Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 6/20/24

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports including a big day of hockey trades, plus they get the latest 'Nucks news from Canucks Talk host & The Athletic Vancouver's Thomas Drance. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Watching Gretzky at his peak, I never thought we'd see anybody in the same universe as him. But here we are. Pierre-Luc Dubois may be on the move. L.A. Kings. It's all but done to the Washington Capitals. Did it work for those people?

No, it never does. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but it might work for us. Good morning, Vancouver. 6.01 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. But it might work for us. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford, it is Braff, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios,

the beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Well done on the intro. Halford and Braff for the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda.

Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 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 paidler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar 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. Hey, dog. You went and got some Kintec shoes yesterday, didn't you? I did. I got some Kintec shoes yesterday and they are very comfy. What kind did you get? I got these Hoka's. Hoka's. Hoka. Hoka.

Hoka. Yeah, they're super comfy. Shout out to Kintec. That's a store, man. They know their shoes. It's awesome. Yep. I went in there. They put me on this little thing, and it scanned my feet, and it gave me all the measurements,

and then it gave me recommendations. It was really high tech. Nice. I think we just stumbled on a new Kintec ad, possibly. They know their shoes. Felt like I was in the future. Felt like I was in the Jetsons. Yeah, yeah.

Well, if someone likes comfort, it's you. That's true. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sophie, what are you waiting for? Kintec. Not Andy, though. He went there yesterday. They gave me a blanket, some hot cocoa.

That's awesome. Sat around the fireplace, talked shoes. You can sleep here if you want. I have my own house but actually it looks pretty comfy over there uh let's say it loud and proud and also so andrew and victoria can tune out right away happy footy day everybody a a kaleidoscope of football from across north america actually not north actually it is north america north american europe uh this morning slovenia and and Serbia followed by,

and Jason's wearing the shirt right now, for those that are watching on the live stream of Sportsnet+, England, Denmark at 9 a.m., followed by what a first round opening round group stage clash, Spain and Italy. Wow. Two powerhouses going at it at noon. But that's not all.

You get a few hours of rest, and then 5 o'clock this evening, a historic moment for Canadian football, Canada and the men's national team going to Atlanta to take on Lionel Messi and Argentina in the opening match of the 2024 Copa America. So it's going to be a footy-centric show at times. It's actually going to be a very diverse, eclectic show today.

Guest list begins at 6.40 tannier our nfl insider uh he's going to join us to go around the off season look at some of these major stories coming from minicamps who's there who's not aaron rogers i'm trying to pronounce the drug of choice is it ayakusa ayahuasca ayahuasca are you kidding me what okay no that's fine that wasn't that bad was it no but it's i don't know in fairness i wouldn't have been able to pronounce it either i guess me neither i guess people just looking to get to open their minds a little bit have more awareness of these things right better pronunciation Better pronunciation skills. Ayahuasca. Yeah. Ayahuasca. They're just in the know. Right.

And I'm not. Can I have some of them Ayakuses? Yeah. Mike Tanner is going to join us at 740. You're like, I did a drug last night. It was called couscous. Yeah. Oh, it was so good.

It's delicious. It pops up when you cook it. Makes your tummy all full. Mike Tanner, you're at 640. 7 o'clock, Adnan Virk, MLB Network and the Cinephile Pod. 730, Ben Steiner from CBC Sports is going to join the program, our soccer analyst for the day.

We'll look ahead to 5 o'clock, Canada, Argentina. And then at 8 o'clock, Thomas Drance, the Drancer. We can go over the Philip Peronic news. The Mark, don't call me Elliot, Friedman news. And then some other big deals

from across the NHL. It sounds like everyone has to start getting their business done. We've got some audio from Flames GM Craig Conroy, who made a big trade yesterday sending Jacob Markstrom to New Jersey. And the audio, he basically says, yeah, teams are giving us deadlines now. There's deadlines across the board. People have to start getting things done. And yet the Stanley Cup is still being played.

Yep. What a league. He also says in the clip that he got his Zdorov. Yeah. We're not going to play that he got his Zdorov. Yeah. We're not going to play that one. So working in reverse on the guest list. 8 o'clock, Thomas Drance. 7.30, Ben Steiner.

7 o'clock, Adnan Virk. 6.40, Mike Tanier. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was...

We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? 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. I mentioned the Craig Conroy audio where he's talking about teams giving deadlines for player acquisitions and trades. Because shortly after we got off the air yesterday, a whole lot of action went down across the National Hockey League. Let's start with the biggest and the most surprising news of the day. Let's be honest.

When we got off the air on Wednesday, about an hour later, the Washington Capitals announced that they had acquired Pierre-Luc Dubois from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for their goalie, Darcy Kemper. That was crazy. I was having a nap with Pedro. A post-game nap or a post-show nap with Pedro. Pedro's his dog, by the way. Pedro's my dog. You should probably clarify that sometimes.

From Mexico, he was like, hola. And he couldn't believe. he honestly couldn't believe. He said, senor Brough, wake up. He couldn't believe that the Kings got off that contract and he couldn't believe that the Kings admitted a mistake that early after giving up some significant assets to the Winnipeg Jets in order to get Pierre-Luc Dubois

in the door door but then he just said like there wasn't a good fit and then he basically said that's on me that's on me that's on me and some of the reporters were like some of it's on dubois sorry is this pedro or rob blake uh this is rob blake oh okay yeah yeah notice there was no accent right yeah yeah yeah um so pedro was like i'm going back to bed this exciting. But so there were I don't want to call them rumblings, but there were early sort of reports out there that the Kings might actually explore a buyout on Pierre-Luc Dubois after a first season in L.A. That was an unmitigated disaster. They switched coaches. That didn't seem to get him going.

