Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 6/11/25

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they talk NHL trade rumours with hockey insider Frank Seravalli.  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.

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My, my goodness. The decisions made from the soul are usually pretty fulfilling. So this was the decision that was best for my soul. Good morning Vancouver, six o'clock on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday everybody. It is Halford, it is Brough, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming live from the Kintec studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And Lydie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you. Good morning. And Ladi, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halifred and Brougham for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates,

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

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Got a lot to get into on a Wednesday show. Guest list today begins at 6 30. David Amber, Hockey Night Canada Sportsnet NHL host is going to join us. Yes, it is another day off from Florida and the Stanley cup final. Doesn't mean we won't talk about it though. We'll look back on the Panthers six one win in game three with David.

Look ahead to tomorrow's game for lots of chatter about how the oilers are going to try and react to that blowout loss in game three. We'll talk to David about all that at six 30 seven o'clock Frank Sarah Valley from daily faceoff is going to join us is silly season finally upon us. Frank with the big breaking news last night of a fairly noteworthy trade that could come to fruition today. Chris Crider, longtime veteran New York ranger appears headed to Anaheim to reunite with his former teammate, Jacob Truba. Uh,

we'll ask Frank about more details on the trade. If this is indeed going to kick off silly season, ask what's going to come next as we get closer and closer to July 1st, 7 30 James Charmin, host of the footy prime podcast is going to join the show. Canada wrapped up a successful Canadian shield tournament yesterday by winning the shield last night with a nil nil draw against Cote d'Ivoire. But they lost in penalties. Very weird. They drew the game. They lost in penalties. And then they celebrated and then they won the shield. Classic Canadian shield stuff, you know.

We'll then pivot from the shield to the gold cup preview Canada takes on Honduras at BC Place next Tuesday. And of course, Jason, we are now officially and exactly one year away from the start of the 2026 World Cup. June 11th, 2026 will be the first match. We are a year away. I believe the city of Vancouver is putting up a big clock to commemorate it today. Speaking of this, it's so they don't they don't forget. Yeah. We got to finish these reno's on the stadium.

They don't have. Yeah, very cool. We gotta finish these Reynolds on the stadium. We don't have a mascot yet. The World Cup, 2026, City of Vancouver. At eight o'clock this morning, we're gonna talk to Vancouver City Councilor, Mike Klassen. We did effort to get the mayor, Ken Sim, on the show today, but he's busy. I actually believe they have an event today commemorating the one-year countdown

with the aforementioned clock and everything. So, Mike Klassen will fill in instead of Ken Sim countdown with the aforementioned clock and everything. So Mike Klassen will fill in instead of Ken Sim. He's got a clock unveiling. I said clock. Yep. The other one gets you kicked out of politics. Well, or elevates you.

Not American politics. Yeah, that's true. We're gonna talk to Mike Klassen about the PNE, the casino, the White Cap Stadium situation, the Canucks practice facility situation, and of course, as mentioned, the one year countdown to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. So lots to get into with Vancouver City Councillor Mike Klassen at 8 a.m. Two things of note, little business, little admin stuff at the beginning of the show. Every day this week, we're giving away two four-packet tickets

to see the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup at BC Place, Tuesday, June 17th, Canada, Honduras. We will be taking calls at 805 and 815 this morning. Caller number five in each instance when the tickets, the number 604-280-0650. That number again, 604-280-0650. Also a reminder, keep buying tickets for the Sportsnet 650 Jays Care 50-50. It is in support of Canadian baseball, sorry, Challenger baseball. It is supported by Tiltown, proudly Canadian owned and operated since 1971.

Our goal is to raise $100,000. The winner of course will take half given it's a 50-50. Buy your tickets now at jayscaregolf.RaffleNexus.com. When we hit $15,000 we will give away a signed Quinn Hughes jersey to commemorate the 15,000 mark. Again, Jayscaregolf.RaffleNexus.com. It's the Sportsnet 650 Jayscare 50 50 for challenger baseball. Buy them today.

Okay, that is everything that's happening on the program. Today was a lengthy rundown. 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 messy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? 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. Bit of a strange night last night in the world of sports.

There was no Stanley Cup final game. There was no NBA final game. There was, however, a Canadian Shield match. As we mentioned, it was a win, it was a loss, it was a draw, all in one. But Canada emerged with the Shield after a nil-nil draw against Cote d'Ivoire in the inaugural Canadian Shield tournament.

