it. I don't think anything's been fully clarified in terms of like this AGM or that Aegeam is 100% out. I think we'll find out here in pretty short order when a decision does come in. On Ryan Johnson in that sense, I think that's interesting because we talked about how if Evan Gold's going to be the guy, can we see Ryan Johnson be here long term? I can't see him being here long term. But I also don't think it's one of those situations where if the conducts hire Evan Gold today, that tomorrow Ryan Johnson is leaving the organization. Now, there's been a lot of talk about Nashville and whether they're waiting for Ryan Johnson or not and how that's going to unfold. I don't think anybody truly knows what's going to happen there.

I know Cam Brotherson reported that they already have their GM in waiting and it's not going to be Ryan Johnson. We'll see how that all unfolds. But I don't anticipate that he's going to just quit and go. And I think one of the reasons why they're really high on Ryan too is they love the character that he has. Now, in terms of ownership, would they prefer to go with the gold or as opposed to go with Ryan Johnson? I think that's going to be the question, of course. But I think in terms of a character standpoint, somebody who's been doing a lot of work behind the scenes as in GM essentially running meetings, doing things, that he's in really good standing in the organization.

And he has a type of character where it was kind of likened to me in the sense of, you know how you have a strong team, somebody's on a third line or a second line, and then you have a couple of trade deadline acquisitions and you can move down the lineup. And hey, listen, like, you know, you may not love it, but you're on a team that's moving forward and you'll play your role, right? but as time goes on, you might be looking for a different opportunity for you to regain the stats that you had before. So I think, but Ryan, it's going to be interesting if he's not the guy, but I don't anticipate that he's going to up and quit if he's not handed the GM job. What about Patrick Alvin? I don't see it.

I mean, I guess I'm not, and again, I'm not disputing anything Adali said that he met with the CDs or they were seen together. I just don't see him rejoined the organization. I think it's a really long shot that he's going to come back and be part of, of running scouting meetings and whatnot or or be the outback in the organization. I guess Fraser thinks have happened, but I really don't see that happening here where Albin comes back to Vancouver.

The number of things on the plates of this new GM and his team, whoever it is, it's going to be considerable. What do you think the number one task is as soon as everything gets signed, sealed and delivered? delivered on this new front office. I think structuring the organization, and we talk so much about rebuilding the roster on the ice,

and obviously that's happening, I think there's a bit of a rebuild that's going on in the front office. And I think in terms of sequencing and structuring that out, getting a lay of the land and really putting that plan into place, that I think is going to be the first real, you know, big picture thing they're going to be dealing with. And, of course, the draft is looming in the distance.

But the work for the draft has essentially, been done, right? Like the scouting reports are in, you know, do you have the meetings, do you have like the deliberations about who should go where potentially to some degree? But the work has been done for the draft. You're just over a month away from it. And that's not to say that whoever comes in may not have different ideas about who the first pick is going to be on the third overall pick and whatnot. And it may not play out, you know, may not factor into decision making. But I don't see that necessarily being the first order of business that they're going to sit there and really work on. I think structuring out the organization and really planning

out how deep is the rebuild going to be? Who's going to be in the front office? What are we doing with the scouting department? What are we doing with the player development department? Who's running? What? And how do we structure this out? And what are we trying to hire? I think that, to me, is going to be the biggest thing to have to undertake initially. But I think it's going to tell us over the course of the next few months, how comprehensive this entire rebuild as an organization is going to be. Because one thing that is very clear based on the things that I've heard, and I mentioned this with the Cidine's character and even a role, Ryan Johnson, they're really big on wanting to change the entire vibe of the organization.

But having leaders that are good people, have strong character, but also have backbone, right? One thing that we've heard in the past is, do you have too many nice guys? Well, you want to have a bunch of people who are good people, but also people who have backbone that can, you know, can joust with the tough guys in the league when it comes to front offices and agents. Like, it's a dirty business sometimes. Like, you have to have that edge to you. But at the same time, you want to have people that set a good culture within the organization.

I think the whole character aspect of things, which is going to be the umbrella with the Siddin's going to be, you know, on top of everything. And the rest is going to be built down from that. And how they go about executing that is to me is going to be the real most fascinating part about this. Because we hear all about they want to overhaul things. They want to do this. They're open to doing things that haven't done in the past. But is there going to be a full measure where you do that or a bit of a half measure where you bring a few people in here and there and you try to paint everything over and move on where I think what you need to do is not fire everything. everybody in the team and the organizing.

