Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 6/22/26

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, plus they discuss the latest Canucks news ahead of Friday's Entry Draft with NHL.com & In Goal Magazine's Kevin Woodley.  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. It's with my salad. Donna-da-da-da-da-da-ha-be-so-go. I feel like I've answered this hundreds of times that I have been fully committed to this team, to the city, and it's just becoming a distraction, frustrating to deal with. The lie detected determined that was a lot of. Lock.

Look, up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. Empson, the cock, the cock and the Emmy guy. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halford and his brow. It is SportsNet 650.

We are coming live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adon, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddy is out. Regular Zach is in the chair. Good morning, regular Zach.

Good morning. Halford and Brought for the morning is brought to you by Sand. and Associates. Are you drowning in tax debt? If you are, Sands and Associates can often reduce your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour 1 is brought to 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, Jason. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We're coming to live from the Kintech Studios. Step strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. If you want to text in to the show today. Lots to text about the Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650, trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them

at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. Okay, got a lot to get into, including the morning guest list. It's the Duk Morning Drive, brought to by the Dukh Auto Group. It begins at 630 this morning. Nick Miller is going to join the program. World Cup Reporter from the Athletic Eventful weekend

at the World Cup. A couple of shock results over the weekend. First three teams eliminated. Also, another tremendous atmosphere and sellout at BC place last night for Egypt's first ever World Cup win. Nick Miller from the Athletic will join us to talk World Cup at 630. 7 o'clock Alex Adams, Senator's beat writer from the athletic, bombshell trade yesterday in the National Hockey League. As many of you already know, Florida Panthers acquired Brady Kachuk from Ottawa in exchange for a bounty of draft picks. We'll break down the biggest trade of the offseason so far. And what's next for the Ottawa senators with Alex Adams at 7 o'clock this morning?

7.30, Kevin Woodley, NHL.com and Ingole magazine. With Brady Kachuk now traded, Dylan Larkins already requested his. When does Connor Hellebuck get dealt from Winnipeg? We can ask Kev that and more, our goalie guru at 7.30 this morning. Finally, at 8 o'clock, Ryan Kennedy, editor-in-chief of the hockey news, longtime draft prospect expert is going to join us. It is NHL draft week. We will look ahead to Friday where remember the Kinnocks have two first round picks to make again for now.

They could even get more. Ryan Kennedy from the hockey news will join us at 8 a.m. We got a big show. We got so much to talk about and so much to get into. Without further ado, Zach, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? What happened is brought to you by our good friends at ATS Traffic. Start with a career path in traffic safety, receive competitive wages and training at one of Canada's best managed companies. Visit them online at ATSTraffic.com. You know, for everything that's going on, there's no other place to start than what happened yesterday afternoon.

Out of nowhere, but also not out of nowhere. Brady Kachuk screwed over our World Cup talk. You know, I thought we were going to come in and talk about Cabo Verde and Uruguay. No, the Cachuk brothers said, not on our watch. The Ottawa Senators. We don't like soccer. They traded. They traded their captain.

Brady Cachuk to the Florida Panthers, a trade, which includes Ottawa landing both of Florida's first round picks at this Friday's draft, the number nine and the number 25, which Florida got from Seattle, as well as a 2029 first rounder, top 10 protected, and a 2027 second round pick. So the total again, three first rounders going to Ottawa along with the second in exchange for their former captain Brady Kachuk who now joins his brother Matthew in Florida. And he joins a bunch of other American players who have asked out and there's probably going to be more. Now, Elliot Friedman reports that Brady Kichick suggested in his exit meetings that he wouldn't be signing long term with the franchise. That sounds familiar.

He has two years left on his deal before he's an unrestricted. free agent. So with two years left on his deal, instead of signing a bunch of his American friends in a Hail Mary attempt to make him change his mind, and promoting the assistant coach to head coach because the guy likes him. The send just said, screw it, we'll deal with this now.

And Frege writes that eventually this was going to get out and become an even more uncontrollable distraction. It's painful in the moment, but no doubt Ottawa, which is trying to continue, intend will use these picks to try and immediately improve itself. There is definitely word out of Ottawa that everything Ottawa has in terms of futures is on the table in order to try and not only replace Brady Kachuk, but remember, they were, you know, they were kind of tapped out as a mid-level.

They were going to try and improve this off-season anyway. Now they're going to have to both replace Brady Kachuk and try and improve what they needed to. they're going to be able to do it but uh they're going to try and uh steyos said in the press release he said this was not a decision we took lightly lightly but ultimately we did what we felt was best for the long-term future of our hockey club we now possess cap space and draft capital and we'll be actively working to improve our roster so a lot of people will say and rightly so that this reminds me it reminds them of the quininews situation oh why would they say that jason okay that wasn't my point my point is

is that it actually reminds me of another player from the Vancouver Canucks. He was American. He was a really good player. And his name was Ryan Kessler. And he also lied, to put it mildly. And it came in the wake of the Olympics. And there were all sorts of reports. And this was the 2004 Sochi Olympics.