Canada essentially won the tournament yesterday, and not essentially, because they got to hoist the Shield at the end of it. A lousy match against Cote d'Ivoire was very choppy and very uninspired in terms of entertainment. But in the end, a nice little warmup, a tune up for the gold cup, which gets underway next Tuesday. Well, you know, it's, you know, what's fun is that the Americans

are really struggling. Okay. Right now. So team USA, they're also hosting the World Cup and are the main hosts of this concerning all the games they've got. And the American team looks awful. So I'm I'm normally with you when it comes to dancing all over the failures of the Americans. And yesterday, the Americans got absolutely smacked.

Four nil by Switzerland in a friendly, but Switzerland was up four nil by the 36th minute. And this was a disaster class. Now, the reason that I'm saying but, but, but is because two Vancouver Whitecaps featured in the starting 11 for the US. And I feel awful for one in particular, Sebastian Berhalter, the young American midfielder having a great year

for the Vancouver Whitecaps makes his US men's national team debut and does so in one of the worst losses that the program has had in recent memory. So while I'm happy to see the US fall flat on its face, I do feel bad for Seb because he was right in the middle of that mess. He was on for all four goals, and and actually Brian White was the other starter.

Brian White got, or as I call him, Brian Blanco, taken off at halftime. Right. So not a good performance there, but a good performance for Canada. I don't know how much of the match that you watched. I watched. I watched a bit of it. It wasn't very exciting at all. 40 plus fouls, nine yellow cards, one red to one of the support staff from Cote d'Ivoire. It was interesting because it's the exact kind of match that Canada sort of needed to play to go into a major competition where it's not pretty football and it's not glamorous

and you have to slug it out and see how you do. And I would say the Canadians did OK. They were able to hold their own physically. They probably weren't the better side, but to emerge with a nil nil draw after basically changing over your entire starting 11 from the four to win over Ukraine, it was fine. But you know, sometimes the beautiful game can be ugly. And that's exactly what last night was.

Okay. Let's get to this reported trade in the NHL because I think a lot of people are waiting for the deals to come and this one isn't quite done and it's a good thing we've got Frank Saravalli on the show today because he was the one that originally reported this the Anaheim Ducks are in advanced talk talks with the New York Rangers on a deal that would send veteran forward Chris Kreider to Anaheim. Kreider was in trade rumors all season

and he was part of the list of players that Chris Drury reportedly sent out to the entire league and said, if you want these guys, let's talk deals. And, um, you know, depending on who you ask, that email might have completely tanked the Rangers season as they seemed a bit mutinous this year, uh, in New York, eventually, of course, they acquired JT Miller and Miller played okay for them to start.

It looked like they might've turned it around a little bit, but ultimately they did not. And now, you know, a very busy off season starts for the New York Rangers with Chris Crider, one of the faces and one of the, if you want to use this phrase, culture carriers of the New York Rangers for like over a decade is shipped out to Anaheim where

they already got Truba, right? Very interesting trade, very interesting trade. So there's a lot of layers to this. The first is that Chris Drury's continual overhaul of the leadership group in Cora, New York carries on by way of Anaheim after last year trading away the New York Rangers captain, Jacob Truba under duress, I would say some very acrimonious circumstances, which I think in part led to the mutiny you were talking about.

Drury, then several months later, turns right back around, gets together with Pat, Pat, Pat, Pat,, Pat for beak again and consummates another deal. Now I'm not sure exactly how this one is going to play out. It sounds as though what we know is that Crider is on his way to Anaheim. Anaheim is going to pick up the entirety, the full ticket. Crider is in the sixth of a seven year, 45.5 million dollar deal. The cavern, it carries an average annual value of 6.5 million. So with no retention going on,

you would assume that there might be other pieces changing hands. According to a report from Sportsnet, part of the package may include a forward prospect by the name of Kerry Terrence, a former second round pick of the Anaheim Ducks who could be going to New York. I do wonder if there's gonna be other pieces involved when this is all said

and done. And maybe that's why Frank said that there's no deal specifically in place, but the framework is there largely involving Crider. Now, I think this is interesting for a couple of reasons. One, we had James Myrtle on the show yesterday and he was talking about the nine buzziest teams from the NHL draft combine in Buffalo, which he attended. One of them was the Anaheim Ducks talking about how there's a lot of pressure for Pat Verbeek to try and make things happen with that lengthy playoff drought that they've got going in Anaheim.