He moved all over the lineup. That didn't seem to get him going. The worst statistical season of his career. And so at the end of the year, people were saying, well, if you use a buyout on Dubois, it might actually work in your favor because you get that two-thirds buyout, right? And Rob Blake said, no, we're not going to do that. And then there was still that lingering doubt that he was long for L.A.

Because it's like, well, if you're having buyouts. It was so bad, too. Really bad. It was so bad. And then Blake did acknowledge, and in his credit, I would say, fell on the sword a little bit. He said, I don't think I did a good enough job

integrating Dubois into the right roles on the team here this year. I think it wasn't a great fit in that aspect for us, and we'll take responsibility for that. You know who I once heard say the exact same thing? Who? Trevor Linden, to me, in an interview for The Athletic, about Louis Erickson.

Interesting. We haven't done a good enough job finding a spot for Louis Erickson. Now, the difference is they didn't move quickly off Louis Erickson. This is a crazy, crazy, that's a crazy indictment for a player, right? I mean, let's be honest. I mean, it's just hilarious. Let's think about what Dubois said. We didn't find the right spot for him.

Blake. Sorry, whatever. He's a center. He's a center. Yeah, I know your spot. You know the spot? Center. What are you talking about?

First line, second line, third line, fourth line. Like, which one? You're center. So Rob Blake did a nice job of trying to fall on the sword What are you talking about? First line, second line, third line, fourth line. Which one? Center. Rob Blake did a nice job of trying to fall on the sword and make it sound like it was the Kings and not Dubois, but let us be 100% honest here. This is clearly a Pierre-Luc Dubois thing. Now, the Caps said that they were thrilled

to get a 25-year-old center in the door with an onerous contract. They didn't put that part in. I did. Everyone joking, that's why they bought out Cap Friendly, so nobody could dump on the contract. They just copy and pasted in. I did. Everyone joking, that's why they bought out Cap Friendly so nobody could dump on the contract. They just copy and pasted the King's press conference from last year and that was the Washington Capitals

press conference and how thrilled they were to get Pierre-Luc Dubois. How is there no money retained in this deal? Because Darcy Kemper went back. Does it make up that much of a difference? It doesn't have that great of a contract either, Kemper. It's like five mil. Yeah, and it's got three years left. And let's forget, he lost that starting job a contract either, Kemper. It's like five mil. Yeah, and it's got three years left. And let's forget, he lost that starting job in Washington to Charlie Lindgren.

So it's not like they were— Pierre-Luc Dubois has shown at times in the NHL that he's a pretty good player. There's a reason he did get that contract from LA. There's a reason that the Kings were after him. He has shown at times that he can be a player. Unfortunately, he's also shown at times that he can be totally disinterested out there so it's funny because him and patrick linea are now probably going to get moved in the same offseason again having both been moved for one another previously i don't even know if they're going to be able to move linea but we'll see i know what you're saying yeah yeah

somebody'll take linea pardon me somebody'll take linea you know who freed strother the other day with linea was the Seattle Kraken because they're so desperate for score. Like, I had another goal scorer. Yeah. But I think the point was, with these two players in particular, you've seen how high the ceiling can be. Like, Dubois wasn't just a player.

There was times in the playoffs, especially in the bubble, where he was a dominant force. Like, shutting down, outplaying Austin Matthew Matthews head-to-head force. And then there's other times where he looks like he's completely disinterested in playing hockey. That's a lot of teams to have moved on from for a guy who's 25 years old. I think there'd be red flags across the board. But Washington probably saw an opportunity to get a guy in the door. And they just want to remain competitive or however competitive they are.

But you want to talk about a guy that I think that was a job-saving move for Rob Blake because you look at the return on assets, the amount that they moved out to get him in the door, right? It was Iafalo. It was Velarde. Yeah. And it was, I'm missing the third one.

It was a pick, wasn't it? Sorry? It was a pick. No, no, it was three roster players. Oh, okay. But those were the two most important ones. Right. In exchange for what?

Oh, it was Velarde, Ayafalo, and Rasmus Kapari. Okay. And a pick. Yeah. So you move three players off your active roster and a pick out the door for one bad year of Pierre-Luc Dubois and then the remainder of Darcy Kemper's contract. That's a horrible return on assets. So all of a sudden the Kings are another team

that should be active in free agency because the Kings save about 3 million on the cap. And Rob Blake said yesterday that we've got some roster openings. He said that's what we'll look at here for the next couple of weeks. Obviously a different scenario, flexibility wise, space wise,

and we'll have to address those things going forward here. What do we think about the Kings as a division rival for the Canucks heading into next season? Granted the Canucks still have some work to do. The Kings still have some work to do. So maybe this question is better asked after free agency, but I do wonder if the Kings this season missed a pretty big opportunity for their

franchise, drawing the Edmonton Oilers again, losing badly this time to the Oilers. Working backwards, right? Yeah, like they did not make progress against the Edmonton Oilers. They did not look very good at all and were quickly out of the playoffs. And, you know, again, Dubois was supposed to be the guy that really helped them against the Oilers.

