Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 6/2/26

Episode Date: June 2, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they discuss the Canucks hiring head coach Manny Malhotra with radio commentator Brendan Batchelor.  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. That feels like for eight years we've been talking about getting this chance. So we're finally here and, you know, obviously we want to make the most of it. Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough.

It is SportsNet 650. We are coming alive from the. the Kintech Studios in beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Are you drowning in tax debt if you are? Sands and associates can often reduce your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest

prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We're coming to live from the Kintech studio. Step strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. If you want to text in to the show today, maybe you've got an opinion. A new head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. The Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650, trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. Guestless today. It's a Duke morning drive brought you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 630. Greg Wasinski, our ESPN, NHL Insider. It's going to join the program.

Tonight, 5 o'clock, everybody, the Stanley Cup final begins. The Vegas Golden Knights are in Carolina to take on the canes in game one. Greg is on the scene in Raleigh, including yesterday's media day to give us all the biggest stories from the cup final. Greg will join at 6.30 this morning. 7 o'clock, Brendan Bachelor, play by play voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on SportsNet 650. The Canucks made it official last night. Mani Malhotra

has been named the 23rd head coach in franchise history. So this transformative offseason now has a near complete overhaul of decision makers in almost all of the highest and most important roles. But what about the analytics

group? But what about the scouting department? No, we'll talk to Batchew. about the hire of Manny Malhotra, maybe who he will fill out of staff with. That's coming up at 7 o'clock. 7.30, Dwayne Vanneau is going to join the program. President of your BC Lions. Big times for the Lions off the field right now. The major meteorites deal that we talked about last week.

Major upgrades to the practice facility in Surrey, Dwayne Vanneau. President of the VC Lions is going to join us at 730. 8 o'clock. Paul Runnels is going to join the program. He is the director of talent and productions. for the upcoming FIFA Fan Fest, Jason. That, of course, we'll begin Friday, June 11th, coincides with the start of the World Cup.

We'll talk to Paul about what to expect from the fan fest. Are there any good tickets available for this thing? How much are they? Paul's going to join us at 8 a.m. for this event that, quite frankly, we don't know a lot about, and we actually talked about, we'll give you a little peek behind the curtain here. Although we've kind of made fun of the fact that the tickets are, wildly expensive to watch a soccer game.

And there's a lot of good tickets still available. We just want to get on more of a fact-finding mission as opposed to, say, last Friday's interview with Rick Dollywall, that was very confrontational. We booked him to get free tickets. Paul, do you have any tickets? Paul, do you have any tickets? Paul, do you have any tickets because I can't afford to go to the fan fest? And failing that, do you have any money I could borrow?

We can ask all these questions at 8 a.m. Okay, we got a lot to get into on the program. Well, don't further ado. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was.

We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? We begin right here in Vancouver at approximately 8 p.m. last night. Another major development in what I mentioned has been a very transformative offseason for the Vancouver Canucks. Another Vancouver Canucks player promoted to a major role of prominence. Mani Mel Hocher becomes the 23rd head coach. franchise history announced by his good bunny good bunny good buddy good bunny good bunny bad bunny bad bunny

way nearly did it buddy wait good buddy Ryan Johnson who made the announcement last night man he's in as the 23rd head coach in franchise history yeah and after relatively little consternation all things considered in this particular hockey market um the Vancouver conucks did get their man yesterday um you think about um how long is It's been since we all knew that the Canucks were targeting in on Malhotra, certainly over a week, maybe almost two weeks. It's funny. Last week, we set Wednesday as the panic deadline for what's going on with Malhotra.

But there was no real panic. Pat yourself on the back. You showed great restraint there. But you know what I think a lot of it was? We didn't have anything else to panic about because no other names leaked. It's true. You know, like it was, we just kept hearing, yeah, they're talking. They're talking to Mani Mahotra.

You might have heard a few like, yeah, they, they've reached out to some like backup guys. But this is a move that's been largely expected since Ryan Johnson was named general manager, along with co-presidents Daniel and Henrik Siddine. And the quote from Ryan Johnson in the press release, Mani and I have been in the battle together before. so I know firsthand what a good teacher, leader, and quality person, and he is. Johnson loves those quotes where it's like, we've bled together, we've been in the battle together. Yeah, it's very descriptive.