All sorts of reports that Ryan Kessler was telling everyone that he wanted out of Vancouver that he wanted to be traded that he was done in Vancouver and then uh you know Ryan Kessler would say like no that's not true people make stuff up all the time or whatever and then uh lo and behold not too long after that he was traded to Anheim and um I think the one thing I will say about Quinn Hughes is he never lied he just it's a good point he just kicked the can down the road and I think that was a real tell by the way that he wasn't going to sign and he didn't really have a

he didn't want a future in Vancouver he would say things like I'm really proud of being the captain in Vancouver but there was no commitment and And that wasn't a lie There was no fake To my memory at least There was there was there was no fake like outrage At the trade rumors like

This is you know like The media and the fans are always Making things up In fact why don't why don't we just play the audio This is from this is from the This is from the This are from April. So this is after.

It's almost exactly two months ago. After the senators were eliminated in four games by the Carolina Hurricanes, who went on to win the Stanley Cup cup. And this is Brady Kuchuk talking about, you know, the rumors around his name. Since the series ended, is that a discussion you plan to have with Steve Stales this summer? Well, I mean, of course, I wasn't here for, you know, everybody's meetings and the other day, and so I haven't had the chance

to talk to Steve, but I mean, I feel like I've answered this hundreds of times that none of that, I feel like I've never shown. I've never said none of those things ever came out of my mouth, and quite honestly, it's just getting frustrating. It's becoming a distraction, and, uh, because I've, I have been fully committed to this team, to the city.

and it's just becoming a distraction, frustrating to deal with. So we now turn our attention to interim producer, Zach Clark, who came in this morning, resplendent in his Ottawa Senator's jacket, a diehard Ottawa Senators fan. Oh, yes. The timing could not be any better. The timing could not be any better for your inclusion into the show. I don't know if this was the God's blessing us to get one of the eight Ottawa Senators fans in the city

right here on the program, but I got to ask you, When you heard this news come down yesterday, what was your immediate response? It's been a long time coming, honestly. Like, I think it's one of those things where after the playoff run, the body language, he's not seemed like he wanted to actually be the leader of the franchise. If you're a captain, that is how you conduct yourself both on and off the ice. And I think the reporting coming out that players in the locker room were pushing for this to get done doesn't shock me whatsoever. I think that he is much better suited to be the sixth best play.

on a team than he is one of the actual best players on a team. Now correct me, hold on, hold I, correct me if I'm wrong here, Zach, but it feels like Zach and maybe some other Ottawa Senators fans, maybe a tad upset with the former captain. Like on a scale of 1 to 10, how pissed are you of Brady Kachuk? I think pretty. I don't think it's quite

you know, John Tavares level, but I think that he will get a very poor welcome back to the CTC, something like Brad Marshon coming back to Rogers. It's you quit on the team. You were the captain, you were supposed to be the leader, and you walked out when the time, when the time got tough because you weren't good enough. So is the number

you're pissed to higher than Brady could Chuck and count to? Well, and by that I mean like a six or a seven? Yeah, something like that for sure. So Sends Central reports and I don't know who these guys are but says, I'm doing

some digging and players felt like Brady was a completely different teammate after the Olympics. Never hanging out off ice checked out vibes. And then Sends Central added, good ridden. And then they added. Now that, now that reminds me of Quinn Hughes.

Not all of it, but there were times, certainly as a fan, watching Quinn Hughes on the ice in Vancouver earlier this season. I was like, yeah, this guy's, this guy's checked out. You correctly mentioned it several times. And then people were like, oh, now you're a body language expert. and I would respond, yes, I've been a human being for 50 years and I've picked up a few things. Well, did you see the, I'm sorry, Renaud, Renaud, I've got it in front of me. Yeah. If you don't want to continue to butcher every part of this.

Do it. Renaud. I'm sorry. Keep going, buddy. It's me. It's me. At least it's not Renaud Nguerneux. Renauds from TVA writes, for the senators to trade Brady Kachuk, it means they are under

pressure to do so. I'm told this pressure was also coming from the team's locker room. This strongly explains why they agreed to trade him to a team in his own division. Brady could try, Brady Kachuk will have been a controversial captain in Ottawa and the big losers on this day are the New York Rangers who dreamed of getting their hands on him. Well, also told, I mean, another way of wording it, told by multiple sources the dressing room was not pushing for Brady to stay. That means they translated, they did not like him. well i think if you've got and the goal tending what was his name the all mark

olmark that was a big you're you're really helping out tonight yeah i am a reporter why don't why don't you just turn your mic off for that's what that's what was part of it so so who's next among the american players i mean dylan larkin he's not asking out of a canadian market but he's asking to go to at least somewhere with one of his american teammates Detroit is, however, one of the more Canadian American markets. That's true. He's like, it's pretty close to Canada. It's got this bridge that's like, geographically as possible.