You're going to have a situation where the Canes could say, okay, well, we'll put out Kopitar against McDavid and Deneau against Dreisaitl, whatever. And then we'll have Dubois as the advantage. It was frankly similar to what the advantage the Canucks thought they might have, except Petey didn't show up in the playoffs. They would have said, okay, well, we'll go Miller and Lindholm down the middle in our two-way roles.

And Petey, it's all you. Now, not all of that's on Petey. They didn't have a winger for Petey either. But I just look at the Kings right now and I go, you know, Kopitar is getting older now. And Dowdy is getting older. He still logs a lot of ice time. We'll see if Darcy Kemper can help them in goal. But maybe Byfield can take a big step this season

and he can become the star player that he was supposed to be. But I don't know, man. I look at that team now and go, eh. Okay. They're going to miss Dubois in the sense that, I mean, he played every game last year. He had 40 points in 82 games. So they'll miss whatever he brought to the table.

Well, they don't have a follow of Velarde either. But I do wonder, and my fear is that the Kings actually get better that it's addition by subtraction. Because I think he was probably a bigger issue than just his on-ice play. I think a lot of the rifts that we heard early in the year that eventually led to Todd McCollum's dismissal

might have had to do with the fact that this guy came in, didn't play a minute for the team, got a gargantuan contract. So everyone's excited, and then he comes in, and I think a lot of the players were like, wait, is this what we just signed up for? Don't you see them as a team that's kind of struggling with their identity too and how they want to play?

100%. Jim Hiller is still the head coach there, and I think they're going to have some discussions this offseason, possibly involving the players. They're like, how do we want to play here? Do we want to do the stupid 1-3-1? Right. Can you come back? And when they asked that question

I was like, maybe I framed that the wrong way when I called it the stupid 1-3-1. Yeah, you should have the stupid part out, but can you come back realistically and do the same things that you did last year? They got you to the playoffs, but clearly weren't going to make you a competitive playoff team. I think people thought maybe it would, but that whole idea got blown

to smithereens in the opening round by the Oilers. Do you think Dubois has a chance to salvage his reputation and his career in Washington where he's going to be given a big opportunity? I think it's a put it this way if it's not a jolt to the young man who is still only 25 years old then they've got real problems because I'm sure right now he's like these guys were so desperate to get off my contract that they sent me for it was I mean it was almost a salary dump I know they took it was a salary but they had to take Kemper back it wasn't a pure dump They had to take There's two years left

On that deal I think Three They had to take A dumpy contract back But the Kings also were like Hey we need a goalie And Kemper's won a Stanley Cup Sure

He knows the organization He's been in the organization before He knows where the bathrooms are Yeah That's coming off a brutal year That's all you want to see In a goalie Lost his job to a journeyman

34 years old Yeah What could be better Bigger body Who's prone to injury. Constantly injury prone, which is pretty great. So there's that.

Oh. They like their tandems in LA though. So. Do you think Dubois is so like, you know, some people just kind of

have this crazy high opinion of themselves. He's like, they traded me for a Stanley Cup winning goalie. I must be killing it. I'm sure that's what he's saying to himself. And I was like they traded me for a stanley cup winning goalie i must be killing it i'm sure that's what he's saying to himself and i was like darcy kemper i remember him he won the stanley cup a couple years one of the all-time leaders in save percentage speaking of goalies the most important player on that abs team a lot of people said it's true many people said i actually forgot

he was on that abs team until they were like who do you want to stanley cup with oh right the avalanche um speaking of goalies getting traded, yesterday, another big news. Shortly after we got off the air, the Calgary Flames agreed to trade Jacob Markstrom to the New Jersey Devils. In exchange, the Flames received defenseman Kevin Ball,

not to be confused with Rick Ball. He lost one. Yeah, he lost, he left Calgary. And a top 10 protected pick in 2025. Where'd the baller go again? Chicago. Oh, yeah. That's awesome.

Congratulations, Rick. That was when you were on your golf trip and Jamie Goddard were talking about that. Anyway, Jacob Markstrom. So the Devils needed a goalie. They get theirs. They now go from being shaky and net-saving, what I would consider to be a pretty good tandem

with Jake Allen and Jacob Markstrom. I'm an Allen fan. Yeah, I think that's a really big upgrade for them. What happened to all those young goalies, Ladi, that you were crowing about in the New Jersey organization? Well, I was thinking that there might be some deals on the horizon. Schmid and Dawes, I don't know what their future holds. I think you could possibly see one of them being dealt this offseason as well.

And so all due respect to the trade, I wish – I've always liked – They just want more experience, obviously. I've always liked Jacob Mark just want more experience, obviously. I've always liked Jacob Markstrom. I think you could share the sentiment that I would like him to do well in New Jersey. I think New Jersey is a young, up-and-coming team. And I think with the two goalies in net, they're going to have a lot better year. I think Sheldon Keefe is an interesting hire now that he's out of Toronto. All due respect to that, I think the big story here is that things are happening.

And the goalie market, which we talked about at length this week, including our hit with Greg Wyshynski earlier in the week, is starting to heat up. You see two goalies move in the span of two hours on a random Wednesday, and you're like, okay, teams are starting to make moves now.

And this is what Craig Conroy said in his media availability yesterday, talking not just about trading Jacob Markstrom, but the fact that the pressure was on and he needed to start making moves now, even though the Stanley Cup is yet to be handed out. Here's Craig Conroy, Calgary Flames GM from yesterday's media availability.