Yeah. It's like, yeah, we went, we saw some stuff together. Feels like a guy that watched Bandit Brothers a few times. Yeah. He went on connection, consistency, and putting in place the proper foundation will be key for our group moving forward. We both believe that pressure is a privilege and learning to become a good pro takes patience, dedication, and a be better than yesterday mindset. The Connects first announced the move to season ticket holders in a message that reiterated

the team's newfound focus on connection, community, culture, and consistency. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but basically anything good that's true. starts with a sea. The Canucks are rallying around. I would like to suggest camaraderie. That's a good one. I will also accept

collaboration, communication, creativity, and commitment. Chocolate? Coupon. Chocolate? A coupon?

Camel. You're just coming up with words, though, that start with sea. It has to be... Choir. Quire. A lot of... A lot of people

thinks that starts with a cue. Crow. Okay. Cat. Gotcha. So there are many questions to be asked of Manny when he's introduced later this week. Ryan Johnson, let's move on.

We'll hold a Zoom session for reporters this morning after our show. But when Manny's introduced, and some of these questions will be applicable to Ryan Johnson as well, I would like to know, did he consider? talking to any other teams. Was he allowed to talk to any other teams? Was he always focused on the Vancouver Canucks job? Why did he take the job when there was probably going to be interest elsewhere for his services? And this is his first NHL head coaching job.

It's an important one. How is he going to define success during this rebuild? Because it's not going to be on, you know, making the point. playoffs, certainly next year and probably not the next few. Who will fill out his staff? That's a huge one I want to know. That's a huge one. Because normally when you fill out a staff of a team that's, you know, looking to win,

you're like, okay, we got a forward guy, a defense guy, we got a guy that can run the power play, the PK. Is that the same formula? Or do you do something a little differently in a rebuilding year? Well, based on last year, your assistant coach does a lot of media. obligations too so that's something to consider yeah i mean okay we're not going to get it to that oh we can talk about it was badge every time batch i'm between the benches like kevin who am i talking to today okay does the head coach the all the other head coaches have just done their media obligations

i love the spin too he's like he's trying to empower his other assistants no he's not he's trying to not do media obligations while also empowering his other assistance yeah uh what are uh manny's thoughts on potentially coaching his son. Probably going to get that question. And of course, the obligatory question about Elias Pedersen. Yeah. Everyone gets one of those. It's a weird story to cover in this fashion because it's breaking news and it's fairly

massive news when you consider there's only 32 of these jobs across the National Hockey League. And for the outsiders, when you know, you're reading the sort of non-Vancouver media outlets that have picked up on this. And, you know, they're all celebrating this. this reunion of former Vancouver Canucks players and teammates who are now leading the charge and hoping to drag this organization out of the darkness. But we've been so immersed in it.

And honestly, from the moment that the Cedines and Johnson got named as presidents and general manager, this felt like an inevitability to the point where a lot of the discussions last week, especially here on Sports Night 650 across all of the shows was, when is it going to get done? Yeah. Not is it going to get completed? are they going to be able to push it over the line? It was just a matter of timing.

So there's almost not an awful lot to add to the conversation right now. We're really going to need to hear specifically from Johnson and Malhotra. We've already discussed it so much, right? Like we've had the Caleb and Manny commentary. And, you know, we've heard from the Seneens who have suggested that it's not a big deal. And I think Ryan Johnson has reiterated that. but what we'd really like to hear from and who we'd really like to hear from is manny yeah because Caleb um i don't think he's going to say like i don't want to i don't want to play for my dad he's

just going to say whatever team drafts me that's fine right but it's it's the most the most important guy in all this is manny yep you know and uh you know well here's the thing i don't know what what he's going to say about it. I have no idea. He's going to say it's fine. Yeah. Because that's what the organization's party line is. That's correct, Jason. There's alignment now. Remember that lack of alignment that we've had in previous? If he went up there and said anything other than what the Siddins and Johnson have already said publicly about a Malhotra father's son duo, I'd be shocked. He's like, yeah, not a big fan

actually. Yeah. Don't care for his attitude. If Stenberg's there, I say we take him. Yeah, like he's, you know, I like him. I like him, but he's a reach at three. It'll be, yeah. What are you guys even talking about? It'll be, it'll be. it'll be diplomatic. There may be one of those things where it's like, and you know, we've got to see how the draft unfolds or there's no guarantee that any player will fall to us.