It's a hop, skip and a jump. All the Buffalo guys are like, I got to get out of here. Connor Hellebuck in Winnipeg. What a surprise that he comes back from the Olympics and, wow, was he good over there? And he's the main reason that they won the gold medal, certainly the gold medal game. And then all of a sudden it sounds like, you know, all of a sudden he has that. press conference at the end of the season. It's like, what's going on?

That was bizarre. And then I, you know, I don't know about the future of Austin Matthews in Toronto, but... No, and I'm getting a clear picture of it. I'll tell you that. Well, who knows? I mean, he, you know, not everyone, just because they're American, doesn't mean that they're going to want out, but, you know,

he's a guy that I think people are going to wonder about more and more now. And with, The draft coming up on Friday, it's not a particularly strong draft for Americans, but there are a couple players expected to go in the top 10, Chase Reed, the defensiveman being one of them. And it will be interesting to see if any of the Canadian teams drafted an American in the first round on Friday. I mean, this is, I know you're going to talk about player empowerment, and there is definitely an element of that, right?

players are taking control of their future. But this one has a specific slant to it. This is American players who, for whatever reason, and there could be multiple reasons, don't want to play in Canada. And it is very, very clear to me that something happened over in Italy. They all got together and were like, yeah, let's do this. We can run the league.

I think that's what they said. Let's have a movement. here and it's not good for Canadian teams because you know what's not happening? Canadian players in the United States going, oh yeah, well, I'm going back to Canada.

I love the cold in high taxes. Well, the hope is that one day, some might. Particularly ones playing in, I don't know, Chicago and San Jose, for example, would maybe return home one day. But we can talk about that later because that's further down the road. You got to remember too, though. The only

reason I say we need to look at this, as a full-bodied exercise and not just focus on the American part of it, although it's hard not to right now. It's like Mitch Martyr left, right? Mitch Martner left a Canadian team to go to an American market where you had all the advantages

as his American counterparts playing in a tax-free state, playing in a warm climate, not having the media scrutiny, and they got to the Stanley Cup final and had they won it, Mitch probably would have been the cons might the winner.

However, you're absolutely bang on right is that one of the conversations right now is going to be, be the American factor. Remember at the draft a few years ago, maybe close to 10 years ago now, when the Russian factor really reared its ugly head and everyone was not too sure about drafting Russian players because of, you know, the dicey contractual situations with their KHL clubs and when they were going to come over and you couldn't oversee their development after their draft year because they were playing in the K. All these things play in it, you know, eventually it's the sort

of course corrected itself. But if you're looking at it. it now. You have to take into serious consideration if you want to have that type of capital, draft capital, invested in a guy that might not be interested in playing for you long term. And I know it's hard to ask a 17 or 18 year old kid what they're going to do the first time

restricted free agency rolls around because they're all excited to get drafted. But you need to have that conversation internally as an NHL club right now in Canada. Can I just say something that might be a little bit controversial? Yeah, of course. I don't blame these guys. I'm not talking about their thinking. I'm just saying like, you've got one career.

Go play where you want. Go do what you want. I don't blame Quinn Hughes for leaving one bit. Now, am I going to push back on people that call them a quitter or a bad captain? No, they're just being fans. They're fans of the Vancouver Canucks. See, this is the right way to look at it. They're fans of the Vancouver Canucks, but, but, you know, I, I would have,

left if I was Quinn Hughes. I would have. The team was a disaster. Like, I would have been like, get me out of here. I don't want to sign up for five year rebuilds. This is a dysfunctional franchise. I have one career. I have one life. I want to go win the Stanley Cup.

I'm not going to sacrifice my career for an organization that doesn't deserve it. Okay? I just, I don't, I don't blame them. And I've, you know, how many people, how many people are,

I've also said like McDavid's got to get out of Edmonton, you know? Like, I'm sure Canucks fans have said that. Yep. You're not going to win in Edmonton or whatever, just to make fun of Edmonton. You know, I do not blame these guys. And for the Canadian teams, it is a challenge. And it might even seem like an unfair challenge. But there's two ways to respond to this.

number one, you whine and complain about it, or number two, you figure out what areas you might have an advantage in. We can get to that in a sec. And you do a better job of managing your team. And you do everything you can as an organization to make sure your players don't want to leave. And a lot of that starts with build a good team, a winning team. And you can say Ottawa made the playoffs fine. I think Ottawa was doing its best and Brady wanted out.