There are other goalies out there and there's other teams involved. And I think teams were ready to start making moves. And so, you know, they started putting deadlines out there. And if we wanted to be in the game, we had to move a little bit quicker probably than we thought we were going to have to. So that's kind of how it played out. You know, I was traveling Monday and then I'm in Florida for Tuesday today. So it wasn't as easy as just being encountering in the office.

But, you know, so I do think it just, it just picks up. I mean, that's how it, that's how it happens. And we had to feel this was, this was the right deal for us with the, with what was out there and, you know, helped us moving forward. So Pierre-Luc Dubois goes from the Los Angeles Kings to the Washington Capitals.

Jacob Markstrom goes from the Calgary Flames to the New Jersey Devils. Minor news yesterday from the Vancouver Angeles Kings to the Washington Capitals. Jacob Markstrom goes from the Calgary Flames to the New Jersey Devils. Minor news yesterday from the Vancouver Canucks. They re-upped with veteran defenseman Mark Friedman. The only really interesting takeaway here, at least for me anyway, was the quote that Patrick Alveen had where they expect him to compete for a regular job next year,

which does make me wonder. Oh, he was quote worthy in his press release? Mark Friedman got a quote. Oh, okay. Two quotes as a matter of fact. And I do wonder if... They've obviously got a plan that they would like to execute

the Canucks, right? Everywhere across the board. But if it doesn't happen, I do wonder if guys like Friedman and Juleson are going to be the stopgap, like, hey, we're going to need you guys to play maybe a little bit more than we thought. But there's nothing wrong with having those guys as a 7 or 8 defensemanman i do wonder if maybe it follows the um same blueprint as last year where friedman came aboard was playing regularly and then they

made the move for zadoroff and he was back in the possible right because having flexibility and being able to pivot in season was one of the big things that catapulted the canucks to where they were last year we'll see if they have any flexibility, though. I mean, that's the tough part because they're just so bereft of picks, the Canucks, right? No, I just mean cap-wise. Well, that's the other part of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, when you don't have a lot of cap space.

Like, are they going to be right up against the cap to start next season? It's possible. Right. And if you don't have a lot of cap space and you don't have a lot of picks to play with, it makes, I mean, Sat brought this up when we had him on last week. He said it's harder to make these kinds of moves when you don't have a lot of cap space, you don't have a lot of picks to play with, it makes, I mean, Sat brought this up when we had him on last week. He said it's harder to make these kinds of moves when you don't have an abundance of picks, like what you moved to get Zdorov and Lafferty

and everyone else closer to the start of the regular season or into the regular season. There was also the Barclay Goodrow, which was kind of interesting. So we didn't mention it yesterday because he got put on waivers by the New York Rangers. And I remember thinking, oh, that's a little playoff hero berkeley goodrow he didn't have a great regular season yeah admittedly but he's almost one of those guys where you kind of take the regular season with a grain of salt because he always shows up in the playoffs one stanley cups

with the tampa bay lightning he's been a very good playoff performer for the new york rangers in this year so where's he going san jose yeah Yeah. Maybe he'll win a Stanley Cup next season. I don't think so. I don't think he'll be in the playoffs, but they're going to be a team to watch for us because of Macklin Celebrity. I will anyway. I don't know about you, but I will watch and I want to see the trajectory of the North Vancouver native as he's, I'm presuming, going to play.

Mike Greer has kind of tipped his hand a little bit here because they're going to have him and their fourth overall of tipped his hand a little bit here and because they're going to have him and their fourth overall pick from the previous year Will Smith not the guy that slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars the other Will Smith that'd be cool if he was not the Sharks though yeah and you have some good young players they're going to play so he wants to insulate them with a little more veteran presence so they just scooped Barclay Goodrow off waivers and Larry Brooks of the Post had it out there that this was kind of a handshake deal that they had dating back to maybe even when the playoffs were on that they were saying like you know

goodrow is probably going to play well for us in the postseason he did he had six goals in 16 games but four in the regular season he scored six in the playoff some really nice shots too yeah like really nice goals like i'm like are you just saving it for the postseason? Which is cool. Like, they want to go deep in the playoffs, so I get it. But we're going to need more than four out of you in the regular season. And he was making $3.6 million, which isn't an egregious contract. But for, again, a hard cap league, you see these guys get squeezed.

So, Brooksie said there was an understanding that they were – because everyone was like, oh, no one's going to pick them up off waivers. And then Chris Durer was like, I think I know one team that might, and then winking and nudging, you know? Right. A little bit of that light tampering there. It's like, is anyone going to pick them up?

So the San Jose Sharks claimed him, and now he's a member of the San Jose Sharks. They made a trade, too. It's just easier than doing the trade for future considerations, basically. Right? And they did make a trade. They made a trade for Ty D'Alandria.

Yeah, right. For a fourth-round pick. Who I forgot was a first-round pick back in the day. Yes, he was. Yeah, and then I guess his offense never really came to fruition. He was like a late first-rounder. He wasn't one of the high-tech players. Yeah, I don't remember the name of the texter,

but we got one texter who's a diehard Dallas Stars fan, and he always texts in asking us to talk about the Dallas Stars. Then yesterday, he tweeted at me asking about this particular trade. So kudos to you, random listener. You got the Ty D'Alandria message. You should just reply to him like, you know more than me. Yeah, why don't you come on the air

and talk about tie to Landria. Everything I know about tie to Landria, I just said. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. 733 on a Thursday. I have no idea what's going on here. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda.

Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. It's a remix of the William Tell Overture. Video game style. Dubstep remix. Yeah. It's on APM. We can use it.

It's unlicensed. How could it be unlicensed? Who's licensing this crap? Listen to it. We are in hour two of the program. hour two is brought to you by primetime craft beer meticulously brewed for quality and taste primetime is full flavor without compromise you can get some get some at a liquor store near you or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made did you want to interject there friend I will do my read because I didn't do it. Coming to you live from the Kintec studio,

Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sorfite, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. You know what else I've been waiting for? Canada, the take on Argentina. The 2024 Copa America. After they qualified, beating Trinidad and Tobago to get into the tournament.

I'm sorry, I'm just listening to this. This was like... It's a horrific song. It's truly bad. This is from the video game version of A Clockwork Orange. Yeah. It's okay. Wasn't the William Tell Overture in? Yeah, yeah. It's okay. It's one of the worst things I've ever heard. Wasn't the William Tell Overture in?

Yeah, yeah. It's the video game version. Yeah. How often have you seen a clockwork orange? Yep. He's read it. I'm not going to expand on this, but yes, I've seen it. It's a guy who wears a clock.

He's all dressed in orange. That was a Public Enemy documentary, wasn't it? Less orange, more clock. Point taken. They hold his eyeball open. Do you like oranges? Albert loves the ultraviolence. Do you like oranges?

I remember when I first watched that. I didn't really know what it was about. I was like, 10 minutes in, I'm like, ooh, this is dark. Yes. It's kind of very dark. It's not a happy film. What was that life advice? Anyone with that as their favorite movie, you should probably...

Totally. I love A Clockwork Orange. I watch it every day. I'm going to leave now. Would you sit down and watch it with me? Canada will play Argentina later today

in this day of football and this eclectic sporting day that we got going here on the Halford and Breff show. So we're not a serious journalistic show, right?

Can we all agree that with that? Speak for yourself. No way. We'll try something. We're able to have fun with various rumors, et cetera, and people are like, that was only on the Alfred and Brough show, right?

Right. It's true. Like how Alfred tried to start the Brady Kachuck rumors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it worked. Have you noticed the, have you been following Can Canucks Twitter with all the Jake Gensel

sightings around Vancouver? I heard that he was talking to a realtor about buying a place in North Van. Wasn't that a... That was an allusion to Marion Gabrick. That joke. That meme. But you think it's just a joke?

No. Oh, like him looking at housing at housing yeah that's a joke but i mean well how do you know him coming to vancouver i don't think how do you know what's a joke that's a reference to the old mary yeah i know yeah i know has even i don't think he's been here yet every well he could well here's the thing. Okay. More serious than bringing up random Twitter rumors about Jake Gensel looking for houses. We have been talking about the possibility of the Canucks acquiring Jake Gensel in a sign-and-trade with the Carolina Hurricanes. Correct. Right? Yep.

So, if that's possible, wouldn't he come to town and take a look at stuff? The Canucks are the frontrunner, so it stands to reason. Well, Sat said yesterday on our show that better than 50% chance that the Canucks could land Jake. I'm having fun, but also wondering legitimately about the timing of all this because go back to the horonix situation what did i say they got to figure this out before july 1st even though he is an rfa and they do have rights for him they can't let that drag into the offseason because if they don't have him signed by the draft or July 1st then they're kind of sitting there going well we don't even know if we're going to have you for next

season and so how do we deal with this at the draft and at free agency do we need a replacement for you or do we not need a replacement for you I would say it's a similar storyline with jake genzel it's weird because free agency doesn't open till july 1st but in a way the canucks need to know before july 1st whether or not they're going to get jake genzel because this is the hierarchy thing that we're talking about you got to get heronic done that was maybe job number one certainly Certainly on the blue line, it was job number one, and then you fill out the rest as best you can. Up front, what's the number one goal? The number one goal is to bring in a difference maker, another difference maker in the top six,

possibly a winger, to play with Petey. Meanwhile, they've got all these other unrestricted free agents, some of whom they want to keep, and they don't want to run out of time. Conroy talking about how the reason that they made the Markstrom deal was because they were getting deadlines and timelines put on them from other clubs where they were like, okay, we need to do this now because I mean, look at the calendar a week today. It's round one of the NFL,

the NHL draft. Yeah. Right. Like it's, it's happening. The awards are next week. The draft is next week. July one free agency is 11 days away.

So all this stuff needs to happen now. Teams are done waiting for the Stanley Cup final to end. They're just making their moves. We saw Pierre-Luc Dubois and Jacob Markstrom get traded yesterday. We saw the Philip Hironik deal go down the day before. So there's a time crunch that has hit the point where they just can't wait anymore. And there are reports of some of the Canucks unrestricted free agents getting a little bit antsy, right? Like, are we going to talk contract or not?

Because then I might have to have a conversation with my family about moving somewhere else. We want to be here. They can't talk contract until they land Gensel. Well, that's the thing, right? That's the thing. Sat on Gensel on Halford & Brough. This is the source.