Don't pick him. He doesn't clean his room. Yeah. Don't do it. It's going to be very diplomatic. He says he will, but it never does. It's going to be very much in line with what the organization has already put out there. I'll be, I think filling out his staff is going to be maybe the most important thing. Because for all of the positive attributes that Manny has as a coach,

he's lacking one major thing and it's the experience of being a head coach at the NHL level and you can go a variety of different ways with your staff. Now, bringing in a guy, let's say, that has NHL head coaching experience is great, but it's also that guy that's always there, maybe not necessarily you're deferring to him or that they're looking to him as,

man, he's going to be the head coach full stop. Like there's not going to be any question about his authority, his responsibility, all that. But, and I don't think he's going to be in jeopardy of losing his job anytime soon unless the thing goes totally perished. But there's always a concern of bringing in a guy that's had an elevated role, greater experience, higher profile than you. That said, I think they're going to need to do it.

The, um, it's funny. I, I feel like there's going to be this narrative out there. And maybe it started to be, you know, broken apart a little bit here. But, you know, what was the concern about Ryan Johnson, according to some, people in the organization. It was that he wasn't, you know, a killer enough to be a general manager.

And people have always thought the Seneans, oh, they're too nice. You know, Mani Mahhotra might fall under that too. I'm going to be really curious to see what kind of coach he is. Because I think,

you know, he, by all accounts, he does get to know his players. And he does realize that every player is unique and he tries to tailor his coaching to that. but I want to read a quote that Drance included in his

it was a quick article last night that he wrote about Kinnock's hiring Manny Mahotra and he got a quote from Manny after Abbotsford won the Calder Cup and Mahocha said the biggest thing I've learned coaching wise is that as a coach we ask guys to do certain things

or to play a certain way. You can demand it. You can ask it. Ultimately, however, it's the player's decision about whether they want to do it or not. It's that understanding that we can ask players whatever we want, but until they're committed or to use the cliche term, bought in, nothing can really happen. I'm just really curious to see how patient this group is with it's going to be with certain players.

Yeah, I think they're going to need to get everyone on board. And if everyone isn't on board, okay, what do you do that? So that's, I'm glad you brought that up. I had heard anecdotally that during that Calder Cup championship season in Abbotsford, there were a number of times where players were either demoted down the lineup, had their ice time reduced, or dropped from the lineup entirely, without it being publicly disclosed as a disciplinary issue.

And that they had certain standards that if you did not meet, there was going to be a response from the head coach swiftly. And it was going to be made very clear to you, the player, why you're like why is my ice time reduced why am I being scraged you know there's times where it's like why is this guy suddenly not in the lineup yeah i mean again this is all sort of like not specific told to me in confidence but you know the anecdote's been passed around enough and it's not like a damning anecdote or anything like that it's just the way that they went about their business is they had very clear very clear sets of guidelines about what what constituted professionalism for them

Do you remember we have Manny on the show prior to the start of training camp that year? And he talked about the right attitudes he wanted to see from players in training camp. And I said, okay, well, what does that actually look like? I distinctly remember, I think I've used this as like a coaching tool later.

He talked about Atu Ratu that when they would introduce a drill, Ratu would always jump to the front of the line right afterwards. And he was unafraid of maybe like screwing up the fine details of it or like, you know, the first time you run through a drill.

Sure. You haven't done it before. Maybe you don't want to look like an idiot or you want someone else to take the lead. He said, man, he said, I really appreciated that for two reasons. One, it showed an initiative and then he wanted to jump in and he was energized and ready to go. But the other one was he was ready to show us that he could take instruction and execute it right away. And he didn't need to be shown two or two or three times.

And he said, you know. It'd be funny if that was the case, though. Right. He's like, and then he screwed it up five times in a row. He just constantly screwed it up. He really, he really dragged our practices out. And we had to bench him for two games afterwards, but we liked his gusto. No, like, so when, when Mani relayed that to us, I was thinking like, here's a guy

that knows exactly what he wants to see from his players in terms of attitude and how they approach the job. And, you know, sometimes it can be really nebulous. Like, telling a guy to be prepared is one thing. but then showing him exactly what it looks like to be prepared. That's when guys have a light bulb moment, right? Here's a question for you. Yeah.