But, you know, you look at Vancouver and you're like, what more could they do? Everything. Everything. They could do everything, everything better, you know? And if you want to talk about areas where you can say like, where do we have an advantage, throw it out there that you want players that want the pressure, that think pressure is a privilege. did you see the Stanley Cup parade in Carolina

boring it's lame man and I know Raleigh's not like the biggest city in the world and they did their best they won the Stanley Cup I looked at it and I'm like oh look at all the people they're in that parking garage looking on at the parade

yeah it wasn't exactly the Knicks going down in the Hard of Manhattan Is that the dream? Is that the dream to to I mean look am I happy for Taylor Hall? Yeah, yeah. I'm happy. He won a cup.

But like... But the question you're... But who cares? Who cares? You won the Stanley Cup in Carolina? Like, it's like the... It matters to them. It matters to the fine folks of Raleigh.

But, you know, big picture, you know, wow. Who cares? The question you got to ask yourself is, with the modern player and the younger players, are you going to be able to find enough players that are going to embrace that want and that need and get them to come to your city.

Because it doesn't seem... I don't know. I don't know. And that's the great. And now we're talking deep philosophical questions about the modern athlete, the modern player, how they're hardwired. It's only hockey, though. It is... So you just answered your own question.

If it's only hockey. But if it's only hockey, then what does it make a difference if you won a Stanley Cup in Vancouver and Raleigh? If it's only hockey, right? That's maybe the part of the problem. I mean, I don't think they know what it's like. none of these guys were alive the last time

there's another great point too yeah you know like it's been it's been it's been a long time but you know all the players in Vancouver and other Canadian cities have gone to the Stanley Cup final they talk about what the city is like and you and I have flown into cities in the United States where the Stanley Cup final is and we're like can you like you can't tell it's on yeah and you and I are fueled by the memories of 94 and 2011 and what it means right

if someone hasn't gone through that experience, can you share it? Is it a shared experience? Part of the reason why I can, and I know I alluded already to guys like Macklin Sellebrini and Connor Bedard, but I almost wonder if that's going to end up being your pitch

is that you're from here. There's an emotional tie that no other franchise and organization in the NHL can offer you. Is that going to be the equivalent of the American player empowerment era that we're seeing right now? Well, of course.

I'm asking how good it would feel for a Canucks fan to win a cup for his team. But that's a scary thing that that is your draw. And maybe at the end of the day, you're not sure you have that much else to offer except for the fact that you're bringing the kids back home. Can we also throw out the possibility that this is a moment in time

when it comes to American players? We are definitely experiencing a moment. A moment in time. We are definitely experiencing a moment. COVID was treated differently by both countries or each country. there was more freedom in the United States and there was more restrictions in Canada and I'm not getting into that discussion

that's just how it was and there were players in I think in Canada that looked at their friends in the United States and said I wish I was there there is a president in the White House that a lot of Canadians despise and it's not the same as previous presidents and there are a lot of players on that American team,

a lot of Americans who like that president and probably don't love being in a country where that people don't like that president, for the most part. Don't text him and be like, I'm Canadian and I like them. I don't care. I'm just talking about this is possibly a moment of time

where these players didn't feel particularly welcomed in the United States. I think all places are in Canada. Now, I know everyone's going to try, I'm glad you brought that up because I know some people are going to try and zero in on that as the reason, capital T-H-E reason.

And here's what I'm going to tell you. It's not. They're all reasons. There's a lot that goes into this. I think it's way more complex and way more dynamic than one thing that's driving some of these guys. I think if you're going to look at anything, anything, it goes back to what you said before.

Guys are now able to call their shots, willing to call their shots and they're not afraid of whatever collateral damage comes with making a move that's going to better their career. I think there's definitely an individualistic aspect of this where they're saying

I'm not going to take a haircut so we can build a team here. I'm not going to sacrifice years of my career so that I can one day get the fruits of the labor. I want to win. I want to win now. As you said it earlier, I have one career and I'm going to make the most of it

As soon as I can, I'm not going to waste any time. A lot of it's probably money, too, to be honest. I mean, if you want to boil it down to a very simple thing. I mean, you make more money as an athlete in the States than you do in Canada. And these are all these different... But we're not boiling it down to one point. No, I'm just saying, I'm sure that is a factor. I don't think it's number one.

Yeah. I really don't. I don't think it's number one. I don't think money's driving it. I think it's a nice bonus for those guys. But I don't think it's number one. I don't think they want to be in the United States. You're listening to the best of Halford,

and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Hey, how hard are you going to be cheering against Florida this year? Huge. It's great. It's the best thing that's going to possibly happen. Me too. And people can text me and was like, well, you know, they had reason to do it.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The Kachucks are both on that team. They are the perfect villains for this league. They lean into it. They like it. They're going to do it even more together now that they're brothers, you know, they're like, why are you so sweaty?