They hired Joel Quenville as their coach. That was obviously a very polarizing hire. They hired him to win because he's a veteran bench boss and he's won Stanley Cups and he's usually a guy that is ready to take a team to another level. But obviously it came with all of the scrutiny and controversy from his time in Chicago. But they went ahead and did it anyway. Now they've gone and made a move for a guy from another one of the busiest teams at the draft combine, which was the New York Rangers. And Myrtle said on our show yesterday, Rangers got a lot of guys on the wrong side of 30 and they

got a lot of contracts that the wrong side of 30, and they got a lot of contracts that they'd like to move off of, including Chris Crider from last year. So they kind of jumped the queue here. Get this done during the Stanley Cup final. It'd be very interesting to see if this is the first domino to fall in the off season. Who else do you think they want to move? Zabana, Jad, Zabana, Jad's got to be right at the top of the list.

Yeah. And then who knows after that? There's a lot of there's a lot of old money and not the good kind of old money the bad kind of old money The one that's aging right in front of your very eyes and not giving you return on your dollar in New York They're an old team. Do you remember how? Bullish everyone was on the Rangers Just a couple of years ago because you looked at players like Zabana Jad, and you said, okay, he's a good player. He's a good center.

And then, then you thought about, um, well, they got a couple of young guys in Lafreniere and Capo Caco, uh, highly drafted players. Lafreniere was first overall, Caco was second overall. Yep. Um, and then you had Adam Fox, who won the Norris trophy. And then of course you had Shisterkin and Goal, plus a few other good young players,

including, well, Philippe Hidal was there and there was pretty high hopes for him as well. And now all of a sudden, like it seems like everything has gone south. Well, maybe not everything. I don't know what people think of Schuster. I think Schuster can still pretty good goalie, but I think Adam Fox has regressed a little bit and people are wondering if he's, you know, it's certainly in the caliber of Quinn Hughes or Kyle McCarr. I would also put him as, I think everyone on that team is on notice right now, not available, but is on notice. Yeah. Because right now, with the dismissal of Peter La Violette

and bringing in Mike Sullivan and systematically moving out Goudreau and then Jacob Truba and then Chris Kreider, like these are all warning signs to the group that not only is- I don't think they need any more warning signs. Right, but it's not now that the status quo is not okay, it's that the status quo is already being changed right in front of your very eyes. Panarin's only got a year left on his deal and then he's an unrestricted free agent.

He's 33 years old. He's had issues in the playoffs. He's a smaller player. What are you going to give him? Are you going to give him a big new extension and lock up another player in his thirties? And it's why the JT Miller acquisition, I wondered about it from the Rangers perspective. It was like, I realized they needed to try and salvage this season.

Well, that didn't work. And then going forward, you got this 32 year old with four years left on his deal at an $8 million cap hit. Is that going to help them or is it going to turn into an anchor for them? Because you know, look, we're seeing it with players, you know, they get to that age 32, 33, some of them are still able to play pretty well and others fall off a little bit. I don't know what happens as a bandit, but he's the

same age as JT Miller. And I think sometimes when you have a team that obviously has some issues, I don't know what they are, but there's some issues going on there. I don't know if they hate their GM or they didn't like the coach or whatever's going on there. They're less likely to do all the things that you need to do in order to stay in shape as you get into your 30s.

And then Kako's already been traded away. And Laffer and Yer who they gave a pretty big contract to extend, long-term contract extension, $7.5 million. Now that one could still turn around and age very, very well, but what if they've just locked into a player that is going to get like, I don't know, 45 points a season? All of a sudden you look at this team and it just goes to show how quickly things can turn around in the NHL.

And we know that here in Vancouver. And you're like, you know, not so bullish anymore on the New York Rangers. Speaking of teams that have a potential veteran anchor and not in a good way, also out of the Eastern conference, I do want to turn our attention to the Pittsburgh Penguins, another team that could be facing a very interesting off season again, after the dismissal of Mike Sullivan and the hiring of Dan Muse as their new bench boss.

Did you happen to see the article yesterday from the athletic from Josh Yohei titled what I'm hearing about Chris LaTang's future with the Pittsburgh Penguins? Well, it sounds like long to make a long story short, you can add some context here, but it sounds like the Penguins are just stuck with Chris LaTang. So that must have been nice for him to read.