He was on the Halford and Brough show yesterday saying... I've heard good things about that show. Yeah, when you ask people outside of Vancouver, there is a belief Vancouver is currently the favorite to land in. That doesn't mean they're going to get him. Another team could swoop in with more money, but Vancouver is, at this point, I'm paraphrasing, the frontrunner. I'm just glad we're having

nice weather for Jake Gensel's visit to Vancouver to look at houses, according to Canucks Twitter. Unconfirmed source here, but it is into the dumb bar lumber text message in basket i saw jake genzel arguing for extra burrito sauce at sal y limon which is a great local talk taqueria sources trust me bro oh man i love that i love that he's showing some he's showing some uh compete level there yeah and he's not going he's not going to like a chain restaurant or fast food place. He's going right. And I don't want someone...

One of the more underrated Mexican cantinas in the city. And I don't want someone who would just accept being unhappy with a small amount of burrito sauce. No. I want someone who goes out there

and says, no. You got to go all in. And you got to go get it. Yeah. Right? It's like the four check. Yeah, you got to want that burrito sauce.

Where's my burrito? You know what? Where's my burrito? You got to... It's got to go get it, right? It's like the four check. Yeah, you got to want that burrito sauce. Where's my burrito? You know what? Where's my burrito? It's got to be more than wanting the burrito sauce. There has to be an action part of it. So you could sit there and want burrito sauce, but the key is to actually ask for it. How have we seen something on the TV?

Oh, my. This is what happens when there's life sports on the show. What we just have to call Thomas Grant's erotica. Thomas Grant's erotica. Course. Thomas Grant's erotica. Coursing. Thomas. Trans.

Erotica. Expecting goals. Thomas. Trans. Erotica. Top. Bottom. Thomas.

Trans. Erotica. Regression. Thomas. Trans. Erotica. PDO. Thomas. Trans. 802 on a Thursday. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour three of the program. Thomas Drance is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour three. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound.

Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sorfy, what are you waiting for? Kintec. Nice save. You're drinking some coffee, drinking some water?

Yeah. Kintec. A little peppermint tea. We are going to chat with Thomas Drance in just a few minutes, and we'll ask him if he's seen jake genzel around town uh a lot of funny texts coming into the dunbar lumber text line um one unsigned i was driving to work and i saw genzel yelling at a cyclist he was in a lulu sweater and an arcteryx hat yeah i saw him uh at uh at yoga oh okay he's already he's already doing yoga.

I saw him in a, oh, he was exiting one cannabis shop and walking across the street into another one. That's how I'm doing that. That's how I'm lining up for a breakfast restaurant. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. No, no, no, not breakfast restaurant. Brunch. He was at the line of a jam cafe for seven hours. I was like,

this city's amazing. This better be good. So I want to hear from all the listeners into the Dunbar Lumber text line, 650-650, Dunbar Lumber with three stores to serve you in Ladner on Bridge Street, Dunbar Lumber Express at Ladner Center, or be with us in Vancouver online at DunbarLumber.com.

Where have you seen Jake Gensel around Vancouver, as he obviously prepares to get a big contract with the Vancouver Canucks? I was at Garf's in Whistler, and I saw Jake Gensel also drinking a Fat Tug IPA. We can do all of the Z-Buzz. Oh, he went to Whistler, too? He made it up there for the day. Oh, good.

And we went to Garf's. Does Garf's still exist? I don't know, man. It's been a long time since I've been there. I was just there. Yeah. You were just there? Not at Garf's.

Not at Garf's. I walked by it. Did you bring your daughter? Like, what? I walked by it. Oh, you walked by it. I watched Garf's. You know what I watched at Garf's. I walked by it. Did you bring your daughter? I walked by it. Oh, you walked by it. I watched Garf's. You know what I watched

at Garf's? No. The 1998 Nagano Olympics. Really? I saw Canada get eliminated by Dominic Hasek. That place has been around for a while.

What were the ones that there was Garf's, there was Buffalo Bills, Cheetahs. Oh, Cheetahs. Cheetahs. Cheetahs is good times. Cheetahs is good times. All right, we got to get to dance. Oh, Cheetahs. Cheetahs. Cheetahs is good. Cheetahs is good.

All right, we got to get to Trance. Oh, yeah. Please expand on this. Thomas Trance from the Athletic Vancouver in Canuckstock here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Thomas. How are you? Yeah, I think bonus points awarded if he's doing something

that sets him up to be in Vancouver, right? There's more value in being at the Blundstone store, carrying shoes out for the whole family, boots out for the whole family. Someone takes it in. Vancouver, right? Like there's more value in being at like the Blundstone store, carrying like shoes out for the whole family boots out for the whole family. Someone takes it in. I saw him with Vessi's on. Yeah. Yeah. That's what you want to see. Right. So it's like being at Garf's that's good. Being at like, um, Longhorns, you know what I mean? Celebrating with the water gun bottles of champagne. Like that's better. Right. That's, that's really where you want to see him if he makes it up to Whistler. This is good.

The bit is going strong in the dump truck. There's some very good tech right now. Drancer, if the Canucks do have their sights set on Jake Gensel, in all seriousness, could you see them working out a sign-in trade with the carolina hurricane so they can get him in the door and get him locked up before the draft before free agency and then they'd have jake genzel they'd have haronic and then they could build around that and determine which of their pending unrestricted free agents they want to keep all like before july 1st where so it

doesn't have to be such a a mad dash where anything could happen and they could potentially you know run out of time sure i mean look i i think the the cost of acquiring a guy's rights is relatively affordable but the canucks don't have much capital right i mean there when when if you trade a fourth or a third for Jake Kensel's rights and you're Vancouver, well, now you might not be picking in the top 100, right? Now you're picking once in the top 120. So that is a little steep and it's something to consider, right? You have to be considerate of the club's overall circumstance.