Like, we made bunk beds, you know, like it's because they had to think too hard. Give me more of a reason. This is fun. This is fun. Give me a reason to further hate the Thumb brothers. I'm like, yeah, this is great. It would be very, very annoying for the team that wins back to back cups, gets bad for one year and then wins a cup the year after that.

It would be the best thing that ever happened to them. I would hate it so much. Gives them a little shot of life. We've talked about this. The league has been very tepid when it comes to hate and rivalry and animosity. What's the last really good

rivalry between two teams that you can remember where two teams genuinely didn't like each other. Yeah. And the fact that one doesn't jump to mind answers the Colorado, Detroit in the 90s. Right. And they're still making documentaries about it to this day. Now, further that, when's the last time that you've had a truly villainous group in the NHL that not only

were cast as villains, but embraced being it? You got two right now. Vegas is going to argue with Florida about, no, we're the real villains. Now, Vegas has had it for a little while, I'd say, but Florida that ratches it up a lot. You know what it would be nice if some of the Canadian players spoke up on our behalf. That's what

the next phase has to be. I would really like to see that. Sure. I don't think they will because they'll be like, no, no, I can get all this hate on my phone. Well, put your phone away. I mean, my biggest concern is that because of the disparity of players from Ontario,

that a bunch of these guys are like, no, screw this. We're going to turn the Leafs into a super team and they all volunteer to go back there, right? Like the worst case scenario here. Worst case Ontario, if you will. Yes, thank you. Is that someone and I'm not sure who but someone decides

that they're going to rally the troops in Toronto. Now in Vancouver. Well, Vancouver with the best case scenario. Celebrini and Bedard. And then McDavid to the leaves. I'm not joking. If the Sedeans and Ryan Johnson, if their long-term plan is to keep the powder dry and clear everything out for

celebrini and Bedard to be here, it would be the most magisterial plan. It would be amazing. Celebrating would be a harder sell, I think. But Badard, I could see. I could see Badard. Well, the Badard next contract is going to be interesting

because he's got to sign it. Chicago doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but at least the Sharks have like kind of an upward trajectory. If Badard signs a bridge or even just a short-term five-year deal, you're like, you're all over it. You're all over. Okay. Yeah.

Interesting. That's the play, though. But if you told little Jason in the 80s, like one day, the most hated teams in the NHL will be the Florida Panthers and the Vegas Golden Knights. Percy would have been like, when did they get teams? Yeah. Little Jason would be very confused at the prospect of hockey down in those places.

And it is very good for the league. Look, do I like the Kitchucks? No. And that's the point. Because that's good for the league. You know, it's very good for the league. And those guys, they like playing the role of villains. Now, Brady sounds like he got his feelings hurt a little bit because it's like,

they don't like my president. I love my president, right? And I'm sure that's one of the reasons. Sure, it's one of the reasons that he wanted out of Ottawa. And listen, it's just the timeline, right? they go and win the Olympic gold, okay, over Canada. The president plays a role after the game. They go to the White House.

Stuff is said everywhere, you know. And then he's like, actually, I want out here. Connor Hellebuck. Similar story in Winnipeg, I think. Right? And you get it. Like, I don't agree with it. but I understand if you don't feel welcome anymore in your city,

then you probably want to leave. Well, Alex Adams made a great point that actually I hadn't even considered. Think of the political landscape of every Canadian city. It's like tenfold in Ottawa. Like that's what that city is, is politics. So imagine you're a U.S.-born player that, you know, agrees with American politics and not so much with the Canadian, and you just happen to be playing in the Canadian capital.

Like, you'll feel it even more than you would in a city. like Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, whatever. It would be ratcheted up. People are saying, I don't think the U.S. players like the fact that Canada booed their national anthem. Neither do I. But you know what we didn't like?

Everyone can fill in the answers, right? Right? Yeah. This isn't a show about that. But it is, it is, it's an interesting thing because I think a lot of us are not just wondering, you know, in a hockey sense. We are wondering when it comes to our relationship

with the United States, is this a moment in time or is this something that in 10, 20 years we're going to look back on and be like we had a little bit of a fight but now pretty good friends again. And we can draft Americans yet again.

Yeah. Just not this year. The Americans will be like, the weather has not changed. It is still very cold. You guys still got taxes up there. All right. Before we go to break,

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$85. That's only $21.25 per ticket. Don't wait. Buy your tickets now at Heroeslottery.com. It's Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Ingoll magazine here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. What up, Woods? I'm at the ferry terminal boys. A little day trip to Victoria, which makes it the perfect day to be in my wife's

white rock Hyundai, which is a plug-in hybrid. It's the best of both worlds, guys. You know, little electricity when you're buzzing around town, and then when you do a road trip, don't think twice. Gas works. It's beautiful. Nicely done, Kev. Hey, I'm going to start putting you, I'm going to grill Kev, right?