Usually when stories like this come out, you feel like there's something more to them than an author being, hey, I'm just curious about the future of Chris LaTang. When you start getting anonymous sources and you start getting reports like this, you kind of start to wonder what's really going on behind the scenes. What am I talking about? You might be asking, well, yesterday,

Yohei had a very, very thorough look at Chris LaTang's future in Pittsburgh. I'm going to read a couple of the meatier parts of the article. Several team sources who were granted anonymity to protect personal relationships said LeTang and his play were the source of incredible frustration for head coach Mike Sullivan and assistant coach David Quinn this past season. The mental errors have always been a part of LeTang's package. Still, the former Penguins coaching staff became somewhat confounded when the mental errors began to multiply as his physical ability dipped So that's it after 20 years so long. Good luck. I don't recall saying good luck Yo, hey then goes on to write so trading it would be the easy solution, right?

Well, hold on let's hang is a full no movement clause and according to more unnamed team sources They believe that letang is quote unquote unmovable. Why would you put something out there like this? Why would you say publicly that you've got a problem defenseman with a bit of term left on his contract that sources within the team say is unmovable? I do wonder if there's something going on here with regards to everyone not named Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh, all the veteran guys anyway, either to try and light a fire under them to play better or light a fire under them to maybe wave their no trade clause and try and accept a move.

Although I don't know how you'd be able to move Letang out given everything that the previous coaching staff had to say about his play. The Penguins are the San Jose Sharks a few years ago. That's a very fair assessment and a very fair comparison. And everyone should have seen it coming. I still look back on the Eric Carlson acquisition. And I guess I understand what they were trying to do.

They were trying to squeeze every last drop out of the Sidney Crosby era in Pittsburgh. And they were just trying to bring in an old, you know, stacked team, right? But old took over. And I never understood having Eric Carlson and Chris LaTang on the same team. Didn't make sense to me at all.

You need players that can defend as well. And like that became, you watch the Penguins, they were just horrendous defensively, horrendous. And Carlson would get beat through the neutral zone easily one-on-one. Um, like players would blow by him. And then Chris, Chris LaTang, um, like both these guys were terrific defensemen, but they're old now.

They're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're still in the NHL, but they're done. As elite players, Chris LeTang, when the Penguins won their first of two back-to-back cups a few years ago, it's the best he's ever played. Yeah. He was incredible. And that was nearly a decade ago. He was such a good player. That's the best he's ever played.

Because there was always the question about LeTang. It's like, how good is he? Is he truly a number one? You know, a lot of people would say, yeah, he's kind of like in the Mike Green comp. And then other people would say, no, no, no, he's better than that. And there'd be debates about whether you should play for Canada or whatever, you know?

And he really played like a great number one defenseman to the point where it really was incredible that the Penguins won the cup the next year when he wasn't available to them. I mean, that, that run was, uh, because they were without him, that run was unlikely. Now, fortunately for them, they ran into a Predator's team in the final that had their own

injury issues. But if you look at this Penguin's team right now, outside of Sid, what do they have? Like they're gonna be dreadful. And like why give Tristan Jari that big long-term deal in goal? That was ridiculous. I remember when that was signed. Hey, hey, hey, that's Delta's Tristan Jarre. Relax. Yeah. Okay. He's the heir to the Jarre Bodega, if I'm not mistaken.

That's right. Yeah. And I think as long as the Penguins go into next season, and I think they're going to be dreadful, horrible dreadful, the questions about whether Sid's really going to finish his career in Pittsburgh are only going to accelerate if only because people are going to sit there and go like, I feel sorry for Sid.

Like this is not how Sid should go out. So what I'm wondering. So Malkin only has one year left on his deal. Yep. That one's easy enough to clear up. No, no, no, but that's not what I'm talking about. Malkin has one year left on his deal. Yep. That one's easy enough to clear up. No, no, no, but that's not what I'm talking about. Malkin has one year left on his deal. We've heard a few times on this show from

various guests that Sid isn't going anywhere until Malkin, like he's not going to leave Malkin there. I wonder after this season or maybe even at the trade deadline this season, if Crosby comes into play. And I'm going to keep asking it, even though everyone in Pittsburgh will come in on the show and be like, Sid doesn't want to leave Pittsburgh. Sid has said he wants to be a penguin for life. Well, we'll see because it gets to the point where it's embarrassing.