I still think if you're getting Jake Kensel, given just all the win-now momentum of panoply of this team's moves to this point, I think it's worth it. I think you'd do it. But, you know, we'll see. It's going to be an interesting one to watch. I think it's worth it. Honestly, at the end of the day, these picks are low leverage enough. The cost of getting a guy's rights tends to be a third or a fourth

if they're an elite player, I would, I would have zero problem with the Canucks going out and securing their guy early. If that was possible, if that was attainable, you know, will Carolina,

would Carolina consider that or would Carolina prefer the time to keep pitching? Right. Cause that's the other thing. A lot of these are hard reads, right? There's a lot of situations like A lot of these are hard reads, right? There's a lot of situations. Like, think about it from a Canucks perspective and just change the name to Dakota Joshua, right?

So not an elite player, but a guy that, you know, is going to be pricey. The Canucks know he's going to be pricey. The Canucks would love to keep him. He would love to stay, but he needs to get paid. He's only earned $1.5 million in his career. This is his big shot. There's a lot of analogies there to Jake Gensel, albeit on a lesser scale, right? You're looking probably more at like five times four, as opposed to seven times nine plus million. But, and Gensel's made like 30 million, but nonetheless, he's now 30. Like this is a vital

contract for him to set himself and his family up for generations. Right. So I do still think there's analogies there. And, you know, one thing that I think the Canucks have to weigh with Joshua, with Zdorov, is I do think there's eagerness on the part of both players to stay. Right. And so even though they haven't hit the price point where the player is willing to, you know, cut them a discount versus what the market will bear. Like, what's the value of what's the value of making sure to, like, pay to see the river card?

Right. To like get to the 11th hour on June 30th and hope that the player is just like, oh, man, you know what? I love it here. And I think we're going to win here, and I want to stay. Right? That's kind of what you're paying Carolina to give up. Would Carolina value that? That, to me, is sort of an interesting question. It's been reported that they're at least open to it or have had conversations with teams. So maybe.

But, you know, I also think they're certainly a team that would like to keep themselves and so we'll see how this one unfolds it does i mean if it gets to july first and jake cancel hasn't signed that does complicate things though doesn't it i mean in terms of getting to hear what the offers are well i mean what if he hasn't signed you really want to sign him meanwhile and c is like well i'm not going to wait around i'm going In terms of getting to hear what the offers are? Well, I mean, what if he hasn't signed? You really want to sign him. Meanwhile, Nancy is like, well, I'm not going to wait around. I'm going to sign with someone else.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that is the thing. That is the risky way. And, you know, my understanding is looking at unrestricted free agency as it stands today, looking at the players bound for market, and this can change in a heartbeat right we could have a rush of announcements of like teravine and signs and you know xyz name comes off the market my understanding is the canucks are looking at a few names with with interest on the unrestricted free agent market so um you know and i'm sure they're not the only team in the market for scoring forward that, that likes some of the names of the, you know, top end of this free agent winger market. Right.

And nice to nice to be needing a winger and not a center as we saw with the Washington capitals taking a giant swing on Dubois. Right. Honestly, as we saw with the Sharks taking the good Rose contract off waivers. Right. I mean, I'm telling you right now, like, me and Jamie had this debate, but if Gaudreau can move and you can move the Dubois liability, why can't you move McKay? Well, because he's a winger and there's lots of options. Yeah.

And there's no options at center. So, you know, nice to be needing a winger. The Canucks will have options on July 1. I think there's some they like. Like, I think there's some names that they like as it stands today. If the market were opening in 12 hours, I think the Canucks would be pretty excited about it. We'll see how many of those names actually last.

I do buy that Gensel would be the top priority among them, but, you know, I think there's a few names that are intriguing from a Canucks perspective here. What was the contract, potential contract you threw out for Jake Gensel? Yesterday? No, just now. Seven by nine? Is that what it was?

Seven by nine plus. I mean, I would be, I would say, I would say, don't be shocked if this guy costs 10 million, right? Like if he hits the open market, don't, don't be shocked by seven times 10. How comfortable would you be if the Canucks got him for that I think anything under 11 you should be fist pumping as a Canucks fan okay why is that because you know we we because he rocks what right okay all right well that's awesome but we lived in a world like I know the answer to this I'm just asking you the question we lived in a world for for for a few years where it was kind of like oh i don't know if the canucks should be committing that type of term to a player who's almost 30 years old yeah yeah no for sure and

and well densel to me is a little bit of a different case because um you know like he's what a year 18 months younger than JT Miller, right? But JT Miller's played almost 300 more games, right? Like his track record is far shallower than your average 30-year-old player. So that to me is part of what you're looking for or looking at in terms of judging that risk. Here's the other one, man. You include the playoffs. This guy scored at 100-point pace after he was acquired by the Carolina Hurricanes,

which is a team for which, you know, offense goes to die. I mean, look, I just think that this is a really unique opportunity. I think there's only really two guys on the open market who are, you know, genuine like star scoring wingers, genuine top of the lineup pieces. And I think that's true across positions, right?

Like, I mean, you can sell me on Brett Pesci as a, as a top pair defenseman. Sure. But he's not like a one, a defenseman, right?