I thought I'm going to use your goalie connections from around the National Hockey League. How soon until Connor Hallibuck gets traded out of Winnipeg? Oh, I mean, so it's funny because despite my goalie connections, two people close to Connor, I have no sense of this. in terms of anything but the scuttlebut that's automatically going to arise after the Larkin request and the Kachuk execution. And obviously, you know, people connect that to his choice words

for where the Winnipeg Jets were at at the end of the season. But beyond that, like, I don't know that I've seen any firm reporting. I haven't been able to get anyone from his camp to confirm in or out. Like, there's just radio silence. And so that, honestly, like, I haven't thought too deeply about it because I don't have any information on it, but I understand why everyone is wondering if he's next. But if we take it on its look at it, like, where's he headed?

Like, you know what I mean? Like when we talk about all these destinations in the States that so many of these players are sort of fleeing too, I guess Carolina has a ton of cap space and a bunch of cheap goaltenders, would they be interested? Florida I actually haven't done the cap math since the Kachuk deal like can they pull this off

with Bob coming off the books I mean I just don't know what they can trade They have seven million How many first round picks for a while now They have seven million in cap space Everyone seems to think That they could trade like I guess maybe one of the Finns or Swedes

or maybe Lundell and Verhegey But I don't know if that's what Winnipeg Everybody thought Lundell was going to be a part of the Kachukkutnik too right That was the assumption. I wouldn't trade him. Like are we getting into WHL territory? Were you training for like 20, 35 first draft tracts

and people that haven't been born yet? I don't see it happening with Florida. No, I don't either. So what's a good destination then? Like Camp is the other one. Like they got some guy named Vasileski. You know, Minnesota has two goaltenders. They got a goal in the future in Walsh dead,

who's going to get paid soon. and they already got Philip Gustafson making, I think, six on a pretty good contract. So, those are, you know, Carolina, yes, Carolina could pull it off. But if you look at the way they're built, they're not built around $8.5 million gold change. Right? Like, they just want to cut with three guys. Like, they need to be setting a trend the other way. They mean it be the tip of the spirit towards this concept that you need, that need.

And I don't think it's going to be a league-wide trend, but I think we made some of it. I think we already saw some of it last year. and teams like Buffalo have been making noise that they might continue with this concept of just carrying three. It's certainly something that Connect might have to consider to avoid any risk of losing Nikita Tolapilo, however real or just, you know, however real that threat is, Buffalo, Lini Ruff talks host season about how they liked how it worked

and they'd consider running it back to three. We saw Seattle run with three last year. Like, you know, that's the trend I see Carolina being at the front front of not the let's spend a ton on goal tenting so like the teams that and I could totally be missing it's not like there aren't about 20

somewhat other American teams but you know like those are the ones that typically typically get thrown out and I'm not sure I see a fit like like a big market like New York they got some guy named Chesterkin you know there's it's I just think

like all things goaltending there's just fewer spots and it's a little bit more complicated. And the other thing is, I don't know that you're getting the value back. Like, I mean, this guy's a three-time president trophy winner and a heart trophy winner. And yes, he won the gold medal. But, like, I still think there's a fit element here. Do you think he's having success in Carolina where they don't give up a ton of quantity, but they give up a ton of lateral? Like, and Freddie Anderson went through a season with an 868 expected. Like, when Connor Hellerlubach won that,

Hart Trophy in the Vezna, his expected say percentage was 902. Like, you don't plug that into an 868 expected and think you're going to have the same result. Carolina may not give up quantity, but they give up a lot of quality and the type of quality that has traditionally been a bit of a bucket move for Connor Halebuck, especially in the playoffs. So, like, I don't know that it's the same formulation or slam dunk that it is with other guys. And that's why, to be honest, I haven't dug in as much in terms of.

of sourcing on it because I just I don't think it's as likely as a lot of people are assuming and I'm probably going to eat those words by the end of the week. Okay, let's turn our attention. We'll stick with Florida. What comes next for Sergey Bobrovsky and wake of all the reporting from last week? Don't we just like, I've always felt like he was just going to resign. Now clearly the ask is higher than I think they expected because they're not there yet. But we're, we're just here last year coming up a cup win

and they're going to lose this guy and they're going to lose that guy and they're going to lose all these guys. Like my hunch is he still resigns there. The more interesting one to me is the younger well he's not that young anymore but

Daniel Tarasoff who they brought in as a backup last year. Now his numbers came down at the end of the season in part because they kind of collapsed defensively as a team once they sort of pulled the plug on the year. And maybe somewhat was work great. He hadn't played that much.