Okay. So what I want to know instead of looking at it retroactively is, wait, what you're talking about, what comes next. And I do wonder if articles and leaks and anonymous sourcing of this kind and this ilk are going to continue in an effort to continue to shake up this organization in the only ways that they have imaginable. So they've already done one. What is the, what is that article going to achieve though? Like, are you saying that they're trying to get LeTang to waive his no move clause? Are they trying to get him to retire?

Because also in that article... My answer to all those would be yes. But I think what they're saying is unmovable, not in the sense that he has a no move clause. No, they're saying it's unmovable if he would waive. Yeah, if he would waive, they're still unmovable. not in the sense that he has a no move clause. No, they're saying it's unmovable. Nobody would wave. Yeah, if he would wave, they're still unmovable. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So what would that accomplish?

Trying to get anything to be different than what it currently is. I think that sometimes it's almost like the disruptor idea that you just go in and you replace a veteran Stanley Cup winning coach with a 42 year old guy named Dan Hughes, who's never coached at the NHL level before. Can you imagine the job for him? Yeah, I think like, what? Read the tea leaves here. I feel like there is, there's a undercurrent

of we're gonna try and switch as many things up and try and, honestly, it's the disruptor idea. You come in and you just create some chaos under the surface in the hopes that something will change. Not necessarily knowing where the change is gonna go or what the change might look like, but understanding that the status quo can't keep happening. Like, I mean, how much longer can you do this for?

You've got a certain finite timeline with Sidney Crosby. I'll allow them that if they play out this year and Malkin plays out the final year of his deal and then he's done, suddenly things become slightly clearer but you still have the issue of LaTang, Carlson, Jari, take your pick from there because there's a lot of other issues that Dubas has to clean up in Pittsburgh.

I think Carlson could get traded if the Penguins retain a significant amount. I still wouldn't recommend it for any team that's acquiring him. But then what are you looking at? Are you blowing on your team? Like it's a mess in Pittsburgh. It's a mess and you know,

I know that Dubas was given specific marching orders when he went to Pittsburgh. He was like, keep the band together. You know, it sells tickets, people like these guys. But man, this thing was the same as San Jose. When we were all looking at San Jose, not everyone, but I think a lot of us were looking at San Jose and going, what are you guys doing giving term

to all these old guys and bringing in all these old guys. You know, and like, what do you expect to happen? This is a league that is getting faster and faster every year with young players with crazy amounts of talent. And you're going to say, I'm going to put together a team of like guys in their mid-30s. You're going to be bad. You're listening to the best of Halford and brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and brough. Cerebelli, cerebelli, cerebelli, Frank!

Cerebelli, Frank! Cerebelli, Frank! Frank! 702 on a Wednesday, happy Wednesday everybody, Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Frank! Halford and Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first entrusted choice for debt help. With over 3000 five star reviews, visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program.

As the music suggests, Frank Saravalli from Daily Face Off is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour two. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Homominuk at jason.mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at jason.mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio.

Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Our next guest is a presentation of angry Otter Licker, and he joins us courtesy of the Power West Industries hotline, it's Frank Cerfali from Daily Faceoff here on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Frank, how are you? Pretty good, how you guys doing?

We're well, thanks for taking the time to do this. As always, great work last night and overnight, getting the framework of a potential trade in which the Rangers may, it's not done yet, but may send Chris Kreider to the Anaheim Ducks. Lay it all out for us, Frank here, beginning of the reporting to the end right now. What can you tell us about this potential trade with Crider going to the Ducks? Yeah,

this is a situation that has obviously been developing over the last couple of days here. Got to a point last night where, where I felt like, I'm pretty comfortable in explaining the situation. Both teams have had other irons in the fire in the last couple days. I know the Rangers had been talking to some other teams about a landing spot for Crichter. The Ducks had similarly been targeting some other players as well, but these discussions have advanced in a way that there's definitely mutual interest, there's definitely the framework of a deal. And with that, really now it's about getting down to the final strokes of

is Anaheim on Chris Ryider's no trade list? What does that process look like? Will it be a roadblock? I think they were hoping the ducks were hoping to with permission today have a call with Chris Crider and lay out their plans in the future and obviously he's got some friends there in Jacob Truba and Ryan Strowman and others. And so I think that's not likely to be an issue. It's really just a matter of getting it all done and across the finish line. Who else could be shipped out of New York this off season?

Mika Zabaniad is certainly another name that I think the Rangers would like to consider. I just don't have any sense from Zabanajad or his camp that they'd be willing to, you know, waive the full no trade. That's totally different than the 15 team no trade list that that Crider has. And so it's obviously a much more significant roadblock, a much more significant contract. And then you've got Kay Andre Miller on the backend, restricted free agent that there's a moment in time where the Rangers need to decide, is Miller gonna be part of our foundation moving forward or not?