How different is it to hold players accountable in the HL compared to the NHL? Dramatically. Dramatically, because there's way more eyeballs on you, full stop. Well, isn't it also like, if you want to sit a guy in the HL, you just sit a guy in the HL? And there's no one making, like, I don't know, just to pull a number out of the air, $11.6 million.

on your team. Yeah. And some guys, for that reason, it's a lot of easy. You can almost sit anyone in the American League, I would say. A lot more difficult to do in the National Hockey League. Also, a lot more people scrutinizing your every move and a lot more people picking apart every single thing that you do.

Now, if you can be defiant in the face of that, you'll be good, you'll be successful. Also, Mani does have the advantage of, of coming in on a team that is not expected to win hockey games. Yes. Yes.

For all of the bad that the Adam foot year gave us, but one silver lining is going to be that he dropped the bar so low in terms of expectations, that Manning's coming in and it's going to be, everything's going to be, have a breath of fresh air to it. Sat put this out on Twitter yesterday. He's like, they should have probably had Mani as the head coach last year. If you could have gone and done a bunch of do-overs from last year, I think that would have been right near the top of the list, right?

Because, again, I'll say it till I'm blue in the face. The Adam foot year was a waste of a year. It was a waste of a year developmentally. I know that they raced to the bottom, but you could have done that while guys were learning on the job. No one got better last year, I don't think. So they probably could have had Manny on the job last year, and he probably could have been a year ahead in terms of, you know, installing all the things he wants to install.

Canucks might not have picked off three, though. Pardon me? Canucks might not pick top three, though. Hey, dog, I cannot argue with you about this anymore. They were a horrific outfit. They could have had the best coach in NHL history, and they were still going to be... Bottom three in the league?

Yeah, they would have been. They were the worst team in the NHL by 20 points. I think coaching did have a lot to do with that, though. Well, losing Quinn Hughes did, too. Of course, yeah, yeah. And trading away all of the veterans that they traded away, Sherwood, Garland, Myers, all of them. Like, they were designed to be bad last year,

and boy, did they accomplish it, right? so anyway back to like when manny comes in he's got as clean of a slate as you're going to get in the national hockey league i would say and he's coming in as a popular figure as well um jay texted and ask any details on manny's contract no not yet i'll be curious though um how many years what's the salary um you know term is well both of the them are big for different reason. Term for Manny, if I, if I was going in there, like minimum three years. Yep. I would request that. And then when it comes to salary, geez, I don't know. Rob texted in and he said, why don't the Canucks ever go for any of the big name coaches?

And he said it as no disrespect to Manny. And I think there might be two reasons for that. I think money is a factor right now for the Canucks. Like I think it is. I think based on everything you've heard, you know, they're not splashing money around. They just aren't. Not for, you know,

and I don't expect them to be a cap team this year. Because I think they're probably preparing for revenues to go down a little bit in this rebuild. Now, Drans can come on the show and say that they should go wild and free agency. And, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a good, Drant's idea and I understand why he's saying it, but I don't think they're going to do it. I don't think they're going to, you know, buy draft picks essentially in that way. Maybe they will, but I don't know.

They've been a cap team for a long time. I don't know if they're going to be a cap team this year. We'll see. But also, you know, this team isn't a Bruce Cassidy team. You know, if you're talking about some of the big names. being out there. Bruce Cassidy doesn't want to coach the Vancouver Canucks.

Oh, it's a teaching job. He wants to coach Edmonton. Yeah. This isn't a winning job. This is a teaching job. Cassidy would break some of these kids, I think, with his style. Well, he's just, he wants, he wants to win. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You know, and, and I think he, he, he, he wants to coach players that, you know, are difference makers in the NHL. You know, he coached a Vegas team that is now. in the Stanley Cup final.

They have a bunch of very, very good players. I think we all need to remember that the Vancouver Canucks do not have one difference maker type player on this team right now. They don't. Now, Demco could maybe

return to form, but we wouldn't waiting for a while now for him to return to form and stay healthy doing it. We all know the story with Peety and after that what are you looking for? Like who's going to be your game breaker? Who's going to be your difference maker?