And injuries are history for him. Like, he's got a long history of them. But for the first two-thirds of the season, Daniel Tarasoff produced at, you know, like a top 15, top 20 level in the national hockey league. And he's always been a guy who's had a ton of pedigure. I remember in his draft year and watching him at World Juniors, I had people that were, you know, they were telling me at the time, like, this is,

he's a big guy, tons of athleticism, like, this is Teke of Renee with a more refined technical. game. Now, injuries killed him in Columbus, kept him out of the lineup for way too long, and then by the time he finally got healthy, he needed waivers based on age, and then he ended up rotting on their bench because they were too scared to send him down and lose them on waivers because everybody knew the potential. Like, to me, Daniel Tarasov is the number one

targeted unrestricted free agency this year. In an admittedly thin, unrestricted free agent class, he's the number one target. Bob's a unique case. Like, in each of the past three years, including the two cup years and go back to the year they made the final where Alex Lyons started the playoffs. He's been outplayed in the regular season by his backup based on rate stats. He finished 82nd out of 98 goalies this year in terms of his adjusted save percentage. And yet in the playoffs, he turns into Super Bob. So it makes all these super high-end,

high-danger momentum swinging saves. So this is an interesting one. If I'm Florida, like Florida built out an entire goaltending department, like the biggest goaltending department in the league, specifically so that they didn't have to be the team that went out and spent $10 million on a ball. What's Longo do in there anyway? Yeah, so like, let's get

some goalies in there and Dan will tear us off maybe the next one. So that's the one, you know, that's the one I think other teams have an eye on heading into unrestricted free agency and I think there's a lot of teams that again expect the Florida Panthers at the last minute to sort of pull the rug out from under them and sign both of them. So we'll see where it goes. But like in the unrestricted, all the unrestricted three agent goaltenders based on last

season alone, Bob obviously has a pedigree beyond last season alone. But do you know that there are only two goalies that finished last season with an above league average performance, like above expected say percentage? Only two out of the entire UFA class. So the shopping's a little thin. So this is a massive week for the Vancouver Canucks, and yet it's kind of been overshadowed because Vancouver is really caught up in the World Cup,

and then we had this Brady Kachuk trade over the weekend. But the draft is on Friday, and then a few days after that, it's free agency. Do you expect Jake DeBrest to be traded before the first round of the draft? Oh, that's a really good question. And it's one where I will defer to the true insiders in terms of real answers and actual information about how far along something like that might be.

I think when you look at some of the big fish that are being chased around the league and you see the trades that Florida made yesterday with Samaskavich first and getting the draft fix and then moving them on for Kachuk. I think he moves. I don't know if it's before the draft because there are other teams that may, he may be ballback plan for other teams as opposed to primary target. And so, and that said, I guess if you, if you're a team like Ottawa that just stockpiled a bunch of picks, you know, and you just took a chuck off your first unit power play. And obviously, like, if you're acquiring DeBrusk as a middle six forward, but expecting output, you also need to have him a spot for him on your power play because that's where a lot of his scoring, at least here has come.

So, you know, maybe, you know, maybe a draft pick gets it done. I guess I would not be surprised at all if it happens before then just because the likely return includes picks. But like I said, you do get the sense in talking to people that a lot of the teams that are to consider themselves in contention are bigger game hunting right now. Yeah. What did you think of the reports that the Canucks are listening

and maybe motivatedly listening on not only DeBresk, but Elias Pedersen and Brock Besser as well. I mean, I don't think you can be surprised. It's kind of an anything-go's point here, right? Like, those players aren't helping you when you come out of this. You have to pick which ones are going to help you in the midst of it, right? And that's, the Pedersen one is complicated, obviously, because of the money. But given everything we've heard over the past number of years,

even though this new management group and team has come in with a softer touch in terms of the way they're talking about his off-season and what they can do to help him and all those things. The reality is the past conversations existed for a reason. And beyond what he's capable of and questions about a bounceback, if you have to catel-prout a guy to do the work you think should be base-level standard year-to-year in the off-season, then is that a guy that leads him?

culture moving forward. I don't know. I don't know what his off season looks like this year. You know, and I think sometimes because things don't turn out, like it's not like you didn't work hard last year. But, you know, we just keep hearing these questions. And to me, some of these decisions, like, obviously there's a cash and component to it. There's a, these guys don't help you when you're ready to compete again.