And I think with the addition of this new coaching staff that I'm, you know, I've had some very mixed reports on what Mike Sullivan thinks of Che André Miller and what their thought process is moving forward. So I think he was probably already in a spot where, look, Miller was on our trade targets board going back to the deadline. Teams were interested then, the Rangers held off, but there are definitely more substantive talks this time around. What do you think the future of our Temi Penneran in New York is?

He's got one year left before he's an unrestricted free agent. Yeah, that's a good question. And a guy that I think with his slight frame has probably, I mean, I don't know if it's fair to say underwhelmed when it comes to the playoffs, but I think certainly with his regular season impact and then look, comparing that to the post season, I think the Rangers have sought at various points in time at, you know, first off,

he's been one of the best free agent signings of all time. Um, he took a team that was rebuilding and was the jet fuel to become a team that got to multiple conference finals and won a president's trophy. That said, um, yeah, his contract is winding down and another guy that they need to make a decision on. So all in all, what, what happened to the Rangers? Because, you know, Truba was their captain, he's been shipped out.

If you look at their alternate captains, there's Zabana Jed, Panarin, Chris Kreider, and Adam Fox. So it seems to me like they are just doing a complete renovation of the leadership group. And I just wonder, you you know where they see this going. Well they made the determination that their team as constructed wasn't good enough and I think in some ways it's probably not going to be all that different than a bit of a shake-up that're going to see in Dallas. When you have a team that gets close a number of times and doesn't get the

job done, is not going to be able to have enough that gets past a team like Florida or another roadblock that's in the way. They're asking hard questions. They're saying status quo, just being a good team, just getting to the final four, just winning the president's trophy is not good enough. And it's a high standard. It's an impressively high standard at that. There's 25 other teams in the league that would kill to have that type of run. But their goal is to win a Stanley Cup, not to play Pokemon. And with that, they want to, you

know, push the envelope here. They want to try and make something happen that, you know, knowing that they've got some guys that are aging, knowing that they've got some contracts that are up. Part of these are also natural inflection points to ask these questions and make the changes necessary to be a team that can compete for a Stanley Cup. Let's talk about the Dallas Stars for a bit because Jason Robertson's name is out there. And obviously I don't know what happened all

season in Dallas, but I did tune in for the last few games of the Edmonton Dallas series and Jason Robertson might've been the only offensive weapon that the Dallas stars had. So why is he the one apparently on the trade block? It's really kind of a very similar conversation. His contract has one year left at seven, seven, five. He's been an up and down player this season and they need to ask themselves and decide,

are we paying Jason Robertson for the long haul? Are we giving him a massive raise? Cause a guy that has a hundred point season and even this year after a really slow start closed the year as one of the very best players in the game over the last half of the season, 28 goals in 48 games down the stretch. Are we paying him or in our current cap environment where we only have a handful of million dollars

to fill out five roster spots, is he the first guy out the door to help make room and provide flexibility for some other pieces that we wanna bring in to try and change the look? You're right, he was one of their only weapons, but part of their questions that they need to answer for or solve for are, why is this team that has

some really nice quality foundational pillars now having transferred from the Sagan and Ben era to, you know, Wyatt Johnson, Rupe Hintz, Miro Heiskenen, and Thomas Harley. Why is it that this team comes up short and why is it that this mix, which has a ton of skill, but not a lot of hard skill, why is it that this team isn't getting the job done and how do we fix it?

Well, on that note, what did you hear in the aftermath of Peter DeBoer being dismissed as head coach? Well, it's another foundational question. Why aren't we getting over the hump? Is part of it, why hasn't Pete DeBoer gotten over the hump? Six Western Conference Finals in eight years. Why has he not, in any of those years with obviously good teams, why has he not won a Stanley Cup? And is it because he runs hot? And then you could answer some of the other questions about how

there seemed to be some distrust that evolved in that locker room, starting with, well, probably started way before, but some of the finishing touches were not just the Otter situation and the awkward pull and the fact that he doubled down on it, but go back to the morning of game five, the night, the day they were eliminated. He's sitting at the podium at a morning skate press conference and says, I'm paraphrasing, the coach can't put the puck in the net. Players don't like hearing that. That's not something that inspires confidence or trust. And it's more or less the coach throwing his hands up saying,

hey, this isn't my fault, not on me. And you're supposed to be the guy that comes up with solutions. And they've had great seasons by any measurable count. But again, short of the ultimate goal. And so whether you lose in round one, you lose in round two or the conference final doesn't really change the fact that you're not getting the job done. Are there any early indications on who the next head coach in Dallas might be? Not yet.