This is going to be also the challenge for Manny Malhotra because right now we are in the honeymoon phase with this new group and you know you can tell from the way that I talk about the Canucks now. It's actually positive because you know I think

this was necessary. They needed to clean house and bring in some people that We're not only financially, but emotionally invested in returning this franchise to a certain level of respectability. And to running this thing without dysfunction, without all the nonsense and garbage we've seen over the last few years. But I'm not pretending that it could be game 38 next season. And we're like, oh, my God, these games are tough to watch. because there's no one out there that can do anything.

Yeah. Like, who would you right now, if you were the other team and you were prepping to play the Canucks, who are you like, you got to watch out for this guy? Nobody. There's nobody. Elias Patterson. But I don't think that that's necessarily something that's going to hamstring Manny in year one. In year one.

No. Neither do I. But, but it put it this way. It's hard. It's a long season. Yeah, but it's a hamstring, hamstring, but there's also like, it does get hard,

and that's going to be one of the challenges for Manny and this organization. And that's why I said, you know, one of the questions I would ask is, like, how do you define success? Honestly, one of the ways that you might define success and who the players are that you can build around is who's still coming to the rink with a positive attitude, 100% ready to work when the team keeps,

losing games. Yeah, see, like, I think that there's really something here that the organization can lean into that we don't have the high-end talent that a lot of our opponents on a nightly basis are going to have. But the one thing that we can do is out work, out hustle, have more energy. You can become a really likable team in the early stages of a rebuild if you've got the right approach. Go back and we've talked about Montreal to a blue in the face here, but we're going to

keep doing it. If you go back and look at some of those early days in Montreal when Marty St. Louis was first on the job and they were in the infancy of their rebuild. I talked to a lot of HABs fans who said like, hey, we understand what the process is. And right now, we're energized by the fact that even though the results aren't there and there's still

mistakes being made, guys are trying to play the right way and most importantly, they're playing hard and with a purpose. And those are things that Manny can bring in right away and can make a this is a savvy enough hockey market that you can make major inroads and you can

you can, you know, put some good credit in the bank with people when you have the team playing that way. And the room needs good guys. Yep. It needs to be a fun place to come to work, even if you're losing, and there needs to be a level of enthusiasm

and enjoyment that we just have not seen for the last few years in Vancouver. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. This is friend and bachelor, bachelor, bachelor, like from Rogers Arena, calling Kanax games It is Brendan Bachelor

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It's Brendan Batchler here on the Halford & Brough Show. Morning, Batch, how are you? I'm doing well. How are you guys? Good. We are done with waiting. Mandy Malhotra is now the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, the 23rd head coach in franchise history. Let's just get your introductory opening thoughts on the hire that everyone expected,

but finally came to fruition last night, Batch. Yeah, I think it was just a matter of time. And, you know, I'm a fan of the decision. I like Manny. I think for a young team that is going to grow and go through some ups and downs over the next few years, he's the perfect person to come and lead some of these young players through that experience. Because, you know, just look at the last two years for him in Abbotsford.

He had the high of winning the Calder Cup and, you know, navigating that team through the playoffs and a pretty young team by HL standards as well to that championship and then was dealt a completely different challenge this past season with limited roster and injuries of the big club that

caused him to lose players that he might have expected to have to rely on for a lot of the season and you know from all reports obviously I wasn't in Abbotsford on a daily basis but it sounds like you know he navigated a challenging year pretty well

just like he navigated a successful year pretty well. So, you know, I think he's probably a guy that understands the modern player pretty well. And it makes a lot of sense for him to be the head coach of the team. So it'll be exciting to hear from him at some point here in the next few days. And the other thing I like to see too, and, you know, some people will say, oh, they're just getting the band back together and bringing all these former players that played together in. But I think organizational alignment is really important. And at times over the past decade through multiple different regimes,

we've seen how lack of organizational alignment can really hurt you. So the fact that all of these guys are really comfortable with each other are going to be on the same page with their vision and are going to move forward together, I think is promising for this organization. How much does organizational identity have to do? do with this as well? Yeah, I certainly think it does and it should for a couple of reasons. One, we talk so much about culture. Well, all of the guys involved now were part of this organization when the culture was, you know, as good as it can get, you could argue, with, you know,

the teams in, you know, what, 13, 14, 15 years ago and, and, you know, the success they had. but also, you know, a strong organizational culture that recognizes talent from within and promotes it, right? Like this is Ryan Johnson doing a good job winning a championship at the AHL level, getting a chance to be the GM at the NHL level. Same goes for Manny Malhotra as the head coach and, you know, who else would you want to set your culture and your organizational standards other than Daniel and Henrik Siddine. So, yeah, like no notes. You know, as I said, some people might be critical that it's too many familiar guys and, you know, the 2011 team being worked into the organization. But honestly, the 2011 team was one of the best teams we've seen post lockout in the national hockey league. So if you're bringing guys in that understand how to have a lot of success, you know, I don't see that much of an issue with it, to be perfectly honest.