Gensel, I think can be the best winger on a on a stanley cup winning team like i think gentil would give vancouver their answer to randon um you know and company kachak blah blah like i think he's that level of star player um that to me changes the equation especially when it comes with no acquisition cost aside from the cap commitment and then the other part is that look look, this team won 50 games, right? They've won, they won 50 games. They won the division. They pushed the Oilers to game seven,

even if I think their performance in game six and seven left very little doubt about the space still to travel. If you're going to catch up to the team with McDavid and dry cycle on it, you know, the, that, that changes things a little bit, right? You're now looking at a team that won a lot of games, that has their core locked up, that, you know, had a fair bit of success last season, and now has, you know, Hironic locked up.

They're 34 as of this week. JT Miller turns 31 next season. The OEL buyout's about to expand. Demko's got two years left on on a relatively valuable deal especially i mean if he can stay healthy it's a slam dunk right and then besser uh and then sorry um quinn hughes you know a seven seven and a half million dollar like a 7.8 that's that's pretty sweet right and you've got three years left on that. Well, I kind of think this Demco-Hughes window is important, is vital. I think this organization has navigated itself to a relatively narrow path,

but a realistic one where I think you want to strike while the iron is hot. I don't think you want to look at this now and think about this team as being like a long window contender necessarily. I think you kind of got to look at this as a mid window team, like a team that probably needs to be pretty aggressive here and actually can throw a little bit of caution to the wind, especially in pursuit, right? Like I would feel very differently if we were talking about, you know, Anthony Mantha's contract or honestly, Tyler Toffoli's contract or Tebow Teravainen's contract.

But I think for, you know, a Gensel or a Marchessault level player, right? Like a real star level top line winger, you know, one of the 30 best goal scorers or point producers in the league five on five. I, you know, I think you can now March. So it's 34. So seven years and probably feel a little differently, but like the point being, you know, if you sign Marshall,

so through his age 38 season, if you sign Gensel through his age 38 season, I think we should look at that a little bit differently than we would have 18 months ago, just because of the circumstances, how they've evolved and where this team's now positioned. Yeah, that's kind of what I was getting at. If the Canucks sign Gensel and they fill out the rest of their roster,

you know, appropriately, where do you put them in terms of their Stanley Cup chances? Would you include them in a list of like you know I know you love your tears rankings on on the athletics so where would they be in terms of Stanley Cup contenders I mean I think it would be a big hit like it would be a big hit um I think they'd probably sneak into the top 10 you know I think I think right now you'd probably position themselves I think Vegas has been positioned 12 I. I think they're 20-1. At least when the outright markets opened for the 2025 Stanley Cup to win outright futures market, they were 12th or 13th, 20-1.

They had lower odds than the LA Kings, lower odds than Vegas for sure, kind of in and around the same tier as the Winnipeg Jets. Like that was kind of how they were priced by the futures markets. And I mean, I think that's a good way of looking at it, right? Because that's a market set by sharp handicappers and adjusted by, you know, people with real skin in the game, people actually, you know, throwing money at the problem. So, you know, that seems about right to me.

Look, we're talking about a team with a fair bit of contradictory evidence in terms of their quality for next season, right? On the one hand, their five-on-five game leveled up so significantly as the season went along that I think there's real cause to be excited about the sustainability of what we saw last year, especially defensively. On the other hand, they are losing a lot of key contributors, especially like size contributors, players that really contributed a lot to the identity that this team was able to forge as sort of a defensive unit um and obviously we know that they shot

this historic rate um five on five right like they were one of the most efficient finishing teams we've ever seen now finishing is up around the league right like why is why like think about how mcdavid is having the most nba superstar nhl stanley Cup playoffs that we've seen in like 30 years, right? Like this is like literally the classic best player in the league drags team that's not as good or deep as some of their opponents to the Stanley Cup final, right? This isn't, and that's only possible in a league where, you know, instead of teams shooting seven and a half percent, they're shooting and sustaining like 10 and a half percent. So that's context.

But we know that what we saw from the Canucks in the first five months of the year of the season last year, like wasn't sustainable, didn't reflect their true ability to score. Right. And we know that because they were a below average offensive team from, you know, the all-star break on. And it didn't look pretty right like their their offensive uh generation fell off a cliff once they were game plan playoffs i mean they were either blowing up stewart skinner who was having an absolutely like chernobyl level

meltdown early on in that series i think the oilers actually have the lowest save percentage to ever win a playoff series at 866 in that series against the Vancouver Canucks. Right. I mean, so it's like their shooting percentage actually returned more, more than anything though. It's just, you can't rely on that.

You need to be able to generate. That to me is like a big red light flashing indicator suggesting that this team's going to be hard pressed to be as good as they were last season. And if you are able to add a guy like right just a sick goal scorer like a genuine you know high-end top uh first line goal scorer but also a guy who can generate as a playmaker like a dual threat player also a play driver really good through the neutral zone uh really good playmaker really really good at like setting up his teammates really good at creating an offensive environment

where you're more likely to score than not. I mean, that's the sort of thing that I think really makes that red light indicator something more like a yellow light. They're still probably not going to shoot 13% next season, but Gensel gives them an opportunity to make that up in volume, to make this team a genuine threat to outscore opponents, even when it becomes the postseason and space is eliminated and you have to be able to generate just enough volume

so that you don't sustain the sort of fate that we saw. The Dallas Stars sustained against Edmonton and the Rangers against Florida and Vancouver against Edmonton where it just looks like you're lost, like you need to bounce or you're just not going to score. Yeah, you're through two periods and we got seven shots. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.