Because there's a lot of good people throughout the front office and the scouting department developing. Like, it's not like everybody, you know, doesn't know what they're doing. There are a lot of good people that do. Yeah. But it's your opportunity here to truly change everything on a leadership standpoint and set a new standard. And I'm going to be watching for how deep they go into doing that

over the next few weeks to a few months to really give us a picture of what a new era of Canucks hockey is going to look like. What if you heard about Manny Malhotra? because I imagine the coaching staff is going to be something they're going to have to address fairly quickly. I believe he has one more year left on his contract with the Abbotsford Canucks, but I suppose it's possible that other NHL teams

could be looking to hire him this offseason, in which case he would, I imagine, be granted the opportunity to go interview. Yeah, I think it depends on two things in terms of what happens with man. The first one is who's going to be the GM to some degree. I've heard if it's Ryan Johnson, perhaps. There's a bigger likelihood that he would pull the trigger on the coaching situation

and bring in Manny because of the relationship that they have and how they view things together. And I'm not saying that's going to happen, but I've heard that as being a stronger possibility than a new GM coming in and making that change on the coach. Because generally speaking, when a new GM comes in and they get an opportunity to move on from the coach, they'll probably just kick that can down the road,

especially when you have so much on your plate, as we just outlined in terms of rebuilding this organization, is that the thing you're going to be tackling right away? Whereas with somebody who's an incumbent in the organization, and he has a vision already in place, and he knows these individuals far better, there might be more of a move towards, okay, let's make this change on the coaching front of things.

And I think the other part of it is what happens to the third overall pick. And even that's why, even if Ryan is the guy, I don't know if we find out right away about what they do, with the coach. Because what if they draft Caleb Matt Holtra third overall? Now, I've heard people in the league say, it's not a big deal as people make it out to be. And then I talk to people that say,

you can't have a star prospect coming through playing for his father on the national hockey league team. You just can't have that. So I've heard different opinions, but I know people who are very strong against that idea. So I think on Mani, we're not going to get clarity for a little while still. Where do you fall in that?

Because I kind of fall in the ladder. You know, I'm happy to be proven wrong. Manny is the head coach and Caleb gets drafted by the Canucks and it's a great story, but it just seems complicated. And complicated is maybe something the Canucks would like to avoid for the next few years. Absolutely. And listen, I have a lot of time for Manning. And if they hire him as the head coach, I think it's a great hire.

I think he's a guy that is going to be successful at some point in the National Hockey League. But we also hiring somebody into a rebuild. and how often do we see coaches last through rebuilds that come out the other end of things? And I think there is a world where it can work because the professionalism that he has and the maturity it seems like a guy like Caleb has. So maybe you can talk yourself into,

if there are personalities that can pull this off and keep a room together, it would be these individuals, at least in theory to some degree. But I think it overly complicates things as well. And I don't think that's the type of situation you want to put a first-time head coach in and potentially a rookie end.

Now, if Kaelig is drafted, there's no guarantee he plays next season anyway. So this can make a kick down the road another year or two. You never know where prospects and perhaps at that point, who knows what everything looks like. But I totally understand why you wouldn't want to do so. And I don't think that you're giving the head coach nor the player the type of environment where there wouldn't be some level of second guessing. And I don't care what people on the outside say, but just internally, like for instance, from players on the team and other people in the organization, whether it's fair or not,

Yanik made this point. if you're lenient or tough on your son or whatever it is you make a decision, there's somebody going to be like, well, it's his son, that's why he did that. It doesn't matter whether that's the case or not. And it's like, you want to add that layer to a rookie head, NHL head coach and a rookie player, for instance, when you're going through a rebuild,

you have all these other things you're dealing with. It just seems to your point overly complicated to me. What do you think of this notion that if the Canucks were to trade Alias Pedersen, they would need to get a center back in the return. For what? You're rebuilding. Like just get whatever you can, right? Like I would understand this like two years ago, for instance,

where you had JT still or you had Quinn still and you're trying to, you know, be competitive. You're kind of in that window. You're like, well, if we're trading a top two center, we need to get a center back and return. But you're years away anyways. You're in a rebuild. And I'm not saying you can't, you know,

it wouldn't be ideal if you're trading Pedersen to get a young center with potential back and return. return, but how realistic is that? And I don't think that you should be trying to figure out a center in terms of the return for EP40. You've got to figure out, if you're looking to trade them, can we move the entire contract out without retaining? And what assets can we get? Is it a center? Is it a prospect? Is it a couple of draft picks? Like, I don't think you need to get a center back return. And if that's how they're viewing trading EP40, to me, they're putting the card head of the horse again.