If we remove the answer winning hockey games, because I don't think that he's going to be expected to, I don't think that that's the objective anyway. What's Manny Malhotra's biggest challenge going to be on the job in year one? Yeah, I think it's the growth and development of the young talent. And, I mean, ultimately, we'll see the correct answer to that question may be navigating, you know, coaching his son or, you know, navigating organizationally, having to figure that side of things out. Now, I know Caleb's committed to go to college,

so that may not be a short-term worry if indeed they do draft him, if he doesn't make the jump to the NHL right away. But let's put that talking point to the side for now, because that's just speculation. Yeah, I think it's growth of young players and keeping morale high because, you know, it's likely to be another long year in terms of results.

from the Canucks, as you point out, right? Like nobody's expecting him to come in here and win 50 games with this team. But how do you go through the process of a difficult year while keeping everyone on the same page and keeping everybody's spirits high and continuing to have a positive feeling around the group that you can carry forward from training camp? And, you know, making sure that you manage the young guys in the lineup

in a way that allows them to grow and develop and not get discouraged or not have setbacks in their progress individually, even as they play on a team that might not make a whole lot of progress in terms of on-ice results. So, you know, I think that's a challenge, but I also think Manny is probably, you know, pretty well suited to that challenge, as I said, based on what he went through this past year in Abbotsford and, you know, the drastic change in quality of roster that he had to deal with. So, you know, he'll be prepared.

But, yeah, that to me is a challenge is, you know, when you're one of the bottom feeders in the NHL or you've lost three or four games in a row, how do you keep the spirits high? How do you make sure that, you know, off-ice storylines don't become, you know, all encompassing within your dressing room? because we saw at times over the past few years with the previous regime and the previous team, I guess you could say, because a lot of those guys have been moved out, that when the results didn't go their way, it turned into a circus a little bit. And so you need to avoid that to insulate your young players. With regards to Manny's coaching staff, how do you think it will be filled out? What would you like to see in terms of hires for assistant coaches and fellow guys behind the bench?

Yeah, I'm not sure. it'll be interesting to see if any of the guys from Abbotsford make the jump to the NHL level with him. I think it's probably pretty important that he have at least one veteran experienced assistant coach just to help him navigate his first foray into the NHL head coaching realm. But at the same time, this is a guy that's been on benches for a long time. It's a guy that's been on NHL benches for quite a while, has experience in that regard. So, you know, much like I talked about with, you know, the presidents and the GM and the head coach and having alignment of vision, you know, ultimately they need to bring in the best guys to support him. And he's probably the best judge of what he needs in terms of supporting cast and characters around him.

But, yeah, I would like to see a veteran assistant that can kind of help him navigate the first year or the first few years of his head coaching tenure in the NHL. What do you think is going to be the main difference between being a head coach in the AHA and a head coach in the NHL for Manny Mahotra? Personality and management of personalities, right? Like, I think when you're in the AHL, again, I'm not a coach, so I'm just assuming this. Like, the emotions you have to deal with guys in the HAL would be very different. Like, you know, a guy gets sent down that thought he was going to make the team and is frustrated and maybe demoralized it a little bit

and you've kind of got to build him up and get him back on task and back on focus. When you're at the NHL level and dealing with guys that, you know, make much bigger salaries and have much bigger bodies of work, you know, the buy-in, I would imagine, is different. And how to get that buy-in, I would imagine, is different. Now, again, I'm not a coach, so, like, I'm not going to sit here and try to give him any mal,

Ultra advice about how to deal with big personalities. All I'll say is that we just see the game shifting more towards player power and, you know, players having more of an impact than they ever have in organizational decision-making. Now, you know, the Canucks don't have that player right now in the sense that, you know, many of us believe that Adam Foote was brought in because they were trying to keep Queen Hughes and a lot of the decisions going into last season seem to be geared towards keeping Queen Hughes. Well, Quinn Hughes isn't here anymore. So that dynamic isn't at play.