So take advantage of them as assets before they depreciate component. but then there's also how do they fit in this culture we're trying to build component and there are a handful of veterans here that you know I think of when I hear Ryan Johnson in the city talking about you know your attitude at 8 a.m. There was a line in the Manning Presser and I think it might I can't remember whether it was manny or Ryan Johnson that delivered it but he talked about how you treat the staff how you treat trainers there's some guys in that room that don't necessarily treat them well or or come in and, you know, you have to, the staff feels like they have to wait to see what kind of a mood they're in before they interact with them, right?

Like those types of things. And so, like I think these decisions, as much of those other components I talked about, these decisions also include consideration of what type of people we're dealing with and whether they fit into what you're trying to build here. Are you caught up in the World Cup, Kev? Do you know what? From an excitement, you can sense it. I haven't been downtown. I'm old and so most of the celebrations

go past my best time but I see it I see it on social media you know it's funny because amidst all this talk about American players leaving Canadian markets like this market

we're on the world stage right now again and everybody's seeing just how it's how fun and gorgeous like it's such a great event town and it always has been and it's showing well again I'm not as much caught up in it but I find the juxtapes

the position of those two things. Sort of interesting. Yes, the hockey players aren't here. You know, in the summer, when it's at its best as I'm about to board a ferry here on a day where, you know, like, you know, half the... It's a gorgeous day to be on the water. I love taking the ferry on a day.

I like this. It's amazing. Yeah, and there's like, you're going to see wildlife, right? Like, whether it's just seals or you happen to run into a pot of work because it's such an incredible city. but the one part, you know, and I thought your answer had a good piece that I read this morning before coming off with you guys, or with you guys about this, but it's not just the city, you need to build the facilities. And I don't mean to make this about that. Like, he talked about Montreal as a world-class organization headed towards winning. And obviously winning is a part of these decisions, that your chances of winning is a part of these decisions.

But again, like, it's funny because the first time I started sort of beefing a little bit about the lack of a practice facility. was after a visit to Montreal with CCM, where we were on the ice with, and this will tell you how long ago it was, like the goalies were included Jaguer, Mark Andre Fleury, and Corey Crawford. And we've done a few of those with Carrie Price where we go back. Like, you see the players and the facilities they have.

I remember Alex Burroughs when he came. I was at a skate at eight rinks last year where Celebrini and Badard were on the ice with the Kaibo group, Justin Rye from the Seattle Cracken Runs that. It's just a great skate. And those two get called out, but there's all kinds of other local pros there. Gage Gonzalez, you know, Alex Tuck when he was in town with his wife was out there for a while. Like, just a great skate.

And Burroughs was there with his son to watch it, just to let his son, and then he got, his son got to meet the two after. And he's like, man, if this was Montreal, like we'd have this with all these visiting players, and our players would stay in Montreal, and they'd be skating. with this group and working with our like to there's some on what skills people you can work with in an off season whether it can be team staff or not

but sort of a facility where everyone to be watching there be tons of public there and all the visiting players are getting a sense of what a great organization you are the Canadians open up those resources to the players who come back to Montreal to use them so that they can see all the

facilities and all the things they have access to if and when they have a chance to become Montreal Canadians and there is real value in those things and players like having them. You know what I mean? So this is the part of a rebuild where I know a lot of us are focused and a lot of the media is focused on sort of salary and that leads the discussion about Besser and Pedersen and are they just trying to get rid of salary and dump salary?

Like to me, the spending needs to be done here and where I worry and let's see long term I'm willing to give it time. You know, I look at Montreal's player development staff and I think it's like the list is like eight or nine deep on their website, skills and player development coach. Some of them are like guest coaches like Mary Phillip Palin who comes to a training camp, but like the commitment to resources on that level needs to be deeper in a rebuild so that you give all these young players the resources to improve and also create an environment in this beautiful city where more players want to be here, whether it's in the summer for a visit

and then stay long term. Right now you have guys like Zach Benz. talking to some of the other skaters last summer, they said he didn't stick around town because there aren't facilities. He goes back east to skate, right? Like, we have this incredible city showing up on the World Cup stage

and everybody sees it. And, you know, like, I think maybe R. Steve Baines and Thacherd M-Corps are the only two conduct players are actually in Vancouver right now. It could be wrong on that, but I don't think it's a deep list. Yeah.

No, it's a rebuild on the ice, and it's very much, hopefully, a rebuild off the ice. Kev, enjoy your ferry route. Enjoy the beautiful weather. Enjoy the island. I'm going to go see, like, what's your breakfast of choice on the ferries? You guys got to give me some recommendations.

I think there's like a breakfast burger, breakfast burger that I get. But I'm not... A little healthier than that. Well, I'm not, that's not my area of expertise. Get a fruit plate or something. There you go, fruit plate. All right.

Black coffee. I'm on it, boys. See you, see, Kee, Kev. Kevin Willie from NHchel.com and Ingle magazine. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Thank you.