Won't it be interesting to ask questions of this new group, whoever it is, and see if the philosophy truly has changed? Because there was always hints, right? There was always hints. They could say that, you know, we're keeping an eye on the future and yet certain things would happen. They'd be like, yeah, you're also keeping an eye on next season. Like, it's very clear.

won't it be interesting to see if that philosophy has changed and if the message that is being received by the management group from ownership has changed? Yeah, I think it's, for me, it's language like, oh, we're not that far away, right? Like, you know, obviously the team has, is going to a rebuild. Like, we've already gone through the hardest part of it. From this point on, it's going to be, you know, us rising out of the ashes. to me that's very troubling because I do think maybe the worst season has happened in terms of like you coming through grips

for the fact that you had to do a rebuild and everything fell apart, you traded Quinn. You had to accept your lot in life essentially. That was the season. And sometimes that's the toughest part of any situation where you have to take a step back and rebuild yourself to some degree. So maybe that's been rock bottom from that sense.

But from a timing aspect, if you're sitting here and talking about how, you know, we were already knocking on the door, for the playoffs in a couple of years. We're not that far away. We have, you know, the pillars in place as we speak and, you know, we're going to be pretty close to competing. It's not going to take, you know, a long time. That to me can sometimes just come off, I suppose, as you're saying what you need to say. But I think in this market, you have to be willing to say that you have patience through this process, that you think that you have some good pieces in place. You don't want to

speak poorly of what you're trying to build and what you have. But being very open about the fact that this is going to be a measured, thoughtful approach to how we're going to build this team into the future. In language, like, we're not that far away. We've gone through the worst part of things. And, you know, we're only a couple years away from competing. And who knows if we, if we get a few players falling into place, maybe we're more competitive this season.

Like, stuff like that would, would send alarm bells to me. Yeah. I mean, I would, I would say things are similar if you were to ask, you know, why keep Philip Peronik? Why not, why not see if you can get? get something for Philopronic, what would the answer be to that?

You know, this current group has seemed to think that maybe he could be the next captain. And I think Jim Rutherford went as far to say is that he's untouchable, which is, to me, insane. I don't disagree. I don't disagree. And I think it's one of those things where

I don't think you have to trade Philipronic this off season necessarily. Like you look at it in terms of the window of value. And that, to me, is the most valuable thing about Philip Peronik is he has a window right now that may extend another the year or two where his value is as high as it is. We're talking about a first round pick plus, who knows, maybe two first round picks depending on the prices that have been paid for right-hand defensemen of his pedigree that we've seen over the past year or so. I don't think that value

unless like something unforeseen happens is going to diminish within the next year to 18 months or can I end in that time range. So I don't think, I'm not saying you have to trade Philipperonek today. But I think if you're not trading Filipronic within that window and you're still four or five years away from truly being good, I think you're missing out an opportunity to get the best assets you can get out of any other trade that you've made except for the Quinn Hughes one. And I think if you can combine the Quinn used trade with the Philip Peronik trade at some point and put those assets together, that's going to create the real foundation of this turning around a lot quicker than having someone like Philip Roanick here,

potentially, to try to show the young guys how to play and be that culture center that that raises everybody to higher levels. Because I love it. Philip Cronic and what he does. I don't know if he's quite at that level. And I'm not saying they're expecting him to do those things necessarily, but what's the upshot outside of the character side of things for him to stay here for the next four to five years and not catch in on the asset? At the same time, I don't anticipate that whoever the GM in is going to come out and say they're willing to trade him and whatnot. I can see them be more diplomatic initially and talk about how they're going to evaluate everything in the organization. But that part

I want to hear is like, we're open to evaluating everything and nothing has been fully determined yet. That's what you want to hear from somebody new coming in saying that they're trying to figure out everything about every player here and what the plan truly should be with each individual. Now, they may already know one way or another, but I don't want to hear the, oh yeah, we're not moving this player. That's not happening. This person is going to be a part of our leadership group or this person is going to be this. I think what you want to hear initially is somebody being open to all possibilities that they get the lay of the land. Sad, this was great, buddy. Thanks for taking the time to do it. We appreciate it.

Anytime, boys. Have a good one. That's Satyar Shah. Host of Canucks Central here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.