But, you know, I do think about Elias Pedersen and about, you know, trying to get the most out of him. And, you know, Ryan Johnson talked about trying to wipe the slate clean from what's happened in the past and just get him back to being a more productive member of the team. So that's going to be an interesting task for Manny Malholtra that, you know, I think is probably unique to anything he faced. the AHL. What do you think what do you think Manny's approach to Elias Pedersen would be?

Yeah, it's hard to say. And I wouldn't want to speculate because I would imagine assuming Alias Peterson is back with the organization next year and that they don't move him at some point in the offseason that a lot of care and thought and discussion will go into how to get the best out of him.

And that won't be just a Manny decision. that'll be, you know, probably the twins and Ryan Johnson and Manny and his coaching staff all, you know, coming up with a strategy or trying to get on the same page to make sure they can get the best out of Aaliyos Pedersen. But, you know, in some senses, I think we've seen a couple of different approaches over the past few years that haven't necessarily yielded the results that you would hope, right? I think, you know, we saw more of the carrot from Adam foot and we saw more of the stick. from Rick Talkett and neither of those things got Elias Pedersen back to being the player that he has been in the past. Is there a third option? Yeah, exactly. I don't know. Maybe a little bit of carrot

and a little bit of stick. Maybe a carrot wielded like a stick. Yeah, yeah, he beat him with a carrot. Maybe that'll work. So I honestly don't know how many would approach it. I think, you know, hopefully that's a question that gets asked of him when he meets the media. But I think accountability has to be at the top of the list for every player in the NHL. And I think, you know, when I believe it was Daniel and Henrik talked about this, where they said, you know, it's no different than any other player. We expect him to come into camp ready. We expect him to be willing to be held accountable for his preparation and for the way he plays

and the way he approaches the game. You know, I can't imagine Mani Mal Hulter would have any sort of different philosophy on that. Speaking of Brendan Batchelor, Play-by-Play Voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on the Halperdon Breft Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, Batch, did your time calling

games for the Vancouver Giants ever overlap with Brendan Gallagher's time as the Vancouver Giants? Did you guys miss out on each other? I covered Brendan Gallagher as a BCIT intern when I was, did like a three-month embedded internship with the Vancouver Giants through the 2010 playoffs. And they went to the conference finals that year and he was a very big part of that

team. So I, when I was actually working as the play-by-play voice for the Giants, we didn't cross paths. He was already in the NHL by then. But I did have some experience covering him at the junior hockey level. Well, then are you excited at the potential of calling Brandon Gallagher game? Should he? Of course, the news yesterday was that he's no longer going to. to be a member of the Montreal Canadiens and he would be open to moving to Vancouver. So the potential of Brendan Gallagher being a Vancouver,

Canuck, maybe calling some of his games. Yeah, I think that would be great. I think it would be a good story for him as a, you know, a Vancouver product and a product of the Giants to come back and play some NHL hockey in this city. I think most

importantly, though, he is the type of player, but also the type of person that I would like to see this organization target in terms of the veterans they want to bring in as they navigate this rebuild. Because this is a guy that does not cut corners. This is a guy that does not take a shift off. And it's been that way since he was 16, 17 years old, breaking into the WHL, right?

Like he is the perfect player to teach the young guys what it takes to be a success over the long term in the National Hockey League and how. A perfect example of a guy that will come in and the non-negotiables are non-negotiable with him. He's also a great character and a great personality, so I think he'd be a good person to have in that dressing room. But we've heard so much over the past few years about practice habits and about, you know, raising the level and competing every day and that element of things needing to be better. Brendan Gallagher is a culture carrier that makes you earn things in practice and will make you earn. ice time if you're a forward trying to compete for spots in the lineup. And there's someone that, you know, despite being an undersized player, goes to the front of

the net, goes to the hard areas, understands that that's what he has to do to have success and does not take a night off in that regard. So if he can come in and, you know, ultimately we'll see if it happens or not. But whether it's Brendan Gallagher or whether it's Brendan Gallagher Esk players that they could target via trade or free agency this summer. If that's the kind of person they're looking to bring in, then I think that's a really good thing to be targeting to help your young guys through this rebuild and to teach them what it takes to be a success at the NHL level, you know, not just for a cup of coffee, but for a long tenure and the work and effort and heart that it takes to have a successful career like he has.