And knowing how methodical Jim Mill is as a manager and how long he took to make the decision on Pete DeBoer's future, I can't imagine that they made that decision to fire Pete DeBoer without at least having a really short list of candidates to go into this process with and I've said this publicly I don't I'm not advocating for anyone and I haven't heard his name much but I can't think of a better fit than Peter Laviellette a guy who's had almost immediate success taking three different teams to a cup final the message might not hang around long his last tenure with the Rangers was only two years, but there's a reason why he's consecutively been a head coach in this league for 25 seasons in a row now.

Let's turn our attention to offer sheets. We are speaking to Frank Cervalli from Daily Faceoff here in the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Two part question here, Frank. One, who are some of the targets that could be offer sheeted this summer? And do you think that we'll actually see anybody sign one this off season? Well, whether we see someone sign one or not, I think this is a changing environment. I mean, this,

this is also true for the trade market and maybe to a lesser extent, free agency. In conversations with managers yesterday, they were saying the trade market is very quiet right now. And they think part of that is because there's just not as much of a push as there's been in recent years to move out players because teams have cap space, really for the first time in a long time, and they can see the light

of what the next two years looks like. It just takes a lot of the heat and pressure off that sometimes produces transactions. And when you've got cap space, signing your RFAs typically isn't a huge issue. So there's obviously mechanisms in place to get that done if you're ARB eligible or whatever it is, but I think what we saw last year with the Blues grabbing Holloway and Broberg from Edmonton was really a sense that this actually is a viable way to acquire players.

And so I think you have to bypass the guys that are sort of at the top of the RFA masthead. I don't know how you could possibly overpay Evan Bouchard enough that it makes sense for your team to acquire him and for the Edmonton Oilers to say no. Same thing with Noah Dobson or pick some of these high-end guys. To me I think you have to look way further down the board and Matt Nyes isn't that far down but you know you really have to make it put it in a spot where the Leafs are believers in this guy. How do you make it untenable for them?

And I conduct, I concocted five different offer sheet potentials in a story posted yesterday that outlines not just who some of those players might be, but how exactly would you do it to pry them loose from their current team? And so it's a short list as mentioned, but I think an intriguing discussion point. And sometimes in the offer sheet game, that's really all it ends up being is an intriguing salacious discussion. Yeah. Who do you think is, I mean, do you have one that's most likely or like the thing with,

I always come back to this to the point where I'm like lecturing is like the player has to want to leave. That's another thing. Like people, you actually got to sign that contract. It's not like you present him with an offer sheet and like you go, you have to convince him and it doesn't sound, you know, when it comes to Matthew Nines, he said like, I want to be a Leaf. Well, yeah, you know, I pointed that part out. Like, yeah, yeah.

This, he said all the right things. Like that's the tough part is you can think it, you can want to do it. You can be aggressive. And he might just say, dude, I'm a Leaf. Yeah. You're asking someone to leave their team. And I think in the case with Broberg and Holloway,

those guys weren't exactly thrilled with their roles. So they were like, okay, well, I'm going to go. Well, he goes beyond that. What's that? Yeah. The Oilers are still upset today because they believe that one of the agents for the players convinced the other one, who wasn't even his client to say, hey,

let's do this together so there's less focus on both of us individually. Like if one of them were to do it, if you, if we're both unhappy and we both do it together, then therefore there's going to be less scorn. The, the oiler fan base is going to be less upset with you and more upset with the team. And not for nothing, but one of those players over the last week fired their agent. And, you know, it's, it's not always a perfect situation and it doesn't, even if you sign the deal and you align your pocket with $4 million that

you otherwise would not have had in the last calendar year, you don't always feel good at the end of it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, Frank, we were talking about the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier in the show because there were some last calendar year, you don't always feel good at the end of it. Yeah. Um, Frank, we were talking about the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier in the show because there

was some reporting from the athletic about Chris LaTang and what his future looks like, uh, in Pittsburgh. Um, what are you looking for from the penguins this off season? I think the penguins are a true wild card. I think, well, are a true wild card. I think well their coaching hire dictates to prove shows that they are a wild card. They took a guy that

wasn't on a single person's radar in Dan Muse and hired him. Now I don't know if that's Kyle Dubas demonstrating that he's got a depth to his knowledge that no one else in the NHL has in completely going off the board, or if, as some have speculated, that this is a play to help begin the process of Pittsburgh moving on from its vet. That at some point, these guys will turn around and say, what are we doing here? And can I get out? And maybe that's part of it for turning over this roster that I think LaTang's deal is incredibly difficult to move.