batch this was great buddy thanks for taking the time to do it as always we appreciate it enjoy the rest of the week we'll do this again real soon sounds good guys at all i think i just saw gabriel's penalty land here in port coquitland so i'm gonna go get the ball i'll knock you later see you buddy brandon bachelor throwing shade at his broadcast partner randy janda here on the halford imbruff show on sportsnet 650 okay uh... freege just uh came out with an article or a quick report on sportsnet dot ca Oh. And this had been rumored. And Fridge reports, according to several sources, the Nashville Predators have permission to talk to Colorado GM, Chris McFarland. What a strange circumstance this is.

Well, I think they are probably going to offer him president of hockey ops. Sure. So there's a promotion. To Chris McFarland, because he is the GM in Colorado. And Fridge notes that he was elevated to that role when Colorado desired to keep him instead of allowing him to interview for Anaheim's then vacant GM position. The Ducks eventually hired Pat Verbeek. So it's not going to be a lateral move to Nashville. They're going to have to say it's a promotion and obviously more money.

because Nashville, we've just been waiting on Nashville forever. And they still don't have a general manager. Obviously, McFarland isn't going to take the job, would hire a general manager. I think when we first heard that maybe Nashville's waiting for someone and maybe had an executive at

that was still working for a team that was still alive in the playoffs, I mean, I personally was like, oh, some assistant general manager. I didn't think it would be the general manager, manager of the Colorado Avalanche. I wonder if this is Nick Saban's influence. So for those I don't know, Saban's a minority owner in the Predators. And

obviously he doesn't know a lot about hockey, but they're really leaning on like the culture and championship pedigree that he brought to all of the programs that he built. I wonder, and I'm just throwing this out as a hypothetical, I wonder if they look

at McFarland and say you've built an excellent team in Colorado. Excellent team. Do you want to have complete and total sale over the direction of this franchise movie forward? Because I would say if there's one team right now in the National

Hockey League that would probably embrace maybe like an entirely new direction, it could be Nashville. Yeah. Because it's always been poyle and then it was Trots who was like a poyle acolyte. Yeah. You know, did anyone feel

like they were really going to deviate from the David Poyle personality and attributes under trots. I don't think anyone did. And then when Barry left or was forced out, however you want to put it, I do wonder if they were like, hey, like the Canucks, this is a real opportunity to reimagine what we are and what we're about. And they need to be reimagined. Yeah.

They really lost their way. I don't even know if it's stale, but because they... Actually, that's maybe not the right word. I mean, they... It's unidentifiable. Yeah. Because they had old... those signings, including

Steven Stamcoes, who by the way, like, ended up with a bunch of goals this year. But, yeah, it's just I think you look at Nashville right now and you're like, what are you? Yeah, no, that's exactly what it is. What are you? Yeah. What are you and what do you want to be?

Yeah. That'd be really interesting if he takes that gig, though. That'd be, that'd be a hell of a thing, though, for Nashville to essentially hire away the general manager of the president's trophy winning Colorado Avalanche.

I mean, they went into the playoffs, the clear favorites to win the Stanley Cup, tripped up in a big way by Vegas. Vegas played very well, and Colorado had some injuries. But this isn't like going to some random team and thinking, oh, that GM must be dying to go to like a good team.

but maybe maybe he feels like he doesn't have universal say because Joe Sackick is there as the president of hockey ops so anyway this is a big story in the NHL I know we're focused on the Vancouver Canucks here and Vancouver and all the changes that they're making

but what an interesting off season all of a sudden for Colorado after getting swept out of the out of the playoffs by Vegas because there's still this conversation going on in Colorado with regards to Jared Bednar. And who's going to be there if he needs a vote of confidence or to make a decision on a coaching change, right? Is it just Joe now?

Is Joe making all the calls? Are they going to make a GM? You're going to hire a new GM? I heard, I hear Evan Gold is available. Oh, yeah. Evan Gold. I forgot about him. I hadn't thought about him in a minute.

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