I think LaTang was the first of the three players, the three core superstars in Pittsburgh to raise his hand over the last couple years and say, I'd be willing to do something different, but his deal is just simply not palatable for other teams. And with that, they've kind of been in a holding pattern. This is the last year of Malkin's contract, and there's been a thought process that not only has Sid said that he wants to stay in Pittsburgh to close out his career,

but if there's any chance that he moves, a lot of people believe that he's gonna finish out his tenure with Malkin by his side, and then once Malkin's out the door, that maybe that opens things up a little bit. But based on what I can tell you and the conversations that have happened behind the scenes, I think there's been a lot of movement on a lot of different fronts. Yeah, because it's easy to say, well, I want to be a penguin for life,

when Sid signed the contract. But it's a lot harder to do that when you keep losing games and you're going through these seasons and it becomes a little bit of, you know, as you put it, what are we doing here? And I just wonder if, uh, if his mind might change, uh, on whether or not, uh, he wants to go out like this. Now, who knows? The Penguins could surprise us all next season, but do you think there could be a breaking point for Sid in all this? I've wondered about that. I think he's been the good soldier and let me, let's face it, Sid wouldn't

say bleep of his mouth was full of it. Um, because that's just not how he's wired. But I do think that playing in four nations and playing really meaningful hockey and then even just being around other guys from other teams at the worlds again. I mean there have been people close to him that have speculated that this has all kind of opened his eyes to maybe exploring what that looks like or feels like. But I think there's been a huge mental roadblock and hurdle that he hasn't really spent a lot of time thinking about

what life might be like outside of Pittsburgh. It's all he's ever known. Frank, this was great, bud. Thanks for taking the time to do this. As always, we appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week and whatever's left in the Stanley Cup final. We'll do this again next week. See you guys.

Frank Cerfale from Daily Faceup here on the Halferd and Ruff show on Sportsnet 650. So Oilers head coach, Chris Knoblach just completed his, um, zoom availability. Um, he did not confirm a starting goalie. Although I'd be shocked if he goes with Calvin Pickard for game four. I'd love it. He saved him before. He'll save them again.

Um, Ryan Nugent Hopkins is going to be a game time decision once again. He was a game time decision for game three and managed to play. You know he'll play. And then he said, Knobloch said there could be one potential lineup change. And from a Canucks perspective, I do wonder if it could be Stetcher in for Klingberg. Got to get Tony Stetcher in there, man. Klingberg looks terrible.

Yeah. They were doing well with Stetch. He's a better defender than Klingberg. Stetcher sometimes- You're a better defender than Klingberg? Sometimes there are issues with Stetcher's puck movement. I never thought he had a good first pass, but he's a better defender and honestly it looks to me like

the Panthers are teeing off on Klingberg, not even teeing off targeting him. And they're like, don't hit them, just take the puck from them. Stats for Klingberg seems pretty obvious. The more intriguing one. But Klingberg was on a regular pair of practice yesterday. They switch up their pairs all the time. That coffee said that at the beginning of the series, they just, they run through them like, he just flips them all over the place. So I would say after they'll skate tomorrow after that performance, you got to make some kind of change.

And I'm with you. I think the goalie one is too severe, even though there's a proven track record in last year's series against Vancouver and this year's series against LA, that they respond well to that switch. Yeah. It's not like a finals, a totally different beast. Well, Mark Spector actually, I'm just reading a

tweet from him. I said, Knobloch says there will be a lineup change for game four and Speck says likely Stetcher in, Klingberg out. Yeah. That, I mean, that makes sense and good on Stetcher for getting back in, good on Stetcher for keeping this thing going.

He's been a nice little spark plug for them in fits and starts throughout this run. So, I mean, for the sake of having a competitive series and having to go as long as humanly possible, which I think we all want, hopefully Edmonton can rally and win that game. Yes, I'm saying it out loud. Win that game for him.

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